Shane Twins
Encyclopedia
The Shane Twins are a professional wrestling
tag team
that consist of twin brothers Mike and Todd Shane. They were best known for their appearances in World Wrestling Entertainment
(WWE) as Gymini.
based Independent Pro Wrestling promotion
in 1998. They were originally known as "Biff Wentworth" (Mike) and "Chaz Wentworth" (Todd), collectively known as "The Wentworth Twins" or as "Phi De Kappa U". The Shane Twins held the IPW Tag Team Championships five times between 1998 and 2003. Their fifth reign began when they defeated The Road Warriors
in Hokkaidō, Japan
on a World Japan
show. They would also take on the Warriors, as well as feud with The Nasty Boys
, in the short-lived X Wrestling Federation
at the promotion's Universal Studios Orlando TV tapings in November 2001.
On May 3, 2002; the Shane Twins won the JAPW Tag Team Championship
after defeating Da Hit Squad
at IPW WrestlePlex. But on July 13, they stripped of the titles due to unknown reasons.
On June 8, 2002; The Shane Twins won the NWA World Tag Team Titles
from Chris Nelson and Vito DeNucci. The twins appeared on the first TNA PPV (June 19) under the ring names "Richard "Dick" Johnson" (Mike) and "Rod Johnson" (Todd), known collectively as "The Johnsons". They wore latex
bodysuits, which were intended to make them resemble a pair of large penis
es. The Johnsons were managed by Mortimer Plumtree
until they left TNA after several weeks. The Shane Twins were then stripped of the NWA Tag Team Championships, as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
(TNA) would gain exclusive rights to that title on June 28, 2002.
They then began working for Florida Championship Wrestling (NWA Florida), where they formed a stable with Ron Niemi, Steve Madison, Rod Steel and Eric Loy known as "911 Incorporated", and won the NWA Florida Tag Team Championships on four occasions.
In January 2005 the Shane Twins were signed to developmental contracts by World Wrestling Entertainment, and on February 7, 2005 they were sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling
(OVW) to hone their skills. They were later transferred to Deep South Wrestling, where they became known as "The Regulators".
On January 6, 2006, the Shane twins debuted on SmackDown! as the proteges of Simon Dean, under a new team name of "Gymini". (The name was a play on both Simon Dean's gimmick - that of a nutrition supplement pitchman - and the mythological Gemini twins.) They were employed to destroy Paul London and Brian Kendrick
, to the delight of Dean.
Gymini also frequently wrestled on WWE web show, Velocity
, usually against jobbers
. They were rarely seen on SmackDown!, until April when the team would get more exposure. For the most part the two men were un-named; with announcers referring to them as "Gymini #1" and "#2" but during the April 14, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, their full ring names were revealed as "Jake" (Mike) and "Jesse" (Todd). Gymini continued to dominate SmackDown!'s other tag teams before Jesse (Todd) became injured. Gymini would make appearances in the WWE developmental promotion Deep South Wrestling (DSW) after Todd recovered. At the end of October 2006, the team appeared in various dark matches before SmackDown! events, where they were joined by a new valet Angel Williams.
They would not return to the main roster, however, but instead continue make appearances in DSW, on December 14, 2006, Gymini captured the DSW Tag Team titles. On January 18, 2007, WWE announced that they had, in fact, released the twins.
In July 2008, The Shane Twins returned to the World Wrestling Council
.
champions, attending Northwest Missouri State University
on athletics scholarship
s, and they appeared in a television
advertisement
for the restaurant
chain Sonny's BBQ
, wherein they played two mermaids who were sick and tired of a movement away from fish eating, and so had had their fins turned into wheels so they could drive to Sonny's and eat ribs.
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
tag team
Tag team
Tag team professional wrestling is a variation in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. A tag team may comprise two wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of established teams who wrestle regularly as a unit and have a team name...
that consist of twin brothers Mike and Todd Shane. They were best known for their appearances in World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
(WWE) as Gymini.
History
The Shane Twins debuted in the FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
based Independent Pro Wrestling promotion
Professional wrestling promotion
A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. Promotion also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event...
in 1998. They were originally known as "Biff Wentworth" (Mike) and "Chaz Wentworth" (Todd), collectively known as "The Wentworth Twins" or as "Phi De Kappa U". The Shane Twins held the IPW Tag Team Championships five times between 1998 and 2003. Their fifth reign began when they defeated The Road Warriors
Road Warriors
The Road Warriors were a professional wrestling tag team composed of Michael "Hawk" Hegstrand and Joseph "Animal" Laurinaitis. They performed under the name "Road Warriors" in the American Wrestling Association, the National Wrestling Alliance, and World Championship Wrestling, and the name Legion...
in Hokkaidō, Japan
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
on a World Japan
Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling
Fighting World of Japan Pro-Wrestling, frequently shortened to World Japan or WJ, and also known as "Riki Pro", was a professional wrestling promotion formed in Japan in 2003....
show. They would also take on the Warriors, as well as feud with The Nasty Boys
The Nasty Boys
The Nasty Boys are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags, active from the mid to late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Their gimmick was that of anti-social punks who specialized in hardcore wrestling and brawling...
, in the short-lived X Wrestling Federation
X Wrestling Federation
Xtreme Wrestling Federation was an American professional wrestling promotion. The organization's heyday was from early November of 2001 to late February of 2002. Its birth coincided with the World Wrestling Federation's acquisition of AOL Time Warner's World Championship Wrestling. XWF's slogan...
at the promotion's Universal Studios Orlando TV tapings in November 2001.
On May 3, 2002; the Shane Twins won the JAPW Tag Team Championship
JAPW Tag Team Championship
The JAPW Tag Team Championship is a championship in the Jersey All Pro Wrestling promotion. Being a professional wrestling championship, it is not won via direct competition; it is instead won via a predetermined ending to a match or awarded to a wrestler because of a wrestling angle...
after defeating Da Hit Squad
Da Hit Squad
Da Hit Squad was a professional wrestling tag team in Ring of Honor, Jersey All Pro Wrestling and many other independent promotions. The members were Monsta Mack and Mafia. They were known as the Hardest Hitting tag team in ROH. This duo of Repeat Offenders brutalized their opponents with...
at IPW WrestlePlex. But on July 13, they stripped of the titles due to unknown reasons.
On June 8, 2002; The Shane Twins won the NWA World Tag Team Titles
NWA World Tag Team Championship
The National Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Championship is the professional wrestling world tag team championship within the NWA framework.-History:...
from Chris Nelson and Vito DeNucci. The twins appeared on the first TNA PPV (June 19) under the ring names "Richard "Dick" Johnson" (Mike) and "Rod Johnson" (Todd), known collectively as "The Johnsons". They wore latex
Latex
Latex is the stable dispersion of polymer microparticles in an aqueous medium. Latexes may be natural or synthetic.Latex as found in nature is a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants . It is a complex emulsion consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins,...
bodysuits, which were intended to make them resemble a pair of large penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
es. The Johnsons were managed by Mortimer Plumtree
Mortimer Plumtree
David Webber is an actor and former professional wrestling manager, best known by his ring name Mortimer Plumtree...
until they left TNA after several weeks. The Shane Twins were then stripped of the NWA Tag Team Championships, as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling is a privately held professional wrestling promotion founded by Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett. The company broadcasts its events on television and the Internet fifty two weeks a year with over a million weekly viewers on its primary television program, Impact...
(TNA) would gain exclusive rights to that title on June 28, 2002.
They then began working for Florida Championship Wrestling (NWA Florida), where they formed a stable with Ron Niemi, Steve Madison, Rod Steel and Eric Loy known as "911 Incorporated", and won the NWA Florida Tag Team Championships on four occasions.
In January 2005 the Shane Twins were signed to developmental contracts by World Wrestling Entertainment, and on February 7, 2005 they were sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. OVW is run by owner Danny Davis and was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance from 1997 until 2000...
(OVW) to hone their skills. They were later transferred to Deep South Wrestling, where they became known as "The Regulators".
On January 6, 2006, the Shane twins debuted on SmackDown! as the proteges of Simon Dean, under a new team name of "Gymini". (The name was a play on both Simon Dean's gimmick - that of a nutrition supplement pitchman - and the mythological Gemini twins.) They were employed to destroy Paul London and Brian Kendrick
Paul London and Brian Kendrick
Paul London and Brian Kendrick are a professional wrestling tag team best known for their time together in World Wrestling Entertainment . The team never had an official team name, but were just referred to as "the tag team of London and Kendrick." In 2006 London and Kendrick put the tag team name...
, to the delight of Dean.
Gymini also frequently wrestled on WWE web show, Velocity
WWE Velocity
WWE Velocity was a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment . It replaced two syndicated WWE shows, Jakked/Metal. Once a weekly Saturday night show on Spike TV and on Sky Sports 2 in the UK on Sunday mornings, Velocity became a webcast from 2005 to 2006...
, usually against jobbers
Job (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling slang, the term job describes a losing performance in a wrestling match. It is derived from the euphemism "doing one's job", which was employed to protect kayfabe. As professional wrestling is scripted, inevitably a wrestler will be required to lose to an opponent.The term...
. They were rarely seen on SmackDown!, until April when the team would get more exposure. For the most part the two men were un-named; with announcers referring to them as "Gymini #1" and "#2" but during the April 14, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, their full ring names were revealed as "Jake" (Mike) and "Jesse" (Todd). Gymini continued to dominate SmackDown!'s other tag teams before Jesse (Todd) became injured. Gymini would make appearances in the WWE developmental promotion Deep South Wrestling (DSW) after Todd recovered. At the end of October 2006, the team appeared in various dark matches before SmackDown! events, where they were joined by a new valet Angel Williams.
They would not return to the main roster, however, but instead continue make appearances in DSW, on December 14, 2006, Gymini captured the DSW Tag Team titles. On January 18, 2007, WWE announced that they had, in fact, released the twins.
In July 2008, The Shane Twins returned to the World Wrestling Council
World Wrestling Council
The World Wrestling Council is one of Puerto Rico's two main professional wrestling promotions, the other one being the International Wrestling Association....
.
Personal life
The Shane Twins were national high school and college tennisTennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
champions, attending Northwest Missouri State University
Northwest Missouri State University
Northwest Missouri State University is a state university in Maryville, Missouri. Founded in 1905 as a teachers college, it offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. The campus, based on the design for Forest Park at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, is the official Missouri State Arboretum....
on athletics scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s, and they appeared in a television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
advertisement
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
for the restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
chain Sonny's BBQ
Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q
Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q is a large barbecue restaurant chain. It was founded by Sonny Tillman in Gainesville, Florida in 1968. Bob and Jeff Yarmuth, franchisees in the Orlando area, purchased the company in 1991 and moved the headquarters to Maitland, Florida...
, wherein they played two mermaids who were sick and tired of a movement away from fish eating, and so had had their fins turned into wheels so they could drive to Sonny's and eat ribs.
In wrestling
- Double-team finishing moves
- H-Bomb (Double crucifix powerbomb)
- Sky lift slam
- X-Trainer (Double arm trap neckbreaker)
- Todd's finishing moves
- Exploder suplex
- Fireman's carry cutter
- Mike's finishing moves
- Fireman's carry cutter
- Head and arm suplex
- ManagersManager (professional wrestling)In professional wrestling, a manager is a secondary character paired with a wrestler for a variety of reasons. The manager is often either a non-wrestler, an occasional wrestler, an older wrestler who has retired or is nearing retirement or, in some cases, a new wrestler who is breaking into the...
- Mortimer PlumtreeMortimer PlumtreeDavid Webber is an actor and former professional wrestling manager, best known by his ring name Mortimer Plumtree...
- TreneshaTrenesha BiggersTrenesha Biggers is a model and professional wrestler who worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Rhaka Khan. She was in the final top 25 in the 2005 WWE Diva Search.-Professional wrestling career:...
- Simon DeanMike BucciMichael "Mike" Bucci is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. Bucci is probably best known for his appearances in Extreme Championship Wrestling as Nova, Super Nova, and "Hollywood" Nova and World Wrestling Entertainment as Simon Dean...
- Angel Williams
- Mortimer Plumtree
Championships and accomplishments
- Deep South Wrestling
- Deep South Tag Team ChampionshipDeep South Tag Team ChampionshipThe DSW Tag Team Championship was the tag team championship in Deep South Wrestling, a former developmental territory of World Wrestling Entertainment...
(1 time)
- Independent Pro Wrestling (FloridaFloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
) - IPW Tag Team Championship (5 times)
- IPW Television Championship (1 time) – Mike
- Jersey All Pro WrestlingJersey All Pro WrestlingJersey All Pro Wrestling is an independent wrestling promotion based in New Jersey.-1997:Jersey All Pro Wrestling is an independent wrestling promotion that was founded by "Fat" Frank Iadeavia on April 19, 1997. This promotion was born out of a dream of "Fat" Frank. He wanted to take the promotion...
- JAPW Tag Team ChampionshipJAPW Tag Team ChampionshipThe JAPW Tag Team Championship is a championship in the Jersey All Pro Wrestling promotion. Being a professional wrestling championship, it is not won via direct competition; it is instead won via a predetermined ending to a match or awarded to a wrestler because of a wrestling angle...
(1 time)
- National Wrestling AllianceNational Wrestling AllianceThe National Wrestling Alliance is a wrestling promotion company and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...
- World
- NWA World Tag Team ChampionshipNWA World Tag Team ChampionshipThe National Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Championship is the professional wrestling world tag team championship within the NWA framework.-History:...
(1 time)
- NWA World Tag Team Championship
- Regional
- NWA Florida Heavyweight ChampionshipNWA Florida Heavyweight ChampionshipThe NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship was a major title in Championship Wrestling from Florida, USA and is now the major title in NWA Florida. It started in 1937 and was abandoned in 1949. It was picked back up in 1966 by CWF and lasted until 1987 when the company was purchased by Jim Crockett...
(1 time) – Todd - NWA Florida Tag Team ChampionshipNWA Florida Tag Team ChampionshipThe NWA Florida Tag Team Championship is the primary tag team title in Pro Wrestling Fusion. It started out in 1968 as the main tag team title in Championship Wrestling from Florida and lasted until 1990 when it was abandoned. It was picked back up in 1997 by NWA Florida, where it was the primary...
(4 times)
- NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship
- World Professional Wrestling Federation
- WPWF Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
- Worst Gimmick (2002)