Quick Facts
Biography
Arik Cannon (born December 23, 1981) is an American professional wrestler known for competing in companies such as Chikara, Dragon Gate USA, IWA Mid-South, All American Wrestling and Wrestling Society X. Arik is also the owner of F1rst Wrestling. He is also the only wrestler officially sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Career
IWA Mid-South (2002-2004)
Arik Cannon was trained at Midwest Pro Wrestling and is known for wrestling in IWA Mid-South. There, he became the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion by defeating Petey Williams in the Ted Petty Invitational Tournament. He defended it against Roderick Strong and Austin Aries, but was forced to give it up due to injury in 2004.
Chikara (2005-2006)
He returned to wrestling in 2005 and entered Chikara's Tag World Grand Prix 2005 with partner Claudio Castagnoli and made it to the finals to face Superfriends, Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush. That night, Hero turned on Quackenbush and joined Cannon and Castagnoli, leading Cannon and Castagnoli to win the Tag World Grand Prix. The three began calling themselves The Kings of Wrestling. The began feuding with Quackenbush, but Cannon left the group in 2005. Cannon competed in the Tag World Grand Prix 2006 with Jigsaw as his partner, but lost in the second round. During June 2006, Arik Cannon wrestled in Chikara's fourth annual Young Lions Cup tournament. In the final round, he defeated Cheech to win the tournament. At Chikara's Cibernetico Forever event in October 2006, however, Max Boyer managed to beat him for the Cup.
Wrestling Society (2006-2007)
In November 2006, Arik Cannon partook in the Wrestling Society X promotion's first season of television tapings, which later aired on MTV.
Dragon Gate (2007-2008)
In October 2007, Cannon went to Japan for a tour with Dragon Gate and was brought into the Muscle Outlawz faction by Naruki Doi along with fellow gaijins Kevin Steen and Jimmy Rave.
Dragon Gate USA (2009–present)
On September 6, 2009, Cannon made his debut for Dragon Gate USA at the tapings of the promotion's second pay-per-view titled Untouchable. He would wrestle in an eight-way dark match, which was won by Johnny Gargano. After making several appearances for the promotion in 2010, Cannon was entered into the Breakout Challenge tournament on April 1, 2011. After defeating AR Fox, Facade and Shiima Xion in his first round match, Cannon defeated Jimmy Rave in the finals to win the tournament. Two days later at Open the Ultimate Gate, Cannon and Sami Callihan wrestled in a six–way match, before deciding to walk out on the match. Later in the event, Cannon and Callihan announced they would be forming a tag team named the D.U.F. (Dirty Ugly Fucks) and defeated the Dark City Fight Club (Jon Davis and Kory Chavis) in their first match together. On June 5 at Enter The Dragon 2011, Cannon and Callihan were joined by Pinkie Sanchez, before picking up a major win over the tag team of Open the Dream Gate Champion Masaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Yokosuka.
F1RST Wrestling (2007-present)
Cannon started a promotion out of Minneapolis' First Avenue and 7th Street club. The promotion normally does shows out of the club but has also extended to other clubs in Minneapolis and even 2 shows in Iowa. He won the F1RST WrestlePalooza Championship in January of 2017 from Ariya Daivari. Cannon was not scheduled for the match but the scheduled Heidi Lovelace was WWE bound so he filled in.
WWE (2017)
In 2017, Cannon appeared on the March 7 episode of 205 Live. He was introduced by Brian Kendrick as Bryan Kendrick and lost to Akira Tozawa.
Personal life
Cannon is currently an assistant coach at The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling, a training facility led by WWE alumini Shawn Daivari and Ken Anderson.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Anarchist Hammer (Inverted Death Valley driver)
- Glimmering Warlock (Step-up enzuigiri to the back of a kneeling opponent's head while using their knee for leverage)
- Total Anarchy (Twisting brainbuster)
- Signature moves
- Arm trap swinging neckbreaker
- Brainbuster
- Fallaway slam
- Inverted facelock neckbreaker slam
- Multiple suplex variations
- Exploder
- German
- Saito
- Nicknames
- "The Anarchist"
- Entrance themes
- "Anarchy in the UK" by The Sex Pistols
- "Your Love" by The Outfield
Championships and accomplishments
- 3X Wrestling
- 3XW Cruiserweight Championship (1 time)
- All American Wrestling
- AAW Heritage Championship (2 times)
- AAW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jimmy Jacobs
- Chikara
- Young Lions Cup IV
- Tag World Grand Prix (2005) – with Claudio Castagnoli
- Dragon Gate USA
- Breakout Challenge (2011)
- Dreamwave Wrestling
- Dreamwave Alternative Championship (1 time)
- Dreamwave Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Darin Corbin
- F1RST Wrestling
- WrestlePalooza Championship (1 time, current)
- Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South
- IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
- Midwest Pro Wrestling
- MPW Cruiserweight Championship (3 times)
- MPW Universal Championship (1 time)
- Northern Impact Wrestling
- NIW Impact Championship (1 time)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI ranked him #200 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2011
- Pro Wrestling Phoenix
- PWP Heavyweight Championship (1 time, current)