-
Name: "Franchise"
Cooper Tate
- E-mail: the_breeze@hotmail.com
- AOL IM: franchisecooper
- Hometown: Dallas, TX
- Height: 6'5"
- Weight: 250 lbs.
- Body build: Athletic
- Wrestling style: Technical/very ring savy
- Manger (M/F): none
- Alignment: heel/neutral
- Catch phrases: "This is The Franchise Player's world
and I'm just nice enough to let you live in it!"
- Theme music: "Bawitdaba" by Kid Rock
- Finisher (description): Show Stopper (rock bottom)
- Trademark move (description): 1. Decapitator (clothesline
from top rope)
2. Franchise Face Plant (facebuster)
- 5 other moves: spinebuster, russian leg sweep, DDT, neckbreaker,
superkick
-
History: Cooper Tate was born the son of two very athletic
parents. His father was a high school football coach and his mother
was an athletic trainer for a local college. As soon as Cooper
was old enough to participate in sports, it was obvious that he
was exceptionally talented. He continued playing multiple sports
in junior high school, but the one he excelled at was football.
He began playing for the high school varsity football team when
he was in eighth grade and became a starter at strong safety mid-way
through the season. From that point until his high school career
ended, he started every game at strong safety for the Southern
Texas Bobcats. His defensive play was dominant and he was an all-state
selection for three years in a row from his freshman to junior
years. He was also named the Texas High School Defensive Player
of the year at the end of his junior season. The scholarship offers
poured and he was recruited by almost every major university in
the country. He f! inally accepted a scholarship to play at the
University of Florida. But, his college career never came to be
because Cooper was injured in the fourth game of his senior season.
While running back an interception, he was hit from behind causing
him to fall forward awkwardly and tear his PCL. The doctors told
him he would never be able to play competitive football again.
Rather
than become depressed, Cooper decided to channel his efforts elsewhere
and devoted himself entirely to his schoolwork and was able to
get a partial academic scholarship to the University of Texas.
Also during the time while he was rehabilitating, he met Alex
Sanders who had been a local wrestling legend around the Dallas-Fort
Worth area for years. Cooper began to tell Sanders that he was
a big wrestling fan and wouldn't mind training to become a professional
wrestler since he still had a desire to compete against top athletes.
Sanders began training Cooper who was also taking classes at UT
in business administration. After a year in college, Cooper decided
that wrestling was going to be his future and not running a business.
So, he began training with Sanders full-time and was instrumental
in helping Sanders found his Texas School of Wrestling. After
nearly two years of training with Sanders, Cooper had his professional
wrestling debut in the Southern States Wrestling A! lliance on
September 6, 1994 winning his first match. At the time he was
billed as "Kid" Cooper, but he was quickly given the nickname
"Prime Time" by SSWA President Donnie Anson who said that Cooper
was one of the hardest working wrestlers he had and all his matches
were worthy of "those prime time shows on cable." Now Being billed
as "Prime Time," Cooper slowly worked his way up the ranks and
defeated The Redneck for the Southern Heavyweight Title in January
of '95. Cooper held the title until he left the SSWA in April
of that year when he lost a loser leaves town match to his mentor
Alex Sanders.
Cooper
spent the next year bouncing from fed to fed, slowly making a
name for himself before he was signed by the Bluegrass Wrestling
Alliance in December of '95. There he had a tremendous feud with
Bluegrass Champion "Main Event" Mark Ellis that many consider
to be one of Cooper's strongest feuds to date. The feud culminated
with a steel cage first blood match that Cooper won to gain the
second title of his career. Cooper reigned as the Bluegrass Champion
from February '96 until he left in May of that year. It was during
this time that a bitter feud erupted between BWA President Chris
Sanders and BWA Vice-President Jeremy Banks. The feud divided
the BWA and eventually saw it begin to split into two factions.
During a BWA television show, Banks then declared he was leaving
the BWA to open his own fed, the North American Wrestling Federation,
and was taking "The Franchise" of the BWA with him and he announced
that Cooper Tate was going to be the man he built the NAWF around.
The
NAWF held it's first card in May in which the newly dubbed "Franchise"
Cooper Tate made it to the finals of the NAWF World Title tournament.
He lost the match, but was awarded the NAWF United States Title.
He held that title until June when he began to go after the NAWF
World Title in a feud with "Hollywood" Rip Boulder. "The Franchise"
quickly became one of the top draws and his win over Boulder to
win the NAWF World Title on July 4th marked his arrival as one
of the top names in the sport. He held that title until late August
when he lost it in an amazing Fatal Four Way Cage Match. The winner
of that match, Shawn Striker, and The Franchise had a heated feud
going and were getting ready for a sixty minute Ironman Match
when the NAWF had to close it's doors.
After
the NAWF closed, The Franchise had no problem finding work and
began a stint in the Hotshot e-Wrestling League. The Franchise
also became a main draw in HEL and went on to hold all three singles
titles. His feud with former HEL Champion Shane Jenkins culminated
with The Franchise winning the HEL Championship at the federation's
final card. It is after this time when success seemed to go to
The Franchise's head. Beginning with his stint in the NAWF and
continuing today, The Franchise has easily fallen into being pursued
by the main stream media. He has always been a welcome guest on
MTV as well as several of the late night talk shows as well as
Howard Stern's nationally syndicated radio program. It's at this
time that The Franchise began to not only wrestle, but also be
bask in the acceptance he had accepted from the mainstream. The
Franchise began competing in two and three feds at a time in an
effort to prove that he was indeed as good as he said. For nearly
six months ! he bounced around from fed to fed winning several
different titles, but always looked down upon his competition.
That was until he joined the American Heritage Wrestling Alliance
in March of 1997.
In
the AHWA, The Franchise wrecked havoc and went after anyone and
everyone quickly alienating himself from the members of the fed.
Despite having hardly any allies at all, The Franchise decided
to go after The Faction, the AHWA's dominate stable that featured
the AHWA World, North American, and Tag Team Champions. The Franchise
began a strategy of picking off each member at a time and was
successful in injuring three of the four members over a course
of almost six weeks. Finally, he had a match against the head
of The Faction and AHWA World Champion "Marvelous" Mike Morton
where he was able to win the AHWA World Title. One week later,
The Franchise lost a loser leaves town match to Morton when every
member of The Faction returned and interfered on Morton's behalf.
After the match they broke The Franchise's leg in three places
and put him on the shelf for nearly six months.
After
that incident, The Franchise has spent the past couple of years
bouncing around from indy fed to indy fed, mainly being brought
in as a Special Enforcer or a Commissioner. He made up with BWA
President Chris Sanders and served as BWA Commissioner for nearly
eight months. His eight month tenure as commissioner ended when
he intentionally lost a match for the commissioner position to
The Psycho Phantom because he wanted out of his contract so that
he could devote his time to training for his full-time return
to the ring.
He
made his return to the wrestling world in the summer of 2000 when
he joined the JNF and quickly became one of their main draws and,
arguably, the top heel in the fed. Starting out working his way
up through fueds with Yobbo, Squigg, and Awesome Tom, The Franchise
caught the eye of JNF CEO Le Poncho and was dubbed "Poncho's Franchise."
With the stroke of the most powerful man in the fed on his side,
The Franchise quickly shot up through the roster. His fued with
The Raging Hobo, nicknamed The Turtle Rape Saga, is legendary
among the fans of the JNF. Two epic matches took place in which
The Franchise was victorious both times. During all of this, The
Franchise won the GOLD Championship from Buzz in a brutual match
that all but ended Buzz's JNF career. His brutal fued with Havok
culminated in a first blood match at the JNF's last ppv Landslide,
where The Franchise came out on top as the last JNF GOLD Champion.
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