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Paul Michael London (born April 16, 1980) is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he performs as a wrestler and a producer. He is best known for his tenure in WWE.
After being trained at the Texas Wrestling Academy, London began competing for Ring of Honor where his high-risk offensive moves made him a fan favorite. He later competed for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Zero-One, and various independent promotions, winning numerous championships and won the ECWA Super 8 Tournament in 2003.
London made his debut in WWE in late 2003. In 2004 he began teaming with fellow cruiserweight Billy Kidman and they eventually went on to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. After Kidman retired from active competition, London formed a tag team with Brian Kendrick. After their split, London began competing in the cruiserweight division and won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. In late 2006, Kendrick returned and the two reformed as a team. London and Kendrick were managed by Ashley Massaro. London and Kendrick won the WWE Tag Team Championship, becoming the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions since the title's creation and the World Tag Team Championship. The team split when Kendrick was drafted to the SmackDown brand in June 2008 and London was released later that year. In 2009, he returned to the independent circuit, competing for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, where he was one half of the former PWG World Tag Team Champions with partner Sami Zayn under the team name ¡Peligro Abejas!.
On December 7, 2002, London won a tournament to capture the ROH Number One Contender's Trophy, guaranteeing a match for the ROH Championship. He lost the match three weeks later to then-champion John Jirus. On February 8, 2003, London competed in a Triple Threat match for the Number One Contender's Trophy, pinning A.J. Styles for the win. After the match, Xavier informed London that he would compete for the title immediately. London again lost to the champion. London's final match in ROH was for the title against Samoa Joe on July 19, 2003, in which he lost.
On May 4, 2013, London made his first appearance for ROH in a decade, facing Davey Richards in a losing effort at Border Wars 2013. London suffered a stinger and concussion during the match and was as a result forced to pull out of the following day's tapings of Ring of Honor Wrestling. London returned to ROH on August 3, losing to Michael Elgin in the first round of a tournament for the ROH World Championship. London returned once again at Glory By Honor XII to defeat Roderick Strong. London would make four additional appearances for ROH in 2014; London competed on the Supershow of Honor events in the United Kingdom.
London then began a tag team with Billy Kidman on the January 29 episode of SmackDown!. On the July 8 episode of SmackDown!, the duo won the WWE Tag Team Championship from the Dudley Boyz. They defended the title against the Dudley Boyz and the Basham Brothers on several occasions before losing the championship to René Duprée and Kenzo Suzuki on the September 9 episode of SmackDown!, due to Kidman leaving London to fight by himself. (Billy Kidman accidentally injured Chavo Guerrero using the shooting star press during a tag team match involving Jamie Noble and Paul London. Kidman felt guilty about using the finishing maneuver until people accused him of being a quitter and before turning heel.) Kidman's heel turn led to a feud between the two, which culminated at No Mercy on October 3 where Kidman defeated London with a shooting star press. After the match, London was bleeding from the mouth and being stretchered when Kidman pulled him back into the ring with the stretcher and delivered another shooting star press to London's injured ribs. This storyline was put in place after London had broken his nose wrestling Booker Huffman and needed time off to recuperate.
London returned on November 27, wrestling on Velocity until the end of the year. On the March 10, 2005 episode of SmackDown!, London became the number one contender for Chavo Guerrero's WWE Cruiserweight Championship, which he later won in a cruiserweight battle royal on the March 31 episode of SmackDown!. Guerrero challenged London for the title at Judgment Day on May 22, where London emerged victorious. During another title match with Guerrero on the June 23 episode of SmackDown!, The Mexicools stormed the ring, attacking both London and Guerrero. On the July 14 episode of SmackDown!, London teamed with Scotty 2 Hotty and Shoichi Funaki to face The Mexicools. The ending of the match saw Juventud perform the 450° splash on London for the win, but landed his knee onto London's face and legitimately broke his nose in the process. London lost the Cruiserweight Championship on the August 6 episode of Velocity to Nunzio. Later in the night, London cut a heel promo encouraging the fans to protest his title loss. London went on a losing streak before returning as a face and teaming with the newly rehired Brian Kendrick.
They soon began a losing streak to the team of William Regal and Dave Taylor. Regal defeated both team members in singles matches and on the December 8 episode of SmackDown!, Kendrick and London lost a tag team match to the pair. As a result, they were scheduled to defend the championship against Regal and Taylor at Armageddon on December 17; at Armageddon, the match was changed to a four-way ladder match also involving MNM and Hardy Boyz. London and Kendrick won the match and retained the championship. On the January 12, 2007, episode of SmackDown! London and Kendrick successfully retained their championship against Regal and Taylor in a traditional tag team match.
On the February 2 episode of SmackDown!, London and Kendrick suffered a non-title loss to the rookie team Deuce 'n Domino. A further tag team match loss and a singles loss for Kendrick to Deuce led to a championship match at No Way Out on February 18, in which London and Kendrick were victorious. They retained the championship against MNM on the March 23 episode of SmackDown!, and then retained the championship against Deuce 'n Domino again on the April 13 episode of SmackDown!, after Deuce 'n Domino were disqualified. In a rematch the following week on the April 20 episode of SmackDown!, London and Kendrick lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to Deuce 'n Domino. During the match London missed a moonsault from the Wrestling ring to the floor (kayfabe) injuring his ribs, leaving Kendrick to battle Deuce 'n Domino alone. London and Kendrick's reign was the longest in the championship's history at 331 days until it was surpassed by The New Day in 2016. Selling his storyline injured ribs, London was absent from physical action until the May 11 episode of SmackDown!, when he defeated Domino in singles competition. London and Kendrick unsuccessfully competed for the titles on the June 1 episode of SmackDown! in a triple threat tag team match, which also involved Regal and Taylor, and lost a rematch on the June 15 episode of SmackDown! in a standard tag team match.
Both London and Kendrick were drafted to the Raw brand on June 17, during the Supplemental Draft. They won their debut match on Raw against The World's Greatest Tag Team on June 18. Throughout July and August, they wrestled against The World's Greatest Tag Team and Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch on Raw, and on September 3, they won a number one contender's match for Cade and Murdoch's World Tag Team Championship. At a house show in South Africa on September 5, London and Kendrick defeated Cade and Murdoch to win the World Tag Team Championship, only to lose it back in a rematch three days later. At the end of 2007, he was inactive due to a foot injury. London returned on the February 4, 2008, episode of Raw, when he and Kendrick lost to the team of Carlito and Santino Marella. On the March 17 episode of Raw, London and Kendrick faced Eddie Fatu in a handicap match. During the match, Kendrick walked out and left London to get pinned; no dissension came of the incident, and London and Kendrick continued to team together. They unsuccessfully challenged Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes for the World Tag Team Championship on May 26.
The team came to an end when Kendrick was drafted back to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft in June. The following month, London was briefly involved in a storyline between Shawn Michaels, and Chris Jericho and Lance Cade, when Jericho and Cade used London as an example of what happened to those who idolized Michaels. London lost singles matches to both Jericho and Cade on Raw, before disappearing from television. London was released from his WWE contract on November 7, 2008.
On March 26, 2010, London made his debut for Dragon Gate USA in a tag team match, where he and Jimmy Jacobs were defeated by Brian Kendrick and Jon Moxley. After the match, Kendrick turned on Moxley and re-formed his team with London, which led to a Loser Leaves Company tag team match between London and Kendrick and Jacobs and Jack Evans at the following day's tapings of the Mercury Rising pay-per-view. In the end Jacobs forced Kendrick to tap out and as a result he was forced to leave Dragon Gate USA for good. After the match London was assaulted by Teddy Hart.
In December 2010, London began working for Lucha Libre USA as the masked Sydistiko, taking over the role previously held by T. J. Perkins. He teamed up with Rellik to defeat Dinastia (El Oriental and Tinieblas Jr.) on December 12, 2010. The pair participated in three way match to decide the new LLUSA Tag Team Championship but this time El Oriental and Tinieblas Jr. would get the better of the pair. As Sydistiko, he would go on to lose all his matches including LLUSA Championship number one contendership lucha roulette elimination.
On July 30, 2011, London competed at Vanguard Championship Wrestling (VCW)'s Liberty Lottery 2011 event. He faced John Kermon, the VCW Liberty Champion, and defeated him to become the Liberty Champion. On February 16, 2013, London defeated Brian Kendrick at Family Wrestling Entertainment's No Limit, winning a title match against the Tri-Borough Champion Damian Darling. The same night, London defeated Darling, winning the title. On June 21, 2013, London defeated Akio to retain the title. The next day, London and Kendrick were defeated by The Young Bucks at House of Hardcore 2.
London spent the majority of 2014 wrestling abroad, including in Australia, Europe, and South America. In Scotland's Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW), London and Brian Kendrick won the ICW Tag Team Championship in October 2014. After a 28 day reign, they lost the championship to Polo Promotions (Mark Coffey and Jackie Polo) on November 2. Following this title loss, London would then unsuccessfully challenge Kenny Williams for the ICW Zero-G Championship.
On November 19, 2016, London wrestled for Target Wrestling, where he answered Shady Nattrass' High Octane Division Championship open challenge. London defeated Nattrass in the match and subsequently won the title. On April 20, 2017, London vacated the title due to a knee injury sustained while wrestling in San Diego. On July 29, 2017, it was announced that he would return to Target on August 18 to face Turbo Josh Terry for the High Octane Division Championship he vacated in April.
On April 10, 2010, London defeated PWG mainstay El Generico in a singles match. On May 9, the two men teamed up to form a duo introduced as ¡Peligro Abejas! (literally translated as The Danger Bees) in the fourth annual DDT4 eight-team tag tournament. After defeating "The Professional" Scott Lost and Chuck Taylor in the first round and Briscoe Brothers in the semifinals, London and Generico defeated the Young Bucks in the finals of the tournament to win both DDT4 and the PWG World Tag Team Championship. Later in the year on December 11, 2010, ¡Peligro Abejas! successfully defended the PWG World Tag Team Championship against the ROH World Tag Team Champions The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Antonio Cesaro). On April 9, 2011, London was forced to miss a PWG event, during which El Generico and London's replacement, Ricochet, lost the PWG World Tag Team Championship back to The Young Bucks.
After a two-year absence from PWG, London returned to the promotion on March 22, 2013, defeating Kevin Owens during the first night of the All Star Weekend 9. During the second night, he defeated Trent Beretta in another singles match. At PWG's tenth anniversary show TEN he teamed with long-time partner Brian Kendrick in a loss to Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano.
On August 19, 2023, London appeared at Imperial Pro Wrestling in Bristol, Tennessee. He wrestled up and comer Axton Ray in a losing effort.
On December 14, 2023, London appeared at Timebomb Pro in Fargo, North Dakota, wrestling for the Timebomb Pro Sanctuary title in a losing effort to Connor Hopkins. London made his entrance singing the theme to James Bond movie Thunderball.
| +Film !Year !Title !Role !Notes | |||
| 2020 | Tiger Man | Elvis Presley | Also stunts performer |
| Top of the Class | Detective Ramirez | ||
| The Year of Laughing Dangerously | Mike Marshall | ||
| 2021 | Fusion | Gordon |
| +Television !Year !Title !Role !Notes | |||
| 2011-2012 | Sydistiko | 9 episodes | |
| 2016 | Where the Bears Are | Wrestling Partner | 2 episodes |
| 2016-2018 | Lucha Underground | Himself | 25 episodes |
| +Video games !Year !Title !Role !Notes | |||
| 2005 | WWE Day of Reckoning 2 | Himself | |
| WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 | Himself | ||
| 2008 | WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2009 | Himself |
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