Taylor Michael Rotunda is an American professional wrestler.
He is signed to WWE, where he is working at the main roster as Bo Dallas.
While at WWE's development territory NXT, Dallas was the longest-reigning NXT Champion
in the championship's history at 280 days.
He had previously held the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship three times and is a former two-time
FCW Florida Tag Team Champion with his older brother Windham Rotunda.
Professional wrestling career World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
Florida Championship Wrestling In 2008, Rotunda signed a developmental contract
with WWE and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling, where he debuted in December by
defeating Caleb O'Neal.
On December 16, 2008, Rotunda, wrestling under his real name teamed with Kris Logan to defeat
Ryback and Jon Cutler in a tag team match.
Throughout early 2009, Rotunda continued wrestling in tag team matches, and changed his name
to 'Tank Rotunda' in February.
In June, he began wrestling as 'Bo Rotunda' and later 'Bo Rotundo', and the following
month he began teaming with his brother, Duke Rotundo.
At the FCW television tapings on June 23, The Rotundo Brothers defeated The Dude Busters
to become the number one contenders to the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship.
That same night, they defeated Justin Angel and Kris Logan for the FCW Florida Tag Team
Championship.
They went on to successfully defend the championship against Dylan Klein and Vance Archer and the
team of Curt Hawkins and Heath Slater.
At the FCW television tapings on November 19, the Rotundos lost the championship to
The Dude Busters.
In early 2010, the Rotundos began feuding with The Usos, and their manager, Sarona Snuka.
They lost to The Usos on January 14, but defeated The Usos and Donny Marlow in a six-man tag
team match, with Wes Brisco as their partner.
In a straight rematch on March 11, the Rotundos defeated The Usos.
In April, they moved into a feud with Jackson Andrews and Curt Hawkins, which began when
Rotundo faced Andrews in a singles match and won by disqualification when Hawkins interfered.
At the television tapings the following week, the Rotundos teamed up with Eli Cottonwood
in a loss to Hawkins, Andrews, and Leo Kruger.
Rotundo was then absent from FCW due to injury, making his return in June.
He moved into singles competition, defeating wrestlers including Derrick Bateman, Hawkins,
Tyler Reks, and Brodus Clay.
In August, FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion Mason Ryan issued an open challenge, which
Rotundo accepted.
He lost the subsequent championship match by submission.
On February 3, 2011, Rotundo defeated Ryan to win the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship
for the first time, but lost the championship to Lucky Cannon immediately afterward.
He regained the championship from Cannon three months later, on May 19.
Rotundo made his WWE debut on July 25, defeating Primo in a dark match before the WWE Raw broadcast
began.
On August 16, Rotundo defeated Joey Ryan in another dark match at the SmackDown tapings,
and the following week on August 23, Rotundo lost to Wade Barrett in a dark match prior
to SmackDown.
On September 1, Rotundo vacated the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship due to injury.
Later that month, it was reported that Rotundo had suffered a lacerated kidney, and was expected
to be absent for several months to recuperate.
Rotundo returned at the tapings of the January 29, 2012, episode of FCW television, cutting
a promo declaring his intentions to reclaim the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship.
On February 2, Rotundo and his brother, renamed Husky Harris, defeated Brad Maddox and Eli
Cottonwood, a substitute for the injured Briley Pierce, to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship
for the second time.
The brothers held the championship until March 15, when they lost it to Corey Graves and
Jake Carter.
In May 2012, Rotundo made several appearances at WWE house shows, defeating Drew McIntyre.
At a FCW live event on June 16, 2012, Dallas defeated Rick Victor to win the FCW Florida
Heavyweight Championship for a third time, right after Victor had just defeated Seth
Rollins for the title.
He lost the title back to Victor at another FCW live event on July 13, 2012.
NXT When WWE rebranded its developmental territory,
FCW, into NXT Wrestling, Dallas' NXT television debut took place on the first episode of the
rebooted WWE NXT taped at Full Sail University, as he played a happy-go-lucky and resilient
babyface, while defeating Rick Victor.
On the August 8 NXT, Dallas was inserted into the Gold Rush Tournament to crown the first
NXT Champion, where he was eliminated by Jinder Mahal in the quarter-finals.
On the November 7 NXT, Dallas competed in a number one contender fatal four-way elimination
match against Mahal, Drew McIntyre and Justin Gabriel; despite eliminating McIntyre and
Gabriel, Dallas succumbed to Mahal.
The next week, Dallas goaded Mahal into facing him in a match with the title shot on the
line, but Mahal prevailed once again.
On January 26, 2013 at WWE's first-ever Royal Rumble Fanfest, Dallas participated in an
eight-man NXT tournament and defeated Luke Harper, Conor O'Brian and lastly Leo Kruger
to win the tournament, thus becoming the first NXT wrestler to qualify for the 2013 Royal
Rumble match.
The next day, Dallas entered the Rumble match at number 16, where he lasted over 20 minutes
and eliminated the Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett, who returned to the ring and
eliminated Dallas.
This started a feud between the duo, with Barrett challenging Dallas to a non-title
match the following night on Raw, in which Dallas pulled off an upset victory in his
first singles match on Raw.
Dallas later challenged Barrett on the April 24 NXT for the Intercontinental Championship,
but was defeated.
Simultaneously with his feud with Barrett, Dallas entered the NXT Tag Team Championship
tournament alongside Michael McGillicutty, who had earlier saved Dallas from a beating
at the hands of Primo and Epico.
The pairing defeated Primo and Epico in the first round of the tournament.
In the tournament semi-finals, Dallas and McGillicutty lost to the Wyatt Family due
to Bray Wyatt's interference.
An attack by the Shield then prevented Dallas from participating in a NXT Championship number
one contender match against Conor O'Brian and Corey Graves.
The triple-threat match did occur the next week and Wyatt prevented Dallas from winning
the match due to Dallas' earlier refusal to join the Wyatt Family, resulting in a match
being set up between Dallas and Wyatt, which Dallas won.
From late April 2013, the NXT audience turned against Dallas and started booing him.
NXT Tag Team Champion Adrian Neville chose Dallas to replace his injured partner, Oliver
Grey.
On the May 8 NXT, Neville and Dallas failed in their first defense of the tag titles when
they lost them to the Wyatt Family.
Soon after, Dallas' character began showing subtle heel traits of being disingenuous.
On the May 29 NXT, Dallas competed in an 18-man battle royal to determine the number one contender
to the NXT Championship; he eliminated his former tag partner Neville to win the battle
royal.
On the June 12 NXT, Dallas defeated champion Big E Langston after twice ramming Langston
into an exposed turnbuckle to become the new NXT Champion.
As Leo Kruger set his sights on Dallas' title, Dallas made his first successful title defense
on the July 3 NXT by exploiting Kruger's interference to defeat Antonio Cesaro.
On the August 7 NXT, Dallas defeated Kruger to retain his title.
By then, the NXT audience's hate of Dallas translated to them literally turning their
backs on him while cheering his opponents, even heels like Cesaro and Kruger or unknowns
like Mickey Keegan.
Dallas then held an open challenge to determine the next title contender but banned Sami Zayn
from competing, so Zayn masqueraded as the masked El Local and defeated Dallas to earn
his title shot.
The match occurred on the October 16 NXT; General Manager John "Bradshaw" Layfield restarted
the match when Zayn won despite Dallas' foot on the ropes, but not when Dallas sent Zayn
into an exposed turnbuckle to retain his title.
Dallas then faced his next title contender and former tag team partner Adrian Neville
and lost by count-out to retain his title.
However, Dallas would lose the title to Neville at NXT Arrival in a ladder match.
He lost his rematch on the March 27 NXT.
On the April 10 episode of NXT, Dallas attempted to mimic Daniel Bryan by trying to "Occupy
NXT", but the crowd turned their backs on him as a response.
He was then forced into a match against Justin Gabriel, which he won.
Two weeks later he lost to Tyson Kidd, and after the match Bo threw a tantrum, mimicking
what happened after the "Occupy NXT" incident weeks prior.
On the May 8th edition of NXT, he participated in a number-one contender's Battle Royal,
and made it to the final four before being eliminated by Tyson Kidd.
On the May 15th NXT, it was announced that he was put in a match for the May 22nd show
against Big E with the stipulation that if he won, he would earn another NXT title shot
and if he lost, he would be forced to leave NXT forever.
Dallas subsequently lost the match and was forced to leave.
During the taping's break, he turned heel towards NXT by saying that he hates everyone
and that they should leave.
Sooner in the NXT tapings for June, Bo secretly trespassed briefly under a new gimmick, "Mr.
NXT".
However, he lost to Sami Zayn who exposed Dallas and had security take him away.
The following week after, he found his way into the building and ran around for help
from security.
BO-lieve Since the April 7 episode of Raw, WWE started
airing motivational-style introductory vignettes for Dallas.
Dallas' return was in a winning effort, as he defeated Sin Cara on the May 23 episode
of SmackDown as well as the May 26 episode of Raw.
Dallas made his first pay-per-view appearance at Payback, where he was scheduled to face
Kofi Kingston.
However, the match never happened due to interference from Kane.
Dallas would face Kingston the following night on Raw in a winning effort.
Following his début on the main roster, Dallas would go on an undefeated streak, picking
up wins over the likes of R-Truth, Fandango, and Titus O'Neil.
Dallas established himself as a heel when he attacked El Torito after his match against
Diego on the July 4th episode of SmackDown.
On WWE.com, it was announced that Dallas would be part of the upcoming Intercontinental Championship
Battle Royal match at Battleground.
Personal life Rotunda is a third generation professional
wrestler; his grandfather Blackjack Mulligan, father Mike Rotunda and uncles Barry and Kendall
Windham were all professional wrestlers.
He has an older brother, Windham Rotunda, who is also a professional wrestler under
the ring name Bray Wyatt, and a younger sister, Mika.
Rotunda is married to former eight-time World Arm Wrestling Champion Sarah Bäckman.
Rotunda attended Hernando High School, and graduated in 2008.
During his final two years of high school, he qualified for the state wrestling championships.
He also played football as a linebacker.
Originally, he was offered a football scholarship at Webber International University in Babson
Park, Florida, but when the offer fell through, he decided to become a wrestler instead.
On February 19, 2012, Rotunda was arrested for driving under the influence in Tampa,
Florida, with blood-alcohol levels of 0.166 and 0.178 according to two breathalyser tests,
more than twice the legal limit.
He was released later that day on a $500 BOnd.
In wrestling Finishing moves
Belly-to-belly suplex – 2013; used as a signature move from 2014–present
Bo-Dog – 2014–present Double underhook DDT – 2013–2014
Spear – 2012–2013
Signature moves Cravate
Dropkick Inverted DDT
Multiple running knee drops, with theatrics Multiple short-arm back elbows followed by
a short-arm clothesline Running big boot to a bent over opponent
Running crossbody Running forearm smash
Entrance themes "Texas Special" by Thomas Blug & Mark Scholz
"Anything" by Jim Johnston "Shoot for the Stars" by CFO$
Nicknames "The Inspirational" Bo Dallas
Championships and accomplishments Florida Championship Wrestling
FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship FCW Florida Tag Team Championship – with
Duke Rotundo/Husky Harris
Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI ranked him #79 of the top 500 singles
wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2013
WWE NXT NXT Championship
References
External links
Bo Dallas's profile on WWE.com Taylor Rotunda at the Internet Movie Database