Brian Knighton
Rotten at the York County School Of Technology in April 2009
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| Birth name | Brian Knighton |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 21, 1971 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | February 4, 2016 (aged 44) Linthicum, Maryland, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Heroin overdose |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Axl Rotten Brian Knighton |
| Billed height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) |
| Billed weight | 310 lb (141 kg) |
| Billed from | "Hostile City" Newcastle, England |
| Trained by |
Ricky Lawless Joey Maggs |
| Debut | 1987 |
| Retired | 2014 |
Brian Knighton (April 21, 1971 – February 4, 2016), better known by the ring name Axl Rotten, was an American professional wrestler. In the early 1990s, he was a part of the tag team The Bad Breed with Ian Rotten. He had a short stint with World Championship Wrestling in 1991, but he was best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1993 to 1999. In ECW, Axl and Ian had a short rivalry that Pro Wrestling Illustrated named "Feud of the Year" for 1995. After leaving ECW in 1999, Knighton wrestled on the independent circuit and appeared at World Wrestling Entertainment's One Night Stand pay-per-view in 2005.
Knighton was trained to wrestle by Ricky Lawless at a gym on Baltimore's North Avenue, receiving supplementary training from Joey Maggs. He debuted on the independent circuit at the age of 17, adopting the ring name "Axl Rotten", a portmanteau of the rockers Axl Rose and Johnny Rotten. Rotten won his first championship teaming with Lawless to win the tag team titles in Frank Cain's Star Cavalcade Wrestling during the summer of 1988. He also succeeded Lawless as the promotion's heavyweight champion when, shortly after reigning champion Ricky Lawless was murdered, he won the vacant title from The Psycho in Thomasville, Georgia on November 30, 1988.
In the early 1990s, Rotten trained Ian Rotten, who formed a tag team with Axl, masquerading as his brother. The duo, known as The Bad Breed, wrestled primarily in the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation. Axl later opened his own professional wrestling promotion in Maryland called Universal Independent Wrestling. The promotion featured wrestlers such as the Bad Breed, Bam Bam Bigelow and Scotty The Body. It had a television series that aired on Saturday nights on the local ABC channel. The promotion closed in the mid-1990s.
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