before dropping out. Professional wrestling career Early career (2000–2005) In the autumn of 1994, Lindsey's father, a collegiate wrestler, began training as a wrestler under Jim Neidhart. After Lindsey attended several training sessions and met Harry Smith, a third generation wrestler, he decided to become a wrestler. Lindsey was also trained by his father, Neidhart and a number of other wrestlers in Tampa, Florida and debuted in 2000 as The Jester on the Floridian independent circuit for the RWA. Strong wrestled his first match for the Independent Professional Wrestling promotion, competing in a twenty-man cruiserweight Battle royal. He was initially one-third of a stable known as "Risk Factor" with The Kamikaze Kid and Kid Lethal before he formed a tag team with his trainee and kayfabe brother, Sedrick Strong. The Strong Brothers defeated Wrongful Death (Naphtali and Dagon Briggs) for the IPW Tag Team Championship on June 28, 2002 in St. Petersburg, Florida. They held the title until September 20, when they lost to Naturally Marvelous (Scoot Andrews and Mike Sullivan) in a steel cage match in which Roderick suffered a concussion. After Sedrick cost the Strong Brothers a number of matches, Roderick turned into a villain on February 8, 2003, betraying Sedrick and aligning himself with the Alliance of Defiance, a dominant villainous stable. After IPW closed down in late 2003, Strong began working for NWA Florida, a promotion which had had a working relationship with IPW for two years. Strong defeated David Babylon for the Florida Unified Cruiserweight Championship on July 19, 2003, in St. Petersburg. While Strong was champion, the title was renamed the Florida Unified Junior Heavyweight Championship. He lost the title to Jerrelle Clark in a four-way match on December 13, 2003 in St. Petersburg. Clark vacated the title on January 10, 2004, after winning the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship, and Strong defeated Mikey Batts for the vacant title on February 21 in the New Alhambra Sports and Entertainment Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He lost the title to Sedrick Strong on April 29, 2004, in New Port Richey, Florida. In addition to wrestling for NWA Florida, Strong served as the head trainer of the territory's wrestling school. On January 13, 2005, Strong made a one-off appearance in World Wrestling Entertainment's SmackDown episode, representing Tampa. On the episode, Strong was defeated by Kurt Angle in Angle's "3-Minute Hometown Hero Challenge". Ring of Honor (2003-2016) Generation