Andrei Ioan Vasile (born August 5th, 1991) is a Romanian-British professional wrestler currently working on the independent scene.
Vasile is best known for his time in British based company, Royalty Wrestling, being credited as one of the companies top breakout stars. He also was known for his tenure in REVOLT! Pro Combat and Elite Answers Wrestling, which is where he won his first world championship by becoming the inaugural and only REVOLT! Heavyweight Champion as well as challenging for the World Heavyweight Championship after REVOLT! was purchased by EAW.
Early Life[]
Andrei was born in Bucharest on August 2nd, 1991, and lived with his mother, father and eventually his younger sister. Vasile had a rough childhood as his family was fairly poor, with most of his father's earnings going towards Andrei and his sister, Elena, to make sure they had a good future.
On November 23rd, 1996, Sokolova's life changed forever as his father was convicted of multiple tax frauds and was sent to prison for 8 years, this impacted Andrei and Elena's life massively, their mother used all of her and Andrei's father's savings to send Andrei and Elena to a private school in Doncaster, England, where they would be adopted by the Jones family who were acquaintances of Vasile's father. They were flown over shortly after, and would never see their mother again, but it was later learned that their mother sadly commited suicide, details are unknown on Vasile's father, but it's pressumed he's still living in Romania today after serving 8 years in prison.
During his time in Doncaster, Andrei and Elena quickly mastered the English language, and settled into their new lives with their new mother and father. Both watched wrestling from a young age, and fell in love with it. Whilst Elena would eventually go on to become a teacher at Oxford University, Vasile stuck with what he loved which was wrestling. After graduating from secondary school and eventually college after studying chemistry, Andrei enrolled in the High Stakes Wrestling Academy in March 2011, in order to train to become a professional wrestler.
At the academy, Andrei met a fellow graduate from his school by the name of Oliver Dyke and the two quickly became good friends, advancing quickly in the academy where they trained for two years. In March 2013, Andrei and Dyke were noticed by a fairly large wrestling company in the UK, Adrenaline Pro Wrestling, and were signed to one year contracts.
Professional Wrestling Career[]
Early Career[]
TBA
Precision Wrestling (2016)[]
After an impressive stint over in the United Kingdom, Andrei was given a chance by a fairly large wrestling company over in the United States known as Precision Wrestling. He made his debut on the Precision TV under the name Victor Sokolov after the Money in the Bank iPPV, attacking and injuring the recent winner of the Money in the Bank match in Will Neilson and proceeded to start a feud with his tag partner, Rhys Haze.
Sokolov would remain undefeated up to Fully Loaded which was the next iPPV and engaged in a battle with Anthony Sharpe, a friend of Haze and Neilson who challenged Victor to a Last Man Standing match. The match took place and was especially brutal with the finish coming when Sokolov connected with his Hellblade Cutter onto a ladder which successfully put Sharpe down for the ten count.
Now back facing Rhys Haze again he would bring up personal nightmares from Haze's past, looking to make Rhys' life a living heel whilst Will wasn't around to help him around. After a vicious brawl backstage that nearly resulted in injuries to both men, Ryan Blake had enough and booked a Three Stages of Hell match for Summerslam where the loser would be fired from Precision Wrestling entirely. Sokolov defeated Jack Rogue the following week, an opponent selected by Haze, in order to also put Will Neilson's contract on the line should Rhys Haze lose. Summerslam arrived and the first fall was a Falls Count Anywhere match in which Victor would win after a Hellblade on the top of the ramp, the second fall was a Tables match in which Haze would win after a Shooting Star Press crushing Sokolov through a table on the outside. The final fall was contested inside Hell in a Cell where Haze would barely clinch the victory after spearing himself and Sokolova through the top of the cell to the mat beneath, hitting one final Double Arm DDT to pin Victor. This resulted in Victor Sokolov being fired from Precision, but in reality, Andrei had requested his release from the company wanting to go back to the UK. His release was granted.
At the time as well, Andrei had been training in MMA for over a year at this point and it only came to an end when he was contacted by Royal Wrestling Kingdom about a potential contract in November 2016. Vasile decided to put his MMA training on hold to focus on his wrestling career as RWK would hold huge monthly shows, with multiple live events in between and would leave him no time to actually fight in MMA.
Royal Wrestling Kingdom (2017 - 2018)[]
Andrei debuted in RWK at their first ever event, The Grand Coronation in November 2016 under the name of Victor Sokolova. He wrestled fan favourite Archangel and would lose. This match would also decide who would advance to a match for the RWK Imperial Championship, the top title in the company. His next big match would be at Carnival Games in December 2016 after engaging in a feud with Vitor Mata over the course of the live shows, a match where Sokolova would emerge victorious from. This win would push Victor into a feud with RWK European Champion, El Pecador, culminating in a match at Dragon's Den in which Sokolova would kickout after three from a Springboard 450 Splash. This would be the cause for him earning a rematch at Ruler of the Ring, with Azrael and Reese Jefferson being added to the mix to make it a fatal four way for the European Championship, however the champion in Pecador still retained after pinning Jefferson.
After this match, Sokolova would bring out an ally in Brad Adams and the two would be known as rEvolution from then on. They were tested at the joint event IWT Mania V: When World's Collide, however would suffer a loss to the team of Azrael and Odin after Sokolova picked up a legitmate concussion during the match from a Curb Stomp by Odin. It was known that after the event Sokolova was not cleared by doctors and would be out for a month recovering after also picking up a shoulder injury at a live event, which is also when he started his first main event level feud with Ryan Vendetta. During this time, Michael Kelly and his then manager, Adeline LaRoux had been recruited into rEvolution. The quartet attacked Ryan Vendetta at a live show after he turned down an invitation to join the group, recently coming to a draw inside Hell in a Cell agaisnt Tyler Keenan. Brad Adams would step in for Sokolova and face Ryan at Cold Day in Hell surprising mostly everyone in attendance when he nearly put away Vendetta at various points. However, it wasn;t to be as Ryan pulled out the Minefield Driver and took Adams down for the three count. The worse came for Ryan though after the match as he would be attacked by both Victor and Adams, only for Nova to come running down the ramp and save him from the assault. Michael Kelly and Adeline LaRoux would quietly leave the group shortly after this, eventually leaving RWK as a whole.
Imperial Championship Pursuit/Departure[]
A tag team match would now be set in stone at Kings of the Empire, pitting Vendetta and his cousin Nova against the team of rEvolution in Victor and Brad. It would be the latter team who picked up the victory after miscommunication from Nova caused Ryan to be hit with the Pinnacle of Destruction and suffer his first pinfall loss in RWK to Sokolova himsefl. Backstage shortly after the match, Victor still felt he wasn't done with Ryan and challenged him to one final match at Peace of Mind inside of a steel cage. Vendetta accepted the offer, but not before taking out Brad Adams soon after to send a message.
Adams and Nova would be banned from ringside for the steel cage match at Peace of Mind, a match that ended with Ryan Vendetta looking for his finishing MST DDT from the top of the steel cage only to plummet to the ring canvas. Sokolova would capitalise on this mistake and hit the Hellblade for the pinfall victory. The match itself would actually cause Sokolova to be storyline injured as well as Vendetta himself, the latter actually being suspended from the company from being an endangerment to others backstage from all the constant attacks to rEvolution members and now Victor himself. This would serve as the end of the Vendetta/Sokolova feud, with Victor taking a break from wrestling for two months shortly after.
Vignettes would be aired at Democracy Rules and Last Rites to hype the return of Victor at the upcoming Path to Destiny event, the biggest in RWK history that would be headlined by a 25 competitor rumble match to crown a number one contender to Tyler Keenan's RWK Imperial Championship. Sokolova would enter at number one and ended up surviving for over an hour until the final four, being eliminated by eventual winner El Pecador and losing his chance to challenge for the Imperial Championship. Pecador himself would eliminate a returning Ryan Vendetta to win after the latter had eliminated long term rival, Jeffry Mason, who was the surprise number 25 entrant.
Sokolova would now enter a feud with the newly formed group of CLIQUE, consisting of Keenan himself, Christopher Jordan, Frankie Highwood, and the man he would face at The Kingdom Awards, Joseph Diamond. Victor would defeat Diamond but only after being announced as the Breakout Star of the Year. What happened after the match itself though was more shocking than anything, as Brad Adams fresh off a victory over former European Champion Aaron Harrows earlier on in the night would come out to viciously assault Sokolova with a chain. This marked the end of the newly renamed SIN and a match would be set for Grand Coronation II, Sokolova facing Adams in a Street Fight. The match itself seemed to steal the show of Grand Coronation II, the end result being Sokolova dropping an elbow from the top of a ladder before using a chain to assist him in a Control your Chaos Rolling Cutter for the victory.
This would prove to be Vasile's last match not only in RWK, but under the Victor Sokolova name as he would part ways with RWK soon after for unknown reasons.
REVOLT! Pro Combat (2017 - 2018)[]
In December 2017, Andrei signed a big money deal with newly opened promotion, REVOLT! Pro Combat. He was assigned to the Heavyweight division, and made his televised debut on the first episode of Saturday Night Resurgence, teaming with Sinister Ace to face Michael Bishop and Shackleford.
Bishop would pin Sokolova following a dispute with partner Sinister Ace, leading to Bishop being able to nail Andrei with 'The Executioner'. The following week on Sunday Night Rebellion, Andrei faced a veteran of the business in Justin Jones, defeating him in quick fashion. He then moved on to face former partner Sinister Ace in a Street Fight, and utterly destroyed him with weapons and his own bare hands, picking up another victory.
Due to his efforts, Andrei was put into a match with Ivar Akselsen, where the winner would go on to REVOLT 1 to challenge for the Heavyweight Championship. The match would end in a draw when Scott Diamond interfered and took out both men with 'The Vortex', Talib Bari would then come out, announce that Scott Diamond was suspended, and both Ivar and Andrei would move on to face Shackleford (who had qualified earlier by defeating Ryan Savage) for the Heavyweight Championship.
At REVOLT 1, Andrei would make history, and pin Ivar Akselsen after a 'Chaos Control' Rolling Cutter to win the REVOLT! Heavyweight Championship. He became the first Heavyweight champion in the company's history, and won his first World championship in his career.
REVOLT! Heavyweight Champion[]
Sokolova's first test of champion came in the form of Badass Kevin, in which he taunted him with various video messages, and almost appeared to be getting more and more unstable. He defeated Kevin with his finishing Rolling Cutter, and then swiftly defeated the Middleweight Champion, Stone Murdock. However, Andrei would hit a roadblock in a loss to Reginald Dampshaw III, but regained momentum by teaming with Michael Bishop to decimate Angelo Brando and Suneo Honekawa. He then defeated the team of Bishop and Lucian Baal teaming with then Middleweight Champion, Prince of Phenomenal. Andrei would defeat Michael Bishop at REVOLT 2 to retain his championship, which would end up being the last REVOLT show as they would go on to be purchased by Elite Answers Wrestling.
Elite Answers Wrestling (2018)[]
As a talent on the REVOLT! roster, Andrei was to be assigned to one of EAW's four brands and would end up on Voltage. He inserted himself straight away into the World Heavyweight Championship scene, the title itself held at the time by Chris Elite who was also being targeted by Jamie O'Hara and Impact. A fatal four way match for the title was set up for Fighting Spirit: Tokyo on May 5th, where Andrei had the opportunity to walk out with two world championships. Sokolova would lose after Impact was pinned by Chris Elite, and with Malcom Jones' victory in the main event in order to move on and challenge Elite for the title at Pain for Pride, it would be a while before Andrei would begin chasing a world championship again.
Still holding the REVOLT! Heavyweight Championship, Andrei would barely lose a Beat the Clock Challenge on the Voltage after Fighting Spirit to qualify for the Cash in the Vault match against Alejandro Correa, being one second too late after hitting the Rolling Cutter and the time previously set by Erebus Jennings. A 5 on 5 Divide and Conquer match was made for next week's Voltage, the winner gaining the final Voltage spot in the CITV match. Sokolova would rack up the most eliminations in the match and made it down to the final two, being pinned by Alejandro Correa after Ahren Fournier distracted him. This would force a Champion vs. Champion match for the May 27th edition of Voltage, where Interwire Champion Ahren Fournier would emerge victorious over the REVOLT! Heavyweight Champion.
Andrei would finally make his first defence of his title in EAW, defeating James Ranger, Terry Chambers and Nemesis to do so, also qualifying for the EAW Openweight Championship match at Pain for Pride as Voltage's representative. He would then make a surprising appearance on Showdown to team with fellow Openweight Championship participant and Dynasty representative, Hurricane Hawk. They wouldface TLA and Andrea Valentine, the Showdown and Empire representative respectively. Hawk and TLA were also the REVOLT! Light Heavyweight and Welterweight Champions respectively. The PFP preview match would end with Hawk being pinned by TLA.
At Pain for Pride, Andrei would come up short after an amazing match on Night One of PFP which would end with Andrea Valentine rolling up Hurricane Hawk to win the Openweight Championship. During the EAW Draft, Sokolova would be moved over to the Dynasty brand.
Dynasty/Departure[]
Making his presence known on Dynasty, Sokolova would be inserted into a feud with Theron Nikolas after the latter's victory over Ronn Banks at Pain for Pride. Theron taunted Andrei week after week for his involvement in REVOLT!, also mentioning how Banks was an investor in the company and that he would be the one to kill REVOLT! for good. Sokolova received help from Cameron Ella Ava and Ms. Extreme to fend off The 1% after a brutal attack following a match between Andrei and Theron.
Sokolova would defeat Kevin Hunter two weeks later, but fail to qualify for a number one contenders match to the Answers World Championship after a Theron Nikolas mid-match attack allowed Cameron Ella Ava to pin him. This would spark a rematch to be made for the REVOLUTION PPV, pitting Sokolova up against Theron. Andrei would lose to Theron and be taken out after the match, being written off TV after requesting a hiatus from the company. It was reported that he had left the company not too long after this.
Championship Wrestling Coalition / United Championship Wrestling Assosciation (2018 - present)[]
RINGENHOSTEL (2018)[]
Vasile initially signed with FORCE Pro within the CWC in early 2018, however he was soon transfered to German promotion RINGENHOSTEL. Andrei made his debut on RINGENHOSTEL's first show and was confronted by Ben Haskell who challenged him to a match on the next show, Sokolova believing he deserved an opportunity at the RINGENHOSTEL Championship. The match took place at the next event where the match would be contested for the new Blitz Championship, a title that would only be won within a 10 minute time limit. The two came close, but Andrei only managed to pin Haskell a few seconds after 10 minutes, and he wouldn't end up walking away with the belt. RINGENHOSTEL took a small break after this show, but their last show 'Bring it on Home' would eventually culminate with Andrei competing in the main event for the RINGENHOSTEL Championship against Tyberius King, Ana Hayden, Lord Raab and Eddie Jacobs. Raab would be pinned by King and RINGENHOSTEL would close its doors.
Full Force Pro (2018)[]
Andrei was then assigned to Full Force Pro, which was mostly made up of ex-RINGENHOSTEL talents and he would be placed in the Full Force Championship gauntlet on FF1, being pinned by the former Tyberius King now known by Wadjethotep in the first match in the gauntlet itself. He was scheduled to compete on FF2 against Britain Jade and Andre Holmes in a tag match with Oliver Richards as his tag partner, but Full Force closed its doors soon after.
Canadian Championship Wrestling (2018 - 2019)[]
In his second re-assignment, Vasile was now transferred to Canadian Championship Wrestling and would make his debut in a match at 'Breakdown' to crown the first CCW North American Champion. Sokolova would end up pinning Issak Otto in order to eliminate him, but would then fall to Oliver Richards and was eliminated, the match was eventually won by Bethany Driver. He would make his next appearance at 'Fully Loaded' in the CCW Television Championship gauntlet match, being eliminated by then defending champion Will Neilson. At the end of the night, Sokolova was announced by Daniel Riley to be challenging for Caroline Clarke's CCW Global Championship on Night 3 of CWC Worldwide II.
Worldwide II never came to fruition following the collapse of CWC, with CCW and many other promotions creating a new coalition known as the UCWA. Sokolova received his opportunity against Clarke at a house show, only to lose via pinfall. He would have another chance to contend for the belt, being booked against Aubrey Moresi in the main event of 'Glory' however would fall short once again. This is when he set his sights on Brett Edgar who had just defeated Ethan Williams to win back the CCW Television Championship, attacking him after Edgar's match against Carlos Cruz at 'Delirium' which set up an encounter for the belt at 'End Game'. On October 4th at 'End Game', Andrei defeated Brett Edgar to win the CCW Television Championship.
He officially changed his in-ring name to Andrei Vasile shortly after. The company would then announce to be on a hiatus and Andrei was released from his contract.
Personal Life[]
Vasile has said in interviews that he is a huge fan of heavy metal and rock, and notes VITJA, Of Mice and Men, Parkway Drive, Capture, and Wolves In The Throne Room as some of his favourite artists. Andrei also watches a lot of football being raised in England for most of his life, supporting English based team Doncaster Rovers.
In Wrestling[]
- Finishing Moves
- Hellblade (Leaping Cutter, sometimes from an elevated position) - 2016 - present.
- Control Your Chaos (Rolling Cutter) - 2018 - present
- Maelstrom (Modified Dragon Sleeper) - 2018 - present
- Control Your Chaos Mk. II (Elevated Rolling Cutter) - 2018 - present
- Signature Moves
- Stomp-olova (Diving Double Foot Stomp) - 2016
- Seeing Red (Running Bicycle Knee) - 2016 - present
- Finality (Vertical Suplex Sideslam) - 2017 - 2018
- Reckoning (Chicken Wing Gutbuster) - 2017 - present
- Shatter Thy Spirit (Pop-Up Roundhouse Kick) - 2017 - present
- Tell No Lie (Back Suplex dropped into a Piledriver) - 2018 - present
- Theme Songs
- VITJA - Heavy Rain - 2016 - 2018
- G-Eazy - Pray For Me - 2018
- Code Orange - Mercy - 2018 - present
Championships and Accomplishments[]
- Royalty Wrestling
- Breakout Star of the Year 17/18 (1 time)
- REVOLT! Pro Combat
- REVOLT! Heavyweight Championship (1 time, inaugural)
- Canadian Championship Wrestling
- CCW Television Championship (1 time)