British Samurai (RLS CAS)

William Joe "Will" Taylor (born 20th November 1990 in Holyhead, Wales) is a Welsh professional wrestler best known for his British Samurai gimmick, itself an homage to legendary British wrestler Kendo Nagasaki1, which he currently performs under in UNION Wrestling, where he was the inaugural UNION British Champion.
He has achieved success in the UK and Canada, where he was a multi-time EW: Canada and Tag Team/Tag Champion (the latter with Absolute as part of the Britadors). He had a notable run in the now defunct PRIZE Wrestling League.
==Career==
===Training at the Tully Gymnasium (2009-2011)===
Taylor trained under wrestlers Jonah Bones and Terry Jepson at Grip Tully's Gymnasium in Swansea, Wales, for two full years before debuting2, citing a desire to be good at it before he was actively doing it. During this time, his trainers helped him with the beginnings of his Kendo-inspired gimmick.3
=== Best of British Wrestling (2011-2013)===
He debuted as a wrestler in BoBWrestling in 2011, under the name Free Will, unmasked. He was mainly a jobber during this time, though he did win a couple of matches on the undercard. He was written off in 2012 so they could work on a new gimmick for him.
With his input, he returned as a more Kendo-inspired character called King Kendo in late 2012, winning the Tag Team Championships alongside Absolute. The team would hold the titles for around eight months before dropping them to Simon Francis & Louis Clark.
===EW: Canada (2013-2016)===
Both men then joined Exhibition Wrestling- as Absolute and British Samurai- as The Britadors, quickly debuting on the Canada brand and winning the Tag Championships from The Liars Club. They swapped the belts with TLC a couple of times across the next year before Absolute betrayed BritSam and the team broke up.
This began the most fruitful period of BritSam's career, with him defeating Ryan Ryder for the EW Canadian Championship at an event in 2015, holding the belt for nearly a full year before dropping it to Luchawise.
===UNION Wrestling (2016-2018)===
BritSam would debut for UNION Wrestling on Live from the UNION in October 2016, just days after leaving EW: Canada, in a losing effort to Wroe. His losing streak would continue against Sinyster, and notably on UNION Unleashed in a title match with Brawl Champion Tyrone Riske.
He'd lose another title bout against Riske on Unleashed, before finally picking up a win in the promotion against Bangura. After some impressive displays on Unleashed, BritSam would win on his Live Event debut against Wroe at European Invasion 2017. This would begin something of a push for the Welshman, who hit out at Squared Circle Insider around this time for seemingly ignoring his success elsewhere4. Eddie Hamer apparently considered him Brawl Champion in waiting, however plans changed and at The Wrestling Classic 2017 he was defeated soundly in a tables match by champion Grayson Gage. He's lose a rematch soon after on Unleashed, which saw an angry crowd begin to react genuinely to the perceived disrespect.
Despite appearing sporadically after that, including in a well received match with Mikey Ace on UNION Wrestling Charged in December 2017, he left the company under a cloud in early 2018, his record for title matches with the promotion ended at 0-8, something he says was on his mind when he asked for his contract to be terminated.5
===PRIZE Wrestling League (2018-2020)===
BritSam shockingly debuted at the PRIZE June Special 2018, taking part in the Six Man Ladder Match to crown a first Nova Champion, which was won by fellow Welshman Dempsey. Despite initially being reported as a one-off appearance, he also took part in the Nova Championship #1 Contender Eliminator Match at the PRIZE July Special 2018, where he was eliminated first by Foster following a brutal set of chair shots.
He got a level of revenge against Foster at a House Show in August, beating him following the Kamikaze Roll. It was also confirmed by PRIZE around this time that BritSam had signed a multi-year deal with the promotion.
British Samurai's contract was, along with the majority of the roster, taken over by the WCE governing body in March 2019. He was entered into the tournament to crown the rebooted WCE Welterweight Championship, being one of several entrants who had to shed weight to compete, and reached the final (along with good friend Dempsey) by beating AXL invite Karl Frocht and then The Trick.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, PRIZE collapsed entirely, leading to British Samurai being one of the many offered a route back into UNION Wrestling, should he want to go there. He told a podcast in May 2021 that he'd "likely consider it".
=== Indy circuit (2020-2021)===
BritSam would, while still contracted to PRIZE due to a contract clause, appear at the 2019 and 2020 'Indy Wrestling Lives'6 shows, usually going up against frenemy Grayson Gage. Though the pandemic halted these shows, he and Gage were the first to confirm they'd be returning to them once restrictions in the UK were lifted.7
===UNION Wrestling return (2022-present)===
In March 2022, at the UNION Bring Down The House event at the UNION Arena in Sheffield, British Samurai made his shock return in the Ladder Match to crown a first UNION British Champion. Eddie Hamer had teased a "quintessentially British" opponent for Wroe in the match, though BritSam's involvement was well-hidden until the portion of the show containing the match was broadcast on CAPTCHER. On the debut episode of UNION Charged, he'd defeat Bobby The Fan in a non-title match, before fending off the attack of Wroe. 
He would reign until UNION Uneasy Alliance 2023, where Harry Daniels would defeat him for the title. It was confirmed after the event that BritSam had suffered a shoulder injury in the weeks before Uneasy Alliance, necessitating the change of champion so he could recover. 
BritSam would make his return on UNION Unleashed in February 2024, taking part in a Four Man match involving Riza, Wroe and Bobby The Fan, that Riza would win. 
== In-Wrestling==
===Signatures: ===
Cannonball Senton 1
Powerslam 1
===Finishers:===
Kamikaze Roll (Rolling Fireman's Carry)
==Accomplishments==
BOBWrestling Tag Team Championships (as King Kendo, with Absolute)
EW Tag Championships (x3, with Absolute as The Britadors)
EW Canadian Championship
UNION British Championship (2022, current)
==Trivia ==
*Taylor is good friends with fellow PRIZE wrestler Louis Dempsey, as it was Taylor who helped Dempsey get started in the business. Despite this, they have only ever appeared as rivals in brief appearances together in UNION Wrestling (two dark matches in January 2018) and Fife Wrestling Kingdom, unless you count their interactions in the Nova Championship Ladder Match.
==Behind-the-Scenes/Notes==
#That love for Kendo comes from me. Even though he was before my time, I used to watch videos of World of Sport from the 60s right until it's demise, and he was always one of my favourites, and indeed a big reason for my love of wrestling, along with Adrian Street.
#I actually did design the Free Will character a couple of years before I ever used him.
#The Kendo Nagasaki tribute character was created at the same time, nameless for a long time, before I merged the two together.
#This, in truth, was a weird mistake I, myself, made in an in-universe article I wrote as SCI in the original UNION Wrestling diary here.
# In truth, I changed my plans for him and Grayson Gage really late on, and in the end I just wanted him for PRIZE so made it the reason for him wanting to leave.
#Scaled back, unbranded shows I ran in 2K20 before Create-a-Championship was added back in, but after my planned Universe diary for the year fell through.
#I plan to continue these shows before 2K22 drops.
Category:CAWs