Angelo Dawkins | |
---|---|
![]() Dawkins in April 2018 | |
Birth name | Gary Gordon |
Born | Fairfield, Ohio, United States | July 24, 1990
Spouse(s) | Stephanie Grace Russo |
Children | 1 |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Angelo Dawkins [1] |
Billed height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) [1] |
Billed weight | 260 lb (120 kg) [1] |
Billed from | Cincinnati, Ohio [1] |
Trained by | WWE Performance Center [2] |
Debut | December 20, 2012 |
Gary Gordon (born July 24, 1990) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand where he is one-half of the WWE Tag Team Champions and one-half of The Street Profits under the ring name Angelo Dawkins.
Gary Gordon was born on July 24, 1990 in Fairfield, Ohio. [3] During his collegiate days, he was a three-sport athlete, competing nationally in football, wrestling, and track. [4]
In October 2012, Gordon signed a developmental contract with WWE and was assigned to the WWE Performance Center, where he took the ring name, Angelo Dawkins. [5] He made his in-ring debut at a NXT house show on December 20, losing to Sawyer Fulton. [6] On the June 19, 2013 episode of NXT , he made his television debut, losing to Sami Zayn. [7] He began teaming with Baron Corbin and gained his first victory on September 26, 2013 at an NXT live event in Tampa, FL when the duo defeated Travis Tyler & Troy McClain. [8]
That fall Dawkins switched to a partnership with Colin Cassady, teaming with him to defeat Bull Dempsey & Simon Gotch in Tampa on November 14, 2013. [9] On December 19th the team defeated The Ascension and Marcus Louis & Sylvester Lefort in a triple threat match.
Angelo remained on the NXT house show circuit exclusively until March 13, 2014, when he faced and was defeated by Tyler Breeze on NXT television. [10] As the year progressed his television appearances began to become more frequent and he faced Bull Dempsey and Tyler Breeze in the spring. Dawkins then returned to the house show circuit and engaged in a long series of matches with Dempsey the featured multiple wins and losses. [11] In October he formed a new tag-team with Sawyer Fulton. Their debut came on October 30th in Largo, FL where they were defeated by The Mechanics (The Revival).
Dawkins and Fulton would eventually adopt the name Shoot Nation, and appeared for the first time under that monicker on December 18th at a live event in Tampa where they defeated Cal Bishop & Digg Rawlis. They would go on to secure victories against The Mechanics, CJ Parker & Tye Dillinger, Elias Sampson & Tony Briggs [12] .
At WrestleMania Axxess 2015 on March 29, 2015 Angelo defeated Aidan English in a singles match. Meanwhile the initial momentum that Shoot Nation had enjoyed began to dissipate. They lost multiple rematches to The Mechanics on house shows in February and then were defeated by Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore in April. The duo made appearances on NXT television in June 2015 but were winless, losing to The Hype Bros (Mojo Rawley & Zack Ryder) and Blake (Westin Blake) & Murphy (Buddy Matthews). On July 16th the now reeling Shoot Nation fell again on television, losing to the Vaudevillains. On August 28, 2015 the team entered the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament, but the two were eliminated from the tournament by Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady. [13] [14] The team's final match came on September 25th, where they defeated Solomon Crowe & Tucker Knight at a house show in Largo. [15]
Dawkins returned to singles action as the fall of 2015 began, facing Mojo Rawley, Bull Dempsey, Riddick Moss and Noah Kekoa. As 2016 began he continued in singles competition against a wide range of wrestlers, including Apollo Crews, Alex Riley, Levis Valenzuela Jr., and Hugo Knox. [16]
On the March 16, 2016 episode of NXT , Dawkins teamed with Kenneth Crawford in a loss to The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley). [17]
On the July 12, 2017 episode of NXT, Dawkins and Kenneth Crawford, now renamed Montez Ford, started appearing in weekly vignettes as The Street Profits. [18] [19] On the August 9 episode of NXT, they made their return by defeating The Metro Brothers. [20] The Street Profits would go on a winning streak, defeating the likes of The Ealy Brothers, Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli, and local competitors. [21] [22] On the January 17, 2018 episode of NXT, The Street Profits suffered their first loss by The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar) to become number one contenders for the NXT Tag Team Championship. [23] [24] Later on, they entered the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, where they would defeat Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight) in the first round, but was eliminated by The Authors of Pain in the semifinals. [25] [26] The Street Profits once again entered the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in 2019, but were defeated by Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven and Tyler Bate) in the first round. [27]
On the May 1, 2019 episode of NXT, The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) vacated the NXT Tag Team Championship and were challenged by The Street Profits, but the match ended in disqualification after The Forgotten Sons (Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler), and Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch got involved. [28] A four-way tag team ladder match for the NXT Tag Team Championship was later scheduled for NXT TakeOver: XXV, where they won the NXT Tag Team Championship for the first time. [29] [30] [31] They retained their title against The Forgotten Sons on the June 26 episode of NXT and against Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch on the July 10 episode of NXT, and against The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) at NXT TakeOver: Toronto. [32] [33] On the August 28 episode of NXT, they lost their title to The Undisputed Era, ending their reign at 88 days. [34] On the October 2 episode of NXT, they failed to regain the championship from The Undisputed Era. [35]
Starting on July 1 episode of Raw , The Street Profits started appearing on the show and doing various backstage segments, a move that was said to be done in order to appeal to younger audiences. [36] As part of the WWE draft, The Street Profits were drafted to the Raw brand, officially bringing them to main roster. [37] On the October 21 episode of Raw, The Street Profits defeated The O.C. (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) in their debut match. [38] At Survivor Series, The Street Profits competed in a 10-team Interbrand Tag Team Battle Royal, where they were the last team eliminated by the eventual winners Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. [39] At Starrcade, with Ric Flair in their corner, The Street Profits would defeat Gallows and Anderson. [40]
On the February 17, 2020 episode of Raw, after Kevin Owens and The Viking Raiders defeated Murphy and AOP via disqualification due to Seth Rollins' interference, The Street Profits came out and aided Owens and The Viking Raiders by attacking Murphy and AOP while Rollins retreated. [41] Later, The Street Profits were scheduled to challenge Rollins and Murphy for the Raw Tag Team Championship at Super ShowDown, [42] where they would be unsuccessful. [43] On the March 2 episode of Raw, The Street Profits were given a Last Chance match, where, with the help of Owens, they would go on to win the Raw Tag Team Championship. [44] They successfully retained their title against Rollins and Murphy at Elimination Chamber [45] and against Angel Garza and Austin Theory at WrestleMania 36. [46] At Backlash, The Street Profits were set to face The Viking Raiders, but the match did not start due to them brawling outside the building, being accosted by Akira Tozawa and a group of ninjas, and ending up in a dumpster. [47] On the June 22 episode of Raw, The Street Profits successfully defended their titles against The Viking Raiders. [48]
As part of the 2020 Draft in October, Dawkins and Ford were drafted to the SmackDown brand. [49] They would then trade the Raw Tag Team Championship to The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) - who had just been drafted to the Raw brand - in exchange for the latter team's SmackDown Tag Team Championship. [50] This would make the Street Profits the second team to acquire the WWE Tag Team Triple Crown. [51] [52]
Upon moving to SmackDown, they began a feud with the team of Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. On the December 18 episode of SmackDown, the Street Profits successfully defended the titles against Roode and Ziggler. On the January 8, 2021 episode of SmackDown, Ziggler and Roode defeated the Street Profits to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, ending their reign at a recorded 88 days. On the April 1 episode of SmackDown, they failed to regain the titles in a fatal four-way match also involving The Mysterios and Chad Gable and Otis. On the June 11 episode of SmackDown, Ford suffered a partial rib fracture from Otis; the injury put Ford out of action for months. In September, The Street Profits began a feud with SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos, leading to a match between the two teams at Extreme Rules on September 26, in which The Usos retained their titles. On the October 15 episode of SmackDown, The Street Profits failed to win the titles against the Usos in a Street Fight.
During the 2021 WWE Draft Angelo Dawkins alongside Montez Ford were drafted back to the Raw roster. At Day 1 on January 1, 2022, the Street Profits faced RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) for the Raw Tag Team Championship, but lost. [53] At the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, on January 29, Dawkins entered the Royal Rumble match at #10, but would be eliminated. [54] On the second night of WrestleMania 38, on April 3, they once again failed to win the titles in a triple threat match also involving Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis). [55]
On June 20, 2022, Angelo wrestled in singles competition on Monday Night RAW and defeated Jey Uso. [56] At Money in the Bank on July 2, The Street Profits failed to win the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship from The Usos. [57] Although Angelo was again victorious against Jey Uso in a rematch on Smackdown on July 15th, [58] , the Profits were unsuccessful in a rematch at SummerSlam on July 30 with Jeff Jarrett as the special guest referee. [59] At Clash at the Castle on September 3, The Street Profits teamed with Madcap Moss to defeat Alpha Academy and Austin Theory during the pre-show. [60]
During the 2023 WWE Draft Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford as The Street Profits we're drafted back to SmackDown. Weeks later a segments between The Street Profits and Bobby Lashley, on the August 4 episode of SmackDown, The Street Profits interrupted a tag team match between Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows and The Brawling Brutes' Ridge Holland and Butch by taking out the participants in the match, turning heel for the first time on the main roster. [61] The Street Profits then stood on the ramp with the returning Lashley to celebrate the beatdown. [62] [63] The Street Profits and Lashley teamed up for a match for the first time to face the Latino World Order (LWO) in a six-man tag team match at Fastlane. A day before the event on SmackDown, the trio took out the LWO's Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde to leave the LWO a man short for the match. At the event, a returning Carlito teamed up with Rey Mysterio and Santos Escobar for the LWO to win the match. [64] [65] On the November 24 episode of SmackDown, The Street Profits failed to win the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship from The Judgment Day (Finn Bálor and Damian Priest) after interference from Rhea Ripley, turning face once again. [66]
On the March 14 episode of SmackDown, they defeated #DIY to win the WWE Tag Team Championship for the second time. [67]
On October 28, 2018, The Street Profits made their first appearance at Evolve 114, winning the Evolve Tag Team Championship by defeating The Doom Patrol. [68] [69] They would successfully defend the titles against the likes of The WorkHorsemen, [70] AR Fox and Leon Ruff, [71] Austin Theory and Harlem Bravado, [72] and The Skulk. [73] At Evolve 123, they lost the titles to The Unwanted. [74] At Evolve 124, on March 16, 2019, they made their final Evolve appearance, teaming with Velveteen Dream to defeat The Unwanted in a six-man tag team match. [75]
He is married and has a child with his wife (born July 9, 2020). [80]
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