Mikey Nicholls

Michael Nicholls (born 20 August 1985), better known by his ring name Mikey Nicholls, is an Australian professional wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he is a member of The Mighty Don't Kneel.

He is best known for his work in Pro Wrestling Noah, where, with partner Shane Haste, he is a two-time GHC Tag Team Champion.

He has also wrestled in the United States for WWE in their promotion NXT (as Nick Miller), Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) and Ring of Honor (ROH).

Nicholls started training in Perth at the Dynamite Factory, the wrestling school of Explosive Pro Wrestling.

He moved to California and started working for promotions in the United States, such as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, NWA Pro, and World League Wrestling.

Nicholls has trained at the New Japan Pro-Wrestling's L.A. Dojo, based in Los Angeles.

He wrestled for NJPW in Tokyo in 2006.

Also in 2006, Nicholls unsuccessfully challenged for the NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship.

In June 2007, after NWA split with TNA, Nicholls was involved in the Reclaiming the Glory tournament to crown a new NWA Heavyweight Champion, but was defeated in the tournament by Fergal Devitt.

In September 2007, Nicholls defeated champion Karl Anderson and Ryan Taylor in a 30-minute Iron Man match for the Empire Wrestling Federation American Championship.

In 2009, Nicholls wrestled for Ring of Honor.

On 23 February 2011, Nicholls made his debut in Pro Wrestling Noah as he had a try-out match against his teammate Shane Haste.

A month after the try-out match both men started to work full-time with the Japanese promotion.

Nicholls competed in both the 2012 and 2013 Global League tournaments as a singles competitor.

After starting out in Noah, Nicholls returned to the United States and Ring of Honor in February 2012.

He and Haste won a tournament at ROH Rise & Prove, defeating two other teams to qualify for a match against the Briscoe Brothers.

At the ROH Showdown in the Sun iPPV in March 2012, the Briscoe Brothers defeated Nicholls and Haste in a Proving Ground match.

Also in February 2012, Nicholls and Haste wrestled television matches for NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood.

Also in March 2012, Nicholls and Haste started wrestling for Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), during their stint there, they were defeated in a title match for the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship by Rudy Switchblade and Jessie Godderz.

On 7 July 2013, Haste and Nicholls, known together as The Mighty Don't Kneel (TMDK), won the GHC Tag Team Championship after they defeated Toru Yano and Takashi Iizuka.

On 16 September, Nicholls unsuccessfully challenged Kenta for Noah's top title, the GHC Heavyweight Championship.

At the end of 2013, the Tokyo Sports magazine named Nicholls and Haste the tag team of the year, making them the first foreign team to win the award since Stan Hansen and Vader in 1998.

Nicholls and Haste lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to Maybach Taniguchi and Takeshi Morishima on 25 January 2014.

On 20 December 2014, Nicholls and Haste made their debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), when they, along with Naomichi Marufuji, were revealed as Toru Yano's tag team partners at Wrestle Kingdom 9 on 4 January 2015.

At the event, the four defeated Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith Jr.., Lance Archer, Shelton X Benjamin and Takashi Iizuka) in an eight-man tag team match.

They regained the title from Dangan Yankies (Masato Tanaka and Takashi Sugiura) on 10 January 2015.

They lost the title to K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith Jr.. and Lance Archer) on 11 February.

On 28 December 2015, Noah announced that Nicholls and Haste would leave the promotion following their contracts expiring at the end of the year.

In June 2015, Nicholls and Haste took part in a WWE tryout camp.

On 11 February 2016, Noah announced that Nicholls and Haste would return to the promotion the following month to take part in a five-show-long farewell tour, entitled "Departure to the World".

Their final Noah match took place on 10 March and saw them defeat Naomichi Marufuji and Mitsuhiro Kitamiya.

In February 2016, it was reported that Nicholls and Haste were scheduled to join WWE's NXT brand following their Noah farewell tour.

On 25 March 2016, WWE confirmed the signings of both Nicholls and his tag team partner, Shane Haste.

They began training at the WWE Performance Center in April, while working for the promotion's developmental branch NXT.

During the 19 May NXT tapings, Haste and Nicholls were renamed Shane Thorne and Nick Miller, respectively, while TMDK was renamed TM-61.

On 19 November, at NXT TakeOver: Toronto, TM-61 lost in the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic to the Authors of Pain.

Thorne then had knee surgery, which was expected to sideline him for seven to nine months.

He returned on 14 September.

TM-61 then entered the 2018 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, being eliminated by the Authors of Pain in the first round.

The team was officially renamed The Mighty on the 6 June episode of NXT.