Jimmy Rave

James Michael Guffey (December 8, 1982 – December 12, 2021), better known by the ring name Jimmy Rave, was an American professional wrestler.

He was best known for his time with Ring of Honor (ROH) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

James Michael Guffey was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 8, 1982.

Trained by Murder One, Guffey debuted in October 1999 as the masked Mr. XTC.

He later adopted the ring name Jimmy Rave.

Rave debuted in Ring of Honor in 2003.

He later became a member of The Embassy, a stable led by Prince Nana, and was nicknamed "The Crown Jewel of the Embassy".

Early on, Rave gained notoriety for having received excessive heel heat from ROH fans.

In ROH it was common for fans to throw streamers over the wrestlers they support.

Rave, however, had become a sort of cult recipient as fans threw rolls of toilet paper at him instead.

ROH announced on November 6, 2006, that the throwing of toilet paper had been banned from all ROH shows after Jimmy Rave tried to attack a fan who threw a roll at him after his match.

Rave developed a habit of stealing other wrestlers finishers and claiming them as his own.

An example would be when he began to use the Rave Clash, a copy of Styles' own Styles Clash, and said he invented it and that Styles stole it from him.

After losing a match to Styles in ROH where the stipulation was the loser could no longer use their respective version of the move, Rave began to use the Greetings From Ghana, a copy of Triple H's Pedigree, as his new finisher and would again claim that he had in fact invented that move too.

On January 14, 2006, in Philadelphia, Rave and Alex Shelley of The Embassy attacked ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson after a successful title defense.

At Tag Wars 2006, Rave, along with Shelley and Abyss, won the 2006 Trios Tournament.

Rave used his title shot earned at the Tag Wars 2006, but came up short in his match with Danielson at the Fourth Anniversary Show.

In 2006, Rave had sporadically been tagging with Alex Shelley in search of the ROH Tag Team Titles, but after Shelley left the company in mid-year, Rave returned to singles action briefly.

He found himself on the losing side of several encounters with Davey Richards.

Soon Nana brought in a new tag partner, Sal Rinauro, and the two began working through the tag ranks.

In September 2006, Prince Nana announced his departure from Ring of Honor, ending The Embassy.

Jimmy Rave would then go on a losing streak, until he scored a major upset by pinning ROH World Championship number one contender Homicide.

The rest of the year and the early part of 2007, Rave feuded with Nigel McGuinness, culminating in a match on March 4, 2007, in Liverpool, England, where McGuinness finally managed to pin Rave in a Fight Without Honor to end the rivalry.

Following the match, Rave was temporarily sidelined from in-ring action due to a broken jaw.

In storyline the injury was credited with McGuinness hitting him with a lariat, but in reality Rave had broken his jaw a month earlier in a match against Samoa Joe.

During his recuperation Rave was prescribed with pain medication, which later led to an addiction.

On May 22, 2007, it was announced that Rave had signed a contract with Ring of Honor.

On August 2, 2007, however, it was announced that Rave had left both Ring of Honor and Full Impact Pro.

In August 2007 it was announced that Rave had signed a contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

He returned to the promotion at No Surrender on September 9, 2007, where he appeared alongside Christy Hemme and Lance Hoyt, later known as Lance Rock.

The trio was subsequently named the Rock 'n Rave Infection, with Hemme, Rock and Rave adopting the mannerisms of a rock band and carrying Guitar Hero game controllers to the ring.

He then became a jobber to the X Division, and the Tag Team division with Lance Rock, putting over such teams as Team 3D, LAX, Prince Justice Brotherhood and the Motor City Machine Guns.

At Bound for Glory, Rave competed in the Reverse Battle Royal which was won by Eric Young.

At Turning Point, Rave competed in the Feast or Fired but failed to win the match.

At Final Resolution, The Rock 'n Rave Infection lost to Latin American Xchange (Hernandez and Homicide).

At Destination X, The Rock 'n Rave Infection lost a Three Way Tag Team match to determine number one contenders to the TNA World Tag Team Championship.

At Lockdown, The Rock 'n Rave Infection competed in a Six Team Cuffed in the Cage match where they lost.

At Sacrifice, Rave competed in a TerrorDome match which was won by Kaz.

At No Surrender, The Rock 'n Rave Infection (Rave, Lane Rock and Christy Hemme) lost to Curry Man, Shark Boy, and Super Eric in a Six-person intergender tag team match.

Rave wrestled for numerous professional wrestling promotions on the independent circuit, amongst them Combat Zone Wrestling, Full Impact Pro and NWA Wildside, where he won both the NWA Wildside Junior Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship twice, toured Japan with the Dragon Gate promotion on two occasions and competed in the Best of the Super Juniors for New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 2008, and made several appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as well as an appearance on World Wrestling Entertainment's Sunday Night Heat program in March 2005 losing to Chris Masters.