Early career (1988–1996) DeMott was trained by
Johnny Rodz in Rodz's
New York City wrestling school beginning in 1988. From there he began working at small independent promotions using the name Big Sweet Williams. In 1992 DeMott began wrestling for the Americas Wrestling Federation and started using the
name Crash the Terminator. Under this name he found partial success, first capturing the AWF World Heavyweight Title from Steve Strong in
Puerto Rico, before moving on to the Japanese promotion
W*ING and winning the World Tag Team Championship with
Mr. Pogo. In 1993, while competing in W*ING, DeMott won a 16-man tournament to be crowned their World Heavyweight Champion. On February 21, 1994 DeMott received a tryout match with the
World Wrestling Federation at a
Monday Night Raw taping at Poughkeepsie, NY. He competed in two other matches at a two day taping for
WWF Superstars of Wrestling and
Wrestling Challenge. He then went to Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling, where he won the latter promotion's World Heavyweight Championship upon winning a
battle royal in 1995.
Eastern Championship Wrestling (1993–1994) He wrestled for
Eastern Championship Wrestling for a short time under his "Crash the Terminator" name. At
Ultimate Jeopardy in March 1994 he defeated
the Pitbull. His final ECW appearance came on May 13, 1994, in a TV victory against AJ Powers, which aired on June 7.
World Championship Wrestling (1995–2001) Dungeon of Doom (1995–1998) In 1995, DeMott was signed to a
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) contract at the behest of
Kevin Sullivan who had been impressed by him. He debuted in
dark matches as The Man of Question and The Laughing Man, a strange
gimmick that saw him wearing a singlet covered in question marks and laughing frequently. He made his television debut as a member of
The Dungeon of Doom as "The Laughing Man" Hugh Morrus (a
pun on the word humorous) on the November 18, 1995 episode of
WCW Saturday Night in a
vignette inside the Dungeon, where Kevin Sullivan told his (
kayfabe) father,
The Master, that he was giving him something he never had: laughter, and that he was giving him "the man from the Isle of Nowhere."
First Family (1997–2000) Upon the dissolution of the Dungeon of Doom in mid-1997, Morrus was relegated to the undercard. He gained the distinction of being the first wrestler to compete and lose in a televised match to
Bill Goldberg during the September 22, 1997 episode of
Nitro. As a part of the growing
hardcore wrestling style in WCW, Morrus joined
Jimmy Hart's
First Family stable in 1998. Although the Family found success and received a
push following a victory over their rivals
The Revolution, the stable was suddenly disbanded in 1999. At this time, DeMott took some time off from WCW.
Misfits In Action (2000–2001) DeMott returned in early 2000, utilizing the same name and ring attire, but
squashing a number of wrestlers as an angrier version of himself. The angry Morrus gimmick came to a halt when
Vince Russo and
Eric Bischoff took over and aimed to take WCW in a new direction. After getting on Russo's bad side (in
kayfabe), Morrus was fired from his
New Blood stable along with a number of other wrestlers. These ex-New Blood members (including
Chavo Guerrero Jr. and
Booker T) formed the comedic
Misfits in Action stable, which saw its members adopt both military-themed names and attires. As the stable's leader, Morrus re-christened himself General Hugh G. Rection, and led the group in a feud against
Filthy Animals. The group's comedic nature and the workrate of some of the wrestlers made the group immediate favorites with fans. Upon the introduction of the heel
Team Canada, the Misfits In Action immediately began feuding with Team Canada, based over the patriotism both stables had for their respective countries. As the leader of the Misfits, Rection feuded with Team Canada's leader and
United States Heavyweight Champion Lance Storm, with the two trading wins until Rection defeated both Storm and a
turncoat "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in a handicap match on October 29 at
Halloween Havoc to win the title. Rection would soon lose the title back to Storm on the November 13 episode of
Nitro before defeating Storm to regain the title on November 26 at
Mayhem. After his feud with Storm, the next night on
Nitro, DeMott stood in the ring and spoke to the fans. During this segment, the WCW locker room emptied and many wrestlers from backstage stood on the entrance way clapping for DeMott;
Bill Goldberg grabbed the microphone and, fondly recalling his first opponent in WCW, said "Hey, Goldberg's streak had to start somewhere, my friend." At
Sin on January 14, 2001, Rection lost the United States Heavyweight Title to
Shane Douglas. Following the title loss, the Misfits disbanded when Rection announced that they were
honorably discharged, which led to Rection reverting to his Hugh Morrus name while the now former Misfits briefly feuded amongst each other. DeMott would then resume his pursuit of the United States Heavyweight Title until the
World Wrestling Federation (WWF) bought out WCW.
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (2001–2008) The Alliance (2001–2002) When WCW was purchased by the WWF, DeMott signed a deal with the WWF and became part of
The Invasion angle under his Hugh Morrus ring name as a member of
The Alliance. Morrus made his WWF debut on the June 4, 2001 episode of
Raw by attacking
Edge. Aside from a
pay-per-view match at
Invasion on July 22 where he,
Shawn Stasiak and
Chris Kanyon defeated
Big Show,
Billy Gunn and
Albert and an
Intercontinental Championship match on the August 27 episode of
Raw which he lost to
Edge via disqualification, Morrus was relegated to wrestling on the company's secondary shows
Heat and
Jakked much like his fellow WCW alumni. In the September 29 episode of WWE Metal, Morrus made his first appearance at the show, where he took on Billy Gunn, in a losing effort. When The Invasion ended at
Survivor Series following Team Alliance's loss to Team WWF, Morrus was
kayfabe fired by
Vince McMahon. While off television, Morrus performed at
house shows and worked in company's developmental territory
Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA). During his time in the HWA, he teamed with
Raven to defeat
Lance Cade and
Steve Bradley to win the
Tag Team Championship on March 12, 2002, which they lost only three days later to Cade and Bradley.
SmackDown! (2002–2004) In April 2002, Morrus was drafted to the
SmackDown! brand. He made his television return on the April 6 episode of
Jakked alongside fellow WCW alumnus
Chavo Guerrero Jr. and defeated
The Hurricane and
Funaki. Morrus was soon relegated to being a mainstay on
Jakked and later
Velocity until late July 2002, when he was
legitimately injured in a motorcycle accident and had to take a leave of absence. During his time away, he became a trainer for the third season of
Tough Enough, WWE's
reality television show. When he had sufficiently healed, Morrus made his return on the November 23 episode of
Velocity under his real name. DeMott made his
SmackDown! debut on December 5 as a
heel, where he defeated Funaki in a
squash match. The victory saw DeMott immediately receive a
push that saw him squash several established wrestlers, including Funaki,
Shannon Moore,
Chuck Palumbo,
Crash Holly, and
Rikishi weekly on
SmackDown!. However, this came to an end soon and saw DeMott relegated back to
Velocity beginning in February 2003. In May, DeMott made a
face turn that also saw him tell
knock-knock jokes as part of the turn. As the
gimmick failed to
get over, he remained on
Velocity while continuing to win several squash matches. DeMott wrestled his last televised match on the June 14 episode of
Velocity, where he defeated fellow WCW alumnus
Chris Kanyon. Later that month, DeMott retired from in-ring action, citing years of knee injuries. He then moved on to become the
color commentator for
Velocity, beginning on the November 1 episode, and remained in that position until December 11, 2004.
Deep South Wrestling (2004–2008) When
Tough Enough 4 wrapped production, DeMott did not make a return to
Velocity. Instead, he became a full-time trainer for WWE and began working in the company's
Deep South Wrestling developmental territory. DeMott also worked as a booker for DSW, although his direction in the promotion received criticism, most notably by former WWE developmental wrestler
Kenny Omega, who soon requested to be released from his developmental contract due to poor treatment. with
Tom Prichard taking his place as DSW's head trainer. In March 2015,
Devon Nicholson described an incident from 2006 that DeMott was involved with while he was head trainer for the WWE's
Deep South Wrestling developmental territory. Nicholson described an incident in which
Drew Hankinson was completely naked in the ring for a long period of time and gave naked
stinkfaces to
Zack Ryder and
Melissa Coates while DeMott held jelly donuts over their faces. The wrestlers agreed to do this (with the other talent encouraging them) in order to get out of regular training for that day. DeMott refuted the notion that it was his idea, stating that the other trainees came up with because they wanted to skip the session.
Independent circuit (2007–2011) After parting ways with WWE, DeMott competed for several independent promotions, including the Carolina Wrestling Association and the United Wrestling Federation. In addition to wrestling, he also began operating his own wrestling school called New Energy Wrestling School from 2009 to 2010 in
McDonough, Georgia, while also running a brief series of wrestling events in
Locust Grove, Georgia. Demott wrestled his last match in 2011.
Return to WWE (2011–2015) Return as trainer (2011–2015) In 2011,
WWE announced that DeMott would return to the company to perform as the head trainer on the
revived Tough Enough series. Following the conclusion of
Tough Enough, DeMott replaced
Tom Prichard as the head trainer for the
Florida Championship Wrestling developmental territory on June 2, 2012.
Allegations of misconduct and departure (2015) Several former FCW, DSW, and NXT employees previously working within or with the WWE developmental system made public allegations of misconduct by DeMott during his time as trainer, including accusing DeMott of making trainees perform dangerous drills, and
Devon Nicholson in 2012, Chad Baxter and Chase Donovan in 2013,
Curt Hawkins in 2014, Devlin and Traven stated they had submitted complaints to WWE management about DeMott in March 2013 when still WWE employees; they publicized those complaints in 2015. WWE released statements regarding some of the claims that came to light in 2013 and 2015, stating it had investigated the matter and had found no wrongdoing. Pierce questioned the thoroughness of WWE's investigations, saying WWE did not question him despite Pierce being one of the alleged victims. The allegations caused a strongly negative reaction on
social media in March 2015, with the #FireDeMott hashtag trending on
Twitter. On March 6, 2015, DeMott publicly denied the allegations on Twitter, but also announced his resignation from WWE "to avoid any embarrassment or damage" to the company. During a May 2015 podcast with
Vince Russo, Vélez asserted that her reporting DeMott's alleged misconduct in 2012 to WWE officials was the likely reason WWE released her (i.e., as retribution) shortly thereafter. ==Other media==