David Bostian: One in a Million
While many kids have a dream of becoming a professional WWE wrestler one day, Wilmington native David Bostian, aka Myles Borne, has actually made it happen.
Like many kids, one of David Bostian’s favorite childhood pastimes was wrestling with friends on his backyard trampoline.
Inspired by the likes of WWE personalities Randy Orton, John Cena and Rey Mysterio, he and his buddies would shove, flip, slam and jostle one another for fun, each of them attempting to copy the moves of their favorite wrestlers.
Little did Bostian know then that one day he’d be perfecting his own signature moves for all the world to see as a real-life WWE Superstar.
Bostian grew up in Wilmington with his parents, Bobbi and David Bostian, who first introduced him to the Greco-Roman style of wrestling.
At age 5, they signed him up with the local club program Port City Pirates as a way of building character and teaching him self-defense.
It was there he met his long-time wrestling coach Dan Willis, who mentored him through his high school years at Laney High School.
During his time at Appalachian State University, Bostian’s focus switched to powerlifting, and it wasn’t long after graduating that he set his sights on a career as a professional wrestler.
Credit: WWE
“My dad and a buddy of ours, [retired pro-wrestler] Sonny Siaki, brought WWE up in conversation and suggested I give it a shot, so I completely switched up my training to prepare for a future tryout,” Bostian says.
“I made a promise to my dad before he passed that I would be in the WWE one day, and that was what I was set on doing.”
In August of 2021 Bostian was working out at the gym when he was contacted by a WWE representative with an invitation to try out.
A few days after completing his tryout at the Performance Center in Orlando, he received a call offering him a contract. On March 18, 2022, Bostian officially signed with the WWE and took on his new ring name, Myles Borne.
As difficult as earning a contract with the WWE might be, it’s not the biggest challenge Bostian has overcome.
He was born with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), a condition that occurs when blood can’t flow properly to the lungs after birth, which in turn stops a baby from breathing on their own.
Bostian flatlined twice during a five-minute helicopter flight to the hospital, and the doctors told his parents that he only had a 20% chance of surviving. Already a fighter, he made it through the ordeal.
However, one side effect of the treatment for PPHN is hearing loss, and Bostian was left deaf.
“Many people would assume I’d be at a disadvantage, but over the years I’ve been able to look back and see that [my hearing impairment] has actually helped me more,” Bostian says.
“Struggling to hear and communicate at a young age, I wasn’t really in tune with other kids and migrated more toward adults.
That continuous struggle to fit in caused me to focus on wrestling and weightlifting, which played to my advantage as I got older and more competitive.”
Credit: WWE
Currently wrestling with WWE’s NXT brand, Bostian says his journey has been a wild ride with new thrills and twists every week.
He loves how different each day is, because he goes to work never knowing exactly who he may run into or what he might be doing. Bostian also enjoys the physicality of his job and the adrenaline rush he experiences each time he steps in the ring.
“I’ve grappled and trained my whole life for free, and now I get paid to keep living that very same lifestyle,” he says. “I can take every bit of emotion I bottle up in my day-to-day life and just peel back the lid and let it flow inside the ring.”
Bostian credits much of his success to the love and support of his family.
Photo by Matt McGraw
He believes he gets his goal-oriented personality from his parents, who pushed him to be better as an athlete and as a person. He thanks them for sacrificing so much for him, as he does his wife, Jadyn, who stands by him through all the twists and turns of his unconventional profession.
“God blessed me with a beautiful wife who’s been so supportive of my career and deserves so much credit for being a rock in my life,” Bostian says. “Anyone who can put up with the non-stop lifestyle of a WWE Superstar deserves recognition.”
Although his career keeps him in Florida most of the time, Bostian still visits his hometown to see his family and friends.
He always stops at TruFit Gym or Port City Sports Performance, two of his favorite local gyms. As for hangout spots, Bostian spends as much time as possible on the water, at Masonboro Island, Wrightsville Beach or driving out on Freeman Park at Carolina Beach when the weather is nice.
Contributed Photo
“There’s just something special about sitting out on the little sandbars while the dogs run around, playing some music with friends and casting a line out,” Bostian says. “It’s the only time I can just stop, look around, soak it all in and be at peace with where I’m at in life.”
As for his future, Bostian hopes to be a name that lives on for many years in the WWE universe as well as in his hometown.
His goal is to make a difference with the tools he’s been given and the platform he now has, and he wants to inspire young boys and girls to dream big and always bet on themselves.
“People might tell you the odds of achieving your goal or dream is one in a million,” says Bostian. “But you could be that ONE, and you’ll never know unless you try.”
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