Matt Bentley

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Matthew James Bentley, born December 10, 1979, in Clinton, Iowa, is a retired American professional wrestler. He trained under his cousin Shawn Michaels at the Texas Wrestling Academy and began wrestling in 1999. He used several ring names, most notably Michael Shane, which was a nod to Michaels, and later Maverick Matt Bentley. He also wrestled as Martyr in TNA.

Bentley wrestled in Japan for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and had a stint in Extreme Championship Wrestling from 2000 to 2001. He also appeared in World Wrestling Entertainment and World Championship Wrestling in dark matches and wrestled for Ring of Honor, where a 2002 match against Paul London was highly regarded.

In TNA, which he joined in 2003, Bentley quickly won the X Division Championship in the first Ultimate X match. He formed The New Franchise with Shane Douglas and Traci, and later teamed with Kazarian as Shazarian. Bentley and Kazarian won the X Division title as co-champions in 2004, a rare achievement, before losing it in a later Gauntlet match. The duo eventually split, and Bentley and Traci remained as a team until Traci left in 2005. Bentley then joined Raven’s Serotonin stable and wrestled as Martyr.

In 2007, Bentley’s TNA contract expired and was not renewed. He briefly appeared on WWE TV in 2008 on SmackDown, losing to Vladimir Kozlov. Afterward, he paused wrestling to form a band called Lost in Chaos in Orlando.

Bentley made a one-night return to TNA in 2011 for an X-Division tournament match that did not award a contract. He appeared in TNA’s One Night Only: X-Travaganza in 2013. In 2015, he wrestled for Global Force Wrestling.

Bentley is known for using Shawn Michaels’ signature superkick as his finishing move.