10 PG Era WWE Superstars You Totally Don't Remember
6. Ricky Ortiz
In July 2008, a wild-haired ball of energy landed on ECW as Atlas Ortiz. One week later, extreme announcers Mike Adamle and Tazz were calling him Ricky, and the Atlas name was never mentioned again. WWE clearly had high hopes for Ortiz, because they drafted him to SmackDown in 2009.
That was a false dawn.
Ricky was released in August mere months after joining the blue brand. Admittedly, this was a puzzler at the time, 'cause Ortiz looked like he had plenty to offer. Wrestling wasn't kind to the dude post-WWE either. He retired in 2013 and is only remembered (by some) as a footnote in industry history.
It's easy to forget that Ricky went on a fairly lengthy undefeated streak on ECW TV following his debut. Maybe he would've found more success had he come along a little later when NXT was in full swing, or something like that. Ortiz certainly had a great look and some personality.