Davey Richards

Wesley David Richards (born March 1, 1983), best known under the ring name Davey Richards, is an American professional wrestler. Best known for his time in TNA Wrestling and Ring of Honor, and for several independent promotions, including Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Full Impact Pro, he was previously signed to Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he was a former MLW National Openweight Champion.

Richards also worked internationally in Pro Wrestling Noah through ROH's involvement in the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance, a global organization of cooperative promotions that allow their competitors to travel abroad to other companies, and in New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Richards was a former one-time ROH World Champion. He is also a thirteen-time world tag team champion, having won the ROH World Tag Team Championship three times (once with Rocky Romero and twice with Eddie Edwards), as well as a two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion (with Rocky Romero) and the TNA World Tag Team Champion with Eddie Edwards five times. He has also won several titles in the Independent circuit, most notably the CZW World Heavyweight Championship, PWG World Championship, the FIP World Heavyweight Championship twice and the PWG World Tag Team Championship three times (with Super Dragon twice and Roderick Strong once). Richards was the winner of several tournaments that highlight the top performers of the United States, most notably East Coast Wrestling Association's (ECWA) Super 8 Tournament in 2006 and PWG's Battle of Los Angeles in the same year.

Prior to entering professional wrestling, Richards was an accomplished amateur wrestler in high school, as well as learning Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Richards began training in 2004 with Tony Kozina before making his debut in June of the same year in the Washington-based company, Pro Wrestling War against a wrestler named Mr. Sexy. Richards also spent time training with Paul Orndorff in Atlanta, while working at the same time at a Duracell factory an hour-and-a-half drive away in Cleveland, Tennessee.

In April 2005, he began wrestling for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) in California; he debuted in an eight-man tag match for the first All Star Weekend. He later returned for a three-way match with Human Tornado and Puma; during the match Richards established himself as a villain by removing Puma's mask and revealing him as T. J. Perkins, starting a rivalry between the two. Richards then began to work more extensively in tag team matches with his new partner, Super Dragon; the two managed to win the PWG World Tag Team Championship from El Generico and Tornado, which led to a seven-month reign, defeating a variety of teams before losing the championship to Chris Bosh and Scott Lost in May of the following year. Following the loss, Richards entered singles competition to be in the company's annual Battle of Los Angeles tournament by defeating, Ronin, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, and finally Cima, a guest from Japan's Dragon Gate promotion, in the finals.

Richards went back to tag team competition to win the tag championship for a second time with Strong defeating B-Boy and former partner, Super Dragon, only to lose the belts back to their former champions the following night. Richards spent his time with PWG in a number of singles matches until the fall of 2007 at European Vacation II, he and Dragon reunited to defeat rivals Kevin Steen and El Generico. The two held the championship until January 2008 when Richards no-showed the Pearl Habra show; this resulted in the team being stripped of the championship, and led to a sixty-day suspension for Richards. He returned to the company sixty days later, competing in the Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament, once again teaming up with Super Dragon. After they were eliminated in the first round by the team of Steen and Generico, Dragon took time off due to a shoulder injury, and Richards returned to singles competition. Richards defeated Kenny Omega on February 27, 2010, at As the Worm Turns to win the PWG World Championship for the first time. On September 13, 2010, Richards was stripped of the title, when he was unable to defend it due to other booking commitments.

Richards returned to PWG during the WrestleReunion 5 weekend on January 29, 2011, in a match, where he defeated by Low Ki. On March 4, Richards and Eddie Edwards entered the DDT4 tag team tournament, where they made it to the semifinals before losing to eventual tournament winners, The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson). In his next PWG appearance on September 10, Richards unsuccessfully challenged Kevin Steen for the PWG World Championship. During December 2013's All Star Weekend X, Richards announced it would be his final weekend with the promotion. On December 21, Richards was defeated by Ricochet in his PWG farewell match.

On June 3, 2006, Richards made his debut with Ring of Honor (ROH) at Destiny by defeating Jimmy Rave. This was the start of a rivalry with Rave, who challenged Richards to a rematch at In Your Face on June 17. During the match, the pre-match ritual of fans throwing toilet paper at Rave backfired when one roll hit the chandelier above the ring, breaking some glass that scattered in the ring. Nevertheless, the two wrestled on that glass, resulting in numerous cuts on both men's bodies, and Richards went on to win the rematch.