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G'Angelo Hancock

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G'Angelo Hancock
G'Angelo Hancock at the 2021 World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway
Personal information
Full nameTracy G'Angelo Hancock
Born (1997-07-27) July 27, 1997 (age 27)
Fountain, Colorado, U.S.
Sport
CountryUnited States
SportWrestling
Weight class97 kg
EventGreco-Roman
ClubSunkist Kids Wrestling Club
TeamUSA
Medal record
Men's Greco-Roman wrestling
Representing  United States
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2021 Oslo 97 kg
Pan American Games
Silver medal – second place 2019 Lima 97 kg
Pan American Championships
Gold medal – first place 2020 Ottawa 97 kg
Silver medal – second place 2019 Buenos Aires 97 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2017 Lauro de Freitas 98 kg
G'Angelo Hancock
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)G'Angelo Hancock
Tavion Heights
Billed height6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Billed weight214 lb (97 kg)
Billed fromFountain, Colorado
Trained byWWE Performance Center
The Great Muta
Naomichi Marufuji
DebutDecember 1, 2022

G'Angelo Hancock (born July 27, 1997) is an American professional wrestler and former Greco-Roman wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Tavion Heights and is a member of the No Quarter Catch Crew stable. He also made appearances for Pro Wrestling Noah.

An accomplished amateur wrestler, Hancock won one bronze medal in the 97 kg event at the 2021 World Wrestling Championships held in Oslo, Norway.[1][2] At the 2020 Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Ottawa, Canada, he won a gold medal in the 97 kg event.[3] Hancock is also a silver medalist at the 2019 Pan American Games held in Lima, Peru. He represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.[4][5]

Greco-Roman wrestling career

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In 2016, Hancock competed at the United States Olympic Team Trials hoping to represent the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He finished in third place in the 98 kg event.

Hancock won one of the bronze medals in the 98 kg event at the 2017 Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Lauro de Freitas, Brazil.[6] He also competed in the 98 kg event at the 2017 World Wrestling Championships held in Paris without winning a medal.[7] He won his first match against Fatih Başköy and lost his next match against Artur Aleksanyan.[7] Aleksanyan went on to win the gold medal.[7] At the 2018 World Wrestling Championships held in Budapest, Hungary, he was eliminated in his first match in the 97 kg event.[8]

In 2019, Hancock won the silver medal in his event at the Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[9] In that same year, he represented the United States at the Pan American Games held in Lima, Peru and he won the silver medal in the 97 kg event.[10] In the final, he lost against Gabriel Rosillo of Cuba.[10] He also competed in the 97 kg event at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan where he was eliminated in his second match by Mélonin Noumonvi of France.[11]

Hancock competed in the 97 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan.[4] He won his first match against Mikheil Kajaia of Serbia and he was then eliminated in his next match by Tadeusz Michalik of Poland.[4][12]

After qualifying for Team USA for the 2022 World Championships at 97 kg at Final X in New York City,[13] Hancock announced his retirement on August 9, 2022, and was replaced on Team USA by Braxton Amos.[14]

Professional wrestling career

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WWE (2022–present)

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See also: No Quarter Catch Crew

In August 2022 after departing Greco-Roman wrestling, Hancock signed a developmental contract with the WWE.[15] On December 1, 2022, Hancock made his debut on NXT Level Up under the name Tavion Heights in a losing effort against Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo.[16] On December 12, 2023, Heights was announced as one of the competitors for the NXT Men's Breakout Tournament.[17] Heights defeated Luca Crusifino in the first round of the tournament but was defeated by eventual winner Oba Femi in the semi-finals.

On the June 25, 2024 episode of NXT, Heights defeated No Quarter Catch Crew's (NQCC) Damon Kemp in an initiation match to join the stable, turning heel for the first time in his career.[18] On the July 11 episode of Impact!, Heights made his Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) debut appearance where he celebrated NQCC leader's Charlie Dempsey match victory against The Rascalz's Zachary Wentz and made his TNA in-ring debut at Slammiversary on July 20 where NQCC lost to The Rascalz (Wentz, Trey Miguel and Wes Lee) in a six-man tag team match.[19][20] On July 30, Heights competed in his first title match at Week 1 of NXT: The Great American Bash, losing to Tony D'Angelo 1–2 under British Rounds Rule for the NXT Heritage Cup.[21] Heights returned on the September 10 episode of NXT, assisting Dempsey in retaining the NXT Heritage Cup against Je'Von Evans.[22]

Pro Wrestling Noah (2024)

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In July 2024, it was announced that Hancock, as Tavion Heights, would be one of two NXT representatives (the other being Josh Briggs) to enter Pro Wrestling Noah's N-1 Victory tournament.[23] Heights was placed in the B-block and finished the tournament with 8 points, including an upset win over former 3-time GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenoh, but failed to advance to the finals. Heights received heavy praise for his performances from fans, Keiji Muto, and Naomichi Marufuji. During their short tenure in Pro Wrestling Noah, both Heights and Briggs received training from Muto and Marufuji.[24]

Achievements

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Year Tournament Location Result Event
2017 Pan American Wrestling Championships Lauro de Freitas, Brazil 3rd Greco-Roman 98 kg
2019 Pan American Wrestling Championships Buenos Aires, Argentina 2nd Greco-Roman 97 kg
Pan American Games Lima, Peru 2nd Greco-Roman 97 kg
2020 Pan American Wrestling Championships Ottawa, Canada 1st Greco-Roman 97 kg
2021 World Championships Oslo, Norway 3rd Greco-Roman 97 kg

References

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  1. ^ Burke, Patrick (October 9, 2021). "Olympic medallist Saravi one of two Iranian winners on penultimate day at UWW World Championships in Oslo". InsideTheGames.biz. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
  2. ^ Kortemeier, Todd (October 9, 2021). "G'Angelo Hancock Closes Out Wrestling Worlds With Bronze Medal". Team USA. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
  3. ^ Rowbottom, Mike (March 6, 2020). "United States win three golds on day one of Pan American Wrestling Championships in Ottawa". InsideTheGames.biz. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c "Wrestling Results Book" (PDF). Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 7, 2021. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  5. ^ Newman, Kyle (July 22, 2021). "G'Angelo Hancock's meteoric rise to stardom in Greco-Roman wrestling makes Fountain native a gold medal contender in Tokyo Olympics". The Denver Post. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  6. ^ "2017 Pan American Wrestling Championships Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 22, 2021. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c "2017 World Wrestling Championships" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 1, 2019. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  8. ^ "2018 World Wrestling Championships Results" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 14, 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  9. ^ Etchells, Daniel (April 18, 2019). "Cuba and US collect three Greco-Roman gold medals as action begins at Pan American Wrestling Championships". InsideTheGames.biz. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  10. ^ a b "2019 Pan American Games Wrestling Results" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  11. ^ "2019 World Wrestling Championships Results" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 12, 2020. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  12. ^ Brunt, Cliff (August 2, 2021). "USA's Gray loses 76kg final to Germany's Rotter-Focken". The Seattle Times. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  13. ^ "Final X 2022 - New York - 06/08/2022 Results". usawmembership.com. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
  14. ^ Rader, JD (August 9, 2022). "Braxton Amos To Replace G'Angelo Hancock On Senior World Team". Flo Wrestling. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
  15. ^ "G'Angelo Hancock's Departure From Greco Left Many Questions". flowrestling.org. September 5, 2022. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  16. ^ "Former Olympian G'Angelo Hancock Set For Pro Wrestling Debut In WWE". wrestlinginc.com. December 2, 2022. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  17. ^ "Brackets Revealed For WWE NXT Men's Breakout Tournament". wrestlinginc.com. December 13, 2023. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  18. ^ Moore, John (June 25, 2024). "NXT TV results (6/25): Moore's review of Tag Team Turmoil for a shot at the NXT Tag Titles, NXT Champion Trick Williams vs. Shawn Spears in a non-title match, Tony D'Angelo vs. Nathan Frazer for the NXT Heritage Cup". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on June 26, 2024. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
  19. ^ Manolo Has Pizzazz (July 11, 2024). "NXT's Charlie Dempsey brings friends to continue invasion of TNA". Cageside Seats. Archived from the original on July 14, 2024. Retrieved July 12, 2024.
  20. ^ Powell, Jason (July 20, 2024). "TNA Slammiversary results: Powell's live review of Moose vs. Joe Hendry vs. Josh Alexander vs. Nic Nemeth vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Steve Maclin in an elimination match for the TNA Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on July 26, 2024. Retrieved July 31, 2024.
  21. ^ Berge, Kevin (July 30, 2024). "WWE NXT Great American Bash 2024 Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction, Highlights". Bleacher Report. Archived from the original on August 2, 2024. Retrieved July 31, 2024.
  22. ^ Moore, John (September 10, 2024). "NXT TV results (9/10): Moore's review of Trick Williams vs. Pete Dunne in a Last Man Standing match for a shot at the NXT Title, Nathan Frazer and Axiom vs. The Street Profits for the NXT Tag Titles, Giulia vs. Chelsea Green". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved September 11, 2024.
  23. ^ Flanagan, Neal (July 13, 2024). "NXT's Josh Briggs and Tavion Heights announced for Pro Wrestling NOAH's N-1 Victory tournament". POST Wrestling. Archived from the original on August 14, 2024. Retrieved August 14, 2024.
  24. ^ G0MEZ, M. (August 12, 2024). "NXT star earns Japanese fans' respect after stellar showings in NOAH tourney". Cageside Seats. Retrieved November 2, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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