| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1958-06-15)June 15, 1958 (age 67)[4] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name | Scott Norton[1][2] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm)[1] |
| Billed weight | 360 lb (163 kg)[1] |
| Billed from | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Trained by | Brad Rheingans[2][3] Masa Saito[2] Verne Gagne[1][2] |
| Debut | April 15, 1989[1][2] |
Scott Norton[2] (born June 15, 1958) is an American semi-retiredprofessional wrestler and author. He is best known for his tenures inWorld Championship Wrestling andNew Japan Pro-Wrestling, in which he was a member of theNew World Order and nWo Japan.[1] He is a two-timeworld champion, having won theIWGP Heavyweight Championship twice.
Norton started out as a professionalarm wrestler.[2] He won over 30 championships during his days as an arm wrestler,[5] including four U.S. National championships,[6] and gained the nickname "Flash" due to his quickness in winning matches.[5] His status in the arm wrestling world earned him a role as an extra inSylvester Stallone's arm wrestling movie,Over the Top.[5][7] While touring the arm wrestling circuit in Japan, Norton was approached byNew Japan Pro-Wrestling about becoming a professional wrestler, but he turned it down initially.[5][6] In addition to his professional arm wrestling career, Norton also worked as a bodyguard forPrince during the musician's1999[8] andPurple Rain Tours.[5]
After finally deciding to enter professional wrestling, Norton was trained to wrestle by former Olympic wrestlerBrad Rheingans.[3] Despite Norton's inexperience,Verne Gagne decided to debut him before he was totally finished with his training, putting him on television as a regular performer for theAmerican Wrestling Association in 1989.[3][6] He sometimes teamed withJohn Nord as the Yukon Lumberjacks.[1][3] He challenged then World Champions Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Larry Zbyszko to a televised arm wrestling match. If anyone beat him, he would pay them (kayfabe) $1,000,000. Nothing became of the challenge. By the end of 1989, Norton left the AWA and went to thePacific Northwest territory to further his career. In PNW, Norton wrestled as aface with a lumberjackgimmick and the nickname "Flapjack".[3] He briefly reformed his tag team with John Nord to reprise their lumberjackgimmick from the AWA.[1][3] In 1990, Norton became a singles competitor. He won thePacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship fromBrian Adams on May 12, 1990,[9] but was stripped of the title two weeks later after attacking several wrestlers.[9]
In 1990, Norton signed with New Japan Pro-Wrestling.[3] Upon debuting for the promotion, Norton alternated betweentag team and mid-card singles matches. Norton appeared at both joint NJPW/World Championship WrestlingStarrcade in Egg Dome shows, giving him exposure to WCW executives.[10][11]
The working agreement between NJPW and WCW meant thatThe Steiner Brothers would tour Japan on a regular basis, often wrestling against Scott Norton alongside a variety of partners. On November 5, 1991 Norton acted as a substitute for the injuredScott Steiner in anIWGP Tag Team Championship match.[12] Norton andRick Steiner were unsuccessful on the night and lost the tag-team titles toHiroshi Hase andKeiji Mutoh.[9] About a year after losing the title he never technically held, Norton won the Tag Team Title properly when he andTony Halme beat the Steiner Brothers for the gold on November 22, 1992.[9] The powerhouse team only held on to the title for a little over three weeks before losing them tothe Hell Raisers (Road Warrior Hawk andPower Warrior).[9]
After splitting up with Halme, Norton started to team withHercules Hernandez in March 1993.[3] Hercules was a fellow powerhouse wrestler and the two formed The Jurassic Powers,[3][13] a team that won theIWGP Tag Team Championship from the Hell Raisers.[3][9] The Powers held the title for about four months before losing them back to the Hell Raisers at NJPW'sJanuary 4 Dome Show.[9] While holding the title, the Jurassic Powers successfully defended against teams such asKeiji Mutoh andHiroshi Hase,[13]The Nasty Boys,[13] Takayuki Iizuka andAkira Nogami,[14]Jake "The Snake" Roberts andBrutus Beefcake,[15]Masa Saito andManabu Nakanishi andThe Barbarian andHaku in non-title competition. The team also and made it to the finals of the 1993Super Grade Tag League, where they lost to Keiji Mutoh and Hiroshi Hase.[16]
After breaking up with Hernandez, Norton failed to achieve much notoriety in the singles ranks nor in the tag team division, where he teamed with a variety of partners such asMike Enos,[17]Ron Simmons,[18]Masahiro Chono,[19]Osamu Kido, and Road Warrior Hawk.[20]
Norton returned to the U.S. and signed withWorld Championship Wrestling in 1993. The promoters first tried to get Norton over with the fans as a villain by feuding withSting, but Norton quit beforeSlamboree 1993 and was replaced byThe Prisoner.
Norton made an appearance on aWWFhouse show in Sunrise, Florida on October 9, 1994. He was defeated byThurman "Sparky" Plugg.[21]
Norton returned to WCW in September 1995, where he briefly feuded withShark, after the latter inadvertently helpedRandy Savage defeat Norton on the September 11 edition ofWCW Monday Nitro.
During a WCWSaturday Night taping, Norton squared off againstIce Train. The bout ended in a double count out when both men clotheslined the other, knocking each out. After the match, the two shook hands and Norton explained to announcerGene Okerlund that he felt that they would make a formidable tag team because of their similar wrestling styles.[22][23] The team was quickly named Fire and Ice. AtSlamboree, Norton and Ice Train were randomly drawn to be on the same team and easily defeated the makeshift team ofBig Bubba Rogers andStevie Ray.[24] The team advanced to the "Lord of The Ring"battle royal, but neither won the match.[24]
AtThe Great American Bash, Fire and Ice came head to head with Norton's long-time rivals, theSteiner Brothers. The two teams were engaged in a mini-feud of sorts, as the two teams tried to show who was the better powerhouse team. On that night the Steiner Brothers won,[25] but Fire and Ice were not deterred. After a pre-PPV loss toThe Rock 'n' Roll Express atBash at the Beach,[26] dissension started to appear between the two, a dissension that turned into battle as Norton attacked Ice Train after another team loss. Norton defeated Ice Train atHog Wild in a submission match,[27] but lost to Ice Train in a rematch a month later.[28]
After Fire and Ice ended, Norton split his time between WCW and NJPW, achieving more success in NJPW than WCW most notably in the tag team division. Norton andShinya Hashimoto teamed up and won the Super Grade Tag League in 1996 after beating Keiji Mutoh and Rick Steiner in the finals.[29]
In late 1996, Norton joinedthe New World Order (nWo), which gave his WCW career some direction after the breakup of Fire and Ice.[22] In the nWo, Norton teamed withBuff Bagwell asVicious and Delicious.[22] They feuded with theSteiner Brothers,[30][31] but were never able to win theWorld Tag Team Championship.
During his nWo days, Norton traveled back and forth to NJPW, where he was a member ofnWo Japan, and became NJPW's gaijin ace while also becoming one of the few wrestlers to be a regular member of both factions. On September 23, 1998, he won the vacantIWGP Heavyweight Championship by defeatingYuji Nagata.[9] Norton's title win was mentioned only once in America on a broadcast ofNitro while he was seen holding the belt, but Norton's standing in the WCW version of the nWo never changed from this fact mostly due to the nWo's leader beingHollywood Hogan, who was theWCW World Heavyweight Champion. Norton held the IWGP Heavyweight Title for four months[32] before losing the title to Keiji Mutoh.[9] Norton is one of nine foreigners who ever held the IWGP Championship, the others beingBig Van Vader,Salman Hashimikov,Bob Sapp,Kurt Angle (IGF version, not actual NJPW-recognized version),Brock Lesnar,AJ Styles,Kenny Omega, andJay White.[33]
Norton soon began playing a smaller role in WCW, becoming part of the nWo "B-Team", which often placed him in mid-lower card matches; although he would continue tosquashjobbers frequently in singles competition. While in NJPW, however, Norton was seen as a main eventer and constant threat to world champions. He left WCW completely in 1999 after losing a match againstGoldberg on the September 30 episode ofThunder and began focusing his efforts on NJPW, where he was part ofMasahiro Chono's Team 2000.
On March 17, 2001, Norton defeatedKensuke Sasaki in Nagoya, Japan to capture the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship a second time.[9] His second reign was shorter than his first, and he lost toKazuyuki Fujita on his first defense.[9] After the loss, Norton started to team with fellow WCW alumnus Rick Steiner whenever Steiner toured Japan, but otherwise he was planted solidly in the mid-card as a test any hopeful world title challenger would have to pass. After briefly retiring in 2004, Norton returned later that year and resumed teaming with Steiner.[34] Following the 2006New Japan Cup,[35] he left NJPW after 16 years, becoming afreelancer in the process.[22]
In mid-2006, Norton started his ownindependent promotion, Wild West Championship Wrestling,[36] based in the southwest ofUnited States, where he acted as both abooker and wrestler until its closure later that year.[6]
After wrestling forHustle from mid to late 2007, Norton took a near-year long hiatus before returning on October 24, 2008, where he andMasahiro Chono defeated Don Frye andYoshihiro Takayama in the first part of the Pro Wrestling Expo.[37] The next day, Norton, Frye andDick Togo lost to Chono,Eric Young andKohei Sato.[37]
In an August 2010 interview, Norton revealed that he would be interested in a run withTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling. At the time, Norton lived inBrentwood, Tennessee, which is located minutes outside of TNA's headquarters inNashville,Tennessee and commented that wrestling is, "something I enjoy doing. You miss it. I can still perform at a high level. I’m still a big, strong man. I would like to give it another shot. If I can get a couple-year run, I'll fold up my tent and call it a day."[38]
On October 7, 2012, Norton teamed withKeiji Mutoh to defeat the team ofMasanobu Fuchi andTaiyo Kea in a tag team match on the first event ofAll Japan Pro Wrestling's 40th Anniversary Tour.[39]
Norton returned to NJPW on January 4, 2017, atWrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, taking part in theNew Japan Rumble, from which he was eliminated byMichael Elgin.[40] The following day, Norton teamed withCheeseburger and former nWo Japan stablematesHiro Saito,Hiroyoshi Tenzan andSatoshi Kojima in a ten-man tag team, where they defeatedBullet Club (Bad Luck Fale,Bone Soldier,Kenny Omega,Tama Tonga andTanga Loa).[41]
On April 29, 2017, Norton faced NYWC Heavyweight ChampionBull James at April Reign in a losing effort.
On April 05, 2022, Norton was announced on NJPW's official X account, that he would be joiningThe Good Brothers (Karl Anderson andLuke Gallows),Hikuleo,El Phantasmo andChris Bey as an official member of Bullet Club for one night only in a 12 man Tag Team Match vsUnited Empire'sGreat-O-Khan,Jeff Cobb,TJP,Aaron Henare andAussie Open (Kyle Fletcher andMark Davis) atWindy City Riot on April 16, which resulted in a losing effort.[42][43]
Norton is married to his wife Tammy.[44] His book,Scott Norton: Strong Style, with assistance from Adam Randis, who has been a longtime fan of Norton,[44] was released on May 25, 2019.
Growing up inMinnesota, Norton became friends with a number of future fellow professional wrestlers, includingRoad Warrior Hawk,Curt Hennig,Rick Rude,John Nord andWayne Bloom.[5]
Born June 15, 1958
Scott Norton pinned The Equalizer (2:23)
Tony Halme pinned Scott Norton (8:41)
Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase beat Scott Norton & Rick Steiner (17:53)
Scott Norton & Hercules Hernandez beat Takayuki Iizuka & Akira Nogami (9:26)
Scott Norton & Hercules Hernandez beat Brutus Beefcake & Jake Roberts (12:32
Final: Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase beat Scott Norton & Hercules Hernandez (13:46)
Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono beat Scott Norton & Mike Enos (11:17)
Shinya Hashimoto, Masa Saito & Kensuke Sasaki beat Scott Norton, Ron Simmons & Mike Enos (13:27)
Masahiro Chono & Scott Norton beat Takayuki Iizuka & Akira Nogami (8:40)
Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner beat Scott Norton & Hawk Warrior (18:52)
Scott Norton and the Ice-Train went to a double count out. The two shook hands after the match
Final: Shinya Hashimoto & Scott Norton beat Keiji Muto & Rick Steiner (21:54)
September 26, 1997: Rick & Scott Steiner defeated Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton
December 15, 1997: Rick & Scott Steiner defeated Konnan & Scott Norton via disqualification
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