Erick Rowan

Joseph Ruud (born November 28, 1981 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) better known by his ring name Erick Rowan, is an American professional wrestler. He competed in the WWE from 2011- 2020, where he was a member of The Wyatt Family along with Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, Daniel Bryan,Eli Cottonwood. He began performing for the AEW in 2022.
Career.
Rudd competed in various independent promotions in both the United States and Japan before signing to the WWE. In 2007, he worked for Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan under the ring name, Thoruf. After his time with them was done, he returned to the United States and started competing for F1rst Wrestling under the ring name, Thoruf Marius. During his time there he feuded with Brody Hoofer.
He signed a developmental contract with WWE and was assigned to their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling and started competing under the ring name Erick Rowan. He debuted on FCW TV debut in August 2011 when he defeated Kenneth Cameron. When FCW was rebranded into NXT Wrestling, he debuted on the December 12, 2012 episode of NXT as a follower of Bray Wyatt, who introduced Rowan as his "second son".
As a member of the Wyatt Family, he teamed with Wyatt's "first son" Luke Harper. They defeated Percy Watson and Yoshi Tatsu on the January 9, 2013 episode of NXT and defeated them again on the January 23 episode of NXT in the first round of the NXT Tag Team Championship tournament. Rowan and Harper defeated Bo Dallas and Michael McGillicutty in the semi-finals but were defeated in the finals by Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey. Harper and Rowan won a triple threat elimination tag match on the May 2 episode of NXT and defeated Neville and Bo Dallas, filling in for the injured Grey, on the May 8 NXT (taped on May 2) to win the tag titles. On June 20, they lost the NXT Tag Team Championship to Adrian Neville and Corey Graves.
Vignettes became appearing on Raw to promote the upcoming debut of the Wyatt Family and they debuted on the July 8 episode of Raw when they attacked Kane. He made his WWE in-ring debut in a tag team match on the July 26 episode of SmackDown, where he and Harper defeated Tons of Funk (Brodus Clay and Tensai). Rowan and Harper went on a winning streak over many teams for a couple months but suffered their first lost on the October 11 episode of SmackDown from Cody Rhodes and Goldust.