Elijah Burke Facts

Born on May 24, 1978 Burke was an officer in Florida before he decided to put his abilities into professional wrestling use. He started as an amateur boxer in Jacksonville's Club 5 and Club Plush where some say he had a 98-1 win/loss record. According to WWE, his only loss in his amateur career was because he refused to go to his corner after KOing his opponent. Burke is more used to KOs and showing that he has really defeated his opponent than winning by points; before each match he writes “4-UP” on his wrist tape, meaning “four knuckles upside your head".

After having signed with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Elijah Burke won the Heavyweight Title that brought him an interesting offer from the WWE Creative Team – a spot in the Spirit Squad, which he turned down though. He stayed in Ohio for some time, training for what he was really interested: joining Smack Down! on July, 2006. Here he developed a mixed martial arts with wrestling skills technique. He was debuting along with the former MMA fighter Sylvester Terkay. In his first WWE match, Elijah defeated Scott Wright and then broke Vito’s four month winning series on Smack Down. He was assisted by Terkay who helped him and his glory to be heard all over.

Since January, 2007 when Elijah left the WWE, his matches were only about him leaving Terkay behind him. This change did not necessarily mean a decline of career! He became the official leader of the “New Breed” – the new ECW stars group that included Matt Striker, Marcus Cor Von and Kevin Thorn.

On July 10, Burke was named ECW Championship’s number 1 contender. After a long dispute with CM Punk, he went to face him at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. The match did not end well for Burke because CM Punk did defeat him, and the worst part is that it is suspected it wasn’t a clean fight. The dispute between these two continued in the chase for the No Mercy, 2007 title.
In his career until now, Burke has proven that he can fight with another man in the ring with him and coordinate his moves and also being by himself did not bring him down. His ambition and desire to become the best of the best has made other fighters better, drawn to this energy. I have a feeling we will hear of Elijah Burke in the future, he is still young in professional wrestling!