Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann was reportedly arrested early Sunday morning on charges of battery and kidnap/false imprisonment of an adult.
Pro Wrestling Sheet first reported on Rich Swann’s arrest, citing information from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Department in Florida which suggested the 26-year-old wrestler was taken into custody on Sunday, around midnight. Mugshots Gainesville lists Swann’s charges as “Battery: Touch or Strike” and “Kidnap – False Imprisonment: Adult,” though no further information is available, aside from his full name and the date he was booked. No bond amount has been specified as of this writing, nor has there been any report on the specifics of the alleged crime.
As noted by ESPN in a December 2016 feature story, Rich Swann had a rough upbringing in Baltimore, growing up with an alcoholic father and a mother with lupus. With both parents having passed on by the time Rich was 16, he began hanging out with a bad crowd and taking drugs. But thanks to his lifelong love of professional wrestling, Swann was able to turn his life around, focusing harder on his wrestling training and competing at independent shows after high school.
“[My story] shows that anybody can make it in anything that you do and anything you want to succeed [in], no matter what is in your path,” Swann told ESPN .
“And I’m not ashamed of it. These are things that have happened. I would never change anything.”
This just in. https://t.co/6T8xJoFNXX
— Wrestling Resource – The Sportster (@WrestlingSheet) December 10, 2017
After a successful showing in WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic tournament in 2016 and several months as an NXT under-carder beforehand, Swann became a mainstay of WWE’s revived Cruiserweight Division, defeating veteran Brian Kendrick on November 29, 2016, to become a first-time Cruiserweight Champion on the premiere episode of 205 Live . He would hang on to the title until January of this year, as he dropped the belt to Neville at the 2017 Royal Rumble .
The news of Rich Swann’s arrest comes almost two weeks after he won a Fatal Four-Way match on Monday Night Raw against Akira Tozawa, Ariya Daivari, and Noam Dar. With Drew Gulak winning a similar match on the following week’s episode, he and Swann were scheduled to face off in a match on tomorrow’s Monday Night Raw to determine Enzo Amore’s next opponent for the Cruiserweight Championship. At the moment, it’s not sure if WWE will take action on Swann following his arrest, but if he gets removed from the championship storyline, that might result in erstwhile allies Gulak and Amore feuding for the Cruiserweight Championship to close out the year.
