Low Ki
Brandon Silvestry is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Low Ki. He is known for his time with TNA Wrestling, Ring of Honor and Major League Wrestling as Low Ki and Senshi and with WWE as Kaval.
He is a one-time PWG World Champion, the inaugural ROH World Champion, one-time MLW World Heavyweight Champion and a three-time NWA World Tag Team Champion, and has won a number of tournaments and other championships on the independent circuit, and was the winner of the second season of NXT in 2010. Silvestry has also worked extensively in Japan, most notably for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he was a three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, and Pro Wrestling Zero-One, where he was a one-time Zero-One International Junior Heavyweight and NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Champion. He is a three time world champion, and is the only wrestler in history to have been ROH, PWG, and MLW World Champion.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1998–2002)
Silvestry began wrestling in late 1998 under the ring name Low Ki, which he derived from the lyrics of the song "No Diggity". He began wrestling for Jersey All Pro Wrestling 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.
Ring of Honor (2002–2006)
Low Ki made his Ring of Honor debut at its first show, The Era of Honor Begins, on February 23. In the show's main event, he defeated 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. 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 arrangements". He won his last match on January 28 against Jack Evans. 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 the Cornette/Homicide feud in the summer of 2006, with Cornette refusing to reinstate Low Ki as Homicide's "third wish."
NWA Total Nonstop Action (2002–2004)
Low Ki's first stint with NWA Total Nonstop Action 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 three times under the "Freebird Rule". Low Ki wrestled beside Skipper when Triple X defeated America's Most Wanted for the title on January 22, 2003. 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 NWA TNA in July 2004 and made his return to ROH.Japan (2002–2009)
Low Ki made his first trip to Japan with Pro Wrestling Zero-One in 2002. On September 16, he defeated Leonardo Spanky for the International Junior Heavyweight Championship from him. He held the championship until August 31, 2003, when he lost it to Wataru Sakata. During 2003, Low Ki also made several appearances for All Japan Pro Wrestling.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 Junior Heavyweight Champion Yoshinobu Kanemaru, which he was unable to win. During this period, he represented Noah in MXW Pro Wrestling's Gaijin Battle Series. He later joined New Japan Pro-Wrestling 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.
After joining GBH, he captured the International Wrestling Grand Prix Junior Heavyweight Championship from Tiger Mask 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 championship, Low Ki made several appearances for Hustle.
Return to TNA (2006–2008)
At Lockdown, Christopher Daniels's mystery opponent was revealed to be the returning Low Ki, who wrestled under the name of Senshi. 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 remained undefeated for six months, successfully defending the X Division Championship against Kazarian at Victory Road, Jay Lethal and Petey Williams in a three-way match at Hard Justice, and Chris Sabin at No Surrender, before losing the title to Sabin in October 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. 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 Machine Guns 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.
At Turning Point, Senshi competed in the Feast or Fired match in which he one of four briefcases. On the following episode of Impact, it was revealed that Senshi's case contained a pink slip which meant he was fired.
In 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.