Information about The Highlanders (professional Wrestling)

The Highlanders
A picture of . Robbie (left) and Rory McAllister
Tag Team
Members	Robbie McAllister Rory McAllister
Name(s)	The Highlanders
Heights	6 ft (183 cm) - Rory 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) - Robbie
Combined weight	476 lb (34 stone) (213 kg)
Hometown	Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
Billed from	Oban, Scotland
Debuted	2000
Promotions	PWA NSPW OVW WWE
Trainer	Waldo Von Erich |

The Highlanders are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of kayfabe cousins Robbie (Derek Graham-Couch) and Rory McAllister (Russell Murray) (born March 28), who currently wrestle for World Wrestling Entertainment on the RAW brand.

History

Couch and Murray were both born and raised in Oban, Scotland (where the team is currently billed from) before moving to Cambridge, Ontario, Canada in 1988^[1].

Couch first started going to a wrestling school at the behest of co-worker at CAMI Automotive, Inc. ^[2] where he met future tag team partner Murray. The two were trained by Waldo Von Erich<ref name="slam" /> at the Von Erich / Hart Brothers School of Wrestling.

The two men began wrestling as the team Highlanders in South-Western Ontario with promotions such as Pure Wrestling Association (PWA) and Neo Spirit Pro Wrestling, which ran shows in the Ontario, Canada region. The team's last independent match before signing a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) occurred in PWA, against Andrew Davis and Phil Latio in Cambridge, Ontario.

They then signed a developmental deal with World Wrestling Entertainment in July of 2005 and were assigned to their "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) where they wrestled for several months.

In June of 2006 vignettes began airing on RAW featuring The Highlanders exploring "the big city" and comparing the differences to their native Scotland in classic fish out of water style.

The Highlanders made their RAW debut on July 3, with a victory over the duo of Matt Striker and Rob Conway. They followed this victory with another over the same team and were put on the fast track to a match for the Spirit Squad's Tag Team Title.

When they were granted a match against Spirit Squad members Kenny and Mikey, The Highlanders were defeated after abundant interference by the other members.

Throughout the month of August, The Highlanders continued to battle different tag teams until they won a Triple Threat tag team match over the team of Charlie Haas and Viscera and Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, which made them the number one contenders to the Spirit Squad's title on the September 4 RAW. However they were unsuccessful in winning the title at Unforgiven, again because of interference from Spirit Squad members not technically a part of the match. Since then they mostly competed on RAW's sister show Heat, occassionally making appearances on RAW primarily to job to other teams or singles wrestlers such as Snitsky. On the September 24, 2007 episode of RAW The Highlanders interrupted a match between Paul London and Brian Kendrick and Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, due to The Highlanders getting tired of being held back from a World Tag Team Championship opportunity, thus the duo turning heel.

Personal life

Rory and his wife are expecting a baby boy and they will be naming him Ian Russell Murray.^{[3] [4]}

The Highlanders both have Scottish designed tattoos.

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves

* Double Hotscot Slingshot (Double slingshot inverted suplex)

*Scot Drop (Double fireman's carry flapjack)

*Slingshot Inverted suplex – Rory

*Double underhook piledriver – Robbie

*Battering Ram

*Double underhook powerbomb – Robbie

*Headbutt – Rory or Robbie

*Placing an opponent's head underneath their kilt

*Lifting side slam backbreaker – Rory

*Double axe handle blow to the chest

• Entrance and mannerisms

*Keeping with their Scottish background, The Highlanders weights are given in stone when announced instead of pounds.

*The duo also have a seemingly subconscious constant itch and often tag each other in with hard slaps to the face.^[5].

External links

• Robbie McAllister WWE.com Index
• Rory McAllister WWE.com Index
• Rory McAllister Official Myspace Page

References