Rest In Peace, Michael Faith

Absolutely gutted to hear of the passing of Michael Faith. He is survived by his three daughters and son. His contributions to the NWA Southwest were long-standing. He was a former two time NWA Texas Heavyweight Champion. A former NWA Oklahoma Champion. He competed around the world including Japan (All Japan Pro Wrestling) and had a big influence in Texas.

The Largeador was a bigger than life talent. He was 350 lbs, but did moves that seemed nearly impossible for a man of his stature to do. Trained by Tom Jones and Rocco Valentino, the 6’5 wrestler achieved international success in Japan, wrestling for the short-lived Big Van Vader promotion. Later he would join the All Japan Pro Wrestling roster (as a member of the Voodoo Murderers) in 2009, regularly teaming with Lance Hoyt.

In between tours, he would work with Ken Taylor’s NWA Southwest. He would become NWA Texas Champion by first defeating Kevin Northcutt for the title. He would be stripped of the title, only to win it back the following year by defeating his former tag team partner Chad Thomas. After 21 days he would lose the title to Charlie Haas.

Faith would get back into title contention by becoming the NWA Oklahoma Champion. when he would defeat Brad Michaels, Dane Griffin (who was champion) and the Modern Day Hero Kevin Douglas for the title on September 17th 2010. He would lose the title to a future NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Tim Storm on June 11th 2011.

Faith would still be active in the NWA in Texas even with new management, but he would also begin to work with River City Wrestling. He would become the RCW Heavyweight Champion defeating Hotstuff Hernandez and Steve McEnroe. He would go on to winning the title one more time. He was also a part of Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling, where he would compete as the “Samoan Beast” and would win their heavyweight title in 2014.

Faith would still continue to compete in the area, he was even a part of the Independent Wrestling Expo that took place back in August.