Vladimir Kozlov

Vladimir Kozlov is the ring name of Oleg Aleksandrovich Prudius, a Ukrainian actor and professional wrestler born on April 27, 1969. He trained in freestyle wrestling, rugby, football, sambo, kickboxing, judo, jujutsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts. He signed a development contract with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2006, worked in Deep South Wrestling and then Ohio Valley Wrestling, where he won the OVW Heavyweight Championship, and debuted on SmackDown on April 4, 2008. He faced Triple H and Edge for the WWE Championship at Survivor Series 2008, spent time on the ECW brand, and later won the WWE Tag Team Championship once with Santino Marella on Raw. He left the company in 2011 and has also acted on stage and screen, with small parts in 25th Hour, The Wire and Grindhouse. He was the first Ukrainian to wrestle for WWE.