Whatever Happened to Brad Maddox?

He was once considered a top prospect for WWE. He never lived up to the promise and despite several gimmick changes, was released from the company. Today on the blog we ask the question, ‘Whatever happened to‘ Brad Maddox?

Tyler Kluttz was trained to be a professional wrestler in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in 2008 by veteran wrestler/trainer Rip Rogers. He debuted with OVW that year under the name of Brent Wellington. At the time, OVW was no longer affiliated with WWE as a developmental territory. Kluttz as Wellington won the OVW television title and OVW heavyweight title respectively.

He remained wrestling in OVW until 2010, when the WWE signed him to a developmental contract. His name was changed to ‘Brad Maddox’ and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) Maddox would go on to win both the FCW Jack Brisco 15 Championship and co held the FCW tag team titles with Rick Victor who would later become Viktor in the tag team ‘The Ascension.’ Once FCW was rebranded NXT, Maddox was called up to the main roster.

Brad Maddox was called in 2012 as a WWE referee. He officiated a few matches on Raw before refereeing the main event between WWE Champion CM Punk and Ryback at the Hell in a Cell pay per view. Maddox would turn heel by low blowing Ryback and costing him the WWE title against Punk. Maddox would then reveal that he was a trained wrestler who never got a break to become a WWE superstar, so he became a referee instead.

Weeks went by and Maddox tried to get himself on television to no avail. Eventually, Maddox worked his way to become an assistant to general manager Vickie Guerrero. Maddox would have a hand in sabotaging Guerrero leading her to get fired and Maddox was appointed the new Raw general manager. Maddox continued the role of a heel GM until he, himself was fired by the Authority. Maddox was appear sporadically on TV to try and get back into the Authority’s good graces.

Maddox would wrestle on house shows and dark matches to try and re-invent himself. He would go under a few gimmick name changes including ‘Joshua Kingsley’ and ‘Lord Ruffles.’ Nothing really stuck unfortunately. Maddox would get a big break when he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon alongside The Undertaker. The mainstream attention might have led to something bigger for Brad Maddox, but a couple of weeks after that appearance, Tyler Kluttz was released from the WWE after calling the fans “pricks” at a house show. According to Kluttz, Vince McMahon was in attendance fo that particular show and released Kluttz after his match ended.

So the question remains…’Whatever Happened to Brad Maddox?’ After being released by WWE, Tyler Kluttz started wrestling on independent shows under the name ‘Mad Braddox.’ His indy career seriously stalled when sex videos of himself and ex girlfriend WWE’s Paige were leaked. Many fans speculated that Kluttz was behind the leak…that was never proven. Kluttz would have a low profile and made his personal Twitter account private.

Kluttz has now embarked on an acting career. He changed his name to Tyler K Warner and has filmed a couple of independent movies currently in post production. He resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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You can read all previous ‘Whatever Happened to’ pieces here.

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