Simon Gotch

Simon Gotch
Gotch in April 2016
Birth name Seth Lesser[1]
Born (1982-10-18) October 18, 1982[1]
Santa Rosa, California, U.S.[1]
Residence Orlando, Florida, U.S.
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Psycho Seth
Ryan Drago
Seth Lesser
Simon Grimm
Simon Gotch
Super Otaku[1]
Billed height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[2]
Billed weight 220 lb (100 kg)[2]
Billed from Hoboken, New Jersey[2]
Trained by Donovan Morgan
Michael Modest
Ric Thompson
Daniel Bryan
Harley Race[2][3]
Debut 2002

Seth Lesser (born October 18, 1982)[1] is an American professional wrestler who performs in Major League Wrestling and on the independent circuit under the ring name Simon Gotch. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he held the NXT Tag Team Championship as one-half of The Vaudevillains along with Aiden English.

Professional wrestling career

Independent circuit (2002–2013)

Lesser competed on the independent circuit, appearing for promotions such as All Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Chikara and Full Impact Pro. He most notably competed as Ryan Drago,[1] a character reminiscent of early 20th-century grapplers such as George Hackenschmidt.

He would win his first title, World League Wrestling's WLW Tag Team Championship, on November 10, 2012 with Elvis Aliaga.

WWE

NXT (2013–2016)

In June 2013, Lesser signed a developmental contract with WWE and was assigned to their developmental territory NXT, where he adopted the ring name Simon Gotch. In June 2014, Gotch formed a tag team with Aiden English known as The Vaudevillains, with the gimmick of a pair of old-timey vaudevillians. The Vaudevillains made their in-ring debut as a team on the June 19 episode of NXT, defeating Angelo Dawkins and Travis Tyler.[4] In August, The Vaudevillains participated in a tournament to determine the number one contenders to the NXT Tag Team Championship, before losing to The Lucha Dragons (Sin Cara and Kalisto) in the finals.[5] On the October 30 episode of NXT, The Vaudevillains won a tag team battle royal to become the number one contenders to the NXT Tag Team Championship.[6] They received their title match at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution against The Lucha Dragons, but were unsuccessful.[7]

After some hiatus, The Vaudevillians returned on the June 3, 2015, episode of NXT, defeating Jason Jordan and Marcus Louis.[8] On the July 8 episode of NXT, the Vaudevillians defeated Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady to become the number one contenders to the NXT Tag Team Championship.[9] The Vaudevillians received their title match on the July 29 episode of NXT against Blake and Murphy, in which they were unsuccessful after Alexa Bliss caused a distraction.[10] The Vaudevillians, with Blue Pants in their corner, defeated Blake and Murphy in a rematch at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn to win the NXT Tag Team Championship.[11] On November 11 episode of NXT, they lost the titles to Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder , ending their reign at 61 days.[12] On the November 25 episode of NXT, the Vaudevillains challenged Dash and Dawson to a rematch for the titles in a losing effort. On the December 23 episode of NXT, the Vaudevillains competed in a four-way tag team match against Blake and Murphy, The Hype Bros and Chad Gable and Jason Jordan, which was won by Gable and Jordan. On the March 16, 2016 episode of NXT, the Vaudevillains were defeated by Gable and Jordan, now known as American Alpha, in a number one contender's match for the NXT Tag Team Championship.

Main roster (2016–2017)

On the April 7, 2016, episode of SmackDown, the Vaudevillains made their main roster debut as heels, defeating The Lucha Dragons.[13] On the April 11 episode of Raw, the Vaudevillains were announced as one of the teams to participate in the number one contenders tournament for the WWE Tag Team Championship, where they defeated Goldust and Fandango in the first round later that week on SmackDown and The Usos on the April 18 episode of Raw in the semi-finals.[14][15][16] At Payback, the Vaudevillains faced Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady in the finals of the tournament. The match resulted in a no-contest due to a legit concussion suffered by Amore, and the Vaudevillains were declared number one contenders.[17] While the Vaudevillains lost to The New Day at Extreme Rules, they competed in a fatal 4-way tag team match, also involving Enzo Amore and Big Cass and Gallows and Anderson, for the titles at Money in the Bank in a losing effort.

On July 19 at the 2016 WWE draft, the Vaudevillians were drafted to SmackDown in the tenth round of picks. In August, a tag team tournament for the newly created WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship was set up by SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan and SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon, where the winner of the tournament would be crowned the inaugural champions. On the August 30 episode of SmackDown, the Vaudevillians would compete in the first round match of the tournament, where they were defeated by The Hype Bros. On the November 8 episode of SmackDown, the Vaudevillians were defeated by Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango) in a qualifying match for a spot in Team SmackDown at Survivor Series.

On the January 31, 2017 episode of SmackDown, the Vaudevillains, along with five other teams, answered an open challenge set by American Alpha, where a brawl between all six teams ensued before being broken up by referees and officials. At Elimination Chamber, the Vaudevillains competed in a tag team turmoil match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship, where they were eliminated by Heath Slater and Rhyno. On the WrestleMania 33 kickoff show, Gotch wrestled his last WWE match when he competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which was won by Mojo Rawley. On April 5, 2017, it was announced that Simon Gotch had been officially released from his WWE contract.[18] However, Gotch was under a 90-day non-compete agreement imposed by the WWE, which expired on July 8, 2017.

Return to the independent circuit (2017–present)

After his release from WWE, Lesser returned to the independent circuit, adopting the ring name "Simon Grimm". On July 23, 2017, Grimm would win his first singles title when he defeated both Daisuke Sekimoto and Doug Williams for the vacant XWA Frontier Sports Championship in Colchester, England. Less than a week later, Lesser would wrestle for Pro Wrestling Pride defeating Doug Williams[19] and Ultimo Tiger. In September, Grimm teamed with Dasher Hatfield and Mark Angelosetti in Chikara's 2017 King of Trios tournament, where they made it to the quarterfinals, before losing to Pete Dunne, Trent Seven and Tyler Bate.[20]

Grimm made his ROH debut on December 24, 2017 ROH taping where he teamed up with Flip Gordon, where they faced The Dawgs (Rhett Titus and Will Ferrara) in a losing effort. In an interview on April 24 2018, Grimm revealed that WWE had dropped the trademark to the “Simon Gotch” name, and he started using the name in independent promotions shortly after.[21]

Other media

Lesser appears as a playable character in the video games WWE 2K16 and WWE 2K17 under the name Simon Gotch.[22][23]

Championships and accomplishments

Ryan Drago as the WLW Tag Team Champion.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Simon Gotch". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Simon Gotch". WWE. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Simon Gotch". Cagematch.
  4. ↑ James, Justin. "James's WWE NXT Report 6/19". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
  5. ↑ James, Justin (September 4, 2014). "James's WWE NXT Report 9/4". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved September 14, 2014.
  6. ↑ Melok, Bobby (October 30, 2014). "WWE NXT results – Oct. 30, 2014: Sami Zayn tries to take down Titus O'Neil, tag teams battle for title opportunity". WWE. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  7. ↑ Clapp, John (December 11, 2014). "WWE NXT TakeOver: R Evolution results". WWE. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  8. ↑ Trionfo, Richard (June 3, 2015). "WWE NXT REPORT: NXT TITLE MATCH ANNOUNCED FOR JAPAN, RHYNO VERSUS BALOR, SASHA BANKS VIDEO PACKAGE, A TAG TEAM RETURNS". PWInsider. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  9. ↑ Trionfo, Richard (July 8, 2015). "WWE NXT REPORT: HIGHLIGHTS OF OWENS/BALOR, THE BFFs ARE BACK FOR ONE NIGHT, WHO ARE THE NUMBER ONE CONTENDERS FOR THE TAG TITLES?". PWInsider. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  10. ↑ "WWE NXT RESULTS 7/29: Blake & Murphy defend NXT Tag Titles, Kevin Owens "fined," Charlotte in action, Jesse Sorensen, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. July 29, 2015. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  11. ↑ Scherer, Dave (August 22, 2015). "Ongoing NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn Blog". PWInsider. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  12. ↑ Johnson, Mike. "WWE NXT SPOILER FROM ONGOING TAPINGS". PWInsider.com. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  13. ↑ Decker, Kyle. "WWE SmackDown results, live blog (April 7, 2016): The Miz vs. Zack Ryder". Cageside Seats. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  14. ↑ Caldwell, James. "4/11 WWE Raw Results – CALDWELL'S Complete Live Report". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  15. ↑ Decker, Kyle. "WWE SmackDown results, live blog (April 14, 2016): Tag team tournament!". Cageside Seats. Retrieved April 14, 2016.
  16. ↑ Rueter, Sean. "WWE Raw spoilers (April 18, 2016): Tag tournament finals set in London, more!". Cageside Seats. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  17. ↑ Caldwell, James. "5/1 WWE Payback Results – CALDWELL'S Complete Live Report". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  18. ↑ http://www.wwe.com/article/simon-gotch-released
  19. ↑ "Simon Gotch to face former TNA star in Pro Wrestling Pride Match". AllWrestling.com. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  20. ↑ Green, Dave (September 3, 2017). "9/1 Chikara "King of Trios 2017: Night Two" in Wolverhampton, England: House Throwbacks vs. House Strong Style, Quackenbush, Pete Dunn, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  21. ↑ Rageot, Harley P. "12/24 ROH TV Report: Christmas Surprise with Team Cody vs. Team Dalton Castle, The Dawgs vs. Flip Gordon & a debuting Simon Grimm". PWTorch. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
  22. ↑ https://www.thesmackdownhotel.com/wwe2k16/roster/simon-gotch
  23. ↑ https://www.thesmackdownhotel.com/wwe2k17/roster/simon-gotch
  24. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2016". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
  25. ↑ https://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=2722
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