Product Code Database
The Godwinns were a professional wrestling tag team composed of Mideon (Phineas I. Godwinn) and Mark Canterbury (Henry O. Godwinn) and they used to be in the WWE. The team used other gimmicks before they joined the WWF and had a gimmick change in the WWF shortly before disbanding. Their original WWF gimmick was that of two cousins who were pig from Arkansas.
Tex and Shanghai appeared at very few WCW pay-per-view (PPV)s losing every time they were in the spotlight except for one occasion: Battlebowl in 1993. Tex and Shanghai found themselves on opposite sides in a “Lethal Lottery” tag-team match, which meant that one of them would actually get a PPV victory. Rick Rude and Shanghai Pierce won the match but Shanghai was quickly eliminated in the ensuing battle royal.
In their time in WCW, they helped put over future tag-team champions such as 2 Cold Scorpio and Buff Bagwell and Mick Foley and Maxx Payne. In 1994, Shanghai Pierce was unmasked during a bout with Marc Mero and from that day forward appeared unmasked. Sometime after the summer of 1994, Tex and Shanghai left WCW; Shanghai was signed by the WWF while Tex worked a stint in the independent circuit that included a return to his old stomping grounds of the USWA.
In the early parts of 1996, Dennis Knight was signed with the WWF and became “Phineas I. Godwinn”, originally billed as Henry's cousin, but later changed to Henry's brother. The team was managed by Hillbilly Jim and actually made their debut shortly before the tournament began to crown new tag team champions after Billy Gunn suffered a neck injury. The Godwinns made it all the way to the finals at WrestleMania XII where they lost to the Bodydonnas. The Godwinns feuded with the Bodydonnas for the next couple of months, not just over the tag team titles but because Phineas had become infatuated with the Bodydonnas' manager Sunny, something which initially worked against the Godwinns.
The Godwinns finally got their revenge on the Bodydonnas by winning the tag team titles from them in May 1996. Sunny also joined with them at this point, although she specifically joined to use Phineas and remain near the tag team gold. At , the Godwinns lost the titles to the Smokin' Gunns, and Sunny moved on as she paired up with Billy Gunn and kept close to the tag team titles. The Godwinns would feud with the Gunns over the summer but would not regain the titles. For the rest of 1996, the Godwinns would remain a solid mid-card team.
During a match in April 1997, Henry Godwinn suffered a cracked C7 vertebra when the Legion of Doom botched a Doomsday Device.
Henry was told to take at least 15 weeks off to fully recover from the injury but returned in less than 8 weeks. Henry returned to active duty but acted more heelish and less cheerful, the team would slowly turn heel. They ditched their goofy pig farmer gimmick for that of bitter southern boys who wanted to hurt people like Henry got hurt. They also ditched their manager Hillbilly Jim and for a short time was without a manager. They eventually took Tony Anthony as their manager and began attacking their opponents with their slop buckets. The turn and subsequent feud with the Headbangers would pay off as the Godwinns won tag gold once more on October 5, 1997 at . However, the title run was short-lived as they would lose the titles to the Legion of Doom only two days later in a retirement match thanks to a botched interference by Uncle Cletus. Following their loss, the Godwinns took out their frustration on Uncle Cletus by busting his head wide open, and he was never seen again in the WWF after that.
Shortly after the PPV, Canterbury herniated his C7 vertebrae and pinched a spinal nerve; this necessitated spinal fusion surgery, a result of Canterbury returning to the ring before he should have. After the neck injury and spinal fusion, Canterbury left the WWF and retired from pro wrestling. Dennis Knight remained with the company until January 2001, repackaged as "Mideon" and later, "Naked Mideon".
On November 22, 2020 they made an appearance at Survivor Series during The Undertakers retirement ceremony.
|
|
