Early career Born on November 17, 1974, in
Stratford, Prince Edward Island, Hughes met
Edge,
Christian and
Glen Kulka at a local gym while touring Canadian independent promotions during the late 1990s. After expressing interest in a professional career, the three encouraged him and Kulka suggested contacting promoter
Emile Dupre to begin training. During 1998, Hughes began training under
"Handsome" Hubert Gallant and the
Cuban Assassin among other wrestlers in Dupre's Grand Prix promotion in
Shediac, New Brunswick (he would later befriend fellow student Kingman, both of whom would eventually become charter members of Kardinal Sinners two years later).
Real Action Wrestling Making his debut in
Grand Prix Wrestling in 1999 later touring with
Leo Burke and
The Beast, he traveled to the United States for a brief stint in EWA before returning to the Maritime territory and establishing Real Action Wrestling with promoter Skot Gallant that same year. Although planning to tour
Puerto Rico, he was convinced by Gallant to jump to RAW and help promote the promotion resulting in Grand Prix promoter Emile Dupre blacklisting Hughes from the promotion and the Maritime territory. After the promotion was sold to
Warren Olsen in 2000, Hughes stayed with the promotion and eventually won the promotion's heavyweight championship. During the next two years, he and the heel stable "Kardinal Sinners" including "The Natural" Bobby Rude, Kingman and the Acadian Giant dominated the promotion until its close in July 2002.
Recent years After competing on the independent circuit for a time, he began wrestling semi-regularly for the British promotion
All-Star Wrestling in January 2002. Making an appearance on
WWE Heat in May 2003, he would later compete in the first ever Maritime Cup tournament in October 2003 making it all the way to finals before losing to current Smackdown Live star Bobby Roode. In early 2004, he would be brought into the
International Wrestling Association in
Puerto Rico by
Luke Williams. Facing many of the top stars in the promotion including
Apolo and
Ricky Banderas, he would eventually win the promotion's Hardcore title. Hughes would then get the invitation to participate in the prestigious Catch Tournament held in Hanover Germany alongside of such notables as Dave Taylor, Kendo Kashin, Robbie Brookside,
Lash LeRoux, and Rick Steiner. Following the tournament he returned to Puerto Rico. In 2006, Hughes travelled to
California to help
Japanese MMA fighter,
Kazuyuki Fujita train for his return to PRIDE on May 5 in a bout against
England's
James "The Colossus" Thompson. Fujita went on to win the bout via KO in round 1 at 8:25. Hughes then traveled to Japan in September to compete at
New Japan Pro-Wrestling's
G1 Climax, where he defeat Japanese legend Mr.Saito in his debut at Sumo Hall under the name Hangman Hughes. Hughes later returned to Japan and toured with New Japan Pro-Wrestlings often tag partnered with Harry Smith. In 2007, he appeared on the documentary television series "
Wrestling Reality" which featured many Canadian independent wrestlers including
"Wildman" Gary Williams,
Sidewinder,
Marisa,
Titus and
Krysta Lynn Scott. Hughes then appeared in another documentary TV series named after his and Peter Smiths Tag team "The Kardinal Sinners" alongside Gary Williams, Smith, Rick Doyle and British wrestler Frankie Sloan. He and
Brody Steele, a former member of the Kardinal Sinners, defeated
Yoshihiro Tajiri and
Hiroshi Nagao for the
WWA Korea World Tag Team Championship on May 14, 2007. On September 30, 2007, he defeated
Duke MacIsaac in
North Sydney, Nova Scotia to win the ECPW Heavyweight Championship. Hughes also spent time in the province of Newfoundland & Labrador as part of Legend City Wrestling from 2011-2015 where he was spent time booking and running the company alongside the company's primary owner, Dan Bjorkdahl. Hughes left the company at a time when they were having financial hardship, and had a falling out with the company owner in 2015. The company ceased operations early in 2016.
Red Rock Wrestling In 2009, Hughes and his wife started their own wrestling promotion called Red Rock Wrestling (RRW). The first show was on May 29, 2009, at Stratford Town Hall Gymnasium in Stratford, Prince Edward Island. He was awarded the promotions heavyweight championship, which he defended against Titus in a winning effort. RRW's second show was held on Friday, September 25, 2009 at Stratford Town Hall. He teamed up with
Robbie McAllister, defeating the team of Titus and Brody Steele. As of 2019, Hughes has won the RRW Heavyweight Championship a record seven times.
Personal life Hughes married his longtime girlfriend, Sheri Atkinson, in 2010 and they reside on PEI. ==Championships and accomplishments==