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 Roadkill wrestling in WWE, 2007 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michael DePoli (1976-08-10)August 10, 1976 (age 49)[1] Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Amish Roadkill[1] Antoni Polaski[1] Braddock[1] Roadkill Tony Braddock[1] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)[2] |
| Billed weight | 323 lb (147 kg)[2] |
| Billed from | Lancaster, Pennsylvania[1] |
| Trained by | Tazz Perry Saturn House of Hardcore[1] |
| Debut | 1996[1] |
| Retired | 2012[3] |
Michael DePoli (born August 10, 1976) is an American retiredprofessional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances inExtreme Championship Wrestling under thering nameRoadkill, where he wore traditionalAmish dress and was billed fromLancaster, Pennsylvania, an area with a large Amish population.
Roadkill was trained byTaz andPerry Saturn at theHouse of Hardcore in 1996. Once his training was complete, he joined the ECW roster, and had his first professional match on October 18, 1996 in LuLu Temple inPlymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania againstTaz.
In December 1997, Roadkill formed an unlikely tag team with his fellow House of Hardcore graduate,Danny Doring. They were managed byMiss Congeniality until she left ECW in 1999 to join theWorld Wrestling Federation, and then byElektra until she turned on them in 2000.
Doring and Roadkill quickly embarked on a two-year-longfeud withNova andChris Chetti. This was followed by a series of feuds with theImpact Players (Lance Storm andJustin Credible),Simon Diamond andJohnny Swinger,Joey Matthews andChristian York, and thenTommy Dreamer andRaven. The team won theECW World Tag Team Championships on December 3, 2000, at theMassacre on 34th Streetpay-per-view, defeatingTony Mamaluke andLittle Guido. They held the titles until ECW declared bankruptcy on April 4, 2001. Doring and Roadkill were the last team to hold the ECW Tag Team Titles.[4][unreliable source] Roadkill made an appearance in 2001 onThe Real World: Back to New York, confronting cast memberMike Mizanin's wrestling characterThe Miz, while in the Amish Roadkill character, about his wrestling antics.
After ECW folded, Doring and Roadkill wrestleddark matches forWorld Wrestling Entertainment. They appeared against fellow ECW originalsThe Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido andTony Mamaluke) in early 2001 atMadison Square Garden.
Roadkill and Doring wrestled on threeTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling pay per views when TNA was running weekly pay per views back in early 2002. They wrestledSimon Diamond andJohnny Swinger, twice winning a non-title match but losing the match for theNWA World Tag Team Championship. In their last TNA appearance, they wrestledEkmo Fatu andSonny Siaki. On December 28, 2002 Roadkill made his debut inPro-Pain Pro Wrestling (3PW) defeatingRockin' Rebel.[5] On December 27, 2003 he formed a team withThe Blue Meanie but would lose that night against Mike Kruel and Monsta Mack.[6] On April 17, 2004 they would be defeated byJack Victory and Rockin' Rebel and after the match Roadkill turned on the Blue Meanie because Commissioner Raven had told him that he was a shell of his former self.[7] He would then face Blue Meanie in the next two shows (managed byJasmin St. Claire) defeating him on May 15, 2004 and losing to him on June 19. After the second matchThe Pitbulls showed up to support Roadkill but would turn on him with St. Claire after the match.[8] Roadkill would then win three singles matches on August 21[9] and January 15[10] and February 19, 2005.[11] Because of this singles success he would get a shot at the3PW Heavyweight Championship againstWagner Brown on March 19[12] and April 9, 2005 but would be on the losing end of both those matches.[13] However, on May 21, 2005 he defeated Brown in aTriple Threat Match that also includedSimon Diamond to become the new 3PW Heavyweight Champion.[14]
Doring and Roadkill were defeated byMNM on July 21, 2005 in a match taped for WWE'sVelocity.[15]
Roadkill appeared at the WWE promoted ECW reunion show,ECW One Night Stand on June 12, 2005. He signed a contract with WWE and was sent toOhio Valley Wrestling. Roadkill would continue his work with OVW and on April 5, 2006 he won the promotion'sSouthern Tag Team Titles withKasey James by defeatingDeuce 'n Domino andKenny andMikey ofThe Spirit Squad in athree way tag team match. While in OVW during their run as a team they picked upMichelle McCool as avalet. On the May 5, 2006 edition ofSmackDown, Roadkill and James would lose toWilliam Regal andSylvain Grenier in a tag team dark match.[16] They would lose the Tag Titles toShad Gaspard and The Neighborhoodie on May 24, ending their 58-day reign as Tag Team Champions.[17]
On the June 13 edition ofECW, Roadkill took part in abattle royal (with the winner facingJohn Cena atVengeance) but was eliminated byBig Show before it was eventually won bySabu.[18]
Two weeks later, on the June 27 edition ofECW he faced Sabu in anExtreme Rules Match in which he lost by tapping out to thecamel clutch.[19] On the July 4 edition ofECW, Roadkill defeated Tony Mamaluke in a dark match.[20]
He then returned to OVW where he would feud with his former partner Kasey James trading victories in tag and singles matches until James was called up to the main roster. Roadkill was then moved back up to the main roster on August 1 in a dark match loss againstStevie Richards.[21]
After a near six-month hiatus from WWE and OVW TV, Roadkill made his return to OVW on February 17, 2007 as Braddock losing toShawn Spears. On February 21 at the OVW TV Tapings, he defeated Mike Tolar in a dark match in which his name was tweaked to Tony Braddock. Over the next four weeks he would defeat jobbers in dark matches at OVW tapings. He would continue his win streak defeating Chris Rombola in a televised match. However, this would end as he would be defeated byNick Nemeth in a 3-Way match that also involvedJacob Duncan.
After an 8-month hiatus from WWE TV he returned under the name of "Antoni Polaski" and defeatedVal Venis on the April 30 edition ofRaw in a match taped forHeat[22] and on the May 4 edition ofSmackDown he would defeatFunaki in a match taped forVelocity.[23]
He would then return to OVW at the TV Tapings on May 9 defeating Mike Hutter in a dark match. On May 30 at the TV Tapings, Polaski was entered into a tournament to see who would faceThe Miz at Six Flags on June 8. Polaski would defeat Chet the Jett in the first round andJake Hager in the semifinals but lose toAtlas DaBone in the final round.
On June 13 at the OVW TV Tapings, Polaski would defeat Chet the Jett to earn the right to challengeSantino Marella for theIntercontental Championship in his first major WWE Title match. On June 22 at OVW Six Flags, he would challenge Marella for the title.
After this Polaski began participating in $2500 Bodyslam Challenges, where if someone could Bodyslam him, he would give them $2500. After defeating jobbers,Jacob Duncan beat him bydisqualification thus starting a feud between the two. On July 18 at the OVW TV Tapings, he and Duncan participated in an OVWRoyal Rumble to see who would fightJohn Cena at OVW Six Flags on July 17, but it was won by Shawn Spears. Polaski would defeat Duncan three times in a $2500 Bodyslam Challenge but on August 10 at OVW Six Flags, Duncan would become the first person to defeat Polaski in such a challenge. They would continue to feud with indecisive endings like disqualification and double count outs until they had their final match on October 31 at OVW TV Tapings where Duncan defeated Polaski in a Halloween Hardcore Match.
He would then start to team withVladimir Kozlov with moderate success before going back to singles matches. His last match on OVW TV was on January 2, 2008, where he defeated Lupe Viscara. He would then have his final match for WWE challenging OVW Heavyweight ChampionMatt Sydal for the title at ahouse show in a losing effort.
Roadkill was released from WWE on February 4, 2008. When Depoli was released from WWE, he retired from professional wrestling.[3]
On October 6, 2012, 4 years after being released from WWE, Roadkill wrestled again with Doring, defeating F.B.I. in the firstHouse of Hardcore show.[24]
Roadkill used the character of anAmish fromLancaster, Pennsylvania, known by the nicknames "The Angry Amish Warrior", "The Angry Amish Chicken Plucker" and "The Killmeister" and usedSoul Coughing's song "Super Bon Bon" as hisentrance theme song in ECW.[25]
May 24 - Shad Gaspar[d] & The Neighborhoodie b Amish Roadkill & Kasey James to win the Tag Team titles
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