Zak Zodiac

Zak Bevis (born Zak Frary, 29 May 1991)[1] is an English professional wrestler. He mainly competes under the name Zak Zodiac in World Association of Wrestling, which is owned and operated by his family. He also regularly leads training for his family's wrestling school and has done seminars for other companies.

Zak Zodiac
Birth nameZak Frary
Born (1991-05-29) 29 May 1991[1]
Norwich, England[2]
FamilyPaige (sister)
Ricky Knight (father)
Sweet Saraya (mother)
Roy Bevis (half-brother)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Bexx[2]
Mini Michaels[2]
Mini Mysterio[2]
Zak Knight[2]
Zak Bevis[2]
Zak Zodiac[2]
Billed height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[3]
Billed weight87 kg (192 lb)[3]
Trained byRicky Knight[2]
Roy Bevis[2]
Debut2001[2][3]

Professional wrestling career

World Association of Wrestling (2002–present)

Zak began wrestling at the age of 10 years old for his father's promotion World Association of Wrestling.[4][5] His first championship match was against Phil Lea for the WAW Youth Championship which Zak lost. While wrestling for WAW, Zak would take on members of his family multiple times including his mother (Sweet Saraya), father (Ricky Knight), sister (Britani Knight, now better known as Paige) and his brother (Zebra Kid). In 2006, Zak defeated his father, Ricky Knight, to become the WAW Pontins Open Champion.[4] At WAW Champion's Night, Zak won a 15-man royal rumble.[4] Zak won the WAW King of the Ring 2007 by defeating The Cougar Kid in the finals.[4] In the summer of 2007, Zak took on Jonny Storm in a best two out of three falls match for the WAW British Lightweight Championship, after both gaining a pinfall, Storm got the final pin.[4] In August 2008, Zak took on Erik Isaksen for the WAW Heavyweight Championship in a best two out of three falls match. Both men gained a pinfall however the match would end up being stopped by the referee.[6] On 2 March 2008 Zak defeated Paul Tyrell to win the WAW British Cruiserweight Championship in a best two out of three falls match. He would hold the championship until April 2010. Zak entered the WAW King Of The Ring 2009, but was eliminated by Zebra Kid.[6] Zak took on Aron Frost in a match for the vacant WAW European Championship and lost. Since 2011, Zak has only sporadically performed for WAW, only competing a few times a year.

At Trouble At The Talk 3, Zak defeated WAW World Heavyweight Champion Steve Corino to capture the title for the 1st time.[6]

Real Deal Wrestling (2006–2009)

On 12 July 2006, Zak debuted for Real Deal Wrestling at RDW vs WAW and took on Dave Rayne for the RDW Lincolnshire Regional Championship and lost.[7] In August, Zak won a RDW Heavyweight Championship number one contendership battle royal and took on the champion, Mick Romeo, a few days later and lost. With things looking bleak, two days later, Zak entered a gauntlet match for the RDW Lincolnshire Regional Championship and won.[7] He would lose the championship three months later to Sykes in a triple threat ladder match which also included The Dominator.[7] On 3 February 2007, Zak teamed up with his father Ricky Knight to take on the RDW Tag Team Champions The UK Pitbulls in a title match and won. The duo proved to be a formidable team, holding the championship for nine months before losing it to The Underdogs (Luc Harrison and Nathan Chalder) in a five way tag team match.[7] Zak reached the final of the King of the Castle 2008 tournament before losing to Havok. In 2009, Zak had multiple championship matches and failed to capitalise on any of them.[7]

Norwegian Wrestling Federation (2006–2007)

Zak would make his first wrestling appearance outside of the United Kingdom when he travelled to Norway and debuted for the Norwegian Wrestling Federation teaming up with his father to defeat Fremtiden.[8] Zak participated in the Max21 Cup and got to the final where he was eliminated by Gabriel Antonick.[8]

The Hooligans (2010–present)

In late 2010, Zak would begin to regularly team up with his brother Roy Bevis. In time they began calling themselves the Football Hooligans and changed their names to Bex (Zak Zodiac) and Bud (Roy Bevis).[9] Their first match under the name of the Football Hooligans came in November at a Herts And Essex Wrestling and World Association Of Wrestling joint event which the pair won. The pair would go on quite the winning streak in early 2011 which led to a street fight against the Devil's Playboys (Brett Meadows and Sam Knee) for the HEW Tag Team Championship. Winning this match marked the first tag team championship for the newly named Hooligans.[9] With their success in the United Kingdom, the Hooligans travelled over to Germany to take on Christian Eckstein & Leon van Gasteren at European Wrestling Promotion for the EWP Tag Team Championship, but would return to England unsuccessful.[9] The Hooligans have begun appearing for one of Britain's top wrestling promotions, International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom where they have traded wins with Project Ego (Kris Travis & Martin Kirby). The Hooligans have also appeared for All Star Wrestling.[9] On 15 September 2012, they defeated Army of Two (Scott Fusion & Aaron Sharpe) to win the vacant RQW European Tag Team Championship and would lose them to Army of Two on 23 March 2013. The Holigans debuted for ICW in their hometown of Norwich on 17 October 2015.[10]

WWE (2011)

On the 11 November 2011 episode of SmackDown, Zak Zodiac and two other wrestlers Andy Baker and Tom LaRuffa appeared in a 3 on 1 handicap match against the Big Show during his feud with Mark Henry and were defeated.[11]

Personal life

Zak is part of a professional wrestling family. Both his mother and father, known as Sweet Saraya and Ricky Knight respectively, are professional wrestlers, as are his siblings, half-brother Roy and his sister Saraya-Jade, who is better known as Paige.[12] The family runs the World Association of Wrestling (WAW) promotion based in Norwich.[13] In July 2012, Channel 4 produced a documentary about the Knights entitled The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family.[14][15] The documentary was adapted into a feature film by Stephen Merchant and executive producer Dwayne Johnson, titled Fighting with My Family, with Jack Lowden playing Zak. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019.[12]He is married to his childhood sweetheart and they have two children, and are expecting one more as of late 2020.

Championships and accomplishments
  • DAM Promotions
    • DAM Trophy Tournament (2006)
  • Herts And Essex Wrestling
    • HEW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
    • Isak Rain Memorial Cup (2008)
  • Preston City Wrestling
  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated
    • Ranked No. 377 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2018[16]
  • Real Deal Wrestling
    • RDW Tag Team Championship (1 time)
    • RDW Lincolnshire Regional Championship (1 time)
  • Real Quality Wrestling
    • RQW European Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Roy Knight
  • World Association of Wrestling
    • WAW World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)[17]
    • WAW World Tag Team Championship (1 time)[17]
    • WAW British Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[17]
    • WAW Pontins Open Championship (1 time)
    • WAW King of the Ring (2007)
    • TWW Championship (1 time, current)[17]
  • Other Titles
    • British InterFed Cup 2007

References
  1. Kitchener, Shaun (3 March 2019). "WWE Paige's brother Zak Zodiac: 'It's HARD re-living rejection in Fighting With My Family'". Express. Retrieved 29 July 2019. Who knows - I’m 28 in May, I’m still young enough to achieve it.
  2. "Zac Zodiac: Profile & Match Listing". Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  3. "WrestlingData profile". Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  4. http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=5529&page=4&promotion=211&s=100
  5. http://www.freewebs.com/wawrestlinguk/zakzodiac.htm
  6. http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=5529&view=&page=4&gimmick=&year=&promotion=211&region=&location=&arena=&showtype=&worker=&text=
  7. http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=5529&view=&page=4&gimmick=&year=&promotion=294&region=&location=&arena=&showtype=&worker=&text=
  8. http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=5529&view=&page=4&gimmick=&year=&promotion=70&region=&location=&arena=&showtype=&worker=&text=
  9. http://www.cagematch.net/?id=28&nr=3791&page=2
  10. http://insanewrestling.co.uk/event.php?id=98
  11. WWE (11 November 2011). "Friday Night SmackDown - Big Show vs. local competitors". Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  12. Deckelmeier, Joe (21 February 2019). "Paige & Zak Zodiac Interview: Fighting With My Family". Screen Rant. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  13. https://wawuk.com/our-story
  14. Deacon, Michael (19 July 2012). "The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family, Channel 4, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  15. "The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family". Channel 4. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  16. "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2018". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  17. https://wawuk.com/roster/waw-roster/zak-knight
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