Athletes - Bill DeMott

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	Athletes - Bill DeMott

William (Bill) DeMott (born November 10 1966 in Titusville, Florida) is an American former professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling as Hugh Morrus.

Career

Pre-WCW

DeMott was trained by Johnny Rodz in his New York wrestling school beginning in 1989. From there he began working at small independent promotions using his real name. In 1992 DeMott began wrestling for the American Wrestling Federation and started using the name Crash The Terminator. Under this name he found some success, first capturing the AWF Heavyweight title from Steve Strong in Puerto Rico, before moving on to Japanese promotion W*INGand winning their tag team championship with Mr. Pogo. While competing in W*ING (now in 1993), Demott won a 16 man tournament to be crowned their heavyweight champion.

When DeMott returned to the United States, he wrestled for ECW for a short time, before moving on to Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling where once again he won a heavyweight championship, this time outlasting a number of competitors in a battle royal to get it.

WCW

In 1995, DeMott was signed to a WCW contract at the behest of Kevin Sullivan who had been impressed by him. He debuted in dark matches as The Man of Questions and The Laughing Man, a strange gimmick that saw him wearing a singlet covered in question marks and laughing a lot. He made his television debut using the same gimmick, but with the name Hugh Morrus (a pun on the word "humorous") and he would stay with that for most of his WCW career. The most prominent thing about Hugh Morrus was his finisher, a moonsault dubbed No Laughing Matter. Seeing the nearly 300 pound man sail through the air impressed a number of people (both in the crowd and backstage) and Hugh was soon pushed as a mid-card face, usually in tag team matches.

In 1996 Morrus turned heel by joining the Dungeon of Doom in their quest to end Hulkamania. Unfortunately, he joined at a time of flux in WCW as the Dungeon of Doom was breaking up and Hogan was making a heel turn as well. Upon the dissolution of the Dungeon Of Doom, Morrus was relegated to a lower spot on the card than even before joining them. As a curtain jerker he made history on September 22 1997, when he became the first wrestler to lose a televised match to Bill Goldberg.

After this, still using the Hugh Morrus gimmick, he changed tracks completely. Now joining the growing Hardcore wrestling style in WCW he joined Jimmy Harts "First Family" stable and seemed the he (along with the rest of the group) were on their way to a major push when they secured a Pay-Per-View win over their Revolution rivals until the group suddenly broke up.

DeMott took some time off from WCW, at this time, returning in early 2000 utilizing the same name and ring attire, but as an angrier version of himself, squashing a number of wrestlers. The angry Morrus gimmick came to a halt when Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff took over and promised to take WCW in a "new direction."

After getting on Russo's bad side (in kayfabe) Morrus was fired from his "New Blood" stable along with a number of other wrestlers. These ex-New Blood members (including Chavo Guerrero, Jr. and Booker T) formed the comedy stable Misfits In Action, all adopting new military-themed names for themselves. Morrus, the leader, re-christened himself General Hugh G. Rection, and lead the group in a feud against the Filthy Animals.

The group's comedic nature and the workrate of some of the wrestlers made the group immediate favorites with fans. Upon the introduction of the heel "Team Canada", the Misfits In Action became Made In America, though much of the gimmick remained the same. Rection feuded with Team Canada leader Lance Storm, beating him and Hacksaw Jim Duggan in a handicap match at Halloween Havoc.

WWE

The Misfits In Action eventually broke up and DeMott took the name Hugh Morrus again for a feud with former members of the stable. Morrus competed in WCW's U.S. Championship division until the historic WWE buyout of WCW.

Like many former WCW wrestlers, Morrus signed a deal with the WWE and was a part of the Invasion angle. When that angle was over, Morrus was fired (in kayfabe) by Vince McMahon until Ric Flair was able to save his job and get him drafted over to the SmackDown! brand. Morrus competed on SmackDown! until he was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident and had to take a leave from the ring. During this time he became a trainer for the 3rd series of the WWE's Tough Enough program.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Bill DeMott ]

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