Michael Modest is one of the top talents in professional wrestling that does not wrestle full-time for a nationally televised wrestling promotion. While most wrestlers join a televised wrestling promotion in order to become movie or television stars, it was by simply being an outstanding wrestler that got Modest into movies and television.

Modest, so named by his peers because of his low-key demeanour in the world of wrestling where the egos and bragging ability are as big as the biceps, received a tryout match in the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1999, which was captured during the filming of the wrestling documentary Beyond the Mat, which also featured the independent promotion that Modest was working as head trainer during the time. After the tryout, Modest and his opponent (not to mention trainee) Tony Jones, received kudos from wrestling legends and WWF talent scouts Jim Ross and Jim Cornette. High praise, indeed! Modest's unique in-ring style also received kudos from several WWF Superstars, who wanted to "borrow" some of Modest's moves.

Due to his role in Beyond the Mat, Modest was again selected to play a part in a televised wrestling documentary, this time alongside frequent tag team partner (and future business partner), Donovan Morgan. This documentary, Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Secrets Revealed, shown on NBC, would show how several wrestling moves are performed. Although NBC disguised the identities of the participants, explained as the wrestlers could potentially be drummed out of the sport for their part in the documentary, in actuality, the real identities of the participants was, for the most part, publicly known in wrestling. Modest would portray "Private Pain" on the show.

This dual television exposure caught the attention of the WWF's major competitor, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), specifically talent scout Jim Barnett. Modest was flown out to Florida where he wrestled Elix Skipper. Although the match was not supposed to be televised as it was a try out match, WCW management felt the match was so strong that they aired it any way. As the legal rights to Modest's name were not cleared by WCW attorneys to use on air, the match would end up airing with Modest wrestling under a misspelling of his real name, Carillo (his name is actually spelled Cariglio).

After the match, Modest was brought to the back where Kevin Sullivan, Terry Taylor, Bob Mould, Arn Anderson, Mike Graham, and J.J. Dillon unanimously agreed to sign Modest to the WCW talent roster. As in his WWF tryout, Modest received high praise from the WCW booking team. J.J. Dillon would say it was the best tryout he had seen in 8 years. Modest would also receive kudos from none other than The Nature Boy, Ric Flair for including amateur wrestling moves in the match. It is hard to beat a compliment from someone as highly regarded in the sport as Flair!

Plans were immediately set into motion to put the WCW Cruiserweight Championship on Modest (held at the time by The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Iukea). Unfortunately, the night of the scheduled title change, the Kevin Sullivan management team was released from the company, and the Eric Bischoff/Vince Russo team was brought back. Although Modest would still win the match, it was announced as a non-title match. With the new management in place, they would quickly let go of any personnel hired under the previous regime, and Modest would be let go from WCW.

The Black Entertainment Television (BET) promotion, Urban Wrestling Alliance (UWA) would next contact Modest. Michael Braverman and Will Byrd, who had worked with Modest previously on Beyond the Mat, would think Modest would be the perfect trainer for the talent hired for the project. Modest would train sixteen wrestlers in two months for the show, most of whom had little to no prior wrestling experience. However, when the program started to air on BET, the WWF would contact Viacom (the parent company of BET and Spike TV, where the WWF was airing at the time), as the WWF had a no-compete agreement with Viacom, prohibiting any other wrestling programming from airing on any Viacom-owned television property. BET was contacted and would stop production on the UWA after nine short months.

Modest wasn't out of work for long. Within a month after the Urban Wrestling Association ending, WCW executive Terry Taylor contacted Modest and informed him that Eric Bischoff was interested in giving him another try out, against Christopher Daniels. This tryout is famous for showing Christopher Daniels landing on his head attempting a high-risk manoeuvre from the ropes. Daniels and Modest would finish the match and Modest would be given a contract for the second time by WCW. However, Modest's WCW stint would last no longer than his previous one, as shortly after Modest was hired, WCW would be sold to the WWF and Modest's contract was not among those picked up in the sale.

With a drought of national wrestling promotions in North America, Modest set his sights on the Orient, thanks to long time friend, former National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Midwest promoter and Board of Directors member, the late Ed Chuman, who put Modest in touch with the Japanese wrestling promotion, Pro Wrestling NOAH. With Chuman's recommendation, Modest was hired by NOAH and in turn, Modest helped long time friend, tag team partner, and trainee Donovan Morgan and another wrestler Modest trained, Bison Smith, to get on the NOAH talent roster as well.

Over the next five years in Japan, Modest would work closely with Japanese legends such as the late Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama, and Kenta Kobashi as well as American legends that have made a name for themselves in Japan, such as Big Van Vader and Too Cold Scorpio, wrestling in such famed Japanese arenas such as the Budokan and the Tokyo Dome in front of crowds of over 58,000 rabid Japanese wrestling fans.

During his time in NOAH, Modest would win the NOAH Global Honored Crown (GHC) Jr. Heavyweight Championship, defeating Japanese native Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and holding the title for nearly six months before dropping it to another native Japanese, Takashi Sugiura.

While wrestling for NOAH, Modest, his tag team partner Donovan Morgan, and another friend, Frank Murdoch, would open the Pro Wrestling IRON promotion and The IRON Dojo, called The Testsu Academy. Pro Wrestling IRON would focus on wrestling ability, taking the combined skills and experience of the owners, and imparting the knowledge to their students to give them a basis for success in the sport. During IRON's brief existence, they would be one of the most successful independent promotions in North America at the time, being one of the few promotions to have a national distribution deal for their library. Pro Wrestling IRON would be the mold used by Ring of Honor (ROH) executive Gabe Sapolsky to build ROH's initial success.

After returning from the Orient, Modest would continue to work with Pro Wrestling IRON until the promotion's close after nearly four years of business in 2005. Modest and his partners continue to own the rights to the IRON video library with Shadow Fire Promotions having exclusive distribution rights through the owners. Modest hopes to bring back Pro Wrestling IRON as a wrestling promotion soon.

Modest continues to wrestle across the globe, competing in Japan, Ireland, Mexico, and Canada internationally as well as across the United States, merging each of the styles from all the countries he has competed in into his own. Modest has competed for Total Nonstop Action (TNA) during the early days of that company; Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) and former WWF developmental territory UPW in California; Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL, Spanish for Worldwide Wrestling Council) in Mexico, sometimes referred to by its previous name of Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (EMLL) (Mexican Wrestling Enterprise), thought to be the world's oldest pro wrestling promotion still in existence; Stampede Wrestling in Canada; Memphis' United States Wrestling Association, another former WWF developmental territory; and even ROH, which was heavily influenced by Modest's former Pro Wrestling IRON company. Modest has either trained, had a hand in training or provided additional training for several other major names in the sport, such as his Beyond The Mat co-star Spike Dudley (formerly TNA's Brother Runt); The Great Khali; John Morrison; Tough Enough's Daniel Puder; Vic Grimes; Tony Jones; Orlando Jordan; Jimmy Snuka, Jr.; Bison Smith; his tag team partner Donovan Morgan; Brent Albright; Vito & Sal Thomaselli (Vito would later compete in IRON and assist in training there. It was Vito who would introduce Shadow Fire Promotions to Donovan Morgan, as Thomaselli was familiar with our work from wrestling in Chicago area independent promotions, which would lead to SFP's association with Pro Wrestling IRON, and later Modest); Ryan Drago; Steve Rizzano; Vinny Massaro; Big Ugly JD Bishop; Bobby Hart; Crash Holly; and many others. Pro Wrestling IRON was the final promotion Holly (Mike Lockwood) competed in prior to his passing. IRON released a DVD of Lockwood's time with the company, called "The Best of Mad Mikey" (Mad Mikey being the name Lockwood competed in after his time in the WWF ended).

Modest also currently records a podcast, named after his website, called Modest's Joint, which can be heard here (check the podcast link below), or on his own site (check our Affiliates and Links section for the URL of Modest's Joint) in between his wrestling bookings.

Also, check out Modest's Official Yahoo Group, where you can be kept up on the latest new of everything related to Michael Modest.

MODEST'S JOINT PODCASTS