Background and career
Scott Colton (born May 6, 1980), better known by the ring name Colt Cabana, is an American professional wrestler, color commentator, and podcaster. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a wrestler and as a coach, and he performs the same duties for AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH). He also makes appearances on the independent circuit. Cabana began competing routinely for Steel Domain Wrestling throughout 2000 and 2001 in St. Paul, Minnesota, often teaming with or facing rival and later friend CM Punk. He 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. He later formed a tag team with Punk, which led to him becoming a two-time ROH World Tag Team Champion. He also had rivalries with Homicide and then-World Champion Bryan Danielson. Cabana 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 (OVW), WWE's developmental territory, where he became a one-time Television Champion and a two-time Southern Tag Team Championship. He made several appearances as Scotty Goldman with WWE on its SmackDown brand before being released from his contract in 2009. Cabana is also known for his tenures with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where former two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion and two-time NWA National Champion and Revolution Pro Wrestling (Revpro), where former one-time RevPro British Heavyweight Champion. He is also known for his time in Chikara.
Scott Colton was born into a Jewish family in Deerfield, Illinois, on May 6, 1980. He attended Western Michigan University, and was a member of the football team for one season, until graduating in 2002 with a degree in business marketing.
Scott Colton was trained by Ace Steel & Danny Dominion. 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 he had only bruised it. Despite the injury, Cabana wrestled the next night in Chicago Ridge, Illinois. Pearce and Prazak also walked away with only bruises. On April 3, 2007, it was revealed by the Ring of Honor website that Colton had signed a WWE developmental contract and was 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.
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 became 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.
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).
In 2005 and 2006, Colton wrestled 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 the opponent against 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 count-out 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 WWE main roster 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.
