Tough Tom (wrestler)

Tough Tom
Personal information
BornTom Beninghaus
Sheboygan, Wisconsin, United States
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Strangler
Tough Tom
Texas Hangman #2
Tornado Juice
Tom Bennett
Blackjack Bennett
Texas Hangman Strangler
Texas Outlaw #2
Tuff Tom
Billed height6 ft 0 in (183 cm)[1]
Billed weight279 lb (127 kg)[1]
Debut1986
Retired2013

Tom Beninghaus is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the ring name Tough Tom, teaming with "Mean Mike" as "Disorderly Conduct".[2] He is also known for his appearances as Strangler, one-half of the Texas Hangmen.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1986–1997)

Tom started his career in 1986 as Jesse James working in Midwest independent promotions. Eventually he garnered enough experience, and was booked as an enhancement talent as Tom Bennett working for the World Wrestling Federation and American Wrestling Association on their TV shows AWA TV, WWF Wrestling Challenge and WWF Superstars.[3][4]

In 1996, Tom Beninghaus who spent time in Big Japan Pro Wrestling as "Tornado Juice", with Mike Moran as who was Grey Skull working a lot of Barbed wire matches with most of Big Japan's top talent.[5][6]

Moran and Beninghaus went to Puerto Rico and won the WWC Caribbean Tag Team Championship again, this time managed by Rico Suave.[7][8] They would also go on to see considerable success in Windy City Wrestling, winning their Tag Team Championships on 3 occasions.[9][10][11]

World Championship Wrestling (1997–2001)

Beninghaus is perhaps better known to modern wrestling fans as Tough Tom, one-half of the team Disorderly Conduct in World Championship Wrestling. He teamed with Mike Moran, who took the name Mean Mike, and the two served primarily as a tag team that primarily wrestled on the company's syndicated programming, WCW Thunder and WCW Saturday Night.[12] On occasion, Benninghaus and Moran would don masks and wrestle as the Texas Hangmen with Benninghaus taking on the role as Strangler. They were soon known as the Texas Outlaws when they utilized that gimmick instead, as the WCW Office felt that the word Hangmen had bad connotations.[13][14] On occasion, Moran and Beninghaus would continue to take on the guises of The Texas Hangmen, and later on known as The Texas Outlaws. The duo mainly worked to help other teams look good, especially younger talent, with the highlight of their time in WCW being an unsuccessful challenge for the WCW World Tag Team Championship, losing to champions The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner) on an episode of Monday Nitro, as well as Curt Hennig and Barry Windham for the WCW World Tag Team Championship on an episode of WCW Saturday Night in 1999. They also worked with Scott Armstrong and Steve Armstrong, The Armstrong Brothers extensively on WCW Saturday Night, and proved to be very solid hands for the company and the WCW Tag Team Division.[15][16]

Late career (2001–2013)

After WCW folded, Tough Tom would work in Jimmy Hart's Xcitement Wrestling Federation in 2001. He would work in the independents until retiring from wrestling in 2007. In 2011, Tom and Mean Mike would reunite and lose to Demolition (Ax and Smash) at a wrestling event in Wisconsin. Tough Tom's final match would come in the form of a six man tag team match reuniting with Mean Mike and Bull Pain with all three of The Texas Hangmen for the only time ever, for Great Lakes Championship Wrestling in Waukesha, Wisconsin where they picked up the win in 2013.

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. 1 2 Kreikenbohm, Philip. "Tough Tom". Cagematch.net. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
  2. ↑ Kennedy, Jamie (January 22, 2019). "10 WCW Stars From The '90s You Totally Don't Remember". WhatCulture.com.
  3. ↑ "Tough Tom » Matches". CageMatch. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  4. ↑ "Tom Benninghaus: Profile & Match Listing - Internet Wrestling Database (IWD)". www.profightdb.com.
  5. ↑ "Wrestling Redux: WCW:"Mean" Mike". January 20, 2007.
  6. ↑ "***MATCH LISTINGS***". bladejobtapes.tripod.com.
  7. ↑ Cite error: The named reference auto3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ↑ Cite error: The named reference auto was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ↑ "WCPW Tag Team Title (Illinois)". www.wrestling-titles.com.
  10. ↑ "WrestlingClassics.com Message Board: The Texas Hangmen". wrestlingclassics.com.
  11. ↑ "Texas Hangmen - OWW". Online World of Wrestling.
  12. ↑ "Disorderly Conduct". CageMatch. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  13. ↑ "r/SquaredCircle - "Mean Mike" and "Tough Tom," Disorderly Conduct: 2 Mullets, 0 Wins". reddit. 20 November 2019.
  14. ↑ "Lodi? Swoll? Do you remember these WCW stars?". WWE.
  15. ↑ Mean Mike » Matches CageMatch
  16. ↑ "The World's Largest Wrestling Database". www.wrestlingdata.com.
  17. ↑ "World Tag Team Title History". solie.org. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
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