The Public Enemy (professional wrestling)

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The Public Enemy
The Public Enemy, Rocco Rock (left) & Johnny Grunge (right)
Tag team
MembersJohnny Grunge[1]
Rocco Rock[1]
Name(s)The Public Enemy
The South Philly Posse
Billed heights6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) – Grunge[2]
6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) – Rock[3]
Combined
billed weight		514 lb (233 kg)
HometownCompton, California[4]
South Philadelphia
Debut1993[1]
Disbanded2002
Years active1993–2002

The Public Enemy was a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge.[1] The duo competed in many promotions, including Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). They won the World Tag Team Championships in each company except WWF.[5]

Their name was taken from

dark match at the first TV tapings for WWF Monday Night Raw
on January 11, 1993, eight months before they would debut as a tag team in ECW.

In September 2002, Rocco Rock died after a heart attack. Johnny Grunge died in February 2006 from sleep apnea complications.

History

Eastern / Extreme Championship Wrestling (1993–1996)

The Public Enemy made their ECW debut in September 1993 at

Los Angeles during the early 1990s, with a quote that stated "The generation of today is more afraid of living than dying".[6][7]

The team quickly became one of the more popular acts in the company; their wild brawling style, complete with a myriad of

Mustafa Saed, from Smoky Mountain Wrestling) at Barbed Wire, Hoodies & Chokeslams to feud with TPE. The Gangstas immediately began a long and bloody feud with The Public Enemy, which pitted The Gangstas' "harsh, gritty West Coast gangsta" lifestyle against The Public Enemy's "East Coast
feel good" style. Their feud is among the feuds most often cited as "classic ECW".

Memorable moments

The Public Enemy was also involved in some of ECW's most memorable moments. On one occasion, during a singles match between Cactus Jack and Terry Funk at Hardcore Heaven 1994, the Public Enemy interfered and attacked both wrestlers. Terry Funk turned to the crowd and asked the fans if he could have a chair to use. A fan immediately threw a chair into the ring, and not long after many other fans followed suit. Eventually the ring was filled with chairs with both members of The Public Enemy buried underneath.

In another incident in Tampa, Florida, towards the end of their run with ECW, during the Sunshine State Slaughter event in 1995, The Public Enemy asked the fans to come into the ring to dance with them one last time. As more and more fans piled in and onto the ring, all dancing and celebrating, the ring collapsed.

World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)

On November 19, 1995 The Public Enemy received a tryout with the WWF, wrestling a dark match against then WWF Tag-Team Champions

The Smokin' Gunns.[8] The team would receive an offer to sign with the company, but instead elected to go with a competing overture from World Championship Wrestling. In January 1996, after their success in ECW, The Public Enemy signed on to work for World Championship Wrestling (WCW). When they arrived in WCW, they continued acting as they did in the manner that made them so popular with fans. Although the majority of the WCW fanbase was unfamiliar with the ECW product at the time, they still carried tables to the ring. During their three-year stint, they won their only WCW World Tag Team Championship with a victory over Harlem Heat in September 1996, though their reign lasted only eight days.[9] The team wrestled through September 1998 and was mostly victorious in their final year with the company, concluding their run with a win over Villanos IV and V on a Worldwide episode.[10]

Return to ECW, World Wrestling Federation, and return to WCW (1999)

At ECW's House Party 1999 on January 16, The Public Enemy made a long-awaited and much-hyped return to the ECW Arena, in order to answer the challenge of the Dudley Boyz. At the time, they were still under contract to WCW, but they successfully brawled (with assistance from New Jack) with the Dudleys. Following the showdown, Johnny Grunge grabbed the microphone and claimed that the past three years had been a "rollercoaster ride" for the team, and that "if you opened up our chest and looked at our hearts, there's only one thing stamped on it, and that's ECW!" Grunge further thanked the Dudleys for house-sitting "the house that the Public Enemy built" while they were gone, and then invited everyone in attendance to join them in the ring for a post-show celebration.[11]

Their next scheduled appearance was at Crossing the Line '99 on February 12 in Queens, New York against the Dudleys, which they cancelled due to negotiating with the WWF. The team was buried on the February 20 edition of ECW Hardcore TV as being cowards who ran from a fight. Footage of the Dudleys hitting big moves on the team at an event in Detroit was shown, with a headline stating "Breaking News: The Dudleys Destroy Public Enemy." Two days later, the team would make their WWF debut.

The Public Enemy signed with the

LOD 2000
.

The Public Enemy briefly returned to WCW after leaving the WWF, with both men involved in the WCW Hardcore Junkyard Invitational. They then made an appearance on the August 4, 1999, episode of WCW Thunder in a squash match loss against Bill Goldberg and again on August 9 in a losing effort against the West Texas Rednecks. Their final appearance came in a house show on August 18, and neither made an appearance in WCW again afterwards.

Later years (1999-2002)

The Public Enemy performing a double team maneuver

The Public Enemy made one last appearance on

X Wrestling Federation promotion, under the name "South Philly Posse" and managed by Jasmin St. Claire.[5]

In the early 2000s, the Public Enemy performed for the short-lived i-Generation Superstars of Wrestling among other independent promotions. The team won various independent tag team titles.

Their last match together was at Intergalactic Wrestling Federation defeating Itch Coma Weidler and The Bouncer in a steel cage match at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, IL on August 12, 2002.

Following the death of Rocco Rock in 2002, Grunge teamed with his "brother" Joey Grunge as The New Public Enemy throughout August 2003.[16] He also made appearances with 3PW, and participated in a memorial segment for deceased ECW wrestlers at Hardcore Homecoming on June 10, 2005.

Deaths

On September 21, 2002, Ted Petty ("Flyboy" Rocco Rock) died after suffering a heart attack following a wrestling event.[5] Johnny Grunge had been semi-retired for a few years after the XWF failed to get a TV deal. On February 16, 2006, Mike Durham (Johnny Grunge) died in his home after suffering from complications from sleep apnea.[16] Durham's death was caused by heart disease and obesity, with the medical examiner also citing "acute toxicity of carisoprodol and hydrocodone" in the autopsy report. Durham evidently died in his sleep at the home of a friend with whom he'd been staying.[17]

Durham's widow has since become an advocate against drug abuse in the wrestling industry since the

Chris Benoit double murder and suicide in 2007, when she realized her husband's prescriptions came from the same doctor as Chris Benoit's.[17]

Championships and accomplishments

Public Enemy's Hardcore Hall of Fame banners

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Public Enemy". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
  2. ^ "Johnny Grunge's profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved March 22, 2011.
  3. ^ "Rocco Rock's bio". The Accelerator's Wrestling Rollercoaster. Retrieved March 22, 2011.
  4. ^ "The Public Enemy". wwe.com. WWE.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Power Slam". What's going down... SW Publishing. October 2002. p. 6. 55.
  6. ISBN 978-1-59670-021-5
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1-4165-1058-1
    .
  8. ^ "1995". thehistoryofwwe.com. January 16, 2023.
  9. ^ a b "World Championship Wrestling World Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved January 30, 2012.
  10. ^ "WCW 1998". thehistoryofwwe.com. January 16, 2023.
  11. ^ "ECW - 1999 Results". January 16, 2023.
  12. ISBN 978-1-59670-021-5
    .
  13. ^ "The Layfield Report - Blog". Archived from the original on November 8, 2011. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
  14. ^ "WON/F4W - WWE news, Pro Wrestling News, WWE Results, UFC News, UFC results".
  15. ^ "1999". thehistoryofwwe.com. January 16, 2023.
  16. ^ a b Brady, Hicks. "2006: The year in wrestling". 2007 Wrestling Almanac and Book of Facts. Kappa Publications. p. 18. 2007 Edition.
  17. ^ a b "Fish: Chris Benoit's doctor prescribed for other wrestlers". September 13, 2007.
  18. ^ "ECW World Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved January 30, 2012.
  19. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .

External links
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