Kyle Durden
- Producer
- Actor
Born in Torrington, Connecticut, Kyle Durden began his career at the
Ring of Honor (ROH) Wrestling Academy in Bristol, PA in 2006. Under the
training of Bryan Danielson as well as Shane Hagadorn he made his
professional debut on 9-14-07 at ROH's Motor City Madness in a losing
effort to Shane Hagadorn. Over the next several months he attempted to
gain momentum against fellow ROH Academy graduates Alex Payne, Ernie
Osiris, Rhett Titus. On 3-15-08 he also was part of the filming of the
film "the Wrestler" as they filmed in Dover, NJ. The most success he
received in ROH as an active wrestle was a series of wins in Tag-Team
matches with Pelle Primeau as his partner. Also at this time in 2008
Kyle began making appearances for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)
in the north-east initially as part of NWA Liberty States. Developing
the character of "Internet Millionaire" Kyle Durden, based loosely off
of Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, Kyle joined the stable of the
Playaz Club (Dave Greco, Erik Andretti, Justin Corino, Danny Demanto)
manager and sometimes 5th member leading them to the NWA Liberty States
Tag Team championships. One of the more notable feuds the stable had
was against former WCW & WWF World Champion Psycho Sid, of which Kyle's
open challenge to Sid resulted in a vicious power-bomb at an outdoors
event in Newark, NJ on June 14, 2008. Kyle would make one of his last
appearances as a wrestler for the ROH promotion on July 26, 2008 at the
New Horizons event in the Honor Rumble match by attempting to eliminate
Bobby Dempsey with the distraction of a cheeseburger. Months later with
the departure of Gabe Sapolsky as booker for the ROH promotion and Adam
Pearce taking over the role, Kyle transitioned from wrestler to
backstage interviewer for the company. For the remainder of 2008 and
the first months of 2009 he continued to wrestle throughout the
north-east for various independent promotions while continuing to
manage the Playaz Club in NWA as well as strengthening his broadcasting
work. February 28, 2009 ROH had its first national TV taping for their
new program on Mark Cuban's HDnet giving Kyle Durden national attention
as one of the voices of the program. In this position he was recurring
used as a comedic straight man for Austin Aries "A Double" persona as
well as memorable interactions with Steve Corino & Kevin Steen. The
program would be canceled in the first part of 2011 by HDnet. This
along with ROH being sold to Sinclair broadcasting, as well as Kyle
relocating to the Orlando area, would mean his leaving the company.