Mark Shrader (born September 9, 1967) is a retired American professional wrestler, trainer and promoter who competed in numerous independent promotions throughout the United States during the 1990s and early 2000s. Among these included Atlantic Terror Championship Wrestling, the Future Wrestling Alliance, East Coast Wrestling Association, Cueball Carmichael's Independent Professional Wrestling Alliance, Doug Flex's International Pro Wrestling, and the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation. Shrader also briefly appeared as a preliminary wrestler for the World Wrestling Federation.
A popular light heavyweight on the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast "indy circuit", he won several regional championship titles and was also a participant in the 1998 ECWA Super 8 Tournament."The PWI 500." Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Fort Washington, Pennsylvania: London Publishing Company. (Holiday 1998): pg. 62. In addition, he is a former MEWF Heavyweight Champion, a two-time MEWF Light Heavyweight Champion, and MEWF Tag Team Champion with Devon Storm and Corporal Punishment. He also formed notable tag teams with a number of independent stars on the East Coast including The Darkside Rebel, Cueball Carmichael, Glenn Osbourne, Boo Bradley, Joey Matthews, Mike Quackenbush, Christian York, and Reckless Youth.
In 1998, Shrader and then partner Dan McDevitt established Maryland Championship Wrestling which became the top wrestling promotion in the state of Maryland, and one of the most popular independent organizations in the United States, until its close in 2003. The two also operated a wrestling school, the "Bone Breakers Pro Wrestling Training Center", in Halethorpe, Maryland which trained WWE's Lita, Mickie James, Orlando Jordan and Florida Championship Wrestling star Calvin Raines. At MCW's debut show, his match against "Irish Ironman" Shane Shamrock for the MCW Light Heavyweight Championship, also involving Christian York, Joey Matthews, Quinn Nash, and Earl the Pearl and ending with his tapping out to Shamrock's "Irish cloverleaf" submission hold, was voted by fans as "Match of the Year".
Early life Born on September 9, 1967, Mark Shrader was adopted by a foster family shortly after his birth and grew up in the Edmondson Heights neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Beginning in 1977, the 10-year-old Shrader began competing in amateur wrestling, an activity he would continue up until his teenage years as a champion high school wrestler. In junior high he served as treasurer of the student council and later, while attending Woodlawn High School, became president of the local church youth group. After his graduation from Woodlawn High in 1985, he began working for a pest control company. He attended Catonsville Community College, studying to be an interpreter for the hearing impaired, and was later a photo editor for the college newspaper; it was in this position, according to Shrader, that he was nearly expelled from the school for photographs he had taken of Joan Jett.
In 1990, Shrader lost his job as an exterminator. Unable to find work in Ocean City, he spent the summer "pool hustling" before moving back to Baltimore and was hired by Chi-Chi's restaurant. A year later, he traveled to Key West, Florida. He returned to Ocean City the following summer, where he continued hustling pool, and then returned to Baltimore again to work for a new exterminator company as a service manager. It was around this time that Shrader became interested in becoming a professional wrestler. He found a wrestling school, where he was trained by Duane Gill, and made his pro debut on June 22, 1993.
Professional wrestling career
Early career Shrader spent his rookie year wrestling on the indy circuit for various promotions in the Mid-Atlantic region under the name "Joe College". One such organization was Lou Martin's Atlantic States Wrestling Alliance. His first major match was against another young wrestler, "The Irish Gentleman" Shane Shamrock, in Parkville, Maryland for the then vacant ASWA Light Heavyweight Championship on September 14, 1993, a match which he lost. One month later, Shrader teamed with Watsumi the Rising Sun and Chad Austin in a 6-man elimination tag team match against the American Ninja, Johnny Paradise and The Comet at Kenwood High School in Essex, Maryland; though he and Watsumi were eliminated from the contest, their team won the match when Austin ended up as the sole survivor.
Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation (1994–1997) In 1994, Shrader started wrestling for the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation. It was at this time that he stated using his more familiar moniker "The Shark", a reference to his "pool hustling" days, and whose in-ring persona similarly portrayed an ex-pool shark complete with a pool cue he used as a foreign object."The PWI 500." Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Fort Washington, Pennsylvania: London Publishing Company. (Winter 1996): pg. 45. He won his first major singles title later that year defeating Shane Shamrock to win the vacant MEWF Light Heavyweight Championship in Catonsville on November 11, 1994. A year later, he won the title a second time from The Cat Burglar before dropping it to Dino Casanova on March 17, 1996; among the opponents he face during his second reign included Chad Austin. When the title was vacated a month later, he wrestled Earl the Pearl to decide the new champion but was unsuccessful in defeating his opponent. Despite this loss, he would go on to have impressive matches against larger opponents like Knuckles Zandwich and Corporal Punishment during the next few months. On June 7, 1996, he defeated Quinn Nash (substituting for Earl the Pearl) in a championship tournament to become the first light heavyweight champion for Cueball Carmichael's Independent Professional Wrestling Alliance in Alexandria, Virginia.
By the fall of 1996, Shrader began challenging MEWF Heavyweight Champion Axl Rotten on MEWF television. Rotten ultimately agreed to wrestle the light heavyweight, however, their first match was marred by outside interference from "Judge" Jeff Jones who hit Shrader with a steel chair allowing Rotten pin his opponent. A rematch between the two was held in Gaithersburg, Maryland on September 13, and saw Shrader score a surprising victory over Rotten and his winning the MEWF Heavyweight Championship. He re-lost the title to Rotten after a near 3-month title reign, during which time he defeated the Cat Burglar, when the MEWF returned to Gaithersburg on November 23, 1996. At the MEWF's "Winter Wars" supercard, Shrader wrestled Chris Candido. He also won back the IPWA Light Heavyweight Championship from Earl the Pearl, Shrader having previously surrendered the belt after his MEWF Heavyweight victory, and held it for five months until his defeat by Julio Sanchez in Lenoir, North Carolina on March 22, 1997.
Earlier that month, Shrader was paired with Devon Storm to wrestle the team of Rockin' Rebel and Thomas "The Inchworm" Rodman for the vacant MEWF Tag Team Championship. Shortly after winning the belts, the two returned to Baltimore for successful title defenses against The Bad Crew and The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) in April, and Julio Sanchez & "Hollywood" Bobby Starr in June. They continued to remain champions until June 29, when they were beaten by Steve Corino and "The Wiseguy" Jimmy CiceroGjoni, John. "Spotlight On: Crowbar." DeclarationofIndependents.net. Ed. Sean McCaffrey. N.p., 2004. Web. Oct. 5, 2011. <www.declarationofindependents.net/doi/pages/spotlight/crowbar.html>. in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Schrader quickly returned to Allentown where he regained the belts with another partner, Corporal Punishment, but lost the titles back to Corino and Cicero in Baltimore on August 10, 1997. He and Corporal Punishment made another attempt to win back the tag team belts, wrestling the champions in a 3-way dance with The Bad Street Boys (Joey Matthews & Christian York) on October 23, with the Bad Street Boys walking out as the new champions. It was later called one of the "wildest matches in MEWF history". Returning to singles competition soon after, he wrestled in a ladder match against Adam Flash and Quinn Nash for the MEWF Light Heavyweight Championship on November 15, 1997. Other opponents he would face during the year included Ace Darling, and Christian York, the latter taking place in IPWA and Doug Flex's International Pro Wrestling. One of the Shrader-York bouts was featured in RF Video's "Best of IPW, Vol. 1".
Bone Breakers and the independent circuit (1997–1998) That same year, Shrader partnered with fellow MEWF wrestler Corporal Punishment to start Maryland's first permanent wrestling school, the "Bone Breakers Pro Wrestling Training Center", in Halethorpe, Maryland; McDevitt had originally gone to then MEWF booker Axl Rotten proposing a partnership in the new venture, who declined the offer, before Shrader expressed interest and eventually formed Sharkorp Inc. as a parent company for their business venture. Their students would eventually include future WWE stars Lita, Mickie James,Dumas, Amy and Michael Krugman. Lita: A Less Traveled R.O.A.D. – The Reality of Amy Dumas. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. (pg. 105) and Orlando Jordan. Shrader himself was the main trainer for ECWA Super 8 Tournament winner Aden Chambers as well as having worked with independent wrestlers Dustin Tarr and Rob Noxious. He also feuded with two of his students, Gregory Martin and Qeenan Creed, eventually forming a tag team called The Fin Twins with the former."The PWI 500." Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Fort Washington, Pennsylvania: London Publishing Company. (Holiday 1999): pg. 62.
Shrader wrestled on the World Wrestling Federation's Shotgun Saturday Night during the spring of 1998. His first match was on January 17, 1998, against Farooq (with Kama and D-Lo Brown) at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania. He also wrestled a 6-man tag team match with Al Phillips and Brian Knighton against WWF Intercontinental Champion Rocky Maivia and the Nation of Domination (Mark Henry and D-Lo Brown) at Philadelphia's CoreStates Center three months later.
He also began touring the Delaware-based East Coast Wrestling Association. On March 21, Shrader entered the 2nd annual ECWA Super 8 Tournament in Newport but was eliminated by Lance Diamond in the opening rounds.Gjoni, John. "Spotlight on Simon Diamond." DeclarationofIndependents.net. Ed. Sean McCaffrey. N.p., 2004. Web. Oct. 5, 2011. <www.declarationofindependents.net/doi/pages/spotlight/simon.html>. He returned in September to wrestle Devon Storm and Mike Quackenbush in a 3-way dance.
Maryland Championship Wrestling (1998–1999)