Answering the 10 Count: Mike Howell aka Jack Dupp/Mike Hard/Mike Maverick

Brian Damage

Today on the blog, we chat with former ECW and WWE wrestler Mike Howell aka Jack Dupp/Mike Hard. We talk about his career and what led him to walk away from the wrestling business for good.

RTDB: When did you get your start in professional wrestling? Who trained you?

MH: Started watching it regularly in high school because I worked with a guy who was into it. Started going to the matches at Dorton Arena and met Chuck Coates and his brother David. Ran into Chuck in college at NC State and one of his roommates was Jeff Rudd The Gemini Kid. We ended up with a group of us who watched wrestling together and all went to Dorton together. We started teaching ourselves by watching it on VCR and using the slow motion. We would go over to the gym and practice on the floor exercises mat for the gymnastics people. We ended up convincing the university to pay for a ring and get us gear and we put on shows on campus. We would advertise them in the school newspaper and some guy who wrestled for a local indie group saw an ad and called us wanting to be booked. We met his indie crew which included a 16 year old CW Anderson and started working for them too. Met more people, got more indie bookings. Nelson Royal started up a local tv indie deal and we went to one of his shows and asked to get booked. He told us we had to come to his school and tryout. Him and Gene Anderson offered to train us for $1200 each and we agreed but never ended up paying it. Chuck and I went up there a few times and trained with Nelson and some of the students and he started booking us to do jobs for WWF. I tell people Nelson trained me but I actually trained myself first even though he did teach me a lot. Especially about psychology.

RTDB: So how did you end up working for OMEGA?

MH: That was about 8 years later. That indie group I was with had an outdoor show at a place where they taught horse riding. After the show there was a thirteen year old kid still hanging around and we started talking to him. That was Shane Helms. Shane was really young and skinny when he first started breaking in and he would referee a lot. Then he started working as my manager. He finally put on some size and started getting booked to wrestle. He and I started the Serial Thillaz tag team which was inspired by Shawn Michaels and Diesel. We were on an indie show one night that Matt and Jeff were booked on. Matt was running shows in the Sanford National Guard Armory but he still called it New Frontier. He started booking me and Shane and changed the name to OMEGA. We had a tag team rivalry with him and Jeff. Ended up being really good friends with the OMEGA crew. Joey Abs, Cham Pain, Shannon Moore, Caprice Coleman. Later Otto Schwanz, Steve Corino, Joey Mercury and Christian York started working with us.
Trevor Lee’s dad was part of the original crew too but suffice to say that Trevor’s talent was not inherited.
Trevor was in diapers back then

RTDB: So how did you end up in ECW?

MH: Shannon got a connection in WCW somehow and got a tryout and took Shane with him to work with and they both got hired. Matt put me and Murray together because we were about the same size. WWE was in Fayetteville one night and a few of us were booked doing jobs. I was all pumped up at the time and Brian Lee came in the room and was ribbing me about it and said “Don’t come in here all Jacked Up”. The OMEGA crew thought it was funny and kept calling me “jacked up”. Marty used to do his promos and say “First name Cham, last name Pain” and one day when they were calling me jacked up I said “First name Jack, last name Dupp” and they all popped. Right after that Matt said something to me again about tag teaming with Murray and as a joke I said “Who’s he going to be, Bo Dupp?” We all laughed and Matt came to me later and said he actually liked it so I started thinking about it and came up with the gimmick based on the Jeff Foxworthy bits “you might be a redneck if”. Marty knew some guys that were a film production crew and they came in a filmed a video I came up with that was like a Saturday Night Live sketch bit. Steve Corino and CW had just gotten on with ECW and we gave them the video and they showed it to Dreamer and a few of the ECW guys and they thought it was funny and we got offered a spot.

RTDB: How was the atmosphere working in ECW with that fanbase and working for Paul Heyman?

MH: It was incredible. If you came in there and didn’t fit in it could be rough and those fans would shit on you if you didn’t get over with them. We did good. Got along with everyone in the locker room quickly and the fans up north ate up the gimmick as heels. The only odd part was that they cheered us in some of the southern towns so we had to go with that and be baby faces there but we were heels on tv. Actually ended up being really good friends with New Jack. We had really good matches with Nova and Kid Kash and Doring and Road Kill so our work got us over with the boys pretty quick. Dreamer pretty much ran everything. Didn’t really deal with Paul that much.

RTDB: So from ECW you transitioned to the WWF correct?

MH: Yes. Matt, Jeff and Jason had all just been hired by WWE. When we were on TV with ECW two or three times people in the WWE office had seen us and asked Matt about us. We were working for ECW without contracts but Dreamer came to us and told us they were going to give us contracts. I told Matt about it and he told the WWE office and called me back and told me not to sign yet. Dr Tom called first and said the same thing and then Shane McMahon called. I think Bruce called after that and we were going to be up near Connecticut the following week with ECW so he arranged for Murray and I to come to the office. They told us to keep it quiet and they didn’t want Marty. We went to the office and met with Bruce and had contracts the next day. I called Dreamer and gave our notice and we worked a few more weeks to finish up and started with WWE in January 2000.

RTDB: Did that cause any friction with anyone from ECW or Marty for that matter?

MH: No, everyone in ECW was super understanding and cool about it. I am sure Marty wasn’t too happy about it.

RTDB: Have you spoken with him since?

MH: He and I had gotten into it before that and were kinda still sour about it. Yeah, I talk to him somewhat regularly. It’s all water under the bridge now. I love Marty. He pissed somebody off in WWE and had nuclear heat up there.

RTDB: Do you know who and why the heat?

MH: Not exactly. He didn’t really get that part about being humble in the locker room. I don’t think Undertaker liked him. When he gave out the whole office’s email addresses and they all had to change them that pretty much sealed it. Actually it might have been from the time he was on the Montel Williams show and gave them a tape they played on the air of him wrestling HHH. He didn’t have permission to do that from what I recall. That probably got Vince heated.

RTDB: It seems whenever new talent comes in with an already established gimmick, the WWF/WWE like to tinker with things to call it their own and put their stamp on things did you guys experience that?

MH: Oh yeah. We started going to all of the tvs right away and wrestling dark matches. For a while we did the same thing we did in ECW and then one night Michael Hayes came to us and told us to go buy some different gear. I asked Kevin Kelly what was going on and he said they thought the gimmick was too silly.

RTDB: Did they give you any ideas of what direction you should go in?

MH: No, not once.

RTDB: So what did you do?

MH: When Michael told us to get new stuff it was on the day of tv about three in the afternoon. We went to the closest mall and bought some black pants and found a store that had a whole table full of different colored wife-beater t shirts with different designs on them so we bought about five different one apiece and that was our new gear. Later we got sent to Memphis and ended up getting some wrestling gear made.

RTDB: Tell us about working in developmental. It must’ve been culture shock?

MH: A developmental contract is actually more lucrative than a booking contract if you are just getting started but being in that position is difficult once the awe wears off. There is no communication or direction. You just keep showing up and hoping to hear something.

RTDB: Who were some of the other talents you worked with in Memphis?

MH: When we were in Memphis the Mean Street Posse, Lisa Marie, Bobcat, Glen Ruth, Haas Brothers, Steve Bradly, R Truth, Kevin Fertig were all there. Scott Vick was there too.

RTDB: Did you ever get a call to return up north?

MH: We were still going to every TV and PPV. So were the Posse and Haas Bros.

RTDB: Can you tell us about what happened Wrestlemania weekend? Were the reports accurate about getting drunk and passing out and Linda McMahon seeing this?

MH: I feel like you are about to ask me any minute but I really don’t want to talk about it but I got mixed up with the wrong person and got heat for it so they were going to split me and Murray up. He went to WM and I was at home with a torn knee ligament. I was not there when it happened but it was during the day in the hotel and he did something (not drunk) and passed out on the elevator on his way back to his room. People saw him and somehow Steve Blackman and D-Lo I think got him out of there. Somehow he ended up in the green room and the whole office was in there. I never heard he threw up but he was apparently out of it so they sent him home and he was fired shortly after. I got sent to OVW.

RTDB: Was here heat between you because of that incident?

MH: No. He and I were good friends but we didn’t really socialize with each other that much. He always hung around with Jason Arndt. (Joey Abs) We both live in Raleigh now.

RTDB: Tell us about your experience in OVW?

MH: It was far more professionally run than Memphis. I was at home with a knee injury and they called me and said I would be going to OVW and not back to Memphis. Cornette called me and told me he wanted to call me Mike Hard and put me with Sylvester Turkay as a tag team. Everything was good there. Professional tv tapings, professional training. A lot of studs were there with me. I’m not sure if they ever had plans for me after everything that went down but nobody ever said that.

RTDB: So let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The Stacy Carter and Jerry Lawler situation.

MH: Yeah, that is the elephant I don’t want to talk about. I am sure you have heard about it. The whole situation was a mess.

**Context**

For those not aware, Stacy Carter had an affair with Mike that ultimately led to the marriage of Jerry and Stacy to end. They were reportedly separated at the time of the affair. There were also reports that Mike moved in with Stacy and lived with her for a while in Jerry’s condo.

RTDB: Did you hear from any of the higher ups after the incident took place?

MH: When WCW went out they cut a bunch of people and I was one of them. My contract was up in a couple of months and they simply didn’t renew it. That was the end of my wrestling days.

RTDB: Did you feel you were blackballed after the incident or you just decided on your own you had enough?

MH: There wasn’t anywhere else to go. Brock put me in touch with Brad Rheingans about going to Japan and I talked to him on the phone but that would have been a short tour at best. I was 32 at the time and had to find a better way to make a living. I was pretty soured on the business at that point. I had no desire to go back and take bumps on indie shows after that plus my knee was never the same.

RTDB: Can you talk at all about the hell you went through after the incident?

MH: From 2001-2008 I went off the grid. I changed my phone number and didn’t talk to anyone in the business. I wanted to start my life without wrestling and I felt like I couldn’t do it still talking to people in the business.

RTDB: Without getting into details, do you and Stacy still communicate with one another?

MH: No, not at all.

RTDB: Were you ever asked to be a part of TNA’s version of the Dupp tag team? That team consisted of Bo Dupp, Stan Dupp (later known as Trevor Murdoch in WWE) and Fluff Dupp which I assume was a parody of Stacy Carter.

MH: The TNA thing with Murray and Trevor was during that time and I think Bill Beherens was the one who put that together. I have always been friends with Bill so I am sure he would have asked but I was not available and he would not have known how to get in touch with me. I think that girl was Trevor’s girlfriend. I reconnected with everyone in 2008. Shane and I did promote some OMEGA shows together for a while but that has been my only involvement in wrestling since.

RTDB: What did you end up doing after wrestling?

MH: I always had a construction business when I was coming up. I closed it when I got the WWE contract. I went back in the construction business.

RTDB: What are you up to nowadays? Are still running a construction business?

MH: I don’t run one I work for one as a preconstruction manager.

RTDB: Mike, I want to thank you for taking time to chat with us.

To read more Answering the 10 Count interviews please click here.