Hardcore Holly

Robert William "Bob" Howard was born January 29, 1963 in Grants Pass, Oregon. He's better known by his ring name Hardcore Holly, is an American pro wrestler. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its RAW brand where he is one-half of the reigning World Tag Team Champions with Cody Rhodes.

While in WWE, Holly has held the WWF Hardcore Championship six times and the WWF Tag Team Championship three times (with 1-2-3 Kid (Sean Waltman), Crash Holly and Cody Rhodes).

Holly trained under Stan Frazier, Eddie Sullivan, Marcelle Pringle and Rip Tyler and debuted in 1987 in the Mobile/Pensacola area in the World Organization of Wrestling where he held titles on and off, including the WOW Tag Team Championship with Ron Starr.

From there, he wrestled in Memphis and then in the NWA with moderate success before briefly going to Smoky Mountain Wrestling in early 1992 where he wrestled as "Hollywood" Bob Howard before adopting the ring name "Superstar" Bob Holly.

Holly debuted in the World Wrestling Federation on January 11, 1994. His initial gimmick was that of a NASCAR driver turned wrestler called Thurman "Sparky" Plugg, which was later changed to Bob "Spark Plug" Holly.

At the 1995 Royal Rumble, Holly and the 1-2-3 Kid defeated Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka in the finals of a tournament to crown new WWF Tag Team Champions. Their title reign lasted only one day, however, as the next day, on WWF Monday Night RAW, Holly and the Kid lost the tag team titles to The Smokin' Gunns.

On the May 7, 1995 episode of WWF Action Zone, Jeff Jarrett defeated Holly in a match with the vacant WWF Intercontinental Championship on the line. Jarrett pinned Holly with a roll-up.

In February 1998, Holly and Bart Gunn joined forces with Jim Cornette as part of Jeff Jarrett's National Wrestling Alliance stable. Holly, renamed "Bombastic Bob", and Gunn, renamed "Bodacious Bart" were known collectively as The New Midnight Express. The New Midnight Express defeated The Headbangers for the NWA World Tag Team Championship on March 30, 1998 and held the titles until August 14 of that year, when they were defeated by The Border Patrol.