{"id":8271,"date":"2023-05-02T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=8271"},"modified":"2023-05-03T06:49:13","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T06:49:13","slug":"veteranoftheday-marine-veteran-stephen-kupryk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=8271","title":{"rendered":"#VeteranOfTheDay Marine Veteran Stephen Kupryk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen Kupryk was born on May 26, 1987, in New Jersey. After <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/79651\/borne-battle-214-marine-veteran-stephen-kupryk-wwe-superstar\/\">personally witnessing the events of September 11, 2001<\/a>, from a parking lot in New Jersey as a freshman in high school, he vowed to serve his country. In 2007, he joined the Marine Corps and served as a machine gunner on two deployments to Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion 8th Marine Regiment.<\/p>\n<p>After completing his enlistment in 2011, Kupryk pursued a passion for wrestling, seeking training at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monsterfactory.org\/\">Monster Factory<\/a> in New Jersey, where notable wrestlers such as \u201cThe Big Show\u201d and \u201cSheamus\u201d and many others trained. He gained national recognition in the wrestling world as <a href=\"https:\/\/community.wwe.com\/service\/news\/veterans-day-blog-steve-cutler-hire-heroes\">\u201cSteve Cutler\u201d<\/a> in WWE, where he was a member of the faction, \u201cThe Forgotten Sons.\u201d That\u2019s also when he got involved with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hireheroesusa.org\/\">Hire Our Heroes USA<\/a>, a nonprofit organization that helps Veterans find employment after their military service.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image hd-bcve-wrapper is--youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\" data-id=\"7ySgj6rI9eE\">\n<div class=\"play-button\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NXT Superstar and former Marine Steve Cutler reveals the importance of WWE Tribute to the Troops\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7ySgj6rI9eE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Kupryk later joined Impact, where he wrestled under the name <a href=\"https:\/\/impactwrestling.com\/steve-maclin\/\">\u201cSteve Maclin,\u201d<\/a> and won the Impact Heavyweight Championship on March 2023. Kupryk\u2019s wife, Deonna Purrazzo, also a wrestler, won the Impact Knockouts World Championship on the same night.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You embraced the suck, navigated through the unknown, and showed the world exactly what you\u2019ve always been capable of. Proud doesn\u2019t begin to explain how I feel. <\/p>\n<p>I love you more than you know \u2764\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hIf7dNjjnx\">pic.twitter.com\/hIf7dNjjnx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Virtuosa (@DeonnaPurrazzo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeonnaPurrazzo\/status\/1647973245268766720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>VA\u2019s official podcast, Borne the Battle, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/98094\/borne-the-battle-264-veteran-roundtable-afghanistan-withdrawal-evacuation\/\">spoke with Kupryk on episode 214 and again in 264.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>We honor his service. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" \/>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Nominate a Veteran for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%2523VeteranOfTheDay&amp;src=typd\">#VeteranOfTheDay<\/a><\/h2>\n<p>Do you want to light up the face of a special Veteran? Have you been wondering how to tell your Veteran they are special to you? VA\u2019s #VeteranOfTheDay social media feature is an opportunity to highlight your Veteran and his\/her service.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to nominate a Veteran. Visit our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/82638\/how-to-submit-for-veteranoftheday\/\">blog post about nominating<\/a>\u00a0to learn how to create the best submission.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A portion of this story was generated by AI. None of the data we reported included personal or sensitive information, and it was fact-checked and edited by a human copy editor prior to publishing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen Kupryk was born on May 26, 1987, in New Jersey. After personally witnessing the events of September 11, 2001, from a parking lot in New Jersey as a freshman in high school, he vowed to serve his country. In 2007, he joined the Marine Corps and served as a machine gunner on two deployments [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,16,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-veteranoftheday","category-marine-veteran","category-oef-oif","category-veteran-of-the-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8271"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8274,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8271\/revisions\/8274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}