Lex Lovett

Lex Lovett
Birth name Wayne Meyer
Born (1975-07-24) July 24, 1975
Residence New Tampa, Florida
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Lex Lovett
Lex Meyer
Mini Gymini
Billed height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Billed weight 225 lb (102 kg)
Trained by Steve Keirn
Debut 1999

Wayne Meyer (born July 24, 1975) is an American professional wrestler, known by his ringname Lex Lovett, who competes in Southeastern independent promotions such as Independent Pro Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance-affiliated NWA Florida as well as having toured the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

From 2003 to 2006, he and Buck Quartermain formed a tag team in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and on the independent circuit. He has also briefly appeared in the X Wrestling Federation and World Wrestling Entertainment.

Career

Early life and career

Meyer was born near Tampa, Florida. At the age of 5, he began watching WWF Superstars and Championship Wrestling from Florida then hosted by Gordon Solie. It was during this time that he became a fan of Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Blackjack Mulligan and Barry and Kendall Windham. He drifted from wrestling as a teenager, however his interest returned when he and his college roommate Alex Lovett started watching during the "Attitude Era" in the mid-1990s. While at USF, he was a male cheerleader where he met his wife, Erika, and after graduating they coached the USF cheerleading team together. After graduating from the University of South Florida with a degree in finance, he worked for Raymond James in St. Petersburg as a junior analyst and taught business studies as a substitute teacher at Chamberlain High School in Tampa.[1]

His roommate began wrestling as Alex Yeull Lovett soon after graduating and Meyer soon expressed interest in entering professional wrestling himself. Alex Lovett introduced him to Steve Keirn at an IPW show and Keirn agreed to train him at his wrestling school. He was originally scheduled to start training in July 1999, however he postponed it after Alex Lovett died while touring Lima, Peru.

That November, he began training under Keirn and Jimmy Del Ray learning wrestling moves, ring psychology, dieting, workout programs and general conduct. Prior to his debut, he chose the name Lex Lovett in honor of Alex Lovett. At the end of the year, he wrestled his first match teaming with "Venom" Tim Keirn against Drunk & Disorderly (Chris Nelson and Vito DeNucci).[2]

NWA Florida

He spent the next several months in the St. Petersburg area for promoter Frankie Reyes and later Howard Brodie's NWA Florida territory. He feuded with the stable Tampa Clique, which at the time included Pepi Prado, Buck Q, Scoot Andrews and Mike Sullivan, during his first five months in the promotion. Still in his rookie year, he eventually defeated Pepe Prado for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship in Tampa on November 14, 2000. Several months later, he was involved in a controversial storyline in the feud between NWA Florida and IPW Hardcore when he accepted a title challenge from former referee Spanky Malone during an NWA Florida supercard at the Homer W. Hesterly Armory in Tampa on April 24, 2001.[3] He pinned Malone with an Asai Moonsault in 56 seconds and was immediately attacked by 6 wrestlers from IPW Hardcore who were sitting at ringside. Lovett was hit by a fireball during the attack before the wrestlers were arrested by security.[4]

After a nine-month reign, he lost the title to Jet Jaguar in Ybor City, Florida on July 18. Soon after, he participated in the NWA Super Junior Open tournament. Lovett successfully advanced to the tournament finals to face Scoot Andrews and Christopher Daniels in a three way match. On August 21, he defeated Mike Thunder for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship in Tampa. He had faced Thunder while in Texas the previous month and was one of the top contenders when Thunder, despite having a torn ligament, defended the belt in Florida. Lovett was helped due to outside interference by Jason Rumble who attacked him following the match.[5]

Two months later, Lovett defended the title against top junior heavyweights Jet Jaguar, Jimmy Rave, Brandon K and Jason Rumble in a "Fatal Five-Way" match at the NWA 53rd Anniversary show in St. Petersburg on October 13. Losing the title to Jason Rumble, he was later part of an interpromotional match between NWA Florida and Independent Professional Wrestling pitting Team NWA Florida (Lovett, Buck Q, Rod Steel, Chris Nelson and Vito DeNucci) against Team IPW (Scoot Andrews, Mike Sullivan, Jet Jaguar, Chaos and The Shane Twins). The match was a "Wargames"-style match and eventually ruled a no-contest.[6]

His match with Jason Rumble was eventually seen by World Wrestling Federation officials who were impressed with the match. He was invited to Cincinnati by Kevin Kelly where he would be evaluated along with 14 other wrestlers by Jim Cornette, Al Snow, Tom Prichard, Arn Anderson, Raven, Tommy Dreamer and Bill DeMott. He and the others worked on matches and promos with six wrestlers receiving contracts with the WWE, although three wrestlers were later released. On December 21, Lovett was given a tryout match against Crash Holly on WWF Jakked.[2]

IPW Hardcore

During the next year, Lovett spent five months on the independent circuit and made appearances for promoter Bill Behrens in the Georgia-based NWA Wildside, Jimmy Hart's X Wrestling Federation and Dusty Rhodes' Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling. Although scheduled for one appearance, he again impressed XWF officials who invited him to matches against Jimmy Reiher, Jr. and Low Ki at a second XWF television taping.

By the time he returned to Florida, Lovett saw NWA Florida on the verge of folding and decided to contact promoter Ron Neimi to join rival promotion IPW Hardcore. One of the main figures involved in the NWA Florida vs. IPW Hardcore feud, the "old school" Lovett was promoted as a "heel" among the "hardcore" fans of IPW. He was originally supposed to become the tag team partner of Buck Quartermain but was replaced with Steve Madison after Quartermain left the promotion. He and Madison teamed together for only a brief time before Lovett turned on him during a tag team match and attacked him. After he and Madison split up, he took on Vito DeNucci as his manager and feuded with Madison and Antonio Banks.[2]

World Japan Pro

In 2003, Lovett was contacted by Steve Madison and later Masao "Tiger" Hattori offering to participate in a tour with World Japan Pro. Lovett accepted and traveled to Japan where he later met with Hattori and Riki Choshu. During the four-day Magna01 Power Hall Series, he competed under the name Lex Meyer and faced Hiroshi Hase, Shiro Koshinaka and Riki Choshu and Kensuke Sasaki in a tag team match. During the II and III series, he wrestled Yoji Anjo as well as tag team matches with Kenzo Suzuki against Koshinaka and Choshu and Sasaki against Takao Omori and Koichiro Kimura. On July 19, he lost to NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion Scoot Andrews in a three-way match with Billy Fives in St. Petersburg.[7]

During the Burning Autumn tour, he faced Steve Madison on the first two nights and received high praise from the promotion. Lovett later took on Jose Maximo, Katsumi Usuda, Masamitsu Kochi and Shume Matsuzaki. After leaving Japan, he toured the People's Republic of China with NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling which took place from December 27, 2003 to January 4, 2004.[2] On the third and last day of the tour, Lovett defeated Mike Rapada at the Guangzhou Gymnasium with 3,400 in attendance.

Total Nonstop Action and the independent circuit

Soon after his return to the United States, Lovett began wrestling for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. He made his pay-per-view debut in a dark match with Rod Steel against David Young and Tony Mamaluke on February 5, 2003. Although used as a preliminary wrestler during his first stint with the promotion, he eventually formed a tag team with Buck Quartermain and managed by former Survivor contestant Johnny Fairplay. In July 2004, he faced Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.[8]

Later that year, Lovett defeated Scoot Andrews for the NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship on October 9, 2004. Lovett would face his tag team partner, substituting for an injured Roderick Strong, in a match for the title at NWA Florida's supercard Rage in the Cage 7 on February 26, 2005.[9]

He and Quartermain continued to appear in dark matches on TNA's weekly PPV's losing to Phi Delta Slam (Big Tilly and Bruno Sassi) at Against All Odds, The Naturals (Chris Candido and Andy Douglas) at Destination X[10] and 3 Live Kru (Ron Killings and Konnan) a three-way match with The Naturals at Lockdown on April 21, 2005.[11][12] On May 27, he and David Young lost to The Naturals at TNA Impact!.[13]

On June 10, Lovett put his title on the line against NWA World Heavyweight Champion A.J. Styles at the main event of the Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup.[14] Although Lovett came close to victory managing to use his signature move, the "Lex Buster", Styles was able to kick out and pinned Lovett with his own finishing move, the "Styles Clash" for the win. After the match, Lovett addressed the fans thanking them for their support and officially announced his retirement.

In August 2005, he appeared in the corner of Buck Quartermain in his match against Glacier at a Coastal Championship Wrestling event. This match was to decide the number one contender for the CCW heavyweight title. The next month, he faced Quartermain in a four-way match with Mike Sullivan and Bruce Steel at an IPW Hardcore event on September 17.

Officially coming out of retirement, Lovett appeared on the first episode of TNA Impact! and lost to "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown on October 1. He and Quartermain made their return to TNA losing to The Naturals on October 29. They continued to appear in a part-time capacity on TNA Impact during the next year losing to Team 3-D on January 7 and the James Gang on January 21, 2006;[15] they also lost to The Naturals at an Elite Wrestling Entertainment event that same night. He and Quartermain made only infrequent appearances throughout the next few months. Lovett, who was not under contract to TNA, made several inquires into whether he was going to be used in the future in order to quit his full-time job. When he received no response for the promotion, Lovett finally gave his notice in March 2006.[16]

Recent years

On April 1, Lovett beat Vito Denucci with manager Bill Alfonso via disqualification at a show for Elite Wrestling Entertainment in Brandon, Florida. Later that night, he joined Buck Quartermain, Erick Stevens and Steve Madison in the main event losing to Mike Sullivan, Shawn Murphy and The New Heavenly Bodies (Chris Nelson & Vito Denucci) in the "Captain's Fall" elimination match.[17]

In May, he made a one-time appearance in the WWE developmental territory Deep South Wrestling teaming with Gymini Jake in the DSW Tag Team Championship tournament. Defeating Eric Perez and Montel Vontavious Porter in the opening rounds, they advanced to the finals where they lost to High Impact (Mike Taylor and Tony Santarelli).[18]

Throughout 2006 and into 2007, he and Quartermain would continue teaming off and on in various independent promotions. Although defeating the tag team Black Market in a handicap match while in Elite Wrestling Entertainment, he and Lovett lost to The Down Boys (Tom Lawlor and J.P. Ice) at a Pro Wrestling Warfare show on March 11.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

  • IPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) [19]
  • PWI ranked him # 216 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 2004

References

  1. ↑ Matus, Ron (2004-02-20). "Holding their own". St. Petersburg Times.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wojcik, Alan (December 2003). "Lex Lovett Part 1". AlanWojcik.com.
  3. ↑ Ringside Live (2001-04-28). "NWA Title Change play-by-play and complete supercard coverage". (Podcast). WrestlingClassics.com.
  4. ↑ McNeill, Pat. The Tables All Were Broken: McNeill's Take On The End Of Professional Wrestling As We Know It. Lincoln: iUniverse, 2002. (pg. 164) ISBN 0-595-22404-0
  5. ↑ Pro Wrestling Illustrated (2007). "Pro Wrestling Illustrated: Wrestling History". PWI-Online.com.
  6. ↑ "SLAM! Wrestling: Rough night for Canadians at NWA 53rd". SLAM! Sports. 2001-10-14.
  7. ↑ "Florida Heavyweight Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.
  8. ↑ Johnson, Steve (2004-07-31). "SLAM! Wrestling: Impact! shows "squash" isn't so bad after all". SLAM! Wrestling.
  9. ↑ Wojcik, Alan J. (2005-02-28). "NWA FL (2/26): Rage in the Cage 7!". Prowrestlingdaily.com. Archived from the original on 2006-05-11.
  10. ↑ Schultz, Chris (2005-03-13). "TNA Destination X Results 03/13/05". TNAwrestling.com.
  11. ↑ "TNA Lockdown: Lockdown 2005". ProWrestlingHistory.com.
  12. ↑ "04/24/05: TNA Lockdown Results". AngryMarks.com. 2005-04-24.
  13. ↑ Csonka, Larry (2005-05-27). "411's NWA TNA Impact Report 5.27.05". 411mania.com.
  14. ↑ Milner, John (2005-06-08). "SLAM! Wrestling: Peterson Cup showcases wrestling's positive side". SLAM! Sports.
  15. ↑ "Quick Results Archive: Weekly PPV's - 2006". TNAwrestling.com. 2006.
  16. ↑ "TNA: Impact Rating & Lex Lovett Gives Notice". Wrestling101.com. 2006-04-22.
  17. ↑ "Newsline, 04/05/2006". 1wrestling.com. 2006-04-05.
  18. ↑ "Deep South Wrestling Tag Team Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.
  19. ↑ Westcott, Brian; Kriss Knights (2003). "Independent Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title History". Solie's Title Histories.
  20. 1 2 "N.W.A. Florida Junior Heavyweight Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.
  21. ↑ "N.W.A. Southern Heavyweight Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.

External links

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