The Mighty Don't Kneel TMDK TM-61[2] The Mighty[3]
Billed heights
Nicholls: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Haste: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) Tito: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Sabre Jr.: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Fujita: 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) Eagles: 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) Oiwa: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Though best known as a tag team, TMDK has also been a stable, which included, in addition to Nicholls and Haste, fellow AustraliansJonah (formerly Jonah Rock), Elliot Sexton, Marcuis Pitt and Slex. TMDK has also been said to stand for "Torture, Murder, Destroy, Kill".[7]
Nicholls and Veryzer signed with WWE and were assigned to its developmental territory NXT, Nicholls and Veryzer were renamed Nick Miller and Shane Thorne, while their tag team was renamed TM-61 and later, The Mighty. However, the team would disband in 2018 following Nicholls' release.[8]
History
Formation (2010–2011)
In the autumn of 2010, Australian wrestlers Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste passed a tryout held by Pro Wrestling Noah and World League Wrestling (WLW) in the United States, which allowed them to begin training at Noah's dojo.[9][10] They made their debut for the Japanese promotion on 23 February 2011, and began working together under the team name "TMDK".[9][10] The Mighty Don't Kneel originated in the Explosive Pro Wrestling (EPW) promotion where it was a stable also including Jonah Rock and Elliot Sexton, who had been teaming together as SexRock.[11] Rock and Slex have also represented TMDK in Noah.[12][13] Nicholls and Haste then began working regularly for Noah in the promotion's junior heavyweighttag team division, though it was questioned whether the two actually were under the 100 kg (220 lb) weight limit.[14]
Back in Noah, Nicholls and Haste also began breaking out in singles action, taking part in the 2012 Global League, where Nicholls wrestled KENTA to a draw and defeated Go Shiozaki, while Haste was victorious over Akitoshi Saito and Naomichi Marufuji.[16] In April 2013, Nicholls and Haste took part in their first Global Tag League. Though failing to advance to the finals, they picked up a win over the reigning GHC Tag Team Champions, New Japan Pro-Wrestling representatives Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano.[17][18] This led to a title match between the two teams on 12 May, where Iizuka and Yano retained their title.[18][19] Earlier that day, Noah had announced that Nicholls and Haste had signed contracts to become officially affiliated with the promotion.[20] A rubber match between Nicholls and Haste and Iizuka and Yano took place on 7 July and saw TMDK emerge victorious and become the new GHC Tag Team Champions.[21][22][23] In September, Nicholls and Haste both began chasing the GHC Heavyweight Championship, but were defeated in back-to-back title matches by the defending champion, KENTA.[24][25][26][27] On 10 December, the Tokyo Sports magazine named Nicholls and Haste the 2013 tag team of the year, with the two becoming the first gaijin team to win the "Best Tag Team Award" since Stan Hansen and Vader in 1998.[28][29] On 25 January 2014, Nicholls and Haste lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to Maybach Taniguchi and GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Morishima.[13][30][31]
On 10 January 2015, Nicholls and Haste defeated Dangan Yankies (Masato Tanaka and Takashi Sugiura) to win the GHC Tag Team Championship for the second time.[32] They lost the title to K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) on 11 February.[33] On 28 December 2015, Noah announced that Nicholls and Haste would leave the promotion following their contracts expiring at the end of the year.[34] On 11 February 2016, Noah announced that Haste and Nicholls would return to the promotion the following month to take part in a five-show-long farewell tour, entitled "Departure to the World".[35] Their final Noah match took place on 10 March and saw them defeat Naomichi Marufuji and Mitsuhiro Kitamiya.[36][37] In February 2016, it was reported that Nicholls and Haste would join WWE's NXT brand following their Noah farewell tour the following month.[38] WWE confirmed the signings on 25 March 2016.[39]
In June 2015, Nicholls and Haste took part in a WWE tryout camp.[46] In February 2016, it was reported that Nicholls and Haste were scheduled to join WWE's NXT brand following their NOAH farewell tour.[38]
On 25 March 2016, WWE confirmed the signings of both Nicholls and Haste. They began training at the WWE Performance Center in April, while working for the promotion's developmental branch NXT.[1] During the 19 May NXT tapings, Haste and Nicholls were renamed Shane Thorne and Nick Miller, respectively, while TMDK was renamed TM-61, where TM is derived from their respective last names (Thorne and Miller) while 61 is from Australia's dialing code (+61).[2] They debuted on the 25 May episode, losing to Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.[47]
On the 7 October episode of NXT, Thorne and Miller were announced as participants in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. On 12 October, they defeated the team of Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli to advance from the first round of the tournament. Thorne next defeated Roderick Strong in a singles match (due to Strong's partner Austin Aries being unable to wrestle through injury), to proceed his team to the semi-finals, where they went on to defeat SAnitY, thus setting the final against the Authors of Pain. On 19 November at NXT TakeOver: Toronto, TM-61 lost in the final. On the 18 January episode of NXT, Thorne suffered a serious knee injury due to an attack by The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) after TM-61 had defeated them. He had surgery on 25 January, which was expected to put him out of action for seven to nine months. He returned from the injury on 14 September.[48]
On the 3 January episode of NXT, the return of TM-61 was announced. During the following weeks, vignettes of TM-61 were shown. They made their in ring return on 31 January episode of NXT, defeating The Ealy Brothers.[49] TM-61 then entered the 2018 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, being eliminated by the Authors of Pain in the first round. On the 2 May edition of NXT, TM-61 defeated Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) with a dirty pin, thus turning the duo heel in the process. The following week, they defeated the team of Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight) with the same tactics. The team was officially renamed "The Mighty", on the 6 June 2018 episode of NXT. On the 20 July episode of NXT, they were defeated by War Raiders. In July, they started a feud with Street Profits with both teams losing matches to each other. On the 19 September episode of NXT, The Mighty defeated Street Profits.
On 14 December 2018, Miller was removed from the "WWE NXT" section of WWE.com, confirming his release and disbanding the team.[8]
On the 6 March 2022, episode of NJPW Strong, Shane Haste interfered in the tag team match between FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) and the pairing of Jonah (formerly Jonah Rock) and Bad Dude Tito. He attacked Robinson while the referee was distracted, allowing Tito to hit a frog splash on Robinson for the win.[50] This saw the reformation of TMDK, with Haste and Jonah tagging together. On the 3 April episode of NJPW Strong, Haste caused a disqualification loss to FinJuice after he struck Robinson with a steel chair. Robinson challenged TMDK and Tito to a Chicago Street Fight at Windy City Riot, alongside a mystery partner.[51] At the event, TMDK and Tito were defeated by FinJuice and their partner, revealed to be Brody King.[52] On 14 May, at Capital Collision, Mikey Nicholls was reunited with Haste, leaving CHAOS in the process. TMDK and Bad Dude Tito defeated the United Empire, with Nicholls pinning Kyle Fletcher for the win. After the match, Tito, who had been tagging with Jonah since the start of the year, officially joined TMDK.[53] Haste and Nicholls then entered a tournament to become the inaugural Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions, but were defeated in the semi-final to the pairing of Christopher Daniels and Yuya Uemura.[54]
On 20 June, Jonah was announced as being part of G1 Climax 32.[55] He would be accompanied by Tito, with both wrestlers being used in undercard tag team matches throughout the tournament.[56]
^"The Mighty Do Climb". Explosive Professional Wrestling. 14 November 2013. Archived from the original on 17 January 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014. Rock and Pitt now join fellow TMDK stablemates Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste, currently the NOAH GHC Tag Team Champions with gold, the faction now holding championships in two continents.
^Kreikenbohm, Philip. "UWN Tag Team Championship". CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database. Archived from the original on 23 April 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
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