Wrestling / Abyss

^{Click here to see Joseph Park} 

Christopher Joseph Parks (born October 4, 1973), better known by his ring name Abyss, is an American professional wrestler currently signed with WWE as a producer.

Parks is a one-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, being the first of only two men to hold the title while competing under a mask (Blue Demon Jr. is the other). Abyss is also the heaviest wrestler to hold the X Division Championship. He also captured the Television Championship twice, the NWA World Tag Team Championship once with AJ Styles, and the TNA World Tag Team Championship twice — once with James Storm as The Revolution, and once with Crazzy Steve as Decay. Having won all the required championships, Abyss was the fourth man to complete the Triple Crown Championship and the second to complete the Grand Slam Championship. Parks has also wrestled as Abyss' storyline brother/split personality, Joseph Park.

Not long after being inducted into the Impact Hall of Fame in 2018, he left for a backstage role with WWE under his real name in 2019. Rumors are that he'll also serve as a trainer for NXT.

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"Monster's Tropes":

• 2xFore: His spiked 2x4, "Janice."
• Abusive Parents: Father James Mitchell wasn't the most considerate father to him.
• Ax-Crazy: Well most of the time, he has had some periods of being docile (if still crazy).
• Beware the Nice Ones: Joseph Park's a nice guy, but don't piss him off or make him bleed, lest he kick your ass.
• Berserk Button: Whenever Joseph Park sees his own blood, he begins acting like Abyss.
• Big Damn Heroes: His return during the Darkest Hour of the Aces & Eights angle.
• Blood Upgrade: Joseph Park, after he Took a Level in Badass, is a decent wrestler, but when he sees his own blood, the fact he's a member of an entire family of Wrestling Monsters comes to the surface and he flies into an Unstoppable Rage.
• The Brute: Abyss was Immortal's powerhouse on top of being their herald.
• Clark Kenting: Joseph might even be a Clark Kent Expy.
• Cool Mask: A half-mask similar to Kane and Mankind's half-masks. Averted with Joseph Park.
• Composite Character: He's noted as being a composite of Kane (of being The Giant and his more "mystical" moments, among other things) and Mankind (seen in his more docile moments and tendency towards hardcore matches, among other things). One would also add another Mick Foley character, Cactus Jack, to the mix, as Abyss' barbed wire-wrapped 2x4 "Janice" seems an expy of Cactus Jack's barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat "Barbie." Joseph Park, being the relatively well-adjusted and less-psychotic persona between him and Abyss, is also similar to Dude Love, the least deranged of all the Faces of Foley.
• Derivative Differentiation: When he first started out he was a mix between Kane and Mankind but through time and lots of Character Development Abyss grew and maintained a personality that, while still drawing influences from Mick Foley's work, stood out a little more.
• Garbage Wrestler: Abyss's claim to fame is that he uses thumbtacks, broken glass, and barbed wire a lot. As Joseph Park, he subverts this, as he manages to be a pretty decent wrestler, as his agility, already noted as Abyss, is even more notable as Park.
• Gimmick Matches: The Monster's Ball used to be a no rules fight after the wrestlers had spent an entire day in solitary confinement. It devolved into pretty much a regular street fight with extra emphasis on thumbtacks eventually.
• Heroic Second Wind: The Hulk up sequence after he got a Hall of Fame ring from Hulk Hogan. He even shrugged off a brass knuckle shot from Ric Flair.
• He's Back!: After missing for nearly a year and a half, Abyss returns during the Darkest Hour of the Aces & Eights angle. By the end of the night he's laid out the entire stable.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Lost an Ultimate X match when he went to chokeslam Brian Kendrick, who grabbed the title belt suspended above the ring when Abyss lifted him for the slam.
• Hope Bringer: A Wrestling Monster might be the rarest place to find one, but returning during the Darkest Hour of the Aces & Eights angle and laying out the entire stable was certainly this.
• In the Hood: Abyss tends to wear hoods for his entrance.
• Last of His Kind: During the brief departure of James Storm in 2015, Abyss was the only wrestler in the company to have appeared on its very first broadcast. And along with Storm, Eric Young and Bobby Roode, he is the last of the TNA Originals. The World Title Series taped for the end of 2015 used this to group all four of them together. With Roode's and Young's exodus, as well as Storm's later departure, Abyss became the last one remaining. Now he's a producer for Impact Wrestling as well as part of its Hall of Fame.
• Lightning Bruiser: Is able to dish a lot of damage as well as take it, and and can move quickly.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Got this from James Mitchell, who said, "Your name isn't Parks, it's Mitchell, and I am your father!" Predictably, this became very much a background element of his character over time.
• Made of Iron: Is able to shrug off thumbtacks, broken glass, and barbed wire.
• Magic Feather: Subverted. Hulk Hogan's ring didn't make him tougher inherently but it was a constant reminder that Hulk Hogan liked him, making Abyss — whose almost inhuman tolerance for pain was already well-chronicled in TNA's history — want to wrestle like Hulk Hogan.
• Man on Fire: Team 3D didn't just light him on fire but to a degree that when the crew came by with a fire extinguisher they had to spray him down twice.
• Nice Guy: Joseph's a pretty nice fellow. Unless someone really upsets him or makes him bleed, that is.
• Parts Unknown: He's billed from there as Abyss.
• Power Stable:
  • (in TNA): Planet Jarrett, Immortal, Revolution, Decay
    • (in RKK): RDX
  • (in Ring of Honor): Special K, The Embassy
  • (in AAA): La Legion Extranjera, La Sociedad
• Remember the New Guy?: Despite there being plenty of family drama between Abyss, Judas Mesias, and James Mitchell, nobody mentioned a third Park brother. Explained in an online interview as being that Joseph was away at boarding school when everything first happened, then busy with his law firm when everything else went down. (Except it's now been revealed he's not a separate Park brother. See Split Personality below.)
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Originally Joseph Park and Abyss are portrayed as this, with mild mannered, non-action guy Joseph looking for his psychotic bruiser brother Chris (Abyss).
• Split Personality: Finally revealed during his storyline with Bad Influence and Eric Young in late 2013. When EY at last told Joseph Park that he's actually Abyss, the entire crowd present popped despite, or maybe even because, they knew it.
• Split-Personality Merge: Young's constant attempt to get Joseph to "show/realize who he really is" eventually landed on the truth regarding Abyss; turns out he's not just a simple well-meaning attorney, and the violent berserker he believed to be his strange yet protective brother is actually part of himself. Naturally he didn't take too well to the epiphany, and resented EY for treating the situation like some freak experiment without regard to what it would do to his psyche. So he stepped away to find someone who understood him, making various attempts to forge connections such as becoming Magnus's violent mercenary buddy, joining James Storm's deranged cult revolution, and ultimately linking up with Rosemary and Crazzy Steve in the Monster Clown-esque faction Decay. The latter marked his last great full-time run as Abyss before a street fight loss to LAX severed him and Steve from the Hive and also had the effect of splitting the Chris and Joseph personalities again.
• Three Month Rule
  • He was revealed to be afraid of heights during an Ultimate X Match but later voluntarily challenged Bram to a ladder match.
  • In that ladder match he lost Janice to Bram but on the third Impact of Destination America he had Janice back in possession without explanation.
• Undying Loyalty: Was one of the last who could honestly say that they've been with TNA since the beginning. While all the other TNA long-runners (AJ Styles, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Christopher Daniels, Kazarian, Samoa Joe, Eric Young, Bobby Roode, James Storm, etc.) all left the company for good over the next five years after 2013, Abyss stayed with Impact Wrestling past his wrestling prime and became a part-time competitor, producer, and Hall of Famer. Only after his wrestling career had wound down did he accept a better-paying producer gig with WWE.
• White Sheep: Joseph, who is the only member of the family who isn't psychotic, unless he sees his own blood.
• The Worf Barrage: His spiked 2x4, "Janice," which he hasn't had much success with as all he has managed to do with it is get it stuck on the ring apron and turnbuckle pad. Subverted when he finally successfully uses "her" to carve up Rob Van Dam backstage, sending him to the hospital and forcing him to vacate the title. That is one of only two times "she" has been successfully used by him against anyone (the other against Samoa Joe), but "she" has been used against him FOUR times.
• Would Hit a Girl: Abyss did have periods of reluctance but Daffney seems to have put all of that to rest for good.
• Wrestling Monster: Well, duh. His Red Baron even is "The Monster." Subverted with Joseph, who only plays this trope straight when he sees his own blood.
• You Have Failed Me: Accidentally dropped Revolution leader James Storm with a DDT in Glasgow, then purposefully dropped Manik for taking the losing pinfall.

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