Biography[]
Duff Côte d'Ivoire (born Chris McCoy, legally changed to Chris Rasputin) was born in the decent-sized city of Rochester, New York. He lived a reasonably happy childhood, but during his teenage years, his parents split, which caused some confusion within him. His once perfect life had been shattered by a fight, which wasn't very unusual to him, his parents were constantly feuding with one another, mocking each other's imperfections and things of that nature. Eventually, after a huge custody battle, Duff ended up with his grandparents out in the town of Brockport. He resumed his happy life, but was without a doubt scarred by his exposure to such a traumatizing event.
Duff's grandparents passed away when he was twenty-four- Duff was still living in the basement at the time, working a dead-end job at the local video store. For a long time, Duff slept in the back of the shop until he was laid off due to the establishment's failure to turn a profit. So now, Duff was unemployed with nowhere to go- he could have retreated to one of his parents' homes, but there was too much to remember there. The fights, the cruelty, everything. So, Duff placed his stakes in a local homeless shelter. One day, Duff was outside, fighting with another homeless man for a sandwich, and was spotted by the owner of Cyber Wrestling Zone. Later that day, he was offered a contract by the federation and he quickly accepted because he needed the money. Two months and several small paycheques later, Duff found himself unemployed again.
This did not last long, for Duff was soon contacted by Hardcore Wrestling Entertainment. Duff stuck around there for a bit before hanging up the boots temporarily and actually going out to learn how to wrestle. He scrolled through the phone books and found something he thought he would be interested in, the father of a former CWZ colleague, The Iceman, Kevin Simmons. Simmons gladly took Duff under his wing, and soon Duff became not only a great brawler, but an awesome ring technician as well. Duff was ready to make his return and set his sights on a young federation which, unbeknownst to him at the time, would become his greatest journey yet.
Duff joined the Continental Wrestling Association on November 9, 2005 and hasn't looked back since. His first match was against the since-departed Michael Lazzaro. Duff didn't pull away with the victory due to interference from a man that would become one of the greatest feuds in his career. Scar's interference caused Duff to win several matches by disqualification, and after several months, everything was settled in a Pit of Pain match which both ended Duff's feud with Scar and began an entirely new one with "Highflyin" Chris Cannon. Cannon had kidnapped Duff's then-love interest, Michelle Cooley, and held her for a month until February's Stupid Cupid, where Duff and Cannon vied for her "services." Duff came away victorious in the match, but later that night, in his match with Scar, Michelle turned on Duff and permanently aligned herself with Chris Cannon, causing Duff to see red for a long time to come.
A few weeks after Michelle's betrayal of Duff, Cannon and d'Ivoire teamed for the first time ever in a rather cruel trick played by then-CWA commissioner, Nick Ledgerwood. Duff and Cannon pulled out the win, but things were far from friendly between the two as later that month, they both fought in the inaugural contest for the CWA Intercontinental title after winning an entire tag team tournament. The Saturday prior to the pay per view, on an edition of the short-lived "Heatwave," Duff revealed to Cannon that he had brought a "gift" for Michelle. Cannon asked Michelle to get in the ring as requested by Duff, and upon her arrival, was met with a swift, brutal beating at the hands of Duff's new girlfriend, Alexis Sharpcraft, a highly trained martial artist from the gritty streets of Chicago. Duff and Alexis left the ring celebrating that night as they would eight days later when Duff captured the first ever CWA Intercontinental title at Seven Deadly Sins.
However, Duff's grandstand at the top of his personal mountain wouldn't last long, and only three weeks after winning the CWA Intercontinental title, he lost it to Riona Langly. Duff was definitely in a slump- he knew that he had let the title go to his head and he promised that he would never allow it to happen ever again. About three weeks after losing the Intercontinental title, Duff met up with Riona again in an Elimination Chamber match at Collision Course against the likes of West Indiez, Gia Capone, and X-Factor. Then-World champion, Dustin "Thunderwolf" Kelser, had to relinquish the title earlier in the night due to unforeseen circumstances. In the later moments of the match, a group, now known as the Outkasts, rushed the ring and took out both Duff and X-Factor. Riona went on to win that match and later relinquished the Intercontinental belt back to CWA owner, Scott Sable, who held a tournament to crown the next Intercontinental champion. Duff was not in this tournament, and at the first show proceeding Collision Course, showed why he needn't be when he captured the CWA Platinum title from Gia Capone in a brutal ladder match. After this match, Duff did something that shocked fans all over the world by aligning himself with former rival "Highflyin" Chris Cannon. Duff began to blame Mr. Sable for his loss at Collision Course, saying that he could have done a better job keeping the ring secure and even went so far as to shock Sable, putting him out of commission for several weeks.
Duff continued to push the limits of CWA by bringing about the first London's Burning match in CWA's history at CWA Quarantined '06. In this match, he did combat with "Showtime" Marcus Ambrose for the Platinum title, and, like a true champion, he came away with the victory. Duff faced "Showtime" for what has since been the final time on July 26, 2006. After that show, Ambrose decided to take an "extended vacation" until further notice. This brought a great weight off of Duff's shoulders. Eventually, Duff lost the Platinum title to up-and-comer, Philip Storm in a blindman's match when Fley interfered. Later in the month, after Duff's tag team partner, Chris Cannon, accused Scott Sable of conspiring against them, the Canadian Alliance won the tag team titles.
After a fallout with several big names in the CWA, Scott Sable folded the federation up for a few months and let it recuperate while various members contributed to the effort to keeping it alive. Duff was one of these members- but while he helped build the CWA back up, his relationship with "Highflyin" Chris Cannon went South, as did the relationship with now ex-girlfriend, Alexis Sharpcraft. In arguably one of the biggest moves of Duff's career, he returned to the CWA on the night of the Rebirth, January 10, 2007, and joined the Cowboys from Hell with fellow metal head, Scott Nash Strader (SNS). Cannon refused to join in with "those kind of people," and the Canadian Alliance wrestled their final match as an active tag team on January 21, 2007, at CWA: Renegade '07, where they defeated Sex & Violence ("Nightmare" Jonathan Wehali and "Wild Chylde" Ai Mei Montrose). Duff won both belts from his Canadian Alliance partner at one of the last episodes of Aggression.
At the same time, Duff joined up with the International Society of Grappling Arts (ISGA) and started off with a bang, winning five matches and drawing one with David Cyclone.
Duff re-injured his right leg in a match against Ryan Ford in AWE, but recovered and defeated Jaiden James in a "one-night-extravaganza". The match marked his return to the ring a mere two weeks after his injury.
After a lengthy time in Markham, Duff decided it was time for a change of scenery and he has been residing in his summer home in Richmond, Virginia, with girlfriend, Stacy Simmons, and trainer, Kevin Simmons (Stacy's father). In April, 2007, Duff and crew were granted custody of Kevin's grandson, Tanner, after a freak accident following a physical confrontation with daughter, Tammy's, husband, Robert McCarthy.
Despite these recent happenings, Duff found himself working still at federations like CwA (Chaos Wrestling Alliance) and the IWX (Indie Wrestling X) shortly after the abrupt folding of All-Star Wrestling Entertainment. He had a short return run with the ISGA which led to Duff abandoning his contract for personal reasons.
Duff retired briefly in July 2007 after the death of his trainer and mentor, Kevin Simmons. After only a week of mourning, Duff decided that it was best to jump back into the ring and do what he was trained to do, not let his talent go to waste.
When the IWX folded due to a massive amount of pressure from outside sources on owner Vikki Leigh's shoulders, Duff, along with many other IWX employees, joined up with eVOLUTION WRESTLING (eW) after an agreed merger between Leigh and eW owner, Tim Kamen. Due to some personal happenings with Tim Kamen, eW entered a hiatus state, so Duff left and enjoyed a week off as a free agent. As such, Duff looked at some of his choices and selected Extreme Wrestling Revolution as a new home and also signed an official deal with All-Star Warfare after it had been rumoured for some time.
Retirement[]
Duff retired from professional wrestling on July 2, 2007, after only two years in the business, citing personal reasons, including the death of mentor, Kevin Simmons.
Retirement Sucks[]
After only a week, Duff got tired of being retired and decided he needed to return to the ring because it was in his blood. Thus, Duff signed back on with IWX.
Wrestling Style[]
Duff tends to wrestle using his size to his advantage along with the years of technical training he's received from father-figure, Kevin Simmons.
Rumours as to why Duff dumped Alexis[]
It's no secret that Duff dumping Alexis Sharpcraft was a shock to quite a few people, especially because she had only had a lesbian affair and, thusly, had not cheated on him by many peoples' criteria. Duff still said he saw this as unacceptable at the CWA Pay Per View, Havoc in the City, when he revealed that the man who had kidnapped Alexis was, indeed, Kevin Simmons and [Duff] had been in on it the whole time. Many still wonder why he would end a relationship with a woman he appeared to love so dearly- the rumours normally range from a simple questioning of Duff's sexual preference to outrageous allegations of him being some kind of alien species from the planet Xelnor. Many people lay the blame on Kevin Simmons' daughter, Stacy, though.
In interviews, Duff has refused to answer such questions or, when asked, has simply responded with, "It just wasn't working." Private detective, Kevin Savage, has claimed that he saw Stacy Simmons in Duff's home wearing only a bathrobe a few days prior to the pay per view. Oddly enough, the story never made the papers and Kevin Savage hasn't been heard from since.
Fatal car accident[]
On February 26, 2007, Duff was involved in a fatal car accident that killed a drunk driver and shattered Duff's already-injured knee-cap into four different quadrants, keeping him sidelined for an indefinite amount of time. Duff claimed in a recent interview that he wanted to get back into the ring, but an injury like this will definitely be an obstacle to overcome. For the time being, Duff is resting peacefully in his home in Markham, Ontario, Canada with a few of his close friends providing him assistance where he needs it.
As of March 2, 2007, Duff Côte d'Ivoire himself killed this rumour after he caught wind of the story and released a public address stating that he had only re-aggrivated an old leg injury in a match with Ryan Ford over at the AWE's debut edition of Spectacle. Duff returned to the ring on March 12 when he assisted Ford in fending off the short-lived stable, Project-X. Duff made his competitive in-ring return at AWE's first Pay-Per-View, Stardom, and defeated Jaiden James in a "One Night Extravaganza" that would be James' last match for a yet to be determined time.
The Death of Kevin Simmons[]
On June 21, 2007, Duff's mentor, Kevin Simmons, passed away as a result of a fatal heart attack. Simmons leaves behind two daughters, Stacy and Tammy, and one grandchild, Tanner Simmons. Simmons was a part of the wrestling industry for many years and built wrestlers like Duff from the ground up and turned them into some of the most vicious wrestling machines on the planet.
Finishers[]
Master of Puppets
Description: Katihajime into sitout piledriver.
Echoes
Description: Double underhook piledriver.
Fuel
Description: Cradle Piledriver
Record[]
Cyber Wrestling Zone : 1-5-0
Hardcore Wrestling Entertainment : 0-2-0
Continental Wrestling Association : 24-13-1
New Way Wrestling : 4-1-2
New Era Wrestling : 2-2-0
International Society of the Grappling Arts : 4-2-2
All-Star Wrestling Entertainment : 3-2-0
Chaos Wrestling Alliance : 1-2-1
Indie Wrestling X : 4-4-0
Extreme Wrestling Revolution: 1-6-1
Overall : 44-39-7
Championships[]
CWA Intercontinental Champion (4/9/06 - 5/3/06)
CWA Platinum Champion (5/31/06 - 9/2/06)
CWA Tag Team Champion (w/ "Highflyin" Chris Cannon) (9/16/06 - 2/2/07)
CWA Tag Team Champion (2) (w/ Scott Nash Strader) (2/2/07 - 4/1/07)
IW Midwest Champion (Only)
IWX New Breed Champion (6/24/07 - 7/?/07)