Hanson (wrestler)
| Hanson | |
|---|---|
 Hanson in 2015 | |
| Birth name | Todd Smith[1] |
| Born | (1984-03-03) March 3, 1984[2] Lynn, Massachusetts, United States[2] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Don Chesterfield Handsome Johnny Hanson Johnny Hayes Todd Hansen[1] Todd Hanson[1] Todd Smith[3] Warbeard Hanson War Beard Hanson[4] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[2][5] |
| Billed weight | 305 lb (138 kg)[5][2][6] |
| Billed from | Overseas[6] Reno, Nevada Lynn, Massachusetts |
| Trained by | Killer Kowalski[4] WWE Performance Center[4] |
| Debut | 2001[4] |
Todd Smith (born March 3, 1984) is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on its NXT brand under the ring name Hanson. He is best known for being part of the War Machine tag team, now known as the War Raiders, with Raymond Rowe. Along with Rowe, he is a former IWGP Tag Team Champion and ROH World Tag Team Champion.
Contents
1 Professional wrestling career
1.1 Early career (2001–2013)
1.2 Ring of Honor (2013–2017)
1.3 Japan (2015–2018)
1.4 WWE (2018–present)
2 Personal life
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 References
5 External links
Professional wrestling career
Early career (2001–2013)
Trained by Killer Kowalski, Smith made his debut in 2001.[4] For the next several years, he worked for a number of independent professional wrestling promotions throughout New England, most notably New England Championship Wrestling and Chaotic Wrestling. Well known for his tag team background, he was part of The Trendsetters with Max Bauer and Pretty Psycho with Psycho. He and Brian Milonas were also the head instructors at the Chaotic Wrestling training facility in North Andover, Massachusetts.[7][8]
Handsome Johnny in 2008
Smith appeared on Velocity on December 16, 2005, losing to Doug Basham. The following year, on September 15, 2006, he appeared on SmackDown as Todd Hansen in a losing effort to Sylvester Terkay.[1][3]
On February 16, 2008, Smith defeated Brandon Locke for the NECW Television Championship in Quincy, Massachusetts. The title was vacated on April 22, 2008, due to an injury Smith suffered in a title defense. On June 1, 2008, Smith became the champion again after defeating Chase Del Monte in a tournament final held at Suffolk Downs. In late 2008 a series of vignettes featuring Smith began to air during Chaotic Wrestling live events and on the web, showed Handsome Johnny discovering himself on a trip abroad and lead to the introduction of "The Duke of Elegance" Don Chesterfield into Chaotic storylines. Smith also used this character for the Eastern Wrestling Alliance as well as Front Row Wrestling. In NECW, he changed his ring name in 2010 to "Handsome" Johnny Hayes.
Ring of Honor (2013–2017)
Smith made his ROH debut on July 27 a losing effort in a four-corner survival also featuring Brian Fury, Kongo, and Vinny Marseglia.[9] A few months after this, he was announced as the eighth participant in the 2014 edition of the Top Prospect Tournament.[10] He defeated Cheeseburger and Andrew Everett in the opening rounds before going on to win the tournament at Wrestling's Finest by defeating Raymond Rowe in the final.[11] As a result, he earned an ROH World Television Championship match against reigning champion Tommaso Ciampa at the 12th Anniversary Show, but was unsuccessful.
He then formed a tag team with Raymond Rowe known as War Machine. On April 11, 2014, Hanson and Rowe both signed contracts with ROH.[12] On August 22, 2015, War Machine defeated Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) in a non-title match and afterwards challenged them to a match for their GHC Tag Team Championship, a title owned by the Japanese Pro Wrestling Noah promotion.[13] War Machine received their title shot in Japan on September 19, but were defeated by the Killer Elite Squad.[14] On December 18 at Final Battle, War Machine defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett) to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship.[15] They lost the title to The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) on May 9, 2016, at War of the Worlds.[16] War Machine's final appearance with ROH was on December 16, 2017.[17]
Japan (2015–2018)
On September 14, 2015, Hanson and Rowe made their Japanese debuts for Pro Wrestling Noah, teaming with Takashi Sugiura in a six-man tag team main event, where they defeated Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, and Minoru Suzuki).[18] This led to a match five days later, where War Machine unsuccessfully challenged Smith and Archer for the GHC Tag Team Championship.[19]
In November 2016, War Machine made their debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) by entering the 2016 World Tag League.[20] They finished the tournament on December 7 with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals.[21]
On April 9, 2017, at Sakura Genesis 2017, War Machine defeated Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[22] They lost the title to Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) on June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall,[23] regaining it in a no disqualification match on July 1 at G1 Special in USA.[24] They lost the title to Killer Elite Squad in a three-way match, also involving Guerrillas of Destiny, on September 24 at Destruction in Kobe.[25]
WWE (2018–present)
On January 16, 2018, WWE announced that Hanson had signed a contract with the company and would be reporting to the WWE Performance Center.[4] On the edition of April 11, 2018 of NXT, he and Rowe, now dubbed War Raiders, made their TV debuts, attacking Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight) and the team of Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli.
Personal life
Todd Smith, along with his teammate Raymond Rowe, are straight edge.[26]
Championships and accomplishments
Hanson (left) and Raymond Rowe as the IWGP Tag Team Champions
Brew City Wrestling- BCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Raymond Rowe
- BCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Raymond Rowe
Chaotic Wrestling
Chaotic Wrestling Heavyweight Championship (3 times)[1]
Chaotic Wrestling Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Psycho[27][28]
Millennium Wrestling Federation
MWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[29][30]
MWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Beau Douglas[31][32]
New Japan Pro Wrestling
IWGP Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Raymond Rowe[22][24]
NWA New England
NWA New England Television Championship (1 time)[33][34]
NWA New England Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Beau Douglas[35][36]
New England Championship Wrestling
NECW Television Championship (2 times)[37][38]- IRON 8 Championship (2010)
New England Wrestling Alliance- NEWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Northeast Wrestling- NEW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated- PWI ranked him #108 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016[39]
Ring of Honor
ROH World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ray Rowe[15]
Top Prospect Tournament (2014)
Ultimate Championship Wrestling- UCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Beau Douglas
VIP Wrestling- VIP Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Raymond Rowe[40]
What Culture Pro Wrestling- WCPW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ray Rowe[41]
WWE
NXT Tag Team Championship (1 time, current) – with Rowe
Xtreme Wrestling Alliance- XWA Heavyweight Champion (1 time)
Other titles- OW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Psycho
References
^ abcde Caruso III, Anthony (May 27, 2013). "Hanson living dream as pro wrestler". The Capital Sports Report..mw-parser-output cite.citationfont-style:inherit.mw-parser-output .citation qquotes:"""""""'""'".mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registrationcolor:#555.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration spanborder-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output code.cs1-codecolor:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-errordisplay:none;font-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-errorfont-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-maintdisplay:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-formatfont-size:95%.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-leftpadding-left:0.2em.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-rightpadding-right:0.2em
^ abcd "Hanson". New Japan Pro Wrestling.
^ ab McNamara, Andy (September 26, 2006). "Smackdown: The King's court divided?". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer.Match 6: Sylvester Terkay w/ Elijah Burke vs. Todd Smith
^ abcdef "WWE Performance Center signs War Machine". WWE. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
^ ab "Hanson". WWE.
^ ab "Handsome Johnny". Chaotic Wrestling. 2008.
[dead link]
^ Bartlett, Sean (March 23, 2007). "Ring of fire: New England's minor-league grapplers wrestle their demons — in vinyl boots and a blaze of glory". The Phoenix.
^ Halen, Darrell (August 1, 2008). "School helps young grapplers wrestle with success". Wicked Local.
^ CageMatch (August 24, 2013). "ROH on SBG #101". CageMatch.
^ Ring Of Honor (December 16, 2013). "2014 Top Prospect Tournament: Participant #8". Ring Of Honor.
^ CageMatch (January 25, 2014). "ROH Wrestling's Finest". CageMatch.
^ "Hanson & Rowe sign with ROH". Ring of Honor. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
^ "Ring of Honor tag team heading to Pro Wrestling Noah". Wrestleview. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
^ "Great Voyage 2015 in Osaka". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved September 19, 2015.
^ ab Meltzer, Dave (December 18, 2015). "ROH Final Battle 2015 live results: Jay Lethal vs. AJ Styles, Roderick Strong vs. Bobby Fish". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
^ Johnson, Mike (May 9, 2016). "Bullet Club reigns supreme: ROH War of the Worlds tour coverage from Dearborn, Michigan". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
^ Johnson, Mike (December 19, 2017). "Three new signings expected in new year". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
^ Shiny Navig.2015～第9回日テレG+杯争奪ジュニア・ヘビー級タッグリーグ戦～. Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved December 7, 2016.
^ "Great Voyage 2015 in Osaka". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved December 7, 2016.
^ 『World Tag』“初出場”外国人チーム決定!! ROHから“凶獣”ウォー・マシンが参戦！WLWからブライアン・ブレーカー＆リーランド・レイスもエントリー！【WT16】. New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). November 4, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
^ 戦国炎舞 -Kizna- Presents World Tag League 2016. New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved December 7, 2016.
^ ab Rose, Bryan (April 8, 2017). "NJPW Sakura Genesis live results: Okada vs. Shibata". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
^ Rose, Bryan (June 10, 2017). "NJPW Dominion live results: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
^ ab Witner, Arya (July 1, 2017). "NJPW G1 Special live results: Kazuchika Okada vs. Cody". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
^ Rose, Bryan (September 23, 2017). "NJPW Destruction in Kobe live results: Kenny Omega vs. Juice Robinson". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved September 24, 2017.
^ Moorehouse, John (July 29, 2017). "EXCLUSIVE: Thrown Together, War Machine Reach Championship Success". Fightful.com. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
^ Palladino, Rich (2008). "Chaotic Wrestling Tag Team Title History". Solie's Title Histories.
^ "Chaotic Wrestling Tag Team Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.
^ "M.W.F. Heavyweight Title (New England)". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.
^ "MWF Heavyweight Title History". Solie's Title Histories. 2005.
^ "M.W.F. Tag Team Title (New England)". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.
^ "MWF Tag Team Title History". Solie's Title Histories. 2005.
^ Westcott, Brian; Eric Roelfsema (2006). "NWA New England Television Title History". Solie's Title Histories.
^ "N.W.A. Cold Front Television Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003. Archived from the original on April 30, 2003.
^ Westcott, Brian; Eric Roelfsema (2006). "NWA New England Tag Team Title History". Solie's Title Histories.
^ "C.W.A./N.W.A. New England Tag Team Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010.
^ Westcott, Brian (2008). "NECW Television Title History". Solie's Title Histories.
^ "N.E.C.W. Television Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.
^ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2016". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
^ Kreikenbohm, Philip. "VIP Limitless « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net.
^ "WCPW Tag Team Championship". What Culture Pro Wrestling. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
External links
- Online World of Wrestling Profile
Todd Smith on IMDb
CageMatch.de – Handsome Johnny (in German)
Hanson on WWE.com
