Darren Young (wrestler)

Darren Young
Ring name(s) Bonecrusher Sampson[1]
Darren Young[1]
Fred Rossen[2]
Fred Rosser[1]
Fred Sampson[1]
Fred Sanford[1]
Frederick of Hollywood[2]
Officer Sampson[2]
Billed height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[3]
Billed weight 239 lb (108 kg)[3]
Born November 2, 1979 (1979-11-02) (age 32)[1]
Union City, New Jersey[1]
Billed from Miami, Florida[3]
Trained by Dennis Condrey[1]
FCW Training[1]
Kevin Knight[1]
Debut 2002[4]

Frederick "Fred" Rosser[1] (born November 2, 1979)[1] is an African American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he is appearing on the fifth season of WWE NXT under the ring name Darren Young. He previously appeared on the first season of WWE NXT in early 2010 before a stint on the Raw brand.

Prior to signing with WWE, Rosser wrestled under several ring names, including Frederick of Hollywood, Fred Rosser, and "Bonecrusher" Fred Sampson. He has competed in Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic independent promotions including Chaotic Wrestling,[5] East Coast Wrestling Association,[6] Independent Wrestling Federation and the National Wrestling Alliance.

Contents

Professional wrestling career

Born in Union City, New Jersey, Rosser began watching professional wrestling during the mid-1980s and became interested in becoming a professional wrestler as a teenager, wrestling in several backyard wrestling federations. He researched a number of wrestling schools before deciding on Camp IWF in West Paterson, New Jersey. This was due in part to his employer, whose uncle was a friend of a local wrestler training there at the time, and helped him enroll in the wrestling school.[7]

Rosser made his professional debut in 2002 and spent several years on the independent circuit, including wrestling for the Independent Wrestling Federation and Chaotic Wrestling during his early career. On May 17, 2003, he won his first major title when he defeated his former trainer Kevin Knight for the IWF Heavyweight Championship in Woodland Park, New Jersey[8] and held it for over half a year until losing to Roman on January 17, 2004. On March 20, he lost to Shane O'Brien at the IWF Centre. The following night, Rosser and Kevin Knight were declared the co-winners in an 18-man battle royal.[9] It was at a house show in Chaotic Wrestling that he was first noticed by promoter Jim Kettner and invited to compete for the East Coast Wrestling Association where he made his debut in the summer of 2004. Shortly after entering the promotion, Rosser began feuding with Prince Nana over the ECWA Mid Atlantic Championship and eventually defeated him for the title[7] in Newark, Delaware on September 18, 2004. He lost the title to Nick Malakai less than two months later.

World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE (2009–present)

During 2005 and 2006, Rosser made several appearances for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its weekly programs Sunday Night Heat, Velocity, in dark matches on SmackDown and Raw.[10][11]

In May 2009, Rosser signed a WWE developmental contract and was sent to WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling, under the name Darren Young.[1][12] In FCW, Young was in a tag team called The South Beach Party Boys with Percy Watson. On February 16, 2010, it was announced that he would be competing as part of the first season of WWE NXT, and mentored by CM Punk.[13]

NXT and The Nexus (2010)

See also: The Nexus

On February 23, 2010, Young made his debut on WWE NXT with a character described as a "South Beach Party Boy", losing his debut match to David Otunga. His storyline had mentor CM Punk showing apathy towards him, claiming he had no idea why he's in NXT and did not want to train Young unless he accepted his Straight-edge lifestyle.[14] Despite this, Punk and his disciples, Luke Gallows and Serena, helped Young win his rematch against Otunga the following week.[15] Young was ranked eight in the first Pros' Poll. After the pros' poll, Young decided to join the Straight Edge Society in an attempt to improve, only to change his mind before getting his hair shaved off. CM Punk decided to forgive him for standing up to him when he defeated Luke Gallows with Young's own hair on the line. Because of this victory, CM Punk had then been interested in Young's potential, but in turn started feuding with a jealous Luke Gallows. On May 11 in the second Pros poll, Young was ranked fifth out of the six remaining contestants and narrowly escaped elimination.[16] The following week, however, Young was eliminated from the competition.[17]

The week following the Season 1 finale, Young, along with the other season one NXT rookies turned heel and interfered in the main event match on Raw between John Cena and Young's former Pro, CM Punk, and attacked both wrestlers, the announce team, and the ring announcer Justin Roberts, before they dismantled the ring area and surrounding equipment.[18] On the June 14 edition of Raw the rookies attacked General Manager Bret Hart, when he refused to give them contracts.[19] The following week on Raw, Vince McMahon fired Hart and announced that a new General Manager had been hired, one that had signed all seven season one NXT rookies to contracts.[20] The following week, the group was named The Nexus.[21] On the July 5 episode of Raw, The Nexus tried to attack John Cena as he confronted Wade Barrett during their "truce" with one another. The segment ended with The Nexus leaving without Young, when other Raw wrestlers arrived to aid Cena, and Young was assaulted by Cena to end the show. Due to Cena's actions, the new general manager pitted Cena in a 7 on 1 handicap match against The Nexus scheduled for the following week.[22] Young however did not participate in the handicap match due to injuries caused by Cena the previous week, though The Nexus was successful in winning the match.[23] He returned on July 18 at Money in the Bank with the rest of The Nexus, sporting a new haircut and costing Cena the WWE Championship against Sheamus. After the match, Cena attacked Young and fellow Nexus teammate, Michael Tarver.[24] The Nexus continued to feud with Cena and the Raw roster, resulting in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match at SummerSlam. Young was the first person to be eliminated from the match, when he submitted to Daniel Bryan in under a minute, and The Nexus went on to lose the match.[25] On the next episode of Raw the members of The Nexus fought in individual matches against members of the victorious Team WWE with the stipulation that losing a match would have them exiled from the group. Young chose to face John Cena but failed to win, and was exiled and attacked as a result.[26]

Raw (2010–2011)

Young returned on the September 6 episode of Raw, distracting Barrett and costing him a match against Randy Orton.[27] On the October 4 episode of Raw, Young participated in a battle royal to determine the number one contender to the WWE Championship, but was eliminated by The Nexus.[28] Young had his first singles match since leaving The Nexus on the October 7 episode of Superstars, but lost to William Regal.[29] Young had his first win in singles competition on the October 14 airing of Superstars defeating Primo.[30] Young got his first victory of 2011 when he teamed with Primo, Yoshi Tatsu, and David Hart Smith to defeat Zack Ryder, William Regal, and The Usos on the January 13 episode of Superstars.[31]

NXT Redemption (2011)

In March 2011, Young was selected as one of six former NXT contestants to return to the show in its fifth season, NXT Redemption. During this season, Young was mentored by Chavo Guerrero. In the season premiere, Young defeated Jacob Novak and won the first challenge to earn himself "redemption points".[32] On the April 12 episode of NXT, Young attacked Titus O'Neil after their match and tried to attack O'Neil's pro Hornswoggle, but was stopped by Guerrero.[33] He turned heel, when he attacked Hornswoggle, and later he and Guerrero faced O'Neil and different tag team partners on several occasions. Guerrero was later released from WWE, leaving Young on his own. In August he formed an alliance with Derrick Bateman and the duo teamed up against O'Neil and NXT host Matt Striker, but were defeated.[34] Striker then moved into a feud with Striker, defeating him on two consecutive occasions.[35][36] After Young attacked Striker following a handshake, William Regal intervened, saving Striker.[37] Two weeks later, Young was defeated by Regal in a singles match. Young then formed an alliance with JTG and defeated Striker and O'Neil. After the match they were attacked by The Usos.[38]

On October 5, WWE's official website announced that Young had been suspended for 30 days for his first violation of the WWE Wellness Policy.[39] Following his suspension, Young returned on the November 16 episode of NXT assaulting Titus O' Neil after his victory over Tyler Reks.[40]

Personal life

Rosser attended Union High School in New Jersey, where he played American football, both offensively and defensively.[41] Rosser attended Fairleigh Dickinson University where he played football for a year, before deciding to focus on his academic studies and professional wrestling.[41] He has cited Shawn Michaels and Ricky Steamboat as his favorite wrestlers.[12]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

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External links

Members
See also