10 Things WWE Fans Need To Know About Ricochet
The omens are good.
The wrestling world rejoiced last week at the news that much-loved indie high-flyer Ricochet - real name Trevor Mann - has, at long last, put pen to paper on a deal with WWE.
The 29-year-old, unlike fellow NJPW alumnus AJ Styles, will not be heading straight for the company's main roster. Instead, he'll initially be assigned to the Orlando developmental arm, NXT, joining the likes of Adam Cole, Drew McIntyre and, as of Wednesday, War Machine.
Ordinarily, fans might groan at news of this kind, but in the case of Ricochet there appears to be an innate conviction that he's heading for the top of the WWE ladder, regardless of the hurdles Vince McMahon and his team of muscleman-loving henchman put in his path.
It's not exactly difficult to figure out why he inspires such belief, either. Despite this tender years, Mann is already an in-ring performer of considerable pedigree, boasting a lot of the base attributes you associate with wrestlers at the very peak of their powers.
In a company where Finn Bálor gets squashed flat by Kane, nothing is for certain - but there are a lot of good reasons to have faith in Ricochet.
10. His Match With Will Ospreay Broke The Internet
It's hard to produce a match that shocks fans these days, and perhaps even harder to produce, well, anything that shocks the internet, a place where full-throttle nudity is never more than a few clicks away.
But Ricochet managed both a couple of years ago when he stepped in the ring with fellow indie high-flyer Will Ospreay, who teamed up to put on one of the most thrilling, action-packed 20-plus-minutes of wrestling you're ever likely to see.
More than that, it also became the focal point of a heated generational debate about the direction in which the industry is headed. Is it really a good thing that kayfabe, thanks to heavily choreographed matches such as these, is slowly being eroded?
In the opinion of tough, hard-nosed veterans like Vader - who took to Twitter to decry what he referred to as "acrobatics" without a story - the answer is no. Everyone else, however, was pretty enthused, including Stone Cold Steve Austin, another no-nonsense old-timer, who waxed lyrical about it on his podcast.