Magnus

Acrylic, oil, spray and paint marker on 24″ x 24″ wood

Magnus, the first ever English-born TNA World Heavyweight Champion, is scarily still coming into his prime. Born Nick Aldis in 1986 England, was a natural athlete whose passion for bodybuilding led to his transition into professional wrestling. After cutting his teeth on the English independent circuit, he debuted with Total Nonstop Action in late 2008 as Brutus Magnus, a modern-day gladiator. He had a notable early win against Chris Sabin before ditching the gladiator gimmick in April of 2009. He then formed The British Invasion with Douglas Williams and Rob Terry, both also from the British Isles. After a win over Homicide, the Invasion entered into a feud with Bully Ray and Brother Devon, Team 3D which soon also involved Booker T, Scott Steiner, and James Storm and Robert Roode which saw The Invasion win the TNA World Tag Team Championship. After Rob Terry turned on The British Invasion, Magnus dropped the ‘Brutus’ part of his name and the two entered into a several month-long feud.

He soon started teaming with Nigel McGuinness, who was working as Desmond Wolfe, having several victories together. After McGuinness’ departure from the company, Magnus worked as a solid mid-carder having matches against all comers. Towards the end of 2011 he began teaming with Samoa Joe, a partnership that saw a steady rise in prominence for the Englishman. The duo had notable wins over AJ Styles, Kazarian, Matt Morgan, and Crimson, and it was defeating the latter two that saw them win the Tag Team Titles. They went on to successfully defend the titles against opponents such as The Motor City Machine Guns, Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian, and Jeff Hardy and Anderson, before losing the belts to Daniels and Kazarian. They also competed together in Japan’s Pro Wrestling Noah, where they defeated Akitoshi Saito and Jun Akiyama to win the GHC Tag Team Championship, before losing the belts to KENTA and Maybach Taniguchi.

The duo soon split up and went on to have a series of matches against one another, before Magnus was taken out by the Aces & Eights stable. He returned a few months later as a face looking for revenge against the heel group. During this period he notably faced off against Devon and soon joined the new iteration of the Main Event Mafia along with Sting, Joe and Kurt Angle. The group successfully ended the Aces & Eights stable, and soon Magnus had a hell of a match against Sting at the 2013 Bound For Glory, defeating the legend by submission. At the end of that event, AJ Styles left the company with the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, and Magnus entered a tournament to crown a new champion. He first defeated Samoa Joe, then Kurt Angle, and finally defeated Jeff Hardy in the finals on December 19, 2013 to become the new World Champion.

About the piece: I first moved some paint around on the background, both acrylic and oil to create a sense of energy. I then added in some geometric shapes with paint marker before adding in the figure with acrylics. I painted in more geometric shapes over the figure, then finished it off with a few stenciled stripes of spray paint.