| abstract | - Ryan Silverstein (born July 5th, 1971) is a retired American professional wrestler. He is highly decorated, having won the RSW World Heavyweight Championship two times and the WWS World Heavyweight Championship three times. He is also known for training Steve Storme at his short-lived puroresu dojo. Silverstein was born in San Antonio, Texas. At age seventeen, he followed his father into the United States Army and at nineteen, fought in the Gulf War of 1990-1991. Then Silverstein went against his family's wishes by leaving the Armed Forces to become a wrestler. He trained under Jose Lothario and soon made his debut in summer 1992 on the U.S. Indepedent circuit. In 1993, he began touring Japan and by 1994, he was wrestling full-time for Rising Sun Wrestling. He became a top foreign star with two World Championship reigns to his name, which attracted attention from major American promotions. In early 2002, Silverstein returned to the States, signing with the California-based Next Level Wrestling. He progressed up the card fairly quickly and by mid-2003, he had won the World Title. Disaster struck though as Silverstein would require time-off while he underwent neck surgery to repair nerve and spinal damage. In January 2004, he returned to win the World Title again twice before forming a successful "dream team" with Joey Fernández. When the company closed in 2007, Silverstein was inducted into their Hall of Fame. Following this, he began a hiatus from wrestling that continues to this day, living in the small town of Fairview, Texas.
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