Kayfabe Monday: July 5th Edition

Another photo heavy blog. This time--its of Kaval from WWE but I know him as Low Ki/Senshi. I am proud that he is finally on television, but not happy that his pros are Michelle McCool and Layla El. Thankfully he is the #1 rated rookie so hope all goes well for him. Here is some history on Kaval/Low Ki/Senshi.

Brandon Silvestry (born September 6, 1979) is an American professional wrestler He is best known under his ring name Low Ki and for his stints in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as Low Ki and Senshi. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring name Kaval.

Silvestry began wrestling in late 1998 under the ring name Low Ki, which he admits came from the lyrics of the song "No Diggity". He began wrestling for Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) in 1998, challenging Homicide and Kane D for the JAPW Tag Team Championship. The following year he challenged for the JAPW Light Heavyweight Championship twice, unsuccessfully, but defeated Crazy Ivan and Judas Young to win the second Best of the Light Heavyweights tournament.

In 2000, he began making several appearances in the World Wrestling Federation on their programs Metal and Jakked, where he competed against the likes of Raven, Crash Holly, Christian and Essa Ríos. The following year he made it through to the finals of All Pro Wrestling's King of the Indies tournament, losing the crown to American Dragon. It was also during 2001 that he defeated Nick Berk and Homicide in separate matches on the same evening to win both the JAPW Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight Titles; he would successfully defend both titles in separate matches at their Fourth Anniversary Show later that month in July. He lost both titles in a Three Way match the following month to Homicide, with Xavier as the other competitor.

Low Ki made his Ring of Honor (ROH) debut at its first show, The Era of Honor Begins, on February 23. In the show's main event, he defeated "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson and "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. On July 27, 2002, at Crowning a Champion, he became the first ever ROH Champion by defeating Daniels, Spanky and Doug Williams in a Four Way Ironman match. On August 24, Low Ki successfully defended his title against A.J. Styles. On September 21, at Unscripted, he lost the title to Xavier, who, after winning the title, became a member of Daniels's faction The Prophecy. Low Ki then faced Samoa Joe on October 5 in what was Joe's official ROH debut in a "Fight Without Honor". In what resembled more of an MMA fight, Low Ki won the match and they shook hands after the match. Low Ki left the promotion in 2004 due to the Feinstein incident, but he returned on July 17, 2004, during a match, where Samoa Joe and the Briscoe Brothers fought against The Rottweilers (Homicide and the Havana Pitbulls). It looked like Low Ki would save Samoa Joe from a beatdown by The Rottweilers, but instead he spat on the ROH Championship, which was then held by Joe, and joined The Rottweilers.

At Weekend of Thunder Night 2 on November 6, 2004, he started a feud with Bryan Danielson, who was Low Ki's partner in a match against Samoa Joe and Jushin "Thunder" Liger. Low Ki and Danielson lost the match and Low Ki blamed his partner for that, so The Rottweilers started a beatdown on Danielson. On December 4, at All Star Extravaganza II, Danielson defeated Homicide of The Rottweilers. In that same event, Low Ki wrestled Austin Aries in a number one contender's match to determine who would face ROH Champion Samoa Joe for the title. The match ended in a draw. Officials extended the match, but Low Ki refused to wrestle, so Aries was declared the winner. Instead of facing Joe at Final Battle 2004, Low Ki wrestled Danielson, but got himself disqualified and then attacked the referee. This was enough for ROH officials to suspend him indefinitely as a result.

Low Ki returned on May 7, 2005 and immediately attacked Jay Lethal and Samoa Joe at Manhattan Mayhem with his fellow Rottweilers, Homicide, Julius Smokes, Monsta Mack and Rocky Romero. The impromptu tag team match was made: The Rottweilers vs. Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal. Low Ki and Homicide won the match and injured Lethal with a Ghetto Stomp/Cop Killa combination. The feud continued on June 18 at Death Before Dishonor III, where he and Lethal faced each other in a singles match, but it ended in a no contest. They had a rematch on August 12 at Redemption, but the ending was the same and Rottweilers beat Lethal down after the match. Finally, on September 17 at Glory By Honor IV, a "Fight Without Honor" between the two ended with Low Ki getting a pinfall victory over Lethal. After Samoa Joe went on to save Colt Cabana from a beatdown by The Rottweilers, Lethal came out to even the odds and said that he wanted yet another rematch with Low Ki, which Lethal won this time, ending the feud. Later in the year, Low Ki helped Homicide in his feud against Colt Cabana. On December 17, 2005, at Final Battle 2005, he challenged KENTA for his GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, but came up short. Low Ki left ROH once again in January 2006 due to a "disagreement in business arragements". He won his last match on January 28 against Jack Evans.[1] ROH covered his leaving by having the ROH commissioner Jim Cornette ban Low Ki from Ring of Honor for life after it was discovered that he was the one who knocked Cornette's tooth out at that show. He was also used as a focus point (in name only) in the Cornette/Homicide feud in the summer of 2006, with Cornette refusing to reinstate Low Ki as Homicide's "third wish."

Low Ki's first stint with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) was for its debut show on June 19, 2002, in a six-man tag team match alongside A.J. Styles and Jerry Lynn against the Flying Elvises. On June 26, he attempted to become the first X Division Champion, but was beaten by Styles. He would, though, eventually go on to win the title from Styles on August 7, but lost it three weeks later to Lynn. He would later form the Triple X faction with Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper that year and hold the NWA World Tag Team Championship twice, once each with Daniels and Skipper. When Daniels's greed for the X Division Championship initially forced Low Ki out of Triple X, Low Ki would go on to battle Daniels in Ultimate X, but his pursuit was unsuccessful. He left TNA in July 2004 and make his return to Ring of Honor.

Low Ki first made his trip to Japan with Pro Wrestling Zero-One in 2002. On September 16, he wrestled Leonardo Spanky and won the International Junior Heavyweight Championship from him. He held the title until August 31, 2003, when he lost it to Wataru Sakata.

Low Ki left Zero-One in mid-2004 to join Pro Wrestling Noah, where he was instantly given a title shot against Global Honored Crown (GHC) Junior Heavyweight Champion Yoshinobu Kanemaru, which he was unable to win. During this period, he represented Pro Wrestling Noah in MXW Pro Wrestling's Gaijin Battle Series. He later joined New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and joined Shinsuke Nakamura's stable RISE, replacing the injured Milano Collection A.T.. In his first match back, he suffered a knee injury, which required surgery. Low Ki returned to the promotion in September, defecting from RISE to join New Japan's main villainous faction, Great Bash Heel (GBH).

After joining GBH, he captured the International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP) Junior Heavyweight Championship from Tiger Mask IV on September 21, 2008 on NJPW's Circuit 2008 New Japan Generation tour. He subsequently lost it back to Tiger Mask on NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom III show in Tokyo on January 4, 2009. After losing the title, Low Ki made several appearances for Hustle.

At Lockdown, Christopher Daniels's mystery opponent was revealed to be the returning Low Ki, who wrestled under the name of Senshi (Japanese for "warrior"). Following Lockdown, Senshi was not seen in action for several weeks. Instead, he was built up with a series of vignettes hyping his background, training, and desire to dominate the X Division once more, hinting at the possibility of challenging the X Division Champion, the undefeated Samoa Joe.

Senshi defeated Alex Shelley, Jay Lethal, Petey Williams, Shark Boy, and Sonjay Dutt at Slammiversary to become the number one contender to the X Division Championship. Senshi went on to become X Division Champion again on the June 22, 2006 episode of Impact!, defeating Joe and Dutt after he pinned Dutt. He defended the title on several occasions against various opponents while also remaining undefeated for six months until he lost the title to Chris Sabin at Bound for Glory.

Senshi later feuded with Austin Starr. Their feud would continue until Lockdown in a Six Sides of Steel match, which he won. At Slammiversary, he teamed with Rhino to defeat The Latin American Xchange (LAX). At Victory Road, Senshi competed in a 10-Man Ultimate X Match, which he lost. After the match, however, Triple X was reformed with Daniels, Senshi, and the returning Skipper. They won their reunion match on the July 19, 2007 episode of Impact! against Serotonin.

Triple X faced Lethal and Dutt and The Motor City Machineguns at Hard Justice in a losing effort. Skipper and Senshi also went on to face LAX at Bound for Glory in Ultimate X, ultimately losing.

During December 2007, it was reported that Senshi had submitted his resignation to TNA and he left the promotion shortly after. In 2008, Silvestry helped TNA during the development of its first ever video game by providing both voicing and motion capture for the game's protagonist, Suicide.

Low Ki made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) on April 7, 2007, in a match, where he defeated Davey Richards. On January 5, 2008, Low Ki won the World Championship after defeating Bryan Danielson. However, he was forced to forfeit the championship just a month later after suffering a knee injury.

He returned to wrestling for PWG's All Star Weekend 7 - Night 1 on August 30, 2008 where he was a part of a four-way for the World Championship; the match also featured Eddie Kingston, Necro Butcher and Chris Hero. Hero won the match when he pinned Kingston. On November 1 and 2 in Burbank, California, Low Ki defeated Roderick Strong, Masato Yoshino, Nigel McGuinness and the PWG World Champion Chris Hero to win the 2008 Battle of Los Angeles.

Low Ki appeared on the November 7, 2008 edition of SmackDown in a dark match, losing to then-WWE Tag Team Champion Primo. Low Ki then won a match against Trent Beretta at the Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) tapings on January 8. It was later announced on his official website that he had signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. He wrestled under the name Kaval in FCW, WWE's development territory. In January 2009 he took a hiatus from FCW due to a leg injury, which would keep him sidelined until late October. On November 24, Kaval defeated Paul Burchill in a dark match prior to the SmackDown/ECW tapings. At the December 8 tapings he was defeated by Goldust in another dark match. On the February 7 edition of FCW he defeated Bryan Danielson, for whom this was a debut match, after hitting him with Warrior's Way, and on February 8 won a fatal four-way match against Alberto Banderas, Wade Barrett and Michael Tarver to become the number one contender for the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship. Kaval received his title shot two weeks later, but was defeated by the defending champion, Justin Gabriel.

It was announced on June 1 that Kaval would be a participant in the second season of NXT, with Team Lay-Cool (Michelle McCool and Layla) as his storyline mentors. He debuted on the June 8 episode of NXT, but did not compete in a match. On the June 15 episode of NXT, he was defeated by Alex Riley in his debut, and the following week he was defeated by Eli Cottonwood. On the June 29 episode of NXT, Kaval teamed with Michael McGillicutty and Lucky Cannon against Riley, Cottonwood and Titus O'Neil, which his team won when he pinned Riley, giving Kaval his first win on NXT. Later that night, he was ranked first in the poll.

Thanks to Slam Sports, Online World of Wrestling, and Low-Ki.com for all of the information.

I believe in Kayfabe,
JoiseyDani