Evan Karagias

Evan Karagias (born November 27, 1973) is an American retired professional wrestler and actor.

Evan moved to New York City to pursue an acting and modeling career.

In 1995 he was a recurring guest star on the soap opera All My Children called Jason.

WCW licensed his voice and body scan images to support the Electronic Arts and THQ pro-wrestling videogame series, first appearing in WCW/nWo Thunder and then WCW Mayhem.

Since leaving WWF, Karagias returned to acting and his first acting role for seven years was playing a wrestler on the soap opera Passions.

He has made several TV appearances.

More recently he has been in several smaller independent films such as Metal Gear, Crazy Eyes and Shotgun Kiss.

Karagias was recruited to join World Championship Wrestling, and entered training at the WCW's "Power Plant" facility in Atlanta, Georgia, where he soon reached stunt instructor status.

He also became the spokesmodel for the 1996 Calvin Klein and US Olympic Committee advertising campaigns.

In 1997 he began his appearances on WCW's weekly wrestling shows as "The Outrageous Karagias" being used as a jobber, and has the dubious distinction of having more defeats to his record as a solo wrestler in WCW as a proportion of all his matches than anyone else.

Of almost 50 televised solo matches wrestled with WCW, he won eight.

While performing as a jobber, Karagias had a few high points which included his first appearance at a pay-per-view, a battle royal at Slamboree 1998, and several shots at WCW championships such as the WCW Cruiserweight Championship and WCW World Television Championship.

In October 1999, Karagias was seen more and more with female wrestler Madusa.

He was allowed to compete in the World Title tournament, but quickly allowed Madusa to pin him after a kiss.

After her elimination, Madusa put all her focus on managing Karagias.

He then became the number one contender to the Cruiserweight Championship, which was held by Disco Inferno.

At Mayhem, Karagias challenged Disco Inferno for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship and won after Inferno was attacked by Creative Control.

This was also Karagias's first major championship.

Karagias began to have problems with Madusa, since Karagias appeared to have a wandering eye towards the Nitro Girls, specifically Spice.

This led to a catfight between the two ladies, with Karagias in the middle.

Afterwards, Madusa challenged Karagias to a Cruiserweight Championship match at Starrcade.

During the match Spice gave Karagias a low blow allowing Madusa to pin him and become the first female ever to win the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship.

In December 1999, Karagias returned to the ring alongside Shane Helms and Shannon Moore to form 3 Count, the boy band of WCW.

They immediately claimed to have a musical hit, coming out before their matches and lip-synching to "Can't Get You Out Of My Heart" while dancing on green circles.

Usually, they were interrupted by their opposition.

They started out by feuding with The Jung Dragons and would appear in 6-man tag team action frequently.

3 Count soon focused their attention on Norman Smiley, who showed his dislike for their music.

Their first pay-per-view match was at Superbrawl 2000, where Smiley, due to his injured ribs, was beaten in a handicap match and 3 Count got the win.

The 3 Count team then declared that they were hardcore, leading to numerous fights with the Hardcore Champion, "Nasty Boy" Brian Knobbs.

At the end of February 2000, they managed an upset, taking out the champion and getting the WCW Hardcore Championship for themselves.

Sharing it as a team, they went into Uncensored 2000 to battle Knobbs once again, this time in a Gauntlet match.

After Helms was eliminated, Karagias came out.

Without his teammates to aid him, however, Karagias was crushed by Knobbs, who then defeated Moore, getting his Hardcore Championship back.

In late summer, the 3 Count returned to television, singing a new song, "Dance With 3 Count".

This earned them the favor of Tank Abbott, who loved listening to them sing, and would attack anyone who tried to stop them.

Abbott soon became 3 Count's manager/security guard/back-up dancer, sometimes bringing out a green square for himself to dance on.

Abbott & 3 Count soon began a running feud with the trio's old adversaries, the Jung Dragons.

Their repeated encounters led to a Ladder match at New Blood Rising, with a recording contract & a gold record hanging from the ceiling.

The match was won after interference by Abbott clearing the way for Karagias to climb the ladder and get the contract, winning the match and apparently getting 3 Count a record deal.

After the match, Abbott took the contract & the gold record and left.