Colt Cabana

Scott Colton (born May 6, 1980) is an American professional wrestler and podcaster better known by his ring name Colt Cabana. He is currently working for Ring of Honor (ROH) and Global Force Wrestling (GFW). Colton also wrestled as Scotty Goldman in World Wrestling Entertainment and as old school masked wrestler Matt Classic in Wrestling Society X and Chikara.

Cabana began his professional wrestling career in the Midwest. He competed routinely in St. Paul, Minn., for Steel Domain Wrestling in 2000 and 2001, often teaming or facing rival and friend CM Punk. Cabana and Punk competed extensively from Michigan to Pennsylvania, and notably for IWA-Midsouth across Indiana and Illinois. Cabana made a name for himself when he joined ROH, where he was placed in a rivalry with Punk before uniting with Punk and Ace Steel to form the Second City Saints alliance. He later formed a tag team with Punk to win the World Tag Team Championship twice. He also had rivalries with Homicide and then-World Champion Bryan Danielson.

Cabana has also toured in countries outside of the United States, and he was a part of the short lived Wrestling Society X on MTV in late 2006, where he portrayed his "old school" wrestling persona, the masked "Matt Classic". In 2007, he left ROH to wrestle in Ohio Valley Wrestling, a developmental territory of World Wrestling Entertainment, where he won the Television Championship once and the Southern Tag Team Championship once with Charles Evans and once with Shawn Spears. He made several appearances, as Scotty Goldman, with WWE on its SmackDown brand before being released from his contract in February 2009. Cabana is a former one-time JCW World Heavyweight Champion, and two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

Early life
Colton was born in Deerfield, Illinois to a family of Jewish heritage and faith. He attended Western Michigan University and played on their football team until graduating in 2002 with a degree in Business marketing.

Ring of Honor (2002–2007)
Scott Colton was trained by Ace Steel and Danny Dominion, alongside Phil Brooks (CM Punk). He broke into Ring of Honor with the name Colt Cabana as CM Punk's rival before joining with Steel and Punk as the Second City Saints. Cabana and Punk later became two–time ROH Tag Team Champions. With Punk becoming a singles star, Cabana feuded with Austin Aries and Nigel McGuinness. On August 13, 2005 Cabana defeated Punk in a two out of three falls match in their hometown of Chicago in what was supposed to be Punk's last ROH match before going to World Wrestling Entertainment.

Between August 2005 and April 2006, Cabana was involved in a feud with Homicide, which featured Cabana being strangled with a metal coat hanger, bleeding from numerous chair shots, having Drāno poured down his throat, being piledriven off the ring apron through a table, and getting his head crushed between a ladder. On April 1, 2006 in Chicago, Cabana finally got his revenge and earned the respect of Homicide after a Chicago Street Fight, which saw the feud settled with a handshake and an embrace.

After his decisive victory against Homicide, Colt Cabana challenged the ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson for the World Championship at Ring of Honor's 100th show on April 22, 2006 in Philadelphia. Danielson defeated him in less than five minutes. Feeling he lost the match because he had spent the past eight months "brawling" as opposed to wrestling, Cabana rededicated himself. He eventually earned a rematch against Danielson at Chi-Town Struggle on June 24, though he once again lost. Cabana received one last shot against Danielson for the ROH World Championship on August 26. The two fought to a 60-minute time limit draw in a two out of three falls match, with each wrestler earning one fall.

In October 2006, Cabana was involved in an auto accident with fellow Ring of Honor stars Adam Pearce and Dave Prazak. Cabana was driving from a Ring of Honor event in Dayton, Ohio when he lost control of their car due to the weather conditions. The car was totaled but everyone was wearing seat belts, which saved their lives. It was initially reported that Cabana had to have a toe amputated, though in reality he had only bruised it. Despite the injury, Cabana wrestled the next night in Chicago Ridge, Illinois. Pearce and Prazak also walked away with bruises but were otherwise fine.

On April 3, 2007 it was revealed by the Ring of Honor website that Colton had signed a WWE developmental contract and would soon leave to begin working for their developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling. At Good Times, Great Memories (named in his honor), held on April 28 in Chicago, Cabana defeated long-time friend and fellow Chicago wrestler Adam Pearce.

International (2004–2007)
In 2004 and 2005, Colton went on extensive tours of Europe, competing in Scotland, Germany and France, but mainly England. He received the 2004 Match of the Year in a European rounds style bout with World of Sport journeyman, Johnny Kidd. Cabana also did a short tour of Puerto Rico for IWA PR in early 2005. During 2006, Cabana would become a popular wrestler in the British promotion 1 Pro Wrestling (1PW) often tag teaming with Darren Burridge as Team SHAG (Street Hooligans Adventure Gang). During 1PW's first anniversary show Team SHAG won the 1PW Tag Team Championship during a three way ladder match against the defending champions Jonny Storm and Jody Fleisch, and the Southern Comfort team of Tracey Smothers and Chris Hamrick.

Cabana also made his Japanese debut for Zero-1 Max in 2006. In a later tour, he formed an alliance with Steve Corino and Yoshi known as the P Force Men, which wore all pink outfits. Colt's also appeared and wrestled for Ireland's Irish Whip Wrestling, Austria's Rings of Europe and various Montreal & Toronto Canadian independents. Colton's final European appearance as an independent wrestler took place at UK promotion 1PW on April 6, 2007 where he, along with fellow Team SHAG member Darren Burridge, successfully defended the 1PW Tag Team Championship against Doug Williams and Nigel McGuinness, before formally retiring his half of the title.

Wrestling Society X (2006)
In November 2006, Colton taped several matches for Wrestling Society X (WSX), a wrestling series on MTV. He competed under the name Matt Classic, who is a throwback to the wrestlers of the 1950s and 1960s. His gimmick used "old school" moves such as the skull vice and the abdominal stretch as finishers. To further enhance his gimmick as an old school wrestler, his WSX profile listed him as having won the Heavyweight Championship in 1952 (28 years before he was born).

World Wrestling Entertainment (2007–2009)
Colton has worked a number of preliminary matches in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), starting out on its Heat and Velocity shows. On one occasion, he competed under the name Chris Guy, the real name of his trainer Ace Steel. The real Chris Guy wrestled in a match for WWE in 2004 under the name of Scott Colton, Colton's real name.

On April 3, 2007 it was announced that Colton had signed a contract with WWE. He was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling, their developmental territory, and made his debut at a TV taping on May 30. Wrestling as Colt "Boom Boom" Cabana, he lost to Michael W. Kruel in the first round of a tournament to determine who would face The Miz at an OVW live event on June 8. He won his first match in OVW when he forced the Belgium Brawler to submit with the Chicago Crab on June 23. After helping Al Snow regain the role of OVW Troubleshooter from Kruel, Cabana became involved in the OVW Television Championship picture, defeating champion Shawn Spears by countout on August 11. Cabana twice came close to winning the title only to be denied by the TV time-limit expiring. Cabana defeated Spears on October 31, 2007 to win the OVW Television title. When OVW was replaced by Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) as the WWE developmental territory, Cabana was moved down to FCW.

On the August 15, 2008 episode of SmackDown!, Colton made his debut as Scotty Goldman, losing to The Brian Kendrick. On the August 22 episode of SmackDown!, Colton was a participant in a 10-man battle royal match to determine a qualifier for the WWE Championship scramble match at Unforgiven, but was eliminated by Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. His last singles match on SmackDown! was a quick loss against The Great Khali. A show starring Colton premiered on WWE.com as What's Crackin'?, later renamed Good as Goldman, on January 14, 2009. In his first appearance on television in five months, Colton participated in an Elimination Chamber qualifying battle royal on February 6, 2009, but was eliminated first. Colton was released from his WWE contract on February 20, 2009, the same day that his final match for WWE, a loss to Umaga, aired on Smackdown!

Return to the independent circuit (2009–present)
On February 21, 2009, Colton made his return to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla at Express Written Consent where he, as Colt Cabana, challenged Chris Hero for the PWG World Championship in a 3-way match which also included Human Tornado. Hero was able to retain his belt by pinning Tornado and afterwards promised Cabana a 1-on-1 shot at the belt. That match took place on April 12 at PWG's hundredth show, where Hero was able to retain his title. On March 14, 2009, he was defeated by Loca Vida at 2CW in Binghamton, NY in a classic comedy match. On March 20, 2009, he wrestled for Firestorm Pro Wrestling in Cleveland at Rise of the Real Underground 2009 in a match up against J-rocc which he had won. On March 21, 2009, he made his surprise return to ROH. In a tag team match at the 7th Anniversary Show, he teamed with Bryan Danielson to defeat Bison Smith and Jimmy Rave, who was also returning to ROH. On April 25, Cabana received an ROH World Title shot against Jerry Lynn but lost. On June 6, Cabana debuted on Ring of Honor Wrestling, ROH's television program, teaming with Brent Albright. On December 5 in Chicago Austin Aries successfully defended his ROH World Title against Cabana in a steel cage match and as a result Cabana can never again challenge for the title in his hometown.

On February 25, 2010, Chikara announced that Colton would take part in the 2010 King of Trios tournament in late April, under his Matt Classic persona, teaming up with Dasher Hatfield and Sugar Dunkerton as the Throwbacks. On April 23, the trio of Classic, Hatfield and Dunkerton were defeated in the first round of the tournament by the reigning King of Trios winners F.I.S.T. (Chuck Taylor, Icarus and Gran Akuma). On April 30, 2010 Cabana made his Australian debut. Cabana won a two-day tournament to become the winner of the NHPW Global Conflict Shield. The tournament was held in Perth, Australia. Cabana beat Balls Mahoney in the finals. On October 23, 2010, Colton won the RCW World Heavyweight Championship from Hank Calhoun.He has since been teaming with El Generico in his feud with Kevin Steen and Steve Corino. On October 16, 2010, Cabana defeated Corino in an "I Quit" match in Chicago Ridge to end their feud. At the September 22 tapings of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's weekly television program Impact!, Colton, under his Colt Cabana persona, wrestled in a dark match, where he defeated Puma.

On March 6, 2011, Colton (as Cabana) won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Adam Pearce at the NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood television tapings. He lost the title to The Sheik on April 23, 2011 in Jacksonville, Florida. On March 19 Cabana debuted for NWA Rampage in a world heavy-weight title defense against NWA RPW heavy-weight champion J-Rod. The match ended in a no contest after interference from Hot Like Lava. Cabana & J-Rod teamed up to defeat Hot Like Lava afterwards. On April 2 during the second night of ROH's Honor Takes Center Stage pay-per-view, Cabana started a new feud with House of Truth members Christopher Daniels, Michael Elgin, Roderick Strong and Truth Martini. Colton, as Matt Classic, returned to Chikara on April 15 for the 2011 King of Trios, once again teaming with Dasher Hatfield and Sugar Dunkerton as the Throwbacks. The team was eliminated in the first round by Team Osaka Pro (Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada and Ultimate Spider Jr.). On July 20, Cabana (as Officer Colt Cabana) defeated 2 Tuff Tony to win the JCW World Heavyweight Champion at Juggalo Championship Wrestling's event Above the Law. He lost the championship to Corporal Robinson at the following event. On August 2, Cabana wrestled a dark match for WWE at a SmackDown taping, losing against Wade Barrett. On August 6, 2011, Cabana tapped out to Ring of Honor World champion Davey Richards in Carrolton, Georgia as part of the 2011 NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest Weekend activities. On August 20, Cabana wrestled in Aberdeen, Scotland for Wrestlezone, losing a tag team title match. On August 26, 2011, Colt headlined the inaugural show for PCW – Preston City Wrestling, joining once again with Darren Burridge as Team SHAG. On October 15, 2011, Cabana made a surprise appearance at All Pro Wrestling's Halloween Hell XIV event in Hayward, California, defeating "Wrestling Personified" Rik Luxury for his APW Worldwide Internet Championship after answering Luxury's open challenge. On November 13, at Chikara High Noon, Cabana faced and defeated Archibald Peck after Colt Cabunny—a character that is essentially a parody of Cabana—turned on Peck and helped his "human counterpart" pick up the win. Cabana and Peck then teamed at Chikara's next iPPV, Chikarasaurus Rex: How to Hatch a Dinosaur, where they were defeated by The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield and Mark Angelosetti).

In March 2012 Cabana appeared on the debut show for London-based promotion PROGRESS Wrestling, in a losing effort to Loco Mike Mason. On April 8, 2012, Cabana defeated Adam Pearce to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the second time. He re-lost the title to Pearce on July 21. Cabana teamed with Eddie Edwards to take part in Global Tag League 2012 and gained five points but would not progress further. On September 14, 2012, Colton returned to his Matt Classic persona as he, Dasher Hatfield and Mark Angelosetti entered the 2012 King of Trios, losing to Team JWP (Command Bolshoi, Kaori Yoneyama and Tsubasa Kuragaki) in their first round match. On October 27, Colton concluded a seven match series against Adam Pearce with a victory leading to Pearce vacating the NWA World Title

On October 12, 2013, Cabana was defeated by Ted DiBiase, Jr, in DiBiase's first match out of the WWE, at Family Wrestling Entertainment's Grand Prix.

On August 10, 2014, Cabana with Grado, as Irn Jew, defeated The New Age Kliq for the ICW Tag Team Championship at ICW: You Have The Right To Remain Dead.

On July 9, 2015, Cabana was announced as part of the roster of the Global Force Wrestling promotion.

On September 20, 2015, Cabana competed in Russia's Northern Storm Wrestling in a losing effort to Serg White.

Return to ROH (2016–present)
On April 1, 2016, Cabana returned to ROH at Supercard of Honor X, confronting and challenging ROH World Champion Jay Lethal. Cabana received his title shot against Lethal on May 8 at Global Wars, but the match ended in a no contest, when Bullet Club took over the ring.

Personal life
While at Western Michigan University, Colton became friends with Matt Cappotelli, who went on to participate in WWE Tough Enough.

Colton hosts a podcast called The Art of Wrestling which had over 300 episodes by May 2016. In February 2015, the Chicago Tribune reported that Colton had been named as a co-defendant in a lawsuit filed by WWE physician Christopher Amann over comments Phil Brooks (CM Punk) had made in a November 2014 episode of the podcast. In the midst of the lawsuit, Colton's near fifteen-year friendship with Brooks came to an end when Colton attended a showing of Raw and posted pictures backstage and with various WWE wrestlers. Brooks felt these actions were detrimental to his defense against the lawsuit.

In wrestling

 * Finishing moves
 * As Colt Cabana
 * Billy Goat's Curse / Chicago Crab (Reverse Boston crab)
 * Chicago Skyline (Chikara / Independent circuit) / Cabana Special (Noah) (Elevated fireman's carry dropped onto the turnbuckles)
 * Colt .45 (Double underhook overhead gutwrench backbreaker rack drop, sometimes preceded by a Gory special)
 * As Matt Classic
 * Clawhold


 * Signature moves
 * As Colt Cabana
 * Airplane spin
 * Bionic elbow
 * Cabanarama (Cradle DDT)
 * Canadian Bacon Leaf (Inverted cloverleaf)
 * Diving leg drop
 * Double underhook
 * Eat The Feet (Inverted stomp facebreaker) -adopted by Gail Kim
 * Flying Asshole (ROH / Independent circuit) / Flying Apple (Chikara) (Leaping hip attack to a cornered opponent)
 * Frankensteiner
 * Lake Shore Drive (Rope hung cutter)
 * Lariat
 * Over the shoulder back to belly piledriver onto the knee
 * Powerbomb
 * Ram-Man (Missile dropkick)
 * Running double knee strike
 * Sitout scoop slam piledriver
 * Snap suplex
 * Springboard moonsault
 * As Matt Classic
 * Abdominal stretch
 * Airplane spin
 * Heart punch
 * Scoop slam
 * Managers
 * Lucy
 * Traci Brooks
 * Bobby Heenan
 * Lacey
 * Daizee Haze
 * Dave Prazak
 * C. Edward Vander Pyle
 * Blake McMillan
 * Nicknames
 * "Boom Boom"
 * "Classic"
 * "The Guv'nor "
 * Entrance themes
 * "The Freaks Come Out at Night" by Whodini
 * "Say I Yi Yi" by The Ying Yang Twins
 * "Calling Out" by Presence
 * "Bring the Noise" by Public Enemy and Anthrax
 * "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow
 * "Super Freak" by Rick James
 * "CopaColtCabana" by Barry Manilow and Kidd Russell
 * "Anarchy" by Peter Northcote and Lindsay Jehan
 * "Boom Boom" by Kidd Russ and The Girthtones

Championship and accomplishments
1 This is a "gimmick" title defended under the 24/7 rule by Larry Sweeney in a number of independent and regional promotions. Both Cabana and Delirious held the title multiple times during a 3-Way Dance against Sweeney at an IWA Mid-South show on December 30, 2005.
 * All American Wrestling
 * AAW Heritage Championship (1 time)
 * All Pro Wrestling
 * APW Worldwide Internet Championship (1 time)
 * All-Star Championship Wrestling / NWA Wisconsin
 * ACW/NWA Wisconsin Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * All Star Wrestling
 * ASW People's Championship (1 time)
 * Christian Wrestling Alliance
 * CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * DDT Pro-Wrestling
 * Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship (1 time)
 * Extreme Wrestling Federation
 * EWF Xtreme 8 Tournament (2004)
 * Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South
 * IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * ICW/ICWA Tex-Arkana Television Championship (4 times1)
 * Insane Championship Wrestling
 * ICW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Grado
 * Insane Wrestling Federation
 * IWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * International Wrestling Cartel
 * IWC World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * IWC Super Indy Championship (1 time)
 * Juggalo Championship Wrestling
 * JCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Landmark Wrestling Federation
 * LWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Legend City Wrestling
 * LCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Mid-American Wrestling / NWA Mid-American Wrestling
 * MAW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * National Wrestling Alliance
 * NWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
 * New Horizon Pro Wrestling
 * Global Conflict Shield Tournament (2010)
 * NWA Midwest
 * NWA Illinois Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Nevermore Championship Wrestling
 * NCW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Ohio Valley Wrestling
 * OVW Television Championship (1 time)
 * OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (2 times) – Charles Evans (1) and Shawn Spears (1)
 * OVW Southern Tag Team Title Tournament (2007) - with Shawn Spears
 * One Pro Wrestling
 * 1PW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Darren Burridge
 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * PWI ranked him #44 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2012
 * Pro Wrestling Noah
 * Global Tag League Outstanding Performance Award (2015) – with Chris Hero
 * Global Tag League Technique Award (2012) – with Eddie Edwards
 * Global Tag League Technique Award (2014, 2015) – with Chris Hero
 * Pro Wrestling WORLD-1 Great Lakes
 * WORLD-1 Great Lakes Openweight Championship (1 time)
 * Professional Championship Wrestling
 * PCW State Champion (1 time)
 * Revolution Championship Wrestling
 * RCW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Revolution Pro Wrestling
 * RPW British Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Revolución Lucha Libre
 * RLL Absolute Championship (1 time)
 * Ring of Honor
 * ROH Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with CM Punk
 * Steel Domain Wrestling
 * SDW Television Championship (1 time)
 * UWA Hardcore Wrestling
 * UWA Canadian Championship (1 time)
 * Wrestling Is Fun
 * Wrestling Is Fun 24/7 Hardcore Championship (1 time)
 * Other titles
 * MCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Steve Stone
 * MMW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * PWF Cruiserweight Championship (1 time)
 * WC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)