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Vic Grimes is a professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling, his tenure in Xtreme Pro Wrestling, and his short run in the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) as Key.

Career

Grimes began his career in California's All Pro Wrestling promotion, where he had a classic series of matches against "Leprachaun" Erin O'Grady. This "little man vs. big man" feud between the two even saw O'Grady actually run over Grimes's leg with a car. Grimes would also face off against Donovan Morgan, Michael Modest, and "Brown Bomber" Robert Thompson during his time in APW and developed a reputation for taking insane bumps for such a large wrestler.

Jim Cornette saw a tape of Grimes and O'Grady's feud in All Pro Wrestling and scheduled them for a dark match before an edition of Monday Night RAW. WWF officials were so impressed by the match that they signed both men to contracts on the spot; it was the first time in 15 years that both wrestlers who participated in a dark match were signed to contracts after one night. Grimes would be moved to the Memphis developmental territories before being brought up to WWF TV under the ring name Key. As Key, Grimes formed a short-lived drug dealer gimmick along with Droz and Prince Albert and feuded with The Godfather. However, The Godfather suffered an injury just as the feud between the two was developing, which led to Grimes being taken off TV.

The WWF encouraged Grimes to work for the Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion to further develop his skills. There, Grimes joined Tony DeVito and Spanish Angel to form Da' Baldies. The highlights of his ECW tenure were a fast-paced match against Kid Kash, an ECW World Heavyweight Title shot against Mike Awesome, and a Danbury Street Fight with Tommy Dreamer.

During ECW's Living Dangerously pay-per-view in March 2000, a breakdown in communication between New Jack and Grimes led to one of the most infamous nights of Grimes' career when both men tumbling off of a 20-foot scaffold onto concrete. Jack suffered brain damage and was permanently blinded in his right eye, which that kept Jack out of wrestling for several months.

This would not be the last confrontation between the New Jack and Grimes as the Xtreme Pro Wrestling promotion would take the real-life incident and make into a storyline. During this fued, New Jack would dive off of platforms the ranged from 15-20 foot and even a 35-foot-high platform with the purpose of putting Grimes through tables.

The feud culminated in February 2002, when Jack threw Grimes off of a legitimately 40-foot-high scaffold, sending Grimes crashing to the ring four stories below. There were over 10 tables stacked on top of each other to break the fall, but Grimes missed all but two of them and came within less than a foot of missing the ring completely. Grimes dislocated his ankle on the ring ropes and suffered multiple other injuries from the incident. Towards the end of this match, Jack broke from the script and legitimately electrocuted Grimes with a tazer. In the 2005 documentary Forever Hardcore, New Jack claimed that he had intentionally thrown Grimes too hard in the hopes that he would be injured or die.

Other highlights of Grimes' XPW tenure included a violent match-up involving Sabu, feuds involving Shane Douglas and SNUFF, and a number of match-ups with cruiserweights such as Psichosis, Little Guido, and his trainee, Altar Boy Luke. During the first half of his run in XPW, he was a prominent member of the Black Army stable, headed by XPW CEO Rob Black.

After XPW folded, Grimes went on to work for various California indepentent promotions such as Supreme Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Iron, and perhaps most notably Full Contact Wrestling.

On June 28, 2006, Vic Grimes ressurfaced at Ohio Valley Wrestling in a dark match.

Finishing and signature moves

Championships and accomplishments

  • 2-time APW Tag Team Champion (with Little Dic Grimes, then with Frank Murdoch)
  • 1-time APW Universal Champion
  • 1-time MPPW Heavyweight Champion
  • 1-time MPPW Tag Team Champion (with Erin O'Grady)
  • 2-time MPPW Young Guns Champion
  • 1-time XPW King of the Deathmatch Tournament Winner (2001)

References

American professional wrestlers | Living people | Year of birth missing | People from New York City | ECW alumni

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Vic Grimes".

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