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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Frances Huguelet (1969-06-05)June 5, 1969 (age 56) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Ric Rage Ric Savage |
| Billed height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Billed weight | 290 lb (130 kg) |
| Billed from | Sylva, North Carolina |
| Trained by | Ivan Koloff Chuck Justice |
| Debut | 1991 |
| Retired | 1997 |
Frank Huguelet (born June 5, 1969) is an American retiredprofessional wrestler, better known by hisring name"Heavy Metal" Ric Savage. He was the host ofSavage Family Diggers, arealitytreasure hunting show airing onSpike TV. He also conducts haunted "ghost tours" inGettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Huguelet wrestled across the eastern seaboard of the U.S. from 1990 until 1997. While spending much of his career in the independent circuits, he also wrestled for theNational Wrestling Alliance,United States Wrestling Association,Extreme Championship Wrestling,World Championship Wrestling andNational Championship Wrestling.
Huguelet broke into the wrestling business in theindependent circuit inwestern North Carolina. He was trained initially in a garage inWaynesville, North Carolina, by Chuck Justice, a high school friend. Savage then wrestled every independent show he could before getting his first television break withSouth Atlantic Pro Wrestling in 1991 in a televised match against ChiefWahoo McDaniel. Savage then trained briefly under the "Russian Bear"Ivan Koloff at his school in Indian Trails, North Carolina.
Huguelet went to work for theProfessional Wrestling Federation owned byGary Sabaugh (The Italian Stallion) andGeorge South. Savage would compete againstNelson Knight andBobby Knight before the pair went to theWorld Wrestling Federation asMen on a Mission. He also wrestled "Mean"Mark Canterbury.
Sabaugh booked Huguelet withWorld Championship Wrestling where he would perform at several television tapings in 1992, but was used as ajobber. Huguelet left WCW at the advice of friend and mentorJimmy Valiant, to wrestle forJerry Lawler'sUnited States Wrestling Alliance.
Huguelet would only work for USWA for a week due to a desire at that point to leave professional wrestling and begin preparing for a career in law. While working for Lawler, Huguelet feuded withSkull Von Krush. He would also wrestleTommy Rich,Eddie Gilbert, andThe Moondogs. Huguelet had the opportunity to work withThe Rock 'n' Roll Express, where he would build a friendship withRicky Morton.[citation needed] After Huguelet left the USWA, he began to focus more on college and wrestled on the independent circuit to pay his bills. He toured with Jimmy Valiant for several months. Huguelet also tried a brief, unofficial cross-promotion with 1980sglam metal bandQuiet Riot, but the venture was not a success.
Huguelet wrestled for theNational Wrestling Alliance, where he was booked by formerFour Horsemen memberTully Blanchard, and was managed by formerFreebirdMichael P.S. Hayes. Huguelet had formed a tag-team with a biker gimmick called theHard Riders with Frankee Lawless[1] (Mark Cavnar) and the pair became the leading "heel" tag-team in the new NWA wrestling federation based out of theSportatorium inDallas, Texas, and run by pioneer professional wrestling promoterJim Crockett, Jr. The Hard Riders feuded with brothersChris andMark Youngblood. The Hard Riders also competed againstAhmed Johnson,Greg Valentine,Chris Adams,C. W. Anderson and theJunkyard Dog. Huguelet and Lawless met an obscure brother duo at this time that would influence Huguelet's later career. The team wasMatt andJeff Hardy. Huguelet would work closely with the Hardy's for the remainder of his time in wrestling. The Hard Riders drifted apart after Crockett folded in 1996.
In 1996, after getting hisbachelor's degree fromWestern Carolina University, Huguelet and travelling partnerKid Kash rode toPhiladelphia to get work withExtreme Championship Wrestling at the suggestion of Savage's friendsNew Jack andRob Van Dam. Huguelet wrestled several house shows asShane Douglas' Bounty Hunter in an ongoing feud withThe Pitbulls.Paul Heyman had Huguelet change his name toRic Rage to avoid any conflicts withWCW over "Macho Man"Randy Savage. Huguelet left ECW after a few months, but Kash stayed on. After ECW, Huguelet went back to the independent circuit. During this time he made a regional television promo withRickey Medlocke ofBlackfoot, now the lead guitarist ofLynyrd Skynyrd. The promo was aimed at curbingdomestic violence against women inwestern North Carolina but never aired. Huguelet also made some regional talkshow appearances as well.
Huguelet and Cavnar reunited The Hard Riders whenRic Flair offered the team a shot to try out for WCW where they had adark match the following week at Center Stage inAtlanta. The gimmick did not go over with WCW fans and was dropped. Huguelet then went back to the independent circuit as a single's wrestler and changed his look to agrunge rocker. His old friend from the NWAAhmed Johnson introduced him toChief Jay Strongbow at a WWF show. Strongbow scheduled a dark match for Savage inFayetteville, North Carolina. But Strongbow suffered a massive heart attack and was released from the WWF before he could return. Huguelet's dark match fell through the cracks.
Huguelet teamed for a while withBull Buchanan in a team called "Body Count" inNational Championship Wrestling which was a promotion owned by Huguelet's longtime manager and friend Steve Martin. But Buchanan was first signed byJim Cornette'sSmoky Mountain Wrestling and later by theWorld Wrestling Federation causing him to leave Body Count. Huguelet then teamed in Body Count withDavid Young and Rusty Riddle. Riddle turned on Huguelet and joinedKid Kash and feuded with Huguelet and Young for the NCW world tag titles. It was in 1996 that Huguelet partnered with Martin in National Championship Wrestling, and Huguelet began to help create the wrestler's characters, storylines, and do interview coaching. NCW did monthly television tapings from Huguelet's hometown ofSylva, North Carolina. Notable wrestlers that worked for NCW during that time areMatt andJeff Hardy,Brad Cain (Lodi),Shannon Moore,Ricky Morton of theRock and Roll Express, Bull Buchanan,Kid Kash,Jason Arhndt (Joey Abs of theMean Street Posse),Rick Michaels, andChris Hamrick. NCW later becameNWA Wildside and was briefly syndicated after Huguelet left the promotion.
After suffering from a leftknee reconstruction, and three lower back surgeries, Huguelet retired from professional wrestling in 1997. Initially, he moved toGettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he performed a live storytelling presentation calledHaunted Gettysburg for author Bob Wasel at the now defunct Conflict Theater. It was in Gettysburg that Huguelet met his wife Rita.[citation needed] They have three children and two recent grandchildren.[citation needed] In 1998, Huguelet moved his family toNew Jersey, where they lived until moving to Virginia in 2009.
Huguelet is very interested in American history, in particular theCivil War. He is an avid artifacts collector, and maintains a website that assists collectors in identifying fake Civil War andWorld War II relics. He enjoys metal detecting across the country for historical artifacts. Since 2007 Huguelet has written a column forAmerican Digger magazine calledThe Savage Facts that provides tips on identifying fraudulent Civil War and other militaria collectibles. He has done lectures for Civil War roundtables, metal detecting clubs, and other historical organizations across theUnited States on avoiding the pitfalls of buying fake or misrepresented militaria items. It was announced on August 10, 2011, thatSpike TV bought 13 episodes of the new reality show,American Digger, featuring Huguelet and his team of artifact recovery experts.[2] However, the concept of the show is being protested by a number of archaeological and historical institutions, including the Society for American Archaeology[3] and the American Institute of Archaeology,[4] as promoting illegal looting and destroying shared cultural history.
In April 2013, American Digger magazine stated that they would no longer have any association with Rick Savage, saying, "We won’t lie, our dropping his association was in great part because of the controversy his TV show has created, and the confusion that American Digger Magazine had anything more than a passing association with the Spike TV series which shares our name." According toHuffington Post, the American Anthropological Association sent Spike TV a letter "urging [the network] to withdraw or modify the contents" of "American Digger" because it "wrongly represents archaeology as a treasure-seeking adventure, in which our collective heritage is dug up and sold for monetary gain."[5]
In 2012American Digger debuted on Spike TV. The show performed well and drew an average audience of 1.2 million viewers weekly. Huguelet and his crew of artifact recovery experts dug on private property in Tombstone, AZ, Brooklyn, NY, Detroit, MI, Mechanicsville, Jamestown, and Middletown, VA, Chicago, IL, Venice, LA, St. Augustine, FL, Asheville and Sylva, NC, Girdwood, AK, and Aiken, SC. It was announced in August 2012 by Spike TV that another 13 episodes ofAmerican Digger had been ordered and would be filmed in the fall and winter with a planned airtime in spring 2013.American Digger is produced by Gurney Productions who also produceDuck Dynasty,Auction Hunters,American Guns,Hollywood Treasure andHaunted Collector as well as manyShark Week specials. One of the signature points on the show is when Huguelet yells his catch-phrase "boom baby" after a significant discovery. The phrase is popular with show fans and has been made into both T-shirts and ringtones.
In December 2012, Spike TV announced thatAmerican Digger would be renamedSavage Family Diggers for its second season premiering January 30, 2013, saying the name change better reflects the crew which adds Savage's wife Rita and son Nick to the dig team. Highlights from the second season would be a dig with Emmy nominated actorBill Paxton and his son James, a dig lead to Memphis, Tennessee fromLynyrd Skynyrd guitaristRickey Medlocke, a hunt forBlackbeard's treasure, and a tour of one of America'sGilded Age havens, loaded with mansions of the early elite.
In November 2013, Ric Savage and Erik Turner of '80's powerhouse Band,Warrant (American band), joined forces to createThe Savage~Turner Rock Express Radio Show. The show airs Saturday and Sunday nights at 10p EST on the KZOI / KZOY FM stations located in Sioux City, Iowa and Sioux Falls, SD. The show streams worldwide at Sunnyradio.com. The show consists of Savage and Turner interviewing guests from a diversity of fields from rock musicians to professional wrestlers. Guests have included:Rickey Medlocke ofLynyrd Skynyrd, actor Peter Sherayko,Gary Hoey,Matt Hardy, and other notable personages from all genres of entertainment. The interviews are punctuated with music from artists from the '80's through today. The show used to contain a weekly fitness tip fromTodd Howard, star of Spike TV's Worlds Worst Tenants, and also a special segment with Rock legendCarmine Appice, former drummer for Rod Stewart,Ozzy Osbourne, and Vanilla Fudge. He is currently the drummer of The Rascals.
The radio show became a podcast in 2016, and it is hosted onSoundCloud. Guests have includedNick Searcy,John Moyer ofDisturbed, Ambassador Scott Brown and more.
In March 2016 Ric Savage teamed up withDanger Danger frontmanTed Poley andTrixter guitar wizard Steve Brown to do a heavy metal remake of the iconicSteppenwolf hit,Born to be Wild. They were joined by the legendary Carmine Appice on drums, “The Fretless Monster”Tony Franklin fromWhitesnake on bass, andMike Orlando of Adrenaline Mob on lead guitar. The single was released by Rocker Records, and the video was shot in New Jersey and is available on YouTube. Greg Smith, bass player forTed Nugent played the bass track on the video.