Introducing...Eric Young

October 22, 3:58 PMPro Wrestling ExaminerMark Satrang

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At this past Sunday’s Bound For Glory V pay per view, Eric Young took another step up the ladder in TNA Wrestling when he defeated Hernandez and Kevin Nash to win the company’s Legends Championship. In addition to that victory, Young leads the company’s top stable of villains, World Elite, a mercenary group of foreign stars bent on gaining respect and domination.

Young made his wrestling debut in 1998 in his native Canada and cut his teeth on the independent circuit throughout Canada and the northern United States. He toiled for years paying his dues and gaining valuable experience. Along the way he even worked for WWE as enhancement talent a number of times.

He gained his first real break in the business in 2004 when he joined Team Canada for TNA’s World X Cup. After the X Cup completed, Team Canada stuck around as fixtures on TNA television. In the fall of 2004 he teamed with fellow Canada teammate Bobby Roode to win two NWA World Tag Team Championships, but neither title reign lasted very long. Young was a fairly non-descript member of the roster as he and his various Team Canada associates feuded with a variety of teams, such as America’s Most Wanted, The Naturals and 3 Live Kru.

He finally broke out of his shell in the fall of 2005 when Team Canada joined up with Jeff Jarrett’s “Planet Jarrett” stable to form an evil super group. Young developed a sense of hyper paranoia and cowardice. He provided comic relief for the group as they battled Sting and other company heroes. Despite his humorous traits he was still firmly entrenched on the side of evil, cheating and aiding his teammates at every opportunity. Eric’s paranoia and comedy started to gain him fans, and his role grew on TNA television.

In the summer of 2006, Jim Conette, on behalf of TNA management, announced that someone would be fired on the roster in order to make a statement. Young naturally feared for his job and tried in vain to stop his Team Canada brethren to stop their cheating so that one of them would not be fired. Later in the summer Cornette forced Team Canada to disband and go their own separate ways. After being berated by Team Canada coach Scott D’Amore, Young become a full-fledged fan favorite. He still feared for his job security, even creating “Don’t Fire Eric” t-shirts and hailing “from an undisclosed location.”

By the tail end of 2006, Young entered in a long-term feud with his former Tag Championship partner from Team Canada, Robert Roode. Young and Roode battled for the majority of 2007 with Roode humiliating and controlling Young at every turn. They battled in a variety of singles, tag team and stipulation matches. Their feud finally culminated at Hard Justice in August 2007 when Roode beat Young in a Humiliation Match. Young lost the match, but won the war by tar and feathering Roode’s valet Ms. Brooks post-match.

Young then transitioned into a rivalry with ”Cowboy” James Storm over their respective drinking prowess. The two men through the winter of 2007 into 2008 in a variety of matches and drinking competitions and fought over Storm’s “World Drinking Championship.” Young was given the call to replace a no-showing Scott Hall in the main event of Turning Point and team with Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash against Kurt Angle, Tomko & AJ Styles. It looked as if this would be the start of a big push for Young, but unfortunately he went right back to his comedy undercard stylings after the match.

After his rivalry with Storm concluded Young began dressing as Super Eric, a superhero persona that allowed Young to overcome his fears and paranoia. He teamed with Frankie Kazarian to defeating Tomko & Styles for the TNA World Tag Championships on April 15, 2008, but they were stripped of the belts right away when Young wouldn’t admit that he was the one under the “Super Eric” costume.

He transitioned into teaming with the masked Shark Boy and Curry Man to form the undercard comedy stable called The Prince Justice Brotherhood. The trio worked primarily in the undercard and was used primarily for comedy purposes.

In the fall of 2008, after Kurt Angle formed The Main Event Mafia was formed, a group of TNA originals led AJ Styles and Samoa Joe came together to form the TNA Frontline in order to battle them. Young ditched the comedy and the Super Eric persona to become a member of the group. Young battled Sheik Abdul Bashir over the TNA X-Division Championship, and won the Championship thanks to help from the official. Young was thus stripped of the Championship a week later, and fell back into the undercard.

In the spring of 2009 after the Frontline fell apart, Young began showing frustrations over his lack of success. After losing a match to long-time friend Jeff Jarrett in June 2009, he turned on Jarrett and solidified a heel turn. Unfortunately before his rivalry with Jarrett could take off, Jarrett was taken off TV due to personal issues. But Young radically changed his persona. Gone were the comedy, paranoia and the masked alter egos. In their place was a mean streak, a bad attitude and the drive to succeed.

This led to Young forming World Elite with a variety of heels from around the world. Young became their spokesman and leader. They formed a lose alliance with The Main Event Mafia that completely fell apart at Bound For Glory, when Young double-crossed Kevin Nash and pinned him to win the Legends Championship.

Now with the Main Event Mafia in shambles, Young and his World Elite are now poised to be the top group of villains in TNA. With Young at the forefront of the group he is in line for the biggest push of his career. He was now renamed the Legends Championship into the Global Championship to further his campaign against America and American wrestlers. Whether Young can sustain this momentum into something much bigger and better down the line is still yet to be seen. But for now Eric Young is a player to be dealt with in TNA.

Billed Height – 5‘11
Billed Weight – 225 lbs.
Billed From –Vancouver, British Columbia
Nicknames – Showtime
Signature Moves – Piledriver; Showstopper; Youngblood Neckbreaker; Death Valley Driver
Major Titles Held – TNA Legends/Global Championship (current), TNA X-Division Championship, TNA World Tag Team Championship, NWA World Tag Team Championship (2)
Debuted – 1998

For more info:
Eric Young’s official TNA bio
Eric Young’s Wikipedia entry
Erc Young on Online World of Wrestling