James Michael Curtin (born January 30, 1983 at Birmingham, UK) is a professional wrestler known for his run in TNA/Impact Wrestling as Rockstar Spud. He's also known for his tenure at WWE, where he performed on the Raw brand and was the General Manager of the cruiserweight branch, 205 Live, under the ring name Drake Maverick.
Curtin was trained by Chris Gilbert and Jack Storm, and began wrestling on October 2001. Among his accolades outside of TNA/Impact and WWE, he's 1x IPW:UK Tag Team Champion (with Dragon Phoenix), 1x IPW:UK British Cruiserweight Champion, 1x XWA Flyweight Champion and 1x XWA British Heavyweight Champion, 1x RPW British Cruiserweight Champion, 1x Undisputed British Tag Team Champion (with Dragon Phoenix). He also ranked #100 in PWI's Top-500 singles wrestlers list in 2016.
He arrived on TNA on 2012, taking part on TNA's British Boot Camp, and winning the competition, earning a spot on the roster. Then he went to compete in the X-Division championship tournament before being sent to OVW, TNA's developmental brand, where he became 1x OVW Television Champion. Back on TNA, he became Dixie Carter's chief of staff for a time before winning the X-Division championship twice. Afterwards he was given the role of ring announcer until his departure in 2017.
After his work visa was renewed, he signed a deal with the WWE, debuting as the GM of 205 Live in January 30, 2018. In the main roster he also managed the Tag Team AOP (Akam/Rezar) as well as taking part on the 24/7 Championship skits. He was 6-time 24/7 champion at the promotion. Unfortunately, his career at the promotion was cut short when budget cuts imposed by management resulted in Maverick getting released from his contract, along with dozens of other WWE wrestlers and personnel. Despite the release, he still participated in the WWE Interim Cruiserweight Championship Tournament in NXT where he made all the way to the final before losing to El Hijo del Fantasma. Afterwards, he was given a new contract.
Rockstar tropes!
- Finishing Move: A Corkscrew 450° Splash called "Spudsault", and a Frog Splash called "Five Stone Frog Splash".
- Happily Married: With fellow professional wrestler and WWE Mae Young Classic competitor Renee Michelle.
- The Mentor: Trained Max Heat.
- Signature Move: An Acid Drop called the "Underdog", a Diving Elbow Drop, a Diving Leg Drop, an Enzuigiri and a Wheelbarrow Bulldog.
- Artifact Title / Non-Indicative Name: Apart from one comedy segment while looking for AJ Styles, the "Rockstar" name has nothing to do with his current gimmick. Still, he keeps it just because he knows it confuses and upsets people.
- Battle Butler: Subverted—he is actually a wrestler, but in his current character he often gets himself in matches against guys he has no business facing.
- Bratty Half-Pint/The Napoleon: Tigre Uno's about the same size as Spud (an inch or two shorter, 10-15 pounds heavier), but has been treated seriously his whole time in TNA. Uno's win loss record might actually be worse that Spud's, but his matches are always competitive. He always goes down fighting, is a Masked Luchador, and doesn't hang around as the servant boy of larger wrestlers, so he actually comes off better—at least before Spud's Heel–Face Turn.
- Butt-Monkey
- Deliberately Monochrome: He bled very heavily during his hair vs hair match against ECIII on Impact, which lead someone, presumably Destination America, to cut the color.
- Determinator: As a Face. Never gives up despite the fact that he's the quintessesial Butt-Monkey of TNA.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Played with. When someone calls him by his birth name (James) he retorts "Who's James?!"
- Evil Brit / Foreign Wrestling Heel: As a heel, plays up the whole "servant of his queen" so much you wonder if his country of origin is England or Dixieland.
- Face–Heel Turn: Was generally treated as a cocky face or tweener whenever he showed up before becoming Dixie's Chief of Staff.
- Heel–Face Turn: However, after being humillated by Ethan Carter III, he finally retaliates as a Face.
- Face/Heel Double-Turn: Since he hasn't forgiven EC3, he responded to Ethan's face turn in early 2016 with a turn back to heel.
- Groin Attack: Performed the dreaded testicular claw on ECIII during their hair vs hair match.
- Joke Character
- Lethal Joke Character: In his "The Dog Bites Back" face turn against EC3.
- Large Ham: He's FIERCE! He's a LION! He's a TIGER! He SLAPS DAVEY RICHARDS IN THE FACE! …
- Multinational Team: He, an englishman, took part on TNA's Global Impact Tournament in 2015 in a stable shared with a scottish (Drew Galloway), a pair of japaneses (The Great Muta and SANADA), a mexican (Tigre Uno), other englishmen (Bram and Nick Aldis), an american (Sonjay Dutt), an indian (Khoya/Mahabali Shera), and a canadian (Angelina Love). The name of the team? Team International.
- Power Stable:
- The Firm, with Leroy Kincaide, Martin Stone, Sha Samuels and Terry Frazier.
- Team Rockstar, with Alex Cyanide, Axl Rage, JD Sassoon and Stallion.
- Dixieland in TNA, with EC3, TNA head honcho Dixie Carter, Magnus and the BroMans (Robbie E and Jessie Godderz).
- Power Trio: VIP, with Danny Rio and Joey Hayes.
- Tag Team:
- Double Platinum, with Ryan Howe.
- Dragon Hearts, with Dragon Phoenix.
- Tournament Arc: Won IPW:UK Extreme Measures 2, HCW-UK RumbleMania 2007 and XWA Gold Rush 2009.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Finally delivers one to EC3 on the June 3rd, 2015 episode. He unleashes on him about the way he treated him when Spud was the chief of staff (and then consequently fired). He finishes by cashing in his X-Division belt to challenge Kurt at Destination X.
- Bring My Brown Pants: At Survivor Series 2018, he peed himself when Big Show was about to attack him.
- Butt-Monkey: Since the, um, incident at Survivor Series 2018, he's been relegated to an absolute laughingstock on Raw.
- Excrement Statement: He stole Bobby Roode's robe, threw it into a toilet, and peed on it.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: He's the heel manager of AOP on Raw, and the ostensibly face Reasonable Authority Figure of 205 Live. Both are occasionally acknowledged on the other show but generally ignored.
- Mistaken Identity: R-Truth mistook him for Hornswoggle.
- The Napoleon: As manager of AOP, he is absolutely dwarfed by his clients. He doesn't lose an ounce of confidence over it though.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His overzealous desire to score the pinfall in the 3-on-2 handicap match against Roode and Gable ended up singlehandedly losing his clients their titles.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Of the managerial variety. Maverick makes it perfectly clear that no amount of kissing up (like flowers sent by Drew Gulak) or possessing the same refined taste in clothing (like Jack Gallagher) will dissuade him from telling you to start living up to the expectations he's setting for the new era of 205 Live.
- Serious Business: Takes his job as 205 Live GM very seriously, going so far as to deconstruct the goofy, character-oriented route that a number of cruiserweight stars like Tony Nese and Drew Gulak had gone down and remind them of who they originally were when they were introduced to WWE fans via the WWE Cruiserweight Classic.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With R-Truth for the 24/7 title, to the point of going to rather extreme lengths such as putting a bounty on Truth's head so that he will buy it from the wrestler who pinned Truth, Million Dollar Man-style.
