Vincent Clark | |
---|---|
Birth name | Vincent Jarrelle Clark |
Born |
Cleveland, Ohio |
December 8, 1975
Residence | Orlando, Florida |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Lil' Balla Showtime Cutthroat Skull Jerrelle Clark |
Billed height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) |
Billed weight | 176 lb (80 kg) |
Billed from | Cleveland, Ohio |
Trained by | Jeremy McCulough |
Debut | 2000 |
Vincent Jerrelle Clark (December 8, 1975) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his stints in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.
Clark became interested in wrestling as a child after watching Lanny Poffo and the The Killer Bees. He was athletic from an early age, studying competitive gymnastics at the age of four. After badly breaking his arm, he moved on to martial arts. In junior high school, Clark began amateur wrestling, eventually earning a scholarship to Morgan State University. At MSU, Clark began studying towards a Bachelor of Arts in graphic design. He later went on to receive his Associate of Science in computer graphics. In addition to his studies, he also became an athletic standout as he took part in pole vaulting in 1995), football in 1996 and 1997 and even became a cheerleader in 1998 and 1999, where his squad won a national championship at the Black College National Championships in the Small School Division. They later went on to place eighth in the National Cheerleading Association nationals in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1999.
During his tenure in college, Clark began training as a professional wrestler under Jeremy McCulough in 1997, and completed his training in 1998 before returning to college to finish his degree in 1999. After graduating, he moved back to Florida and concentrated on getting his family situated. Clark debuted in Orange City, Florida in 2000 as Lil' Balla, losing to Cutthroat Saxon. He continued to wrestle on the independent circuit in Florida, subsidising his income by working as a stuntman in a pirate-themed stunt show and became an art teacher at a local high school.
Clark continued to work and train with Cutthroat Saxon (who later renamed himself to Cutthroat Bonez) and together they soon formed The Cutthroats, a pirate-themed gimmick with Clark changing his ring name to Cutthroat Skull. Clark worked for several promotions in Florida, including IPW Hardcore and NWA Florida. While he was wrestling for the Orlando-based No Name Wrestling, promotion he received a tryout match with the Nashville-based Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion, facing Elix Skipper in a dark match. The match went well, and Clark wrestled on a pay-per-view and several more dark matches. When TNA relocated their headquarters to Orlando in late 2004, Clark was offered a contract, which he accepted. Clark then began wrestling under his real name and was placed in a tag team with Mikey Batts. The team's most recognized victory was an "X Division Tag Team Dominance" challenge, where they defeated the team of Michael Shane and Kazarian to earn the bragging rights as the "X Division's Most Dominant Tag Team". The team would lose to Shane and Kazarian in a subsequent rematch. The team was then separated in October 2005 when Batts was signed to a developmental deal by World Wrestling Entertainment. Left without a partner, Clark became a singles wrestler. On the June 8, 2006 edition of Impact! Clark lost a match to fellow X Division wrestler Sonjay Dutt. Weeks later on the July 14 edition of Impact!, Clark would lose to then-X Division Champion Senshi in a non-title bout. Following this, Clark returned to the independent circuit.