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Van Underwood Stokes was born in Lafayette, Indiana on August 7, 1986 to Andrew and Matilda Stokes. His father was a boxer and fought Mike Tyson in an amateur bout in 1983 as part of the Golden Gloves Super Heavyweight Competition; after retiring from boxing he promoted boxing for many years, and now resides in Lafayette where he works for the railroad and continues to train boxers. His mother is an Administrative Assistant in African American Studies at Purdue University. He has three brothers, Andrew, Prenny and Marcus, and one sister, Angie Jasper.
Van did his first flip at the age of five, when he was showing off for his dad. He grew up in the Friendly Village trailer park in a family with two older brothers who were considerably bigger than him and who were involved in sports, so his household was very competitive. Growing up he played video games with his brothers, cousins, and friends which is something he still does today.
He attended Dayton Elementary, Wainwright Middle School, and McCutcheon High School. Van played basketball and football, ran track, and wrestled in middle school. In high school he played football, ran track, and wrestled. During his high school track career he set state records for long jump (23') and high jump (6'9"). Van graduated in 2005 and from 2007-2013, he wrestled professionally at Ohio Valley Wrestling, a premier training facility that has produced such superstars as John Cena, Randy Orton and Brock Lesner. He also played arena football for Bloomington Extreme in 2009 and semi-pro football in the Ironman Football League in Wisconsin in 2012. In the summer of 2016, Van was invited to Orlando, FL for a tryout with the WWE and is a prospect for 2017 and he will also be playing semi-professional football during 2017 for the Marion County Crusaders in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Van has appeared in a commercials for KentuckyOne Health and St. Vincent Cancer Care. He was a final contestant on WWE's 2011 Tough Enough competition, competed on CMT's Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge in August 2014 (season 1, episode 9), and went to the regional qualifying competition for American Ninja Warrior in April 2015. In 2014, he also worked on a Netflix original movie called "Sense 8" (from the producers of the Matrix) and Chicago PD which airs weekly on NBC. He is currently working as a stunt fighter and stunt choreographer for the fan film "Power Rangers: Zenith" which is being filmed in Carmel, Indiana.
Van cares for his Autistic brother, Marcus, and is the founder and Team Leader for The A League Entertainment, a Lafayette-based group of talented performers and entertainers who dance, sing, rap, stunt act, perform parkour, and promote fitness. Van is active in the community and several charitable organizations. He and The A League support Autism Awareness, Special Olympics, anti-bullying, anti-racism, equality, anti-drugs, and anti-hate, just to name a few.
