Erick Rowan
| Erick Rowan | |
|---|---|
Rowan in April 2016
|
|
| Birth name | Joseph Ruud |
| Born |
November 28, 1981 Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States |
| Alma mater | University of Minnesota Morris |
| Children | 2 |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
Erick Rowan Thoruf Marius |
| Billed height | 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) |
| Billed weight | 315 lb (143 kg) |
| Billed from | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Trained by | Eddie Sharkey |
| Debut | September 3, 2003 |
Joseph Ruud (born November 28, 1981) is an American professional wrestler signed to WWE. He is currently on hiatus due to injury. He performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Erick Rowan. He is a former one-time NXT Tag Team Champion.
Ruud was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in Montrose, Minnesota. His family is Norwegian, and emigrated from Nannestad, Norway. Ruud is a trained guitarist, and attended the University of Minnesota Morris, where he played football.
Ruud began his wrestling career after training with Eddie Sharkey in 2003, going by the ring name Thoruf Marius and competing for various promotions throughout the Midwest until 2007. He was invited to go to Pro Wrestling Noah's (NOAH) dojo in Japan to live, train, and wrestle. During this time, he competed in both tag team and singles matches. Following his tour in Japan, Ruud returned to the United States in 2008 and began competing 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.
In February 2011, Ruud signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was assigned to their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) under the ring name Erick Rowan. He made his FCW TV debut in August 2011 with a win over Kenneth Cameron, while being accompanied by Byron Saxton and James Bronson. To tie in with Saxton's feud with Titus O'Neil, Rowan and Bronson lost to O'Neil and Leakee in a tag team match. Although Rowan continued to compete in both singles and tag team matches with Bronson, he was not involved in any further feuds and did not challenge for any titles on FCW TV.
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