Max Damage

Slade Mercer
Born 1987 (age 28–29)
New Plymouth, New Zealand
Residence Melbourne, Australia
Website https://www.facebook.com/kiwiwrestler
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Slade Mercer
Max Damage
Billed height 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Billed weight 235 lb (107 kg)
Billed from Taranaki
Trained by Rip Morgan
Bushwhacker Butch
Jonnie Juice
Martin Stirling
Debut 25 March 2005[1]

Slade Mercer (born 1987 in New Plymouth, New Zealand) is a professional wrestler, otherwise known as Max Damage or Max "The Axe" Damage. He currently wrestled for the Brisbane based promotions PWA Queensland. He is an Ex-New Zealand Heavyweight Champion and Ex-New Zealand Tag Team Champion.

Career

New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling

Damage initially trained under Jonnie Juice before joining New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling where he was further trained by Martin Stirling, Inferno, Island Boy Si and a myriad of other senior wrestlers with the group. He made his official debut as Max Damage on 25 March 2005 at NZWPW's Powerplay II.[2] He lost to Island Boy Si in the semi-finals of the New Zealand Heavyweight Championship tournament, where IBS was later crowned the inaugural champion.

At the start of his tenure in NZWPW, Damage joined the heel stable, The 'Naki Phullas, wrestling alongside "The Deal" Dal Knox, "Silencer" Jean Miracle, and Gold. By the time he had joined, Dal Knox had already left to wrestle for IPW, and Gold had been ejected from the company, making it a two-man team consisting of himself and "Silencer" Jean Miracle.

During the year after a three-match series versus Inferno, Max turned face by making a stand against Def Sentence (Punisher, Jonnie Juice, X-Rated and The Ram) and then paired with Inferno, forming a team unformally named "The Weapons of Max Destruction".

At NZWPW's first Wellington High School event, versus X-Rated and The Ram, Inferno and Max were crowned NZWPW Tag Team Champions - however this reign is very controversial, as there were no belts at the time, they were "paper champions". As such, New Zealand wrestling historians argue as to whether they were the first tag team champions (NZWPW now having actual tag belts and have had three teams held them as of writing) or whether their reign is non-existent.

Max inexpicably turned heel at the request of NZWPW owner Martin Stirling, with no explanation provided to fans, and began to tag with "Silencer" Jon Miracle forming the T-Phullas, a different take on the original name of the previous Taranaki-based stable - due in part to Stirling's dislike of the term "Naki" as he felt it was a bastardisation of a maori placename. In his final big show match, he and Miracle beat "The Dream Team" of N.O.S and H-Flame in the main event of Powerplay 3, NZWPW's annual equivalent to WrestleMania.

Max wrestled one more match at a "Bringing Down The House" event versus Chrome before May 2006 when Damage, along with other NZWPW wrestlers, joined Kiwi Pro Wrestling.

Kiwi Pro Wrestling

On 23 June 2006, Damage made his debut for Kiwi Pro Wrestling during their first-ever show Storm Warning.[3] Similar to Damage's debut in NZWPW, he was part of an eight-man elimination tournament to crown the first challenger to the KPW NZ Heavyweight Championship. He lost in the first round to H-Flame due to interference by Jeremiah. He became #1 contender for the KPW NZ Championship after beating H-Flame on Off The Ropes (KPW's Nationwide TV Show). On the series finale (Episode 13 being a highlight episode) Max Damage wrestled the Championship from Inferno to become the 3rd ever KPW NZ Heavyweight Champion.

Australia/PWA Queensland

Slade has had three tours to Australia - twice he wrestled in Hobart, Tasmania under the WCW/NAW promotion. His first wrestling match in Australia was teaming with H-Flame to be defeated by The Chapel Street Crew, and on his second tour defeating Iron Horse Morrison in singles competition by submission. His third tour was a to Brisbane for PWA Queensland, where he defeated Kyote in a singles match in August 2009.

While still named Max Damage, he wrestled PWAQ's first outing at the Brisbane Ekka in August 2010, having matches with Seoul, Johnny Lukas, Esteban Molina, Johnny Gunn, Big John Marshall, Kyote, and AJ Istria to name a few. In September, he moved to Australia to live. His first show was for the now defunct Smash X Wrestling promotion based in Sydney, wrestling in a tournament to crown the first Smash X Champion. He defeated Carlo Cannon in the first round, but was beaten in the second round by Esteban Molina, who went on to defeat KrackerJak in the finals to become inaugural champion.

He wrestled PWAQ's October Double Shot Weekend, using the name Max Damage one last time while tagging with Roger Ventura, getting a shot at the PWAQ Tag Team Champions The Haze Brothers - Josh and Joe Haze. After they were defeated, Max powerbombed Ventura and walked off. Later that night, a hooded attacker attacked PWAQ International Champion Seoul after he defended his belt against Johnny Gunn. This turned out to be Max, now calling himself Slade Mercer (as he had done in Smash X) and aligning himself with the Nightmare Assassin Squad (N.A.S) consisting of Johnny Gunn, Donnie St Michaels and Ronnie St Michaels.

On the second night, Slade, Donnie and Ronnie won a one-sided Handicap match against "The Graduates", Sammy Lee Shayder and Louie Hardwood. Later in the evening, after the main event Slade came out and attacked Esteban Molina with Johnny Gunn, before being chased out and challenged to a match against the man he had been hired to take out, Seoul, for the PWAQ International Title. This match took place on 11 December 2010, where Seoul was victorious. Mercer also teamed with Jade Diamond to win his only Australian Championship in PWAQ.

Los Angeles and WWE tryouts

On 3 June 2008 KPW's CEO Rip Morgan announced that Max Damage, along with eight other wrestlers on the Kiwi Pro Wrestling roster would be part of a tryout with World Wrestling Entertainment before their SmackDown / ECW live tour on 11 June 2008.[4]

In March 2010, Max travelled to Los Angeles for a few weeks. While there, he trained with Jesse Hernandez at the School of Hard Knocks, and wrestled for the Empire Wrestling Federation, first in a winning effort against El Gran Maravilla, and secondly in a losing effort to "Top Shelf" Jeremy Jaeger. During his time in California, he also had tryouts with the WWE at the Raw and Smackdown tapings in San Diego and again in Los Angeles respectively.

On August 1, 2011, Max received another WWE tryout prior to a Raw House show in Sydney, Australia.[5]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. ↑ http://www.australianwrestling.org/index.php/profiles/22-men/101-slade-mercer-max-damage
  2. ↑ http://www.nzpwi.co.nz/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1039&Itemid=36
  3. ↑ http://www.kiwiprowrestling.co.nz/Storm-Warning.528.0.html
  4. ↑ http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/7031582
  5. ↑ http://www.bluemountainsprowrestling.com.au/news/2015/04/09/new-zealand-wrestler-slade-mercer-debuts-at-ironfest-april-18th
  6. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=13891&name=Slade+Mercer
  7. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=26&nr=3855
  8. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=2965
  9. ↑ http://www.australianwrestling.org/index.php/profiles/22-men/101-slade-mercer-max-damage
  10. ↑ http://www.australianwrestling.org/index.php/profiles/22-men/101-slade-mercer-max-damage
  11. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=2676
  12. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=3001
  13. ↑ http://www.australianwrestling.org/index.php/profiles/22-men/101-slade-mercer-max-damage
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