Joseph Ruud (November 28, 1981) is an American professional wrestler signed to WWE where he performs under the ring name of Erick Rowan, and is part of The Wyatt Family.
Professional Wrestling Career
Independent Circuit (2007-2011)
Prior signed to WWE, Ruud has competed in several independent promotions in both the United States and Japan. In 2007, he competed under the ring name Thoruf in Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan, where he competed in both tag team and singles matches, albeit without much success. Following his tour in Japan, Ruud returned to the United States in 2008 and began competing under the ring name Thoruf Marius for the Minnesota-based F1rst Wrestling promotion. Upon joining the promotion, he began feuding with Brody Hoofer, with the pair exchanging wins across several events.
World Wrestling Entertainment
Florida Championship Wrestling (2011-2012)
In 2011, Ruud signed a developmental contract with WWE and was assigned to their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling. He made his FCW debut on April 14, 2011 under the ring name Erick Rowan, where he and Buck Dixon defeated the team of DeSean Bishop and DT Porter in a tag team match. The following week, Rowan suffered his first loss, as he, Bobby Dutch and Aksana were defeated by Derrick Bateman, Xavier Woods and Kaitlyn in a six-person intergender tag team match. Rowan later began competing as in the tag team division, where he and James Bronson competed in the FCW Tag Team Showcase Tournament. However, he and Bronson were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Epico and Hunico. Despite this, Rowan and Bronson received a championship match against the Florida Tag Team Champions CJ Parker and Donny Marlow, but were unsuccessful in winning the title. After Rowan and Bronson's team disbanded due to a lack of success, Rowan began a singles push in 2012 and found small success before returning to the tag team division by forming a team with Luke Harper.
The Wyatt Family (2012-Present)
When WWE rebranded its developmental territory, FCW, into NXT Wrestling, Rowan made his debut 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, Rowan formed a team with Wyatt's "first son" Luke Harper, and they defeated Percy Watson and Yoshi Tatsu on the January 9, 2013 episode of NXT. On the January 23 episode of NXT, Harper and Rowan again defeated Watson and Tatsu in the opening round of the NXT Tag Team Championship tournament. Following a win over Bo Dallas and Michael McGillicutty in the semifinals, Harper and Rowan were defeated in the finals of the tournament by Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey. On May 2, Harper and Rowan defeated Neville and Bo Dallas, filling in for the injured Grey, to win the NXT Tag Team Championships. On June 5, Harper and Rowan successfully retained their titles against Corey Graves and Kassius Ohno. On June 20, Rowan and Harper lost the NXT Tag Team Championship to Adrian Neville and Corey Graves.
From the May 27 episode of Raw, WWE aired vignettes promoting the upcoming debut of the Wyatt Family. The vignettes showed the Wyatt Family's backwoods origins and Rowan wearing a sheep mask. On the July 8 episode of Raw, the Wyatt Family made their debut by assaulting Kane. Rowan made his WWE in-ring debut on the July 26 episode of SmackDown, where he and Harper defeated Tons of Funk (Brodus Clay and Tensai) in a tag team match. Over the next few months, Rowan and Harper went on a winning streak over many teams, until Cody Rhodes and Goldust handed them their first loss on the October 11 episode of SmackDown. In early 2014, Rowan took part in the Wyatt Family's feud with The Shield, while also supporting Bray Wyatt in his feud with John Cena at WrestleMania XXX.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Greetings From the North (Chokeslam) – FCW
- Running splash – NXT / WWE
- Signature moves
- Bear hug
- Big boot
- Clawhold transitioned into a biel throw
- Overhead gutwrench backbreaker rack
- Pumphandle backbreaker
- Scoop slam
- Entrance themes
- "Live In Fear" by Mark Crozer (2013 - June 20, 2014)
- "He's got the whole world in his hands" (June 23, 2014 - )
Championships and accomplishments
- NXT
- NXT Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Luke Harper
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI ranked him #145 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2013
See also
- Erick Rowan’s event history
