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Duke Hudson | |
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Birth name | Brendan Vink |
Born | [1] Adelaide, South Australia [2] | 8 February 1990
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Brendan Vink Duke Hudson Elliot Sexton [3] Tony Modra |
Billed height | 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) [2] |
Billed weight | 253 lb (115 kg) [2] |
Billed from | Adelaide, Australia |
Trained by | Damian Slater Hartley Jackson [2] |
Debut | 31 May 2008 [2] |
Brendan Vink (born 8 February 1990) is an Australian professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Duke Hudson, is a member of Chase University, and is a former NXT Tag Team Champion with Andre Chase. He is also known for his time in Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW), where he was a part of The Mighty Don't Kneel. [4]
At the age of 18, Vink debuted as early as 31 May 2008, under the ring name Elliot Sexton. Wrestling primarily in Australia, Sexton appeared in promotions including WRESTLE RAMPAGE (WR) and Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW). During his time in both promotions, Sexton became a one-time MCW Heavyweight Champion and a one-time WrestleRock Champion. During 2018, he made his international debut in matches for the Japanese promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling and the British promotion Progress Wrestling.
On 11 February 2019, it was announced that Vink had signed a contract with WWE and that he would report to the WWE Performance Center. [5] Vink debuted under his real name at an NXT house show on 15 March 2019, defeating Nick Comoroto. He went on to spend the remainder of March and the following month of April wrestling on house shows. Vink made his televised debut on the 25 March 2020 episode of NXT, teaming with his former TMDK stablemate Shane Thorne in a losing effort against Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch. [6]
Vink made his debut for EVOLVE in 2019 as part of EVOLVE's business relationship with WWE at EVOLVE 141 where he defeated Colby Corino in his first singles match. [7] Vink would then go on a winning streak in EVOLVE, defeating the likes of A. R. Fox, Stephen Wolf, JD Drake and Leon Ruff. [8] [9] [10] [11]
In March 2020, Vink began appearing on Raw alongside Shane Thorne where they faced teams such as the Street Profits and Cedric Alexander and Ricochet but were defeated. [12] [13] On the April 27 episode of Raw, Thorne and Vink became MVP’s newest associates as he challenged Alexander and Ricochet to a match the next week on their behalf. On the May 4 episode of Raw, Thorne and Vink defeated Alexander and Ricochet earning their first victory. [14] However, their alliance with MVP ended after they were both traded back to NXT and Thorne and Vink would quietly disband as a team soon after. [15]
In July 2021, Vink, under the new ring name Duke Hudson was announced to be a part of the 2021 NXT Breakout Tournament. On the 13 July episode of NXT, Hudson defeated Ikemen Jiro in the first round. On the August 17 episode of NXT, Hudson was eliminated in the semi-finals by Carmelo Hayes. Hudson would then confront Kyle O'Reilly and a brawl would ensue leading to a match being made between the two on next weeks episode of NXT. [16] On 5 December, at NXT WarGames, Hudson lost to Cameron Grimes in a Hair vs. Hair match, and therefore had to shave his hair per the match's stipulation. [17] On the 1 November 2022 episode of NXT, Hudson accompanied Thea Hail and Andre Chase as Chase U's flag bearer.
On October 24 on Night 1 of Halloween Havoc, Hudson and Chase defeated The Family (Tony D'Angelo and Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo) to become the NXT Tag Team Champions, winning his first championship in WWE, [18] but will later lose the titles to D'Angelo and Stacks on the November 14, 2023 edition of NXT ending their reign at 21 days. [19] Hudson and Riley Osborne participated in the 2024 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament, where they lost to Latino World Order’s Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde on the January 16, 2024 episode of NXT. [20]
Vink worked as a personal trainer for Goodlife Health Clubs in Melbourne before getting signed by the WWE.
He made his WWE video game debut in WWE 2K24 (2024)
Winner (wager) | Loser (wager) | Location | Event | Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cameron Grimes (hair) | Duke Hudson (hair) | Orlando, Florida | NXT WarGames | December 5, 2021 |
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