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 Josef Samael at MLW Saturday Night SuperFight 2019 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Joseph Cabibbo (1974-05-21)May 21, 1974 (age 51) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | The Almighty Sheik[1] Joey Machete Josef Josef Samael The Sheik[2] Sheik Ali Azzad[2] NASDAQ |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2] |
| Billed weight | 225 lb (102 kg)[2] |
| Billed from | New York City, New York Damascus, Syria |
| Trained by | The Blackharts |
| Debut | August 1998 |
Joseph Cabibbo[2] (born May 21, 1974) is an Americanprofessional wrestler wrestling under thering namesJosef andJosef Samael on theindependent circuit and was a member ofContra Unit withJacob Fatu,Simon Gotch, andIkuro Kwon. He is a one-timeNWA World Heavyweight Champion and(Zero1) World Heavyweight Champion.
Cabibbo worked early in his career in Florida independent promotions such asFuture Of Wrestling, IPW Hardcore Wrestling, Maximum Xtreme Pro Wrestling and Coastal Championship Wrestling. In 2001, he made his debut in Puerto Rico forWorld Wrestling Council (WWC) as NASDAQ.
Cabibbo debuted inFull Impact Pro (FIP) as Joey Machete in November 2005, teaming up with Shawn Murphy and losing to Seth Delay and Chasyn Rance. They won their first match againstTony Mamaluke and Chad Parham the following day. In April, they won a three-way tag team match, featuring the Heartbreak Express and the Y.R.R. They began a streak of victories and beat the Heartbreak Express to become tag team champions. They lost their titles against the Heartbreak Express. They left the promotion in August 2008, after losing a hardcore match againstThe Dark City Fight Club.
Cabibbo, working under the ring name The Sheik, has made the Florida promotion Pro Wrestling Fusion his home. Originally going by the new Sheik Ali Azzad, Cabibbo shortened the name, after receiving the blessing ofSabu, the nephew of the originalSheik.[2] He won the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title by defeating Freedom Ryder on the inaugural show on May 3, 2008, in Ft. Pierce Florida. He also developed a feud with Steve Madison, who defeated the Sheik for the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title on February 2, 2009, inside a steel cage. The Sheik regained the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title from Madison on August 1, 2009.
The Sheik debuted in theNational Wrestling Alliance's NWA Midwest in September 2009, attacking NWA Midwest Heavyweight champion,Silas Young at a RWF (Rebellious Wrestling Federation) show in Ashton IL. He then defeated Silas to win the championship. He was scheduled for a World Title match againstBlue Demon, Jr. to be held inCicero Stadium inChicago Illinois, but Blue Demon backed out of the match.[3][unreliable source?] Silas Young, on the other hand, did sign up to wrestle the Sheik and defeated him in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on December 4, 2009, at ACW Homecoming. Sheik defeated Young to become a two-time NWA Midwest Heavyweight Champion on December 5, 2009.
On January 30, 2010, The Sheik defeated"El Gran" Apollo to become the new NWA North American Heavyweight Champion. On April 23, 2011, he defeatedColt Cabana inJacksonville, Florida to become the 44th officially recognizedNWA World Heavyweight Champion.[4] He was stripped of the title on July 11, 2011. Officially, the NWA announced that Sheik had refused to defend the title on July 31, 2011, in Ohio,[5] however Sheik's camp says he was never scheduled for the title defense.
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On May 23, 2011, The Sheik made his debut inJapan forPro Wrestling Zero1. He returned to the promotion on July 3, defeatingRyouji Sai in a match, where both his NWA World Heavyweight Championship and Sai'sWorld Heavyweight Championship were on the line, to become the new World Heavyweight Champion. He would go on to lose the title toKohei Sato on November 6, 2011.
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Sheik only wrestled about a dozen matches between 2013 and the end of 2015. Starting in January 2016 he started wrestling frequently for a newly founded Southern California promotionPCW Ultra. His first matches for the promotion involved a feud between himself andMontel Vontavious Porter. On January 20, 2017, his newly formed teamWarbeast, withJacob Fatu won the PCW Tag Team Championship. The faction would grow to includeBrody King and they would defend them underFreebirds rules. King has since left the promotion, signing withRing of Honor in 2019, but Fatu and Sheik still hold the tag titles to this day.[6]
Sheik debuted forMajor League Wrestling (MLW) under the nameJosef Samael, in February 2019 atSuperFight, alongside his frequent tag team partnerJacob Fatu. However, this match would not be aired onMLW Fusion. The duo of Fatu and Josef would make their debut appearance onFusion on March 2, 2019, forming the heel stable Contra Unit withSimon Gotch. They debuted by attackingMLW World Heavyweight ChampionTom Lawlor following his cage match againstLow Ki.[7] The following week, Contra Unit attackedAce Romero during his match with Gotch.[8]After that, they had various feuds, but suddenly disappeared beforeWar Chamber, not witnessing the end of his stable.
Media related toJoseph Cabibbo at Wikimedia Commons