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"HATRED,
n. -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary |
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"HATRED,
n. -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary |
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Vital Statistics
Full Name: Mark Richard Paris
Drinks: Like a fish |
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Title History EEMWF
Unified Light-Heavyweight Title AGW
Anything Goes Title AGW
Intercontinental Title AGW
World Heavyweight Title AGW
World Heavyweight Title AGW
World Heavyweight Title AGW
World Heavyweight Title AGW
World Heavyweight Title |
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Awards and Honors EEMWF AGW 2000 Slammy for Most Hated
Wrestler Inducted into the AGW Hall of Fame: May 1999 RSPWF |
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Biography |
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Mark Paris: a name that was once synonymous with utter domination in the squared circle, now graces far more tabloid headlines and police reports than Main Events. Once looked at as the pinnacle of achievement in the sport of professional wrestling, Paris has become a cautionary tale; trainers frequently use him as an example to their young protégés of what life in the fast lane can do to even the most talented superstars. Within a matter of a few years, Paris went from overlooked rookie to headlining superstar to drug-addled has-been. At the young age of 26, most observers agree that his glory days are already long gone. This is the story of a man who, in the blink of an eye, went from Legend Killer to distant memory; the rise and fall of the one-and-only Mark Paris. |
| Mark Paris came into
the world on the night of February 2nd, 1975. He was raised by his
mother, Anne, in a lower-middle-class section of Cleveland, OH. Mark's
father was long gone by the time he was born; his mother never spoke
of him. To this day, Mark doesn't even know his name. Unsurprisingly,
nobody has ever stepped forward to take credit for unleashing this
arrogant monster onto the world.
For much of Mark's childhood, he was left to his own devices. He rarely saw his mother while growing up; Anne often held as many as three jobs at once to support herself and her son. Lacking any kind of parental guidance, Mark grew from a selfish, unruly little boy into a selfish, unruly teenager. In high school, he was a constant frustration for his teachers. He was naturally bright and athletically gifted, but uninterested in anything besides parties, girls, and an impressive array of drugs. Several times, various members of the faculty attempted to provide him with some kind of structure. He was briefly a member of the football and wrestling teams, but those experiments ended in disaster. Off the field, he was a slacker. On the field, or on the mat, he was an animal, playing with a violence that was totally unacceptable in high school athletics. His teammates as well as his opponents would suffer; when he wasn't bending or outright breaking the rules, he was doing his best to hog every bit of attention he could. It was a habit that he would never really manage to shake. At age 16, Mark was already considered hopeless by his teachers. His GPA was laughable, since he rarely bothered to attend classes, except to occasionally sleep through them. His poor grades resulted in his ineligibility for the athletic programs, much to the relief of his teammates. When one of those teammates said as much to Mark's face, Mark introduced his head to a locker...repeatedly, and in front of numerous witnesses. That was the last straw; Mark was promptly expelled. The school as a whole wasn't too upset to see him go. Back at home, Anne despaired about what to do with him, knowing that she had never really had any control over her son. Mark expulsion broke her heart, although to him, it simply meant more time for him to indulge himself. He began disappearing for days at a time, running the streets with other like-minded youth. She feared she would lose him forever, and felt powerless to stop it. However, help arrived from an unlikely source; at the time, she was dating a man named Sheldon Steele, a wrestler in a small regional promotion. Anne confided her worries about her son to him. Sheldon's heart went out to the young man; his childhood had been similarly rough, and he wanted to do whatever he could to help. Sheldon had taken up wrestling to channel his aggression, and it had worked wonders. He felt Mark could benefit from the same thing. Sheldon convinced Mark to join him at the local gym where he and several other wrestlers trained. Mark instantly fell in love with the sport; one-on-one competition appealed to him more than team sports ever did. Sheldon began training him, hoping that it would provide some balance in his life. Unfortunately, while Mark showed a great deal of natural talent, his attitude alienated the seasoned pros very quickly. At 17, after only a few months of training, Mark wanted to turn pro. Sheldon and Anne both felt he was too young, and told him so. That night, Mark packed his few belongings and got on a bus. Anne passed away a year later. She never saw her son again. |
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Mark left behind his entire life, and never looked back. Sheldon's training had given him direction, and as far as Mark was concerned, that direction was straight up, to the top of the wrestling world. Unwilling to "wait until the time was right" as his mother and his mentor had urged, he chose instead to take advantage of a distant family connection. Using his meager savings, he purchased a ticket to California to meet up with his cousin, Joshua Gardner. Although they hadn't seen each other since they were children, they quickly became best friends. Gardner was a rising star in the AWA, and his arrogance and ruthless ambition complimented Mark's own hunger for success. In addition to training his young cousin, Joshua took him around to Hollywood parties, and introduced him to some of the movers and shakers in the business. For several years, Mark indulged his every impulse in California. It was a dream come true for him, and for a time his partying derailed his wrestling ambitions. Indeed, it wasn't until 1997 that Mark finally made his pro debut in the nascent WPWA. Once there, he quickly formed an alliance with two other rookies, Lucas Ryder and O.G. 69, who comprised the tag team Harm's Way. The threesome dubbed themselves the KGB, and prepared to take the wrestling world by storm. Paris wrestled his first pro match in September of '97, defeating Nemesis. And although he quickly established himself as |
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brightest stars in the league, the WPWA was simply not built to
last. Financial problems and mismanagement forced it to close it's
doors in short order.
Mere weeks after making his debut, Paris was once again looking for work. He considered several options, including the AWA (which was, by this time, having financial difficulties of it's own) but it was the EEMWF that finally singed the ambitious rookie. The EEMWF was like nothing Paris had experienced in his short career. He now had a national stage to perform on, but it was a stage already crowded with established superstars such as Kid Nitro, Speed Racer, Cardiac, and Holocaust. Paris expected the entire promotion to bow down before him, and he was severely disappointed. After a month of being kicked around by the true heavyweights of the sport, Paris decided a different strategy was called for. Using his old WPWA strategy, he tapped the pool of young talent at the bottom of the EEMWF ladder, recruiting rookies Fenris and "Madman" Jack Torrance to aide him. He dubbed this new alliance the Triple Threat. The formation of the Triple Threat allowed Paris to finally make an impact. The group began a brutal feud with Shockwave International, which managed to distinguish both groups in the eyes of the fans. Paris briefly held the Unified Light-Heavyweight Title, which he captured from Shockwave member Lightning Kid. At the end of 1997, Paris was voted Best Newcomer in the EEMWF Slammy awards, sharing the honor with Most Holy. Although initially irked that he was forced to share the award with anybody, he and the Mostest quickly formed a rapport. Seeing strength-in-numbers as being a possible key to unseating the established EEMWF stars, Paris' Triple Threat and Most Holy's Crusade joined forces, forming the first incarnation of the Lords of the Summit (LoS). They counted on dominating the EEMWF with the new group. They were quickly proved wrong. Still in it's infancy, the LoS couldn't seem to catch a break. Swiftly beaten back by supergroups like House of Horrors and the Doom Patrol, the LoS spent the remainder of their EEMWF tenure fighting pointless battles with Shockwave International. Paris was especially frustrated; privately, he felt there was a front office conspiracy to keep him down. It was the first example of the paranoia that would eventually cause so much chaos in locker rooms across the country. By winter '97, Paris was beginning to despair of ever getting ahead in the EEMWF. In a desperation move, he contacted an acquaintance from the California party scene, porn starlet Jenna Jameson, and asked her to manage him. Much to his surprise, she agreed. The Porn Queen felt that Paris needed a fresh start, and taking her advise, Paris and his tag team partner, Fenris, left the EEMWF for Speed Racer's Anything Goes Wrestling. Calling themselves the Lords of Extreme, Paris and Fenris made their AGW debut at the end of '97, defeating the Saiyans in tag team competition. It was an omen of things to come; Paris quickly made a name for himself in the league (although not necessarily a good one.) The AGW was like the Promised Land to Paris; he wasted little time in asking the rest of the LoS to join him. Jack Torrance refused to leave the EEMWF; Most Holy and his faction, however, jumped at the offer. The LoS made it's team debut at the AGW Ultimate Survivor PPV, narrowly overcoming the Cult in an elimination match. Things only looked to get better from there. While Paris' early days in the AGW were promising, it can't be said that he was an overnight success. There was once again a group of superstars with a stranglehold on the top of the card, including Kid Nitro from the EEMWF. In an odd way, Paris began to look at Nitro at being representative of all the people who were "holding him down" in his career. Although Nitro took little notice of the arrogant rookie, Paris' hatred towards Nitro began to fester. Paris was inspiring some hatred of his own in several other stars in the league. His interview style and general persona evolved rapidly during his first several months in the AGW, and his attempts to establish himself as the top heel in the organization created friction with several people already vying for that spot. Shawn Michaels and Terrance M. Garvin, in particular, were irked by his |
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presumption, and accused him of
stealing their entire act on several occasions. Paris responded in
what would become his trademark fashion; by making their lives
extremely difficult. When Garvin left the AGW in early '98 over a
contract dispute, Paris publicly claimed responsibility for his
departure. When Michaels met his hated rival, Eli Vane, in a PPV main
event, Paris disguised himself as a member of Michaels' DX group and
attacked both men mid-match. While these actions didn't win him many
friends backstage, the crowd began to take notice of the arrogant
newcomer. Others began to take notice as well...
In February of '98, a group of wrestlers from the EEMWF covertly invaded the AGW with Speed Racer's blessing. To protect their identities, they only appeared under masks, and referred to themselves as Those from the Enchanted Forrest. This ruse protected them during their attacks on many of the AGW's top stars. A match was quickly signed; the AGW's best and brightest would face the Enchanted Forrest group inside the Wargames double cage at Winter Storm '98. Seeing the LoS' |
| potential, as well
as their former ties to the EEMWF, Speed Racer himself recruited them
into the group. Already disliked by a majority of fans, Paris'
appearance as one of the EEMWF "invaders" cemented their
hatred. The LoS, and Paris himself in particular, made the most of the
invasion; Paris and Fenris quickly positioned themselves as the spokesmen
for the group. Although the invasion itself fizzled out after an
AGW/EEMWF crossover PPV, Paris had established himself as one of the
brightest young stars in the AGW. And he too full advantage of that
fact.
Paris' feud with AGW veteran Joe Public began during the "invasion", but didn't end with it. And before long, it was clear that it wouldn't end with just them, either. Paris had the LoS backing him up, and before long, Public began recruiting allies both from within and outside the league to help him fend off Paris' relentless assaults. At Lethal Lottery '98, Paris headlined his first PPV event, leading a now-bloated LoS roster into a Wargames match against Joe Public and many of the top superstars of the AGW. However, friction within the LoS itself would bring down Paris at his moment of triumph; although the LoS defeated Team AGW in the Wargames match, Paris and Most Holy finally came to blows once the match itself was over. The group that looked to reign with an iron fist instead fell apart inside the double cage. Paris didn't leave empty-handed; he still had the Anything Goes Title that he had wrested from the Black Knight, and he quickly formed a new LoS group with several other young AGW stars. Some people speculated that he had put a bullet in the original LoS simply because he no longer wanted to share any of the spotlight with Most Holy; whatever the case, the new Paris-centered LoS simply didn't measure up to the first incarnation of the group, and Paris' stock in the AGW began to drop. Although he had planned to make a run at the World Title, he found himself trapped in simultaneous feuds with former LoS members Most Holy and Brad Steel, and with former Anything Goes Champions Black Knight and Methos. His incessant demands for a World Title shot didn't endear him to the front office, who were still less than convinced of his viability as a major star. Something had to give, and at the '98 Ringmaster PPV, it finally did. Paris faced both Black Knight and Methos in a Las Vegas street fight for the AG Title. The final result: Paris was brutally beaten by the two bigger men, and left behind as the police arrived. Abandoned by practically everybody, he spent the next several weeks in jail for disorderly conduct. Upon his release, he learned that the AGW had embarked on a world tour. Now seeking nothing but revenge on the organization that had abandoned him, Paris quickly began making preparations. In July '98, Paris caught up with the AGW in Dublin, Ireland. He wasted little time in making two vital alliances; first, he dissolved what was left of his "new" LoS, once again teaming with Most Holy in the ring. Behind the scenes, Paris, his cousin Joshua Gardner (now wrestling full-time in the AGW), his old friend CDogg, and the then-World Champion Unleaded formed a secret alliance that would eventually be known as The Clique. Gardner, CDogg, and Unleaded were all a part of the DX-Critical Mass stable, and by pulling various strings backstage, they put the entire focus of the league on the growing DX-CM/LoS "feud". The culmination of this deception was planned for the AGW vs. The World PPV in Tokyo, Japan. Although Kid Nitro had been scheduled to receive a well-deserved title shot at Unleaded, Clique manipulation gave the shot to Paris, and left Nitro out in the cold. Paris couldn't help but love the irony; while Nitro seethed on the undercard, Paris defeated Unleaded for his first AGW World Heavyweight Title. The fans, and many in the league itself, were outraged. Paris felt that his revenge was complete; he had made himself the standard-bearer of the AGW through backhanded manipulation, and with the Clique behind him, he felt invincible. His initial success was fleeting, however; the various members of the Clique departed the AGW one after the other. Kid Nitro himself wanted Paris's title, and his head. Suddenly lacking backstage support, Paris recruited the monstrous KANE to protect him from the enraged legend, buying KANE's support with promises of title shots than never seemed to materialize. It was also at this time that Paris' rampant drug abuse began to take it's toll on his body. With the net closing around him, and Nitro posed to destroy him utterly, Paris opted for the safe way out. He began no-showing appearances, eventually leaving Speed Racer no choice but to strip him of the title. Paris left the circuit for rehab, leaving the AGW with a huge mess to clean up. It took Nitro more than a month to finally claim the World Title, during which time Paris rehabilitated himself and refocused his energy. Returning to the AGW in October of '98, Paris once again focused his dark attention on Kid Nitro, determined to bury his rival and prove that his first title reign wasn't a fluke. As the first step, he once again aligned himself with KANE (who was now the reigning Intercontinental Champion) only to betray him mere days later and defeat him for the title. He had planned to use the belt to secure himself another shot at the World Title (and incidentally, at Nitro) but Speed Racer, still irate over the events of his first title reign, blocked him at every turn. Immediately after Nitro dropped the title to Brolly, Speed singed a Paris/Nitro Straight Falls Death match, and although Paris seemed eager to get his longtime foe in the ring, the general consensus was that Paris was history. |
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| On November 17, 1998, Paris and Nitro finally met one-on-one in the now infamous Death match. It was an absolute bloodbath, and after two hours of brutal action, Mark Paris stood victorious, to the utter amazement of everybody except himself. A stunned Speed Racer stepped up his campaign to ruin Paris utterly; Paris began publicly mocking Speed for allowing his Clique to literally run the promotion over the summer, and repeatedly made comments to the effect that he, Paris, was in fact the real authority in the AGW, and that Speed was simply his gopher. Racer was continually frustrated. A rematch between Paris and Nitro at the AGW In Your Face PPV ended in disaster; Speed had appointed himself the special referee, but his attempted interference backfired, allowing Paris to claim a second victory over Nitro. Speed's first Corporate group, consisting mainly of the Dark Church and the Order of Darkness, also attempted to thwart Paris' rise to the top of the organization, but it was an exercise in futility. A complicated attempt to take the IC title from Paris |
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| backfired horribly
on December 12 '98, as Paris defeated the two most dominant superstars
in AGW history, the Dark Rogue and Brolly, in the same night,
recapturing the World Title in the process. Paris' self-bestowed moniker
of "Legend Killer" suddenly took on a deadly reality
to the AGW vets.
Paris' second title reign shaped up even more horribly than the first one, at least to the majority of the AGW. Rather than facing a World Champion who was an arrogant coward, they now faced one who seemed to be an unstoppable killer in the ring. Speed Racer's animosity towards him only continued to grow, as he served up legend after legend to the hated Champion. Paris always came out on top, and Speed's every attempt at interference seemingly backfired, helping Paris retain the title in match after match. The feud between owner and Champion grew increasingly bitter; in a move recalling his earlier departure from the AGW, Paris publicly threatened to declare free agency, and take the World Title with him. Seemingly fearful that Paris would follow through on that threat, Speed booked him into a cage match with the Dark Rogue at Winter Storm '99. He also locked Paris' allies in their dressing rooms, and held onto the only key to the cage, himself. There was a feeling that it would be the last the AGW saw of Paris, either way. He would lose the title and the protection that it offered, or he would somehow win yet again and walk out, taking the title with him. After a pitched battle, Speed's attempted interference once again undid his chosen one, as a misplaced chairshot allowed Paris to pick up yet another win. But some observers had seen a pattern developing, and their suspicions were proven correct as Speed re-entered the cage after the match, where he and Paris gleefully laid waste to the already beaten Dark Rogue. Later on, Paris would laughingly explain that he and Speed had been covertly working together since his reappearance in October. Together, they had conspired to eliminate the established AGW superstars, who Speed felt were dragging down the AGW's ratings. The plan had worked to perfection; the old stars were beaten and humiliated; many of them left the company. With a clear field, Paris and Speed hand-picked a new Corporation; the group of stars that Speed felt would be the most marketable champions for the coming years. They had their opposition, of course; several former Corporate members, notably Gryphon and Alex Star, were less then pleased about the new "change of policy." Many of the younger stars felt snubbed when they failed to be invited to join Speed's new order. These various disgruntled elements came together, forming the Anti-Corporate Crew (ACC) and the AGW became an all-out warzone. The Corp's in-ring skill and backstage protection quickly proved to be too much for the squabbling alliance that had formed to stop them. Although they managed to have Violet Morris named Commissioner, giving them a voice in the front office, they were unable to prevent the well-organized Corporation from completing their mission of collecting every major title in the promotion. Mat-watchers noted that several of the key members of the Corp had also been members of Paris' backstage Clique; indeed, Paris and his allies began to openly refer to themselves as the Corporate Clique during this time, and exchanged their old subtle string-pulling for an absolute reign of terror over the company. When Gryphon managed to end Paris record-shattering 102 day reign as World Champion, the Corp engineered the most blatant screwjob in AGW history to put the belt back on their Corporate Champion. For months, the Corporate Clique reigned supreme in the AGW, and their flagrant abuses of power became everyday events for the rest of the AGW. Even the greatest empires can't last forever, and so it was with the Corporation. As tends to happen with such groups, egos began to tear them apart. By May of '99, Speed and Paris were clashing regularly backstage, and their growing distaste for each other began to show itself on camera, as well. Paris' ever-present but never mentioned drug use was also shaping up to be a problem. Finally, when the AGW could suffer no more abuse, Paris' old partner Most Holy came off the sidelines of the Corporate wars and defeated Paris for the World Title at the '99 Ringmaster PPV. Realizing the future of his league was in jeopardy, Speed officially disbanded the Corporation. The reign of terror was finally over. Left seemingly out in the cold, Paris took his ball (and the millions of dollars in Corporate "bonus payments" he had earned) and went home. He returned to his native Cleveland, building a huge home for himself and Rachel Morris, frequenting a wide variety of clubs (and less reputable establishments) and living like a playboy. Still, the ring had a hold on him...he made two abortive comeback attempts in '99; first under a mask as Archon, and later on that year when he returned to pay Speed back for disbanding the Corp by screwing new "Corporate Champion" Mark Payne out of the World Title. Both ended soon after they began; Paris' body was fairly shot from his various indulgences, and he was in desperate need of rehab. Seemingly done with wrestling forever, Paris checked himself into the Betty Ford Center in December of '99. Released at the end of the month, Paris allegedly rang in the New Year by getting smashed at a local bar, and then running down and nearly killing a fourteen-year-old girl in his Lexus later that night. He was unrepentant, but the state inexplicably dropped all charges (it was later rumored that Paris had used incriminating photos to blackmail the D.A.) Now hated by his own community (as well as the rest of the world), Paris began to once again consider his career |
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options.
The AGW had closed it's doors for various reasons in January 2000, but by May, Speed Racer was planning it's comeback. Deciding that enough was enough, he contacted Paris, and the two men finally managed to bury the hatchet, at least behind the scenes. Together, they gathered a group of some of the greatest talent in the AGW's history, and reopened the organization. At AGW: Second Coming, Paris made a triumphant return to the ring, winning a 64-man tournament for his fourth World Title. He would go on to trade the title with Alex Star, thus tying the Dark Rogue's record for most AGW World Title reigns (5 each). He also added |
| a Lethal Lottery win
to his already impressive resume, teaming up with Speed Racer himself
to win the tag tournament, before defeating Speed in the final match.
However, he again departed the business shortly thereafter, for
reasons that are still unclear. (Some people close to him site family
problems, as well as a disastrous attempt to put his backstage Clique
back together, as being key reasons for his departure.) Whatever the
case, he retreated into seclusion, where he remained until February
2001, when he once again found himself in the headlines...for all the
wrong reasons.
Paris' future is unclear at this point; the AGW once again vanished into the pages of wrestling history at the end of 2000, and although rumors of a Paris comeback surface every so often, it's doubtful that any sane promoter would hire him. Still, the wrestling world has it's share of lunatics in the front office as well as in the ring. For now, there is little one can do except watch...and wait. |
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