Boris Malenko
After being trained by Boris Malenko and Dan Spivey, Hildreth made his debut on July 19, 1991 as "The Hammer", teaming with "Iceman" King Parsons to defeat Billy Travis and Khris Germany in a tag team match for the North Georgia Wrestling Alliance. The referee for this match was Hildreth's brother, Dwayne Hildreth. Hildreth had expected to wrestle on the independent circuit for at least a few years. However the promotion was being booked by Dusty Rhodes, who also served as the booker for World Championship Wrestling. Despite having wrestled just one match, Hildreth was invited to be the opponent for fellow Malenko trainee Marc Mero for the latter's tryout match for WCW.