Jonathan Harrison Kellar

Jonathan Harrison Kellar, better known by his ring names of "Ultimatum", "Human Dynamite" and "Lord Jon H Kellar" is an e-wrestler currently signed to GroundZero Global, wrestling for their GroundZero Wrestling 2k1 brand. He has held a total of five World Titles during his career, along with several tag team and hardcore honours. He also won GZW2k1's Lord of the Coliseum Tournament in 2006, earning him the title "Lord" Jon H Kellar.

Jon Kellar is particuarly known for his "sports first, entertainment second" approach to the business, adopting a stiff style incorporating martial arts and legitimate submission moves. He regards wrestling to be a sport, influenced by his early life in Japan, and dislikes the "circus" which the business seems to be becoming.

Early Years
Early Life

Jonathan Harrison Kellar was born in Greenwich, East London. He was born into a typical British middle-class family, the son of a doctor and a nurse. For the first three years of his life he was brought up in Forest Hill, where he learned to read and write at an early age under the guidance of his mother.

Education

At the age of 3, the Kellar family relocated to Japan, where Kellar spent the first 7 years of his education in an International School in Tokyo. Although initially struggling due to dyslexia, he soon adapted and developed a keen interest in Religious Studies and History. He also excelled for the school swimming team, and gained his first experience of martial arts.

In his autobiography, Kellar states that he regards his training to have started in Japan when he attended the world famous Kodokan School of Judo as a child. Here, Kellar learnt the basics of the "gentle way", becoming a first kyu (purple belt), but unable to progress further due to his age.

It was also during this time that Kellar was first exposed to professional wrestling, as he and friends from school would frequently sneak into small-time puroresu events held in Tokyo. One night, as a reward for an excellent school report, Kellar's mother agreed to take him to a larget event at the Tokyo Dome. Kellar credits this night with starting him down the path to his professional wrestling career. When Kellar was 11, his family returned to England, settling in Croydon, South East London. Kellar attended private school. Unable to find a good Judo school in Croydon, Kellar instead began studying Brazillian JiuJitsu under the tutelage of Sensei Carlos Macheda.

He remained a strong pupil at school, though he struggled to fit in with the other students due to, among other things, his love of comics and manga which he had developed during his time in Japan. This came to a head when, having been pushed too far by one bully, a 14 year old Kellar punched and locked his tormentor in an anaconda vise compression choke. Although the parents of the bully pushed for his expulsion, Kellar was instead suspended for two weeks. His parents threatened to withdraw him from his martial arts training following the incident, but Macheda persuaded them that continuing his studies would help him control his anger.

Following this incident, Kellar kept his nose clean. Channelling his anger and frustration into representing the school at Rugby, Water Polo. He also appeared in a number of school productions and participated in the debating society. Under Macheda's pupilage, Kellar was able to channel his anger and bitterness into Brazillian JiuJitsu and became a 4th degree blue belt shortly after his 18th birthday; his previous experience in Judo having allowed him to progress rapidly.

He was eventually accepted into Oxford University to read Law and Japanese, though he delayed his admission and took a gap year, returning to Tokyo. He assisted with rugby coaching at a school and also offered English tuition to Japanese families, as well as returning to the Kodokan Institute where his old Sensei Kitazawa Kaito helped him pick up where he had left off. Continuing to train under Sensei Kitazawa, Kellar acheived the rank of ni-dan before returning to England.

Kellar's degree lasted four years, three of which were spent at St Peter's College, Oxford, and the other (his third year) spent in Tokyo teaching students English. He graduated with a 2.1 degree, attending his final exam with a broken ankle sustained in a wrestling match (see below).

Wrestling and Martial Arts Career
Unlike many of the lawyers on his course, Kellar always saw a legal career as a "Plan B". His exposure to Puroresu during his time in Japan had given him an addiction to the sport, but he was disillusioned with American productions which focused on cartoonish characters and outrageous storylines. Further, his father was dead set against his eldest son pursuing a wrestling career, believing it to be a phase that would pass. Kellar therefore continued to pursue his martial arts studies, while secretly beginning basic training at a local wrestling school under former IHW World Champion Walton Simons (who would later make several appearances on GZW TV as Kellar's psychopathic mentor).



Martial Arts
While at Oxford University, Kellar continued his JiuJitsu training under Macheda, arranging his tutorials and classes so that he could make the 2 hour journey to Croydon every Wednesday night, and the 2 hour journey back. The Oxford Express coach company nicknamed him the "midnight machine" and joked about naming one of their coaches after him. Although a friend offered to introduce him to the University's BJJ Academy, Kellar was insistent that he would continue to train under Macheda. Kellar quickly acheived his purple belt in his first term at Oxford, and was a 2nd degree brown belt by the end of his second year.

He also continued to practice Judo, appearing for the University Team at the varsity match against Cambridge Unversity. With the match tied at 4-4 (Kellar having narrowly lost his match to an opponent who was 20kg heavier), the judges drew three random matches to be re-fought as a tie-breaker. In the deciding match, Kellar faced his opponent a second time and scored the win, using an anaconda vise compression choke to score the submission. Kellar was awarded a discretionary Full Blue instead of the traditional half blue for his performance. Spending a year abroad in the 3rd year of his degree allowed him to return to the Kodokan Institute and reach the rank of yon-dan in Judo, thanks to an excellent performance in both the October and June Red and White Tournaments.

On his return to England for his fourth and final year, Kellar continued to represent the university at Judo, winning his match in a second Varsity Match (although Oxford would go on to lose overall). Returning to Macheda, he finally reached his goal of being a black belt in

The Bluebird
Jon Kellar undertook basic training under the pupilage of Walton Simons during his time in Oxford. Simons was impressed with Kellar's abilitiy to blend his Judo and BJJ holds into his routines and quickly recommended to small promotions, usually in battle royals that needed filler. Paranoid that he would be discovered and word would get back to his father, Kellar wrestled under a mask and had tattoos hand-painted onto his body by a local art student.

Kellar's first big break in the wrestling business came when the wrestler known as "Bluebird" fell over in the changing room and dislocated his knee 10 minutes before the match. As the Bluebird was a masked character, Simons recommended to the promoter that Kellar appear as Bluebird that night to avoid the match being cancelled. Strapped for any alternative, the promoter put Kellar in the mask and tights of the Bluebird, and had a local art student paint Bluebird's distinctive tatoos onto Kellar's chest and back. Kellar wrestled his first full match, winning by pinfall after the "Bluebird Splash." After the show ended, he walked back through the curtain, and was offered the chance to appear as Bluebird at the next event in Manchester. Kellar had earned his break.

Over the first two years of his University career, Kellar wrestled as Bluebird, rotating with the original performer, at 18 special events, recording 10 wins and 8 losses. He then spoke to the original performer and asked permission to wrestle as the Bluebird during his time in Japan, agreeing to split earnings with him.

Kellar debuted Bluebird in Japan at "Puroresu Fantasy VI"; an event in a small Tokyo Dojo in front of 300 fans. Finally Kellar got a taste of the wrestling he had been seeking; stiff strikes and legitimate submission holds, and the feeling of legitimate sporting competition that he felt western pro-wrestling lacked. Although he continued to use the Bluebird splash as a signature move, his wrestling style was far more technical and focused on submission holds and wearing down body parts. Kellar wrestled 10 further matches during his time in Japan, losing all but his final match.

Kellar continued to wrestle under the Bluebird mask during his final year of university. Recording another 3 wins and 6 losses. In his final match as Bluebird, he landed awkwardly from a throw over the top rope and broke his ankle, he rolled back into the ring and was pinned a few seconds later. He was then taken from the ring and to the local John Radcliffe Hospital, where despite his best efforts his parents discovered what he had been doing. After being confronted by them, he promised that he would not wrestle again prior to finishing his degree, but refused outright to give up on his dream.

Kellar attended the first two of his exams with his leg still in a cast, but completed his degree, earning a respectable 2.1 grade. Unable to secure a solicitor's training contract straight out of university, and therefore with no means of paying for his law diploma, he decided to go abroad to continue his wrestling training; against the wishes of his father but with the blessing of his mother and siblings.

Authority Wrestling Federation


Although he had originally planned to return to Japan, Kellar landed a trial with Ultimate Championship Wrestling, a medium sized promotion based in Canada. Though Kellar impressed at his trial the Vice President of UCW, Felicity, felt that Kellar lacked the necessary ring time to warrant promotion to the full roster.

Kellar instead joined AWF, a smaller American-based promotion with close ties to UCW. Kellar adopted the gimmick of "Ultimatum", a tough hitting wrestler intent on inducting members of the AWF roster into his "harsh reality". It was at this time that he met Kev Mania, Rich Mania and "Brutal" Ben David; a trio who would go on to fom the team "Reality Check". Ultimatum would win the AWF Regional Title and challenge unsuccesfully for the Hardcore Title.

Shortly thereafter, AWF began to suffer financial problems and was absorbed into UCW, therefore bringing Ultimatum into UCW. On television, this was presented as an "invasion" of UCW by AWF, spearheaded in part by Ultimatum and the Reality Check. However, Ultimatum defected to UCW shortly thereafter, returning to AWF only to drop the Regional title to newcomer Gorgon.

Ultimate Championship Wrestling
Shortly after the start of the AWF v UCW feud, the Reality Check were involved in a segment where they viciously ambushed and beat Kamchanterberry Ambergree, ending with them throwing him down a large flight of stairs. The segment was broadcast before the watershed, and attracted a huge number of complaints from viewers. As a result UCW moved to have Reality Check moved off of UCW TV. Kellar protested vocally backstage, getting into an altercation with the then Vice-President Felicity, and was moved off of TV as well. Kev Mania, Rich Mania and Brutal Ben David were released from their contracts and the latter two never appeared in UCW again. Kellar was suspended for a period of two months, during which time Kev Mania was re-hired.

The two were then put back on television as toXin, a faction originally dedicated to bringing down the federation from within, but which later evolved into a "distorted reality" type faction presenting unlikely adventures in serial form. This included breaking into the house of the World Champion and hiding the television remote, accidentally tying the backstage reporter to a bus and him ending up in Mexico, and stealing fellow superstar Sean O'Riley's entire stache of Guinness.

Although they were intended as harmless midcard fun, these bizarre adventures quickly became popular with the audiences and toXin celebrated that fame with two tag title runs, along with Ultimatum winning the Hardcore Title and Kev Mania winning the Internet title. Ultimatum participated in a series of entertaining hardcore matches with Inferno over the title, including a Dome of Death match and a Triple Cage Match. Their rivalry remains one of the fondest remembered in UCW history.

Towards the end of 2004 Jon Kellar wrestled Kamchanterberry Ambergree for the UCW Championship, coming out on top after Ambergree's former team-mate, Sean O'Riley, turned on him and allowed Ultimatum to capture the championship. Succesful title defences against Satanic Satan and Inferno then followed.

Personal Life
Kellar married his long-time girlfriend Sarah Wilson (known as Dyna Might) on 3 July 2005 while GroundZero Wrestling 2k1 were on the summer Heat Tour that year. Immediate family and a small number of friends (including long term friends Kev Mania and Sean O'Riley) attended the intimite ceremony in Japan. A larger celebration took place later in the year. The couple now divide their non-working time between homes in Atlanta, Tokyo and London.

Kellar maintains a strong relationship with his parents and with a close circle of friends from his life in Croydon and Japan. His friends can frequently be seen in the front row of many wrestling events, especially when GZW2k1 visits the United Kingdom.

In his autobiography, Kellar cites his parents, Wilson, and his sensei Carlos Macheda as his greatest influences. Kellar dedicated an entire chapter in his autobiography to Macheda, saying that every title and accolade he has won in professional wrestling is a tribute to his old sensei. Macheda was in the front row of the Coliseum at Anniversary Armageddon in 2012 When Macheda passed away in 2006, Kellar attended his funeral as a pallbearer, and delivered part of his eulogy, during which he described Macheda as "a selfless, giving man and a beloved sensei who shared a little of his life with me so that I could make a lot out of mine."

