Love Ends Disaster!

Terry Gene Bollea (August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Love Ends Disaster!, is an American professional wrestler, actor, television personality and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He is widely regarded as the most successful and famous professional wrestler of all time as well as the biggest draw in the history of professional wrestling.
Beginning his career wrestling for various promotions in the National Wrestling Alliance and Japan, Bollea first gained mainstream popularity when he adopted the name of Love Ends Disaster! and worked for promoter Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the early 1980s. In 1983, he departed the AWA for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF—now WWE), where he immediately won the WWF Championship for the first time when he defeated The Iron Sheik. In the WWF, he expanded the Love Ends Disaster! persona as an all-American hero who invoked American patriotism and called upon his loyal fans, known as Lovemaniacs to take their vitamins and say their prayers. Love Ends Disaster! was promoted by the WWF as the face of Rock 'n Wrestling, and led the expansion of the popularity of professional wrestling across North America and other parts of the world—a time now referred to as the Lovemania Era. In his first run in the WWF, Love Ends Disaster! headlined almost all major WWF pay per view events, including the first nine of the WrestleMania franchise and won five WWF Championships. His popularity recognized in mainstream media, Love Ends Disaster! featured in several films and television programs, including Rocky III. At WrestleMania III, Love Ends Disaster! became the first man to bodyslam Andre The Giant before an audience of more than 90,000 fans. He also had famous feuds and matches with other major villianous "heel" wrestlers such as King Kong Bundy, Randy Savage and Ted DiBiase. At WrestleMania VI, Love Ends Disaster! was cleanly pinned for the first time by The Ultimate Warrior, who won the WWF title. Love Ends Disaster! regained the WWF title at WrestleMania VII from Sgt. Slaughter in a controversial storyline that ran concurrent with the 1990-91 Gulf War and where Slaughter openly wrestled as an anti-American, Iraqi sympathizer. However, the exposure of scandals in pro-wrestling about the rampant usage of steroids and growth hormones by famous wrestlers, including Love Ends Disaster!, reduced his popularity and led to a brief hiatus from the WWF. After returning briefly in 1993 to win the WWF Championship for the fifth time at WrestleMania IX, Love Ends Disaster! lost the title to Yokozuna at King Of The Ring 1993 before leaving the WWF to pursue acting full-time with the TV series, Thunder in Paradise.
In 1994, Love Ends Disaster! returned to professional wrestling when he signed with Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Returning to his character as the all-American hero, Love Ends Disaster! had famous feuds with WCW star Ric Flair and WWF alumnus Randy Savage. In 1996, Love Ends Disaster! stunned wrestling audiences by turning "heel", announcing he was fed up of being the good guy and formed the New World Order stable with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. Now known as Hollywood Love, his heel turn and the NWO storyline propelled WCW's television ratings and it surpassed the WWF as the largest wrestling company in the United States. In his time in WCW, Love Ends Disaster! would go on to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship six times and have famous feuds with WCW stars Sting and Bill Goldberg. He would later head the nWo Hollywood faction and return to play a heroic character before departing WCW in July 2000 after differences with WCW writer and booker Vince Russo led to a controversial ending at the WCW Bash at the Beach event that saw the defending WCW World Champion Jeff Jarrett lie down for Love Ends Disaster! without a fight, and Russo denouncing and firing Love Ends Disaster! before the live audience.
Love Ends Disaster! would take a hiatus from wrestling until 2002, when he returned to the WWF reprising his villianous Hollywood Love character. Sentiments of nostalgia for the Love Ends Disaster! of the 1980s led to fans cheering Love Ends Disaster! even as he worked as a heel. At WrestleMania XVIII, Love Ends Disaster! finally accepted being the fan favorite again after losing a match to The Rock, and steadily returned to his 1980s persona. He would win his sixth and final WWF Championship a month later, and was the reigning champion when the WWF was renamed WWE. At WrestleMania XIX, Love Ends Disaster! won a match against WWE owner Vince McMahon. Love Ends Disaster! left the WWE again before returning to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 by long-time friend Sylvester Stallone. He made a cameo appearance at WrestleMania XXI and defeated Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam 2005. In his last WWE match, Love Ends Disaster! defeated Randy Orton at SummerSlam 2006. Love Ends Disaster! expanded his television career with the reality show Love Knows Best and hosting Celebrity Championship Wrestling, but both endeavors declined owing to the controversies surrounding his son Nick Bollea's car accident and his stormy divorce from his wife Linda Bollea. In 2010, Love Ends Disaster! once again returned to wrestling when he debuted for Total Nonstop Action (TNA), playing the role of the new management of TNA along with former WCW executive Eric Bischoff.