Early career (1970–1982) in 1981 Sullivan had been an amateur wrestler in the
Boston area, and was not trained professionally. His first professional match was in
Montreal, beating Fernand Frechette. Sullivan wrestled as "Johnny West" in the
National Wrestling Alliance's
Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling in the early 1970s, capturing the
NWA Gulf Coast Tag Team Championship with
Ken Lucas, defeating Jack Morrell and Eddie Sullivan on March 11, 1971. Next, he went to
Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) in 1972 and captured the
NWA Florida Tag Team Championship with
Mike Graham. He then went north to join the
World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) as a mid-card
face from 1974 to 1977. He had a (rare for the time) face versus face battle with
Pete Sanchez on a
Madison Square Garden undercard. Sullivan also wrestled as a face for promoter Roy Shire's Big Time Wrestling in
San Francisco. Wrestling for
Georgia Championship Wrestling, Sullivan and partner
Austin Idol challenged
The Fabulous Freebirds for the
NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship in November 1980. During this feud was the angle where the Freebirds flattened all four of Idol's tires to prevent him and Sullivan from wrestling for the titles (though Idol only mentioned a single flat tire). Sullivan also worked in CWF as a face until the early 1980s. His first
heel turn was in Georgia in late 1980, when he won the
NWA National Television Championship from
Steve Keirn on November 29, after Sullivan attacked Keirn during the match while Keirn was re-entering the ring. Sullivan would lose the belt to
Steve O on January 16, 1981, due to outside interference by Keirn. From April to July 1981, Sullivan wrestled as a heel in the
Memphis territory, where alongside
Wayne Ferris (The Honky Tonk Man) and manager
Jimmy Hart, he battled the local faces including
Jerry Lawler, while also continuing his feud with Keirn, who also was wrestling in Memphis at the time. Sullivan returned to Georgia as a heel in November 1981, but turned face by late-March 1982, feuding with
Buzz Sawyer while in the Georgia territory before returning to Florida again to wrestle for
Eddie Graham.
Championship Wrestling from Florida (1982–1987) Known as the heel "Boston Battler", Sullivan's "Prince of Darkness" gimmick started during this time, adopting the persona of an
occultist and
cult leader who would invoke the powers of dark spirits in promos and matches. The gimmick was inspired by the then-ongoing
Satanic panic. Sullivan took time off in late 1990 and returned in early 1991 as the manager of
One Man Gang,
Black Blood, and the Angel of Death. They cut
El Gigante's hair and had a brief feud. Sullivan also was the masked Great Wizard briefly to manage
Oz. Sullivan left WCW in August 1991 upon his contract expiring.
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling / W*ING (1992) In 1992, Sullivan worked in Japan, participating in
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling where he wrestled against
Atsushi Onita with
Ed Farhat, and later moved on to compete in
W*ING.
Smoky Mountain Wrestling (1992–1994) Sullivan was in a feud with
"Primetime" Brian Lee where after Lee's matches there would be a miniature tombstone brought to ringside. During this feud he was known as The Master and enlisted the help of
The Nightstalker and the
Mongolian Mauler to soften up Lee. After Lee defeated Nightstalker, he finally came face to face with The Master who was revealed to be Sullivan after he delivered a
fireball to the face of Lee and was joined by Nightstalker in busting open Lee on live television. Lee would return and finally get the upper hand on Sullivan in a Singapore Spike match with Sullivan which Lee won after Nightstalker accidentally hit Sullivan with the spike. Sullivan left SMW shortly after losing a match to
Ronnie Garvin by DQ in March 1994.
Eastern Championship Wrestling (1993–1994) In September 1993, Sullivan – along with Woman – joined the
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based promotion
Eastern Championship Wrestling. He debuted at
UltraClash, teaming with
Abdullah The Butcher against
Stan Hansen and
Terry Funk in a
bunkhouse match. At
NWA Bloodfest the following month, Sullivan faced Abdullah in a
steel cage match that ended in a double disqualification. At
Terror at Tabor in November, Sullivan won a
battle royal. The following day, at
November to Remember, he defeated
Tommy Cairo. Dave was injured and out of action for a while and Sullivan split with Cactus after losing the titles. Sullivan defeated Cactus in a Loser Leaves WCW match at
Fall Brawl. Dave came back and dressed like his idol,
Hulk Hogan. This infuriated Kevin, who hated Hogan, and they started feuding. Kevin brought in Hogan's best friend,
Ed Leslie, as The Butcher, to help him with his feud against Hogan. He also brought in
Avalanche and called the trio the
Three Faces of Fear. They feuded with Hogan,
Randy Savage and
Sting. In early 1995, after not being able to end Hogan's career, Avalanche left the group and Sullivan turned on The Butcher. Later in 1995 Sullivan began hearing the voice of someone calling for him to come find him. Over the course of several weeks, vignettes were shot with Sullivan searching for the man, who eventually became known as
The Master. Once Sullivan found The Master he was rechristened with a new
gimmick, The Taskmaster. The two men immediately started putting together a new group that eventually became known as the Dungeon of Doom. In time, the group grew to include
Kamala,
The Barbarian,
Meng,
The Yeti,
Hugh Morrus,
Loch Ness,
One Man Gang,
Big Bubba Rogers, and
The Giant. Sullivan also brought in his former 3 Faces of Fear stablemates, with Avalanche wrestling as The Shark and The Butcher wrestling as The Zodiac. For a very short time,
Big Van Vader also was a member. Managed by Sullivan, four Dungeon of Doom members lost to The Hulkamaniacs in a
WarGames match at September's
Fall Brawl. As a result of Hogan's win over Zodiac, he got to spend five minutes alone with Sullivan. The feud with Hogan continued for much of the remainder of the year and saw the group add
Jimmy Hart as its manager, after he turned on Hogan in October 1995 and cost him the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in a match with the Giant. The Dungeon then feuded with the
Four Horsemen, and Sullivan acquired a certain disliking for
Brian Pillman. Once Sullivan sent Pillman packing, the Dungeon and the Horsemen joined forces again to get rid of Hulk Hogan and his friends and formed the unsuccessful Alliance To End Hulkamania.
Retirement and switch to booking duties (1997–2001) Afterward, Sullivan and Horseman
Chris Benoit began a feud much like his with Pillman. It lasted for over a year, during which Benoit took Woman from him. Sullivan brought in
Jacquelyn to help him and added
Konnan to the Dungeon. He lost a
retirement match to Benoit at
Bash at the Beach on July 13, 1997. This loss gave him more time to concentrate on his job as booker. Sullivan stayed on as the booker or a member of the WCW booking committee after he put Benoit over and made a brief on-screen appearance with the reformed Varsity Club of Mike Rotunda and Rick Steiner with their cheerleader,
Leia Meow. After a couple of months, he was back off television. In 2000, after the demotion of Ed Ferrara and Vince Russo (and subsequent departure of the latter), the resulting chaos led to Sullivan's promotion to head booker. This move infuriated a number of WCW wrestlers, given Sullivan's history of professional rivalries with Benoit (Benoit had an affair with Nancy Benoit and later married her). Benoit,
Dean Malenko,
Eddie Guerrero and
Perry Saturn would quit the night after, immediately signing with the
World Wrestling Federation. Sullivan was fired before WCW's sale in 2001.
Independent promotions (2002–2021) In 2003, Sullivan made one surprise appearance in
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, as the officiator in the first
Clockwork Orange House of Fun match. In late 2003/2004, he worked for the All World Wrestling League/Big Time Wrestling. In 2010, Sullivan appeared as one of the main subjects in the feature-length documentary film
Card Subject To Change. In 2012 he started wrestling in the Pacific Northwest with his nephew Dash Venture and one other Ron Sullivan (Von Hess). Together they won the AIWF World Six-Man Championship. Also The Taskmaster fought the Grappler during this time. First time ever in their long careers. On April 28, 2012, Sullivan made a surprise appearance, initially under a mask, during the Shane Douglas vs. 2 Cold Scorpio match at Extreme Reunion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On March 8, 2013, Sullivan appeared in Nitro, West Virginia where he reunited with Dash Venture Sullivan in his corner as he faced Ron Mathis. On July 7, 2013, Sullivan appeared at Supercon in Miami as himself to sign autographs. He appears as himself in the opening wrestling sequence of the 2013 film
Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies during APWA Wrestling Pile Driving Drugs II. He wrestled in a tag match teaming with Barbarian and was managed by Don West. They would defeat Beastman and Jock Samson. In May 2014, Kevin Sullivan began working for promoter Don West with the American Pro Wrestling Alliance and is the current booker for the promotion. Kevin put Don over, passing him the torch, saying that he would be darker than he ever was. Kevin is mentoring him as the manager for The First Family in the APWA with The Barbarian, Ricky Reyes and the Turkana Warrior. On June 26, 2014, Sullivan teamed with Ace Perry and Christian Skyfire to defeat John Wayne Murdoch, Reed Bentley and Tripp Cassidy in the Main Event of an Evolution Pro Wrestling event He is podcast host for
MLW Radio. He co-hosted a free show with Mister Saint Laurent called
MSL & Sullivan until early 2018 and continues to host a premium show called ''Kevin Sullivan's Helluva Deal''. On July 13, 2019, Sullivan wrestled against
Brian Pillman Jr. in a No Holds Barred match which ended in a no contest at ECCW: Ballroom Brawl XII in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Sullivan served as a color commentator for the television show for the Texas-based SWE promotion in 2020 until the promotion closed in 2021. As of the end of 2021, Sullivan has become the manager of The Blood Hunter in PCW Ultra and World Class Pro.
Ring of Honor (2016–2017) On June 24, 2016, Sullivan made a surprise appearance during an Unsanctioned Fight Without Honor match at
Ring of Honor's
Best in the World '16 between
Steve Corino and
B. J. Whitmer. Sullivan helped Whitmer win the match by striking Corino's head with his signature golden spike. He then formed an alliance with Whitmer and
"Punishment" Damian Martinez in which Whitmer is billed as his second "son," and started terrorizing Corino as his "first son" for not letting his evil side out. == Personal life ==