Sean O'Haire

**Sean Christopher Haire** (February 25, 1971 – September 8, 2014) was an American professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and kickboxer, better known by his ring name, **Sean O'Haire**.

O'Haire was best known for his appearances with the professional wrestling promotions World Championship Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment on its SmackDown brand and New Japan Pro-Wrestling in the early to mid-2000s. A three time WCW World Tag Team Champion, O'Haire was named "Rookie of the Year" by the *Wrestling Observer* in 2000.

Upon retiring from professional wrestling in 2006, O'Haire competed in mixed martial arts and kickboxing before becoming a hair stylist.

## Professional wrestling career

O'Haire began his career in WCW in June 2000, in Des Moines, Iowa, where he formed a tag team with fellow WCW Power Plant graduate Mark Jindrak. In August, O'Haire and Jindrak helped form the Natural Born Thrillers with Mike Sanders, Shawn Stasiak, Chuck Palumbo, Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli, and Reno. They were briefly "coached" by Kevin Nash. In September, O'Haire and Jindrak won the WCW World Tag Team Championship for the first time.

O'Haire and Jindrak won the title once more before splitting when O'Haire and Jindrak participated in a tag team battle royal with the Natural Born Thrillers teammates Stasiak and Palumbo. After the conclusion of the match, Sanders declared both teams victorious and said that the teams should trade partners. As a result, O'Haire formed a new tag team with Palumbo, while the second team consisted of Jindrak and Stasiak.

Palumbo and O'Haire defeated The Insiders (Diamond Dallas Page and Nash) in January 2001. A short time later, The Natural Born Thrillers broke up when Stasiak and Jindrak became jealous of the new tag team champs. The teams met at SuperBrawl Revenge on February 18 for the tag team gold. Palumbo and O'Haire retained their titles. O'Haire and Palumbo next feuded with Totally Buff (Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger) and defeated them at WCW Greed on March 18 to retain their tag team championship. WCW was purchased by the WWF, and both O'Haire and Palumbo's contracts were picked up.

O'Haire and Palumbo made their WWF debuts on the June 28, 2001, episode of *SmackDown!* as part of The Alliance, attacking the Hardy Boyz. O'Haire and Palumbo started feuding with the A.P.A. in the following weeks, which ended at WWF Invasion on July 22 when the APA defeated them. Subsequently, O'Haire and Palumbo defeated the Hardy Boyz on the August 2, 2001 edition of *SmackDown!*.

O'Haire and Palumbo next dropped the WCW Tag Team titles to the Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane) on the August 9 edition of *SmackDown!* and lost their rematch for the tag-team gold in a steel cage match the following week on *Raw*.

O'Haire and Palumbo's last televised match together was on the August 26 edition of *Heat* defeating The Holly Cousins, Hardcore and Crash.

Palumbo was thrown out of The Alliance in late October and joined the WWF in November. Also in September, O'Haire was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) for seasoning where he joined Kenny Bolin's "Bolin Services". O'Haire returned to WWE on the June 30, 2002 edition of *Heat*, defeating Justin Credible. He made a few more appearances on *Heat*, in dark matches and at house shows throughout the rest of 2002, facing off against and teaming with the likes of Shawn Stasiak, Doug Basham, Damaja, Crash Holly, D'Lo Brown, Johnny Stamboli, Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, Christopher Nowinski, Raven, and Credible. During this time, he still worked in OVW, as well.

In January 2003 vignettes started to appear on WWE programming showing O'Haire in his new gimmick—a Devil's advocate character. He urged people to commit adultery, break the law, not pay taxes, and not go to church, among other things. He ended each vignette with the line "I'm not telling you anything you don't already know".

In 2003, O'Haire returned to the main *SmackDown!* roster, telling various superstars to perform indecent acts which included persuading Spanky to streak through the arena and Dawn Marie to flash the audience.

O'Haire's dark persona included a long black trench coat he wore to the ring and his obsession with spiders, including fairly new tattoos with black flames on each wrist and a red spider web shooting out from the flames on his left wrist and a blue spider web on his right wrist. Also on the inside of his left forearm was a blue spider and on the inside of his right forearm was a red spider. His titantron video was also inside the body of a spider with a spiderweb in the background.

O'Haire quickly came under the tutelage of wrestling legend, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper in April 2003. O'Haire's new persona was abandoned but he held victories over Rikishi, Funaki, Mr. America (Hulk Hogan) by count out, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero. WWE officially released Piper from his contract on June 26, 2003, right after O'Haire and Piper made their last appearance together on *SmackDown!*. O'Haire was left to fend for himself and spent the majority of the rest of 2003 in matches on *Velocity*, dominating anyone in his path until late November.

At that time, O'Haire was involved in a motorcycle accident which required stitches and kept him out of action for the next month or so. When he recovered in February 2004, he was sent back to OVW and released on April 3, 2004.

O'Haire went to work for New Japan Pro Wrestling in May 2004. On July 17, 2004, O'Haire and Piper re-united at a Ballpark Brawl show where O'Haire was Piper's hand picked wrestler to face Jimmy Hart's wrestler Abyss. O'Haire defeated Abyss by disqualification. O'Haire then went on to work for Ultimate Pro Wrestling

## Death

On the morning of September 9, 2014, Haire was found dead by his father, hanging from a bedpost in his bedroom in the Spartanburg, South Carolina home they shared. He was 43 years old. It was determined by the Spartanburg County coroner's office that Haire committed suicide the night prior. News of Haire's passing was broken via Twitter by former WCW wrestler and personal friend of Haire's Scotty Riggs. Haire had been reportedly battling depression and alcoholism in the years prior to his death. It was reported that Haire had attended WWE-paid-for rehab six times in the six years preceding his death.