Shark Boy

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Shark Boy
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea[5]
Trained byLes Thatcher[1]
DebutMay 3, 1997[1]

Dean Matthew Roll (born January 28, 1975) is an American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) under the ring name Shark Boy. Prior to his appearances in TNA, Roll competed on the independent scene from the mid-1990s onwards before being signed by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1999. Following his release from WCW six months later in 2000, Roll returned to the independent scenes, mainly competing for the World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) promotion. He would leave WWA in 2002 to join TNA, where he became a member of the TNA X Division. He would make sporadic appearances in TNA from 2009 onwards.

Professional wrestling career

Independent circuit (1997–2003)

Roll began training under

Baldwin brother.[6][7]

Later that year, Roll debuted in the

20/20 featuring professional wrestling, on the Discovery Channel as part of the annual Shark Week and on a documentary produced by MTV entitled True Life: I'm a Professional Wrestler.[5]

On May 19, 1999, Shark Boy wrestled at the second annual

World Wrestling Federation wrestlers, including Al Snow, Mankind and D'Lo Brown, entered the ring and lifted Shark Boy onto their shoulders.[9]
Shark Boy also wrestled at the 1998, 2000 and 2001 Brian Pillman Memorial Shows.

On March 11, 2003, Shark Boy wrestled a dark match for the World Wrestling Entertainment where he lost to Chris Kanyon.

World Championship Wrestling (1999–2000)

As a result of the exposure gained by his appearances on television and at the Brian Pillman Memorial Shows, coupled with his

TBS before being released six months later in early 2000.[6][9][10]

World Wrestling All Stars (2002)

In February 2002 Shark Boy competed for the WWA at their Revolution PPV in Las Vegas. He fought in the opening contest, a 6-Man Cruiserweight survival match. Also in the match were A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, Low Ki, Tony Mamaluke, and Nova. He was eliminated first in the match, which was won by Nova.

In November 2002, Shark Boy toured Europe with the

XPW where he had memorable bouts with Kaos, Tracy Smothers, Juventud Guerrera, and Jerry Lynn
.

On March 7, 2004, Shark Boy opened a

professional wrestling school named The Shark Tank in Ohio. His most notable trainees are Dustin Thomas, Tom Bellman, Darrell Hazel, Jerrod West, Todd Mullins, Ed Gonzales, Donny Redd, Chris Ledbetter, Jake Omen, Tony X and Cannonball Sami (Sami Callihan)[6][10]

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002–2015)

On July 31, 2002, Shark Boy made his Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) debut in a dark match losing to Jimmy Rave.[11]

On the August 14, 2002 weekly TNA pay-per-view, Shark Boy showed up on Disco Inferno's talk segment Jive Talkin' without his mask playing the character Dean Baldwin, a fictional brother of the famous Baldwin actors.[12]

In 2003, he had a team with

gimmick into that of a Stone Cold Steve Austin tribute, even going as far as to drink "Clam Juice" (a reference to Austin's infamous beer drinking) in the ring after his matches. Upon his gimmick change, he would occasionally team up with Curry Man
to form a comedic tag team that was a moderate success. After this gimmick change he started to talk, something he had not been heard to do before.

Shark Boy took part in TNA's TerrorDome match on May 10, but it was won by

Consequences Creed. This was his last match with the company for some time, and on October 13, 2010, Shark Boy's profile was removed from TNA's website while he spent some time working as a referee and road agent for the company.[13]

On December 5, 2010, Shark Boy made his return at

Robbie E's and Jay Lethal's match for the TNA X Division Championship. After the match, he gave Cookie a Chummer. He changed his theme back to the theme he used before the Austin gimmick began.[14] He made his return to the ring on the December 24 edition of Xplosion, in a losing effort against Robbie E. On March 3, 2011, Shark Boy announced on his website that he had requested and was granted his release from TNA.[15]

On July 10, 2011, Shark Boy made an appearance at

TNA World Heavyweight Championship
in a losing effort. This would be his last known appearance and would eventually parted ways from the company.

Return to the independent circuit (2013–present)

In August 2013, Shark Boy challenged Billy Mattern for the NWA Supreme United States Championship. Billy Mattern was disqualified due to interference by Mortimer Blankenship giving the win to Shark Boy, but Mattern would retain the championship.

Shark Boy started wrestling a lot less starting in 2014, where he only wrestled a half dozen matches. This would be followed with even less in 2015 and only one match in 2016. The following two years saw him competing in less than a dozen matches total. He didn't wrestle from November 2018, until April 2019 when he was involved in a six way scramble match at Joey Ryan's Penis Party WrestleCon event during WrestleMania 35 weekend.[17]

Return to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2022–present)

On May 1, 2022, it was announced that Shark Boy would make his return to Impact Wrestling for live events on May 7 and 8 in Newport, Kentucky.[18] At Slammiversary, on June 19, 2022, Shark Boy won the Reverse Battle Royal by last eliminating Johnny Swinger.[19][20]

Other media

Shark Boy has appeared in two video games, those being

TNA Impact!: Cross the Line and TNA IMPACT!

He was featured in MTV's "True Life: I am a Pro Wrestler", talking about his experiences on the independent circuit. Fox News Personality Bill O'Reilly featured him in his segment "Fin-heads and Patriots".[citation needed]

Personal life

On Friday, February 22, 2008, he was inducted into the XWF (later Legends Pro Wrestling) Hall of Fame.

Roll lost most of his possessions in a house fire in February 2009.[21]

Miramax lawsuit

On June 8, 2005, Roll filed a

Miramax Films, claiming that the Miramax release The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D infringed upon his trademark and demanded any "money, profits and advantages wrongfully gained". In November 2005, it emerged that Miramax had attempted to have the case dismissed, in addition to requesting that the court nullify Roll's trademark on the basis that "Plaintiff is a male whose services are rendered only when he is wearing a costume depicting 'shark-like' attributes."[3][8][22] In April 2007, the suit was settled for an undisclosed amount.[23]

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Shark Boy Profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  2. ^ a b c "TNA Wrestling profile". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2011-01-02. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
  3. ^ a b c d Kaufman, G. (June 8, 2005). "Wrestler Shark Boy Wants To Put The Smackdown On New Flick". MTV.com. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  4. ^ "TNA Wrestling profile". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2008-07-30. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  5. ^ a b c d Valente, M. (October 5, 2003). "Shark Boy interview". Wrestling Observer. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  6. ^
    Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved 2007-06-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
    )
  7. ^ a b c "Interview mit dem Shark Boy". WrestlingData.com. October 1, 2003. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  8. ^ a b c Madigan, T. (August 13, 2005). "Shark attack". Calgary Sun. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved 2007-06-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  9. ^ a b Steven, A. "Shark Boy Speaks With TNAHeadlines.com". TNAHeadlines.com. Archived from the original on 2007-10-04. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  10. ^ a b Hickey, P. "Shark Boy Bites His Way To The Top". Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  11. ^ "NWA Total Nonstop Action #7 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net.
  12. ^ "NWA-TNA Weekly PPV 9 - 8-14-2002". PowerDriver Review. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved 2009-12-06.
  13. ^ Johnson, Chris (2010-10-14). "New role for a member of the TNA roster". Gerweck. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
  14. ^ Caldwell, James (2010-12-05). "Caldwell's TNA Final Resolution PPV results 12/5: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of live PPV – Hardy vs. Morgan II, several title and stipulation matches". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
  15. ^ Gerweck, Steve (2011-03-03). "TNA Wrestling star granted his release". WrestleView. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
  16. ^ Caldwell, James (2011-07-10). "Caldwell's TNA Destination X PPV results 7/10: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of live PPV – Styles vs. Daniels, Ultimate X, RVD vs. Lynn". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2011-07-11.
  17. ^ "Matches « Shark Boy « Wrestlers Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net.
  18. ^ Jeremy Thomas (May 1, 2022). "Shark Boy Returning to Impact At Next Weekend's Tapings". 411mania.com. Retrieved June 20, 2022.
  19. ^ IMPACT Wrestling Staff (June 19, 2022). "Slammiversary 2022 Full Results". Impact Wrestling. Archived from the original on June 20, 2022. Retrieved June 20, 2022.
  20. ^ Powell, Jason (June 19, 2022). "6/19 Impact Wrestling Slammiversary results: Powell's live review of Josh Alexander vs. Eric Young for the Impact World Championship, Ultimate X match for the X Division Championship, Queen of the Mountain match for the Knockouts Title, The Briscoes vs. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson for the Impact Tag Titles". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on June 20, 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
  21. ^ Caldwell, James (2009-02-28). "TNA News: Shark Boy loses home in tragic fire; how wrestling fans can help him rebuild". PWTorch. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  22. ^ Madigan, T. (August 16, 2005). "Everybody wants to know". Calgary Sun. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved 2007-06-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  23. ^ Farrell, E. (April 23, 2007). "Shark Boy Lawsuit Settlement". Warned.net. Archived from the original on May 6, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  24. ^ a b "Independent Wrestling Results – April 2004". onlineworldofwrestling.com. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  25. ^ "Buckeye Pro Wrestling Title Histories". titlehistories.com. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
  26. ^ "XBW/BWCW Rise From The Depths « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net.
  27. ^ "PWX Television Championship History".
  28. ^ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500 – 2001". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on 2008-06-16. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
  29. ^ "WCPBTW The Reunion: A Homecoming".

External links