Rob Conway
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| Robert Conway | |
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| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Robért Conway Conquistador Uno Rob Conway |
| Billed height | 6 ft 1 in (186 cm) |
| Billed weight | 230 lb (104 kg) |
| Born | November 28, 1971 New Albany, Indiana |
| Billed from | Atlantic City, New Jersey |
| Trained by | Danny Davis, OVW Staff |
| Debut | 1997 |
Robert Thomas Conway, Jr. (born November 28, 1971) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment. He is currently wrestling for Ohio Valley Wrestling, WWE's top developmental territory.
Contents |
[edit] Career
Rob Conway began his career in Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW) and Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), teaming with Nick Dinsmore under the names Limited Edition (MCW), the Borkcin Brothers and the Lords of the Ring (OVW). While in OVW he and Dinsmore were also members of Kenny Bolin's Bolin Services along with The Prototype, Barry Buchanan, and Mark Henry.
As the Lords of the Ring, Conway and Dinsmore won the OVW Tag Team titles on 10 occasions and captured the MCW North American Tag Team titles once.
On April 28, 1999 Rob Conway defeated his own partner Nick Dinsmore to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship, but lost it back to him the next week. Conway won the OVW Heavyweight Championship a second time on August 17, 1999, pinning Damaja. He lost the title to Rico Constantino on November 10, regaining it on September 6, 2000, with another victory over Nick Dinsmore.
[edit] World Wrestling Entertainment
Conway debuted in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on the May 20, 2000, episode of Jakked, where he was defeated by Bull Buchanan. Over the next three years, Conway appeared in tryout matches on Velocity and Sunday Night HEAT, losing to wrestlers such as A-Train, Randy Orton, and The Hurricane.
In a match taped for the July 17, 2003 episode of SmackDown!, Rob Conway and Nick Dinsmore appeared under masks as "Los Conquistadores", losing to Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman. On July 27, at Vengeance 2003, Conway once again competed as the masked Conquistador, this time with Johnny Jeter as his partner, as part of the APA Bar Room Brawl.
[edit] La Résistance
Rob Conway made his proper debut for the company on the August 18, 2003, episode of RAW, planted in the audience dressed as an American soldier. After Conway was "harassed" by the heel tag team La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier and René Duprée), he was invited into the ring by The Dudley Boyz, who were then feuding with La Résistance. While "celebrating" with the Dudley Boyz and waving the American flag, Conway suddenly hit them both with the flagpole, revealing himself to be a member of La Résistance. The trio feuded with several tag teams, including the Dudley Boyz, The Hurricane and Rosey, Garrison Cade and Mark Jindrak. When Grenier suffered a back injury in October 2003, Dupree and Conway held the group together until the March 15, 2004 edition of RAW when Grenier returned. The trio did not last long after that, however, as Dupree was drafted to SmackDown! on March 22, 2004 during the Draft Lottery.
However, Grenier and Conway continued to team together as La Résistance on RAW. With American-Franco hostility subsiding, the WWE ceased billing the team as being from France and instead promoted them as being haughty French Canadians who carried the flag of Quebec to the ring, with Grenier often singing the Canadian national anthem. The team held the World Tag Team Championship three times. Their first title reign came when they defeated Chris Benoit and Edge on the May 31, 2004 edition of RAW in Grenier's home town of Montreal, Quebec. Shortly after this Conway grew his hair out and combed it back. The team dropped the belts to the same team of Benoit and Edge at Taboo Tuesday on October 19 when, even though Edge walked out on Benoit, Benoit was able to defeat La Résistance by himself. It wasn't long before La Résistance reclaimed the tag team gold for the second time on the November 1, edition of RAW, defeating Chris Benoit after Edge walked out on Benoit again. This time La Résistance didn't hold the titles as long as their last reign as they lost the belts two weeks later on RAW when they faced the team of William Regal and Eugene as well as Tajiri and Rhyno in a 3-Way Elimination match dropping the titles to Regal and Eugene. Their third, and final, Tag Team Title reign began at a RAW-brand House Show on January 16, 2005 in Winnipeg, Manitoba when they defeated Regal and Jonathan Coachman -- Regal's actual partner, Eugene, had been injured and Coachman was selected to be his fill in partner, though Regal never tagged him in -- to win the belts. La Résistance dropped the belts again a few weeks later on the February 7, edition of RAW, from Tokyo, Japan, to William Regal and his new tag team partner Tajiri. Conway cut his hair back short in March, 2005.
La Résistance repeatedly attempted to regain the gold (mainly on Heat) from Regal and Tajiri in a number of different matches but fell just short each time. During their "last shot" the team thought they had won back the titles only to have the decision reversed by referee Mike Chioda due to La Résistance not pinning the legal man. The match was restarted but La Résistance lost the match and their last chance against Regal and Tajiri in a normal tag team contest. The team was given one more chance at Regal and Tajiri, only this time during a Tag Team Turmoil match including five teams -- La Résistance, Regal and Tajiri, The Heart Throbs (Romeo Roselli and Antonio Thomas), Simon Dean and Maven, and The Super Heroes Hurricane and Rosey, during Backlash. During the match La Résistance managed to eliminate the champions, but were defeated by the last remaining team (and winners of the match) Hurricane and Rosey.
The team split in mid-May 2005 after repeatedly quarreling over which of them was the superior wrestler. Grenier and Conway went into singles competition with announcers claiming that the members of La Résistance were trying to "one up" each other in singles matches without the other man in their corner. This saw Conway defeat a jobber and Val Venis, while Grenier was defeated by both Venis and Chris Jericho before both men competed in a triple threat match (against Intercontinental Champion Shelton Benjamin for the title), Benjamin won the match not long after the La Résistance members began to argue and fight with each other. This altercation led to a main event match for the June 12th Heat (taped on June 6) in which Rob Conway portrayed the heel, and defeated Grenier. On June 30, 2005, Grenier was a last minute trade in the 2005 WWE Draft, sending him to SmackDown! while Conway stayed on RAW. Despite the return to RAW of René Duprée in the same lottery which claimed Grenier, Conway began wrestling in singles competition. Conway continued to wrestle in singles competition on both Heat and Raw episodes notably losing all his matches.
[edit] The Con-Man Rob Conway
On the July 17, 2005 edition of WWE Heat Conway brought back his original identity of Rob Conway, making his new persona a narcissistic model and developing a new appearance including sunglasses, a mustache, and a new haircut. He began referring to himself as "The Con-Man" Rob Conway. A notable trademark of the new Con-Man was that while his music, "Just Look At Me" played him to the ring, he would lip-synch. With the new look came a long winning streak.
During the WWE Homecoming edition of RAW, Conway interrupted a segment involving a number of WWE Legends. After disrespecting the legends, they assaulted him en masse. Conway, seeking retaliation, then went on to have matches against a number of legends, picking up wins over Doink The Clown, Greg Valentine (by disqualification) and Koko B. Ware.
During this time he would go on to begin feuding with Eugene, a big fan of the legends who stuck up for them. At the 2005 Taboo Tuesday pay-per-view, Conway teamed with Tyson Tomko to face Eugene and a legend (as voted for by the fans). Jimmy Snuka beat out Kamala and Jim Duggan in the voting to become Eugene's partner and picked up the win after a Superfly Splash. On the next RAW, Conway attempted to take the Intercontinental Championship from Ric Flair, but came up short when he was locked in Flair's infamous Figure four leglock.
After losing to Flair, Conway went on a long losing streak, losing almost every match he was in through the rest of the year and the start of 2006. Conway went back to competing on Sunday Night Heat making few appearances on RAW and losing on every occasion.
On the April 10, 2006 edition of RAW Conway debuted a slightly changed look, including longer hair, no mustache, and blonde dyed hair, in a loss to Rob Van Dam.
Conway finally broke his losing streak for one night only on the May 12, 2006 edition of Heat when he won a mixed tag team match with Victoria against the team of Viscera and Torrie Wilson. It was short lived, however, as the next week he was defeated by Jim Duggan, re-starting his losing streak but starting a short program with Duggan and his protege Eugene.
On the November 15 edition of OVW, Conway made a surprise appearance, teaming with Sylvain Grenier to reform their old stable, La Résistance. The reformed team defeated Cody Runnels and Shawn Spears to earn a shot at the OVW Southern Tag Team Titles. However, the team lost the title match.
[edit] (Kayfabe) Firing From Raw
After months of losing, Conway appeared on the January 1, 2007 edition of Raw. Rob proceded to make a New Year's resolution and vowed that he would not lose another match and if he did he would quit Raw. His opponent would be Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy, but he was pinned after 21 seconds.
After the match, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon entered the ring. Vince then began to talk about how the famous phrase "You're Fired" used by Donald Trump on The Apprentice didn't originate there but it originated right here in the WWE. He proceeded by telling Conway that he wasn't going to allow him to quit, he continued and told Rob, "You're Fired!"
Although not confirmed, it is assumed Rob Conway will join ECW or SmackDown! soon. Originally, it was believed Conway would join up with Sylvan (on SmackDown!) or Rene Dupree (on ECW), but since Sylvan jumped to ECW and reformed La Resistance with Rene Duprée, Conway's future is in the air. However, as of the end of February, Duprée's and Sylvan's profiles have been removed from the ECW roster page. Some now believe that the three former La Resistance members will reform the group again, but on SmackDown! and this time it will be all three of them. However, this is not official and has not been confirmed. To add to this, both Duprée and Grenier are now making appearances for OVW, making it look likely that Conway will once again return as a singles wrestler. Rob Conway has gone back training at WWE's developmental territory, OVW. It is likely that Rene Dupree, Sylvain Grenier and Rob Conway will return to the main roster of SmackDown! as a group together - La Resistance, with Sylvain Grenier as a sort of a manager. Rumours has it that they will start feuding with Paul London and Brian Kendrick for the WWE Tag Team Titles sometime after WrestleMania 23.
[edit] In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
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- Ego Trip (Whiplash or elevated whiplash)
- Ego Elbow Drop (Diving elbow drop)
- Neckbreaker
- Cross armbreaker
- Second rope diving leg lariat
- Iron Fist (Punch with an iron-loaded glove)
- Managers
- Quotes
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- "It's not the right way, it's not the wrong way, it's the Con-way!"
- "I'm gonna do things my way....The Con-way!"
- "Just look at me, ain't I sight to see? The whole d*mn world wants to look like but they can't so just look at me!"
- "I am vintage!"
- "No that is not me singing, but it should be me singing." (Towards Todd Grisham about Conway's entrance music, Look at Me)
[edit] Championships and accomplishments
- Music City Wrestling
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- 1-time MCW North American Tag Team Champion (with Nick Dinsmore)
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- 2-time OVW Heavyweight Champion
- 10-time OVW Southern Tag Team Champion (with Nick Dinsmore)
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- 3-time World Tag Team Champion (with Sylvain Grenier)
[edit] Personal
Rob graduated from New Albany High School (Indiana) in 1990 [1] where he was a very accomplished athlete, especially in basketball. After high school, he attended the now defunct Graceland University in New Albany where he played basketball. Following college, Rob sold fitness equipment and worked as a personal trainer in the Southern Indiana/Louisville area. He broke into wrestling after driving past the old Danny Davis arena in Jeffersonville, Indiana in 1997. After walking in and watching what he considered out of shape guys wrestle, he thought he would give it a try. Within five minutes of being in the ring, Rob stated in a 2004 article in Indianapolis Monthly he knew this is what he wanted to do. Based on the appearance of the local wrestlers, he thought it would only take six months to make it to the WWE (then WWF) based on his excellent build and athleticism. It took him six years.
[edit] External links
- Rob Conway Online (fansite)
