Eric Koenreich (born March 12, 1982)
is an American
professional wrestler
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...
. He is known by his
ring name
A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projectin ...
Erick Stevens and for his time in
Ring of Honor
Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011, when the promotion was s ...
.
Career
NWA Florida (2003–2004)
Stevens debuted in May 2003 after completing his training with
Roderick Strong
Christopher Lindsey (born July 26, 1983), better known by his name Roderick Strong, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand, as the leader of Diamond Mine, but is currently inactive due ...
. He began working for the now defunct NWA Florida promotion and eventually won the 2005 Rage in the Cage, an annual
cage match battle royal
Battle royal (; also royale) traditionally refers to a fight involving many combatants that is fought until only one fighter remains standing, usually conducted under either boxing or wrestling rules. In recent times, the term has been used in a ...
that rewarded the winner with a heavyweight championship shot. Before Stevens could capitalize and challenge then champion Bruce Santee for the belt, however, the promotion
folded. Shortly after Stevens was involved in rivalries with both Sedrick Strong and Vordell Walker.
Full Impact Pro (2005–2009)
In 2005 Stevens debuted for
Full Impact Pro
Full Impact Pro (FIP) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is currently part of the World Wrestling Network (WWN) along with Shine Wrestling. Sal Hamaoui founded the company and serves as the President while Trevin Adams is the V ...
as Steve Madison's tag partner as The Miracle Violence Connection 2005/2006. After feuding with The Fast and The Furious (Jerrelle Clark and Jay Fury), the Miracle Violence Connection 2006 took on
Sal Rinauro and
Colt Cabana
Scott Colton (born May 6, 1980), better known by the ring name Colt Cabana, is an American professional wrestler, color commentator, and podcaster. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a wrestler and as a coach, and he performs the sam ...
in a series of matches that culminated in a loss during a
Crystal River Street Fight in May 2006. After losing the match, Madison
turned on Stevens, giving him a
piledriver. Stevens and Madison, along with his YRR stable, feuded for the better part of 2006 and capped their bitter rivalry off with a
Dog Collar Match in Crystal River, where Stevens was victorious.
On March 10, 2007 during the
Eddie Graham Memorial Battle for the Belts, Stevens defeated
Shingo,
Delirious, and Roderick Strong on his way to becoming the first FIP Florida Heritage Champion. Stevens claimed his entire purpose for winning and defending the belt was to bring back the prestige Florida had lost since its Golden Age. After becoming champion he defended it against the likes of
Nigel McGuinness
Steven Haworth (born 23 January 1976), better known by his ring name Nigel McGuinness, is an English actor, professional wrestling commentator and retired professional wrestler.
He is best known for his time with WWE where he worked as a colo ...
,
Claudio Castagnoli
Claudio Castagnoli ( ; born 27 December 1980) is a Swiss professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and is a member of the Blackpool Combat Club stable. Castagnoli also performs for AEW's sister promotion, Ring of Hono ...
, and Delirious. After months of successful defenses, Sal Rinauro became the new champion after hitting Stevens with his own belt.
At ROH's ''Final Battle 2007'', Stevens defeated
Roderick Strong
Christopher Lindsey (born July 26, 1983), better known by his name Roderick Strong, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand, as the leader of Diamond Mine, but is currently inactive due ...
to win the
FIP World Heavyweight Championship. Stevens would make successful defenses of the title in ROH against the likes
Austin Aries
Daniel Healy Solwold Jr. (born April 15, 1978), better known by his ring name Austin Aries, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to the Control Your Narrative wrestling promotion. He is best known for his time with Impact Wrestl ...
and
Bryan Danielson
Bryan Lloyd Danielson (born May 22, 1981) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the Blackpool Combat Club. He is also known for his time in WWE, where he worked fr ...
before losing it back to Strong at FIP's ''Redefined''. Stevens then came up short in a rematch for the title at "Dangerous Intentions 2008" on April 26, 2008, in a Last Man Standing match. Three months later, on July 19, Stevens regained the FIP World Heavyweight Championship from Strong in a Dog Collar match.
Stevens was defeated for the FIP World Heavyweight Championship by
Go Shiozaki
is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion where he is the former GHC Heavyweight Champion in a record breaking fifth reign. He made his debut for the promotion in July 2004 and remained with it unti ...
at FIP's Heatstroke 2008 on August 23, 2008.
On December 20, 2008, Stevens teamed with former rival Roderick Strong to defeat
Kenny King and Jason Blade of The YRR to win the
FIP Tag Team Championship, making Stevens the first triple crown champion in FIP. On October 3, 2009, Strong turned on Stevens in a match where they lost the Tag Team Championship to Chris Gray and
Tommy Taylor of The British Lions.
Ring of Honor and retirement (2007–2010)
On March 31, 2007 Stevens made his debut for Ring of Honor (ROH) in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
at ''All Star Extravaganza III''.
Shortly after this, he was contacted by
Austin Aries
Daniel Healy Solwold Jr. (born April 15, 1978), better known by his ring name Austin Aries, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to the Control Your Narrative wrestling promotion. He is best known for his time with Impact Wrestl ...
to join The Resilience. Doing so, Stevens aligned himself against Roderick Strong and his
No Remorse Corps (NRC). The NRC and The Resilience were currently engulfed in a heated feud, until Aries disbanded The Resilience at ''Glory By Honor VI Night 2'', which left Stevens' position in ROH uncertain. Stevens returned to Ring of Honor on November 30 in Dayton and December 1 in Chicago. Stevens made a giant impact in ROH as he defeated
Roderick Strong
Christopher Lindsey (born July 26, 1983), better known by his name Roderick Strong, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand, as the leader of Diamond Mine, but is currently inactive due ...
for the FIP World Championship ending Roderick's 13-month reign. Stevens occasionally teamed with
The Briscoe Brothers against the NRC and
The Age of the Fall.
On June 6, 2008, Stevens defeated Necro Butcher and Brent Albright in a three-way dance. The following night, however, he lost the final match in his feud with Strong when Strong defeated him in a
Fight Without Honor.
On July 25, 2008, Stevens fought Go Shiozaki to a 15-minute time-limit draw. Shiozaki's manager,
Larry Sweeney
Alexander K. Whybrow (February 18, 1981April 11, 2011) was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by his ring name Larry Sweeney. He performed primarily on the American independent circuit, but also competed in Canada, Mexico ...
, refused to allow the match to continue for an additional five minutes, which resulted in a brawl between Stevens and Sweeney's faction, Sweet N' Sour Incorporated. On July 26, 2008, he won a Four Corners Survival Match after defeating Shane Hagadorn, Delirious and Ruckus when he pinned Delirious.
On November 6, 2009, Stevens turned
heel and joined
Prince Nana
Nana Osei Bandoh is an American professional wrestler and manager of Ghanaian extraction, better known by his ring name, Prince Nana. He has stated that he is an Ashanti prince.
Early life
Although Nana was born in the United States, he cla ...
's
Embassy
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
stable. ROH stopped using Stevens in the Fall of 2010 and he retired from professional wrestling soon after. He's now a strength coach who primarily works with women and owns his own powerlifting gym in Sarasota, FL.
Return to wrestling (2019-2020)
On May 19, 2019 Stevens returned to pro-wrestling having his comeback match for Beyond Wrestling in a losing effort against Chris Dickinson. Stevens later began competing for smaller indies such as IPW. On December 20, 2019 it was announced that Stevens would be debuting for
MLW on January 11 at their
Zero Hour
Zero Hour may refer to:
* Midnight, or 00:00
* Zero hour (1945), the capitulation of the Nazi government at midnight May 8, 1945
* Zero Hour (military designation), the scheduled time for the start of some event, especially a military operation
...
event. Stevens was victorious in his debut match against Douglas James. Later that night he joined
Tom Lawlor's Team Filthy stable and assisted in an attack on the
Von Erichs
The Von Erich family is an American professional wrestling family. Originally from Texas, their actual surname is Adkisson, but every member who has been in the wrestling business has used the ring name "Von Erich," after the family patriarch, Fri ...
. On March 17, 2020 Erick Stevens announced on Twitter that he was once again retiring. Stevens planned to retire from wrestling in April, but due to the COVID pandemic, he delayed his retirement to October 12, 2020.
Personal life
Stevens operates a YouTube channel and Instagram account with his family, where he is known as the Family Food Dude. As of September 2020, Stevens has 17,000 YouTube subscribers and 100,000 Instagram followers.
Championships and accomplishments
*Alliance Wrestling Force
**AWF Florida Championship (1 time)
**AWF Universal Championship (1 time)
**Yapro Cup
*Black Label Pro
**BLP Heavyweight Championship (1 time, current)
*Freelance Wrestling
**Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup (2008)
*
Full Impact Pro
Full Impact Pro (FIP) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is currently part of the World Wrestling Network (WWN) along with Shine Wrestling. Sal Hamaoui founded the company and serves as the President while Trevin Adams is the V ...
**Eddie Graham Memorial Battle of the Belts (2007)
**
FIP Florida Heritage Championship (
1 time)
**
FIP World Tag Team Championship
The FIP World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship owned by the independent professional wrestling promotion Full Impact Pro (FIP). It was created and debuted on April 22, 2005, at FIP's The Usual Suspec ...
(
1 time)
– with
Roderick Strong
Christopher Lindsey (born July 26, 1983), better known by his name Roderick Strong, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand, as the leader of Diamond Mine, but is currently inactive due ...
**
FIP World Heavyweight Championship (
2 times
"2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outsid ...
)
**
First Triple Crown Champion
*IndependentWrestling.tv
** IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship (1 time)
*No Name Wrestling
**NNW Overall Championship (1 time)
*
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publi ...
**PWI ranked him #128 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the
PWI 500
''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publis ...
in 2010
*
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (''WON'') is a newsletter that covers professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.
Founded in print in 1982 by Dave Meltzer, the ''Wrestling Observer'' website merged with Bryan Alvarez's ''Figure Four W ...
**
Rookie of the Year (2007)
References
External links
*
Ring of Honor profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Erick
1982 births
American male professional wrestlers
Living people
Sportspeople from Sarasota, Florida
FIP World Heavyweight Champions