Johnny Thunder

Brendan Andrew Schafer (born September 24, 1978) is an American professional wrestler. He works on the independent circuit primarily through the Pacific Northwest. He also has worked briefly in WWE, Global Pro Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling & AAA just to name a few.

He also runs a wrestling school called the Thunder Wrestling Academy in Vancouver, Washington.

Early life
Schafer was born on September 22, 1978 in Vancouver, Washington to parents Joe & Sandra. He is the oldest of eight and the couple's only son. When he was born, Joe was only nineteen and Sandra was eighteen and the couple weren't married yet. Schafer was always athletic and played football, basketball, baseball and lacrosse. He maintained straight A's and was always well liked in school. He always protected his younger sisters and even got into a fight with his youngest sister's abusive boyfriend who later was arrested.

After high school, Schafer entered the Military, serving in the United States Marine Corps serving from 1998-2000. He was discharged from the Marines after suffering an injury. Whilst in the Marine Corps, he met his future wife Lynda who was working for a consulting firm. They were married in May 2000. The couple's first child, son Dalton was born on July 16, 2001.

Early career (2000-2002)
After his military career was over, Schafer started training back at his home in Portland, Oregon. He was trained by Billy Jack Haynes & occasionally "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (who was also living in Oregon at the time) He went on to work for Pacific Northwest Wrestling where he would win the PNW Heavyweight & PNW Television Championship. He'd hold both each on three occasions and held the PNW Tag Team Championship twice with Gavin Ross (later known as Owen Oliver in GPW)

The Knights and APW & PWG Champion
Schafer started off in California based All Pro Wrestling where he joined the stable the Knights where he donned a mask as White Knight. He later would win the APW Universal Heavyweight Championship as well as the APW Worldwide Internet Championship and Tag Team Championship each on one occasion.

As part of a cross promotion, APW & PWG had a super show and Schafer won the PWG Heavyweight Championship while holding the APW championship.

Thunder & Lightning
In 2006, Schafer signed with World Wrestling Entertainment along with Justin Devlin, better known as Maxx Lightning. Collectively the duo was known as Thunder & Lightning. They were a part of the 2006 WWE Tag Team World Cup, representing the United States. They would lose in the finals to Team Canada. After that, the duo became enhancement talents for the rest of the year.

Deep South Wrestling (2007)
Thunder & Lightning went down South to Deep South Wrestling, WWE's developmental system at the time. They would win the DSW Tag Team Championship once.