Konnor (wrestler)

Konnor

Konnor in March 2015
Birth name Ryan Parmeter[1]
Born (1980-02-06) February 6, 1980[2]
Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States[2]
Residence Orlando, Florida, United States
Spouse(s) Krissy Vaine (m. 2013)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Conor O'Brian[3]
Payne[2]
Rough House O'Reilly[4]
Ryan O'Reilly[2]
Konnor[5]
Billed height 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)[6]
Billed weight 268 lb (122 kg)[6]
Billed from Boston, Massachusetts[4]
The Wasteland [7]
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Düsseldorf, Germany
Trained by Soulman Alex G[2]
Norman Smiley[2]
Bill DeMott[2]
Tom Prichard[2]
Steve Keirn[2]
Jody Hamilton[2]
Debut 2001[2]

Ryan Parmeter[3] (born February 6, 1980)[2] is an American professional wrestler. He is signed by WWE, under the ring name Konnor as part of the tag team The Ascension, but is currently inactive due to a 60-day suspension. He was part of the fourth season of NXT, and earned fourth place on the show's fifth season, NXT Redemption.[8]

After spending four years wrestling on the independent circuit as Ryan Payne O'Reilly, Parmeter signed a WWE contract in 2005, and was assigned to Deep South Wrestling (DSW), a developmental territory, where he wrestled as Rough House O'Reilly.[3][4] He won the DSW Heavyweight Championship twice, before briefly appearing in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). He also appeared in several dark matches prior to Raw and SmackDown, and at several ECW house shows. In October 2007, both Parmeter and his girlfriend, Krissy Vaine, requested to be released from their WWE contracts for personal reasons.[9][10]

Following his release, Parmeter took time off from wrestling, before debuting for NWA Charlotte in February 2009. In July 2010, he was re-signed by WWE, and returned to FCW where he began wrestling as Conor O'Brian. In November 2010, he was announced as a participant in the fourth season of NXT.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (2001–2005)

Parmeter initially trained at the School of Hard Knocks in southern Florida under Rusty Brooks, and made his professional wrestling debut in 2001.[3][2] He went on to compete in Brooks' promotion, Four Star Championship Wrestling (FSCW) as Ryan Payne O'Reilly, and formed a tag team with J-Dawg, known as "The Irish Thug Connection". Together, The Irish Thug Connection won the FSCW Tag Team Championship.[11] He also won the FSCW Heavyweight Championship,[3] and spent mid-2004 feuding with Norman Smiley over it.[12][13] O'Reilly also competed for Florida's Coastal Championship Wrestling (CCW) promotion, and won the CCW Heavyweight Championship.[3] He appeared for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling during the promotion's early shows.[9]

World Wrestling Entertainment

Deep South Wrestling (2005–2007)

After four years on the independent circuit, O'Reilly signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2005.[3] He was assigned to Deep South Wrestling (DSW), a WWE developmental territory as Rough House O'Reilly, and made his DSW debut at the inaugural DSW show on September 1, in a loss to Jack Bull. Over the next several months, he faced wrestlers including "Big Time" Nick Mitchell, Mike Mizanin, Shawn Schultz, Derrick Neikirk,[14] Eric Pérez and Freakin Deacon. In December, he appeared in a dark match prior to the SmackDown tapings.

In early 2006, O'Reilly took a leave of absence. Upon his return, he and Danny Germundo entered a tournament for the DSW Tag Team Championship but were eliminated by Team Elite (Mike Knox and Neikirk) on May 11.[14] On June 22, O'Reilly defeated Neikirk to win the DSW Heavyweight Championship.[14] He successfully defended the championship against Knox, Neikirk,[14] and Montel Vontavious Porter.[15] On September 7, O'Reilly lost the championship to Bradley Jay. During mid-2006, O'Reilly made several appearances at ECW house shows, teaming with Neikirk to faceThe FBI (Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke).[14] O'Reilly was scheduled to become part of the regular ECW roster in September, but violated the WWE Wellness Program, and was suspended for 30 days.[3]

When he returned, he became the personal assistant of DSW General Manager Krissy Vaine.[3] In December, O'Reilly appeared on an episode of ECW as one of Paul Heyman's personal enforcers alongside Doug Basham.[3] In March 2007, O'Reilly won the DSW Heavyweight Championship for the second time.[9] He lost the championship to Bradley Jay a week later. O'Reilly and Eric Perez were originally scheduled to face The Samoans (Afa, Jr. and Sonny Siaki) in the main event of DSW's final event, but he and Perez were replaced by The Major Brothers.[16] During mid-2007, O'Reilly would appear in dark matches prior to Raw and SmackDown against Sylvan Grenier, Chuck Palumbo, Super Crazy, Cody Rhodes and D'Lo Brown.[3][17]

Florida Championship Wrestling (2007)

He briefly appeared in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), another WWE developmental territory, where both Lacey Von Erich and Maryse acted as his valets.[3]

Parmeter in 2009

In October 2007, both Parmeter and his girlfriend Krissy Vaine requested and were granted their release from WWE.[3] They cited health problems suffered by members of both of their families as the reason.[3][9]

Time off and independent circuit (2007–2009)

In October 2007, Parmeter stated that he was taking time off from wrestling.[18] He returned to wrestling in February 2009, working for NWA Charlotte.[3] He wrestled against Truitt Fields for the territory's Heavyweight Championship, but was unable to win the title. After the loss, O'Reilly formed an alliance with Mikael Judas and Phill Shatter called III, which lasted until the territory's closure.

Return to WWE

Return to FCW (2010)

Parmeter was re-signed by the WWE on July 14, 2010, and was reassigned to the FCW developmental territory.[19] On August 12, he debuted for Florida Championship Wrestling as Ryan O'Riley losing to Conrad Tanner. He would compete under this name for a short while before becoming Conor O'Brian on September 30.

NXT (2010)

On November 30, 2010, during the season finale of season three of NXT, it was announced that Parmeter, under the name Conor O'Brian, would be appearing on season four, with Alberto Del Rio as his mentor.[5][20] He made his in-ring debut on NXT the following week, teaming with Del Rio to defeat rookie Derrick Bateman and Bateman's mentor Daniel Bryan.[21] O'Brian won his first challenge on the January 4, 2011 episode of NXT, when he won the 'Battle of the Mic Challenge' to earn four immunity points.[22] Two weeks later, on January 18, O'Brian was the second contestant eliminated from NXT. Earlier that night, O'Brian competed in a match against Ricardo Rodriguez in a losing effort.[23]

In March 2011, O'Brian was selected as one of the six former NXT contestants to return to the show in its fifth season, NXT Redemption. During this season, O'Brian was mentored by Vladimir Kozlov.[24] He was later eliminated from competition on the June 28, 2011 episode of NXT, and would later be joined, and eventually replaced, by a returning Derrick Bateman and Daniel Bryan.

The Ascension (2011–present)

On August 28, 2011, Ricardo Rodriguez announced the formation of a stable called The Ascension, with members including O'Brian, Kenneth Cameron, Tito Colon and Raquel Diaz.[25] The first match to include all members in some capacity came on September 1, 2011, and saw Cameron, Colon and O’Brian, accompanied by Diaz, defeating CJ Parker, Donny Marlow and Johnny Curtis.[26] On September 30, Cameron and Colon had a shot at the FCW Tag Team Championship but lost to the current champions of CJ Parker and Donny Marlow. By October, however, video packages appeared promoting the Ascension under new seemingly demonic, supernatural characters, and did not include Rodriguez as he was disassociated from the team. By the end of November the Ascension had all but disbanded because O'Brian was injured, Colon had been called up to WWE to team with his cousin Primo, and Diaz became Queen of FCW and distanced herself from the group. This left Cameron as the sole survivor of the Ascension, continuing to use the Ascension gimmick during his appearances. On March 15, 2012, O'Brian returned accompanying Cameron to the ring in his match against Byron Saxton; the match ended in disqualification when O'Brian interfered. Cameron and O'Brian began wrestling as a tag team using the name The Ascension, and their first tag team match together came on March 23 when the two defeated Jason Jordan and Xavier Woods. The Ascension suffered their first loss when the pair lost to the FCW Tag Team Champions, Corey Graves and Jake Carter, in a title match.[27]

With the conclusion of NXT Redemption, WWE rebranded its developmental territory, FCW, into NXT Wrestling.[28] O'Brian and Cameron, as the Ascension, debuted on the June 20 episode of the rebooted WWE NXT taped at Full Sail University, where they defeated Mike Dalton and CJ Parker.[29][30] The Ascension then started a feud with The Usos,[31] defeating them on the September 5 NXT,[32] and also scored a win over Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd on the October 3 NXT.[33] Two weeks later, the Ascension teamed up with Kassius Ohno to defeat Richie Steamboat and the Usos.[34] The Ascension disbanded on November 30, 2012 when Cameron was released from WWE.[35]

Konnor in 2013

O'Brian retained his character while using "The Ascension" as his nickname as he started to feud with Big E Langston for the NXT Championship.[36][37] O'Brian first faced Langston in a non-title match, which ended in a double disqualification.[38] O'Brian then faced Corey Graves in a number one contender match which had no winner when the Shield attacked both men to make a statement.[39] The next week, O'Brian defeated Graves and Bo Dallas to become the number one contender.[40] The feud ended after O'Brian was defeated in a title match on the April 4 episode of NXT.[41] On the May 29 NXT, O'Brian competed in an 18-man number one contender battle royal and was eliminated by Corey Graves and Kassius Ohno.[42] To reform the Ascension tag team, Rick Victor allied himself with O'Brian as they went chased the NXT Tag Team Championships held by Adrian Neville and Corey Graves. On November 10, 2013 O'Brian's name was tweaked and shortened to "Konnor". On February 27, 2014 at NXT Arrival, he and Viktor successfully defended the NXT Tag Team Championships against Too Cool, repeating the feat on May 29, 2014 at NXT TakeOver against the team of El Local and Kalisto.

Konnor, alongside Viktor, made his main roster debut on the September 9, 2014 edition of Main Event, with the duo defeating Los Matadores in a tag-team match to promote their NXT tag title defense against the team of Kalisto and Sin Cara at the NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way event. They didn't reappear until the December 12th episode of SmackDown, when a vignette aired showing The Ascension with face paint, hyping their debut. The Ascension made their debut on the December 29th episode of Raw, quickly defeating The Miz and Damien Mizdow.[43] Both he and Viktor, as part of the Ascension, would continue to squash local athletes three weeks in a row on WWE Main Event while indirectly criticizing of The Road Warriors. Their first major victory as part of the main roster was a win over The New Age Outlaws at the Royal Rumble. The Ascension would lose their first match as a part of the main roster on February 23 edition of Raw, losing to The Prime Time Players. at WrestleMania 31, The Ascension made their Wrestlemania debut in the André the Giant Memorial battle royal where both failed to win the match. on the March 30 edition of Raw, The Ascension teamed with Cesaro and Tyson Kidd to face Lucha Dragons and The New Day in a 8 man tag but lost the match. on the May 4 episode of Raw, Ascension faced Tyson Kidd and Cesaro in a losing effort, On the May 11 episode of Raw, during a match between Curtis Axel and Damien Sandow, in the guise of Macho Mandow, The Ascension attacked Axel and Mandow. It was then announced that The Ascension would face Axel and Sandow on the Payback pre-show where they won the match. on the May 21 episode of SmackDown, Ascension competed in a fatal four way tag match against the teams of Cesaro & Kidd, Los Mataodores and The Lucha Dragons where the match was won by The Lucha Dragons. It was announced the Ascension would par take in a six team elimination chamber match for the Tag Titles. At Elimination Chamber on May 31, He and Viktor eliminated the Los Matadores and The Lucha Dragons until they were eliminated by The Prime Time Players, ultimately losing the match. on the July 2 episode of SmackDown, The Ascension faced The Prime Time Players in a losing effort. on the July 3 edition of Superstars, The Ascension defeated The Meta Powers (Macho Mandow and Axel). On an August 27 edition of SmackDown, The Ascension faced The Dudley Boyz but would go on to lose the match. After The Dudleys would put Viktor through a table.

On the September 3 episode of SmackDown, The Ascension aligned themselves with Stardust by attacking Neville before their match. At Night of Champions, Stardust and The Ascension defeated Neville and The Lucha Dragons in a Six-Man Tag Team Match in the pre-show. on the Survivor Series Kickoff, The Cosmic Wasteland (Stardust, Konnor, and Viktor), The Miz, and Bo Dallas were defeated by The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley), Neville, and Titus O'Neil and the returning Goldust in a Five-on-five traditional Survivor Series elimination tag team match. At Wrestlemania 32, Konnor competed in the Andre the Gaint Memorial Battle Royale but failed to win the match.

On April 16, 2016, Parmeter was suspended for 60 days for his second violation of the Wellness Program.[1]

Personal life

Parmeter began dating Kristin Eubanks in 2006.[9] In an interview in October 2007, Parmeter announced the two were engaged.[18] They later married in June 2013.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

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External links

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