Brian Mailhot | |
---|---|
Born |
Portland, Maine |
August 12, 1975
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) |
Palmer Canon Brian Black |
Billed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) |
Billed weight | 260 lb (120 kg) |
Billed from | Portland, Maine |
Trained by | Mike Hollow Killer Kowalski |
Debut | 2000 |
Brian Mailhot (born August 12, 1975) is an American professional wrestler and mixed martial arts fighter, better known for his short stint in World Wrestling Entertainment's SmackDown! brand under the ring name of Palmer Canon.
Mailhot debuted in 1999 for the Eastern Wrestling Alliance, losing to Larry Huntley in a match in Portland, Maine. After his first match Mailhot elected to take more time to focus on his in ring training and worked for the Eastern Wrestling Alliance in a character role as their commissioner. As commissioner he feuded with Alexander Worthington III, often countering Worthington's devious exploits with his power as commissioner although he did not wrestle a match again until early 2002 when his dealings with Worthington finally escalated to an in ring encounter.
In 2002 he began working for Chaotic Wrestling in Massachusetts as "Big League" Brian Black. He formed a tag team with The Mighty Mini, and the partners won the CW Tag Team Championships on two occasions, in 2003 defeating Atrition and 2004, defeating Peter Mulloy and Brian Buffet. Mailhot won his first singles championship, the vacant New England Championship, on April 30, 2004, in a twenty-eight man royal rumble. He won the Heavyweight Championship on March 18, 2005, defeating Maverick Wild, but vacated the title on April 1 after signing a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment in March 2005.
During this time Mailhot was also wrestling for the now sold and renamed All-Star Wrestling Association based in Nashua, New Hampshire. He debuted as Brian Black on February 21, 2004, in a loss to Adam Booker, which led to a short feud between the two. Following that he captured the AWA Tag Team Championship on May 15, 2004 in Claremont, New Hampshire with The Mighty Mini, his tag partner from Chaotic Wrestling. This turned into a phantom switch, though, when Mailhot changed to a new persona the next show. Since the switch took place outside of their typical venue in Nashua it was simply ignored and the titles were returned to The Swerve. On May 22, 2004, he debuted a German character of his own creation, Otto Von Schwartz. Taking full advantage of his German heritage and ability to speak German, he worked as a heel, feuding primarily with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. He captured the AWA Heavyweight Championship from Valentine on September 25, 2004, but dropped it on April 9, 2005. He then departed to the WWE developmental Deep South Wrestling.