After serving in the Iraq War, Lail started his professional wrestling career in 2001, working as Phil Shatter on several independent promotions. He would be signed by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 2010, where he changed his ring name to Gunner and was presented as a member of the villainous group Immortal. During his time in the group, he won the TNA Television Championship once. After leaving the group, he would work as a tag team and singles wrestler, most notably as tag team partner and rival of James Storm, winning the TNA World Tag Team Championship with him.

Lail left TNA in 2015 and two years later in 2017, he signed a contract with WWE. He was assigned to the farm territory NXT, where he changed his name to Jaxson Ryker. In 2018, he joined Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake as The Forgotten Sons. In April 2020, the stable began working on SmackDown but his two stablemates were released. Ryker kept working with WWE until November 2021, when he was released.