Adam Birch (born July 18, 1979), better known by the ring namesJoey Mercury and Joey Matthews, is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure in WWE. Birch was most recently signed to Ring of Honor, where he worked as a producer, trainer, and member of the creative team.
Birch was trained by fellow wrestler Jimmy Cicero and made his wrestling debut in October 1996, using the name Joey Matthews as he wrestled in ECW Extreme Championship Wrestling. The following year, he began competing for Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation (MEWF), where he began competing in tag team competition and captured the MEWF Tag Team Championship, alongside Christian York. Throughout the late-1990s, Birch competed in various independent promotions, where he and York continued to work as a team. It was also during that time that he won various championships in singles and tag team competition.
In 2004, Birch signed with WWE and was assigned to their developmental territoryOhio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in Louisville, Kentucky under the name Joey Mercury. While situated at OVW, he was placed in tag team competition, alongside Johnny Nitro, in which they won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship on one occasion. It was also during this time that he and Nitro, alongside their managerMelina, were known as the stable MNM. The group were called up to the SmackDown! roster and on their debut in April 2005, Mercury and Nitro went on to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. After their third and final reign ended in May 2006, Nitro and Melina turned on Mercury, thus ending their faction. However, in November 2006, the team reunited for a brief period, before Mercury was let go from his contract in March 2007.
Following his stint with WWE, Birch continued his wrestling career, appearing at several independent promotions, including competing at Ring of Honor events. In March 2008, he returned to OVW, where he won the OVW Television Championship on one occasion. In October 2008, Birch announced his retirement from professional wrestling, following an injury, but later returned to wrestling in 2010, working for WWE as a producer and making a brief in-ring return as part of CM Punk's Straight Edge Society. He returned to TV once again in 2014 alongside Jamie Noble, (known as J&J Security) as an on screen security guard for the WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins as part of The Authority faction.
After the closure of ECW, they returned to the independent circuit, where, on February 3, 2001, the Bad Street Boys defeated Rick Michaels and David Young to become the NWA World Tag Team Champions, a championship that they held for two weeks.[1] They won the MCW Tag Team Championship for the second time on November 3 by defeating Earl the Pearl and Rich Myers, and later won the Virginia Championship Wrestling Tag Team Championship on December 1, 2001.[1][7]
In 2002, Matthews and York competed in Ring of Honor (ROH), and teamed together on several occasions, before Matthews joined a faction called Special K, of which he was a member until 2004.[1][7] He also worked for various independent organizations such as Xtreme Pro Wrestling, Maryland Championship Wrestling (MCW) and Phoenix Championship Wrestling.[1] On January 29, 2003, Matthews defeated Romeo Valentino to win the MCW Rage Television Championship, but lost it four months later to Doug Delicious on May 15.[13][14][15]
Matthews wrestled in dark matches before being signed to a developmental deal by WWE in 2004; he moved to Louisville, Kentucky to the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) farm territory.[1][27][28] There he formed a faction with Johnny Nitro; along with managerMelina, they were known as "MNM".[1] MNM wrestled in OVW for around a year, winning the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship once, before being called up to the main SmackDown! roster, where Matthews was renamed Joey Mercury.[29]
In their first match for the SmackDown! brand, in April 2005, they won the WWE Tag Team Championship from Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero.[30][31] They held the titles for three months, having successful titles defenses against the teams of Mysterio and Guerrero and Hardcore Holly and Charlie Haas at Judgment Day, before dropping them to the new Legion of Doom (LOD) at The Great American Bash in July 2005.[32] They recaptured the titles on the October 28 episode of SmackDown! in a four-way match defeating the Mexicools, William Regal and Paul Burchill, and LOD,[33] but lost them to Mysterio and Batista two days before the Armageddon pay-per-view in December. Due to help from Mark Henry, they defeated Mysterio and Batista in a rematch on the December 30 episode of SmackDown! to win the WWE Tag Team Championship for the third time.[34] They began a rivalry with the team of Paul London and Brian Kendrick that lasted over three months,[35] until the Judgment Day pay-per-view on May 21, 2006, where MNM lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to London and Kendrick. Nitro and Melina suddenly turned on Mercury, attacking him and breaking up the group. Later that night Nitro and Melina were fired from the SmackDown! brand in storyline, to facilitate their move to Raw, where they reappeared the following week.[36][37] The legitimate reason for the team's sudden split was later revealed to be Mercury failing a WWE Wellness Policy drug test and being forced to serve a 30-day suspension.
Mercury stayed off WWE television for six months. Mercury made a surprise return on the November 27, 2006 episode of Raw, temporarily reforming MNM with Nitro and Melina to take up the also recently reunited Hardys (Matt and Jeff) "open challenge" for December to Dismember.[38] The Hardys went on to win the match at December to Dismember,[39][40] but the feud continued across all three brands (Raw, ECW, and SmackDown!),[41][42][43] and in a fatal-four way ladder match for the WWE Tag Team Championship at December's Armageddon event, also involving London and Kendrick, and Dave Taylor and William Regal. During the ladder match, Mercury suffered a legitimate injury when he was struck in the face with a ladder, breaking his nose and orbital bone. He immediately left the match and was rushed to an emergency room where he received more than thirty stitches.[12][39][44] As a result, Nitro continued the match on his own.
After missing a few weeks, Mercury returned wearing a protective face mask and his injury was worked into the angle, with both he and Nitro attempting to injure the Hardys in various ways for revenge. MNM lost to The Hardys at the Royal Rumble, and again in a six-man tag team match in which they teamed with Montel Vontavious Porter (Chris Benoit teamed with The Hardys) at the No Way Out pay-per-view in February which concluded the feud.[45][46] He also wrestled in singles competition on SmackDown! until he was released from his WWE contract on March 26, 2007.[47][48]
In September 2007, Matthews began working for OVW as a trainer for the intermediate class.[7] He also competed in dark matches at the OVW television tapings.[54][55] At TNA's Bound for Glory pay-per-view in October 2007, he competed in a dark match, where he teamed with Johnny Swinger in a losing effort to The Motor City Machineguns.[56] For the remainder of 2007, Matthews worked for independent promotions, including Pro Wrestling Unplugged and the United Wrestling Federation.[7][57]
On March 12, 2008, at an OVW television taping, he defeated Jamin Olivencia to win the OVW Television Championship.[58] After successful defenses against Olivencia, he dropped the title to Tommy McNailer a month later on April 16.[7][59] In October 2008, Birch announced his retirement from professional wrestling due to injury.[7]
On January 25, 2008, Matthews returned to ROH as the newest member of Age of the Fall (AotF), where he partnered with Jimmy Jacobs in a losing effort against Roderick Strong and Rocky Romero of the No Remorse Corps.[60] The following night, Matthews lost to Mark Briscoe.[61] Matthews was mainly utilized in a tag team role as a member of the AotF, teaming with fellow faction members Tyler Black and Necro Butcher.[62][63] He continued to wrestle for ROH until Battle For Supremacy in June 2008, when he and Jimmy Jacobs lost to Kevin Steen and El Generico, in what was his last ROH wrestling match.[64]
In 2010, Birch came out of retirement and returned to WWE at the SmackDown tapings on April 20, where he lost to Shelton Benjamin in a dark match.[65] On April 25 at Extreme Rules, he reappeared on television as a masked member of the CM Punk's Straight Edge Society stable and interfered in Punk's match with Rey Mysterio, helping him pick up the win.[66] Birch continued to interfere in Punk's matches during the following months, before being unmasked by Big Show on the July 23 episode of SmackDown.[67] This led to a handicap match at SummerSlam where Big Show defeated the entire Society.[68] In early September it was reported that Mercury had undergone surgery on a torn pectoral muscle.[69]
In order to rehabilitate his injury, he began training at Florida Championship Wrestling, WWE's developmental territory.[70] He later began working there as a trainer.[71] Following this, he moved into a producer role for the main roster.[4]
Mercury (right) with J&J Security partner Jamie Noble (center) and Seth Rollins (left) in December 2014
On the September 29, 2014 episode of Raw, Mercury and fellow producer Jamie Noble aligned themselves with The Authority. Dubbed "J&J Security", Mercury and Noble began acting as bodyguards to Authority member Seth Rollins.[72] On the November 24 episode of Raw, J&J Security wrestled the first televised matches for each man in several years, partnering with Rollins in a three-on-two handicap match against John Cena and Dolph Ziggler, which they lost. On the March 16, 2015 episode of Raw, both Mercury and Noble seemingly left The Authority due to Rollins not listening them. Later that night, it was revealed to be a ruse, with all The Authority members coming out to help Rollins take out Randy Orton, but they were stopped by Sting, who made a surprise appearance and helped Orton fight off The Authority. On the June 22 episode of Raw, J&J Security reconciled with Rollins when the three of them and Kane attacked Brock Lesnar. On the July 6 episode of Raw, Mercury was viciously beaten by Lesnar, who after destroying his and fellow J&J Security member Jamie Noble's prized Cadillac car, which had been gifted to them by Seth Rollins the week before, picked him up and tossed him onto the then unbroken windshield of it. On July 7, it was reported that Mercury suffered mild contusions as a result of the attack and both members of J&J Security would be out of action indefinitely.[citation needed]
Mercury appeared on the March 14, 2016 episode of Raw breaking up the brawl between Triple H and Roman Reigns. In January 2017, it was reported that Birch had been released from WWE.[73]
Return to independent circuit (2017–2018)
Birch, performing once again as Joey Matthews, announced his return as an active independent wrestler. Matthews won the MCWShane Shamrock Memorial Cup.[74]
On September 30, 2017, he won the MCW Heavyweight Championship.[75] In July 2018 he made four appearances on House of Hardcore's Australian tour. He would lose to the likes of Tommy Dreamer, Al Snow and Swoggle on the shows.[76] He also appeared in Lucha Underground in August 2018 as "Joey Wrestling", as part of former tag team partner Johnny Mundo's (previously Johnny Nitro) stable Worldwide Underground.[77] The following week, he lost his only Lucha Underground match to Matanza Cueto, after which he was "sacrificed to the gods," killing off his character in the show.[citation needed] That is the last match he has competed in to date.[76]
Ring of Honor (2018–2019)
On May 19, 2018, he became one of the trainers at ROH's Baltimore Dojo a training school for the Ring of Honor promotion.[78] Later on February 2, 2019, it was revealed that he would now be working as a producer, trainer and a member of the creative team for Ring of Honor going forward.[79] In October 2019, he departed from Ring of Honor as a producer.
Personal life
During an interview in late 2007, Birch revealed that he had been using drugs since he was 15 and had mixed cocaine, crack, and heroin with alcohol: "I've been a drug addict and alcoholic since I was 15 years old, right before I started in wrestling – so that's the better part of 15 years."[80] As a result of this, Birch has overdosed three times and wrecked ten cars.[80] He entered rehab in 2006 and missed six months of work.[80] Due to the facial injury he suffered at Armageddon in December 2006, Birch then became addicted to painkillers.[80] After a direct intervention by Vince McMahon, Birch was released from the WWE and he credits this with helping him to address his addictions.[80] After his release, CM Punk helped pay for his house, which was on the verge of foreclosure after losing his job.[81]
Birch had a three-and-a-half-year relationship with Mickie James, and they lived together in Virginia before breaking up.[6] He also briefly dated Christy Hemme.[6]
^PWI Staff (2007). "Pro Wrestling Illustrated presents: 2007 Wrestling almanac & book of facts". "Wrestling's historical cards". Kappa Publishing. p. 121.
^ abPWI Staff (2007). "Pro Wrestling Illustrated presents: 2007 Wrestling almanac & book of facts". "Wrestling's historical cards". Kappa Publishing. p. 122.
^"Update on Joey Mercury". WWE. December 18, 2006. Archived from the original on November 24, 2007. Retrieved March 26, 2007. I have four fractures on the inside of my nose; I have 5 stitches on the inside of my nose and my cheek and 15 stitches on the outside of my nose and cheek. My left eye is swollen shut and I have continual internal bleeding from my nose and my eye.
