Early career (1977–1989) A third-generation wrestler, Taylor was trained by his father Eric Taylor (who held the British Heavy-Middleweight title for the 14 years 1953–1967) and grandfather
Joe who competed in Wrestling at the 1932 Summer Olympic Games. His brother Steve was also an established TV wrestler. After winning several awards as an
amateur wrestler, Taylor made his professional debut in 1978 under the
ring name Dave "Rocky" Taylor. Taylor made his TV debut in the early 1980s on
Reslo, promoter
Orig Williams' Welsh language TV wrestling show for
S4C. He eventually joined
All Star Wrestling in the mid 1980s appearing in the promotion's TV show on cable channel
Screensport. He briefly defected to
Joint Promotions in 1986, making his national terrestrial TV debut in September that year, losing a tournament semifinal for the vacant
British Heavyweight Championship to finalist and former champion Ray Steele, before returning to All Star Wrestling in 1987 when the company gained a share of ITV's wrestling coverage. In early 1988, Taylor was tangentially involved in the falling out of
Kendo Nagasaki and
Rollerball Rocco when he and 'Ironfist' Clive Myers faced the duo in a televised contest in Croydon. Taylor was attempting, mid-match, to unmask Nagasaki and had nearly succeeded when Rocco intervened. Rocco attempted to pull the mask back down, but Taylor forearm-smashed Rocco, causing the mask to come off in his hands. As Taylor and Myers celebrated, Kendo fled to the dressing room and returned with another mask. Kendo's manager George Gillette blamed Rocco for the unmasking, igniting a major feud that would run on into the early 1990s. Taylor defeated
Dave Finlay for the
All-Star British Heavyweight Championship in
King's Lynn on 4 June 1991. He held the title for two years before losing to Tony St. Clair on 4 May 1993 in
Croydon. After St. Clair vacated the title in 1995, Taylor entered a tournament for the belt, and defeated
Marty Jones in the tournament final in August 1995 in Croydon. His second reign lasted until 1996, when he was defeated by Jones in Croydon.
Catch Wrestling Association (1989–1995) In the early 1990s, Taylor began wrestling for the
German Catch Wrestling Association. On 21 December 1991 in
Bremen, he and
Chris Benoit defeated Franz Schumann and Miles Zrno for the
CWA World Tag Team Championship. They vacated the titles in June 1992 after Taylor suffered an injury and Benoit left the CWA to compete in
New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Taylor won the CWA Tag Team Championship on a second occasion on 18 July 1993,
teaming with
Mile Zrno to defeat Larry Cameron and Mad Bull Buster. Cameron and Buster regained the titles on 24 October 1993 in
Hanover. The two debuted the same night, earning a dominating victory over
Scotty 2 Hotty and
Funaki. The match was changed into a
fatal-four way ladder match also involving
MNM and
The Hardys, and London and Kendrick retained their titles. In a subsequent regular tag rematch on
SmackDown! Regal and Taylor came up short of winning the titles. After
WrestleMania 23, Regal and Taylor began a feud with
Kane when after a match between Kane and Taylor, Taylor and Regal attacked Kane.
The Boogeyman soon joined the feud as Kane's tag team partner, but the feud ended after Kane defeated Regal in a singles match. On 25 May edition of
SmackDown!, Regal and Taylor competed in a number one contenders match for the WWE Tag Team Championship against Kendrick and London which they lost when
Deuce 'n Domino interfered, making both teams the number one contenders. This led to a triple threat match the next week on
SmackDown!, where Deuce 'n Domino retained. Taylor and Regal's tag team would come to an end on 17 June when Regal was drafted to
Raw during the
Supplemental Draft. Following Regal's departure, Taylor was absent from
SmackDown! for several weeks and began teaming with
Paul Burchill at house shows and dark matches. Since then, Taylor had only competed on
SmackDown! sparingly, competing in a 20-Man Battle Royal for the then-vacant
World Heavyweight Championship and losing a match to former rival Kane. Taylor brought
Drew McIntyre to
SmackDown! in October 2007 and acted as his mentor, but McIntyre would only make a few appearances before moving to the
Raw brand in January 2008. Following McIntyre's move, Taylor went on a leave of absence from WWE television. He was released by WWE on 28 April 2008.
Later career (2008–2012, 2017, 2019) On 26 and 27 September Taylor took part in the
2008 Ted Petty Invitational held by
IWA Mid-South in
Joliet, Illinois. He defeated
Tracy Smothers in the first round, but lost out to
Claudio Castagnoli in the quarter-finals. From 27 to 29 March 2009, he competed in
Chikara's
King of Trios Tournament as a member of "Team Uppercut", along with Castagnoli and
Bryan Danielson. The team made it all the way to the finals before losing to "F.I.S.T." of
Gran Akuma,
Icarus and
Chuck Taylor. On 4 April 2009, Taylor lost a fourway match for the HPW Heavyweight Championship against HPW heavyweight champion Vito "the Violator" Toscani, Anthony Zeus and Eddy De La Combe in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In March 2010 Taylor received a tryout as an agent for
TNA Wrestling. On 9 September 2011, Taylor made his debut for small British promotion New Generation Wrestling (NGW) in a winning effort against
Jack Gallagher. Taylor retired from professional wrestling in 2012. On 21 December 2019, Taylor returned to Hannover, Germany for European Wrestling Promotion on 21 December 2019 where he fought
Ice Train in a no contest. ==Championships and accomplishments==