Where Are They Now? Steve Blackman

In May of 1989, Steve Blackman was days away from beginning his career with World Wrestling Entertainment. A week later, he was in sub-Saharan Africa on the brink of death.

"I was supposed to start with WWE, but I promised this guy I would go over to South Africa for three weeks," Blackman told WWE.com. "I went over there to keep my word and I wound up getting dysentery and malaria and was on my death bed."

At the time, Blackman was a rising star in Calgary's Stampede Wrestling. A physical powerhouse, the Pennsylvania native had set an east coast record by curling 315 pounds as a 19-year-old. He was also a dangerous martial artist, highly skilled in Shotokan karate, jiu-jitsu and various other disciplines. But a single bite from an Anopheles mosquito was enough to nearly kill him. (PHOTOS)

"It was a nightmare," Blackman remembered. "But I said, 'I'm not going to die in this country. I'm not going to make my family fly halfway around the world to come retrieve my body.'"

Crippled by intense abdominal pain, exhaustion and dehydration, Blackman made a harrowing 46-hour journey to his home in Florida. Then, with no other choice, the competitor opted out of his contract with WWE and returned to his parents' house in Pennsylvania where he began a grueling recovery process that lasted for six long years.

"For the first two and a half years that I was sick, when I went to bed at night I didn't think I would wake up in the morning."

It would take three years of intense physical therapy, doses and doses of antibiotics and endless hours of sleep before Blackman began to feel even close to normal. Eventually, the big man was able to take a job as a prison guard and slowly started his training routines, preparing himself for a return to the ring.

It would be a long journey for Blackman to get back to where he had once been. Originally trained by Tony Altomare, a former tag team partner of Captain Lou Albano, Blackman had truly cut his teeth in the rough-and-tumble rings of Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling where he competed with some of the most talented performers of the era.

"Dynamite Kid and The British Bulldog were up there with us in Stampede," Blackman recalled. "Brian Pillman was there. There were a lot of good [wrestlers], so it was a good place to learn."

Despite this great background, the 6-foot-2 grappler hadn't set foot in the squared circle in years and needed to get back into fighting shape. Setting up a ring in his backyard, Blackman spent a year training aspiring wrestlers in the Pennsylvania area until he felt he was ready to return to the big leagues.

"I started getting better as long as I trained hard and ate healthy," Blackman said.

Finally, in 1997, a revived Blackman contacted an old friend and asked for a favor.

"I called Brian Pillman and some of those guys and they put in a word for me with [Mr. McMahon]," Blackman remembered. "He was hesitant, but they gave me a shot."

In November of that same year, Blackman finally made his WWE debut after an eight-year hiatus, jumping over a guardrail on Raw to help Vader in a brawl against Bret Hart's Hart Foundation. The act would inject the martial artist directly into a rivalry between WWE's Canadian and USA factions, but the grappler had some difficulty bringing the fight to his rivals.

"The first year on the road was tough for me," Blackman admitted. "I still fought relapses of fatigue, but I would just fight through it. I felt pretty rotten a lot of the time."

It wasn't until Blackman began to butt heads with Ken Shamrock that he started to find his footing in the ring again. A former star in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Shamrock could match Blackman in the tough guy department and both men were more than willing to show the other how hard they could hit.

"We would lay into each other," Blackman admitted. "I know one night I had one of my brand new sticks, I had bought it that morning, and I actually broke it over his ribs in the ring."

This use of dangerous weapons, including nunchucks and rattan sticks used in the Filipino martial art of eskrima, earned Blackman the nickname "The Lethal Weapon."

"I did a lot of martial arts training," he said. "Using the weapons, it just came natural to me."

Blackman's martial arts skills would also serve him well in WWE's controversial Brawl for All tournament. Held during the summer of 1998, this unique contest pitted Superstars against one another in matches that were more akin to mixed martial arts brawls than traditional WWE bouts.

"They put me in the first match with Marc Mero," Blackman recalled. "Now Marc Mero has always had good boxing skills, I think he won the New York Golden Gloves for five years, but I took him down like 13 times in three minutes."

Although he won the match, The Lethal Weapon would have to withdraw from the tournament when he suffered an injury during a training session. After sitting on the sidelines for several months, the deathly serious Blackman returned to the ring in a much different light, teaming with the bizarre Al Snow in a mismatched duo known as Head Cheese.

"Al and I were so different," Blackman said. "He was always laughing and outgoing and I was so straight-laced. It just made it comical."

Snow, one of the most oddball Superstars in WWE history, was infamous for talking to a disembodied mannequin head and once wrestled himself. Looking to bring out the same zaniness in the stoic Blackman, the strange Superstar dragged The Lethal Weapon on memorably wacky trips to places like a cow farm and a retirement community.

"Some old woman in there, she was like 90-years-old, and every time I would say something she just started yelling, 'Blackman...you suck!'" the former Superstar said with a smile. "Al and I kept laughing like hell because we couldn't believe this woman kept yelling at me."

While the team became fan favorites due to their odd couple appeal, they failed to capture the WWE Tag Team Championships and split up in 2000.

"I felt like some of the tag stuff, some nights it clicked and some night it didn't," Blackman admitted. "But the vignettes were hard to beat, because it was pretty funny stuff."

With the Head Cheese jokes now behind him, Blackman returned to singles action with a newfound focus. Dusting off his kendo sticks, The Lethal Weapon prepared for war. Things were about to get hardcore.

Steve Blackman can still recall the sight of Shane McMahon plummeting 50 feet from the side of a steel structure to the ground below.

"He took a hell of a fall," Blackman said. "And that crazy guy took it backwards."

The intense competitor has good reason to remember the wild moment — after all, he was the man that sent Shane on this dangerous plunge. (PHOTOS)

It was SummerSlam 2000 and the two rivals were waging a brutal war over the Hardcore Title. Although Shane had previously defeated Blackman for the championship with the help of Test and Albert, he was on his own in this contest and running for his life.

The chase led the two men to the top of a massive set at the end of the entrance ramp where they jockeyed for position on the perilous structure. With the help of a kendo stick, Blackman won out and sent Shane crashing to the floor below.

The Lethal Weapon wasn't done there, however. He was about to unleash an elbow drop that the WWE Universe would not soon forget.

"I just took a breath and said, 'Here we go," Blackman recalled. "I mean, there was no turning back at that point."

Brutal and breathtaking, the climax of this match would be remembered as one of the most shocking moments in WWE history and, in many ways, was the pinnacle of the short-lived Hardcore Championship. The title, which had been the focal point of many wild matches between the likes of Crash Holly and The Mean Street Posse, suddenly felt like a championship worth fighting for.

"I loved doing Hardcore Matches," Blackman said. "I had a lot of good matches with Bob Holly, Kane, a bunch of guys."

As a martial artist, the Pennsylvania native was especially effective in this anything-goes environment where he could use the dangerous weapons he'd trained with for years.

"I tried to come up with different ways to use weapons," Blackman said. "Different things you could do with a garbage can, doing spinning backfists with the lids, using my Singapore canes on people."

After dominating the Hardcore division for most of 2000, Blackman formed a short-lived tag team with Too Cool's Grand Master Sexay. Eventually, though, Blackman took a break from the ring to heal a nagging neck injury. But when the damage proved to be too much for the Superstar to keep competing, he parted ways with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002.

It wouldn't take long, though, for Blackman to start on his new career path.

"I had a lot of guys asking me if I would train them in [mixed martial arts] and I kept putting it off," Blackman said. "But after a year of getting back on track, I finally decided to open up my own gym."

Utilizing his years of training in jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai kickboxing and various other disciplines, the 245-pounder took advantage of the burgeoning popularity of combat sports and began working with a few local students. As MMA's success boomed, so did Blackman's.

"I trained some guys in my garage and one thing led to another and now I have a huge, 5,000-square foot spot in a warehouse."

Located in Harrisburg, Pa., the massive gym is loaded with all the training systems an MMA student would need and even houses a full-sized cage for sparring. And as the school's owner and head trainer, Blackman gives all his warriors hands-on lessons.

"I do mostly jiu-jitsu instructing and wrestling drills," he explained. "Then I brought one guy in to help me do some boxing training."

With 80 to 100 students regularly enrolled in Blackman's school, the former Superstar works long hours, but only the strongest pupils make it in his class.

"Everyone thinks they're a fighter until they come in and do a class of boxing and jiu-jitsu," Blackman said. "Nine times out of ten people just don't have it in them to want to train that hard everyday."

The fighters that can hack it with The Lethal Weapon have a chance to test their skills in front of an audience through Blackman's own Pennsylvania Fighting Championship.

"I started doing my own shows a year ago," Blackman revealed. "I put all the fights together, make the card, book the building, all that stuff."

Regularly held at the Zembo Shrine Center in Blackman's native Harrisburg, the shows have drawn a strong fanbase thanks to the hard-hitting action Blackman's students provide.

"I did three shows this year and we've had pretty good turnouts," he said.

While most of his time is spent in the smashmouth world of contact sports, Blackman enjoys a more relaxed home life with his wife and their young daughter.

"All those years on the road, I didn't think I would be a dad," Blackman said. "It's quite a difference for me now being married and having a kid."

And while he hasn't stepped through WWE ropes since Raw's 15th Anniversary show in 2007, The Lethal Weapon doesn't completely rule out a return to the ring.

"Some days when I feel really good I get tempted — especially when I see Bret Hart on Raw," Blackman admitted. "I miss being out there."