According to sources, World Wrestling Entertainment has completed the signings of five new talents. Each talent is signed to developmental deals, and below are the names of them with a few details about them.
Steve Lewington – Steve is a 21 year old rookie who comes from Great Britain. Steve is considered a strong in-ring worker by WWE management. Lewington has not had a great deal of experience, as he discovered the business only in 2001. Steve’s past includes being declined a spot in the Royal Air Force in England. He was invited to train at the OVW school and broke in working OVW's amateur classes and worked his way onto television.
Joey Matthews – Matthews was trained by Jimmy Cicero and from Fairfax, Virginia. Matthews was a regular during the end of Extreme Championship Wrestling's run with former tag team partner Christian York, who has since left the business. Matthews and York had a developmental deal in 2001 out of the old Memphis territory. Last year, Matthews had moved to Louisville, Kentucky to earn a WWE developmental deal as a singles performer and really upped his game since. He was one of the true highlights of 3PW's events over the last year, holding their championship and having a run of great matches with AJ Styles, Low Ki, Chris Sabin and others. Matthews was slated to return to Ring of Honor shortly for a big push, but that would appear to be out the window now. When contacted for comment, ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky said, "I missed the boat on Joey." Matthews has been regularly teaming with Johnny Nitro and managed by Melina using the group name MNM. The trio have been one of the highlights of the last year in Ohio Valley.
Mike Mondo – Mike was trained by former John Curse and is originally from the New York City area. During his time for independent groups USA Pro and NYWC in the Metropolitan area, he was known as Livewyre, after debuting in 2002. He had been working out a developmental deal in recent months in OVW after being invited to come down and train to earn one. He'll appear on this weekend's Velocity, facing John Heidenreich.
Johnny Roselli - Working under the name "Romeo Roselli", he's been one half of the Heartbreakers with Antonio Banks. They worked a recent Raw taping, doing an International version of Sunday Night Heat that will air this weekend in Europe. Originally from Westchester, New York, he had worked a number of New England independents before heading to OVW to train. He has previously used the ring name Johnny Heartbreaker, also working for Jim Kettner's ECWA promotion under that name.
Mike Taylor - A former marine, Taylor has been working in Ohio Valley for several months. Originally from Hawaii, he's worked for NWA Hawaii as well. He worked a dark match last Monday at the Raw tapings and has worked Velocity appearances in the past as well.
Pictures and biographies of many of the talents can be found on the Ohio Valley Wrestling website at OVWrestling.Com.
[ Credit: Mike Johnson, PWInsider.Com ]
