Karl Anderson

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Karl Anderson
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Karl Anderson The Machine Gun Chad Allegra
Billed height	6'0" (183 cm)
Billed weight	240 lb (109 kg)
Born	January 18, 1980(1980-01-18) Asheville, North Carolina
Billed from	Pipestone, Minnesota
Trained by	Roger Ruffen
Debut	May 10, 2002

Chad Allegra is an American professional wrestler better known by his stage name Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson currently working for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.^[1] He is a member of the Anderson wrestling family. ^[2]

1 Beginnings
2 Career
3 In wrestling
4 Championships and accomplishments
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Beginnings

Anderson grew up in Asheville, North Carolina with his younger brother and mother. He gained a baseball scholarship to study at Mars Hill College in his home state before dropping out to pursue a wrestling career. Upon moving to Cincinnati, Ohio he began training at Les Thatcher's Main Event Pro Wrestling Camp, the school associated with the Heartland Wrestling Association.^[3]

[edit] Career

Shortly after beginning his training in 2000, he received a concussion at the hands of current WWE Developmental wrestler Derek Neikirk, which put Anderson on the shelf for over a year. When he finally felt that he was able to return, through the urging and help of his good friend Ash Parker, he contacted Kirk Sheppard with the Northern Wrestling Federation in Cincinnati, who introduced him to Roger Ruffen, the head trainer at BoneKrushers (the NWF's wrestling school).

Anderson trained for several months before debuting in his first professional match on May 10, 2002 in a losing encounter with The Zodiac. His second match was against Prince Justice, who is now better known as TNA's Abyss. He also had matches with The Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's Chris Harris, Shark Boy, and WWE's Jerry Lawler in the early stages of his career.

In the NWF, Anderson started out as a babyface as part of the Young Lions, a four-man group of popular rookies who entered the promotion at about the same time. First to leave the group was "Dead Sexy" Matt Parks. Anderson eventually joined Parks as a heel and began a memorable feud with Ryan Stone & Jay Donaldson.

In the summer of 2005, the NWF and the HWA began an intense interpromotional feud that set box office records and made history in Cincinnati indy wrestling. It culminated in a one on one, title vs. title match between Anderson, the NWF Champion, and Cody Hawk, the HWA champion.

In October of 2005, Anderson had the opportunity to wrestle at the NWA's Annual Convention where he was noticed by Dave Marquez of the New Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo. Anderson was invited to train at the dojo in Los Angeles and so after loseing the NWF title to Ryan Stone on January 1, 2006, Anderson began living and wrestling on the West Coast. Before long, he won the NWA British Commonwealth Championship before losing it to Alex Kosloff, a current star in Mexico. Anderson makes occasional visits in the Midwest, making cameos for Ruffen's NWF when he is able and is the current NWA Heartland States Champion for Ed Chuman's NWA Midwest promotion.

Currently, he is teaming with Joey Ryan, on NWA cards promoted by David Marquez. He appears weekly on MavTV, a small broadcast network, carried on limited stations.

He recently debuted for PWG and is building his reputation as a wrestler, recently defeating popular Ring of Honor wrestler Colt Cabana. ^[4]

On July 8, 2007, he and Ryan won a 3-Way Tag match to claim the vacant NWA World Tag Team Championships.

As part of the new talent exchange agreement between the NWA & New Japan Pro Wrestling, Anderson will replace Yugi Nagata in the annual New Japan Cup tournament. His opponent in the first round will be New Japan's junior heavyweight division ace, Koji Kanemoto.