Taylor Rust: The idea of Timothy Thatcher joining Diamond Mine was tossed around

Former NXT talent and Diamond Mine member Taylor Rust shares that Timothy Thatcher was considered for the initial version of the group

Photo Courtesy: WWE

Timothy Thatcher was considered for the original Diamond Mine.

This past June, after weeks of vignettes promoting the arrival of ‘Diamond Mine’, the group debuted on NXT TV. The group consisted of Roderick Strong, Hideki Suzuki, Taylor Rust and Malcolm Bivens as the manager. Rust was released from WWE and Diamond Mine currently consists of Strong, Bivens, Suzuki, Ivy Nile, Julius and Brutus Creed.

In the months after Diamond Mine’s debut, it was revealed that the likes of Marina Shafir and Tiger Ruas were considered for the group. Taylor Rust told Ringsiders Wrestling during an interview that while the idea of Diamond Mine was being formulated, Timothy Thatcher’s name was tossed around as well.

As far as the Diamond Mine forming, you know, that was always originally the plan when I first came in. The first thing they told me when they started using me on TV right away, they said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna make a group of like, you know, shooter, real-type wrestlers’ and you know it’s going to be — it was originally supposed to be like me and [Malcolm] Bivens and they were tossing around the idea of maybe having [Tim] Thatcher with us, Arturo Ruas, you know, was another idea. They were thinking about putting him with us and it changed over the course of the next few months but everything me and Bivens were doing originally, they kept saying, ‘No, the idea is we’re going to transform you two into the start of a whole new group of these shooter-type wrestlers.’

Thatcher’s most recent TV match was on the 8/24 episode of NXT during which he lost to Ridge Holland. Thatcher has yet to appear since the rebrand into NXT 2.0.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit Ringsiders Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.

About Andrew Thompson 9833 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.