Sammy Ray

Sammy Ray, born in 1983 in Blackpool, is a retired English professional wrestler who competed in Revolution British Wrestling, Real Quality Wrestling, and FWA: Unsigned in the early- to mid-2000's. Sammy Ray was perhaps best known for being one-half of the tag team Sammy Ray & Kris Linnel, as well as for his innovative feud with Phil Powers.

Career
Academics were not a priority to Sammy, but he was drawn to the world of wrestling through his amatuer background; his adherence to it, particularly since competing since the age of 8, helped him develop a relatively small but powerful and agile shape. In addition, he had also received training in boxing during his formative years, which helped instill toughness in him before his career. His father was a miner, who often took young Sammy to see wrestling matches in Wigan, little did he know, it would turn Sammy away from his father's wish to see his son become a miner, and follow in the family tradition. It was during a visit to Wigan that the younger Sammy Ray met and caught the attention of Tommy Billington, who had been running a pro-wrestling school in his home; it was here that Sammy Ray began his training, as a way of avoiding the back breaking work of the coal mines. His first shot in the pro ranks was working for All Star, as he debuted in 2000. During his early days, he used to set up the ring for Brian Dixon.

After doing big business on the camps, Sammy Ray was booked on his first tour of the UK, it was here that Sammy learnt the trade and became a skillful technical wrestler.

Sammy Ray made a big impact in his matches for Revolution British Wrestling with the increasingly popular Ross Jordan and many others. On March 27, 2004, Sammy Ray captured the RBW British Welterweight Championship by defeating Ross Jordan.

He later became the head trainer at RBW. He was also instrumental in starting the careers of Project Future, who became LDN Tag team champions.

Sammy also represented RBW on FWA:Unsign. Sadly, the footage never saw the light of day due to the flooding of the FWA video archive storage room.

After leaving the RBW, Sammy found himself working for RQW, this was short lived as it was reported on the internet that he had died. This is not true, but sadly, Sammy had actually retired due to long standing lung injuries.

Also around this time, Sammy would change careers and become a referee. The highlight of his time as a ref, was working the infamous Billy Kidman vs Robbie Brookside match from Night of the Champions. He worked his last show for RQW at their "Not Just for Christmas" event in December 2006, in York Hall.

Rumours has stated that Sammy Ray is looking to make a comeback in the near future.

Legacy
Sammy Ray's wrestling training, produced a number of current wrestlers on the UK scene. Project Future, Mark Shaman, Bulldozer and Jason Sensation were all trained by him at RBW. It has been said that Riccardo Young of Project Future uses a frog splash in tribute to him.

In wrestling
*Finishing and signature moves
:*Diving Sammy Ray Headbutt (Swan dive headbutt)
:*Snap suplex
:* /
:*Johnny Saint Special (Roll up into a ball, arm feint, takeover into a pin)
:*The Russ Abbot (Leapfrog, Crawl Under, Roll Over Head & School Boy Combination)
:*Greco-Roman Knuckle Lock, Roll Backwards into a Double Wristlock
:*Leg Lever Reversals to wristlocks, hammerlocks, leglocks, etc
:*Cross Body Block
:*Rolling Wrist Snap
:*Frog Splash
:*Superplex - Japan or U.S. - Innovated
:*Indian deathlock - Japan or England
:*Front missile dropkick
:*High lifting belly to back suplex
:*European uppercut
:*German suplex pin
:*
:*Knee drop / Diving knee drop
:*Headbutt
:*Criss-cross choke

*Managers
:*Weeman
:*Ma Baker

Championships and accomplishments
*Revolution British Wrestling
:*RBW_British_Welterweight_Championship (1 time) in 2004.

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See Also

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