Early career (1999–2005) Trained by Murder One, Early on, Rave gained notoriety for having received excessive
heel heat from ROH fans. In ROH it was common for fans to throw streamers over the wrestlers they support. Rave, however, had become a sort of cult recipient as fans threw rolls of
toilet paper at him instead. Rave developed a habit of stealing other wrestlers finishers and claiming them as his own. An example would be when he began to use the
Rave Clash, a copy of Styles' own
Styles Clash, and said he invented it and that Styles stole it from him. After losing a match to Styles in ROH where the stipulation was the loser could no longer use their respective version of the move, Rave began to use the
Greetings From Ghana, a copy of
Triple H's
Pedigree, as his new finisher and would again claim that he had in fact invented that move too. On January 14, 2006, in Philadelphia, Rave and
Alex Shelley of The Embassy attacked
ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson after a successful title defense. At
Tag Wars 2006, Rave, along with Shelley and
Abyss, won the 2006 Trios Tournament. On May 22, 2007, it was announced that Rave had signed a contract with Ring of Honor. On August 2, 2007, however, it was announced that Rave had left both Ring of Honor and Full Impact Pro.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2007–2009, 2011, 2013) In August 2007 it was announced that Rave had signed a contract with
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. He returned to the promotion at
No Surrender on September 9, 2007, where he appeared alongside
Christy Hemme and
Lance Hoyt, later known as Lance Rock. The trio was subsequently named the
Rock 'n Rave Infection, with Hemme, Rock and Rave adopting the mannerisms of a rock band and carrying
Guitar Hero game controllers to the ring. He then became a jobber to the X Division, and the Tag Team division with Lance Rock, putting over such teams as Team 3D, LAX, Prince Justice Brotherhood and the Motor City Machine Guns. At
Bound for Glory, Rave competed in the Reverse Battle Royal which was won by Eric Young. At
Turning Point, Rave competed in the
Feast or Fired but failed to win the match. At
Final Resolution, The Rock 'n Rave Infection lost to
Latin American Xchange (
Hernandez and
Homicide). At
Destination X, The Rock 'n Rave Infection lost a Three Way Tag Team match to determine number one contenders to the TNA World Tag Team Championship. At
Lockdown, The Rock 'n Rave Infection competed in a Six Team Cuffed in the Cage match where they lost. At
Sacrifice, Rave competed in a
TerrorDome match which was won by
Kaz. At
No Surrender, The Rock 'n Rave Infection (Rave, Lance Rock, and Christy Hemme) lost to
Curry Man,
Shark Boy, and
Super Eric in a Six-person intergender tag team match. In October 2008 Rave suffered a neck injury at
Bound for Glory IV in the
Steel Asylum match. The injury was minor as he quickly recovered and appeared at
Turning Point and on
Impact!. at
Final Resolution, Rave competed in a
Feast or Fired match but failed to win the match. At
Genesis, Rave,
Kiyoshi and
Sonjay Dutt lost to Eric Young and The Latin American Xchange (Hernandez and Homicide) in a Six-man tag team elimination match. On February 11, 2009, Rave was released from his TNA contract along with his former tag team partner, Lance Hoyt. On June 13, 2011, at the tapings of the June 16 edition of
Impact Wrestling, Rave made a one night return to TNA, losing to
Austin Aries in a three–way first round match of a tournament for a TNA contract, which also included
Kid Kash. On October 26, Rave defeated Kyle Matthews in a
dark match at the
Impact Wrestling tapings in
Macon, Georgia. In December 2011, Rave took part in TNA's India project,
Ring Ka King, where he worked as a trainer and wrestled in a tag team with
Zema Ion. On January 12, 2013, Rave took part in the tapings of TNA's One Night Only: X-Travaganza special (aired on April 5, 2013), wrestling in a seven-man
Xscape match, which was won by
Christian York.
Ring of Honor (2009, 2011, 2013) On March 21, 2009, at ROH's seventh anniversary show, Rave made a surprise return to the company when Prince Nana announced him as
Bison Smith's mystery tag team partner. Rave and Smith lost the tag match to Bryan Danielson and the also returning
Colt Cabana when Cabana pinned Rave. Rave spent the rest of the year feuding with Grizzly Redwood and
Necro Butcher. On September 19 Rave was defeated by Necro Butcher in a
dog collar match and subsequently left the promotion. Rave later revealed that ROH released him due to his drug addiction. At the pay-per-view on December 23, Rave was defeated following interference from members of the Embassy. On March 2, 2013, Rave made his return for Ring of Honor at their
11th Anniversary Show iPPV, where he,
Cliff Compton,
Matt Hardy and
Rhett Titus, revealed themselves as the newest members of
S.C.U.M. by attacking numerous members of the ROH roster following the main event, joining
Kevin Steen,
Jimmy Jacobs,
Rhino and
Steve Corino as members of the group. On June 10, 2013, it was reported that Rave was once again done with ROH.
Independent circuit (2009–2020) Jimmy Rave made his debut with Great Championship Wrestling on April 3, 2009, with a victory over his trainer, Murder One. Murder and Rave would subsequently battle throughout the summer, in a series of matches in which Rave finally defeated Murder for the GCW Heavyweight Championship. Of these battles, the July 16 street fight between the two that saw them brawl all over the GCW building, and the August 29
Mayhem in Milledgeville road show match, both stand out as two of the best matches the promotion had seen in over two years. Rave lost the championship belt in September to
Johnny Swinger, who revealed himself to be plotting against Rave for months, while masquerading as a babyface. Rave would eventually regain the GCW Heavyweight championship a month later in October. His feud with Sal Rinauro, which began on May 14, 2009, with a hard-fought match that saw Rave win after 30 minutes of action, picked up once again, as Rinauro (returning from a hiatus from the organization) returned to challenge Rave for the GCW title on November 12, only to once again be defeated by him. Rave also competed for Rampage Pro Wrestling (RPW), an organization overseen by former WWE referee
Nick Patrick, and former
Deep South Wrestling owner,
Jody Hamilton, debuting in May 2009 and taking over head booker duties in June 2010. Rave continued to be one of the most popular stars there, defeating the likes of Adrian Hawkins, and Jeremy Vein, on his way up to contention for the heavyweight title, at the time held by
Bull Buchanan. On December 6, 2009, he defeated Sal Rinauro to win the Rampage Pro Wrestling (RPW) Intercontinental Championship. He also went on to form the Jimmy Rave Approved
stable, while working for RPW. In January 2010 Rave suffered a broken nose, which would sideline him for six weeks, and as a result he was stripped of both the GCW Heavyweight and the RPW Intercontinental Titles. On February 21, 2011,
Dragon Gate USA announced that Rave would be making his debut for the promotion on April 1 in
Burlington, North Carolina. In his debut Rave entered the Breakout Challenge Series, defeating Kyle Matthews,
Lince Dorado and Sugar Dunkerton in his first round match. Later in the night, Rave was defeated in the finals of the tournament by
Arik Cannon. On April 3 at Open the Ultimate Gate, Rave was defeated by
Johnny Gargano in a singles match. On July 31, Rave was given the opportunity to wrestle for the
NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but was defeated by
Adam Pearce in the four-way match, which also included Chance Prophet and Shaun Tempers. On June 22, 2014, Rave made his debut for Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment (AWE), defeating Drew Adler. At AWE's
To Be The Man! show on June 18, 2015, at
The Masquerade, Rave participated in a 12-man tournament for the Georgia Wrestling Crown Championship. He won his opening three-way match against Kyle Matthews and Sugar Dunkerton, then defeated Raphael King in the semifinals and finally Chip Day in the finals to win the tournament and become the first ever GWC Champion. As GWC Champion, Rave made successful defenses against the likes of
Cedric Alexander,
Davey Richards,
Gunner, Johnny Gargano, AR Fox,
Sami Callihan and
Tommaso Ciampa until losing the title to
Martin Stone. ==Personal life==