Anthony Mayweather

Anthony Gregory Mayweather (born February 21, 1985) is an American professional wrestler and promoter, currently signed to the NWA where he competes under his real name. In 2010, he signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as Crimson, where he achieved a 470-day undefeated streak, which lasted until June 2012. Afterwards, he spent time in TNA's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he became a one-time OVW Heavyweight Champion and a two-time OVW Southern Tag Team Champion, before being released from his contract in July 2013. He has since made several returns to TNA, most recently in April 2017, using the ring name Mayweather. Mayweather served five years in the United States Army, which included two tours of Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He made his professional wrestling debut in 2007, working under the ring name Tommy Mercer for various promotions on the independent circuit, including Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW), NWA Main Event and Showtime All-Star Wrestling (SAW). He runs his own wrestling promotion, Tried-N-True Wrestling, based in Tennessee, which has been loosely affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance since autumn 2017.

Early life

Mayweather was born and raised by a single mother in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended North Ridgeville High School, where he played football and basketball, but wasn't able to continue to pursue a career in either of them without an athletic scholarship. After graduation Mayweather joined the United States Army in order to fund his college studies. He ended up serving for five years, which included two tours of Iraq in the 101st Airborne Division as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (2007–2010)

During his second tour of Iraq, Mayweather decided to pursue a career in professional wrestling and upon his return to the United States, entered the NWA Main Event wrestling school in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he was trained by Jeff Daniels. He would make his professional wrestling debut in 2007, working for independent promotions in Nashville, Tennessee under the ring name "Tommy Mercer". He would eventually make his debut also for NWA Main Event, starting a storyline rivalry with his trainer Jeff Daniels. On June 3, 2010, Mercer won his first professional wrestling championship, when he defeated Matt Boyce for the NWA Mid-American Television Championship. On October 10, 2009, Mercer wrestled in a six–way pre-show match at a Ring of Honor (ROH) event in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Mercer worked for Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW) from December 2009 until December 2010. On February 29, 2010, Mercer took part in a thirty-man Gauntlet for the Gold to determine the new AIW Absolute Champion. The match ended with Mercer, Facade, Johnny Gargano and SJK all tumbling over the top rope at the same time, setting up a four-way decision match for ''Absolution 5''. On April 9, Mercer formed Team No Mercy with Chris Dickinson and Toby Klein to take part in the Jack of All Trios tournament; the team was eliminated in the quarterfinals by The Young Studs (Bobby Beverly, Eric Ryan and TJ Dynamite). On June 27, Mercer was defeated by Johnny Gargano in the four-way decision match for the AIW Absolute Championship. Mercer made his final AIW appearance on December 17, unsuccessfully challenging Gargano for the AIW Absolute Championship.

Mercer also worked for Showtime All-Star Wrestling (SAW), where he received shots at Chase Stevens' SAW International Heavyweight Championship, however, both matches ended in a no contest. After the title was vacated, Mercer entered a tournament to determine the new champion. On June 11, 2011, Mercer was eliminated from the tournament, when his semifinal match against Chase Stevens ended in a double countout. Mercer would finally get the better of Stevens on October 8, when he was victorious in a Last Man Standing match, which would turn out to be his final match for the promotion.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

Undefeated streak (2010–2012)

In 2010, Mercer wrestled two tryout dark matches for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), in a losing effort against Jay Lethal. and Stevie Richards On December 4, 2010, Mercer took part in the TNA Gut Check Challenge tryout workshop in Orlando, Florida and two days later wrestled his third dark match for the promotion, in which he defeated Neico. On December 10, 2010, it was reported that TNA had signed Mercer to a contract. He would make his televised debut on the December 30 episode of '' Impact!'', portraying Amazing Red's younger brother and being billed as "Little Red". The previous week Jeff Jarrett had defeated Amazing Red in his $100,000 mixed martial arts challenge series and upon hearing that he had a younger brother, challenged him to a match, expecting someone even smaller than the Red. Mercer dominated his debut match, before Jarrett's security guards, Gunner and Murphy, pulled their boss out of the ring and prevented him from re–entering. On the January 13 episode of ''Impact!'' Mercer, now renamed "Crimson", returned, attacking Abyss backstage and promising that "they" would be coming to take out Immortal on February 3. The following week, Crimson repeated his actions from the previous week, this time attacking A.J. Styles. Later that night, he saved Kurt Angle from Immortal by attacking Abyss with Janice, his nail-covered board, and sidelining him with a storyline injury.

On the January 27 episode of ''Impact!'', Crimson explained that he was no longer by Amazing Red's side, because he had been given an offer he couldn't refuse. Later that night Crimson and Angle were placed in a seven–on–two handicap match against Immortal and Fortune members Jeff Jarrett, James Storm, Robert Roode, Kazarian, Rob Terry, Gunner and Murphy. The match ended with Jarrett pinning Angle for the win. Afterwards, Crimson and Angle were saved by the returning Scott Steiner. On the February 3 episode of ''Impact!'', Fortune turned on Immortal, revealing themselves as the "they" Crimson and Angle had been referring to. Crimson made his pay-per-view debut on April 17 at Lockdown, where he and Scott Steiner were unsuccessful in becoming the number one contenders to the TNA World Tag Team Championship in a four tag team steel cage match, which was won by Ink Inc. (Jesse Neal

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