He returned to wrestling in 2005 and entered Chikara'sTag World Grand Prix 2005 with partner Claudio Castagnoli and made it to the finals to face Superfriends, Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush. That night, Hero turned on Quackenbush and joined Cannon and Castagnoli, leading Cannon and Castagnoli to win the Tag World Grand Prix. The three began calling themselves The Kings of Wrestling. They began feuding with Quackenbush, but Cannon left the group in 2005. Cannon competed in the Tag World Grand Prix 2006 with Jigsaw as his partner, but lost in the second round. During June 2006, Arik Cannon wrestled in Chikara's fourth annual Young Lions Cup tournament. In the final round, he defeated Cheech to win the tournament. At Chikara's Cibernetico Forever event in October 2006, however, Max Boyer managed to beat him for the Cup.
In October 2007, Cannon went to Japan for a tour with Dragon Gate and was brought into the Muscle Outlawz faction by Naruki Doi along with fellow gaijins Kevin Steen and Jimmy Rave.
On September 6, 2009, Cannon made his debut for Dragon Gate USA at the tapings of the promotion's second pay-per-view titled Untouchable. He would wrestle in an eight-way dark match, which was won by Johnny Gargano.[5] After making several appearances for the promotion in 2010, Cannon was entered into the Breakout Challenge tournament on April 1, 2011. After defeating A. R. Fox, Facade and Shiima Xion in his first round match, Cannon defeated Jimmy Rave in the finals to win the tournament.[6] Two days later at Open the Ultimate Gate, Cannon and Sami Callihan wrestled in a six–way match, before deciding to walk out on the match. Later in the event, Cannon and Callihan announced they would be forming a tag team named the D.U.F. (Dirty Ugly Fucks) and defeated the Dark City Fight Club (Jon Davis and Kory Chavis) in their first match together.[7][8] On June 5 at Enter The Dragon 2011, Cannon and Callihan were joined by Pinkie Sanchez, before picking up a major win over the tag team of Open the Dream Gate ChampionMasaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Yokosuka.[9]
In 2007, Cannon founded the Minneapolis-based promotion F1RST Wrestling, which hosts its flagship "Wrestlepalooza" events at Minneapolis' First Avenue nightclub.[10] In more recent years, the promotion has expanded to host events at an eclectic assortment of locations throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area, including the James Ballentine VFW [11] and Temple of Aaron Synagogue.[12] Several performers from F1RST Wrestling have found later success in larger promotions, such as Seth Rollins, the Top Flight tag team of brothers Darius Martin and Dante Martin, and Ariya Daivari.[13]
In 2021, Cannon had two matches with All Elite Wrestling (AEW). First was June 5 where he teamed up with Kevin Blackwood in a tag match and faced Eddie Kingston and Penta El Zero Miedo in a loss on Dark: ElevationinJacksonville, Florida. His second match was also a tag match in front of his home crowd in Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 12, where he and Renny D took on The Pinnacle members Wardlow and Shawn Spears. The fans in attendance were loudly cheering for Arik and chanting his name loudly. This also was a loss. A 0–2 overall record in AEW as of 2021, he was not pinned in both of his matches.
On August 10, 2022, Cannon teamed with Travis Titan for a tag match taped for Dark: Elevation during the Quake by the Lake special. Cannon and Titan lost to Josh Woods and Tony Nese. Again fans cheered his name loudly during the match.
Cannon was an assistant coach at The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling, a training facility led by WWE alumni Shawn Daivari and Ken Anderson.[14] His real name is George Collins.
Media related to Arik Cannon at Wikimedia Commons
