Junkyard Dog

In the summer of 1984, Junkyard Dog debuted for the World Wrestling Federation, where he was a mid-card wrestler but still a heavily-over face. While in the WWF, JYD made a habit of interacting with the growing number of young people in attendance, often bringing them into the ring after matches and dancing with them. JYD won *The Wrestling Classic* tournament by defeating Randy Savage by countout in the finals, as well as beating Moondog Spot and The Iron Sheik in earlier rounds, getting to the final. The tournament is often cited as the first-ever WWF pay-per-view. JYD's most notable feuds in the company came against King Harley Race, the Funk Brothers, Adrian Adonis, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and "Outlaw" Ron Bass before he left the company in October 1988.

JYD would make his debut for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) on December 7, 1988 at the *Clash of the Champions IV*. He would appear during an altercation between The Russian Assassins and Ivan Koloff, saving the latter. His first match came shortly after in a television taping in Atlanta against Trent Knight. JYD finished the year winning a $50,000 bunkhouse battle royal on December 26, which was held as a dark match after Starrcade '88 went off the air. He spent the first few months of 1989 teaming with Ivan Koloff and then Michael Hayes against The Russian Assassins. On April 2, 1989, JYD defeated Butch Reed at *Clash of the Champions VI* in New Orleans. Before the match he was accompanied to the ring by a jazz band.

JYD began a main event run in May 1990. On May 20, he defeated Mean Mark Callous in 39 seconds. He quickly became embroiled in a feud with Ric Flair for the World Heavyweight Championship. After gaining disqualification and non-title victories in house show matches, JYD would give Flair a televised defeat by DQ on June 13 at *Clash of the Champions XI*. JYD would then be part of the short-lived Dudes with Attitudes faction along with Sting, Paul Orndorff, and El Gigante. In the fall he would feud with Television Champion Arn Anderson, defeating him in non-title matches in less than 10 seconds on three house shows in September. He would finish the year defeating Moondog Rex, The Iron Sheik, and Bill Irwin on the house show circuit.

On February 17, 1991, he would win his first WCW title, teaming with Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich to defeat Dr. Z, Dutch Mantell, and Buddy Landell and gain the WCW Six-Man Tag-Team Championship. He also began a short feud that month with The Master Blaster, winning each encounter. JYD would hold the title until June 3, when they were defeated by The Freebirds in Birmingham, Alabama. He would then leave the promotion in August.

After dropping a significant amount of weight to improve his conditioning, Junkyard Dog returned on February 29, 1992 at SuperBrawl II. During a segment where Abdullah the Butcher was attacking Ron Simmons, JYD came out of the crowd to make the save. He found himself wrestling in tag-team matches with Ron Simmons, Barry Windham, or Big Josh for the next few months. In April and again in June, JYD would face former Six-Man Championship partner Ricky Morton, defeating him on each occasion. He also formed another tag-team, this time with The Big Cat. They would feud with The Vegas Connection (Dallas Page and Vinnie Vegas) the rest of the summer. In April 1993, he formed a new tag-team with Jim Neidhart and began a feud with Dick Slater and Paul Orndorff that would last the next few months. After defeating Slater on July 28, 1993 he left the promotion.

In May 1998, JYD made an appearance at Extreme Championship Wrestling's Wrestlepalooza event. One month later, the Junkyard Dog passed away on June 1, 1998.

JYD was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2004 at a ceremony held on March 13, 2004 by Ernie Ladd, the day before WrestleMania XX.