In his first year in the promotion, he won the annual Sweet Science 16 tournament (now known as the Ted Petty Invitational or TPI),[3] defeating four other wrestlers in the process (Colt Cabana, American Kickboxer, Ace Steel and Harry Palmer), and unsuccessfully challenged Sabu for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at Bloodfeast 2000.

[citation needed] On May 25, 2002, at Chikara's inaugural event, Hero teamed with CM Punk and Colt Cabana, calling themselves the Gold Bond Mafia, in a losing effort against the Black T-shirt Squad of Reckless Youth, Mike Quackenbush and Don Montoya.

The SuperFriends defeated Toryumon representatives Skayde and Koichiro Arai in the first round of the 2003 Tag World Grand Prix, then wrestled Swi$$ Money Holding (Claudio Castagnoli and Ares) to a 30-minute time limit draw, eliminating both teams from the tournament.

At Chikara's April 'Rey De Voladores' tournament Chris Hero faced Claudio Castagnoli in a non-tournament match in which the winner would gain control of the loser.

[23] The following month Hero, Castagnoli and Larry Sweeney joined forces with Icarus, Gran Akuma and Chuck Taylor to re-form the Kings of Wrestling as a superstable.

Quackenbush won the match with his new submission maneuver, the Chikara Special,[24] a move that Lince Dorado,[25] El Pantera,[26] Equinox[27] and Claudio Castagnoli[28] all used to defeat Hero during the summer of 2007.

[35] After news broke that Castagnoli would be leaving for the WWE, he and Hero dropped the CZW World Tag Team Championship to the BLKOUT of Sabian and Robbie Mireno on November 11, 2006.

[36] On Saturday, April 7, 2007, at Out with the Old, in With the New show, Hero would face long time, heated rival Eddie Kingston in a match where the loser would be forced to leave Combat Zone Wrestling.

[13] Hero's first appearance for the southern California promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla was at the January 2004 Tango and Cash Invitational tournament to determine the first ever PWG Tag Team Champions.

[52] In September 2007 Hero entered a heated feud with The Human Tornado after saving Candice LeRae from her abusive pimp at the second night of the 2007 Battle of Los Angeles.

The feud culminated on July 6, 2008, at Life During Wartime in a Guerrilla Warfare steel cage match, where Hero defeated Tornado to become the new PWG World Champion.

[58] On July 31 at Threemendous II, Hero defeated Ryan in a Guerrilla Warfare match to ensure that on August 17 he became the longest reigning PWG Champion of all time.

[66] After the tournament Hero was granted another shot at the PWG World Championship, when he and the three other Battle of Los Angeles semifinalists, Brandon Gatson, Claudio Castagnoli and Joey Ryan, were placed in a four-way match to determine a new champion, after Davey Richards had been stripped of the title.

[73] On August 20, after both Hero and Castagnoli were eliminated from the 2011 Battle of Los Angeles in the first round, they challenged PWG World Tag Team Champions, the Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), to a match for the title.

[75] During a large portion of 2006, Hero feuded with the entire Ring of Honor promotion, which began when he issued a challenge to ROH at CZW's Cage of Death 7 in December 2005.

After it was announced that Castagnoli had signed a developmental deal with the WWE, the Kings of Wrestling lost the belts to Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal on November 25 at Dethroned.

[99] On June 28, 2008, Hero's winning streak continued when he defeated Pelle Primeau in a Light's Out Match with an assist from Larry Sweeney and Sara Del Rey, despite interference from former Sweet N'Sour Inc. teammate and later turn coat Brent Albright.

[101] During late 2008 Hero began wearing a more traditional wrestling attire and adopted a new finishing maneuver in the Rolling Elbow, while being dubbed "That Young Knockout Kid" by his manager Larry Sweeney, who ended up leaving the company in April 2009.

After returning from a tour of Pro Wrestling Noah in early 2009, Hero began using a weighted elbow pad, which he claimed to have been given as a gift from Mitsuharu Misawa, to knock out his opponents and win matches.

[105] Towards the end of Final Battle 2009, after the Briscoe Brothers had defeated The American Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) for the ROH World Tag Team Championship, Hero reunited with his Kings of Wrestling partner Claudio Castagnoli.

[111] On December 18 at Final Battle 2010 the Kings of Wrestling ended their feud with the Briscoe Brothers in a six-man tag team match, where Jay, Mark and their father Mike defeated Hero, Castagnoli and Shane Hagadorn.

[112] On January 4, 2011 Hero and Castagnoli became the longest reigning ROH World Tag Team Champions by breaking the previous record of 275 days, set by the Briscoe Brothers.

[116] On April 1 at Honor Takes Center Stage, the Kings of Wrestling lost the ROH World Tag Team Championship to Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, ending their reign at 363 days.

He has wrestled in sixteen different countries across the world: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

[129] The Kings of Wrestling returned to Noah in April 2011 to take part in the 2011 Global Tag League, where they managed to win two out of their seven-round robin matches, finishing seventh out of eight teams in the block.

[145] At the 2018 Super Strong Style 16 tournament, Hero, billed as Kassius Ohno, won against Chris Brookes in the 1st round before being eliminated by Tyler Bate in the quarter finals.

[181] This attack led to Ohno suffering a storyline injury while he was pulled from NXT television tapings, reportedly due to his lack of commitment to physical conditioning programs.

[189] On November 16, 2013, Spradlin returned to working on the independent circuit under his Chris Hero ring name, defeating Shane Helms at a Pro Wrestling Syndicate event.

[198] On June 13, 2014, Hero defeated Jeckles the Jester in San Francisco, CA Near the Historic Cow Palace to win the All Pro Wrestling World Wide Internet Championship.

His farewell match in PWG took place at Mystery Vortex IV, where Hero and JT Dunn, billed as Death By Elbow, lost to reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly).