| Crash Holly | |
|---|---|
 Holly signing autographs | |
| Birth name | Michael John Lockwood[1] |
| Born | (1971-08-25)August 25, 1971[2] San Francisco,California, U.S.[1] |
| Died | November 6, 2003(2003-11-06) (aged 32)[1] Navarre, Florida, U.S.[2][1] |
| Cause of death | Asphyxia due topulmonary aspiration as a result of an overdose ofalcohol anddrugs[3] |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 1 |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Crash[2] Crash Holly[2] Erin O'Grady[2] The Green Ghost[4] Johnny Pearson[2] Mad Mikey[2] |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)[5] |
| Billed weight | 198 lb[6] "Allegedly well over 400 lb" (181 kg)[2][5] |
| Billed from | Mobile, Alabama[5] |
| Trained by | Jerry Monti[2] Michael Modest[2] Ric Thompson[2] |
| Debut | 1989[2] |
Michael John Lockwood (August 25, 1971 – November 6, 2003) was an Americanprofessional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) / World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 1999 to 2003 under thering namesCrash Holly or simplyCrash.[2][5]
Lockwood debuted in 1989 and spent a decade wrestling on theindependent circuit before signing with the World Wrestling Federation in 1998, debuting the following year asCrash Holly. He formed atag team with hiskayfabe cousinHardcore Holly, with whom he won theWWF World Tag Team Championship. TheHolly Cousins was expanded into astable with the addition ofMolly Holly in 2000. During his WWF/WWE career, Holly established himself in the hardcore division by winning theWWF Hardcore Championship on22 occasions, with many of his reigns coming during a period when the title was defended "24/7". After being released from WWE in June 2003, Holly joinedNWA Total Nonstop Action asMad Mikey, where he remained until his death later that year.
Holly was also aone-timeWWF European Champion[7] and aone-timeWWF Light Heavyweight Champion.[8] In total, Holly had over 25 championship reigns in the WWF.[9]
Lockwood was born on August 25, 1971, inSan Francisco,California. He was raised inPacifica, California, where he graduated fromTerra Nova High School.[2][1] He became interested in professional wrestling in theeighth grade, inspired byBrady Boone.[10] While training as a wrestler and working on the independent circuit, he worked a second job atSafeway.[10]
Lockwood debuted in 1989, as "Johnny Pearson" in Bay Area Wrestling forWoody Farmer, where he wrestled until 1994.[2] He dislocated his shoulder about five times and took 18 months off to recover.[4] He then wrestled on theindependent circuit as "'Irish' Erin O'Grady". In 1995, he appeared in Mexico withConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre as "Super Diablo". In 1996, he joinedAll Pro Wrestling (APW), where he became known as "'The Leprechaun' Erin O'Grady"[4] and had several matches withVic Grimes.[citation needed]
Lockwood joined thePhiladelphia,Pennsylvania-basedExtreme Championship Wrestling promotion in November 1997 after ECW wrestlerTaz viewed a tape of a match between O'Grady andMichael Modest and referred him to ECW ownerPaul Heyman.[11] Erin O'Grady lost four untelevised matches in ECW, including adark match atNovember to Remember.[12] Following his stint in ECW, Lockwood returned to APW where he performed until October 1998.[citation needed]
O'Grady wrestled Vic Grimes in a try-out match for theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF) on January 20, 1998,[13] and both were signed to contracts.[4] In November 1998, Lockwood was sent toPower Pro Wrestling, the WWF'sdevelopmental promotion, to train. Here, he won thePower Pro Wrestling Young Guns Championship and thePPW Tag Team Championship.[14][15] WWF Talent CoordinatorBruce Prichard sent Lockwood to Mexico, to prepare him for the style of the WWF'slucha libre show,WWF Super Astros.[10] He wrestled inMonterrey for three months, under amask, as "The Green Ghost" (a play on the word "gringo").[4]
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Lockwood debuted on WWF television as "Crash Holly", thestoryline cousin ofBob "Hardcore" Holly, on the August 16, 1999, episode ofRaw is War[4] They became known as theHolly Cousins. Their relationship was a strained one, and Hardcore frequently threatened Crash.[2] When they took thegimmick of claiming to be "super heavyweights", over 400 lb each, Crash would carry a scale to ringside to "weigh in" before matches.[2]
Crash made hispay-per-view debut atSummerSlam in August, where the Holly Cousins wrestled in aTag Team Turmoil match, won by theAcolytes Protection Agency.[16][17] AtRebellion, the Holly Cousins competed against APA andEdge and Christian in a triangle match, which Edge and Christian won. On October 17, atNo Mercy, the Holly Cousins defeated TheNew Age Outlaws bydisqualification.[18] The next night onRaw is War, they defeated theRock 'n' Sock Connection for theWWF Tag Team Championship.[19] They held the title until the November 4SmackDown!, when they lost it toMankind and his new partner,Al Snow.[20]
AtSurvivor Series on November 14, the Holly Cousins teamed withToo Cool to defeatEdge & Christian and theHardy Boyz in a survivor series match. Later that month, the Holly Cousins began a short feud with Too Cool andRikishi Phatu. AtArmageddon on December 12, 1999, they defeated Phatu andViscera. The feud continued into February 2000. At theRoyal Rumble on January 23, 2000, both Hollys took part in the titularRoyal Rumble match, with Crash Holly being eliminated by The Rock.[citation needed]
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In February 2000, Crash Holly joined thehardcore division. On the February 24 episode ofSmackDown!, he defeatedTest to begin his first of22 Hardcore Championship reigns.[21] He decreed that he mustdefend the championship twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, which later became known as the "24/7 Rule".[2] This meant that the title was permanently contested, not just in sanctioned matches, and could change hands anywhere, anytime anyone pinned the champion, so long as a WWF referee counted the fall. Holly was frequently attacked by other wrestlers in unlikely locations, including an airport, a funhouse, a circus, and his hotel room.[4] Although he was oftenpinned, he usually immediately regained the title.[21] His most common tactic was to sneak a pin, often after the champion had been beaten down by someone else, and quickly run backstage, away from possible challengers.[21] Thisturned him into a crowd favorite and earned him the nickname "TheHoudini of Hardcore".[22] He frequently defended the championship against non-wrestlers, including referees androad agents, likeGerald Brisco andPat Patterson.[2] He had a longfeud with TheMean Street Posse (Pete Gas,Rodney andJoey Abs) over the title.[21] He even lost, and quickly regained, the title against one of theGodfather's hos.[citation needed]
AtRebellion, Crash defeatedWilliam Regal to win theEuropean Championship.[7] He lost the title to Regal two days later.[7] In late 2000, another of Crash's storyline cousins,Molly Holly, was introduced. In 2001, The Holly Cousins feuded with TheDudley Boyz.[23] In the course of this feud, Molly began a romantic relationship withSpike Dudley, leading to internal disputes within each family, as well as aRomeo and Juliet-style angle between the six of them.[23] On the March 18, 2001, episode ofHeat, Crash defeatedDean Malenko to win theLight Heavyweight Championship. He defended it on two episodes ofHeat, againstFunaki andGrandmaster Sexay, before dropping it to the debutingJerry Lynn on the April 29 episode.[8] In April 2001, Holly and Hardcore briefly reunited as alower card team until December of that year.[17]
In July 2001, Holly appeared with theInternational Wrestling Association inPuerto Rico, briefly holding theIWA Hardcore Championship andIWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Throughout late 2001, he wrestled primarily onhouse shows and onJakked andSunday Night Heat. AtSurvivor Series on November 18, 2001, Holly took part in abattle royal that would guarantee the winner immunity from being fired that was won byTest. Throughout the remainder of 2001 and early 2002, Holly continued to wrestle primarily on house shows and the WWF's secondary television shows.[citation needed]
When the WWF was renamedWorld Wrestling Entertainment and divided into twoRaw and SmackDown! brands, Holly was assigned to theRaw roster, where he had little success.[24] He jumped ship toSmackDown! on the September 2, 2002, episode ofRaw during a match withJeff Hardy. Earlier, Raw General ManagerEric Bischoff was informed that a Raw wrestler would leave to reunite with a relative on SmackDown!, and ordered a beatdown by3-Minute Warning on Hardy, who he wrongly suspected of planning to join his brother,Matt Hardy, until Crash revealed that he was the one who was leaving, planning to join his cousinHardcore Holly on SmackDown!.[25] In his firstSmackDown! match, on September 5, he defeatedThe Hurricane.[26] He thenfeuded withCruiserweight ChampionJamie Noble. On the October 3SmackDown!, Noble defeated Holly to retain the title.[27]
On the December 19SmackDown!, Holly teamed withBill DeMott to defeat Noble andNunzio.[28] After the match, DeMott turned on Holly and attacked him.[28] This led to a match on the nextSmackDown!, which DeMott won.[29] After being sidelined for three months, Holly returned on the April 24, 2003, episode ofSmackDown!.[30] He soon joined Matt Hardy andShannon Moore in the Mattitude Followers (abbreviated "MF'er")stable. As Crash was Moore's alleged apprentice, Hardy also referred to him as a "Moore-on".[30] His last several matches with the company were tag matches with Moore, as well as house show matches against newcomerOrlando Jordan.[31] On June 30, 2003, Lockwood was released from WWE.[2]
Lockwood signed a contract withNWA Total Nonstop Action in July 2003 and debuted as "Mad Mikey" on July 23,[32] accepting an open challenge fromElix Skipper and losing the match.[32] Mad Mikey was angry at many things, on which he elaborated in promos. He wrestled on nine NWA-TNA weekly PPVs, lastly on October 1.[33] He briefly wrestled for Pro Wrestling Iron inHayward, California. On November 1, 2003, Mad Mikey and Rory Fox defeated Quiten Lee and The Human Time Bomb withRicky Steamboat as the special guest referee for theHeartland Wrestling Association in what turned out to be Lockwood's final match.[citation needed]
Lockwood met his wife, Christeena Wheeler, when she escortedMark Henry to the ring atUnforgiven 1999, inCharlotte, North Carolina.[34] They married on New Year's Eve, 1999.[34] The couple had one child together, a daughter.[1] In 2002, he opened "Crash Holly's School of Professional Wrestling" inSalisbury, North Carolina, where Wheeler grew up.[2][34]
Lockwood died on November 6, 2003, at his friend and fellow wrestlerStevie Richards' house in Florida.[2] He was 32 years old. He was found partially clothed with a pool of vomit around his face.[35] Empty bottles of the prescription drugcarisoprodol and a partially consumed bottle of alcohol were found nearby.[35] He had recently received divorce papers from his wife.[36] His death, caused by choking on his own vomit, was officially ruled a suicide.[3] He was buried inChina Grove inRowan County, North Carolina.
In August 2005, Nora Greenwald, who performed alongside Lockwood asMolly Holly, released an autobiographicalDVD titled"Nora Greenwald: Shootin' theShi Crap", and a portion of the profits from the sale of the DVD went to Lockwood's daughter's education fund. In March 2005, the New Breed Wrestling Association held the "Mike Lockwood Memorial Tournament", which was won byMichael Modest.[37] AtECW One Night Stand in 2005, Lockwood was one of the deceased former ECW wrestlers honored in a video package.[38]
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