Maxx Payne
Maxx Payne | |
---|---|
Birth name | Darryl Peterson |
Born | Iowa City, Iowa, United States | October 3, 1961
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Beater Blacksmith Buffalo Peterson Heavy Metal Buffalo Lucifer Payne Man Mountain Rock Maximum Payne Max Pain Max Payne Maxx Payne |
Billed height | 6 ft 6 in (198 cm)[1] |
Billed weight | 350 lb (159 kg)[1] |
Billed from | "Hell's Kitchen" "The State of Euphoria" |
Trained by | Red Bastien |
Debut | 1987[2] |
Retired | 2003 |
Darryl Peterson (born October 3, 1961) is an American musician, actor and retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling as Maxx Payne, and in the World Wrestling Federation as Man Mountain Rock.
Early life
Peterson became involved in wrestling in
Peterson earned wrestling scholarships to junior college and then to Iowa State University, competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). In 1985 he was an All-American, placed fifth in the NCAA competition and also won the Gorriarian award for having the most falls in the least amount of time at the tournament. Every match he won that year at the NCAA's, he won by fall. It was his best and only NCAA finish. Then he relocated to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. While working as a security guard, he was introduced to professional wrestler Red Bastien by his boss, and decided to train with him.[4]
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1987–1993)
Peterson worked for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in March 1986, and put together the steel cage used in the main event of WrestleMania 2. With his training complete, he debuted in June 1987 and soon after traveled to Japan to work for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he trained in the New Japan Dojo alongside fellow gaijin Chris Benoit for five months.[3]
In 1988, Peterson developed the character Max Pain (short for "Maximum Pain"), a sinister, grungy, Jimi Hendrix-loving heavy metal guitarist.[5] His original idea was Lucifer Payne, but he felt that this was too foreboding. He used the name Max Payne, hailing from Hell's Kitchen, New York nationally in the United States as well as in Europe and Japan. Following a short stint with the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), Pain debuted in the Tennessee-based Continental Wrestling Association (CWA). He quickly began pursuing the CWA Heavyweight Championship, and on February 8, 1988 in Memphis he defeated Jerry Lawler to win the championship. He then went after Lawler's AWA World Heavyweight Championship, but was unable to win the title. He forfeited the CWA Championship to Brickhouse Brown on May 23, but won the title once more on June 27. His second reign ended on July 10 when he was defeated by Phil Hickerson.[6]
Pain left the CWA after a year before returning to
World Championship Wrestling (1993–1994)
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) booker Bill Watts was impressed by Peterson's amateur credentials, and hired him in 1993, with Peterson relocating to Marietta, Georgia. Peterson made his televised debut in WCW as the villain Maxx Payne on the January 30, 1993 episode of Worldwide by defeating local competitor Scott Allen.[8] Peterson's first pay-per-view match was at SuperBrawl III, where he played Taps[9] on his guitar before challenging Dustin Rhodes for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship, substituting for the injured Ron Simmons. After Rhodes locked him in an abdominal stretch from which he was unable to escape, Payne pushed the referee over rather than submit and was subsequently disqualified.[3][10]
At the June 17
Payne took part in WCW's
During his and Jack's feud with The Nasty Boys, Payne had become increasingly unhappy with their
World Wrestling Federation (1995)
The morning after he was released by WCW, Peterson was contacted by wrestler
While working for the WWF, Peterson filmed several hours of behind-the-scenes footage with a video camera which he often carried and claimed that he would release a documentary called The Thing that Should Not Be or The Real Maxx Payne based on the footage, but never did.[3] The footage reportedly contained scenes showing substance abuse and solicitation.[3]
Later Career (1995-2003)
After WWF, Payne returned to CWA (Germany) as Buffalo Peterson.
Max Payne lawsuit
In July 2003, Peterson filed a $10 million lawsuit in the United States district court for Utah against Rockstar Games, 3D Realms, Gathering of Developers, and Remedy Entertainment, accusing them of stealing his ring name Maxx Payne and his neo-noir theme for the protagonist of the video game Max Payne.[5][18][19] The case was settled out of court.[20]
Retirement
On April 17, 2004, Peterson addressed an audience in the Schubert Theater at the Western States College for the Performing Arts in Gooding, Idaho, talking about professional wrestling.[21]
Film and television appearances
- Take Down (1979) as "Ted Yacabobich"
- Touched by an Angel (February 1, 1998) as "Cato"
- A Town Has Turned to Dust (1998) as "Pig Iron"
- Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 (1998)
- The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All (1999) as "Muscle"
- Touched by an Angel (January 9, 2000) as "Man #2"
- Nobody's Baby (2001) as "Truck Driver"
- Paradise (2004) as "XL"
Championships and accomplishments
- Catch Wrestling Association
- Continental Wrestling Association
- CWA Heavyweight Championship (2 times)[6]
- CWA Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Gary Young[22][23]
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Ranked No. 73 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1993[24]
References
Footnotes
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7566-4190-0.
- ^ "Maxx Payne". OWW. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i The Clown, Ripper (May 7, 2017). "Interview with Maxx Payne". YouTube. Brush with Greatness Podcast. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
- ^ "Maxx Payne Shoot Iterviews". YouTube. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
- ^ Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the originalon May 16, 2011. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
- ^ a b Duncan, R. & Will, G. (1998). "CWA Heavyweight Title History". Solie.org. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
- ^ a b Duncan, R & Will, G. (1998). "CWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Title History". Solie.org. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
- ^ Colling, Bob (August 3, 2015). "WCW Worldwide 1/30/1993". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
- ^ Superbrawl III commentary Jesse Ventura makes the comment to Tony Schiavone "Did you notice what song he was playing, Schiavone? "Taps." I'm surprised you knew that. I guess that's in reference to Dustin Rhodes, it's lights out"
- ^ Dunn, J.D. (January 7, 2010). "Dark Pegasus Video Review: Superbrawl III". 411Mania. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
- ^ "Clash of the Champions XXIII results". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
- ^ "Beach Blast 1993 results". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
- ^ "Clash of the Champions XXIV results". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
- ^ "BattleBowl results". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
- ^ Foley 2000, p. 260.
- ^ "Clash of the Champions XXVI results". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
- ^ Foley 2000, p. 262.
- ^ "Maxx Payne Sues his Developers". MegaGames. July 28, 2003. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
- InsideMacGames. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
- ^ Kuorikoski 2015, p. 80.
- ^ Dave Meltzer (April 12, 2004). "Monday news update: Major Raw main; Wrestling superstar added to Grand Prix; Payne giving speech; Legends FanFest; Jericho concert; Chavo made up claims; Lucha hits Twin Cities and much more". Wrestling Observer. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
- ^ Duncan, R. & Will, G. (1998). "CWA World Tag Team Title History". Solie.org. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
- ^ Hoops, Brian (March 7, 2020). "Daily Pro Wrestling history (03/07): Bruno Sammartino vs. Giant Baba". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
- ^ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 1993". Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
Sources
- Foley, Mick (2000). Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-103101-1.
- Kuorikoski, Juho (2015). Finnish Video Games: A History and Catalog. McFarland. ISBN 0786499621.
References
- Iowa State Wrestling Honors Archived February 5, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- Iowa State NCAA Competition Results Archived June 4, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Maxx Payne at IMDb
- Maxx Payne's profile at Cagematch.net , Internet Wrestling Database