It started in Newburgh.

That’s where Jordan Oliver fell in love with professional wrestling. Before he was backyard wrestling, he was watching the action on television.

Then came the YouTube video.

Oliver was performing a match for Combat Zone Wrestling in a match against Andrew Everett. He did a forward backflip off the top rope and caught his opponent Andrew Everett in midair.

“It went a little viral,” Oliver said.

It caught the attention of the scouts at Major League Wrestling, a New York City-based promotion run out of an office in New Rochelle.

“Sometimes. Something just drops in your lap,” said Court Bauer, the founder of Major League Wrestling. “I saw a clip of him, and he was very impressive.”
From there, he was fast-tracked to a deal with the promotion, and at the age of 19, the Newburgh native was under contract with a professional wrestling promotion.

Signing a contract at 19 years old was a big step and required careful consideration.

“I had to decide if it would be beneficial in the long run and if it would get me where I want to go,” Oliver said.

Oliver, now 20, has been at Major League Wrestling for about eight months. He runs with a faction called “Injustice,” which also features Myron Reed and Kotto Brazil.

Reed is the promotions’ World Middleweight Champion and Oliver tag teams with Brazil.

“Injustice’s bit is that we feel like we’re being ignored,” Oliver said. “We’re not the 300-pound guys and we feel like we’re being overlooked by management a lot and not getting the opportunities we deserve.”

The 6-foot Oliver is listed at 175 pounds and the MLW website lists him as a high flyer and striker.

“I’m a high-flying reckless youth,” he said.

He also says his wrestling persona brings “Newburgh attitude to wrestling.”
So, what is Newburgh attitude?

“I’m just loud, cocky and brash,” Oliver said. “I don’t really care about what people think. I just want to go out there, wrestle and have fun.”

Bauer said Oliver’s “Newburgh attitude” is a contrast to the real Jordan Oliver that he knows backstage.

“The backstage real Jordan Oliver is a real humble, quiet kid that is very eager to learn and have feedback” Bauer said. “When he goes through the curtain, he’s aggressive and turns it on. Some of the greats have been able to do that.”
Before his first MLW match, against Sami Callihan, he admits to being “really nervous” and feeling like he was about to throw up from the nerves. He remembers being told “6-10 minutes really means 4 minutes.”

“That freaked me out,” he said. “I felt like we planned out 7-8 minutes.”
In pro wrestling, which Oliver described as “an action movie in real life”, the wrestlers must plan out their match to tell the appropriate story and the coordination also helps minimize injury.

“It’s more of an art than a sport,” Oliver said. “That’s not to say it’s not a sport. You have to be an athlete. You can’t be some Jabroni walking down the street and expect to be OK.”

Major League Wrestling has also provided Oliver the opportunity to wrestle on television, both live and pre-taped matches.
MLW has a TV show called “Fusion” a weekly 60-minute show on the BeIN Sports USA network in the U.S. and Canada on Saturdays at 9 p.m. The show is on television in 14 countries total.

“I’ve given him the opportunity to be on Live TV,” Bauer said. “Live TV is live. If you flub something, you can’t undo that. In a TV taping, you can edit. I’ve had enough confidence to put Jordan on live TV and he’s done a phenomenal job.”
Being part of MLW also has given Oliver the opportunity to live off wrestling and do quite a bit of traveling.

He makes his home in Voorhees, N.J., but he has wrestled in 30 different states and he was in Dallas for MLW’s Zero Hour event on Saturday night, taping matches for upcoming Fusion shows.

According to MLW’s website, there are Fusion TV tapings scheduled for July 16 in New York City’s Melrose Ballroom.

He tends to be out on the road from Sunday through Wednesday.

“The travel is pretty brutal,” Oliver said. “My best friend that I live with said it’s like I visit when I come here.”

The travel is not all that’s brutal. So is the toll his “reckless” style takes on his body.

“I’m 20 years old and I have a hard time getting out of bed,” Oliver said. “I have to make sure I have to keep up with my physical work. I feel like a 40-year-old at this point.”

In addition to his work in an around the ring, he’s also working on new challenges such as learning public relations and working with media outlets.
“I think Jordan Oliver will be one of the must-see wrestlers of the 2020s and beyond,” Bauer said. “I really believe that.”