Whatever Happened to Elix Skipper?

Brian Damage

He wrestled for such promotions as WCW, WWE, TNA and in Japan. A staple of both the cruiserweight and X divisions, he won several titles along the way. Then one day, he just retired and disappeared. Today we ask ‘Whatever Happened to’ Elix Skipper?

Before we begin, yes, his name really is Elix Skipper. Elix was a manager at a local McDonald’s in Long Island, New York when he decided to try out at WCW’s Power Plant in Atlanta, Georgia. Skipper did have a background in martial arts and athletics and felt he could make the transition to pro wrestling. Elix was trained for over eight months under WCW wrestlers like Buddy Lee Parker and Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff. Elix Skipper made his debut for WCW in 1999 under the name ‘Skip Over’ and was used primarily as enhancement talent for bigger stars.

After a year as a jobber, he got his first big break under the moniker ‘Primetime’ Elix Skipper. He turned heel and joined Lance Storm’s Team Canada faction. Lance Storm awarded Elix the cruiser weight championship for joining him in Team Canada. He held onto the title for two months before losing it to fellow Power Plant graduate Mike Sanders. Team Canada would eventually split up and Elix would continue to wrestle in the cruiserweight division. He would team with another Power Plant graduate in Kid Romeo and become the inaugural cruiser weight tag team champions. They would only hold the titles for a week as they lost the belts on the very last Monday Nitro before being sold to the WWE.

Elix contract was bought by WWE and he was assigned to their developmental system. Elix Skipper was never called up to the main roster and was eventually released. After the WWE cut him, Skipper traveled to Japan and wrestled there for a number of months. When Total Non Stop Action (TNA) was formed by Jeff Jarrett in 2002, Elix got the call to help build the promotion from the ground up. He became a founding father of TNA and won three TNA tag team titles along with partners Low Ki and Christopher Daniels, collectively known as Triple X, and once with Chris Harris.

One of Elix’s signature moments came in TNA, when he cat walked on top of a steel cage and performed a hurracanrana on Chris Harris at Turning Point. It was a scene that has been shown repeatedly and deservedly so on countless TNA impact broadcasts. Elix would remain on TNA’s roster until 2008 when he was released. Skipper, however, remained active in both Japan and the independents. His wrestling career came to an abrupt halt in 2009 when his eldest son Lemarcus was brutally gunned down and killed in Ohio. Elix would take a hiatus from wrestling to spend time with his family. Elix returned briefly to work backstage for TNA wrestling but the grief over his son’s death was just too much and officially retired from pro wrestling in 2009.

After a 10 year career, Elix Skipper virtually vanished from the spotlight without a trace. So we ask, whatever happened to Elix Skipper? Elix Skipper now resides in a small town in Georgia where he now works as a manager of a Cracker Barrel restaurant. Elix has been married twice and has three other children.

You can read all previous ‘Whatever Happened to’ pieces here.