John first came to the 美国职业摔跤 after co-winning the WWE's 2002 'Tough Enough' reality program. For winning he was 给 a 美国职业摔跤 developmental contract and sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling, whom the 美国职业摔跤 used at the time to train and develop their future talent. In March of 2004 John appeared on RAW as Johnny Blaze. A couple weeks later he was Johnny Spade. Again, a few weeks later it was changed to Johnny Nitro. After a few months on RAW he was sent back to OVW were he began to be partnered with Joey Mercury and their manager Melina. The team, known as MNM, won the OVW Southern tag team titles there...