ACH (wrestler)

Early life

Hardie's parents divorced when he was a child and he spent time between the two households, living a "sheltered" life and developing his imagination by reading comic books and watching cartoons. Hardie's father is a San Antonio DJ. He has two sisters, who are both around ten years older than him. At the age of ten, Hardie first saw professional wrestling, when he was invited to a friend's house, where World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was on the television. Hardie was immediately fascinated by professional wrestling, particularly the high-flying luchadores. After high school, he decided to pursue a career in professional wrestling.

Professional wrestling career

Hardie was trained by Jerry Reyes and Scot Summers and made his professional wrestling debut in February 2007. After two years of working for small promotions on the independent circuit under the ring name ACH, Hardie began considering retiring from professional wrestling, before getting an offer to work for Anarchy Championship Wrestling (ACW), based in his hometown of Austin, Texas.

Anarchy Championship Wrestling (2009–2012)

ACH made his debut for Anarchy Championship Wrestling on August 23, 2009, starting a storyline rivalry with Robert Evans. He won his first title in the promotion on August 22, 2010, when he defeated Evans for the ACW U-30 Young Gun Championship. He lost the title to Akira Tozawa on May 15, 2011. On November 12, ACH first defeated Bolt Brady and Colt Cabana in the first round, then Gary Jay in the semifinals and finally JT LaMotta in the finals to win the 2011 Lone Star Classic and become the ACW Heavyweight Champion. ACH held the title until July 22, 2012, when he was defeated by Jaykus Plisken.

Chikara (2012)

On July 29, 2012, ACH made his debut for the Chikara promotion, entering the Young Lions Cup X tournament and defeating Aaron Epic, J.T. Dunn and Vinny Marseglia in his first round four-way match. He followed that up by defeating Jakob Hammermeier in the semifinals on August 17. The finals of the tournament took place the following day and saw ACH lose to Mark Angelosetti. ACH returned to the promotion on December 2 at the Under the Hood pay-per-view, where he unsuccessfully challenged Angelosetti for the Young Lions Cup.

Ring of Honor (2012–2016)

On September 15, 2012, ACH made his debut for Ring of Honor (ROH), facing Kyle O'Reilly in a losing effort at the Death Before Dishonor X: State of Emergency internet pay-per-view. He returned to the promotion on January 5, 2013, losing to Matt Taven in the first round of the Top Prospect Tournament. On February 21, ROH announced that the promotion had signed ACH to a long-term contract. This was followed by ACH picking up his first win in ROH on March 2 at the 11th Anniversary Show, where he defeated Adam Page, Mike Sydal, Q.T. Marshall, Silas Young and TaDarius Thomas in a six-way match. Afterwards, ACH began teaming regularly with TaDarius Thomas, with the two forming a tag team named "Adrenaline Rush". On July 27, ACH entered a tournament to determine the new ROH World Champion, but was eliminated in his first round match by Karl Anderson. On February 8, 2014, Adrenaline Rush earned a future shot at the ROH World Tag Team Championship by defeating the reigning champions, reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly), in a non-title Proving Ground match. Adrenaline Rush received their title shot on February 21 at the 12th Anniversary Show, but were defeated by reDRagon. Adrenaline Rush broke up two months later with TaDarius Thomas joining The Decade.

On June 6, 2014, ACH received his first shot at the ROH World Championship, after winning a six-way match, but was defeated by the defending champion, Adam Cole. On June 22 at Best in the World 2014, ACH won another six-way match to earn a shot at the ROH World Television Championship. ACH received his title shot at the August 9 Ring of Honor Wrestling tapings, but his match with Jay Lethal ended in a thirty-minute time limit draw. On November 15 at Glory By Honor XIII, ACH received a shot at the ROH World Championship in his home state of Texas, but was defeated by Jay Briscoe. On March 12, 2016, ACH unsuccessfully challenged New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) representative Kushida for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. On October 8, ACH made comments at an AAW event talking about his "wife" who did not appreciate him and about how he was planning on getting a divorce. The comments were interpreted as ACH talking about his situation with ROH. On November 1, Pro Wrestling Insider reported that it had confirmed from multiple sources that ACH was finishing up with ROH. On November 8, it was reported that ACH had started taking independent bookings, seemingly indicating his departure from ROH.

Other promotions

On June 10, 2011, ACH defeated Bolt Brady to win the NWA Lone Star Junior Heavyweight Championship. However, just a month later he was stripped of the title. On April 14, 2012, ACH made his debut for Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), entering the Best of the Best 11 tournament and losing to AR Fox in a three-way first round match, which also included Lince Dorado. On June 2, ACH defeated Dan Walsh and Neil Diamond Cutter in the finals of an eight-man tournament held by Metro Pro Wrestling (MPW) to become the new NWA Central States Heavyweight Champion. He was stripped of the title on November 1, when MPW withdrew from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), however, the promotion recognized him as the first MPW Central States Champion. On November 2, ACH made his debut for Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA), teaming with Cima and Rich Swann in a six-man captain's fall tag team match, where they defeated the Gentleman's Club (Chuck Taylor, Drew Gulak and Orange Cassidy).

On January 25, 2013, ACH entered Berwyn, Illinois based AAW: Professional Wrestling Redefined's AAW Heritage Championship tournament, defeating Prince Mustafa Ali in his first round match. On February 10, ACH defeated Mat Fitchett in the quarterfinals of the tournament. On March 1, he first defeated Juntai Miller in the semifinals and then Samuray del Sol in the finals to win the tournament and become the new AAW Heritage Champion. On February 2, 2013, ACH took part in the National Pro Wrestling Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, entering the Rey de Voladores tournament. After defeating Bolt Brady, Lukas Sharp and Mitch Thompson in his first round match during the afternoon show, ACH was defeated in the finals of the tournament by 2 Cold Scorpio during the evening show. On August 30, ACH made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), when he entered the 2013 Battle of Los Angeles and defeated Anthony Nese in his first round match. The following day, ACH was eliminated from the tournament in the second round by eventual tournament winner Kyle O'Reilly. In March 2014, it was reported that ACH would be taking part in a WWE tryout camp later in the month. He took part in the same camp as Kevin Steen and Roderick Strong. At the conclusion of the camp, he was not offered a contract.

On May 24, 2015, ACH made his debut for Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA), when he formed a trio with Brian Cage and Moose for the Lucha Libre World Cup in Mexico City. After defeating Team AAA (El Hijo del Fantasma, Psycho Clown and El Texano Jr.) in their opening match, they were defeated in the semifinals by the Dream Team (Myzteziz, El Patrón Alberto and Rey Mysterio Jr.). They later claimed third place in the tournament over Team MexLeyendas (Blue Demon Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr. and El Solar). In July 2016, ACH checked off one of his initial goals in professional wrestling, when he made his Japanese debut by entering Pro Wrestling Noah's 2016 NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League, alongside Taiji Ishimori. After a record of four wins and one loss, ACH and Ishimori advanced to the finals of the tournament, where, on July 30, they defeated Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada to win the 2016 NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League, which guaranteed them a shot at Kotoge and Harada's GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The match took place at a NJPW show on August 21 and saw the champions retain their title. ACH returned to NJPW on October 21, when he and Ishimori entered the 2016 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, defeating the reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) in their first round match. On October 30, ACH and Ishimori defeated David Finlay and Ricochet to advance to the finals of the tournament. On November 5 at Power Struggle, ACH and Ishimori were defeated in the finals of the tournament by Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero).

On December 30, 2016, ACH defeated AR Fox to win the AAW Heritage Championship for the second time. On January 4, 2017, ACH returned to NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome. Working under a mask as "Tiger the Dark" from the Tiger Mask W anime series, he was defeated by Tiger Mask W in the opening match.

On January 27, 2017, ACH made his debut for Evolve, losing to Matt Riddle.

On May 3, 2017, NJPW announced ACH as a participant in the 2017 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. He finished the tournament with a record of three wins and four losses, failing to advance to the finals.

During the Impact Wrestling tapings on July 3, 2017, ACH was announced as a participant in the 2017 Super X Cup, representing AAW. Later in the tapings, he defeated Andrew Everett in his first round match. Three days later, he was eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by Taiji Ishimori.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments