Matthew Hyson

Matthew Hyson (born on August 13 1970, in Providence, Rhode Island) is a professional wrestler, best known for his performances in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under the stage name of Spike Dudley.

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Before his wrestling career, Hyson was a primary school teacher.

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Extreme Championship Wrestling

He gained fame as being the "runt" of ECW's infamous Dudley Family, a stable of wrestlers billed as half-brothers, although none were in reality related. While in ECW, he had a hippie gimmick, wearing tie dye shirts and long hair; his finisher—a three-quarters facelock bulldog from the top rope—was called the Acid Drop. The initials of his name, Little Spike Dudley, was a further referenece to drugs.

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World Wrestling Entertainment

After moving to World Wrestling Federation (as it was then known) the drug elements of his character were dropped and his finisher was renamed the "Dudley Dog".

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Spike made his debut in March 2001, helping The Dudley Boys win the Tag Team titles. He had on on-screen courtship with Molly Holly which angered both his brothers and The Holly Cousins leading to a feud between the two tag teams and put Molly and Spike in the middle of it.

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Spike wrestled mainly as a face during his time in WWF/WWE with fueds with his two older brothers, Bubba Ray and D-Von often took centre stage, but he would go on to form short lived tag teams with The Big Show (being nicknamed The Little Show), Bubba Ray Dudley, and Tazz with whom he won the Tag Team titles with in 2002. In that same year he lifted the European and Hardcore championships.

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Spike was drafted to the SmackDown! brand in 2004 where he would at one point hold the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. During this time Spikes biggest exposer came when he turned heel by attack popular face wrestler Rey Mysterio, he then began to wrestle as the "boss" of two other members of the Dudley family, the Dudley Boyz.

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Hyson was released from WWE on July 5, 2005 along with seven other WWE wrestlers in what is believed to be a cost-cutting measure by the company.

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Post WWE

Shortly thereafter, a statement was attributed to Hyson that appeared to criticize many aspects of WWE. Later, WWE would keep Hyson and Mark Lamonica (Bubba Ray Dudley) and Devon Hughes (D-Von Dudley) (former employees of the WWE known as the Dudley Boys) from using any aspect of the Dudley gimmick in any other promotion as the company had trademarked nearly all of the infamous aspects of the Dudley gimmick. These actions were seen by many as disrespectful and detrimental to the wrestlers as their gimmicks are a major component of their business. Moreover, many see this as malicious and unfair as the Dudley gimmick was invented during their stay in ECW. However, WWE owns the gimmick as they bought out ECW, thus buying their trademarks as well.

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August 13: August 13 is the 225th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (226th in leap years), with 140 days remaining....

1970: 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday....

Professional wrestler: REDIRECT Professional wrestling...

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