Impact Wrestling has announced the signing of 24-year-old Virginian wrestler Chris Bey.

Bey just started wrestling in 2017 but he’s already become a stand-out rising star on the west coast indie scene, working primarily out Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Everett, Washington.

He worked his first match with Impact in 2018 during a television taping in Las Vegas, teaming with Mike Sydal against The Rascalz. In 2019 he wrestled on two episodes of Xplosion, two episodes of Impact television against Daga and Jake Crist, and the August Unbreakable special on Impact Plus.

Bey’s signing came as somewhat of a surprise for some fans, as Cody Rhodes has noted in multiple interviews that he has been keeping an eye on the indie wrestler. In a media call the same day that Bey’s signing was announced, Rhodes even stated that he was taking a “deep dive” looking into him on YouTube.

Signing with Impact will likely not signal the end of Bey’s independent career, as most of the people on the roster currently maintain full indie schedules in between television tapings.