Ryan Burton (RLS CAS)

Ryan Burton (born 27th October 1991 in Denver, Colorado) is an American wrestler best known for his run in UNION Wrestling, where he is former World Champion. 
He is considered to be a member of the "High Aces" group trained for professional wrestling by Mikey Ace, but Burton, himself, considers his amateur training to have largely defined his career1.
== Career ==
=== Training & Amateur Career (2010-2014) ===
Burton began training with Exhibition Wrestling's Amateur Division2 in his native Colorado in July 2010. By November, Amateur trainers Dean Monkhouse and Steve Gould (who specifically coached him) claimed that the youngster was "Olympic standard, easily". He never showed any such aspirations, however.
His training was begun too late for him to make the team for the Amateur Tournament 2010 in Helsinki, and so he instead began training for the 2012 tournament while also making enquiries with schools about a pro wrestling apprenticeship.
At the Amateur Tournament 2012, in Johannesburg, Burton shocked the attending press by winning two Silver Awards, one in Freestyle and one in Greco-Roman, despite being a rank outsider. He dedicated these wins to the recently deceased Monkhouse.
At the AT 2014, in Kansas City, he won a Gold Award in Freestyle by beating EW: Amateur World Champion Alexei Bodurov. He retired from amateur competition following this to pursue professional wrestling full-time. He moved to England to do so, being hooked up eventually with Ace by Gould.
Ace trained Burton for only a year before declaring that he was ready to "run the show".
=== PWU/UNION Wrestling (2015-2018) ===
After featuring heavily on the touring circuit for PWU, Burton would main event the debut show of Live from the UNION, defeating Zander Adder and beginning a feud with UNION Champion Virgil Baker. During this feud, he'd be the first person in the promotion to cleanly defeat Baker, and eventually defeated him at Hardcore Brawl 2016 to win the UNION Championship. He'd retain in the rematch at Capitol Punishment 2017, ending the feud.
Burton would then move on to feuding with Broderick, who'd called him out in several promos. He signed a new contract around this time, making his title loss to the Real Canadian Destroyer at Money in the Bank 2017 all the more shocking. He'd lose again to Broderick at European Invasion 2017 and The Wrestling Classic 2017, ending that feud with him unable to win back the title.
Over the next few months, Burton would be used sparingly, shockingly returning at one point to defeat Damien Raven on LFTU before disappearing again. He wouldn't appear at all in season two of UNION Wrestling programming, though he was still under contract with the promotion. Eddie Hamer did confirm several injuries were being "dealt with" in early 2018, though Burton was one of several superstars released later that year3.
=== Return to amateur competition, EW consultant (2018-2020) ===
Burton would return to EW's amateur competition following his release, competing in both Freestyle and Grece-Roman categories while also consulting for the professional wrestling side of EW's ventures, particularly the Canada brand.
He appeared a couple of times for EW: Canada at shows in 2019, once being part of a group breaking up a brawl between Abigail Fury and Skatter, and once as security for a contract signing between CJ Starr and Mayhem. He was released by EW in late 2020, for "budget reasons", along with the rest of the consultancy team. He hinted, in an interview with Squared Circle Insider, that he'd been offered an in-ring contract, but lacked the motivation to return4.
He was asked in mid-2021 whether he'd go back to UNION Wrestling following their reboot of operations, stating he hadn't "been bitten by the bug to return to that side of wrestling", and that he didn't believe an offer would be forthcoming, anyway5.
== In-Wrestling ==
=== Signatures ===
Suplex Backbreaker
Pumphandle Neckbreaker
Side Slam (2010-2014, used sparingly as regular move)
=== Finishers ===
Four Leg Clover
Rapid Driver (Backslide Driver)
== Accomplishments ==
2x Silver Awards at the Exhibition Wrestling: Amateur Tournament 2012
1x Gold Award at the Exhibition Wrestling: Amateur Tournament 2014
1x UNION Wrestling World Championship
== Trivia ==
* Burton, along with Birdy, Ravi Rafik and Wroe, is one of the "High Aces", four wrestlers trained by Ace and tipped for big things. Despite this, Burton always speaks highly of his amateur wrestling trainer, Steve Gould, too.
* Burton was earmarked to win the Inter Championship from his trainer Ace, in a meeting following their acclaimed feud of 2015, but was prevented from doing so when he was needed in the World Championship scene. This fast-tracking was seen as nepotism by some, but Burton was a well-received champion in his short reign.
* Burton was, according to interviews, also supposed to become the first person to win by Submission against Ace during this time6.
* Burton has a son, Alex, born in 20157.
== Behind-The-Scenes ==
# I realised, after fleshing out his early experiences, that his earlier training was much more defining than the shorter period of training with Ace, so factored that into the narrative.
#I figured my universe might need it's own equivilant of real-world wrestling ventures of other kinds than just pro wrestling.
#This is a retcon, as I'd moved on to PC and left UNION behind by this point.
#This is my own feeling narratively resting with the character; I have very little motivation to bring him back in any capacity, for some reason. However...
#...this could change, should I feel the right way to reintroduce him to UNION Wrestling is possible.
#Burton was, indeed, supposed to be the one to make my personal CAW, Ace, tap out for the first time in his documented WWE 2K career. Whether he goes back to do so, or someone else ends up doing so, I'm not sure... as it's a big part of the gimmick now.
# The son was invented as a means of getting his abrupt switch from heel to face to work more naturally. It isn't like I just enjoy making family trees for them all. That would just be absurd, like Ryan Burton having a full family and an Aunt he's fond of back in Colorado called Jeannette who was the only one who believed in him and loaned him the money to go to Canada to work for Exhibition Wrestling. *Ahem*
Category:CAWs