Post by tajiritarantula on Mar 1, 2005 3:07:23 GMT -5
I don't care much for Luther but fascinating to read about his past troubles.
Reigns, real name Matt Wiese, was a street thug before entering the ring. "Luther was shot and stabbed on different occasions," his bio from World Wrestling Entertainment states cheerfully.
For the record, he's been shot at, but just once. A bullet from a .38 caliber hand gun lodged in his stomach. He has a 7-inch scar stretching across his throat, "where a guy cut me wide open and stabbed me in the chest, about an inch from my heart."
Reigns, 33, was born in Manhattan — "Hell's Kitchen" to be precise. While most pro wrestlers grew up athletes and built their bodies and mental make-up through endless football games, Reigns wasn't much of an athlete — or scholar.
"No, no, no. Nothing like that," he said. "I didn't attend school very much. Whenever I had the chance to get out of school, I was out. I was running and gunning on the streets, doing a lot of things I shouldn't have been doing and getting into trouble."
He said he spent most of his life in "institutions," including jail.
In the early 1990s, he ventured out to Phoenix.
"I was running on the streets of Phoenix. It was stuff that went on. If you're out there and you're in that lifestyle, those things are going to happen."
He did some time in jail during this period, then jumped around. He took a gig as a security guard for some rock bands. He even landed some bit parts on television and movies.
Then, in 1996, he enrolled at WCW's Power Plant, a wrestling school in Georgia. Reigns is a naturally big guy, standing at 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 285 pounds. He's always been a weight-lifting buff. As for wrestling, he grew up watching 1980s stars such as Randy "Macho Man" Savage and old-school southern grapplers like Tommy Rich and Arn and Ole Anderson.
Reigns took to wrestling like a fish to water and landed a contract with the now-defunct "World Championship Wrestling" (WCW) organization, where he wrestled under a different name (Horshu).
"I had a short stint with WCW and then was released from my contract there," he said. "Again, I fell right back into that same lifestyle. For five years I was down. Then I decided I had to get away from this."
Reigns realized his fast-living lifestyle was heading to one of three places — "jails, institutions or death."
"I stayed in constant contact with World Wrestling Entertainment. I had some connections there. Eventually they saw that I was doing the right thing and I wasn't living the old lifestyle anymore. They offered me a job."
"I got the chance to work with the WWE and that pretty much turned my life around. It changed my whole life completely." Reigns said the traveling hasn't had much of an impact on his personal life. He's engaged to a woman he met in a Phoenix gym.
Reigns, real name Matt Wiese, was a street thug before entering the ring. "Luther was shot and stabbed on different occasions," his bio from World Wrestling Entertainment states cheerfully.
For the record, he's been shot at, but just once. A bullet from a .38 caliber hand gun lodged in his stomach. He has a 7-inch scar stretching across his throat, "where a guy cut me wide open and stabbed me in the chest, about an inch from my heart."
Reigns, 33, was born in Manhattan — "Hell's Kitchen" to be precise. While most pro wrestlers grew up athletes and built their bodies and mental make-up through endless football games, Reigns wasn't much of an athlete — or scholar.
"No, no, no. Nothing like that," he said. "I didn't attend school very much. Whenever I had the chance to get out of school, I was out. I was running and gunning on the streets, doing a lot of things I shouldn't have been doing and getting into trouble."
He said he spent most of his life in "institutions," including jail.
In the early 1990s, he ventured out to Phoenix.
"I was running on the streets of Phoenix. It was stuff that went on. If you're out there and you're in that lifestyle, those things are going to happen."
He did some time in jail during this period, then jumped around. He took a gig as a security guard for some rock bands. He even landed some bit parts on television and movies.
Then, in 1996, he enrolled at WCW's Power Plant, a wrestling school in Georgia. Reigns is a naturally big guy, standing at 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 285 pounds. He's always been a weight-lifting buff. As for wrestling, he grew up watching 1980s stars such as Randy "Macho Man" Savage and old-school southern grapplers like Tommy Rich and Arn and Ole Anderson.
Reigns took to wrestling like a fish to water and landed a contract with the now-defunct "World Championship Wrestling" (WCW) organization, where he wrestled under a different name (Horshu).
"I had a short stint with WCW and then was released from my contract there," he said. "Again, I fell right back into that same lifestyle. For five years I was down. Then I decided I had to get away from this."
Reigns realized his fast-living lifestyle was heading to one of three places — "jails, institutions or death."
"I stayed in constant contact with World Wrestling Entertainment. I had some connections there. Eventually they saw that I was doing the right thing and I wasn't living the old lifestyle anymore. They offered me a job."
"I got the chance to work with the WWE and that pretty much turned my life around. It changed my whole life completely." Reigns said the traveling hasn't had much of an impact on his personal life. He's engaged to a woman he met in a Phoenix gym.
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