The Highlanders (professional wrestling)

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The Highlanders
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Rory (left) and Robbie McAllister
Tag Team
Members Robbie McAllister
Rory McAllister
Name(s) The Highlanders
Heights 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) - Rory
6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) - Robbie
Combined weight 476 lb (216 kg/34.0 st)
Hometown Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
Billed from Oban, Scotland
Debut 2000
Promotions PWA
NSPW
OVW
WWE
Trainer Waldo Von Erich

The Highlanders are a Scottish professional wrestling tag team consisting of kayfabe cousins Robbie (Derek Graham-Couch) and Rory McAllister (Russell Murray)[1] (born March 28, 1976) who currently wrestle for World Wrestling Entertainment on the Raw brand.

Contents

History

Couch and Murray were both born and raised in Oban, Scotland (where the team is currently billed from) before moving to Cambridge, Ontario, Canada in 1988[2].

Couch first started going to a wrestling school at the behest of co-worker at CAMI Automotive, Inc. [3] where he met future tag team partner Murray. The two were trained by Waldo Von Erich[2] at the Von Erich / Hart Brothers School of Wrestling.

The two men began wrestling as the team Highlanders in South-Western Ontario with promotions such as Pure Wrestling Association (PWA) and Neo Spirit Pro Wrestling, which ran shows in the Ontario, Canada region. The team's last independent match in PWA was against Andrew Davis and Phil Latio in Cambridge, Ontario.

World Wrestling Entertainment

Ohio Valley Wrestling

In July 2005, they signed a developmental deal with World Wrestling Entertainment and were assigned to their "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) where they wrestled for several months.

Robbie (left) and Rory McAllister leaving the ring after a match.
Robbie (left) and Rory McAllister leaving the ring after a match.

In June of 2006 vignettes began airing on RAW featuring The Highlanders exploring "the big city" and comparing the differences to their native Scotland in classic Fish Out Of Water style.

Raw Brand

The Highlanders made their RAW debut on July 3, with a victory over the duo of Matt Striker and Rob Conway.[4] They followed this victory with another over the same team and were put on the fast track to a match for the Spirit Squad's Tag Team Title.

When they were granted a match against Spirit Squad members Kenny and Mikey, The Highlanders were defeated after abundant interference by the other members.

Throughout the month of August, The Highlanders continued to battle different tag teams until they won a Triple Threat tag team match over the team of Charlie Haas and Viscera and Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, which made them the number one contenders to the Spirit Squad's title on the September 4 RAW. However they were unsuccessful in winning the title at Unforgiven, again because of interference from Spirit Squad members not technically a part of the match. Since late 2006, they mostly competed on RAW's sister show Heat, occasionally making appearances on RAW, throughout 2007, primarily to job to other teams or singles wrestlers such as Snitsky. On the September 24, 2007 episode of RAW The Highlanders interrupted a match between Paul London and Brian Kendrick and Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, due to The Highlanders getting tired of being held back from a World Tag Team Championship opportunity, thus the duo turning heel. They then feuded with London and Kendrick and Jim Duggan and Super Crazy, mainly on Heat.[5]

Due to Rory's injury, the team temporarily split, with Robbie mainly wrestling WWE Heat in a team with Charlie Haas.

Personal life

Rory and his girlfriend have a son named Ian Russell Murray who was born on February 4, 2008.[6]

The Highlanders both have Scottish designed tattoos, of which some represent their families.[7] On live, March 27 edition of TNA iMPACT!, Robbie was in attendance at the Impact Zone and was shown on camera (under his real name to prevent a WWE/TNA lawsuit). This reportedly had a WWE official calling him and ordering that he leave immediately, which he did.[8] The event was mere days prior to WrestleMania weekend when both companies were in the Orlando area. Robbie lost his $5,000 Wrestlemania paycheck due to the appearance.[9]

In wrestling

Robbie signals to the crowd.
Robbie signals to the crowd.
  • Finishing and signature tag team moves
  • Rory's finishing and signature moves
  • Robbie's finishing and signature moves
  • Entrance and mannerisms
  • Keeping with their Scottish background, The Highlanders weights are given in stone when announced instead of pounds.
  • The duo also have a seemingly subconscious constant itch and often tag each other in with hard slaps to the face.[10].

References

  1. ^ The Highlanders Tag Team Profile. Online World Of Wrestling. Retrieved on 2008-01-16.
  2. ^ a b Rennie, Steve. Highlanders set sights on WWE. Slam! Wrestling. Retrieved on July 6, 2006.
  3. ^ Smith, Cory. Highlanders make their Raw debut. Woodstock Sentinel-Review. Retrieved on July 5, 2006.
  4. ^ Ed Williams III (July 3, 2006). Stolen Championship. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
  5. ^ The Highlanders Tag Team Profile. Online World Of Wrestling. Retrieved on 2008-01-16.
  6. ^ MySpace.com - rory - 32 - Garçon - Cincinnati, OHIO - www.myspace.com/rorywrestling
  7. ^ The Highlanders: Celtic pride. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-11-30.
  8. ^ Scherer, Dave Despite Being Told Not to do so, WWE and TNA Guys Meet Up in Florida, TNA Guys Tick Off WWE Officials, Anger Over the McCallister Situation, and More PWInsider.com (March, 30, 2008). Retrieved March, 30, 2008.
  9. ^ Final Smackdown Number, Highlander Loses Money, DH Smith. Wrestling-Edge. Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
  10. ^ Lords of Pain RAW review with reference to both mannerisms.

External links

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