Matthew Cross

Matthew Cross (Born September 3, 1989) is a Canadian professional wrestler and the frontman for the band RUDE.

=Personal Life=

1989-2001: Growing Up
Matthew was born on September 3, 1989 in the suburbs of Toronto Ontario. His father's name is Robert Cross and works as a construction contracter, his mother, Julia works full time as a cook at a local Milestone Steakhouse. Matthew's parents went through a divorce when he was six years old, until the time he was twelve he would often be back and forth betwen homes, trying to spend time with both of his parents. Shortly after his twelth birthday, Matthew decided to live with his mother full-time after his father's drinking became too much of a problem. Growing up with his mother wasn't easy for Matthew, making considerably less money, than her husband, Julia would send Matthew out to do deeds for neighbors and business owners to make money to support their small family.

2001-2006: The Rise of RUDE
Matthew and his family struggled to survive for a couple years while his father was making more money than he could spend, and not sparing a dime for the family. When Matthew turned thirteen, he got a job as a busboy at the same steakhouse his mother worked at. Matthew was only thirteen and therefore not of legal age to be working in Toronto, he was however allowed to work for minimum wage and was paid the money "under the table" until his fourteenth birthday. One day while channel surfing, Matthew discovered professional wrestling. After watching his first wrestling show, Matthew told himself that he wanted to be a professional wrestler. Matthew continued working at Milestone with his mother as he began his first year of high school. All of Matthew's childhood friends went off to schools located within their area, MAtthew however decided upon a school that was five miles away from his home and practically in the middle of nowhere in the countryside. MAtthew chose to part ways with his childhood friends because he felt as if he needed a fresh start with life, and a fresh start is exactly what he got. In his first week of the ninth grade he met Hazel White in his math class. From the moment he met Hazel, she was the object of his affection, from her blue eyes that, in no way matched her name right down to her talent on the guitar, something Matthew had always envied. One day, while in math class, the students were told to work in groups to do a special asignment, Matthew was paired up with Hazel and Hazel's good friend Ben Fuller. Ben was a year older than Matthew and Hazel and was repeading grade nine math, among other classes. During that class, Matthew, Ben and Hazel talked so much that they simply forgot all about their task at hand. During that class, Matthew learned that Ben had been playing the guitar since he was five years old, and had been meeting up regularly with Hazel to write and play rock songs together. Matthew, being a huge fan of Rock music his whole life felt as if he had found the best friends in the world in Hazel and Ben. Around the beginning of 2004, Hazel and Ben began putting forth the effort to learn songs from Rock's past. Together they decided to get a band started, this is when they called Matthew and asked him if he could sing, to which Matthew replied "Sing? I just woke up I mean, HELL YEAH!!!" Ben told Matthew to get over to his house, Matthew realized that this was an offer he couldn't refuse, he got to sing for a band and get closer to Hazel, Matthew felt like he hit the jackpot. He immediatly threw on his jacket, got his bike out and rode down five miles of icy sidewalks and road until he got to Ben's house, where he could already hear music coming from the garage. Matthew opened up the garage and saw his friends, in their winter jackets and wrapped up in scarves, both with guitars in their hands. Ben was holding an old and worn out Stratocaster, and Hazel, holding a teal acoustic guitar. The two were taking turns playing parts of Iron Maiden's hit "Run to the Hills." Matthew spent the entire day singing for a band that only consisted of himself and two other guitarists. Ben and Hazel both enjoyed having Matthew around, so they invited him back to sing for them again, to which Matthew graciously accepted. Before Matthew left that night the three of them decided upon a band name, that was the night that RUDE was born. In the Summer of 2004, RUDE would gather at Ben's house to practise and rehearse, often times, Ben would wake up in the morning and head down to the garage to find Matthew and Hazel already waiting for him and rehearsing, other days, Ben would simply find himself struggling to contact his bandmates, both of whom would always seem to disappear together. Over the course of the Summer, RUDE had perfected multiple classic rock songs, but they knew that nobody would want to hear them perform, they weren't even a proper band, therefore, they simply stayed together and jammed because they thought it was fun. At the beginning of their second year in high school, people began noticing that Matthew and Hazel had become even closer friends. Ben Fuller Once stated in an interview "Hazel would ride home on the back of Matthew's bike, he would take her out on dates every week, and they were even spotted in a movie theatre together, but they still denied that they were going out." Matthew and Hazel (although growing closer and closer to each other) never neglected RUDE and continued practising in Ben's garage. With time, the band gained steam and became one of the most talked about topics within their school, pretty soon, their band had people lining up to be a part of RUDE. One of these people was Jerry Ashton, Jerry was an award winning drummer and in his last year of High School. Jerry was strange though, instead of coming to the members of RUDE and asking to tryout, he simply wrote them a note and said nothing. Matthew and Ben decided to give him a tryout, long story short, they loved his skill on the drums. After being informed of the news that he was the newest member of RUDE, Jerry laughed, Matthew, Ben and Hazel believed it to be a sign of disrespect, they later learned that Jerry never talks, he expresses everything through laughter. The band found it hard to communicate with someone like Jerry, but they always managed to get him to practice where they continued to perfect song after song from the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. One day during practice, Jerry brought a friend along, Jerry's friend was Bobby Blank, a bass player. Bobby explained that he wanted to be a part of RUDE. The members decided together to let him practice with them, Boby picked up everything remarkably fast, thus he became the fifth member of RUDE. RUDE finally became a real band and began performing at parties and gatherings. After realizing that there isn't room in the band for two guitarists, Hazel switched roles and became a special female vocalist for RUDE, her professional experience singing proved to be effective as people imediately fell in love with her unique style of hard rock infused with country. Matthew also didn't have a shortage of fans, for people loved his carefree "I don't give a F*&%" style. For two years, RUDE performed successfully, performing all classic rock songs with their own added style to them. They were being booked for parties, gatherings, special events and even once for a wedding. In May of 2006 while performing at the school talent show, all of RUDE's equipment failed, causing them to lose the first place prize to a Nu-Rock band called Impulse. Later on in the week, it was discovered that their equipment failed because bobby Blank had sabotaged his own band. When confronted by the rest of RUDE, Bobby claimed that he was "mistreated" by the band and stated that he quit. Bobby would leave save though, for Hazel would break his nose with a right handed punch, this was shortly before Ben finished the job, knocking him down and soon after, concussing him. Without a bassist, RUDE took a break until they could find a replacement, during this time, Hazel spent a lot of time teaching Matthew how to play the guitar, something he had always wanted to learn. During this time, Matthew had gotten Hazel interested in ECFW wrestling. Matthew had always known that Hazel was perfect for him, but he believed it much more when Hazel told him that her favorite wrestler was Lonewolf, even though she had yet to see him in live action, Lonewolf was also Matthew's favorite wrestler. For months, the two of them had watched ECFW Tuesday Night Teror together while playing guitar during commercial breaks. In June of 2006, Matthew Cross and Hazel White graduated from High School, Ben once again failed and decided to drop out of school, Hazel graduated at the top of her class. RUDE performed at their high school prom. After graduation, Hazel was contacted by the former veteran bassist of Impulse, Philly Nyne. Philly showed interest in joining RUDE as their bassist, the bassist the group desperately needed. After listening to a demo tape, Philly was named RUDE's newest member. On top of being the newest member, at the age of 25, Philly was also the oldest. Rude went on to perform for almost three months, perfoming some of their greatest sets in this time period before Hazel announced to her bandmates that she was to leave the band in September for she was starting university. Hazel, being such an influential member of RUDE, was the reasoning behind the band's first original song simply titled "Hazel." Matthew attended a Christmas concert on December 17, 2006, it was at this concert where he saw what he believed was an amazing solo performance by Belle D’Aubigné, a tattoo clad rebel. She performed an expert piece on the violin. After seeing this, MAtthew tracked her down to the outside of the theatre where he found her enjoying a cigarette. Matthew explained to Belle that he was looking for a special new sound for RUDE. Belle told Matthew that she's multi-talented, having experience on almost every instrument as well as having experience singing for small-time bands such as RUDE. Matthew didn't need any more convincing, he offered Belle a spot in RUDE right then and there, an offer that Belle graciously accepted. RUDE got the opportunity of a lifetime, on New Years Eve, they went to Nathan Phillips Square and had the opportunity to perform in fromt of more than a thousand fans prior to the New Year's celebration in Toronto. The crowd loved RUDE's unique tribute to classic rock, their first single "Hazel" also went over extremely well with the large crowd. RUDE rung in the new year together at Nathan Phillips Square among the people of Toronto.

=Professional Life=