2000, while wrestling at the Thompson International Speedway in Connecticut, Quinlan received a Powerbomb from his opponent through a table on concrete outside the ring, fracturing one of the vertebrae in his lower back. The injury took months to heal. During this time Quinlan participated in photo shoots for New England-based photographers and artists and worked as a fitness model and on one occasion modeled for the "Energy Bomb" sports drink. Quinlan often felt he was exploited by promoters who forced him to use the Alex Bagwell professional wrestling gimmick (kayfabe cousin of professional wrestler Buff Bagwell) because of his physical likeness to Buff Bagwell. Often he would receive less than half of his expected income, which would ultimately force him to drop that gimmick and wrestle under the names Shane O' Kane and John Quinlan. In the fall of 2000, Quinlan was in contact with Joey Styles of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) for a scheduled professional tryout, which never materialized. Quinlan began training at World Gym in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, with his manager, Peter Karalekas, that December. Early in 2001, while wrestling for the National Wrestling Alliance of New England, he had a brief feud with Rick Fuller over a title shot against Fuller that ended in a loss. Shortly after, Quinlan went to Atlanta with Peter Karalekas and met with Ernest Miller, who was accompanied by Carmel Macklin and Michael Jai White about entering the World Championship Wrestling (WCW)'s Power Plant. Quinlan began using the Shane O'Kane gimmick, developed by Karalekas, at this time. The character was initially portrayed as an Irish thug from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, as a "heel" wearing black tights with knee-high engineer boots, but was transitioned to a masked wrestler as a "face". He began training with Edward Leslie in the summer of 2001. Quinlan and Leslie trained at World Gym in Somerville, Massachusetts and traveled together wrestling for multiple professional wrestling organizations throughout the Northeastern United States. In late August 2001 Quinlan and Leslie joined Jimmy Hart's newly founded Xcitement Wrestling Federation (XWF). Quinlan's last professional wrestling match was with an affiliation of Empire Pro Wrestling on the independent circuit in March 2002. He left the business as the result of accumulated sports related injuries he had sustained. Fitness and modeling competitions Quinlan competed as a muscle model at the 2010 FAME World Championships "WNSO Muscle & FAME Model" and BodyProud Wellness Convention held