Shark Boy

Shark Boy
Shark Boy in 2008.
Birth name Dean Matthew Roll
Born (1975-01-28) January 28, 1975[1]
Dayton, Ohio
Spouse(s) Joselyn Wellman
Children 2
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) El Piranha[1]
Dean Baldwin[1]
Dean Roll[1]
Shark Boy[1]
Billed height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2][3]
Billed weight 180 lb (82 kg)[2][3]
Billed from "The Deep Blue Sea"[2]
"The Deep Sea"[4]
"Deep Under the Sea"
"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"[5]
Trained by Les Thatcher[1]
Debut May 3, 1997[1]

Dean Matthew Roll[1] (born January 28, 1975)[1] is an American professional wrestler, best known by the ring name Shark Boy.

Professional Wrestling career

Independent circuit (1997–2002)

Roll began training under Les Thatcher in October 1995 at the age of twenty.[5] He debuted on May 3, 1997 in Thatcher's Heartland Wrestling Association, wrestling as the masked El Piranha. An HWA mainstay, Roll also occasionally portrayed the character of Dean Baldwin, the purported fifth, lesser known Baldwin brother.[6][7]

Later that year, Roll debuted in the Independent Wrestling Association, where he developed the cartoonish character Shark Boy, partly inspired by the 1995 song "I Come From the Water" by the Toadies.[5][7] In 1999, Roll trademarked the name "Shark Boy".[3][8] In 1998, Shark Boy received a flurry of media attention. He was featured on ABC in an episode of 20/20 featuring professional wrestling, on the Discovery Channel as part of the annual Shark Week and on a documentary produced by MTV entitled True Life: I'm a Professional Wrestler.[5]

On May 19, 1999, Shark Boy wrestled at the second annual Brian Pillman Memorial Show, defeating Matt Stryker, Tarek the Great and Chip Fairway in a tournament and receiving a trophy. Following the match, numerous World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation wrestlers, including Al Snow, Mankind and D'Lo Brown, entered the ring and lifted Shark Boy onto their shoulders.[9] Shark Boy also wrestled at the 1998, 2000 and 2001 Brian Pillman Memorial Shows.

World Championship Wrestling (1999–2000)

As a result of the exposure gained by his appearances on television and at the Brian Pillman Memorial Shows, coupled with his "cult" following, Shark Boy was signed to a contract by World Championship Wrestling in 1999.[7][8] He made several appearances on WCW Saturday Night and WCW Thunder on TBS before being released six months later in early 2000.[6][9][10]

World Wrestling All Stars (2002)

In February 2002 Shark Boy competed for the WWA at their Revolution PPV in Las Vegas. He fought in the opening contest, a 6-Man Cruiserweight survival match. Also in the match were A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, Low Ki, Tony Mamaluke, and Nova. He was eliminated first in the match, which was won by Nova.

In November 2002, Shark Boy toured Europe with the World Wrestling All-Stars promotion. At the Retribution pay-per-view on December 6, 2002, Shark Boy defeated Frankie Kazarian.[6] During this same time from 2002 till its closing, Shark Boy joined and toured with XPW where he had memorable bouts with Kaos, Tracy Smothers, Juventud Guerrera, and Jerry Lynn.

On March 7, 2004, Shark Boy opened a professional wrestling school named The Shark Tank in Ohio. His most notable trainees are Dustin Thomas, Tom Bellman, Darrell Hazel, Jerrod West, Todd Mullins, Ed Gonzales, Donny Redd, Chris Ledbetter, Jake Omen, Tony X and Cannonball Sami(Sami Callihan)[6][10]

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling / Impact Wrestling / Global Force Wrestling (2002–present)

Shark Boy debuted in 2002, wrestling for the company but was used mostly as a jobber in the X Division. On the August 14, 2002 weekly TNA pay-per-view, Shark Boy showed up on Disco Inferno's talk segment Jive Talkin' without his mask playing the character Dean Baldwin, a fictional brother of the famous Baldwin actors.[11]

In 2003, he had a team with New Jack that involved getting New Jack to play board games such as Chutes and Ladders with Shark Boy. When New Jack left, Mad Mikey started teaming with Shark Boy before his untimely death in November 2003 and in 2004 he teamed with D-Ray 3000 which was his most successful tagteam run. In 2008 he returned to TNA after a brief hiatus from a kayfabe coma suffered from multiple ambushes, and tweaked his Shark Boy gimmick into that of a Stone Cold Steve Austin tribute, even going as far as to drink "Clam Juice" (a reference to Austin's infamous beer drinking) in the ring after his matches. Upon his gimmick change, he would occasionally team up with Curry Man to form a comedic tag team that was a moderate success. After this gimmick change he started to talk, something he had not been heard to do before.

Shark Boy took part in TNA's TerrorDome match on May 10, but it was won by Kaz. Because of that TerrorDome match, Shark Boy was injured; he returned backstage on the July 17 episode of Impact! with Curry Man and Super Eric as part of a Justice League knock off, called The Prince Justice Brotherhood (a reference to Abyss' former name Prince Justice), where he got whipped by Beer Money, Inc. during a backstage segment. He appeared again with the Brotherhood on the July 24 episode of Impact!. Roll returned on the February 5 edition of Impact!, only to lose to the debuting Brutus Magnus in a squash match.

Shark Boy has since been inactive due to showing flu-like symptoms at a recent television taping, causing fears of swine flu. He returned at the August 18 tapings of Impact!, only to lose against Sheik Abdul Bashir in a match broadcast on the TNA website. He was again featured on a webmatch after the August 31 tapings of Impact!, in another losing effort to Consequences Creed. This was his last match with the company for some time, and on October 13, 2010, Shark Boy's profile was removed from TNA's website while he spent some time working as a referee and road agent for the company.[12]

Shark Boy regularly appeared on the TNA web cast show Spin Cycle in the "Dirty Laundry" segment, but no longer does the role.

On December 5, 2010, Shark Boy made his return at Final Resolution, forcing Cookie into a shark cage during Robbie E's and Jay Lethal's match for the TNA X Division Championship. After the match he gave Cookie a Chummer. He changed his theme back to the theme he used before the Austin gimmick began.[13] He made his return to the ring on the December 24 edition of Xplosion, in a losing effort against Robbie E.

On March 3, 2011, Shark Boy announced on his website that he had requested and was granted his release from TNA.[14]

On July 10, 2011 Shark Boy made an appearance at Destination X teaming with Eric Young defeating Generation Me.[15]

Shark Boy made his return to TNA on the May 23, 2013 episode of Impact Wrestling. He wrestled against Robbie E in a losing effort on the following episode of TNA Xplosion after his TV appearance. On March 17, 2013, Shark Boy appeared on TNA 10 Reunion where he was in a 10-man Gauntlet match, which was won by Matt Morgan, that aired on August 2, 2013. On March 19, 2013, Shark Boy next appeared on Hardcore Justice 2 where he won a nine-man Hardcore Gauntlet Battle Royal, which aired on July 5, 2013. He then made another appearance on November 21 at TNA Turning Point, facing Ethan Carter III in a losing effort. On October 2, 2014, Shark Boy made yet another appearance facing off against Manik and losing, then lost again on the October 15th 2014 show against Tyrus. He made an appearance in the Oct. 29th taping during a backstage segment where he was signing autographs, getting a pep talk from road agent Pat Kenney to get back to being "the real shark" referring to when he was in his prime. Shark Boy said he would do it. However, on January 1, 2015, Shark Boy's profile was moved to TNA Alumni section, perhaps ending the angle. On the July 9, 2015 episode of Impact, he returned as a competitor in Ethan Carter III's 3 vs 1 Gauntlet Match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort. In 2017 he returned at Slammiversary XV.

Return to the independent circuit (2013–present)

In August 2013, Shark Boy challenged Billy Mattern for the NWA Supreme United States Championship in Madison Indiana, Billy Mattern was disqualified due to interference by Mortimer Blankenship giving the win to Shark Boy, but Mattern would retain The NWA Supreme United States Championship.

Miramax lawsuit

On June 8, 2005, Roll filed a lawsuit against Miramax Films, claiming that the Miramax release "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D" infringed upon his trademark and demanding any "money, profits and advantages wrongfully gained". In November 2005, it emerged that Miramax had attempted to have the case dismissed, in addition to requesting that the court nullify Roll's trademark on the basis that "Plaintiff is a male whose services are rendered only when he is wearing a costume depicting 'shark-like' attributes."[3][8][16] In April 2007, the suit was settled for an undisclosed amount.[17]

Other media

Shark Boy has appeared in two video games, those being TNA Impact!: Cross the Line and TNA IMPACT!

He was featured in MTV's "True Life: I am a Pro Wrestler", talking about his experiences on the independent circuit. Fox News Personality Bill O'Reilly featured him in his segment "Fin-heads and Patriots".

Personal life

Roll is married to Joselyn Wellman and has two sons and one stepson.

On Friday, February 22, 2008 he was inducted into the XWF (later Legends Pro Wrestling) Hall of Fame.

Roll lost most of his possessions in a house fire in February 2009.[18]

He is close friends with former fellow TNA wrestler Frankie Kazarian and WWE's Santino Marella.

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 "Shark Boy Profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  2. 1 2 3 "TNA Wrestling profile". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2011-03-03. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Kaufman, G. (June 8, 2005). "Wrestler Shark Boy Wants To Put The Smackdown On New Flick". MTV.com. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  4. ↑ "TNA Wrestling profile". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2008-07-30. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Valente, M. (October 5, 2003). "Shark Boy interview". Wrestling Observer. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Milner, J. "Sharkboy". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  7. 1 2 3 "Interview mit dem Shark Boy". WrestlingData.com. October 1, 2003. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  8. 1 2 3 Madigan, T. (August 13, 2005). "Shark attack". Calgary Sun. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  9. 1 2 Steven, A. "Shark Boy Speaks With TNAHeadlines.com". TNAHeadlines.com. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  10. 1 2 Hickey, P. "Shark Boy Bites His Way To The Top". Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  11. ↑ "NWA-TNA Weekly PPV 9 - 8-14-2002". PowerDriver Review. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved 2009-12-06.
  12. ↑ Johnson, Chris (2010-10-14). "New role for a member of the TNA roster". Gerweck. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
  13. ↑ Caldwell, James (2010-12-05). "Caldwell's TNA Final Resolution PPV results 12/5: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of live PPV – Hardy vs. Morgan II, several title and stipulation matches". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
  14. ↑ Gerweck, Steve (2011-03-03). "TNA Wrestling star granted his release". WrestleView. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
  15. ↑ Caldwell, James (2011-07-10). "Caldwell's TNA Destination X PPV results 7/10: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of live PPV – Styles vs. Daniels, Ultimate X, RVD vs. Lynn". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2011-07-11.
  16. ↑ Madigan, T. (August 16, 2005). "Everybody wants to know". Calgary Sun. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  17. ↑ Farrell, E. (April 23, 2007). "Shark Boy Lawsuit Settlement". Warned.net. Archived from the original on May 6, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  18. ↑ Caldwell, James (2009-02-28). "TNA News: Shark Boy loses home in tragic fire; how wrestling fans can help him rebuild". PWTorch. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  19. 1 2 "Independent Wrestling Results – April 2004". onlineworldofwrestling.com. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  20. ↑ "Buckeye Pro Wrestling Title Histories". titlehistories.com. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
  21. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=135405
  22. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500 – 2001". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on 2008-06-16. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
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