During the 90’s there were two successful wrestlers, who wrestled as Chris Michaels.There was the wrestler from Kentucky who wrestled all over the world, and the wrestler who spent most of his career in the Northeast. This article will be about the northeast version of Chris Michaels.
Bill Pierce was born in Long Island in 1962. After serving in the US military, Pierce was trained by Mark Tendlar to be a pro wrestler , along with Sonny Blaze and former New York Jet Brian Donahue. In the late 80’s Pierce started wrestling for Northeast independents as Chris Michaels. Michaels and Sonny Blaze often wrestled each other on independent shows. The two would trade off winning and losing to each other. In 1989 Blaze and Michaels became friends with John Arezzi from the Pro Wrestling Spotlight. Both Michaels and Blaze were frequent guest on Arezzi’s radio show. Arezzi got Michaels and Blaze their first television wrestling jobs with Mario Savoldi’s ICW.
Michaels and Blaze were brought into ICW to lose to the companies top stars on TV. Early in their run, the pair teamed up to lose to the Undertakers on ICW TV. Michaels continued wrestling for ICW in early 1990, putting over Tom Pritchard, Cowboy Bob Orton and Asushi Onita on TV. Michaels received his first TV push, while still wrestling for ICW. The companies booker Paul E Dangerously left the company, and many of the veteran wrestlers left with him. The company was looking for new talent to push, and they briefly got behind Michaels on television. In the first round of a tag team tournament for the company’s vacant tag team titles, Michaels teamed with Brian Swortzen to lose to Ebony and Ivory. In the match Swortzen took the pin, and Michaels was given alot of offense. ICW Announcer Tony Rumble, heavily complimented Michaels, and talked about managing him. Rumble did the same the next week, when Michaels pinned The Destroyer on TV. Michaels TV push ended shortly after, and he went back to putting over the companies stars.
In early 1991 Arezzi formed a partnership with Herb Abrams, the owner of the UWF. Arezzi used his connections to get Michaels and Blaze a job, wrestling underneath on the Sports Channel for the UWF. Michaels and Blaze teamed up to lose to The Power twins, at the TV taping. Blaze pinned Michaels in the opener of an UWF house show, and it looked like Blaze was going to be pushed. It was Michaels who ended up getting a push on TV. On UWF TV Michaels teamed with Tom Brandi to beat The Beast and Captain Badd. Michaels also beat Captain Badd in a singles match, after a Flair corner flip and A missle dropkick. The UWF moved their base to Florida shortly after they started pushing Michaels on TV, and Michaels left the company.
Shortly after leaving the UWF in 1991, Michaels was brought into the WWF by Blaze, who was already wrestling for the company. From 1991 to 1992, Michaels wrestled on TV, using his own name Bill Pierce. On WWF TV Pierce faced Ric Flair, The Undertaker, The Legion of Doom, Sgt Slaughter, The Iron Sheik and Kamala on WWF TV. Around this time Sonny Blaze opened up a training school. Michaels spent alot of time working out with Mikey Whipwreck, who was one of Blaze’s students at the time. Whipwreck publicly credits Michaels for helping him train to be a professional wrestler.
Shortly after leaving the WWF, Michaels began wrestling for the UWS, where he beat Skull Von Krush and The Kodiak Bear. Michaels also began his run for Eastern Championship wrestling, when he beat Vladimir Markoff. Michaels received a big push on ECW TV, when Eddie Gilbert became the booker. After changing his name to Sir Richard Michaels, Pierce teamed with Johnny Hotbody to beat The Super Destroyers for The ECW tag team titles. Sir Richard Michaels, Johnny Hotbody, and Chris Candido were the Suicide Blondes, defending the tag team titles under the Freebird rule. Paul E Dangerously took over as the company’s booker, and after beating Keith Scherer on a house show, and losing to Tommy Cario on TV, Michaels left ECW, when his role with the company was decreased. Michaels returned to ECW in 1997 for one match, when he teamed with Kendo Negaski to beat Damien Stone and Joel Heartgood, after Michaels pinned Stone. After the match, The Sandman caned all four participants.
After leaving ECW, Michaels returned to the UWS, where he teamed with Tito Santana to beat The Kodiak Bear and Mr.X. Michaels also returned to ICW, where he won singles matches against Damien Stone and The Hollywood kid, and teamed with Gino Cauraso, to beat Jacknife Johnny and King Kaluha. For the next the three decades , Michaels has remained active on the northeast independent scene, winning The NWA New York heavyweight and Jr heavyweight titles, the USA Pro United States heavyweight title, and the SWF tag team titles with Sir Bobby C.
Bill Pierce stayed in the northeast for his entire professional career. He made the decision not to travel the world, chasing fame and fortune. This did not prevent him from being a regular on WWF TV, and receiving TV pushes from ECW, the UWF and ICW.
