Rod Price (wrestler)

Rod Price
Birth nameRodney Price
Born (1962-01-25) January 25, 1962 (age 62)[1]
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Rod Price
California Stud
Billed height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[2]
Billed weight275 lb (125 kg; 19.6 st)[2]
Trained byRed Bastien
Debut1988
Retired2010

Rodney Price (born January 25, 1962) is an American retired professional wrestler and manager. He is best known for his appearances in the Texas-based promotions Global Wrestling Federation, the Memphis-based promotion United States Wrestling Association and Extreme Championship Wrestling in the 1990s under the ring name Rod Price.[3]

Early life

He played in the National Football League for the Los Angeles Raiders and San Diego Chargers from 1985 to 1987.[4][5]

Professional wrestling career

Stud made his professional wrestling debut in 1988. In 1990, Price worked in the Dallas, Texas-based promotion World Class Championship Wrestling during the promotion's final days. After WCCW, Price worked in Memphis for the United States Wrestling Association. He began to team with Steve Austin. In Puerto Rico, he won the WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Championship defeating Super Medico #3 holding it for a week. He would drop the title to Super Medico #3.

In 1991, Price made his debut in the newly Global Wrestling Federation based in Dallas. Price and John Tatum formed the "California Connection" / the "Coast to Coast Connection" winning the GWF Tag Team Championship twice[6] He won the GWF North American Heavyweight Championship three times.[6] During a match against Chris Adams (wrestler), Price got his hairpiece ripped off by Adams. Then Price began to bleed all over the ring. Price says that people sometimes laugh about that incident but he ended up getting over 200 stitches in his head as a result of it.[7] Price worked for Global Wrestling Federation until it folded in September 1994.

From 1993 to 1994, Price worked in Japan's Network Of Wrestling.

After GWF, Price worked in the independent circuit in NWA Dallas where he feuded with Sam Houston (wrestler) in early 1995. Later that year he worked in Germany's Catch Wrestling Association. In 1996, he returned to Japan for Super Professional Wrestling Federation until 1997.

Price worked a dark match for Monday Night Raw on January 20, 1997, losing to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.[8]

On May 1, 1998, Price won the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship defeating Action Jackson in a tournament final. He was stripped of the title on June 28 after he refused to pay a fine.[9]

In September 1998, Price made his debut in ECW.[10] He would fight against Tommy Dreamer, New Jack, Taz, Lance Storm, Rob Van Dam and Mike Awesome. Price won a couple matches against Tommy Dreamer.[11] Price competed against Nova at CyberSlam (1999). Skull Von Crush interfered in the match by attacking Nova on behalf of Price and then Nova's tag team partner Chris Chetti also got involved, making it a tag team match. Nova and Chetti nailed a Tidal Wave to Price for the win. After the match, Crush attacked Price with a jumping DDT.[12][13] He became a member of the Da Baldies, a heel stable composed of wrestlers who were all bald. He left ECW in November 1999.

After ECW, Price returned to the independents until retiring from wrestling in 2010.

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. ^ Saalbach, Axel. "Wrestlingdata.com – The World's Largest Wrestling Database". wrestlingdata.com. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Rod Price". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  3. ^ "Rod Price Profile". CageMatch. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  4. ^ "Bios: Rod Price". The Oklahoma Wrestling Fan's Resource Center.
  5. ^ "Rod Price". January 14, 2010.
  6. ^ a b c d e Royal Duncan; Gary Will (2006). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  7. ^ "'Rugged' Rod Price Talks Infamous Chris Adams Hair Pull, ECW, Early Steve Austin".
  8. ^ "1997". Thehistoryofwwe.com. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
  9. ^ "NWA Texas Heavyweight Title (NWA Southwest)".
  10. ^ "1998". Thehistoryofwwe.com. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
  11. ^ "1999". Thehistoryofwwe.com. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
  12. ^ Bob Colling (December 23, 2011). "ECW Cyberslam 1999 4/3/1999". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
  13. ^ "ECW Cyberslam 1999". The Wrestling Revolution. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
  14. ^ "Continental Wrestling Alliance championship histories". Wrestling Supercards and Tournaments. Retrieved May 5, 2009.
  15. ^ Will, Gary; Duncan, Royal (2000). "Texas: NWA Texas Heavyweight Title [Von Erich]". Wrestling Title Histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. pp. 268–269. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  16. ^ "TWA Tag Team Titles". WrestlingData. Archived from the original on February 16, 2022. Retrieved February 16, 2022.