David Otunga

David Otunga
David Otunga

David Otunga
Ring name(s) Dawson Alexander[1]
David Otunga[2]
Billed height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[3]
Billed weight 229 lb (104 kg)[3]
Born April 7, 1980 (1980-04-07) (age 31)[1]
Elgin, Illinois[4]
Resides Chicago, Illinois[4]
Billed from Hollywood, California[3]
Trained by Tom Prichard[1]
Norman Smiley[1]
Debut May 29, 2009[1]

David Daniel Otunga[1] (born April 7, 1980) is a professional wrestler and former reality television actor. He is signed to WWE, appearing on the Raw brand under his real name, where he was one-half of the former WWE Tag Team Champions alongside Michael McGillicutty and John Cena.[5] He was the runner-up on the first season of NXT.[3] Otunga was also the last original member of The Nexus and The New Nexus.

Contents

Early life

Otunga is the son of a Kenyan father, Moses, and white American mother, Billie, both of whom were educators.[4][6] He is the youngest of three children.[4] Otunga graduated from Larkin High School in 1996, with mostly A-grades.[7] Otunga holds a Bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Illinois.[7] Following his graduation, he moved to New York, where he worked at Columbia University as a lab manager in a cognitive neuroscience center.[7] He later attended Harvard Law School, and passed the bar exam in Illinois .[4][8] Following his graduation, he worked for the Sidley Austin LLP law firm.[4]

Reality television

After his niece sent in an audition tape of him, Otunga was chosen to be a contestant on I Love New York 2 and given the nickname "Punk".[7] Otunga made it to the final three in the competition before being eliminated on the penultimate episode of the series.[7]

Professional wrestling career

World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE

In November 2008, Otunga signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment and was assigned to its development territory, Florida Championship Wrestling.[1][9] He made his debut on May 29, 2009,[1] under the ring name, Dawson Alexander, in a six-man tag team match. Otunga teamed with Barry Allen and Jon Cutler to defeat Abraham Saddam Washington, Derrick Bateman, and Tonga.

NXT (2010)

See also: The Nexus

On February 16, 2010, it was announced that Otunga would be wrestling on the first season of WWE NXT under his real name, with R-Truth as his storyline mentor.[2] He made his debut on the inaugural episode of NXT on February 23, quickly defeating Darren Young.[10] Young defeated Otunga in a rematch on the following week's broadcast, thanks to interference from Young's mentor, CM Punk. After the match, R-Truth tried to offer his support, only to be shoved away by a frustrated Otunga. R-Truth took exception, confronting and brawling with Otunga backstage.[11] On the March 30 episode of NXT, Otunga won an 8-man over the top rope battle royal against the other NXT Rookies to earn the right to guest host Raw the following week.[12] On the April 5 episode of Raw, Otunga put himself in a tag team match with John Cena for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship against ShoMiz (The Big Show and The Miz). Later in the match, however, he refused to tag in and walked out, allowing ShoMiz to retain.[13] On May 11, in the second Pros Poll, he was moved to second place.[14] During the season finale on June 1, Otunga came in second place overall in the competition, losing out to Wade Barrett.[15]

The Nexus (2010–2011)

The following week on Raw, Otunga and the other NXT rookies from season one interfered in the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking the competitors, the announce team, and the ring announcer Justin Roberts, before dismantling the ring area and surrounding equipment.[16] On the June 14 episode of Raw, the rookies attacked General Manager Bret Hart, when he refused to give them contracts.[17] The following week on Raw, Vince McMahon fired Hart and announced the hiring of a new General Manager, who had signed all seven season one NXT rookies to contracts.[18] The following week, the group was named The Nexus.[19] On the July 12 edition of Raw, The Nexus, excluding Daniel Bryan (who was fired by Vince McMahon after the Nexus' first night on Raw in part due to choking ring announcer Justin Roberts with his own tie.), competed in their first match together, defeating John Cena in a six–on–one handicap match.[20] The Nexus continued to feud with Cena and the Raw roster, resulting in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match at SummerSlam. Otunga was the fourth member of The Nexus eliminated, when he submitted to Chris Jericho, and The Nexus went on to lose the match.[21]

Nexus at WWE Tribute to the Troops in December 2010.

Cena was later forced to join The Nexus, as a result of losing to Barrett at Hell in a Cell.[22] At the following pay-per-view, Bragging Rights on October 24, Otunga and Cena teamed together to win the WWE Tag Team Championship from Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre.[23][24] The next night on Raw Otunga and Cena lost the Tag Team Championship to fellow Nexus members Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater when Barrett ordered Otunga to allow Slater to pin him.[25] On November 5, Otunga, who had been questioning Barrett's leadership in the past weeks, led Nexus, minus Barrett and Cena, to an invasion of SmackDown.[26] Barrett did not approve of Otunga's decision to lead The Nexus to SmackDown and as a result forced him to defend his spot in the group a week later.[27] On the November 12 edition of SmackDown Otunga defeated Edge in a lumberjack match, after Kane interfered, to keep his spot in Nexus.[28] About a month later, Otunga started to rebel against Barrett with the rest of Nexus behind him. After the group disobeyed direct orders and walked away from Barrett, Otunga told Barrett to rehire Cena the following week or be banished from Nexus.[29]

In January 2011 Barrett was exiled from Nexus and CM Punk took over his spot as the leader of the group.[30] While Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater chose not to follow Punk's orders and left Nexus, Otunga agreed to take his initiation test, a beating from the Big Show, and remain with the group.[31] In late February, it was announced that Punk would face Randy Orton at WrestleMania XXVII, with each member of The Nexus facing Orton to win the right to accompany Punk to the ring in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania. Otunga faced Orton on the March 7 episode of Raw, but lost. Following the match, he was punted in the skull by Orton.[32] Otunga was absent from television for over a month, returning on the April 11 episode of Raw with the other New Nexus members, and preventing Orton from earning a WWE Championship match.[33][34]

On the May 23 episode of Raw, Otunga teamed with fellow Nexus member Michael McGillicutty to win the WWE Tag Team Championship from Kane and The Big Show with the help interference from fellow New Nexus members Ryan and Punk.[5][35] They made their only successful title defense against The Usos on the July 29 edition of SmackDown.[36] After CM Punk left the New Nexus when his WWE contract expired on July 17, Otunga and McGillicutty competed against Santino Marella and Zack Ryder on the August 1 edition of Raw without any Nexus gear or armbands, and with all Nexus logos removed from their TitanTron, effectively signaling the end of the New Nexus.[37][38] On the August 22 episode of Raw, Otunga and McGillicutty lost the Tag Team Championship to Air Boom (Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne).[39]

Legal Advisor (2011–present)

After a minor feud with Jerry Lawler, Otunga and McGillicutty's team ended. Otunga would then start a new angle, where he would focus on his law background, after John Laurinaitis would advise Otunga to help other disgruntled wrestlers with his legal knowledge to plan a lawsuit against Triple H, after his recent decisions and actions as COO. On the September 30 edition of SmackDown, Otunga and Laurinaitis would sit down with Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Cody Rhodes, Alberto Del Rio, Christian, and Vickie Guerrero to discuss the matter. The following week on Raw, Otunga would walk out on Triple H with other wrestlers, WWE Divas and referees after a "vote of no confidence" about Triple H as COO. On the November 7, 2011 edition of Raw, Otunga was jumped by CM Punk backstage but was saved by Alberto Del Rio, who put Punk through a table.

Personal life

Seven months after meeting singer and actress Jennifer Hudson, he proposed marriage on Hudson's 27th birthday.[40][41] On August 10, 2009, Hudson gave birth to the couple's first child, a boy named David Daniel Otunga, Jr .[42]

In wrestling

Otunga wrestling Heath Slater in May 2009

Championships and accomplishments

Otunga as WWE Tag Team Champion with McGillicutty

References

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