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Tom Prichard (born August 18, 1959) is an American professional wrestler. He is the brother of Chris and Bruce Prichard.
Career
Prichard joined the Continental Wrestling Federation in the late 1980s, and on October 3, 1988 in Birmingham, Alabama, he defeated Tony Anthony in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant CWF Heavyweight Championship. Prichard lost the title to Wendell Cooley on April 7, 1989 in Knoxville, Tennessee, but regained the belt on June 23 of that year. He lost the title to Dennis Condrey a month later on July 22 in Dothan, Alabama, before once again regaining it after defeating Condrey on December 6 of that same year. Prichard held the title until the CWF closed later that month.
Prichard then moved on to the United States Wrestling Association, first working out of the Texas branch, where he formed a heel stable that included Eric Embry and "Stunning" Steve Austin (not yet Stone Cold), managed by Tojo Yamamoto. They feuded with the other top babyfaces, including Jeff Jarrett, Bill Dundee, Robert Fuller, and others. While based out of Texas, Prichard won both the USWA Southern heavyweight championship and the USWA Texas heavyweight championship before the USWA closed the Texas end of their territory in late 1990. Afterwards, Prichard competed in the Memphis end of the USWA before the opening of Smoky Mountain Wresting in 1992.
Smokey Mountain Wrestling/World Wrestling Federation
Stan Lane and Prichard formed a team as "The Heavenly Bodies" and joined Smoky Mountain Wrestling upon its formation in 1992, and on April 23, 1992, in Harrogate, Tennessee, they defeated The Fantastics to become the first SMW Tag Team Champions. They continued to feud with The Fantastics throughout mid-1992, and were finally defeated for the titles on August 8, 1992 in a barbed wire cage match in Johnson City, Tennessee. The Heavenly Bodies regained the titles two days later, holding them for three months before losing to the Rock 'N Roll Express on November 13, 1992 in a hospital elimination match in Harlan, Kentucky. They traded the titles with the Rock 'N Roll Express three times in a variety of hardcore matches over the following year before Lane left the promotion.
Prichard reformed the Heavenly Bodies with Jimmy Del Ray, and the two competed in both SMW and the World Wrestling Federation, wrestling the WWF World tag team champions the Steiner Brothers at SummerSlam 1993. On November 24, 1993 in Boston on the World Wrestling Federation's pay-per-view Survivor Series 1993, Prichard and Del Ray defeated the Rock 'N Roll Express. The Rock 'N Roll Express regained the titles on February 18, 1994 in Port Huron, Michigan, but lost the titles to the Heavenly Bodies on the following day in Taylor, Michigan.
The Rock 'N Roll Express defeated the Heavenly Bodies on April 1, 1994 in Pikeville, Kentucky in a "Loser Leaves SMW match", where they then competed in the World Wrestling Federation for about a year, before being released in the summer of 1995. They returned to SMW and regained the SMW Tag Team Championship, marking Prichard's eighth title reign, on August 4, 1995 in Knoxville, Tennessee, defeating Tracy Smothers and Dirty White Boy at the Super Bowl of Wrestling. They held the titles until the promotion folded on November 26, 1995. After SMW folded, the Heavenly Bodies briefly wrestled for Extreme Championship Wrestling, until Prichard returned to the WWF.
Prichard went on to compete as Zip, the on-screen brother of Skip as The Bodydonnas. In the process, he cut off his trademark curly long brown locks into a blond crew cut, to more resemble his storyline brother. Before the formation of the Bodydonnas tag team, Prichard competed under his own name at the Survivor Series 1995, wrestling on future tag team partner Skip's team "The Bodydonnas." Prichard was the first man eliminated as the Bodydonnas defeated Barry Horowitz's "Underdogs" team. A month later, Prichard was officially introduced as Zip, interfering in a match allowing Skip to defeat Rad Radford, who had been trying to become a Bodydonna himself.
At WrestleMania XII, on March 31, 1996, the team defeated The Godwinns in the finals of an eight team tournament to win the vacant WWF Tag Team Championship. They held the titles until May 19, 1996, when they were defeated by the Godwinns in Madison Square Garden in New York City. After Skip left the WWF, Prichard became a trainer for the company, responsible for training such future stars as The Rock and Mark Henry, among others. In addition, Prichard made a few appearances as a singles wrestler for ECW, and also co-hosted ByteThis, the WWF's internet talk show.
Indies
Prichard was released from WWE in 2004. He went on to wrestle in the United Wrestling Association and in various other independent promotions in the Southeastern United States. He also holds training seminars in conjunction with certain promotions. During this time Prichard also befriended online professional wrestling journalist James Guttman of World Wrestling Insanity and provided a weekly commentary on the world of pro wrestling entitled Tuesdays with Tom. On August 10, 2006, eight days prior to his 47th birthday, he became the oldest man to win the UWA Heavyweight Championship, defeating Dillinger for the title.
Return to WWE
In January 2007, he was rehired by WWE and replaced Bill DeMott as the head trainer for Deep South Wrestling (DSW). When DSW closed, he was moved to WWE's new developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling.
In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
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Championships and accomplishments
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- ASW Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- American Wrestling Council
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- AWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
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- FSW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Smack Johnson
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- NWA Rocky Top Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[2] (First)
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- Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling
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- United Wrestling Association
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- UWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- UWA Texas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
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- PWI ranked him # 318 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003
- PWI ranked him # 73 of the 100 best tag teams of the PWI Years, with Jimmy Del Ray and Stan Lane in 2003.
References
External links
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