Early career (1980–1988) Trained by
Steve Keirn and Ron Wright, Anthony worked as a jobber in
Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in 1981 and 1982. He won his first major title teaming with
Len Denton as "The Grapplers" in the
AWA. They defeated
The Fabulous Ones (Keirn and
Stan Lane) to win the
AWA Southern Tag Team Championship on August 8, 1983.
United States Wrestling Association (1989–1992) In 1989, Anthony defeated
Dustin Rhodes in a
United States Wrestling Association (USWA) tournament final to become the first
USWA Southern Heavyweight champion. The following year, he won the
USWA Tag Team Championship on three occasions, once with Tom Burton and twice with
Doug Gilbert.
Smoky Mountain Wrestling (1992–1995) Anthony competed primarily as a singles wrestler in
Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW). He was quickly
pushed as a main event wrestler, and won the
SMW Heavyweight Championship from
Brian Lee on August 8, 1992. He
dropped the title to
Tracy Smothers in April 1993. In June 1993, Anthony (under his masked Mighty Yankee
gimmick) won the
SMW Beat the Champ Television Championship. Anthony won his final title in SMW on July 6, 1995, teaming with
Tracy Smothers (as
the Thugs) to defeat The Dynamic Duo (
Al Snow and
Unabom) for the
SMW Tag Team Championship. Although he did not wrestle on any WWF
pay-per-views, he made an appearance during the "Bikini Beach Blast-Off" segment, on the
Free For All show immediately preceding
SummerSlam 1996. Based on his experience as a plumber, Hopper was chosen to investigate a brown object resembling feces on the bottom of the swimming pool which turned out to be a sausage. The segment parodied a scene in the movie
Caddyshack. He continued wrestling in lower cards matches mainly in house shows until June 1997. After taking a brief hiatus, he returned to the WWF in September 1997 as Uncle Cletus, coming from the audience to help the
heel tag team of
The Godwinns (
Henry and
Phineas Godwinn) in a match against
The Headbangers. He hit
Mosh in the head with a horseshoe, allowing Phineas to make the pin. He was then billed as the uncle of the Godwinns, and became the team's
manager. At
Badd Blood 1997, The Godwinns won the
WWF Tag Team Championship, with Cletus in their corner. On October 13, Cletus interfered in another match, but his interference backfired and allowed the
Legion of Doom to win the title. Following this, the Godwinns attacked Cletus, who was never seen in the WWF again.
Later career (1997–2006) After leaving the WWF, Anthony returned to his home state of Tennessee (where he had maintained considerable fame and popularity) and wrestled for various
independents around
East Tennessee until retiring from active competition in 2006. In recent years, he played a prominent role in
Knoxville's Tennessee Xtreme Wrestling, as its
face commissioner. ==Championships and accomplishments==