Roster: Monday Night Mayhem

Contact Finishes: 15/01/2013

Wage: $4,750.00

Balance: $37,250.00

Rhys Townsend is a professional wrestler hailing from the town of Llanelli, in the country of Wales. He is a former two time High Octane Wrestling World Champion, a former High Octane Wrestling Tag Team Champion, a two time Wrestler of the Month winner (February and September 2011), the winner of the Lee Best Group in the 2011 Lee Best Invitational, as well as being a finalist in the same tournament. He is also a graduate of the famed Eisen Dungeon, the training facility that produced High Octane Wrestling Hall of Famer, Michael DeNucci, as well as SSE Legend, Trent. 

He grew up as most children do in his country - dreaming of setting foot on the Millenium Stadium wearing the famous red shirt of the Welsh national rugby team and, as most boys growing up in Llanelli do, he dreamt of stepping foot on the hallowed turf of Stradey Park. But as he rose through the age groups, playing at the position of Number 8, he came close to making it, but fell short, lacking in talent. Having left school at 16 with only 3 GCSE's, his options were limited, so he took a semi-professional contract, hoping to earn a call up to the region and a professional contract. But after two years of grinding away in the small parks of Wales, getting nowhere and watching a few of his team mates get called up, he decided he had enough. So, Rhys quit his contract, and his dream at age 18, deciding to not look for work for a few months while he figured out exactly what he wanted to do with his life.

He lasted three months before he started playing recreational level rugby, being unable to find a new club to play semi professionally for. Which, as it happens was a certain twist of fate that Townsend would never have predicted - one of his team-mates had decided that he wanted to pursue his childhood dream, and so decided to invite the only guy on the team who could out drink him. And so Rhys Townsend found himself at the Jones Gym, on the Fforestfach industrial estate. It was while training there that he was spotted by the SSE Legend and former HOW wrestler, Trip Eisen. It wasn't long before Eisen was on the phone to Lee Best, informing the owner of HOW that he had a prodigial talent on his hands. Lee flew from Chicago to South Wales to take a look at Rhys, before deciding to offer him a contract before he returned to the United States. Not having a job, Rhys barely even thought about it. Lee didn't have to wait for a fax - he flew back to Chicago that very same day, having signed a new wrestler. At nineteen years old, Rhys Townsend had achieved somebody else's dream - he had signed a High Octane Wrestling contract.

None of us could have known that when the Welshman in the awful red, white and green tights stepped out for his first match that he would have done what he has achieved so far. He stepped out for his first ever professional match at HOW's Capital Punishment in a dark match, having not received that part of a wrestler's life where they wrestle in barns, armories and high school gymnasiums in front of 100 people. Yet, despite his obvious nerves, he managed to pull out a victory over "Godly" Ken Davison. Townsend continued to impress on HOW's episodic weekly television show, Turmoil, going undefeated in the run up to his first real Pay Per View match, as well as forming an alliance with the most efficient man in professional wrestling - The Embosser.

However, when Townsend reached Rumble at the Rock, when he got down to that Prison Yard, he was given a lesson in exactly how far he had to go before he was something. Having viciously attacked Chris Kostoff's wife Barbi, he joined the Best Alliance shortly afterwards, and was given the mission to finally go and finish off Chris Kostoff. Of course, we are talking about Chris Kostoff, at Rumble at the Rock, in the Prison Yard.

Townsend was destroyed, The Embosser left hanging with a barbed wire noose. A vicious lesson, so early in the Welshman's career threatened to derail it completely, as the impressive form of the previous month was replaced by a man not sure of himself anymore, a man lacking in confidence as he yo-yoed from victory to loss to victory and back again. He barely managed to scrape onto the ICONIC 2010 card, defeating Scottywood in a match to qualify him for the HOW LSD Championship in London. However, when he got to the big stage, in the street fight, the same jitters that had haunted him at the previous Pay Per View returned, and Townsend made an ignominious exit from the match, falling twenty feet whilst fighting with fellow Eisen Dungeon graduate, Trent.

He returned to Wales for the holiday break doubting his new found choice of career, and wondering how much longer he was going to last. And he very nearly handed in his notice when he returned for 2011 and found he had drawn what the pundits were calling the "Group of Death", finding himself in a group with HOW Hall of Famer Shane Reynolds, former HOW World Champion, "Perfect" Paul Paras, and the-then Best Alliance member, Ethan Cavanaugh. Nobody apart from perhaps Lee Best would have predicted what was about to happen. Not even Rhys Townsend himself.

Townsend went undefeated in the group stage. And it didn't stop there, he advanced through the knockout rounds, finding himself in a place that nobody - least of all himself, expected to end up - the finals of the tournament, facing off with two legends of the federation in Maximillian Kael and "The Explosive" Mark O'Neal, with the right to headline the next Pay Per View, March To Glory, against Mike Best, for the HOW World Championship.  Rhys, however, fell short in the final, watching as Kael pinned O'Neal, his stellar run of victories coming to an end. Rhys, when asked, credits his success in the LBI to the fact that he started training in the Eisen Dungeon at the start of the year, the tutelage of the veteran Trip Eisen was obviously a positive influence on the young man.

But that dream, that unlikely dream of winning the HOW World Championship was not over, as he faced off with Mark O'Neal at March to Glory, with the Number One Contendership for the HOW World Championship on the line. Despite the same jitters as his last two pay per view outings, he managed to pull out the victory, recording his first victory on a HOW Pay Per View, and naming himself as the Number One Contender. And then, after saying it repeatedly throughout the Lee Best Invitational, he really did find himself in the single most important match of his career - the main event of Thursday Night Turmoil, the HOW World Champion, Mike Best stood across the ring from him, the Championship on the line. Twenty fateful minutes later, and the Welshman had won his first professional wrestling Championship - the HOW World Championship. This victory, unlike his exploits in the Lee Best Invitational was not greeted with surprise - people were starting to expect big things from the young man.

And he used the victory to grow, becoming the only guy to ever submit Mike Best the very next week, as he successfully defended his Championship. More successful defenses followed, against Fear in the Lethal Lottery, and also against James Varga, before he made his debut at the infamous War Games PPV. This time there were no pay per view jitters as Townsend went out and gave it his all, before, in the end, falling short, being eliminated before the end and losing his HOW World Championship to Christopher America. He quickly found himself in a two out of three falls match with both Christopher America and Mike Best, but the fact that he had taken his first pinfall loss of 2011 at War Games was obviously still on the youngster's mind, as he found himself eliminated by Mike Best. Around this time, he also became only the third ever graduate of the famed Eisen Dungeon, putting his name alongside both Michael DeNucci's and Trent's.

Moving on, Townsend made a big decision in his professional wrestling career - he decided to take a stand against things that he felt were "cheapening" the sport of professional wrestling. Quickly finding allies in Evan Ward and long time HOW veteran John Sektor, the three announced they were named Ground Zero, before they wrestled in Scott Woodson's Battledome, with an anytime, anywhere shot at the HOW World Championship on the line. Townsend was the first entrant, shortly followed out by Mike Best and the two wasted no time in resuming hostilites. They both lasted through most of the match, before Mike eliminated Rhys Townsend, before losing to Sean Maguire, who was promptly beaten down by the team of Jace Parker Davidson and his wife, Tara Michaels-Davidson. Townsend and Ward had won the HOW Tag Team Championships off the Best Alliance shortly before, and they found themselves in an interpromotional match with Peach State Wrestling, against the team of Jace Parker Davidson and Tara Michaels Davidson at the Bottomline Pay Per View. After an interference riddled match refereed by Mike Best, the exact kind of thing Townsend formed Ground Zero to stop, he once again, found himself on the losing end of a Pay Per View match, losing HOW's Tag Team Championships to a team from Peach State Wrestling. The show after, he again found himself on the losing end to a Peach State Wrestling wrestler, as he lost in singles action to Jace Parker Davidson.

Not that he wallowed in the shame for very long - he couldn't, as he quickly found himself in a one night tournament for the right to challenge Christopher America for his HOW World Championship. Rhys' first round opponent? A man he'd come to call a friend in recent months, a fellow member of Ground Zero - John Sektor. The two had a clean, fair and proper wrestling match, Townsend eventually emerging the winner, before he fell to Jackson, in the finals. But two weeks later he found himself in a Ladder Match for the HOW World Championship. Some people place the blame for this on the fact that Townsend attacked America backstage for the shot, but others are fairly sure that Lee Best has final control over Championship matches. Not that it mattered, as after Jackson had tumbled through a table at ringside, Christopher America hoisted Townsend above his head whilst atop the ladder, powerbombing the Welshman nearly twenty foot! Unfortunately for America, while up there, Townsend had detached the HOW World Champion, winning it for a second time, and becoming part of an elite club of only five wrestlers to be a two time HOW World Champion! Sean Maguire, however, wanted Townsend to have the shortest reign in HOW history as he came out, cashing in his title shot. Unfortunately for Maguire, that turned out to be a waste, as the show ran over time, and the North Korean Military have very strict rules about that kind of thing, so the referee ruled the match a draw - meaning that Townsend retained. On the way into Rumble at the Rock, he turned down one million dollars from Christopher America for a title shot, insisting it was not his place to choose his opponents, nor to hand out Championship shots - he'd never done either before, so why start now? 

When Townsend's second visit to Alcatraz Island for HOW's Pay Per View Rumble at the Rock came around, he found himself not in the Prison Yard, but instead locked up in a Solitary Confinement cell for nearly two weeks. Not that he was complaining too much - not when someone had accidentally left a stash of medical marijuana in there. But, again, on a Pay Per View, he fell short, losing his Championship to Jace Parker Davidson, as he pinned Brad Jackson. The Pay Per View jitters from earlier in his career were clearly gone, as he even stooped to stabbing Mike Best in an attempt to retain his Championship, but he still fell short.

Again, like the rest of Rhys Townsend's 2011, he had no time to stand still, no time to mourn a lost Championship as he found himself with a match to prepare for at ICONIC 2011. Most people would call it the biggest match of the year - the HOW World Championship match on HOW's Flagship Pay Per View, ICONIC, as he faces Jace Parker Davidson. Offered a chance to crown what could only be termed as a dream year off in spectacular fashion by becoming the only living three time HOW World Championship. Heading into ICONIC, Townsend found himself in decent form, the match at ICONIC being changed at the last minute to include both the World and ICON Championships, as well as Brad Jackson. Not only that, but it was announced that the match would headline ICONIC. In the match itself, Townsend fell short, winning neither the HOW ICON or World Championships, missing out on an opportunity to become only the second ever Three time HOW World Champion, but, still, the young Welshman achieved many people's dream in headlining HOW's biggest show of the year. Not that his 2011 was over yet.

Forced to fly out to Las Vegas, Nevada, on the orders of Lee Best, he was escorted out in front of an empty Best Arena, to wrestle a match with Brad Jackson with the HOW ICON Championship on the line, and in possibly the easiest match of the career, the Welshman seized the opportunity and became HOW ICON Champion for the first time in his career, ensuring he enters 2012 with Championship gold strapped around his waist.

Looking ahead to 2012, one has to wonder exactly what this young man is capable of. Already a two time HOW World Champion, HOW ICON Champion and HOW Tag Team Champion after just one year in the business, with an ICONIC Main Event on his list of achievements too, will 2012 be a continuation of the success he achieved in 2011, or was that year just a one off? We don't know yet. All we do know is that this 20 year old Welshman is certainly one of the HOW Wrestlers to Watch in 2012.

Personality:

Rhys is a proud Welshman, who attempts to represent his country the best he can when in the public eye. He will not cheat, nor will he take shortcuts in the ring, and he is not the kind of person who will stab you in the back - he'd rather tell you first so everything's fair. He reveres professional wrestling as both a sport and an art, with a deep love of the history of professional wrestling. He does, however, still see it as a job at the end of the day - a job he loves, but a job, nonetheless. He is usually a calm, collected, thoughtful individual who is slow to anger, but, as seen during his stint in the Best Alliance, as well as at Rumble at the Rock 2011, he does have a brutal streak. Outside of the ring, he attempts to live a quiet, private life in a small gated community in his hometown of Llanelli, Wales, with his girlfriend Kate, two cats and his Xbox. His free time is normally divided between his girlfriend, his family, his Xbox, and watching Japanese professional wrestling matches. He finds it hard to switch off from wrestling, often dissecting his own matches three or four times. He is also a regular user of cannabis, a practitioner of Yoga, enjoys Japanese cuisine, hates bees and swears he wouldn't be able to exist if it wasn't for Monster energy drinks. He is a fan of heavy metal, and states his favorite bands are Tesseract and The Dillinger Escape Plan. He is also a fan of the Llanelli Scarlets rugby team, as well as the Calgary Flames hockey club. He also hopes that HOW never initiates drug tests while he is on the roster.

Wrestling Style:

Rhys Townsend is a technical wrestler, who will rarely stoop to cheating inside the ring. He has a vast array of suplexes, and is also a highly proficient submission wrestler. He rarely goes to the top rope, though when he does, it will always be a knee drop. He also will shy away from using foreign objects, even if it's legal under the match's rules, but having learnt the hard way, he is not above doing so if he feels he needs to. He is very focused and calculating inside the squared circle, usually looking to work his opponent's head, shoulders and back to set up for his patented Wrist-Clutch Exploder Suplex that he calls The Sublimation, or his signature submission hold, the Red Dragon Clutch. In terms of strikes, Townsend favors both chops and elbows, rarely throwing punches and never throwing any leg kicks. He will occasionally pull a dropkick out, however. When he finds himself in a brawl, or in a fight outside of the ring, he will look to set up one of his suplexes through, or onto something. Very rarely, he will look to injure a wrestler, however, he will mostly attempt to do this with professional wrestling moves rather than with a foreign object. There are, naturally, times when there are exceptions to all of the above, especially regarding the way he is in brawls - he has a tendancy to lose his cool in a brawl. And should he find himself in a match with Mike Best, he is likely to throw all pretensions of wrestling out of the window, and will attempt to do two things while in the ring - Stab Mike in his other kidney, and end his career.

Entrance Music:

"(Concealing Fate Part 2) Deception" - Tesseract