Rex Armstrong

Rex Armstrong

Rex Armstrong, (also known as JKO Josh or Wayne Banks) born April 27, 1978, is a currently inactive online wrestler who formerly worked on the Bebo Wrestling Network. Armstrong is best known for his respective runs in World Frontier Wrestling, where he is a former 2 time world champion, 2 time tag team champion and 1 time European Champion, Red Hot Wrestling, where he is a former 1 time world champion, and the Bebo Wrestling Alliance, where he is a former 1 time world champion. Armstrong is currently inactive due to sustaining a kayfabe serious knee injury whilst working for the Bebo Wrestling Alliance.

Stats

Nicknames:

RX-5 (In all federations)

The Beast (In all federations; mainly early career)

Mr. WFW (In late WFW career)

Billed From:

San Francisco, California

Billed Measurements:

6 foot 5 inches

280 pounds

Entrance Music used:

Seether - Remedy (Early career)

Firestorm (Instrumental theme) (WFW and RHW Theme)

Saliva - Survival of the Sickest

Disturbed - Inside The Fire (Current Theme)

Early Life - Before Wrestling

Armstrong was born in San Francisco into an upper-middle-class family. Rex's father, Jeremiah, had wrestled himself in the 70's and early 80's, until a back injury forced him into retirement. Jeremiah has sinced opened his own wrestling academy. Rex's mother, Judith, is a qualified nurse. Rex spent much of his childhood looking out for his younger siblings, Wayne (also known as 'Tex') and Rebecca (also known as 'Bex'). Rex developed his trademark brawling wrestling style early on in his life, when he was forced to fight in the back alleys of San Francisco to defend his brother, who was often bullied, and to defend his sister, who was often the subject of desire from other men. Rex began weight training at just 14 years of age. At 16, he enrolled in his father's wrestling camp where he steadily trained for a year, without showing any true promise, before he was convicted of assault and sent to prison for two years. When he got released from prison after another year for good behaviour, Armstrong, now 18, had a point to prove and a fire was lit inside him. Rex began putting himself through gruelling 12 hour training sessions. He re-enrolled himself in his father's academy and began acting as a jobber for independent promotions who came through town. Rex stuck at this for six months, before being disheartened. Rex began to think that he wasn't being noticed, until he was informed by his father that OBW were coming to town and they were looking at potential wrestlers. Rex decided he would give it one last shot and tried out. He was so impressive that OBW offered him a development contract right there and then. The man in question who saw Rex's tryout was none other than Vortex, a man who would eventually become Rex's closest friend in the business.

OBW Training Ground, WFW Early Days

As luck would have it, Armstrong signed his OBW development contract just two short weeks before an official OBW Training Ground began. Vortex, the man who essentially discovered Armstrong, was in charge of this development facility. Rex wrestled in 2 singles matches in the opening 2 weeks of the training ground, winning them both, before Vortex booked a Battle Royaleinvolvingtheentire Training Ground roster to crown the first OBW Training Ground Champion. Rex won this match, which shocked the training ground. This unknown kid from San Francisco had won the training ground's top title within two weeks, seemingly with ease. Vortex continued to be incredibly impressed with Armstrong's skills in the ring, and Vortex eventually recommended Rex to World Frontier Wrestling owner Steve Awesome. Awesome studied tapes of Armstrong, and was once again blown away by Rex's raw talent. Awesome signed Rex up to a full-time WFW contract straight away, and booked Armstrong's first match at the Infusion pay-per-view, a fatal four way match for the WFW Zero-Gravity Championship with Greg McGuiness, Shadow and the defending champion Little Dog. Rex shocked the world by winning this match within three minutes, hitting his signature 'RX-5' on the champion before getting the 3 count. A new star was on the horizon.

Getting Noticed

Rex's Zero Gravity title reign in WFW lasted 78 days, the longest title reign in the company's history. Rex was never beaten for the title, either, as he only lost it when WFW briefly shut down. After WFW went on hiatus, Rex began signing several contracts with other federations including EHOW and WPW, where Rex won world championships in his debuts. Rex went on to build up a fairly large list of championships and became somewhat noticed on the Bebo Wrestling circuit for this, beating several big names along the way. Folks began saying that Armstrong had the ability to become a legend. Armstrong had already proven he could dominate the mid-card scene, but the real question was, could Rex hang with the big boys in the main event? We were about to find out.

Main Eventer; Prime of his career

The summer of 2007 was coming to a close at this point, and the evenings were getting colder, but Rex's career was doing the exact opposite: it was getting hotter by the minute. During early September 2007, World Frontier Wrestling, Rex's parent company, more or less, returned from its hiatus. A tournament for the WFW World Championship began, and Rex continued shocking the world. He won his first two matches with relative ease before facing Christoper Williams and Vortex in a triple threat match in the tournament semi finals. Rex was the clear underdog, Williams and Vortex had bundles of experience on him. Not only that, but Rex had to face his mentor in Vortex. But Rex had spent his life fighting and he wasn't going to stop now. Rex won the match after hitting the 'RX-5' on Christopher Williams for the win. He now advanced to the final to face Levi Spyker. After the shock of winning the triple threat, Rex had to step it up yet another gear, but he didn't disappoint: going into the match, Spyker was 2 and 0 against Armstrong, but Armstrong broke his duck with the gold on the line, once again managing to nail and 'RX-5' for the victory, and his first WFW World Title. The online wrestling world now began buzzing; Armstrong had now officially burst onto the scene. But that was only the half of it. Not long after Rex's WFW World Title victory, George Cannings re-opened Red Hot Wrestling. Rex signed a contract immediately, after his pals Spyker and Vortex encouraged him too, and the rewards proved immense. On the first RHW show back, Cannings organised a 'King of the Hill' match, once again involving the entire roster. Despite being WFW World Champion, Rex still wasn't considered one of the favourites for this match; some people even called his WFW win a fluke. But Rex, as he always does, proved them wrong. Rex mauled through the RHW roster to win the RHW Championship. There was definitely no question about it now; Armstrong was main event and there to stay. The RHW World Title win also marked Rex's first heel turn in his career. Rex now held two of the most prestigious titles on the Bebo circuit at the same time, and some folks were already throwing words such as 'legend' around any time Rex's name was mentioned.

A bumpy ride

Rex continued to retain his WFW and RHW titles in respective defences, until both companies suddenly closed within the same week due to unforeseen circumstances. This bruised Rex's confidence as suddenly he was left with nothing and felt like he was being pushed back to square one again. He did, however, have a brief run as OEW European Champion, but that company soon closed as well. After around 2 months of Rex struggling to figure out where his career was going next, World Frontier Wrestling returned yet again. Rex was given an immediate championship match, due to him having been the champion from the last time out anyway, and he duly obliged with a win, beating Christopher Williams inside a steel cage to win the WFW World Title for a second time, before days later defeating WFW Bebo Champion Zeus in a title unification match, thus unifying the championships. Rex became the first - and only - WFW Undisputed Champion in this manner, WFW once again closed shortly afterwards, however.

Taking a step back

When WFW closed for a third time, Rex decided to take a step back from his career. He continued wrestling, however he dropped down to the mid-card for a while. Rex, instead, began mentoring other online wrestlers to follows in his footsteps. Examples of these would be James Hogan, Chris Edwards and Shane Steele. But Rex knew in his heart that this wasn't what he was meant to be doing. Then, just at the right time, the BWA came calling.

Bebo Wrestling Alliance

Rex had briefly worked with the BWA a few months previously, working as a jobber in a loss to Michael Watts. Now, however, the BWA needed more experienced wrestlers to meet the company's ambitions. Rex needed a steady company to meet his own ambitions. It seemed a perfect fit, and the two parties agreed on a contract. Rex straight away felt more at home in the BWA than he ever had anywhere else. He was revitalised, and it showed in his performances. Rex began a program with Vortex and Drake Hearst in a triple threat feud, leading up to the BWA: One Year Anniversary pay-per-view. At the pay-per-view, the three resolved their differences in a triple threat match, which Rex won convincingly after throwing Drake into the front row and landing an awe-inspiring Shooting Star Press on Vortex for the win, shocking for a man of Rex's size. Rex had the old smile back, and on the following Riot, Rex was involved in a Beat the Clock Sprint. The winner would face the then BWA Champion Levi Spyker at the Holocaust pay-per-view for the BWA Championship. Rex won ths sprint by a second, beating his former protege Shane Steele. Rex then went on to feud with Spyker before facing him at Holocaust in an Ironman match for the BWA Title. Rex won by the skin of his teeth. With just 5 seconds remaining, Spyker was 1 fall to nothing up, before Rex hit an 'RX-5' to secure a quick pinfall, thus taking the match into overtime. Rex then took advantage, hitting another RX-5 before going up to the top rope and nailing a Shooting Star Press for the win. Rex then proceeded to engage in another feud with Levi Spyker and Christopher Williams, culminating in Rex defending the BWA Title against both of them in a Triple Threat Match at BWA Return of the King 2. Rex retained, and immediately began feuding with 'King' Lee Edwards, the man who won the King of the Ring tournament at Return of the King 2. It was around this time that Rex tweaked his knee in training. Word quickly filtered out that Rex would not be able to wrestle on the bad knee for much longer, and a kayfabe scenario was quickly launched. Rex lost the title to Edwards, with Edwards kayfabe injuring Rex's knee in the process.

Now

Rex is rehabbing his knee, at home with his wife and 2 children. He has admitted in interviews that he has thought about not returning to the ring at all. But he has also stated that a return is '90% likely at some point' within the future.

Personal life

Rex is marrried to his wife Rachel. Together they have a daughter and a son. Holly, aged 8, and Tyler, aged 5.

Rex has degrees in both catering and creative writing.

Titles Held

World Championships

1 x BWA Champion

1 x RHW World Champion

1 x WFW World Champion

1 x WFW Undisputed Champion

2 x EHOW World Heavyweight Champion

1 x WPW World Champion

Mid-Card Championships

1 x WFW European Champion

1 x WBW Television Champion

1 x THW European Champion

1 x HKWA Open Champion

1 x OBW Training Ground Champion

1 x WFW Zero-Gravity Champion

1 x EWE Light-Weight Champion

1 x FIWA Hard-Limits Champion

1 x OEW European Champion

1 x EHOW Bebo Champion

Tag Team Championships

1 x WFW Tag Team Champion w/Zeus

1 x EHOW Tag Team Champion w/James Hogan

1 x FTW Tag Team Champion w/Wrestlemaniac

1 x CIA Tag Team Champion w/Zeus

1 x INW Tag Team Champion w/Vortex