http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=101926ADAM ROSE-WWE UPDATE
By Mike Johnson on 2016-05-11 16:16:00
In the wake of his arrest this morning, WWE issued the following statement regarding Ray "Adam Rose" Leppan:
"WWE has zero tolerance for matters involving domestic violence, and per our policy, Raymond Leppan has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest."
Leppan was arrested on Wednesday 5/11 at 1:30 AM after his dialed 911 during a domestic dispute at home in Florida. According to the police report, Leppan allegedly grabbed his wife's face with his hands and pulled her close to his face as he screamed at her. When she attempted to dial 911, Leppan allegedly took the phone from her, which resulted in a tampering with a witness charge (a felony in the State of Florida) as well as a domestic battery charge, a misdemeanor.
Per WWE's corporate policy, should Leppan be convicted, he will be immediately terminated by the company.
Leppan was in the midst of serving a 60 day WWE Wellness suspension. He had publicly claimed on social media that he was suspended for using prescribed medication for adult ADHD, which the company was aware he had been taking for a year, going as far as to post a note from his personal doctor that stated he and Leppan were following all "protocols" in regard to the WWE Wellness Policy. There had been a huge public outpouring of support for Leppan online prior to his arrest.
Leppan, 36, broke into the business wrestling in South Africa, was signed to a WWE developmental deal in 2010. He initially worked as Leo Kruger and held the FCW championship. When developmental morphed into NXT, Leppan played Kruger as something of a zany villain, reminiscent of Mick Foley's early work in WCW. The character, for whatever reason, was not connecting and he was close to being let go.
As documented in an ESPN 30 in 30 film on the WWE developmental system and several of it's performers, Leppan morphed into Adam Rose, an eccentric party-going character obviously based on character played by Russell Brand in the 2010 comedy "Get Him To The Greek." Rose's initial debut vignette as he hosted a rave-like party with all these wacky characters led into an incredible entrance where Rose came out dancing with his followers, stage-dived off the ring into their waiting arms and was carried to the ring. It was magic, especially before WWE changed the initial ring music. Leppan went from being on the cutting list to now having a ready-made WWE character , one with an entrance that would have easily been a massive "Wrestlemania moment" if staged correctly at the biggest show of the year.
When Leppan was brought to the main roster in 2014, his character was tweaked somewhat and instead of being this eccentric party-going socialite, he was now a guy on an "Exotic Express" bus traveling with his followers. Even with the same entrance, something was lost in the translation from WWE NXT to the main roster and after a few months, he was never pushed and settled into the undercard. It was the first case of something that connected so well in NXT during the WWE Network era not clicking on the main roster.
Rose was used as an undercard comedy character, teaming with a man in a bunny costume (Justin Gabriel) and eventually turned heel, jealous at the popularity of the Bunny, losing his followers in the process. Rose would be linked for a short time with Cesaro and Tyson Kidd, which looked to be a great idea but eventually was on his own again. Of late, he had been put together with Bo Dallas, Heath Slater and Curtis Axel as The Social Outcasts with the quartet making the most of the group and building some decent momentum for themselves as an undercard act.
As of this writing, Leppan remains incarcerated in Florida.
