Steve Blackman

Steve Blackman (born September 28, 1963) is an American martial arts instructor, bail bondsman, and former professional wrestler.

Steve Blackman began as a competitive bodybuilder and weightlifter before entering professional wrestling in 1986 in Connecticut, training at Tony Altamore's wrestling school and working for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary.

Also around that time, in January 1988, Blackman once toured with New Japan Pro-Wrestling wrestling as Steve R. Blackman during their New Year Golden Series.

He wrestled singles matches against the likes of Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu, Hiroshi Hase, Nobuhiko Takada, Kengo Kimura and a few others.

He also wrestled tag matches in that tour teaming with the likes of Tony St. Clair, Buzz Sawyer, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Johnny K-9.

Blackman made his first appearance for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on March 9, 1988, at a house show in Watertown, New York.

Wrestling David Sammartino, Blackman gained a victory in his first match.

He then appeared on the May 8, 1988, episode of WWF Superstars where he teamed with Outback Jack and Brady Boone against The Islanders and Sivi Afi.

Blackman appeared again on a WWF house show in Auburn Hills, Michigan on June 24, 1989, when he defeated Iron Mike Sharpe.

He also wrestled Boris Zukhov on a Watertown, New York house show on September 2, 1989.

Blackman was being considered for a full-time contract with the company when he contracted malaria and dysentery while wrestling in South Africa in 1989 and was essentially bedridden for two years.

After his rest, during which he lost much of his muscle mass, Blackman spent another four years in physical therapy to recover his condition, and incorporated martial arts training, specifically escrima and tae kwon do.

Once back in working shape, he contacted his friends Brian Pillman and Owen Hart for a new WWF try-out.

Blackman also reached out to Jim Cornette who brought him in for a tryout and presented Blackman to Vince McMahon.

He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from 1997 to 2002, where he was a frequent challenger for the promotion's mid-card titles.

He held the WWF Hardcore Championship six times and holds the record for most combined days as champion, a total of 172 days.

Blackman made his second WWF debut on the November 3, 1997, episode of Raw is War when he jumped the guardrail, to help Vader fend off an attack from The Hart Foundation.

Blackman was given a martial arts gimmick, and named "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman.

His first pay-per view appearance was at Survivor Series 1997, as a replacement for the injured Patriot as the fourth member of Team USA (Vader, Goldust, and Marc Mero).

Blackman was the first elimination of the match when he was counted out of the ring.

Team USA lost to Team Canada (British Bulldog, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, Phillip Lafon, and Doug Furnas) when the British Bulldog pinned Vader.

His next pay-per view appearance was at Royal Rumble 1998 in the 30-man Royal Rumble match.

He was the tenth entrant into the Rumble, but was eliminated by Kurrgan.

Blackman was undefeated for close to a year after his debut, during this time Blackman established his trademark entrance involving swinging glow-in-the-dark escrima sticks.

His first loss finally came at the hands of Jeff Jarrett thanks to interference from Jarrett's manager, at the time, Tennessee Lee.

Blackman started feuding with the Nation of Domination in early 1998 and achieved great success by defeating the likes of The Rock and Faarooq.

In his attempts to combat the Nation of Domination he teamed up with Ken Shamrock.

Blackman and Shamrock teamed with former Nation member Faarooq at Unforgiven: In Your House to defeat The Rock, D-Lo Brown and Mark Henry.

Eventually, Blackman and Shamrock split to pursue singles success, both men entered the King of the Ring in 1998 but would never get to face each other because Blackman lost to Marc Mero, Shamrock won the tournament.

During this time he would develop a reputation for doing run-ins during matches where one of the participants would cheat by having a run-in done in his favor, thus earning him the nickname "The Peacemaker" from the announce team.

Blackman competed in the WWF Brawl for All tournament and once again came up against Marc Mero, this time however Blackman defeated him but would have to withdraw due to injury, allowing Mero to advance by default.

Blackman came to the aid of Shamrock when he was being beat down by Owen Hart and Dan Severn.

For his efforts Shamrock suplexed Blackman and in retaliation Blackman suplexed Shamrock back.

This would lead to Blackman and Shamrock facing each other in the first round of the WWF Intercontinental Championship tournament which was won by Shamrock.

At WWF Capital Carnage, Blackman took on Shamrock for the WWF Intercontinental Championship and lost.

Blackman would eventually turn heel after siding with then-heel Shane McMahon.

During his run as a heel, he brought a gym bag full of martial arts weapons with him to the ring, including kendo shinai.

Blackman would attempt to use the weapons in the bag during or after the match.

After a short hiatus, Blackman returned as the hired hitman of Vince McMahon to take out Ken Shamrock and cost Shamrock the King of the Ring in 1999.

This led to an iron circle match at Fully Loaded 1999 and a lion's den match at SummerSlam 1999, both of which Shamrock won.