Birth name | Chad Collyer |
---|---|
Born |
Richmond, Indiana |
December 12, 1974
Residence | Louisville, Kentucky |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Chad Collyer The Metal Master The Stealth Chad Malenko |
Billed height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
Billed weight | 230 lb (100 kg) |
Billed from | Richmond, Indiana |
Trained by |
Dean Malenko Tom Prichard |
Debut | December 6, 1997 |
Chad Collyer (born December 12, 1974) is an American magician, mentalist and semi-retired professional wrestler. Collyer is perhaps best known for his appearances with Ring of Honor and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.
Collyer attended Manchester College, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. He was an accomplished amateur wrestler, winning multiple championships over an eleven-year period, but decided to turn professional and continue his amateur career at Manchester College during his freshman year.
Upon graduation, Collyer traveled to Tampa, Florida to train at the Malenko Pro Wrestling School under Dean Malenko and Jeff Bradley. Collyer began training on August 3, 1997. He debuted on December 6, 1997, at Kahuna's Bar and Grill in St. Petersburg, Florida, facing Jet Jaguar.
In 2000, Collyer toured England twice with Scott Conway's Wrestling Alliance. He returned to England in 2001 and September 2002, competing for Brian Dixon's All Star Promotions.
In 2002, Collyer returned to Japan, where he had worked previously in 1999, facing Tiger Mask. He wrestled for Michinoku Pro Wrestling between June 2002 and March 2003 as The Metal Master, a masked gladiator. He feuded with Great Sasuke over the NWA World Middleweight Championship, but was unable to defeat the veteran. Collyer also appeared for MPW as The Stealth, and for New Japan Pro Wrestling and BattlARTS as Chad Malenko, in honor of one of his trainers, Dean Malenko. In the mid 2000s, Collyer wrestled a match for Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling in a winning effort against CM Punk.