Before They Were Superstars, Professional Wrestling Studies Association

Before They Were Superstars: Johnny Gargano

June 27, 2018 by prowrestlingstudies_21lb3c

Sometimes a wrestler becomes so well known in a certain alignment it’s strange to see them wrestle the other way. Ric Flair was widely known as a heel, but would wrestle as a face periodically. Hulk Hogan, for much of his career, also wrestled as a face — to the point that it was a … Read more Before They Were Superstars: Johnny Gargano

Before They Were Superstars: Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly

January 31, 2020August 22, 2017 by prowrestlingstudies_21lb3c

Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly, along with Bobby Fish, made their presence felt when they attacked the newly crowned NXT champion Drew McIntyre at NXT TakeOver Brooklyn III. Adam and Kyle’s careers have always been intertwined, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise. When they were in Ring of Honor, they wrestled together as Future … Read more Before They Were Superstars: Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly

Before They Were Superstars: Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose

June 23, 2017 by prowrestlingstudies_21lb3c

Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose spent a good portion of 2013 wrestling each other. They either fought in tag matches or a few singles matches on Raw or Smackdown. None of these matches were as hard hitting as their No-Disqualification war for Dragon Gate USA in 2010.

Daniel Bryan found himself without a job after being a little too brutal during the initial attack of The Nexus. During this time, he ended up going back on the independent circuit and wrestling under his real name again, Bryan Danielson. He had a few matches for Dragon Gate USA where he wrestled the Japanese talent, YAMATO and Shingo Takagi. For his final match, he wrestled the unstable Jon Moxley.

Before They Were Superstars: CM Punk and Samoa Joe

June 16, 2017 by prowrestlingstudies_21lb3c

One would become the “Best in the World” and the other the “Samoan Submission Machine,” but before all of their nicknames and accolades, they were simply CM Punk and Samoa Joe. In 2004 they had a trilogy of matches that would make them legends and help make Ring of Honor one of the best independent wrestling promotions in the world.

Samoa Joe was in the midst of a dominating run as the world champ of ROH that spanned most of 2003 and showed no signs of stopping in 2004. He had turned away such challengers as Christopher Daniels, Jay & Mark Briscoe, Homicide, AJ Styles, and many others.

To be honest, Ring of Honor seemed to be running out of challengers for Joe. This is where CM Punk comes in. He and Joe had a non-title match on August 16th where both men were in pretty rough shape. The match ended with Joe beating Punk. Punk had yet to have a world title shot in his time in ROH and in Dayton, OH on June 12th, 2004, at World Title Classic, that would change. Punk and Joe had a match that ended in a 60 minute draw.

Before They Were Superstars: Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens

June 1, 2017 by prowrestlingstudies_21lb3c

Hello, and welcome to the first installment of Before They Were Superstars, where I’ll be discussing the matches and angles that current WWE superstars were involved in before they debuted in the WWE. Many of today’s current WWE superstars were not always in the WWE. A lot of them started on the independent wrestling circuit where they honed their craft in front of smaller crowds.

023_RAW_01022017jg_0280--8f601eb83966ebb19d44c684db1cc5d6 — Image credits: http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2017-01-02/gallery/seth-rollins-vs-kevin-owens-photos#fid-40076253

They’re currently known as Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins, but they once went by Kevin Steen and Tyler Black respectively. Before they battled each other for the WWE Universal Championship, they were both affiliated with Ring of Honor (ROH). Back in 2010, they were both involved in separate angles in ROH, and on one night in July, they crossed paths in Chicago Ridge, IL.