Paul Burchill

After arriving in the US, Burchill was scouted by Tommy Dreamer and called up to the main roster by August. He made his WWE debut on the August 27, 2005 episode of WWE Velocity, when he made a run-in in a match between fellow Englishman William Regal and Scotty 2 Hotty. Burchill quickly established an alliance with his countryman, helping Regal to beat down Scotty 2 Hotty. A week later he debuted on Friday Night SmackDown teaming with Regal to defeat Hotty and Funaki, when Scotty tapped out to Burchill's Royal Mutilation submission hold. The next week on SmackDown!, Burchill defeated Scotty 2 Hotty in a singles match in the same manner. After rising through the tag team ranks Regal and Burchill were given a chance at the WWE Tag Team Championship in a Fatal Four Way match facing The Mexicools, MNM and champions L.O.D. 2005 (Road Warrior Animal and Heidenreich), but lost out to MNM. Regal and Burchill continued tagging together, mainly feuding with The Mexicools on Velocity while Regal often acted as a manager for Burchill during his singles matches. He lost to the debuting Lashley in mid-December, but bounced back with a win on Velocity, debuting his C-4 move in WWE, which aided him in a victory against the jobber John Xavier. In January he appeared in a 20 man battle royal for the World Heavyweight Championship but was tossed out with a belly to belly suplex from eventual winner Kurt Angle.
On the February 3, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, Burchill and Regal told SmackDown! "network representative" Palmer Canon that they no longer wanted to be a tag team so they could go their separate ways. During this discussion, Burchill informed Canon that his family heritage traces back to the pirate Blackbeard and he wanted to do a pirate gimmick on SmackDown!. He followed through on this promise the following week when he appeared backstage dressed as a pirate, with a look similar to that of Johnny Depp's character from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Regal tried to convince Burchill to return to his former ruthless gimmick, while Burchill refused cementing him as a fan favorite. Burchill had his first match as a pirate on the March 10, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, making an elaborate entrance by swinging down to the floor on a rope. Burchill defeated Regal using the C-4 which was renamed Walk The Plank to suit the gimmick. After Regal continued to persuade Burchill to return to his former gimmick, the two were booked in a match where the loser would be forced to wear the winner's choice of clothing. Burchill won the match, forcing Regal to dress at his whim until Burchill lost another match, initially dressing him up as a buxom wench, and later in various costumes such as a chicken suit and a gorilla suit. Eventually, he made Regal dress up like a buccaneer in order to tag with him against Gymini on April 21. Burchill ended up abandoning Regal during the match, which led to Gymini picking up the victory. In early June, Burchill's popular pirate gimmick came to an end when Mark Henry, who was going on a storyline rampage, defeated Burchill and then assaulted him afterwards resulting in him being stretchered off SmackDown. He resurfaced on SmackDown in July 2007 as a pirate for a Mardi Gras party thrown by Edge, though he was not acknowledged.
This time away from the ring was also used to develop a new gimmick to replace his pirate character on his return. This was done allegedly because Vince McMahon, who reportedly was not aware of the Pirates of the Caribbean films and Johnny Depp's pirate character, believed the character should have thought he was a real pirate, acting more like the Carl Ouellet pirate character from the 1990s, and felt it could not work as a crowd favorite, despite the positive crowd reactions Burchill received.
After appearing on Heat on several occasions, Burchill made his return to WWE television as a villain again with fellow FWA alumnus Katie Lea playing his on-screen sister during the February 11 episode of Raw, defeating Brian Kendrick ,who would defeat him in many occasions in the future. Continuing to appear on Heat, Burchill and Katie would occasionally appear on Raw in handicap matches. On May 26, Burchill assaulted Mr. Kennedy because he forced William Regal to leave Raw which led to a brief feud until Kennedy was drafted to SmackDown. After this, Burchill engaged in a brief feud with then Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston while Katie Lea feuded with Women's Champion Mickie James but despite defeating them in a tag team match, neither won their respective titles in singles matches. Following this Burchill had a minimal on-air role, making brief appearances in squash matches to Batista and Jamie Noble.
Burchill and Katie Lea were later both moved from Raw to the ECW brand on December 30, 2008, where Burchill lost to DJ Gabriel in his debut match for the brand.[44] The Burchills were defeated in a mixed tag team match against Gabriel and Alicia Fox on January 13, 2009.[45] On the February 3 edition of ECW, Burchill scored his first win as a member of the ECW brand by defeating Tommy Dreamer.[46] Burchill competed sporadically for the next few months, failing to win any of his matches, before taking a hiatus in June 2009.[47][48][49][50] He returned on the July 14 episode of ECW, losing to Yoshi Tatsu.[51] By August, Burchill became embroiled in a rivalry with backstage interviewer Gregory Helms, who he accused of being masked wrestler The Hurricane (who Helms also portrayed).[52] After several months of matches and attacks, the two finally agreed to settle the matter in a match on November 17's ECW which saw Hurricane's mask put up against Burchill's career on the ECW brand; despite many attempts Burchill could not secure the pin and subsequently lost the match.[53]