He attended Jim Thorpe High School, where he competed in amateur wrestling, American football, and basketball.
[1] In 1985, Petrucci, as The Masked Assassin, and The Spoiler lost a match against Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
In 1988, he and Ron Shaw formed the Executioners and made their way to Jim Crockett's National Wrestling Alliance to work against the New Breed (Chris Champion and Sean Royal).
At this time he also formed the tag team The Darkside Demons, alternating between Snitsky and Harper until he felt they were ready to wrestle on their own.
Returned to the DWF/LOCO wrestling promotion in New Jersey and Pa. to win the tag team championship titles, which they defended in March.