"In the tradition of Lou Thesz. In the tradition of Jack Brisco, of the Brisco Brothers, of Dory Funk Jr., of Terry Funk, the man who will never die. And to the REAL 'Nature Boy' Buddy Rogers, upstairs tonight. From the Harley Races, to the Barry Windhams, to the ... Ric Flairs. I accept this Heavyweight Title. Wait a second. Wait a second. Of Kerry Von Erich, of the fat man himself, Dusty Rhodes, this is it tonight, dad. God, that's beautiful. And Rick Steamboat, and they, can all... KISS... MY... ASS!"
—"The Franchise" Shane Douglas, August 27, 1994
Troy Allan Martin (born November 21, 1964) is an American Professional Wrestler from Pittsburgh, PA best known for his work in ECW as Shane Douglas. He debuted in 1982 and would compete for WCW, WWE and other promotions before arriving in ECW in 1993. He would hold the NWA ECW Heavyweight Title/ECW World Heavyweight Title
4 times, the ECW World Television Title twice and made history when he threw down the NWA World Heavyweight Title, marking ECW's separation from the NWA.
He had a brief run in WWE in 1995 as Dean Douglas (a murderous academic), where he suffered from Kliq politics, and had the shortest WWE Intercontinental Heavyweight Title reign on record, a mere 11 minutes or so, entirely at WWF in Your House 4: Great White North, October 22, 1995. He jumped to WCW in Summer 1999 and would have one run with the WCW United States Heavyweight Title and his second (first was with Ricky Steamboat in 1992) and final run with the WCW World Tag Team Titles, this time with Buff Bagwell. He would go on to compete for TNA, MLW and other promotions.
"...and these tropes can all KISS MY ASS!":
- Alliterative Name:
- The Dynamic Dudes
- The Triple Threat
- Dean Douglas
- Arch-Enemy: Ric Flair, The Kliq, and not entirely in kayfabe.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: With Lord Humongous (Sid Vicious) in Continental in Alabama. They were 1x NWA Continental Tag Team Champions in 1988.
- Bullying a Dragon: Douglas called out Goldberg on the September 4, 2000 WCW Monday Nitro. As soon as Goldberg's music hit, Shane's eyes popped in a true Oh, Crap!/My God, What Have I Done? moment. Shane had recruited the Natural Born Thrillers (Shawn Stasiak, Chuck Palumbo, Mike Sanders, Mark Jindrak, Sean O'Haire, Reno [Rick Cornell] and Johnny the Bull [John "Johnny Stamboli"/"Rellik" Hugger] doing a weak Ur-Example of what The Nexus would be ten years later) to help him, and, even with 8 GUYS against him, Goldberg was still able to win the match.
- Cassandra Truth: He was the first to speak out against the evils of the Kliq.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Especially if the subject was WCW, besides the time he was working their, obviously.
- Crowd Chant: In the years after he left ECW, they tended to be "Fuck You Shane" or "Just Retire"
- Dirty Coward: He stood out from the crazy brawlers in ECW by the fact that he would take advantage of the referees to pull a chain or other object out of his boots, even though there were very few ways to get disqualified, and that wasn't one of them.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Papas: In the big promo when he threw down the NWA World Heavyweight Title belt and named himself the ECW World Heavyweight Champion, he said, "I stand before all of you here tonight with God and my father as witnesses."
- Everyone Went to School Together: He, Mick Foley and Brian Hildebrand all trained at Dominic DeNucci's wrestling school at the same time.
- The Farmer and the Viper: A rare case of a Heel falling for this:
- During the build to ECW Barely Legal, April 13, 1997, a masked man who was pretty much believed to be Rick Rude was threatening Shane and promised to unmask if Douglas successfully defended his ECW World Television Championship against Pitbull #2 (w/Pitbull #1) at the PPV. Douglas won his match, and what was believed to be Rude's voice came over the sound system, saying that he'd take his mask off, but Douglas has to "give up the girl" (Francine) or he'd give Douglas "the ass-kicking of a lifetime." The masked man then walked out in Rude's trademark robe. Shane pushed Francine toward him. The masked man kissed Francine, who, believing it was Rude, appeared to pass out in delight. Then, one of Douglas' riot guards unmasked, revealing himself to be Rick Rude. The masked man unmasked and took off his robe, revealing, instead, Douglas' Triple Threat ally "Bulldozer" Brian Lee, who then chokeslammed Douglas. Douglas, Chris Candido and a clearly disgusted Francine ran off, vowing revenge.
- After a few more months of making trouble for Douglas for his own amusement (including pulling up Francine's dress to reveal her panties during Douglas' match with Chris Chetti at Buffalo Invasion on May 17), he surprisingly turned on Tommy Dreamer and the Sandman in a six-man-tag against Rob Van Dam, Sabu and Jerry Lawler at Heat Wave on July 19, giving the Triple Threat handsign. Douglas defeated ECW World Heavyweight Champion Sabu and Terry Funk in a three-way-dance to win the title at ECW's second PPV, Hardcore Heaven, on August 17. This led to Rude becoming a manager for the Triple Threat (now, Douglas, Candido and Bam Bam Bigelow, w/Francine) and handpicking opponents for him, as thanks for Douglas giving Rude one night with Francine. Douglas defeated Al Snow, Balls Mahoney and Phil LaFon. Then came the October 16th show at the Elk's Lodge in Queens, NY. Rude told Douglas that he had found him an opponent who "ran roughshod over the WWF." Douglas asked, "You got me the Boy Toy?"note Then, "Welcome to the Jungle" started playing, with Douglas doing a great Eye Take, as BAM BAM BIGELOW was revealed to be Douglas' opponent, meaning that Rude had tricked Douglas TWICE in SIX MONTHS.
- During the build to ECW Barely Legal, April 13, 1997, a masked man who was pretty much believed to be Rick Rude was threatening Shane and promised to unmask if Douglas successfully defended his ECW World Television Championship
- Finishing Move: Belly-To-Belly Suplex, Pittsburgh Plunge, Franchiser.
- As Dean Douglas, he used a Fisherman's Suplex called the "Final Exam."
- Formerly Fit: Years of drug abuse and injuries combined with old age, turned one of the best bodies in ECW into one of the worst.
- Genius Bruiser: He has degrees in political science and history.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Dean Douglas carried around his "Board of Education."
- Jerkass: As a heel, which he's been pretty consistently since 1993.
- Parts Unknown: (as Dean Douglas): "The University of Higher Learning"
- Perky Female Minion: When he hired manager Jade Chung in Border City Wrestling.
- The Peter Principle: Like most ECW talent, Shane was a odd fit for the big leagues just because he couldn't cut the same promos. All of Shane's "classic" interviews involved him swearing up a storm or running down WCW and the WWF. Once he joined WCW, he couldn't do any of that, so he was left to quote bad catchphrases. So the fans had little reason to care about Shane, since—minus the E-C-Dubbish interviews—he's just another midcarder with below-average mic skills.
- Power Stable:
- (in ECW): Eddie Gilbert's Hot Stuff International, Paul Heyman's Dangerous Alliance, and the Triple Threat (with Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Francine, Chris Candido, Brian Lee, Bam Bam Bigelow, Rick Rude, Tammy Lynn Sytch and Lance Storm).
- (in WCW): The Revolution, with Benoit, Malenko, Perry Saturn and Asya, and The New Blood (led by Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff with Jeff Jarrett as the original centerpiece before the group fell apart.)
- (in TNA): James Mitchell's The New Church, and the New Franchise, which was himself, Traci Brooks and Michael Shane (ironic, since Shane, real name Matt Bentley, is Shawn Michaels' cousin.)
- Red Baron: "The Franchise"
- The Rival: Reformed the original Triple Thread in the International Wrestling Cartel after Bubba the Bulldog started a new Triple Threat.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: As the International Wrestling Cartel's Director Of Wrestling Operations in 2010.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Outside of ECW, he has pretty much been this, especially near the end of WCW.
- Smug Snake: He once hyped a title defense against the Sandman by promising that if, after the match was over, he was "not recognized by this damn company as its champion," he'd give the crowd "Francine, naked, in the middle of the ring, until the end of the night," with Francine sarcastically blowing a kiss at the camera.
- Tag Team: The Dynamic Dudes, with Johnny Ace (John Laurinaitis)
- Take That!: Dean Douglas was originally scheduled to face Ahmed Johnson at WWF in Your House 5: Season's Beatings, December 17, 1995. However, he claimed he had a back injury and brought in as his replacement his "graduate student," "The Nature Boy" Buddy Landel, who walked out in a fancy robe and to music that bore a distinct resemblance to Flair's. Ahmed squashed Landel in 42 seconds. The whole thing was an in-joke for those Smart Marks who knew of Douglas' hatred for Ric Flair, as it was a guy with the same gimmick and music getting squashed like a bug.
- The Franchise couldn't get his hands around Flair's neck in ECW, as the Nature Boy wouldn't show his face in Philly, so he had to settle for his former valet Sherri Martel. The commentators concocted a story that Flair had sent her there as a deep-cover spy. "That's low even for him!"
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: He was a lot meaner to The Naturals than Chris Candido had been
- Unrelated Nephew: To Paul Orndorff, as "Troy Orndorff"
- Ur-Example: He was the inaugural MLW World Heavyweight Champion. It became Canon Discontinuity when he threw it down in a similar fashion to the way he did the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, with Satoshi Kojima being officially recognized as the first champion.
- The Voice of a Generation: An Ur-Example. Before the term was coined, Shane Douglas was one of the first ones to make a "pipebomb" at the beginning of The '90s. After winning the N.W.A Heavyweight Championship, Shane made a powerful speech thanking all the previous champions... then threw up the title and dismissed it in exchange for the new ECW Heavyweight Championship, basically saying he didn't want to be "the last of a lineage" but being "the torch for a new era", this is because he wasn't the only one who thought NWA had a declive and a new era should be made. For Paul Heyman (also known for making lots of "pipebombs"), this moment is When It All Began for the ECW as company, before that it was just a minor federation part of the NWA.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Cactus Jack. Mick Foley and Troy Martin trained at Dominic DeNucci's school at the same time, and their past was worked into the storyline in ECW in 1995.
- Although this is entirely storyline as to this day Shane fondly refers to Mick as one of his best and oldest friends in the business.
- Would Hit a Girl: He suplexed and piledrove Beulah McGillicutty a few times.
- Wrestling Doesn't Pay: A wrestling college dean as "Dean Douglas."
