Wednesday, March 28, 2007

TNA: Low Ki / Senshi


Brandon Silvestry (born September 6, 1979), best known by the ring name, Low Ki, is an American pro wrestler of Puerto Rican and Italian descent. He is currently working for TNA Wrestling as Senshi. He is also performing in the American independent circuit, most notably for Jersey All Pro Wrestling and IWA Mid-South.

Silvestry admits that the name "Low Ki", originally spelled Low-Key, came from the lyrics of the BLACKstreet song, No Diggity. Low Ki is considered one of the top independent talents and athletes in the world and is known for his use of various brutal strikes. Because of this, many people assumed that he legitimately knocked out opponent Dan Maff early in their main event match at ROH's Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies in 2003 with his Tidal Wave springboard enzuigiri, causing the match to be stopped. He is also known for his intensity, focus, and serious approach to wrestling, which he calls his "art." Ki is also known for keeping kayfabe, even outside of the wrestling ring, as well as pumping himself up before matches by kicking walls.

Low Ki's first trip to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling was for its debut show. In NWA-TNA 2, on June 26, 2002, he attempted (in a losing effort) to become the first NWA-TNA X Division Champion. He would though, eventually go on to win the title from A.J. Styles on August 2 at NWA-TNA #8, but lost it two weeks later to Jerry Lynn. He would later form the Triple X trios with Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper as part of the Sports Entertainment Xtreme superstable later that year, and would hold the NWA World Tag Team Championships twice, once each with Daniels and Skipper. When Daniels's greed for the X-Division Title initially forced Low Ki out of Triple X, Ki would go on to battle Daniels in Ultimate X 2, but Low Ki's pursuit was unsuccessful. Low Ki would leave TNA in July 2003 to recover from a shoulder injury suffered in Ultimate X2 as well as to focus on his independent bookings.

At TNA Lockdown 2006, Christopher Daniels's mystery opponent was revealed to be the returning Low Ki, who wrestled under the name of Senshi (Japanese for "warrior"). Low-Ki didn't want to sign away the rights to his ring name Low Ki to TNA, so he was renamed. He signed a long-term contract with TNA later under the name Senshi.

Following Lockdown, Senshi was not seen in action for several weeks, completely missing the Sacrifice pay per view in the process. Instead, he was built up with a series of vignettes hyping his martial arts background, his intense training, and his desire to dominate the X Division once more, hinting at the possibility of challenging the incumbent X-Division Champion, the undefeated Samoa Joe. Senshi eventually made his TNA iMPACT! debut on May 25, 2006, defeating Jay Lethal, Alex Shelley, and Sharkboy in a four way match.

Senshi defeated Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelley, Shark Boy, Petey Williams and Jay Lethal at TNA Slammiversary 2006 to become the #1 contender to the X Division championship. Senshi went on to become champion on the June 22, 2006 episode of TNA iMPACT! defeating Samoa Joe and Sonjay Dutt after he pinned Dutt. He defended the title on several occasions against various opponents until, 3 months later, he lost the title to Chris Sabin at Bound for Glory.

Senshi would go on to be involved in the first Paparazzi Championship Series during late 2006 and into 2007.

He later feuded with Austin Starr and in result faced him at the Destination X pay-per-view, where they fought in a Crossface Chickenwing Match.

Low Ki first made his trip to Japan with the Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE promotion. It was in ZERO-ONE that Ki won his first singles title, the ZERO-ONE Light Heavyweight Title, which he held until late 2003. Ki left ZERO-ONE in mid-2004 to join Pro Wrestling NOAH, where he was instantly given a title shot against GHC Jr. Heavyweight champion Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Although he was unsuccessful in his challenge, Ki has been quickly establishing himself in the NOAH junior heavyweight ranks.
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