The Ascension get released from WWE

On a day when Luke Harper and Sin Cara were granted their contractual freedom, The Ascension were also given their WWE release.

Made up of Viktor (Ryan Parmeter) and Konnor (Eric Thompson), the duo had been on the shelf TV-wise for some time and had been mainly relegated to WWE Main Event prior to that.

The two were a big part of the early days of NXT’s tag team division, holding the titles for just under a year from 2013-14 before losing to Kalisto and Sin Cara. They were called up to the main roster after three years in FCW/NXT and were presented as a similar team to Demolition and the Road Warriors due to their painted faces and overall look.

However, It didn’t take long for The Ascension to be pushed to the side creatively as less a month into their run, they were beaten up by the APA and New Age Outlaws in an angle on Raw. They eventually got a win over the Outlaws at the Royal Rumble, but the promise they showed in NXT never carried over to the main roster. The team’s main roster run totaled nearly five years in both Raw and SmackDown and they never held either brand’s tag titles once.

Outside a three-year break from wrestling and work on the indies, the 39-year-old Parmeter had been in the WWE system since 2005, dating back to the Deep South Wrestling days. The 39-year-old Thompson is a Stampede Wrestling/Hart Dungeon alumni that had been in the WWE system since 2011 and actually defeated Seth Rollins for the FCW heavyweight title back in 2012.