Erick Rowan

American professional wrestler

Joseph Ruud (born November 28, 1981 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) better known by his ring name Erick Rowan, is an American professional wrestler. He competed in WWE from 2011 to 2020, where he was a member of The Wyatt Family along with Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton. He began performing as Erick Redbeard on the independent circuit and for All Elite Wrestling in 2022.

Erick Rowan
Rowan at WrestleMania XXX week on April 4, 2014
Born (1981-11-28) November 28, 1981 (age 42)
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Thoruf Marius
Thoruf
Erick Redbeard
Erick Rowan
Rowan
Billed height6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Billed weight319 lb (145 kg)
Billed fromMinneapolis, Minnesota
Snake Bight, Florida
Trained byEddie Sharkey
DebutSeptember 3, 2003

Career change

Rudd competed in various independent promotions in both the United States and Japan before signing to the WWE. In 2007, he worked for Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan under the ring name, Thoruf. After his time with them was done, he returned to the United States and started competing for F1rst Wrestling under the ring name, Thoruf Marius. During his time there he feuded with Brody Hoofer.

He signed a developmental contract with WWE and was assigned to their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling and started competing under the ring name Erick Rowan. He debuted on FCW TV debut in August 2011 when he defeated Kenneth Cameron. When FCW was rebranded into NXT Wrestling, he debuted on the December 12, 2012 episode of NXT as a follower of Bray Wyatt, who introduced Rowan as his "second son".

As a member of the Wyatt Family, he teamed with Wyatt's "first son" Luke Harper. They defeated Percy Watson and Yoshi Tatsu on the January 9, 2013 episode of NXT and defeated them again on the January 23 episode of NXT in the first round of the NXT Tag Team Championship tournament. Rowan and Harper defeated Bo Dallas and Michael McGillicutty in the semi-finals but were defeated in the finals by Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey. Harper and Rowan won a triple threat elimination tag match on the May 2 episode of NXT and defeated Neville and Bo Dallas, filling in for the injured Grey, on the May 8 NXT (taped on May 2) to win the tag titles.[1] On June 20, they lost the NXT Tag Team Championship to Adrian Neville and Corey Graves.[2]

Vignettes became appearing on Raw to promote the upcoming debut of the Wyatt Family and they debuted on the July 8 episode of Raw when they attacked Kane.[3] He made his WWE in-ring debut in a tag team match on the July 26 episode of SmackDown, where he and Harper defeated Tons of Funk (Brodus Clay and Tensai).[4] Rowan and Harper went on a winning streak over many teams for a couple months but suffered their first lost on the October 11 episode of SmackDown from Cody Rhodes and Goldust.[5]

Championships and accomplishments change

 
Rowan is a two-time WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champion


References change

  1. "James's WWE NXT Report 5/8 Week 45: Wyatt Family captures Tag Titles, Ohno turning face?, Sandow in action, Paige vs. Summer Rae feud continues, Overall Reax". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  2. "WWE News: NXT Spoilers for summer episodes - first NXT Women's champ, Flair, more, plus NXT TV in the U.S.?". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  3. "Raw News: Vickie "fired" as Raw authority figure & replacement named, Wyatts debut, final MITB PPV hype, RVD, Lesnar, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  4. "Parks's WWE Smackdown Report 7/26: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of Friday show, including Wyatt Family in-ring debut, Del Rio vs. RVD match". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  5. "Parks's WWE Smackdown Report 10/11: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of Friday show, including Curtis Axel vs. R-Truth for the Intercontinental Title". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  6. cite web|url= https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=344954
  7. "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2014". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  8. Meltzer, Dave (January 27, 2014). "Jan 27 2014 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 2013 Annual awards issue, best in the world in numerous categories, plus all the news in pro-wrestling and MMA over the past week and more". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Campbell, California: 34. ISSN 1083-9593. Archived from the original on August 27, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  9. "WSW Tag Team Championship". Cage Match. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  10. "WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships". WWE. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  11. "NXT Tag Team Championship". WWE. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
  12. Laboon, Jeff (December 8, 2014). "2014 Slammy Award winners". WWE. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  13. "Under The Big Top 4". CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved 2023-03-06.

Other websites change