Billy Fives - Career

Career

Fives was born in Cherokee, North Carolina and later moved to southern Florida where he grew up in Miami Beach. He often watched Championship Wrestling from Florida hosted by Gordon Solie and was a later fan of Barry Windham, Rick Steamboat and Ric Flair. He also attended weekly wrestling events at the Miami Beach Convention Center. He graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in 1987 and attended Mount Aloysius College until 1989.

He studied martial arts during his teenage years, earning six black belts in three disciplines, and was involved in shootfighting. He competed in Japan for three years prior to becoming a professional wrestler. Growing up with Norman Smiley, he was brought into the business by Smiley who was involved in his training at Rusty Brooks' School of Hard Knocks along with Brooks, David Heath, Bruno Sassi and others. In April 1997, Fives made his debut against Flex Magnum in Hollywood, Florida.

Fives spent a year in various promotions on the independent circuit until joining Future of Wrestling. Six days after a WWF tryout match at the National Car Rental Center, he accompanied FOW in the promotion's first international tour to Lima, Peru from May 17–25. On May 18, he appeared with Bobby Rogers, Mike Monroe, Marshall Law, The Postman, Cyborg, Phi DeKapp U, Yuel Lovett and his valet Montana on the daytime talk show The Monica Show. During the next two days, he faced J-Dawg and Anthony Adonis in back-to-back appearances at the Coliseo Amauta. Fives also wrestled on the promotion's weekly television series. He eventually defeated J-Dawg for the FOW International Heavyweight Championship on September 25, 1999. Losing the title three months later to Warlock in Davie, Florida on December 30, that same night he joined Tony Apollo and Anthony Adonis to form the stable FP&L (Florida Power and Lovin') and won the FOW Tag Team Championship from Wildside (Anthony Michaels and Jeff Roth). In January 2000, Fives faced his tag team partner Anthony Adonis on a televised match for Ted DiBiase's WXO Wrestling in Lakeland, Florida. FP&L broke up immediately after losing the tag team titles to Suicidal Tendencies (Dennis and Sean Allen) on February 12.

On March 4, Fives won a battle royal at an event for the Independent Professional Wrestling Association in Homestead, Florida. A month later, he appeared on the April 15th edition of WWF Jakked where he faced Essa Ríos in the opening match. He was pinned by Rios after a moonsault. On February 24, 2001, Fives competed in the 2001 Super 8 Tournament in Wilmington, Delaware and lost to Lo Ki in the opening rounds. On April 22, he defeated "Mr. Extreme" Pat McGuire to win the FOW Heavyweight Championship. He would go on to win the title a record 5 times. Two days later at the Homer W. Hesterly Armory, Fives and Pepe Prado represented NWA Florida in a tag team match against Mike Sullivan and Scoot Andrews during an interpromotional event between IPW Hardcore vs. NWA Florida.

He also lost to Scoot Andrews in the tournament finals for the ECWA Heavyweight Championship on May 5. On June 23, he made a second appearance on WWF Jakked losing to Haku. He also made an appearance in Jimmy Hart's X Wrestling Federation where he was one of several wrestlers to compete in a battle royal to decide the first XWF Cruiserweight Champion at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida on November 13, 2001. Among the participants included Psicosis, Juventud Guerrera, A.J. Styles, Low Ki, Prince Iaukea, Christopher Daniels and the winner Kid Kash.

At the end of the year, Fives defeated A.J. Styles for the IPW Heavyweight Championship on December 8, 2001. It was during this time that he formed the stable Animal House with Chris Charger and Wildside (Anthony Michaels and Jeff Roth). The stable was named after Fives' gym in Hollywood, Florida where a number of independent wrestlers trained, most notably, David Babylon and Maximum Capacity.

He and Bruno Sassi defeated the Badstreet Boys (Christian York and Joey Matthews) on February 9, 2002. He also feuded with Scoot Andrews facing him in a memorable ladder match at the 2002 ECWA Super 8 Tournament for his ECWA Heavyweight Championship. On April 12, he successfully defended the FOW Heavyweight Championship in a three-way dance against Adam Jacobs and David Young at Rage in the Cage 4. The next night, he faced his mentor Norman Smiley in a match for the FOW title and lost the belt after submitting to the crossface chickenwing. On May 24, he finally lost the IPW Heavyweight title to Mike Sullivan in Deltona, Florida. The following night he wrestled David Johnson in the opening rounds of a tournament for the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship at NWA Florida's NWA Florida: Tradition Is About To Change. He was scheduled to face Mark Briscoe in the opening rounds of the Jersey J-Cup tournament, but was replaced by Shawn Sheridan at the last moment.

On August 10, he also challenged CZW World Heavyweight Champion Justice Pain at No Excuses. In December, he and Scoot Andrews defeated Sly Grenier and Blake Gale in a dark match on SmackDown. According to Kevin Kelly, he originally brought Fives to the attention of the WWF after receiving a tape of a three-way match involving Scoot Andrews and Billy Fives. He described showing the tape to then WWF official Terry Taylor,

Although Fives was reportedly in discussions signing with the WWF, he ultimately decided he was not interested in the offer. He was later critical of Vince McMahon's monopoly on the professional wrestling industry following the buyout of World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling in 2001, although he also pointed out that this also gave independent promotions more attention as a result.

In early 2003, he also toured Japan with Riki Chōshū's World Japan Pro Wrestling before returning to face Danny Doring for the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship at the interpromotional IPW/NWA Florida supercard The Aftermath on January 25. At the last major IPW supercard Rage in the Cage V, his daughter accompanied him to the ring prior to his match against Agent Steele at the Pinellas Expo Center on April 18.

After the close of IPW Hardcore and Future of Wrestling, he returned to the Florida independent circuit. On June 12, he was defeated in a four-way match against Antonio Banks, Scoot Andrews and NWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Mike Sullivan at the Davie Police Athletic League. The following month at Pro Wrestling Fusion's Heatstroke '04, he and Scoot Andrews fought over the vacant NWA Southern Heavyweight title at the Davie Police Athletic League complex on August 21. Fives was one of many former wrestlers to find work in NWA Florida and defeated Vordell Walker in one of his first matches in the promotion on October 9, 2004. The next month, he and Lex Lovett lost to Scoot Andrews & Antonio Banks on November 20. while competing for Major League Wrestling that same year, he and other independent wrestlers gained a great deal of exposure in high-profile appearances with the company. His match with Christopher Daniels at Hybrid Hell was considered one of the best matches on the card and later released on DVD.

On January 22, 2005, he also teamed with Lovett and Buck Quartermain in a 6-man tag team match against Vordell Walker, Scoot Andrews and Antonio Banks which was declared a no-contest. On February 26, he fought to a 30 minute time limit draw against Mike Sullivan and Scoot Andrews in his retirement match. In June, he appeared at the 3rd annual Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup to present the winner with a trophy. During 2007, he feuded with "The Marquee" Bruce Santee in several Florida independent promotions including Florida United 2 and Division-1 Pro Wrestling.

In early 2011, Bobby Rogers, the owner of the original Future of Wrestling, announced the promotion would be relaunching. At the first show in Davie Florida, Fives won a tournament to be crowned the new FOW Heavyweight Champion, making him a 6 time champion.