Jason Jordan

For the Canadian soccer player, see Jason Jordan (soccer).
Jason Jordan

Jordan in March 2015
Birth name Nathan Everhart
Born (1988-09-28) September 28, 1988
Tinley Park, Illinois, United States
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Jason Jordan[1]
Billed height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)[2]
Billed weight 245 lb (111 kg)[2]
Billed from Chicago, Illinois[2]
Trained by Florida Championship Wrestling
Debut September 30, 2011

Nathan Everhart[1] (born September 28, 1988)[1] is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Jason Jordan and is one half of the tag team American Alpha along with Chad Gable.

Amateur wrestling career

Everhart was born in Tinley Park, Illinois. He said he began amateur wrestling at seven years old because he thought it was the same as professional wrestling.[3] In high school, Everhart was a three-sport athlete, competing in wrestling, football and baseball. He was drafted straight out of high school for professional baseball, but passed up the offer in order to go to college and wrestle. He attended Indiana University and competed for them in the Big Ten Conference. Everhart became a three-time national qualifier for NCAA at the Division I level.

While wrestling at Indiana University, Everhart was ranked top 15 in the nation for three years in a row and was ranked as high as 2nd in the nation at heavyweight. He was described as a unique and impressive athlete, weighing 225 pounds while competing at the 285 pound weight class. He used speed and agility to overcome his bigger opposition. In his senior year, Everhart was undefeated in the regular season going 35-0 and earning him ranking of second best wrestler in the nation. During his fourth year of wrestling, he worked as a student coach at his university and helped two All-Americans at 197 lbs and a heavyweight.[3]

Everhart graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology with minors in chemistry, social science, and medicine. He put attending dental school on hold to pursue his dream of being a professional wrestler. Due to his legendary accolades at Indiana University, he had his face painted onto the wall of the campus' University Gymnasium in 2010. On an episode of WWE Breaking Ground, he revealed that all three of his brothers are in jail.

Professional wrestling career

WWE

Florida Championship Wrestling (2011–2012)

Everhart was scouted from college by WWE's road agent, Gerald Brisco. He was recruited to participate in a WWE tryout in 2010 and was subsequently offered a WWE contract, but he held off from signing it until finishing his college degree. In July 2011, he signed a developmental contract with WWE and was sent to the developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), where he took the ring name Jason Jordan. He trained and wrestled at FCW until the brand's closure the following year. His first professional wrestling match was at an FCW live event on September 30, where he teamed with Abraham Washington in a losing effort against Calvin Raines and Big E Langston. He made his televised debut on the November 13 episode of FCW TV, teaming with Colin Cassady and Mike Dalton in a losing effort against The Ascension. Jordan continued to make sporadic appearances in FCW until the brand was replaced by WWE NXT in summer 2012. Prior to this, he won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship with CJ Parker at a live event on July 13, making him one half of the penultimate title-holders before the championship was deactivated.

NXT (2012–2016)

See also: American Alpha

Jordan made his televised NXT debut on the June 27 episode, losing quickly to Jinder Mahal. He continued to make further occasional appearances as a jobber throughout 2012 and 2013. In mid-2014, Jordan formed a team with Tye Dillinger, but the two found little success and split up while turning heel in February 2015.

Jordan after winning the NXT Tag Team Championship at NXT TakeOver: Dallas in April 2016

In May 2015, Jordan began a storyline with Chad Gable in which Gable attempted to convince Jordan to form a new partnership. After nearly two months of coaxing, Jordan finally agreed to a match with Gable as his tag team partner. On the July 15 episode of NXT, Jordan and Gable were successful in their official debut together against the team of Elias Samson and Steve Cutler. At NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, Jordan, who collectively teamed with Gable, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder was defeated by the team of The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley) and Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady in a match that took place on the pre-show. On September 2, Jordan and Gable competed in the first round of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament, beating the team of Neville and Solomon Crowe. They then defeated The Hype Bros in the second round before falling to Baron Corbin and Rhyno in the semi-finals at NXT TakeOver: Respect. They turned babyface in the match by showing fighting spirit and resiliency against the much larger Corbin and Rhyno. Jordan and Gable defeated two pairs of former NXT Tag Team Champions, The Ascension and The Vaudevillains on the November 18 and December 2 episodes of NXT, respectively. On the January 27, 2016 episode of NXT, Gable and Jordan adopted the name American Alpha and defeated Blake and Murphy. At NXT TakeOver: Dallas, American Alpha defeated The Revival to win the NXT Tag Team Championship, but lost the tag team titles back to The Revival at NXT TakeOver: The End.

SmackDown (2016–present)

On July 19, during the 2016 WWE draft, Jason Jordan was drafted along with Chad Gable to SmackDown.[4] On the August 2 episode of SmackDown, Jordan and Gable made their debuts, defeating The Vaudevillains. On August 21 at the SummerSlam pre-show, American Alpha teamed with The Hype Bros and The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) to face The Vaudevillains, The Ascension and Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango) in a 12-man tag team match, where American Alpha's team was victorious.

In August, American Alpha would compete in an tag team tournament for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship, defeating Breezango in the first round to advance to the semi-finals where they faced The Usos. Despite defeating The Usos rather quickly on the September 6 episode of SmackDown, Gable's knee was kayfabe injured during a post-match assault when The Usos attacked them, rendering American Alpha unable to compete at Backlash.

On the November 1 episode of SmackDown, American Alpha defeated The Spirit Squad to be apart of Team SmackDown in the 10–on–10 traditional Survivor Series tag team elimination match. At Survivor Series, American Alpha would be the eliminated in the match by Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, where Team SmackDown would be defeated by Team Raw.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

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