Terry Taylor

Paul Worden Taylor III (born August 12, 1955) is an American retired professional wrestler better known by his ring name Terry Taylor and for his time as an in-ring performer in National Wrestling Alliance, World Championship Wrestling, and World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment.

Terry Taylor was a popular fan favorite for much of his early career in the Mid-South region, as well as the Mid-Atlantic in the 1980s.

Taylor was originally selected to be part of The Fabulous Ones tag team with Stan Lane, but that role went to Florida wrestler, Steve Keirn.

Taylor then formed a tag team with Bobby Fulton called the Fantastic Ones.

After they split up, Fulton teamed with Tommy Rogers to form The Fantastics.

On June 7, 1981, Taylor won the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship from Les Thornton at the Roanoke Civic Center, dropping it back to him in the return match thirteen days later.

Also wrestled for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1981 and 1982.

Taylor made his way to Mid-South in January 1984 and feuded with the team of Nikolai Volkoff and Krusher Darsow.

Darsow changed his name to Krusher Khruschev, and he and Taylor met in the finals of a May tournament to crown the first ever Mid-South TV champion, which Khruschev won.

45 days later, Taylor defeated Khruschev in New Orleans to begin his first of four TV title reigns.

Taylor feuded with "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel over the NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1985.

On March 13 of that year, he defeated Ted DiBiase for the North American Heavyweight Championship, the Mid South region's top title at the time.

Moving back to the Mid-South region in 1986, which been renamed the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), Taylor became one of the promotion's biggest stars and defeated Buzz Sawyer for the UWF Television Championship in May.

He won the UWF Tag Team Championship with "Gentleman" Chris Adams in early 1987, before breaking up their "Dream Team" to begin a heated rivalry.

After Jim Crockett Promotions took over the UWF later that year, Taylor (then the UWF Television Champion) initiated a dispute with Nikita Koloff over the NWA World Television Championship by stealing Koloff's belt, which led to a unification match of the two titles at Starrcade 1987, which Taylor would lose before abruptly leaving the promotion.

In early 1988, Taylor debuted in World Class Championship Wrestling, where he and Adams continued their feud until early June.

Taylor won the Texas Heavyweight Championship from Matt Borne and defended it against Adams, Kevin Von Erich, and others.

Terry also held the tag team title with Iceman King Parsons for a short time.

Taylor eventually departed WCCW.

In 1988, Taylor signed with the World Wrestling Federation.

He made his initial debut in a house show defeating Tito Santana on July 10, 1988 in Las Vegas, NV.

Three days later he made his televised debut as babyface "Scary" Terry Taylor, he teamed with Sam Houston against The Conquistadors on the August 1, 1988 airing of Prime Time Wrestling.

After Houston was pinned, Taylor got on the mic and berated him for losing the match, before attacking him and turning heel.

Taylor soon acquired Bobby "The Brain" Heenan as his manager and was rebranded "The Red Rooster", a gimmick which saw him don red tights and ring coat and, later as a babyface, style his hair like a rooster's comb and strut like a rooster.

Early in his Red Rooster stint, the heel Taylor was described by Heenan as a novice wrestler who could not navigate his way through matches without constant instructions from his manager, despite objections from announcers such as Gorilla Monsoon who would recall him showing considerable promise in matches prior to Heenan's involvement.

The Rooster made his pay-per-view debut in the main event of Survivor Series '88, where he was the first wrestler eliminated from the match.

On the January 7, 1989 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event XIX, the Rooster lost a match to Tito Santana due to being distracted by an argument with Heenan.

Following the loss, Heenan slapped Taylor.

Taylor, tired of Heenan's demeaning style of coaching, turned against his manager and attacked him.

He became a face as a result, though he retained the Red Rooster gimmick.

Heenan feigned wanting to make amends with Taylor on Prime Time Wrestling, but it was a set-up for Taylor to be ambushed by Heenan's new protege, long-time enhancement talent Steve Lombardi, who Heenan reinvented as "The Brooklyn Brawler".

The two feuded, leading to the Rooster defeating the Brawler on the March 11, 1989 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event XX and then defeating Heenan in a 30-second squash at WrestleMania V.

Taylor would then primarily be used to put over other talent.

While he still earned victories against enhancement talent, he was usually on the losing end against established stars.

He worked a program with Mr. Perfect, losing to him at SummerSlam '89 and again on the November 25, 1989 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event XXIV.

At Survivor Series '89, he was part of Dusty Rhodes's "Dream Team".

Though Taylor was eliminated from the match, the Dream Team was victorious.

The Rooster's last pay-per-view appearance was as a participant in the 1990 Royal Rumble match (replacing The Widow Maker), where he lasted only two minutes before being eliminated by André the Giant.

From 2003 until 2011, he worked as a road agent, trainer, interviewer and the director of talent relations in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Since 2012, Taylor has worked as a trainer in WWE's developmental territory, NXT.