Profile Information

His family wasn't broken, they were just poor. Growing up poor is hard on a kid, especially in Detroit. Luckily for Will Anselm, he found a way out of poverty for himself and his family. The muscles he built in the football team's sponsored weight room was the most valuable thing he got from high school. The lessons he learned on the street - manipulation, deceit detection, and how to fight - proved to be his best education. Word of Anselm's prowess in underground fights got back to local Detroit mob boss Big Lou after Will put one of Lou's more promising fighters into the hospital. That lead Big Lou to take an interest in young Anselm, who had not yet turned 18. Training him to refine the knowledge learned on the streets, Big Lou took Will under his wing and found a new way to make money from one of his investments: professional wrestling.

After a year or so, Will Anselm started having significant success in the wrestling business using VAN and a movement called "The Diabolik" as his role models, but an undercover FBI agent named Tyler Jones implicated Anselm in illegal activities while trying to take down Big Lou. Given the chance to only serve a minimal amount of time behind bars by helping the Feds build a case against Big Lou, Will remained faithful to the man who took him outof poverty and decided to stay silent in prison.

Upon his release from prison, Anselm tried to get back into the wrestling business, but despite the best efforts of Big Lou and the rest of his Syndicate, Will found himself black-balled. One fatefull day, Rob Belote called Anselm, promising to get his former employee back into the business in exchange for Will putting on a mask to hide his identity from the wrestling fans and from John Thomas, the young man Belote asked Will to train. Before agreeing to be known as "Gryffin" and train John Thomas, Anselm knew there was a reason why Rob was taking such an interest in John, and Will got Belote to admit to being John Thomas' father.

After helping John Thomas polish his natural ability to the point where John had won a couple of lower tier championships, Anselm realized that Thomas was no longer in need of his training, and Will masterminded a plan which lead to a match between John Thomas and his trainer in the ring. Finding his way back into the business, Anselm revealed the entire plan, especially the fact that Rob Belote was John Thomas' benefactor... and father.

Keeping the Gryffin name and dropping the mask, Anselm continued to compete in the wrestling business, gaining multiple tag team championships in the process - one of which lasted over 300 days.