STEVE LOMBARDI ( The Brookyn Brawler )
(born April 18, 1961) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and road agent, better known by his ring name, the Brooklyn Brawler. He worked for the professional wrestling
promotion, WWE, as well as several independent promotions.
World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment / WWE- Lombardi began his WWF career in late 1983, competing under his real name, and being a heel, primarily as an enhancement talent. During this period, Lombardi occasionally teamed with fellow preliminary wrestler Barry Horowitz. Lombardi had a few victories during the 1980s, mainly against other preliminary wrestlers like Reno Riggins and Barry O, until early 1989, when he was repackaged as the Brooklyn Brawler. The Brawler character was that of a street fighter, wearing battered jeans and a torn New York Yankees t-shirt. Under the tutelage of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, the Brawler entered a feud with the Red Rooster. When the Red Rooster left Heenan's villain group and became a fan favorite, Heenan stated that he had made the Red Rooster a star and could do the same with anyone in the WWF. The Red Rooster defeated the Brooklyn Brawler on Saturday Night's Main Event, and then Heenan at WrestleMania V. The Brawler was defeated by the Rooster again on the May 20, 1989 episode of Superstars of Wrestling. His alliance with Heenan was then phased out, though in storyline Heenan said it was an amicable departure, and Heenan would continue to speak highly of the Brawler whenever a match featured him. Lombardi soon returned to his former enhancement talent status. However, he retained the Brawler gimmick, a role he would utilize throughout his career. Lombardi was used in a number of gimmicks, often under a mask. In late 1993-early 1994, he briefly replaced Matt Borne as Doink the Clown until Ray Apollo was hired. He also regularly portrayed Kim Chee (Kamala's handler) during his 1986-87 and 1992 stints with the WWF and briefly in 1993 as a singles wrestler after Kamala left him for the newly ordained Reverend Slick. He still regularly used the Brooklyn Brawler gimmick during this period. He also played MVP (a short-lived baseball player gimmick) in 1993 between his stints as Kim Chee and Doink. The only televised match he wrestled as MVP was a battle royal in which the last two wrestlers in the ring would go on to compete for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, but he was eliminated half-way through the match. He would use the baseball player gimmick again, but this time as Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz a year later during the 1994 Major League Baseball strike.[2] As MVP and Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz, Lombardi's face was painted to look like a baseball and he wore a jersey with the number 00. In addition, he was accompanied to the ring by a carnival-like version of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Since the late 1990s, he has been semi-retired from the ring, working mostly as a road agent for WWF and only occasionally appearing in the ring, usually for comic skits and matches. The Brooklyn Brawler was defeated by Dwayne Johnson, who would later become the Rock, in Johnson's WWF tryout match on March 10, 1996. Johnson later recalled the match in his autobiography; praising Lombardi as a stand-up wrestler. The Brooklyn Brawler lost to the Rock on the February 28, 2000 taping of Raw Is War. Lombardi had some big wins and title shots. In 1991, he entered into a small feud with new WWF star Big Bully Busick after the Brawler challenged Busick to match to see who the real bully of the WWF was. The Brawler defeated the Bully by countout and in a rematch one week later saw the Brawler dominate the Bully until the latter's manager Harvey Wippleman grabbed the Brawler's leg, leading to a controversial win for the Bully. On October 4, 1993 Lombardi also competed in the WWF Intercontinental title battle royal (as MVP). On January 22, 1994, the Brawler defeated Jim Powers in a match prior to the Royal Rumble pay-per-view (however, Powers would later defeat the Brawler several times later in that same year). In 1997, he won a battle royal for a WWF Championship match in Madison Square Garden; he went on to face then-WWF champion Shawn Michaels, in a match where the Brawler dominated Michaels, but was defeated due to an interference of D-Generation X. On the September 20, 1999 episode of Raw is War, Lombardi was one of the replacement referees while the original referees were on story line strike. Part 2 Coming up next