Alex Koslov

Alex Sherman (born January 21, 1984) is a Moldovan-born Russian semi-retired professional wrestler and color commentator, currently working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling under the ring name Alex Koslov.

Koslov was trained by Jesse Hernandez and made his professional wrestling debut in Covina, California on May 23, 2003, against Kid Karnage working as "Alex Pincheck".

From 2003 until 2006 Koslov worked exclusively on the west coast of the United States, making appearances for promotions such as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF) and local National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) affiliated groups.

Koslov has mainly worked in Mexico from 2005 until 2008 for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), but in October 2008 he made a surprise jump to rival promotion AAA, where he worked until October 2010.

In AAA he is a two–time AAA Cruiserweight Champion and a one–time AAA World Mixed Tag Team Champion with partner Christina Von Eerie.

From 2005 and forward Koslov began working in Mexico and later on started making appearances all over the United States.

On June 11, 2006, Koslov won the NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship in Santa Monica, California from Karl Anderson, less than a month later he lost the title to Justin White.

In August 2006, Koslov began working for the Mexican lucha libre promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) as a villain, or a "Rudo" in Mexico.

He was the first Russian to ever wrestle in Arena Coliseo in its 70-year history.

Shortly after starting with CMLL, Koslov participated in their annual Leyenda de Plata tournament, losing to Místico in the quarter-final.

He also participated in the 2006 Leyenda de Azul tournament defeating Hirooki Goto in the first round but losing to Dr. Wagner Jr. in the second round.

In November, 2006 Koslov won an 8-man torneo cibernetico to earn a shot at the World Middleweight Championship, but lost against champion Averno.

Over the next year, Koslov worked mid-card to semi-main event matches, usually in six-man tag team matches that is the most common match format in lucha libre.

In May 2007, Koslov unsuccessfully challenged NWA World Light Heavyweight Champion Atlantis for the title.

Having turned into a crowd favorite, or "technico", in mid-2007, Koslov joined forces with Marco Corleone, Rey Bucanero and Shocker to form a group called High Society, a group of self-professed metrosexuals.

In 2008 Koslov participated in the annual ECWA Super 8 tournament working with other young "high flyers".

In the first round he defeated Shannon Moore in what was considered an upset, then he defeated Chase del Monte in the second round before losing to Aden Chambers in the finals.

Koslov's performance earned him positive reviews.

Koslov did not win the tournament but he stole the show, working as a villain he riled up the crowd enough for one audience member to threaten him with a chair.

The group saw limited success and by the start of 2008 rarely teamed together, when Rey Bucanero returned to Los Guerreros de Atlantida the stable dropped altogether.

Throughout 2008 Koslov kept working mid-card matches, rarely working any kind of storyline, with the odd unsuccessful title match here and there.

In 2008 Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) he was able to participate in the 2008 World X Cup Tournament that took place in June and July 2008.

Koslov was part of Team International along with Canadian Tyson Dux, Brit Doug Williams, and Iranian American Daivari.

Koslov made a couple of "pre-tournament" appearances defeating Curry Man One week and losing to Team USA captain Kaz.

In tournament action Koslov lost to fellow CMLL worker Rey Bucanero representing Team Mexico.

In the finals of the tournament, held at the Victory Road Pay-Per-View, Koslov took part in a four team triple elimination battle royal.

He eliminated another fellow CMLL worker Último Guerrero and Chris Sabin from the match, before tapping out to Masato Yoshino in the second to last elimination of the match.

Team International ended up with just three points finishing last in the tournament.

After having worked on a handshake deal with CMLL for two years Koslov was approached by rival promotion AAA and offered a deal.

According to Koslov he decided to take the deal with AAA because he was unhappy with CMLL's direction.

I was with CMLL for two years.

They treated me great and made a star out of me, but I was dying mentally.

I lost my passion.

I became bored.

It was always the same old stuff.

Only a few people knew that Koslov had signed with AAA before he made his surprise debut on October 10, 2008, at a AAA Television taping in Querétaro, Mexico.

To avoid spoiling the surprise Koslov had covered his face as he travelled to the arena, then stayed out of sight during the show.

From August 2010 to February 2012 he was signed to WWE, working in its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling under the ring name Peter Orlov.

After his release from WWE, Sherman resumed working on the American independent circuit for promotions such as Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF) and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), while also making his debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Sherman formed a tag team with Rocky Romero known as Forever Hooligans and would go on to win IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship twice and the ROH World Tag Team Championship once.