David Otunga

Early Life

David Otunga was born in Elgin, Illinois. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and later

graduated from Harvard Law School, passing Illinois’ Bar Exam. He would then work in a law

firm for a while. During this time he would also venture into acting. However, in 2008, David

Otunga signed a contract with WWE and joined their development territory, Florida

Championship Wrestling. He was also a part of the first-ever season of NXT. During this time

NXT was more of a reality show than the wrestling show it is at the moment.

Nexus

David Otunga came in second in his season of NXT.

David Otunga was part of the Nexus faction which debuted on Raw and took apart all the

stars in the ring as well as those outside the ring. The invasion was hugely successful and

remains one of the high points of WWE from that time. The Nexus were seemingly an

impregnable force of NXT rookies, until they were defeated in a seven-on-seven matchup

against WWE stars.

David Otunga would continue as part of the now slightly deflated Nexus and would perform

in the New Nexus led by CM Punk. During this time he also held the tag team titles twice.

Legal Advisor

Following leaving the Nexus, Otunga adopted a new gimmick where he took inspiration from

his actual past as a Harvard Law Graduate. During this time he would be legal advisor to

John Laurinitis. During this time Otunga also wrestled by sparingly, and lost matches more

often than not.

Commentary Career

Since 2015, David Otunga took on more of a non-wrestling role in WWE, where he was part

of the pre-show panel. In 2016 he joined the commentary team of SmackDown alongside

John Bradshaw Layfield and Mauro Ranallo. He went to Raw the following year in exchange

for Byron Saxton. Since then he has been replaced on the commentary team, and is back to

being a pre-show panelist.

David Otunga was also married to Jennifer Hudson since 2008 and had a child with her.

Since then, in 2017, it was announced that the couple had split up.