| Shark Boy | |
|---|---|
 Shark Boy in 2008 | |
| Birth name | Dean Matthew Roll |
| Born | (1975-01-28)January 28, 1975 (age 50)[1] Dayton, Ohio, U.S. |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | El Piranha[1] Dean Baldwin[1] Dean Roll[1] Shark Boy[1] |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2][3] |
| Billed weight | 180 lb (82 kg)[2][3] |
| Billed from | The Deep (Blue) Sea[2][4] Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas[5] |
| Trained by | Les Thatcher[1] |
| Debut | May 3, 1997[1] |
Dean Matthew Roll (born January 28, 1975) is an Americanprofessional wrestler, best known for his appearances inTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) under thering nameShark Boy. Prior to his appearances in TNA, Roll competed on the independent scene from the mid-1990s onwards before being signed byWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1999. Following his release from WCW six months later in 2000, Roll returned to the independent scenes, mainly competing for theWorld Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) promotion. He would leave WWA in 2002 to join TNA, where he became a member of theTNA X Division. He would make sporadic appearances in TNA from 2009 onwards.
Roll began training underLes Thatcher in October 1995 at the age of twenty.[5] He debuted on May 3, 1997, in Thatcher'sHeartland Wrestling Association, wrestling as themasked El Piranha. An HWA mainstay, Roll also occasionally portrayed thecharacter of Dean Baldwin, the purported fifth, lesser knownBaldwin brother.[6][7]
Later that year, Roll debuted in theIndependent Wrestling Association, where he developed thecartoonish character Shark Boy, partly inspired by the1995 song "I Come From the Water" by theToadies.[5][7] In 1999, Roll trademarked the name "Shark Boy".[3][8] In 1998 and 1999, Shark Boy received a flurry of media attention. He was featured onABC in an episode of20/20 featuring professional wrestling, on theDiscovery Channel as part of the annualShark Week and on a documentary produced byMTV entitledTrue Life: I'm a Professional Wrestler.[5]
On May 19, 1999, Shark Boy wrestled at the second annualBrian Pillman Memorial Show, defeatingMatt Stryker, Tarek the Great andChip Fairway in a tournament and receiving a trophy. Following the match, numerousWorld Championship Wrestling andWorld Wrestling Federation wrestlers, includingAl Snow,Mankind andD'Lo Brown, entered the ring and lifted Shark Boy onto their shoulders.[9] Shark Boy also wrestled at the 1998, 2000 and 2001 Brian Pillman Memorial Shows.
On March 11, 2003, Shark Boy wrestled a dark match for theWorld Wrestling Entertainment where he lost toChris Kanyon.
As a result of the exposure gained by his appearances on television and at the Brian Pillman Memorial Shows, coupled with his"cult" following, Shark Boy was signed to a contract byWorld Championship Wrestling in 1999.[7][8] He made several appearances onWCW Saturday Night andWCW Thunder onTBS before being released six months later in early 2000.[6][9][10]
In February 2002 Shark Boy competed for the WWA at their Revolution PPV in Las Vegas. He fought in the opening contest, a 6-Man Cruiserweight survival match. Also in the match wereA.J. Styles,Christopher Daniels,Low Ki,Tony Mamaluke, andNova. He was eliminated first in the match, which was won by Nova.
In November 2002, Shark Boy toured Europe with theWorld Wrestling All-Starspromotion. At theRetributionpay-per-view on December 6, 2002, Shark Boy defeatedFrankie Kazarian.[6] During this same time from 2002 till its closing, Shark Boy joined and toured withXPW where he had memorable bouts with Kaos,Tracy Smothers,Juventud Guerrera, andJerry Lynn.
On March 7, 2004, Shark Boy opened aprofessional wrestling school namedThe Shark Tank inOhio. His most notable trainees are Dustin Thomas, Tom Bellman, Darrell Hazel, Jerrod West, Todd Mullins, Ed Gonzales, Donny Redd, Chris Ledbetter, Jake Omen, Tony X and Cannonball Sami (Sami Callihan)[6][10]
On July 31, 2002, Shark Boy made hisTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) debut in a dark match losing toJimmy Rave.[11]
On the August 14, 2002weekly TNA pay-per-view, Shark Boy showed up onDisco Inferno's talk segmentJive Talkin' without his mask playing the characterDean Baldwin, a fictional brother of the famous Baldwin actors.[12]
In 2003, he had a team withNew Jack that involved getting New Jack to play board games such asChutes and Ladders with Shark Boy. When New Jack left,Mad Mikey started teaming with Shark Boy before his untimely death in November 2003 and in 2004, he teamed withD-Ray 3000 which was his most successful tag team run. In 2008, he returned to TNA after a brief hiatus from akayfabe coma suffered from multiple ambushes, and tweaked his Shark Boygimmick into that of aStone Cold Steve Austin tribute, even going as far as to drink "Clam Juice" (a reference to Austin's infamous beer drinking) in the ring after his matches. Upon his gimmick change, he would occasionally team up withCurry Man to form a comedic tag team that was a moderate success. After this gimmick change he started to talk, something he had not been heard to do before.
Shark Boy took part in TNA's TerrorDome match on May 10, but it was won byKaz. Because of that TerrorDome match, Shark Boy was injured; he returned backstage on the July 17 episode ofImpact! with Curry Man andSuper Eric as part of a Justice League knock off, called The Prince Justice Brotherhood (a reference toAbyss' former name Prince Justice), where he got whipped byBeer Money, Inc. during a backstage segment. He appeared again with the Brotherhood on the July 24 episode ofImpact!. Roll returned on the February 5 edition ofImpact!, only to lose to the debutingBrutus Magnus in a squash match. He returned at the August 18 tapings ofImpact!, only to lose againstSheik Abdul Bashir in a match broadcast on the TNA website. He was again featured on a web match after the August 31 tapings ofImpact!, in another losing effort toConsequences Creed. This was his last match with the company for some time, and on October 13, 2010, Shark Boy's profile was removed from TNA's website while he spent some time working as a referee and road agent for the company.[13]
On December 5, 2010, Shark Boy made his return atFinal Resolution, forcingCookie into a shark cage duringRobbie E's andJay Lethal's match for theTNA X Division Championship. After the match, he gave Cookie aChummer. He changed his theme back to the theme he used before the Austin gimmick began.[14] He made his return to the ring on the December 24 edition ofXplosion, in a losing effort against Robbie E. On March 3, 2011, Shark Boy announced on his website that he had requested and was granted his release from TNA.[15]
On July 10, 2011, Shark Boy made an appearance atDestination X teaming withEric Young defeatingGeneration Me.[16] Shark Boy made his return to TNA on the May 23, 2013 episode ofImpact Wrestling. He wrestled againstRobbie E in a losing effort on the following episode ofTNA Xplosion after his TV appearance. On March 17, 2013, Shark Boy appeared on TNA10 Reunion where he was in a 10-man Gauntlet match, which was won byMatt Morgan, that aired on August 2, 2013. On March 19, 2013, Shark Boy next appeared onHardcore Justice 2 where he won a nine-man Hardcore Gauntlet Battle Royal, which aired on July 5, 2013.[citation needed] He then made another appearance on November 21 atTNA Turning Point, facingEthan Carter III in a losing effort. On October 2, 2014, Shark Boy made yet another appearance facing off against Manik and losing, then lost again on the October 15, 2014 show againstTyrus. He made an appearance in the October 29 taping during a backstage segment where he was signing autographs, getting a pep talk from road agentPat Kenney to get back to being "the real shark" referring to when he was in his prime. Shark Boy said he would do it. On the July 9, 2015 episode of Impact, he returned as a competitor in Ethan Carter III's 3 vs 1 Gauntlet Match for theTNA World Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort. This would be his last known appearance and would eventually parted ways from the company.
In August 2013, Shark Boy challenged Billy Mattern for the NWA Supreme United States Championship. Billy Mattern was disqualified due to interference by Mortimer Blankenship giving the win to Shark Boy, but Mattern would retain the championship.
Shark Boy started wrestling a lot less starting in 2014, where he only wrestled a half dozen matches. This would be followed with even less in 2015 and only one match in 2016. The following two years saw him competing in less than a dozen matches total. He didn't wrestle from November 2018, until April 2019 when he was involved in a six way scramble match atJoey Ryan's Penis Party WrestleCon event duringWrestleMania 35 weekend.[17]
On May 1, 2022, it was announced that Shark Boy would make his return to Impact Wrestling for live events on May 7 and 8 inNewport, Kentucky.[18] AtSlammiversary, on June 19, 2022, Shark Boy won theReverse Battle Royal by last eliminatingJohnny Swinger.[19][20]
Shark Boy has appeared in two video games, those beingTNA Impact!: Cross the Line andTNA IMPACT!
He was featured in MTV's "True Life: I am a Pro Wrestler", talking about his experiences on the independent circuit. Fox News PersonalityBill O'Reilly featured him in his segment "Fin-heads and Patriots".[citation needed]
On Friday, February 22, 2008, he was inducted into the XWF (later Legends Pro Wrestling) Hall of Fame.
Roll lost most of his possessions in a house fire in February 2009.[21]
On June 8, 2005, Roll filed alawsuit againstMiramax Films, claiming that the Miramax releaseThe Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D infringed upon his trademark and demanded any "money, profits and advantages wrongfully gained". In November 2005, it emerged that Miramax had attempted to have the case dismissed, in addition to requesting that the court nullify Roll's trademark on the basis that "Plaintiff is a male whose services are rendered only when he is wearing a costume depicting 'shark-like' attributes."[3][8][22] In April 2007, the suit was settled for an undisclosed amount.[23]
