Vic Grimes

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Vic Grimes (born January 3, 1963) 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 as Key.

[edit] Career

Grimes began his career in California's All Pro Wrestling promotion, where he had a classic series of matches against "Leprechaun" Erin O'Grady. This "little man vs. big man" feud between the two even saw O'Grady actually run over Grimes' leg with a car.^[1] 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. He made his WWE debut on the July 26, 1999 episode of Monday Night RAW. 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 both men tumbling off a 20-foot high scaffolding rig onto concrete. Jack suffered brain damage and was temporarily blinded in his right eye, which kept him out of wrestling for several months. Grimes would depart ECW not long after this incident.

Following ECW's closing, New Jack would come to XPW, and his feud with Grimes would be re-ignited when Grimes surprisingly attacked New Jack from behind with a guitar at XPW's Payback's a Bitch event; New Jack was involved in a verbal dispute with XPW CEO Rob Black when Grimes appeared through the mat from under the ring and attacked New Jack, aligning himself with (Black's stable) The Black Army. The beginning of the newly-ignited feud featured both men in an infamous tag match, with Grimes teaming with The Messiah and New Jack aligning himself with Supreme; the match's infamy came from a freak accident where New Jack was powerbombed by Grimes through a flaming table, and New Jack was on fire for over 10 seconds ^[2]. Other points of the feud featured New Jack diving off balconies ranging from 15-20 feet onto a table (with Grimes on top of it), as well as Grimes throwing New Jack off of a balcony (through 2 tables).

The feud culminated in February 2002 in a scaffold match, where (towards the end) Jack broke from the script and legitimately shocked Grimes with a taser, as well as throwing Grimes off of the scaffold and sending him crashing to the ring 40 feet 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 broke his fall on the top rope, dislocating his ankle suffering multiple other injuries in the process. In the 2005 documentary Forever Hardcore, New Jack claimed that his intentions were to throw Grimes so hard that he would fall head first onto the steel turnbuckle and die; fortunately, the scaffold was moved a couple of feet back, thus preventing Jack's morbid wish ^[3].

When Shane Douglas took control of XPW (following Baptized in Blood 3), Vic Grimes would remain with the promotion, and engage in feuds with Shane Douglas and SNUFF. One memorable incident from his feud with Douglas occurred during a tag match between Shane Douglas/Lizzy Borden and Vic Grimes/Lucy; Grimes botched a top-rope powerbomb on Lizzy Borden through a table (on the outside of the ring), as Borden missed the table completely and landed head first ^[4]. Grimes would also have a number of match-ups with cruiserweights such as Psicosis, Little Guido, and (his trainee) Altar Boy Luke.

After XPW folded, Grimes went on to work for various California independent promotions such as Supreme Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Iron, and perhaps most notably Full Contact Wrestling. He has recently been on the Wrestling Society X series, with his debut airing March 14, 2007.

[edit] In wrestling

• Nicknames
  • "The Master of West Coast Violence"
  • "The One Man Street Gang"
  • "The Vicious One"
  • "Vicious" Vic Grimes

• Finishing and signature moves
  • Grimes Cutter (Catching Mid-Air Stunner)
  • Grime Time (Second rope Crucifix powerbomb into Jumping Piledriver)
  • Grimes-U-Up (Wheelbarrow Facebuster)
  • Just Another Victim (Chokebomb)
  • Grimes Bomb (Powerbomb)
  • Victimizer (Over the Shoulder Belly to Belly Piledriver)
  • Victimizer 2.0 (Electric chair bomb)
  • Victimizer 3.0 (Belly-to-back inverted mat slam, occasionally off the middle turnbuckle)
  • Arm twist ropewalk leg drop
  • Flying somersault senton
  • Flying corkscrew somersault senton
  • Flying frog splash
  • Scoop into a facebuster
  • Signature illegal weapon: Pizza cutter

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

• All Pro Wrestling
  • 1-time APW Universal Heavyweight Champion
  • 2-time APW Tag Team Champion (1-time with Little Dic Grimes, and 1-time with Frank Murdoch)

• Power Pro Wrestling
  • 1-time PPW Heavyweight Champion
  • 1-time PPW Tag Team Champion (with Erin O'Grady)
  • 2-time PPW Young Guns Champion

• Xtreme Pro Wrestling
  • 2001 XPW King of the Deathmatch Tournament Winner

[edit] References