Welcome back to this AEW Talent profile on the prolific and talented Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana. Colt Cabana’s journey from Steel Domain Wrestling in St. Paul through his work in Ring of Honor and up to signing a contract with WWE was a key starting point for Cabana..
Colt Cabana –
Ohio Valley Wrestling
Colt Cabana had his first match for Ohio Valley Wrestling (WWE’s then-developmental territory) on May 30th, 2007. Cabana lost to Michael W. Kruel in the first round of a tournament to determine an opponent for a future appearance by The Miz.
Shortly thereafter, Cabana would enter a feud with Kruel and his “Team America” stable. Colt’s first televised victory came on June 20th, 2007, when he defeated Team America’s “Belgium Brawler” by submission.
He went on to unseat Kruel from his position as OVW Troubleshooter, after which he helped reinstate fan-favorite Al Snow.
He followed up on this victory by challenging OVW Television Champion Shawn Spears. Spears managed to retain his championship by DQ, count-out, and time-limit draw before Cabana finally defeated him on Halloween night 2007.
Two weeks later, Cabana would lose the championship to James Curtis. In the meantime he and Shawn Spears won the vacant OVW Southern Tag Team Championship after defeating Paul Burchill and Stu Sanders.
Their partnership would be short-lived, as the two faced off in a ladder match for control of the tag team championships on December 19th.
Colt captured both belts in this match and introduced Charles Evans as his new tag team partner on January 9th, 2008. Evans and Cabana lost the tag team titles to Burchill and Sanders the same night.
Colt Cabana –
FCW and SmackDown!
In Early February 2008, WWE ended their relationship with OVW, sending all developmental talent to Florida Championship Wrestling in Tampa. Colt wrestled at a number of FCW live events around the Sunshine State.
Cabana also had a match on the pilot episode of FCW TV. He joined Ricky Ortiz and a young Brie Bella in a victory over Bradley Jay, Sinn Bowdee, and Alicia Fox.
By the time FCW had a regular weekly TV show, Cabana had already debuted on SmackDown! under the name Scotty Goldman. His first match was a losing effort against The Brian Kendrick during Kendrick’s first singles push.
While WWE used him very sparingly on TV, he remained as something of a fixture in early FCW. He feuded briefly with Bowdee (soon to be renamed Kizarny) at live events, and had several tag team championship matches.
Meanwhile on SmackDown!, Scotty Goldman suffered one-sided losses to the likes of Vladimir Kozlov and The Great Khali. He also briefly had a comedy segment on WWE.com called “What’s Crackin,” later renamed “Good As Goldman.”
However, to those who didn’t know about his career in the indies, he came across as little more than an overhyped jobber.
WWE released him from his contract unceremoniously on February 20th, 2009. That same day, his final WWE match aired on SmackDown. He lost to Umaga.
Return to the Indies
“When I came back after I got released by the WWE, I was 30 years old.”
– Colt said in an ESPN interview.
“I was like, ‘This is all I want to do, so I have to make sure I’m able to make a living.'”
“I had one of the worst WWE runs ever. The same thing has happened to others, and those wrestlers disappear from the scene.”
Colt Cabana wasted little time returning to the independent wrestling scene. His first match after leaving WWE took place the next day, at PWG Express Written Consent.
Cabana was the surprise third entrant in a PWG World Championship match between Chris Hero and The Human Tornado. Hero retained by pinning Tornado but promised Cabana a singles match in the future.
Colt Cabana –
Boom Boom Comes Home
On March 21st, 2009, Cabana made his surprise return to Ring of Honor, teaming with Bryan Danielson to defeat Bison Smith and Jimmy Rave at the 7th Anniversary show.
He returned to TV on June 6th, where he teamed with Brent Albright against The Embassy. He came up empty in a number of ROH Championship matches that year against Jerry Lynn and Austin Aries.
Aries retained against Cabana in a cage match in Chicago, with the added stipulation that Colt cannot challenge for the ROH World Championship in his hometown.
2010 saw the return of Matt Classic, Cabana’s masked “old school” alter ego. As Matt Classic, Cabana teamed with Dasher Hatfield and Sugar Dunkerton (Suge D) to participate in the 2010 King of Trios tournament for Chikara.
Their trio, known as The Throwbacks, lost in the first round to the 2009 King of Trios winners FIST (Chuck Taylor, Icarus, and Gran Akuma). Later that same month, Cabana made his Australian debut with New Horizons Pro Wrestling in Perth.
He participated in the 2-day Global Conflict tournament, defeating Balls Mahoney in the finals to win the NHPW Global Conflict Shield.
Upon his return to the United States, Cabana briefly teamed with El Generico as part of the luchador’s feud with Kevin Steen and Steve Corino.
NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion
In the summer of 2010, as old friend CM Punk solidified his presence in the main event, Colt Cabana set his eyes on a similar prize. At that time, Adam Pearce was NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and he held onto it with a vicious instinct.
Cabana and Pearce had several matches across several promotions, usually ending in the champion bending the rules.
On March 6th, 2011, Colt finally had a fair match against Pearce, and captured the championship at an NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood taping.
After nearly a year of buildup, Cabana’s championship victory got the biggest reaction CWFH had ever received, both in studio and on social media.
Video of Cabana’s championship victory went viral. Wrestling fans started talking about the National Wrestling Alliance more than they had in a decade, and Colt Cabana became arguably the most popular wrestler on the indie scene.
He was set to defend the NWA Championship worldwide, but six weeks later, NWA officials decided he should lose to The Sheik. This was a mistake, as The Sheik refused to defend his championship against Pearce, leading to the NWA stripping him of the title.
Pearce captured the title shortly after, and the NWA put Pearce and Cabana in the main event again, this time in a best-of-7 series.
Cabana defeated Pearce 4-3 in a cage match for Warzone Wrestling in Australia, but afterwards neither man accepted the title, leading to yet another vacancy.
2nd Return to ROH
On April 1st, 2016, at Supercard of Honor X, Cabana challenged Jay Lethal for the ROH World Championship. Lethal granted him the match on May 8th at Global Wars.
Bullet Club interference caused the referee to declare that match a no-contest. Later on, in August, Cabana formed a tag team with fan-favorite Dalton Castle.
At All-Star Extravaganza VIII, Castle and Cabana won #1 contendership for the ROH tag titles in a 4-way elimination match. The duo went on to challenge The Young Bucks in a losing effort.
On the November 19th episode of ROH Wrestling, Cabana attacked Castle, dissolving their tag team and turning heel in the process. The two had a match at Final Battle 2016, where Dalton Castle won.
On January 1st, 2017 ROH announced that Cabana would replace Nigel McGuinness on the commentary team. While he wrestled less frequently on ROH TV, he still continued his feud with Dalton Castle.
This feud included a handicap match against Castle’s boys and a rematch against Castle at Manhattan Mayhem IV.
Their feud concluded on August 13th, 2017, in a match for the ROH 6-Man Tag Team Championships. Cabana teamed with Sho and Yoh of Roppongi 3k in a losing effort.
After the match, Cabana shook hands with Castle, turning face in the process. Following this, Cabana became more active in his role as color commentator alongside Ian Riccaboni.
Colt said of his time on commentary.
“Who would’ve thought me doing [Art of Wrestling] for the last seven-and-a-half years that I was kind of training for this role.
I think, not that people were surprised, but once I got in the booth they’re like, ‘Jesus, Colt’s good at this.'”
Colt Cabana –
NWA and AEW
Colt returned to the National Wrestling Alliance following their relaunch under new owner Billy Corgan. At the 2019 Crockett Cup, Colt Cabana defeated Willie Mack for the NWA National Heavyweight Championship.
On June 29th, James Storm defeated Cabana for the National Championship in a dark match for Ring of Honor. Storm would hold the championship moving into production of NWA Power.
On October 1st, Cabana captured the championship from Storm, becoming the first person to win a championship on NWA Power.
On December 14th, Cabana defended his title in a triple threat match against Ricky Starks and Aaron Stevens, losing to Stevens before signing with All Elite Wrestling.
Colt Cabana debuted in AEW at Revolution earlier this year. He made a surprise appearance at The Buy In pre-show, coming to the aide of SCU after an attack by The Dark Order.
He then spent much of his time wrestling mostly on AEW Dark in losing efforts. But “The Exalted One” Brodie Lee has recently made offers to Colt to join The Dark Order. What could this faction have planned for such a jolly character?
