Father James Mitchell
| James Mitchell | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 26, 1965 Orlando, Florida |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Daryl Van Horn James Vandenberg The Sinister Minister Jim Mitchell Father James Mitchell Devil James Mitchell James Mitchell |
| Billed height | 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) |
| Billed weight | 210 lb (95 kg) |
| Trained by | Gene Anderson |
| Debut | 1989 |
James (Jim) Mitchell, is an American professional wrestling manager, best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling as James Vandenberg and with Extreme Championship Wrestling as The Sinister Minister. He is currently working under his own name for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he is the manager of Abyss.
In addition to wrestling, Mitchell operates a karaoke business in Florida.
Career
Mitchell started out as a vocalist in an indie hair band, that in his words was, "40 pounds and a full head of hair ago.". Afterwards, he got into wrestling. Mitchell wrestled in the Carolinas and in Virginia before joining Smoky Mountain Wrestling. He wasn't satisfied with his physical appearance as a wrestler, so he switched to being a manager.
Smoky Mountain Wrestling
Mitchell, known as Daryl Van Horne, made his Smokey Mountain Wrestling debut in 1994 managing Prince Kharis (Rob Mayze). Van Horne claimed Kharis was a "4000 year old mummy." The gimmick, based off a 1960s wrestler named "The Mummy" was a flop in the promotion and was dropped after only a few months. Van Horne went on to manage Kendo the Samurai (a masked samurai gimmick played at different points by Tim Horner and Brian Logan, among others) for a brief time before disappearing from the promotion. The Van Horne gimmick was that he was a "Collector of Human Curiosities." This would become a running theme in Mitchell's career, as he became known for managing masked and/or (kayfabe) supernatural and satanic wrestlers in WCW, ECW, and later TNA.
World Championship Wrestling
Mitchell debuted in World Championship Wrestling as James Vandenberg, the manager of Mortis, a wrestler with a persona based on the characters Reptile and Scorpion from the fighting game Mortal Kombat. Managed by Vandenburg, Mortis feuded with Glacier (modelled after the character Sub-Zero). Mortis faced Glacier at Uncensored 1997 on March 16 in his pay-per-view debut, but lost to the undefeated Glacier. Following the match, Wrath debuted, siding with Mortis and Vandenburg and attacked Glacier.
Glacier defeated Mortis in a second match at Slamboree 1997 on May 18 when Wrath interfered on Mortis's behalf, causing a disqualification. However, Glacier was spared a post-match beating when Ernest Miller ran to the ring to defend him. The four men fought one another over the following weeks, culminating in a match at Bash at the Beach 1997 on July 13 which was won by Mortis and Wrath. Mortis and Wrath continued to team together until the angle was quietly dropped in late-1997.
Mitchell then tried to get a commentary segment off the ground on WCW Saturday Night. The piece featured Mitchell standing alone in a darkly lit room. He would discuss current feuds such as that between Perry Saturn and Glacier, always finishing the segment with "And I could be wrong... But I doubt it." However, the segment was quietly axed after a few weeks when Eric Bischoff apparently found out it was being produced saying "No one wants to watch talking heads". With nothing planned for his character, Mitchell was sent home with pay until his contract ran out. However, the office was not checking up on his contract status which was only one year, so it rolled over and he stayed at home for another year with pay until he was finally cut loose in 1999.
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Mitchell debuted in ECW in 2000 as The Sinister Minister. He managed The Unholy Alliance (Yoshihiro Tajiri and Mikey Whipwreck) until the promotion closed in April 2001.
He met with an accident while loading a handheld machine which purpose was shooting fireballs. The machine exploded and blew off a piece of his finger.[1]
Mitchell appeared at the WWE-produced ECW reunion pay-per-view ECW One Night Stand 2005 on June 12, 2005. He accompanied Tajiri to ringside for his match with Super Crazy and Little Guido.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Mitchell debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on June 19, 2002. On October 30, 2002, Mitchell returned to TNA along with Slash and Brian Lee, collectively known as the Disciples of The New Church. The New Church feuded with America's Most Wanted throughout 2002. In 2003, The New Church began feuding with Raven. On November 5, 2003, Mitchell fought Raven in a last man standing match that was won by Raven. In late-2003, Mitchell aligned himself with The Gathering, Raven's former protégés. Mitchell returned to TNA on July 1, 2005, aligning himself with Abyss. Mitchell led Abyss to victories over Lance Hoyt at TNA Sacrifice 2005 and Sabu at TNA Genesis 2005. At TNA Turning Point 2005 on December 11, Abyss lost to Sabu in a barbed wire massacre. At TNA Genesis 2006, "The Monster" Abyss won his first NWA World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Sting. The weeks after Abyss's title reign Sting seemed to control Abyss, and ordered Abyss to come to the ring alone were he would speak to Abyss without Mitchell speaking in Abyss's ear. Mitchell nearly lost control of Abyss, however soon scared him straight by showing Abyss a prison. Mitchell slammed Abyss into the fence and slapped him and reminded Abyss about his past. This act let Mitchell once again control Abyss with both men going into Final Resolution 2007 as a unit, manager and wrestler, to help Abyss defend his title against Sting and Christian Cage. On January 14, 2007 at Final Resolution Abyss lost his NWA World Heavyweight Championship to Christian Cage during a Three Way Elimination match against Sting and Christian Cage. Abyss was eliminated by Sting after a Scorpion Death Drop, and then Sting by Christian Cage. The following week, Mitchell was later attacked and kidnapped by Sting under his real life name. On January 25, 2007 he was able to give Sting by payback by kayfabe lauching a fireball right into Sting's face. The week after that, he told Abyss to find Sting while he later came into the ring and told Sting if he would accept his challenge at "Against All Odds" pay per view and on February 8, he accepted. He was then kidnapped by Sting again only this time, he was locked up in a cage, until Abyss came to his recuse by attacking Sting while Mitchell grab his belt buckle and choked Sting with it.
Wrestlers managed
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Quotes
- "Click! Doomsday! (evil laughter)"
- "You will pay......DEARLY!"
- "I have outlandish clothes because you have to standout. You don't want to blend in with the audience."
- "You've heard people say that they drank Paul (Heyman)'s Kool-Aid. I never drank his Kool-Aid, in fact I didn't even let him mix it; I yanked the package out of his hand, ripped it open, and snorted it. I was ECW all the way. It was a lot of fun, and I was sad to see it go."
Trivia
- When Mitchell shaved Raven's head with a pair of sheep clippers during their TNA feud, he accidentally turned the clippers the wrong way and they dug into Raven's scalp. Since it was being televised live, Mitchell had to go with it and continue the "scalping".
- Claims he has been doing his evil eyebrows for the past six years, "and they now just kind of stand up normally like that."
References
- Interview with WrestlingEpicenter.com
- James Mitchell at ObsessedWithWrestling.com
- James Mitchell not so Sinister