Vladimir Kozlov

Prudius has also worked as a stage and screen actor, notably having a small role in Spike Lee's 25th Hour and a walk-on role in the second season of the HBO series The Wire.

Prudius also had a role in Grindhouse, appearing in the Werewolf Women of the SS trailer; in addition to his credit under his real name and his WWE persona for the appearance as well as being a former Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) Heavyweight Champion, Prudius was the first Ukrainian to ever wrestle for the WWE.

Oleg Aleksandrovich Prudius (Олег Александрович Прудиус; Олег Олександрович Прудіус, Oleh Oleksandrovych Prudius; born April 27, 1969) better known by his ring name Vladimir Kozlov, is a Ukrainian-American actor and professional wrestler currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) under his real name.

He is best known for his time in WWE, where he won the WWE Tag Team Championship once with Santino Marella.

He is trained in freestyle wrestling, rugby, football, sambo, kickboxing, judo, jujutsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts.

Prudius has won numerous achievements, becoming the 2005 USA Open Heavyweight Sambo Champion

and a United States Kick-Boxing Association (USKBA) International Heavyweight Grappling Champion.

He has also played American football for the Ukraine national team as well as Santa Barbara City College.

Prudius signed a development contract with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2006 and was assigned to WWE's developmental system, Deep South Wrestling.

He would later be reassigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling, where he won the OVW Heavyweight Championship.

On January 17, 2006, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) announced that Prudius had signed a developmental deal and was sent to Deep South Wrestling (DSW).

On April 7, 2006, he debuted under his real name and had his first match in DSW against Bobby Walker.

On May 5, 2006, Prudius had his first untelevised WWE match during a house show in San Jose, California, defeating Rob Conway.

The next night, at another house show in Sacramento, California, Matt Striker cut a promo on Prudius, calling him a "filthy immigrant", causing Prudius to attack him.

Prudius then picked up the microphone and said he that he is "proud to be in America".

On the December 18, 2006 episode of Raw, Prudius made an appearance as a WWE prospect named Vladimir Kozlov or Moscow Mauler, which became his ring name.

For the next several weeks, Kozlov was interviewed on WWE programming, proclaiming his love for "Double Double E" (WWE), but also began drawing a villainous response after declaring his superiority over whatever wrestlers were competing at the time, saying "I could beat both of them".

He then was taken off television for over a year while working in the developmental system and participating in a number of dark matches, including one at Armageddon 2006, all of which he won.

On July 28, 2007, in Louisville, Kentucky, Kozlov won the OVW Heavyweight Championship by defeating Paul Burchill, but gave the championship the same night to Michael W. Kruel due to an agreement they made before.

He made his debut on SmackDown as Vladimir Kozlov on April 4, 2008.

He was given a big push during his first few months on SmackDown, including a clean victory over The Undertaker.

At Survivor Series 2008, Kozlov faced Triple H and Edge for the WWE Championship in a losing effort.

At the end of 2008, he received the Slammy Award from WWE as the Breakout Star of the year.

However, in the awards voting for the independent Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Kozlov was voted as the Most Overrated Wrestler of the year, and his match at Survivor Series match was voted as the Worst Match of the Year.

On the April 4, 2008 episode of SmackDown, Kozlov made his official WWE debut as a heel, with the unique quirk of having no entrance music and no Titantron video – his "entrance" consisted of complete darkness except for a solitary spotlight following him to the ring.

He defeated Matt Bentley in his first match, and over the following weeks, Kozlov would go on to easily win several matches, first against local talent and then established names including Colin Delaney, Funaki, Nunzio, Shannon Moore, Jimmy Wang Yang, Jamie Noble, and Domino.

On the July 11 episode of SmackDown, Kozlov debuted an entrance theme and Titantron video as he defeated Stevie Richards.

In the following weeks, as Kozlov continued to easily win matches, he began demanding "better competition".

On the September 12 episode of SmackDown, he started to seek that competition, attacking Jeff Hardy.

Over the following weeks, Kozlov would continue attacking both Hardy and the WWE Champion Triple H, eventually starting a loose feud between the three of them over the WWE Championship.

On the November 7 episode of SmackDown, Kozlov earned a match against Triple H for the WWE title at Survivor Series after defeating The Undertaker by disqualification after he was attacked by Jeff Hardy.

The match was originally intended to include Kozlov, Jeff Hardy, and Triple H, although Hardy was removed due to a storyline injury.

The result of this was the addition of Edge to the match while it was in progress, and ultimately Edge would go on to pin Triple H and win the title.

Continuing his pursuit of the WWE Championship, Kozlov competed in and was unsuccessful in winning a Beat the Clock Challenge match against ECW Champion Matt Hardy for another title shot.

This led to the two meeting at Armageddon, where Kozlov gained his first pay-per-view win by defeating Hardy in a non-title match.

In 2009, Kozlov was assigned to WWE's third brand, ECW, where he teamed with William Regal and Ezekiel Jackson.

After the ECW brand was dissolved, he was assigned to Raw and started a tag team with Santino Marella, winning the WWE Tag Team Championships.

Kozlov competed in the 2009 Royal Rumble match, entering as the sixth participant, but was eliminated by Triple H after eliminating The Great Khali, Carlito, and Montel Vontavious Porter.

He then qualified to be part of the No Way Out Elimination Chamber match, where he was pinned for the first time after receiving a Last Ride from The Undertaker, though he still remained unpinned in one-on-one competition.

Prudius left WWE in 2011.