Quick Facts
Virgo
Biography
Austin Watson (born September 4, 1986) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE on the Smackdown brand under the ring name Xavier Woods. He is part of The New Day, along with Big E and Kofi Kingston, where they are two-time former Raw Tag Team Champions, with their second reign being the longest tag team title reign in WWE history.
He previously worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as Consequences Creed, and was a one time TNA World Tag Team Champion with Jay Lethal as Lethal Consequences. He has also worked for NWA Anarchy and other independent promotions under the ring name Austin Creed.
Early life
Watson was born in Columbus, Georgia. He graduated from Sprayberry High School in 2004. Later that year, he began studying psychology and philosophy at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. He graduated with a master's degree in psychology and a bachelor's degree in philosophy.
Professional wrestling career
Early years and NWA Anarchy (2005–2007)
While attending Furman University, Watson began training for a career in professional wrestling and, in 2005, began wrestling part-time with Rob Adonis' Ultimate Christian Wrestling promotion. While in the Greenville, South Carolina-based World Wrestling Council, he developed his Austin Creed gimmick, which is based heavily on the character Apollo Creed from the Rocky series.
During his time in NWA Anarchy, Creed was part of a tag team called Awesome Attraction with Hayden Young. The pair had one of the longest title reigns in the promotion's history after defeating Justice Served (Jason Justice and Mike Free) in Cornelia, Georgia on April 7, 2007. In 2006, Creed won NWA's Most Popular Wrestler, voted for by the NWA fans.
On July 12, 2007, Creed defeated Murder-One to become the first DSW Heavyweight Champion following the promotion's split from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
X Division (2007–2008)
Creed appeared at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's Bound For Glory pay-per-view event, teaming with Ron Killings as the replacement for Adam "Pacman" Jones. Creed wrestled under the name Rasheed Lucius "Consequences" Creed. His union with Ron Killings was dubbed Truth and Consequences, which was a combination of Killings' nickname "The Truth" and Creed's nickname "Consequences" as well as a play on words on the game show of a similar name.
On October 21, 2007, it was reported that Creed had signed a contract with TNA. The signing was reported when Creed appeared on the radio show Trash Talking Radio on October 23 with Tommy Cairo and Sabian. His signing was also confirmed later at a NWA Anarchy show where Creed was presented with the contract by TNA Booking Director Bill Behrens. Following Bound For Glory, Creed was not seen on TNA television for months after Killings asked for and was later granted his release from the company.
On February 10, 2008, Creed wrestled in a dark match before Against All Odds. He teamed with Sonjay Dutt defeating The Rock 'n Rave Infection. On the March 13 episode of Impact!, a promo video with the words "prepare to face the consequences" showed Creed training and announced that he would make his return at the Lockdown pay-per-view on April 13. The following week, the return date was changed to April 10. On the April 10 episode of Impact!, Creed made his in-ring return and defeated Jimmy Rave of The Rock 'n Rave Infection, thus qualifying for the Xscape match at Lockdown. During the match, Creed eliminated Shark Boy, but was later eliminated by Curry Man. Creed later wrestled in the first ever TerrorDome match at Sacrifice, which was won by Kaz.
At Hard Justice, Creed faced Petey Williams for the X Division Championship, but lost after interference from Sheik Abdul Bashir. On the September 4, 2008 episode of Impact!, he won a number one contenders match against Bashir for the right to face Williams again at No Surrender for the X Division Title. However, the match was later changed to a triple threat after Bashir repeatedly attacked Creed and ultimately, Bashir won the match and the X Division title. At Bound for Glory IV on October 12, 2008, Creed was defeated by Bashir in another match for the X Division Championship.
Lethal Consequences (2008–2010)
On the October 30, 2008 episode of Impact!, Creed, along with Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, Jay Lethal, Petey Williams, Eric Young, ODB and The Motor City Machineguns formed a faction of younger wrestlers, known as The Frontline, to oppose The Main Event Mafia.
On January 8, 2009, fellow Frontline member Lethal chose Creed to cash in his Feast or Fired briefcase with, and the pair won the World Tag Team Championship from the champions Beer Money, Inc. (Robert Roode and James Storm). Creed and Lethal went on to be named Lethal Consequences, a combination of their respective names. Beer Money, Inc. regained their titles in a three-way match just three days later at Genesis. For the next few months, Creed and Lethal teamed with the Motor City Machineguns to try and unmask Suicide. On the October 1, 2009 episode of Impact!, Creed and Lethal were part of a 5-man ladder match for a future X Division Title match. During the match, Amazing Red, who ended up winning the match, performed a hurricanrana driver, which caused Creed to projectile vomit after his head hit the mat.
Watson was released from TNA on March 29, 2010.
New Japan Pro Wrestling (2010)
On April 4, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced Watson, under his Consequences Creed ring name, as a participant in the first Super J Tag Tournament. On May 8, Creed and his partner Kota Ibushi were eliminated from the tournament in the first round by the team of Gedo and Kushida. Creed returned to New Japan on June 28, 2010, teaming up with IWGP Heavyweight Champion Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma in the J Sports Crown Openweight 6 Man Tag Tournament. After defeating Tamon Honda, Kentaro Shiga and Makoto Hashi in the opening round, the trio was eliminated from the tournament in the second round by Shinsuke Nakamura, Masato Tanaka and Tomohiro Ishii.
On July 10, Creed defeated Brian Milonas, U-Gene and Tommaso Ciampa to win East Coast Wrestling Association's 2010 Super 8 Tournament.
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
Developmental territories (2010–2013)
On July 22, 2010, it was announced that Watson had signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Watson, using his real name, made his debut for WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling on July 29 in a tag team match, where he and Percy Watson were defeated by Brodus Clay and Donny Marlow. Following his debut, he was then added to FCW's official website under the name Xavier Woods. In October, Woods began to team up with Wes Brisco and they took part in a tag team turmoil match on October 14, where they defeated three other teams. On November 4, Woods and Brisco defeated Johnny Curtis and Derrick Bateman to become the Florida Tag Team Champions. On December 1, Woods and Brisco vacated the Tag Team Championship after Brisco was sidelined with an injury. With Brisco sidelined with an injury, Woods teamed up with Marcus Owens to take on Damien Sandow and Titus O'Neil for the vacant Florida Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful. Following this, Woods began performing as a singles competitor throughout 2011 and 2012, though without much success.
After WWE rebranded its developmental territory, FCW, into NXT, Woods made his televised debut on the October 31, 2012 episode of NXT with a loss to Leo Kruger. While picking up wins on NXT over the likes of El Local and Jake Carter, Woods began using the gimmick of a fanboy of 1990s popular culture that saw him implement his legitimate fandom of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Dragon Ball Z, and other 90's pop culture into his matches and attire. He stopped using this gimmick once he was called up to WWE's main roster.
Teaming with R-Truth (2013–2014)
On the November 18, 2013 episode of Raw, Woods made his main roster debut as he teamed with fellow TNA alumnus and former tag-team partner R-Truth to defeat 3MB (Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal). The following week on Raw, Woods defeated Heath Slater in his singles debut match while being accompanied by R-Truth and The Funkadactyls (Naomi and Cameron). On the November 29 episode of SmackDown, Woods began a feud with Brodus Clay after Clay took offense to Woods using his entrance music and The Funkdactyls as his valets. Later that night, Woods suffered his first loss when he and R-Truth lost to Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai). On the December 2 episode of Raw, Woods and R-Truth defeated Tons of Funk in a rematch. On the December 9 episode of Raw, Woods lost to Clay. On the December 11 episode of Main Event, Woods and R-Truth defeated Tons of Funk to end the feud.
On the January 8, 2014 episode of Main Event, Woods and Truth faced The Real Americans (Antonio Cesaro and Jack Swagger) in a losing effort. At WrestleMania XXX, Woods competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal in a losing effort. Woods and R-Truth began a feud with Alexander Rusev and were defeated by him in singles encounters. After a loss in a 2-on-1 handicap match to Rusev at Extreme Rules, Woods and Truth quietly separated.
Woods failed to win a 20-man United States Championship battle royal in May, a WWE World Heavyweight Championship ladder match qualifying battle royal in June and a 19-man battle royal for the vacant Intercontinental Championship at Battleground
The New Day (2014–present)
On the July 21, 2014 episode of Raw, after Big E and Kofi Kingston suffered another loss as a team in a recent string of defeats, Woods came down to address them. He went on to state that they could not "get ahead by kissing babies and shaking hands" and that now is "their time" and offered to form a stable. The duo accepted Woods' offer, and on the next day's Main Event, Woods managed Big E and Kingston to a decisive victory over Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil. On the July 29 episode of Main Event, Woods filled a commentary role while he and his group observed a match wrestled by the WWE Tag Team Champions, The Usos. Woods also joined the broadcast team alongside Rich Brennan on August 28, 2015 episode of Superstars. New Day then temporarily separated as on the August 8 episode of SmackDown, both Big E and Kingston reverted to wrestling singles matches with no sign or mention of the other two members of the group. Despite being disbanded on WWE television, Big E, Kingston and Woods continued their alliance at house shows. On the September 26 episode of SmackDown, Woods competed in an Intercontinental Championship #1 contender battle royal, which was won by Cesaro.
On the November 3 episode of Raw, WWE began airing vignettes for Woods, Big E, and Kingston, as face characters, with the stable billed as "The New Day". The New Day made their in-ring debut on the November 28 episode of SmackDown in a winning effort against Titus O'Neil, Heath Slater and Curtis Axel. At WrestleMania 31, Woods competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal where he was eliminated by eventual winner, the Big Show. On the April 6, 2015 episode of Raw, New Day started developing heel traits as they would start interfering with the others' matches to help each other gain unfair competitive advantages. Woods especially would trash-talk with their opponents and the crowd during matches. At Extreme Rules, Big E and Kingston defeated Tyson Kidd and Cesaro to win the WWE Tag Team Championship after a distraction from Woods. Woods was then given a share of the title and the trio defended the titles under the Freebird Rule. Kingston and Big E retained their titles in rematches on both SmackDown and at Payback, with Woods interfering in both matches. At Elimination Chamber, The New Day retained the title in the first ever tag team Elimination Chamber match, where all three members were allowed to compete. At Money in the Bank, Woods and Big E lost the titles to The Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neil and Darren Young). Big E and Kingston would also lose in their championship rematch at Battleground. New Day would win the titles for a second time after they defeated the Prime Time Players, Los Matadores, and the Lucha Dragons in a tag team fatal 4-way match at SummerSlam. The next night on Raw, after Big E and Kingston defeated the Lucha Dragons, they were attacked by the returning Dudley Boyz, which ended with Woods being put through a table with a 3D. On the September 14 episode of Raw, New Day defeated the Prime Time Players in a title match, setting up a defense against the Dudley Boyz at Night of Champions, which New Day lost by disqualification but retained the title. On the September 28 episode of Raw, Woods answered John Cena's United States Championship Open Challenge, where Cena retained by disqualification after Kingston and Big E attacked him. The Dudley Boyz appeared afterwards to save Cena; this led to an impromptu six-man tag team match between The New Day against Cena and The Dudley Boyz, where The New Day were victorious after Kingston pinned D-Von. At Madison Square Garden, The New Day lost another title match by disqualification but Woods was put through a table with a 3D again. At Hell In A Cell, The New Day retained the titles after Kingston pinned Bubba Ray. New Day would then defend the title at TLC in a Triple-Threat Ladder match against The Usos and The Lucha Dragons, retaining the title.
They had another successful title defense against The Usos at Royal Rumble. At Fastlane, New Day turned into fan favourites as the crowd was starting to get behind them and they started a feud League of Nations. New Day retained the titles at Roadblock after defeating League of Nations' Sheamus and King Barrett. The night after, New Day, which was represented with Woods and Big E, once again defeated other members of League of Nations, Rusev and Alberto Del Rio to retain the title. All three members of the New Day would then face the League of Nations at WrestleMania 32, where they would lose in a non-title match. The New Day then defended their tag team championships at Extreme Rules against The Vaudevillains after they won a #1 contender's tournament at Payback, where The New Day retained their titles. On June 19 at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, The New Day successfully retained their titles against The Vaudevillains, Enzo and Cass and Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows in a fatal-four way tag team match. On July 19, at the 2016 WWE draft, Woods, along with his fellow New Day teammates, was drafted to Raw. Three days later, on July 22, Woods, along with Kingston and Big E, became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions in history, breaking the record of 331 days previously set by Paul London and Brian Kendrick. After SmackDown established the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships after the brand split, the titles held by the New Day were renamed the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships. At WWE Clash of Champions, The New Day defeated Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. On the September 26 edition of Raw, due to Woods using their trombone to assault Karl Anderson, Gallows and Anderson received a rematch, but were defeated again. On the October 31 episode of Raw, The New Day revealed that they were made captain of Team Raw for the 10–on–10 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination match at Survivor Series on 20 November but they were the first team eliminated although Team Raw still went on to win the match. On the November 21 episode of Raw, The New Day successfully retained their titles against Team Raw's sole survivors, Cesaro and Sheamus. The following week, they defeated The Club for another successful title defense. At Roadblock: End of the Line, New Day lost the Raw Tag Team Champions to Cesaro and Sheamus ending their record breaking championship reign at 483 days. The New Day were unsuccessful in regaining the titles during a later rematch. The New Day would then go on to host WrestleMania 33.
The night after WrestleMania 33, The New Day were defeated by the debuting Revival, after which The Revival would attack Kingston. The New Day also lost the following week, and have since been drafted to SmackDown during the 2017 WWE Superstar Shake-up The New Day debuted on "Talking Smack", the post-show for SmackDown Live on May 23, however, they did not wrestle or make an appearance on SmackDown Live itself.
Personal life
Watson is soon to be a dad. Watson is currently working to obtain his PhD in educational psychology from Capella University.
Watson's life was spotlighted, along with Adam Rose and Corey Graves, on ESPN's E:60 special on WWE titled "Behind the Curtain", which aired May 5, 2015.
Watson is an avid fan of video games. He has a tattoo of the Hylian Royal Crest from The Legend of Zelda series on his left forearm. In 2015, Watson, under his Austin Creed moniker, started a YouTube channel called UpUpDownDown, where he invites fellow WWE performers, gaming personalities, friends, and guests to play games. He also has a Twitch account under the username AustinCreed. He won the annual WWE 2K tournament in 2015.
Following Dolph Ziggler's call-out to "Bronies" in September 2014, Watson revealed himself to be a brony the following March.
Watson was featured playing tambourine and trombone on the Postmodern Jukebox cover of "What is Love" music video.
In 2017, Watson made his voice acting debut as the character Vincent Mensah in the PlayStation 4 video game 2064: Read Only Memories.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- As Xavier Woods
- Culture Shock (Diving DDT) – 2010–2011; used rarely thereafter
- Lost in the Woods (Inverted stomp facebreaker) – 2013–2015
- Shining wizard – 2015–present
- Tornado DDT – 2011–2013; used as a signature move thereafter
- As Austin Creed/Consequences Creed
- ACT – Austin Creed Test (Diving DDT) – 2010
- CreeDDT (Hammerlock legsweep DDT) – 2007–2008
- Fireman's carry cutter – 2009–2010; used as a signature move in 2008
- MontiFisto (Three left-handed punches followed by splits followed by a right-handed hook) – 2005–2007; used as a signature move from 2008–2010
- As Xavier Woods
- Signature moves
- As Xavier Woods
- Dropkick
- Front dropkick
- Flowing DDT to a kneeling opponent
- Headscissors takedown
- Honor Roll (Rolling thunder clothesline, with theatrics)
- Reverse suplex slam
- Sliding clothesline
- Sliding reverse STO
- Somersault plancha
- Leaps through the ropes and performs a springboard tornado DDT
- Hadouken/Fireball Punch (Double palm thrust to the opponent's chest)
- As Austin Creed/Consequences Creed
- Arm drag
- Cradle back-to-belly piledriver
- Diving fist drop
- Military press double knee gutbuster
- Right-handed hook
- Rolling thunder clothesline
- Springboard one-handed bulldog
- Swinging cradle suplex
- As Xavier Woods
- With Jay Lethal
- Double team finishing moves
- Fireman's carry cutter (Creed) followed by a diving elbow drop (Lethal)
- Double team signature moves
- Military press (Lethal) and springboard one-handed bulldog (Creed) combination
- Vertical suplex (Lethal) and diving crossbody (Creed) combination
- Double team finishing moves
- With The New Day
- Double team finishing moves
- Midnight Hour (Diving DDT (Kingston or Woods) and Big Ending (Big E) combination)
- Pendulum backbreaker (Big E, Kingston or Woods) and diving double foot stomp (Kingston or Woods) combination
- Double/triple team signature moves
- Unicorn Stampede (Multiple stomps to the chest of an opponent seated in the corner, with frequent tags)
- Double team finishing moves
- Nicknames
- "Awesome"
- "The Crisp One"
- "Awesome Consequences"
- "Consequences"
- "The Valedictorian"
- Entrance themes
- "Living in America" by James Brown (TNA/independent circuit)
- "Consequences" by Dale Oliver (TNA)
- "Get Funky" by 5 Alarm Music (NXT)
- "Somebody Call My Momma" by Jim Johnston (WWE; November 25, 2013 – May 30, 2014)
- "Who's the Man?" by CFO$ (WWE; May 30, 2014 - September 26, 2014)
- "New Day, New Way" by Jim Johnston (November 28, 2014–present; used while a part of The New Day)
Championships and accomplishments
- Deep South Wrestling
- DSW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- East Coast Wrestling Association
- ECWA Super 8 Tournament Champion (2010)
- Florida Championship Wrestling
- FCW Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Wes Brisco
- NWA Anarchy
- NWA Anarchy Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Hayden Young
- Most Popular Wrestler (2006)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Tag Team of the Year (2015, 2016) with Big E and Kofi Kingston
- Ranked No. 58 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016
- Rolling Stone
- Comeback of the Year (2015) As a member of The New Day
- Second-Best Heels (2015) As a member of The New Day
- WWE Wrestlers of the Year (2015) As a member of The New Day
- Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
- TNA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jay Lethal
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- Best Gimmick (2015) The New Day
- WWE
- WWE Raw Tag Team Championship (2 times)1 – with Big E and Kofi Kingston
1 Big E, Kingston, and Woods defended the title under the Freebird Rule. On September 5, 2016, during the New Day's second reign, the titles were renamed the Raw Tag Team Championship after SmackDown established the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.