Monday, March 19, 2007

TNA: Rhyno


Terrence Romney ("Terry") Gerin (born October 7, 1975) is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring names Rhino and Rhyno. He is currently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Rhino made his debut in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on July 17, 2005 (reverting to the ECW spelling of his name instead of WWE's which is trademarked), by hitting then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Raven with the Gore following a match with Abyss, thus debuting as a member of Planet Jarrett. These events led to a match being scheduled between the team of Rhino and Jarrett and the team of Raven and the returning Sabu at the Sacrifice pay-per-view on August 14, 2005.

During the Sacrifice preshow, Director of Authority Larry Zbyszko informed Jarrett, who had lobbied for a title shot for several weeks, that if he could pin Raven, he would receive a shot at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the Unbreakable. However, should Jarrett lose the match, he would be prohibited from receiving a world title shot for one year. Later that night, during the tag match, Jeff Hardy returned to TNA, attacking Jarrett and enabling Rhino to Gore and pin Raven. An irate Jarrett, furious at having lost his shot at the title, watched as Zbyszko announced Rhino to be the new number one contender immediately after the PPV went off the air. Rhino faced Raven at Unbreakable in a match which saw him accidentally Gore a shopping cart in homage to his WWF Hardcore Championship bout with Raven at Backlash 2001. Despite interference from Jarrett, Raven retained his title after hitting Rhino with a DDT.

Rhino fought Jeff Hardy in the main event of the first episode of TNA iMPACT! on Spike TV on October 1. The match was declared a no-contest after both Abyss and Sabu interfered. At Bound for Glory, Rhino, Abyss, Sabu and Hardy faced each other in a Monster's Ball match, which Rhino won after hitting a middle-rope Rhino Driver on Hardy. Later that night, Rhino won a 10-man Gauntlet match to determine who would face Jeff Jarrett for his NWA World Heavyweight Championship after Kevin Nash, Jarrett's scheduled opponent, was rushed to the hospital due to a legit injury. Rhino went on to defeat Jarrett and win the title. The climb from a heel in Monster's Ball to the NWA Champion in the course of three separate matches made Rhino turn face. Rhino lost the NWA World Title to Jeff Jarrett at a 2-hour primetime special edition of TNA iMPACT! on November 3. Starting with the November 26 episode of iMPACT!, TNA started airing promos about Rhino's career and personal life in preparation for his title rematch at Turning Point. He lost the rematch after a guitar shot and interference from all of Team Canada.

Rhino then wrapped up a brutal feud with Abyss in 2006, who (due to his alignment with Planet Jarrett) halted Rhino's war on Team Canada. The feud saw Abyss Black Hole Slam Rhino on to several chairs, and Rhino smash Abyss through a steel wall with the Gore. Their singles feud ended in spectacular fashion at Against All Odds when Rhino Gored Abyss off of a fifteen foot ramp on to four tables. In April, Rhino became a member of Sting's four-man team of "Warriors", joining A.J. Styles, and Ron Killings to fight Jeff Jarrett's "Army" in a Lethal Lockdown match at Lockdown.

On June 9 at "TNA Hardcore War", a house show at New Alhambra Arena in Philadelphia, after Rhino defeated Jeff Jarrett, he publicly acknowledged that he had been offered a contract to come back to WWE and wrestle for the new ECW. However, Rhino had signed a two-year contract with TNA. On July 11, Rhino made an open challenge against WWE for their current incarnation of ECW. The shocking revelation was that he didn't like the direction of the new ECW and threw the "real" ECW World Championship (hidden in a burlap sack as Rhino stated WWE threatened legal action if it was shown) into an oil drum and burned it. (Although he later admitted that it was a replica, and he still has the original at his home.)
He said that WWE was full of crap because they were trying to make more profit by recreating the past and that he would become NWA World Heavyweight Champion to prove that Vince McMahon is a hypocrite.

To further this statement he issued an open challenge, very similar to that of Kurt Angle's, leading to a feud with Monty Brown and Samoa Joe after all three of them began to lay out open challenges and proclaim themselves as the toughest men in the company. This resulted in the three men fighting at Hard Justice which ended with Samoa Joe winning by pinning Monty Brown after driving Brown through a table. In Rhino's open challenge, he stated:

“ It doesn't matter who you work for – what company – whether it's a four-sided ring, six-sided or eight-sided – bring your ass to the iMPACT! Zone and face me face-to-face, because the end result is always the same - GORE! GORE! GORE!. ”

Rhino has since entered into a feud with Christian Cage, playing off their former history together in WWE, Japan and Canada. This feud culminated the November 16 episode of iMPACT! where he faced Christian in a bloody six-sides of steel barbed wire match. Christian won the match after taking Rhino's signature Gore that sent him through the side of the cage.

Rhino would feud with A.J. Styles at the end of 2006 where A.J. turned heel. This started with Rhino trying to help Styles with his situation with Christopher Daniels only to have Styles pull away and accuse Rhino of getting into his business. Rhino would lose to Styles at Turning Point 2006 after Styles faked a knee injury and then got Rhino with a roll up pin. At Final Resolution 2007 Rhino defeated Styles in a Last Man Standing match after Aj styles layed down to avoid a gore! and to stop the match.At Against All Odds 2007 Styles defeated Rhino in a Motor City Chain match. AJ Styles than struck a challenge to any wrestler in TNA to wrestle him at Destination-X in the debuting of the Elevation X match and Rhino accepted the challenge.

On March 6th edition of TNA iMPACT!, Rhino was the partner of Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe, as they faced off against Christian Cage, Scott Steiner and Tomko. Rhino eventually attacked AJ Styles, as he climbed on top of the Elevation X, as AJ Styles came back down, as Rhino was attacked by Christian Cage and Tomko.

Rhino recently did an interview in the Dearborn Press and Guide. He said he wants to wrestle for 10 more years and admitted that the belt he burned on iMPACT! last year was just a replica of the ECW title. He still has the real title in his possession.

At Destination X, Gerin defeated AJ Styles in Elevation X.


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