The Rock Praises Ricochet Again

Ricochet began wrestling house show and dark matches for NXT back in February. He then participated in the amazing ladder match at Takeover: New Orleans as his first-ever televised match with the promotion. It hasn’t taken long for Ricochet’s talents to be noticed by one of the all-time greats.

Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, whose movie “Rampage” is currently in theatres, had this to say regarding NXT’s newest superstar recently:

He’s the man! Love the stuff King is doing and will no doubt be the leader in ushering in a new era of our wrestling business. Future champ.

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) April 20, 2018

It’s not the first time the box office megastar has heaped praise on Ricochet. Back in the summer of 2016, The Rock posted a message on Instagram calling Ricochet “incredibly gifted” and warning him to stay away from backstage politics.
Ricochet’s Career Up To Now

The 29-year-old Ricochet has long been on WWE’s radar. A lengthy contract term with Lucha Underground, however, prevented him from signing with the company until recently.

Trevor Mann began his pro-wrestling career by moving up the independent rankings quickly. He made his debut as a teenager for Chikara and a couple of years later moved on to compete with Evolve and Dragon Gate as well. In 2010, Ricochet began competed for Pro Wrestling Guerilla too.

He made his first appearance in New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2013. In his time with the promotion, he won the Best of the Super Juniors tournament (2014), the Super Junior Tag Tournament (w/ Matt Sydal in 2015), and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag-Team titles on 3 occasions (2x with Sydal and once with Ryusuke Taguchi). Surprisingly, he never won the company’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.

In 2014, Ricochet signed with Lucha Underground. At the time, the company was signing performers to 7-season long contracts, though they have since gone back on these types of commitments. His Lucha Underground contract prevented him from appearing on television for other promotions. He was even prevented from appearing on the first NJPW show in Long Beach last summer.

Ricochet was officially declared a free agent after Lucha Underground’s 3rd season finished airing. During his time with Lucha Underground, he became the promotion’s first-ever World Champion. As the character, Prince Puma, he was to be the promotion’s first top babyface performer.