American professional wrestler (born 1974)
Josef Samael
|
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Josef Samael at MLW Saturday Night SuperFight 2019
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Birth name
| Joseph Cabibbo
|
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Born
| (
1974-05-21
)
May 21, 1974
(age 50)
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|
Ring name(s)
| The Almighty Sheik
[1]
Joey Machete
Josef
Josef Samael
The Sheik
[2]
Sheik Ali Azzad
[2]
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Billed height
| 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
[2]
|
---|
Billed weight
| 225 lb (102 kg)
[2]
|
---|
Billed from
| New York City, New York
Damascus, Syria
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Trained by
| The Blackharts
|
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Debut
| August 1998
|
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Joseph Cabibbo
[2]
(born May 21, 1974) is an American
professional wrestler
currently wrestling under the
ring names
Josef
and
Josef Samael
on the
independent circuit
and in
Major League Wrestling
(MLW) as a member of
Contra Unit
with
Jacob Fatu
,
Simon Gotch
, and
Ikuro Kwon
. He is a one-time
NWA World Heavyweight Champion
and
(Zero1) World Heavyweight Champion
, making him an overall two-time
world champion
in major
[
according to whom?
]
professional wrestling promotions
.
Professional wrestling career
[
edit
]
Full Impact Pro Wrestling (2006?2008)
[
edit
]
Cabibbo debuted in
Full Impact Pro
(FIP) as Joey Machete in February 2006, teaming up with Shawn Murphy and losing to Seth Delay and Chasyn Rance. They won their first match against
Tony Mamaluke
and Chad Parham the following day. In April, they won a three-way tag team match, featuring the Heartbreak Express and the Y.R.R. They began a streak of victories and beat the Heartbreak Express to become tag team champions. They lost their titles against the Heartbreak Express. They left the promotion in August 2008, after losing a hardcore match against
The Dark City Fight Club
.
Pro Wrestling Fusion (2008?2010)
[
edit
]
Cabibbo, working under the ring name The Sheik, has made the Florida promotion Pro Wrestling Fusion his home. Originally going by the new Sheik Ali Azzad, Cabibbo shortened the name, after receiving the blessing of
Sabu
, the nephew of the original
Sheik
.
[2]
He won the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title by defeating Freedom Ryder on the inaugural show on May 3, 2008, in Ft. Pierce Florida. He also developed a feud with Steve Madison, who defeated the Sheik for the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title on February 2, 2009, inside a steel cage. The Sheik regained the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title from Madison on August 1, 2009.
National Wrestling Alliance (2009?2011)
[
edit
]
The Sheik debuted in the
National Wrestling Alliance
's NWA Midwest in September 2009, attacking NWA Midwest Heavyweight champion,
Silas Young
at a RWF (Rebellious Wrestling Federation) show in Ashton IL. He then defeated Silas to win the championship. He was scheduled for a World Title match against
Blue Demon, Jr.
to be held in
Cicero Stadium
in
Chicago Illinois
, but Blue Demon backed out of the match.
[3]
[
unreliable source?
]
Silas Young, on the other hand, did sign up to wrestle the Sheik and defeated him in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on December 4, 2009, at ACW Homecoming. Sheik defeated Young to become a two-time NWA Midwest Heavyweight Champion on December 5, 2009.
On January 30, 2010, The Sheik defeated
"El Gran" Apollo
to become the new NWA North American Heavyweight Champion. On April 23, 2011, he defeated
Colt Cabana
in
Jacksonville, Florida
to become the 44th officially recognized
NWA World Heavyweight Champion
.
[4]
He was stripped of the title on July 11, 2011. Officially, the NWA announced that Sheik had refused to defend the title on July 31, 2011, in Ohio,
[5]
however Sheik's camp says he was never scheduled for the title defense.
Pro Wrestling Zero1 (2011?2012)
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
March 2019
)
|
On May 23, 2011, The Sheik made his debut in
Japan
for
Pro Wrestling Zero1
. He returned to the promotion on July 3, defeating
Ryouji Sai
in a match, where both his NWA World Heavyweight Championship and Sai's
World Heavyweight Championship
were on the line, to become the new World Heavyweight Champion. He would go on to lose the title to
Kohei Sato
on November 6, 2011.
Independent circuit (2013?present)
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
March 2019
)
|
Sheik only wrestled about a dozen matches between 2013 and the end of 2015. Starting in January 2016 he started wrestling frequently for a newly founded Southern California promotion
PCW Ultra
. His first matches for the promotion involved a feud between himself and
Montel Vontavious Porter
. On January 20, 2017, his newly formed team
Warbeast
, with
Jacob Fatu
won the PCW Tag Team Championship. The faction would grow to include
Brody King
and they would defend them under
Freebirds rules
. King has since left the promotion, signing with
Ring of Honor
in 2019, but Fatu and Sheik still hold the tag titles to this day.
[6]
Major League Wrestling (2019?present)
[
edit
]
Sheik debuted for
Major League Wrestling
(MLW) under the name
Josef Samael
, in February 2019 at
SuperFight
, alongside his frequent tag team partner
Jacob Fatu
. However, this match would not be aired on
MLW Fusion
. The duo of Fatu and Josef would make their debut appearance on
Fusion
on March 2, 2019, forming the heel stable Contra Unit with
Simon Gotch
. They debuted by attacking
MLW World Heavyweight Champion
Tom Lawlor
following his cage match against
Low Ki
.
[7]
The following week, Contra Unit attacked
Ace Romero
during his match with Gotch.
[8]
After that, they had various feuds, but suddenly disappeared before
War Chamber
, not witnessing the end of his stable.
Championships and accomplishments
[
edit
]
- All Pro Wrestling
- American Wrestling Federation
- AWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Shawn Murphy
- Cauliflower Alley Club
- Men's Wrestling Award (2015)
[9]
- Coastal Championship Wrestling
- CCW South Eastern Championship (1 time)
- CCW Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Shawn Murphy
- DEFY Wrestling
- DEFY Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jacob Fatu
- Florida Alliance Wrestling
- FWA Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Shawn Murphy
- Four Star Championship Wrestling
- FSCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Shawn Murphy
- Full Impact Pro
- Future of Wrestling
- Intense Florida Wrestling
- IFW Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Shawn Murphy
- Maximum Xtreme Pro Wrestling
- MXPW Television Championship (1 time)
- MXPW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Shawn Murphy
- NWA Florida
- NWA Midwest
- PCW Ultra
- PCW Ultra Tag Team Championship (1 time, current) - with Jacob Fatu
[10]
- Pro Wrestling Fusion
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI ranked him #
103
of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the
PWI 500
in 2011
[11]
- Pro Wrestling Zero1
- Pro Wrestling Zero1 USA
- NWA/AWA/Zero1 USA Unified World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- United States Xtreme Wrestling
- USXW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Shawn Murphy
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Caldwell, James (2012-01-14).
"Corgan promotion crowns first Hvt. champion"
.
Pro Wrestling Torch
. Retrieved
2012-01-19
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Van Der Griend, Blaine (2009-02-02).
"The Sheik still lives ... in Florida"
.
Slam! Sports
.
Canadian Online Explorer
. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013
. Retrieved
2011-04-25
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link
)
- ^
"World Title Controversy"
. theinsider.com. October 25, 2009. Archived from
the original
on October 12, 2009
. Retrieved
February 6,
2010
.
- ^
a
b
c
Caldwell, James (2011-04-23).
"NWA News: New NWA World Hvt. champion, ending Cabana's title reign, one wrestler calls it a "terrible mistake"
"
.
Pro Wrestling Torch
. Retrieved
2011-04-24
.
- ^
"Breaking News! NWA World Title Stripped"
.
NWA Wrestling on Facebook
. 2011-07-11
. Retrieved
2011-07-11
.
- ^
"Reference at www.cagematch.net"
.
- ^
"MLW TV taping spoilers: Intimidation Games"
.
WON/F4W - WWE news, Pro Wrestling News, WWE Results, UFC News, UFC results
. 2019-03-03
. Retrieved
2021-01-28
.
- ^
"Powell's MLW Fusion TV Review: Simon Gotch vs. Ace Romero, DJZ vs. Ace Austin in a Battle Riot qualifying match, Alex Hammerstone vs. Isaias Velasquez - Pro Wrestling Dot Net"
. Prowrestling.net. 2019-03-10
. Retrieved
2019-03-15
.
- ^
Johnson, Steve (April 5, 2015).
"Many years of hard work pay off for Dennis Brent with CAC's historian award"
.
Slam Wrestling
. Retrieved
September 27,
2020
.
- ^
"Reference at www.cagematch.net"
.
- ^
"
"PWI 500": 101?200"
.
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
. 2011-08-08
. Retrieved
2011-08-08
.
External links
[
edit
]
Links to related articles
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