Scott Norton

Scott Norton (born June 15, 1961) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and author.

He is best known for his tenures in World Championship Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, in which he was a member of the New World Order and nWo Japan.

He is a two-time world champion, having won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship twice.

Norton started out as a professional arm wrestler.

He won over 30 championships during his days as an arm wrestler, including four U.S. National championships, and gained the nickname "Flash" due to his quickness in winning matches.

His status in the arm wrestling world earned him a role as an extra in Sylvester Stallone's arm wrestling movie, Over the Top.

While touring the arm wrestling circuit in Japan, Norton was approached by New Japan Pro-Wrestling about becoming a professional wrestler, but he turned it down initially.

Despite Norton's inexperience, Verne Gagne decided to debut him before he was totally finished with his training, putting him on television as a regular performer for the American Wrestling Association in 1989.

He sometimes teamed with John Nord as the Yukon Lumberjacks.

He challenged then World Champions Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Larry Zbyszko to a televised arm wrestling match.

If anyone beat him, he would pay them (kayfabe) $1,000,000.

Nothing became of the challenge.

By the end of 1989, Norton left the AWA and went to the Pacific Northwest territory to further his career.

In PNW, Norton wrestled as a face with a lumberjack gimmick and the nickname "Flapjack".

He briefly reformed his tag team with John Nord to reprise their lumberjack gimmick from the AWA.

In 1990, Norton became a singles competitor.

He won the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship from Brian Adams on May 12, 1990, but was stripped of the title two weeks later after attacking several wrestlers.

In 1990, Norton signed with New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Upon debuting for the promotion, Norton alternated between tag team and mid-card singles matches.

Norton appeared at both joint NJPW/World Championship Wrestling Starrcade in Egg Dome shows, giving him exposure to WCW executives.

The working agreement between NJPW and WCW meant that The Steiner Brothers would tour Japan on a regular basis, often wrestling against Scott Norton alongside a variety of partners.

On November 5, 1991 Norton acted as a substitute for the injured Scott Steiner in an IWGP Tag Team Championship match.

Norton and Rick Steiner were unsuccessful on the night and lost the tag-team titles to Hiroshi Hase and Keiji Mutoh.

About a year after losing the title he never technically held, Norton won the Tag Team Title properly when he and Tony Halme beat the Steiner Brothers for the gold on November 22, 1992.

The powerhouse team only held on to the title for a little over three weeks before losing them to the Hell Raisers (Road Warrior Hawk and Power Warrior).

After splitting up with Halme, Norton started to team with Hercules Hernandez in March 1993.

Hercules was a fellow powerhouse wrestler and the two formed The Jurassic Powers, a team that won the IWGP Tag Team Championship from the Hell Raisers.

The Powers held the title for about four months before losing them back to the Hell Raisers at NJPW's January 4 Dome Show.

While holding the title, the Jurassic Powers successfully defended against teams such as Keiji Mutoh and Hiroshi Hase, The Nasty Boys, Takayuki Iizuka and Akira Nogami, Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Brutus Beefcake, Masa Saito and Manabu Nakanishi and The Barbarian and Haku in non-title competition.

The team also and made it to the finals of the 1993 Super Grade Tag League, where they lost to Keiji Mutoh and Hiroshi Hase.

After breaking up with Hernandez, Norton failed to achieve much notoriety in the singles ranks nor in the tag team division, where he teamed with a variety of partners such as Mike Enos, Ron Simmons, Masahiro Chono, Osamu Kido, and Road Warrior Hawk.

Norton returned to the U.S. and signed with World Championship Wrestling in 1993.

The promoters first tried to get Norton over with the fans as a villain by feuding with Sting, but Norton quit before Slamboree 1993 and was replaced by The Prisoner.

Norton made an appearance on a WWF house show in Sunrise, Florida on October 9, 1994.

He was defeated by Thurman "Sparky" Plugg.

Norton returned to WCW in September 1995, where he briefly feuded with Shark, after the latter inadvertently helped Randy Savage defeat Norton on the September 11 edition of WCW Monday Nitro.

During a WCW Saturday Night taping, Norton squared off against Ice Train.

The bout ended in a double count out when both men clotheslined the other, knocking each out.

In addition to his professional arm wrestling career, Norton also worked as a bodyguard for Prince during the musician's 1999 and Purple Rain Tours.

After finally deciding to enter professional wrestling, Norton was trained to wrestle by former Olympic wrestler Brad Rheingans.