The Ascension

The Ascension is a professional wrestling tag team, consisting of Konnor and Viktor. Their NXT Tag Team Championship reign, which lasted 364 days, is the longest on WWE's developmental territory NXT.
In 2011, the Ascension started out as a stable which also had Kenneth Cameron, Ricardo Rodriguez, Tito Colon, and Raquel Diaz. In March 2012, the Ascension would become a tag team consisting of O'Brian and Cameron after O'Brian returned from injury while the other members disbanded from the Ascension. After Cameron's release, the Ascension would later consist of Connor O'Brian and Rick Victor, now known as Konnor and Viktor, since July 2013.
==History==
===World Wrestling Entertainment===
====Background and Formation (2011-2012)====
Ricardo Rodriguez and Conor O'Brian were initially allies during the season 4 of NXT. Ricardo was the ring announcer for Alberto Del Rio, who was acting as pro to mentor Conor, who was a Rookie competing to win.The two came at odds with one another as they competed for Alberto's favour. Ricardo misled Conor using a path of cheese (as Conor was constantly called very rat-like) and the two eventually had a match. Conor was ultimately eliminated, and Alberto got a new pro, Brodus Clay, who parted ways from him after failing to defeat Edge at WrestleMania 2011.
On August 28, 2011, Ricardo Rodriguez announced the formation of a stable 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, defeating CJ Parker, Donny Marlow and Johnny Curtis. On September 30, Cameron and Colon had a shot at the FCW Tag Team Championship but lost to the current champions of CJ Parker and Donny Marlow. By October, the Ascension was no longer associated with Rodriguez, as video packages promoting the Ascension only featured the other four Ascension members without Rodriguez.
By the end of November the Ascension had all but disbanded because O'Brian was injured, Colon had been called up to WWE to team with his cousin Primo (see Primo & Epico). Diaz became Queen of FCW and distanced herself from the group.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 Ascension would prove to be beneficial for Cameron as he would go onto a three-month singles winning streak beating the likes of Jiro and Calvin Raines until he finally lost to Colin Cassady on February 23, 2012.
====O'Brian and Cameron (2012)====
On March 15, 2012 Cameron was accompanied to the ring by the returning Conor O'Brian in his match against Byron Saxton, the match ended in disqualification when O'Brian interfered. Cameron and O'Brian began wrestling as a tag team using the name The Ascension, and their first tag team match together came on March 23 when the two defeated Jason Jordan and Xavier Woods. The Ascension suffered their first loss when the pair lost to the FCW Tag Team Champions, Corey Graves and Jake Carter, in a title bout. After this loss the Ascension would go on another winning streak, including winning a fatal four-way elimination against the teams of Adam Mercer & Chad Baxter, Jason Jordan & Mike Dalton, and Brad Maddox & Rick Victor.
On June 6, 2012, The Ascension made their debut on NXT, defeating Mike Dalton and CJ Parker with their double team finisher, Downcast. They would later enter a rivalry with the Usos, with the Ascension getting the better end of most of the encounters between the two teams. The Ascension also defeated another main roster team in Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel on the October 3, 2012 episode of NXT. However, Cameron was released on November 30, 2012 after being arrested.
====NXT (2013-2014)====
O'Brian worked as a singles wrestler keeping the Ascension gimmick on his own on WWE's developmental territory NXT. This lasted until May 2013, when he began teaming with Rick Victor at house shows following Victor's return from an injury (Victor was incorrectly attributed in dirt sheet reports as Judas Devlin, another developmental wrestler). Following O'Brian's victory over Alex Riley on the June 5, 2013 edition of NXT, Victor appeared on the ramp, getting O'Brian's attention. Victor would officially accompany O'Brian to the ring as his partner in The Ascension on the July 3 edition of NXT as O'Brian defeated Andy Baker. After winning a gauntlet match to determine the number one contenders for the NXT Tag Team Championship, the Ascension defeated the team of Adrian Neville and Corey Graves on the October 2 edition of NXT to capture the titles. On the 8th of November the two were renamed, Connor 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 against Too Cool at NXT's first live event; NXT Arrival where they emerged victorious. The Ascension began demanding competition in the weeks following, moving up from local wrestlers to random combinations of teams made up from contracted wrestlers. While still disabling and annihilating their opponents week after week, they were confronted by a team of masked wrestlers; El Local and Kalisto who challenged them for their tag team titles at the second live event, NXT Takeover. At the event, after hitting Fall of Man on El Local, The Ascension successfully defended their NXT Tag Team Championship titles. A NXT Tag Team Tournament was set up for the winning team to become the #1 contenders to face the Ascension at NXT Takeover II. On September 3, the team of Kalisto and Sin Cara won the tournament to become the #1 contenders and will face the Ascension at Takeover II. At Takeover II, The Ascension lost their NXT Tag Team Championship to Lucha Dragons.
The Ascension later at Takeover II interrupted Hideo Itami's debut segment, still very upset after losing their titles earlier that night, and proceeded to attack Itami and then demand a rematch. Itami recovered and cleared the ring of both members of the Ascension. On the September 18 edition of NXT, the Ascension attacked Itami after his debut match while still upset of Itami clearing the ring of both of them on Takeover II. On the following week of NXT, The Ascension lost their NXT Tag Team Championship rematch against the Lucha Dragons when Itami appeared and distracted them. A match was set in next week's episode of NXT between the Ascension member Viktor against Itami, the match never started as both members of the Ascension attacked Itami when he came out. For the next several weeks on NXT, the Ascension would continue the assault until Itami had enough and would announce that he would bring a friend to help battle against the Ascension.
On the November 6th episode of NXT, Itami's friend was revealed to be a debuting Finn Bálor and they both would bring down the Ascension that night. After feuding with Itami and Bálor for weeks, the Ascension will fight against them in a tag match at the NXT Takeover: R Evolution event. A week before the NXT Takeover: R Evolution event, Bálor warned them that he will being something that they have never seen before at the special event. At NXT Takeover: R Evolution, The Ascension lost against Bálor, with a body paint look, and Itami at the special event.
====Main roster (2014-2019)====
On the December 12 episode of Smackdown, a vignette aired for their call-up to the main roster. On the December 29th edition of Raw, they made their official main roster debut by defeating The Miz and Damien Mizdow. They made their Smackdown debut on January 2 when they defeated local wrestlers in a squash match. Extending their winning streak through more wins over local wrestlers, The Ascension would also criticize legendary WWE tag teams including Demolition and The Road Warriors. On the January 19th edition of Raw, also known as Raw Reunion on that night, The Ascension would confront the reuniting members of the New World Order members Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and X-Pac, and were about to attack them before they were interrupted and brought down by the Acolytes Protection Agency and the New Age Outlaws. Later that night it was announced that a tag match was set up between the Ascension and New Age Outlaws at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. The Ascension would then defeat the New Age Outlaws at the event, continuing their winning streak.
The Ascension were released by WWE on December 8, 2019.
==In wrestling==
*Konnor finishing moves
**Fall of Man (Flapjack followed by a running leg drop to the back of the opponent's head)
**Roof Top Drop (Full nelson slam)
*Viktor finishing moves
**Canadian Lifter / Psycho Crusher (Flying European uppercut)
** STO
*Kenneth Cameron finishing moves
**Curb Stomp (Head stomp)
**Velvet Noise (Swinging sitout jawbreaker)
*Tag-team finishing moves
**Downcast (Jawbreaker by Cameron followed by a Flapjack by O'Brian)
**Fall of Man (Legsweep (O'Brian) / Spinning heel kick (Cameron) combination or a Legsweep (Konnor) / Flying European uppercut (Viktor) combination)
*Tag-team signature moves
**Nuclear Fallout
*Entrance Themes
**"Let Battle Commence" by Daniel Nielsen (FCW / WWE; 2011–2014)
**"Rebellion" by CFO$ (NXT / WWE) (2014–2019)
==Championships and accomplishments==
*WWE NXT
**NXT Tag Team Championship (1 time) Konnor and Viktor
==External links==
* Profile at CAGEMATCH.net
Category:2011 debuts
Category:Florida Championship Wrestling teams and stables
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment teams and stables
Category:Teams and stables
Category:NXT Tag Team Champions