Hartley Jackson

Jackson in April 2023
Personal information
Born	(1980-04-17)17 April 1980 (age 45) Adelaide,South Australia, Australia[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Brett James Dark Wolf Hartley Jackson Jacko Kerrigan JAG
Billed height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Billed weight	260 lb (120 kg)
Trained by	Col Dervaney Antonio Inoki Kendo Kashin
Debut	4 October 1999

Hartley Jackson^[a] (born 17 April 1980)^[2] is anAustralianprofessional wrestler who primarily works as a freelancer for various Japanese promotions, includingNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a member ofTMDK.^[3]

After working on theindependent circuit in his nativeAustralia, followed by a short stint in theUnited States, Jackson has spent the majority of his career inJapan. He has wrestled for the likes ofPro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1),All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW),Ganbare Pro-Wrestling,Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW),Gleat andActive Advance Pro Wrestling (2APW). Between 2018 and 2019, he served as an official coach and producer for theNXT brand at theWWE Performance Center,^[4][5][6] before returning to Japan to wrestle for Zero1 in 2020.^[7]

Hartley Jackson began wrestling inAdelaide,Australia, training under retired regional champion Col Dervaney. Jackson made his in ring debut on 4 October 1999.^[8] His first appearance in thePWI 500 was in 2001.^[9] In his early years, he captured the MPW and WrestleRock Championships. He wrestled across the country and competed in a Survival Of The Fittest event,^[10] a 60 Iron Man minute match, before heading off on his first international excursion overseas.

In 2007, he began his rise to a heavyweight wrestler and teamed withShane Haste to take onNWA Heavyweight Tag Team Champions,Karl Anderson andJoey Ryan^[11] in a set of matches for NWA Pro, which took place in Australia.^[12][13] Jackson got involved in an altercation with Australian sports journalist and news presenter,Mark Aiston, where the two would eventually square off in a professional wrestling match.^[14][15]

In 2011, Jackson would simultaneously hold the Zero1 UN Heavyweight Championship, PWA Heavyweight Championship and the EPW Australian national Championship titles.^[16] In 2014, Jackson wrestled NJPW'sShinsuke Nakamura during his first tour of Australia for Wrestle Rampage.^[17][18] Jackson continued to travel across Australia, winning the NWA Australian National championship.^[19] He formed the South Australian Serial Killers (SASK) tag team in 2014.^[20] Teaming withJonah Rock, they went on to capture the MCW Tag Team Championship and WR Meltdown Tag Team Championship.^{[citation needed]}

In the latter half of 2005, Jackson travelled to theUnited States on his first international excursion withMikey Nicholls, where they were a tag team known as The Kerrigans inAll Pro Wrestling.^[21] InLos Angeles, Jackson continued to further his professional wrestling training under NJPW founderAntonio Inoki at theNJPW LA Dojo.^[22][23] Jackson wrestled on the NJPW Dojo events, co-produced with NWA Pro, that took place at the LA Dojo in Santa Monica,^[24] including a match for theNWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship againstFergal Devitt.^[25] After his time at the LA Dojo, Jackson was recruited into the ranks ofJapan'swrestling scene, where he worked one show withNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).^[26][27]

In October 2008, Jackson returned to Japan to take part in the "PROWRES EXPO 2008" in Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan.^[28] In 2010, Jackson participated in his first tour for Zero1, where he would remain a fixture for the company.^[28] He formed a tag team withSteve Corino where they battledAkebono Tarō andShinjiro Otani for the Intercontinental Tag Team Championships.^[29][30] Between 2010 and 2016, Jackson split his time competing in his home country of Australia, along with locales like Nepal, New Zealand and Myanmar.^[31] Myanmar held their first ever professional wrestling event at theTheinphyu Stadium. The Myanmar Martial Arts Wrestling featured Jackson up againstMasato Tanaka in a singles match.

Jackson competed in the 2013 Zero1 Tenkaichi Jr. Tournament,^[32] dropping to 99.9 kg to make the competing weight, competed in the 2017 Zero1Furinkazan Tag Team Tournament and also competed in the 2018 Zero1Fire Festival. In 2018, he also picked up an MVP award for his match againstYusaku Obata for the World Heavyweight Championship.^[29]

Between 2016 and 2018, Jackson moved to Japan full-time to work for Zero1. During this time, he became a member of theVoodoo Murders,^[33] where he went on to capture theUnited National Heavyweight Championship and theIntercontinental Tag Team Championship, which he held with Voodoo Murders leader,Yoshikazu Taru. Also in this time, Jackson participated in a series of Exploding Bat matches, fighting againstFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling'sAtsushi Onita.^[34][35]

Jackson returned to Zero1 in 2020 on a permanent basis. He has fought for theWorld Heavyweight Championship and was named as one of the participants in the 2020 Zero1 Fire Festival.^[36][37]

On 3 September 2022, Jackson defeatedYumehito Imanari to win theSpirit of Ganbare World Openweight Championship.^[38] He defended it two times before dropping the title toMizuki Watase on 27 December.^[39]

On 15 August 2024, duringG1 Climax 34, Jackson returned to NJPW for the first time in eighteen years, replacing the injuredKosei Fujita and partneringZack Sabre Jr. in a tag team match against Bullet Club War Dogs (David Finlay andGedo).^[40] Jackson then appeared on the Road to King Of Pro-Wrestling and Road to Tokyo Dome tours, as well as atYuji Nagata's annual Blue Justice show,^[41] where he was predominately used in six-man tag team matches. On 23 December, Jackson wrestled his first singles match in NJPW, in a defeat toJeff Cobb.^[42]

In 2006, Jackson became head coach of what is now called the Wrestle Rampage Dojo inAdelaide, Australia. Over the course of the next decade, he went on to train and mentor many of Australia's current top talents, in which some have reached the heights ofWWE and international recognition, including the likes ofBronson Reed,^[43]Duke Hudson,Mikey Nicholls,^[44]Billie Kay andPeyton Royce.^[45][46]

After a series of guest coach appearances, Jackson officially joined theWWE Performance Center as a part of the coaching staff in 2018.^[47] Jackson taught classes at the WWE Performance Center.^[48] Jackson helped recruit and scout wrestlers for the WWE both at the PC inOrlando and internationally.^[49][50] This included coaching at the first ever WWE Tryouts held in India, with over 70 participants.^{[51][52][53][54][55]} Jackson also helped train the talent from local independent promotions for WWE's recruitment camps.^[56][57] In 2019, Jackson amicably parted ways with WWE to continue his professional wrestling career in Japan.^[58] In 2020, Jackson returned to Japan where he is once again an active wrestler, but also took over head coach duties forPro Wrestling Zero1 at their Dojo.^[59]

Jackson appeared as a tough guy in the 2008 Bollywood movie,Love Story 2050.^[60][61] In 2016, Jackson played the role of Connor in web seriesRunaway Moon,^[62] and was a guest on the full episode of Talkn' Shop Live in Australia, presented byTalk is Jericho.^[63][64] In 2020, he appeared on an episode ofWWE The Bump,^[65] and has appeared in multiple episodes of Samurai TV'sBattlemen in Japan.^[66][67]

On 28 September 2017, Jackson made hisLethwei debut atLethwei in Japan 5: Nexurise forInternational Lethwei Federation Japan in Tokyo atKorakuen Hall. He fought by the Burmese bareknuckle boxing rules, known as Lethwei, against YABU, in the company's first 100 kg heavyweight fight. Jackson lost to YABU via TKO at 0:53 of RD3.^[68][69] The fight was broadcast onFITE TV.^[70][71][72] Jackson has expressed interest in fighting again in the future.

Professional Lethwei record

0 wins (0 (T)KOs), 1 losses, 0 draws
Date	Result	Opponent	Event	Location	Method	Round	Time
2017-09-28	Loss	YABU	Lethwei in Japan 5: Nexurise	Tokyo,Japan	TKO	3	0:53
For the inaugural Cruiserweight World Lethwei Championship Title.
Legend:  Win  Loss  Draw/No contest  Notes

• Explosive Pro Wrestling
  • EPW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Davis Storm
  • State of Origin Champion (2016)^[73]
• Ganbare Pro-Wrestling
  • Spirit of Ganbare World Openweight Championship (1 time)^[74]
• Joint Promotions Wrestling
  • JPW Championship (2 times)^[75]
• Melbourne City Wrestling
  • MCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – withJonah Rock
• NWA Australian Wrestling Alliance
  • Pacific Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Havok^[76]
  • AWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• Pro Wrestling Australia
  • PWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[77]
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Ranked No. 210 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in thePWI 500 in 2011^[78]
• Pro Wrestling Zero1
  • United National Heavyweight Championship (2 times)^[79]
  • Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (1 time) – withYoshikazu Taru^[80][81]
  • Fire Festival (2020)^[82][83]
• Wrestle Rampage
  • Zero1 Australian National Championship (2 times)^[84]
  • Meltdown World Tag Team Championships (1 time) – with Jonah Rock^[85]
• WrestleRock
  • WrestleRock Championship (2 times)^[86]
• Maximum Power Wrestling
  • MPW Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
• Pro Wrestling South Australia
  • PWSA Hardcore Championship (2 times)

• Hartley Jackson atIMDb
• Hartley Jackson's profile atCagematch,Wrestlingdata,Internet Wrestling Database

• 1980 births
• Living people
• Martial artists from Adelaide
• Australian Lethwei practitioners
• Sportsmen from South Australia
• Australian male professional wrestlers
• Expatriate professional wrestlers
• Expatriate professional wrestlers in Japan
• Professional wrestling trainers
• Zero1 Intercontinental Tag Team Champions
• Spirit of Ganbare World Openweight Champions
• Zero1 United National Heavyweight Champions
• Fire Festival winners
• 21st-century Australian sportsmen

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