Early career (2003–2004) Altieri began
amateur wrestling in
junior high school. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the
United States Air Force in 1999. Altieri was stationed at
Lackland Air Force Base in
San Antonio,
Texas, where he served a two-year term, during which he continued wrestling. He was discharged in 2001 and relocated to
Tampa, Florida, where he became a
personal trainer. While working as a trainer, he decided to become a
professional wrestler. Altieri trained under
Roderick Strong at the
NWA Florida school. He debuted in NWA Florida on June 20, 2003, as Mikey Batts, wrestling
Naphtali. In addition to competing in the tag team division, Batts wrestled in the
X Division. Batts competed at
TNA Hard Justice in a 20 man
Gauntlet for the Gold match being quickly eliminated by
The Outlaw. At
TNA No Surrender on July 17, 2005, Batts took part in a four-way qualifying match for the
TNA 2005 Super X Cup Tournament, which was won by
Sonjay Dutt. Batts teamed with
Simon Diamond on the August 19 episode of
Impact!, facing
Shocker and
Chris Sabin in the first round of the Chris Candido Cup. During the match, commentators
Mike Tenay and
Don West speculated that Batts was "auditioning" for membership in
The Diamonds in the Rough, Diamond's
stable of undercard wrestlers. Diamond and Batts lost the match after Sabin pinned Batts; Batts did not join the Diamonds.
World Wrestling Entertainment Deep South Wrestling (2005) On October 30, 2005, it was announced that Batts had signed a developmental contract with
World Wrestling Entertainment and had been assigned to the
Deep South Wrestling developmental territory. Then, on January 27, 2006, Batts lost to Tytus, this time with Da Beast acting as manager. Batts, under his real name, wrestled and lost to
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Gregory Helms on the May 6, 2006 episode of
Velocity. On June 14, 2006, Batts was released from his WWE contract.
Retirement After his release, Batts retired from wrestling to pursue a career in
mixed martial arts, which consisted of only three grappling tournaments. ==Championships and accomplishments==