Michael Sharpe (1951-2016)
Alias:
Iron Mike Sharpe
Birthplace:
Hamilton - Ontario - Canada
Born:
October 28, 1951
Died:
January 17, 2016
was a Canadian professional wrestler and actor better known as Iron Mike Sharpe. Sharpe comes from a family legacy of wrestling, as his father Mike Sharpe Sr. and uncle Ben Sharpe were a successful tag team in the 1950s, recognized as champions from San Francisco to Japan. He grew up in California, but moved with his father back to Canada as a teenager. In high school, he dabbled in boxing and weightlifting before choosing to follow in his father's footsteps. Dewey Robertson trained him for the ring at age 25 and shortly thereafter Sharpe made his mark wrestling for promotions around Canada such as Gene Kiniski's NWA All-Star Wrestling. He became a two-time NWA Canadian Tag Team Champion, partnering first with Moose Morowski and later with Salvatore Bellomo, and also won the Pacific Coast Heavyweight title. His career picked up steam after moving to Louisiana, where he became a fan favorite and won two different Mid-South Wrestling belts - Louisiana champion (two times) and the Mississippi title (also two times) along with a Brass Knucks title in 1979. In January 1983, Sharpe entered the World Wrestling Federation and would become a regular of its programming throughout the mid-1980s and early 1990s. He was announced and self-proclaimed as "Canada's Greatest Athlete" (a nickname taken from Kiniski) and was further distinguished by his near-constant yelling and grunting throughout a match, as well as a mysterious black brace on his right forearm, supposedly protecting an injury but more widely believed to contain a foreign object. Initially in his WWF career he was managed by Captain Lou Albano and received a sizeable push, regularly defeating jobbers after smashing them with said forearm. This culminated on April 30, 1983 with a match against world heavyweight champion Bob Backlund at the Philadelphia Spectrum, but Sharpe was defeated and would never reach such main event heights again. In fact, Sharpe would never hold a single title for the promotion, and would become largely relegated to the mid-card of house shows and being regularly used as a jobber himself to rising stars of the then-WWF in television tapings. New England area fans were less impressed with Sharpe than those in the South, and reports from the era say 'WIMP!' was a common insult flung his way. Death Sharpe died on January 17, 2016 at the age of 64 after he had been battling several health issues. Acting career Mike will be making his film debut in 2010's Cartel co-starring Josh Brolin.