Paying Dues
In 1994, a nineteen-year-old named Christopher Harris researched how to get into professional wrestling around the Ohio area; something which is not the easiest to locate in those halcyon pre-internet days. He located a school run in part by Charlie Fulton called the Monster Factory. It was a three-hour-plus drive from his home. Whilst working as a truck driver for a soft drink company at the time, life quickly descended into: work, long drive, train to wrestle, long drive home, bed.
He made his debut in November of 1994 and subsequently found a home in the Northern Wrestling Federation based out of Cincinnati, Ohio, owned by Roger Ruffen. He learned to bump at the Monster Factory but figured out how to utilise psychology in the NWF. Bookings spread to Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia, then to Nashville, Tennessee, as well as a couple of shots for the WWF.
As the millennium dawned, his hard work had paid off and a shot at the big time beckoned. He began working security for WCW and worked on a multitude of WCW Saturday Night and Worldwide shows throughout 2000, on an appearance basis, as the company lurched towards its demise.
“In October of 2000, I actually signed a contract with WCW,” Harris told Wrestling Headlines. “I finally made it to one of the big two.”
“We weren’t really aware of all the turmoil that was going on on the inside. You hear bits and pieces. You never think – at least I never thought – that one (of the big two) would go out of business.”
“I did feel that was another door slammed in my face.”
The future seven-time world tag-team champion wrestled for a plethora of “start ups” that disappeared as quickly as they started, insentivised by the vacuum effect of WCW’s death.
TNA
Life would change forever for the Wildcat when he joined a new promotion labelled Total Nonstop Action in 2002. There were rumours it wouldn’t last six months like so many other companies of that time, but with Jeff and Jerry Jarrett at the helm, this one had legs.
Harris wrestled in the Gauntlet for the Gold main event on TNA’s debut show to crown a new NWA world champion, thinking he’d be a singles star moving forward. They taped TNA’s second show – then a weekly pay-per-view format – on the same day and he began involvement with a certain James Storm, whom he’d wrestled previously. The rest, as they say, is history, despite both wanting to be solo stars.
“I don’t think we let the disappointment eat us up,” the fifty-one-year-old told me. “I think we looked at it as if this is what they’re going to give us, we’re going to make the best of it.”
“If we’re going to be a tag-team in this company, we’re going to be the best tag-team they’ve got.”
America’s Most Wanted was born, in large part, thanks to the late, great Bob Ryder.
“Bob was directly responsible for that and we’re thankful for it. We became such close friends. I’m so grateful for the time I got to spend with him.”
Despite their success and multiple reigns as NWA world tag-team champions, creative was already getting itchy feet. Vince Russo was writing for TNA at the time and wasn’t afraid to make rapid changes, not always for the right reasons.
“In the second year, there was already talk of splitting us,” Harris revealed.
“His mind’s working, and all of a sudden he’s thinking ‘let’s split them up.’ I don’t think he thinks of a long range goal at that time.”
“Storm and I were still young and still learning; we were taught that you keep your mouth shut and do what you’re told. But we just felt so strongly about this that we went to them (the office) and talked to them.”
Chris and James wanted to give it more time and they were proven right, as rivalries against Team 3D, The Naturals, AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels and Team Canada within TNA continued. They signed new contracts and even had a run as a heel team which Harris enjoyed greatly; teaming with Jeff Jarrett during his reign atop the company.
Their longevity spanning over four years was a rarity in modern tag-team wrestling, but like all great tandems, they would eventually split as 2006 turned to 2007, when Storm smashed a bottle in Harris’ face. A fiery feud was ignited with Storm as the natural heel and Harris as the face. Two fierce battles were preceded by one that fell so flat, I’d erased it from my memory!
“I’m glad you didn’t bring it up, but our first match was the blindfold match,” Harris reflected with a laugh.
“I’m going to defend him (Russo) because, yes it was horrible and I know the fans didn’t like it, but if you have a blind angle where somebody is blind for a certain amount of time, wrestling 101 tells you to do a blindfold match.”
It did indeed make sense from a booking standpoint but flopped with the fans which Russo took the heat for. Thankfully, that dud was followed up by a superb double-juice bloodbath Texas Deathmatch at Sacrifice 2007 and a quality King of The Mountain qualifying match, that the live crowd were on fire for.
Wildcat was being pushed with purpose and took part in the Slammiversary 2007 pay-per-view main event King of The Mountain ladder match with Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Christian Cage. Quite the cast of A-listers. He went on to work a program with Christian, then Dustin Rhodes who was in his spell as Black Reign.
“I just don’t think Dustin had a clear head going into it because he was still battling some things back then and it wasn’t the easiest to work with him, no matter how talented he is.”
After that, things began to decline with Harris unable to pinpoint where and when it went wrong. Vince Russo told him he “was struggling to find something” for the Wildcat. He was soon putting other talent over on TV and heading for the midcard, or exit door.
“There was talk of doing something with Kurt,” he revealed, whilst his contract negotiations were ongoing. “You never know if they’re just saying that to get me to re-sign. I don’t know.” He believed he became an afterthought and wanted to explore his options. Harris was released in January 2008 and less than a month later, signed a deal with WWE.
WWE Horror Show
“The easiest way to say it is there wasn’t any preparation into it,” Harris says summarising his WWE run. “The name was figured out that day. The outfit was bland and put together that day.”
Given possibly the most generic wrestling name of all-time: Braden Walker, Harris had to forego his popular Wildcat moniker that had lit up TNA and attempt to work with the bare minimum, on WWE’s doomed ECW brand. This was especially tough considering his proven track record in TNA.
“A lot of my signature moves that I did with TNA, there were a number of them that were too close to the stars that were doing it there that I could not do those. So much was taken away from me.”
“I couldn’t believe it because your dream is to make it to the WWE,” he continued. “The fact is, I was working there and I was the most unhappy I’d ever been in my life. It was a sad time.”
Braden Walker lated for just eight months and wrestled a handful of times on television. Bruce Prichard claimed Harris struggled with pre-taped interviews and was overweight when he arrived in WWE. Harris owns some responsibility for things not working out, but was quite obviously given a pittance of attention. It was taking a toll on his health and he was delighted to be released before the end of 2008.
The Wildcat returned to TNA/Impact Wrestling on multiple occasions that included a short run in 2011, being in James Storm’s corner for his 1000th match, as well as AMW ring reunions in 2022 and 2023.
“We had a little TV exposure, so people knew that America’s Most Wanted was still out there. Storm and I did some matches. We took some bookings.”
“That’s (TNA) where I feel at home. That’s the place that made me who I am.”
A Humble Wildcat
Fast forward to today, and Harris is a content man, able to impart his wisdom and experience to the current crop of wrestlers working for the Northern Wrestling Federation, as an agent helping produce regular shows.
“It really has given me back that high again. My love for the business will never go away,” he says proudly. “It’s like a whole new passion that I’m able to help the younger generation.”
“I didn’t do everything that I wanted to do in my career, of course there was much more I could have done, especially with WWE.”
“I’m going to be so proud of what I have done and I feel we did make a mark on wrestling. Not only did we have the title reigns but we came along at a point where tag teams weren’t a big thing.”
America’s Most Wanted put tag-team wrestling on the map in TNA as the multi-time NWA world tag-team champions, as he rightly states, at a time when tag-team wrestling wasn’t appreciated or utilised to its potential.
“I think we came along at a really good time where people could get on board with America’s Most Wanted. We were having exciting matches and they were into what we were doing.”
As he sat talking to me in front of his wall of memorabilia and awards received in the business, I got the impression that Chris Harris is a man whose fire still burns as brightly for professional wrestling as it did all the way back in 1994.
