Simon Grimm, who was known as Simon Gotch in WWE, will be part of CHIKARA's biggest weekend of the year.
On Friday, CHIKARA announced Grimm would be part of King of Trios, teaming with Dasher Hatfield and Mr. Touchdown as "House Throwback." King of Trios 2017 takes place September 1-3 in Wolverhampton, England.
Grimm actually made a few appearances with CHIKARA before he signed with WWE, working there as Ryan Drago -- a 1900s throwback grappler gimmick quite similar to the Gotch persona, which led to him forming The Vaudevillains with Aiden English. After winning the NXT Tag Titles, the Vaudevillains got a call-up to the main WWE roster in the spring of 2016.
WWE released Grimm on April 5. He made his last appearance for the company at WrestleMania 33, making an early exit from the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Gotch also reportedly was involved in an incident at the April 4 Smackdown, that preceded his release. That marked just the latest backstage incident for Gotch, who, last summer, got into a fight with Sin Cara that left Gotch injured and even took him off the road for a brief period of time.
His release from WWE also led to a widely circulated story on the Internet that was, in essence, a copy and paste of what led to Juventud Guerrera's release from the company years earlier. The fake story got so much traction that Gotch even had to make a statement about it on social media.
