In March 2005, Groothuis signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment.
20 Facts About Gregg Groothuis
1.
2.
Gregg Groothuis was initially assigned to Deep South Wrestling and then to Ohio Valley Wrestling at the end of the year.
3.
Gregg Groothuis began watching Championship Wrestling from Florida as early as 7 years old and was a fan of Sting, Dusty Rhodes and The Road Warriors.
4.
Gregg Groothuis excelled at sports during his teenage years, especially, track, weight lifting and football, where he was a top recruit from the State of Florida as a tight end.
5.
Gregg Groothuis had met Marc Mero while working out at a local Venice gym.
6.
Gregg Groothuis was offered training by the promoter, however he was in the middle of studying for his comps and final exams and turned the offer down.
7.
Gregg Groothuis began training in martial arts soon after this however, being taught by a prominent Japanese Ju-Jitsu master in the Huntington-area, and considered taking part in the Ultimate Fighting Championship but Gregg couldn't dedicate the time needed to excel while working full-time and preparing his Master's Thesis and studying for comps.
8.
Gregg Groothuis was originally going to train at Shawn Michaels' Texas Wrestling Academy in San Antonio, Texas, but instead chose to study at Bill Anderson's School of Hard Knocks school in San Bernardino, California after meeting Superstar Billy Graham.
9.
Gregg Groothuis spent months training under Ricky Reyes and Rocky Romero with several other students including Pinoy Boy before making his debut in Ultimate Pro Wrestling.
10.
Gregg Groothuis had a memorable match with future Ultimate Pro and Pro Wrestling ZERO1 star Skulu training with him for over a month before meeting in the ring.
11.
Gregg Groothuis had a brief stint in IWA Puerto Rico as well as appearances in dark matches on WWE Velocity.
12.
On February 5,2003, Gregg Groothuis substituted for one of the IZW Tag Team Champions during a title defense against the Killer Klowns at the Rodeo Nights in Phoenix.
13.
Midway through the match however, Gregg Groothuis walked out on his partner allowing the Killer Klowns to win the tag team titles.
14.
Gregg Groothuis soon began picking up a string of victories during the next weeks with victories over Eric Alexander, Vik Delicious and, accompanied by Daisy Mae, Ryan O'Reilly.
15.
In less than 30 seconds into the match, Freakin Deacon attacked Gregg Groothuis causing Cannon's disqualification.
16.
When Gregg Groothuis faced Freakin Deacon later that night, his head was bandaged.
17.
The referee began counting out Skyfire, but was stopped by Gregg Groothuis who challenged him to a no disqualification match.
18.
Gregg Groothuis beat him via disqualification in a mixed tag team match teaming with Katie Lea against Mercury and Beth Phoenix.
19.
Three days later, Gregg Groothuis was one of many wrestlers including Seth Skyfire, Thomas Farra, Tracy Taylor, Mike Taylor and Tony Salantri who were released from developmental contracts as part of a general cost-saving measure.
20.
On January 2,2008, Gregg Groothuis was scheduled to perform a stunt during an interpromotional supercard between IZW and NWA Arizona, the latter promotion closing and merging with IZW.