| The Cavendish Estate | |
| |
| Jack Cavendish Dawkins | |
|---|---|
| Billed heights | 5 ft. 11 in. (Cavendish) 6 ft. 6 in. (Dawkins) |
| Billed weights | 512 lbs. (combined) |
| Billed From | The Cavendish Estate, London, England |
| Promotions | PGA various UK independents |
| Debuted | 2005 |
The Cavendish Estate are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of real-life best friends Jack Cavendish and Dawkins. They are currently wrestling for the Professional Grappling Association (PGA) and have been since early 2009. They hold the record for the longest reign of the U.S. Tag Team Championship.
Career[]
Background[]
Jack Cavendish and Dawkins met when they were both in their teens. Cavendish’s father, Lord Victor "Snapdragon" Cavendish, found Dawkins begging in the streets of London, and in a rare act of charity, brought him back to work on the estate. Jack Cavendish and Dawkins would eventually strike up a strong friendship, which would lead to Jack taking Dawkins on as his personal butler and valet, enrolling him in the Royal Institute of Professional English Butlers, where he had limited success. In return, Dawkins introduced Cavendish to his favourite thing in the world: pro wrestling. The estate enlisted the best trainers in the United Kingdom to hone the duo's professional wrestling skills, training in both singles competition and as a tag team. Dawkins would develop a power-based wrestling style, with Jack becoming much more technically sound. Cavendish made his professional wrestling debut in late 2004, with Dawkins debuting in October 2005 at a 'harvest ball' held on the estate, teaming up with Jack to defeat two of their fellow Snapdragon & Associates trainees.
United Kingdom Championship Wrestling (2005-2008)[]
Jack Cavendish started working for the London-based independent organisation United Kingdom Championship Wrestling in early 2005. After a few months, Cavendish would enter into a 'class struggle' feud with Stan "Da Man" Allen, who was working a chav gimmick. Cavendish would often end up on the losing end of matches against Allen, usually after interferance from Allen's associates in the New Anti-Social Behaviour Order. Meanwhile, Dawkins had started wrestling for the company and wrestled a few preliminary matches before being repackaged as Cavendish's butler and being inserted into the feud against the nASBo.
At UKCW's "Season's Beatings 2005", Cavendish finally defeated Stan Allen by submission, but was attacked after the match by nASBo members and current UKCW Tag Team Champions "Bling Boi" Baz Peart and MC Kenzie. Dawkins would make the save, starting off a rivalry between the two tag teams. Dawkins and Jack would face the nASBo several times over the next few months but come up short, until March 18, 2006 when they faced Peart and Kenzie at UKCW's "Spring Fling In The Ring" and won the UKCW Tag Team Championship when Dawkins debuted the Whitechapel Neckbreaker.
UKCW fans had slowly started to turn on Jack and Dawkins in the course of the feud and after the title win, almost universally sided with their more 'working class' opponents. This led to Cavendish and Dawkins turning heel, with Jack playing up the more aristocratic and snobbish aspects of his character. Cavendish and Dawkins lost the UKCW Tag Team titles back to the nASBo three months later after interference (which was now cheered) from nASBo valet Chardonnay.
On July 18, 2006, Cavendish and Dawkins would regain the tag team titles at "Hot Summer Heat" when they defeated Baz Peart and MC Kenzie after Dawkins used a cricket bat behind the referee's back. The duo would hold the UKCW titles for two months before losing them to MC Kenzie and new nASBo member Big Skillz in a wild Shoreditch Streetfight that saw Dawkins taken out by his own cricket bat. After the loss, Cavendish and Dawkins started to concentrate on their singles careers but remained aligned. Dawkins would often manage Jack and they would team sporadically over the next two years.
Other independent companies (2006-2008)[]
After teaming several times in United Kingdom Championship Wrestling, Dawkins and Cavendish would start to team up in several other independent promotions across the United Kingdom, as well as occassional appearences in mainland Europe. They would continue to team up over the next few years in various organisations, but found their greatest success in 2008. After Jack Cavendish won the 2008 Lord of the Ring tournament, he announced that he had proved himself as a singles competitor and wanted to concentrate fully on his tag team with Dawkins.
They would rack up several victories in wrestling companies across the UK, and on June 7, 2008 they would defeat veteran wrestler "King Of The Cobbles" Chas Davies and Ricky Wilde to become the Great British Wrestling Tag Team Champions. Jack and Dawkins would hold the GBW Tag Team titles for four months before losing them to Tinker & Taylor (Jimmy O'Reilly and Darren Taylor).
While still GBW Tag Team Champions, Cavendish and Dawkins would compete for Super Star Wrestling Tours, a family-friendly promotion who typically present eight week tours that cover the British coast. On July 12, 2008, Dawkins and Jack won a four team tournament to crown the British Tag Team Champions, beating Black Shuck and Gangrel in the finals. Cavendish and Dawkins would defend the titles successfully for the rest of the summer and relinquish them, undefeated, at the end of the tour.
On October 25 2008, at the Tyneside Wrestling Association's annual "Blood On The Tyne" event, Cavendish and Dawkins won another independent tag team championship when they won the TWA Tag Team titles from The North-East Connection. The team would hold the TWA Tag Team titles for six weeks before losing them back to The North-East Connection in December.
In early 2009, Cavendish and Dawkins caught the eye of then-PGA commissioner B. Armstrong Ruby and were offered a tryout for the PGA as part of the World Talent Initiative™.
Pro Graps Association (2009-)[]
2009[]
On February 25 2009, Jack Cavendish (accompanied by Dawkins) made his PGA debut, defeating W. W. Efron on the second show of the post-unionization era to earn a spot on the roster and a place in the tournament to crown a new World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion. Cavendish was eliminated from the tournament after losing in controversial fashion to Rusty Cooledge, and soon joined the fledging tag team division with Dawkins, calling themselves The Cavendish Estate.
The Cavendish Estate won their first PGA tag team match, an impromptu four-way at Crowning A Champion's Waist '09 that also included The Puppets, Lucharesu.com and Snake Mind (Brian Genius and Snake Eyes). Cavendish got the pin on Mario Nyet after The Puppeteer was incapacitated, starting a long rivalry between the Estate and The Puppets. The shared issues with The Puppets also led to Cavendish and Dawkins forming a loose alliance with Lucharesu.com that would eventually develop into a friendship. Dawkins was always shown as friendlier to GANJU and Internetico than the more reserved Jack, and as more willing to follow their often outrageous schemes and theories during the "Puppet Wars".
At Throwing Hands '09, Cavendish and Dawkins were the first team to enter the Tag Team Gauntlet to crown new United States Tag Team Champions. The Cavendish Estate put on a good showing and defeated two teams in a row before being eliminated by the debuting New Deal On the 6/3/09 episode of PGA Primetime Wednesday!, The Estate fought The New Deal, with the winners getting a U.S. Tag Team title shot against The Puppets on the same night. The Cavendish Estate won the match and the title shot, only to be jumped from behind by The New Deal, giving The Puppets the easy victory. The next week, the Crandal brothers brutally attacked Jack and Dawkins once again after a match. Cavendish and Dawkins vowed revenge on the New Deal and their manager J. P. Widmore, but the feud was cut short when Widmore and the Crandals were suddenly removed from television.
On 6/24/09, the Estate defeated the New Deal and Black Juice to become the number one contenders to the U.S. Tag Team titles, with their shot coming at PGA: Remain Alive. Dawkins entered the Mall For It All match at The Grandest Stage of The Mall at #16, and united with Cavendish (who entered at #19) to double-team and floor everyone else and looked to have the match won, only for The Puppeteer to appear and send an army of countless Puppets flooding into the ring to viciously assault and eliminate the Estate. The next night, Dawkins teamed with Internetico against Cavendish and GANJU in a Battling Bowl match. The Puppeteer would this time target Lucharesu, so The Cavendish Estate and Lucharesu.com then joined forces to officially ‘declare war’ on the Puppets. On the 7/29/09 episode of Primetime Wednesday!, The Puppeteer again sent the Bunraku swarm after the Estate, but with help from Dawkins and his ‘emergency’ cricket bat, the Estate managed to fight off the entire army. This was seen as a ‘star-making’ moment for the Estate and Dawkins in particular.
The Puppeteer’s response to the Estate withstanding the attack was to convince PGA management to add Lucharesu to the title match at Remain Alive, in an attempt to create dissension between the two teams. The next before the PPV, Dawkins teamed with Lucharesu.com to take on Mario Nyet, Bunraku and ‘Fake Eyes’, and was noticeably distant with his partners. At Remain Alive, The Puppeteer announced the match would actually include four teams, introducing another Puppets team of a second Bunraku and Fake Eyes. After Lucharesu sacrificed themselves to take out The Puppeteer, The Estate looked to have the match and the championship won, until Fake Eyes destroyed Cavendish with a devastating lariat and pinned him. Fake Eyes was then revealed to be Snake Eyes himself in disguise. The lariat gave Cavendish a stinger, and caused him to miss the next several weeks of action.
Dawkins spent the few weeks without Cavendish trying to get revenge on Snake Eyes, before Jack return to action on 9/9/09 and resumed their rivalry with Snake Eyes and his new partner Nightdiver, as well as continue their quest for the U.S. Tag Team titles.
In October, Jack’s 17-year-old sister Penelope Cavendish debuted in the PGA. Jack and Dawkins were both opposed to this, believing Penny to be too young and too inexperienced, but on 11/11/09 Penelope teamed with Jack and Dawkins to face The Puppets in a six-person brawl. The fight soon broke out of control, and saw the return of Dawkins’ cricket bat, when he used the weapon to annihilate Mario Nyet in defence of Penny.
On the special Slam-O-Ween episode of Primetime Wednesday!, Jack Cavendish and Dawkins dressed up as the "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and Virgil. This was allegedly some sort of backstage rib on Snake Eyes.
Cavendish Estate Scraf
At Final Four, the Cavendish Estate took part in the U.S. Tag Team Championship Gauntlet Match II. Before the match, Cavendish and Dawkins cut a promo where they announced their ‘need’ to win the U.S. Tag Team Championship and expressed their resentment that they had yet to receive a normal two-on-two title shot. The Estate entered at #4 in the Gauntlet, and put on an impressive performance, eliminating three teams in a row before losing to the tag team champions, The Mountain and the Sky. After Jack was pinned, the Estate snapped and viciously attacked the champions, even using a steel chair. Jack and Dawkins have yet to officially explain their actions, and there has been online debate on whether or not the attack was a full heel turn. Since then, The Cavendish Estate and The Mountain and the Sky have been on somewhat of a collision course.
After the attack on The Mountain and The Sky, the Estate would hint at feeling remorse for their actions but never offer a true explanation or even an apology. After Cavendish and Dawkins defeated Black Dude the week after Final Four, they would not actually wrestle for the next month or so, ostensibly to get over Jack’s dissatisfaction that other teams were receiving U.S. Tag Team title shots ahead of them. Around this time, the Estate began to have several on-screen disagreements with Penny Cavendish relating to their recent attitude. At the same time, the Guns For Hire approached the Estate with an offer to ‘help them get what they wanted’. Cavendish turned the Guns down straight away, but Dawkins accepted their business card and appeared to consider their proposition.
At the end of 2009, readers of the Wrestling Contemplator named The Cavendish Estate the 2009 PGA Tag Team of the Year. This led to Cavendish and Dawkins thanking their “true supporters” for the award, and challenging The Mountain and The Sky to a tag team championship match at the upcoming PPV event Crossfire.
2010[]
On the January 7 2010 episode of Primetime Wednesday!, the Cavendish Estate made the challenge to Ajay Rupa and Mammoth Kang JumBo in person. The Mountain and the Sky replied that they would be happy to give the Estate a title shot, but at Crossfire they would both be entered in the Ladder War match instead. This enraged the Estate and almost led to another altercation between the two teams, but Cavendish was able to calm Dawkins down, with the promise to settle the score with Rupa and JumBo at another time. Later on that same show, Kang JumBo was attacked from behind by the Guns For Hire, who used their weapons to destroy JumBo’s already injured knee. There were strong implications that the Estate were responsible for the assault.
Although Jack and Dawkins would deny having anything to do with the attack on Kang JumBo, everyone from Penelope Cavendish to Ajay Rupa and many of the fans would accuse them of being responsible. The next week, B. Armstrong Ruby announced that JumBo’s injury was too severe for him to compete in the Ladder War at Crossfire, and his replacement would be none other than Jack Cavendish. This drew loud “bullshit” chants from the Philidelphia crowd.[citation needed] Jack and Dawkins’ response was to reveal the new Cavendish Estate football scarf, and to ask anyone who still believed in the Cavendish Estate to “show your colours”.
At Crossfire, Jack Cavendish took part in the dangerous and unpredictable Ladder War. Due to the nature of the Ladder War, Dawkins soon made his presence felt, running in and attacking Buster Abbott with a Whitechapel Neckbreaker, and spending the majority of the match attempting to aid his employer. Jack came close to victory in the Ladder War, but in the end, it was Buster Abbott who was declared the winner.
On the next episode of Primetime Wednesday!, the Cavendish Estate resumed their quest for the U.S. Tag Team titles, and Jack Cavendish defeated Ajay Rupa in singles competition with the Lord of the Rings.
On the Primetime Wednesday! Anniversary Show, the Cavendish Estate congratulated The Mountain and The Sky on becoming the longest reigning U.S. Tag Team Champions since the rebirth of the PGA, and then reminded the audience that the Estate were named the 2009 Tag Team of the Year in the WCN Awards. They offered another challenge to the champions, this time for Crowning A Champion's Waist to settle who which team was truly the best the PGA had to offer. However, later in the same show, Ajay Rupa bluntly refused the challenge, saying the Estate did not deserve it and could "kiss his ass". This would enrage TCE, who ran out to ringside during a brawl involving several wrestlers to attack Rupa and JumBo.
This set up the main event of the next week's show, with Jack and Dawkins teaming up with Brian Genius and MAKOTO (apparently due to Penny Cavendish's relationship with The Cool Kids) to take on Rupa, JumBo, Raijin Narukami and Brutal Chambers. Before the match, Jack Cavendish again challenged Ajay Rupa to a title match and was again turned away. The match itself ended with a big win for the Estate, when Dawkins achieved what many considered an upset by pinning Brutal Chambers following a series of devastating powerbombs.
With Mammoth Kang JumBo resting his bad leg at home in Korea, the next week's episode of PTW saw both Jack and Dawkins corner Ajay Rupa backstage, and again make the challenge for a match at CACW. Rupa stood up to both members of the team and again refused the match, adding that the Estate always choked when it came down to it, and that they could not defeat The Mountain and The Sky "if they had two matches".
On the 3/10/10 episode of the show, Marisol was announced as the new Assistant to B. Armstrong Ruby, and as one of her first acts in her new position, replied to Rupa's comment the previous week and officially made the match for Crowning A Champion's Waist - The Mountain and The Sky vs. The Cavendish Estate in a 2 out of 3 falls match. This decision played off Marisol's friendship with both members of the Estate, as well as her implied pseudo-relationship with Dawkins. After the announcement, Cavendish and Dawkins thanked Ms. Flores and promised they would win the match and the tag team belts. Ms. Flores replied that she could not abuse her position to do them constant favours, so they had better hope they did.
The next week, TCE replaced Rusty Cooledge and Josh Brown to again team with Brian Genius, and took on Brutal Chambers and The Mountain and The Sky in an impromptu main event match. The Estate's team would win the match after Dawkins hit a powerbomb and Whitechapel Neckbreaker on Rupa...but it was Brian Genius who would get the pinfall, in retaliation for Dawkins 'stealing' his victory over Chambers a few weeks earlier.
At Crowning A Champion's Waist, the Cavendish Estate's thirteen-month pursuit of the U.S. Tag Team Championship belts came to an end when they defeated The Mountain and The Sky in a 2 out of 3 falls match. The match was hailed as an instant classic and featured great performances from all four men involved. The Estate would surprise the PGA Omniverse by winning the match in two straight falls: after a thrilling first fall which the Estate won after the Gentleman's Degree on "The Prince of Mid-Air", the second fall became mostly Cavendish vs. Rupa, with both men doing their best to take out the other, even telling their tag team partners to stay out of it. Ajay Rupa ended up trapped in the Lord of the Rings but refused to give up. Rupa absorbed a terrific amount of punishment, until Kang JumBo could no longer see his friend being hurt and threw the Cavendish Estate's scarf into the ring, to signify "throwing in the towel" and begin the Cavendish Estate's tag team title reign.
In wrestling[]
- Finishing moves
- Gentleman's Degree (Backbreaker hold / diving knee drop combination)
- Signature moves
- Ode to Woe (Dropkick to upside down suspended opponent)
- Combination Samoan drop/swinging neckbreaker
- Bearhug hold/clothesline
- Nicknames
- "The Lord of the Ring and his Loyal Brute" - by Lucharesu.com
- Music
Championships and accomplishments[]
- Great British Wrestling
- GBW Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- Professional Grappling Association
- U.S. Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- Super Star Wrestling Tours
- British Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- Tyneside Wrestling Association
- TWA Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- United Kingdom Championship Wrestling
- UKCW Tag Team Championship (2 times)
- Wrestling Contemplator Year End Achievement Awards
- PGA Tag Team of the Year (2009, 2010)