Darren Drozdov, known professionally as Droz, was an American essayist, football player and professional wrestler. He was born on April 7, 1969 in the Mays Landing section of Hamilton Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey.
After a short career in the National Football League (NFL) and the Canadian Football League (CFL), he went into professional wrestling. He was best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), initially under the ring name Puke (a nickname carried over from his football career), and then under the shortened version of his surname.
Drozdov's active wrestling career ended suddenly when he suffered a severe neck injury during a match with D'Lo Brown during a WWF SmackDown! taping on October 5, 1999 at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Drozdov landed on his head and fractured two vertebrae in his neck. Even with intensive medical care, his injury initially left him a quadriplegic with essentially no movement below the neck. He regained movement in his upper body and arms afterwards. Drozdov used a customized, tank-like wheelchair that was designed and financed by his college friend, Under Armour founder Kevin Plank. He continued to work for the WWE as a writer and columnist following his accident and wrote articles and essays for websites and magazines. Drozdov died on June 30, 2023, at the age of 54.
