5 WWE Wrestlers You Didn’t Know Were Homeless

John Cena

WWE wrestlers who were once homeless – Before making it big, everyone goes through a lot of hardships and failures. World Wrestling Entertainment popularly known as WWE have also produced some of the big names in the world of wrestling who came from poor backgrounds.

Top 5 WWE Wrestlers who were once Homeless

Here are the top five WWE wrestlers who were once homeless.

#5 Roddy Piper

At number five is Roddy Piper, he is best known to his international audience for his work in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) which is now WWE and also the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) between the period 1984 and 2000. Even though he was a Canadian by birth, due to his Scottish heritage, he was taken as coming from Glasgow, and he was known for his signature kilt and bagpipe entrance music. He earned various nicknames such as “Rowdy” and the very common “Hot Rod” by displaying his trademark rage, spontaneity, and his agility.

WWE wrestlers who were once homeless

Piper headlined numerous pay-per-view cards like WrestleMania and Starrcade. He accumulated a whopping total of 34 championships and hosted the very trendy WWF/E interview segment called Piper’s Pit, which facilitated numerous feuds. Piper’s most prominent rival was Hulk Hoga. Piper was also taken into the WWE Hall of Fame by the one and only Ric Flair, who said that he was the most gifted entertainer in the history of professional wrestling.

Rowdy Piper was and still is one of the most legendary villains in professional wrestling. Piper was the epitome of the perfect heel, he was that wrestler who might never have won a single World Championship during his career that started in the late 1960s, but Piper was the best at playing the villain.

He had a very rough childhood. He was just a teenager when he ran away from his house and tried to live on the streets. Piper hardly ever talked about his miserable childhood, but he said that his father was a horrible abusive alcoholic, while doing an interview with Huffington Post. He also said that it had taught him to be a fighter, which was a characteristic that helped him throughout the entirety of his wrestling career. From being a skinny, fragile teenager, he was able to develop into one of the best wrestlers the ring ever saw.

#4 Daniel Bryan

Bryan Lloyd Danielson was born on May 22nd, 1981, and he is an American professional wrestler who is currently signed to WWE. Here he performs on the famous SmackDown brand under the ring name Daniel Bryan. In WWE, Bryan won the WWE Championship four times and WWE’s World Heavyweight Championship just once, in addition to that, he also is a one-time United States Champion and a one-time Intercontinental Champion. He was also the winner of SmackDown’s Money in the Bank in 2011.

Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan was also previously signed to the WWE, then known as the WWF, for 18-months between 2000 and 2001. He has wrestled for various companies internationally using both his real name and his nickname, which was American Dragon which later became his ring name. He fought for Ring of Honor from the year 2002 to 2009 and was recognized as a Founding Father of the promotion. He was proudly the first ever winner of ROH’s yearly Survival of the Fittest tournament in 2004.

Danielson also wrestled a lot in Japan, and he brought home the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship and the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Danielson also won multiple titles on the independent circuit. From the month of May to December in the year 2014, and also from April 2015 to March 2018, Bryan was injured or perhaps recovering from an injury. Later on, Danielson retired from professional wrestling due to a few medical issues which included seizures; this came about because of multiple concussions and a brain lesion. That July, he became the SmackDown General Manager. In March 2018, Bryan was formally cleared by doctors to return to the game, and compete. He went on to regain the WWE Championship for the first time in four years later that November.

Similar to the other professional wrestlers who had to work through the independent wrestling careers, before making it to the big game, Daniel Bryan attempted to save what he could. He first took the decision to become a wrestling student in his younger days through the Shawn Michaels’ Academy in Texas. Bryan had to in his car, or sometimes he would spend the night at the wrestling school. He had it tough.

He also had to be homeless when he moved to Japan by train. Before finally getting the chance to join WWE in 2009, he was giving everything he could to be the best and suffered a lot to be where he is today. While of course, like any other game, there were ups and downs, he was able to become a highly celebrated champion that grew to exceptional levels at the WrestleMania XXX with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

#3 Mick Foley

Michael Foley was born on June 7th in the year 1965. He is an American author, actor and former professional wrestler and a colour commentator who is newly signed to WWE. Mick has worked for multiple wrestling promotions, such as the WWE, X National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Global Wrestling Federation (GWF), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) amongst other numerous promotions in Japan as well. Foley is widely considered to be one of the greatest wrestlers in the history of WWE, where he also participated in the main event of WrestleMania XV.

Mick Foley

He has wrestled under his real name and other various personas, including Dude Love, Cactus Jack and Mankind, which are famously known as the “Three Faces of Foley”. He is a whopping four-time world champion, an eleven-time world tag team champion, a one-time TNA Legends Champion and the inaugural WWF Hardcore Champion.

One might know him because of the various names he has such as Mankind, Cactus Jack or Dude Love. Mick Foley was one of the most brutal men in professional wrestling since his career began in the year 1983. The one thing many people e have noticed in recent years is how frugal he is. He obviously made millions of dollars through the time he spent in WWE.

In his early days, Foley was someone who would save all the money he has, and sleep in his car or on cots that were donated instead of actually buying himself a house. Because he is a family man today, he’s pretty much invested in a home where he can rest more comfortable, but this was not always the case for him.

#2 John Cena

John Felix Anthony Cena Jr. was born on April 23rd, 1977. He is an American professional wrestler, actor, and also a rapper. He is now signed for WWE, where he appears in both the RAW and SmackDown. John Cena was born in West Newbury in Massachusetts. He moved to California in the year 1998, where he started a career as a bodybuilder before getting into professional wrestling in the year 1999 when he finally debuted for Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW). Cena went on to sign with the World Wrestling Federation in 2000 and was initially assigned to the Ohio Valley Wrestling.

John Cena

In WWE, Cena got a lot of industry fame after adopting a persona of a hilarious trash-talking rapper and won his first ever singles title, the United States Championship. The next year, Cena won the WWE Championship for the first time. After which, Cena’s character transitioned into a heroic figure and which led the company to a lot of success. Cena has headlined in several major WWE pay-per-view events as well as the closing the company’s flagship annual event, WrestleMania for five times.

He has won so many championships in his career and is a five-time United States Champion, along with a four-time world tag team champion, and a whopping WWE record sixteen-time world champion. Although he was considered to be one of the best professional wrestlers of all-time by his teammates and peers, Cena was met with mixed critical and fan reception during his career, thus making him one of the most polarising professional wrestlers ever in the history of wrestling.

Outside of wrestling, Cena has attained success in various roles, as a musician, actor, and a wonderful philanthropist. He released the rap album ‘You Can’t See Me’ in the year 2005, which gained platinum certification in the United States. He has had leading roles in movies such as The Marine, 12 Rounds, Trainwreck, Ferdinand, Blockers, and Bumblebee. He is also known for his active participation in numerous charitable causes, namely the Make-A-Wish Foundation, where he has granted over 600 wishes which is the most in the company’s history.

Each era of professional wrestling has seen at least one superstar who can rise into popular culture and become the perfect spokesperson for the agency.

If he’s not either acting or wrestling, Cena is with children and the younger generation who are wrestling fans as an inspiration as well as a role model. During a visit to Baker High School in Syracuse, in New York, Cena had told students that he was once homeless early on in his career. This had forced him to make more responsible decisions. All of us need to learn from our mistakes.

#1 The Rock

His real name is Dwayne Douglas Johnson. He was born on May 2nd, 1972, and is known by his ring name The Rock. He is an actor, producer, and a semi-retired professional wrestler. Johnson was an avid sportsman since the very beginning.  He was also a college football player for the University of Miami. He was part of the winning national championship team in 1991. After initially aiming for a professional career in football, he began to train as a professional wrestler in the summer, after being cut out from the Calgary Stampeders team.

The Rock

In the ’90s, Johnson signed a contract with the WWE was later promoted as the first third-generation wrestler. He rose to fame after developing a joyful persona of a boastful wrestler who was famous for his trash talking and was called The Rock. He simultaneously won his first WWF Championship in 1998, which brought a big boom to the company business in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It still holds professional television ratings. In the year 2004, he bid goodbye to WWE to pursue an acting career and went on a seven-year break before returning in 2011 as a part-time performer.

He is regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time and most significant draws of all-time. The Rock headlined in all professional media and was very famous compared to the rest of them.

Johnson also has gotten a lot of success as an actor, producer, and writer. He has released an autobiography titled The Rock Says which was debuted at position one on The New York Times Best Seller list. Johnson also played his first lead acting role in The Scorpion King starred in numerous other films, including The Rundown, The Other Guys, Moana and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

Most people are familiar with the name Dwayne Johnson; The Rock first established himself as the most entertaining man on Television through professional wrestling. But like many other wrestlers, his childhood was also filled with a lot of hardships. When he was a young man, he and his mother were thrown out of his house, and then later from the home that they shared with other people because they were unable to afford the $120 per week rent.

The fight against homelessness was constant trouble that they found themselves in. This led to him finding ways to take care of his mother as well as himself. The Rock was also determined to train for sports as a way out. Fortunately, it led to him receiving a fully paid scholarship to play football for the University of Miami. But alas! Football didn’t pan out, so he found wrestling and then later on his new career in acting. All of his hard work did finally pay off!

WWE wrestlers who were once homeless – All these great wrestlers are what they are today because of the number of hardships they have encountered in their early days, but it did not stop them from achieving success and living their dreams.

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