Harry Del Rios (September 17, 1973) is an American professional wrestler. Rios is best known as the Spellbinder and Phantasio from WWE, however, he has competed under many other ring names during his career.
Professional wrestling career
United States Wrestling Association (1993-1995)
Del Rios' first prominent wrestling role was in the United States Wrestling Association. He debuted there on September 13, 1993. He wrestled as the Spellbinder for the first 4 matches of his career, then switched to wrestling under his real name, then switched back to the Spellbinder gimmick in March 1994. He would use the Spellbinder gimmick for the reminder of his time in USWA. His last USWA match was in October 1995. He continued to wrestle in various Memphis promotions after leaving the USWA. He won the NWA North American Tag Team Title with Brian Christopher in 1999, and the Power Pro Wrestling Heavyweight title in 2000.
World Wrestling Federation (1995)
He made one appearance in World Wrestling Federation (WWF), on the July 16, 1995 episode of Wrestling Challenge. He portrayed a babyface named "Phantasio", a magician wrestler. Phantasio wore a black and white mime mask (which he handed to a young fan sitting at ringside) that revealed matching facepaint when removed. He defeated Tony DeVito by sneaking up from behind, and magically pulling out his boxers allowing him to roll up DeVito for the victory. After the match, he magically removed the boxers (black and white colored) of referee Earl Hebner. Though he never again appeared on TV, he did wrestle a match against Rad Radford at a house show in a victorious effort.
NWA:TNA (2002)
Harry Del Rios competed on NWA:TNA's first-ever broadcast on June 19, 2002. He wrestled as Del Rios (essentially a rip-off of Scott Steiner and his "Big Poppa Pump" character), but was not used by TNA after the initial broadcast.
Later career
In 2003, Rios made a short lived comeback as Shock. He teamed up with wrestler Awe ("British Storm" Ian Harrison). The team would wrestle primarily in Memphis Wrestling.
In the January 2007 issue of WWE Magazine, there is a short interview with Harry Del Rios concerning the Phantasio character. Del Rios claims that the idea originated as a combination of the Ultimate Warrior and Legion of Doom gimmicks. He also hinted at a possible return of the Phantasio persona.
On June 2, 2012 Del Rios revived The Phantasio character at Pro Wrestling Syndicate in a winning effort against Simon Dean in Rahway, NJ.
Championships and accomplishments
- Memphis Wrestling
- Memphis Wrestling Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWA Main Event
- NWA North American Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Brian Christopher
- Power Pro Wrestling
- Power Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI ranked Spellbinder # 452 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 1994
- PWI ranked Spellbinder # 346 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 1996
- PWI ranked Spellbinder # 260 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 1997
- United States Wrestling Association
- USWA Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
- Xcitement Wrestling Federation
- XWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- XWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ian Harrison
