Dubbed
the "Prince Of The Death Matches" by Ian Rotten, Hardcore Craig has proven that he can go toe to toe with the biggest, toughest monsters and still
stand tall. He can take a beating and dish one out as well and has a tremendous pain
threshold. (Mid American Wrestling)
In 1989, Craig started his wrestling
training under A.W.A. wrestler Jonnie Stewart. Around 6 months after training
with Stewart, Craig moved his training to Mil. Wis. under W.W.F./W.C.W/A.W.A.
wrestler "Rocky" Tom Stone. During training, Craig wrestled on house and TV
shows for Stone's promotion, International Association of Wrestling. From
there, meeting with other wrestlers and promoters, other shows for outside
promotions were booked.
From day one, Craig has wrestled for
Mid-American Wrestling, starting with their very 1st show in 1993. He teamed
with "The Beach Bum" (later to be known as Barfly Mike) to form the tag team
of "The Waveriders" and proceeded to win tag team titles all over the Midwest.
During this time Craig wrestled on WWF's TV shows "Wrestling Challenge",
"Superstars of Wrestling" and "Monday Night Raw" with stars such as Rick
Martel, The Bushwackers, Bam Bam Bigalow, "Doink" the clown, The Heavenly
Bodies, Kamala The Ugandan Giant, Lex Luger, The Steiner Brothers, Gangrel
from "The Brood" and The Undertaker.
As the times and wrestling scene started to
change, Craig already had, and his name was changed to Hardcore Craig in 1995.
Going from winning tag team and Cruiserweight titles all over the Midwest, now
Craig started winning heavyweight titles and wrestling a lot more dangerous,
risky matches. At this point wrestling went from wetsuit wearing, long bleach
blonde hair, high-flying matches to brutal, bloody, no holds barred wrestling.
Tables, ladders, chairs, fluorescent light tubes, fire, barbed wire and
thumbtacks were plentiful. This wrestling style was already set in stone
during The Waverider days, when Craig and Mike were the first to wrestle in a
"Barbed Wire Match" in West Allis, Wisconsin. The show was protested and they
even shared the front page on two of Milwaukee's largest newspapers, The
"Sentinal" and "The Journal" with the death of Jackie Kennedy
Onassis on the top
of the page, and "Barbed Wire Death Match" to be held in church assembly hall
on the bottom of the page. All in all, you know the saying, any publicity is
good publicity.
After splitting with Mike, Craig wrestled
singles matches mostly in the Midwest with misc. matches around the U.S., a
tour through Canada, and three tours to Europe which included wrestling his
wrestling idol, "The Dynamite Kid" from the former WWF tag team, "The British
Bulldogs". Then came the haircut, ring attire and partner change. Craig teamed
up with former opponent, Corp. Robinson, to form "The Extreme Dream Team".
Wrestling as a tag team in Mid-American Wrestling, the tag titles were won
quickly, only to be stripped just as quick, due to a knee injury followed by a
shoulder injury and broken sternum.
After a brief rest/healing, Craig went
right back to wrestling singles matches for awhile with a few Indiana
promotions. Then once everything was back to normal, "The Extreme Dream Team"
was reformed and Craig and Corp. were back at it. Also with all the promotions
in the Midwest, Craig has formed another tag team with friend "Metalhead"
Steve Stone. The new tag team, "American History Next", is also wrestling all
over the Midwest.
While wrestling
mostly in the southern Midwest with American History Next, Extreme Dream Team
had captured the NWA Midwest Tag Titles. Shortly after losing those
titles to the Scull Crusher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Craig & Corporal called
it quits after finally realizing Corporal was more focused on himself and not
Extreme Dream Team
Now with more time
to spend focusing on American History Next, Craig & Steve start filling up
their date book. Averaging about 60 shows a year, American History
Next started to gel and take tag titles in whatever promotion they wrestled
for.
04/21/07 -
The POWW promotion was first to be taken over and the Tag Team Titles were
easily won. Then came the AWA/Brew City titles, NWA Wisconsin titles,
GLCW titles, then the AWA Platinum Pro titles.
2010 proved to be the year for American History Next. They held titles all over
the Midwest when suddenly, Steve Stone was forced to retie due to numerous
concussions. At the advice of Steve's doctor, American History Next had
their last match with Brew City Wrestling in West Allis, Wisconsin.
With
Steve retired, Craig focused all his energy towards the end of 2010 and into
2011 on a Heavyweight Title. After going thru 29 other wrestlers and
lasting over an hour in a "Over The Top Battle Royal", Craig was crowned the
first Pro Wrestling Blitz Heavyweight Champion. His title reign lasted
over a year while defending his title against all comers including X-Pac, Al
Snow, Rhyno and even Tony Scarpone in a "Dog Collar Match".
After a few months of wrestling singles matches all over the Midwest, longtime
friend, Brandon Blaze and Craig teamed up and formed the tag team called
Hardcore Binge. Brandon and Craig began where Steve Stone and Craig left off,
dominating the tag team scene and not holding anything back. With all good
things, they come to an end after a brutal "Hardcore Cage Match" that left Craig
with an injury that almost broke his neck, thousands of thumbtacks, chairs,
blood, flaming tables and Brandon leaving the team. Still friends to this day,
they both know it was a hard choice to make, but the right choice.
With a
short time taken off to heal his neck, Craig jumped right back into the ring due
to the fact that he is stubborn and that's where his is most comfortable,
wrestling and kicking ass! Going back into action after an injury always has the
newer guys trying to take advantage of that and make a name for themselves, so
in comes Matty Starr. Upon entering the ring, Matty was all over the opportunity
on jumping in on any matches that Craig was involved in. He even went as far as
putting a $10,000 bounty on Craig's head for any wrestler that could take him
out, since he was so frustrated that he couldn't do it himself. After about 8
months of going through bounty hunters with the likes of Rhyno in a Hardcore
Match that had weapons and tables scattered throughout the building to longtime
friend/wrestling superstar Mr. Anderson even trying to collect the bounty, it
all came to a head when Craig declared "enough is enough, it's time to end this
once and for all.....in a T.N.T. Match!" After all the months of being chased
and looking over his back, he had convinced the commissioner of Pro Wrestling
Blitz, Mike Brooks to sign the match that Craig had came up with to end the
feud, a tables and thumbtacks match! After beating each other to a bloody mess,
throwing each other around and being covered in over 10,000 thumbtacks and
resulting in Craig jumping out of the camera man's man lift from over 15 feet,
crashing down and through Matty and a table, the feud was finally put to rest.
Insert
longtime friend and wrestler Pauly Thomaselli. Coming to Craig's side after
fighting off numerous foes in a battle royal, they decided that their talents
and experience could be utilized best if they formed a tag team together. Their
roots go all the way back to early 2004 in Mid American Wrestling where Pauly,
formally Brandon, was first getting his start as a wrestler and getting his feet
wet. Craig was one of the first in Mid American Wrestling to wrestle a bunch of
matches with Pauly and even though opponents, Craig always saw something in
Pauly and knew he had a future in the wrestling business. After all the years
that went by, once again, Pauly and Craig were in the ring together
again.....but this time, they decided to bond and form the team composed of
Hardcore Craig and "The Impact Player" Pauly Thomaselli...."Hardcore Impact".
Instantly they clicked and began taking over the tag team scene.
Now, to
skip forward a few months, while competing all over throughout different
promotions such as POWW, Pro Wrestling Blitz, GLCW, ARW and various other
promotions, comes one of Craig's biggest surprises and matches up to this
point. While Pauly and Craig are working their way to Pro Wrestling Blitz'
biggest show of the year, Wrestlefest, out of nowhere, a surprise challenge is
made by ECW hardcore legend....the homicidal, suicidal, genocidal....Sabu !
Sabu makes a challenge to wrestle Craig at Wrestlefest 5. After all the years of
the fans and Craig always wanting this match, along with Pauly's blessing, it
was finally coming to a head and going to happen! Then, to Craig, the fans and
even Sabu's surprise....enters Rhyno! The longtime on/off friendship between
Craig and Rhyno was really going to makes things interesting as Rhyno has now
inserted himself into this match and declaring it a "Hardcore 3-Way Match".
August 9th, 2014 was set to be Craig's greatest challenge. Joliet, Illinois was
set to be the place where it all goes down. Craig, Sabu and Rhyno wrestled and
fought their asses off in front of a sell out crowd, with almost 500 being
turned away, to what ended up being one of Craig's greatest moments, he ended up
giving not only Sabu his finishing move, the Hardcore Hangover, but then giving
it to Rhyno not once, but twice, to get the 3 count!
Now that
Wrestlefest 5 is over, Hardcore Impact is ready to take on all challengers. The
team of "The East/West Express" comes along and puts out the challenge. Craig
also makes his debut back to West Allis, Wis. and Brew City Wrestling on October
24th 2014. On the very next night, after winning his first match back at Brew
City Wrestling, Hardcore Impact is set to wrestle a 6-man tag team match with
"Shogun" Chris Logan vs. The East/West Express and Resse and in the middle of
the match, Craig received a blow to his left arm, and his wrestling momentum,
when the lights went out unexpectedly, and his bicep was completely torn off at
his forearm. After continuing to wrestle for another 10 minutes with the injury
and finishing the match, once backstage, it was apparent that surgery was
unavoidable since his bicep had rolled up to his shoulder. That following
Monday, Craig consulted with a surgeon and surgery was immediately set up for
Wednesday. After surgery, physical therapy and time off of wrestling was a must
for the next 6 months. Upon getting his release, he didn't rush back into the
ring, took the proper time to rest and heal, then it was back to the gym to
prepare for his come back to the only place he knows where he belongs, the
wrestling ring.
Craig, Pauly and Brandon Blaze decide to take a booking together in a 6-man tag
team match on April 25th to test out his arm to see if it was ready to go back at
it. After realizing that it is probably 80% back to normal, that's close enough
to start back to where he belongs, the gym and the ring. The decision is made by
Craig and his partner Pauly, that it's time to get back at it. Friday, May 22nd
2015 is set for the return of Hardcore Craig and the debut of Hardcore Impact
vs. The Beer City Bruisers in West Allis, Wis. for Brew City Wrestling and the
very next night, Craig was booked to make his comeback match at Pro Wrestling
Blitz. Craig had made a surprise of his own the previous month by running in to
Pro Wrestling Blitz in Joliet, Illinois, putting a pounding on Matty Starr and
Brubaker and announcing to a surprised crowd that "I got 2 words for ya....I'M
BACK!!!" After tearing down the house with The Beer City Bruisers and the next
night at Pro Wrestling Blitz, it was certain to Craig that it was perfect
timing. After his match on May 23rd with Brubraker, which ended with outside
interference to help Brubaker win the match, Pauly coming down for the save and
a Samoan getting thrown through a table. Tony Scarpone came to the ring to
announce his plans for Wrestlefest 6.....A "Tables Match" with Hardcore Impact
taking on the ECW, WWF/E and TNA Tag Team Legends....The Dudley Boyz!
Now
Hardcore Impact is wrestling for Brew City Wrestling & Pro Wrestling Blitz.
Craig has also made his return to POWW and within two shows became the Regional
Television Champion.
Hardcore Impact went undefeated for months in Brew City Wrestling only to be
stopped by Frank DeFalco, who demanded that they be stopped by bringing in NPJW
Tag Team Champions and world famous Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson "The Bullet
Club". To his dismay, Hardcore Impact defeated The Bullet Club and now is
going after the Tag Team Champions "The P-10's".
On March 19, 2016, Hardcore Impact defeated Nick Brubaker & Matty Starr in the
Tag Team Finals of a tournament that lasted 6 months to become the new Blitz Tag
Team Champions and to be surprised by WWE 2016 Hall of Famer, The Godfather in
the ring. After celebrating with some ho's and beers, they were told back
stage that they will have a rematch the following month -vs- Brubaker & Starr
for the Tag Team Titles.
As for Craig's POWW Regional Television Championship, after being chased by
Dazzling Donnie Dynamite, and defeating him four times in a row, including a
"First Blood Steel Cage Match", he is now taking on anyone and everyone who is
willing to be destroyed.
updated 5/25/20
Go to schedule to see where and who he will be wrestling next.