Van Hammer

Early life Mark Ty Hildreth was born in Hebron, Maryland, on November 1, 1959. The referee for this match was Hildreth's brother, Dwayne Hildreth. Hildreth had expected to wrestle on the independent circuit for at least a few years. The promotion was booked by Dusty Rhodes, who also served as the booker for WCW. Despite having wrestled just one match, Hildreth was invited to be the opponent for fellow Malenko trainee Marc Mero for the latter's tryout match for WCW.

World Championship Wrestling (1991–1995) Marc Mero was brought in to WCW for a tryout match in 1991, and Hildreth was his opponent. Then booker Dusty Rhodes liked both and signed each of them to contracts, with Hammer signed to a $156,000 deal. Hammer would go on to amass a 42–0 record competing on both house shows and television before finally having his streak ended when he lost a match to Cactus Jack at Clash of the Champions XVII. After the loss, Hammer competed sporadically throughout the rest of the spring (including a brief feud with J. T. Southern) before returning full-time in August 1992. Hammer would fall to Greg Valentine and Nikita Koloff before his push began to accelerate. In September he went on a ten match winning streak, defeating Dallas Page, Vinnie Vegas (Kevin Nash), and Super Invader (Hercules Hernandez). He received a US title shot against Rick Rude on the September 12 episode of WCW Worldwide, where he sustained a knee injury. Upon his return he teamed with Erik Watts at Halloween Havoc and was victorious against The Vegas Connection. For the remainder of October and November he was strongly pushed, going 19–2 in a streak that included victories over Tony Atlas, The Barbarian, and Mustafa Saed. He would also team with Brad Armstrong in a brief feud with Page and Vegas.

On the November 21 episode of WCW Worldwide, Hammer was entered into the Jesse "The Body" Ventura Strongest Arm Tournament and defeated Vinnie Vegas. On the December 12 episode, Hammer upset Big Van Vader to advance to the finals against WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ron Simmons. The following week Hammer defeated Simmons to win the arm wrestling challenge.

Hammer teamed with Sting and was victorious in a tag-team match on the November 21 episode of WCW Saturday Night, defeating Rick Rude & Cactus Jack via disqualification. On a November 26 house show at the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia, Hammer was given a broken nose by Rick Rude during an eight-man tag-team main event match held in a thunderdome cage match. He would be out for a month before returning on the February 9 taping of WCW Power Hour. Hammer continued to be a mainstay on Saturday Night, winning the majority of his matches.

In addition to making a television appearance in November 1993 (due to the pre-taping in July) in the Jesse Ventura arm-wrestling challenge, Hammer's name was also mentioned on the January 4 episode of WCW Main Event in a segment with Diamond Dallas Page. The heel randomly drew names out a fishbowl, and Hammer's name was one of the selections. He returned November 29, 1994, and was defeated by Dick Slater at a television taping.

On the January 21, 1995, episode of WCW Pro (taped on December 4, 1994, in Dalton, Georgia) another challenge was made by Diamond Dallas Page, this time a call to defend his arm wrestling title. Van Hammer made a surprise appearance to accept the challenge and Page faked an arm injury and called it off. Hammer took a hiatus from wrestling.

World Wrestling Federation (1993) On July 26, 1993, Hildreth received a tryout match at a WWF Superstars taping in Utica, New York. Wrestling as Van Hammer, he worked as a heel and was defeated by Virgil. Van Hammer quickly rebounded and began another winning streak over the following weeks on Nitro, Thunder, Saturday Night and even on pay-per-view at The Great American Bash on June 13 by defeating Mikey Whipwreck. Hildreth was reported to be driving at 58 mph in a 35 mph zone when he hit a 5-year-old child who was riding a bicycle. The child reportedly flew on to the hood of Hildreth's car and suffered internal injuries, but ultimately survived. In May 2020, Hildreth pleaded guilty to both charges, and as a result was sentenced to one year of probation, one year of driver's license revocation, and he was required to have an interlock device placed in his vehicle at all times.

Death Hildreth died on April 18, 2026, at the age of 66.

Championships and accomplishments Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI ranked him #112 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 1993 PWI ranked him #402 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003 World Championship Wrestling Jesse Ventura Strongest Arms Arm Wrestling Tournament (1992) Wrestling Observer Newsletter Most Embarrassing Wrestler (1991)