Get to Know (USPW Edition)

by Jtstill423

Get to know the new kids on the block as this isn't the first time they have wrestled in a big independent promotion. What is their history and how many great, memorable matches did they have in their younger years?

King Randy is described as a pompous, arrogant, self-centered, ruthless, manipulative, royal pain in the ass when he is on camera, but his previous incarnations of his character were more brutal and more cynical as he tore through his competition for his entire wrestling career. He made sure to let everyone know that he is the main attraction as he put bodies through the ringer and sent the innocent straight to the bowels of hell with his moves becoming known as the Lunatic Among Psychos for his brash personality, his bold moveset, and his love for the hardcore matches.

His full name is Randy Edward Curington born on July 7th, 1978 and he quickly got a record for his constant fights which meant he was always the detention kid. Randy mainly lived in his home country of England, but partly lived out in Ireland when he was 15 moving back to England when he finished high school there. After his graduation, Randy would take some of his buddies out on the pubs to drink their cares away even risking two bar fights and a little sexual harassment on two ladies. Let's just say Randy is not himself when he's a little drunk.

His father was an avid watcher of professional wrestling and Randy grew up to love it more trying out for amateur wrestling, but got himself kicked off the team for being too rough on his classmates. This didn't stop Randy from joining a wrestling gym and learning the ropes mainly training with Irish legendary wrestler Fit Finlay as the older star took Randy under his wing. Randy even trained with Bubba Ray Dudley, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman and Roddy Piper in order to amp up his skills in hardcore wrestling since Randy is a huge fan of ECW when it aired on television.

On August 27th, 2005, Randy made his professional wrestling debut in the Irish promotion Heavy Chance Wrestling at a warehouse where local shows would air. He faced Bradley Smith, a 45-year old hardcore wrestler, and these two went the distance wrestling 20 minutes destroying barbed wire over each other's faces and putting each other through tables. Bradley ended up with a win after a Piledriver in a batch of thumbtacks, but that didn't stop Randy's coaches from praising him after his match, but he checked into a hospital to get some tacks removed and clean up the blood pouring from his face. Randy would go on to defeat Bradley at least two times in September before parting ways with the promotion looking to head onto bigger things and continue his training for more technical and powerhouse wrestling.

Randy's first big promotion would take him overseas to Combat Zone Wrestling where he feels he could allow himself to become a major star. Randy had his first match against Brain Damage in 2006 which he won with his finishing move Lunatic Rage (Swinging Side Slam) onto a steel chair and continued on into 2007 racking up wins over Danny Havoc, Toby Klein, and even future owner DJ Hyde. Before long, he would enter CZW Tournament of Death VII on May 17th, 2008, where in the quarter finals, he dominated Drew Blood in a Panes of Glass Match hitting the Lunatic Rage threw a sheet of glass in the corner. He teamed with Nick Gage in the semi-finals against Greg Excellent and Pinkie Sanchez in Fans Bring The Weapons Match where he finished Pinkie with a Double Underhook Powerbomb off the corner through two wooden tables. It was him, Nick Gage, Drake Younger and Scotty Vortekz in the finals where Drake Younger would pin Gage to win the entire tournament.

Randy would make an attempt at challenging Drake Younger for his CZW World Heavyweight Championship and after two failed attempts, he would win the title in September 2008 and defend it until January 2009 where he dropped the title to Nick Gage in a Wooden Plates Deathmatch. Randy decided to leave CZW after losing another match to Gage and a brief feud with WHACKS where he again lost in.

Combat Zone Wrestling: 3 years (2006-2009)

Randy's ventures would take him to Ring of Honor next where he made his debut at the Take No Prisoners event where he attacked KENTA and put him through the announce table as he set himself up to make a statement. On ROH's tapings, Randy beat KENTA in his first match ever in ROH after 11 minutes introducing the Spear in his arsenal and the next week got a win over El Generico even powerbombing him on the ramp after their match. Randy started a partnership with Roderick Strong as they had a mutual understanding of wanting to rule over the landscape of Ring of Honor. They both beat the American Wolves in a Tag Team Ladder Match to win their first ROH World Tag Team Titles and defended them successfully the next week ending that short feud. They defeated The Briscoe Brothers twice in September and October to retain their belts and defeated The Kings of Wrestling in November. At Final Battle 2009, Strong and Randy lost to Colt Cabana and Rhett Titus after Randy hit a miscalculating Spear on his own partner which caused some dissension in the team.

Strong would attack Randy and even injured his leg with a steel chair as Randy would be ushered out of the arena. In reality, Randy had a nagging leg injury and wanted to have surgery performed on it which would take him out of action for a few months. Randy would return at ROH The Big Bang! to settle the score with Roderick Strong in a Street Fight where these two went all over the arena. They fought for 26 minutes before Randy hit a Spear through a table to get the victory ending the feud. Randy would decide to leave Ring of Honor seeing where he could sell his talents next hoping to become a main event star.

Ring of Honor: 11 months (2009-2010)

Randy would decide to return to Europe in order to have a run in the homecountry promotions where he first started in Germany at wXw. In May, he defeated Steve Douglas to win the wXw World Heavyweight Championship and would defeat Zack Sabre Jr. to unify his title with Zack's Light Heavyweight Championship together to create the wXw Unified World Wresting Championship at Dead End X in June. Throughout July, Randy defended his title successfully against incoming talent like El Generico, "Bad Bones" John Klinger, and an eventual rematch with Zack Sabre Jr. Randy would drop the title in August to the monster known as WALTER as he couldn't match the strength and brute power. This wraps up the brief run in wXw, but he said he would be back at a later time.

Westside XTreme Wrestling (1st run): 4 months (2010)

Randy moved on to International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom where they had a taping in his hometown of Liverpool where he made his debut attacking Kris Travis which turned him heel. These two had a Falls Count Anywhere Match in October where Kris would win after a Shooting Star Press off a balcony through a garbage can. Randy would get the chance in November to take on Dave Mastiff for the RevPro British Heavyweight Championship in a Liverpool Street Brawl where Randy would win the title, but shortly had contract negotiations with WWE which they gave him a fair deal to sign so he vacated the title and would leave Europe to fly to Stanford, Connecticut to sign a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment.

International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom: 3 months (2010)

Randy would sign a developmental contract, but Vince put him on live events to see how he would do with crowds. For the rest of 2010 and a little bit in 2011, Randy wrestled mainly Raw and Smackdown! house shows as well as on NXT: Redemption as he defeated the likes of Titus O' Neil, Lucky Cannon, Yoshi Tatsu, Curt Hawkins, JTG, and even an upset victory over Mark Henry. On Valentine's Day, Randy would make his official main roster debut for Monday Night Raw defeating the Usos in a Handicap Match. The next week, Randy defeated Evan Bourne in a squash match displaying the power that he had and Vince became a huge fan of his. Randy began his first feud with Daniel Bryan over the United States Championship when he would attack the American Dragon backstage slamming the back of Bryan into the concrete walls.

On the March 7th edition of Raw, Randy defeated Zack Ryder in a squash match, but Daniel Bryan ran out from under the ring with a steel chair going after Randy. This would set up Randy's first match for WrestleMania 27 as he would have a match with Daniel Bryan for the United States Championship. Randy would make Bryan pass out in their first encounter with a modified sleeper hold where the ref would call the match off allowing Randy to win his first singles title. Randy would win a Strap Match rematch to retain the U.S. Title and defeated Bryan on the Raw after Extreme Rules in a regular match with the help of a second Spear. Randy would then start a feud with Rey Mysterio. Mysterio gave Randy his first loss two weeks away from the Over the Limit pay-per-view setting up this match which Randy won hitting a Spear to Mysterio out of mid-air. Randy's reign would come to an end when Kofi Kingston defeated him to win the U.S. Championship two weeks after Over the Limit.

This wouldn't stop Randy as Kofi would lose the United States Championship at Captiol Punishment to Josh Maracle and Randy would feud with him to Money in the Bank defeating him on the pre-show. Randy's next feud would be with the fresh Alex Riley as Riley confronted Randy calling him nothing more than a meathead who's no better than the Miz. Riley got at least two victories over Randy on their way to SummerSlam and this prompted a No Disqualification Match at SummerSlam between both men. Randy wins hitting a Spear and ending his feud with Alex Riley. Randy would miss out on Night of Champions, but started a feud with John Morrison as Randy felt the competition he faced was lacking. John challenges him to match at Hell in a Cell where Randy destroyed the high-flyer locking in his sleeper hold submission to make Morrison pass out. Morrison got his revenge at Vengeance as he defeated Randy one-on-one with Starship Pain.

Randy would become apart of the Team Orton (Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston, Sin Cara, Mason Ryan, and Sheamus) vs. Team Barrett(Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Josh Maracle, Jack Swagger, and Randy Curington) match at Survivor Series as he eliminated Sin Cara and Mason Ryan before he suffered an RKO by Randy Orton. The very next Smackdown! is when Curington attacked Orton backstage and took it to the parking lot running him over which lead this feud to a Tables Match between Curington and Orton at TLC where Orton would win with a RKO straight through the table. Randy would enter the Royal Rumble match the next year and eliminated Orton as well as eliminating Booker T from the Rumble. He got eliminated by Chris Jericho, but this wouldn't stop him from getting back into the mid-card title picture. Randy started a feud with Zack Ryder over the United States Championship saying it's WrestleMania season and Randy reminds Zack that he was just a little ant he squished with his boot last year around this time. Ryder says he grew a fan base in the time Randy bullies his way through people and he got better which lead him to getting this title. This sets up a match at Elimination Caber for the U.S. Title which Randy wins hitting a low blow when the ref didn't look and rolled Ryder up.

Ryder demanded another match, but Randy always told him they weren't on the same level so this made Ryder take it to a personal level. He attacked Randy when he could and cutting promos saying Randy fears the Ryder Revolution and this makes Randy attack Ryder back saying he only wants to hurt Zack for running his mouth so he sets up a Last Man Standing match for WrestleMania 28. At WrestleMania, Ryder gave the fight of his life against Randy trying to win back the title, but in the end, Ryder gave Randy a Rough Ryder off the stage into a spotlight which made them both draw in the match. At Extreme Rules would be Zack's last shot for the U.S. Title as the stipulation was a Spear Match where the first to hit three Spears wins the title. In interviews, Randy talked about how this was the lowest point in his career and he felt bad that Zack couldn't have a better moment winning the title. Zack eventually defeated Randy to win back the U.S. Title and would start his second reign as champion.

Randy would move on after a count out victory on the next Raw and destroying Zack after the match which led him to reigniting his feud with Randy Orton officially entering the World Heavyweight Championship picture. At Over the Limit, Curington and Orton entered the feud with Del Rio and Sheamus cumulating in a Fatal 4 Way match for the World Heavyweight Championship as Sheamus won after Brogue Kick on Del Rio. On the May 25th, 2012 edition of Smackdown!, Del Rio won a Triple Threat Match between himself, Orton and Curington to become the #1 Contender for the World Heavyweight Title. The next week, Randy and The Prime Time Players defeated Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston and R-Trith when Curington hit the Spear on Truth for the win. Curington and Orton would have a blowoff match which Orton won with the RKO and promoted a rematch at No Way Out where Curington finally got a strong win over Orton after hitting the Spear.

Randy Orton, Randy Curington, Zack Ryder, Tensai, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, and Tyson Kidd were all loaded into the Smackdown! Money in the Bank Ladder Match which is won by Dolph Ziggler and Vicikie Guerrero would offer to manage Randy to get him to the heights he seeks, but Curington wants the briefcase more than anything. Randy would then attack Dolph after Ziggler tried hitting him with a Superkick and turned face for the first time in WWE. At SummerSlam, Ziggler gets the win over Randy after a distraction from Vickie and the Zig-Zag, but Randy got revenge winning on the following Smackdown! The very next week, Randy pinned Cody Rhodes which put him in contention for a shot at the Intercontinental Championship.

At Night of Champions, it was Randy Curington vs. The Miz vs. Cody Rhodes for the Intercontinental Championship where Randy hit a Spear on Miz for the win taking another title reign for his career. At Hell in a Cell, Randy retains against Miz and retains against Cody at Survivor Series while he moves on to different opponents. Randy faced Alberto Del Rio and The Miz in a Triple Threat Match where he speared Miz, but Alberto trapped him in the Cross Armbreaker afterwards which dislocated Randy's right arm. He quickly told Alberto "Finish the match! I think my arm broke!" as Alberto improvised and rolled up Randy to take his first Intercontinental Title. Randy would have to be on the shelf missing the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber as Alberto defended the IC Title with his smuggish pride.

Randy would be cleared for WrestleMania 29 where he challenged Alberto Del Rio for the Intercontinental Championship at the big show preparing to pay him back for snapping his arm. Randy would defeat Alberto to win back the Intercontinental Championship, but would drop it the next night on Raw as Alberto got him with a inside cradle. Randy would move on to feud with the World's Strongest Man to prove who is the tougher star on the roster. Randy would defeat Henry in a Street Fight at Extreme Rules after a total of three Spears in a row, but he would attack Henry again and again until the referees had to get him off. Randy would turn heel once more and make sure to maul over anyone who dared get in his way. Sheamus gave it a shot at Payback to which Randy easily trounced him and then Wade Barrett tried his luck, but Randy dominated him at Money in the Bank.

The Big Show returned to the WWE after healing from a previous injury cutting a promo that Randy has spent the last few months proving he's the toughest man here, but he also bullied his way to the top through his intimidation. Randy says that Big Show no longer gets to say who is top dog and who ain't. He's past his prime and Randy believes it's time somebody shut him up so these two are scheduled for SummerSlam. Big Show would win the match by disqualification as Randy used a chair on the back of Show continuing to fight the World's Largest Athlete, but Mark Henry returns chasing off Randy. Henry begins working his way back through the ranks wanting to induct Randy into the Hall of Pain so he challenges him for Night of Champions so he can show Randy who runs the yard. Henry would beat Randy in their match and even hit another World's Largest Slam to bring the point home.

After Cena won the World Heavyweight Championship at Hell in a Cell against Dolph Ziggler, Randy came out to attack both wrestlers hitting both men with Spears. He grabbed the world title and raised it high in the air for all to see. This began a program where Randy has waited long enough to get back into the world title picture and Cena is the only obstacle that stands between him to get his first world title. At Survivor Series, Randy would give Cena a prison beating and would hit many Spears, but Cena would always kick out somehow which made Randy angry. Randy then hit endless Spears on the champ really bruising the stomach as the ref disqualified Randy when he failed to stop. Randy hit one more Spear to the champ as he believed his point was made.

Randy began putting on social media his frustrations with the WWE and their lack of motivation to pull the trigger on him. Randy was suspended for 30 days for his tweets, but continued on his rants which brought the days up to 60. Randy then asked for his release after declining a spot in the Royal Rumble and after some negotiations, Randy was released in February 2014, but he had a 60-day no compete clause per his contract.

World Wrestling Entertainment: 4 years (2010-2014)

Randy did interviews saying he did like WWE at first, but he was frustrated for being stuck as a mid-carder, suffering important losses, and that dreaded Spear Match idea. He also asked for the world title to be placed on him, because he thought Vince wanted to have this strong younger guy as a world champion, but it never came to fruition. Randy would extend his break from wrestling finding new promotions since his no compete clause dried up and he even started repackaging his gimmick into a royal superior monarch who looked down on the masses. This idea piqued the interest of talent scouts and Dixie Carter as she gave Randy a call on possibly joining Impact Wrestling.

Randy agreed to a contract, but he wanted to be non-exclusive hoping to work other gigs which Dixie agreed to mentioning the partnerships that Impact had with other promotions. He changed his name to King Randy and got a clean shave, a new haircut, a new attire, and trained with an all new moveset away from his hardcore persona. King Randy made his official debut at Slammiversary XII where he had royal guards attack the legs of Mr. Anderson. The next few weeks of tapings had Mr. Anderson ambushed by royal guards after his matches as King

Randy explained that Anderson is a very outspoken man and he can't have his kingdom tarnished with the loudmouth. King Randy would debut on the July 10th, 2014 edition of Impact Wrestling where he entered the #1 Contender Battle Royal for a future title shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The final four was Jeff Hardy, Bobby Roode, Mr. Anderson and King Randy. Randy eliminates Anderson, but he pulled the king out as both men started fighting near ringside until the royal guards stopped Anderson's assault.

The next episode showed Anderson and Roode taking on Randy and MVP in the middle of the show where MVP got the pin on Roode for the win. Randy would finally face Anderson the next week with Rockstar Spud coming out to cause a distraction allowing Randy to hit his new finisher, The Drawbridge (Stunner), for the three count and his first official victory with the company. Soon, King Randy would enlist Ethan Carter III as a tag team partner since they have a common goal of ruling the landscape of Impact. They challenged the Wolves for the TNA World Tag Team Championship reigniting a feud from Ring of Honor as Randy hit Eddie with the Drawbridge in order to get the win as both men became tag team champions in the month of August. They became known as The Royal Superiors ending the feud with the Wolves in September winning a Ladder Match for the titles.

At Bound for Glory 2014, King Randy took his first overseas trip to Japan for the show's debut even managed to score non-exclusive signings with New Japan Pro Wrestling and Wrestle-1. The Royal Superiors defeated Abyss and Tommy Dreamer to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship in a 16 minute contest when Randy hit Dreamer with the Drawbridge. For their debut in Wrestle-1, the Royal Superiors challenged Team 246 for the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship in December, but failed with Randy taking the pin.

A cross promotional match was planned for Wrestle Kingdom 9 as the Royal Superiors defended their titles against two members of Susuki-Gun (Shelton X Benjamin and Lance Archer) with Ethan getting the pin on Archer for the win. Another match was scheduled for The New Beginning in Osaka where Meiyu Tag took on the Royal Superiors for both sets of tag titles which resulted in Randy hitting Goto with the Drawbridge in a competitive match, but the Royal Superiors became IWGP Tag Team Champions. King Randy took part in the 2015 New Japan Cup, but lost to Tetsuya Naito in the first round.

On March 27th, 2015, King Randy and Ethan Carter III finally lost the TNA World Tag Team Titles to Bobby Roode and Austin Aries when Aries pinned Carter. At Invasion Attack, the Royal Superiors would also lose the IWGP Tag Team Championship to The Kingdom after Matt Taven pinned Randy for the three count. King Randy would announce he is dissolving the partnership seeing as both men now want to go their own way and this started a rivalry with Kurt Angle as Randy says that Kurt has been holding back a lot of control from him and he continues saying that the kingdom of Impact is his to rule. Angle reminds Randy he just came in a year ago when Angle has been in TNA for the better part of his entire career. At Slammiversary, a Crown vs. Gold Medal match is sanctioned where the winner gets the other's valuable and King Randy won hitting a Spear to put Angle down. As the referee prepares to put the gold medal on Randy, Randy swat it out of his hands and put his crown on saying "YOUR KING IS NOW HERE!" to a booing audience.

For Wrestling Dontaku, King Randy challenged Shinsuke Nakamura for his IWGP Intercontinental Championship and these two were pretty competitive in the main event for 28 minutes where Nakamura gets the win retaining his title. At Dominion 7.5, Shinsuke Nakamura defended his title against King Randy and Hirooki Goto where Goto pinned Nakamura for the win getting the title. King Randy took part in the 2015 G1 Climax, but only got victories over Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, and Tetsuya Naito with not enough points to advance to the finals. At Destruction in Okayama, King Randy defeated Tiger Mask and at Destruction in Kobe, King Randy fought Hiroshi Tanahashi for the certificate holding the rights to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but he lost in 17 minutes. King Randy even competed at the 2nd Anniversary show for Wrestle-1 in a losing effort against Hideki Susuki.

King Randy would miss the Bound for Glory card, but did wrestle a few tapings with nothing big going on. He then began a feud with TNA World Heavyweight Champion Matt Hardy on how his brother just handed him the title at Bound for Glory. This caused a mini-feud with Jeff Hardy which King Randy got two victories over the Charismatic Engima. King Randy would defeat his former partner Ethan Carter III going into 2016 becoming the #1 Contender for the world title, but failed in his attempts to get the title. King Randy would take a leave of absence from TNA as he wanted to focus on his career in Japan and he also ended his appearances with Wrestle-1.

Impact Wrestling (1st run): 2 years (2014-2016)

Wrestle-1: 2 years (2014-2016)

King Randy formed an alliance with Chaos members Hirooki Goto and Tomohiro Ishii as they knocked off The Elite winning the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship when Randy hit the Drawbridge on Nick Jackson at Invasion Attack 2016. At Wrestling Dontaku, King Randy and Chaos defeated David Finlay, Jay White, and Tiger Mask to retain the titles and then King Randy skipped out on Global Wars. At Dominion 6.19, Hunter Club and Togi Makabe won the titles after the Chaos partners had a disagreement leading to Tomohiro to taking the pin from Togi. King Randy would also get laid out by Goto after the match.

At Destruction in Toyko, Goto got the win over King Randy and even clocked Randy over the head with the gold crown. This lead to a Kings of Pro Wrestling match where it was dubbed Loser Leaves New Japan as Goto and Randy went at each other in this match as it went on for 24 minutes before Randy hit the Drawbridge in order to get the win. At Power Struggle, King Randy would take on Bullet Club leader Adam Cole in a losing effort suffering to the numbers of the group as they destroyed him in the ring. This would be King Randy's final match in New Japan for the moment.

New Japan Pro Wrestling (1st run): 1 year (2015-2016)

King Randy returned to Impact Wrestling on the January 12th, 2017 edition of Impact as he had his royal guards attack Lashley. This feud would be the main headliner for the company and soon King Randy won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship as he defeated Drew Galloway on a taping in March. At Slammiversary, Lashley would win the title from King Randy ending their feud and Randy suffered a fractured rib cage from their match and took some time off to have surgery.

Randy would return to Europe to rest up and eventually in the year of 2018, he would come back to wXw to win the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship a second time in early 2018. He also returned occasionally to Impact and New Japan having very minor roles. By mid-2018, he did win a reign with the IWGP United States Championship, but it wasn't for very long.

By the beginning of 2019, King Randy decided to take a hiatus to heal some nagging injuries he still had left over and take a break, but he promised to be back sometime next year.

Promotions Appeared in:

Heavy Chance Wrestling (2005-2006), Combat Zone Wrestling (2006-2009), Ring of Honor (2009-2010), Westside XTreme Wrestling (2010; 2018-Present), International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom (2010), World Wrestling Entertainment (2010-2014), Impact Wrestling (2014-2016; 2017-2018), Wrestle-1 (2014-2016), New Japan Pro Wrestling (2015-2016; 2018-Present), United Supreme Pro Wrestling (2020-Present)

Titles won:

CZW Tournament of Death Finalist

1x CZW World Heavyweight Champion

1x ROH World Tag Team Champion (with Roderick Strong)

2x wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion

1x RevPro British Heavyweight Champion

2x WWE United States Champion

2x WWE Intercontinental Champion

1x TNA World Tag Team Champion (with Ethan Carter III)

1x IWGP Tag Team Champion (with Ethan Carter III)

1x NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion (with Chaos members Hirooki Goto and Tomohiro Ishii)

1x TNA World Heavyweight Champion

1x IWGP United States Champion