Sunday, January 13, 2008

Brad Armstrong


Brad Armstrong (born Bradley James on June 15, 1961) is an American professional wrestler. He is the son of Bob Armstrong and has three brothers that also wrestle, Steve, Scott and Brian. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment working on its ECW brand.

Brad started out in Southeast Championship Wrestling in 1980. He was a face, or good guy, due to his good looks and superb wrestling ability. He feuded with Jerry Stubbs and Tom Prichard during his stay there and won the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) US Junior Heavyweight title there.

Later he moved to the Georgia part of the NWA and feuded with Ted DiBiase and with father Bob, the Fabulous Freebirds of Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts. He also became friends with Tim Horner. He and Horner formed a team called the Lightning Express, due to Horner's nickname of "White Lightning" and Armstrong's quickness.

Brad wrestled in the Universal Wrestling Federation with Horner and they feuded with the "Sheepherders", later known as The Bushwhackers, Butch Miller and Luke Williams. They also had some matches with future superstars Sting and Rick Steiner.

In 1991, Brad was put in a mask as Badstreet, the masked member of the Fabulous Freebirds along with Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin. They won the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) World Six-Man Tag Team Titles. Brad never revealed his Badstreet identity on television.

Later that year he was given another masked gimmick, Arachnaman, who looked so much like Spider-Man that Marvel Comics sued WCW, who soon dropped the gimmick. In July 1992, Brad won the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship (also known as the first incarnation of the WCW Cruiserweight Title). He soon injured his knee and he was stripped of the title two months later. He returned in early 1993 and remained with the company until early 1995.

Armstrong worked for Smoky Mountain Wrestling for the rest of 1995, capturing their title in the process, but eventually returned to WCW. In 1999, he was repackaged as "B.A.", a member of the No Limit Soldiers stable. One feud was against Berlyn, who attacked Armstrong's brother Scott. The feud ran through the Halloween Havoc pay-per-view, where Armstrong defeated Berlyn. Shortly after that, the No Limit Soliders disbanded, Then he was given the gimmick of Buzzkill, a takeoff of his brother Brian's gimmick Road Dogg. In fact, the theme song he used for the character was very similar to the New Age Outlaws theme song in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The gimmick was less successful due to fans feeling it an imitation of the Road Dogg persona, as well as a lack of awareness that the two were brothers.

He injured his knee early in 2000, his WCW contract expired in 2001, and left the business for a few years, until returning to the independent circuit in 2004.

On September 12, 2006, Armstrong signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment and began wrestling at ECW brand house shows and acting as a trainer to the younger members of the roster. In December, around the time rumors of ECW color commentator Tazz leaving the company began to circulate, Armstrong began to make sporadic appearances as a "guest commentator" on the brand. The three man booth, originally for a single match on the December 19 episode before expanding to a full show on January 9, did not last and Armstrong resumed his role as a producer.



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