Vega was a high school football player, and was named to All-Section, All-conference, and All-county 1st teams in his junior and senior years.
In February 2006 at Against All Odds, Vega debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as "Machete", replacing Apollo as a member of The Latin American Xchange (LAX).
pushing Konnan, who at that time was using a wheelchair due to hip surgery, to the ring for LAX's tag team match against Shark Boy and Norman Smiley.
Machete played a major role in keeping LAX Tag Champions by interfering first at Against All Odds then again at Destination X in matches against Team 3D.
His North American title reign was short lived however after Rodz found that Vega had begun working in the Pennsylvania independent circuit without his approval.
Some of his highlights included a pair of victories over Shane Mclain and wins over Preston James, Bruno Sassi, and a West Miami battle royale.
Later Vega earned the honor of wrestling at the Philips Arena in a tribute show to Ric Flair for his induction into the NWA Hall of Fame.
During this time Vega also began teaming with Glamour Boy Shane in their run for the IWA tag titles, eventual split and rivalry with one another in Puerto Rico.
Ricky Vega trained many of Florida's independent stars of today and helped mold them with the launch of FXE's Crush Live shows.
The RS Express received a rematch on Total Impact, the IWA's television show, which ended in another disqualification after Douglas hit Vega with the championship belt.
Savio refused to listen to them and when Blitz turned to seek further assistance from Ricky, he was attacked by the latter thus forming an alliance between the Vega cousins.
Ricky's tag team partner Shane attempted to stop the beating but was attacked by the faction, referred to as "Los Autenticos."
Ricky later blamed Shane for costing him the opportunity to win the tag team titles and the former teammates began a historic feud.
In the rematch, which was billed as a Puerto Rican Street fight, Vega again came out victorious, and earned a shot at the Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship; however, the match was not a singles match, but a five-way dance, also featuring Blitz the defending champion, Shane, Mr. Big from the World Wrestling Council and Bison Smith, who was representing Japan.
He went on to successfully defend the title against Shane Sewell, Germán Figueroa, Ray González, Miguel Perez and Freddie "Blitz" Lozada among others.
In April 2008, an ownership dispute between Mario Savoldi and Savio Vega halted promotional events and the company stopped running shows.
After the match, Ricky was given an emotional send off by fans perhaps sensing the end was near for high level wrestling in Puerto Rico with fewer opportunities for the company to import top notch American talent.