Ivar

Todd Smith (March 3, 1984) better known by his ring names Todd Hanson and Hanson, is an American professional wrestler, currently wrestling in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Ivar. He is the former head trainer of the Chaotic Trainer Center along with Brian Fury.
A mainstay of Chaotic Wrestling and New England Championship Wrestling, he is a three-time Chaotic Wrestling Heavyweight Champion and has had victories over opponents such as Charlie Haas, Scotty 2 Hotty, Simon Diamond and Low Ki. He and Psycho also formed a tag team, Pretty Psycho, and won the CW Tag Team Championship twice. He is also known for his work with Raymond Rowe, with whom he has won numerous Tag Team Championships in various promotions.
==Professional wrestling career==
===Independent circuit (2001–2018)===
Smith has worked for Chaotic Wrestling, Millennium Wrestling Federation, NWA New England, New England Championship Wrestling, New England Wrestling Alliance, Front Row Wrestling, Eastern Pro Wrestling and UCW promotions under various ring names. Smith has an extensive tag team background, most notably, as one-half of The Trendsetters with Max Bauer and Pretty Psycho with Psycho. A former student of Killer Kowalski, he and Brian Milonas are also the head instructors at his Chaotic Wrestling's training facility in North Andover, Massachusetts.
On June 3, 2007, Smith was one of several wrestlers involved in a NECW-sponsored fundraiser, The Hot Dog Safari, at the Suffolk Downs racetrack in East Boston. The event raised $1,000,000 for The Joey Fund which battles cystic fibrosis. During the event, Smith won the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest with Nikki Roxx coming in second.
On February 16, 2008, Smith defeated Brandon Locke for the NECW Television Championship in Quincy, Massachusetts. The title was vacated on April 22, 2008, due to an injury Smith suffered in a title defense. On June 1, 2008, Smith became the champion again after defeating Chase Del Monte in a tournament final held at Suffolk Downs.
In late winter into spring 2008 a series of vignettes featuring Smith began to air during Chaotic Wrestling live events and on the web. This series of vignettes showed Handsome Johnny discovering himself on a trip abroad and lead to the introduction of "The Duke of Elegance" Don Chesterfield into Chaotic storylines. Smith also uses this character for the Eastern Wrestling Alliance as well as Front Row Wrestling. Is currently out of wrestling due to a back injury, from a tables match against the Intellectual Properties in Chaotic Wrestling.
In NECW, he changed his ring name in 2010 to "Handsome" Johnny Hayes. He was scheduled to challenge Brandon Locke for the PWF Northeast Heavyweight Championship on February 19, 2011 and was attacked by an unknown person while leaving a physical therapy session.
===World Wrestling Entertainment (2005–2006; 2014)===
Smith was in a Velocity match before an episode of SmackDown! on December 16, 2005, which he lost to Doug Basham. He made his WWE debut on September 15, 2006 under the ring name Todd Hansen in a losing effort against Sylvester Terkay. In April 2014, he returned to WWE to take part in a tryout camp.
===Ring of Honor (2013–2017)===
Smith made his ROH debut on July 27 a losing effort in a four-corner survival also featuring Brian Fury, Kongo and Vinny Marseglia. A few months after this, he was announced as the eighth participant in the 2014 edition of the Top Prospect Tournament, defeating Cheeseburger and Andrew Everett in the opening rounds before going on to win the tournament at Wrestling's Finest, defeating Raymond Rowe in the final, to earn an ROH World Television Championship match against reigning champion Tommaso Ciampa at the 12th Anniversary Show, where he lost to Ciampa. Since then, he has been tagging with the man he beat in the final of the Top Prospect Tournament, Raymond Rowe under the team name War Machine. On April 11, Hanson and Rowe both signed contracts with ROH. On August 22, 2015, War Machine defeated Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) in a non-title match and afterwards challenged them to a match for their GHC Tag Team Championship, a title owned by the Japanese Pro Wrestling Noah promotion. War Machine received their title shot in Japan on September 19, but were defeated by the Killer Elite Squad. On December 18 at Final Battle, War Machine defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett) to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) on May 9, 2016, at War of the Worlds. War Machine finished with ROH on December 16, 2017.
===Japan (2015–2018)===
On September 14, 2015, Hanson and Rowe made their Japanese debuts for Pro Wrestling Noah, teaming with Takashi Sugiura in a six-man tag team main event, where they defeated Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer and Minoru Suzuki). This led to a match five days later, where War Machine unsuccessfully challenged Smith and Archer for the GHC Tag Team Championship.
In November 2016, War Machine made their debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) by entering the 2016 World Tag League. They finished the tournament on December 7 with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals.
On April 9, 2017, at Sakura Genesis 2017, War Machine defeated Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) on June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, regaining it in a no disqualification match on July 1 at G1 Special in USA. They lost the title to Killer Elite Squad in a three-way match, also involving Guerrillas of Destiny, on September 24 at Destruction in Kobe.
===Return to WWE===
====NXT (2018–2019)====
On January 16, 2018, WWE, via WWE.com, announced that Hanson had signed a contract with the company and would be reporting to the WWE Performance Center. On March 22, Hanson and his longtime tag team partner Raymond Rowe debuted in NXT in their first match, defeating Adrian Jaoude & Cezar Bononi. During the April 11 NXT tapings, Hanson and Rowe debuted their new tag team name War Raiders. They won their debut match under this name, defeating The Metro Brothers (Chris Metro & JC Metro). They won their second tag match during the April 11 tapings, defeating Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight). Two days later during the April 13 edition of NXT, the War Raiders defeated Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan. Throughout the spring and summer of 2018, the War Raiders remained undefeated. Their first title match was during the September 6 NXT house show, where they defeated the reigning NXT Tag Team Champions and members of The Undisputed ERA Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong. However, due to their disqualification victory, the War Raiders did become new Tag Team Champions. They met in a title rematch held during the September 8 NXT house show, again defeating Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong by disqualification. Their third title match against the Undisputed ERA was held during the September 20 NXT Tapings, during which the War Raiders, once more won by disqualification, preventing them from winning the Tag Team titles. After a series of house shows during the month of October, Hanson made a televised appearance during the November 14 episode of NXT, losing a singles match to Undisputed ERA member Kyle O'Reilly. On November 17 at NXT TakeOver: WarGames II, Hanson and Rowe teamed with Pete Dunne and Ricochet in an eight-man tag match, defeating the Undisputed ERA. During December, the War Raiders compiled a 4-1 win-loss record in house show matches against teams including Dan Matha & Kona Reeves, The Forgotten Sons, Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan and Brennan Williams & Punishment Martinez
The following year on January 26, 2019 at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix, Hanson and Rowe defeated reigning champions Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions. This marked Hanson and Rowe's first title reign in the WWE.
====Raw (2019–2021)====
Rebranded as The Viking Experience, and using the ring name Ivar along with his teammate Rowe rebranded as Erik, they made their debut during the April 15 episode of Monday Night RAW. There, they teamed with The Revival in an eight-man tag match defeating Aleister Black, Curt Hawkins, Ricochet & Zack Ryder. The team quickly underwent a new rebranding, debuting on the April 29 episode of RAW as The Viking Raiders. During that episode, the Viking Raiders defeated The Lucha House Party. During June and July the Viking Raiders remained undefeated. Their winning streak however, was ended during the July 1 episode of RAW, where they lost a tag match against New Day members Big E & Xavier Woods. Later during the show, the Viking Raiders teamed with Samoa Joe and defeated all three members of The New Day in a six-man tag team rematch.
====SmackDown (2021-2023)====
==In wrestling==
*Finishing moves
:*Sin City Plunge (Sitout double underhook powerbomb) - 2001 - 2018
:*Spin kick of Doom
*Signature moves
:*Bronco Buster
:*Diving splash
:*Exploder suplex
:*Lariat
:*Moonsault
:*Sidewalk slam (Handsome Slam)
:*Snake Eyes
*Nicknames
:*"Warbeard"
:*Brand New Bad
*Tag teams and stables
:*The Viking Raiders (WWE) - with Erik
*Managers
:*"Duchess" Damon D'Archanglo
:*Sammi Lane
*Entrance themes
:*"Blood and Tears" by Darill Simon's (ROH)
==Championships and accomplishments==
*Chaotic Wrestling
:*CW Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
:*CW Tag Team Championship (2 times) with Psycho
*Millennium Wrestling Federation
:*MWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
:*MWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Beau Douglas
*NWA New England
:*NWA New England Television Championship (1 time)
:*NWA New England Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Beau Douglas
*New England Championship Wrestling
:*NECW Television Championship (2 times)
:*IRON 8 Championship (2010)
*New England Wrestling Alliance
:*NEWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
*New Japan Pro Wrestling
:*IWGP Tag Team Championship (2 times) with Raymond Rowe as team War Machine
*Pro Wrestling Illustrated
:*PWI ranked him #457 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2010
*Ring of Honor
:*Top Prospect Tournament (2014)
:*ROH World Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Raymond Rowe as team War Machine
*Ultimate Championship Wrestling
:*UCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Beau Douglas
*Other titles
:*OW Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Psycho
*VIP Wrestling
:*VIP Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Raymond Rowe as team War Machine
*WWE NXT
:*NXT Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Raymond Rowe as the War Raiders
*What Culture Pro Wrestling
:*WCPW Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Raymond Rowe as team War Machine
*World Wrestling Entertainment
:*WWE Raw Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Erik
==External links==
* CageMatch profile
* Profile
Category:1984 births
Category:2001 debuts
Category:American wrestlers
Category:Massachusetts wrestlers
Category:Xtreme Wrestling Alliance alumni
Category:Top Rope Promotions alumni
Category:Big Time Wrestling (Webster) alumni
Category:Premier Wrestling Federation Northeast alumni
Category:New England Championship Wrestling alumni
Category:National Wrestling Alliance alumni
Category:NWA On Fire alumni
Category:East Coast Wrestling Association alumni
Category:Action Packed Wrestling alumni
Category:Century Wrestling Alliance alumni
Category:Independent Wrestling Federation alumni
Category:Living people
Category:Male wrestlers
Category:ROH World Tag Team Champions
Category:IWGP Tag Team Champions
Category:Ring of Honor alumni
Category:Chaotic Wrestling alumni
Category:New Japan Pro Wrestling alumni
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Category:The Crash alumni
Category:What Culture Pro Wrestling alumni
Category:NXT Tag Team Champions
Category:WWE NXT alumni
Category:WWE Tag Team Champions