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Nicholas Cole "Nick" Mitchell (born November 9, 1982)^[2] is an American professional wrestler who is best known for his work in World Wrestling Entertainment as Mitch of the Spirit Squad on the Raw brand.

American football career

After attending Blinn College for two semesters, Mitchell joined the Beaumont Drillers of the National Indoor Football League in 2003.^[3] After a season with them, he attended a National Football League combine, but was told to go home after officials found out he had been expelled from college for fighting.^[3]

Professional wrestling career

Tough Enough and developmental territories

Shortly afterwards, Mitchell took part in the fourth season of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s reality series Tough Enough in 2004.^[1][4][3] Though he did not win the competition, he was still signed to a WWE developmental contract and assigned to the company's farm territory Deep South Wrestling (DSW).^[4][3] He began wrestling under the name "Big Time" Nick Mitchell, and wrestled against the likes of Kid Kash and Johnny Parisi.^[4] He later suffered a knee injury, and although it was feared that he had torn his ACL, he was moved to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) where he joined The Spirit Squad.^[4] Within days of his debut, however, the Squad was called up to the main WWE roster.^[4]

The Spirit Squad (2006)

As part of the Spirit Squad faction, a group consisting of five wrestlers who used the in-ring personas of male cheerleaders, he adopted the name Mitch during that time.^[4] On January 23, 2006, they had their WWE television debut as a group, appearing on Raw and helping Jonathan Coachman win a Royal Rumble qualifying match against Jerry "The King" Lawler by performing cheers for Coachman and distracting Lawler.^[5] They later became a part of the on-going scripted feud between WWE chairman Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels. The villainous McMahon brought in the Squad to attack Michaels on numerous occasions, including placing them in multiple handicap matches.^[6][7]

They also continued wrestling in the tag team division, and on April 3, on Raw, won the World Tag Team Championship when Kenny and Mikey, with outside help from the other three Squad members, defeated Kane and The Big Show.^[8][9] After winning the championship, all five members of the team were recognized as the champions, allowing any combination of them to defend the championship.^[4]

Three weeks later, McMahon scheduled another Handicap match, with the Spirit Squad facing Michaels.^[10][11] The match never started, however; instead the Spirit Squad brutally beat down Michaels, ripping apart his ring attire and, as part of the storyline, shattered his knee with a steel chair.^[10] McMahon then called Triple H to the ring to attack Michaels with a sledgehammer shot; however, Kenny snatched the sledgehammer away, disrespecting Triple H, which led to him attacking the group.^[10] Triple H and Michaels revived D-Generation X (DX) and as a team began a feud with the Spirit Squad.^[12][13] DX played various sophomoric pranks on the team and the McMahons (Vince and Shane), as well as defeating the Spirit Squad in handicap tag matches at Vengeance and a clean sweep in an elimination handicap match at Saturday Night's Main Event.^{[13][14][15][16]}

At the same time as their feud with DX and their alignment with McMahon, the team also wrestled other teams in Raw's tag division over their World Tag Team Title. The group successfully defended the tag team championship against the teams of Jim Duggan and Eugene,Charlie Haas and Viscera, and Snitsky and Val Venis,^[14] The then entered a lengthy feud with The Highlanders,^[17][18] whom they eventually defeated to retain the title at Unforgiven.^[19]

The Squad as a whole later began a losing streak with separate members losing singles matches to Ric Flair on consecutive episodes of Raw.^[20][21][22] After two consecutive losses to the debuting Cryme Tyme, Kenny attacked Mikey on the October 23 episode of Raw and announced that he was going to defeat Flair. Kenny was successful, despite Flair attempting to even the odds by bringing other WWE Legends, Dusty Rhodes, Sgt. Slaughter, and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, to the ring with him.^[23][24] It was then announced that Flair and a legend, selected by interactive voting, would wrestle the team for the World Tag Team Championship at the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view in early November.^[24] The fans chose Piper, and he and Flair defeated Kenny and Mikey to win the championship.^[25]

The group was "killed off" on the November 27 Raw after they were defeated in a five-on-three match by Flair and DX.^[26] After a triple submission, and being buried in a backstage segment later that night, DX placed all members into a crate stamped "OVW, Louisville, Kentucky", a reference to the developmental territory from which the Squad had come.^[27]

Mitchell was released from his WWE contract on May 15, 2007.^[28]

Mixed martial arts

After being released by WWE, Mitchell began training for a career in mixed martial arts (MMA) under Rocky Long.^[3]

Personal life

In 2007, he and his girlfriend, Torrie Wilson, started a business together, called "Officially Jaded", a fashion boutique.^[29] The couple began dating in mid-2006.^[3] Mitchell has since said that he feels that he was held back in WWE when he began dating Wilson, as he "was a young, fresh meat WWE guy who 'didn't deserve' the most beautiful diva".^[30]

He graduated from The Woodlands High School in 2001.^[3] Mitchell played four years of varsity American football in high school, and received a full scholarship to Northwestern State University.^[3] During his freshman season, however, he was expelled for getting into a fight.^[3] Mitchell then spent two semesters at Blinn College in Bryan, Texas.^[3]

As a professional wrestler, Mitchell suffered numerous injuries, including damaging a disc in his neck and injuring his knee, as well as suffering a broken nose three times within one month.^[30]

Championships and accomplishments

• World Wrestling Entertainment

• World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – as a member of the Spirit Squad^[9]

See also

• Spirit Squad

References

External links

Professional wrestling portal