 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Travis Bligh[3] (1987-02-15)15 February 1987 (age 38) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name | Travis Banks |
| Billed height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1] |
| Billed weight | 90 kg (198 lb)[1] |
| Billed from | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Trained by | Martin Stirling Kingi[2] |
| Debut | 6 March 2009 |
Travis Bligh (born 15 February 1987), better known by hisring nameTravis Banks, is a New Zealandprofessional wrestler. He is best known for his time inWWE on theirNXT UK brand.[4][5][6] He is also known for competing in promotions such as Fight Club Pro,[7] What Culture Pro Wrestling,Attack! Pro Wrestling,Revolution Pro Wrestling, and most notablyProgress Wrestling, where he is a formerWorld Champion.He works in Mexican promotions such asInternational Wrestling Revolution Group (Where he won theIWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Championship),Kaoz Lucha Libre,The Crash Lucha Libre and Wrestling League Society (Where he is currently the World Champion). As of 2023 he is the fourth champion of the Morelia, Michoacan wrestling promotion SCW.
On 30 March 2013, at IPW Genesis, Banks was involved in a #1 Contendership Battle Royal for theIPW New Zealand Heavyweight Championship, Banks and Liam Fury both eliminated each other making the match a draw. On 27 April 2013, at IPW Decade Of Impact, Banks would win the IPW New Zealand Heavyweight Championship in a Triple Threat Match against Kingi and Liam Fury.On 6 September 2013, on ROH Road To Greatness Night 1, Banks would debut inRing of Honor as he teamed with Aaron Solo and Mike Dean in a losing effort toCheeseburger, Nick Merriman andWill Ferrara.[8] He returned to ROH on 20 November 2016, at ROH Reach For The Sky Night 3, where he was defeated byKyle O'Reilly atYork Hall during one of the company's UK shows.[9] He would appear again for the promotion at a UK show when he and Chris Brookes, as CCK, defeated The Boys at War of the Worlds Night 2 on 18 August 2017.[10]
On 28 June 2017 it was announced that Banks would debut forPro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) by entering the2017 Battle of Los Angeles.[11] He defeatedMark Haskins in the first round[12] andMarty Scurll in the quarter finals[13] before being eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals byRicochet.[14] On 16 February 2018 atNeon Knights, Banks beatDavid Starr.[15]
On 26 June 2018, it was announced that Banks would be taking part in the2018 Battle of Los Angeles.[16]
In June 2019, Banks wrestled for White Wolf Wrestling in Spain and won the Absolute Championship, a title he held until December.[17][18]
Banks debuted forProgress Wrestling in June 2016 by assisting TK Cooper in defeating Jack Sexsmith at Chapter 32.[19] His debut match for Progress took place a month later at Chapter 33 where he and Cooper defeated Sexsmith and Roy Johnson.[20] Banks and Cooper would collectively be known as the South Pacific Power Trip and began a winning streak as a team that lasted until Chapter 45 where they were unsuccessful in challengingBritish Strong Style (Trent Seven andTyler Bate) for theProgress Tag Team Championship.[21]
Banks entered the Super Strong Style 16 Tournament in 2017 where he defeatedJimmy Havoc in the first round,[22]Flamita in the quarter finals[23] andZack Sabre Jr. in the semi-finals.[24] Banks would defeatTyler Bate in the tournament finals, after which he asked to face theProgress World Champion at Chapter 55 at Alexandra Palace in September 2017.[25]
On 10 September Banks defeated Pete Dunne to become the new Progress World Champion.[26] He successfully defended the title against a diverse range of opponents such asMatt Riddle,Keith Lee,Will Ospreay, andMark Andrews. OverWrestleMania 34 weekend in April 2018, PROGRESS Wrestling held two shows inLouisiana during which Banks successfully defended his title in matches againstJeff Cobb andShane Strickland.[27][28] Also in April 2018, PROGRESS embarked on a mini tour ofAustralia, culminating in Banks retaining his title againstRobbie Eagles.[29]
After a feud that saw Banks previously retain the title by count-out, he eventually lost the PROGRESS World Championship toWalter at Chapter 74.[30] Due to a dislocated shoulder, Banks was unable to take part in PROGRESS’ Coast to Coast tour of America in August 2018.[31] He returned from injury at Chapter 79, defeatingDavid Starr.[32]
Progress cut all ties with Banks after the Speaking Out movement in June 2020.[33]
Alongside Chris Brookes as CCK (Commonwealth Catch Kings), Banks won theRevolution Pro Wrestling tag team titles from Charlie Sterling andJoel Redman in his first match for the company.[34] CCK successfully defended those titles against a number of teams including Ryan Smile andShane Strickland,[35]Sami Callihan andMartin Stone,[36] andLos Ingobernables de Japón (Bushi andHiromu Takahashi)[37] before losing the belts toMoustache Mountain (Trent Seven andTyler Bate).
CCK had a successfulGlobal Wars 2017, winning against CHAOS (Rocky Romero andYoshi-Hashi) on Night One[38] and successfully teaming withKid Lykos on Night Two against the CHAOS team ofGedo,Hirooki Goto andYoshi-Hashi.[39] CCK then attempted to regain the tag team titles from new championsSuzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki &Zack Sabre Jr.) but lost to the champions atEpic Encounter 2018.[40]
Banks first worked for the WWE on 1 April 2017, participating in a match at WWE Wrestlemania Axxess where he teamed with TK Cooper in a losing effort toMustafa Ali andRich Swann.[41] He was offered a contract the next year and, on 18 May 2018, it was announced that Banks would be taking part in the second everWWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament.[42][43] He get to the finals, where he was defeated byZack Gibson.[44] Banks worked for WWE in theNXT UK brand until 2020. During that time, was defeated byNoam Dar atNXT UK TakeOver:Cardiff, the second Takeover event hosted by the NXT UK Brand.[45][46] He also facedWalter for theNXT UK Championship (NXT UK's main championship) in June 2019, but he was defeated too.[47] He participated atWorlds Collide (an event with the participation of the NXT and NXT UK brands) in a fatal four-way match for theNXT Cruiserweight Championship, but Jordan Devlin won the title.[48] His stint in WWE ended in June 2020, when he was released by the promotion after he was accused of emotional abuse during a relationship with a 17-year-old trainee.[49]
On 10 November 2021, Banks would make his first statement, stating that due to the allegations, his UK work visa was revoked and he had to leave the country. He announced his return to professional wrestling in early 2022. He announced that he would only wrestle in the Mexican independent scene. He was booked to appear in September 2021 atMexicanos Al Grito de Guerra, an event promoted by Big Lucha, Mexican promotion created byBandido, but he was removed from the card after several fans complained about him being at the event.[50] He was also booked byThe Crash in a tag team match withMarty Scurll. However, one of his rivals,Lince Dorado, asked to be removed from the match, since Banks and Scurll were accused during the Speaking Out Movement.[51]
Recently on 18 July, in an event held by the independent promotion Wrestling League Society, Travis defeated Iron Kid for the promotion's top championship, capturing his second championship in his career in Mexico since his return.[52]
Beginning in 2022 he started a collaboration with Morelia Michoacan wrestling company SCW where he defeated Rene Rocks for the company's top title which he has successfully defended multiple times until April 2023.
As part of theSpeaking Out movement wrestlerMillie McKenzie accused Banks of emotional abuse and of abusing his position of trust over her by having a relationship with her when she was seventeen years old[a] and his trainee at Fight Club Pro. Banks had been thirty years old at the time of the relationship. Banks released a statement admitting to the relationship.[53] McKenzie released screenshots of abusive messages allegedly from Banks and claimed he had abused his position of trust over other trainees.[54]Progress cut ties with Banks on 20 June 2020.[55] On 26 June, Banks was released (without formal confirmation) from WWE.[56][57]
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