Chris Hamrick
Encyclopedia
Chris Hamrick is an American
professional wrestler
. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling
throughout the early 2000s. He is now wrestling with a promotion in South Carolina called CWA Pro Wrestling where he is the current Carolinas Champion.
as a ninth birthday present. He made his professional debut at the age of sixteen in a promotion
operated by his father, facing Alvin Melton in Mooresboro, North Carolina
. Hamrick wrestled on the independent circuit
for several years. In 1992 and 1993, he wrestled several televised matches for the World Wrestling Federation
. Although he did not win many matches at the big time level, he did in the independent circuit. Hamrick went to the IWWA, often to team up with Tommy Wildfire Rich and had memorable matches against Rock Parsons and Ivan Koloff. Later he teamed up with Rock to go against Lord Zoltan and Chief Jay Eagle which was a 4 out of five stars and was in the top five independent matches of the year. Hamrick went on to wrestle for Smoky Mountain Wrestling
before returning to the independent circuit.
Hamrick wrestled a tryout match with Extreme Championship Wrestling
on May 25, 2000 in Columbia, South Carolina
, and remained with the promotion until it declared bankruptcy in April 2001. In ECW, Hamrick was known as "Confederate Currency" Chris Hamrick and was part of the stable known as Hot Commodity with EZ Money
, Elektra
and Julio Dinero
.
In 2002, Hamrick made several appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
, wrestling under a mask as the luchadore
character Crimson Dragon. In 2002 and 2003, he frequently wrestled for Xtreme Pro Wrestling
, where he formed a tag team
with Tracy Smothers
known as Southern Comfort, also having a long-running feud for the TV title with Kaos and The Enterprise.
In early 2007, Hamrick was featured on Wrestling Society X
's first episode on MTV
, getting into an argument with fellow ECW
alumni New Jack
, then getting eliminated by him in the WSX Rumble later that night. Despite both of them getting eliminated from the bout, Hamrick took an elbow drop from New Jack off the top of a truckbed through a table. At HCW: Beg 4 Mercy 2007 in April, Hamrick returned to Mooresboro, NC and defeated New Jack in an Extreme Weapons Match. Three months later, Hamrick won the HCW Triple Crown Championship after defeating Axl Knight, Wicked, and Shea Shea McGrady in a Four Way Dance at HCW's Cold Blooded and hardcore event. In March 2008, Hamrick was stripped of the title. On June 14 at Underground Revolution 2008, Hamrick defeated the current champion, Shea Shea McGrady, to reclaim the title.
On the August 20, 2007, episode of WWE Raw
, Hamrick made an appearance as a fake version of Triple H
, in which he placed a crown on King Booker
's head during a royal ceremony, leading up to Booker's match with Triple H at SummerSlam
.
"BIG announcement tonight. Stay tuned. Its to die for !"
Several hours later, Hamrick posted the following: "Hey world I just took 25 sleeping pills. Goodnight!" Several friends are under the impression that Hamrick was involved in a relationship with a married woman who was refusing to leave her husband for him, which led to serious depression. Hamrick returned to the ring the week following the suicide attempt.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professional wrestler
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001...
throughout the early 2000s. He is now wrestling with a promotion in South Carolina called CWA Pro Wrestling where he is the current Carolinas Champion.
Career
Hamrick began watching wrestling as a child and received a wrestling ringWrestling ring
A wrestling ring is the ring stage on which professional wrestlers wrestle.-Configuration and construction:The configuration and construction of the "traditional" ring is very similar to that of a boxing ring, though the wrestling version has three ring ropes...
as a ninth birthday present. He made his professional debut at the age of sixteen in a promotion
Professional wrestling promotion
A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. Promotion also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event...
operated by his father, facing Alvin Melton in Mooresboro, North Carolina
Mooresboro, North Carolina
Mooresboro is a town in Cleveland County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 314 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Mooresboro is located at ....
. Hamrick wrestled on the independent circuit
Independent circuit
In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indy circuit refers to the many independent promotions which are much smaller than major televised promotions. They are roughly analagous to a minor league for pro wrestling, or community or regional theatre.Specific promotions on the...
for several years. In 1992 and 1993, he wrestled several televised matches for the World Wrestling Federation
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
. Although he did not win many matches at the big time level, he did in the independent circuit. Hamrick went to the IWWA, often to team up with Tommy Wildfire Rich and had memorable matches against Rock Parsons and Ivan Koloff. Later he teamed up with Rock to go against Lord Zoltan and Chief Jay Eagle which was a 4 out of five stars and was in the top five independent matches of the year. Hamrick went on to wrestle for Smoky Mountain Wrestling
Smoky Mountain Wrestling
Smoky Mountain Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that held events in the Appalachian area of the United States from October 1991 to December 1995, when it was run by Jim Cornette...
before returning to the independent circuit.
Hamrick wrestled a tryout match with Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001...
on May 25, 2000 in Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
, and remained with the promotion until it declared bankruptcy in April 2001. In ECW, Hamrick was known as "Confederate Currency" Chris Hamrick and was part of the stable known as Hot Commodity with EZ Money
Jason Broyles
Jason Broyles is an American former professional wrestler. He is best known for his stint in Extreme Championship Wrestling under the ring name EZ Money...
, Elektra
Donna Adamo
Donna Adamo better known as Elektra is an American professional wrestler, professional wrestling manager and adult model who is best known for her time spent in Extreme Championship Wrestling.-Early career:...
and Julio Dinero
Brian Wohl
Brian Wohl is an American professional wrestler better known under his ring name Julio Dinero.-Career:Wohl debuted in 1994 after training at the Baltimore Wrestling Factory under Axl Rotten and Hack Myers...
.
In 2002, Hamrick made several appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling is a privately held professional wrestling promotion founded by Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett. The company broadcasts its events on television and the Internet fifty two weeks a year with over a million weekly viewers on its primary television program, Impact...
, wrestling under a mask as the luchadore
Lucha libre
Lucha libre is a term used in Mexico, and other Spanish-speaking countries, for a form of professional wrestling that has developed within those countries...
character Crimson Dragon. In 2002 and 2003, he frequently wrestled for Xtreme Pro Wrestling
Xtreme Pro Wrestling
Xtreme Pro Wrestling is an independent professional wrestling promotion formerly owned by Extreme Associates CEO and director Rob Zicari, who appeared on shows under the name Rob Black. Zicari appeared on-camera as owner alongside his wife Lizzy Borden. The promotion focuses on hardcore wrestling,...
, where he formed a tag team
Tag team
Tag team professional wrestling is a variation in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. A tag team may comprise two wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of established teams who wrestle regularly as a unit and have a team name...
with Tracy Smothers
Tracy Smothers
Tracy Smothers is an American professional wrestler.-Early career:Tracy started his career in the Memphis promotion on Saturday morning TV. Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers started teaming as The Southern Boys in Florida Championship Wrestling in 1987 where they feuded with The New Breed...
known as Southern Comfort, also having a long-running feud for the TV title with Kaos and The Enterprise.
In early 2007, Hamrick was featured on Wrestling Society X
Wrestling Society X
Wrestling Society X was a short-lived professional wrestling-based television series produced in 2006 by Big Vision Entertainment. The weekly television series formerly aired on MTV, MTV2, MTV Tr3s, and over a dozen other MTV outlets throughout the world...
's first episode on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, getting into an argument with fellow ECW
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001...
alumni New Jack
New Jack
Jerome Young is an American professional wrestler, better known by his stage name New Jack in ECW.He is known for his willingness to take dangerous bumps and his stiff hardcore wrestling style, often taking high risks and "shooting" on opponents, though he is only known to shoot on opponents who...
, then getting eliminated by him in the WSX Rumble later that night. Despite both of them getting eliminated from the bout, Hamrick took an elbow drop from New Jack off the top of a truckbed through a table. At HCW: Beg 4 Mercy 2007 in April, Hamrick returned to Mooresboro, NC and defeated New Jack in an Extreme Weapons Match. Three months later, Hamrick won the HCW Triple Crown Championship after defeating Axl Knight, Wicked, and Shea Shea McGrady in a Four Way Dance at HCW's Cold Blooded and hardcore event. In March 2008, Hamrick was stripped of the title. On June 14 at Underground Revolution 2008, Hamrick defeated the current champion, Shea Shea McGrady, to reclaim the title.
On the August 20, 2007, episode of WWE Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
, Hamrick made an appearance as a fake version of Triple H
Triple H
Paul Michael Levesque is an American professional wrestler, professional wrestling authority figure, WWE Executive Vice President of Talent and actor, better known by his ring name Triple H, an abbreviation of the ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley...
, in which he placed a crown on King Booker
Booker Huffman
Robert Booker Tio Huffman , better known by his ring name Booker T, is a semi-retired American professional wrestler and currently signed to WWE, on its SmackDown brand, as part of the announcing team. Booker is best known for his time in both the World Wrestling Entertainment and World...
's head during a royal ceremony, leading up to Booker's match with Triple H at SummerSlam
SummerSlam (2007)
SummerSlam was the twentieth annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment . It took place on August 26, 2007 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey and featured talent from each of WWE's three brands: Raw,...
.
Drug overdose
On July 13, 2010, Chris Hamrick posted the following messages on his Facebook page:"BIG announcement tonight. Stay tuned. Its to die for !"
Several hours later, Hamrick posted the following: "Hey world I just took 25 sleeping pills. Goodnight!" Several friends are under the impression that Hamrick was involved in a relationship with a married woman who was refusing to leave her husband for him, which led to serious depression. Hamrick returned to the ring the week following the suicide attempt.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Confederate Crunch (Diving leg drop)
- Dixie Drop (Suplex stunner, sometimes from the second rope)
- Southern Bellringer/Whiskey Tastes Good II (Second rope spike piledriver)
- Van Confederator (Corner-to-corner missile dropkick)
- Whiskey Tastes Good (Belly-To-Back Inverted Piledriver)
- Signature moves
- Arched big boot
- Frankensteiner
- Inverted facelock / Indian deathlock combo
- Overhead backbreaker rack flipped into a piledriver
- Slingshot moonsaultMoonsaultA moonsault, moonsault press, or back flip splash is a professional wrestling aerial technique. Much of its popularity in American wrestling is attributed to The Great Muta, despite it being used in North America by "Leaping" Lanny Poffo years before Muta came from Japan.In a standard moonsault,...
suicide plancha - Springboard missile dropkick
- ManagerManager (professional wrestling)In professional wrestling, a manager is a secondary character paired with a wrestler for a variety of reasons. The manager is often either a non-wrestler, an occasional wrestler, an older wrestler who has retired or is nearing retirement or, in some cases, a new wrestler who is breaking into the...
s- The 2000 Man
- Veronica Caine
- Lou E. DangerouslyLou D'AngeliLou D'Angeli is a former professional wrestling manager and current Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas who is best known for his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling as a performer and promoter and World Wrestling Entertainment in marketing.-Sign Guy...
- ElektraDonna AdamoDonna Adamo better known as Elektra is an American professional wrestler, professional wrestling manager and adult model who is best known for her time spent in Extreme Championship Wrestling.-Early career:...
- G.Q. Money
- Luxurious Lynne
- NicknameNicknameA nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
s- Confederate Currency
- Hi Flying
- Southern Comfort
- Theme musicMusic in professional wrestlingMusic in professional wrestling serves a variety of purposes. The most common uses of music in professional wrestling is that of the entrance theme, a song or piece of instrumental music which plays as a performer approaches the ring...
- Good Ol' Boys by Waylon JenningsWaylon JenningsWaylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
- Good Ol' Boys by Waylon Jennings
Championships and accomplishments
- All Pro Wrestling
- APW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- APW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Dave Jericho
- All-Star Championship Wrestling
- ACW Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
- ACW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- ACW Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- Assault Championship WrestlingAssault Championship WrestlingAssault Championship Wrestling was an American independent wrestling promotion based in Connecticut and promoted by Jason Knight, a retired wrestler and manager, during the early 2000s...
- ACW Heavyweight ChampionshipACW Heavyweight ChampionshipThe ACW Heavyweight Championship was the top professional wrestling championship title in the American independent promotion Assault Championship Wrestling. The first-ever champion was Chris Hamrick who won the title in a championship tounament held in Meriden, Connecticut on August 24, 2001...
(1 time)
- Big Time Wrestling
- BTW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Champions With Attitudes Pro Wrestling
- CWA Cruiserweight Championship (1 time)
- CWA Carolinas Championship (1 time)
- Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling
- CAPW North American Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- CAPW Unified Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Frontier Wrestling AllianceFrontier Wrestling AllianceFrontier Wrestling Alliance is a British professional wrestling promotion. Established in 1993 as the Fratton Wrestling Association it soon became the Frontier Wrestling Alliance six years later and until 2007 when it lost a scripted inter-promotional feud with International Pro Wrestling: United...
- FWA All England ChampionshipFWA All England ChampionshipThe All-England Championship was a professional wrestling championship which was originally contested for in Frontier Wrestling Alliance and subsequently in International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom after FWA's closure...
(1 time)
- Hardcore Championship Wrestling
- HCW Triple Crown Championship (2 times)
- Heritage Wrestling Alliance
- HWA Tri-States Championship (1 time)
- Independent Wrestling Association Mid-SouthIndependent Wrestling Association Mid-SouthIndependent Wrestling Association Mid-South is an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky.- History :...
- IWA Mid-South Tag Team ChampionshipIWA Mid-South Tag Team Championship-Title history:-External links:*...
(1 time) - with Tracy SmothersTracy SmothersTracy Smothers is an American professional wrestler.-Early career:Tracy started his career in the Memphis promotion on Saturday morning TV. Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers started teaming as The Southern Boys in Florida Championship Wrestling in 1987 where they feuded with The New Breed...
- International Wrestling Cartel
- IWC Tag Team Champion (2 time) - with Tracy Smothers
- MainStream Wrestling Entertainment
- MSWE Championship (1 time)
- NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship WrestlingNational Wrestling AllianceThe National Wrestling Alliance is a wrestling promotion company and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...
- NWA Mid-Atlantic Hardcore Championship (1 time)
- National Wrestling AllianceNational Wrestling AllianceThe National Wrestling Alliance is a wrestling promotion company and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...
- NWA Ohio Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- New Era Pro Wrestling
- NEPW Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
- Premier Wrestling Federation
- PWF Universal Championship (1 time)
- PWF Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Pro Wrestling Federation
- PWF Tag Team Championship (2 times)
- Union of Independent Pro Wrestlers
- UIPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- United States Wrestling Federation
- USWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Other titles
- CCW Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- DCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- EPW Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- EWF Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- RPW Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- SCW Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- SWA Tag Team Championship (1 time)