Robert Fuller (wrestler)

{{About|the wrestler and manager|other people named Robert Fuller|Robert Fuller (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox professional wrestler

|name=Robert Fuller

|image=

|birth_name = Robert Welch

|names=Robert Fuller
Tennessee Stud II
Tennessee Lee
Col. Robert Parker

|height={{height|ft=6|in=5}}

|weight={{convert|240|lb|kg st|abbr=on}}

|birth_date={{Birth date and age|1949|5|14|mf=y}}

|death_date=

|birth_place=Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.

|children=3

|billed=Memphis, Tennessee

|trainer=Buddy Fuller

|debut=1970

|retired=2018

|}}

Robert Welch{{cite web|url=http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/r/robert-fuller.html|title=Robert Fuller profile|publisher=Online World of Wrestling|access-date=2009-08-07}} (born May 14, 1949) is an American manager and retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring names Robert Fuller and Col. Robert Parker. Robert and his brother Ron co-owned Continental Championship Wrestling for a time.Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.119)

Professional wrestling career

Fuller started wrestling in 1970 in the Alabama and Tennessee regions with fellow wrestlers like Night Hawk. He often teamed with his cousin Jimmy Golden and they won many tag team titles. In the 1980s, he took his brother Ron's idea and made a stable called The Stud Stable.{{cite web|url=http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/s/stud-stable.html|title=Stud Stable|publisher=Online World of Wrestling|access-date=2009-09-08}}Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.116) Among the members in the independent versions of this stable were Golden, Sid Vicious, Cactus Jack,Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.117) Dutch Mantel, Brickhouse Brown, Gary Young,Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.120) and Brian Lee. He spent some time in the American Wrestling Association with Golden in 1988, and they feuded with The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson). He also wrestled in the Texas area where he teamed with Jeff Jarrett to win the USWA World Tag Team Championship.

In 1993, Fuller went to World Championship Wrestling as manager Col. Robert Parker, a takeoff of Col. Tom Parker of Elvis Presley fame. He managed Sid Vicious and teamed with manager Harley Race and his protege, Vader to form "The Masters of the Powerbomb". They feuded with Sting and Davey Boy Smith. In 1994, he managed "Stunning Steve" Austin before reforming his "Stud Stable" with Golden as "Bunkhouse Buck", Meng, Dick Slater, Terry Funk, Arn Anderson and Blacktop Bully. They feuded heavily with Dusty and Dustin Rhodes. In 1995, Col. Parker courted Sherri Martel to the dismay of both the Stud Stable and Sherri's charges, Harlem Heat. Parker and Sherri went to get married and Sherri was attacked by Madusa, who was supposed to be Parker's wife. Parker and Sherri split and feuded and then made up again, with Parker leaving the Stud Stable to help Sherri manage Harlem Heat. While with Harlem Heat, Parker's official title was "promoter", while Sherri retained the "manager" designation. One trademark of Parker's managing would be his fanning himself during matches. In October 1996, Harlem Heat fired Parker after he cost them the WCW World Tag Team Championships. He quickly started to manage The Amazing French Canadians (Jacques Rougeau and Carl Ouellet), trading in his gray suit for a French Foreign Legion uniform. Harlem Heat and The Amazing French Canadians began feuding.

Fuller was released from WCW in 1997 and in March 1998, he resurfaced in the WWF as Tennessee Lee, a character similar to his Col. Parker character, and began managing former partner Jeff Jarrett.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}} His time in the WWF was short-lived; he would be released in August 1998 and went back to wrestling with Golden on the independent circuit in Alabama. On June 2, 2006 in Irondale, Alabama, Fuller managed Shannon Spruill against El Mexico for the NWA Wrestle Birmingham Junior Heavyweight Championship. With the help of Fuller (who referred to Spruill as his "Million Dollar Baby"), Spruill defeated El Mexico to win her third wrestling title.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}} On September 14, 2006, Fuller was seen, once again as Col. Parker, being interviewed by Robert Roode on TNA Impact!. On February 8, 2018, Fuller made a return to professional wrestling as Col. Robert Parker, a manager for Major League Wrestling. He reactivated The Stud Stable with the Dirty Blondes as his first signees.

Personal life

Robert Fuller comes from a wrestling family: his father Buddy Fuller and his grandfather Roy Welch were wrestlers, as were his brother Ron Fuller and his cousin Jimmy Golden ("Bunkhouse Buck").{{cite web|url=http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/j/jimmy-golden.html|title=Jimmy Golden profile|publisher=Online World of Wrestling|access-date=2009-08-03}}

He has been married four times: Joyce Logan, who he has his oldest daughter Kimberly by; Sylvia Wilson (Miss Sylvia), who he has Katie and Charlotte by; Susan Lostraglio, who he had no children with; and his current wife Laverne Stewart. He has 7 grandchildren. Fuller currently resides in Seminole, Florida.

His ex-wife and valet Miss Sylvia (born December 15, 1956) died surrounded by 2 of her daughters and current husband, after a years long fight with breast cancer, on November 11, 2022, at the age of 65. She is buried at Parkhill Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia.{{cite web|url=https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/columbus-ga/sylvia-lykins-11014967|title=Sylvia Joyce Lykins Obituary|publisher=Dignity Memorial|access-date=2022-11-18}}

Championships and accomplishments

Championship Wrestling Alliance

:*CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

:*CWA Television Championship (1 time)

Georgia Championship Wrestling

:*NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Bob Armstrong

:*NWA Macon Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Jimmy Golden (1) and Don Muraco (1)

National Wrestling Alliance^*

:*NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship (Northern Division) (4 times)

NWA Florida

:*PWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Kendall Windham

:*NWA Wrestle Birmingham Alabama Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jimmy Golden

:*NWA National Tag Team titles (1 time) – with Jimmy Golden

NWA Mid-America / Continental Wrestling Association

:*AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

:*AWA Southern Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Toru Tanaka (1) and Bill Dundee) (1){{cite book | first1=Royal |last1=Duncan |first2=Gary |last2=Will | title=Wrestling title histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present |location=Waterloo, Ontario |orig-year=2000.|chapter= (Memphis, Nashville) Tennessee: Southern Tag Team Title [Roy Welsch & Nick Gulas, Jerry Jarrett from 1977] | pages= 185–189| publisher=Archeus Communications |year=2006 | isbn=0-9698161-5-4}}{{cite web | url=http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tn/cwa/awa-s-t.html | title=Southern Tag Team Title | work=Wrestling-Titles | access-date=January 19, 2020}}

:*CWA Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Jimmy Golden (2) and Brian Lee (1)

:*NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Memphis version) (1 time)

:*NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-America Version) (1 time) – with Kevin Sullivan

:*NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Mid-America version) (1 time) – with Ron Fuller{{cite book | author=Royal Duncan and Gary Will | title=Wrestling Title Histories | publisher=Archeus Communications | chapter= Tennessee: U.S. Tag Team Title | pages= 194 | year= 2000 | isbn=0-9698161-5-4}}{{cite web | url=http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tn/nwa/tn-us-t.html | title=NWA United States Tag Team Title (Mid-America) | publisher=wrestling-titles.com | access-date=April 23, 2015}}

North American Wrestling Association / South Atlantic Pro Wrestling

:*NAWA/SAPW Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

:*PWI ranked him #102 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991{{cite web|url=http://theturnbucklepost.com/information/pwi-500-annual-listings/pwi-500-1991/|access-date=2012-08-26|title=PWI 500 1991|publisher=The Turnbuckle Post|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725092114/http://theturnbucklepost.com/information/pwi-500-annual-listings/pwi-500-1991/|archive-date=2012-07-25}}

:*PWI ranked him #332 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003{{cite web|url=http://www.willywrestlefest.fr/Ressources/PWI/PWI500_PWI_Years_2003.htm|title=PWI 500 of the PWI Years|access-date=2012-08-26|publisher=Willy Wrestlefest}}

:*PWI ranked him #80 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Jimmy Golden in 2003

Southeastern Championship Wrestling

:*NWA Southeastern Continental Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

:*NWA Southeastern Continental Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Jimmy Golden

:*NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship (Northern Division) (2 times)

:*NWA Southeastern Tag Team Championship (15 times) – with Ron Fuller (2), Eddie Boulder (1), Jos LeDuc (3), Bob Armstrong (2), and Jimmy Golden (7)

:*NWA Southeastern Television Championship (2 times)

United States Wrestling Association

:*USWA World Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Brian Lee (2), Jeff Jarrett (3), and Mike Mitchell (1)

USA Wrestling
USA Heavyweight Championship (1 time){{cite book | author=Royal Duncan & Gary Will | title=Wrestling Title Histories | publisher=Archeus Communications | year=2000|edition=4th | isbn=0-9698161-5-4 }}
World Class Wrestling Association

:*WCWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Jimmy Golden (1) and Brian Lee (1){{cite book | author=Royal Duncan & Gary Will | title=Wrestling Title Histories |chapter= (Dallas) Texas: NWA American Tag Team Title [Fritz Von Erich] | publisher=Archeus Communications | year=2006 | isbn=978-0-9698161-5-7}}{{cite web |url=http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tx/wcwa/wcwa-t.html |title=World Class Wrestling Association Tag Team Title |access-date=December 26, 2019 |work=Wrestling-Titles.com}}

^*Records aren't clear as to which NWA affiliated promotion Fuller wrestled for when 4 of his 6 total reigns with it began. While the title was usually defended only in the Southeastern Championship Wrestling promotion, it was occasionally used in others such as Georgia Championship Wrestling.

Notes

References

{{Cite book | author = Mick Foley | title = Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks | publisher = HarperCollins | year = 2000 | isbn = 0-06-103101-1 | page = 511}}