Brian Schiedel (January 10, 1985), known by his ring name Brian Zane, is an American professional wrestler, manager and YouTube star, best known for his YouTube show Wrestling With Wregret.
Career[]
Wrestler[]
Zane trained in Portland under "Playboy" Buddy Rose & Col. DeBeers before debuting in March of 2006. He wrestled for a year for various local companies such as Portland Wrestling, Championship Pro Wrestling and the West Coast Wrestling Connection (WCWC). On his YouTube channel, Zane often makes fun of his own lack of ability in the ring.
Technically, Zane was an interim WCWC Tag Team Champion for one day, having filled in for one half of the champions, "Rollin' 2 Deep", for a title defense in 2007 (they would lose the belts in that defense).
At APW Cow Palace Royale on May 6, 2017, Zane teamed up with the Classic Connection (Levi Shapiro & Buddy Royal) in a 3-on-2 handicap match against Lion Power (Will Hobbs & Marcus Lewis), with the APW Tag Team Championships against on the line. Zane would take the pin in that match after taking Lewis' 450 Splash.
Manager[]
Brian transitioned from wrestler to manager in March of 2007, roughly one year to the date of his wrestling debut. He continued to manage for the WCWC until his departure in 2010. He debuted for All Pro Wrestling in 2011 managing The Almighty Sheik (Josef Samael) for a brief program, then returned in 2016 to manage the Classic Connection, before the team broke up in August of 2018.
In March of 2018, Zane officially declared on his YouTube channel that he no longer referred to himself as a "manager", deciding to embrace his "YouTube Celebrity" status and dub himself "The Influencer". Similarly, he has said he no longer has "clients", but rather, "sponsored athletes".
YouTube Championship[]
On August 17, 2018, Zane crowned Levi Shapiro the inaugural Wrestling With Wregret YouTube Champion, after Shapiro turned his back on Buddy Royal. He held the championship until April 5, 2019, when Allie Kat won "Brian Zane's Million Dollar Battle Royal" at Black Label Pro's "Adventures in Wrestling" event in Jersey City, NJ on Wrestlemania weekend. Shapiro regained the championship from Kat in an empty arena match on June 1, 2019 in Crown Point, IN.
Commentary/Interviewing[]
In 2018, Zane returned to the WCWC as a color commentator for WCWC on FOX 12 Plus, alongside Blake Chadwick. The duo worked together for four months before the announce team was fired for "budgetary reasons".
Zane joined the Ring of Honor broadcast team in September of 2019 as a backstage interviewer for Death Before Dishonor. He hosts a recurring countdown segment on Ring of Honor television, occasionally provides color commentary and conducts backstage interviews.
Wrestling With Wregret[]
In June of 2013, Zane started a YouTube channel called Wrestling With Wregret. Borrowing from the review format made famous by characters like the Angry Video Game Nerd and the Nostalgia Critic, the channel originally focused on wrestling-related reviews of a similar style. The channel has since expanded to cover weekly wrestling programming, pay-per-views, sketches, interviews and more.
In wrestling[]
- Finishing and signature moves
- BZT (DDT)
- Teams and stables
- Entrance Music
- "Big Time" by Peter Gabriel
- "The Broken" by Fireball Ministry
- "Jordan" by Buckethead
- "Dragon Attack" by Queen
- Nicknames
- "The Influencer"
- "The Z-Man"