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Thrasher (wrestler)

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Thrasher
Mosh (left) and Thrasher (right)
Birth nameGlenn Ruth
Born (1969-06-13) June 13, 1969 (age 55)[1]
Camden, New Jersey, U.S.[2][3]
Children4
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Frankie Favorite
Glenn Ruth
Guardian #2
The Royal Spider[2]
Sister Angelica[4]
The Spider
Spider #2
Thrasher[1]
Billed height6 ft 4 in (193 cm)[2]
Billed weight245 lb (111 kg)[2]
Trained byLarry Sharpe[2][3]
Debut1990[2]

Glenn Ruth (born June 13, 1969) is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name, Thrasher. For much of his career he has teamed with Mosh, most famously as The Headbangers, a pair of metal-heads known for their outrageous costumes such as nose rings and kilts. Thrasher is best known for his stints in the World Wrestling Federation between 1990 and 2000, where he held the WWF World Tag Team Championship and WWF Hardcore Championship.[2][3][1]

Professional wrestling career

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Early career (1990–1996)

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Ruth grew up in South Jersey.[3] He trained as a wrestler under Larry Sharpe and debuted in 1990 as The Spider. He later became Sharpe's assistant and helped train wrestlers including Big Show and his future tag team partner Mosh at Sharpe's "Monster Factory" professional wrestling school.[3] Worked in New Jersey, for the National Wrestling Alliance. In 1991, Ruth wrestled as Frankie Favorite for All Japan Pro Wrestling. In Japan he would occasionally teamed up with Johnny Favorite. In 1991 as the Spider, he won the WWA Heavyweight Championship twice in New Jersey from 1991 to 1992 and 1992 to 1993. Also worked in Maryland. On January 23, 1993, the Spider wrestled The Sandman in a Double DQ for Eastern Championship Wrestling. In 1994, he started teaming up with Chaz Warrington as the Spiders working in the independent circuit in New Jersey and Texas. They made a few appearances for Extreme Championship Wrestling in June 1994. In 1995 they moved down to Tennessee for Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW). It was there that they changed their gimmicks to the Headbangers. Their slogan was "Real men wear skirts." Ruth became Thrasher and Warrington became Mosh. In December 1995 Smokey Mountain folded and they joined the United States Wrestling Association (USWA).

World Wrestling Federation (1990, 1991–1993, 1995, 1996–2000)

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Ruth debuted in the World Wrestling Federation in August 1990 under his real name losing to Rick Rude. He wrestled several matches for the promotion until leaving in November 1990, making several appearances on WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestling Challenge.[2]

Ruth made a number of appearances for the World Wrestling Federation from 1991 to 1993. Losing to the big names; Ric Flair, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. He appeared on the second ever episode of Raw in 1993 a losing effort against Marty Jannetty, competing under his given name as an enhancement talent. Sometimes he even made tag teams appearances against The Smoking Gunns and The Steiner Brothers.

In December 1995, he paired with Mosh and the two debuted as jobbers in the WWF as the Spiders using their real names. They returned to the USWA shortly after.

Wrestling as "The Spiders", Thrasher and Mosh returned to the WWF on the September 24, 1996, episode of WWF Superstars, losing to The Smoking Gunns. In November 1996, they resumed wrestling as "The Headbangers". At the outset of 1997, The Headbangers briefly began wearing nun outfits and wrestling as "The Flying Nuns" and "The Sisters of Love", with Thrasher wrestling as "Sister Angelica" and Mosh as "Mother Smucker". They were briefly managed by Brother Love.[2][4]

The Headbangers captured the vacant WWF World Tag Team Championships on September 7, 1997, by defeating three other teams in a four team tag match at Ground Zero. They lost the titles to The Godwinns on October 5 of that same year.

In 1998, the Headbangers continued competing in the WWF feuding with The Oddities and The Quebecers. They won the NWA Tag Team Championships on February 23, 1998 defeating The Rock 'n' Roll Express on Raw Is War.[5][6]

The Headbangers split in January 1999 when Ruth suffered a knee injury and Warrington began pursuing a singles career, but reformed in late 1999 on the October 10 edition of Sunday Night Heat when Ruth came to Warrington's aid during a domestic violence angle, which saw him vilified by other wrestlers and officials alike for a number of weeks. Ruth had presented video footage of Warrington's (kayfabe) girlfriend Marianna Komlos putting on makeup to make it seem as if Warrington had been abusing her. The police officers arresting Warrington then uncuffed him and arrested Komlos for her lies. Shortly thereafter the two began appearing regularly as a team again, but were now heels and inexplicably came to the ring wearing cone brassieres which they wore while they wrestled.

In 2000, Ruth took part in the match for the Hardcore Championship at WrestleMania 2000. He held the title for 37 seconds, pinning Joey Abs and then being pinned by Pete Gas. After the Headbangers split for the second time in that July and Warrington went on to team with D'Lo Brown, Ruth continued to wrestle in singles competition mainly on WWF Jakked/Metal before being sent to WWF's Memphis Championship Wrestling developmental territory that summer. He was released from the WWF in December 2000.

Independent circuit (2000–2003)

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After his release from the WWF, Ruth continued to wrestle until 2003 for Maryland Championship Wrestling and independent promotions before retiring from professional wrestling.

Ring of Honor and return to the independent circuit (2011–present)

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In 2011, The Headbangers reformed and have been wrestling on the independent circuit once again. In June 2012, Thrasher and Mosh debuted in Ring of Honor as The Guardians of Truth, a masked tag team managed by Truth Martini. As of 2014, Thrasher now wrestles for independent promotion Championship Wrestling Entertainment in Port St. Lucie, FL. On November 14, 2014, Thrasher defeated Chico Adams to become the CWE Heavyweight Champion.

Return to World Wrestling Entertainment (2016)

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Thrasher and Mosh made an unannounced return to the WWE (formerly WWF) on the 30 August 2016 episode of WWE SmackDown, losing to Heath Slater and Rhyno in the first round of a tournament for the newly created WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship. They made two further appearances on SmackDown in November 2016.[2]

Other media

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Alongside Mosh, he appears as Thrasher in WWE 2K24 as downloadable content.[7]

Personal life

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Ruth is married with four children.[3]

Upon retiring from professional wrestling in 2002, Ruth began working in restaurant management and marketing.[3] Ruth is currently an Area Supervisor for Papa John's in Boynton Beach, Florida.

Championships and accomplishments

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Harris M. Lentz III (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Professional Wrestling, 2nd edition. McFarland & Company. pp. 152–153. ISBN 978-0-7864-1754-4.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Philip Kreikenbohm. "Thrasher". Cagematch.net. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Ryan Murphy (June 1, 2010). "Where Are They Now? The Headbangers". WWE.com. WWE. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Phantom of the Ring; Tyler Christian; Dean Cavanaugh (1999). Hardcore Wrestling!. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-7821-2691-4.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference NWATag was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference WWFTag was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ 2K Games. "WWE2K24 - SEASON PASS IS BACK". WWE 2K. Retrieved February 27, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ "AWE Hardcore Championship « Titles Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database". Archived from the original on July 9, 2017.
  9. ^ "ARW Tag Team Championship « Titles Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database". Archived from the original on March 28, 2019.
  10. ^ "FEW Halloween Fallout". CageMatch.
  11. ^ "FEW Autumn Brawl 2 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database". Archived from the original on November 9, 2020.
  12. ^ "HWA Tag Team Title History". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved May 18, 2010.
  13. ^ "MCW Tag Team Championship". Maryland Championship Wrestling. Archived from the original on June 7, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2012.
  14. ^ a b Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  15. ^ "History of the Hardcore Championship". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved May 18, 2010.
  16. ^ "The Headbangers' first reign". WWE. Archived from the original on February 16, 2012. Retrieved May 18, 2010.
  17. ^ "WFC WrestleMayhem". CageMatch.
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