Karl Stone

Pierre de Serpent (France)

Karl Stone (born Claude Dreyfus Boucher, July 16, 1996) is a professional wrestler in CWL signed to the Vindication brand. He has previously wrestled in Prime Time Pro Wrestling, La Fédération du Sang de France (FSF), Lucha Libre AAA, and on CWL's Genesis brand. He is a former King of Genesis Champion.

## Early Life and Training

Karl Stone was born Claude Boucher in Anacostia, an impoverished and crime-ridden neighborhood in Washington DC. He grew up the older son of Dreyfus and Marie Boucher, along with his younger brother Louis. An environment of fear, violence, and drugs surrounded the young Boucher as he grappled with heavy moral questions at far too young an age, and he spent a great deal of time protecting his younger brother, which ended up being the start of his combat career. Despite this, Boucher feels deeply attached to his hometown city, valuing his time there.

Boucher did not have a good relationship with his father, who was both deeply in debt due to his gambling and was a severe alcoholic. Details of their relationship are private, but Boucher was kicked out of the house for undisclosed reasons by his father when he turned 18. His father died due to his alcoholism shortly afterwards. HIs brother started at law school when he graduated college. When Boucher started earning money from wrestling, he bought his mother a house in a nicer part of DC and still pays her bills.

Boucher graduated High School with no prospects, but after hearing about a wrestling tryout in DC for Prime Time Pro Wrestling he decided to give it a shot.

## Prime Time Pro Wrestling (2015-2017)

### Trained by Ramon Reyes

Claude Boucher tried out for PTPW and but was rejected. PTPW as impressed by his athleticism but not by his lack of training or his lack of gimmick. Unwilling to accept defeat, he put on a simple mask and came up with the name Karl Stone. At his second tryout, he he did more high flying manouevers and wild stuff, impressing the management who liked Luchadors. His speed and talent were unrefined, but the management of PTPW saw that he had talent. One of the organizers, a man named Herculano Hernandez considered by most to be washed up, had known Ramon Reyes from AAA and called in a favor. Ramon Reyes arrived in DC not expecting much, but instantly took a liking to Karl Stone. It is widely believed that Ramon saw something in Stone that he hadn't seen in his son Gretery, but the exact reason is known only to Ramon and Stone. Ramon agreed to train Stone, and the two developed a father-son relationship very fast. Stone started off using much of the same moveset as Ramon had, and with Ramon's blessing, but found it unfullfilling and asked Ramon to help him develop a moveset that fit him better, a mixture of strikes and lucha-libre flying lacking much overlap with Ramon's moveset. When it came time for Stone to debut, Ramon gifted him his own mask so that he could continue to carry on his legacy, and legally adopted Stone into his family. Stone has worn the mask ever since.

### Three Deadly Venoms Tag-Team

After training his training Karl Stone was introduced to Jay Scott and Dave Graves who quickly formed a friendship despite their different backgrounds and styles. Deciding they would be better off working together, they formed the Three Deadly Factions and adopted mascots in keeping with their styles (both fighting and fashion). Karl Stone became the snake and vowed to use his skills to bring victory to the faction. Initially lead by Jay Scott, the faction was unsuccessful in acquiring gold.

### Assuming Command

Though Scott had been chosen for leadership due to his natural charisma, Stone and Graves were deeply unhappy with his tactics. This lead Graves and Stone to challenge Scott for a change of leadership which he accepted. Stone won the hotly contested match and assumed command. Under Stone's leadership the faction quickly won the PTPW Tag Team Championships at 2016's *Grappitol City* with Scott and Graves being directed by Stone, and Stone picked up the PTPW 51st State Championship at *Ignition* of the same year, though the group was unable to capture the PTPW Heavyweight Championship. Sadly as 2017 started the faction was splintered at *Really Badd Blood,* losing all of their titles. Stone attempted to keep the faction together, but it quickly collapsed into infighting with Scott and Graves leaving the company.

### Forced to leave

Losing his faction left the former champion friendless in a promotion lacking in lucha talent. After a final failed Heavyweight Championship run, Stone decided to take his skills elsewhere.

## FSF - La Fédération du Sang de France (2017-2019)

After receiving a letter from his grandmother Stone travelled to France to visit his ancestral home in Dijon. There he learned of the FSF and how it was seriously in need of talent after being revived just over a decade earlier. In France he was announced as Pierre de Serpent, as the French announcers struggled with his name. He also swapped his traditional green in favor of a gettup inspired by his ancestor, Louis Boucher, who was a rifleman in the French revolutionary army killed at the Battle of Valmy in 1792, shortly before the first French Republic was declared.

### FSF World Heavyweight Champion

De Serpent rose to the top of the field very fast, and challenged René Marchand for the title. At his very first FSF event de Serpent won and became the FSF Champion. De Serpent's reign lasted 671 days and encapsulated essentially his entire time in FSF. De Serpent proved popular with the French audiences, and dominated the field.

Notable story lines include feuds with René Marchand, Thomas Dreyfus, Francois Citoyen, and Gustave de Paris, all unsuccessful title bids.

Gustave de Paris was one of de Serpent's most bitter rivalries. Another masked wrestler, claiming to represent the soul of Paris, Gustave seemingly had de Serpent's number. In the first title match Gustave won by countout, as a bruised de Serpent could not make it back to the ring, but of course the title did not change hands. In the second match Gustave lost after slipping off the top rope attempting to go for his famous Eiffel Tower Drop and was rolled up by de Serpent. Frustrated, Gusatve demanded a third attempt, and de Serpent agreed but only if it was Mask vs Title. On September 22nd, the anniversary of the declaration of the first french republic, de Serpent won clean and Gustave gave up his mask.

René Marchand, who had originally dropped the title to de Serpent, and de Serpent had several run-ins. Marchand attacked de Serpent brutally with a steel chair, injuring his right leg badly. De Serpent was forced to wrestle on the injured leg or forfeit the title. During the match with Marchand, Marchand attacked the leg heavily and even locked in a heel hook at one point. De Serpent was only able to win after Marchand refused to give up a submission despite a rope break, and was disqualified. After the match Marchand attacked de Serpent viciously but de Serpent was saved by the female wrestler Marie Lézarde. Marchand was supsended from competetion for 3 months, and Lézarde was given the first women's shot at the title a month later, opening the gates for intergender wrestling in the company.

Marie Lézarde lost her effort to get the title, but de Serpent was so impressed by her efforts that the two formed a tag team for a massive tag team tournament, *La Bataille de Verdun,* the purpose of which was to crown the new FSF Tag Team Champions after the belts had been vacated. There being no rule against a man and woman teaming up, the two entered. Their team was named Les Reptiles, and they made it to the semifinals before being eliminated by Die Panzerbrüder, a german tag team that would go on to lose in the finals. The team up made FSF managment realize they didn't need two tag belts, and had a match between the Women's Tag Champs (Full Spectrum) and the Men's Champs (Les Renards Roux), with Full Spectrum being victorious. Lézarde and de Serpent challenged for the new Unified Belt but were unsuccessful, as de Serpent also had defended his Heavyweight Title earlier that same night against Italian wrestler Paulo Luca.The Women's Championship was renamed the FSF French Championship under the new intergender dynamic, and Lézarde challenged Marie de Tigre successfully for it. De Serpent and Lézarde would both go on to defend against both men and women, continuing their team until the end of his time in FSF.

Around 650 days into his reign de Serpent decided to start holding open title matches for the world title, wishing to see himself unseated as the champion so that he could return home with his accomplishments to start working on his lifetime goal of fighting to prove that success is a matter of personal effort and hard work. He felt his time in France had drawn him away from the whole reason he had started wrestling and grown boring. However, this open challenge was taken as an insult by many on the roster, as they thought he was simply flaunting his huge title reign. René Marchand and Francois Citoyen challenged de Serpent at the same time. Stone was forced to accept, and a triple threat was scheduled for the upcoming event, *Jour de la Révolution*. In the match Marchand and Citoyen beat de Serpent up viciously before Marchand lay down for a pin, ending de Serpent's reign. FSF managmenet informed him that he would be allowed to have a rematch if he wished, but he declined as he had other business.

De Serpent went back to going by Karl Stone and departed FSF to return to North America, as Ramon Reyes had asked him for a favor.

## Lucha Libre AAA (2019-2021)

In line with his return to use of the name Karl Stone, he switched back to an outfit more similar to his original, this time green and black.

### Feud with Gretery

At the request of Ramon Reyes, Stone travelled to Mexico City to join Lucha Libre AAA where Ramon's son Gretery was resuming his wrestling after recovering from his knee. Ramon used his ties with AAA to get the company to sign Stone, and he debuted with Ramon alongside him. However, Gretery had a rocky relationship with his father already, and he felt slighted by Stone's use of his father's mask design (albeit recolored) as well as Ramon returning to debut Stone. The two came into conflict almost immediately, with Gretery mocking Stone repetedly week after week. Ramon had hoped Stone could be an in to make up with his son, a young face full of energy, but this was wildly unrealistic and Gretery refused all offers of reconcilliation. Stone, seeing he had no choice, challenged Gretery for his championship and invited Ramon Reyes to be there at ringside. In the critically acclaimed match at Verano de Escándalo, with Ramon at ringside, Gretery retained his Latin American Championship. Stone got up from the defeat and offered a handshake to Gretery. Stone waved Ramon into the ring and made his exit, allowing Gretery and Ramon to patch up their past.

### Latin American Champion

Gretery left AAA shortly after his feud with Stone, but not before losing the AAA title to his friend Psycho Clown. Stone still had his eyes on the Latin American Championship, and after a short but respectful feud with Psycho Clown, obtained his first Latin American Championship at *Héroes Inmortales 2019*. However, his reign would not be long before another challenger appeared.

#### Jay Scott

Jay Scott came to AAA in late 2019 and immediately challenged for the AAA Mega Championship against reigning champion Fénix, albeit unsuccessfully. He dropped his attempts after learning his old friend Stone was the new Latin American Champion. Scott resented Stone for his role in the faction breaking up, and in turn Stone blamed scott for tearing apart their close friendship. Scott attacked Karl Stone on a weekly show and started a short and bloody feud that lasted two months, culminating at a hotly anticipated match at *Triplemania 2019*. The match was violent, with Stone flying around the ring and hitting several Red Lines and Scott hitting an avalanche Victory Road. In the end Stone closed out the match with a Snakebite followed by a massive Exodus Crash. Scott departed the company shortly afterwards.

#### Open Challenge and feud with Daga

Stone continued his reign well into 2020, also starting the title's first open challenge, defending it against a variety of contenders. Eventually, Daga accepted the challenge and Stone lost by count out, but the championship can't change hands based on count out. This was the catalyst for a feud that lasted even after he lost the championship to Daga in a critically acclaimed match at *Rey de Reyes.* Daga had won the match via the Mataleón (rear naked choke) knocking Stone out cold. The feud continued until Stone was knocked out via a nasty kick to the head at *Verano de Escándalo 2020,* and was temporarily taken off the program due to a concussion as a result of the big boot.

### Post-Concussion // Return to the ring

Stone made a successful return a few months later at *Héroes Inmortales 2020* where he fought in the Copa Antonio Peña tournament. He placed second after being eliminated by Taurus. Stone continued to appear in scattered tournaments for the rest of the year with no real storylines developing.

### Failed AAA Mega Championship bid

Stone was involved in a multi-man bid for the AAA Mega Championship, seeking to unseat Kenny Omega alongside Gretery's old friend Laredo Kidd and Fénix who sought to reclaim the title. The four-way feud was Stone's best shot at gaining the championship from Omega, since by himself he most likely didn't stand a chance. During the feud rumours swirled that Stone was in talks to leave the company and follow Gretery to CWL, or perhaps go to NJPW. These rumours were confirmed when Stone took the pin from Omega in his final match with AAA at *Rey de Reyes 2021.* He shook hands with Omega before waving to the crowd and departing Mexico.

## CWL

### Genesis

Stone was noticed by CWL during his time in AAA and agreed to come over to the company after learning his two old faction mates Dave Graves and Jay Scott had gone there as well. He debuted at Genesis 26 in a dominating win against SsniperzZ. On Genesis 27, Stone defeated Blade Coleman in an acclaimed Extreme Rules match.

#### King of Genesis

Stone called for a revolution against the reign of Troy Winters, who agreed to a match on Genesis 28. As a genuine surprise to both himself and everyone in attendence, Stone unseated Troy as the King of Genesis with a Snakebite to end the match, beginning his reign as King of Genesis.

Due to his oppostion to the term King, Stone was styled the President of Genesis by Ryan Porter after dethroning Troy. He entered into a feud with Seth Dallas, losing his first Genesis match on Genesis 29, giving Dallas a title shot for Genesis 30. However, Stone decided to bring Blade Coleman along with him to counteract Nastico. Unfortuneatly it was not enough, and after more Nastico interference Stone dropped the title.

#### Genesis Continued

After losing the the title, Karl Stone had a match vs El Rayo Dorado, an old friend of Gretery, at Genesis 31, who took issue with Stone's use of Ramon Reyes's mask. Stone crushed him in a match that lasted 3 minutes, proving he was in fact cotinuing Ramon's legacy.

Karl Stone entered into the Tony Samuels 50th State Tour across Genesis on Genesis 33, and picked up another win for himself.

### Vindication

#### Ricky Valentine

Kar Stone was a surprise entrant for Vindication during the Battle for Supremacy, entering at number 15 and being eliminated by Ricky Valentine. On Vindication 4.41 Karl Stone made his official debut, returning to his original green and gold color scheme, against Phil X, in a losing effort. Frustrated with the loss, Stone grabbed a mic and introduced himself to the Vindication crowd. He mentioned how he was distracted by being eliminated form the BfS so quickly, and asked Ricky Valentine if he could have a chance to redeem himself. Ricky came out and welcomed him, but said Stone shouldn't be blaming him for his loss. Regardless, Ricky accepted Stone's challenge and agreed to a match at Jailbreak. The following week on Vindication 4.42, Stone knocked Rikcy Valentine out of the ring over the top rope after Valentine's match. In response, Ricky announced on 4.43 that the match at Jailbreak would be an over-the-top-rope match, Stone accepted and the two brawled in the ring before Stone sent both tumbling out with a clothesline. At Jailbreak, the two went all out, with Ricky Valentine throwing Karl out and taking the win.

Following their match at Jailbreak, Ricky scheudled a match between the two of them for Endgame wanting to see how Karl would do in an actual match. Karl knocked Ricky out the ring on Vindication, immediately apologizing and expressing gratitude for the match. Ricky decided the Endgame match should be a steel cage match so they could finally stop knocking each other out of the ring. Despite kicking out of a Valentine's Day Massacre, Karl was pinned in the cage by Ricky in a hard fought match, ending this chapter.

#### Troy Winters

On the first episode of Vindication season 5, Karl picked up his first main roster win in a short and brutal match against Garnett Court. After the match Troy Winters viciously attacked him by surprise. Troy revealed the next week that he had attacked Karl because he had "let him win" the Genesis title from him, and now he was back to prove he could beat Karl whenever he wanted. Karl responded, calling Troy a coward and a fraud, and challenged him to a match on the supershow on 5.3. Troy responded by picking up Karl and slamming him to the mat. Despite being told by doctors that another back blow could endanger his career, Karl showed up for the Supershow. Troy brutally attacked him during his entrance but Karl managed to pick up the win despite this.

#### Continued Competition

Karl defeated Lucas Button on Vindication 5.5 after it was announced he had no planned matches for Shadowbanned (5.8). On Vindication 5.6 he teamed up with Jasper Star to defeat the team of Troy Winters and Lucas Button, winning by countout victory after incapacitating Troy Winters on the outside. As a result of his wins he was given a match against Alex Graves at Shadowbanned (5.8). Graves beat Gretery and El Rayo Dorado on preceding episodes of Vindication, making Karl the only Familia Reyes affiliated wrestler he hadn't faced. For his part, Karl was still annoyed that Gretery had beaten Ricky Valentine and he hadn't, so if Karl could pick up a win over someone that had defeated Gretery it would put them at parity. Karl then entered into a GITB qualifying match but was unsuccessful.

## Championships and achievements

### Pre-CWL Championships

* PTPW Tag Team Champion (via the Freebird Rule)
* PTPW 51st State Champion
* FSF World Heavyweight Champion (longest historical reign)
* AAA Latin American Champion

## Style and Moves

### Style

Stone leaned into the typical high-flying aspects associated with luchadores while being trained by Ramon Reyes but kept a healthy reliance on strikes in his arsenal. It would be inaccurate to describe Stone as a striker, but he does use it as his primary offense along with an array of acrobatic and high-flying moves, along with the occasional suplex. Speed is his ally, and he is most comfortable bouncing about the ring and having a good time. Stone is weak to submission moves and has never won a match with one.

### Finishers

* Snakebite -- Dragon Twist Cutter
* Exodus Crash -- Corkscrew Shooting Star Press
* (Extremely Rare) Ophidian Bomb -- Blue Thunder Bomb, usually on the outside

### Signatures

* Sunshot -- Standing Spanish Fly
* Red Line -- Springboard European uppercut (running on the outside of the ring)
* Foot DDT