Wrestlers You Never Knew Were School Teachers

When one thinks about professions that will translate well into the world of skilled wrestling, you’d take into consideration actors, bodybuilders, and even former athletes like football players when their time within the NFL has come to an end. One job title that a number of the biggest wrestlers across history have held, nevertheless, is available in the education field. From George “The Animal” Steele to TNA Champion and “WWE NXT” star Trick Williams, many talents have actually been teachers before, and even during, their time within the wrestling ring.

One of the vital recognizable former teachers within the skilled wrestling world today is AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page. The previous Mr. Woltz taught journalism, graphic design, and communication courses at a Virginia highschool after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Virginia Tech. Page began wrestling at shows in his hometown of Halifax County, Virginia, while he was still in highschool, the place where he ultimately ended up teaching students barely older than himself for a number of years to pay the bills while his wrestling profession was still taking off. 

Page told ESPN back in March 2018, while he was still wrestling for NJPW, that he would exit and wrestle on Friday nights and weekends after the varsity week was over. He called the schedule “brutal,” “hectic,” and “wild.” The AEW champion would proceed to show while wrestling, even while he was facing the likes of legends akin to Matt Hardy contained in the historic Hammerstein Ballroom in Ring of Honor. 

It wasn’t until Page rose throughout the ranks of NJPW’s Bullet Club that he was finally in a position to quit teaching. He left the career behind in May 2016. Like Page, there are various other wrestling stars who got their start within the classroom before finding success in skilled wrestling.

One other famous former teacher in recent wrestling history was Matt Striker, a former social studies teacher at Cardozo High School in Queens, Recent York, who began his profession in WWE with a teacher gimmick after leaving the career. Striker trained with Johnny Rodz and got his start on the independent scene, all while he also got his start within the classroom to fund his actual dream. He began teaching full-time at the varsity in 2004, after initially working as an alternative, but would take vacation days and sick time to wrestle.

Striker was steadily becoming more successful on the earth of skilled wrestling with tours in Japan and even an appearance on “WWE SmackDown” in a match against Kurt Angle within the Olympian’s open invitational in February 2005. The Recent York Department of Education caught wind of Striker’s star rising and the incontrovertible fact that he was playing hooky from school/work to get within the ring. Striker was suspended, and slightly than being fired, he resigned from teaching.

News of the teacher-turned-wrestler who was taking day off from educating Recent York’s youth to beat up other men within the ring reached mainstream media, something WWE loved and welcomed. Striker wrestled one other match against Angle in July, with Angle mentioning his time within the classroom, and Striker began working in WWE as a villainous teacher character shortly after his resignation.

Striker began in the corporate with the “Matt Striker’s Classroom” segment on “WWE Raw,” but was moved to WWE’s revived ECW brand in August 2006. Striker never went back to teaching but has had a successful profession as a commentator and host in various corporations, including Lucha Underground and Impact Wrestling. He currently hosts a show on The MLB Network and is a commentator for MLW.

Before she entered the 2004 Diva Search that kicked off her legendary profession, WWE Hall of Famer Michelle McCool was a teacher. She worked as a middle school educator in Palatka, Florida. Her parents also worked in the sector, her mother as a science teacher and her father as a former principal and superintendent. In an interview with WWE.com following her retirement from the ring in 2011, McCool talked about her former profession.

McCool said that due to her parents, she said she’d never get into the education field. She said that after she graduated from Florida State University, she substituted at some point in a middle school classroom and enjoyed it. McCool said after that, it became a everlasting job, and she or he went back to highschool for her master’s degree. McCool taught science in her hometown for 4 years. She told WWE.com that she loved being around children each out and in of the classroom. McCool said she liked it because sometimes, she was the one person a number of the kids had.

She revealed that she kept her teaching certificate lively while still working in WWE and said it would not be something that she’d mind going back to in the long run. While she may never have gone back to highschool following her Hall of Fame profession, McCool would go on to have children of her own along with her husband, The Undertaker. She also began coaching future WWE talent, which may very well be in comparison with her former teaching profession, when she joined the A&E series “WWE LFG: Legends & Future Greats” as a coach in March 2025.

George “The Animal” Steele got into the wrestling industry to assist complement his income while he was teaching within the Detroit area. Steele was a football player at Michigan State University until he suffered knee problems and had to go away the team. While at the varsity, he got his bachelor’s degree after which received his master’s at Central Michigan University. He began teaching and training wrestling at Madison High School within the Detroit area before he began moonlighting in skilled wrestling.

Steele told “Busted Open Radio” in 2013 that he was principally living a double life. He said when he was wrestling within the northeast, his students and his fellow teachers in Michigan had no clue. Steele said that since he initially was wearing a mask within the ring, students didn’t know what was occurring, unless they were from the northeast and moved to his school. He talked about getting recognized and said he’d simply ask students, “Do you actually think that I’m ugly?” once they’d ask if he was George Steele.

He would teach and coach at Madison Heights for over 20 years. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995, the identical yr he was honored with an induction into the Michigan High School Coaches Hall of Fame. Steele was a force in each the wrestling world and his own community until he died of kidney failure on the age of 79 in February 2017.

Maven Huffman, higher generally known as just Maven, the winner of the first-ever “Tough Enough,” was a sixth-grade teacher before he lived his dream in WWE and moved on to develop into a successful YouTuber. The three-time Hardcore Champion attended Eastern Mennonite University and moved to Portland, Oregon, where he played baseball for the Aloha Knights. He told former “American Gladiator” star Lori “Ice” Fetrick on her podcast “Chillin’ With Ice” that his baseball profession is what led him to his teaching job.

He was also a highschool coach and taught at Twality Middle School in Tigard, Oregon, for 2 years. Maven told Fetrick that he loved the job, but said it was “one in all the largest tragedies in America” that teachers don’t make enough money doing the job. He said he only made $29K a yr, which had him questioning how he was going to purchase a house or at some point have a family on the salary. It was during his second yr of teaching that he was watching “WWE Raw” and learned in regards to the upcoming “Tough Enough” competition.

Maven explained that after he heard the announcer ask, “Have you ever ever desired to be a wrestler?” he knew he needed to try. He said he took of venture and flew out to Recent York, considering nothing would come of it, then in only every week, he quit his teaching job, sold his automotive, cancelled his apartment lease, and was all in. He never went back to teaching following his time in WWE, which led to his release in July 2005. Along with his successful YouTube channel, he now works in finance on Wall Street.

WWE Hall of Famer Rick Steiner is one other former star who entered the education world after his wrestling profession wound down. “The Dog-Faced Gremlin” was a multiple-time tag team champion in each WWE and WCW alongside his brother, Scott. Steiner’s last match within the business got here in September 2019, well after he had wrapped up his full-time profession, in Tokyo Championship Wrestling. Outside of his Hall of Fame induction, his last appearance in WWE got here alongside his son, Bron Breakker, in “WWE NXT.”

The education world had all the time played an enormous part in his life. Steiner was a standout on the University of Michigan when it got here to collegiate wrestling, and he even set the fastest pin record for the Wolverines at 15 seconds. Steiner earned his bachelor’s degree in education at the varsity and was actually introduced to the skilled wrestling world by fellow educator George “The Animal” Steele. As an alternative of becoming a teacher right after college, he went the wrestling route. Steele set Steiner up at Vergne Gagne’s school in Minnesota. 

After he left the ring, Steiner became a faculty board member for the Cherokee County School District. He was initially disqualified from the Republican primary in 2006 because of using the Steiner name slightly than his legal name. He ran unopposed that November, nevertheless, and won his seat. He stays on the board as of January 2025, and his current term ends in 2026. Steiner told WWE.com in 2013 that he’s pleased with his work on the board, because it lets him be involved in the tutorial process and provides back to his community.

Tito Santana actually went back to the classroom after the peak of his wrestling profession got here to an end. He retired from the scene full-time within the late Nineties after success in corporations just like the then-WWF, AWA, Georgia Championship Wrestling, and more. While he would not fully retire from wrestling for years and would proceed to get within the ring for various corporations here and there, Santana focused on becoming a teacher in spite of everything of his major skilled wrestling successes. 

Santana became a middle-school Spanish teacher in Roxbury, Recent Jersey, later in life. He retired in June 2023 after 27 years within the classroom. He told ESPN back in 2017, when he was in his twenty first yr of teaching, that he graduated from college with a physical education major and a Spanish minor. He told the outlet that he all the time hoped to be a coach later in life and help kids out the best way his eighth-grade gym teacher helped him get entangled in sports.

He told ESPN he began substitute teaching after retiring from the WWF in 1993, since he did not have “anything to do in the midst of the week.” He did that for 2 years before being offered a gym class position. He said he would come home “exhausted” from being a gym teacher, so he switched to teaching Spanish. Santana said that his students on the time didn’t know his wrestling past, personally, but their parents did. He said he couldn’t count how again and again kids would tell him their mother “was in love with him” once they were little.

“The Franchise” Shane Douglas held multiple championships throughout his time in ECW, WCW, and WWF, including the ECW World Heavyweight Championship 4 times, but a few of his biggest successes got here outside of the ring, working with children who needed some extra assist in the classroom. Before he got into the wrestling world, Douglas graduated from Bethany College in West Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in political science and history.

Douglas began his wrestling profession in 1980 and has yet to officially hang up his boots completely, but he began his profession in education within the early Nineties after leaving the WWF the primary time. Douglas spoke about his profession on “Wrestling Shoot Interviews” in February 2022 and said he picked up teaching mid-year in Beaver, Pennsylvania, after departing Vince McMahon’s company.

He explained he worked with kids needing emotional support, a subsection of special education in lots of school districts, whom teachers with special education degrees didn’t need to teach because of their aggressive natures. He said since he was an expert wrestler, teaching them wasn’t much of an issue, and the scholars grew to respect him.

Douglas explained that, along with being a licensed social studies teacher, he was granted an emergency certification for special education, as he had taken some courses already. Douglas explained he worked in special education for 2 years before he went back to teaching social studies classes, but said he preferred working with the scholars whom other teachers initially called “the bad kids.”

AEW’s Deonna Purrazzo is an enormous advocate for education, and prior to her entering into the skilled wrestling world, she was an educator herself. Purrazzo was a pre-kindergarten teacher for 3 years in Recent Jersey from February 2015 to July 2018, when she signed with WWE and pivoted to wrestling full-time.

“The Virtuosa” is an enormous supporter of the “Clear the List” initiative, where she helps teachers with purchasing classroom supplies. “#ClearTheLists” is a social media movement where teachers share their Amazon wish lists stuffed with things they need and want for his or her classrooms. As former teacher herself, Purrazzo recognizes that many teachers often purchase their very own classroom supplies, and the entire can add up, so she retweets lists, asking fans to assist out, and makes purchases for various teachers yearly herself.

Purrazzo has her bachelor’s degree in history from Southern Recent Hampshire University and her master’s in political science from Liberty University. She’s big into history, as she often shares on her own social media, where she quizzes husband Steve Maclin on history facts. Only recently, Purrazzo gushed about AEW and the way the corporate supports its talents in going back to highschool with tuition reimbursement opportunities.

There are some wrestlers who’ve taken to working as substitute teachers to pay the bills while making names for themselves on the independent scene. Considered one of those stars is “WWE Raw’s” Grayson Waller. He worked as a full-time substitute teacher, who specialized in history, at De La Salle Catholic College Revesby Heights, a secondary school for boys, in Recent South Wales. Waller worked as a sub while competing on the independent circuit in his home country on weekends. He left the job after signing with WWE and heading to the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, in 2021.

He once appeared on “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” and talked about his transient teaching profession. He said, despite being a history teacher, he “taught just about anything” and said he was “the fun teacher” who enjoyed his work. He told Van Vliet he tried to make history fun for the youngsters, and said teaching a classroom of highschool kids got him ready for crowds.

Waller’s fellow “WWE NXT” star Trick Williams, who has had an interesting profession between wrestling and his time within the NFL, is one other talent who worked as an alternative teacher. In an appearance on “The Wealthy Eisen Show,” Williams said he was teaching middle and highschool kids, mostly in physical education classes, after his stint with the Philadelphia Eagles, all while coaching highschool football. He said it was exertions in a tricky situation and said teachers must be paid more for what they do.