Athletes - Jon Dalton

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	Athletes - Jon Dalton

Jon Dalton, also known as Jonny Fairplay (born March 11, 1974), is a professional wrestler and former art consultant from Danville, Virginia who came in third place as a competitor on the reality TV show Survivor: Pearl Islands.

Dalton started in wrestling in 1998 in North Carolina, then moved to Oregon where as Jonny Fairplay he started his own somewhat over-the-top promotion, New Dimension Wrestling (not to be confused with a similarly-named Carolinas promotion). There he served as promoter and heel commentator.

On Survivor, Dalton used his wrestling techniques to draw considerable heel heat on the show, leering at the camera, behaving obnoxiously, and channeling Ric Flair and Randy Savage when casting his votes. At this he was quite successful: by poll he is the least popular player ever to play Survivor, with a popularity rating of only 18%. His masterminding the ouster of audience favorite Rupert Boneham also contributed to his unpopularity. While Jonny Fairplay's obnoxious behavior might have hurt him, one cannot discount his strategy of lying and manipulation.

Dalton became most infamous on Survivor after constructing what host Jeff Probst called the greatest lie in Survivor history. Before Dalton left to compete on the show, he told a friend of his that if the friend were ever invited to Panama as part of a loved-one-related challenge to tell Dalton that his grandmother had died. There was indeed such a challenge, and Dalton's friend, Thunder-D told him, according to plan, that his grandmother had died. Other cast members took pity on him and let him win the challenge, all according to his plan. Dalton then continued to milk the lie for all it was worth by always saying "I swear on my grandmother" when someone didn't believe him about something. (During the reunion show that aired after the season finale, Probst did a brief interview with Jon's grandmother who was in fact alive and healthy.) Doing so allowed Dalton to constantly switch alliances, earning him a spot in the final four. Then, when he was likely to be voted off, he instigated a fight between 'Lil' Morris and Darrah Johnson, causing Darrah to be voted off instead of him. (This tactic was later seen by Rob Mariano in Survivor: All-Stars.) Jonny Fairplay was so hated that it was only logical that anyone would want to face him against the jury. However, at the final three, after winning immunity, Lil chose to take Sandra Diaz-Twine to the final two instead of Dalton, and was consequently beaten 6-1. Thus, Jonny Fairplay became another third-place finisher who could be considered the best player of their season (following in the footsteps of Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien and Rob Cesternino).

Probst has since publicly said:

:"... you have Jonny Fairplay, who's completely despicable. It was actually fun to work with Fairplay on the show because he's a producer's dream. When he shows up drunk or flips somebody off, he's bringing you gold every time. I wish we had a Jonny Fairplay every season. Personally, however, he's an absolute jackass whose actions at the Vanuatu finale after-party pissed me off so much that he's banned from any event that I'm at from now on. I'm done with Jonny Fairplay."

After Survivor, Dalton was signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling where he appears under the Jonny Fairplay moniker.

In 2005, Dalton appeared in the reality television program, Kill Reality, which follows various reality television personalities as they film a horror movie. Dalton turned out to be the "star" of the show as it detailed his outrageous antics which culminated in him defecating on another member of the cast and getting kicked out of house. The horror film, The Scorned, aired on E! in October 2005 and was subsequently released as a DVD with extra nudity and violence.

Dalton blogged for CBS' official Survivor website during Survivor: Guatemala.

Dalton was featured on an episode of the A&E reality show Inked. Upon entering the store Dalton stated, "Time for a tattoo for Johnny Fairplay, the most hated man in reality television." A couple next to him, who hadn't heard of him, were treated to verbal abuse and a middle finger salute from Dalton. Upon seeing this transpire Carey Hart, the shop owner, had Dalton thrown out of the store. Given that a reality show was being filmed in the store, it is quite likely that Dalton used the incident as some sort of publicity stunt.

Currently (as of October 2005) Dalton (as Jonny Fairplay) is co-host along with Jeremy Borash of TNA Wrestling's syndicated show Xplosion.

In late February 2006, Dalton had an altercation late night in Hollywood when a man put relish on Dalton's hotdog that he had purchased from a 24-hour convenience store.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Jon Dalton ]

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