Chase Owens


Chase Owens is an American professional wrestler currently signed with New Japan Pro-Wrestling as a member of the Bullet Club. Owens has also worked for various promotions under the National Wrestling Alliance umbrella, winning the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship three times.

Professional wrestling career

Independent circuit (2007–2017)

Owens made his debut for Championship Wrestling Alliance on February 17, 2007, where he was defeated by Tony Givens. Owens participated in the 2007 CWA Best of the Best tournament, but he was defeated in the first round by The Jin. On November 14, 2008, Owens competed in his first title match, but was defeated by the defending AWA World Heavyweight Champion Tony Givens. He participated in the 2009 and 2010 editions of the CWA Best of the Best tournament, but was unsuccessful, with Robbie Cassidy winning in 2009 and Alyx Winters winning in 2010, respectively.
On February 26, 2011, Owens defeated Sigmon to win his first title, the MACW Junior Heavyweight Championship. The following month, he defeated Jason Kincaid in a ladder match to win the NWA Mountain Empire Championship. On April 1, Owens participated in the 2011 Smoky Mountain Cup tournament. He won the tournament by defeating Alyx Winters, Chance Prophet, Jason Kincaid, Jeff Connelly, and Menace in the finals. On August 27, Owens competed in the Chikara Young Lions Cup IX tournament, but he was defeated by Jakob Hammermeier in a first round four way elimination match that also included Gregory Iron and Obariyon. On October 7, Owens participated in a tournament for the vacant NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. He defeated Steve Walters in the first round, Scorpio Sky in the second round, but was defeated in the finals by Kevin Douglas.
In July 2014, Owens made his debut for Canadian Wrestling's Elite. He defended the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship on each day of the tour between July 17–27. On April 24, 2015, Owens returned to the promotion and was defeated by Jason Kincaid in the first round of the 2015 Elite 8 tournament. Two years later, Owens would win the 2017 Elite 8 tournament, defeating Kaito Kiyomiya in his first round match, Mentallo in the second round, and Shane Sabre in the finals.
On February 11, 2017, Owens defeated Jason Kincaid to win the NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship, ending Kincaid's historic reign of 1,951 days. The championship was retired on August 19.

WWE (2012)

On the May 25, 2012 episode of SmackDown, Owens under the name Kevin Bendl teamed with Brian Edwards in his only WWE appearance in a handicap match against Ryback. The duo would lose the match.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2014–present)

On October 13, 2014, Owens made his debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling at King of Pro-Wrestling, successfully defending the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship against Bushi. After the match, Owens challenged Jushin Thunder Liger. On November 8 at Power Struggle, Owens lost the title to Liger. Owens returned to NJPW on February 11, 2015, at The New Beginning in Osaka, where he and Rob Conway defeated Liger and Hiroyoshi Tenzan in a tag team match. Three days later at The New Beginning in Sendai, Owens unsuccessfully challenged Liger for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Owens returned to NJPW in May to take part in the 2015 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. He finished the tournament with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals.
On October 23, 2015, Owens joined Bullet Club. The following day, Owens and new stablemate Kenny Omega entered the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, but were eliminated in their first round match by Roppongi Vice. In May 2016, Owens appeared in NJPW as a late replacement for an injured Nick Jackson in the 2016 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. He finished second to last in his block with a record of three wins and four losses. At the end of the year, Owens took part in the 2016 World Tag League, teaming with Bullet Club leader Kenny Omega. The two finished second to last in their block with a record of three wins and four losses. Around this time, Owens was quietly promoted to the promotion's heavyweight division.
Owens participated in the 2017 World Tag League, teaming with Bad Luck Fale, the duo finished with a record of three wins and four losses, failing to advance form their block. On April 1, 2018 at Sakura Genesis, Owens teamed with Yujiro Takahashi to unsuccessfully challenge the Young Bucks. At the G1 Special in San Francisco show, Owens teamed with his Bullet Club stablemates to defeat the team of Chaos, later that night he sided with The Elite after being attacked by the Guerrillas Of Destiny and Haku. Chase would spend the rest of the year sided with the 'Elite' group, suffering many pinfall losses.
At January 2019, Owens along with Yujiro Takahashi rejoined the Bullet Club at NJPW New Year Dash!!. He announced that he had signed a contract with New Japan, making it the first time he was full-time with the company. He would start this year off well, achieving many pinfall victories, albeit over weaker opposition. In March 2019, Owens entered the New Japan Cup, defeating the IWGP United States Champion Juice Robinson in the first round but losing to Yoshi-Hashi in the second round.
On March 23, 2019 at the New Japan Cup finals, Owens unsuccessfully challenged Juice Robinson for the IWGP United States Championship.

Ring Of Honor (2018–2019)

On September 29, Owens made his debut for Ring Of Honor, losing to Kenny King. Owens returned to ROH on August 24, 2019, defeating PJ Black and LSG, thus earning a match for the ROH World Television Championship. The next day at ROH Honor For All, Owens was defeated by the reining champion Shane Taylor.

Championships and accomplishments