Knock! Knock! Who’s There?……Braden Walker

Brian Damage

It never ceases to amaze me when I scour the internet for inspiration and certain wrestlers continue to be talked about after years of being considered…”irrelevant.” One such wrestler is Chris Harris, formerly of both TNA and the WWE. Who is he? What did he do? Why is he still talked about?

First, let’s begin with who Chris Harris was before becoming Braden Walker. He was a young up and coming star for WCW in its dying days. He never got to achieve anything worthwhile in his WCW tenure…because the promotion folded and was sold to the WWE. He didn’t fully hit his stride until joining TNA wrestling in 2002. He was one of the forefathers of TNA and helped build it from the ground up. He was paired with “Cowboy” James Storm to form arguably one of the top tag teams in that time period called…”America’s Most Wanted.” Together, he and Storm won the TNA tag team titles on 6 different occasions.

The team eventually split up and Chris Harris started his solo career. He feuded with the likes of James Storm, Christian Cage, Jeff Jarrett and Dustin Rhodes. He seemingly was fizzling out as a star in TNA when the WWE came calling.

In 2008, Harris signed with the WWE. That was in January….he was left off TV or developmental until his debut in July of that same year. Without any ring time for over 6 months…Harris had gained weight and ring rust was apparent. He was assigned to the WWE’s ECW brand and according to Harris…not given any indication what his gimmick or name was. As legend would have it, 20 minutes before his television debut…harris was still without a name. He got together with Taz and Mick Foley to brainstorm and out of that meeting came the name…Braden Walker. A name Chris Harris readily admitted that he despised, but with no alternatives…went with it.

So here is Braden Walker…no vignettes…no direction….out of shape with a name he hated. Sounds like a winning formula….it still might have been, but Harris was given a list of moves he could not use. Why? Simple, much of his move set that brought him success in TNA, was being used by others in the WWE and Heaven forbid if another wrestler…let alone a WWE newbie used them. So now you can add that to his long list of frustrations. He had a sloppy match with Armando Estrada and an equally awkward match with KC James. The two matches were so bad, Dusty Rhodes approached Harris and asked…”Where is the Chris Harris from TNA I knew and loved?”

Chris made it known to Dusty and creative he wasn’t there mentally…but would give it his best shot moving forward. There would be no next match because he was soon released from the WWE. Chris had lost his passion for wrestling..in part because of the nightmare of his WWE tenure. While his matches were less than stellar, one thing that made Braden Walker stand out was his ad libbed catchphrase….”Knock, Knock” Who’s there? “Braden Walker and I’m going to knock your brains out.” He may not have knocked our brains out, but he is still remembered and in the crazy business of pro wrestling…isn’t that what it’s all about?