On May 17, 1975, Steven Lee was born to Susan and John Lee. He grew up in downtown Phoenix in a lower class apartment. He was the second oldest of three children. He grew up during tough times. His father was constantly working to make ends meet, but his love for gambling often left the family broke. His mother worked in a diner to help support the family, but it was still not enough.

As a child, Steven loved roughhousing with his brothers and school friends. When he was old enough to go to school, he was always trying to fight his schoolmates. He was a small child though, and was usually the underdog in his fights. But that didn't stop him from pulling off some classy finishes to his playground fights. He was not always the victor, however. One day, he picked a fight with a student, who was two years older than him and twice his size. Steven suffered a minor concussion and was expelled from that school. This was a wake up call for Steven. He was now almost in high school and he was focusing too much on fighting. So he gave it up. He didn't through another punch until nearly five years later. During this time of composure, Steven excelled in school and began making friends, instead of mortal enemies. He was working as a construction worker with his dad by the time he was in high school.

In high school, Steven looked for sports that involved speed and endurance, this being the reason why he joined cross country, swimming, and track. He participated in these sports for the first three years of high school, and helped his cross country team win the state championships during his junior year. His girlfriend, Janis, and his success in high school made him feel like he was on top of the world. Little did he know that during the next year, everything would change.

During his last high school homecoming game, he brought Janis as his date. After his school's victory against its rival, Steven took her out for a walk in beautiful downtown Phoenix. After stopping for ice cream they headed down a dark street. Steven accidentally bumped into a couple disgruntled teenagers. They were furious. One screamed out to the couple "Watchya lookin' at?" He pulled out a gun and aimed for Steven. It hit Janis instead. Time seemed as if it had come to a stop, as Janis slowly fell to the ground, screaming, two of the teens ran off slowly, and the third one, the gunman, stood there staring at Steven. Steven caught Janis and looked down into her eyes, but knew that she was already gone. He looked up at the gunman and was filled with anger and hate. Steven quickly charged after the teen. The teen tried to shoot Steven, but didn't have enough time. Steven punched the teenager in the face with his already bloody hand and pushed the murderer to the ground. He began beating the teenager with all of his rage. After a few minutes, Lee had shouted every profanity he knew several times. The teenager was badly beaten. As it would turn out, Lee put him in a coma, a coma that he is still in today. That night changed Lee forever, a night when his hand was covered in the blood of his girlfriend and in the blood of her murderer, a night that he cried for hours.

That event made him depressed and furious for the rest of the year. He didn't perform in his usual sports. Instead, he joined wrestling and rugby, where he not only beat his opponents, he injured them. In wrestling, he gave 8 opponents concussions, he broke at least one bone of every opponent he faced, and he tore several ligaments of his opponents. In rugby, he did twice as much to his opponents and even shattered the shoulder of a rugby player from the rival school. He was unstoppable. In school, his grades fell from straight A's to C's and he barely graduated high school in 1993. He decided that he didn't want to go to college. He didn't know where he was going in life, but he was sure about one thing - he wanted to get revenge for what happened to Janis.

Somehow, Lee ended up working in a bar in downtown Phoenix. Not even Steven knew why he was working there. He just was. He worked as a bartender for two years. The bar was called Joe's Bar and Grill, and was notorious for it's bar fights. Lee watched fight after fight after brawl will hiding behind the bar. He was scared and helpless whenever a fight took place, until one rainy night in June. He was now twenty, and was working with only a waitress, to whom he secretly liked. Her name was Cindy and was the same age as he was. The usual bouncer was in the hospital due to an earlier fight. Suddenly, a group of 8 masked men ran in with crowbars and began smashing up the place. Lee hid behind the bar, but soon heard Cindy screaming out, and it brought Lee back to night of Janis' murder. The same exact scream had just been sounded. Lee didn't even hesitate, he hopped over the bar and ran to Cindy's rescue. He grabbed one and threw him into the wall. Three thugs soon jumped onto Lee. He fought them off with all of his fury, all of his rage. He punched his way out and had downed half of them in no time. Realizing that he still had more to fight, he grabbed one of the crowbars off the floor. He swung and contacted one of the thugs in the head. He fell to the ground without a scream or even a sigh of pain. He then grabbed another one and threw him onto the bar. Lee then started hitting him with the crowbar in the back. Suddenly, another thug grabbed Lee from the back and began choking him. Lee kicked his legs back, flipped over the thug, grabbed the thug, and began bear hugging the thug. The thug was soon limp, and Lee threw the thug to the ground on his head. This was later known as the Retaliation Driver. There was one last thug left, the leader. Lee approached him and stared him in the eyes. The thug pushed Cindy out of the way, and headed for Lee with his crowbar drawn. Lee put his crowbar out and they began fighting. Lee swung for the leader's head, but he blocked it. The leader quickly retaliated by going for Lee in the chest, but Lee jumped out of the way. Lee now had a clear shot at the leader's head, and so he took it, but missed and hit the leader's shoulder. The leader grunted and hit Lee in the side. He then kicked Lee onto a table and tried to finish off of Lee. Lee was too quick, as he threw a bottle at the head of his attacker. Lee followed it up with a blow to the leader's head, which put the leader out. Lee had won the battle, and had saved an innocent female, a female who he now fell in love with instantly.

Lee went on to become a bouncer, where he won many brawls. He worked as a bouncer for the next three years. Cindy was now his girlfriend. His life was much more happier now. Another important turn in his life was when a young man by the name of Ben Malone began working at the bar. He convinced Steven to join professional wrestling. Cindy backed him one hundred percent on this idea, and he would spend the next year and a half in a wrestling training facility. After the first year of training, he joined the ICW, a small league where he could learn the trade while still training.