Before becoming a WWE star, Grayson Waller worked as a teacher in Australia while building his wrestling career on the independent circuit.
During the week, he worked as a teacher at school. On weekends, he competed at independent wrestling shows across Australia. Waller mainly worked as a high school history teacher before eventually signing with WWE. He shared that teaching teenagers helped him deal with loud and difficult wrestling crowds.
Grayson Waller says teaching helped prepare him for WWE crowds
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Waller talked about balancing both careers at the same time. Despite working full-time, Waller hinted that wrestling took priority towards the end of the week.
“So, I was basically like a substitute, like a full-time substitute. I went every day, but I wanted to stay subbing because if I had a show on a Friday or a Thursday, I wanted to just be like, ‘Hey, I’m not going to work today. I have a wrestling show.’ But I was a history teacher. I taught pretty much anything.”
Waller also revealed that he tried to keep his classes fun for students.
“Yeah, I would say so, in some sense. I enjoy teaching, and especially history. I love history, so I would try and make it at least fun for the kids because I know how it is to sit in the classroom and have a teacher just talk to you for two hours, and you don’t care about anything they said.”
The WWE star also joked that teaching high school students prepared him for the wrestling business. Waller explained that dealing with teenagers in classrooms made him ready for harsh reactions from live crowds.
“I guess it got me ready for crowds because there’s no one more brutal than a classroom full of high school kids. So, there’s no crowd in America that can say worse things than those high school kids tried to say to me.”
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