Peter Jacob Gruner (born May 11, 1974 in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American professional wrestler known by his ring name Billy Kidman.

Kidman is best known for his work with World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Career

Gruner or Kidman grew up in Allentown, in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley region. He joined the WCW and ultimately gained fame as a key member of several strong wrestling factions. In addition to being a member of Raven's Flock, he also was a member of the Filthy Animals and later New Blood. As a member of these factions, Gruner participated in memorable rivalries with top WCW names, including Hulk Hogan, Jeff Jarrett, Rey Mysterio, and others. All throughout his tenure his opponents found it difficult to powerbomb him.

In 2000, Gruner appeared in the movie, Ready to Rumble, alongside many other WCW stars.

When the WWF purchased WCW, Gruner, who was still wrestling as Billy Kidman, was among the first to join WWF as a heel in the WCW Alliance. In July 2001, Gruner won the WCW Cruiserweight Championship from Gregory Helms in the first televised WCW match on SmackDown!

Kidman turned face after the WCW/ECW Alliance broke up. He went on to capture the Cruiserweight Championship for the seventh time by defeating Jamie Noble at Survivor Series, later Kidman was placed with a new tag team partner, Paul London. The team went on to win the WWE Tag Team Championship from The Dudley Boyz on July 8, 2004.

The champion run of this face team came to an abrupt end after Kidman turned his back on London, leaving him to wrestle a tag team title match on his own. The heel turn came off the back of a legitimate injury on an August 24, 2004 taping of SmackDown!, where Billy Kidman's Shooting Star Press caused Chavo Guerrero to suffer a concussion and be taken to the hospital.

The pair fought at No Mercy 2004, where Kidman injured London with a shooting star press, while London was strapped to a stretcher. When Chavo returned, he faced off with Kidman in a storyline resulting from the injury.

It has been rumored that Billy Kidman is the reason why the cruiserweights have been "watered down" and many cruiserwights have been banned from performing high-risk moves such as the Shooting Star Press.

Gruner was released from his WWE contract on July 7, 2005. It was rumoured that the reason behind his release was the lack of crowd reaction and unintentional injuries he caused, but Gruner later stated in an interview with the UK newspaper The Sun that it was because he argued with management over their decision to stop booking wrestlers on first class flights overseas. ^[1]

During this first tour of the UK since leaving WWE, Kidman would make a few appearances in independent British promotions. Other than his notable Frontier Wrestling Alliance 3-way match with Jodie Fleisch and Jonny Storm, Kidman would also wrestle British wrestling legend Robbie Brookside in a losing effort during a British rules match to determine the first Real Quality Wrestling Heavyweight Champion.

In 2007, Gruner was at IWA, in a match for the IWA World Heavyweight Championship against Ray Gonzalez.

On Thursday,May 31st, he was added on the WWE Alumni page on WWE Alumni

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves

• Shooting star press (WWE) / Seven Year Itch (WCW)
• B.K. Bomb / Kidman Bomb (Standing sitout spinebuster; can sometimes be performed from the second or top rope)
• Kid Krusher (Jumping inverted double underhook facebuster) - WCW / early WWF
• Kidmankaze (Springboard shooting star press)
• Kidman Factor (Sitout facebuster; also used as a powerbomb counter)
• Fireman's carry into a neckbreaker onto the knee
• Standing dropkick
• Springboard bulldog
• Springboard legdrop

• Managers

• Raven
• Torrie Wilson

Championships and accomplishments

• East Coast Wrestling Association

• ECWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ace Darling
• 2004 inductee to the ECWA Hall of Fame

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him # 313 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003.

• Trans-World Wrestling Federation

• TWWF Cruiserweight Championship (1 time)

• United States Wrestling Association

• USWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) (with Ace Darling)

• World Championship Wrestling

• WCW Cruiserweight Championship (3 times)
• WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Rey Misterio, Jr.
• WCW World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Rey Misterio, Jr. (1) and Konnan (1)

• World Wrestling Entertainment

• WCW Cruiserweight Championship (2 times)
• WWE Cruiserweight Championship (2 times)
• WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Paul London

Personal life

Gruner was married to WWE Diva Torrie Wilson, with whom he resided in Tampa, Florida. The couple's Tampa residence was featured on the 55th episode of MTV Cribs. However on October 17, 2006, Wilson announced on her MySpace blog that she was in the stages of divorcing her husband, although the post was quickly removed. Gruner then confirmed the news of his divorce on a radio show in February 2007 and revealed that the process had yet to be finalized.

Gruner also owns a tanning salon near Florida. The place was once used to film a TNA storyline in 2006 when Alex Shelley stalking Christian Cage's wife.

Gruner's cousin, Michael Altieriaka Mikey Batts, is also a professional wrestler, and was partly trained by Gruner.

References

• Billy Kidman at Bodyslamming.com.
• "Kidman: Why I was Fired" (interview with British newspaper The Sun).