Bill Alfonso
- Actor
- Additional Crew
American professional wrestling referee and manager best known for his time in ECW from 1995-2001. He started in Texas in 1979 before moving on to Championship Wrestling from Florida. He was the referee for the infamous Bruiser Brody (Frank Goodish) vs. Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) cage match on January 21, 1987 where Brody stopped cooperating against the young, green Luger, leading to Luger running out on the match. He also worked for WCW, including being the referee who recorded Sting (Steve Borden) making Bobby Eaton submit in the War Games match between Sting's Squadron (Sting/Ricky Steamboat (Richard Blood)/Nikita Koloff/Dustin Rhodes/Barry Windham) and The Dangerous Alliance (Rick Rude/Eaton/Arn Anderson/Steve Austin/Larry Zbyszko (Larry Whistler), with Paul E. Dangerously (Paul Heyman) and Madusa (Debra Ann Miceli)) at WCW Wrestle War (1992). He had a run in WWE, including The Giant Gonzalez (Jorge Gonzáles) Chokeslamming him after losing to The Undertaker (Mark Calaway) at WrestleMania IX (1993).
The Sandman (Jim Fullington) had defeated ECW World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas for the title at ECW Hostile City Showdown 1995 (1995), April 15, 1995, and Douglas had taken issue with the officiating. (Sandman was lying face-up on top of Douglas in a submission hold, but the referee counted Shane's shoulders down.) At ECW Enter Sandman (1995), May 13, 1995, Douglas introduced Alfonso as the new troubleshooting Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission referee. Alfonso announced that if anyone hits him or anyone goes through a table, he would shut the show down. His first test case was Tommy Dreamer and Mikey Whipwreck vs. Raven (Scott Levy) and Stevie Richards (Michael Manna). Raven and Richards won when Alfonso disqualified Dreamer for using a closed fist. (That is an actual rule, but it's one that's practically never enforced.) Alfonso quickly became the most hated guy in ECW history. He would continue making trouble for the next several months. At ECW November to Remember '95 (1995), there was a match, such as it was, between Alfonso and ECW Commissioner Tod Gordon. Beulah McGillicutty (Trisa Hayes), then a heel as Raven's storyline girlfriend, was made the referee. Alfonso attacked her and threw her out of the match. The match went on, complete with Alfonso blading, with no referee. Then Taz (Peter Senerchia), who was injured at the time and had served as the referee for the Konnan (Charles Ashenoff) vs. Jason (Jason Knight) match earlier, walked to the ring. He started to count a Gordon pinfall attempt, stopped, beat up Tod and threw Alfonso on top and counted the pin, thus turning himself heel. Taz explained that none of the fans made any effort to contact him after he suffered a broken neck (as the result of a botched spike piledriver at the hands of 2 Cold Scorpio (Charles Scaggs) and Dean Malenko in a tag match against Taz and Eddie Guerrero) and that Alfonso was the only one who showed any concern about him. This would eventually lead to the Taz-Sabu (Terry Brunk) match at ECW's first PPV, ECW Barely Legal (1997), on April 13, 1997. Taz won the match, and after thanking Sabu for forcing him to work so hard and shaking Sabu's hand, Rob Van Dam, Sabu's tag team partner, attacked Taz. Sabu joined in the beating. Alfonso removed his Taz shirt to show a "Team Taz" (Taz's entourage of anonymous trainees) shirt. He then took that shirt off to reveal a Sabu shirt. Alfonso would manage Sabu and RVD for the rest of ECW's existence.
Alfonso has also worked in XPW, NWA Florida, MLW, AIW, IPW Hardcore Wrestling (Florida) and several other promotions.
In October 2002, Missy Hyatt took Bill Alphonso to court and in particular, the Judge Mathis (1999) TV show. The case centered around the damage Alphonso did to her Porsche. Mathis awarded the case to Hyatt, who received a $500 reward.
The Sandman (Jim Fullington) had defeated ECW World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas for the title at ECW Hostile City Showdown 1995 (1995), April 15, 1995, and Douglas had taken issue with the officiating. (Sandman was lying face-up on top of Douglas in a submission hold, but the referee counted Shane's shoulders down.) At ECW Enter Sandman (1995), May 13, 1995, Douglas introduced Alfonso as the new troubleshooting Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission referee. Alfonso announced that if anyone hits him or anyone goes through a table, he would shut the show down. His first test case was Tommy Dreamer and Mikey Whipwreck vs. Raven (Scott Levy) and Stevie Richards (Michael Manna). Raven and Richards won when Alfonso disqualified Dreamer for using a closed fist. (That is an actual rule, but it's one that's practically never enforced.) Alfonso quickly became the most hated guy in ECW history. He would continue making trouble for the next several months. At ECW November to Remember '95 (1995), there was a match, such as it was, between Alfonso and ECW Commissioner Tod Gordon. Beulah McGillicutty (Trisa Hayes), then a heel as Raven's storyline girlfriend, was made the referee. Alfonso attacked her and threw her out of the match. The match went on, complete with Alfonso blading, with no referee. Then Taz (Peter Senerchia), who was injured at the time and had served as the referee for the Konnan (Charles Ashenoff) vs. Jason (Jason Knight) match earlier, walked to the ring. He started to count a Gordon pinfall attempt, stopped, beat up Tod and threw Alfonso on top and counted the pin, thus turning himself heel. Taz explained that none of the fans made any effort to contact him after he suffered a broken neck (as the result of a botched spike piledriver at the hands of 2 Cold Scorpio (Charles Scaggs) and Dean Malenko in a tag match against Taz and Eddie Guerrero) and that Alfonso was the only one who showed any concern about him. This would eventually lead to the Taz-Sabu (Terry Brunk) match at ECW's first PPV, ECW Barely Legal (1997), on April 13, 1997. Taz won the match, and after thanking Sabu for forcing him to work so hard and shaking Sabu's hand, Rob Van Dam, Sabu's tag team partner, attacked Taz. Sabu joined in the beating. Alfonso removed his Taz shirt to show a "Team Taz" (Taz's entourage of anonymous trainees) shirt. He then took that shirt off to reveal a Sabu shirt. Alfonso would manage Sabu and RVD for the rest of ECW's existence.
Alfonso has also worked in XPW, NWA Florida, MLW, AIW, IPW Hardcore Wrestling (Florida) and several other promotions.
In October 2002, Missy Hyatt took Bill Alphonso to court and in particular, the Judge Mathis (1999) TV show. The case centered around the damage Alphonso did to her Porsche. Mathis awarded the case to Hyatt, who received a $500 reward.
