The Ascension (professional wrestling)

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The Ascension
Raquel Diaz (manager)
Ricardo Rodriguez (manager
)
DebutAugust 28, 2011
Years active2011–2012
2013–2022

The Ascension were a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Konnor and Viktor known for their time in WWE. Currently, they work as The Awakening on the independent circuit under the names of Big Kon and Vik.

The Ascension was formerly a stable from 2011 to 2012. The Ascension originally started out in

Raquel Diaz. After several membership changes, Conor O'Brian and Rick Victor (their respective ring names were also shortened to Konnor and Viktor), then became established as a tag-team in NXT. Their 364-day NXT Tag Team Championship
reign is currently the longest in the history of the title. In December 2019, the duo were released from WWE after months of inactivity.

History

WWE (2011–2019)

First incarnation (2011–2012)

At

Florida Tag Team Championship
but lost to then champions CJ Parker and Donny Marlow.

In October, The Ascension was no longer associated with Rodriguez, as video packages promoting The Ascension with new darker characters only featured the other four Ascension members without Rodriguez. By the end of November, The Ascension had all but disbanded, as O'Brian fell to injury and Colon was called up to WWE main roster to team with his cousin Primo, meanwhile Diaz became Queen of FCW and distanced herself from the stable. This left Cameron as the sole survivor of The Ascension and he continued to use The Ascension gimmick during his appearances. However the disintegration of the group would prove to be beneficial for Cameron as he would go on a three-month singles winning streak, beating the likes of Jiro and Calvin Raines until he finally lost to Colin Cassady on February 23, 2012.

On March 15, 2012 Cameron was accompanied to the ring by the returning Conor O'Brian 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 of The Ascension, with their first tag team match together coming on March 23 when the two defeated Jason Jordan and Xavier Woods. The Ascension suffered their first loss when the pair lost to the Florida Tag Team Champions Corey Graves and Jake Carter in a title bout.[3] After this loss, the Ascension would go on another winning streak including winning a fatal four-way elimination against the teams of Adam Mercer and Chad Baxter, Jason Jordan and Mike Dalton, and Brad Maddox and Rick Victor.[4]

On June 20, 2012, The Ascension made their debut on NXT, defeating CJ Parker and Mike Dalton with their double team finisher, Downcast.[5][6] They would later enter a rivalry with The Usos, with the Ascension getting the better end of most of the encounters between the two teams.[7][8][9][10] The Ascension also defeated another main roster team in Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd on the October 3, 2012 episode of NXT.[11] However, the team was disbanded after Cameron was released from his WWE contract on November 30, 2012 after being arrested.[12]

NXT Tag Team division dominance (2013–2014)

From there O'Brian worked as a singles wrestler, keeping the Ascension gimmick on his own for some time. Following O'Brian's victory over Briley Pierce and Sakamoto on the May 15, 2013 edition of NXT, Rick Victor appeared on the ramp, getting O'Brian's attention.[13] Victor would officially accompany O'Brian to the ring as his partner in the Ascension on the July 3 edition of NXT as O'Brian defeated Andy Baker. After winning a gauntlet match to determine the number one contenders for the

Adrian Neville and Corey Graves on the October 2 edition of NXT to capture the titles.[15]
On November 8 the two were renamed, Conor O'Brian renamed to Konnor and Rick Victor renamed to Viktor.

For the majority of their title reign, The Ascension would battle and dismantle local wrestlers in mere minutes with very little to no offense from their opponents. Their first major title defense was against

El Local and Kalisto, who challenged them for their tag team titles at the second live event, NXT TakeOver
. Though they were given their toughest challenge to date, The Ascension successfully defended their gold after hitting Fall of Man on Local.

The Ascension had a cameo on the main roster on the September 9, 2014 episode of

Hideo Itami. After feuding with and assaulting Itami for several weeks, a second international wrestler, Finn Bálor, joined Itami in his fight against both Konnor and Viktor. This led to a match on December 11 at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution
, where The Ascension were defeated by Bálor and Itami.

Beginnings on the main roster (2014–2016)

The Road Warriors
.

The following night on

The Road Warriors and Demolition
.

By the second week of their main roster run, Mike Tedesco of wrestleview.com lambasted how WWE had made the Ascension lose all credibility for two reasons: firstly, they openly admitted being "a rip off of The Road Warriors and Demolition", and secondly, all the commentators (including JBL, who was a heel commentator) disparaged the Ascension as "nothing compared" to the older teams they were copying.

the New Age Outlaws.[19] At this point, various critics were labeling the writing for the Ascension's main roster storylines to be that "it seemed WWE gave up on [the Ascension] in week two of their main roster run", with WWE making "a mockery of the push every single week" with "criminal booking".[20][21] The storyline culminated in the Ascension defeating the New Age Outlaws at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.[22]

"The Ascension were amazing in NXT then the WWE dropped the ball when they moved them up to the main roster. I have sympathy for Konnor, Viktor. They toiled so hard over the years in NXT and then the main roster management just ruins everything they have worked so hard for. A crying shame to be sure."

John Powell of SLAM! Wrestling, in naming the Ascension as 2015's worst tag team in wrestling[23]

On the February 12, 2015 episode of SmackDown, the Ascension's main roster winning streak (since their call up) ended in a tag team turmoil (gauntlet) match; they entered against

The Meta Powers and defeated them at Payback pre-show. At Elimination Chamber
on May 31, they participated in an Elimination Chamber match for the tag titles, they eliminated Los Matadores and the Lucha Dragons until they were eliminated by The Prime Time Players.

On the September 3 episode of SmackDown, The Ascension attacked Neville as he was making his way to the ring against

R-Truth).[29]

Brand switches and departure (2016–2019)

On July 19 at the

André the Giant memorial battle royal
, with Konnor being the first of the duo to be eliminated followed minutes later by Viktor.

On April 16, The Ascension were traded to

Tucker), in what would be their final match in WWE.[31] On December 8, 2019, after eight months of inactivity, The Ascension were released from their WWE contracts ending their nine-year tenure with the company.[32]

Independent circuit (2020–2022)

Following their departure from WWE, Konnor (under the ring name Big Kon)[33] and Viktor (under the ring name of Vik) were announced for Wrestling Revolver's Pancakes and Piledrivers event during WrestleMania 36 weekend.[citation needed] On February 20, 2020, The Ascension competed in their first match since leaving WWE at Outlaw Wrestling defeating Bull James and Bill Carr. On February 22, 2020, The Ascension teamed with DMT and defeated Bull James, Corey Cooper, Jaden Valo & Sal Salvelli at NYWC Psycho Circus 18. In June 2020, Big Kon and Vik revealed their new tag team name to be The Awakening.[1] In March 2021, The Awakening won the Atomic Wrestling Tag Team championship.

Other media

The Ascension, consisting of the duo of Konnor and Viktor, made their video game debut as a part of the NXT Arrival DLC pack (

Downloadable Content) in WWE 2K15. They are also part of WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18 and WWE 2K19
also as a duo.

Members

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. ^ a b "The Ascension Reveals Their New Name, Talk About How COVID-19 Delayed Their TV Return Plans". Mandatory. June 25, 2020.
  2. ^ "Wrestleview.com - WWE News and Results, RAW and Smackdown Results, Impact News, ROH News". www.wrestleview.com.
  3. ^ Kreikenbohm, Philip. "FCW TV #190 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net.
  4. ^ Kreikenbohm, Philip. "FCW « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net.
  5. ^ Bishop, Matt. "WWE NXT: Kidd, McGillicutty start new show off in style". Slam ! Wrestling. Archived from the original on December 6, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ^ "NXT Weekly Rankings & Evaluation 6/20 - New NXT Week 1: Early impressions from new cast of FCW talent". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved June 9, 2013. heir gimmick is Brood-esque, selling they have demonic supernatural qualities such as hanging out a top building sites without even wearing a hard hat.
  7. ^ James, Justin. "James's WWE NXT Report 8/15 - Week 9: Gold Rush tournament continues, Scotty 2 Hotty cameo, Overall Reax". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
  8. ^ James, Justin. "James's WWE NXT Report 8/29 - Week 11: First NXT champion crowned in big-match setting". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
  9. ^ James, Justin. "James's WWE NXT Results 9/5: Hero (Ohno) vs. Steamboats feud, Ross interviews new NXT champ, Clay, Usos, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved September 15, 2012.
  10. ^ James, Justin. "James's WWE NXT Report 10/17 - Week 17: Six-man tag main event, Barreta & others, Overall Reax". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
  11. ^ James, Justin. "James's WWE NXT Report 10/3 - Week 16: Kidd & Gabriel main event, Showtime is back, Ohno-Steamboat issue continues, Overall Reax". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
  12. ^ "WWE TALENT ARRESTED, RELEASED - PWInsider.com". www.pwinsider.com.
  13. ^ James, Justin. "James's WWE NXT Results 5/29 & 6/5: Wyatts defend Tag Titles, NXT Women's Title introduced, #1 contender battle royal, Parade of released NXT wrestlers in matches". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  14. ^ "James's WWE NXT Report 9/25". PWTorch. February 10, 2013. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
  15. ^ "James's WWE NXT Report 10/2: New NXT Tag champions". PWTorch. February 10, 2013. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
  16. ^ Keller, Wade. "Keller's WWE Raw report 12/29: Lesnar and Heyman show up, Ziggler vs. Rusev in a champion vs. champion match, Edge & Christian host, Bryan's big announcement". PWTorch.com. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  17. ^ "1/5 RAW: Poor way to kick off 2015 - WWE News and Results, RAW and Smackdown Results, Impact News, ROH News". www.wrestleview.com.
  18. ^ "1/9 Smackdown: No more Friday nights - WWE News and Results, RAW and Smackdown Results, Impact News, ROH News". www.wrestleview.com.
  19. ^ "PWTorch.com - CALDWELL'S WWE RAW RESULTS 1/19: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw - final Rumble hype, big "Legends Reunion" theme, Brock Lesnar, Bryan's Raw in-ring return, more". pwtorch.com.
  20. ^ "Pruett's Pause: WWE Raw - Did WWE throw WrestleMania season into disarray? Roman Reigns looks strong saving legends, Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt deliver, and more!". www.prowrestling.net.
  21. ^ "Countdown to WWE Royal Rumble". Archived from the original on December 26, 2015.
  22. ^ "The Ascension def. The New Age Outlaws".
  23. Canoe.ca. Archived from the original
    on January 19, 2016. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  24. ^ "Ascension in 2015". cagematch.net. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
  25. ^ a b "Ascension in 2014". cagematch.net. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  26. ^ "WWE Smackdown Results - 2/12/15 (Tag Team Turmoil) - WWE News and Results, RAW and Smackdown Results, Impact News, ROH News". www.wrestleview.com. February 13, 2015.
  27. ^ "PWTorch.com - CALDWELL'S WWE RAW RESULTS 2/23: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw - Fast Lane fall-out, no Lesnar, Orton & Rollins vs. Bryan & Reigns main event, WM31 build-up, more". pwtorch.com.
  28. ^ "WWE suspends Raymond Leppan and Ryan Parmeter".
  29. ^ "Konnor Returns To WWE Following Wellness Policy Suspension". June 20, 2016.
  30. ^ "2016 WWE Draft results: Are your favorite Superstars on Raw or SmackDown Live?".
  31. ^ "Csonka's WWE Main Event Review 4.12.19". 411mania.com. April 12, 2019.
  32. ^ "Luke Harper, Sin Cara and Konnor and Viktor of The Ascension released". WWE. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  33. ^ Ounpraseuth, Jason (March 14, 2020). "Konnor Talks The Ascension's Next Move Following WWE Release". Wrestling Inc. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  34. ^ "THE FORMER ASCENSION WIN INDIE WRESTLING TAG TEAM TITLES". Ringside News. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  35. ^ a b "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2014". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  36. ^ "NXT Tag Team Championship". WWE. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
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