Maxx Payne

Peterson worked for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in March 1986, and put together the steel cage used in the main event of WrestleMania 2. With his training complete, he debuted in June 1987 and soon after traveled to Japan to work for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he trained in the New Japan Dojo alongside fellow gaijin Chris Benoit for five months.[3]

In 1988, Peterson developed the character Max Pain (short for "Maximum Pain"), a sinister, grungy, Jimi Hendrix-loving heavy metal guitarist.[5] His original idea was Lucifer Payne, but he felt that this was too foreboding. He used the name Max Payne, hailing from Hell's Kitchen, New York nationally in the United States as well as in Europe and Japan. Following a short stint with the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), Pain debuted in the Tennessee-based Continental Wrestling Association (CWA). He quickly began pursuing the CWA Heavyweight Championship, and on February 8, 1988 in Memphis he defeated Jerry Lawler to win the championship. He then went after Lawler's AWA World Heavyweight Championship, but was unable to win the title. He forfeited the CWA Championship to Brickhouse Brown on May 23, but won the title once more on June 27. His second reign ended on July 10 when he was defeated by Phil Hickerson.[6]

Pain left the CWA after a year before returning to Utah, where he opened his own promotion, featuring wrestlers such as Louie Spicolli. He also made an appearance under his real name as a jobber on a February 1989 episode of WWF Prime Time Wrestling, losing to Bret Hart. After his employees began to leave the territory, Peterson applied for a job with WordPerfect. Soon after, he received a phone call from Benoit, who invited him to join an upcoming tour of Germany. Peterson received his plane ticket to Germany half an hour before he received a job offer from WordPerfect, so decided to join the tour. He spent six months in the German Catch Wrestling Association as Heavy Metal Buffalo and won the vacant CWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship on October 25, 1992, defeating Giant Haystacks. He then successfully defended the title against The Warlord at Euro Catch Festival on December 19. He vacated the title the following year when he returned to the United States.[3][7]

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) booker Bill Watts was impressed by Peterson's amateur credentials, and hired him in 1993, with Peterson relocating to Marietta, Georgia. Peterson made his televised debut in WCW as the villain Maxx Payne on the January 30, 1993 episode of Worldwide by defeating local competitor Scott Allen.[8] Peterson's first pay-per-view match was at SuperBrawl III, where he played Taps[9] on his guitar before challenging Dustin Rhodes for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship, substituting for the injured Ron Simmons. After Rhodes locked him in an abdominal stretch from which he was unable to escape, Payne pushed the referee over rather than submit and was subsequently disqualified.[3][10]

At the June 17 Clash of the Champions XXIII, Payne shot Johnny B. Badd in the face with a confetti gun, (kayfabe) scarring him so badly that he had to wear a mask and forcing him to forfeit their scheduled match.[11] This led to a match at Beach Blast on July 18, which Payne lost.[12] They faced one another again at the August 18 Clash of the Champions XXIV in a mask versus guitar match, with Payne putting his guitar on the line in order to unmask and therefore humiliate the mutilated Badd. Badd won once more and took Payne's guitar.[3][13]

Payne took part in WCW's Jesse "The Body" Ventura Strong-Arm Tournament in late 1993, but was eliminated in the first round by Sid Vicious. On November 20, Payne entered the Battlebowl, a tournament which saw randomly assigned tag team partners work together in order to progress to a battle royal. He was partnered with 2 Cold Scorpio, with whom he lost in the first round to Stunning Steve Austin and Ric Flair.[14] Payne later turned face and formed a tag team with Cactus Jack towards the end of the year. At Starrcade 1993 they defeated Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce,[15] and at the January 27, 1994 Clash of the Champions XXVI, they defeated The Nasty Boys.[16] They faced the Nasty Boys once more, this time for the WCW World Tag Team Championships, in a Chicago Street Fight at Spring Stampede 1994, but were defeated.[3] [17]

During his and Jack's feud with The Nasty Boys, Payne had become increasingly unhappy with their stiffness and insistence on controlling the match. During their brawl at SuperBrawl IV, Brian Knobbs and Payne did not cooperate on a fall, and Knobbs broke his shoulder as a result. After the match, WCW President Eric Bischoff shouted at Payne for hurting Knobbs, and Payne responded in kind. As a result, he was subsequently buried. He was fired from WCW soon after, although he did help Jack and his new partner, Kevin Sullivan, defeat The Nasty Boys with a guitar shot.[3]

Man Mountain Rock slams The Brooklyn Brawler.

The morning after he was released by WCW, Peterson was contacted by wrestler Rick Rude, who convinced WWF owner Vince McMahon to hire him. Renamed Man Mountain Rock in honor of early-20th century wrestler Man Mountain Dean, his WWF character was considerably more upbeat and less gritty than the popular Maxx Payne character and did not achieve the same success. Debuting in February 1995 on an episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling, Man Mountain Rock played a large electric guitar shaped like the WWF logo. He would come to the ring during a commercial, with the arena going pitch black and ring announcer Manny Garcia saying "Ladies and Gentlemen, Man Mountain Rock!" He would then play his "axe" (electric guitar) while pyro went off. He would frequently state, "If it's too loud, then you're too old!" Vince McMahon, then a commentator, would often comment that Rock "rocked the house". In the latter part of his WWF tenure, his music incurred the wrath of veteran Bob Backlund, then playing the part of a cantankerous heel crusading against the younger generation, who objected to the music Man Mountain Rock was playing. Man Mountain Rock had suffered several injuries during his amateur career, and had hoped to secure a backstage position with WCW. When he moved to the WWF, he asked to be made an announcer, but his request was denied. His career in the WWF met with several disruptions, including a serious hernia, an addiction to pain pills and downers and a marijuana habit, which ultimately led to his release in October 1995.

While working for the WWF, Peterson filmed several hours of behind-the-scenes footage with a video camera which he often carried and claimed that he would release a documentary called The Thing that Should Not Be or The Real Maxx Payne based on the footage, but never did.[3] The footage reportedly contained scenes showing substance abuse and solicitation.[3]

After WWF, Payne returned to CWA (Germany) as Buffalo Peterson.

In July 2003, Peterson filed a $10 million lawsuit in the United States district court for Utah against Rockstar Games, 3D Realms, Gathering of Developers, and Remedy Entertainment, accusing them of stealing his ring name Maxx Payne and his neo-noir theme for the protagonist of the video game Max Payne.[5][18][19] The case was settled out of court.[20]

On April 17, 2004, Peterson addressed an audience in the Schubert Theater at the Western States College for the Performing Arts in Gooding, Idaho, talking about professional wrestling.[21]