The Harris Brothers

Last updated
The Harris Brothers
Statistics
MembersDon Harris
(AKA Don Bruise / Jacob Blu / Heavy D / Jared Grimm / Patrick / Skull)
Ron Harris
(AKA 8 Ball / Big Ron / Gerald / Eli Blu / Jason Grimm / Ron Bruise)
Name(s)The Blu Brothers
The Bruise Brothers
Creative Control
The Disciples of Apocalypse
The Disciples of Destruction
The Grimm Twins
The Harris Boys
The Harris Brothers
The Harris Twins
Billed heights6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) – Don Harris [1]
6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) – Ron Harris [2]
Combined
billed weight		595 lb (270 kg)
Hometown Apopka, Florida, United States [2] [1] [3]
Billed from Nashville, Tennessee
Debut1987 [2] [1]
Disbanded2005 [2] [1]
Years active1987–2005
TrainerRocky Montana [4] [5]

Donald Harris and Ronald Harris (born October 23, 1960) are American twin brothers best known for their professional wrestling careers with promotions including Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation. They are now co-presidents of the Nashville, Tennessee-based Aro Lucha professional wrestling promotion.

Contents

For the majority of their careers, the brothers performed as a tag team. They wrestled under their birth names and a variety of ring names, including Don Bruise and Ron Bruise (The Bruise Brothers); Patrick and Gerald (Creative Control); Skull and 8 Ball (The Disciples of Apocalypse); Jared Grimm and Jason Grimm (The Grimm Twins); and Eli Blu and Jacob Blu (The Blu Twins).

Early life

Don and Ron Harris were born in Florida. In the 1980s, Ron and Don relocated to Nashville, Tennessee in order to become professional wrestlers. Ron worked as a police officer in West Palm Beach, Florida prior to moving to Tennessee with his brother. [3]

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1987-1993)

Don and Ron Harris, with support from the country music group Sawyer Brown, debuted in the Continental Wrestling Association in December 1987 as "The Bruise Brothers", where they became two-time World Tag Team Champions. When the CWA became the United States Wrestling Association in 1989, the Bruise Brothers remained in the promotion. Don and Ron won five more Tag Team Championships, with Don winning two additional USWA World Tag Team Championships with Brian Lee and Ron winning an additional USWA World Tag Team Championship with Jimmy Harris (no relation) as "Beauty and The Beast". The Harris Brothers made a final appearance with the USWA in 1996 as "The Grimm Brothers".

In 1991, the Bruise Brothers debuted in the Oregon-based National Wrestling Alliance Pacific Northwest promotion, where they became six-time Tag Team Champions. Don Harris was also part of the last match in that promotion's television show, defeating Jon Rambo. On January 27, 1992 the Harris Twins received a tryout match with the WWF at a Wrestling Challenge taping in Lubbock, Texas, defeating Khris Germany and Todd Overbow. They beat the duo again the next night in Amarillo. [6]

Smoky Mountain Wrestling (1993-1994)

In 1993, the Harris Brothers joined Smoky Mountain Wrestling as the Bruise Brothers, managed by Jim Cornette. On June 28, Cornette led them to a victory over the Rock 'n' Roll Express, Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, for the SMW Tag Team Championships. The Bruise Brothers remained in SMW until early 1994, participating in hardcore matches such as Street Fights and steel cage matches. [7] [8]

Eastern/Extreme Championship Wrestling (1994)

The Bruise Brothers appeared in Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1994. On February 5, the ECW Tag Team Championships were held-up after a controversial ending to a match between the Bruise Brothers and the incumbents, The Public Enemy. The Bruise Brothers went on to participate in some of the first ECW hardcore matches, and feuded with Shane Douglas.

World Wrestling Federation (1995)

The Harris Brothers were signed by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1995, where they were renamed "The Blu Brothers", Eli (Ron) and Jacob (Don). They retained their trademark bushy beards and long hair and donned garb to resemble mountain men, and were managed by Uncle Zebekiah. They made their WWF debuts at the 1995 Royal Rumble and were defeated by Lex Luger and The British Bulldog in the opening match of WrestleMania XI. Following a series of losses to the Smoking Gunns, the Harris Brothers left the WWF in October 1995.

Extreme Championship Wrestling (1996)

They eventually left the WWF and returned to ECW in 1996 as the Bruise Brothers, competing once more in the tag division, and briefly joining Raven's Nest. [7] [8]

World Wrestling Federation (1996-1999)

Don and Ron Harris returned to the WWF in 1996, as the short-lived "Grimm Twins," Jason (Ron) and Jared (Don). In June 1997, were repackaged as "8-Ball" (Ron) and "Skull" (Don), members of the Disciples of Apocalypse stable with Crush and their cousin, Chainz. The DOA participated in the "gang wars" of 1997, feuding with the Nation of Domination and the Puerto Rican stable Los Boricuas. They went on to compete in the tag division throughout 1998. 8-Ball also competed in the WWE's Brawl For All tournament on July 20, 1998, but lost to 2 Cold Scorpio in the third round. [7] Their last match in WWF as a tag team was at a house show, which was a loss to Ken Shamrock and Mankind on May 14, 1999. Skull's last match was in a singles match at a house show against Ken Shamrock on May 15, 1999, in which he was defeated. 8-Ball's last match was in a singles match at a house show against Ken Shamrock on May 16, 1999, in which he was defeated. The brothers were released soon after. It was later revealed by Vince Russo, that the Harris Brothers were fired from WWF for refusing to legit hurt The Legion Of Doom during a match.

World Championship Wrestling (1999-2001)

In November 1999, the Harris Brothers joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as "Gerald" (Ron) and "Patrick" (Don). The names were shots at Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco who worked for WWF as Vince McMahon's stooges. They were known collectively as "Creative Control". They went on to join the nWo 2000 in 2000 using their real names, acting as enforcers for Jeff Jarrett. They remained in WCW throughout 2000, feuding with Sid Vicious, Terry Funk and many of the younger tag teams, such as The Mamalukes. After winning the WCW World Tag Team Championship three times, the Harris Brothers began wrestling in singles matches in 2001, but WCW was purchased by the WWF in March 2001, and they were not hired. [7] [8]

Late career (2001-2005)

In November and December 2001, Don and Ron Harris took part in the All Japan Pro Wrestling World's Strongest Tag Determination League 2001, an eight-team tag tournament. They defeated The Varsity Club (Mike Rotunda and Steve Williams) before losing to Mitsuya Nagai and Toshiaki Kawada in the tournament semi-finals.

In June 2002, the Harris Brothers were hired by the upstart Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, joined Vince Russo's Sports Entertainment Xtreme faction in December 2002, and remained with the stable until it disbanded in mid-2003.

On July 19, 2003, Ron Harris appeared in Harley Race's World League Wrestling promotion, and, in a match refereed by Ricky Steamboat, won the WLW Heavyweight Championship by defeating Ron Powers (he was substituting for Trevor Rhodes, who had been injured earlier that evening). He lost the title on September 12, 2003 to Takeshi Morishima in a Tokyo title defence in the Nippon Budokan promoted by the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion. [9]

In late 2003, Ron Harris began working for wrestler and burgeoning rap artist Randy Savage as a tour manager. [10] The Harris Brothers were reunited in November 2004 when Savage debuted in TNA and, following a backstage altercation with his rival Hulk Hogan, requested that he be accompanied by two bodyguards at all times. The job was given to Ron Harris and Savage's tour bodyguard, Brian Adams. [11] Savage had his final match in the promotion in a 6-man tag team match with Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles in a victory over Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall on December 5, 2004, then immediately left the company, but the Harris Brothers were retained to act as road agents. In March 2005, the Harris Brothers reappeared onscreen as "The Disciples of Destruction", two bikers as a nod to their previous WWF gimmick. They were managed by Traci Brooks and had three final victories, one over Buck Quartermain and Lex Lovett, one over Trinity's team Phi Delta Slam and one over the team of Cassidy Riley and Shark Boy.

Retirement

Don Harris effectively retired from the ring in 2005, and began working backstage with TNA as production manager. [12] [13] In the same year, Ron Harris retired from professional wrestling and began working for the Christian music label Beach Street Records. [3] In 2007 Ron, Don and Frank Miller formed the Nashville-based management company O-Seven Artist Management.

They work for Aroluxe, a marketing and production company. In January 2016, TNA hired Aroluxe to pay for its TV tapings. [14]

Championships and accomplishments

Don Harris

Ron Harris

Related Research Articles

Raven (wrestler) American professional wrestler, actor and podcaster

Scott Levy is an American professional wrestler, actor, and podcaster better known by his ring name, Raven. He is known for his appearances with professional wrestling promotions including Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Widely recognized as "one of the best talkers in wrestling", Raven is known for his "psychological heel tactics" and grunge-inspired gimmick. His feud with The Sandman in the mid-1990s has been described as "one of the most emotional rivalries in professional wrestling's history".

Scott Steiner American professional wrestler

Scott Rechsteiner, better known by the ring name Scott Steiner, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).

Road Dogg American professional wrestler

Brian Girard James is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. James was best known for his initial tenure with World Wrestling Federation as The Roadie from 1994 to 1995 and as "Road Dogg" Jesse James from 1996 to 2001. He is also known for his appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as B.G. James from 2002 to 2009, and has also made appearances for several other promotions such as Smoky Mountain Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, the United States Wrestling Association, the Catch Wrestling Association, and World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA).

Tom Prichard American professional wrestler and trainer

Thomas Prichard is a retired American professional wrestler and author. He is the older brother of Bruce Prichard.

Brad Armstrong (wrestler) American professional wrestler

Robert Bradley "Brad" James was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Brad Armstrong. He is best known for his appearances with the promotion World Championship Wrestling in the 1990s. He was the son of wrestler "Bullet Bob" Armstrong and brother to professional wrestlers Steve, Scott and Brian.

Robert Gibson (wrestler) American professional wrestler

Robert Gibson is an American professional wrestler. He is best known as one half of the tag team known as The Rock 'n' Roll Express, with Ricky Morton. He has competed in singles competition also, and has won various singles championships throughout his career.

NWA World Tag Team Championship National Wrestling Alliance professional wrestling tag team championship

The NWA World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created by the National Wrestling Alliance. From 1948 to 1982, the NWA allowed member promotions to create their own territorial version of the "NWA World Tag Team Championship" without oversight from the board of directors. The first of these NWA World Tag Team Championships was created in 1950 in the San Francisco territory, which while billed as a "World" title was essentially restricted to the specific NWA territory. In 1957 as many as 13 versions of the NWA World Tag Team Championship were confirmed to be in existence. In 1982 Big Time Wrestling, based in Los Angeles, closed and abandoned their version of the championship. The following year, the World Wrestling Federation, an NWA member at the time and which had its own World Tag Team Championship, split from the NWA in acrimony. This meant that only the Jim Crockett Promotions' NWA World Tag Team Championship was active within the NWA, but still being controlled by JCP, not the NWA board of directors. In 1991 that championship was renamed the WCW World Tag Team Championship.

Terry Gordy American professional wrestler

Terry Ray Gordy Sr. was an American professional wrestler. Gordy appeared in the United States with promotions such as Mid-South Wrestling, Georgia Championship Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling and the Universal Wrestling Federation as a member of The Fabulous Freebirds. He also appeared in Japan with All Japan Pro Wrestling as one-half of The Miracle Violence Connection.

The Rock n Roll Express Professional wrestling tag team

The Rock 'n' Roll Express is a professional wrestling tag team consisting of professional wrestlers Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton. The duo began teaming together in Memphis in the early 1980s, followed by Mid-South Wrestling, followed by a stint with Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). They held the NWA World Tag Team Championship nine times, with the first four times in JCP. They also feuded with The Four Horsemen. In the late 1980s, they were contenders for the American Wrestling Association's AWA World Tag Team Championship. By 1991, the team was losing momentum, and Morton turned heel on his partner to join The York Foundation in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1992, the team reformed in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, where they held the SMW Tag Team Championship ten times. The duo also worked in the World Wrestling Federation. On March 31, 2017, the Rock 'n' Roll Express was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Jim Cornette.

Wallace Stanfield "Stan" Lane is an American retired professional wrestler and color commentator. He is best known for his appearances with the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), Jim Crockett Promotions and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the 1980s. Primarily a tag team wrestler, Lane held championships including the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship, NWA United States Tag Team Championship, NWA World Tag Team Championship, and SMW Tag Team Championship as part of The Fabulous Ones, The Midnight Express, and The Heavenly Bodies.

Brian Lee (wrestler) American professional wrestler

Brian Lee Harris is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling, Smoky Mountain Wrestling and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Brian Lee and with the World Wrestling Federation as Chainz and an impersonator version of The Undertaker.

WCW United States Tag Team Championship Former professional wrestling title

The WCW United States Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling tag team championship contested for in the United States-based Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promotions. The title was only contestable by male tag teams and in tag team matches. In 1986, NWA President and JCP owner Jim Crockett, Jr. introduced the championship to replace and consolidate the old NWA Mid-Atlantic and Georgia National titles, under the name "NWA United States Tag Team Championship", by announcing a tournament for the newly created title, which was won by Krusher Khruschev and Ivan Koloff on September 28, 1986.

The Heavenly Bodies is a professional wrestling tag team famous for having worked in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation, and various independent promotions. Over the years, there have been multiple variations of the team, which has at different times included "Doctor" Tom Prichard, "Sweet" Stan Lane, "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton, and "Gigolo" Jimmy Del Ray, and was led by heel manager James E. Cornette.

Matt Osborne American professional wrestler

Matthew Wade Osborne, known professionally as Matt Borne, was an American professional wrestler. Osborne was a second generation wrestler, the son of Tony Borne, and is best known as being the first wrestler to portray the character of Doink the Clown.

Douglas Gilbert is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with regional professional wrestling promotions throughout the Southern United States, as well as for Extreme Championship Wrestling and overseas in Japan.

Randy Colley was an American professional wrestler better known as Moondog Rex. He was best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation as a part of The Moondogs, and as the original Smash of Demolition.

Timothy Alan Smith was an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring names Rex King and Timothy Well. He wrestled in several promotions, including All Japan Pro Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Much of his career was spent wrestling as a tag team with Steve Doll throughout his career. While in WWF, they were known as Well Dunn.

Steven Stewart, known by his ring name Bart Sawyer, is an American retired professional wrestler, color commentator, and occasional actor. He is best known for his time in Championship Wrestling USA and the United States Wrestling Association during the 1990s. In his career, Sawyer also wrestled for Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, House of Pain Wrestling Federation, Memphis Wrestling, NWA Georgia, NWA Main Event, NWA Worldwide, World Xtreme Wrestling and W*ING. Additionally, he competed as a preliminary wrestler in World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation.

Darrell W. Anthony is a retired American professional wrestler, also known by his ring name Dirty White Boy. He wrestled primarily for independent promotions in the Southeastern United States. He was most active throughout the 1980s and 1990s in the Tennessee-based United States Wrestling Association (USWA) and Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW), and had two short stints with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring names of T.L. Hopper and Uncle Cletus.

C.W. Bergstrom is a semi-retired American professional wrestler who was active in North American regional promotions during the early 1990s including a memorable stint in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) as Principal Bergstrom. He was one of the last major stars in Don Owen's Pacific Northwest Wrestling during its final years and was the last to hold the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Don Harris at Cagematch.de" . Retrieved March 29, 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Ron Harris at Cagematch.de" . Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  3. 1 2 3 Dawson, W. (June 13, 2006). "Ron Harris: On the Ropes". CBN.com . Retrieved April 8, 2007.
  4. ↑ "Ron Harris at Bodyslamming.com" . Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  5. ↑ "Don Harris at Bodyslamming.com" . Retrieved March 29, 2007.
  6. ↑ "1992". www.thehistoryofwwe.com. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Ron Harris at Accelerator3359.com" . Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  8. 1 2 3 "Don Harris at Accelerator3359.com" . Retrieved March 29, 2007.
  9. 1 2 "The WLW Heavyweight Championship at Solie.org" . Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  10. ↑ Clevett, J. (November 25, 2003). "Savage turns to rap 'n' wrestling". Canadian Online Explorer . Retrieved June 15, 2007.
  11. ↑ Callis, D. (November 24, 2004). "WWE brings Raw to new MTS Centre". Canadian Online Explorer . Retrieved June 15, 2007.
  12. ↑ Kapur, B. (September 29, 2005). "Tension, joy backstage at first TNA Spike taping". Canadian Online Explorer . Retrieved March 29, 2007.
  13. ↑ "DGH"
  14. ↑ "TNA UPDATE: MAJOR CHANGES COULD COME SHORTLY | PWInsider.com". www.pwinsider.com. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  15. ↑ "The CWIA International Tag Team Championship at Wrestling-Titles.com" . Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  16. ↑ "The CWA World Tag Team Championship at Solie.org" . Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  17. ↑ "The NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship at Solie.org" . Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  18. ↑ Rodgers, Mike (2004). "Regional Territories: PNW #16 Page #2". KayfabeMemories.com.
  19. ↑ "The SMW World Tag Team Championship at Solie.org" . Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  20. 1 2 3 "The USWA Tag Team Championship at Solie.org" . Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  21. ↑ "The WCW World Tag Team Championship at Solie.org" . Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  22. ↑ "The NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship at Solie.org" . Retrieved March 29, 2007.
  23. ↑ Hoops, Brian (January 18, 2019). "Pro wrestling history (01/18): Ivan Koloff defeats Bruno Sammartino for WWWF title". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online . Retrieved January 18, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.