David Aaron Ebert (born October 14, 1981) better known to his fans as Buddy Love is a Professional Wrestler who mainly works in the West Virginia and North Carolina independent wrestling circuit. Ebert is also a former Radio personality for Star95 FM radio station located in Princeton, WV. Ebert was trained by WWE Hall of Famer "Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant.

Growing up

Buddy spent the first seven years of his life in the suburbs of Chicago. Health problems, that continue today, forced his father to leave the work force and then the family moved to a less-stressful, slower-paced lifestyle in the gorgeous mountains of southwestern Virginia. Buddy grew up with a taste for being an entertainer and having his name known well. Buddy was a three-year member of the Student Government, two-year member of the basketball team, four-year member of the football team, and four-year member of the track and field team at Pocahontas High School. Buddy also wrote for the county newspaper as a freshman in high school. He loved to work for people. After high school, Buddy went on to college where he caught the radio bug. In 2004, he graduated from Bluefield College with a BA in English Writing and a minor in Communications. From July 2001-present, Buddy has worked for Star95 FM in Princeton, WVa., where he again worked for the people. While at Star95, Buddy spent much time helping with local charities and civic organizations. He used his position as a local DJ and budding star to help promote important organizations and fund raisers. To this day, many people in southern West Virginia and south western Virginia are appreciative of Buddy's efforts.

Wrestling Career

Buddy first got his taste for the ring in 2002 when he joined a group of young men, ages ranging from 14 to 30, in a small backyard fed. The fed was called All Out War, A.O.W., where he wrestled under the name Beast. He also wrestled as a jobber character named Sloth Crazy, which was a simpleton much like WWE's Eugene (Eugene debuted later AFTER Sloth made his run in AOW.) In the year he participated in the fed, he compiled a 10-5 record with 3 matches thrown out. He was a tag, hardcore, and heavyweight champ during his tenure.While backyard wrestling has a bad name in many areas of the world, AOW was run in a way where some of the basic fundamentals of wrestling were learned. No cheese graters or fluorescent light bulbs or ladders or other stupidity was allowed in this fed. It was run as much like an indy as possible, where each wrestler took care of each other. Buddy, after learning the proper way to wrestle, discourages EVERYONE from wrestling without getting training from an experienced veteran wrestler. Backyard wrestling is dangerous and teaches many bad habits.

In May of 2004, Buddy got the break he was looking for. For a cross-promotion between the radio station and SWF, he escorted Shady to the ring to offer back-up incase of outside interference from the Dog Faced Gremlin himself, Rick Steiner. The interference did not come during the match, but an attack after the show was over. Buddy was out of position and could not make the save for Shady, and Shady turned on him. On August 21, 2004, Buddy wrestled his first ever pro match versus Dennis "Shady" Richardson in a hardcore match. Buddy took a beating from the veteran performer, but managed to score the win with a Splash back inside the ring. From there, he was hooked and there was no going back. In April of 2005, Buddy was jumped then forced to tap by David Flair. Later that night, EIGHT wrestlers struggled to get the big man over the top rope in a battle royal. Despite his best efforts, Buddy went 0-2 on the night. However, he vowed to come back ready the next time. Since the April 9, show, Buddy has been attending weekly training sessions at Boogie's in Shawsville. Boogie has been very impressed with what Buddy is able to do, and everyone at camp knows it is a matter of time before every indy promotion is going to be after Buddy's services.

On August 20th, Buddy did just as he said he would: he put the back that turned on family and fans to the mat. Buddy used his strength and size advantage to set Uncle Jeff up for the Tree-Trunk Leg Drop and connected with the finisher. However, Jeff's fellow New Horseman Beef would not let his cohort get counted for three and got involved. After a few moments of valiant effort, Buddy was overwhelmed by the sheer number as the entire Horsemen clique came out to the ring. Finally, the beating ended when Jeff pushed Buddy out of the ring to the concrete floor of the Beaver Volunteer Fire Department.

A week of rest should've given Buddy enough time to recover from the beating as he participated in a Battle Royal at the Pulaski YMCA on August 27th. Wrestling for New Aged Wrestling in his Virginia debut, Buddy made no excuses as he took some vicious shots from some of the other competitors in the Battle Royal. Buddy even eliminated the former NAW Tag Team Champions "Ocean Cruz" by himself. Unfortunately, the ill effects of the Aug. 21 beating and the triple-, quadruple-, and pentuple-team attacks added up and Buddy was eliminated. However, Virginia and NAW knew they had hardly seen the last of Buddy Love.

Buddy made his triumphant return to NAW on September 10, 2005. In a 6-man tag match, Buddy teamed with NAW talents Shawn Cruz and Daniel Ocean, known as the tag team Ocean Cruz. Buddy and Ocean Cruz worked fairly well together with Buddy showing signs of improvement. Buddy's size advantage seemed to be the key to the eventual victory for the tag team. This was Buddy's highest profile match so far as the opposing team consisted of NAW stars Dusty Storm, Eddie Loco, and former WWF/E star Boris Zhukov. Despite taking the loss, Zhukov seemed to be impressed with the developing Buddy Love.

Buddy took part in Campus Carnage II with MSW and the new upstart OWA, Outlaw Wrestling Alliance, in the Van Meteer Gym on the campus of Mountain State University. In a unique match-up, Buddy somehow made weight and participated in a 3-way elimination LIGHT-Heavyweight match-up featuring rising MSW star Jazz E. The match included a dance-off and Referee Eric Foster, who later counted three against Buddy (seems to be a bit of a pattern there...), took the victory in the dance-off (probably only getting the edge since the music man cut Buddy's music right before the worm). But, the match and dance-off were the most-talked about portions of the show. On October 15, just one day after turning 24, Buddy got a huge birthday present in getting a chance to work with Scotty Blaze.

Buddy's Biggest match to date was when he stepped into the ring in a losing effort against Ravenin a Tables Match.

Personal Life

Buddy's recent rise inside the ring comes in a time in which his personal life is coming together, as well. It is no coincidence that meeting Christy and the development of a relationship with her has come the same time as in-ring success. Christy has developed Buddy's self-confidence in life, which has continued on into the ring. Buddy and Christy will be wed at a date to be determined later. Buddy is also a part time member of the Bluefield Barons.

Sources

Buddy Love Official Site