Today, WWE officially announced that Russ Taylor and the PWG Tag-Team Champions The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz) have signed with the promotion and have reported to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, FL.
Russ Taylor, who previously wrestled as Ryan Taylor, trained at Empire Wrestling Federation’s School of Hard Knocks in San Bernardino, CA, and made his professional wrestling debut in 2004. In EWF, Taylor has held every championship, and his 567-day reign as the EWF Heavyweight Champion is still the longest single reign in the promotion’s history. Taylor has also held the United Wrestling Network Television Title and Tag-Team Titles. Taylor also won the 2015 Most Outstanding Wrestler in Southern California Award as Gary Yap’s Man in Black.
From 2009 until 2013, Taylor was also a regular in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Taylor regularly teamed with Brian Cage in the promotion as The Fighting Taylor Boys. In 2010, Taylor was entered in PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles, where he lost in the first round to Brandon Gatson. In September, Taylor took part in Ring of Honor’s Pure Title Tournament, and before the pandemic began, he was wrestling regularly for wXw in Germany and PCW in the UK. Last month Taylor taped several matches for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s weekly show NJPW Strong on New Japan World.
The Rascalz signing with WWE will end the longest PWG Tag Team Championship reign in the promotion’s history, as the team has the titles for 958 days. They won the titles on April 20, 2018, when they defeated The Chosen Bros. (Jeff Cobb and Matt Riddle) and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) in a triple-threat match.
This will be the fifth time in the promotion’s history the PWG Tag Team Championship has been vacated and the first time since 2012.
WWE also announced that they had signed Alex Zayne (real name Alex Brandenburg), who debuted in PWG in September 2019 and has been wrestling on NJPW Strong, Sojiru “Ikemen” Higuchi, and Anriel Howard.
WWE also announced that they have signed Alex Zayne (real name Alex Brandenburg) who debuted in PWG in September 2019 and has been wrestling on NJPW Strong, Sojiru “Ikemen” Higuchi, and Anriel Howard.
