Raymond Rowe

Last updated

Raymond Rowe
Raymond Rowe 2017.jpg
Rowe in January 2017
Born (1984-08-21) August 21, 1984 (age 36)
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Residence Houston, Texas, United States
Spouse(s)
(
m. 2018)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Erik
Raymond Right [1]
Ray Rowe [1]
Raymond Rowe [1]
Rowe [1]
Billed height6 ft 1 in (185 cm) [2] [3]
Billed weight247 lb (112 kg) [2] [3]
Billed fromCleveland, Ohio
Trained byJosh Prohibition
Lou Marconi [4]
WWE Performance Center [5]
DebutMay 2003 [4]

Raymond Rowe (born August 21, 1984) is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Erik, as one half of the tag team The Viking Raiders. He is best known for his work in Ring of Honor, where he and his tag team partner Hanson (collectively known as War Machine in ROH) are former IWGP Tag Team Champions and ROH World Tag Team Champions.

Contents

Professional wrestling career

Early career (2003–2013)

Rowe was trained by Josh Prohibition and Lou Marconi. He debuted on the independent circuit in May 2003.

On June 9, 2006, episode of Smackdown!, Rowe competed against Mark Henry in a losing effort.

Ring of Honor (2013–2017)

Rowe made his Ring of Honor debut on June 1, 2013 in a losing effort against Bobby Fish. Following this, he returned to ROH on January 4, 2014, as part of that year's Top Prospect Tournament and defeated Kongo in a first round match. After managing to advance to the finals, Rowe ultimately lost the Tournament to Hanson. Despite this, Rowe began regularly performing for ROH following the tournament in addition to forming the tag team War Machine with Hanson on April 4, 2014.

In August, Rowe was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident and was out of action for several months. [6] On March 1, 2015, Rowe made his return to ROH at the promotion's 13th Anniversary Show by assisting his partner Hanson after the World Championship main event. [7] On August 22, 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. [8] War Machine received their title shot in Japan on September 19, but were defeated by the Killer Elite Squad. [9] On December 18 at Final Battle, War Machine defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett) to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship. [10] They lost the title to The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) on May 9, 2016, at War of the Worlds. [11] War Machine finished with ROH on December 16, 2017. [12]

Japan (2015–2018)

War Machine in January 2017 War Machine 2017.jpg
War Machine in January 2017

On September 14, 2015, Rowe and Hanson 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). [13] This led to a match five days later, where War Machine unsuccessfully challenged Smith and Archer for the GHC Tag Team Championship. [14]

In November 2016, War Machine made their debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) by entering the 2016 World Tag League. [15] They finished the tournament on December 7 with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals. [16]

On April 9, 2017, at Sakura Genesis 2017, War Machine defeated Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. [17] They lost the title to Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) on June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, [18] regaining it in a no disqualification match on July 1 at G1 Special in USA. [19] 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. [20]

WWE (2018–present)

On January 16, 2018, WWE announced that Rowe had signed a contract with the company and would be reporting to the WWE Performance Center. [5] On the April 11, 2018, episode of NXT, he and Hanson, now called the War Raiders, made their television debuts, attacking Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight) and the team of Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli. The War Raiders faced The Undisputed Era at NXT Takeover: Phoenix on January 26, 2019 where they won the NXT Tag Team Championships.

During the Superstar Shakeup event, Rowe and his partner Hanson would debut on Raw and be renamed Ivar and Erik. They also would be repackaged with the new name "The Viking Experience". The following week the team was renamed to The Viking Raiders.

On the October 14, 2019, episode of Monday Night Raw Erik would capture the Raw Tag Team championships alongside his partner Ivar by defeating the team of Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. He and Ivar would then drop the titles to the team of Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy on the January 20, 2020, episode of Monday Night Raw after their reign lasted for 98 days.

Personal life

Rowe, along with his teammate Todd Smith, are adherents to the straight edge lifestyle. [21] On December 21, 2018, Rowe married fellow wrestler Sarah Logan.

On July 6, 2020, Rowe and she announced on her Instagram, that they were expecting their first child together. [22]

Championships and accomplishments

Rowe (right) and Hanson as the IWGP Tag Team Champions War Machine IWGP Tag Team Champions.jpg
Rowe (right) and Hanson as the IWGP Tag Team Champions
Rowe and Hanson as NXT Tag Team Champions War machine NXT Champs.jpg
Rowe and Hanson as NXT Tag Team Champions

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