Kings of Professional Wrestling

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The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero left, Claudio Castagnoli right) in Times Square after winning the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

Although this tag team usually refers to itself as the "Kings of Wrestling", this article uses the full name "Kings of Professional Wrestling" to distinguish it from the 2004-05 TNA stable, the Kings of Wrestling (TNA).

Kings of Professional Wrestling, Kings of Pro-Wrestling, or most commonly, Kings of Wrestling, is the professional wrestling tag team of Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli. They are the current Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions.

[edit] History

This team came about at CHIKARA's Tag World Grand Prix 2005 show when Chris Hero turned on his Super Friends partner Mike Quackenbush and joined Claudio Castagnoli and Arik Cannon. Cannon has since left the group. Hero and Castagnoli continued teaming together, and in 2006, became the first ever CHIKARA Campeones de Parejas by winning the Tag World Grand Prix tournament, defeating Milano Collection AT and Skayde in the final round. They also challenged for the PWG World Tag Team Championship against then-champions Super Dragon and Davey Richards, but did not win. Chikara's Gran Akuma and Icarus became secondary members of the stable in 2005.

Hero and Castagnoli also known for teaming in Combat Zone Wrestling. On September 10, 2005, they won the CZW Tag Team Titles from Tough Crazy Bastards, Necro Butcher and Toby Klein. In 2005, Chris Hero became involved in a feud with Eddie Kingston. This feud would involve Hero's partner Claudio as well as Kingston's stablemates from Blackout. At Cage of Death 7, Hero and Castagnoli defended the tag titles against Kingston and Sabian, and at An Afternoon of Main Events, they teamed with Super Dragon to face Kingston, Sabian, and Ruckus. In February 2006, the Kings of Pro-Wrestling lost the titles to Eddie Kingston and Joker.

In late 2005, Chris Hero began a war with Ring of Honor. Castagnoli, who was a member of the ROH roster at the time, said he would be loyal to ROH despite his relationship with Hero. However, at the 100th Show during a CZW vs. ROH six man tag team match, Castagnoli came to the ring and turned on ROH, helping CZW win the match, and uniting with Hero for the first time in ROH. They would go on to team together as the Kings of Wrestling to face and defeat BJ Whitmer and Adam Pearce. During the final match in their feud against ROH, Hero and Castagnoli teamed together once again with partners Eddie Kingston, Nate Webb, and Necro Butcher to unsuccessfully challenge ROH's Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer, Adam Pearce, Ace Steel, and Bryan Danielson (later replaced by Homicide) in a Cage of Death match.

In August of 2006, the Ring of Honor tag title belts were stolen and later returned from champions Austin Aries and Roderick Strong. Hero revealed on his LiveJournal that he and Castagnoli were the culprits and would be challenging for the titles September 16. On September 16 they successfully defeated Aries and Strong for the championship with their new KRS I finisher, but only after illegally smashing Aries in his bruised ribs with Castagnoli's aluminum Zero Halliburton attache case.

On October 14th of 2006, the Kings of Wrestling defeated 3 other teams in a one night tournament at the CZW show "Last Team Standing" to become 2 time CZW Tag Team Champs. They defeated Team Masturbation (Beef Wellington & Excalibur) in the first round, the BLKOUT (Ruckus & Human Tornado) in the second round, and the makeshift team of Justice Pain & The Human Tornado (subbing for Pain's partner in the H8 Club, Nick Gage, who left the building before the match) in the third round. This has made the Kings of Wrestling the only Independent Triple Crown Tag Champs ever.

They are likely to break up in the near future when it was announced that Claudio has accepted a development contract to WWE. At Night of Infamy 5, the Kings lost the CZW tag championship to Sabian and Robbie Mireno after Eddie Kingston eliminated Hero from the match and the Blackout outnumbered Claudio for the win. On November 17, they lost the Campeonato de Parejas to F.I.S.T..