Max Bauer Max Pelham ( February 15 , 1986 ) is an American professional wrestler , better known by his ring name Max Bauer on the Indies and Axl Keegan or Mickey Keegan when with WWE . Max previously worked in WWE ' s developmental territory , NXT Wrestling . Prior to signing with WWE , Bauer primarily competed across the Northeastern United States on the independent circuit . Bauer wrestled regularly for Chaotic Wrestling , New England Championship Wrestling , a few times with Ring of Honor and for numerous other Indies as well , promotions such as East Coast Championship Wrestling , East Coast Wrestling Association , Eastern Wrestling Alliance , Defiant Pro Wrestling , Squared Circle Wrestling , Top Rope Promotions and Millennium Wrestling Federation to name just a few . Professional wrestling career . Chaotic Wrestling ( 2005 - 2012 ) . Bauer first began competing in Chaotic Wrestling ( CW ) in 2005 , and was part of the villainous faction Intellectual Properties with Arch Kincaid and Thomas Penmanship . On December 9 , 2005 , Bauer won the Chaotic Wrestling Tag Team Championship with Kincaid as part of Intellectual Properties , when they defeated Bryan and Matt Logan . They held the title until April 21 , 2006 , when they dropped it back to The Logan Brothers . On June 30 , however , Kincaid and Bauer won back the CW Tag Team Championship from The Logan Brothers , but lost it to Jason Blade and Kid Mikaze on October 20 . On December 1 , 2006 , however , Penmanship turned on the group , and was replaced by Alex Arion . In 2007 , Bauer joined the Big Business faction with Arion and Brian Milones , and were managed by Cherry Payne . On March 30 Bauer and Arion won the CW Tag Team Championship by defeating Jason Blade and Kid Mikaze , but then lost it back to Blade and Mikaze on May 18 . On October 19 , Bauer and Arion defeated Bryan Logan and Brian Fury . At the end of 2007 and start of 2008 , Big Business were involved in a rivalry with Brian Fury , with all members taking him on in both singles and tag team matches . Bauer later broke away from Big Business , and began competing in singles matches , before forming a short - lived tag team with Chase Del Monte . On December 5 , Bauer competed in a six - way number one contender ' s match , but it was won by " Big " Rick Fuller . In 2009 , Bauer formed a tag team with Tommaso Ciampa . New England Championship Wrestling ( 2006 - 2010 ) . Bauer made his New England Championship Wrestling ( NECW ) debut on June 10 , 2006 , defeating Nat Turner . In only his second NECW appearance on July 15 , Bauer unnsuccessfully challenged Frankie Arion for the NECW Television Championship . After a short hiatus from NECW , Bauer returned on October 28 at " Monster ' s Brawl " , as part of the DNA faction , alongside TJ Richter and Scott Reed , when DNA defeated RIOT and Billy King and Mike Lynch . At the following show , " Double Impact " , Bauer and Reed , accompanied by Richter , defeated 2D Edge ( Jose Perez and Pat Masters ) . On February 24 , 2007 , Bauer lost to Alex Arion , provoking a scripted rivalry between DNA and Alex Arion . At " March Badness " on March 24 , Alex Arion defeated Bauer and Reed in a handicap match . At " NECW Global Impact " , after Alex Arion defeated " Sensational " Scott Reed on June 30 , Bauer and TJ Richter attempted to attack Arion after the match but was stopped by NECW officials who threatened them with suspension . Arion then confronted Reed , Bauer and Richter , and challenged Richter to a singles match to allow his brother Frankie Arion , who had been forced to leave the promotion 10 months earlier , to return to NECW . Richter declined , and instead proposed a gauntlet match in which he would have to defeat all three men or retire from wrestling , to which Arion agreed . On July 20 , Arion won the gauntlet match , after defeating Reed first , then Bauer via disqualification , and finally Richter to officially reinstate his brother . At NECW ' s " Birthday Bash 7 : Caged Fury " on August 18 , Bauer and Richter lost to The Arion Brothers . On October 27 , Bauer lost a match to the NECW Television Champion Brandon Locke by disqualification after Richter , who had been banned from ringside interfered . Afterwards , Bauer attacked Richter to disband DNA . At " The Toxic Waltz " on December 28 , Bauer won The Toxic Waltz tournament , by defeating Richter in the final , to earn a title match for the NECW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship at " Genesis " . At Snowbrawl on January 28 , Bauer and his team of Brian Fury , Alex Arion , and Bobby Fish defeated " Big " Rick Fuller , D . C . Dillinger , Eddie Edwards and Antonio Thomas in an tag team elimination match . At " Genesis " on February 27 , Bauer had the title match that he earned by winning The Toxic Waltz tournament , but lost to the reigning champion Rick Fuller by disqualification . In a rematch at " March Badness " , Fuller defeated Bauer to retain . On April 26 , at " Spring Breakdown " the NECW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship was vacated due to a controversial ending of the match at " March Badness " . As a result , a triple threat match , involving Bauer , Rick Fuller and Antonio Thomas , was set up as the main event , and Bauer won to become the undisputed champion . Numerous successful title defenses followed for Bauer , including a triple threat match at " Birthday Bash 8 : Larger Than Life " when he defeated " Big " Rick Fuller and D . C . Dillinger . At the 2008 Toxic Waltz Tournament , Bauer competed under a mask as the " Masked Enforcer " , and won the tournament by defeating Alex Arion . Bauer was not cleared to compete in the tournament , so after he unmasked , the NECW President Sheldon Goldberg , reversed the decision and declared Arion the winner , earning Arion a shot at the Triple Crown Championship at " Genesis 8 " . After Bauer defeated the NECW Television Champion Handsome Johnny on December 13 to retain the Triple Crown Championship , a second match between the two of them January 10 , 2009 , was won by Bauer again , this time by disqualification . At " Genesis 8 " , on February 21 , Bauer defeated Alex Arion to retain his championship . At the following show , Arion interfered in Bauer ' s match , and hit him with a steel chair . This led to a rematch from " Genesis " on April 18 , in which Bauer retained his championship , after hitting Arion with a steel chair to get himself intentionally disqualified . Bauer lost the title to Brandon Locke in Pembroke , Massachusetts on February 27 , 2010 . Bauer had held the title for an NECW record of 22 months . East Coast Wrestling Association ( 2007 ) . On October 13 , 2007 , Bauer and Kermon the German , collectively known as The Berlin Bad Boys , defeated The Heavyweights ( Sean Royal & Dan Eckos ) to win the ECWA Tag Team Championship . On December 1 , Bauer and Kermon the German lost the Tag Team Championship to The Logan Brothers ( Bryan and Matt Logan ) . WWE . NXT Wrestling ( 2012 - present ) . In August 2012 , it was reported that Bauer had signed for WWE and would report to their developmental territory NXT Wrestling . He made his debut on October 24 on an NXT house show teaming with Corey Graves to defeat Ben Satterly and Trent Barretta . Bauer made his televised NXT debut on December 5 with the ring name Axl Keegan , in a loss to Bo Dallas . On June 26 , late taping of " NXT , " Keegan who was renamed to Mickey Keegan , returned to in - ring competition by losing to Bo Dallas once again . Mickey was diagnosed with a career - ending neck injury , specifically spinal stenosis . On December 2013 , Keegan became NXT creative assistant and has not wrestled since .