Steve_Bradley

Steve Bradley

Steve Bradley is an American professional wrestler who has competed on North American independent promotions throughout the 1990s including East Coast Wrestling Association, IWA Puerto Rico and the National Wrestling Alliance as well as spending over three years in World Wrestling Entertainment developmental territories including Power Pro Wrestling, Heartland Wrestling Association, Memphis Championship Wrestling and Ohio Valley Wrestling.

He is also the owner and head trainer of the Top Rope Wrestling Academy , a leading wrestling school in the New England area whose graduates include Alex Arion, Antonio Thomas, Brandon Locke, Matt Spectro, Scott Reed and Nicole Raczynski.

Career

Early career and Power Pro Wrestling

At the age of 15, Bradley made his professional debut in 1991 becoming a mainstay of various East Coast promotions during the 1990s. In 1998, Bradley signed a 3-year developmental contract with the World Wrestling Federation and began training under Tom Prichard at WWF Headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut with Kurt Angle.

Assigned to Memphis-based Power Pro Wrestling, both he and Angle began feuding with each other over the PPW Heavyweight title eventually defeating Angle for the title in early 1999 and becoming the first man to pin Angle in his professional career. Their feud would also be voted "Underrated Feud of the Year" by Pro Wrestling Illustrated that same year.

In March 1999, he won the third annual ECWA Super 8 Tournament defeating Ace Darling, Devon Storm and Christopher Daniels in the finals.

He later feuded with Vic Grimes defeating him for the PPW Young Guns title on July 19, although he lost the PPW Heavyweight title to Grimes on September 18 before regaining it a week later on September 25, 1999.

World Wrestling Federation

After the WWF ended their developmental agreement with Power Pro Wrestling, Bradley was brought into IWA Puerto Rico where he feuded with Savio Vega and won the IWA Tag Team titles twice with "Lone Wolf" Andy Anderson as Club WWF.

He was eventually assigned to Memphis Championship Wrestling, a new developmental territory, in early 2001 and began wrestling with Essa Rios and Lita on WWF house shows and dark matches on television tapings throughout the United States. He appeared at WrestleMania X-Seven to take part in Wrestlemania Excess.

Spending the next two years in Ohio Valley Wrestling and the Heartland Wrestling Association, Bradley would win the HWA Tag Team titles four times with Val Venis and Lance Cade and eventually became involved in booking for the promotion before he was released from his developmental contract in July 2002.