Moustache Mountain

In early 2015, Bate and Seve, debuted in the American promotion Chikara as part of their tour of the United Kingdom, teaming up to defeat The Hunter Brothers (Jim Hunter and Lee Hunter) in a dark match on 3 April.[3] and losing to the Devastation Corporation (Max Smashmaster and Blaster McMassive) in another dark match on 6 April.[4] In their final dark match on the tour, Seven and Bate teamed with Clint Margera to take on Pete Dunne, Damian Dunne and Jimmy Havoc in a losing effort.[5]

On September 4, 5 and 6, they teamed up with Daniel Moloney to represent the Fight Club: Pro promotion in the 2015 King of Trios tournament; they defeated Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (Jakob Hammermeier, Nøkken and Soldier Ant) in the first round, and United Nations (Juan Francisco de Coronado, Mr. Azerbaijan and The Proletariat Boar of Moldova) in the quarterfinals, before losing to Bullet Club (A.J. Styles, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) in the semi-finals.[6][7][8]

In 2016, Seven and Bate began competing more regularly in Chikara, and on 21 August, they defeated The Devastation Corporation (Blaster McMassive and Flex Rumblecrunch), Los Ice Creams (El Hijo del Ice Cream and Ice Cream Jr.) and N_R_G (Hype Rockwell and Race Jaxon) in a double elimination tag team match to win the vacant Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas; they were later stripped of the title the following December for unspecified reasons.[9]

In September 2017, Bate, Seven and Pete Dunne, teaming up as House Strong Style (after they created British Strong Style in Progress Wrestling), competed in the 2017 King of Trios. They defeated House Whitewolf (A-Kid, Adam Chase and Zayas), House Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield, Mark Angelosetti and Simon Grimm) in the quarterfinals, House Rot (Frightmare, Hallowicked and Kobald) in the semifinals via forfeit, and House Sendai Girls (Cassandra Miyagi, Dash Chisako and Meiko Satomura) in the finals to win the tournament.[10][11][12]

Moustache Mountain had their first match in Progress at Chapter 28 on April 6, 2016, losing to Damian and Pete Dunne.[13] At Chapter 33 on July 31, after a loss to Damian Dunne and Pete Dunne, Seven turned heel, attacking Bate and aligning himself with Pete Dunne, thus and forming British Strong Style.[14] This marked the beginning of a feud seeing Bate and Damian Dunne go against Seven and Pete Dunne (although Bate and Seven were still teammates in Chikara at the same time), until November 27 at Chapter 39, when Bate return to join British Strong Style, making it a trio.[15] On December 16, 2016, Dunne, who was Progress Tag Team Champion with Seven, attempted to pass his half of the tag team titles to Bate; as the result, Progress management vacated the titles. On December 30, Moustache Mountain defeated CCK (Chris Brookes and Kid Lykos) and London Riots (Rob Lynch and James Davis) in a three-way tag team match to win the vacant titles.[16][17] They lost the titles to CCK on June 25, 2017 before regaining them on July 9 in a six-man tag team match in which Dunne was their partner, and Travis Banks was CCK's; they lost the titles back to CCK in a ladder match on September 10.[18]

Moustache Mountain had its first match outside of Chikara or Progress Wrestling on September 15, 2016 at the WhatCulture Pro Wrestling event Loaded #11, losing to Los Perspectiva (El Hijo De Gracie and Lucha Archer) in a three-way tag team match that also included Johnny Moss and Liam Slater.[19]

Competing in the Revolution Pro Wrestling promotion, the two won the British Tag Team Championship on October 23, 2017 at the RevPro Monday Night Mayhem event by defeating Chris Brookes and Travis Banks of CCK[20] They lost the titles of Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr. of Suzuki-gun on January 20, 2018.[21]

Moustache Mountain became the inaugural FCP Tag Team Champions in the Fight Club: Pro promotion on April 1, 2018; they lost the titles to Chris Brookes and Kid Lykos of CCK on July 27, 2018, and won them a second time by defeating Schadenfreude (Chris Brookes & Kyle Fletcher) on September 28, 2019.[22]

On the Attack! Pro Wrestling event ATTACK! Sunglasses After Dark on July 22, 2018, they defeated Team White Wolf (A-Kid and Adam Chase) to win the ATTACK! Tag Team Championship, losing it later the same day to Brookes and Fletcher.[23][23] The duo also competed in the Canadian promotion International Wrestling Syndicate, where they won the IWS World Tag Team Championship in October 2017.[24][25]

On 15 December 2016, it was revealed that Bate, Seven and Dunne would be among of 16 men competing in the upcoming United Kingdom Championship Tournament on 14 and 15 January 2017 to crown the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion.[26] Bate defeated Tucker in the first round to advance to the quarter-finals, before defeating Jordan Devlin to advance to the semi-finals.[27] Seven would defeated H.C. Dyer in the first round and loose to Wolfgang in the quarterfinals, while Bate defeated Tucker in the first round, Jordan Devlin in the quarterfinals, Wolfgang in the semifinals, and Dunne in the finals to win the tournament and become the inaugural champion.[28] After the tournament, buth Bate and Seven signed contracts with WWE, which allowed them to continue taking independent bookings with some restrictions.[29][30] Bate would then compete on the NXT brand, where he defended his title; he eventually lost it to Dunne at NXT TakeOver: Chicago, in an acclaimed match which later earn them the NXT Year-End Award for Match of the Year.[31][32][33][34]

During day one of the second annual United Kingdom Championship Tournament event on 18 June, British Strong Style defeated The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong) in a six-man tag team match.[35] The next day, Moustache Mountain defeated O'Reilly and Strong to capture the NXT Tag Team Championship,[36] but lost the titles back to O'Reilly and Strong on 11 July episode of NXT in a critically acclaimed match which drew five stars from Dave Meltzer.[37] At NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 4, they failed to regain the championships.[38]

Both Bate and Seven were part of the original roster of the NXT UK brand upon the debut of the NXT UK show on October 17, 2018; they competed in a four-teams tournament to crown the inaugural NXT Tag Team Champions; they defeated Gallus (Mark Coffey and Wolfgang) in the first round on November 24 (aired January 2, 2019), and lost to James Drake and Zack Gibson (later known as Grizzled Young Veterans) in the finals at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool on January 12.[39] After their loss, Bate and Seven kept on competing mostly as singles wrestler while continuing to team up occasionally; Bate notably unsuccessfully challenged Walter for the WWE United Kingdom Championship at NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff in a highly acclaimed match which earned a 5.25 star rating from Meltzer, making it the third match in WWE history to break the 5 star rating system.[40]