| Bill Danenhauer | |
| Ring name(s) | Captain Ron[1] The Equalizer[1] Dave Sullivan[1] |
|---|---|
| Billed height | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 260 lb (120 kg; 19 st) |
| Born | December 1, 1963[1] Omaha, Nebraska[1] |
| Trained by | Len Denton[1] |
| Debut | 1990[1] |
| Retired | 2003 |
William "Bill" Danenhauer (born December 1, 1963) is a retired American professional wrestler better known as Dave Sullivan or The Equalizer.[1]
Career[]
Bill Danenhauer started out in college football as the Offensive Coordinator at Washburn University. He met Harley Race and decided to become a professional wrestler.
He started wrestling in 1990 as The Equalizer in the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Pacific Northwest Wrestling territory. He teamed with The Grappler as "The Wrecking Crew" and feuded with John Nord and Scott Norton. They then won the Pacific Northwest Tag Team title twice before he and Grappler split and feuded, with Equalizer assuming the babyface role as PNW fans rooted for him against Grappler.[2]
In 1991, he briefly wrestled in New Japan Pro Wrestling, most notably losing a match to Scott Norton on March 21 at the Tokyo Dome.
He left PNW for the Global Wrestling Federation where he wrestled as Captain Ron in 1992.[3]
In 1993 he joined World Championship Wrestling, and teamed briefly with Rick Rude as his tag team partner/bodyguard. They feuded with Dustin Rhodes and Road Warrior Hawk.[4] He also teamed with Paul Orndorff.[1]
His biggest push started in the summer of 1994 when he became Dave "Evad" Sullivan the dyslexic brother of Kevin Sullivan. He was being picked on by The Nasty Boys and brought Kevin in to help him against them. He was injured by them, so Sullivan brought in Cactus Jack to help them out. After Kevin and Jack took care of The Nasty Boys, they split up, and Jack left. Hulk Hogan made his WCW debut that summer, and Dave became his biggest fan. Kevin hated Hogan, and problems started brewing.[5]
Dave started teaming with Hogan and Sting against Ric Flair and his henchmen, and Kevin soon turned on Dave, which started a feud that went into 1995. After his feud with Kevin ended, Dave fell in love with Kimberly, the valet for Diamond Dallas Page (This was before it was known that DDP & Kimberly were married in real life.). DDP took offense to this and started a feud with Dave that lasted all summer. During this feud, Dave gave Kimberly presents, which infuriated DDP even more. Dave eventually lost the feud and moved on.[5]
His next feud was with Big Bubba Rogers. Dave had a pet rabbit that he brought to ringside with him, and Bubba was allergic to rabbits. Bubba started wearing a surgical mask to keep from inhaling the germs, but Dave would always pull it off and get the victory.[5] Danenhauer left WCW in early 1996 after participating in the first WCW World War 3 event.
He wrestled in the independents under his original ring name The Equalizer until retiring in 2003 to become a football coach at Dana College in Blair, Nebraska.[1]
In wrestling[]
- Finishing moves
- Bunny Hop (Canadian backbreaker rack)[6]
- Leg drop[6] – adopted from Hulk Hogan
- Managers
- Lance Wright
- Joe Don Smith
- Rip Oliver
- Madd Maxine
- Kevin Casey
- Evan Steigerwalt
Championships and accomplishments[]
- Empire Wrestling Association
- EWA North American Championship (1 time)[7]
- Pacific Northwest Wrestling
- NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Champion (2 times) – with The Grappler[2]
- Professional Wrestling Federation
- PWF Eastern States Championship (1 time)
- PWF Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Baby Huey (1) and George South (1)
- Southern States Wrestling
- SSW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[8]
- United States Wrestling Federation
- USWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with John Bradshaw[7]
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
- Worst Gimmick (1994)
- Worst Wrestler (1993, 1994)
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 "Dave "Evad" Sullivan was inspiration for Eugene". Online World of Wrestling. July 9, 2009. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/2009/07/09/dave-evad-sullivan-wwi/. Retrieved January 22, 2010. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "OWW" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 2.0 2.1 Duncan, Royal; Gary Will (2000). "Portland: NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 317–320. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ↑ "Matches von Dave Sullivan, GWF" (in German). CageMatch.net. http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=1551&view=matches&gimmick=&jahr=&liga=84®ion=&land=&art=&artmatches=&partner=Partner&gegner=Gegner&suchbegriff=Suchbegriff#matches. Retrieved February 6, 2010.
- ↑ "CLash of the CHampionms XXIV". ProWrestlinghistory.com. August 18, 1993. http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/usa/wcw/clash2.html#XXIV. Retrieved February 6, 2010.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 RD Reynolds and Randy Baer (2003). "Hulkster's in the house". Wrestlecrap – the very worst of pro wrestling. ECW Press. pp. 155. ISBN 1-55022-584-7.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Finishing Moves List". Other Arena. http://www.otherarena.com/nCo/finish/finish.html. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2000). Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ↑ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Tennessee: SSW Southern States Wrestling TItle [Beau James]". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 209. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.