English professional wrestler
Ross Cooke (born 1 February 1988) is an English professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with WWE, where he performed on the NXT UK brand under the ring name Saxon Huxley.[1]
Early life
Cooke grew up in Greatham, Hartlepool, England. He first saw WWF on Sky TV in early 1992 and cites the Roddy Piper vs. Bret Hart match for the Intercontinental Title at WrestleMania VIII as the reason he became a lifelong fan of wrestling. He attended Manor College of Technology secondary school. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Sunderland.
Professional wrestling career
Early career
Cooke first began professional wrestling training in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where he graduated Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy September 2009 class.[2] He would go on to settle on the ring name Saxon Huxley. In 2013 and 2014 Huxley spent both the entire summers training with Brian Kendrick at the Brian Kendrick School of Pro-Wrestling in Los Angeles, California. He competed on the local independent scene, most notably for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood.[3]
Huxley was a regular competitor on the British independent circuit from late 2014 onwards, performing for promotions such as Grapple Wrestling,[4] Megaslam Wrestling,[5] and Rise Underground Pro Wrestling.[6]
WWE (2017–2022)
Huxley made his WWE debut on 14 January 2017 in the 2017 WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament. He was eliminated in the first round by Sam Gradwell.[7] On the 31 October 2018, episode of NXT UK, he competed in his first match on the NXT UK brand, losing to Trent Seven.[8] On 18 August 2022, Huxley was released from his WWE contract.[9]
Pro Wrestling Noah (2023–present)
Huxley made his debut in Pro Wrestling Noah on 19 March 2023, at Great Voyage in Yokohama where he teamed up with Hideki Suzuki to defeat Mohammed Yone and Yoshiki Inamura. He was also presented as the newest member of the Sugiura-gun stable led by Takashi Sugiura.[10] He continued competing regularly in various of the promotion's signature pay-per-views. At Green Journey in Sendai on 16 April 2023, he teamed up with stablemates Hideki Suzuki and Timothy Thatcher to defeat Yoshiki Inamura, Kinya Okada and Sean Legacy in six-man tag team competition.[11] At Noah Majestic 2023, he teamed up with Thatcher as "Real" and defeated Takashi Sugiura and Shuhei Taniguchi to win the GHC Tag Team Championship.[12] On 4 May at Majestic, Huxley and Thatcher defeated Sugiura and Taniguchi to win the GHC Tag Team Championship. In August, Huxley took part in the 2023 N-1 Victory, finishing the tournament with a record of three wins and four losses, failing to advance to the finals of the tournament. On 24 September at Grand Ship In Nagoya, Huxley and Thatcher lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to Good Looking Guys (Jack Morris and Anthony Greene).[13]
