Gertner was just 17 years old when he began wrestling as a heel announcer for a local wrestling organization under the alias Joey Jaguar. He would threaten the wrestlers and was generally beaten up for it. Eventually, the boss of the company found out about Gertner's true age (which was not disclosed during his appearances) and fired him. From then on, Gertner worked as a face announcer for the same company. He continued in this role for several years until he reached hernia surgery age (35 at the time). At that point, the company asked him to start working again as a heel announcer because they were running out of faces. Gertner returned to wrestling in 1992 and has been using the "Jaguar" name ever since. In addition to being involved in the creation of many popular wrestlers such as Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker, Joel Gertner has also done play-by-play commentary for various WCW events including Halloween Havoc '97 and World War 3 1999'. Now aged 50, Gertner still works the indie scene and most recently appeared at an All In event in Chicago in September 2016. He has also written a book called Wrestling Myths & Facts which is full of anecdotes from the world of wrestling.