Lance Archer

Lance Hoyt (born February 28, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Lance Archer.

He also makes sporadic appearance for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).

He is also known for his time with WWE as Vance Archer, and impact Wrestling (TNA) under his real name and as Lance Rock.

Hoyt began his career in 2000 and worked in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) from 2004 until 2009.

In TNA, he wrestled first as Dallas, winning the NWA World Tag Team Championship twice with Kid Kash.

In 2000, Hoyt began training as a wrestler under Solo Fiatala, and debuted in July 2000, facing Tarzan Taylor in his first match.

He spent the next four years working on the Texas independent circuit, using the ring names Lance Steel and Breakdown, the latter being a character created in the spur-of-the-moment by Hoyt in Corpus Christi when he had forgotten his usual ring attire and was forced to wrestle in his street clothing.

Hoyt's most notable tenure within the Texas independent circuit was in Professional Championship Wrestling (PCW), where he debuted in 2000 as Shadow, a dark heel character.

Throughout his time in PCW, he faced notable opponents including Paul London, Jeromy Sage, and Ahmed Johnson and early in his tenure, he created a stable called "The Dark Circle".

Hoyt was hired by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in March 2004 and immediately teamed up with X Division mainstay Kid Kash as Dallas, Kash's bodyguard, tag team partner and on-screen relative.

He and Kash took part in a tournament for the vacant NWA World Tag Team Championship and won the vacant titles by defeating Low Ki and Christopher Daniels in the finals on April 7.

They lost the titles to D'Lo Brown and Apolo the subsequent week, then regained them from Brown and Apolo the week following that.

Their second and final reign ended on June 4 of that year when they were defeated by America's Most Wanted.

After Kash was suspended by TNA in June 2004, Hoyt was reduced to wrestling dark matches.

He appeared sporadically with TNA throughout the remainder of the year, and aided Kash in his feud with A.J. Styles upon his return from suspension.

In January 2005, Hoyt began wrestling under his own name at the instruction of booker Dusty Rhodes.

The common explanation for this is that they wanted no confusion between Hoyt and Diamond Dallas Page.

Hoyt and Kash competed in the tag team division, unsuccessfully challenging America's Most Wanted for the NWA World Tag Team Championship at Against All Odds on February 13, until Kash was released by TNA on April 19, 2005.

Left without a partner, Hoyt teamed with Chris Candido to face Sonny Siaki and Apolo in a cage match at Lockdown.

In the course of the match, Candido suffered a serious leg injury and was stretchered out, and Hoyt was pinned shortly thereafter.

Following the match, Candido's cohorts, The Naturals, attacked Hoyt, thus turning him into a face character.

Hoyt began developing a strong fan following, leading to his introducing a gimmick known as "Hoytamania", a reference to the "Hulkamania" surrounding Hulk Hogan.

He feuded with Team Canada throughout mid-2005, and lost to Abyss at Sacrifice.

He lost to Monty Brown at Bound for Glory and was involved in the 10-man Gauntlet match later in the night to determine the number one contender for Jeff Jarrett's NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

In that match, Hoyt was eliminated by eventual winner Rhino.

He later began teaming with Matt Bentley in mid-card tag matches until a misinterpreted steel chair incident led Bentley to believe Hoyt had "screwed" him, and he severely turned on him with a spontaneous brawl by ringside, consisting of several chairshots.

Hoyt defeated Bentley at Destination X.

Hoyt later left PCW upon signing with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) before later making his returned to the promotion in 2006 under his real name, while using his former Shadow ring name simply as a nickname.

Soon after his return to PCW, Hoyt proceeded to win the Tag Team Championship with Wally Darkmon in 2006.

After Diamond Dallas Page signed with TNA, he changed his name to Lance Hoyt and formed a rock band themed tag team with Jimmy Rave and Christy Hemme, the Rock N Rave Infection, eventually changing his name to Lance Rock in 2008.

Beginning in 2008, Hoyt reverted to his Shadow ring name and gimmick, while also adopting a mask.

This was short-lived, however, as Hoyt unmasked and suddenly began using his Rock 'n Rave Infection gimmick from TNA a few months later.

Following his release from TNA, PCW announced they had released Hoyt from his contract, which turned out to be a storyline, leading to Hoyt revealing he had a PCW "legends contract".

Hoyt briefly went on become the commissioner of PCW before it was announced that he had signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment.

After Hoyt left TNA, he signed with WWE, where he worked until 2010 as Vance Archer.

After he left WWE, he signed a contract with Japanese promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he worked as Lance Archer.

During his first years, he joined Minoru Suzuki's Suzuki-Gun, winning the G1 Tag League 2011 with Suzuki.

When Davey Boy Smith Jr.. came to NJPW, they were paired as Killer Elite Squad, winning between 2014 and 2019 the IWGP Tag Team Championship twice, NWA World Tag Team Championship twice and NOAH'S GHC Tag Team Championship twice.

When Smith left the promotion in 2019, Archer became a singles wrestler, capturing the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, a championship which he eventually regained for a record-tying second time in 2021.

In February 2020, it was announced that Archer had joined All Elite Wrestling, though he remained making appearances for NJPW.