WWE has signed international Superstar Fergal Devitt to its NXT division. He will report to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, today, WWE.com has confirmed.
“This is something I’ve been looking forward to since I was maybe four or five years old,” Devitt told WWE.com last week, while preparing for the trip in his home country of Ireland. “I grew up watching wrestling my whole life, so to get the chance to step in the ring that I’ve watched on TV so many times is a dream come true.”
Prior to signing with WWE, Devitt was widely considered one of the most highly touted free agents in sports-entertainment. Hailing from Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, his path to NXT and WWE has been circuitous: Initially trained in England, Devitt honed his craft in the U.K. and U.S. independent scenes before entering the notoriously disciplined dojos of New Japan Pro Wrestling. He also competed in Mexico, though it was in New Japan that he rose to greatest prominence, under the name Prince Devitt.
During his eight-year tenure there, Devitt captured the group’s prestigious IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship three times, and he won New Japan’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament — the same tournament won by the likes of WWE Hall of Famer Eddie Guerrero — twice, in 2010 and 2013. Devitt went undefeated in last year’s edition of the round-robin tournament.
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