Konnor

**Ryan Parmeter**[2] (born February 6, 1980)[1] is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name **Conor O'Brian**. He is signed by WWE, under the ring name **Konnor** as part of the tag team The Ascension. He was part of the fourth season of *NXT*, and earned fourth place on the show's fifth season, *NXT Redemption*.[7]

After spending four years wrestling on the independent circuit as Ryan Payne O'Reilly, Parmeter signed a WWE contract in 2005, and was assigned to Deep South Wrestling (DSW), a developmental territory, where he wrestled as Rough House O'Reilly.[2][3] He won the DSW Heavyweight Championship twice, before briefly appearing in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). He also appeared in several dark matches prior to *Raw* and *SmackDown*, and at several ECW house shows. In October 2007, both Parmeter and his girlfriend, Krissy Vaine, requested to be released from their WWE contracts for personal reasons.[8][9]

Following his release, Parmeter took time off from wrestling, before
debuting for NWA Charlotte in February 2009. In July 2010, he was
re-signed by WWE, and returned to FCW where he began wrestling as Conor
O'Brian. In November 2010, he was announced as a participant in the
fourth season of *NXT*.

## Professional wrestling career

### Early career (2001–2005)

Parmeter initially trained at the School of Hard Knocks in southern Florida under Rusty Brooks, and made his professional wrestling debut in 2001.[2][1] He went on to compete in Brooks' promotion, Four Star Championship Wrestling (FSCW) as Ryan Payne O'Reilly, and formed a tag team with Jeff "J-Dawg" Brooks, known as the "Irish Thug Connection". Together, the Irish Thug Connection won the FSCW Tag Team Championship.[10] He also won the FSCW Heavyweight Championship,[2] and spent mid-2004 feuding with Norman Smiley over it.[11][12] O'Reilly also competed for Florida's Coastal Championship Wrestling (CCW) promotion, and won the CCW Heavyweight Championship.[2] He appeared for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling during the promotion's early shows.[8]

### World Wrestling Entertainment (2005–2008)

After four years on the independent circuit, O'Reilly signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2005.[2] He was assigned to Deep South Wrestling (DSW), a WWE developmental territory as Rough House O'Reilly, and made his DSW debut at the inaugural DSW show on September 1, in a loss to Jack Bull. Over the next several months, he faced wrestlers including "Big Time" Nick Mitchell, Mike Mizanin, Shawn Schultz, Derrick Neikirk,[13] Eric Perez and Freakin Deacon. In December, he appeared in a dark match prior to the *SmackDown* tapings.

In early 2006, O'Reilly took a leave of absence. Upon his return, he and Danny Germundo entered a tournament for the DSW Tag Team Championship but were eliminated by Team Elite (Mike Knox and Neikirk) on May 11.[13] On June 22, O'Reilly defeated Neikirk to win the DSW Heavyweight Championship.[13] He successfully defended the championship against Knox, Neikirk,[13] and Montel Vontavious Porter.[14] On September 7, O'Reilly lost the championship to Bradley Jay. During mid-2006, O'Reilly made several appearances at ECW house shows, teaming with Neikirk to faceThe FBI (Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke).[13] O'Reilly was scheduled to become part of the regular ECW roster in September, but violated the WWE Wellness Program, and was suspended for 30 days.[2]

When he returned, he became the personal assistant of DSW General Manager Krissy Vaine.[2] In December, O'Reilly appeared on an episode of *ECW on Sci Fi* as one of Paul Heyman's personal enforcers alongside Doug Basham.[2] In March 2007, O'Reilly won the DSW Heavyweight Championship for the second time.[8]
 He lost the championship back to Bradley Jay a week later. O'Reilly and
 Eric Perez were originally scheduled to face The Samoans (Afa, Jr. and Sonny Siaki) in the main event of DSW's final event, but he and Perez were replaced by The Major Brothers.[15] During mid-2007, O'Reilly would appear in dark matches prior to *Raw* and *SmackDown* against Sylvan Grenier, Chuck Palumbo, Super Crazy, Cody Rhodes and D'Lo Brown.[2][16] He briefly appeared in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), another WWE developmental territory, where both Lacey Von Erich and Maryse acted as his valets.[2]

Parmeter in 2009.

In October 2007, both Parmeter and his girlfriend Krissy Vaine requested and were granted their release from WWE.[2] They cited health problems suffered by members of both of their families as the reason.[2][8]

### Time off and independent circuit (2007–2009)

In October 2007, Parmeter stated that he was taking time off from wrestling.[17] He returned to wrestling in February 2009, working for NWA Charlotte.[2]
 He wrestled against Truitt Fields for the territory's Heavyweight
Championship, but was unable to win the title. After the loss, O'Reilly
formed an alliance with Mikael Judas and Phill Shatter called III, which
 lasted until the territory's closure.

### Return to WWE

#### Developmental territories (2010–2014)

Parmeter was re-signed by the WWE on July 14, 2010, and was reassigned to the FCW developmental territory.[18] On August 12, he debuted for Florida Championship Wrestling

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as Ryan O'Riley losing to Conrad Tanner. He would compete under this

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name for a short while before becoming Conor O'Brian on September 30.

On November 30, 2010, during the season finale of season three of *NXT*, it was announced that Parmeter, under the name Conor O'Brian, would be appearing on season four, with Alberto Del Rio as his mentor.[4][19] He made his in-ring debut on *NXT* the following week, teaming with Del Rio to defeat rookie Derrick Bateman and Bateman's mentor Daniel Bryan.[20] O'Brian won his first challenge on the January 4, 2011 episode of *NXT*, when he won the 'Battle of the Mic Challenge' to earn four immunity points.[21] Two weeks later, on January 18, O'Brian was the second contestant eliminated from *NXT*. Earlier that night, O'Brian competed in a match against Ricardo Rodriguez in a losing effort.[22]

In March 2011, O'Brian was selected as one of the six former *NXT* contestants to return to the show in its fifth season, *NXT Redemption*. During this season, O'Brian was mentored by Vladimir Kozlov.[23] He was later eliminated from competition on the June 28, 2011 episode of *NXT*, and would later be joined, and eventually replaced, by a returning Derrick Bateman and Daniel Bryan.

#### The Ascension (2011–present)

Main article: The Ascension (professional wrestling)

On August 28, 2011, Ricardo Rodriguez announced the formation of a stable called The Ascension, with members including O'Brian, Kenneth Cameron, Tito Colon and Raquel Diaz.[24]
 The first match to include all members in some capacity came on
September 1, 2011, and saw Cameron, Colon and O’Brian, accompanied by
Diaz, defeating CJ Parker, Donny Marlow and Johnny Curtis.[25]
 On September 30, Cameron and Colon had a shot at the FCW Tag Team
Championship but lost to the current champions of CJ Parker and Donny
Marlow. By October, however, video packages appeared promoting the
Ascension under new seemingly demonic, supernatural characters, and did
not include Rodriguez as he was disassociated from the team. By the end
of November the Ascension had all but disbanded because O'Brian was
injured, Colon had been called up to WWE to team with his cousin Primo,
and Diaz became Queen of FCW
 and distanced herself from the group. This left Cameron as the sole
survivor of the Ascension, continuing to use the Ascension gimmick
during his appearances. On March 15, 2012, O'Brian returned accompanying
 Cameron to the ring in his match against Byron Saxton; the match ended
in disqualification when O'Brian interfered. Cameron and O'Brian began
wrestling as a tag team using the name The Ascension, and their first
tag team match together came on March 23 when the two defeated Jason
Jordan and Xavier Woods. The Ascension suffered their first loss when the pair lost to the FCW Tag Team Champions, Corey Graves and Jake Carter, in a title bout.[26]

With the conclusion of *NXT Redemption*, WWE rebranded its developmental territory, FCW, into NXT Wrestling.[27] O'Brian and Cameron, as the Ascension, debuted on the first episode of the rebooted *WWE NXT* taped at Full Sail University, where they defeated Mike Dalton and CJ Parker.[28][29] The Ascension then started a feud with the Usos,[30] defeating them on the September 5 *NXT*,[31] and also scored a win over Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd on the October 3 *NXT*.[32] Two weeks later, the Ascension teamed up with Kassius Ohno to defeat Richie Steamboat and the Usos.[33] The Ascension disbanded on November 30, 2012 when Cameron was released from WWE.[34]

Konnor in 2013.

O'Brian retained his character while using "The Ascension" as his nickname as he started to feud with Big E Langston for the NXT Championship.[35][36] O'Brian first faced Langston in a non-title match, which ended in a double disqualification.[37] O'Brian then faced Corey Graves in a number one contender match which had no winner when the Shield attacked both men to make a statement.[38] The next week, O'Brian defeated Graves and Bo Dallas to become the number one contender.[39] The feud ended after O'Brian was defeated in a title match on the April 4 episode of *NXT*.[40] On the May 29 *NXT*, O'Brian competed in an 18-man number one contender battle royal and was eliminated by Corey Graves and Kassius Ohno.[41] To reform the Ascension tag team, Rick Victor allied himself with O'Brian as they went chased the NXT Tag Team Championships

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held by Adrian Neville and Corey Graves. On November 10, 2013 O'Brian's
name was tweaked and shortened to "Konnor". On February 27, 2014 at NXT Arrival, he and Viktor successfully defended the NXT Tag Team Championships against Too Cool, repeating the feat on May 29, 2014 at NXT TakeOver against the team of El Local and Kalisto.

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Konnor, alongside Viktor, made his main roster debut on the September 9, 2014 edition of *Main Event*,

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with the duo defeating Los Matadores in a tag-team match to promote

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their NXT tag title defense against the team of Kalisto and Sin Cara at
the NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way event. They didn't reappear until the December 12th episode of *SmackDown*,

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when a vignette aired showing The Ascension with face paint, hyping

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their debut. The Ascension made their debut on the December 29th episode

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of *Raw*, quickly defeating The Miz and Damien Mizdow.[42]Both he and Viktor, as part of the Ascension, would continue to squash local athletes
three weeks in a row on WWE Main Event while indirectly criticizing of

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The Road Warriors and turning heel in the process. Their first major
victory as part of the main roster was a win over The New Age Outlaws at the 2015 Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

## Personal life

Parmeter began dating Kristin Eubanks in 2006.[8] In an interview in October 2007, Parmeter announced the two were engaged.[17] They later married in June 2013[*citation needed*].

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ **As Conor O'Brian/Konnor**
		- *Fall of Man* (Flapjack followed by a running leg drop to the back of the opponent's head)[43][44][45]
		- Full nelson slam[46][47]
		- *Stockade* (Headscissors armbar)[48]
	+ **As Ryan O'Reilly / Rough House O'Reilly**
		- *Rooftop Drop*[1] (Full nelson slam)
		- *Rough Shot*[1][3] (Double leg slam)

* **Signature moves**
	+ Body avalanche[49]
	+ Diving shoulder block[46]
	+ Elbow drop[50]
	+ Flapjack[44]
	+ Multiple side headlock takeovers[50]
	+ Running single leg dropkick[50]
	+ Russian legsweep[1]

* **With Kenneth Cameron**
	+ **Double team finishing moves**
		- *Downcast* (Jawbreaker by Cameron followed by a flapjack by O'Brian)[51]
		- *Fall of Man*[52] (Legsweep (O'Brian) / Spinning heel kick (Cameron) combination)[53]

* **With Rick Victor**
	+ **Double team finishing moves**
		- *Fall of Man*[52] (Legsweep (Konnor) / Flying European uppercut (Viktor) combination).[54][55]

* **Nicknames**
	+ "Roughhouse"[1]
	+ "Irish"[1]
* **Entrance themes**
	+ "Let Battle Commence" by Daniel Nielsen (FCW / NXT; 2011–2014; Used while a part of The Ascension)
	+ "Anchor (Instrumental)" by That Noise (NXT; 2013)
	+ **"Rebellion"** by CFO$ (NXT; 2014–present; Used While part of The Ascension)

## Championships and accomplishments

* **Coastal Championship Wrestling**
	+ CCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[2]
	+ CCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Sean Allen[1]

* **Deep South Wrestling**
	+ DSW Heavyweight Championship (2 times)[8]

* **Four Star Championship Wrestling**
	+ FSCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[2]
	+ FSCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jeff "J-Dawg" Brooks[1]

* **Georgia Championship Wrestling**
	+ GCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[1]

* **Kings of Pro Wrestling**
	+ KPW Heavyweight Championship (2 times)[1]

* **Maximum Pro Wrestling**
	+ MPW Television Championship (1 time)[1]

* **NWA Sunray Pro Wrestling**
	+ NWA Sunray Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[1]

* **Pro Wrestling Illustrated**
	+ PWI ranked him #**123** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2014[56]

* **WWE NXT**
	+ NXT Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Viktor