| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Weiss (1963-06-12)June 12, 1963 (age 62) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Johnny Hotbody[1] John Weiss Sir Jonathan Hotbody |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)[2] |
| Billed weight | 220 lb (100 kg)[2] |
| Trained by | Larry Sharpe |
| Debut | 1988[2] |
| Retired | 2006 |
John Weiss (born June 12, 1963) is an American retiredprofessional wrestler, better known by hisring nameJohnny Hotbody. He is best known for his appearances inEastern Championship Wrestling, he won theECW Championship,ECW Tag Team Championship, andECW Television Championship.[1]
Johnny Hotbody broke into professional wrestling in the late 1980s after completing his training at The Monster Factory, operated byLarry Sharpe. He made a name for himself in severalPennsylvania andNew Jersey–based independent promotions before signing with Philadelphia'sTri-State Wrestling Alliance (TWA) in 1990. Hotbody had a long-running feud withTony Stetson. The TWA closed its doors suddenly in 1991, but was soon replaced byEastern Championship Wrestling (later Extreme Championship Wrestling), run byTod Gordon.
On April 26, 1992, Hotbody won theECW Heavyweight Championship by defeatingJimmy Snuka.[1] He held the title for nearly three months, before losing it back to Snuka on July 14.[1] Later that year, on August 12, he became the first everECW Television Champion by defeatingLarry Winters.[1][3] He was later forced to relinquish the title on September 12, 1992, after sustaining alegitimate broken ankle.[4]
Upon his return, he formed the Suicide Blondes withChris Candido, and, for most of 1993, he competed in tag team competition. He won his firstECW Tag Team Championship with Candido on April 3, 1993, when they defeatedTony Stetson and Larry Winters.[1][5][6]Chris Michaels was later introduced as the third member of the Suicide Blondes, which resulted in the Suicide Blondes defending the Tag Team Championships under theFreebird Rule, which meant that any combination of the three were allowed to defend the championship.[7] He also began a feud withTommy Cairo, attacking him after matches.[8][9] The Suicide Blondes defeated Cairo andJ. T. Smith in a tag team match, and for the next few weeks Hotbody competed against Cairo in matches, losing a standardsingles match to him, but winning aLumberjack match.[10][11][12] They lost the Tag Team Championship tothe Super Destroyers (A. J. Petrucci andDoug Stahl) on May 15, but the combination of Hotbody and Michaels regained it that same day.[1][5][13] Later that year, on October 1, Hotbody, along with his former adversary Stetson, was awarded the Tag Team Championship, after the previous champions,The Dark Patriot andEddie Gilbert, left thepromotion, resulting in the titles being vacated.[1][5] They had successful title defenses againstBadd Company (Paul Diamond andPat Tanaka),The Sandman and J. T. Smith, andIan andAxl Rotten over the next month.[14][15][16] Theydropped the championship toTommy Dreamer andJohnny Gunn, however, in a nine-second match, on November 13.[5][17]
Hotbody later competed for theNWA New Jersey, where he was awarded theNew Jersey version of the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship on September 25, 1998.[1] He lost it toRik Ratchett that same day. After successful tours in several Philadelphia-area independent promotions, Hotbody retired from active competition in 2001.
He returned to wrestling for one night on June 23, 2006, at Pro Wrestling Unplugged teaming withGary Wolfe in a tag team match.
1Johnny Hotbody's reign occurred while the promotion was anNWA affiliate namedEastern Championship Wrestling, and was prior to the promotion becoming Extreme Championship Wrestling and the title being declared a world title by ECW.
,Wrestlingdata,Internet Wrestling Database