Sean Royal

Sean Royal
Born (1961-02-01) February 1, 1961
Tampa, Florida
Professional wrestling career
Billed from "the Future"
Trained by Hiro Matsuda
Debut 1984
Retired 2002

Sean Royal (born Sean Vellenga on February 1, 1961) is a retired American professional wrestler from Tampa, Florida. Initially Royal teamed up with Chris Champion to form a tag team known as The New Breed, their concept being that they had traveled back to 1986 from the year 2002. The duo wore bright neon outfits, had "futuristic" haircuts, talked about future events and at one point had a robot as their manager.

The New Breed competed both in Florida Championship Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions. The duo won the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship in 1986 and worked story lines with both the Rock 'n' Roll Express and Midnight Express

Royal retired from wrestling in 1988 and worked in construction for a number of years. He worked in Japan in 1993. He returned to regular competition in 2001 and 2002.

In 2002 a different wrestler began using the name Sean Royal, but he was unrelated to the original Sean Royal.

Professional wrestling career

Sean Royal made his professional wrestling debut in 1984 after training under Hiro Matsuda, opting to use his birth name as his ring name. He initially worked for Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling based in Charlotte, North Carolina.[1]

Florida Championship Wrestling (1986–1987)

In 1986 he began working for Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). Initially he worked as a singles wrestler, but it was not long into his tenure in Florida that the promoter and match makers decided to team Royal up with another young wrestler, Chris Champion; and together the two became a regular tag team called The New Breed. The New Breed tag team was given an elaborate back story and "science fiction" flavor as they were marketed as wrestlers sent back in time from 2002 to 1986. The duo was presented as having "futuristic technology", bright neon colored ring gear and unusual haircuts that were supposed to be the fashion of the future. The team made various references to future events such as referring to wrestler Dusty Rhodes as "President Rhodes", indicating that Rhodes would win the 2000 presidential election.[1] The team would come to the ring to the sound of the Beastie Boys' song "Fight For Your Right to Party".[1] The team made a special appearance in Memphis, working for the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) where they lost to the MOD Squad on a show in the Mid-South Coliseum on September 1, 1986.[2]

On December 25, 1986, the New Breed defeated Vic Steamboat and Kendall Windham in the finals of a tournament for the vacant NWA Florida Tag Team Championship, which had been inactive since 1981.[3][4] After the title win the New Breed was put into a story line feud with the Face (those that portray the "good guys") team The Southern Boys (Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers). The feud between the two teams led to the Southern Boys defeating the New Breed for the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship on February 11, 1987.[3] Shortly after their title loss the New Breed left Florida.

Jim Crockett Promotions (1987–1988)

The duo made their debut for National Wrestling Alliance Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), which was in the process of expanding from the mid-Atlantic region to a national promotion.[5] The team kept their futuristic gimmick and their Heel (those that portray the bad guys) characters as they were immediately put up against the popular the Rock 'n' Roll Express team of Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, stating that they had been sent back from the future to save the fans from the Rock 'n' Roll Express, who would supposedly go crazy over what happened to Rock and Roll in the year 2000.[5] They also claimed that in the future Jimmy Valiant had corrupted future Dusty Rhodes, leading to a dictatorship. mockingly calling him "Father Time". They also claimed that masked wrestler LazorTron was in reality a robot from the future, sent to stop them.[1] In the spring of 1987 the New Breed was one of 10 teams competing in a tournament for the vacant NWAUnited States Tag Team Championship. The team wrestled the father/son duo of Bob Armstrong and Brad Armstrong to a draw, eliminating both teams from the tournament.[6]

The story line with the Rock 'n' Roll Express was still in its infant stages when the New Breed was involved in a car accident and Chris Champion's injuries forced him to not wrestle for an extended period.[1] Royal teamed up with Gladiator #1 and Gladiator #2, losing to the trio of Kendall Windham, Jimmy Valiant and LazerTron on the undercard on one of JCP's 1987 Great American Bash series.[7] JCP used the sympathy that Royal and Champion garnered from the car accident to turn the team into faces, as Jim Cornette, the manager of the Midnight Express tried to recruit Royal to his group, but Royal refused. During his recovering Chris Champion appeared on television with circuit boards and wires glued to his cast, making it look like it was a futuristic "Healing device".[1] Once Champion returned to action the New Breed feuded with the Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey).[1] The two teams clashed several times, often over the NWA United States Tag Team Championship where most of the matches ended inconclusively.[5]

In an attempt to bolster the fan favorite image and congruent with their futuristic characters, JCP officials decided to give the New Breed a manager, a small remote controlled robot called "XTC-1"[1][8] On November 26, 1987 the New Breed lost to The Sheepherders (Luke Williams and Butch Miller) for the UWF World Tag Team Championship as part of the Universal Wrestling Federation's Superdome show, losing to the defending champions. The New Breed broke up a short time after as Royal retired from full-time wrestling, opting to become a construction worker instead.[1]

Touring Japan (1993)

Royal made a return to pro wrestling in 1993, travelling to Japan to work for New Japan Pro Wrestling in the fall. Royal teamed up with Brad Armstrong to compete in NJPW's Super Grade Tag League III, a monthlong round-robin tournament NJPW holds each year. The duo ended the tournament with 0 points, losing to teams such as Jushin Thunder Liger and Wild Pegasus, The Barbarian and Masa Saito, Takayuki Iizuka and Akira Nogami, Shiro Koshinaka and Michiyoshi Ohara, the Hell Raisers (Hawk Warrior and Power Warrior), Tatsumi Fujinami and Osamu Kido, Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto as well as semi-finalists the Jurrasic Powers (Scott Norton and Hercules Hernandez) and tournament winners Hiroshi Hase and Keiji Mutoh.[9] He wrestled his last NJPW match on November 4, 1993 as part of a special NJPW show in Sumo Hall. Royal teamed up with the Barbarian, losing to the Jurrasic Powers.[10]

NWA Wildside (2001–2002)

It has not been documented if Sean Royal wrestled between 1994 and 2001, but in 2001 Royal returned to pro wrestling, teaming up with Rusty Riddle to form a team known as "Total Destruction" in NWA Wildside. As a member of Total Destruction Royal once again plays a heel character, leading to a story line where the team was banned from NWA Wildside for 30 days. During that time period the team won the NWA Wildside Tag Team Championship from Blackout (Homicide and Rainman) after a surprise challenge, but since the team was supposed to be banned from working in NWA Wildside they were forced to return the championship to Blackout a week later.[11] The duo also had a long running storyline with The Kohl Twins. At the 2001 Freedom Fight, Total Destruction challenged the Kohl Twins for the Wildside Tag Team titles, with Riddle also putting his hair on the line. Royal and Riddle lost and Riddle was shaved bald as a result. On August 8, 2001 Total Destruction defeated the NWA World Tag Team Champions The New Heavenly Bodies (Chris Nelson and Vito DeNucci) by disqualification and thus did not win the championship.

Another Sean Royal

In 2002 a different wrestler began using the name "Sean Royal". The much younger 'Royal' was born in West Patterson, New Jersey and was not related to the first Sean Royal. The fact that there were two wrestlers named "Sean Royal" working in 2002 led to some confusion, and some sources credited the original Sean Royal with championships won by the later/younger Royal; such as Independent Wrestling Federation Junior Heavyweight Championship that the younger Royal won in 2004.[12][13] Due to there being doppelganger "Sean Royals" competing in 2002, it is uncertain exactly when the original Sean Royal actually retired from wrestling. The last recorded match that definitively identified the older Sean Royal was on November 1, 2002 where Total Destruction wrestled the Dobbins Brothers to a double disqualification.[14][15]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Reynolds, R.D.; Baer, Randy (2003). "Welcome to Oz! Welcome to Oz!". Wrestlecrap – the very worst of pro wrestling. Toronto Ont:: ECW Press. pp. 97–118. ISBN 1-55022-584-7.
  2. ↑ "September 1, 1986 in Memphis, TN Mid-South Coliseum". Pro Wrestling History. September 2, 1986. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "Florida: NWA Florida Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 157. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  4. ↑ Hoops, Brian (December 25, 2015). "DAILY PRO WRESTLING HISTORY (12/25): ONE OF THE BIGGEST NIGHTS IN NORTH AMERICAN WRESTLING". Figure Four Wrestling Online. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Cawthon, Graham (2013). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 3:Jim Crockett and the NWA World Title 1983–1989. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 149480347X.
  6. ↑ "NWA U.S. Tag Team Title Tournament 1987". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  7. ↑ "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Great American Bash 1987". Wrestling’s Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 131.
  8. 1 2 Braxton, Blade (April 11, 2015). "NDUCTION: XTC-1 – THE WORLD'S FIRST ROBOTIC WRESTLING MANAGER!". WrestleCrap. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Super Grade Tag Team LeagueIII". ProWrestlingHistory.com. October 8 – November 4, 1993. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Sumo Hall 11/93". Pro Wrestling History. November 4, 1993. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  11. 1 2 "NWA Georgia Tag Team Title". wrestling-titles.com. July 25, 2015. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Profile: Sean Royal". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Sean Royal: Championships". Cagematch. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Sean Royal matches". Wrestling Data. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Sean Royal matches". Cagematch. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
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