Early career (1998–2005) Cabibbo worked early in his career in Florida independent promotions such as
Future Of Wrestling, IPW Hardcore Wrestling, Maximum Xtreme Pro Wrestling and Coastal Championship Wrestling. In 2001, he made his debut in Puerto Rico for
World Wrestling Council (WWC) as NASDAQ.
Full Impact Pro Wrestling (2005–2008) Cabibbo debuted in
Full Impact Pro (FIP) as Joey Machete in November 2005, teaming up with Shawn Murphy and losing to Seth Delay and Chasyn Rance. They won their first match against
Tony Mamaluke and Chad Parham the following day. In April, they won a three-way tag team match, featuring the Heartbreak Express and the Y.R.R. They began a streak of victories and beat the Heartbreak Express to become tag team champions. They lost their titles against the Heartbreak Express. They left the promotion in August 2008, after losing a hardcore match against
The Dark City Fight Club.
Pro Wrestling Fusion (2008–2010) Cabibbo, working under the ring name The Sheik, has made the Florida promotion Pro Wrestling Fusion his home. Originally going by the new Sheik Ali Azzad, Cabibbo shortened the name, after receiving the blessing of
Sabu, the nephew of the original
Sheik. Silas Young, on the other hand, did sign up to wrestle the Sheik and defeated him in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on December 4, 2009, at ACW Homecoming. Sheik defeated Young to become a two-time NWA Midwest Heavyweight Champion on December 5, 2009. On January 30, 2010, The Sheik defeated
"El Gran" Apollo to become the new NWA North American Heavyweight Champion. On April 23, 2011, he defeated
Colt Cabana in
Jacksonville, Florida to become the 44th officially recognized
NWA World Heavyweight Champion. He was stripped of the title on July 11, 2011. Officially, the NWA announced that Sheik had refused to defend the title on July 31, 2011, in Ohio, however Sheik's camp says he was never scheduled for the title defense.
Pro Wrestling Zero1 (2011–2012) On May 23, 2011, The Sheik made his debut in
Japan for
Pro Wrestling Zero1. He returned to the promotion on July 3, defeating
Ryouji Sai in a match, where both his NWA World Heavyweight Championship and Sai's
World Heavyweight Championship were on the line, to become the new World Heavyweight Champion. He would go on to lose the title to
Kohei Sato on November 6, 2011.
Independent circuit (2013–present) Sheik only wrestled about a dozen matches between 2013 and the end of 2015. Starting in January 2016 he started wrestling frequently for a newly founded Southern California promotion
PCW Ultra. His first matches for the promotion involved a feud between himself and
Montel Vontavious Porter. On January 20, 2017, his newly formed team
Warbeast, with
Jacob Fatu won the PCW Tag Team Championship. The faction would grow to include
Brody King and they would defend them under
Freebirds rules. King has since left the promotion, signing with
Ring of Honor in 2019, but Fatu and Sheik still hold the tag titles to this day.
Major League Wrestling (2019–present) Sheik debuted for
Major League Wrestling (MLW) under the name
Josef Samael, in February 2019 at
SuperFight, alongside his frequent tag team partner
Jacob Fatu. However, this match would not be aired on
MLW Fusion. The duo of Fatu and Josef would make their debut appearance on
Fusion on March 2, 2019, forming the heel stable Contra Unit with
Simon Gotch. They debuted by attacking
MLW World Heavyweight Champion Tom Lawlor following his cage match against
Low Ki. The following week, Contra Unit attacked
Ace Romero during his match with Gotch. After that, they had various feuds, but suddenly disappeared before
War Chamber, not witnessing the end of his stable. ==Championships and accomplishments==