The WWE has officially announced that KUSHIDA, Stephon (Shane) Strickland, and Humberto Garza (Garza Jr.) have reported to the Performance Center in Florida.
KUSHIDA (Yujiro Kushida) is 35-years old and was signed by the company earlier this year. He wrapped up with New Japan Pro Wrestling at the end of January after a match with Hiroshi Tanahashi. He was a product of Nobuhiko Takada’s Takada Dojo and debuted in September 2005. He made stops for Hustle, All Japan, Osaka Pro, and Smash before he became a regular with New Japan. He also had eight MMA fights for ZST.
He became the focal point of New Japan’s junior heavyweight division, first as a tag star with Alex Shelley as the Time Splitters before achieving singles success. He won his first of six IWGP junior heavyweight titles from Kota Ibushi in July 2014 and would exchange title with Kenny Omega, Bushi, and Hiromu Takahashi during his reigns. His final run as champion was last June and dropped the belt to Will Ospreay last October at King of Pro Wrestling. His first on-screen appearance for WWE took place at TakeOver: New York earlier this month at the Barclays Center.
Strickland began wrestling in 2011 while still on active duty for the U.S. military. His early career wrestling for CZW and EVOLVE was where he first caught on. His largest exposure came through Lucha Underground where he wrestled under a mask as Killshot and was embroiled in a feud with AR Fox, who wrestled as Dante Fox. Killshot was involved in two violent matches in the promotion’s history with a Hell of War match against Fox and a Weapons of Mass Destruction match with Marty the Moth Martinez. His character was written off the show after he lost his mask to Son of Havoc in their most recent season. He began wrestling for MLW in 2017 and became the promotion’s heavyweight champion in April 2018 and lost it to Low Ki in July. His final match with the promotion was against Rush in December.
Garza Jr. is 28-years old and is the nephew of the late Hector Garza. He started his career in 2008 wrestling as El Hijo del Ninja. While wrestling for FILL (Federacion Internacional de Lucha Libre), he defended his mask successfully three times in matches against Black Morse, Memo Valles, and Estrella Dorada Jr. He would unmask on his own in 2012 but was never defeated for it.
He started with AAA in 2015 and switched his identity to Garza Jr. In 2017, he joined a group of talent that joined The Crash promotion and quickly made inroads at Impact Wrestling at the same time where he teamed with Laredo Kid. He lost his hair to Bestia 666 last November in Tijuana.
