The object of this page is to provide fans of Paul Birchall with a comprehensive view of his career thus far, by offering reviews, articles, and opinions of past accomplishments while keeping fans up to date on current events. This page is intended to summarize recent matches and breaking news and offer forums (and direction to other forums) where fans can express their own opinions on Mr. Birchall in a relaxed, informative manner. This page makes no claims of ownership to any materials contained within and is in no way affiliated with Paul Birchall or any wrestling organisation.
A former primary school teacher from Surrey, England, Burchill got into the mat game in 2001 by walking into an FWA Weekend Training camp, and quickly impressing the man running the camp, Mark Sloan. "Paul turned up dressed in floral shorts and flip flops, but he was as big as he is now and on the first day you could tell he was an amazing athlete," Sloan told England's Sun newspaper. "His agility and quickness were incredible - I've never seen anyone that size move so fast. I'd like to take credit for Paul's success but to be honest I didn't need to do anything to bring out the best in him. He was as natural a performer as I've ever seen."
After finishing his training at the FWA Training Academy, under Sloan's guidance, Burchill made his debut in August 2002. He made a huge impact in the organization, interfering in many matches and leaving a trail of broken bodies along the way.
In May 2003, Burchill's exploits earned him the notice of top British manager, Dean Ayass, who took Burchill on as a client. On that same May 17th card, an FWA/Ring of Honor joint show, Burchill beat down the tag team of Double Dragon so badly that neither man could answer the ten count. Over the rest of the year, Burchill competed in several handicap matches, defeating FWA-based tag teams by knockout.
Although Burchill did have his share of defeats, he was named Total Wrestling and 1 Stop Wrestling's "Rookie of the Year" for 2003. Burchill would continue to wrestle for various British promotions in 2004, and even travelled to Italy in January to win a 15 man battle royale for Italian Championship Wrestling. On August 1, 2004, Burchill became the IWP Champion, a title he would hold until November 6th, when he lost a Falls Count Anywhere match to D-Lo Brown. Five days later, he signed a developmental deal with WWE.
One of his final FWA bouts was a six-man tag team victory where he teamed with Terry Funk and Paul Travell to defeat Drew McDonald, Raj Ghosh and Thunder. After the bout, Burchill received a standing ovation and chants of “Please don’t go†from the 1800 fans in attendance. Just over two weeks later, he headed to North America where he was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling.
By August 2005 he had been called up to WWE, and partnered with fellow Brit William Regal. On September 1st, Burchill made his Smackdown debut, teaming with Regal to gain a victory over Scotty Too Hotty and Funaki. The Regal/Burchill team continued to be active in the Smackdown Tag ranks, even getting a shot at the Legion of Doom's Tag Team titles on an October episode of Smackdown.
Soon after, Burchill discovered that his ancestors had been pirates, and decided he should embrace his heritage and was soon seen on Smackdown, clad in a buccaneer’s outfit, much to the dismay of Regal.
In mid 2006, Burchill required knee surgery and was “injured†by Mark Henry to allow Burchill to get it repaired. This time away from the ring would also be used to develop a new gimmick to replace his pirate character on his return because of legal issues with Disney, who claimed copyright infringement over the "Captain Jack Sparrow" character from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Burchill returned to the OVW development territory after recovering from the surgery, where he is being pushed as a main performer and became the first British wrestler to win the OVW Ttitle.
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