In 1997, 10-year old Albert Christian Hardie Jr. got his first dose of professional wrestling, when he caught an episode of WCW Monday Nitro on a friend’s television set. From that moment on, his destiny was set. He was going to become a professional wrestler. Now 22-years later, the wrestler now universally known simply as ACH is one of the top tier indie stars in the world and the latest rumored star to join the WWE’s NXT in the coming months.
A decade after his first encounter with WCW, ACH attended the Kobra Kai Dojo, training under Jeremy Reyes and Scot Summers, before making his debut in 2007 in regional Texas indies. After a grueling two years that nearly saw him throw in the towel, ACH began working for one of the top indie promotions in Texas, Anarchy Championship Wrestling (ACW), based in his hometown of Austin. Soon after his debut, he captured the ACW U-30 Young Gun Championship as one of the promotions new stars, and by 2011 was the ACW Heavyweight Champion.
In 2011, he began to expand beyond the Southern indies, debuting with the likes of Beyond Wrestling and Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW), and expanding further in 2012 with Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), CHIKARA, Dragon Gate USA and two promotions that he would become synonymous with for the next few years – Chicago’s All American Wrestling (AAW) and Ring of Honor. He made his ROH debut at Death Before Dishonor X in September of 2012 against Kyle O’Reilly.
He would become one of AAW’s fresh new stars and elevated quickly, winning the AAW Heritage Championship in 2013. But while he shone as a singles star around the country, in ROH he began as a tag team wrestler, in Adrenaline RUSH alongside Tadarius Thomas. With Thomas, ACH competed against The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson), American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards), reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) and Outlaws Inc. (Eddie Kingston & Homicide), with ACH occasionally getting a chance to shine in singles matches against the likes of Kevin Steen (now WWE’s Kevin Owens) and Adam Page. He also made his debut with Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) that August, competing in his first PWG Battle of Los Angeles. He defeated Tony Nese in the opening round, before losing to his rival Kyle O’Reilly in the second round.
He would compete in his second PWG BOLA in 2014, losing to a rising Kenny Omega in the opening round. By the spring, he had left Adrenaline RUSH to become a breakout singles star with ROH but was still more often on the losing end when it came to wins and losses. Over the next two years, he would make his Mexico debut with AAA and The Crash Lucha, Canadian debut with Smash Wrestling, and travel to the UK with ROH to debut with Revolution Pro (RevPro) and Preston City Wrestling (PCW). He would continue to work primarily ROH, but by the end of 2016, he was still struggling to make a dent in ROH’s mid-card, save for a couple challenges for the ROH World Television title. In July he would head to Japan to partner with Taiji Ishimori, first in Pro Wrestling NOAH‘s NTV G+ Junior Heavyweight Tag League, winning in the finals against Momo No Seishun Tag (Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada), and then making it to the finals of the NJPW Junior Tag League (losing to Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta, Roppongi Vice). But by the end of the year, he decided to take a chance on himself and left Ring of Honor behind.
With ROH out of the picture, ACH exploded onto the US indie scene with more freedom, working with EVOLVE (winning EVOLVE tag team gold with “All Ego” Ethan Page) and IMPACT Wrestling (appearing in the 2017 Super X Cup tournament), as well as increasing his presence in AAW (he captured the AAW Heritage title for the second time) and the resurging Texas indies of ACW, Inspire Pro and WrestleCircus. He appeared in his first ever NJPW Best of the Super Juniors and had a great showing, with victories over BUSHI, Desperado and eventual winner KUSHIDA. He also expanded his European pedigree, working with Germany’s Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) and Ireland’s Over The Top (OTT) Wrestling.
The past year, he established himself as one of the top stars from the US indies, with another solid showing at NJPW Best of the Super Juniors XXV, gaining a huge victory over Tiger Mask IV. He became the “Ace” of AAW, holding the AAW Heavyweight Championship for 209 days with epic defenses against the likes of Keith Lee, Rey Fenix, Trevor Lee, and Jeff Cobb. His near year-long feud against Lee’s new faction WRSTLING (which also featured Cobb, David Starr, and Eddie Kingston) was one of the US indies best stories, which lead to one of 2018’s best matches at AAW Unstoppable when ACH and Lee went to a 60-minute time limit draw. For much of 2018, ACH also made his return to national television, appearing with Major League Wrestling (MLW) for most of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex6tHFoVCmk
With reports of ACH heading to Orlando to join the next class of NXT Superstars (also reportedly alongside his archrival Trevor Lee), AAW is presenting AAW The Last Stand on January 26, where he’ll have his final match in AAW, against AR Fox.
Just signed for The Final Stand on 1/26 at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago:
@GoGoACH vs. @ARealFoxx
Get your tickets now at https://t.co/9glYmjydOU pic.twitter.com/U5OPa3ivVY— AAW Wrestling (@AAWPro) January 16, 2019
Regardless where ACH lands, he’s managed to create a career of highlight reels and made . a lasting impression as one of the great unheralded giants of the US indie scene, taking his abilities far beyond his humble beginnings in the Texas indies, to rubbing shoulders with legends in Japan to creating instant classics in his home country. If you didn’t know of ACH before, get ready. You’re about to.
