Early career (2005–2008) Evans defeated Brandon X in a match at an
NWA East / Pro Wrestling eXpress event on February 19, 2005. Evans defeated Daron Smythe for the Pro Wrestling Express (PWX) Brass Knuckles Championship on April 2, 2005. Later that year, he wrestled for Coldwater Michigan-based promotion Price of Glory Wrestling, where he participated in an
elimination match won by N8 Mattson. Evans also wrestled for several
Cleveland,
Ohio-based
promotions. In March 2006, Evans debuted for the Main Event Wrestling League in Ohio, teaming with Kato to defeat Chris Kole in a
handicap match. In December, Evans challenged Robby Starr for the MEWL Championship, but lost the match by
disqualification. A rematch in March 2007, saw Starr defeat Evans again. At MEWL's
Honky Tonk Saturday Night show the following month, however, Evans defeated Starr and won the MEWL Heavyweight Championship. In July 2006, Evans beat Savage at an Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW) show. He returned to AIW in May 2007, losing to Thrillbilly, and in September 2007, where he defeated
Eddie Kingston by
submission in the third round of their 'Strong Style' Challenge match. In April 2007, Evans challenged Jason Bane for the Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling (CAPW) Television Championship, but was unsuccessful. On May 6, at
May Meltdown, The B.E.T. (Evans and Josh Emmanuel) defeated Jeff Brooks and Kid Hybrid in a
tag team match, and the following month at ''A Hot Summer's Night
The B.E.T. defeated The Clash of Ernie Ballz and Brian Bender. In December, Evans lost once again to The Sandman, before he changed his nickname to "Black Panther" in February 2008 at Last Chance: Do or Die
. Throughout June and July, he faced wrestlers including Kevin Kiley and TJ Wilson, and on July 21, he lost a dark match to Jamie Noble on July 21 prior to Raw. He continued competing in FCW throughout the remainder of 2009, facing wrestlers including Wes Brisco and Skip Sheffield, with whom he feuded in November 2009. On the inaugural episode of NXT'' on February 23, Tarver and Carlito were defeated by
Christian and
Heath Slater in a tag team match. After six more losses and being ranked second to last in the first Pro's Poll, Tarver picked up his first victory on the May 4 episode of
NXT by defeating
Daniel Bryan. Tarver also neglected to perform any of the rookie challenges in
NXT stating that he was not there to perform menial tasks. On May 11, Tarver was eliminated during the first elimination round of
NXT alongside Daniel Bryan as they lacked the confidence to continue in the competition. (right) at a
house show in September 2010. The week after the
NXT season finale, Tarver and the rest of the season one
NXT rookies interfered in the
main event match between
John Cena and CM Punk on
Raw, attacking Cena, Punk, the announce team and
ring announcer Justin Roberts, before dismantling the ring area and surrounding equipment, turning heel in the process. On the June 14, 2010, edition of
Raw the rookies (excluding Daniel Bryan) attacked
General Manager Bret Hart, when he refused to give them contracts. The following week on
Raw, Vince McMahon fired Hart and announced the hiring of a new general manager, who had signed the seven season one
NXT rookies to contracts. The following week the group was named
The Nexus. On the July 12 edition of
Raw, The Nexus competed in their first match together, without
Darren Young, defeating John Cena in a 6–on–1 handicap match. The Nexus continued to feud with Cena and the Raw roster, resulting in a
seven-on-seven elimination tag team match at
SummerSlam which saw the return of former Nexus member
Daniel Bryan, who aligned himself with team WWE. Tarver was the second person eliminated from the match when he was pinned by
John Morrison, and The Nexus went on to lose the match. On the October 4 edition of
Raw, Tarver was attacked by Cena, with Barrett later stating that he would have thrown Tarver out of The Nexus anyway, but Cena did him a favor. This storyline was put in place due to Tarver sustaining a groin injury. , with six others of the original incarnation of
The Nexus (L-R):
Skip Sheffield,
Justin Gabriel,
David Otunga, Michael Tarver,
Wade Barrett,
Heath Slater and
Darren Young at
SummerSlam. At the December 9 FCW television tapings, Tarver returned from his injury and defeated
Donny Marlow. In 2011, Tarver began mysteriously appearing in the background of backstage segments on both
Raw and
SmackDown. However, nothing would ultimately come of this and on June 13, 2011, it was announced that Tarver had been released from his contract.
National Wrestling Alliance (2011–2014) After his release, he started to wrestle in the independent circuit under his real name but eventually reverted to Michael Tarver. Evans debuted in Florida Underground Wrestling. On March 3, 2012, Tarver defeated Eddie Taurus to become the first FUW Bruiserweight Champion. During his reign as champion, he took on Kahagas for the
NWA National Heavyweight Championship but lost. On February 2, 2013, Tarver won the vacant NWA FUW Heavyweight Championship and would lose his Bruiserweight Championship a month later to Bruce Santee. On May 25, 2013, Evans defended the title at FUW Throwdown 3 against
TNA wrestler
Robbie E. Tarver would go on to lose the NWA Florida Underground heavyweight title in August 2013. On February 21, 2014, at The Silver Screen Showdown, Tarver defeated Matt Morgan to win the NWA FUW Heavyweight Championship. However, Tarver lost the title two weeks later at Ides of March to
Wes Brisco.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2014) On January 6, 2014,
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) announced that Tarver would be making his debut for the promotion on February 9 at
The New Beginning in Hiroshima, representing the
National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). In his debut match, Tarver defeated
Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Two days later at
The New Beginning in Osaka, Tarver teamed with fellow NWA representative Big Daddy Yum-Yum in an
NWA World Tag Team Championship number one contender's match, where they were defeated by
Tencozy (Tenzan and
Satoshi Kojima).
Independent circuit (2011–2021) Tarver made his first wrestling appearance after being released from WWE, where he began a five-year tenure at Florida Underground Wrestling. He won the FUW Bruiserweight Championship after defeating Eddie Taurus on March 20, 2012. He won the vacant NWA FUW Heavyweight Championship on February 1, 2013, against Deimos, before losing the title six months later on August 31 at NWA FUW Throwdown 6 in a Brass Brass Knuckles On A Pole match against The Grease. He defeated fellow WWE alumni
Wes Brisco during the December 12, 2013, edition of NWA FUW. Tarver won the FWA Heavyweight title again on February 21, 2014, defeating the defending champion and fellow WWE superstar
Matt Morgan. On December 18, Tarver competed in a Four-Way match in Hard Knock Wrestling for the HKW Championship held by Josh Emanuel against fellow challengers Kombat Kidd and Patrick Hayes. On September 5, 2014, at
Full Impact Pro Fallout, Tarver along
Mason Ryan and Shaun Ricker participated in a trios tournament. but were defeated by Full Impact Puerto Ricans (
Lince Dorado, Jay Cruz and Jay Rios). On January 9, 2015, at FIP Kickoff 2015 Tarver entered the ring with Martin Stone under the team name MSL Universe. they won their debut match, defeating team Generation Genesis (Jeff Boom &
Mitch Mitchell). On April 8, 2016, at FIP Florida Rumble 2016, Tarver wrestled in a battle royal for the number one contender to the
FIP World Heavyweight Championship but was defeated by
Fred Yehi. The Nexus reunited for
Chikara 2018 King of Trios tournament as The Nexus Alliance, being represented by Fred Rosser (previously Darren Young), Michael Tarver, and PJ Black (previously Justin Gabriel). During 2018 Tarver made three appearances on
Ring Warriors television show airing on
WGN America. He also wrestled for
The Great Khali's Continental Wrestling Entertainment promotion, winning the CWE National Title in a ladder match on November 11, 2018. He would go on to lose the title two days later on the same tour. == Music career ==