.jpg) Excalibur in 2023 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Marc Letzmann (1980-07-16)July 16, 1980 (age 45) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.[1] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name | Excalibur[1] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)[1] |
| Billed weight | 183 lb (83 kg)[1] |
| Trained by | Super Dragon[1] |
| Debut | January 2000[2] |
| Retired | 2007[2] |
Marc Letzmann (born July 16, 1980),[2] better known by his ring nameExcalibur, is an Americanprofessional wrestlingcommentator and retiredprofessional wrestler. He is signed toAll Elite Wrestling (AEW) where he serves asplay-by-play commentator onDynamite and, previously,Rampage. He is also one of the six founders ofPro Wrestling Guerrilla, where he continues to work as the company's "Liaison to the Board of Directors". After retiring from in-ring competition in 2007, he became the company's lead play-by-play commentator.[2]
While writing for a wrestling video game website, Excalibur metSuper Dragon online.[3] Through chatting online, the two became friends and it helped spark the beginning of Excalibur's career.[3] After spending a year in college, Excalibur chose to move toCalifornia to begin his wrestling career and also get work in his full-time profession,graphic design.[3] He cited having an "in" to Revolution Pro Wrestling as the reason he decided to leave his hometown ofDetroit.[3] After moving to California in late 1999, Excalibur spent six months living in Super Dragon's garage, until finally renting a place of his own.[3]
Excalibur is one of the six owners ofSouthern California–basedPro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), and is collectively known as one of the "PWG Six", in reference to his partial founding of the company. On PWG's debut show, he defeatedChris Bosh. Soon after, Excalibur became a member of thestable SBS with Super Dragon andDisco Machine.[4] While with SBS, Excalibur and Super Dragon won the company'sTag Team Championship fromQuicksilver and Chris Bosh. They became the first team in PWG's history to successfully defend the title, but they eventually lost them toJoey Ryan andScott Lost.
At All Nude Revue, someone dressed as Super Dragon attacked the real Super Dragon after a match. On May 13 at Jason Takes PWG!, it was revealed that Excalibur was the mastermind of the attacks on Super Dragon and thatKevin Steen was the attacker, resulting in Excaliburbecoming aheel.[5] After subsequently turning on Super Dragon, Excalibur defeated him in aGuerrilla Warfare Match.[5] After the match, Disco Machine made his way to the ring to aid Super Dragon.[5] On June 11 at Guitarmegeddon, Disco Machine teamed with Super Dragon in a losing effort to Excalibur and Kevin Steen.[6] After the match, Disco turned on Dragon and united with Excalibur and Steen, with the three now calling themselves the "new" SBS.[6][7] On July 9 at Bicentennial Birthday Extravaganza, the new SBS defeated Dragon,El Generico andHuman Tornado in asix-man tag team elimination match.[8] At part two of the event the following night, Excalibur and Disco were unable to win a number one contender'sfour-team elimination match after Generico pinned Disco.[9] At Zombies Shouldn't Run on August 10, Excalibur and Disco gained an "apprentice" in Ronin, and stated that he would face a test to see if he would be allowed to join the group.[10] After the SBS's scheduled opponents, Los Luchas,did not appear, the SBS and Ronin instead competed against and defeated the team of Top Gun Talwar, Hook Bomberry and Mr. Excitement.[10] At the first-everBattle of Los Angeles event, the SBS andChris Sabin lost to Talwar, Bomberry andHuman Tornado.[11] However, the SBS won at part two of the event the following night, as they and Ronin defeated Sabin, Bomberry andT. J. Perkins.[12] At part two of All Star Weekend 2: Electric Boogaloo on November 20, 2005, the SBS faced Super Dragon andDavey Richards for theWorld Tag Team Championship, but lost the match.[13] On the first night of Battle of Los Angeles on September 2, 2006, Excalibur took part in a four-way elimination match for theWorld Championship that includedPetey Williams, Human Tornado and then-championJoey Ryan.[14] After eliminating Williams, Excalibur was eliminated from the match by Ryan after Williams hit Excalibur with apiledriver.[14] In May 2008, at the end of the DDT4 Night One event, Steen's then-six-month-old son appeared in a segment with Excalibur, in which Excalibur called him "ugly" and it prompted Steen to perform three consecutive package piledrivers on Excalibur before placing his son on top of Excalibur for the pin.
In addition to PWG, Excalibur began competing for various other promotions. InCombat Zone Wrestling (CZW), he began wrestling mostly tag team matches with Super Dragon as his partner before splitting. Excalibur soon joined Beef Wellington and the duo became a comedic, yet popular,tag team dubbed Team Masturbation.[15] While still in CZW, Excalibur had a short feud withLarry Sweeney, which culminated at Cage of Death 7, where they had an "interpromotional match", in which they performedpromos back and forth between each other before competing in the actual match. In addition to his work in CZW, Excalibur performed atRing of Honor, where he wrestled Super Dragon at the Do or Die show in 2004, and alsoChikara, where he competed until his final match in 2006. After his final professional match in 2007, he returned to PWG and became the "Commissioner of Food & Beverage", which was later renamed to the "Liaison to the Board of Directors", as well as the company's leadplay-by-play commentator.[2] In 2011 on an episode ofColt Cabana'sArt of Wrestling podcast, Excalibur stated that his reason for retiring was due to fearing that the concussions he suffered through his career would cause him to lose years off his life or that his brain would start to deteriorate at an early age.[3]
On July 13, 2018, it was announced Excalibur would commentate theAll In broadcast withDon Callis,Sean Mooney,Ian Riccaboni,Alicia Atout,Justin Roberts, and Bobby Cruise.[16] In December he also was on color commentary forNew Japan Pro-Wrestling.[17]
Excalibur was announced as part of theAll Elite Wrestling (AEW) announce team during Episode 10 of "The Road to Double or Nothing," which premiered on April 10, 2019. AEW Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes said the first time he saw Excalibur and the mask, "I don't think I really got it, but if you watch All In back, he truly was the anchor of that show. I definitely get it now."[18] Excalibur was part of the live stream of the Double or Nothing Ticket Announcement Party from Las Vegas,[19] then was part ofDouble or Nothing starting with the Buy In pre-show, where he did play-by-play.[20] Excalibur, along withJim Ross andTony Schiavone, provide play-by-play and color commentary for matches onDynamite. Excalibur also provides play-by-play for matches onRampage andDark.
During his tenure as an AEW commentator Excalibur was named best television announcer by Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 2020, 2021, and 2023.[21]
In July 2020, Excalibur became embroiled in controversy following the resurfacing of past videos where he usedracial slurs, notably theN-word during pro wrestling promos.[22][23] These incidents were from earlier in his career when he was associated with independent wrestling promotions.[24][25]
| Winner (wager) | Loser (wager) | Location | Event | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excalibur (mask) | Chris Bosh (hair) | Los Angeles, California | Live event | December 13, 2003 | [30] |
