Jake Crist

John Crist (born July 13, 1984), better known by the ring name Jake Crist, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Major League Wrestling (MLW).

He is best known for his time with Impact Wrestling where he is a one-time Impact X Division Champion and one-time Impact World Tag Team Champion.

From 2003 until 2020, Crist was one-half of the Crist Brothers alongside his older brother Dave.

For the majority of their careers, they wrestled on the Midwest independent circuit, most notably for the Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA), where they won the HWA Tag Team Championship a record six times.

They also wrestled for Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), Chikara, IWA Mid-South (IWA MS), and Ring of Honor (ROH), as well as Canadian promotions, Far North Wrestling (FNW) and UWA Hardcore Wrestling (UWA).

After years of being The Irish Airborne, they changed their name to Ohio Is 4 Killers (OI4K) and later Ohio Versus Everything.

Crist has also competed for Juggalo Championship Wrestling, where he is a former JCW Tag Team Champion.

Under the ring names Lotus and Crazy J respectively, Dave and Jake Crist made their debut in Buckeye Pro Wrestling against Dean and Chet Jablonski in which they lost the match.

The Crists continued to wrestle their way through the ranks of BPW often feuding with the team of American Youth, ultimately defeating them on February 24, 2004 to become the BPW Tag Team Champions.

During their time in BPW, the Irish Airborne had chances to work on cross promotion shows with Heartland Wrestling Association and were eventually offered a match with the HWA.

The Irish Airborne then entered HWA, where they instantly became fan favorites due to their performance in BPW and the shared fan base.

Their first match was a four-way tag match where they teamed up with Viper and Zeta against 4BJ, J.T. Stahr & Jimmy Turner & Ala Hussein.

The Irish Airborne continued to have success in HWA leading to a tag team title championship victory against Necessary Roughness in May 2005.

As success came quickly for the brothers, tension ensued, ultimately leading to a bloody feud that began in the Autumn 2005 and lasted through early 2006.

The feud culminated in a best of seven series in which both brothers would attempt to top the other in amounts of violence and wit.

The feud finally ended in one of HWA's bloodiest and most gruesome ladder matches to date.

Both men realizing neither of them could top the other ended the feud and began to wrestle as a team once again.

On January 27, 2006, the Crists were invited to wrestle a dark match in Ring of Honor against each other in which Lotus defeated Crazy J. The following night, they were again allowed to wrestle in a dark match, this time as a tag team against Shane Hagadorn & Conrad Kennedy III in which they won.

On March 4, 2006, at an Insanity Pro Wrestling show in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Airborne announced that they would no longer use the ring names of Lotus and Crazy J, but instead under their real names of Dave and Jake Crist.

John decided to use the first name "Jake" rather than John due to the fact there were too many well known Johns in professional wrestling.

On March 11, 2006, at Arena Warfare, the Crists earned a roster spot with ROH as they took on and defeated Tony Mamaluke and Sal Rinauro at the New Alhambra Arena (now 2300 Arena).

On April 9, 2011, Crist was invited to compete in Combat Zone Wrestling's "Best Of The Best X" representing Insanity Pro Wrestling.

He would go on to lose in the first round losing against Sami Callihan in a triple threat match that also involved AR Fox.

The next night on April 10, 2011 at CZW's "International Incident", Crist would go on to wrestle Jon Moxley in Moxley's final match in CZW in another losing effort.

After the match, Crist would be attacked by both Moxley and Robert Anthony until Devon Moore made the save.

Crist return to CZW on May 14, 2011 in a losing effort against Ryan McBride; after which fans chanted "Please Come Back" after the match.

On June 11, 2011, at CZW "Prelude To Violence", Crist was told by CZW Owner DJ Hyde that if Crist wanted a CZW Contract then he would have to go and defeat Sami Callihan.

However Callihan would go on to defeat Crist again.

After the match, both men showed respect by shaking hands.

Adam Cole and Mia Yim would come down to mock Callihan.

During the verbal confrontation DJ Hyde would come out and lariat Callihan.

Jake Crist would try to save Callihan but wound up attacked by DJ Hyde.

On July 9, 2011 at CZW "New Heights" AR Fox would offer a CZW Wired TV Championship title match to Crist.

Crist would go on to gain his first win in CZW by defeating AR Fox to become the new CZW Wired TV Champion.

On September 10, 2011, Crist was originally supposed to defend his newly won title against Chrisjen Hayme.

However, Hayme would withdraw from the match and was replaced by Dustin Rayz.

Crist would go on to retain against Dustin Rayz.

Dave Crist though, would show more concern about his brothers' TV title than in Jake Crist's well being.

After the show Dustin Rayz would confront the Irish Airborne about Dave getting involved in his match against Jake.

Crist successfully defended his Wired TV title against Latin Dragon earlier that night.