Taylor Michael Rotunda (May 25, 1990) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on the RAW brand under the ring name Uncle Howdy. While at WWE's development territory NXT, Dallas was the longest reigning NXT Champion in the championship's history at 280 days. He is a former three-time FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion and is a former two-time FCW Florida Tag Team Champion with his older brother Windham Rotunda. He is the grandson of WWE Hall of Famer Blackjack Mulligan, son of Mike Rotunda, and nephew of WWE Hall of Famer Barry Windham.
Career
World Wrestling Entertainment
Florida Championship Wrestling (2008–2012)
In 2008, Rotunda signed a developmental contract with WWE and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), where he debuted in December by defeating Caleb O'Neal. On December 16, 2008, Rotunda, wrestling under his real name teamed with Kris Logan to defeat Ryback and Jon Cutler in a tag team match. Throughout early 2009, Rotunda continued wrestling in tag team matches, and changed his name to 'Tank Rotunda' in February]]. In June, he began wrestling as 'Bo Rotunda' and later 'Bo Rotundo', and the following month he began teaming with his brother, Duke Rotundo. At the FCW television tapings on June 23, The Rotundo Brothers defeated The Dude Busters (Caylen Croft and Trent Barretta) to become the number one contenders to the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. That same night, they defeated Justin Angel and Kris Logan for the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. They went on to successfully defend the championship against Dylan Klein and Vance Archer and the team of Curt Hawkins and Heath Slater. At the FCW television tapings on November 19, the Rotundos lost the championship to The Dude Busters (Hawkins and Croft).
In early 2010, the Rotundos began feuding with The Usos (Jimmy and Jules), and their manager, Sarona Snuka. They lost to The Usos on January 14, but defeated The Usos and Donny Marlow in a six man tag team match, with Wes Brisco as their partner. In a straight rematch on March 11, the Rotundos defeated The Usos. In April, they moved into a feud with Jackson Andrews and Curt Hawkins, which began when Rotundo faced Andrews in a singles match and won by disqualification when Hawkins interfered. At the television tapings the following week, the Rotundos teamed up with Eli Cottonwood in a loss to Hawkins, Andrews, and Leo Kruger. Rotundo was then absent from FCW due to injury, making his return in June. He moved into singles competition, defeating wrestlers including Derrick Bateman, Hawkins, Tyler Reks, and Brodus Clay.
In August, FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion Mason Ryan issued an open challenge, which Rotundo accepted. He lost the subsequent championship match by submission. On February 3, 2011, Rotundo defeated Ryan to win the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship for the first time, but lost the championship to Lucky Cannon immediately afterward. He regained the championship from Cannon three months later, on May 19. Rotundo made his WWE debut on July 25, defeating Primo in a dark match before the WWE Raw broadcast began. On August 16, Rotundo defeated Joey Ryan in another dark match at the SmackDown tapings, and the following week on August 23, Rotundo lost to Wade Barrett in a dark match prior to SmackDown. On September 1, Rotundo vacated the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship due to injury. Later that month, it was reported that Rotundo had suffered a lacerated kidney, and was expected to be absent for several months to recuperate.
Rotundo returned at the tapings of the January 29, 2012, episode of FCW television, cutting a promo declaring his intentions to reclaim the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship. On February 2, Rotundo and his brother, renamed Husky Harris, defeated Brad Maddox and Eli Cottonwood, a substitute for the injured Briley Pierce, to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship for the second time. The brothers held the championship until March 15, when they lost it to Corey Graves and Jake Carter. In May 2012, Rotundo made several appearances at WWE house shows, defeating Drew McIntyre.
At a FCW live event on June 16, 2012, Dallas defeated Rick Victor to win the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship for a third time, right after Victor had just defeated Seth Rollins for the title. He lost the title back to Victor at another FCW live event on July 13, 2012.
NXT Wrestling (2012–2014)
When WWE rebranded its developmental territory, FCW, into NXT Wrestling, Dallas' NXT television debut took place on the first episode of the rebooted WWE NXT taped at Full Sail University, as he played a happy-go-lucky and resilient babyface while defeating Rick Victor. On the August 8 NXT, Dallas was inserted into the Gold Rush Tournament to crown the first NXT Champion, where he was eliminated by Jinder Mahal in the quarter finals. On the November 7 NXT, Dallas competed in a number one contender fatal four-way elimination match against Mahal, Drew McIntyre and Justin Gabriel; despite eliminating McIntyre and Gabriel, Dallas succumbed to Mahal. The next week, Dallas goaded Mahal into facing him in a match with the title shot on the line, but Mahal prevailed once again. On the December 5 NXT, Dallas offered an open challenge to anyone in WWE due to his love of fighting. The challenge was answered by WWE's World Heavyweight Champion Big Show, who defeated Dallas on the December 19 NXT.
On January 26, 2013 at WWE's first ever Royal Rumble FanFest, Dallas participated in an eight man NXT tournament and defeated Luke Harper, Conor O'Brian and lastly Leo Kruger to win the tournament, thus becoming the first NXT wrestler to qualify for the 2013 Royal Rumble match. The next day, Dallas entered the Rumble match at number 16, where he lasted over 20 minutes and eliminated the Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett, who returned to the ring and eliminated Dallas. This started a feud between the duo, with Barrett challenging Dallas to a non title match the following night on Raw, in which Dallas pulled off an upset victory in his first singles match on Raw. Dallas later challenged Barrett on the April 24 NXT for the Intercontinental Championship, but was defeated.
Simultaneously with his feud with Barrett, Dallas entered the NXT Tag Team Championship tournament alongside Michael McGillicutty, who had earlier saved Dallas from a beating at the hands of Primo and Epico. The pairing defeated Primo and Epico in the first round of the tournament. In the tournament semi-finals, Dallas and McGillicutty lost to the Wyatt Family (Luke Harper and Erick Rowan) due to Bray Wyatt's interference. An attack by the Shield then prevented Dallas from participating in a NXT Championship number one contender match against Conor O'Brian and Corey Graves (both who were later attacked as well). The triple threat match did occur the next week and Wyatt prevented Dallas from winning the match due to Dallas' earlier refusal to join the Wyatt Family, resulting in a match being set up between Dallas and Wyatt, which Dallas won.
From late April 2013, the NXT audience turned against Dallas (despite Dallas not changing his character) and started booing him. NXT Tag Team Champion Adrian Neville chose Dallas to replace his injured partner, Oliver Grey. On the May 8 NXT, Neville and Dallas failed in their first defense of the tag titles when they lost them to the Wyatt Family. Soon after, Dallas' character began showing subtle heel traits of being disingenuous. On the May 29 NXT, Dallas competed in an 18-man battle royal to determine the number one contender to the NXT Championship; he eliminated his former tag partner Neville to win the battle royal. On the June 12 NXT (originally taped on May 23), Dallas defeated champion Big E Langston after twice ramming Langston into an exposed turnbuckle to become the new NXT Champion. As Leo Kruger set his sights on Dallas' title, Dallas made his first successful title defense on the July 3 NXT by exploiting Kruger's interference to defeat Antonio Cesaro. On the August 7 NXT, Dallas defeated Kruger to retain his title. By then, the NXT audience's hate of Dallas translated to them literally turning their backs on him while cheering his opponents, even heels like Cesaro and Kruger or unknowns like Mickey Keegan.
Dallas then held an open challenge to determine the next title contender but banned Sami Zayn from competing, so Zayn masqueraded as the masked El Local and defeated Dallas to earn his title shot. The match occurred on the October 16 NXT; General Manager John "Bradshaw" Layfield restarted the match when Zayn won despite Dallas' foot on the ropes, but not when Dallas sent Zayn into an exposed turnbuckle to retain his title. Dallas then faced his next title contender and former tag team partner Adrian Neville and lost by count out to retain his title. However, Dallas would lose the title to Neville at NXT Arrival in a ladder match. He lost his rematch on the March 27 NXT. On the April 10 episode of NXT, Dallas attempted to mimic Daniel Bryan by trying to "Occupy NXT", but the crowd turned their backs on him as a response. He was then forced into a match against Justin Gabriel, which he won. Two weeks later he lost to Tyson Kidd, and after the match Bo threw a tantrum, mimicking what happened after the "Occupy NXT" incident weeks prior. On the May 8th edition of NXT, he participated in a number one contender's Battle Royal, and made it to the final four before being eliminated by Tyson Kidd. On the May 15th NXT, it was announced that he was put in a match for the May 22nd show against Big E with the stipulation that if he won, he would earn another NXT title shot and if he lost, he would be forced to leave NXT forever. Dallas subsequently lost the match and was forced to leave. During the taping's break, he turned heel towards NXT (and only NXT) by saying that he hates everyone and that they should leave. Sooner in the NXT tapings for June, Bo secretly trespassed briefly under a new gimmick, "Mr. NXT". However, he lost to Sami Zayn who exposed Dallas and had security take him away. The following week after, he found his way into the building and ran around for help from security.
Bolieve (2014–2015)
From the post-WrestleMania XXX Raw on April 7, WWE started airing introductory videos for Dallas to promote his return to the main roster. These motivators created a portmanteau of his first name "Bo" and the word "Believe" creating the term "Bolieve", which he would retain as his new slogan.
Dallas' return was in a winning effort, as he defeated Sin Cara on the May 23 episode of SmackDown as well as the May 26 episode of Raw. Dallas made his first pay-per-view appearance at Payback, where he was scheduled to face Kofi Kingston. However, the match never happened due to interference from Kane. Dallas would face Kingston the following night on Raw in a winning effort. Bo took his undefeated streak higher when he defeated Santino Marella on SmackDown on 6 June 2014. Bo continued to remain undefeated when he defeated Xavier Woods a second time on the June 9 edition of Raw.
On July 28, during latter part of the Raw show, Bo Dallas' undefeated streak was finally broken by R-Truth after Truth caught Dallas in a pinning roll-up during Dallas' premature victory lap around the ring. Afterwards, Dallas opted to beat down Truth for having defeated him in such short fashion.
Bo Dallas began feuding with Mark Henry after defeating him on the September 29 episode of Raw, tormenting him like he did Swagger following Henry's losses to Rusev at Night of Champions and the September 22 episode of Raw. Dallas was beaten down by Henry after the match but defeated him again the following night on WWE Main Event and was attacked again. On the October 6 episode of Raw he picked up another win over Henry via count out but escaped before Henry could attack him. On the October 7 episode of Main Event, he unsuccessfully challenged Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship. Dallas then went on to pick up three more wins over Henry in both singles and tag team matches, before being quickly defeated by Henry in a match on the Hell in a Cell pre show. Dallas injured his left foot in November and it was reported he would be out of action for around 6–8 weeks.
At WrestleMania 31, Dallas returned for the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal but was eliminated. The next night on RAW, he made his first RAW appearance for months but was attacked by Sting after his WWE Network Exclusive interview.
Bo would continue to anger WWE Superstars the likes of Brock Lesnar, and Roman Reigns. Dallas would then take part in The Social Outcasts, alongside Heath Slater, Curtis Axel and Adam Rose.
Bo-Lieve In Bo
On July 19 at the 2016 WWE draft, Dallas was drafted to Raw in the 10th round (50th overall). Bo returned on the September 5 edition of Raw, carrying a sign saying "Bo-lieve in Bo" and displaying a new, more vicious style as he defeated a local competitor. The trend continued the next week, despite a loss to Bin Wang at WWE's Shanghai live event, with Dallas defeating another local competitor. Bo Dallas is now a part of the Tag Team Stable, The Miztourage with Curtis Axel
Personal life
Rotunda is a third generation professional wrestler; his grandfather Blackjack Mulligan, father Mike Rotunda and uncles Barry and Kendall Windham were all professional wrestlers. He has an older brother, Windham Rotunda, who is also a professional wrestler under the ring name Bray Wyatt, and a younger sister, Mika.
Rotunda attended Hernando High School, and graduated in 2008. During his final two years of high school, he qualified for the state wrestling championships. He also played football as a linebacker. Originally, he was offered a football scholarship at Webber International University in Babson Park, Florida, but when the offer fell through, he decided to become a wrestler instead.
On February 19, 2012, Rotunda was arrested for driving under the influence in Tampa, Florida, with blood alcohol levels of 0.166 and 0.178 according to two breathalyzer tests, more than twice the legal limit. He was released later that day on a US$500 bond.
On June 27, 2014, Rotunda married Sarah Bäckman, a former WWE NXT talent.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Bo Dazzler (Sitout lifting double underhook facebuster (FCW) or belly-to-belly suplex (WWE) – 2013; used as a signature move from 2014–2020)
- Bo-Dog (Springboard bulldog with theatrics) – 2014–2016
- Double underhook DDT -2014
- Spear – 2012–2013
- Rope-hung whiplash neckbreaker - 2015, 2018–present
- Rollin' the Dice (Rolling cutter) – 2016–2020
- Sister Abigail (as Uncle Howdy, adopted from Bray Wyatt), sometimes preceded by a kiss to the forehead- 2022–present
- Signature moves
- Cravate
- Dropkick
- Inverted DDT
- Multiple running knee drops, with theatrics
- Multiple short-arm back elbows followed by a short-arm clothesline
- Running big boot to a bent over opponent
- Running crossbody
- Running forearm smash
- With Curtis Axel
- Double team finishing moves
- Belly-to-back suplex (Dallas) / Neckbreaker (Axel) combination
- Double team finishing moves
- Tag teams and stables
- The Rotundo Brothers (w/ Duke Rotundo)
- Social Outcasts (w/ Heath Slater, Adam Rose & Curtis Axel)
- The Miztourage (w/ Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas, The Miz & Maryse)
- The B-Team (w/ Curtis Axel)
- The Wyatt Sicks (w/ Nikki Cross, Erick Rowan, Dexter Lumis & Joe Gacy
- Nicknames
- "Bo Washington"
- "The New World's Strongest Man"
- "Bo Rida"
- Entrance themes
- "Texas Special" by Thomas Blug & Mark Scholz (2012–February 2013)
- "Anything" by Jim Johnston (February 19, 2013–May 2014)
- "Shoot for the Stars" by CFO$ (May 2014 – present)
- "Outcast" by CFO$ (January 11, 2016 – July 19, 2016; used while a part of The Social Outcasts)
- "I Came to Play" by Downstait (June 26, 2017 – May 14, 2018; used while a part of The Miztourage)
- "Battlescars" by CFO$ (May 14, 2018 - July 30, 2018; uses while teaming with Curtis Axel)
- "Go, Go, Go" by CFO$ (used while teaming with Curtis Axel)
- "Feared" by Def Rebel (2022-2023, as Uncle Howdy)
Championships and accomplishments
- WWE NXT
- NXT Championship (1 time)
