Chad Lail is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE. Where he performed under the ring name Jaxson Ryker. Chad has also worked in various promotions including Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
Chad Lail was born on June 6, 1982, in Hickory, California. He has served with the United States Military Corps. Lail served during the Iraqi war. Later, he reached the rank of Lance Corporal. Chad is also a Republican and a supporter of Donald Trump.
Lail signed with NWA Anarchy in 2005, under the ring name Phil Shatter. He later won the NWA National Heavyweight Championship from Crusher Hansen on January 17, 2009. He has the longest championship in the title's history.
Lail also appeared in the ROH promotion in a one-off match against Zack Salvation.
In 2010, Shatter made his TNA debut along with Mikael Judas. Shatter changed his name to Gunner and Mikael Judas changed his name to Murphy. They had their first match as a heel tag team after attacking Jeff Hardy and Anderson.
The duo won their first match against Hardy and Anderson. In 2011, the duo had their first opportunity for the tag team titles against the Beer Money faction.
Sadly, they failed to grab the gold. On June 9, he had a tag team match against the reigning World Heavyweight Champion Sting and Eric Young. Gunner pinned Sting in a shocking manner to pick up the win.
In December 2013, Gunner competed in a Feast or Fired match. He captured the briefcase that gives a shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. In February he cashed in his briefcase, but lost to Magnus.
In 2014, he participated in a One Night Tournament for the TNA Heavyweight Championship. He defeated Mr. Anderson in the first match. Later, he lost in the final round to Bobby Roode. After having a fair run in TNA, he announced his departure from the company on June 19, 2015.
Source - Pinterest
In 2017, Chad Lail signed with WWE and started working in NXT. He had his debut against No Way Jose at an NXT live event but lost the match. In July, his name was changed to Jaxson Ryker.
In February 2018, he began teaming with Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler as The Forgotten Sons. The trio made their debut on the August 29 episode of NXT in a backstage segment with William Regal.
Blake and Cutler represented the group in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. They defeated Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan in the first round but lost to Aleister Black and Ricochet in the finals.
In April 2020, The Forgotten Sons made their main division debut on SmackDown, defeating The Lucha House Party. On the May 1st episode of SmackDown, they defeated the reigning tag team champions, The New Day.
They began portraying themselves as American patriots, with Ryker and Cutler highlighting their services in the marines. However, the gimmick was dropped due to a controversial tweet by Ryker supporting President Donald Trump in the middle of the Black Lives Matter Movement.
This led to severe backlash, and criticism on the social media.
On December 4, Ryker's partnership with Blake and Cutler was discontinued quietly as they were paired with Baron Corbin on SmackDown. Ryker was paired with Elias on RAW. However, their association quickly ended.
He then had "Strap Match" on the June 28 and a “Symphony of Destruction” match against Elias on RAW. In both the matches, Ryker came out on top.
On November 18, he was released from WWE.
Source - WWE
His real name is Chad Lail.
Gunner, Phil Shatter.
Yes, he served as a machine gunner in the US Marine Corps.
