Wednesday, April 4, 2007

WCW: Perry Saturn, part 1


Ring name(s) The Gargoyle,The Iron Horseman,Perry Saturn,Saturn
Billed height 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Billed weight 240 lb (109 kg)
Born October 25, 1966,Cleveland, Ohio
Billed from Boston, Massachusetts
Trained by Killer Kowalski
Wrestling Debut 1990

Perry Satullo, better known as Perry Saturn, is a semi-retired American professional wrestler. During his career, he has worked in Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation.

Satullo grew up in a broken home in less than favorable circumstances, but, to this day, still credits his father Donnie as being his number one hero. Donnie Satullo was a truck mechanic who worked long hours but was always there for Perry. When Perry was 7, Donnie hosted an arm wrestling match in their backyard with the neighborhood kids. Perry easily won the tournament, making the thought apparent to Donnie that his son would be a future wrestling hero, but with the Satullo family's low income and Perry's wild teen lifestyle, they had him enlist in the United States Army at the age of seventeen to become an Army Airborne Ranger (he logged over one hundred airplane jumps in that time) before eventually embarking on a career in professional wrestling.

Satullo began training at Killer Kowalski's school in Malden, Massachusetts around 1988, taking the ring name Saturn from the Roman god of the same name. He debuted on October 27, 1990 in Waltham, Massachusetts, wrestling for the United States Wrestling Federation, where he would later hold the Light-Heavyweight Championship. Satullo also wrestled in Kowalski's International Wrestling Federation as The Iron Horseman, a cowboy complete with black leather stetson and chaps. Satullo eventually won the IWF Light Heavyweight Championship, and would also win the IWF Tag Team Championship along with Terra Rizing. Satullo began wrestling for independent promotions throughout New England, as well as touring Japan with New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1993.

While working as the manager of a nightclub in Boston, Satullo met bouncer George Caiazo, who expressed an interest in becoming a wrestler. Satullo sent Caiazo to Kowalski's school to train, and then offered to form a tag team with him. The Greek equivalent of the god Saturn was Cronus, so Satullo chose the ring name "John Kronus" for Caiazo. As Saturn and Cronus were their cultures' respective gods of the harvest, Satullo proposed that they be known as "The Harvesters of Sorrow". Promoter Jerry Lawler advised Satullo that the significance of the name would not be evident to many fans, so they became known as "The Eliminators".

The Eliminators wrestled their first match together at a USWA house show in 1993. They were hired at a starting salary of $40 a week (they later negotiated a 100% pay rise), and shared an apartment with four other wrestlers. The Eliminators won the USWA World Tag Team Championships on May 2, 1994 from Satullo's mentor, Eddie Gilbert, and Brian Christopher. They held the titles until June 13 when they were defeated by PG-13. Satullo later traveled to Japan with Caiazo to wrestle for the WAR.

The compactly-built and heavily-tattooed Satullo and the high-flying Caiazo caught the attention of Paul Heyman's ECW when they were brought in to job to Rick and Scott Steiner, and the Eliminators were hired by ECW in 1995. Heyman quickly abandoned plans to give them a sadism and masochism gimmick and instead booked them as an unstoppable force in the ECW tag division, giving them a manager, Jason, to compensate for their weak interview skills. The Eliminators captured the ECW Tag Team titles three times between 1996 and 1997, and feuded with teams such as The Gangstas and The Pitbulls. After The Pitbulls' manager Francine cut Satullo's hair, he shaved his head in a homage to Mickey Knox, the character depicted by Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killers (in reality, Satullo was beginning to go bald).

Satullo was a trainer in the ECW House of Hardcore, a professional wrestling school at which Taz and Mikey Whipwreck also taught. While Satullo was respected for his focus on fundamentals and technical wrestling, he was criticized for manhandling trainee Pablo Marquez after Marquez made a mistake.

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