Sunday, June 12, 2011

Know Your Indie Wrestlers: Chris Hero

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That Young Knockout Kid


Who: Chris Hero
Also Known As: That Young Knockout Kid, Your Hero
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 240 lbs.
Hometown: Metropolis

Promotions: ROH, PWG, Chikara (alumnus), CZW (alumnus), JCW, EVOLVE (alumnus), various foreign promotions

Affiliations: He forms one-half of the Kings of Wrestling with Claudio Castagnoli in ROH and in other promotions. He can also be found managed by Shane Hagadorn and seconded by Sara del Rey. He also is known from time-to-time to enter the broadcast booth with Excalibur in PWG.

Twitter: @TheChrisHero

Signature Moves:
Death Blow


Hero's Welcome


Elbow montage


Death Is Welcome


Hangman's Clutch


Accolades:
PWG World Heavyweight Champion
ROH World Tag Team Champion (2x, with Claudio Castagnoli)
ROH Survival of the Fittest, 2007
ROH Tag Wars Champion, 2010 (with Claudio Castagnoli)
ROH Undisputed World Intergender Tag Team Champion (with Sara del Rey)
Chikara Campeon de Parejas (with Claudio Castagnoli)
Chikara World Tag Grand Prix Winner, 2006 (with Claudio Castagnoli)
JCW World Tag Team Champion (with Claudio Castagnoli)
IWA-MS Heavyweight Champion (4x)
CZW World Heavyweight Champion
CZW World Tag Team Champion (2x, with Claudio Castagnoli)
CZW Iron Man Championship
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Tag Team of the Year, 2010 (with Claudio Castagnoli)

Promos:













All About Chris Hero:

His Matches - Hero has gone through a few phases in his career. First, he was all about the cravate. Then, he morphed into "That Young Knockout Kid", using his elbows at every chance he could. He still loves him some elbows, but he's rounded out his style. What you get with a Hero match depends on the setting. He loves his strikes no matter what setting, but the level of storytelling differs with where he's at. In Japan, he blends in with the style. In PWG, he's arguably their ace performer and will go balls-out to have the best matches on the card. In ROH, his style is mixed more with the classic, North American main event style with emphasis on selling and pacing. He's become also one of the preeminent tag team wrestlers in the land, as he and Claudio Castagnoli have established themselves as an elite team twice during the last decade.

His Character - Hero has the cocksure, supremely talented heel character down to a tee. It's evolved a lot over the years with different levels of refinement. Right now, it's about as polished as you'll find it. He speaks with a certain confidence, a bravado that an elder indie statesman should be expected to promo with. The best is his chemistry with Castagnoli. They really are the perfect tag team, even though both of them are also stellar on their own as singles wrestlers.

Why You Should Know Him - He's too good for TNA and shockingly and disappointingly ignored and rebuffed by WWE. You need to get to know Hero because as long as he'll be wrestling in America, he'll belong to the indie scene. That's not necessarily a bad thing for us the fans. Hero is a hard worker, a talented character and someone who wrestles in as many feds as he can while Stateside, honing his craft and becoming one of the best in the world at what he does. He can wrestle in any style, against any kind of opponent, and still be excellent. He's also one of the best pure heel wrestlers in the land, and is able to make whomever he feuds against, be it an underdog, a fan-favorite elite level worker or even a gruff, rough-around-the-edges warrior like Eddie Kingston, feel like someone you can get behind.

Hopefully, the WWE does see the light on him, because he deserves to get to the next level without having to fly across the Pacific every couple of months. Until then though, he remains one of the biggest reasons to follow ROH and PWG and one of the only reasons why you'd want to associate with the Insane Clown Posse (who, for all their flaws, do get big names for their wrestling promotion). Chris Hero is one of the best wrestlers in the world today, and he's a big reason why you should dig deeper than what you find on cable TV.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

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