The Untold Truth Of Joey Mercury

According to his Fandom bio, the ego-driven Joey Mercury (born Adam Birch) started wrestling as Joey Matthews. He got his initial squared circle training from fellow grappler Jimmy Cicero and debuted on the independent circuit in October 1996. The next year saw him join the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation, and he snagged that league's Tag Team Championship in 1997 with his teammate Christian York. He rounded out the 1990s taking a number of titles in several independent promotions, both as a singles competitor and with York in tag team competition.

He and York arrived on the ECW scene in late 2000, hoping to use that promotion as a stepping stone to the big leagues, according to Bleacher Report. Although they worked hard to make a name for themselves against some of ECW's greats, like Jerry Lynn and Cyrus, the promotion was experiencing financial troubles that would end up being fatal the following year. When the ECW tapped out in 2001, Matthews and York found themselves out of a job and had to head back to the independent promotions to keep wrestling. He found some more success as a solo competitor, but wasn't satisfied until he got his dream job when signed onto the WWE, starting out in its Ohio Valley Wrestling training ground. Although his tenure in the world's biggest wrestling promotion would start out with a bang, an unfortunate accident would render it tragically short-lived.