You and I (Alexa Bliss x OC)

The Early Years

Character: Josh Richards

Age: 24

Weight: 242lbs

Height: 6ft 3in

Signature Move: Frog Splash

Years Active: 7

Companies Worked For:

· Lucha Underground

· WAW (World Association of Wrestling)

· OTW

· ICW

· Progress

Josh was supremely successful in the UK around it's various companies. He started out in WAW in 2014 as a 17-year-old rookie, after a chat with WWE Superstar Paige at a signing show, Josh was sent for training by Paige and her family. It took some time as Josh was unfit and was nervous, but after some careful mentoring and persuasion, he was ready to take his first steps into the wrestling world. Initially he was used only in short matches to build his confidence against more experienced wrestlers, but after around a month or so Josh was bumped upto the mid-card where he really began to flourish. He won his first title a year into his tenure with WAW; winning the Television Title from Ricky Knight Jr in a hard-hitting match to become one of the youngest active champions in the wrestling business. Because of Paige's connections, and because she had a hand in training Josh, it wasn't long before 'Sparky' (Josh's nickname) was being scouted by some promotions in the US. Lucha Underground was one of them, and Vampiro, one of the brands commentators even offered to train Josh in the Lucha Libre style so he wouldn't feel so left out.

Josh joined the brand in 2015 whilst still being WAW Television Champion and had his first match over seas against Johnny Mundo. It was a loosing effort, but Josh put on one hell of a show for someone so young and someone who had never left home before. After the bell, Josh was attacked by Big Ryk and his crew but was aided by Pentagon Dark and Rey Fenix. Because of the save, Josh considered the two luchadores his friends and the 3 formed a formidable alliance. The Lucha Bros (Penta and Fenix) even helped Josh defend his WAW Television Title on a few occasions but eventually he lost the belt after Josh suffered an injury during training. This allowed him to recover mentally and physically first year and a half in wrestling and assess his options for the coming years ahead. He was now 18 and looking to branch out a little, he still wasn't ready to commit full time to Lucha Underground and only made sporadic appearances across Season 2 but did feature in the Aztec Warfare Match, which was like Lucha Underground's version of the Royal Rumble. Josh was eliminated early by Prince Puma, but again impressed by eliminating ECW Legend, Tommy Dreamer, Marty The Moth, and Dragon Azteca Jr.

For the majority of 2015 though and the next few years, Josh spent most of his time in WAW because it was close to where he attended college, and it was close to home. Josh had no doubts with what he wanted to do for the rest of his life; wrestling had bit him and bit him hard, and he couldn't get enough of it. Because of his dabbles into the American wrestling scene, he had become some what of a celebrity at college and taught wrestling classes within the sports department. Towards the end of 2017 though, Josh felt he was ready to spread his wings and explore the world of wrestling outside his comfort zone. Sadly, Lucha Underground was running into issues, and Josh was advised to stay away from the company and sign with someone else instead.

Luckily on the eve of Josh's 21st Birthday he got his wish; NXT was knocking around for new talent and discovered that Josh was a free agent after Vampiro demanded Josh be released from his Lucha Underground deal after he wasn't paid for several shows. Triple H snapped Josh up quick, and Josh was now in the promise land and to make things better, Josh was met by the woman that started his journey off in the first place, Paige. She stayed around for the first few months with Josh, so he had a familiar face around, and to make sure he was doing as he was told. Triple H and William Regal were very impressed with Josh's attitude towards the business, how he engaged with his peers, and how he helped everyone even though he was still considered a 'rookie'. For the first year or so, Josh was used on the lower card to get his eye in with the NXT product, but with Paige as his manager, Josh's popularity when through the roof. His merchandise sales skyrocketed too, and eventually NXT had no choice but to bump Josh up the card. His popularity was so great in fact, that Josh was thrusted into a programme with the Undisputed Era and more specifically Adam Cole (bay bay) and his North American Championship. Because of the numbers disadvantage, Paige called upon some old friends of hers to help herself and Josh out. Jake Carter and Troy Edwards were called upon the neutralise the rest of the Undisputed Era during matches and allowed Josh to focus fully on Adam.

The feud was a slow burner, initially the first few PPV matches were tag team matches, but eventually Josh and Adam were set to face off one on one for the first time at Takeover: New Orleans. This was Josh's first proper big match under the WWE banner, but he didn't crack. Paige, Troy, and Jake kept an eye on things outside the ring, and Josh and Adam were able to piece together a masterful match. Adam did have to call most of the match and carry Josh through, but the two worked well together and Josh had the entire crowd behind him. After some interference from the outside, Adam had a breakthrough hitting the Panama Sunrise, but to everyone's amazement including Adam's, Josh kicked out sending the entire locker room and the fans mental. Adam went for the Last Shot, but as he ran back at Josh, Josh caught Adam with a knee strike of his own which sent Cole down hard. Sensing his opportunity, Josh climbed to the top rope, looked down at Adam and leaped from the turnbuckle, and hit the Frog Splash. 240lbs worth of Josh hitting Adam clean in the centre of the ring was enough for Josh to win his first championship in NXT after a year of trying. This marked the beginning of Josh's accent into the big time; he picked up numerous big victories after this, including EC3, Ricochet, Killian Dain, Damien Priest, Johnny Gargano, and Austin Theory to name a few. Josh was flying, and heading into the 2019 draft, he was hotly tipped to become the big NXT debutant.

However, Josh debut was to be handled in a different way to usual debuts.