Professional Wrestling Career
Drozdov was originally an indie wrestler fighting under the names of Drozzy King Lake, Darren "Ripping Yarns" Laxingham and DD Da Death Dude.
Droz appeared with Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1997-1998, where he formed a stable of "invaders" from the WWF with Lance Wright, Brakkus, Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon.
Drozdov made his WWF debut in 1998. Drozdov claimed the natural ability to regurgitate on command, and WWF management decided to use this as his gimmick. In Beyond the Mat, Drozdov's meeting with Vince McMahon is shown, with McMahon requesting Drozdov to vomit in a trashcan in his office, thus attaining the ring name Puke.
He was first featured in dark matches and on WWF Shotgun Saturday Night. He debuted on the May 25, 1998 episode of Raw is War as an associate of the tag team, the Legion of Doom. Dubbed Puke, he was the unofficial third member of the group.
In late 1998, Drozdov competed in the WWF Brawl for All tournament, making it to the semifinals before losing to Bradshaw.
He was involved in a confrontation involving L.O.D. member Hawk's alcoholism. In this confrontation, Hawk was seen by his partner Animal as unfit to wrestle and Drozdov was tapped to take Hawk's place in the tag team. The situation ended with accusations that Drozdov had been the "enabler" of Hawk's problems and had dosed the L.O.D. member to take his place in the team. During this segment, Hawk was shown to have fallen (or more likely pushed by Puke) off the TitanTron. The feud culminated at the UK PPV WWF Capital Carnage when the L.O.D. team of Drozdov and Animal took on The Headbangers. During the match, Drozdov entered the ring to defend Animal who was on the receiving end of an illegal double-team by The Headbangers. While the referee was occupied ushering Headbanger Thrasher out of the ring, Headbanger Mosh rolled up Drozdov, and the referee turned around and made the three count. Animal, enraged that Drozdov got involved, began to brawl with Drozdov before walking away from the ring in disgust, effectively ending Drozdov's run with L.O.D.
After Drozdov's stint with the L.O.D., efforts were made to rebrand his persona including one involving a series of skits called "Droz's World" where he would tell stories about his life as a professional wrestler. He started to come into his own after turning heel. He started to build a stable of wrestlers who shared his bizarre lifestyle. He added Prince Albert to his faction as his personal "body piercing artist" and Vic Grimes was brought in briefly as Key, allegedly to be Drozdov's dealer.
Read more about this topic: Darren Drozdov
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