Zander Adder (RLS CAS)

Alexander Addison (born 5th August 1990 in Wimbledon, London) is an English professional wrestler currently signed to UNION Wrestling under the name Zander Adder. He is a member of the INVICTA stable, along with long-time partner Bane, UNION World Champion Mikey Ace, and rookie Brody Shires. He and Bane are in their record third reign as UNION Tag Team Champions.
A skilled orator, Addison has also found success outside of the ring as an actor1.
== Career ==
=== Training under Ed West (2007-2009) ===
Addison, a life-long wrestling fan, joined Gilly Adams' BWF Academy in 2007, getting to meet and spar with his idol Rafe Daniels.2 During this time, Adams noted that Addison was a natural on the microphone, to the point where he initially tried to nudge the youngster into commentary, announcing or managerial duties. Addison resisted due to the physical side of wrestling keeping him in shape.3
He debuted for Best of British Wrestling in late-2008, under the name Alex Adder, as an entrant in the Earn Your Place Battle Royal, lasting until the final four and being eliminated by eventual winner Chris Andrews.
=== BWF (2009-2014) ===
Now going by Zander Adder, he would debut for BWF as an enhancement talent for the mid-card. He'd impress critics in losses to the Scouse Kid, Shea, Bullit Boy and Maelstrom (the elder brother of his future tag team partner Bane) around this time, and by 2011 was expected to move up the card.
Injuries blighted his next two years with the promotion, during which time he shifted into an announcer and commentary role, as previously discussed with his trainer. He'd keep his hand in, however, and returned at the Last Chance event in May 2013 to shockingly win the BWF Open Championship from Scouse Kid. This began a year-long reign for Adder, who still held the belt when it was quietly deactivated, one of the factors that led to him leaving the promotion. 
=== UNION Wrestling (2014-2018) ===
Adder would appear on the live circuit tours for PWU/UNION Wrestling across 2014 and 2015, having a long feud with Bane that would culminate in the two joining forces.4
The pair would, following another injury to Adder, be entered separately into the tournament to crown the first UNION Brawl Champion, with Adder defeating guest attendee, and WWE Hall of Famer, Booker T and Bane defeating Matsuda, before the two met in the next round. In a six-second long match acclaimed as being "proof that comic relief in wrestling wasn't a dead art form" by Squared Circle Insider, Adder defeated Bane by "submission" after besting him at Rock, Paper, Scissors.
The Coalition would debut as an actual team on Live From The UNION in March 2017, defeating HDMC by submission. They'd win the Tag Team Championships from the departing Dudley Boyz a month later. After feuding mostly with Ambition on programming, they retained in their first official defence of the titles against the United Kingdom at European Invasion 2017 in Prague. After spending the next month simply observing the other teams scrambling to face them, they were called out by temporary GM The Maverick as "non-fighting champions", leading to a shock, impromptu loss to HDMC.
They'd eek out a title defence to Ambition on the next LFTU, leading to a feud between the two teams that ended at Open Challenge 2017, where Bane used a chair on DJ Laine while the referee was downed, leading to another retention. They'd similarly beat HDMC at Heavy Metal 2017 to end the first season as champions.
They lost the titles to The Deck (Mikey Ace and Mayhem) in the first UNION Wrestling LIVE! show, which kicked off the second season, in a Ladder Match. They'd return to winning ways against HDMC on episode 2 of UNION Unleashed, and won again against the United Kingdom on episode 3 of LIVE!, before defeating The Deck with their signature brand of mind games on UNION Charged, setting up a Team Warfare match at Uneasy Alliance between Team Coalition (The Coalition and Broad & Noone) and Team Deck (The Deck and The Cairn Bros.) which the former won with Adder last eliminating Mayhem. This feud would culminate at the Deadly Weapons 2017 event, in a Deadly Weapons Match, where Ace would eventually retrieve the titles for his team.
Adder would only appear in two more matches on UNION programming, both ending in losses for the Coalition against the Cairns and Spectrum, before leaving in early 2018 in protest of the treatment of Mikey Ace, along with Bane.5
=== Indy Scene (2018-2020) ===
The duo continued to team as the Coalition (as UNION didn't own the name) on the alternative wrestling scene in Britain and the US, notably appearing for Tetsuya "Mighty" Nishii's UWU promotion and briefly holding the Fife Wrestling Kingdom Jacks Championships in 2019, before a serious leg injury put Bane on the shelf for six months.
Adder continued as a solo performer during this time, though he was still billed as the "Mouth of the Coalition", and was sometimes accompanied by Bane (usually in matches where he was already expected to win, to excuse Bane's lack of mobility in assisting him). He main evented the final UWU show against Mighty Nishii in January 2020.6
=== UNION Wrestling Return (2020-present) ===
Adder would announce his return to UNION Wrestling, alongside Bane, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the promotion into a hiatus. Adder, himself, would test positive for the virus around this time, though thankfully he only ever showed mild symptoms7. He was confirmed by Bane to be contracted to return when UNION Wrestling did post-pandemic.8
He'd make his comeback, along with Bane, as "Invicta" in November 2021, referring to the new stable name as the "beginning of the end for the UNION as you know it" and winning several tag team matches across the returning live shows, notably including a win over Matsuda & Cowpoke, before introducing a third member of the group at Touchdown '22, "The Three", who would not only help them disrupt Jack Fry's debut match against Tyrone Riske, but also help them in beating Suda & Poke 2-0 in a To-the-Finish tag match. Adder would be at ringside as "The Three" and Bane would defeat Riske and Fry, instructing The Three to hypnotise Rise with some kind of chant and allowing Bane to clobber and pin him.
Kicking off the "Reboot Era", INVICTA (now joined by the rookie Brody Shires), defeated #AMBITION at the UNION Bring Down The House event in March 2022 to capture the UNION Tag Team Championships for the second time. The trio would then challenge The Deck members Mayhem and The Maverick to an unsanctioned match on the first episode of the rebooted UNION Charged, and looked to be on their way to a big win until the returning Mikey Ace turned the tide in the good guys' favour. They'd gain a measure of revenge on the first UNION Unleashed episode, attacking Mayhem and Maverick before a planned tag team match that subsequently couldn't happen, before Ace turned on his friends to join INVICTA. This would lead to a Team Deck vs. INVICTA main event at UNION Uneasy Alliance 2023, which INVICTA would win.
After successfully defending the titles at UNION Hardcore Brawl and UNION London Calling, against Born 4 The Brawl (Grayson Gage & Tyrone Riske), INVICTA would lose them stunningly at UNION Open Challenge when the call was answered by a returning Deck, with Maverick pinning Bane while Mayhem took care of Adder on the outside. They were unable to regain them at UNION Bring Down The House '24, but Adder did pin Maverick to see them become three time champions at UNION Uneasy Alliance 2024, thanks to the interfering Brody Shires, who was at ringside supporting his teammates.
== In-Wrestling ==
=== Signatures ===
Swinging Sleeper Slam
Sleeper Slam 1, 3
=== Finishers ===
Snakebite Driver (Pumphandle Half Nelson Driver)
Snakebreaker (Half Nelson Backbreaker)
=== Nicknames ===
The Orator
The Mouth of the Coalition
The Mouth of Invicta
The Voice of Invicta
=== Themes ===
Hardcore 1
== Accomplishments ==
BWF Open Championship (2013-2014)
2x UNION Tag Team Championships (with Bane as the Coalition/Bane & Brody Shires as INVICTA) (2017, 2022)
== Trivia ==
* Adder is a passionate cosplayer in his spare time, often attending conferences as Hawke from the Dragon Age series of video games.9
* As part of the Coalition in UNION Wrestling (where tag team matches routinely ended only with the full elimination of one of the teams), he became synonymous with the "Double Count-out Trick", where Bane would keep an opponent outside the ring long enough to get them both counted-out, leaving Adder to defeat the other member of the opposing team.10
== Behind-the-Scenes/Notes ==
# This, along with point 9, are nods to the fact he's taken a lot of inspiration from characters from other mediums, which have subsequently shaped not only his look but also the voice I hear when I'm watching him cut promos.
# Rafe Daniels was actually the base from which I created the original Adder look.
# He was a larger, more rotund character in my pre-creation sketches, before using Daniels as a template.
# I liked how they acted towards each other in Universe cutscenes, and it kind of reminded me of Team Hell NO!, leading to their joining forces to form what became the Coalition.
# In truth, I wanted both characters for my new promotion on PC. Both were created in part, neither ended up being used however.
# This ended up being the last show I played on WWE 2K20 that was UWU related. By the time I came back from being ill, I'd decided to go in a different direction, first doing "indy shows", and then a potential UNION Wrestling reboot, which will probably come with 2K22.
# I figured it would be quite unrealistic, given the amount of CAWs I have, for none of them to contract the virus.
# Should I press ahead with the UW Reboot, him and Bane have to be a part of it.
# Another nod to his inspiration, of which the main one was the male Hawke from Dragon Age II and Inquisition. This has become perhaps less noticeable in his looks over time, but as mentioned above, it's male Hawke's voice I hear when he cuts promos.
# An accident the first time it happened, I ended up just rolling with it.
Category:CAWs