Dan Spivey

Retired American professional wrestler known for his work in the U.S. for WWE and WCW and for All Japan Pro Wrestling. Debuted in 1984 in Championship Wrestling from Florida. Jumped to Jim Crockett's National Wrestling Alliance territory in Charlotte, North Carolina and formed the team American Starship with Scott Hall, with Spivey as Starship Eagle and Hall as Starship Coyote. They had a small run there and for Bob Geigel's Central States Wrestling promotion in Kansas City, Missouri. The team split up, with Spivey going to WWE (then the World Wrestling Federation). He teamed with Mike Rotunda as the American Express, replacing Barry Windham. Spivey made his PPV debut in the battle royal during the Chicago stage of "WrestleMania II." He stayed with WWE through 1988 before jumping to All Japan. He returned to the NWA in 1989 and formed the Skyscrapers with Sid Vicious (Sid Eudy). That version of the team ended when Sid suffered a collapsed lung due to a botched fall-away slam by Scott Steiner) during the Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner) and Scott Steiner)-Skyscrapers match at "NWA Clash of the Champions IX" in November 1989. Sid was replaced by Mark Calaway, who was brought in from Memphis and named Mean Mark Callous. That version of the team ended right before "NWA WrestleWar 90," as Spivey quit prior to the show. Mike Enos was made the replacement as "the Masked Skyscraper" for the Chicago Street Fight against the Road Warriors (Hawk (Mike Hegstrand) and Animal (Joe Laurinaitis)), which the Warriors won, of course. Spivey returned at the end of the year for a one-shot Skyscrapers reunion at "NWA Starrcade 90," where they squashed the team of the Motor City Madman (Mike Moore) and Big Cat (Curtis Hughes), which stemmed from Sid's match with the Nightstalker (Bryan E. Clark II), who had been teaming with Madman and Big Cat, at "Clash of the Champions XIII." Spivey went back to Japan where he won the All Japan World Tag Team Titles with Stan Hansen). The team even made some appearances for WCW. That ended when Spivey refused to lose a match to the team of Rick Steiner and Tom Zenk on the grounds that they were World Tag Team Champions. Spivey left WCW again and made a brief return for the "Lethal Lottery" at "WCW Starrcade 92," where he teamed with Van Hammer (Mark Hildreth) in a victory over Cactus Jack (Mick Foley) and Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero). In the Battlebowl battle royal at the end of the night, the eventual winner the Great Muta (Keiji Mutô) eliminated Spivey. Spivey also made several appearances for Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation. His last run saw him return to WWE in 1995 as Waylon Mercy, a gimmick based on Robert De Niro's portrayal of Max Cady in Cape Fear (1991). In contrast to the long blond hair he had sported for the past decade, he had dark hair for this role. The gimmick caught on, but Spivey was slowed by injuries and retired in October. Along with the AJPW World Tag Team Titles, he was also an NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion and a UWF Americas Champion.