Cody Deaner

Christopher Gray (born March 7, 1982), better known by his ring name Cody Deaner, is a Canadian professional wrestler, and motivational speaker signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he competes under the ring name Deaner (a shortened version of his previous ring name) and was the leader of The Design.

He is a former two-time Impact World Tag Team Champion with Eric Young and Joe Doering (as Violent By Design), holding the titles under the Freebird rule.

Gray was trained by "Dangerboy" Derek Wylde in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and subsequently made his professional wrestling debut for the now defunct Hardcore Wrestling Federation in 2000 under the ring name Cody Steele.

Upon the HWF's closure, he then wrestled for numerous Canadian and American independent wrestling promotions, winning numerous titles across both countries.

He had a number of WWE tryouts under the Cody Steele moniker, including an appearance on SmackDown!.

As Cody Steele, Gray won numerous independent wrestling titles across the US and Canada.

He held gold for a number of promotions including: Fighting Spirit Pro Wrestling, Neo Spirit Pro Wrestling, Canadian International Wrestling Alliance, Great Lakes Championship Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Xtreme, Great Canadian Wrestling, and others.

Other independent wrestling promotions he has wrestled for include Border City Wrestling, Ballpark Brawl, Pier 6 Wrestling, Empire State Wrestling, International Wrestling Federation, NWA-Empire, NWA-Upstate, AWA-Ontario, Twins Wrestling Entertainment, Classic Championship Wrestling, WAR Wrestling, and Prime Time Wrestling.

His earliest WWE match to record was on November 22, 2004, under the ring name Cody Steele in a dark match, where he lost to Muhammad Hassan.

Three days later, on November 25, he made a televised appearance on WWE's program, SmackDown! as a planted hometown hero against Kurt Angle, in a match for Angle's Olympic gold medal.

Angle defeated Steele to retain his medal.

In 2005, Gray began wrestling in the newly founded independent promotion, Great Canadian Wrestling (GCW).

He made his GCW debut at a GCW event on June 26 as "Completely" Cody Steele, defeating Derek Wylde.

At Rage of the Cage, he began wrestling as Cody Deaner and lost to Shawn Spears in the main event.

At Stampede Showdown, Deaner was booked to defeat Hayden "The Destroyer" Avery for his newly won GCW Ontario Independent Championship.

As a result, Deaner began feuding with Avery for the title.

Deaner held the title for three months before losing it back to Avery at Ugandan Invasion.

At ''Veni!

Vidi!

Vici'', Avery defeated Deaner in a Motorcity Street Fight rematch to retain the title.

At Beyond the Limit, Deaner and Avery ended their feud as they teamed up to defeat defending champions Derek Wylde & Andrew Davis and Ash & Otis Idol in a triple threat tag team match for the GCW Tag Team Championship.

Shortly after the title win, Deaner and Avery began feuding with The Flatliners (Asylum and Matt Burns) for the belts and defeated them in several matches throughout the rest of the year, before losing the tag championships to Flatliners at Genesis 11:25:07.

The feud between the teams continued, until Deaner and Avery regained the titles from Flatliners in a steel cage tag team match at Game Over.

They lost the titles to The Houses of Virtue (Andrew Davis and Sebastian Suave) at Random Acts of Violence.

After losing the belts, Deaner and Avery continued to team up and challenged for the titles but failed in winning them, so they broke up their tag team and focused on singles competition.

In the fall of 2008, Deaner was put into a feud with the GCW National Champion Otis Idol over the belt, which culminated in a series of matches but Deaner failed to win it.

Their feud ended after Idol lost the title.

During this time, Deaner began appearing in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), but he still continues to wrestle for GCW.

On July 12, 2009, Deaner defeated "Tenacious" Scotty Turner to win the TWA Heavyweight Championship.

After his release from TNA, Deaner dropped his old redneck gimmick and dubbed himself "The Everyman".

After his release from Impact Wrestling in 2009, Cody returned to his roots and began wrestling on the independent wrestling circuit again.

He quickly developed a loyal fan following that has come to be known as the Deaner Dynasty.

Deaner was signed to a contract by TNA in 2009.

On February 12 edition of Impact!, Impact Knockout ODB cut a promo about letting "one lucky guy spend the night" with her and at Destination X, she chose Deaner as her date.

From that time on, Deaner began serving as ODB's manager.

On April 25, 2010, Deaner lost the TWA Heavyweight Championship to Robbie MacAllister at TWA Wrestlelusion II.

Deaner returned to the Independent circuit on March 25, 2010, at a Twin Wrestling Entertainment Event, Deaner competed in a 3 Way Dance which was won by Kamala, also on March 25, 2010, Deaner & Crazzy Steve & Kamala defeated Jake O'Reilly & Primo Scordino & Robbie MacAllister in a six-man tag team match, on May 1, 2010, Deaner defeated Cezar in a match for Classic Championship Wrestling.

On November 21, 2013, Deaner defeated Ethan Page to win the Battle Arts Openweight Championship.

In January 2016, Cody Deaner held 4 different heavyweight championships in 4 different Canadian independent wrestling promotions.

Cody Deaner is the Border City Wrestling Champion, Rock Solid Wrestling Champion, Crossfire Wrestling Champion, and Magnificent Championship Wrestling Champion.