Christopher Rombola

Christopher "Chris" Rombola (born June 28, 1983) is an American professional wrestler who, in January 2006, was the first to be selected in the nationwide tryouts held by the World Wrestling Entertainment. Signing a developmental contract with the WWE, Rombola spent the next two years in its developmental territories Deep South Wrestling and Ohio Valley Wrestling where he was allied with High Dosage (Jon Bolen and Ryan Reeves) in their feud with Bad Company (Eddie Craven and Shawn Osborne). He was also involved in a 2-on-1 feud with Gothic Mayhem (Pat Buck and Johnny Punch).

Although one of the few developmental wrestlers not to be officially released from their contracts, Rombola became inactive prior to WWE ending its relationship with Ohio Valley Wrestling in February 2008.

Career
Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Christopher Rombola began watching wrestling as a teenager during the World Wrestling Federation's the Attitude Era. Suffering from clinical depression since age 15, he started working out and weighed 250 lbs. by the time he started college. He was a fan of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and later Chris Benoit and Kenta Kobashi.

In September 2005, he attended Harley Race's Pro Wrestling Camp prior to applying for tryouts with World Wrestling Entertainment being held in the United States and the Great Britain. He was one of those selected out of the thousands of applicants and invited by John Laurinaitis, Vice President of WWE Talent Relations, to participate in a training session by Bill DeMott. Training consisted of regular drills and exercises including about 650 squats followed by running up the 100 level section of the DSW arena. On December 29, he was invited to WWE tryouts in Buffalo with Patrick Buckridge, Reza Celik, Jason Breeze, Ronnie Arniell, Shantelle Malawski and Brian Jennings.

The first wrestler selected by the WWE with Shawn Spears, Rombola was sent to its developmental territory Deep South Wrestling   where he trained with Bill DeMott and Al Snow during early-2006. On July 6, he made his debut teaming with Bradley Jay in a dark match against The Major Brothers (Brian and Brett Majors). He and Jay also lost to High Impact (Tony Salantri and Mike Taylor) and Ebony and Ivory (Ray Geezy and Damian Steele) before being sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling at the end of the month.

Two months later, he made his OVW television debut losing to Paul Birchall on September 20. Teaming with Devin Driscoll and Jason against Mike Kruel, Eddie Craven and Shawn Osbourne on October 25, he also scored victories over Kevin McCulloch and Johnny Punch. On November 28, at an interpromotional event between OVW and Heartland Wrestling Association, he defeated Mike Kruel in a singles match. He was attacked by Bad Company following the match, but was saved by High Dosage (Jon Bolen and Ryan Reeves). Four days later, he challenged Jacob Duncan for the OVW Heavyweight Championship, but failed to defeat him. Rombola had also fought and defeated Johnny Punch earlier that night. On November 15, he teamed with High Dosage to defeat Mike Kruel, Eddie Craven and Shawn Osbourne. On November 22, he lost to Jacob Duncan in a rematch for the OVW Heavyweight title. Losing to Paul Birchall a week later, he did pick up a victory over Pat Buck on December 13, 2006.

On January 3, 2007, Rombola defeated Los Locos Ramon at an OVW television taping. That same week, he also defeated Johnny Punch but lost to OVW Heavyweight Champion Paul Birchill on January 10. He also lost to Boris Alexiev and, in a tag team match with Jake Hager, to Gothic Mayhem (Pat Buck and Johnny Punch) at the end of the month. On February 14, Rombola faced Gothic Mayhem in a "Battle of the Bands" handicap match. At the end of the match, Pat Buck smashed his guitar over Chris Rombola's head.

Feuding with Gothic Mayhem, Rombola lost to Pat Buck in a "Rock 'n' Roll Weapons No Disqualification" match at the Davis Arena in Louisville, Kentucky on March 21. The same month, Rombola defeated Kassidy James and Lennox Lightfoot, but lost to Tony Braddock on April 11, 2007.