Curtis Axel

Joseph Curtis "Joe" Hennig (born October 1, 1979) is an American professional wrestler. He is better known by his ring name Curtis Axel and previous ring name Michael McGillicutty. He worked for the WWE from 2007 to 2020, where he is a former Intercontinental Champion and former two-time WWE (Raw) Tag Team Champion^[a] with David Otunga and Bo Dallas. He was also a member of The New Nexus which was led by CM Punk.

Curtis Axel
Axel at WrestleMania 31 Axxess on March 28, 2015
Born	(1979-10-01) October 1, 1979 (age 45) Champlin, Minnesota
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Joe Hennig Michael McGillicutty Curtis Axel
Billed height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Billed weight	228 lb (103 kg)
Billed from	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Trained by	Curt Hennig Brad Rheingans Harley Race
Debut	July 13, 2007

Axel was born in Champlin, Minnesota. His father was "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig and his grandfather is Larry "The Axe" Hennig. He chose his ring name Curtis Axel as a tribute to them.

Championships

• Florida Championship Wrestling
  • FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship (one time)^[1]
  • FCW Florida Tag Team Championship (three times) (with Heath Miller (one), Brett DiBiase (one) and Kaval (one))^[1]
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI Rookie of the Year (2008)
  • PWI Feud of the Year (2010) (The Nexus vs. WWE)^[2]
  • PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (2010) (as part of The Nexus)^[3]
  • He was ranked #47 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2013.^[4]
• World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
  • WWE Intercontinental Championship (one time)^[5]
  • WWE (Raw) Tag Team Championship^[a] (two times) (with David Otunga) (1)^[6] and Bo Dallas (1)
  • Slammy Award for Shocker of the Year (2010) (The debut of The Nexus)^[7]

Footnotes

1. During his first reign the title was called "WWE Tag Team Championship". His second reign happened when the title was exclusive to Raw and was renamed "WWE Raw Tag Team Championship".