Eric Escobar

In September 2005, WWE signed Pérez to a developmental contract with Deep South Wrestling.

When WWE ended their affiliation with DSW, he was sent to FCW but sustained a back injury which but him on the sidelines for several months. Upon his return he won a battle royal for the number one contendership for the FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship.

Pérez then formed a tag team with Eddie Colón and became known as the “The Puerto Rican Nightmares” and the first ever FCW Florida Tag Team Champions.

On December 11, Pérez won the FCW Florida Heavywieght Championship when he beat Sheamus O’Shaunessy (Sheamus),Joe Hennig (Michael McGillicutty) and Drew McIntyre in a fatal four way. Soon after he was repackaged as Eric Escobar. He then performed several dark matches before episodes of Smackdown against Jimmy Wang Yang and Kizarny.

In September 2009, Escobar was called up to the Smackdown roster. He immediately won a place as part of the Smackdown team at Bragging Rights when defeated Matt Hardy in his debut. He was then removed from the team.

Escobar then had a brief run as a face after Vickie Guerrero yelled at him, he was then placed in handicap matches and a match against Kane as punishment by Guerrero.

On January 17, 2010, Pérez was released from his WWE contract.

DJ Gabriel

DJ Gabriel, real name Steve Lewington, got his big break in the WWE after he earned himself a developmental deal, after he impressed during a squash match with Umaga on Raw in April 2006.

He was sent to FCW where he formed a tag team called Terminal Velocity with Chet the Jett. At this this time Lewington was going by the name of Steve Sonic.

Shortly afterwards the team was sent to OVW where they quickly captured the OVW Southern Tag Team Championships, but lost them in September 2007 to KC James and Kassidy James otherwise known as The James Boys.

The team was on the move once again as they made their return to FCW. However, the team was broken up and Lewington found himself a new tag team partner in Heath Miller (Heath Slater).

They reached the final of the tag team tournament to crown the first ever FCW Tag Team Champions but were beaten by Eric Perez (Eric Escobar) and Eddie Colon (Primo), The Puerto Rican Nightmares.

Lewington made his WWE television debut on their new ECW brand as DJ Gabriel in November 2008. He was given the gimmick of someone who liked to dance to the ring. Alicia Fox joined him as his manager and he proceeded to defeat several jobbers over the next couple of weeks. His winning streak even included a victory over fellow Englishman, Paul Burchill.

His good fortune came to an end however after he lost to Mark Henry and then Tyson Kidd. Things then grew worse for Gabriel he lost his manager Fox to Smackdown! in the supplemental draft in April 2009.

Gabriel then returned to FCW, dropping the ‘DJ’ from his name and adopting the gimmick of an English gentleman, but he was storyline suspended and only managed to continue wrestling for the promotion by performing under a mask as Mr. FCW. He eventually won back his place in FCW and switched between the two characters until his release from his contract in January 2010.

Maria

 

Mike Knox

Matt Hardy

Matt Hardy was most famously one half of The Hardy Boyz with his brother Jeff. Together they became six time WWE Tag Team Champions and on one occasion WCW Tag Team Champion.

Along with The Dudley Boyz and Edge and Christian and their series of TLC matches helped raise the bar and popularity of tag team wrestling. These matches won consecutive PWI Match of the Year awards in 2000 and 2001.

He also had numerous successes as a singles competitor winning the Hardcore, Cruiserweight, European and US Championships. But he achieved his greatest success when he captured the ECW Championship at Unforgiven in 2008.

Matt, along with his brother Jeff, have dubious honour of appearing on this website twice. His first departure came in April, 2005 when he was surprisingly fired when it became public knowledge his then girlfriend Lita and close Edge had an affair.

Towards the end of his second stint in WWE, Matt with his weight as a result of a reccurance of a intestinal injury. He also grew disillusioned with his position in the company and the product itself, even going as far as to ask for his release publicly over Twitter. Matt was granted his release after he was sent home from a European tour in October 2010.

Vance Archer

Archer debuted on the ECW brand defeating several jobbers before going on to defeat ECW Original Tommy Dreamer.

He then formed a tag team with Curt Hawkins, that later went on to be named ‘The Gatecrashers’. Hawkins announced that they had been given a 30-day contract in order to prove themselves.

To do this they continually attacked MVP and Christian, which led to several tag teams matches on Smackdown. In their third attempt they finally managed to defeat them.

In a losing effort to Chris Masters, Archer accidently hit Hawkins. After the match they argued and Hawkins ended up attacking Archer, which ended their brief allaince.

On November 19, 2010, Archer was released from his contract

Tiffany

Tiffany first appeared on WWE television when she took part in the 2007 Diva Search, she eventually finished fourth. Despite this she was offered a developmental contract with FCW.

Going by her real name of Taryn Terrell during her time in Florida she developed a sorority girl gimmick when aligned herself with Nick Nemeth(Dolph Ziggler) and Brad Allen.

During her time in FCW she also served as ring announcer for the brand.

She had a lot of success in FCW defeating most of her rivals such as The Bella Twins, Roucka(Rosa Mendes), Alicia Fox, Wesley Holiday and Miss Angela. However, she came up short in the tournament to be crowned Queen of FCW when she was defeated int he semi-finals by Alicia Fox.

Under the new name of Tiffany she made her debut on WWE television as a full-time member of the roster on the ECW brand in June 2008 when she was announced as the new assistant to General Manager Teddy Long.

She made her Raw debut on the 800th episode when she was an unused member of 16 Diva tag team match in which her team lost. However, she managed to get the pinfall in a 18 Diva tag team match in March 2009 on Raw.

Her Wrestlemania debut came at 25 incarnation of the event as she competed in the first ever 25 Diva battle royal to crown the first, and only, “Miss Wrestlemania”, she eventually lost to Santina Marella.

Back in ECW, Tiffany was announced as Teddy Long’s replacement as General Manager as he was returning to Smackdown as GM in April. She continued in this role until the ECW brand was discontinued in February 2010.

In March 2010, Tiffany made her Smackdown debut, defeating Divas Champion Michelle McCool after interference from Vickie Guerrero.

The former playboy model then formed a tag team with Kelly Kelly who feuded with Lay-Cool, which led to her only shot at the Women’s Championship against Michelle McCool, but lost.

In August 2010, an alleged incident in a hotel with her then husband Drew McIntyre caused the WWE to suspend her. Before she was able to return to TV she was released in November.

Tiffany returned to wrestling in TNA in August 2012, when she refereed a match between Madison Rayne and Miss Tessmacher.

Caylen Croft

Festus / Luke Gallows

Kevin Fertig

In the summer of 2004, Fertig was called up to the Smackdown roster. He was repackaged as a religious extremist, called Mordecai, that aimed that aimed to liberate the world from sin.

He debuted at Judgment Day in April and defeated Scotty 2 Hotty in the first of a series of squash matches he competed in over the next couple of weeks. Before his matches he would regularly condemn audiences to Hell for their wicked ways.

Shortly afterwards though the gimmick was dropped after Fertig got into a fight at a bar and several lawsuits soon followed. This resulted in him being sent back to OVW where competed in a mask under the name of Vengeance.

In July 2005, he was released from his contract.

After spending a year on the independents, Fertig made his to WWE as part of its new ECW brand. Going by the name Kevin Thorn and being accompanied by his valet Ariel, he debuted in a victory over Little Guido Maritato.

Thorn and Ariel had various feuds with Balls Mahoney, Francine, Mike Knox and Kelly Kelly that went through to the beginning of 2007. The ‘Vampire’ then joined a stable that included Marcus Cor Von, Elijah Burke, Matt Striker and later on CM Punk, called the ‘New Breed’ which feud with the ‘ECW Originals’ Rob Van Dam,Tommy Dreamer, Sabuand The Sandman. This eventually lead to a eight-man match at Wrestlemania 23 in the New Breed lost to the ECW Originals.

Shortly after Thorn faced and lost to CM Punk to a match on ECW and left the New Breed after he received no help from his faction. Thorn then became involved in a feud with Stevie Richards before he then completley changed his look, adopting with different ring attire and shorter hair, but was soon sent back to OVW once again.

In January 2009, he was offered a new contract with WWE, but he rejected it and he was released from his contract.