Sean Christopher Haire (February 25, 1971 – September 8, 2014) was an American professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and kickboxer, better known by his ring name Sean O'Haire.
Haire was best known for his appearances with the professional wrestling promotions World Championship Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment on its SmackDown brand and New Japan Pro-Wrestling in the early to mid-2000s. A three time WCW World Tag Team Champion, O'Haire was named "Rookie of the Year" by the Wrestling Observer in 2000.
Upon retiring from professional wrestling in 2006, Haire competed in mixed martial arts and kickboxing before becoming a hair stylist.
Haire was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but was raised primarily in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Prior to becoming a wrestler, Haire practiced martial arts for many years and won multiple Toughman Contests. He also was part-owner of a Hilton Head fitness center, and attended Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia.
World Championship Wrestling (2000–2001)
After completing his training in the WCW Power Plant, World Championship Wrestling's training school, Haire, using the ring name Sean O'Haire, began making appearances on second-tier WCW television shows such as Worldwide and Saturday Night. Haire made his live television debut on the June 26, 2000 episode of Nitro teaming with his fellow Power Plant graduate Mark Jindrak as they defeated the Filthy Animals (Rey Mysterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera).
On the July 3 episode of Nitro, O'Haire and Jindrak faced the Misfits in Action (General Hugh G. Rection and Corporal Cajun) to determine the number one contenders for the WCW World Tag Team Championship, but were defeated. Despite this, O'Haire and Jindrak faced then-World Tag Team Champions KroniK and Vampiro and The Great Muta in a three-way match for the championship, but were unsuccessful in winning the title. In August, O'Haire and Jindrak helped form the Natural Born Thrillers with Mike Sanders, Shawn Stasiak, Chuck Palumbo, Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli, and Reno. They were briefly mentored by Kevin Nash. In September, O'Haire and Jindrak won the World Tag Team Championship for the first time.
O'Haire and Jindrak won the title once more before splitting when O'Haire and Jindrak participated in a tag team battle royal with the Natural Born Thrillers teammates Stasiak and Palumbo. After the conclusion of the match, Sanders declared both teams victorious and said that the teams should trade partners. As a result, O'Haire formed a new tag team with Palumbo, while the second team consisted of Jindrak and Stasiak.
Palumbo and O'Haire defeated The Insiders (Diamond Dallas Page and Nash) in January 2001. A short time later, the Natural Born Thrillers broke up when Stasiak and Jindrak became jealous of Palumbo and O'Haire's success. The teams met at SuperBrawl Revenge on February 18 for the tag team gold. Palumbo and O'Haire retained their titles. O'Haire and Palumbo next feuded with Totally Buffed (Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger) and defeated them at Greed on March 18 to retain the Tag Team Championship.
Over the following two weeks, O'Haire and Palumbo feuded with Team Canada (Lance Storm and Mike Awesome), defeating them on the final episode of Nitro on March 26. WCW was purchased by the WWF, and both O'Haire and Palumbo's contracts were picked up.
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (2001–2004)
The Alliance and developmental territories (2001–2002)
O'Haire and Palumbo made their WWF debuts on the June 28, 2001, episode of SmackDown! as part of The Alliance, attacking the Hardy Boyz. O'Haire and Palumbo started feuding with the WWF Tag Team Champions the Acolytes Protection Agency in the following weeks, which ended at Invasion on July 22 when the APA defeated O'Haire and Palumbo in a non-title match. Subsequently, O'Haire and Palumbo defeated the Hardy Boyz on the August 2, 2001 edition of SmackDown!.
O'Haire and Palumbo next dropped the WCW Tag Team Championship to the Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane) on the August 9 episode of SmackDown! and lost their rematch for the championship in a cage match the following week on Raw. O'Haire and Palumbo's last televised match together was on the August 26 edition of Heat defeating The Holly Cousins (Hardcore Holly and Crash Holly).
Palumbo was thrown out of The Alliance in late October 2001 and joined the WWF in November. Also in September, O'Haire was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) for seasoning where he joined Kenny Bolin's "Bolin Services". O'Haire returned to WWE on the June 30, 2002 edition of Heat, defeating Justin Credible. He made a few more appearances on Heat, in dark matches and at house shows throughout the rest of 2002. He also made an appearance on the December 23 episode of Raw, in a promo where he played a mall Santa Claus character who tells the kids there’s no Santa, and then reveals himself to be "Big Sean O’Haire."
In January 2003 vignettes started to appear on WWE programming showing O'Haire in his new gimmick — a Devil's advocate character a la Ralph Fiennes in Strange Days. He urged people to commit adultery, break the law, not pay taxes, and not go to church, among other things. He ended each vignette with the line "I'm not telling you anything you don't already know." In 2003, O'Haire returned to the main SmackDown! roster, telling various superstars to perform indecent acts, which included persuading Spanky to streak through the arena and Dawn Marie to flash the audience.
O'Haire's persona included a long black trench coat he wore to the ring and his obsession with spiders, including fairly new tattoos with black flames on each wrist and a red spider web shooting out from the flames on his left wrist and a blue spider web on his right wrist. His Titantron video was also inside the body of a spider with a spiderweb in the background. He quickly came under the tutelage of wrestling legend, Roddy Piper in April 2003. His new persona was abandoned but he held victories over major stars Rikishi, Funaki, Mr. America by count out, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero. He would lose in-house show to Rikishi, Chris Benoit, Billy Gunn, Bill Demott, John Cena, Orlando Jordan and Rhyno. WWE officially released Piper from his contract on June 26, 2003, right after O'Haire and Piper made their last appearance together on SmackDown!. O'Haire continued on his own mainly on Velocity. In late November 2003, he was involved in a motorcycle accident that required stitches and kept him out of action for the next month or so. When he recovered in February, he was sent back to OVW and had a few matches against John Cena in house shows before being released from his contract on April 3, 2004.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and later career (2004–2006)