Roger Stevens
From the eWrestling Encyclopedia.
| Roger Stevens | |
|---|---|
| [[Image:{{{image}}}|{{{image_width}}}px|Image of Roger Stevens]] | |
| Statistics | |
| Real name | Roger Stevens |
| Ring Names | {{{names}}} |
| Height | 6'1" |
| Weight | 214 lbs. |
| Date of birth | March 4th, 1985 |
| Place of birth | Waterbury, VT |
| Date of death | {{{death_date}}} |
| Place of death | {{{death_place}}} |
| Resides | Everet, WA |
| Billed from | Waterbury, VT |
| Trainer | Cito Conarri |
| Current federation(s) | Inactive |
| Previous federation(s) | Chaos Wrestling (November 2003 - April 2004) Canadian Rockies Wrestling (August 2004) Lion's Road (January 2007 - March 2007) Wrestlecoast Cascadia (October 2007 - October 2008) |
| Handled by | JeffOLW |
| Win/Loss Record | {{{winloss_record}}} |
| Debut | November 2003 |
| Retired | {{{retired}}} |
"Radical" Roger Stevens is a first generation wrestler hailing from Vermont. Spending the early part of his career in a federation affiliated with the Coalition Affiliated Leagues, Roger suffered a severe back injury in 2004 and was out of wrestling for 2 and a half years. He has drifted away from his former tag partner Jack Cassidy and struck out on his own. He has not looked for further employment since his last fed, Wrestlecoast Cascadia, went inactive in October 2008.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Before Wrestling
Unlike most professional wrestlers, Rogernever had any sort of athletic background. To hear him tell it, he would have joined the high school wrestling team, only the training schedule would have interfered with his free time. Namely, diving off the school bleachers onto traffic pylons, tackling the absolute fuck out of trash cans, and other assorted self-destructive stupidity. Roger and his best friend, Jack Cassidy, seemed more the kind to grow up as professional slackers than professional fighters.
Roger's career altered when he was on a Senior class field trip to Florida in 2002. He and Jack met Cito Conarri, who offered them a tryout. A strict workout regimen of leaping off of tall things onto breakable things had blessed Jack and Roger both with above average conditioning and toughness, and Conarri ended up offering them a spot at his training camp.
Despite the difficulty of a commute from Vermont to Florida, Jack and Roger would attend Conarri's school for approximately a year and a half, training as a tag team as well as for singles wrestling.
When Chaos Wrestling opened in upstate New York, very close to their homes in Vermont, the two young men signed with it as "Rip Righteous".
[edit] Chaos Wrestling
Roger Stevens would make his debut one card earlier than Jack, in a three way dance against The Prodigy and The Sickness. He lost, but wasn't the man giving up the fall either. Their very first match was for the Chaos Wrestling Tag Team Titles against The Sanderson Brothers, which they lost. It was less than a month though, that Jack and Roger were able to win a scaffold cage match against The Sandersons and the team of Jaime Nothing and Bufford Rogers to become the CW Tag Champs.
With CW's tag division very weak to begin with (the title defense saw the departure of both the Sandersons and Nothing), Jack, as the A man of the team, ended up in singles. While Jack competed for and eventually won the CW Heavyweight Championship, Roger sat around and did very little.
Chaos Wrestling was announced to be closing in the spring of 2004. The deal was for CW to merge with the Coalition of Affiliated Leagues territory Total Impact Wrestling, to refom the long time CAL territory the Mid-South Wrestling Alliance. Jack and Roger, however, would not sign with MSWA - they'd sign with the CAL's top territory at the time, Canadian Rockies Wrestling.
[edit] Injury
Tragedy struck Rip Righteous their very first match in CRW. While fighting Team Soylent Green (E Normus Norman/Jack Slade), Roger Stevens fell backwards off the turnbuckle and landed on the stairs back first. He was badly injured and Rip Righteous was on hold indefinitely. Jack would go back to Vermont with Roger, but he remained under contract with CRW - Roger's injury was so tragic that CRW president Kurt Richards didn't have the heart to fire the two kids.
Roger would not at the time attempt to make a comeback. The surgery he needed was expensive and somewhat risky, and he opted to not take the chance.
Jack would eventually get called back to wrestling, and apprenticed to Heidi and Ultra Raptor. Because of this, Roger fell far behind his tag partner in experience.
[edit] Chaos Wrestling Reunion Show
Although Roger was injured and unable to participate, he did accompany Jack to his match. Roger came out in a wheelchair and a back brace, but when Jack's opponent Daemon Curtis attacked Roger and then tried to cheat, Roger took off the back brace and hit Curtis in the head with it, allowing Jack to get the win.
[edit] The return
While sitting at home, Roger received an anonymous grant to cover the back surgery he needed. He had the surgery, it was succesful, and soon Roger began rehabilitating. Deciding to keep his return low key until he could handle himself in the ring again, he went to Mexico, where he was an unknown. He allied himself with the infamous rudo group Manos del Muerte. He made particular friends with Hidealgo 19 of MdM, and it was Hidealgo that began to plant the seeds of his newfound heelish personality in Roger's mind.
[edit] Lions Road Puroresu
By now, Jack was wrestling in a promotion called Lions Road Puroresu, operating out of Ontario. Jack was also leading a heel stable called the Frozen Waffles with Awesome Sauce. The Waffles consisted of Jack, Bryan Harris, Jack's girlfriend Diane Parker, Bryan's sister Tracy Harris, and Jack's kid brother Zeke. Jack wanted to bring Roger in to help the Waffles, and so instead of signing as a wrestler, Roger signed with LR as a referee. He was of course loyal to the Waffles and happy to allow cheating on their part or even help them with it. His debut saw him allow Jack to hit the KoL Heavyweight Champion, Eddie Jones, with an electric guitar to win a big survivor series match.
Shortly afterwards, Jack suffered his first injury. Landing badly after a big boot from Eddie Jones, he fractured his humerus, missing six weeks. While he was injured, Roger teamed up with Bryan Harris in the King of Lions Tag League, but came short of the win, going 6-3 in the tournament. This was disappointing, as a year ago Jack and Bryan had gone 7-0-1, beaten the team they drew with in a rematch and proceeded to win the tournament.
In fact, it began to seem to the Waffles that they were being mistreated by management. On his return, Jack found himself doing a lot more losing than he felt he should have been doing, particularly to wrestlers the level of Kris Williams. Bryan Harris, too, had felt like the Waffles were being treated badly by Lions Road, after his own questionable losses to Kudo Yasuda, and after his sister Tracy was fired without explanation.
The Waffles had been going through some internal friction, with Roger, Tracy and Zeke wanting to up the heelishness, and Bryan and Diane wanting to return to their face roots, and Jack refusing to take sides, instead focusing on his shot at the KoL Title. When Tracy was fired, Roger had called Hidealgo 19 up, and Hidealgo had not gotten along with Jack and Bryan. After Jack lost his title shot, Roger formed a sub-unit with Hidealgo 19 and a wrestler named Mako.
Difficulties like these could have been worked out, but LR management did the one thing that both Jack and Roger had insisted they not do. They booked Jack and Roger on opposite sides of a match - technically Jack and Bryan Harris vs Roger and Hidealgo, but the idea was the same. Jack and Roger both resigned immediately, with Bryan resigning a few days afterwards but leaving wrestling.
[edit] The Downtime
Jack and Roger reformed Rip Righteous and traveled to World Wrestling Alliance territory Hudson River Wrestling. However, Jack promptly quit, citing a lack of love for the business, and HRW did not offer Roger a singles contract.
[edit] The Return
Jeff Andrews was trying to expand the influence of his stable The Untouchables throughout the independent scene, and he looked to Jack Cassidy for help. But Jack was inactive and hated Andrews anyway, and so Andrews went to Roger instead. Roger agreed to sign on as a protoge of Andrews.
Roger was first sent to another WfWA territory, Wrestling Republic. However, WR closed after Roger had only had 2 matches there.
Looking for something else, Andrews sent Roger up to a promotion that had friendly relations with the WfWA but was not an actual territory thereof - Wrestlecoast Cascadia.
[edit] Wrestlecoast Cascadia
Roger repackaged himself. He spiked his hair, ditched the Hawaiian shirts for angrier looking gear, and changed his name from "Righteous" Roger Stevens to "Radical" Roger Stevens.
His WC:C career so far has gone quite well. His debut, he placed 3rd in a 10 man battle royale. He had a moderate undefeated streak that ended at the hands of Elvis Sunday, however, he rebounded with an impressive performance in WC:C's "Torneo Cibernetico" event, and subsequently won the Cascadia Independence Cup. He has twice succesfully defended the cup as of this writing (May 28, 2008).
The Cascadia Independence Cup was retired while Stevens still held it. Stevens would attempt to ascend to the upper card, but instead he ran into the glass ceiling, with management holding him back because they wanted to "save his push so it meant more". Cascadia would slide into inactivity. Stevens obtained a manager named Lisa Loeh, but she wouldn't get there in time to affect his Cascadia career one way or another.
[edit] Titles Held
King of Lions Tag Team Crown (1)(w/Bryan Harris & Jack Cassidy)
- Eddie Jones & Los Corderos (12/10/2006) / vacated for KoL Tag League
Chaos Wrestling Tag Team Championship (1):(w/Jack Cassidy)
- The Sanderson Bros (??/??/2004) / retired as champions
Cascadia Independence Cup - Won mini-tournament (4/14/2008) / Title was retired (7/??/08)
[edit] Theme Music
"Soulseller" - Hellacopters
- Face singles theme
"Pray For the Dead" - Loudness
- Heel singles theme
"Never Turn My Back (On Rock & Roll)" - Sebastian Bach
- Rip Righteous tag theme
"Evolution" - Unwritten Law
- Frozen Waffles with Awesome Sauce stable theme
[edit] Moveset
[edit] Signature Moves
- Totally Righteous (T-Bone DDT)
- Headshot (Schwein)
- Radical Overlord ("Shining" savate kick)
- Deemed Unrighteous (Judgement Slam)
[edit] Finishing Moves
- Busted to the Mat (Magnum Driver/Pumphandle Michinoku Driver)
- The RSTF (Deathlock STF)
- The R in RSTF can stand for either Righteous or Radical
- Headshot Kill (Middle rope schwein)
- Roger's desperation finisher
[edit] Tandem Moves
- w/Jack Cassidy
- Shining Awesome (simultaneous step up enzuigiri {Jack} and shining wizard {Roger})
- Now THIS is Righteous (double Complete Shot off the turnbuckle)
- w/Bryan Harris
- The Waffle Iron (jumping STO {Bryan}/cutthroat neckbreaker {Roger})
