American Top Team | |
---|---|
Stable | |
Members | See below |
Name(s) | American Top Team |
Debut | July 2, 2017 |
Years active | 2017–present |
American Top Team is a villainous professional wrestling stable led by Dan Lambert, and has consisted of MMA fighters such as Jorge Masvidal, Junior dos Santos, Andrei Arlovski, Paige VanZant, Austin Vanderford and Dalton Rosta. The team's gimmick is based on each member's legitimate MMA background.
American Top Team have appeared in professional wrestling promotions, including AEW, Impact Wrestling, Major League Wrestling (MLW) and Coastal Championship Wrestling (CCW), a promotion based in Coral Springs, Florida.
American Top Team first appeared as a stable in Impact Wrestling at Slammiversary, accompanying Lashley to ring for his title unification match with Alberto El Patrón. This included founder Dan Lambert, King Mo and Jeff Monson. [1] They returned a month later, after the promotion's rebrand to Global Force Wrestling (GFW), appearing on a vignette on the August 3 episode of Impact! . [2] Throughout the month, Lashley was conflicted on whether he should combine his two careers together, or quit wrestling and focus on his MMA career; he would eventually side with ATT. [3] [4] [5] On August 17, at Destination X, some members of ATT were ringside to support Lashley for his match against Matt Sydal. Post-match, Colby Covington attacked referee Brian Hebner with a rear-naked choke, which Lashley had to call off, before he and ATT left the arena. [6] [7] On the August 24 episode of Impact! (taped August 17), they were again at ringside to support Lashley in a twenty-man gauntlet match for the GFW Impact World Heavyweight Championship, which was eventually won by Eli Drake. [8] In the gauntlet match, Lashley was eliminated by Moose, leading to a feud between the two men that would continue for the rest of the year. Moose aligned himself with Stephan Bonnar (a former mixed martial artist) and both of them stole title belts held by ATT members. [9] On the October 19 episode of Impact! (taped August 22), after Lambert bragged about his collection of wrestling title belts, Moose and Bonnar showed up with the stolen title belts. Lashley jumped them from behind, allowing ATT to attack them and other Impact wrestlers. [10] On the October 26 episode of Impact! (taped August 22), Moose defeated Lashley by disqualification, due to Lambert attacking him. [11] On 5 November, at Bound for Glory, Lashley and King Mo defeated Moose and Bonnar in a six sides of steel match. [12] Over time, Lambert started acting more like a comedic heel, which led to Lashley getting frustrated with him. On the December 7 episode of Impact! (taped November 8), Lambert and Lashley defeated Moose and James Storm, after Lashley speared Storm, allowing Lambert (as the legal man) to score the pin. [13] The following week, Lambert challenged Storm to put his Impact career on the line in a singles match with him. Storm agreed, stating that if he won the match, Lambert and ATT would leave Impact. [14] On the January 4, 2018 episode of Impact! (taped November 9), Lambert defeated Storm, following interference from KM, who had attempted to join ATT in the last couple of weeks. [15] On January 25, at Genesis (taped November 10), Moose defeated Lashley, due to a distraction by KM. Afterwards, Lashley turned face and he and Moose laid out ATT, with Lambert being speared through a table. [16]
Although King Mo had previously wrestled for Major League Wrestling (MLW) in late 2019, he would represent American Top Team the following year, with Lambert acting in a managerial role. ATT made their first appearance on the February 22, 2020 episode of Fusion (taped January 11), where King Mo squashed Dr. Dax, defeating him by submission. He also began feuding with Low Ki, who had dubbed himself the king of the knockouts. [17] [18] On the March 21 episode of Fusion (taped February 1), ATT got involved in a post-match brawl which saw King Mo attacking Killer Kross with a baseball bat and aligning themselves with Team Filthy. [19] On the March 28 episode of Fusion (taped February 1), King Mo defeated Low Ki due to an umbrella shot from Tom Lawlor that the referee missed and then assuming that the towel had been thrown in. In actuality, it had been dropped by Low Ki's cornerman Ross von Erich when Team Filthy distracted him, and Lambert picked it up and threw it back in. [20] King Mo was fined and suspended (in kayfabe) for his attack on Kross, [21] and did not travel to Mexico for the AAA vs MLW tapings. [22] He would continue feuding with Low Ki through promos on YouTube, dubbing him "Low IQ". [23]
King Mo and Lambert returned to the promotion for Lawlor's Filthy Island special episode (a parody of Fight Island), for the rematch against Low Ki. On the February 17 episode of Fusion, Low Ki tapped King Mo out with a shoulder-mounted chokehold. Team Filthy claimed that King Mo was reaching for the ropes (even though there was not any there), and attacked Low Ki, before the Von Erichs rolled up in a four-wheel drive to make the save. [24] On April 21 episode of Fusion, King Mo squashed Robert Martyr, defeating him with a side choke. Afterwards, Lambert cut a promo, complaining about the Filthy Island result, while King Mo made another threat to Low Ki, appearing to carry on the feud. [25]
In July 2021, American Top Team then began appearing in All Elite Wrestling (AEW). On July 7, at Road Rager, Lambert, along with Jorge Masvidal and Amanda Nunes were in the crowd. Lambert was interviewed by Tony Schiavone, in which he went on a tirade about the fans, referring to them as "marks", and expressed his disappointment in the current AEW roster, and of professional wrestling overall, until he was attacked by Lance Archer. At Fyter Fest, Lambert appeared once again, running down AEW for not being as good as wrestling was in his youth. In the following months, Lambert was joined by Junior dos Santos and Masvidal in his tirades against AEW, and they would ally themselves with the Men of the Year (Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky), [26] continuing to deride AEW and its fans. [27] [28] On the September 15 episode of Dynamite , ATT, now joined by Paige VanZant, Kayla Harrison and Andrei Arlovski, were confronted by The Inner Circle's Chris Jericho and Jake Hager. Citing his own shoot fights in locker rooms over the years as well as Hager's undefeated record in Bellator MMA, Jericho challenged Men of the Year to a match, which Lambert accepted on their behalf. [29] On the September 24 episode of Rampage , Men of the Year defeated Jericho and Hager, after ATT interfered in the match. [30] [31]
On the October 6 episode of Dynamite, it was announced that dos Santos would be making his professional wrestling debut in a trios match the following week. [32] On the October 15 episode of Rampage, dos Santos and Men of the Year defeated Jericho, Hager and Sammy Guevara, after interference from VanZant and Masvidal. [33] On the October 16 episode of Dynamite, the Inner Circle returned as a quintet for the first time in months, with Santana and Ortiz coming back. Jericho wanted a five-on-five tag team match, but Lambert told him that Men of the Year were moving on, and they have bigger plans which include championships. [34] On the October 23 episode of Dynamite, Lambert told Guevara that ATT and Men of the Year will have the ten-man tag match, but only if he defends the AEW TNT Championship against Page. Lambert also added that if Guevara loses, he leaves the Inner Circle for good. Guevara accepted, but stated that if he wins, the Inner Circle choose who will represent ATT at Full Gear. [35] Over the next two weeks, Guevara defeated Page, [36] and Inner Circle chose dos Santos, Arlovski and Lambert as ATT's representatives in a Minnesota street fight. [37] On the November 10 episode of Dynamite, the Inner Circle were jumped by Men of the Year and ATT on the entrance ramp, resulting in a beatdown. Lambert and Men of the Year cornered Jericho and took him to the ring, before Lambert performed an assisted powerbomb through a table on Jericho. Lambert then mockingly put Jericho in his own hold, the Walls of Jericho , although he was keen to stress that it is called a Boston crab, referencing Rocky Johnson. [38] On November 13, at Full Gear, the Inner Circle defeated ATT, with Jericho hitting a frogsplash on Lambert for the pin. [39]
On the December 8 episode of Dynamite, Ethan Page announced that Lambert would be returning to AEW. [40] Following a confrontation with Cody Rhodes, [41] Lambert began verbally sparring with Rhodes' wife Brandi. [42] On the February 2, 2022 episode of Dynamite, Lambert continued to express his distaste for Brandi, resulting in VanZant coming out from the back and attacking her, potentially setting up a match between the two women. [43] However, the storyline was scrapped due to the legitimate departure of Cody and Brandi Rhodes. [44] Lambert also got involved in another storyline that involved Adam Page and Lance Archer, after Archer turned on Page, challenging him for the AEW World Championship. [45] Lambert sided with Archer, [46] and despite losing the feud, [47] he remains aligned with him and Jake Roberts, occasionally acting as a second mouthpiece for Archer in the absence of Roberts. [43] [48] On the March 9 episode of Dynamite, Scorpio Sky defeated Guevara for the TNT Championship. Towards the end, Guevara's partner Tay Conti argued with Ethan Page and was blindsided by VanZant. Guevara was distracted and this allowed Sky to hit the TKO on him to win the match. Post-match, VanZant signed her AEW contract on Conti's prone body. [49] On the May 13, 2022 episode of Rampage, Lambert and Page both interfered on Sky's behalf when he defended the TNT Championship against Frankie Kazarian. [50] [51]
Lambert left AEW in mid-2022, thus ending the Men of the Year team and American Top Team's association with the promotion. [52]
Promotion | Members |
---|---|
Impact Wrestling (formerly Global Force Wrestling) | Dan Lambert, Andrei Arlovski, Colby Covington, Conan Silveira, Gleison Tibau, John Hartnell, KM, King Mo, Lashley |
Coastal Championship Wrestling [53] | John Hartnell, Blake Bowman |
Major League Wrestling | Dan Lambert, King Mo |
All Elite Wrestling | Dan Lambert MMA: Andrei Arlovski, Austin Vanderford, Dalton Rosta, Jorge Masvidal, Junior dos Santos, and Paige VanZant Wrestling: Ethan Page, Scorpio Sky, and Lance Archer [54] [55] |
Brian Christopher Joseph Button, better known by the ring name Brian Cage, is an American professional wrestler and bodybuilder. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of Cage of Agony and a former one-time FTW Champion. Cage also performs in AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a former two-time ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion. He also competes on the independent circuit.
Kira Renée Magnin-Forster is a Canadian professional wrestler, fitness competitor, and model better known by the ring name Taya Valkyrie, who is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). She also performs for AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH).
Pentagón Jr. is a Mexican luchador enmascarado signed to All Elite Wrestling where he is a former AEW World Trios Champion with his Death Triangle stablemates Pac and his real-life younger brother, Rey Fénix. Penta and Fénix also team as the Lucha Brothers and are former one-time AEW World Tag Team Champions. He also spent some time in Ring of Honor (ROH), where they are former ROH World Tag Team Champions. He also appeared in Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), where he is a former AAA World Tag Team Champion, also with Fénix.
Austin Matelson, better known by his ring name Luchasaurus, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Killswitch. He is a member of The Patriarchy stable, and he is a former one-time AEW World Trios Champion.
Jesse Guilmette is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) with the ring name The Blade. He is known for his tag team work with The Butcher with the name The Butcher and the Blade. Outside of that, he is known for his work in Impact Wrestling with the ring name Braxton Sutter and on the independent promotions such as Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), where he was a one-time CZW World Tag Team Champion with the ring name Pepper Parks.
Keith Gerald Lee II is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is also known for his time in WWE and Ring of Honor (ROH), as well as on the independent circuit, in promotions such as Evolve, All American Wrestling (AAW), and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he held the PWG World Championship.
Julian Micevski, better known by his ring name Ethan Page, is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand and is the current NXT Champion in his first reign. He is also known for his time in Impact Wrestling, All Elite Wrestling (AEW), and Ring of Honor (ROH).
The Lucha Brothers, also known as the Lucha Bros or Los Lucha Bros, are a Mexican professional wrestling tag team consisting of brothers Penta El Zero Miedo or Penta Oscuro and Rey Fénix, and their manager Alex Abrahantes. They are currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where they are former AEW World Tag Team Champions, as well as former AEW World Trios Champions with their former Death Triangle stablemate, Pac. They also appeared for AEW's sister promotion, Ring of Honor (ROH), where they are former ROH World Tag Team Champions. In Mexico, they wrestled for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), where they are two-time AAA World Tag Team Champions. They previously appeared in Impact Wrestling, where they are former World Tag Team Champions, making them the only team to be AEW, Impact, ROH, and AAA World Tag Team Champions.
Maxwell Tyler Friedman, better known by the ring name Maxwell Jacob Friedman and the shortened epithet MJF, is an American professional wrestler and actor. As a wrestler, he has been signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) since January 2019. He is a one-time AEW World Champion, with his reign being the longest in the title's history, and is also a one-time AEW International Champion.
The 2020 Revolution was the inaugural Revolution professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on Saturday, February 29, 2020, at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois. The event was AEW's last PPV to be held before the COVID-19 pandemic took effect in mid-March, and AEW's final PPV event to be held with a full capacity crowd until Double or Nothing in May 2021. The event aired through traditional PPV outlets, as well as on B/R Live in North America and FITE TV internationally.
James Cipperly, better known by his ring name Orange Cassidy, is an American professional wrestler and wrestling trainer. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling, where he is a member of The Conglomeration. He is a 2-time former AEW International Champion, with his first reign being the longest in the title's history. He is also treated as a member of the NJPW group Chaos, after the group was brought to the company by Rocky Romero.
Injustice was a professional wrestling stable in Major League Wrestling (MLW) between 2019 and 2021.
William Hobson, better known by the ring name Powerhouse Hobbs, is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the Don Callis Family stable. He is a former AEW TNT Champion.
Colten Sopp, better known by the ring name Colten Gunn, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and its sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is in a tag team with his brother Austin as The Gunns, and is a member of the Bang Bang Gang stable. Gunn is a former one-time AEW World Tag Team Champion, one-time AEW World Trios Champion, and one-time ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion. Sopp is a second-generation professional wrestler, being the son of professional wrestler Monty Sopp, better known as Billy Gunn.
Max Caster is an American professional wrestler and rapper, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he competes in a tag team with Anthony Bowens as The Acclaimed. He is a former one-time AEW World Trios Champions and one-time AEW World Tag Team Champions.
Andrew J. Williams is an American musician and professional wrestler, best known as the former rhythm guitarist of the metalcore band Every Time I Die. As a wrestler, he is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name The Butcher, where he is one-half of a tag team with The Blade.
The 2021 All Out was the third annual All Out professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place during Labor Day weekend on September 5, 2021, at the Now Arena in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was the first All Out event to be held on a Sunday. It was also AEW's first pay-per-view held outside of Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The event aired through traditional PPV providers, as well as on B/R Live in North America and FITE TV internationally.
Daniel Garcia is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He also appears for AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a one-time ROH Pure Champion. As part of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), he is the current PWG World Champion in his first reign.
Paul Soren Gruber is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Wheeler Yuta and is a member of the Blackpool Combat Club and one-third of the AEW World Trios Champions. He also makes appearances for AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a former three-time ROH Pure Champion, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was a member of the Chaos stable.
Men of the Year were a professional wrestling tag team composed of Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky. The team performed in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Ring of Honor (ROH).