{"id":12041,"date":"2018-01-10T17:02:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T22:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=12041"},"modified":"2018-01-10T17:02:37","modified_gmt":"2018-01-10T22:02:37","slug":"war-machine-the-agile-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/01\/10\/war-machine-the-agile-giants\/","title":{"rendered":"War Machine: The Agile Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Warbeard<strong> Hanson<\/strong> and <strong>Raymond Rowe<\/strong> have been one of the best tag teams in the world ever since forming.\u00a0 The two men built like Giants of the 80&#8217;s move like Cruiserweights.\u00a0 With Hanson especially boggling minds the world over pulling off moves far beyond men half his size.\u00a0 With the two seemingly set for <strong>WWE<\/strong> it is only fitting to look back at <strong>War Machine<\/strong> and their fantastic time on the indies all around the globe.<\/p>\n<p><em>EDITOR&#8217;S NOTE: Recent posts from AIW stated it would be Raymond Rowe&#8217;s final AIW appearance and Hanson noted his upcoming Chaotic Wrestling appearance would be &#8220;special&#8221;, probably as it will be his farewell show before heading to the WWE, as he started out in Chaotic Wrestling.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Breaking News!<br \/>We have just been informed January 19th will be <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RAYMONDxROWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@RAYMONDxROWE<\/a>&#39;s Final AIW appearance.<br \/>Tickets:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pCUWuTQarm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/pCUWuTQarm<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8tE7HDZTFP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/8tE7HDZTFP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Absolute Intense Wrestling (@aiwrestling) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/aiwrestling\/status\/950888325308612609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 10, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In a Cant-Miss Appearance THIS FRIDAY in Woburn <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WarBeardHanson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@WarBeardHanson<\/a> returns home to compete in the biggest <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CWPandemonium?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CWPandemonium<\/a> ever!<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6XlGBeKHvt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/6XlGBeKHvt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chaotic Wrestling (@ChaoticWrestlin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChaoticWrestlin\/status\/950904671937409025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 10, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This one is special, don&#39;t miss it. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChaoticWrestlin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ChaoticWrestlin<\/a><br \/>This Friday in Woburn, MA<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/B8DT6Z9P11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/B8DT6Z9P11<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ivar (@Ivar_WWE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ivar_WWE\/status\/950849857387933696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 9, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>War Machine: Early Career<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12053\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12053\" style=\"width: 635px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/War_Machine_-_Hanson__Raymond_Rowe.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/War_Machine_-_Hanson__Raymond_Rowe.jpg 635w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/War_Machine_-_Hanson__Raymond_Rowe-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12053\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Ring of Honor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hanson trained by the famous<strong> Killer Kowalski<\/strong> was a tag specialist in his early years forming some tag teams and touring smaller independent companies around the US.\u00a0 Rowe on the other hand was trained by<strong> Lou Marconi<\/strong> touring the circuit but never achieving much of note.\u00a0 Of the two Hanson had the better singles career featuring heavily for <strong>Chaotic Wrestling<\/strong> and<strong> New England Championship Wrestling<\/strong> as well as appearing on WWE TV twice in 05-06 under the name Todd Hanson as a jobber.\u00a0 They would both debut in <strong>Ring Of Honor<\/strong> in 2013 before facing off in the final of the 2014 top prospect tournament which Hanson won.\u00a0 A few months later on the 4th of April they would officially form War Machine.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>War Machine: Ring of Honor<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12054\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12054\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12054\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/war-machine-victory-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12054\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Zalaphoto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The team was almost immediately doomed as Rowe got hurt in a motorcycle accident and missed several months of action.\u00a0 War Machine upon his return were thrown straight into the main title scene.\u00a0 Challenging for no. 1 contendership or multi team matches regularly.\u00a0 In July they started racking up wins over teams like\u00a0<strong>The Kingdom<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>The House Of Truth\u00a0<\/strong>and eventually\u00a0<strong>Killer Elite Squad.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>The victory over KES led to them challenging for the\u00a0<strong>GHC Tag Team Titles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>This led to their debut in Japan as they toured for\u00a0<strong>Pro Wrestling NOAH.<\/strong>\u00a0 They unsuccessfully challenged for the titles to finished their first (but certaintly not last) tour of Japan.\u00a0 At Final Battle 2015 War Machine captured the ROH tag titles for the first and only time.\u00a0 They would lose these to\u00a0<strong>The Addiction\u00a0<\/strong>months later and would spend the rest of their time in ROH in and around the title scene but never capturing them again.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>War Machine: UK Tour<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12058\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12058\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12058\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/img_1634-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12058\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: PROGRESS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>During the Autumn of 2016 War Machine made their debut in various UK promotions having killer matches with the likes of\u00a0<strong>The London Riots, The Kings Of The North<\/strong>\u00a0and<strong> The Sumerian Death Squad\u00a0<\/strong>in promotions such as\u00a0<strong>PROGRESS, Over The Top Wrestling\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>IPW:UK.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>This would not be the last time they wrestled in the UK as the pair of &#8220;big lads&#8221; got over with the UK crowds.\u00a0 They also started an under the radar rivalry with fellow agile brawlers the London Riots.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>War Machine: NJPW &amp; World Tag League<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12055\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/War_Machine_IWGP_Tag_Team_Champions-e1515621550379.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\"><\/p>\n<p>After the tour War Machine made their debut for\u00a0<strong>New Japan Pro Wrestling\u00a0<\/strong>as part of World Tag League.\u00a0 They became firm favourites with the fans as they fit in very well with the Japanese sense of fighting spirit and puroresu.\u00a0 While there they pulled off two major coup&#8217;s as they defeated NJPW legends\u00a0<strong>TenKoji\u00a0<\/strong>and defeated former Ace\u00a0<strong>Hiroshi Tanahashi\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>Juice Robinson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>War Machine: Taking over the World<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12056\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/War-Machine.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"499\" height=\"344\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/War-Machine.jpg 499w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/War-Machine-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/War-Machine-100x70.jpg 100w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/War-Machine-218x150.jpg 218w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 499px) 100vw, 499px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>War Machine wrestled all over for the first few months of the year having another great match with the Riots and debuting in\u00a0<strong>RevPro.\u00a0<\/strong>Their biggest moment came at\u00a0<strong>Sakura Genesis\u00a0<\/strong>after challenging TenKoji to a title match having beaten them in World Tag League.\u00a0 In a great match they won the\u00a0<strong>IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships\u00a0<\/strong>and proceeded to be the brightest spark in NJPW&#8217;s heavyweight tag team division and holding the titles until Dominion.\u00a0 They debuted in PWG to a great reaction against the\u00a0<strong>Young Bucks\u00a0<\/strong>in a dream match and tore the house down at ICW&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Barramania.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Once again after the summer War Machine went to the UK where they became synonymous with\u00a0<strong>WCPW&#8217;s\u00a0<\/strong>tag team division.\u00a0 They won back the IWGP titles at the New Japan G1 special in the US.\u00a0 They had their final match with the Riots at PROGRESS Chapter 51 before challenging <strong>Moustache Mountain<\/strong>\u00a0for the\u00a0<strong>PROGRESS Tag Team Championships\u00a0<\/strong>in a WWE vs NJPW match that the fans loved as War Machine once again wowed the PROGRESS Ultras.\u00a0 They had match of the night at OTT WrestleRama as they teamed with\u00a0<strong>Jeff Cobb\u00a0<\/strong>against\u00a0<strong>British Strong Style<\/strong>.\u00a0 They lost the IWGP titles to KES as they feuded with G.O.D and KES for months.\u00a0 War machine had their last match for WCPW losing the titles to\u00a0<strong>Primate\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>Jimmy Havoc\u00a0<\/strong>in an insane No DQ match that is one of the best WCPW matches ever.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>War Machine: Finishing up and Future<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12057\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12057\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12057\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/01\/8b6e77e003ebb9263a342c910704a4998be94bd3_hq-e1515621626836.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"415\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12057\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Ring of Honor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Having toured the world as a big attraction War Machine ended the year in WTL.\u00a0 They failed to win and at\u00a0<strong>Wrestle Kingdom 12<\/strong> lost in the gauntlet for the\u00a0<strong>NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Champions.\u00a0<\/strong>They wrestled their final ROH match after Final Battle to\u00a0<strong>Coast 2 Coast.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Having put on great matches in every company they have wrestled for War Machine appear to be heading to the WWE where a wealth of dream matches await the duo.\u00a0 It is not impossible to see a world in which War Machine excel in the WWE with their mix of brawling, agility and great tag moves sure to get them over with audiences all over the USA.\u00a0 With both men only 33 years old they have many years ahead of them and may just end their career as sure fire WWE hall of famers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Warbeard Hanson and Raymond Rowe have been one of the best tag teams in the world ever since forming.\u00a0 The two men built like Giants of the 80&#8217;s move like Cruiserweights.\u00a0 With Hanson especially boggling minds the world over pulling off moves far beyond men half his size.\u00a0 With the two seemingly set for WWE [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":12052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,2,21,13,14,24,6,20,19,3],"tags":[632],"class_list":["post-12041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defiant","category-featured","category-icw","category-international","category-njpw","category-noah","category-north-america","category-progress","category-revpro","category-wwe-universe","tag-war-machine"],"modified_by":"Jamie 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