[4] He is trained in freestyle wrestling, rugby, football, sambo, kickboxing, judo, jujutsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts.

Prudius also had a role in Grindhouse, appearing in the Werewolf Women of the SS trailer; in addition to his credit under his real name and his WWE persona for the appearance as well as being a former Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) Heavyweight Champion, Prudius was the first Ukrainian to ever wrestle for the WWE.

[3] He has also played American football for the Ukraine national team as well as Santa Barbara City College.

On May 5, 2006, Prudius had his first untelevised WWE match during a house show in San Jose, California, defeating Rob Conway.

He then was taken off television for over a year while working in the developmental system Ohio Valley Wrestling and participating in a number of dark matches against Val Venis, Eugene Dinsmore, Super Crazy, including defeating Scotty 2 Hotty at Armageddon 2006, all of which he won.

He defeated Matt Bentley in his first match,[8] and over the following weeks, Kozlov would go on to easily win several matches, first against local talent and then established names including Colin Delaney,[9] Funaki,[10] Nunzio,[11] Shannon Moore,[12] Jimmy Wang Yang,[13] Jamie Noble,[14] and Domino.

[15] On the July 11 episode of SmackDown, Kozlov debuted an entrance theme and Titantron video as he defeated Stevie Richards.

On the November 7 episode of SmackDown, Kozlov earned a match against Triple H for the WWE title at Survivor Series after defeating The Undertaker by disqualification after he was attacked by Jeff Hardy.

Continuing his pursuit of the WWE Championship, Kozlov competed in and was unsuccessful in winning a Beat the Clock Challenge match against ECW Champion Matt Hardy for another title shot.

This led to the two meeting at Armageddon, where Kozlov gained his first pay-per-view win by defeating Hardy in a non-title match.

He then qualified to be part of the No Way Out Elimination Chamber match, where he was pinned for the first time after receiving a Last Ride from The Undertaker, though he still remained unpinned in one-on-one competition.

[19] Kozlov's undefeated streak in televised singles competition ended on the March 2, 2009 episode of Raw, in which he was defeated by Shawn Michaels;[20] this match was for the opportunity to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25.

On the June 30 episode of ECW on Syfy, he teamed with William Regal to defeat Christian and Tommy Dreamer.

On the May 31 episode of Raw, Kozlov turned face for the first time when he slammed William Regal behind the referee's back during a mixed tag team match, allowing Santino Marella and Eve Torres to pick up the win.

On the November 15 episode of Raw, Kozlov and Marella defeated The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) to be number one contenders for WWE Tag Team Championship.

Kozlov and Marella challenged Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel for the WWE Tag Team Championship at Survivor Series, but were unsuccessful.

On the December 6 episode of Raw, Kozlov and Marella captured the WWE Tag Team Championship by defeating the defending champions Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel, Mark Henry and Yoshi Tatsu, and The Usos in a four-way elimination tag team match.

At TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, Kozlov and Marella defeated Slater and Gabriel via disqualification to retain the title.

On August 30, 2011, it was announced that Prudius would be making his first post-WWE appearance on September 3, working for the Japanese promotion Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) under his new ring name Alexander Kozlov.

[41] On the October 12, 2023, edition of Impact Wrestling, Prudius returned to assist Dirty Dango in a five-way match.

[42][43] Prudius has made many television and film appearances and is actively pursuing an acting career in Hollywood.

He appeared in the second season of the HBO drama series The Wire, as well as Roksalana and It's Not To Easy on Ukrainian TV.