Diemazz

Scott Norton
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Scott Norton
Billed height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Billed weight	360 lb (160 kg; 26 st)
Born	June 15, 1961 (1961-06-15) (age 47) Minneapolis, Minnesota
Resides	Hartford, Connecticut
Billed from	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Trained by	Verne Gagne
Debut	1989

Scott Michael Norton (born June 15, 1961^[1]) is an American professional wrestler who is best known for working for New Japan Pro Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling.

Career

Early years

Scott Norton started out as a professional arm wrestler. He won over 30 championships during his days as an arm wrestler including four U.S. National championships.^[2] His status in the arm wrestling world earned him a role in Sylvester Stallone's arm wrestling movie, Over the Top.^[3] While touring the arm wrestling circuit in Japan Norton was approached by New Japan Pro Wrestling about becoming a professional wrestler but he turned it down initially.^[2]

After finally deciding to go the pro-wrestling route Norton was trained to wrestle by former Olympic wrestler Brad Rheingans. Verne Gagne decided to debut Norton before he was totally finished with his training, putting him on TV as a regular performer for the American Wrestling Association in 1989.^[2] He sometimes teamed with John Nord as the "Yukon Lumberjacks".^[1] Norton soon earned the nickname “Flash" for his quick arm wrestling victories. By the end of 1989 Norton left the AWA and went to the Pacific Northwest territory to further his career. In PNW, he started out as a face lumberjack known as “Flapjack" Scott Norton, he would team up with John Nord once more to reprise their Lumberjacks gimmick from the AWA.^[1] Norton turned Heel in 1990 as a singles competitor. He won the Pacific Northwest Title from Brian Adams on May 12, 1990,^[4] but he was stripped of the title two weeks later after attacking several wrestlers.^[4]

New Japan Pro Wrestling

In 1990, Scott Norton finally signed with the company that first approached him about becoming a pro-wrestler, New Japan Pro Wrestling. Norton’s size and speed helped him establish himself as one of the premiere Gaijins in NJPW.^{[citation needed]} Norton alternated between tagging and working mid card singles matches, not really settling on any permanent tag-team partners early on. Norton appeared at both the joint NJPW/WCW Starrcade in Egg Dome shows giving him exposure to WCW executives.^[5][6]

The working agreement between NJPW and WCW meant that The Steiner Brothers would tour Japan on a regular basis, often fighting against Scott Norton alongside a variety of partners. On November 5, 1991 Norton acted as a substitute for the injured Scott Steiner in an IWGP Tag-Team title match.^[7] Norton and Rick Steiner were unsuccessful on the night and lost the tag-team titles to Hiroshi Hase and Keiji Mutoh.^[4] About a year after losing the title he never technically held, Norton won the tag-team titles properly when he and Tony Halme beat the Steiner Brothers for the gold.^[4] The power house team only held on to the titles for a little over three weeks before losing them to the Hell Raisers (Hawk Warrior & Power Warrior).^[4]

After splitting up with Halme, Norton started to team with “Hercules" Hernandez on a regular basis. Hercules was a fellow power house wrestler and the two formed The Jurassic Powers,^[8] a team that won the IWGP Tag Team Championship from back from the Hell Raisers.^[4] The Powers held the titles for about 4 months before losing them back to the Hell Raisers at NJPW’s January 4 Dome Show (NJPW’s biggest annual event).^[4] While holding the titles, the Jurassic Powers successfully defended against teams such as Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase^[8] and The Nasty Boys^[8] and also beat Takayuki Iizuka & Akira Nogami,^[9] Jake "The Snake" & Brutus Beefcake,^[10] Masa Saito & Manabu Nakanishi and the Barbarian & Haku in non-title competition. The team also and made it to the finals of the 1993 Super Grade Tag League where they lost to Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase.^[11]

After breaking up with “Hercules" Hernandez, Norton floundered a bit,^{[citation needed]} failing to achieve much notoriety in the singles ranks nor in the tag-team division where he’d team with a variety of partners such as Mike Enos,^[12] Ron Simmons,^[13] Masa Chono,^[14] and Road Warrior Hawk.^[15]

World Championship Wrestling

Norton returned to the U.S. and signed with WCW in 1995. The promoters first tried to get Norton over as a heel with the fans by feuding with Sting but the feud never captivated the fans and was scrapped without much fanfare.^{[citation needed]}

Fire and Ice

During a WCW Saturday taping, Norton squared off against the mammoth Ice Train. The bout ended in a double count out when both men clotheslined the other knocking each out. After the match the two shook hands and Norton explained to announcer Gene Okerlund that he felt that they would make a formidable tag team because of their similar powerful approach to the business.^[16] The team was quickly named Fire and Ice. The finisher was seen as Norton power bombed his opponent followed by Train's leaping "Train Wreck" splash. The face team easily overpowered a series of low ranking tag-teams as they tried establish themselves as a legitimate team.^{[citation needed]} At Slamboree 1996: Lethal Lottery, Norton and Ice Train were “Randomly Drawn" to be on the same team and easily defeated the makeshift team of "Big" Bubba Rogers and Stevie Ray.^[17] The team advanced to the “Lord of The Ring" Battle royal but neither of them won it.^[17]

At the 1996 Great American Bash, Fire and Ice came head to head with Norton’s long time rivals the Steiner Brothers. The two teams was engaged in a mini-feud of sorts, two teams of powerhouses trying to show who was best. On that night the Steiner Brothers won,^[18] but Fire & Ice were not deterred. After a pre-PPV loss to The Rock 'n' Roll Express at Bash at the Beach 1996,^[19] dissension started to appear between the two, a dissension that turned into battle as Norton attacked Ice Train after another team loss. Norton defeated the Ice Train at Hog Wild in a submission match,^[20] but lost to Ice Train in their return match only a month later.^[21]

After Fire & Ice ended, Norton split his time between WCW and NJPW, achieving more success in NJPW than WCW most notably in the tag-team division. Scott Norton and Shinya Hashimoto teamed up and won the Super Grade Tag League VI in 1996 after beating Keiji Mutoh and Rick Steiner in the finals.^[22]

Vicious and Delicious

In late 1996, Norton joined the New World Order (nWo), which gave his WCW career some direction after the break up of Fire and Ice. In the nWo, Norton teamed with Buff Bagwell, creating a team called Vicious and Delicious. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers,^[23][24] but were never able to win the tag team titles, always destined to be the #2 tag-team in the nWo behind the Outsiders.

NJPW/WCW

During his nWo days, Norton traveled back and forth to NJPW, where he was a member of nWo Japan, and became New Japan's gaijin ace becoming one of the few wrestlers to be a regular member of both factions. On September 23, 1998 Scott Norton won the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Championship by defeating Yuji Nagata.^[4] Norton’s title win was mentioned only once in America on a broadcast of WCW Monday Nitro while he was seen holding the belt, but Norton’s standing in the WCW version of the nWo never changed from this fact. Norton held the title for 3 months^[25] before losing the title to Keiji Mutoh.^[4] Scott Norton was only the second American to hold the IWGP title at this point - the other being Big Van Vader.^[26]

Soon, Norton began playing a smaller role in WCW, becoming part of the nWo "B-Team" which often placed him in mid-lower card matches; although, he would frequently squash jobbers in singles competition. While in NJPW, however, Norton was seen as a main-eventer and constant threat to world champions. He left WCW completely in 1999, focusing all his efforts on NJPW where he was part of Masahiro Chono's "Team 2000."

On March 17, 2001, Norton defeated Kensuke Sasaki in Nagoya, Japan to capture the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship a second time.^[4] His second reign was shorter than his first, and he lost to Kazuyuki Fujita on his first defense.^[4] After the loss Norton started to team with former WCW foe Rick Steiner whenever Steiner toured Japan, but otherwise be planted solidly in the mid-card as a test any hopeful world title challenger would have to pass. Norton temporarily retired in 2004,^{[citation needed]} but didn't stay away long. When he returned, he once again teamed with Rick Steiner. In 2006, following that year's New Japan Cup,^[27] he left NJPW after 16 years, becoming a "freelancer".

Independent circuit

Later that year, he started his own independent promotion, Wild West Championship Wrestling,^[28] based in the southwest of United States, where he acts as a booker as well as an in-ring talent.^[2]

Currently, Norton wrestles in the Japanese promotion, HUSTLE, where he is a part of the heel group led by "Generalissimo" Takada.

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves
  • Release powerbomb
  • Shoulderbreaker
  • Chokeslam
  • Falling powerslam
  • Suplex powerslam

• Nicknames
  • "Flash"
  • "Fire"
  • "Flapjack"
  • "Crusher"

Championships and accomplishments

• New Japan Pro Wrestling
  • G1 Climax Tag League (1999) – with Keiji Mutoh
  • IWGP Heavyweight Championship (2 times)^[4]
  • IWGP Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Hercules Hernandez (1) and Tony Halme (1)^[4]
  • Super Grade Tag League (1996) – with Shinya Hashimoto
• Pacific Northwest Wrestling
  • NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[4]
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked him # 47 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1993.^[29]

References

External links

Professional wrestling portal

• Scott Norton’s Official Website (down as of 07-18-2007)

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