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The Major Players IMPACT! on AXS TV Results: April 14, 2022 - Impact Wrestling.com are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Brian Myers and Matt Cardona. They are best known for their time in WWE as Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, where they are former two-time WWE Raw Tag Team Champions. Myers and Cardona also wrestled for Impact Wrestling, in which they are both former Impact Digital Media Champion.
The duo made their professional wrestling debut in 2004 as a tag team in New York Wrestling Connection, wrestling as Brian Myers and Brett Matthews. After the team signed with WWE, they would become almost exclusively tag team wrestlers. They debuted in WWE's main roster in 2007 on the ECW brand as Brian and Brett Major, collectively known as The Major Brothers. Later that year, they were repackaged and renamed to Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder as associates of Edge and subsequently aligned themselves with La Familia on the SmackDown brand. Nicknamed "The Rated-R Entourage" and "The Edgeheads", Hawkins and Ryder continued their alliance with Edge until the team split in April 2009, after Ryder was drafted back to the ECW brand as part of the 2009 WWE draft. After the team's split, Hawkins and Ryder sporadically teamed together in matches, but would not officially reunite until almost 10 years later in January 2019. They would go on to capture the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania 35 in April 2019.
As champions, the team became targets for aspiring champions and after their first title defence were attacked by Urban Assault. A scheduled match against them in November ended in double disqualification when The Gymini interfered in the match to attack both teams while a defence against The Gymini the following week saw another disqualification when Urban Assault made a return interference. The following week on November 30 The Majors Brothers lost their titles to Urban Assault. Their rematch went to a no contest when Urban Assault's manager G-Rilla began fighting with Doc Gallows who was in The Majors' corner. After the DSW Tag Team Championship was vacated when the incumbents were released, The Majors were placed in a Three Way Tag Team match on January 19, 2007, for the titles, defeating The Samoan Fight Club (Afa Jr. and Siaki) and The Blue Bloods (William Regal and Dave Taylor) to become two-time champions. They held the championships briefly, losing them on 8 March to Team Elite (Derick Neikirk and Mike Knox). The Majors stayed in DSW until April, exchanging victories with The Blue Bloods and teaming with Kofi Kingston to defeat The Next Generation Hart Foundation (Harry Smith and TJ Wilson) and Shawn Osborne.
Brian Majors pre-empted the tag team's first appearance in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) on April 25's TV tapings in a 15-minute time limit draw against Jay Bradley. As a team they debuted on May 9 to pick up a win against Los Locos (Ramon and Paul) with a slightly tweaked name of The Major Brothers. After defeating Gothic Mayhem (Johnny Punch and Pat Buck) in successive matches they went on to defeat the reigning OVW Southern Tag Team Champions "The Hammer" Charles Evans and "The Ox" Bam Neely (future La Familia stablemate Bam Neely) twice in non-title matches, once by disqualification. These series of victories led to them facing Evans and LaRouche, joined by Dr. Thomas in a three-on-two handicap tag match on June 15 and winning the OVW Tag Team Championship.
The former champions defeated them in a Four-Way Elimination Tag Team match the following week but a title match between the two of them on June 22 saw The Major Brothers retain. This was short lived though as they lost a non-title and subsequent title match to The James Boys (Kasey James and Kassidy James) on 29 June. Their rematch ended in a double countout and after this The Major Brothers won only by disqualification, by which titles cannot change hands, but ultimately lost a decisive rematch on July 13. In October they shared a rivalry with Paul Burchill, initially winning against him and Drew McIntyre and then again against Burchill and Wade Barrett and finally The Empire (Sanders and McIntyre). They continued to win in a Four Corners Tag Team match against Los Locos, The Empire and LaRouche with Andrew Vain. They took this momentum into a tournament for the Southern Tag Team Championship defeating Gothic Mayhem and Los Locos in successive rounds before finally being defeated by Burchill and Sanders, thus failing to recapture the titles.
At Armageddon, the Major Brothers dressed as Edge and interfered in the World Heavyweight Championship match, taking bumps in Edge's place to help him win the title and thus turning heel for the first time in their WWE career. On December 21, 2007, the Major Brothers were revealed as an acquaintance to Edge and his lover, SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero. The Major Brothers were repackaged and renamed, as Brett Major's name was changed to "Zack Ryder" and Brian Major to "Curt Hawkins". Occasionally teaming with their mentor Edge and/or their "La Familia" associate Chavo Guerrero on SmackDown, they even went on to be featured in the main event on multiple occasions. With this new gimmick, they were sometimes referred as "The Rated-R Entourage" by commentator Michael Cole. They also dropped the short trunks the team wore as the Major Brothers and started wearing long tights identical to Edge's tights. To differentiate between the two, Hawkins wore his hair in a ponytail. Later on, the team updated their attires, with Ryder debuting tights with new designs while Hawkins switched back to short trunks with new designs, and they began wearing sunglasses and a hoodie, respectively, to the ring.
At The Great American Bash on July 20, 2008, Hawkins and Ryder won the WWE Tag Team Championship from John Morrison and the Miz in a fatal four-way match which also featured Jesse and Festus and Fit Finlay and Hornswoggle after Hawkins pinned Jesse. Their victory meant that they collectively became the youngest tag team champions in WWE history. At SummerSlam, La Familia seemed to have ended when a returning Undertaker sent Edge to Hell and then refused to forgive Vickie - prompting all the members to abandon Vickie, who would later align with Big Show. On the September 26, 2008 airing of SmackDown, Hawkins and Ryder lost the titles to Carlito and Primo Colón in their first televised title defense. On December 5, 2008, episode of SmackDown, they returned in a tag team gauntlet match against Jeff Hardy and Triple H where they were the first and only team eliminated. They also participated in the battle royal for the last spot in the SmackDown Elimination Chamber match, but were eliminated by The Great Khali. On April 15, 2009, Ryder was drafted back to the ECW brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft, separating the team.
They also had a brief reunion in 2016 alongside former La Familia leader Edge, where they are seen talking backstage using the lyrics of Edge's entrance music "Metalingus", before Edge himself shows up, after the 900th episode of SmackDown Live went off the air. In 2018, Hawkins and Ryder became co-hosts of the WWE Network series "Zack and Curt Figure It Out". On the November 14, 2018 edition of WWE Main Event, Hawkins and Ryder teamed up for the first time since 2011 in a loss to Apollo Crews and Tyler Breeze.
On April 15, 2020, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder were released from their WWE contracts as part of budget cuts due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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