5 wrestlers who could win the WWE Cruiserweight Classic

#3 Rich Swann

Rich Swann made his NXT debut earlier this year (Courtesy WWE.com)

Many wrestlers come from tough backgrounds but few have faced the hardships faced by Richard Swann. Swann’s rise to greatness is particularly inspiring in an industry defined by overcoming the odds.

In Swann’s own words, wrestling saved his life.

His father was murdered when he was 13 and his mother died a few years later. Young Rich Swann then fell in with the wrong crowd and did cocaine regularly at one point in his life, before one of his friends died who introduced him to the drug, died from a heart attack.

Rich Swann wrestled all across the indies from CZW, Dragon Gate USA and PWG earlier in his career before signing for NXT in 2015. Swann is a versatile and charismatic performer and definitely looks like he has a bright future in the WWE.

Interesting Fact: In 2014, rapper Wale tweeted out that Swann and Apollo Crews needed to be in the WWE, a tweet that was seen by Mark Henry who arranged for Swann to get a WWE tryout. A year later, Rich Swann signed for NXT.