Robert A. "Bob" Starr (born September 24, 1971) is a semi-retired American professional wrestler, trainer, and manager who has competed in numerous independent promotions throughout the United States since his debut in 1988. He is especially well known in the Mid-Atlantic region where he has competed for The Bad Crew's Eastern Wrestling Federation, Eastern Championship Wrestling, Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation, National Wrestling League, and the Virginia Wrestling Alliance. Starr also wrestled as a preliminary wrestler in both World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation throughout the 1990s.
One of the most dominant wrestlers in the MEWF's history, Starr was among the original wrestlers who helped create the promotion, serving as its booker in later years, and was widely considered "the face" of the company; he is a two-time MEWF Heavyweight Champion, a record six-time MEWF Mid-Atlantic Champion, and three-time MEWF Tag Team Champion as one-half of the Hollywood Hunks with Lucifer and Joe Thunder. He is also the last official AWA World Television Champion and, as of 2010, was still defending the title on the "indy circuit" despite the close of AWA Superstars (Mike Schwabbs version) eight years before.
Starr, himself trained by Ricky Lawless and the Monster Factory, has worked as an instructor at both the Bone Busters and Brain Busters training facilities in Baltimore, and Gillberg's Pro Wrestling Academy in Severn, Maryland. He is credited for training, among others, Lucifer, Fantasia, and Ruckus. In recent years, he has been associated with Maryland Championship Wrestling as a referee and manager. In 2010, MCW's second annual "Legends of Maryland" supercard, he was inducted into the MCW Hall of Fame.
Career
Early career (1988–1990) Originally from Malibu Beach, California,"The PWI 500." Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Fort Washington, Pennsylvania: London Publishing Company. (Holiday 1998): pg. 76. Starr moved with his family to Baltimore where he would spend most of his childhood. Baltimore was a major wrestling town at this time with monthly visits from the "Big 3", the American Wrestling Association, the National Wrestling Alliance, and the World Wrestling Federation. It was during the mid-1980s, searching for cartoons to watch while snowed in at his home, that Starr came across a televised wrestling match of Paul Orndorff and Roddy Piper "[beating] the hell out of each other". He soon became an avid wrestling fan and, while attending Dundalk High School, began training to be a pro wrestler after meeting "Bad Boy" Ricky Lawless. He would be part of the same class that produced Axl Rotten and Joey Maggs.
When Lawless was murdered four months into his training, Starr continued at the Baltimore Monster Factory before making his professional debut in 1988. His first match took place on September 18 of that year against Tim Tyson at the Langley Air Force Base fieldhouse in Hampton, Virginia. He spent the next several years wrestling in several regional and independent promotions including All Star Wrestling, the Atlantic States Wrestling Alliance, Mario Savoldi's International Championship Wrestling, Universal Independent Wrestling, and the Virginia Wrestling Alliance. He wrestled one of his first major opponents, Axl Rotten, at the ASWA's "Wrestling Fury" supercard in 1990.
WWF and WCW (1990–1991) In 1990, Starr joined the World Wrestling Federation making his debut with Bobby Knight in a tag team match against both The Executioners (Pain & Agony) and Legion of Doom (Hawk & Animal) at a television taping in Utica, New York. Starr had been brought into the promotion by Tony Garea, on the advice of fellow Maryland wrestler Duane Gill (Pain), and would continue to appear on WWF television and house shows up and down the East Coast and Northeastern United States during his first run in the promotion.
At the time he was working part-time at a used car dealership when Gill convinced him to quit his job to tour with the WWF. A year later, Starr took part in a 40-man battle royal including WWF Intercontinental Champion Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Virgil, Kato, Owen Hart, Koko B. Ware, Tito Santana, Kerry von Erich, Tatanka, Sgt. Slaughter, Rick Martel, Berzerker, Skinner, Duane Gill, Jim Brunzell, Barry Horowitz, Jim Powers, Barry Hardy, Bob Knight, the Beverly Brothers, The Nasty Boys, and WWF World Tag Team Champions Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase & IRS); Starr was eliminated by one of the Beverly Brothers. It was held at the Civic Centre in Ottawa, Ontario and later aired on the July 6 edition of WWF Prime Time Wrestling.
In July 1991, Starr also made his debut in World Championship Wrestling against Nikita Koloff in Salisbury, Maryland. With the exception of occasional appearances in the WWF (his last tour was in 1994), he would continue wrestling for the company making over 250 television appearances and countless house shows for the next 6 years.
It was during this period that Starr worked as an independent agent, like many who worked as preliminary wrestlers, allowing him to continue wrestling anywhere he wished, such as his later commitments to the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation, as long as he was able to make his television appearances. In time, he would become a familiar face on WWF and WCW television programming, in addition to television shows run by independent promotions.
Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation (1991–1994) During the summer of 1991, Starr became involved in the creation of the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation, one of the earliest independent promotions in Maryland, along with co-founders Dennis Wippercht and Tim Burke.Walker, Eric. "Eric Walker looks at MEWF ." DeclarationofIndependents.net. Ed. Sean McCaffrey. N.p., 2004. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. <www.declarationofindependents.net/doi/pages/specialsubmits/walker.html>. He wrestled Morgus the Maniac on its first card held in Pasadena, Maryland on August 2, 1991 He would remain one of the promotion's top stars for much of its 12-year history, considered the "face" of the company by the late-1990s, and later became involved in helping Burke run the promotion behind-the-scenes as a booker and in other roles.
On March 6, 1993, Starr defeated C.C. Danger in Gaithersburg, Maryland to become the first MEWF Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion. He held the title for eight months before losing it to Mike Khoury in Essex on November 14, 1993; the title changed hands during an 8-man tag team elimination match pitting Bob Starr, Tommy Lee Manson, Max Thrasher, and Duane Gill against Mike Khoury, Joe Thunder, Tommy Dreamer, and Max Moon. As a result of a pre-match stipulation, Khoury, as the sole survivor, was awarded the MEWF Mid-Atlantic title.
On May 21, 1993, Starr teamed with Joey Maggs in a losing effort against the Cole Twins (Kent and Keith Cole) at the Philadelphia Civic Center. Though both Starr and Maggs were familiar stars in the region, WCW drew its lowest-ever crowd in the "hardcore mecca" of Philadelphia with only 600 fans in attendance. Nearly a year later he returned to Philadelphia to make a one-time appearance in Eastern Championship Wrestling, due in part to Axl Rotten, teaming with "The Extreme Shah" Hack Meyers in his ECW debut against The Bruise Brothers (Don and Ron Bruise) at the ECW Arena.
That same year, he also formed a successful tag team with Lucifer called The Hollywood Hunks. The team toured the Mid-Atlantic circuit capturing the ECWA Tag Team Championship in August 1993 which they held until dropping the belts to Ace Darling & Kid Flash two years later. In late September 1994, he made a brief return to the WWF teaming with Chris Canyon to take on Shawn Michaels & Diesel on the September 26th edition of Monday Night Raw. He followed this up with back-to-back appearances for WWF house shows in Upstate New York later aired on television. Starr wrestled in a tag team match with Barry Horowitz against The Headshrinkers (Fatu & Samu) at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center on September 27 and, in a singles match, against Adam Bomb at the Westchester County Center the following night. This was his last year touring for the company.
In November, he and Lucifer defeated The Goodfellows (Romeo Valentino & Dino Casanova) for the MEWF Tag Team Championship. Their MEWF tag title reign, however, lasted only a brief time as they were defeated by Road Warrior Hawk and Ultimate Comet in Catonsville days later. He also wrestled bouts against Mike Khoury and Doink the Clown during this time facing Doink and Dink in a mixed tag team match at the end of the year.
World Championship Wrestling (1991–1995) Though Starr competed for both WCW and the WWF during the 1990s, because of its closer vicinity to Maryland and "open-door policy", he remained largely loyal to WCW and was featured on virtually all of its television programming with the exception of WCW Thunder. His initial attempts to be hired by the company, however, were ignored. He was later advised to contact Jody Hamilton at the Power Plant for bookings with the company. According to Starr, he left Hamilton a message every day "for at least two weeks" until he finally received a reply and was eventually allowed to wrestle for the promotion. One of his first matches for WCW was against Big Van Vader immediately following his losing the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to Ron Simmons in Baltimore. Vader, allegedly upset that he had lost the title, wrestled stiff in his match against Starr battering him so hard that he thought his "eardrums would burst".
In November 1992, Starr was recuperating from his ear injury at home when he received a call from then booker Dusty Rhodes. He had hung up the phone several times because he could not understand who was calling before realizing it was Rhodes contacting him for work in Atlanta. Starr took his girlfriend's car, driving without a license, and drove from Maryland to Atlanta where he wrestled Johnny B. Badd and Van Hammer on WCW Saturday Night and WCW Main Event respectively. It was on the former show, WCW Saturday Night, that he would become a mainstay during his 6-year run with the company. In the next three years alone, he would wrestle Ice Train, The Shockmaster, Marcus Bagwell, "Jungle" Jim Steele, Thunder and Lightning, The Guardian Angel, Randy Savage, Alex Wright, The Renegade, Kamala, Johnny B. Badd, Rockin' Rebel, Road Warrior Hawk, and Eddie Guerrero.
Though primarily used as a preliminary wrestler, there were several occasions in which he had a memorable role. On April 20, 1994, in his match against WCW International World Champion Sting at Atlanta's Center Stage Theatre, he was pinned in 36 seconds following a Stinger Splash. Afterward, in a rare show of sportsmanship, the champion helped Starr to his feet. Starr would also occasionally team with Ricky Santana, most notably, in matches against Brad & Scott Armstrong and The Nasty Boys later in the year. The following year, he and Scott D'Amore took on Big Van Vader in a handicap match.
Starr made notable appearances on other WCW programs such as WCW Worldwide and WCW Pro. On February 21, 1995, in a match later aired on WCW Pro, he and Dave Young wrestled Stars and Stripes (Marcus Alexander Bagwell & the Patriot) in front of 1,800 fans at the sold-out Georgia Mountains Center in Gainesville, Georgia. That summer, he also received title shots for the WCW World Television Championship; on May 3, 1995, he wrestled Arn Anderson at Disney-MGM Studios (WCW Worldwide) and The Renegade (WCW Pro) at the Macon Coliseum on June 26, 1995. Subsequent returns to WCW Pro between 1995 and 1997 saw Starr wrestle Jushin Thunder Liger, Scott Norton, and Chavo Guerrero Jr. He also appeared on the short-lived WCW Prime in matches against The Renegade, One Man Gang, The Shark, The Nasty Boys, and The Blue Bloods ("Lord" Steven Regal and "Earl" Robert Eaton).
Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation (1996–1998)