James Ellsworth Signs Full-Time WWE Contract

After weeks of being a featured part of SmackDown Live, James Ellsworth announced Friday that he has officially signed a full-time contract with WWE.

As seen in the following video, Ellsworth revealed the news at a Big Time Wrestling event in Altoona, Pennsylvania:

The news was made official on Tuesday's episode of Talking Smack, per WWE Network:

Ellsworth earned the contract after he defeated AJ Styles in a ladder match, per WWE:

The 31-year-old Ellsworth made his WWE in-ring debut in June when he lost to Braun Strowman in a squash match on Raw.

He returned in September on SmackDown as Styles' tag team partner and was then given a non-title match against Styles in October. Ellsworth won that match thanks to help from Dean Ambrose, which landed him a bout for the WWE World Championship the following week.

Ellsworth was victorious by disqualification and has been a fixture on the blue brand ever since.

In an interview with Chuck Carroll of CBS Boston, Ellsworth revealed that Chris Jericho has been a huge proponent of his in recent months:

"

That is definitely 100 percent [Jericho]. The day after I did the match with [Strowman] he contacted me on Twitter and wanted me on his podcast (Talk Is Jericho). I went in and did the podcast with him the next time I was at TV. Ever since then we text all the time. He gives me advice and helps me out. He's just an outstanding human being.

"

Y2J even put Ellsworth on his "List of Jericho" on the go-home episode of Raw prior to Survivor Series, which elicited a huge reaction from the WWE Universe.

Ellsworth has been in the wrestling business since 2002, but due to his lack of size and unassuming look, few could have ever predicted that he would make it in the biggest sports entertainment company in the world.

Despite that, the master of No Chin Music will be a fixture on WWE's Tuesday night programming for the foreseeable future.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.