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Nick Wayne
American professional wrestler (born 2005) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Nicholas Wayne Finley (born July 10, 2005) is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Nick Wayne. He is a former member of The Patriarchy stable, and is also a former one-time AEW World Trios Champion and is the youngest champion in AEW at 19 years old. He also makes appearances of AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is the current ROH World Television Champion in his first reign. He is also the youngest to hold the championship.
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Professional wrestling career
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Early career (2018–2023)
Wayne began wrestling during childhood, being trained by his father Buddy Wayne.[1][2] He debuted at a Invasion Championship Wrestling show on April 27, 2018, at the age of 12.[3]
On July 31, 2022 at Ric Flair's Last Match, Wayne faced Jonathan Gresham, Alan Angels and Konosuke Takeshita in a Four Corners match to determine the #1 contender to the Progress World Championship, where Gresham won the match.[4]
On April 8, 2023, Wayne won the DEFY World Championship after defeating Swerve Strickland.[5] He successfully defended the championship on two occasions[6][7] before being defeated by Kenta on June 4, ending his reign at 56 days.[8]
All Elite Wrestling / Ring of Honor (2023–present)
On February 12, 2022, Wayne was offered an All Elite Wrestling (AEW) contract by longtime friend Darby Allin during DEFY Wrestling's 5th Anniversary event.[1][9]
After turning 18 years old, Wayne made his debut for the promotion on the July 12, 2023 episode of Dynamite, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, losing to Swerve Strickland.[10][11][12] On September 21, Wayne made his debut for AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH) on that day's episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling, unsuccessfully challenging Katsuyori Shibata for the ROH Pure Championship.[13]
At WrestleDream on October 1, Wayne turned on Allin to side with Christian Cage during Cage's and Allin's match for the AEW TNT Championship, turning heel in the process.[14] Wayne joined Cage's stable The Patriarchy with Luchasaurus (later renamed to Killswitch) and was dubbed as "The Prodigy" by Cage[15][16] At Full Gear, The Patriarchy lost to Adam Copeland, Sting and Allin in a six-man tag team match.[17] On the December 23 episode of Collision, Cage announced that Wayne's mother, Shayna, has joined The Patriarchy as "The Matriarch" Mother Wayne.[18]
On the July 21, 2024 episode of Collision, The Patriarchy defeated the Bang Bang Gang (Juice Robinson and The Gunns) for the vacant AEW World Trios Championship after interference from Mother Wayne. This is Wayne's first world championship title win and also makes Wayne, at 19 years old, the youngest champion in AEW.[19] On August 25 at All In, The Patriarchy lost the AEW World Trios Championship in a four-way London ladder match to Pac and Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta), ending their reign at 37 days.[20] On the March 12, 2025 episode of Dynamite, Wayne stood up to Cage after the latter lost his AEW World Championship match at Revolution three days prior.[21] On April 17 at the Spring BreakThru episode of Collision, Wayne defeated Komander to win the ROH World Television Championship for the first time and also makes Wayne, at 19 years old, the youngest title holder. This marked Wayne's first ever singles championship in a major promotion.[22] On July 11 at Supercard of Honor, Wayne successfully defended his title against Titán.[23] After Christian and Wayne failed to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship from The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin) at All In: Texas on July 12, 2025, Wayne (along with Kip Sabian) turned on Christian and attacked him, thus disbanding The Patriarchy. [24]
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2025–present)
On April 5, 2025 at New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW)'s Sakura Genesis event, Wayne was announced as a participant in the 2025 Best of the Super Juniors tournament.[25] Wayne was placed in B Block and finished with 8 points, most notably scoring a win over reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado but failed to advance to the grand finals.[26]
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Personal life
Wayne is a third generation wrestler, being the son of Buddy and Shayna Wayne, and the grandson of Moondog Ed Moretti.[1][27][9] Buddy Wayne died at the age of 50 on June 17, 2017 from a heart attack.[28][29]
Championships and accomplishments
- 5CC Wrestling
- 5CC Wrestling Championship (1 time)[30]
- All Elite Wrestling
- AEW World Trios Championship (1 time) – with Christian Cage and Killswitch[31]
- DEFY Wrestling
- Game Changer Wrestling
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Ring of Honor
References
External links
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