Height: 6'3"
Weight: 245 pounds
From: Los Angeles, California
Favorite Quote: "I am the Mental Elite."
Finishing move: The Rose's Thorn, Deadly Blossom, Brain Damage

Young, handsome, and witty, Billy Rose seems like a very nice guy.  But as he's warned people, it doesn't matter how nice you are -- in the ring is where it counts.

And as a ten-year veteran of the business, Rose knows exactly what he's doing when he steps into the ring.  He's had experience in every aspect of the business -- from owning and operating California Independent Wrestling to working the independent circuits -- and that makes him not one to underestimate.

From schmoozing with the McMahons to playing mind games, Rose knows how to get under a person's skin, and can take down even the toughest of wrestlers.  There's no telling how well he'll do in the World Wrestling Federation.

Billy Rose's History

Billy Rose and the Storm go back to California Independent Wrestling (CIW), Rose's fed on the West Coast.  Rose, the owner, sought to make CIW into a sort of West Coast-equivalent of ECW, but without having nearly as much fan-base or capital.  To get attention, he decided to make his wrestlers the toughest and most aggressive around.  To that end, he set a regimen of harsh, cruel, and downright torturous "training programs" designed to increase his men's tolerance for pain and capacity for aggressiveness and violence. Matthew Skinner -- later to be known as "the Storm" -- was his pride and joy.  When Skinner continued to resist Rose's teachings, the CIW owner decided to break him any way he could -- often using other CIW wrestlers as hired goons to beat on him. This grudge has never fully healed -- and never will, most likely.

After finally driving Skinner from CIW, Rose soon found his fed strapped for money. To keep the payroll, he sold CIW to a committee, who soon ordered him to take the CIW Championship off of Rose's long-time comrade Victor E. Simpson and put it on the new rising star, Sammy Best. Rose did so, deliberately attacking Victor in his title match to cost him the win. Victor, furious, demanded a match against his former partner, but Rose skipped out, leaving CIW and going to become a wrestler in his own right in the independent circuits.

And that's just what he did. Making a name for himself as a true student of the business, Rose was soon picked up by the WWF, where he immediately crossed paths with Skinner, now going by "The Storm." Rose, initially afraid of confronting his rival, used his ties to the McMahons and Team ECK to avoid getting in a one-on-one match with the Storm, but soon the two collided in the finals of the King of the Ring tournament. The Storm came out victorious, but the very next night, Rose got revenge in the debut of his old CIW enforcer, Brick. Brick attacked the Storm and put him on the shelf, and Rose, now leading the Faction of Shane McMahon, Team ECK, Rhino, and Brick, set about becoming a hated heel in the WWF. He destroyed the Storm's stablemates in Lone Star (the Acolytes and Stone Cold) and started targeting the Alliance (Triple H, Test, Viper, Rattler, Soul, and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley). However, the Storm's girlfriend/partner, Rain, sought vengeance for the Storm, and targeted Rose along with two other ex-CIWers, Zed & Zeta. Before Rose could eliminate Rain, Stone Cold returned, followed quickly by the Storm, who immediately challenged Rose to a two-out-of-three falls Street Fight match at Fully Loaded. An added stipulation said that in order to win, the winning fall (not the third fall) would count only under Last Man Standing rules.

The match split one fall apiece, and both men were busted open during the match, and finally Rose started to climb up the TitanTron to escape the Storm. The Storm caught him at the top and delivered a high powerslam (the "Deathride") to the floor. Rose, who liked to call himself the "Mental Elite," showed amazing presence of mind and countered the move in mid-air with his elbow to the back of the head (the "Brain Damage"). Both men were unable to answer the ten-count, so the match was a draw, and both men wound up in the hospital.

Rose was furious to see the Faction losing matches in the meantime, and his fury caused a rift to start forming when he returned. The rift finally caused a split when the Storm and Chris Benoit defeated Rose and Kurt Angle in a tag match, wherein Rose left Angle to tap out to a combine submission. Rose took Rhino and Brick to form his own faction, while Shane and Team ECK remained together. Soon thereafter, the Storm challenged Rose to a Hell in a Cell match at Summerslam, which Rose grudgingly accepted. As the Storm took a week off to prepare, Rose found himself fighting three groups at once -- Triple H and the Alliance, the Storm's renegades (Rain and the Z-Men), and a group comprised of the Hardys, Lita, and Chris Jericho. Rose responded to this by deciding to eliminate the Alliance first, having Rhino attack the Helmsleys and steal Triple H's WWF Championship. This led to Triple H becoming enraged and doing everything he could to take out Rose and take his title back, but Rose was always one step ahead. Finally, Viper made a challenge to Rose, and though he lost, Triple H used the distraction to attack Rose and take his title back.

Then, Rose stepped up his feud with the Storm by ordering Rhino to attack Rain. The confrontation in Hell in a Cell, which took place in Los Angeles, right in front of all the former CIW stars, was epic. Rose controlled much of the early-going, but the Storm continued to fight back, showing amazing resilience. Finally, Brick came out to the ring, and the Storm -- who had said all along in regards to anything that happened, "It all has a system -- got to show what he meant. Brick attacked Rose and gave him his monstrous Breaker Chokeslam, allowing the Storm to hit the Southern Lightning Driver for the win.