Samuel Guevara (born July 28, 1993) is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of La Facción Ingobernable (LFI) and is a record tying three-time former AEW TNT Champion. He also appears in AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a former three-time ROH World Tag Team Champion.
Guevara made his professional wrestling debut in 2010 - after being trained by Booker T - beginning his career in Booker's Reality of Wrestling promotion. Throughout the 2010s, he worked for numerous U.S. companies, most notably Impact Wrestling. He has also wrestled in Japan with DDT Pro Wrestling. Guevara has been with AEW since the promotion's founding in 2019, featured early on as a member of Chris Jericho's first stable, The Inner Circle. He has previously worked for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), where he is a former AAA Mixed Tag Team Champion with real life wife Tay Melo, and a former AAA Cruiserweight Champion.
Early life Sammy Guevara was born on July 28, 1993, in Houston, Texas, to a Cuban father and an American mother. He grew up in the nearby suburb of Katy, Texas, and his parents divorced when Sammy was young. Guevara became a fan of wrestling in 2004 when he went to a WWE Smackdown show in Houston where he saw Booker T and Rey Mysterio wrestle. He later decided he wanted to become a professional wrestler, so he went to Booker T's Reality of Wrestling wrestling school in Houston in 2010.
Professional wrestling career Early career (2010–2019)
After graduating from Booker T's wrestling school, Guevara made his major promotion debut on January 5, 2013, for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). On April 7, 2016, Guevara wrestled a AAA tag team dark match with Tony Guevara (The Laredo Kid) against Los Matadores (Primo and Epico Colón). Guevara first worked for Impact Wrestling in 2017 on its weekly TV show, Impact Xplosion, in a tag team match (with Davey Richards) against Drago and Taiji Ishimori. Guevara was later in Impact's Super X Cup tournament, losing to Drago in its opening round. Guevara debuted for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) in its 2017 Battle of Los Angeles tournament, advancing to the quarterfinals. Also in 2017, Guevera attended a tryout for WWE at their Performance Center and did a handful of dark matches for the promotion, but was not signed. At PWG's May 2018 Bask In His Glory event, Guevara wrestled PWG World Champion WALTER in the main event for the title. On December 7, 2017, Guevara debuted in Major League Wrestling (MLW), and appeared many times on its TV show (MLW Fusion) in 2018. Guevara won the PWFP Ultimate Championship from Raja Naveed at the "Rumble in Pakistan" event on April 28, 2019, but was later stripped of the title for going 340+ days without making any title defenses.
Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (2018–2019) Guevara was a cast member for season four of Lucha Underground, the scripted TV show AAA co-produced with the El Rey network. Guevara made his Lucha Libre AAA World Wide debut at Verano de Escándalo 2018. He won the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship at the Triplemanía XXVI annual event on August before losing it to Laredo Kid on February 16, 2019. At Triplemanía XXVII, Guevara teamed up with Scarlett Bordeaux in a match for the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship where they were unsuccessful.
All Elite Wrestling / Ring of Honor (2019–present) The Inner Circle (2019–2021)
On February 7, 2019, Guevara was announced to have signed with the newly formed All Elite Wrestling (AEW). At the promotion's inaugural event, Double or Nothing, on May 25, Guevara was defeated by Kip Sabian. At Fight for the Fallen on July 13, Guevara teamed with MJF and Shawn Spears to defeat Darby Allin, Jimmy Havoc and Joey Janela in a six-man tag team match. On the premiere episode of AEW Dynamite on October 2, Guevara lost to Cody. After the match, Guevara shook hands with Cody, before AEW World Champion Chris Jericho viciously attacked Cody from behind in front of him. Later on that night, Guevara established himself as a heel when he assisted AEW World Champion Chris Jericho, Jake Hager (who made his AEW debut), Santana and Ortiz attacking Cody, The Young Bucks and Cody's half-brother Dustin Rhodes. They created a group that would become known as "The Inner Circle". Guevara would then begin a feud with Darby Allin leading into 2020, all the while assisting Jericho in his rivalries and championship defenses. At Revolution on February 29, 2020, Guevara was defeated by Allin. On the March 25 episode of AEW, The Inner Circle and The Elite were set to compete in a Blood and Guts match, but the COVID-19 outbreak would cause AEW to postpone the match. Guevara would then compete in a tournament to crown the inaugural AEW TNT Champion. He was again beaten by Allin in the first round of the tournament. A match between Matt Hardy and The Elite (Adam Page, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) and The Inner Circle would be announced for Double or Nothing, called a Stadium Stampede match. At the event, The Inner Circle faced The Elite and Matt Hardy, but were unsuccessful in winning.
On June 22, 2020, Guevara was suspended by AEW after it was revealed that he made an inappropriate joke about wanting to "go rape" WWE wrestler Sasha Banks during a podcast in January 2016. He later made a YouTube video apologizing for the remarks and taking accountability for what he said. Later that day, Banks announced that she and Guevara were in contact with each other, that he had apologized to her, and that they had engaged in an "open discussion" to help him understand the severity of his comments. The conditions of his suspension are that he was required to attend sensitivity training, while his weekly pay was donated to the Women's Center of Jacksonville during the course of his suspension. Guevara returned on the July 22 episode of Dynamite, disguised as Serpentico, as he interfered to help Jericho and Hager defeat Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus in a tag team match. After Guevara's return, he would resume his feud with Matt Hardy, however it was later paused due to Hardy sustaining an injury during a Broken Rules match at All Out. Their feud ended with a "The Elite Deletion" match at Full Gear, where Hardy won. At Full Gear, MJF and Wardlow became Guevara's new teammates in The Inner Circle after MJF defeated Jericho. On the December 9th Dynamite, Chris Jericho held an ultimatum for the Inner Circle, with many members showing frustrations with MJF. Sammy Guevara would declare that if one more thing happened with MJF, then he would quit the Inner Circle. The two would then shake hands.
On the February 10, 2021, edition of AEW Dynamite, following weeks of growing tension between the two, Guevara attacked MJF following a backstage confrontation which gave MJF a kayfabe rib injury. Later on that night, Guevara announced his departure from The Inner Circle. This was set to leave him appearing on Impact Wrestling, but both parties couldn't come to an agreement about Guevara's storylines. A month later on the March 10 episode of Dynamite, Guevara would make a return to AEW. He would reveal that he had set up a camera in The Inner Circle's locker room, which recorded MJF convincing Jake Hager, Santana, and Ortiz to turn on Chris Jericho. When it looked as though the three were about to attack Guevara and Jericho, they instead turned to MJF. Jericho would then fire MJF on the spot. However, MJF would state that he had already begun creating his own group, which led to Shawn Spears, Wardlow, FTR, and Tully Blanchard coming out and attacking The Inner Circle. On the March 31 episode of Dynamite, Guevara, along with all of the other Inner Circle members, would return yet again and attack the group now known as The Pinnacle. They would kick The Pinnacle out of their locker room, as they had taken over it during the Inner Circle's absence.
Two weeks later on April 7, Chris Jericho (along with the rest of the members of the Inner Circle) would challenge The Pinnacle to a Blood and Guts match. At AEW Blood and Guts, The Pinnacle would defeat The Inner Circle, after Guevara forfeited the match to save Chris Jericho from being pushed off the top of the cage by MJF. However, MJF would still push Jericho off the cage onto the ramp. On the next episode of Dynamite, The Inner Circle would interrupt The Pinnacle's celebration by coming out in a "Bubbly Truck" (reminiscent of when Kurt Angle sprayed The Alliance with milk in a truck.) The Inner Circle would do the same thing to The Pinnacle, spraying them with bubbly and ruining their celebration. However, MJF would challenge The Inner Circle to a Stadium Stampede match at Double or Nothing, with the stipulation being that if The Inner Circle lost, they had to disband. Chris Jericho would accept the match, with Guevara primarily wrestling Shawn Spears. At Double or Nothing, The Inner Circle would win after Guevara hit a 630 senton on Spears in the ring after an extensive backstage brawl between the two, keeping the group alive. On the episode following the pay-per-view, The Inner Circle would declare a "summer of violence" for the Pinnacle. On the June 30th edition of AEW Dynamite, Sammy Guevara would lose to MJF after Spears hit him with a chair to the head.
TNT Champion (2021–2022) On September 29, Guevara won the AEW TNT Championship at Dynamite by defeating Miro. The next week, Guevara made his first successful defense against a debuting Bobby Fish. On December 25, at the special Holiday Bash episode of Rampage, Guevara lost the title to Cody Rhodes, ending his reign at 87 days. A TNT Championship rematch between Rhodes and Guevara was scheduled to take place at Battle of the Belts I on January 8, 2022. However, Rhodes was forced to withdraw after being exposed to COVID-19. An interim TNT title was created as a result, with a match between Guevara and Cody's brother, Dustin, being scheduled at Battle of the Belts instead. Guevara would go on to win the match and become the interim TNT champion. On January 26 at AEW Beach Break, Guevara defeated Cody Rhodes in a ladder match to unify the belts, becoming the undisputed (and two-time) TNT Champion. The match was awarded 5 stars by professional wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, giving Guevara his first 5-star match. On the February 9, 2022, episode of AEW Dynamite, the Inner Circle had a team meeting that ended with Sammy Guevara throwing his vest and walking out. At Revolution 2022, Guevara would win a Tornado tag team match with Allin and Sting over Andrade El Idolo, Matt Hardy, and Isiah Kassidy.
On the March 9, 2022, episode Dynamite, Guevara would lose the TNT Championship to Scorpio Sky. Sammy would continue his feud with Scorpio Sky but with the inclusion of his girlfriend Tay Conti due to the official signing of Paige VanZant in AEW. At Battle of the Belts II, Sammy Guevara successfully ended Scorpio Sky's undefeated streak with a low blow, winning his record-tying 3rd TNT Championship. Sammy dropped the title back to Scorpio Sky on the April 27 episode of Dynamite in a ladder match, thus ending his reign at 12 days, which is the shortest reign in the title's history. Guevara also suffered injuries from the ladder match to his shoulder, as a result of a Twisting Splash from the top of a ladder. At Double or Nothing on May 29, 2022, Sky, VanZant and Ethan Page defeated Guevara, Frankie Kazarian and Tay Conti in a six-person tag team match, with Guevara and Kazarian losing the right to further challenge Sky for the TNT Championship as a result.
Jericho Appreciation Society (2022–2023)