Otis Dozovic

Otis Dozovic
Dozovic in April 2017
Birth name Nikola Bogojević
Born (1991-12-21) December 21, 1991
Duluth, Minnesota[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Dozer
Niko Bogojevic
Otis Dozovic[2]
Billed height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2]
Billed weight 309 lb (140 kg)[2]
Billed from Superior, Wisconsin[2]
Trained by Matt Yaden[3]
WWE Performance Center[4]
Debut 2015

Nikola Bogojevic (born December 21, 1991)[1] is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he competes in their developmental territory NXT under the ring name Otis Dozovic.[5]

Early life

Competition record
Greco-Roman wrestling
Representing  United States
2014 Pan-American Championships[6]
3rd 2010 130kg

Bogojevic attended Superior High School, where he was a successful amateur wrestler. He was a champion at the 2009 Greco-Roman junior Nationals.[7] He placed third at the 2009 Junior Freestyle championships.[7]

Originally committed to the University of Wisconsin,[7] Bogojevic wrestled at collegiate level for Augsburg College and Colorado State University-Pueblo. He won the national title in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Junior Pan-American Games in 2011 and a Greco-Roman bronze at the 2014 Pan-American Games.[8] He was at one point considered a prospect for the US Greco-Roman wrestling team at the 2012 Summer Olympics and spent some time training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado.[9]

Professional wrestling career

Early career (2015–2016)

Bogojevic trained to become a professional wrestler at the Mercury Pro Wrestling Academy in Arvada, Colorado.[3] He wrestled under the ring name Dozer for several regional promotions in Colorado including Ultra Championship Wrestling-Zero and New Revolution Wrestling, where he won the NRW Charged Championship.[10]

WWE (2016–present)

On April 12, 2016, Bogojevic was announced as one of 10 new recruits to begin training at the WWE Performance Center.[11] He made his debut for WWE at a NXT live event on July 8, 2016, teaming with Adrian Jaoude in a defeat to The Authors of Pain. Later that month he formed a tag team with Tucker Knight at NXT live events. Using the name Heavy Machinery, the duo made their television debut on the October 19 episode of NXT, losing to the team of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong as part of the 2016 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, with Bogojevic now renamed Otis Dozovic.[5][12] The duo returned and had their first televised victory on the March 29, 2017 episode of NXT, defeating the team of Mike Marshall and Jonathan Ortagun.[13] On the July 12 episode of NXT, Heavy Machinery unsuccessfully challenged The Authors of Pain for the NXT Tag Team Championship.

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. 1 2 "Nikola Bogojevic". teamusa.org. Retrieved 2016-09-03.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Otis Dozovic". WWE.
  3. 1 2 Clark, Ryan (16 April 2016). "WWE Signs Nikola 'Dozer' Bogojevic - Details - ProWrestling.com".
  4. ↑ "Otis Dozovic". Cagematch. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  5. 1 2 "WWE NXT results: Roderick Strong makes his debut". 19 October 2016.
  6. ↑ "Cubans roll at Pan Am Championships, but U.S. wins Greco title - The Open Mat". news.theopenmat.com.
  7. 1 2 3 "Class of four signs with UW wrestling". University of Wisconsin.
  8. ↑ "'Niko' among new recruits at WWE Performance Center".
  9. ↑ "Former Superior wrestler aims for London Olympic Games".
  10. 1 2 "NRW Champions". nrwprowrestling.com. Retrieved 2016-09-04.
  11. ↑ "Which independent stars just signed with WWE?".
  12. ↑ "Team Aries vs. Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight (Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic First Round Match)".
  13. ↑ "3/29 Moore's NXT TV Review: Kassius Ohno vs. Elias Samson in a Loser Leaves NXT Match, Johnny Gargano vs. Dash Wilder vs. Akam, Heavy Machinery in action, Ember Moon and Asuka contract signing for NXT Takeover: Orlando - Pro Wrestling Dot Net". 29 March 2017.
  14. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2018". cagematch.net. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
  15. ↑ PWI Awards
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