Ricky Ortiz

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the American football player, see Ricky Ortiz (American football). For the fighting game player, see Ricki Ortiz. For the American actor, see Richard Young (actor).

Ricky Ortiz
Ortiz in 2009
Born
Richard Young

(1975-05-12) May 12, 1975 (age 49)
Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Spouse
​
(m. 2015)​
Ring name(s)Atlas DaBone[1]
Atlas Ortiz[1][2]
Rich Young
Ricky Ortiz[3]
Billed height6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)[3]
Billed weight246 lb (112 kg)[3]
Billed fromParadise Valley, Arizona[3]
Trained byOhio Valley Wrestling[1]
Florida Championship Wrestling
Debut2006[1]
Retired2013
American football career
Career information
College:Tulsa
Position:Linebacker
Undrafted:1998
Career history
Career highlights and awards
Player stats at ArenaFan.com

Richard Young

WWE performing under the ring name Ricky Ortiz.[3][4]

Young spent time in the

Arena Football League
(AFL).

Football career

College

Young spent two years at Glendale Community College in Glendale, Arizona. He then transferred to the University of Tulsa and played for the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. He was a two-year letter winner. He played 22 career games and was credited with 177 tackles as a linebacker.[5]

Professional football

After college, Young attended

fullback and linebacker. Following the AFL, Young joined the short-lived XFL with the Orlando Rage.[7] After the league folded, Young attempted to make the Jacksonville Jaguars roster, but was waived during training camp. He rejoined the AFL, this time with the Indiana Firebirds, in 2002. He would spend the next two years in Indiana before joining the Colorado Crush in 2004. In 2003, he led all AFL middle linebackers with 4.0 sacks.[5]

Professional wrestling career

World Wrestling Entertainment (2006–2009)

Young made his professional wrestling debut with Ohio Valley Wrestling in late 2006 under the ring name Atlas DaBone.[7] On January 12, 2008, DaBone became the number one contender to the OVW Heavyweight Championship after beating Mike Kruel in a best of 3 series.[8]

On July 1, 2008, Young made his WWE debut under the name Atlas Ortiz on the

Tazz and Mike Adamle referred to him as "Ricky Ortiz".[7] He acknowledged the name change in an interview segment on the same show; Lena Yada called him Atlas and he responded by saying, "My friends call me Ricky". On the July 15 episode of ECW, he used the nickname, "The Latin Assassin". Ortiz defeated Chavo Guerrero by disqualification on July 29.[9] The next week he beat Guerrero and Bam Neely in a tag team match with Evan Bourne.[10]

Although enjoying a streak of 5–0, on October 7, Ortiz would team with

Jack Swagger, who was also undefeated at the time.[12]

On April 15, 2009, Ortiz was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft.[13] On the May 15 episode of SmackDown, Ortiz made his debut for the brand, losing to Jeff Hardy.[14] His last match for WWE was the August 7 episode of SmackDown, where he was squashed by The Great Khali.[7][15] He was released from his WWE contract on August 8, 2009.[4]

Independent circuit and retirement (2009–2013)

A week after his WWE release, on August 15, 2009, Young appeared at a

Sinn Bodhi.[1] He then began competing for Florida-based promotions, including I Believe in Wrestling and WWA.[1] On January 14, 2011 Young appeared at Vintage Pro Wrestling's Wrestlebrawl 2 event with Scott Hall, using the NWO
Wolfpac theme for his entrance, to face Kennedy Kendrick. Despite originally winning the match, Young would lose when the referee reversed his decision and disqualified him due to refusing to release a hold.

In May 2011, it was revealed that Ortiz would take part in a new hiphop/pro wrestling collaboration, the Urban Wrestling Federation, with taping of the first event "First Blood" taking place on June 3.[16]

On December 28, 2013, Ortiz debuted in Extreme Rising, defeating Homicide. Subsequently, Ortiz would retire from professional wrestling, so that he could concentrate more on his personal life with fellow wrestler, Layla El.

Even though he is retired, Ortiz works as a producer for various independent promotions.

Other media

Young appeared on the November 25, 2008 episode of

Cha$e as a hunter.[17] Young also appeared on Scott Hall
's web show Last Call with Scott Hall.

Personal life

In July 2015, Young got engaged to English professional wrestler Layla El,[18][19] and the two were married on November 27.[20][21]

Championships and accomplishments

  • IWA Florida

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Ricky Ortiz profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved August 15, 2008.
  2. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    .
  3. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original
    on June 2, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  4. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    . August 8, 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2009.
  5. ^ a b AFL. "404". AFL. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009. Retrieved March 23, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  6. ^ Zary, Darren (June 19, 1999). "Talk, talk, talk". Star-Phoenix. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
  7. ^
    Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved August 9, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
    )
  8. ^ "Ohio Valley Wrestling – Tomorrow's Superstars...Today!". February 13, 2008. Archived from the original on February 13, 2008. Retrieved March 23, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  9. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved August 15, 2008.
  10. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved August 15, 2008.
  11. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved October 15, 2008.
  12. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved December 14, 2008.
  13. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . April 15, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  14. Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved May 16, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
    )
  15. Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved August 9, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
    )
  16. ^ Martin, Adam (May 6, 2011). "UWF roster update and hip hop stars involved". WrestleView. Archived from the original on September 1, 2011. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
  17. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved January 9, 2011.
  18. ^ Tello, Craig (July 29, 2015). "Layla retires from WWE". WWE. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  19. ^ El, Layla (July 28, 2015). "Aawwwww who woulda thought .... @iamrichyoung2 richandlay #love #engagement #future #young 💖💕". Twitter. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  20. ^ "Layla Young on Twitter". Twitter. April 19, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  21. ^ "Former WWE Diva and Superstar tie the knot". WWE. April 19, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  22. ^ Kreikenbohm, Philip. "IWA Florida « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.de. Retrieved March 23, 2018.

External links

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