Background and career
Brian David Kendrick (born May 29, 1979) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure in WWE. He is also known for his time in Ring of Honor (ROH), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). Kendrick began his career in 1999. During the early years of his career, Kendrick wrestled as Leonardo Spanky or simply Spanky for several small American promotions like ROH and TNA and for Japanese promotions like Zero1, where he won the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship and Zero-One United States Openweight Championship. In the early 2000s, he also had two stints with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later World Wrestling Entertainment), one as a developmental wrestler and a second stint where he appeared as part of the main roster before departing. He would make his return to WWE in 2005, where he was paired with Paul London. During his time as a tag team, they would win the World Tag Team Championship and the WWE Tag Team Championship, with the latter becoming the longest reign of the title until 2016. After the team was dissolved, he began a singles career as The Brian Kendrick, with Ezekiel Jackson as his enforcer. He would leave WWE in 2009. The next year, Kendrick would make his return to TNA, where he stayed for two years, winning the TNA X Division Championship. He also worked until 2016 on the independent circuit and toured occasionally with NJPW. In 2014, Kendrick began to work with WWE as a trainer. He would make his return to the ring during the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic, a tournament held by WWE for cruiserweight wrestlers. Despite not winning the tournament, Kendrick was assigned to 205 Live, a newly created cruiserweight brand, where he would capture the WWE Cruiserweight Championship once. During the following years, Kendrick worked on both the 205 Live and NXT UK programs, until he began to work as a backstage producer for the NXT brand. Kendrick is also a promoter. He currently owns and operates his own promotion, called Brian Kendrick's Wrestling Pro Wrestling, as well as a professional wrestling trainer at Pro Wrestling Unpluggeds Kayfabe college
Kendrick was born in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, and is the son of Barbara Kendrick and the oldest of three children—a brother named Neal and a sister named Shannon. He later moved to Olympia, Washington where he attended North Thurston High School in Lacey, Washington. During his senior year, he worked as a dishwasher at Dirty Dave's Pizza Parlor while saving money to attend wrestling school. While growing up, Kendrick's favorite wrestlers included Ultimate Warrior, Blue Blazer and Koko B. Ware. He was also a fan of Shawn Michaels, who trained him, and Chris Jericho. He was already very good friends with his former tag team partner Paul London, as well as with Lance Cade and Bryan Danielson, both of whom he trained with.
In 1999, he moved to Texas to begin training at the NWA Southwest wrestling school and later attended the Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy. It was there that Kendrick adopted the ring name Spanky, a nickname he was given due to his method of staying awake during long drives on the indy circuit. He made his professional wrestling debut on October 8, 1999, in a match with American Dragon that ended in a 10-minute time limit draw.
In February 2000, Kendrick signed a developmental deal with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), spending a year in the company's "farm territory", Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW), before the promotion closed and Kendrick was released from his contract. Kendrick won his first Championship in MCW when he defeated American Dragon for the MCW Southern Light Heavyweight Championship on September 22. He later teamed with American Dragon to win the MCW Southern Tag Team Championship, on December 1, becoming a double champion. The tag team disbanded after they lost the Championships to The Dupps. On December 30, however, the Southern Light Heavyweight title was declared vacant after a match that Kendrick had with Derrick King. In a match for the vacant championship, Kendrick regained the title after beating King, on January 6, 2001. He later dropped it to Tyler Gates, before regaining it on May 11. On June 1, however, Spanky was stripped of the title and it was abandoned, making Spanky the last ever MCW Southern Light Heavyweight Champion. He also holds the record for most reigns, with three.
In October 2001, Kendrick wrestled American Dragon in the first round of The King of the Indies tournament, but lost. The crowd, however, gave both men a standing ovation after the match.
On February 23, 2002, Kendrick wrestled on the premiere show of Ring of Honor (ROH), winning the match to gain an ROH contract. While in ROH, Kendrick competed in several other promotions such as Heartland Wrestling Association and All Pro Wrestling, before leaving for Japan in June to compete in Pro Wrestling Zero-One (Zero-One). There, he wrestled under the ring name Leonardo Spanky, a gimmick proposed by Shinya Hashimoto due to Kendrick's resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio. On June 29, he became the first International Junior Heavyweight Champion in company history. He dropped the title to Low Ki a few months later.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
