During his time in Ohio Valley Wrestling, his bitter feud with Joey Mercury finally ended with a surprise victory in December 2006.
He began watching Championship Wrestling from Florida as early as 7 years old and was a fan of Sting, Dusty Rhodes and The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal).
[1] He 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.
While at Marshall he played college football where he moved from tight end to Center due to having two All Conference upper classmen in front of him.
The particular bar that he worked at occasionally hosted wrestling events and, at one of these, he was asked to be a last minute replacement for a local wrestler that was unable to show up.
He spent months training under Ricky Reyes and Rocky Romero with several other students including Pinoy Boy before making his debut in Ultimate Pro Wrestling.
Through Ricky Reyes, Groothuis appeared at the promotion's Saturday light shows then held at the LA Boxing Club in Huntington Beach.
UPW "Reunion": Season's Beatings, a dvd released by the promotion, featured a Four Corner match between himself, Ruckus, Bison and Horshu.
[1] On February 5, 2003, Groothuis substituted for one of the IZW Tag Team Champions during a title defense against the Killer Klowns at the Rodeo Nights in Phoenix.
In October, he beat Kharma and teamed with Hollywood Yates at an Ultimate Pro Wrestling losing to Rikishi & Skulu at the end of the month.
Groothuis was assigned to its developmental territory Deep South Wrestling and, on September 1, he appeared on the promotion's debut show defeating "Irish" Ryan O'Reilly.
Both Freakin Deacon and Cannon continued attacking Groothuis, including whipping him into the ring steps, until Nick Patrick arrived to break it up.
During the match, Freakin Deacon was disqualified after assaulting the referee however he continued to further injure Groothuis until Mac Johnson and High Impact (Tony Santorelli & Mike Taylor) ran into the ring on his behalf.
On March 11, Groothuis defeated Pat Buck, Discord, Chuck Evans, Luis Almodovar and Mikey Batts in a six-way match.
[10] Although losing to Cody Runnels and Elijah Burke on June 3, he won a battle royal to become the number one contender to the OVW Heavyweight Championship two days later.
Later that week, he teamed with Cody Runnels and Shawn Spears to beat Vic DeVine, John Bolen and Steele and won a battle royal at the OVW Six Flags show.
Among the participants included John Bolen, Pat Buck, Elijah Burke, Eddie Craven III, Mike Kruel, Lennox Lightfoot, Ranger Milton, Shawn Osborne, Johnny Punch, Seth Skyfire, Rod Steele, Shad Gaspard, Neighborhoodie, Los Locos (Ramón and Raúl) and The Untouchables.
However, he and Steve Lewington defeated Idol Stevens and Joey Mercury on December 9 and, with CM Punk, beat them in a rematch at an OVW television taping.
On January 10, Groothuis appeared with Sosay to perform a "Feat of Strength" with help from Justin "The Ox" LaRoche and Charles "The Hammer" Evans.
[14][15] Returning to the independent circuit, Groothuis lost to Tank Toland at a Hoosier Pro Wrestling event in Columbus, Indiana on March 3.
A month later, he made a surprise appearance at an IZW show interfering in a match against "Hawaiian Lion" John Williams and Jon VonCross.
Held at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa, Arizona, he was stopped by IZW Board of Directors' representative Strangler Steve King and then attacked by "The Limited Edition" Tommy Drake.
[17] He also appeared in the corner of "Wolf" Hollywood Yates in his match against The Great Ryan Lynch, accompanied by Steve King, on July 17.