For those unaware, hopefully very few of you, Florida Championship Wrestling is WWE’s current developmental territory. Young wrestlers come and go, all trying to achieve main WWE roster status; most failing. While not very many stars have come from FCW, that certainly isn’t a reason to pass the roster up, as there are quite a few young talents with tremendous potential. Now…I introduce you to seven of them.
BO ROTUNDO
Bo Rotundo comes from a wrestling family. His father is Mike “IRS” Rotundo, his grandfather is Blackjack Mulligan, uncles Barry and Kendall Windham, and his brother you now as Husky Harris.
Rotundo was signed to a WWE developmental contract in 2008. He has been the FCW World Champion twice, and currently holds the title. Along with his brother, he has also held the tag titles. In 2010, Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked him #324 in their Top 500 listing. He’s also had one RAW dark match, in which he won.
Bo seemingly has a bright future ahead of him. Besides his lineage, he has an amateur wrestling, and football, background, so athleticism is not an issue. Rotundo brings an aggressive in-ring style to the table…err, ring. At 6’1″ and 225 lbs. I wouldn’t worry about his size wants he makes it onto WWE’s main-roster.
RICHIE STEAMBOAT
Another talent with a wrestling lineage, Richie Steamboat, the son of WWE Hall of Famer,Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat. Richie has trained with Harley Race at his wrestling academy, and has also trained in Japan at Pro Wrestling Noah’s Dojo. He’s also competed in WWC in Puerto Rico, as well as ASW in England.
In 2009, he signed with WWE, and debuted in FCW in early 2010. Thus far, his biggest achievement in FCW is capturing the tag team titles, alongside Seth Rollins, from Titus O’Neil and Damien Sandow.
Being 24, and having great international wrestling experience, to go along with the last name Steamboat…well, do I really need to go on about this guy’s future?
SETH ROLLINS
Seth Rollins is better known by the name Tyler Black. Yes, the Tyler Black from Ring of Honor, and multiple other promotions. In ROH, he’s been the World Champion, a two time Tag Team Champion, and a Survival of the Fittest winner. In 2009, Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked him #17 on their Top 500 lists.
Black signed a WWE contract in 2009, and is now Seth Rollins in FCW. In his short time so far in FCW, he’s become a two time champion. Rollins defeated Hunico in the Jack Brisco Classic Tournament to become the first FCW 15 Champion, and a month later won the FCW Tag Team Championships with Richie Steamboat.
PETER ORLOV
I know Peter Orlov as Alex Koslov from the AAA promotion in Mexico. He also worked for rival promotion CMLL, and has had a couple brief appearances with TNA, during their World X Cup series, and has competed some in ROH. Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked him #145 on their Top 500 list in 2009.
In August of 2010, Koslov, under the name Carlos Sanshez faced Alberto del Rio on an episode of Smackdown, in which he was defeated. Shortly after, it was announced that he had signed a developmental contract with WWE, and headed to FCW.
With a unique style stemming from training in Japanese dojos and working in Mexico, as well as being trilingual, Orlov has great potential for a bright future with WWE (you know how they love international talents). The only thing that I could see holding him back, at least some, would have to be his size, as he’s only 5’7″ and 187 lbs.
MIKE DALTON
Ok, I’ll be honest here: I don’t know hardly anything about Mr. Dalton. What I do know, though, matters a lot.
Like I said, I really don’t know anything about this guy, however, skimming over the FCW website, he stood out to me for some reason. Which, is great for him. Standing out in the vast and complexed world of professional wrestling is the difference between “making it” and the opposite.
After he caught my eye, I did a bit of research on Mike Dalton. Turns out, he’s gone under the name Mattias Wild, who I have somewhat heard of. The most important thing about that, is that it means he was trained by none other than Lance Storm, at his much accredited Storm Wrestling Academy. So, Dalton has a good look, has excellent training behind him, and some independent wrestling experience. That’s why we should all know and keep an eye on this guy.
BRILEY PIERCE
Briley Pierce is the younger brother of current WWE United States Champion Dolph Ziggler. He only began his wrestling career in 2010,training in Ohio Valley Wrestling (former WWE developmental territory), but has already proven himself a breakout star. He won the promotion’s first ever Breakout competition, which got him into OVW’s advanced training program. Later that year, he was voted Rookie of the Year, and went on to hold the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship twice.
In May of this year, he signed a WWE developmental contract, less than a year after starting his career.Briley must have a good amount of charisma, as the book he wrote (yep, he’s written his own book) is titled,”I Can Make-Out With Any Girl Here”.
Going off his first year in wrestling, I’d say this guy has a ton of main-roster potential.
DEAN AMBROSE
Dean is better known for his time spent on the Independents, as Jon Moxley. He’s wrestled for numerous wrestling promotions, including: CHIKARA, Combat Zone Wrestling, Full Impact Pro, Evolve, and Dragon Gate USA. The latter being where I first saw him.
Ambrose’s biggest asset is his promo ability, as he known for cutting excellent promos. Think modern-day Raven, who he has been compared too. He also has good size (6’3″, 220 lbs.), which can be a “make or break” quality for some with WWE.
So, good wrestler, with great mic skills, who has size on their side….yep, I’d say he has a good looking WWE future ahead of him. Unless of course, they pull the “we didn’t make him” card, which would just be sad, and a missed opportunity.
Now, you better know some great young talents who are currently in FCW. Hopefully, you get a chance to check them out, and hopefully they get a chance on WWE’s main-roster. I feel that just these seven here could really make an impact in the future. Speaking of the future, it looks awesome!
Thanks for Reading, Rate/Comment/All that Good Stuff
J.
Follow me, in a non-stalkerish style, @J712v2
You can find FCW at: http://www.fcwwrestling.com and @FCWWrestling
P.S: If this has some spacing issues, I’m so terribly sorry 😦
Actully I’ve heard of RICHIE STEAMBOAT! lol
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From reading that, it seems like FCW is a place for family members of wrestling family’s. That’s nice to see, i didn’t know Dolph had a younger brother wrestling, he looks just like him. It was a nice column to read and glad that you’ll try to do these every week, Indy wrestling theres a lot to talk about but not many Indy writers so i look forward to next week.
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Next one will probably be in two weeks; probably.
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Alright that’s fine.
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Another wrestler everyone should know about was released from FCW not too long ago. He was, im my opinion the best thing in the company, His name is Wes Brisco. He had a marketable look and loads of talent.
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Yeah, if he was still on the roster the title would have been ” 8 FCW Wrestlers You Should Know.”
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Do you know the last guy I had read good things about when he was in FCW? Heath Slater and look at him now. Sure he’s on the active roster but he’s joke. I hope these guys can make a bigger impact than Slater did.
By the way, Ziggler’s bro looks just like him!
Ambrose looks like a crazy Daniel Bryan.
I didn’t know Little Steamboat was only 24 years old.
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What ever happened to Brett DiBiase? Remember when he made his WWE Debut at SummerSlam 2009?
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Last I heard about Brett was that he was removed from the roster. Don’t know what happened to him; was really hoping he’d make it to the main roster. Should’ve had him team with Ted, and called them the Fortuante Sons. That would’ve elevated Ted, introduced Brett, and helped the nearly non-existant Tag Team Division.
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Yeah that whole Fortunate Sons stable never happened.
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I don’t hate Heath Slater i think he has potential but then again; he can’t talk for shit.
Yea, i wondered what happened to Bret.
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Slater has potential but he’s off to a slow start. I will say there was this guy named Edge who wasn’t a main event superstar right away and he turned out okay so I will be patient with Slater. I thought Slater looked really good in the Money in the Bank match…that surprised me. If the WWE ever wants tag teams to matter again, I think Slater would work great as a spot monkey in a tag-team. Maybe team him up with Curt Hawkins. They kinda look alike.
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Good blog J as always.FCW has very good talent like the wrestlers mentioned in the blog.I hope Tyler Black and Richie Steamboat are called up to the main roster soon because they are very talented.If Ziggler’s brother is at least half as talented as his brother he will definitely be a star in the WWE.
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Ziggler should get a push soon. Many of the WWE Superstars don’t impressive me in the ring but Ziggler’s matches are pretty good. People make fun of the amount of times we see Kofi vs. Ziggler but they almost always have a great match.
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Yes Tony they always pull of a good match. I’d like to see a proper feud between the two.
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Funny thing about this article is that when I saw the picture of Briley Piecre, I was like: “Why did he post a picture of a young Dolph Ziggler?” I just wanted to shout “NICKY!!!” really loud, but then realized it was his brother. HAHA!! The resemblance is uncanny.
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I love wwc iwf
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