Ric Byrne - Career

Career

Ric was trained at the Main Event Pro Wrestling Camp in Evendale, OH by head trainer Les Thatcher. He debuted as a wrestler on October 11, 2001 against Crypt Cauldron for Violent Championship Wrestling under the ring name of Ric Byrne. In Violent Championship Wrestling, Ric often found himself allied with "Madman" Shirley Doe and squaring off against Al Snow's younger brother, Logan Caine. Simultaneously, Ric began his career in the Heartland Wrestling Association as a referee (winning the Referee Of The Year award in HWA for 2001) until becoming an active wrestler on their roster as well. For the first few years, Ric wrestled primarily in singles competition, holding notable early victories over Dean Jablonski and Rory Fox. This changed after September 6, 2003 when in a hardcore match against Brother Clay, Ric suffered significant head trauma. This was used to create a "regressed" caveman character for Byrne, who began competing as Ooga Booga. Ric continued to wrestle as Ric Byrne for the World Wrestling Coalition, defeating Fabulous Frederick in a steel cage match for the WWC Heavyweight Title in January 2005. Ooga Booga continued tagging with various HWA wrestlers until finding a partnership that worked with Jon Moxley in June 2005. Again, significant head trauma caused a character change for Ric, as multiple chairshots in a single match returned the Ric Byrne persona to activity in the Heartland Wrestling Association. Byrne and Moxley became the Heartland Foundation, managed by Hellena Heavenly, feuding with Foreign Intelligence (Quinten Lee and Ala Hussein) and winning the HWA Tag Team Titles for a very brief moment from that duo. Eventually, rivalry for the affections of Helena Heavenly caused a split, with Moxley and Hellena leaving Byrne. At the same time, Byrne was part of the creation of the Profit, Inc. group in the World Wrestling Coalition, holding both singles and tag titles with that company. During a "First Blood" match against Gotti on June 6, 2006, Ric's jaw was broken in multiple places at the midpoint of the match, and even though Byrne was able to continue wrestling for another ten minutes after the incident, he was sidelined for several months afterwards due to the extensive surgeries required to correct his shattered jawbone, and was forced to vacate the WWC Heavyweight Title during this period. Byrne returned to active competition in October 2006, and currently performs regularly (as Ric Byrne) for the Heartland Wrestling Association, the World Wrestling Coalition, (as Ooga Booga) for Buckeye Pro Wrestling, the Northern Wrestling Federation, and American Championship Wrestling. Recently, Ric Was made the new "Super Hero in Training" by Ro'Z (Matt Anoa'i) at the Brian Pillman Memorial Show, where he tagged with Ro'Z to defeat JT Stahr and Ala Hussein.