This isn’t Lance Archer’s first time to wrestle in front of a large audience for a major American wrestling promotion. The new AEW signee was around before with Impact Wrestling when it was known as TNA.
However, with AEW, Archer has a chance to be seen by more fans than he has in his entire career as they air live every Wednesday on TNT.
Who is Lance Archer?
Lance Archer got his first big break in TNA Impact Wrestling when he debuted there in 2004.
This was just two years after the promotion launched and Archer was known as Dallas. He was one of many homegrown TNA stars and fans quickly latched onto him, chanting for him and forcing TNA to push the big man.
At 6’8″ and 265 pounds, Archer stood head and shoulders above many TNA superstars — at least in appearance.
But he was still green and had a lot to learn.
He was partnered with Kid Kash and the two men won the tag team titles. He changed his name to his real name of Lance Hoyt when Diamond Dallas Page signed with TNA to avoid confusion.
After a short time in meaningful storylines, Hoyt ended up pushed into more of a comedy role with Jimmy Rave as the Rock ‘n Rave Infection.
In 2009, Hoyt finally left TNA Impact Wrestling after five years.
And the #MurderHawkMonster @LanceHoyt debuts tonight #EVERYBODYDIES! pic.twitter.com/S0evKWZhlI
— MrAWESOME (@MrAWESOME2477) March 4, 2020
He went to WWE in 2009 and worked as Vance Archer in Florida Championship Wrestling before moving on to WWE ECW. While that was part of WWE, it aired on SyFy and had a similar-sized audience to that of TNA.
He did get a short stint on SmackDown but was mostly relegated to WWE Superstars after ECW shut down.
Then, it was time for Lance Hoyt to become a star.
@LanceHoyt
AEW will know why it is "Big Man's Business"#MurderHawkMonster #EVERYBODYDIES#AEWDynamite #AEW pic.twitter.com/tQTwH5BeBq— Midnight Pirate (@jazy989) March 4, 2020
Lance Archer in New Japan
Lance Archer moved on to New Japan and worked his way up there.
Archer quickly joined Minoru Suzuki’s Suzuki-gun faction as a big American tough guy.
He teamed with Suzuki and won the 2011 G1 Tag League — one of the biggest moments of his career.
In 2012, Lance Archer made a change and formed one of the most dominant tag teams in NJPW when he took on Davey Boy Smith Jr. as his partner and created the Killer Elite Squad.
Together, the two men won three IWGP Tag Team Championships.
After Smith left NJPW for Major League Wrestling, Lance Archer set out on his own. He won the IWGP United States Championship in October 2019, but only held it for just over three months.
Where ever the #MurderHawkMonster goes there are always fireworks & #EVERYBODYDIES! pic.twitter.com/txFu73GrmM
— MrAWESOME (@MrAWESOME2477) March 3, 2020
Archer lost his title to none other than Jon Moxley on January 4 at WrestleKingdom 14 in Tokyo. Moxley is now also the AEW World Champion, so it sounds like Lance Archer has his first feud lined up.
Welcome to the team. #LanceArcher is #AllElite pic.twitter.com/O4VMbXr3BW
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEWrestling) February 26, 2020
AEW Dynamite airs on Wednesday nights at 8/7c on TNT.