Who Is Anthony Ogogo?
Anthony Ogogo from Lowestoft, Suffolk, England is a 30 year old former Olympian, winning a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer games in London. He would go on to have an 11-1 professional record before being forced into an early retirement due to a shattered eye socket which he suffered in his final fight. Ogogo is registered blind and was advised to retire by a number of eye specialists following his injury. It does make you wonder how wrestling will work out for him, but it’s much easier to protect a guy’s eye in wrestling instead of boxing, plus imagine the heat someone could get by executing a simple eye rake to him? If he can work past this issue, it can easily become a bit of a benefit.
Ogogo had plans to become a professional wrestler following his retirement, as told in an interview with Eastern Daily News. “I’m seriously considering becoming a professional wrestler, I may join one of the big companies and do some wrestling because it has always been something I’ve enjoyed.” This makes it clear the passion is there, which bodes well as with a win loss record like he maintained, he’s clearly a fantastic athlete, and should transition well if he puts his all towards it.
First Developmental Project For AEW
This it the first AEW signing which isn’t an already established and trained professional wrestler, which makes it an interesting prospect. It’s unknown what type of training environment they will be able to provide for him, they lack a system like the WWE Performance center but have enough well tenured talents to pass down knowledge to this new signee.
Cody first mentioned his interest in Ogogo during a Road to Double Or Nothing video, in which Ogogo also spoke briefly about his dreams of wanting to become a wrestler. So you have to assume this wasn’t an overnight signing, just something they waited to make official.
Ogogo has some wrestling experience, having worked some shows for World Association of Wrestling run by the Knight family, most famously known for WWE Superstar Paige, but I’m sure they’ll give him a few months to prepare before sending him off to prime time TV if they feel that’s what he’ll need.
Later in the SWE show, Ogogo would lay out MJF with a punch and say he’ll be seeing him on Wednesdays, something I’m sure MJF will forgive, being such a nice guy. Time will tell if this will be a worthy addition to the AEW roster, but a half blind former boxer is a great foundation for a gimmick right out of the box. Maybe Ogogo will be ready to immediately go, and will be The Elites way to counter Jake Hager? We’ll simply have to wait and see what his role will be.
