World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE (2006–2011) Deep South Wrestling and Ohio Valley Wrestling (2006–2008) On January 17, 2006,
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) announced that Prudius had signed a developmental deal and was sent to
Deep South Wrestling (DSW). On April 7, 2006, he debuted under his real name and had his first match in DSW against Bobby Walker. On May 5, 2006, Prudius had his first untelevised WWE match during a
house show in
San Jose, California, defeating
Rob Conway. The next night, at another house show in
Sacramento, California,
Matt Striker cut a
promo on Prudius, calling him a "filthy immigrant", causing Prudius to attack him. Prudius then picked up the microphone and said he that he is "proud to be in
America". On the December 18, 2006 episode of
Raw, Prudius made an appearance as a WWE prospect named
Vladimir Kozlov or
Moscow Mauler, which became his
ring name. For the next several weeks, Kozlov was interviewed on WWE programming, proclaiming his love for "Double Double E" (WWE), but also began drawing a
villainous response after declaring his superiority over whatever wrestlers were competing at the time, saying "I could beat both of them". He then was taken off television for over a year while working in the developmental system
Ohio Valley Wrestling and participating in a number of
dark matches against
Val Venis,
Eugene Dinsmore,
Super Crazy, including defeating
Scotty 2 Hotty at
Armageddon 2006, all of which he won. On July 28, 2007, in
Louisville, Kentucky, Kozlov won the
OVW Heavyweight Championship by defeating
Paul Burchill, but gave the championship the same night to Michael W. Kruel due to an agreement they made before. and over the following weeks, Kozlov would go on to
easily win several matches, first against local talent and then established names including
Colin Delaney,
Funaki,
Nunzio,
Shannon Moore,
Jimmy Wang Yang,
Jamie Noble, and
Domino. On the July 11 episode of
SmackDown, Kozlov debuted an entrance theme and Titantron video as he defeated
Stevie Richards. '' in 2008 In the following weeks, as Kozlov continued to easily win matches, he began demanding "better competition". On the September 12 episode of
SmackDown, he started to seek that competition, attacking
Jeff Hardy. Over the following weeks, Kozlov would continue attacking both Hardy and the
WWE Champion Triple H, eventually starting a loose
feud between the three of them over the WWE Championship. On the November 7 episode of
SmackDown, Kozlov earned a match against Triple H for the WWE title at
Survivor Series after defeating
The Undertaker by
disqualification after he was attacked by Jeff Hardy. The match was originally intended to include Kozlov, Jeff Hardy, and Triple H, although Hardy was removed due to a
storyline injury. The result of this was the addition of
Edge to the match while it was in progress, and ultimately Edge would go on to pin Triple H and win the title. Continuing his pursuit of the WWE Championship, Kozlov competed in and was unsuccessful in winning a
Beat the Clock Challenge match against
ECW Champion Matt Hardy for another title shot. This led to the two meeting at
Armageddon, where Kozlov gained his first
pay-per-view win by defeating Hardy in a non-title match. Kozlov competed in the
2009 Royal Rumble match, entering as the sixth participant, but was eliminated by Triple H after eliminating
The Great Khali,
Carlito, and
Montel Vontavious Porter. He then qualified to be part of the
No Way Out Elimination Chamber match, where he was pinned for the first time after receiving a
Last Ride from The Undertaker, though he still remained unpinned in
one-on-one competition. Kozlov's undefeated streak in televised singles competition ended on the March 2, 2009 episode of
Raw, in which he was defeated by
Shawn Michaels; this match was for the opportunity to face The Undertaker at
WrestleMania 25. His first televised singles loss on
SmackDown came against The Undertaker himself on March 13.
The Ruthless Roundtable (2009–2010) On April 13, 2009, Kozlov was drafted to the
ECW brand as part of the
2009 WWE draft, as ECW's only pick of the night. Shortly after the draft, his
character was tweaked to further highlight the training he received within the Russian military. He won his first match on the brand when he easily defeated a
local competitor. On the June 30 episode of
ECW on Syfy, he teamed with
William Regal to defeat
Christian and
Tommy Dreamer. His first defeat in singles competition on ECW came on the July 7 episode of
ECW, where he lost a #1 contenders match to Christian for Tommy Dreamer's ECW Championship at
Night of Champions. On July 21, Kozlov began an angle with
Ezekiel Jackson in which, week after week, after one of them had easily defeated a local competitor, the other would come out and execute their finishing move on the fallen opponent in a game of
one-upmanship. On the August 18 episode of
ECW, Jackson was set to team with ECW Champion Christian against the team of Kozlov and number-one contender William Regal. Jackson turned on Christian, forming an alliance with Regal and Kozlov. Kozlov and Jackson aided Regal in his feud with Christian over the ECW Championship, but Regal was unable to capture the title. On the December 15 episode of
ECW, Kozlov came out with Regal to face Jackson in an ECW Homecoming battle royal qualifying match. During the match, Regal turned on Kozlov by pulling his feet while at ringside, which ultimately cost him the match. After the match, Kozlov attempted to attack Regal, but Jackson jumped him from behind and both proceeded to attack Kozlov. This split Kozlov from the Ruthless Roundtable.
Teaming with Santino Marella (2010–2011) '' in Manchester, England When the
ECW brand came to an end, Kozlov, along with all other
ECW talent, became a free agent. Kozlov would make his debut for the
Raw brand on March 8, 2010, in a
handicap gauntlet match with
John Cena competing against Kozlov,
Mr. McMahon,
Batista,
Mark Henry,
Drew McIntyre and
Jack Swagger. On the May 3 episode of
Raw, he would team again with his former tag team partner William Regal to face the
WWE Tag Team Champions The Hart Dynasty, Kozlov and Regal were defeated when Regal tapped out to
David Hart Smith's
Sharpshooter. On the May 10 episode of
Raw, he appeared backstage with
Santino Marella, William Regal, and
Flavor Flav in a backstage segment, where Marella asked to join him in a tag team. However, Kozlov refused to join, stating that "he (Marella) always loses". On the May 31 episode of
Raw, Kozlov turned
face for the first time when he slammed William Regal behind the referee's back during a mixed tag team match, allowing Santino Marella and
Eve Torres to pick up the win. On the June 7 episode of
Raw, he and Santino Marella were forced to compete in a dance-off, which Kozlov won. On June 14 episode of
Raw, Kozlov served as a
special referee for the match between Regal and Marella which Marella won after Kozlov intentionally gave him a fast count. On the June 28 episode of
Raw, he fought Marella one on one with the stipulation being if Kozlov loses he would become Marella's tag team partner. He won, however, with Regal interfering after the match, Kozlov stopped Regal with a big boot to the chest and then carried Marella backstage. The following week, Kozlov teamed with Marella, defeating William Regal and
The Great Khali. In the following weeks, Kozlov and Santino would continue their undefeated streak on both
Raw and
Superstars. At the
Night of Champions, Kozlov and Marella competed in a tag team turmoil match for the WWE Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful as the titles were won by Drew McIntyre and
Cody Rhodes. On the November 15 episode of
Raw, Kozlov and Marella defeated
The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) to be number one contenders for WWE Tag Team Championship. Kozlov and Marella challenged
Heath Slater and
Justin Gabriel for the WWE Tag Team Championship at
Survivor Series, but were unsuccessful. On the December 6 episode of
Raw, Kozlov and Marella captured the WWE Tag Team Championship by defeating the defending champions Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel,
Mark Henry and
Yoshi Tatsu, and The Usos in a
four-way elimination tag team match. At
TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, Kozlov and Marella defeated Slater and Gabriel via disqualification to retain the title. The duo lost the tag team titles back to Slater and Gabriel at
2011 Elimination Chamber. Kozlov was supposed to be a part of an eight-man tag match at
WrestleMania XXVII. However, during a
WrestleMania Axxess match, he was attacked by
The Corre,
Kofi Kingston took his place at the event. On March 8, Kozlov then became the Pro to
Conor O'Brian on
NXT Redemption. On the March 22 episode of
NXT Redemption, Kozlov and his rookie O'Brian defeated
JTG and his rookie Jacob Novak in a dance-off. Afterwards, Kozlov began teaching O'Brian sambo-like dancing and board breaking. O'Brian was eliminated on the June 28, episode of
NXT, being the fourth rookie eliminated from the competition. Kozlov would then go on to feud with JTG on
NXT, defeating JTG on three occasions. Kozlov's last WWE match was on the August 5 episode of
SmackDown, where he lost to Mark Henry. After the match, Henry (
kayfabe) broke Kozlov's left leg before
Sheamus came down to the ring and saved him from Henry. On the same day, WWE announced that Kozlov was released from his WWE contract. His release (as well as the releases of
Chris Masters and
David Hart Smith) was referenced in a
worked shoot moment on the August 8 episode of
Raw by
WWE Champion CM Punk.
Inoki Genome Federation (2011–2012) On August 30, 2011, it was announced that Prudius would be making his first post-WWE appearance on September 3, working for the Japanese promotion
Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) under his new ring name
Alexander Kozlov. He made his debut on September 3 at
Genome17, losing to Eric Hammer in under three minutes. On December 2, Kozlov defeated Montanha Silva. On May 26, 2012, at the IGF Genome 20, Prudius battled
Jérôme Le Banner for the IGF Championship, but lost in three minutes. On July 10, Prudius got a rematch for the title, but lost again to Jerome Le Banner.
Impact Wrestling/Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2021–present) On April 26, 2021, Prudius joined
Impact Wrestling as a Russian-language commentator via
Rutube. His debut at the
2021 Rebellion event was his first wrestling appearance in eight years. He made an on screen cameo on March 17, 2023, where he reunited with
Santino Marella. On the October 12, 2023, edition of Impact Wrestling, Prudius returned to assist
Dirty Dango in a five-way match. == Other media ==