Caylen Croft was born as Kristopher Pavone on May 2, 1980. After two years of training under Danny Davis and Nick Dinsmore, he appeared at the ECWA Super 8 tournament and then started competing at Ohio Valley Wrestling a few weeks later as Chris Cage. He initially teamed up with former ECW superstar Nova, but later formed a team with Tank Toland called Adrenaline and won the OVW Southern Tag Team titles three times. He also won the OVW Heavyweight Championship from Matt Morgan and teamed with The Miz to win another Tag Team title reign. He was released due to behavioral issues.

Pavone then appeared in Ring of Honor and Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling but still worked for two years at OVW even though he was not under contract with the WWE. The WWE later re-signed Pavone to a developmental deal that put him in Florida Championship Wrestling under his new name of Caylen Croft. He and Trent Barreta were paired as "The Dude Busters," winning the FCW Tag Team titles two separate times. Croft also won the titles with Curt Hawkins.

In December 2009, Croft and Barreta debuted on ECW.