Early career (2001–2013) Trained by
Killer Kowalski, Smith made his debut in 2001. For the next several years, he worked for a number of
independent professional wrestling promotions throughout
New England, most notably
New England Championship Wrestling and
Chaotic Wrestling. Well known for his tag team background, he was part of The Trendsetters with
Max Bauer and Pretty Psycho with Psycho. He and Brian Milonas were also the head instructors at the Chaotic Wrestling training facility in
North Andover, Massachusetts. Smith appeared on
Velocity on December 17, 2005, losing to
Doug Basham. The following year, on September 15, 2006, he appeared on
SmackDown as Todd Hansen in a losing effort to
Sylvester Terkay. On February 16, 2008, Smith defeated Brandon Locke for the
NECW Television Championship in
Quincy, Massachusetts. The title was vacated on April 22, 2008, due to an injury Smith suffered in a title defense. On June 1, 2008, Smith became the champion again after defeating Chase Del Monte in a tournament final held at Suffolk Downs. In late 2008 a series of vignettes featuring Smith began to air during Chaotic Wrestling live events and on the web, showed Handsome Johnny discovering himself on a trip abroad and lead to the introduction of "The Duke of Elegance" Don Chesterfield into Chaotic storylines. Smith also used this character for the Eastern Wrestling Alliance as well as Front Row Wrestling. In NECW, he changed his ring name in 2010 to "Handsome" Johnny Hayes.
Ring of Honor (2013–2017) Smith made his ROH debut on July 27 a losing effort in a four-corner survival also featuring Brian Fury, Kongo, and
Vinny Marseglia. A few months after this, he was announced as the eighth participant in the 2014 edition of the
Top Prospect Tournament. He defeated
Cheeseburger and
Andrew Everett in the opening rounds before going on to win the tournament at ''Wrestling's Finest'' by defeating
Raymond Rowe in the final. As a result, he earned an
ROH World Television Championship match against reigning champion
Tommaso Ciampa at the
12th Anniversary Show, but was unsuccessful. He then formed a tag team with Raymond Rowe known as War Machine. On April 11, 2014, Hanson and Rowe both signed contracts with ROH. On August 22, 2015, War Machine defeated
Killer Elite Squad (
Davey Boy Smith Jr. and
Lance Archer) in a non-title match and afterwards challenged them to a match for their
GHC Tag Team Championship, a title owned by the Japanese
Pro Wrestling Noah promotion. War Machine received their title shot in Japan on September 19, but were defeated by the Killer Elite Squad. On December 18 at
Final Battle, War Machine defeated
The Kingdom (
Matt Taven and
Michael Bennett) to win the
ROH World Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to
The Addiction (
Christopher Daniels and
Frankie Kazarian) on May 9, 2016, at
War of the Worlds. War Machine's final appearance with ROH was on December 16, 2017.
Japan (2015–2018) On September 14, 2015, Hanson and Rowe made their Japanese debuts for
Pro Wrestling Noah, teaming with
Takashi Sugiura in a six-man tag team main event, where they defeated
Suzuki-gun (
Davey Boy Smith Jr.,
Lance Archer, and
Minoru Suzuki). This led to a match five days later, where War Machine unsuccessfully challenged Smith and Archer for the
GHC Tag Team Championship. In November 2016, War Machine made their debut for
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) by entering the
2016 World Tag League. They finished the tournament on December 7 with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals. On April 9, 2017, at
Sakura Genesis 2017, War Machine defeated
Tencozy (
Hiroyoshi Tenzan and
Satoshi Kojima) to win the
IWGP Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to
Guerrillas of Destiny (
Tama Tonga and
Tanga Loa) on June 11 at
Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, regaining it in a
no disqualification match on July 1 at
G1 Special in USA. They lost the title to Killer Elite Squad in a three-way match, also involving Guerrillas of Destiny, on September 24 at
Destruction in Kobe.
WWE (2018–present) On January 16, 2018,
WWE announced that Hanson had signed a contract with the company and would be reporting to the
WWE Performance Center. On the edition of April 11, 2018 of
NXT, he and Rowe, dubbed War Machine, made their TV debuts, attacking Heavy Machinery (
Otis Dozovic and
Tucker Knight) and the team of
Riddick Moss and
Tino Sabbatelli. Two days later on the April 13, 2018 edition of
NXT, they went on to defeat the team of
Danny Burch and
Oney Lorcan. Throughout the beginning of the year, the team of Hanson & Rowe, now dubbed the War Raiders would continue their winning streak, by defeating several tag teams in the NXT division, including
The Mighty and Heavy Machinery. At
NXT TakeOver: WarGames, War Raiders would team up with
Ricochet and
Pete Dunne in the main event to defeat
The Undisputed Era in the eponymous
WarGames match. At
NXT TakeOver: Phoenix, War Raiders defeated the team of
Kyle O'Reilly and
Roderick Strong to win the
NXT Tag Team Championship. On April 15, 2019, they debuted on
Raw as The Viking Experience under the new ring names of Erik (Rowe) and Ivar (Hanson). The following week, their name was changed to
The Viking Raiders. On September 7, 2020 episode of
Raw, The Viking Raiders teamed up with
Apollo Crews and
Ricochet in an eight-man tag team match against
The Hurt Business in a losing effort, where
Cedric Alexander scored the pinfall over Ricochet. The match was forced to an abrupt ending due to Ivar suffering a legitimate cervical injury during the match. On September 14, Ivar underwent successful surgery to repair a neck injury. Ivar would return to in ring action on April 12 edition of
Raw, teaming up with his tag team partner Erik going up against Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander in a winning effort. As part of the
2021 Draft, both Ivar and Erik were drafted to the
SmackDown brand. As part of the
2023 WWE Draft, both Ivar and Erik were drafted to the
Raw brand. On the April 9, 2024, Ivar returned to NXT to challenge
NXT North American Champion Oba Femi for the title but failed to defeat Femi at Week 2 of ''
Spring Breakin'. At Night 1 of the 2024 WWE Draft, Ivar was drafted to the Raw brand in the supplementary draft. On the May 14 episode of NXT'',
Wes Lee, Ivar, and
Josh Briggs argued over who should get a title match. Femi decided to let the three fight amongst themselves, and a triple threat match between Lee, Ivar, and Briggs was scheduled for the following week, where the winner would face Femi for his title at
NXT Battleground. Later that same night,
Gallus (
Joe Coffey,
Mark Coffey, and
Wolfgang) made their return attacking the three competitors. Ivar ended up injured and out of action for an indefinite period of time. In October 2024, cryptic messages began airing on
Raw featuring Nordic characters that translate to "WAR" to promote the team's return. On the October 14 episode of
Raw, Ivar and Erik returned defeating
Alpha Academy reverting back to their
War Raiders name and gimmick. Two weeks later, they defeated the
LWO and
The New Day in a Triple Threat Tag Team match to become No'1 Contenders to the
World Tag Team Championships held by
The Judgment Day's
Finn Bálor and
JD McDonagh but failed to win the titles after interference from
Dominik Mysterio and
Carlito. On the December 16 episode of
Raw, The War Raiders defeated Bálor and McDonagh to become two-time Word Tag Team Champions. ==Personal life==