Dave Finlay

David John Finlay Jr. (born 31 January, 1958) is an Irish retired professional wrestler from Northern Ireland.

He is currently signed with WWE as a trainer/assistant coach.

Finlay debuted in 1974, and has held over 20 championships around the world throughout his career, including the WCW World Television Championship and the WWE United States Championship.

Finlay's first match was for his father's promotion in Glynn in 1974, when he filled in for a wrestler who no-showed.

He began wrestling on a full-time basis in Carrickfergus and throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland for the next four years before moving to England in 1978.

In England, he wrestled for various companies under the Joint Promotions banner.

On a visit to France in August 1980 Finlay made his television debut, teaming with Ian Gilmour as "Scotsmen" to lose to Guy Mercier and Alan Mitchells.

In the second half of the 1980s, he defeated Frank 'Chic' Cullen on television for the British Heavy Middleweight Championship, but later lost it to Danny Collins.

Finlay defeated Alan Kilby on 9 June 1982 to win his first title, the Joint Promotions British Heavy Middleweight Championship.

He also formed the Riot Squad tag team with Skull Murphy (Peter Northey), together winning the 1982 World of Sport Top Tag Team Tournament.

At this time, Finlay's then-wife, "Princess" Paula Valdez, became his manager.

He then won a tournament to crown a new British Light Heavyweight champion and fill the vacant position, defeating Ringo Rigby in the finals.

Finlay soon lost the championship, but later pinned Marty Jones to win the World Mid-Heavyweight Championship.

He traded it back and forth with Jones for over two years before losing it a final time to Jones via disqualification.

He defeated Jones to win Joint Promotions' British Light Heavyweight Championship.

Finlay teamed with Mark Rocco and Murphy in a 1989 WWF dark match in London, defeating the team of Al Perez, Dusty Wolfe, and Tim Horner.

In 1990 he became a champion at the top of the weight range when he won All Star's British Heavyweight Championship.

Finlay often competed on ITV's World of Sport programme as Dave "Fit" Finlay and had many matches against "The American Dream" Steve Adonis.

During this time, Finlay also began to wrestle in Japan, then in Germany and Austria for the European promotion Catch Wrestling Association.

While holding the British Heavyweight championship, he teamed with former rival Marty Jones to win the CWA tag title from Tony St. Clair and Mile Zrno.

After losing the British championship to Dave Taylor, Finlay began to focus more on the CWA, winning many of their championships.

He is best known for his tenures with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the ring name Fit Finlay from 1996 to 2000, and Finlay in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2005 to 2010.

Finlay made his American wrestling debut in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1996, going by the ring name of The Belfast Bruiser.

Finlay made his WCW debut on 27 January episode of Saturday Night by emerging from the stands to viciously attack Lord Steven Regal, with Tony Schiavone stating "It says Northern Ireland on the back of his jacket" as the only means of identification at the time.

He then cut a promo to the camera in which he introduced himself and declared that Regal was an "English pig" who was "paying for 400 years" of English-Irish conflict.

This marked the beginning of a lengthy feud between the Bruiser and Regal.

Bruiser won his first match in WCW on 10 February episode of Saturday Night by defeating enhancement talent Mike Marcello.

The feud played out over subsequent Saturday Night episodes in which the Bruiser and Regal's stablemates The Blue Bloods (Squire David Taylor and Earl Robert Eaton) interfered in each other's matches.

The Bruiser won a stiff encounter with Regal by disqualification at Uncensored when the Blue Bloods again rushed the ring and assaulted him after Regal suffered a broken nose during the match.

The following night on Monday Nitro, Bruiser suffered his first loss in WCW against Randy Savage.

After Regal pinned the Bruiser in a parking lot brawl on 29 April episode of Monday Nitro, the feud died down thereafter.

The injuries sustained from the match would lead to Bruiser being removed from his scheduled tag team match with Regal at Slamboree.

Finlay would then take a hiatus off WCW television for a stint in Catch Wrestling Association, while abandoning the Belfast Bruiser persona in the process.

Finlay returned to WCW on 1 October 1997 by defeating Dave Taylor at a live event.

He made his televised return on 25 October episode of Saturday Night as Fit Finlay, sporting a new look of short bleached-blond hair and no mustache.

He defeated Barry Houston in his televised return match.

He participated in the World War 3 battle royal at the namesake event on 23 November for a future WCW World Heavyweight Championship title shot, but failed to win the match.

He was given a push upon his return winning majority of his matches in the mid-card, which culminated in him pinning Booker T to win the World Television Championship on 4 May 1998 episode of Nitro, thus setting off a three-way feud with Booker and Chris Benoit, who was also vying for the title.

Finlay retained the title against Benoit at Slamboree.

Finlay also regularly defended the title on weekly WCW television against the likes of Chavo Guerrero Jr.., Kaos, The Renegade, Brad Armstrong, Jim Neidhart, Norman Smiley and Psychosis, before losing the World Television Championship back to Booker T at The Great American Bash.