.jpg) DeMott in 2012 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | William Charles DeMott II (1966-11-10)November 10, 1966 (age 59) Ridgewood, New Jersey, U.S. |
Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Bill DeMott[1][2] Captain Hugh G. Rection[3][4] Crash the Terminator[1][2] General Hugh G. Rection[3][4] Hugh Morrus[1][2] The Laughing Man[1] The Man of Question[1] General E. Rection[1] Gen. Rection[5] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1][2] |
| Billed weight | 280 lb (130 kg)[1][2] |
| Billed from | Paramus, New Jersey[6] |
| Trained by | Johnny Rodz[1] |
| Debut | 1988[1] |
| Retired | 2010 |
William Charles DeMott II (born November 10, 1966) is an American retiredprofessional wrestler,road agent, and trainer. He is best known for his appearances withWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW) asHugh Morrus andWorld Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E) under his real name.[2] DeMott also performed asCrash the Terminator in bothEastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) andJapan.[2]
Generally used as ajobber to the stars in WCW, he attained championship success during the promotion's dying days in late 2000 and early 2001, holding theWCW United States Heavyweight Championshiptwice. After an unsuccessful stint as a performer in WWE, DeMott retired from in-ring competition and transitioned into the role of a trainer for the company'sTough Enough program, on which he became known for using a rough, controversial style in handling trainees, as well as WWE'sdevelopmental territoriesDeep South Wrestling,Florida Championship Wrestling, andNXT; after working for WWE a total of 14 years between 2001 and 2015. In 2015, he resigned from his role in response to numerous allegations of misconduct in relation throughout his role as trainer in various WWE developmental territories.
William Charles DeMott II[1] was born on November 10, 1966,[1] inRidgewood, New Jersey.[1] He grew up inParamus, New Jersey, graduating fromParamus High School in 1983.[7]
DeMott was trained byJohnny Rodz in Rodz'sNew York City wrestling school beginning in 1988. From there he began working at small independent promotions using the name Big Sweet Williams. In 1992 DeMott began wrestling for the Americas Wrestling Federation and started using thename Crash the Terminator. Under this name he found partial success, first capturing the AWF World Heavyweight Title from Steve Strong inPuerto Rico, before moving on to the Japanese promotionW*ING and winning the World Tag Team Championship withMr. Pogo. In 1993, while competing in W*ING, DeMott won a 16-man tournament to be crowned their World Heavyweight Champion.
On February 21, 1994 DeMott received a tryout match with theWorld Wrestling Federation at aMonday Night Raw taping at Poughkeepsie, NY. He competed in two other matches at a two day taping forWWF Superstars of Wrestling andWrestling Challenge.[8] He then went to Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling, where he won the latter promotion's World Heavyweight Championship upon winning abattle royal in 1995.
He wrestled forEastern Championship Wrestling for a short time under his "Crash the Terminator" name. AtUltimate Jeopardy in March 1994 he defeatedthe Pitbull. His final ECW appearance came on May 13, 1994, in a TV victory against AJ Powers, which aired on June 7.
In 1995, DeMott was signed to aWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW) contract at the behest ofKevin Sullivan who had been impressed by him. He debuted indark matches as The Man of Question and The Laughing Man, a strangegimmick that saw him wearing a singlet covered in question marks and laughing frequently. He made his television debut as a member ofThe Dungeon of Doom as "The Laughing Man" Hugh Morrus (apun on the word humorous) on the November 18, 1995 episode ofWCW Saturday Night in avignette inside the Dungeon, where Kevin Sullivan told his (kayfabe) father,The Master, that he was giving him something he never had: laughter, and that he was giving him "the man from the Isle of Nowhere."
Upon the dissolution of the Dungeon of Doom in mid-1997, Morrus was relegated to the undercard. He gained the distinction of being the first wrestler to compete and lose in a televised match toBill Goldberg during the September 22, 1997 episode ofNitro.
As a part of the growinghardcore wrestling style in WCW, Morrus joinedJimmy Hart'sFirst Familystable in 1998. Although the Family found success and received apush following a victory over their rivalsThe Revolution, the stable was suddenly disbanded in 1999. At this time, DeMott took some time off from WCW.
DeMott returned in early 2000, utilizing the same name and ring attire, butsquashing a number of wrestlers as an angrier version of himself. The angry Morrus gimmick came to a halt whenVince Russo andEric Bischoff took over and aimed to take WCW in a new direction.
After getting on Russo's bad side (inkayfabe), Morrus was fired from hisNew Blood stable along with a number of other wrestlers. These ex-New Blood members (includingChavo Guerrero Jr. andBooker T) formed the comedicMisfits in Action stable, which saw its members adopt both military-themed names and attires. As the stable's leader, Morrus re-christened himself General Hugh G. Rection, and led the group in a feud againstFilthy Animals.
The group's comedic nature and the workrate of some of the wrestlers made the group immediate favorites with fans. Upon the introduction of the heelTeam Canada, the Misfits In Action immediately began feuding with Team Canada, based over the patriotism both stables had for their respective countries. As the leader of the Misfits, Rection feuded with Team Canada's leader andUnited States Heavyweight ChampionLance Storm, with the two trading wins until Rection defeated both Storm and aturncoat"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in a handicap match on October 29 atHalloween Havoc to win the title. Rection would soon lose the title back to Storm on the November 13 episode ofNitro before defeating Storm to regain the title on November 26 atMayhem.
After his feud with Storm, the next night onNitro, DeMott stood in the ring and spoke to the fans. During this segment, the WCW locker room emptied and many wrestlers from backstage stood on the entrance way clapping for DeMott;Bill Goldberg grabbed the microphone and, fondly recalling his first opponent in WCW, said "Hey, Goldberg's streak had to start somewhere, my friend."
AtSin on January 14, 2001, Rection lost the United States Heavyweight Title toShane Douglas. Following the title loss, the Misfits disbanded when Rection announced that they werehonorably discharged, which led to Rection reverting to his Hugh Morrus name while the now former Misfits briefly feuded amongst each other. DeMott would then resume his pursuit of the United States Heavyweight Title until theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF) bought out WCW.
When WCW was purchased by the WWF, DeMott signed a deal with the WWF and became part ofThe Invasion angle under his Hugh Morrus ring name as a member ofThe Alliance. Morrus made his WWF debut on the June 4, 2001 episode ofRaw by attackingEdge. Aside from apay-per-view match atInvasion on July 22 where he,Shawn Stasiak andChris Kanyon defeatedBig Show,Billy Gunn andAlbert and anIntercontinental Championship match on the August 27 episode ofRaw which he lost toEdge via disqualification, Morrus was relegated to wrestling on the company's secondary showsHeat andJakked much like his fellow WCW alumni. In the September 29 episode of WWE Metal, Morrus made his first appearance at the show, where he took on Billy Gunn, in a losing effort. When The Invasion ended atSurvivor Series following Team Alliance's loss to Team WWF, Morrus waskayfabe fired byVince McMahon. While off television, Morrus performed athouse shows and worked in company's developmental territoryHeartland Wrestling Association (HWA). During his time in the HWA, he teamed withRaven to defeatLance Cade andSteve Bradley to win theTag Team Championship on March 12, 2002, which they lost only three days later to Cade and Bradley.
In April 2002, Morrus was drafted to theSmackDown!brand. He made his television return on the April 6 episode ofJakked alongside fellow WCW alumnusChavo Guerrero Jr. and defeatedThe Hurricane andFunaki. Morrus was soon relegated to being a mainstay onJakked and laterVelocity until late July 2002, when he waslegitimately injured in a motorcycle accident and had to take a leave of absence. During his time away, he became a trainer for the third season ofTough Enough, WWE'sreality television show.
When he had sufficiently healed, Morrus made his return on the November 23 episode ofVelocity under his real name. DeMott made hisSmackDown! debut on December 5 as aheel, where he defeated Funaki in asquash match. The victory saw DeMott immediately receive apush that saw him squash several established wrestlers, including Funaki,Shannon Moore,Chuck Palumbo,Crash Holly, andRikishi weekly onSmackDown!. However, this came to an end soon and saw DeMott relegated back toVelocity beginning in February 2003. In May, DeMott made afaceturn that also saw him tellknock-knock jokes as part of the turn. As thegimmick failed toget over, he remained onVelocity while continuing to win several squash matches. DeMott wrestled his last televised match on the June 14 episode ofVelocity, where he defeated fellow WCW alumnusChris Kanyon. Later that month, DeMott retired from in-ring action, citing years of knee injuries. He then moved on to become thecolor commentator forVelocity,[6] beginning on the November 1 episode,[9] and remained in that position until December 11, 2004.
WhenTough Enough 4 wrapped production, DeMott did not make a return toVelocity. Instead, he became a full-time trainer for WWE and began working in the company'sDeep South Wrestling developmental territory.[10] DeMott also worked as a booker for DSW, although his direction in the promotion received criticism, most notably by former WWE developmental wrestlerKenny Omega, who soon requested to be released from his developmental contract due to poor treatment.[10] DeMott was released from his WWE contract on January 19, 2007,[11] withTom Prichard taking his place as DSW's head trainer.
In March 2015,Devon Nicholson described an incident from 2006 that DeMott was involved with while he was head trainer for the WWE'sDeep South Wrestling developmental territory. Nicholson described an incident in whichDrew Hankinson was completely naked in the ring for a long period of time and gave nakedstinkfaces toZack Ryder andMelissa Coates while DeMott held jelly donuts over their faces. The wrestlers agreed to do this (with the other talent encouraging them) in order to get out of regular training for that day.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] DeMott refuted the notion that it was his idea, stating that the other trainees came up with because they wanted to skip the session.[19][20]
After parting ways with WWE, DeMott competed for several independent promotions, including the Carolina Wrestling Association and the United Wrestling Federation. In addition to wrestling, he also began operating his own wrestling school called New Energy Wrestling School from 2009 to 2010 inMcDonough, Georgia, while also running a brief series of wrestling events inLocust Grove, Georgia.[21] Demott wrestled his last match in 2011.
In 2011,WWE announced that DeMott would return to the company to perform as the head trainer on therevivedTough Enough series.[22] Following the conclusion ofTough Enough, DeMott replacedTom Prichard as the head trainer for theFlorida Championship Wrestling developmental territory on June 2, 2012.[10] After FCW was rebranded intoNXT, DeMott retained his position as the head trainer, and continued in that role when theWWE Performance Center was opened in 2013. He was featured as a trainer in theWWE 2K15 video game.
DeMott resigned from WWE on March 6, 2015 following multiple online wrestling news reports of accusations of misconduct and abuse by a dozen-plus former WWE trainees (see below) -- allegations DeMott defiantly denied.[23][24]
Several former FCW, DSW, and NXT employees previously working within or with the WWE developmental system made public allegations of misconduct by DeMott during his time as trainer, including accusing DeMott of making trainees perform dangerous drills,[25] physicallyassaulting andbullying trainees,[25][26] usinghomophobic andracial slurs amongst otherderogatory terms,[26][27] letting trainees train while naked,[25][28] and condoningsexual harassment.[23] These allegations were made byKevin Matthews,Mike Bucci,Ivelisse Vélez,[29] andDevon Nicholson in 2012,[28][30][31] Chad Baxter and Chase Donovan in 2013,[27]Curt Hawkins in 2014,[24] as well as several wrestlers includingJudas Devlin,Briley Pierce, Brandon Traven,Derrick Bateman, independent wrestler Terra Calaway, andKenny Omega from late February to March 2015.[23][25][26][32] Devlin and Traven stated they had submitted complaints to WWE management about DeMott in March 2013 when still WWE employees; they publicized those complaints in 2015.[25][26] WWE released statements regarding some of the claims that came to light in 2013 and 2015, stating it had investigated the matter and had found no wrongdoing.[25][27] Pierce questioned the thoroughness of WWE's investigations, saying WWE did not question him despite Pierce being one of the alleged victims.[24] The allegations caused a strongly negative reaction onsocial media in March 2015, with the #FireDeMott hashtag trending onTwitter.[25] On March 6, 2015, DeMott publicly denied the allegations on Twitter, but also announced his resignation from WWE "to avoid any embarrassment or damage" to the company.[23]
During a May 2015 podcast withVince Russo, Vélez asserted that her reporting DeMott's alleged misconduct in 2012 to WWE officials was the likely reason WWE released her (i.e., as retribution) shortly thereafter.[29]
DeMott voiced himself in the video gameWWE 2K15. His character is a coach in the MyCareer mode.[33]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | WWE 2K15 | Himself | Video game debut |
DeMott was married to his first wife from 1987[34]: 22 to 2004.[34]: 169 They had a daughter, Keri Anne DeMott, who was killed in a collision with adrunk driver in 2015, leading DeMott and his wife to fund an organization to campaign against drunk driving.[7]
He married his second wife on December 18, 2004.[34]: 169
Years later, as The New Blood fought the Misfits in Action in WCW, the MIA had an unlikely recruit as Booker T reverted to his G.I. Bro name and look. The Misfits were led by Hugh Morris, now known by the name Hugh G. Rection.
Oct. 10, 2015 was the day life both stopped and started for Paramus native Bill DeMott.... DeMott graduated from Paramus High School in 1983, and went on to become a pro wrestler, earning himself the title of world heavyweight champion, and more.
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