Mark Ty Hildreth (born November 11, 1959) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenures in World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Van Hammer or simply Hammer. Early life Before becoming a wrestler, Hildreth joined the United States Navy after graduating from high school and traveled around the world while on tour. Professional wrestling career Early career (1991) After being trained by Boris Malenko and Dan Spivey, Hildreth made his debut on July 19, 1991, as "The Hammer", teaming with "Iceman" King Parsons to defeat Billy Travis and Khris Germany in a tag team match for the North Georgia Wrestling Alliance. 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. However the promotion was being booked by Dusty Rhodes, who also served as the booker for World Championship Wrestling. 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 inked to a $156,000 deal. In September 1991, Hildreth joined World Championship Wrestling as "Heavy Metal" Van Hammer, a rock star gimmick. He made his debut for the promotion at Clash of the Champions XVI, where he squashed Terrance Taylor in 39 seconds. He immediately was thrust unto the house show circuit, defeating Taylor in multiple rematches as well as defeating Oz and Cactus Jack. He made his WCW television debut on the October 15 episode of Saturday Night, defeating Paul Lee. Twelve days later, he made his pay-per-view debut at Halloween Havoc, defeating Doug Somers. On November 3, he gained a non-title victory over WCW TV Champion Steve Austin at a house show in Charleston, West Virginia. 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. At Starrcade, Hammer teamed with Big Josh in a losing effort to Steve Austin and Rick Rude. After briefly continuing his tag team with Big Josh, Hammer returned to singles competition and