Bobby Fish

Fish in September 2022

###

Albany, New York, U.S.

**Robert Anthony Fish** (born October 27, 1976) is an American professional wrestler, best known as **Bobby Fish**. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is also known for his time in WWE, where he performed on the NXT brand, where he was a member and co-founder of The Undisputed Era, and is a former 2-time NXT Tag Team Champion alongside his tag team partner Kyle O'Reilly.

Fish is also well known for his appearances with Ring of Honor (ROH) from 2013 to 2017, where he wrestled as one-half of the tag team reDRagon (also with O'Reilly) and held the ROH World Tag Team Championship three times and the ROH World Television Championship once. He is also known for his appearances in Japan both for Pro Wrestling Noah and for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship twice.

## Early life

Robert Anthony Fish was born on October 27, 1976, in Albany, New York, and is the youngest of three children to Richard and Ann Fish. Fish's father worked as a firefighter in Albany, and was a former U.S. Marine. He grew up near Central Avenue. Fish attended Colonie Central High School, where he played as a linebacker for the football team. He then played football at Hudson Valley Community College, before moving to Siena College during his junior year. He graduated in 2000, with a bachelor's degree in English, becoming the first member of his family to graduate from college. He previously worked as a bartender and also returned to his former high school as a substitute teacher, while working independent events on the weekends. In 2012, he was about to take a job at a Target distribution center in Wilton, until Ring of Honor offered him a contract, continuing his wrestling career.

## Professional wrestling career

### Early career (2002–2006)

Bobby Fish made his pro wrestling debut in 2002 after training with Tony DeVito and Harley Race. He competed for several years in the Northeast under the names Jerkin Jackson and Madden Fisher before settling on the name he continues to use, Bobby Fish. He made his debut for Ring of Honor on October 2, 2004, where he teamed with Scott Cardinal and lost to the Rebel's Army. He would be utilized as a jobber for ROH for the entirety of his early appearance. Fish wrestled for Pro Wrestling Unplugged for the majority of his early career making his debut in February 2005. He formed a partnership with Scott Cardinal, whom he had wrestled many times on the Northeast indie scene. On May 20, he and Cardinal defeated three other teams to win the vacant PWU Tag Team Championship before vacating them in September.

After returning from his first tour with Noah, Fish returned to the Northeastern independent circuit and continued to compete there when he returned from Noah tours. Fish wrestled for New England Championship Wrestling regularly between his early tours of Noah. In April 2007, he defeated DC Dillinger by disqualification in a match for the NECW Undisputed Triple Crown Championship, but failed to win the title. Fish took part in Iron 8 2007, making it to the finals where he lost to Eddie Edwards. Fish returned to ROH at Reborn Again in a loss to Claudio Castagnoli, teamed with Matt Cross at Final Battle 2007 in a loss against the Vulture Squad (Ruckus and Jigsaw), and appeared in several matches on *Ring of Honor Wrestling* in 2009.

In 2009, he was announced as one of the participants scheduled to wrestle on the first Evolve Wrestling show. On January 10, 2010, he performed in the opening match at Evolve 1, in which he lost to Kyle O'Reilly via pinfall.

### Pro Wrestling Noah (2006–2013)

Fish first toured Japan in 2006 with Pro Wrestling Noah, making his debut on May 19, 2006 defeating Atsushi Aoki. Since 2006, Fish continues to tour with Noah at least once a year, sometimes enjoying several tours a year. In 2010, Fish and Eddie Edwards lost to Ricky Marvin and Taiji Ishimori in the semi final of the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship tournament. Fish participated in 2011s Global League gaining only four points. In 2012, Fish and Edwards participated in NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight League, once again gaining four points. From April 17 to 24, 2013, Fish and Edwards took part in the 2013 Global Tag League, where they won one of their four matches, failing to advance from their block.

### New Japan Pro Wrestling (2014–2017)

Through ROH's relationship with NJPW, reDRagon made an appearance for the Japanese promotion on August 10, unsuccessfully challenging Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and KUSHIDA) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. reDRagon returned to NJPW on October 25 to take part in the 2014 Super Jr. Tag Tournament. On November 3, reDRagon defeated The Young Bucks in the finals to win the tournament. Five days later at Power Struggle, reDRagon defeated Time Splitters in a rematch to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. They made their first successful title defense on January 4, 2015, at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, in a four-way match against Forever Hooligans, Time Splitters and The Young Bucks. On February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, reDRagon lost the title to The Young Bucks in a three-way match, also involving Time Splitters. reDRagon returned to NJPW on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2015, where they unsuccessfully challenged for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in a three-way match with Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) and The Young Bucks. Later that month, Fish entered the 2015 Best of the Super Juniors. He finished second in his block with a record of five wins and two losses, narrowly missing advancement to the finals of the tournament. Following the tournament, reDRagon received a rematch for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in a three-way match, also involving Roppongi Vice, but were again defeated by The Young Bucks on July 5 at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall. On August 16, reDRagon defeated The Young Bucks to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the second time. They lost the title back to The Young Bucks in a four-way match on January 4, 2016, at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome. On September 17 at Destruction in Tokyo, Fish received his first singles title shot in NJPW, when he unsuccessfully challenged Katsuyori Shibata for the NEVER Openweight Championship.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ *Fish Hook Deluxe Edition* (Heel hook)
	+ *Flying Fish Hook* (High knee)
	+ *Sleeps With The Fishes* (Spin kick)
	+ Double jump moonsault
	+ Diving headbutt
	+ Sitout slam suplex, sometimes from the second rope
* **Signature moves**
	+ *Space Rolling Elbow* (Cartwheel back elbow to a cornered opponent)
	+ Crossface
	+ Сross armbreaker, sometimes rolling
	+ Dragon screw
	+ Fireman's carry double knee gutbuster
	+ Flying cross chop
	+ Frankensteiner
	+ Gorilla press double knee gutbuster
	+ Inverted atomic drop
	+ Multiple kick variations
		- Roundhouse
		- Shoot
	+ Multiple suplex variations
		- Exploder
		- German
		- Saito, sometimes while hooking the opponent's leg
		- Snap
	+ Samoan drop
	+ Slingshot somersault senton
	+ Springboard moonsault to the outside of the ring
	+ Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker
* **Nicknames**
	+ **"The Infamous"**

## Championships and accomplishments

* **New Japan Pro Wrestling**
	+ IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Kyle O'Reilly
	+ Super Jr. Tag Tournament (2014) – with Kyle O'Reilly
* ***Pro Wrestling Illustrated***
	+ PWI ranked him **26** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016
* **Ring of Honor**
	+ ROH World Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Kyle O'Reilly
	+ ROH World Television Championship (1 time)

## References

1. ↑ Bobby Fish: Profile & Match Listing - The Internet Wrestling Database (IWD) . profightdb.com. Retrieved on 2010-03-04.
2. ↑ Caldwell, James 2014-08-10. Caldwell's New Japan G1 Climax finals results 8/10: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of Okada vs. Nakamura tournament finals, Styles vs. Tanahashi, Jeff Jarrett, ROH tag champs, more . Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved on 2014-08-10.
3. ↑ Road to Power Struggle  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-11-03.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Caldwell, James 2014-11-03. ROH/NJPW news: ROH tag champs win Super Jrs. tournament . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2014-11-03.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Power Struggle  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-11-08.
6. ↑ Caldwell, James 2015-01-04. Caldwell's NJPW Tokyo Dome show results 1/4: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Wrestle Kingdom PPV - Tanahashi vs. Okada, Bullet Club, Nakamura, Jim Ross, more . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2015-01-04.
7. ↑ The New Beginning in Osaka  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2015-02-11.
8. ↑ Caldwell, James 2015-02-11. NJPW news: Bullet Club takes top titles at "New Beginning" - Styles new IWGP World Champ, other title changes . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2015-02-11.
9. ↑ *ja:レスリングどんたく 2015* (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2015-05-03.
10. ↑ Caldwell, James 2015-05-07. NJPW news: "Best of Super Jrs." tournament details announced . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2015-06-05.
11. ↑ Best of the Super Jr.XXII  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2015-06-05.
12. ↑ Meltzer, Dave 2015-07-04. New Japan Dominion live coverage from Osaka Jo Hall - Styles vs. Okada for IWGP title, Nakamura vs. Goto for IC title and notes on biggest event since the Tokyo Dome, plus all G-1 main events . *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Retrieved on 2015-07-05.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Meltzer, Dave 2015-08-15. NJPW G1 Climax 8-16 live results: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura . *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Retrieved on 2015-08-16.
14. ↑ Meltzer, Dave 2016-01-03. Wrestle Kingdom 10 live results: Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi . *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Retrieved on 2016-01-04.
15. ↑ Destruction in Tokyo  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2016-09-17.
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 Bobby Fish profile . Online World of Wrestling.
17. ↑ Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2016 . *The Internet Wrestling Database*. Retrieved on 2016-09-01.
18. ↑ Carapola, Stuart 2013-03-02. Complete ROH 11th Anniversary Show iPPV coverage: two title changes hands, SCUM doubles in size, and a ton of great wrestling as ROH presents their best overall event in years . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2013-03-02.
19. ↑ Meltzer, Dave 2014-05-17. ROH/New Japan Pro Wrestling live coverage & results: AJ Styles, Okada, Elgin, Liger, more . *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Retrieved on 2014-05-18.
20. ↑ Meltzer, Dave 2016-05-08. ROH Global Wars 2016 live results: Jay Lethal vs. Colt Cabana; loads of NJPW stars . *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Retrieved on 2016-05-08.