| The Ascension | |
|---|---|
 Viktor (left) and Konnor (right) | |
| Tag team | |
| Members | Conor O'Brian/Konnor/Big Kon Rick Victor/Viktor/Vik Kenneth Cameron Tito Colon Raquel Diaz (manager) Ricardo Rodriguez (manager) |
| Name(s) | The Ascension The Awakening[1] |
| Billed heights | Konnor: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) Viktor: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Combined billed weight | 487 lb (221 kg) |
| Billed from | The Wasteland |
| Debut | August 28, 2011 |
| Years active | 2011–2012 2013–2022 |
The Ascension were aprofessional wrestlingtag team consisting ofKonnor andViktor. They are best known for their tenure inWWE.
The Ascension was formerly a stable from 2011 to 2012. The Ascension originally started out inFlorida Championship Wrestling as astable consisting ofConor O'Brian,Kenneth Cameron,Ricardo Rodriguez,Tito Colon andRaquel Diaz. After several membership changes, Conor O'Brian andRick Victor (their respective ring names were also shortened to Konnor and Viktor), then became established as a tag-team inNXT. Their 364-dayNXT Tag Team Championship reign is currently the longest in the history of the title. In December 2019, the duo were released from WWE after months of inactivity.
AtFlorida Championship Wrestling's August 28, 2011 event, Ricardo Rodriguez announced the formation of astable called The Ascension, with members including Kenneth Cameron, Conor O'Brian, Tito Colon, and Raquel Diaz. The first match to include all members in some capacity came on September 1, 2011, and saw Cameron, Colon and O’Brian, accompanied by Diaz, defeatingCJ Parker,Donny Marlow, andJohnny Curtis.[2] On September 30, Cameron and Colon had a shot at theFlorida Tag Team Championship but lost to then champions CJ Parker and Donny Marlow.
In October, The Ascension was no longer associated with Rodriguez, as video packages promoting The Ascension with new darker characters only featured the other four Ascension members without Rodriguez. By the end of November, The Ascension had all but disbanded, as O'Brian fell to injury and Colon was called up to WWE main roster to team with his cousinPrimo, meanwhile Diaz becameQueen of FCW and distanced herself from the stable. This left Cameron as the sole survivor of The Ascension and he continued to use The Ascension gimmick during his appearances. However the disintegration of the group would prove to be beneficial for Cameron as he would go on a three-month singles winning streak, beating the likes ofJiro and Calvin Raines until he finally lost toColin Cassady on February 23, 2012.
On March 15, 2012 Cameron was accompanied to the ring by the returning Conor O'Brian in his match againstByron Saxton, the match ended in disqualification when O'Brian interfered. Cameron and O'Brian began wrestling as a tag team using the name of The Ascension, with their first tag team match together coming on March 23 when the two defeatedJason Jordan andXavier Woods. The Ascension suffered their first loss when the pair lost to the Florida Tag Team ChampionsCorey Graves andJake Carter in a title bout.[3] After this loss, the Ascension would go on another winning streak including winning a fatal four-way elimination against the teams of Adam Mercer and Chad Baxter, Jason Jordan andMike Dalton, andBrad Maddox and Rick Victor.[4]
On June 20, 2012, The Ascension made their debut onNXT, defeating CJ Parker and Mike Dalton with their double team finisher, Downcast.[5][6] They would later enter a rivalry withThe Usos, with the Ascension getting the better end of most of the encounters between the two teams.[7][8][9][10] The Ascension also defeated another main roster team inJustin Gabriel andTyson Kidd on the October 3, 2012 episode ofNXT.[11] However, the team was disbanded after Cameron was released from his WWE contract on November 30, 2012 after being arrested.[12]
From there O'Brian worked as a singles wrestler, keeping the Ascension gimmick on his own for some time. Following O'Brian's victory over Briley Pierce and Sakamoto on the May 15, 2013 edition ofNXT, Rick Victor appeared on the ramp, getting O'Brian's attention.[13] Victor would officially accompany O'Brian to the ring as his partner in the Ascension on the July 3 edition ofNXT as O'Brian defeated Andy Baker.After winning a gauntlet match to determine the number one contenders for theNXT Tag Team Championship,[14] the Ascension defeated the team ofAdrian Neville and Corey Graves on the October 2 edition ofNXT to capture the titles.[15] On November 8 the two were renamed, Conor O'Brian renamed to Konnor and Rick Victor renamed to Viktor.
For the majority of their title reign, The Ascension would battle and dismantle local wrestlers in mere minutes with very little to no offense from their opponents. Their first major title defense was againstToo Cool (Grandmaster Sexay andScotty 2 Hotty) at NXT's first live special,NXT Arrival, where they emerged victorious. The Ascension began demanding competition in the weeks following, moving up from local wrestlers to various combinations of teams made up from contracted NXT wrestlers. While still disabling and annihilating their opponents week after week, they were confronted by a team of masked wrestlers;El Local andKalisto, who challenged them for their tag team titles at the second live event,NXT TakeOver. Though they were given their toughest challenge to date, The Ascension successfully defended their gold after hitting Fall of Man on Local.
The Ascension had a cameo on the main roster on the September 9, 2014 episode ofMain Event to promote their upcoming title defense, defeatingLos Matadores (Diego and Fernando) in a match to promote their title defense againstThe Lucha Dragons (Kalisto andSin Cara) at theNXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way event. At the event, The Ascension lost the titles to Kalisto and Sin Cara, ending their reign a day short of a full year at 364 days. That same night, they were in an altercation withWilliam Regal and the debutingHideo Itami. After feuding with and assaulting Itami for several weeks, a second international wrestler,Finn Bálor, joined Itami in his fight against both Konnor and Viktor. This led to a match on December 11 atNXT TakeOver: R Evolution, where The Ascension were defeated by Bálor and Itami.
The following night onSmackDown, vignettes began to air promoting The Ascension's call-up to the main roster. They were promoted to the main roster on the December 29, 2014 episode ofRaw, defeatingThe Miz andDamien Mizdow.[16] On the January 2 and 9 episodes ofSmackDown and the January 5 episode ofRaw, The Ascensioneasily defeated local preliminary wrestlers in less than a minute, and also cementing theirheel status after comparing themselves to prominent tag teams of the past includingThe Powers of Pain,The Road Warriors andDemolition.
By the second week of their main roster run, Mike Tedesco ofwrestleview.com lambasted how WWE had made the Ascension lose all credibility for two reasons: firstly, they openly admitted being "a rip off of The Road Warriors and Demolition", and secondly, all the commentators (including JBL, who was a heel commentator) disparaged the Ascension as "nothing compared" to the older teams they were copying.[17][18] On the January 19 episode ofRaw, the Ascension confronted the reunitingNew World Order membersKevin Nash,Scott Hall andX-Pac. However, the Ascension were then interrupted, attacked by and laid out by two other past-generation teams:the Acolytes Protection Agency andthe New Age Outlaws.[19] At this point, various critics were labeling the writing for the Ascension's main roster storylines to be that "it seemed WWE gave up on [the Ascension] in week two of their main roster run", with WWE making "a mockery of the push every single week" with "criminal booking".[20][21] The storyline culminated in the Ascension defeating the New Age Outlaws at theRoyal Rumble pay-per-view.[22]
"The Ascension were amazing in NXT then the WWE dropped the ball when they moved them up to the main roster. I have sympathy for Konnor, Viktor. They toiled so hard over the years in NXT and then the main roster management just ruins everything they have worked so hard for. A crying shame to be sure."
On the February 12, 2015 episode ofSmackDown, the Ascension's main roster winning streak (since their call up) ended in a tag team turmoil (gauntlet) match; they entered againstDaniel Bryan andRoman Reigns and were eliminated via disqualification.[24][25][26] On the February 23 episode ofRaw, the Ascension suffered their first pinfall loss on the main roster, courtesy ofthe Prime Time Players.[25][27] Although they defeated The Prime Time Players in a rematch on the next week's episode ofSuperstars, the Ascension's fortunes then vastly declined; between early March to the end of July 2015, they appeared regularly onMain Event andSuperstars, and started a losing streak. AtWrestleMania 31, Konnor and Viktor made theirWrestleMania debuts in theAndré the Giant memorialbattle royal, with neither of the duo winning the match. In May, The Ascension started a feud againstThe Meta Powers and defeated them atPayback pre-show. AtElimination Chamber on May 31, they participated in an Elimination Chamber match for the tag titles, they eliminated Los Matadores and the Lucha Dragons until they were eliminated by The Prime Time Players.
On the September 3 episode ofSmackDown, The Ascension attacked Neville as he was making his way to the ring againstStardust, aligning themselves with Stardust in the process and thus forming a group known as "The Cosmic Wasteland", where in Stardust calls The Ascension his "henchmen". AtNight of Champions, Stardust and The Ascension defeated Neville and The Lucha Dragons in a six-man tag team match in the pre-show, but were subsequently defeated in two rematches. On theSurvivor Series kickoff, The Cosmic Wasteland, The Miz, andBo Dallas were defeated byThe Dudley Boyz, Neville,Goldust andTitus O'Neil in aFive-on-five traditional Survivor Series elimination tag team match. In May 2016, The Cosmic Wasteland stable disbanded after Stardust left the company. AtWrestleMania 32, Konnor and Viktor entered the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, both with failing efforts. On April 16, 2016, WWE suspended Konnor for 60 days for a second violation of the Talent Wellness policy.[28] Following the suspension, Viktor began competing in singles competition, mainly onSuperstars andMain Event. Konnor made his return during the June 20WWE Superstars taping, teaming with Viktor to face The Golden Truth (Goldust andR-Truth).[29]
On July 19 at the2016 WWE draft, The Ascension were drafted toSmackDownbrand in the eighth round.[30] On July 26 episode ofSmackDown Live, both members competed in aWWE World Championship #1 contendership six-pack qualifying battle royal, which was won byApollo Crews. AtSummerSlam, The Ascension competed in a 12-man tag team match, where their team lost. They then entered theSmackDown Tag Team Championship tournament where they were eliminated in the first round by The Usos. On theTLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pre-show, The Ascension,The Vaudevillains andCurt Hawkins lost a ten-man tag team match against Apollo Crews,American Alpha andThe Hype Bros. At the2017 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, they fought in atag team turmoil match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, but were the last team to be eliminated, losing to the reigning champions American Alpha. AtWrestleMania 33, they once again entered the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but neither were successful. AtMoney in the Bank, The Ascension lost to Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango) after they claimed responsibility for a vandal attack in their office. On the June 27 episode ofSmackDown Live, The Ascension was interrogated by Breezango on "Fashion Vice", admitting that they didn't commit the crime and only took responsibility, because they wanted a match at the PPV. In September, the duo turnedface when they started trying to befriend Breezango during the latter's 'Fashion Files' segments. On the January 9, 2018 episode ofSmackDown Live, The Ascension suffered a loss toThe Bludgeon Brothers, for a while the duo would only appear as supporting characters in Breezango's Fashion Files skits. AtWrestlemania 34, the duo were participants in the 5th annualAndré the Giant memorial battle royal, with Konnor being the first of the duo to be eliminated followed minutes later by Viktor.
On April 16, The Ascension were traded toRaw brand as part ofSuperstar Shake-up. On the April 23 episode ofRaw, The Ascension, once again as heels, faced the team ofMatt Hardy andBray Wyatt in a losing effort. The two were participants in theGreatest Royal Rumble match, with Viktor being eliminated by Daniel Bryan, and Konnor being eliminated byElias andThe New Day (Kofi Kingston andXavier Woods). On the April 12, 2019 episode ofMain Event, The Ascension lost to Heavy Machinery (Otis andTucker), in what would be their final match in WWE.[31] On December 8, 2019, after eight months of inactivity, The Ascension were released from their WWE contracts ending their nine-year tenure with the company.[32]
Following their departure from WWE, Konnor (under the ring name Big Kon)[33] and Viktor (under the ring name of Vik) were announced for Wrestling Revolver's Pancakes and Piledrivers event during WrestleMania 36 weekend.[citation needed] On February 20, 2020, The Ascension competed in their first match since leaving WWE at Outlaw Wrestling defeatingBull James and Bill Carr. On February 22, 2020, The Ascension teamed with DMT and defeated Bull James, Corey Cooper, Jaden Valo & Sal Salvelli at NYWC Psycho Circus 18. In June 2020, Big Kon and Vik revealed their new tag team name to be The Awakening.[1] In March 2021, The Awakening won the Atomic Wrestling Tag Team championship.
The Ascension, consisting of the duo of Konnor and Viktor, made their video game debut as a part of the NXT Arrival DLC pack (Downloadable Content) inWWE 2K15. They are also part ofWWE 2K16,WWE 2K17,WWE 2K18 andWWE 2K19 also as a duo.
heir gimmick is Brood-esque, selling they have demonic supernatural qualities such as hanging out a top building sites without even wearing a hard hat.
