Niko Bogojevic | |
---|---|
Birth name | Nikola Bogojevic |
Born |
Duluth, Minnesota, United States |
December 21, 1991
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Dozer Niko Bogojevic Otis Dozovic |
Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
Billed weight | 310 lb (140 kg) |
Billed from | Superior, Wisconsin |
Trained by | Matt Yaden WWE Performance Center |
Debut | 2015 |
Nikola "Niko" Bogojevic (born December 21, 1991) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he competes in their developmental territory NXT under the ring name Otis Dozovic.
Bogojevic attended Superior High School, where he was a successful amateur wrestler. He wrestled at collegiate level for Augsburg College and Colorado State University-Pueblo, winning the national title in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Junior Pan-American Games in 2011 and a Greco-Roman bronze at the 2014 Pan-American Games. He was at one point considered a prospect for the US Greco-Roman wrestling team at the 2012 Summer Olympics and spent some time training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado.
Bogojevic trained to become a professional wrestler at the Mercury Pro Wrestling Academy in Arvada, Colorado. He wrestled under the ring name Dozer for several regional promotions in Colorado including Ultra Championship Wrestling-Zero and New Revolution Wrestling, where he won the NRW Charged Championship.
On April 12, 2016, Bogojevic was announced as one of 10 new recruits to begin training at the WWE Performance Center. He made his debut for WWE at a NXT live event on July 8, 2016, teaming with Adrian Jaoude in a defeat to The Authors of Pain. Later that month he formed a tag team with Tucker Knight at NXT live events. Using the name Heavy Machinery, the duo made their television debut on the October 19 episode of NXT, losing to the team of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong as part of the 2016 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, with Bogojevic now renamed Otis Dozovic.