Jon Trosky

Trosky became interested in professional wrestling at an early age when he and his brother were taken to see a World Wrestling Federation show at the local Catholic Youth Center in Scranton. Learning amateur wrestling in elementary school, he eventually had a successful career in high school winning district championships in folk style and placements in state tournaments for Greco-Roman freestyle wrestling. He also took second place at the Keystone State Games. Trosky was offered athletic scholarships to Wilkes University and King's College among others. After deciding to attend Wilkes, his scholarship was withdrawn a week before the semester as he had been competing professionally in violation of NCAA regulations. He eventually attended Bloomsburg University graduating with a degree in mass communications in 2003[1] and later received a master's degree in interactive instructional technology.[2]

He and a friend, Garrett Orban, began competing in "backyard wrestling" as teenagers with Trosky using the name "The Comet Warrior". Trosky, along with Orban and Brian Dorshefski, also set up rings for Extreme Championship Wrestling and other local promotions,[3] in part to Orban's friendship with local wrestling promoter Dan Kowal. Kowal, founder of GLOW, Women's Extreme Wrestling and The Wrestling Zone, later expressed interest in booking him and his friends after seeing one of their tapes in November 1998. They were originally supposed to appear in Kowal's WWWA promotion in February 1999, however several show cancellations pushed back his debut for several months. On May 22, 1999, Trosky had his first professional wrestling match against Garrett Dominance (Garrett Orban) in Malvern, Pennsylvania.[4]

A few months later, he and another friend, Brian Dorshefski, traveled to Tennessee and Kentucky where he began his initial training with Mike Promo where he learned ring psychology and southern style wrestling. After two weeks, he returned to Pennsylvania and eventually started training at the Wild Samoan Pro Wrestling Training Center in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. As well as Afa and Sal Bellomo, other wrestlers involved in his training included Samula Anoa'i and former graduates Jake Molsonn and Tommy Suede.[3] He graduated four months later, two months less than the standard six-month program, although he continued to train at the center throughout his early career and, in October 2000, he became an assistant instructor at the school. He also trained at the East Coast Pro Wrestling school and in the Tennessee-Kentucky area.[2][4]

On June 23, 2001, Trosky was one of 16 light heavyweight wrestlers who competed in Jersey Championship Wrestling's J-Cup Tournament, a version of the Super 8 Tournament, and was eliminated by JCW Light Heavyweight Champion "Superstar" Dave Greco in the opening rounds. Other participants included the 2001 Super 8 Winner Low Ki, 2000 J-Cup winner Judas Young, EWF Light Heavyweight Champion Mike Quackenbush, UCW Heavyweight Champion Xavier, The S.A.T. (Amazing Red, Jose and Joel Maximo), Shark Boy,"Sure Thing" Ryan Wing, Little Dixie, Queenan Creed, White Lotus, Dylan Cage and Felipe the Pool Boy.[5] Trosky also entered the 2002 J-Cup Tournament losing to American Dragon in the opening rounds in Lodi, New Jersey on June 15, 2002.[6]

On February 2, 2008, Trosky challenged Judas Young for the NWA Pro Television Championship at the Knights of Columbus in Lodi, New Jersey.[7] Awarded the Xero World Championship, he defended the title against Julio Dinero at Frontline: Countdown to Xtinction at the Abderdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Maryland on February 23.[8] In December, he defended the WAW American title in a champion vs. champion match against WAW Heavyweight Champion Genesis at NWA WAW's Full Force at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. WAW Cruiserweight Champion The Dynamic Sensation, the kayfabe younger brother of Trosky, was banned from ringside by officials as one of the stipulations for the match.[9][10]

During this time, he made his debut for Afa Anoa'i's World Xtreme Wrestling promotion twice winning the WXW Cruiserweight Championship as well as the WXW Tag Team titles with Tommy Suede. In February 2001, Trosky was made head trainer of the school under Anoa'i himself.[4] On February 24, Trosky was also awarded the WXW Hardcore Championship after defeating the then champion Nicky Ice in a tag team match. Although defending the title for almost a month, he was forced to give back the belt when WXW Commissioner Lotto Money ruled that the title change was voided because, although Trosky had pinned Nicky Ice, the legal man in the ring was Lucifer Grimm. He officially surrendered the title at a WXW show in Hazleton, Pennsylvania on March 9, 2001.[11] While in the promotion, he also appeared on its Yokozuna Memorial Show which starred wrestlers from ECW and the WWF as well as its first international tour appearing at US Army military bases in Japan, Korea, Guam, Okinawa and Hawaii.[1][4] While on the independent circuit, Trosky defeated former WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund.[3]

In 2007, Trosky emerged as the self-appointed "coach" of the "heel" stable in WXW known as TDSLG. By early 2008, the stable saw signs of breaking up after Trosky failed to defeat his old tag team partner Tommy Suede for the WXW Television Championship on January 5, 2008. Later that night, he and his partner The Dynamic Sensation lost to the debuting Island Kings (Samoan Dragon & Monguey) causing Trosky to argue with his partner slapping him in the face. He also confronted Ivan Radski, another stable member, who lost to AJ Sabotoge.[12]

Trosky also tried out for the first season of Tough Enough and was one of the 200 selected but failed to make the final cut. Trosky has since criticized MTV's creative control to resemble a reality television styled show similar to Real World or Road Rules rather than a more realistic training program.[2] Through Rikishi, he later trained with Bill DeMott and Dean Malenko prior to a television taping of WWE SmackDown.[4]

Trosky appeared in other promotions during the next several years including the Heartland Wrestling Association, International Wrestling Cartel, Jersey All Pro Wrestling, the National Wrestling Alliance and Pro Wrestling Unplugged. In late 2004, Trosky taught a semester at Lackawanna College as a photoshop instructor. From 2005 to 2006, he worked as an information technology consultant for Nu-Wrestling Evolution and was also an instructor in mass communications at Northampton Community College the following spring. Trosky toured Italy with Rikishi and other professional wrestlers working with NWE during 2005. Trosky returned to Italy for one more tour that year and then added a tour to Australia in December 2007 with Rikishi, Gangrel and others for several performances in Perth.