Robert Howard

Robert William Howard is an American professional wrestler He is best known for his 15year stint with the World Wrestling FederationWorld Wrestling Entertainment under the ring names Thurman Sparky Plugg Bob Holly Bombastic Bob and Hardcore Holly After debuting in 1990 Holly worked for Smoky Mountain Wrestling and other independent promotions before joining WWE fulltime in 1994 Initially portraying the character of a NASCAR driver Thurman Sparky Plugg his name was soon changed to Bob Spark Plug Holly before forming a team with Bodacious Bart known as The New Midnight Express in 1998 After becoming known simply as Hardcore Holly in 1999 he was joined by onscreen cousins Crash and Molly In 2002 he suffered a broken neck which sidelined him for over a year Upon his return he engaged in minor feuds with wrestlers such as Mr Kennedy and Rob Van Dam before forming a tag team with Cody Rhodes in 2007 Holly was released from WWE in 2009 During his career Holly has held the WWFE Hardcore Championship six times the WWFE Tag Team Championship three times with 123 Kid Crash Holly and Cody Rhodes and the NWA World Tag Team Championship once with Bart Gunn Howards autobiography titled The Hardcore Truth The Bob Holly Story was released in the United States on April 1 2013 Coauthored by former British wrestler Ross Owen Williams an actor and writer63 who wrestled Holly in June 2010 it was published by ECW Press Reviews of the book were positive with Nolan Howell of Canoecom describing it as a straightforward look into the life of a man that has dedicated himself to the sport of professional wrestling and has an endearing personal style that gives an apt representation of the authorFor fans such as myself who appreciated the blunt style of the man known as Hardcore Holly this ECW Press product will be an entertaining worthwhile look into one of the unique personalities of professional wrestling Joe Babinsack writing for the Wrestling Observer described the book as brutal boisterous and definitely worth reading Bruce Mitchell writing for the Pro Wrestling Torch described the book as hardhitting straightforward and not very fancy rating it one of the strongest professional wrestling books in a long while Dave Meltzer editor of the Wrestling Observer wrote in a lot of books you think youre reading what the person writing feels is the right thing to say for their career With Holly whether you agree or not and I agreed with some of his stuff not others I had no doubt he was giving his true opinions on things In that sense it was a very honest look at a period of WWF history from a guy who had ups and downs but survived a long time