Renney grew up in Cranbrook, British Columbia and became interested in wrestling at age seven while watching a televised match between Bruno Sammartino and Gorilla Monsoon.
[4] He gained combat sport experience by earning black belts in both judo and jujutsu, and he moved to Edmonton, Alberta to train as a wrestler.
[8] He continued to compete in various independent promotions, facing such veterans as Greg Valentine, Jim Neidhart, and The Bushwhackers.
[6] Juggernaut began competing regularly with Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling in 1999 and formed a tag team with Biohazard known as Toxic Insanity.
[9][10] Juggernaut held the NWA/ECCW Tag Team Championship once more, winning the belts with Dr. Luther on March 31, 2000, but losing them the same night.
[11] When Kurrgan was stripped of the title for being unable to compete at a show in July, Juggernaut won the vacant championship by defeating Leatherface (Rick Patterson).
[8] During the match, he was legitimately unable to move for several minutes and suffered memory loss after Leatherface hit him with a chair.
[5][6] Three months later, World Championship Wrestling was taping WCW Thunder in Kamloops, British Columbia and recruited Juggernaut and three other local wrestlers for a match.
KroniK won the match in one minute and forty-nine seconds, pinning Juggernaut after performing the High Times.
[14] They did not lose the belts, but they were forced to vacate the title when Wilson left the promotion to sign with World Wrestling Entertainment.
The list included such wrestlers as Samoa Joe, Aaron Idol, Bryan Danielson, and Steve Corino.