Tyler Bateman has signed a contract with Ring of Honor and will be exclusive to the company in the United States starting in November.
Bateman made his Ring of Honor debut on September 28, 2019, at the promotion’s Death Before Dishonor Fallout in Las Vegas, NV. There he defeated Jake Atlas with a tombstone piledriver in 11 minutes and 44 seconds. He later did a run and attacked Tracy Williams after his match with Flip Gordon, hitting him with a tombstone piledriver.
After their appearance in Ring of Honor, the promotion announced on its website that both Bateman and Atlas impressed ROH officials and would likely get more opportunities with the company.
Beginning his pro-wrestling career in Oklahoma in 2001, Bateman relocated to California in 2008 where he became a mainstay of the Southern California independent scene. He has held the UWN Television Championship twice, the AWS Heavyweight Championship twice, the Santino Bros. Championship, the Santino Bros. Submission Championship twice, and the IWL Tag Team Championship (with Funnybone) among others. Both of his AWS Heavyweight Championship reigns lasted over a year and are two of the four longest reigns in the title’s fifteen-year history.
Additionally, Bateman won the 2016 Southern California Wrestler of the Year award and the 2014 Most Outstanding Wrestler in Southern California award.
Full details of the contract aren’t known, but it is likely that Bateman would still be able to make appearances for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla or any New Japan Pro Wrestling events in the United States the same as other wrestlers contracted to the promotion.
While Bateman hasn’t publicly confirmed joining Ring of Honor, he has been seemingly doing a countdown of his final independent wrestling dates on Twitter.
Bateman is currently scheduled to wrestle Tom Lawlor on Friday at Prestige in Richland, WA, Matt Cross on Saturday for Suburban Fight in Los Angeles, team with Andy Brown to face B-Boy and Adrian Quest at the October 26 Ground Zero show in Imperial Beach, and his final independent wrestling appearance before starting with Ring of Honor will be on October 31 for Bar Wrestling in Baldwin Park.
