Austin Watson started his wrestling career training in Rob Adonis's Ultimate Christian Wrestling while attending Furman University. While in Soutn Carolina wrestling for the World Wrestling Council, he developed a ring persona based on Apollo Creed's character from Rocky and he called himself "Consequences Creed."  During his time in NWA Anarchy, Creed was part of a tag team called "Awesome Attraction" with Hayden Young and they had the longest title reign in the promotion's history. In 2006, Creed was voted Most Popular Wrestler by the NWA fans.

In July 2007, Creed became the first Deep South Wrestling Heavyweight champion following Deep South's split from the WWE. That same year, he made his TNA Wrestling debut at Bound for Glory, teaming with Ron "The Truth" Killings as a replacement for Adam "Pacman" Jones. He signed a contract with TNA Wrestling but wasn't seen on television after Killings left TNA. Returning in April 2008, he competed in the first-ever Terrordome match, which was won by Kaz.  He went after the X-Division title against Petey Williams, but lost due to outside interference. He then went into a triple threat match for the title but once again came up short.

In January 2009, Creed teamed with Jay Lethal to win the TNA Tag Team titles from Beer Money.  They named themselves Lethal Consequences but lost the titles back to Beer Money three days later.