Michael Spillane (born March 18, 1976) is an American podcaster, author, professional wrestling trainer, professional wrestling promoter, and semi-retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Mike Quackenbush.
He has hosted several podcasts and video podcasts including The Grizzly Bear Egg Cafe, Chikara Podcast-A-Go-Go, Deep Blue Something, The Trending Show, Daddy on Board, Kayfabe 2.0, and Til We Make It. He is also the sole content contributor to Quackenbush on Camelot, a news resource for the goings-on at the dinner theater franchise Medieval Times and renaissance fairs. Quackenbush has written seven books including the two memoirs Headquarters (2001) and Secret Identity: Essays From Both My Lives (2004). Both memoirs were re-released as e-books for the Kindle in May 2010, and a few years later in 2017, he released 7 Keys to Becoming a Better Performer: A Book for Fellow Pro-Wrestlers. From 1998 to 2008, Quackenbush penned a regular column titled "From Bell To Bell" for The Wrestler magazine and "The International Report" for Pro Wrestling Illustrated, among other publishing credits.
In wrestling, Quackenbush is well known for being the promoter of Chikara and head trainer of its Wrestle Factory, a promotion and school he co-founded in 2002 with Reckless Youth. Quackenbush is also noted for his 25 year in-ring career on the independent wrestling circuit, during which he became a former NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion and CZW World Junior Heavyweight Champion. In 2016, Sports Illustrated included Quackenbush on their list of the Top 101 Wrestlers of All Time.
Professional wrestling career
Early career Quackenbush began taking bookings for multiple local independent companies, including PCW and SCW in late 1998. Growing up, Quackenbush idolized Japanese professional wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger and adopted the nickname "Lightning" in tribute to him. Entering the business untrained, Quackenbush received training from wrestler Ace Darling, who took Quackenbush in as his protege. In 1999, he was ranked #128 by Pro Wrestling Illustrated in the annual PWI 500 as well as being named the June Flavour of the Month by the publication. Quackenbush eventually befriended independent wrestlers Reckless Youth and Don Montoya. They began teaming together as a trio, dubbed The Black T-shirt Squad (abbreviated to The BTS), due to all three wearing black t-shirts in their wrestling attire, by fellow wrestlers, which eventually was used as their ring name. Quackenbush started taking most bookings with his fellow stablemates opposed to performing as a singles wrestler.
Combat Zone Wrestling (1999, 2004–2005) Quackenbush first appeared in Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) on June 19, 1999, at Down In Flames, where he defeated Reckless Youth and Ric Blade in the opening three-way dance. On May 14, 2005, he won CZW's Best of the Best 5 elimination tournament in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after defeating Arik Cannon, Claudio Castagnoli, B-Boy, Kevin Steen and Super Dragon. He also held the CZW World Junior Heavyweight Championship twice.
Chikara (2002–2020) Quackenbush founded a professional wrestling school branded The Wrestle Factory in January 2002 along with Reckless Youth, where both men were appointed as head trainers for the school. They opened the promotion Chikara in May of the same year. At the inaugural show on May 25, 2002, Quackenbush teamed with fellow BTS stablemates Reckless Youth and Don Montoya in a match, where they defeated the Gold Bond Mafia (CM Punk, Colt Cabana and Chris Hero). On the last show of 2002 Quackenbush finished his first feud in Chikara, by pinning Mitch Ryder. The following year Quackenbush formed the SuperFriends tag team with Chris Hero and went the whole year undefeated. In 2004 Quackenbush teamed up with Team F.I.S.T. (Icarus and Gran Akuma) and started a feud with the Toxic Trio (Eddie Kingston, BlackJack Marciano and Jigsaw). The two teams faced each other on May 22, 2004, at Aniversario 3: Dodging the Sophomore Jinx, where Quackenbush and F.I.S.T. were victorious and as per stipulation of the match, Kingston and Marciano were shaved bald. In the spring of 2004 Quackenbush started disappearing from Chikara shows, just as Larry Sweeney's Sweet 'n' Sour International rose to prominence. He returned on October 30 during the first annual torneo cibernetico match at The Cibernetico Cometh under a mask and the ringname Spyrazul as a member of the Sweet 'n' Sour International. However, at the end of the match Spyrazul attacked his own teammates, removed his mask and walked out on Sweeney, who ended up being pinned by Jigsaw to end the match.
In March 2005 the Chikara Wrestle Factory assumed control of the Combat Zone Wrestling wrestling school. Quackenbush served as head trainer of the joint facility for the two-year duration, until the schools separated in March 2007. Quackenbush re-formed his SuperFriends tag team with Chris Hero and together the two of them entered the 2005 Tag World Grand Prix. They would make it to the finals of the tournament, where they were defeated by AC/CC (Arik Cannon and Claudio Castagnoli), after Hero turned on Quackenbush. Together Hero, Castagnoli and Cannon would form the highly successful stable and later tag team The Kings of Wrestling, with whom Quackenbush, Reckless Youth and Jigsaw would feud with the rest of the year.
In late 2005 Quackenbush suffered a career-threatening back injury. He would make his in-ring return on March 18, 2006, at a Westside Xtreme Wrestling event, where he defeated Ares for the wXw World Heavyweight Championship. In his Chikara return on March 31, he would drop the title back to Ares. He then recruited Jigsaw and Shane Storm to help him battle the Kings of Wrestling, who had replaced Arik Cannon with Quackenbush's former partners Team F.I.S.T. Quackenbush set his sights on Chris Hero and defeated Gran Akuma and Icarus with his new finishing maneuver Quackendriver III. At the conclusion of the year Quackenbush, Storm and Jigsaw saved Claudio Castagnoli from a beatdown at the hands of his Kings of Wrestling partners.
2007 started with Quackenbush, Jigsaw and Storm defeating Team Canada (Jagged, Shane Matthews and Max Boyer), Team TNA (Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin and Sonjay Dutt), Team Mucha Lucha (Lince Dorado, El Pantera and Sicodelico, Jr.) and finally Miyawaki, Yoshiaki Yago and Kudo to win the inaugural King of Trios tournament. The following month on March 25 Claudio Castagnoli defeated Quackenbush to win the right to represent Chikara in the first ever King of Europe Cup. That same month Chikara Podcast–A–Go–Go was launched. The weekly video podcast debuts a new episode every Monday night and is available through iTunes, YouTube and other online outlets.
On April 22, 2007, Quackenbush refereed a match between former partners Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli and counted the pinfall that forced Castagnoli to re-join the Kings of Wrestling. The following month Quackenbush faced Hero in a match two years in the making and defeated him after debuting a new submission maneuver, the Chikara Special.
Following the match, Quackenbush announced that since he knew Hero would never be able to break the Chikara Special, he would teach it and the counter to it to every tecnico wrestler on the Chikara roster. However, to Quackenbush's amazement it did not take long for Hero to break the hold and apply it himself in a match against Equinox. In order to find out who leaked the move, Quackenbush sent Tim Donst to infiltrate the rudo stable the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple, led by UltraMantis Black. Meanwhile, Quackenbush and Shane Storm gained three straight victories, which would give them the right to challenge for the Campeonatos de Parejas (Tag Team Championship), but on June 14, 2008, Donst returned from his assignment and informed Quackenbush that his partner Shane Storm had been the one who leaked the move to UltraMantis Black, who in turn taught it to Hero. Quackenbush attacked Storm, who would find new partners in Vin Gerard and Colin Delaney, while renaming himself Stigma.
On September 7, 2008, Jigsaw, who had unmasked himself while in Ring of Honor, returned to Chikara and saved Quackenbush and Donst from the UnStable. Quackenbush returned the favor the following month, but refused to re-form the team with Jigsaw until he put his mask back on. On December 14 at the season seven finale Quackenbush and Jigsaw, under a mask, defeated Stigma and Delaney in a tag team match. In early 2009 Quackenbush and Jigsaw gained three points, but were unable to defeat the Campeones de Parejas The Osirian Portal (Amasis and Ophidian) on April 25. After May's anniversary shows Quackenbush decided to take some time off from in-ring competition in order to heal his injured back.