The latest recruits to the WWE Performance Center were revealed by the company on Tuesday with a class that includes Mercedes Martinez and Jake Atlas.
The signing of Martinez (Jazmin Benitez), 39, was reported last week by Steve Bryant of SoCal Uncensored, who added that the veteran was set to report to the WWE PC this month.
Martinez has been wrestling since November 2000 and worked for virtually every company that prominently promoted female talent including SHIMMER, Rise, WSU, World Xtreme Wrestling, Bellatrix, and held the Femme Fatales and AWS heavyweight titles at the time of her signing.
In 2017, she competed in the first Mae Young Classic going to the semi-finals and losing to Shayna Baszler. She returned in 2018 for the tournament and lost in the second round to Meiko Satomura. This past August she competed in the Casino Battle Royale at AEW’s All Out pay-per-view at the Sears Centre.
Jake Atlas (Kenny Marquez) is a product of the Santino Brothers Wrestling Academy and made his debut in August 2016. He is 25-years old and grabbed attention from his work throughout California including PWG, All Pro Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, Bar Wrestling, and PCW Ultra. He had also become a regular for Game Changer Wrestling and appeared for AAW in Illinois.
This past weekend, Atlas dropped the PCW Ultra light heavyweight title to Douglas James in a three-way match that included Dom Kubrick and then lost to Tony Deppen the next night on GCW’s I Can’t Feel My Face event in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
Atlas appeared on a 2018 episode of ‘Undercover Boss’ that featured Stephanie McMahon-Levesque. On the show, Atlas told McMahon it’s his goal to become the first openly gay WWE champion.
The rest of the class includes Sidney Bateman, who is a 27-year old that was part of Cirque de Soleil’s ‘LUZIA’ show.
Zechariah Smith is a seven-foot-tall former basketball player from Morgan State University and played for the Washington Generals.
Emily Andzulis is 27-years old and appeared on the ‘Titan Games’ that was hosted by Dwayne Johnson. She is a blue belt in jiu-jitsu.
Finally, Anthony Francis was a defensive tackle for the Miami Dolphins, Seattle Seahawks, and Washington Redskins.
