War Machine (professional wrestling)

War Machine
Rowe (left) and Hanson (right) in January 2017
Tag team
Members Hanson
Raymond Rowe/Rowe
Name(s) War Machine[1]
War Raiders
Heights 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) – Rowe
6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) – Hanson
Combined
weight		 552 lb (250 kg)
Debut February 22, 2014
Years active 2014–present

War Raiders are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Hanson and Rowe currently signed to WWE, performing in their developmental territory NXT. They are best known for their work in Ring of Honor, known as War Machine, where they are former ROH World Tag Team Champions. Outside of Ring Of Honor, they have also worked for multiple independent promotions in the United Kingdom and United States, including Insane Championship Wrestling, Revolution Pro Wrestling, Progress Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. War Machine have also competed in Japan for Pro Wrestling Noah and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where they are former 2-time IWGP Tag Team Champions.

History

Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling (2014-2018)

In 2014, Hanson and Rowe participated in the Top Prospect Tournament,[2] where they met in the finals. Hanson defeated Rowe to win the tournament[3] Since then, they performed as a tag team under the name War Machine. On April 11, Hanson and Rowe both signed contracts with ROH.[4] 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.[5] War Machine received their title shot in Japan on September 19, but were defeated by the Killer Elite Squad.[6] On December 18 at Final Battle, War Machine defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett) to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship.[7] They lost the title to The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) on May 9, 2016, at War of the Worlds.[8] In late 2016, War Machine took part in New Japan Pro Wrestling's 2016 World Tag League, where they finished with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals.[9] Hanson and Rowe debuted for the United Kingdom based Revolution Pro Wrestling in January 2017, unsuccessfully challenging Joel Redman and Charlie Sterling for the Undisputed British Tag Team Championship.[10]

On April 9, 2017, at New Japan's Sakura Genesis 2017, War Machine defeated Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[11] They lost the title to Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) on June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall,[12] regaining it in a no disqualification match on July 1 at G1 Special in USA.[13] 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.[14] War Machine finished with ROH at Final Battle on December 15, 2017 and on December 16, 2017. They had their final matches with NJPW on January 4, 2018, at Wrestle Kingdom 12, and January 5, 2018 at New Year's Dash.[15]

WWE (2018–present)

On January 16, 2018, WWE, via WWE.com, announced that Rowe and Hanson had signed a contract with the company and would be reporting to the WWE Performance Center.[16]

Before NXT Takeover: New Orleans, during a TV taping, Rowe and Hanson debuted, now under the name "War Raiders", interfering in a match between Heavy Machinery (Tucker Knight and Otis Dozovic) and Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss, causing it to end in a no contest. for the next few weeks they started a winning streak by beating NXT teams such as The Mighty, Heavy Machinery, and other tag team talents.[17]

Championships and accomplishments

War Machine as the IWGP Tag Team Champions

References

  1. ↑ http://www.rohwrestling.com/news/hanson-rowe-sign-roh
  2. ↑ Ring Of Honor (2013-12-16). "2014 Top Prospect Tournament: Participant #8". Ring Of Honor.
  3. ↑ CageMatch (2014-01-25). "ROH Wrestling's Finest". CageMatch.
  4. ↑ "Hanson & Rowe sign with ROH". Ring of Honor. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
  5. ↑ "Ring of Honor tag team heading to Pro Wrestling Noah". Wrestleview. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
  6. ↑ "Great Voyage 2015 in Osaka". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ 戦国炎舞 -Kizna- Presents World Tag League 2016. New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved December 7, 2016.
  10. ↑ http://www.pwtorch.com/site/2017/01/21/121-revolution-pro-wrestling-london-england-shibata-vs-riddle-white-vs-stone-seven-vs-tevor-lee-scurll-vs-zsj/
  11. 1 2 Rose, Bryan (April 8, 2017). "NJPW Sakura Genesis live results: Okada vs. Shibata". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  12. ↑ Rose, Bryan (June 10, 2017). "NJPW Dominion live results: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  13. 1 2 Witner, Arya (July 1, 2017). "NJPW G1 Special live results: Kazuchika Okada vs. Cody". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  14. ↑ Rose, Bryan (September 23, 2017). "NJPW Destruction in Kobe live results: Kenny Omega vs. Juice Robinson". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved September 24, 2017.
  15. ↑ https://www.cagesideseats.com/2018/1/5/16851980/njpw-new-year-dash-results-full-match-coverage
  16. ↑ Clapp, John. "WWE Performance Center signs War Machine". WWE. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  17. ↑ "War Machine Debut New Name at NXT TakeOver Pre-Show Taping". Pro Wrestling Sheet | Insider Wrestling News and Reports. 2018-04-07. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
  18. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2016". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2016". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
  20. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=129319
  21. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=164643
  22. ↑ "WCPW Tag Team Championship". What Culture Pro Wrestling. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
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