Wrestlers You Never Knew Were Homeless

Late WWE star Bray Wyatt said wrestling wasn't a love story, but a fairy tale for masochists, a comedy for people who criticize punchlines, a fantasy most can't understand, and a spectacle no one can deny. For many wrestling fans, it's a dream to lace up their boots and run the ropes, and many of the wrestlers seen today were just like these fans once upon a time. It has been an escape for some, a form of expression for others, and a career path with the potential to grant wishes and change lives. As Wyatt said, in a world surrounded by hate, greed, and violence, one where closure may never come, "We all know a place that has hot and cold hope on tap. For better or for worse."

As a result, it can be hard to reckon with the idea that Superstars may have felt the cold sting of austerity, that deep down beyond the larger-than-life characters there are humans who have had their fair share of trials and tribulations long before their entrance theme ever played. Many who have brought joy to fans worldwide have been shown to mask their issues, manufacturing a myth for the character that the actor betrays, fighting a scripted battle in the ring while the real war is fought off-camera.

Some, for example, have been candid in their struggles with homelessness while trying to make it to the big time, finding solace in the nomadic yet grueling schedule as a means of securing themselves. So with that in mind, let's look at a handful of today's wrestling icons who at one point in time didn't have a place to call their own.

Hailed as the "GOAT" of WWE, John Cena will be calling a close to his 25-year wrestling career next year with a resume of 16 WWE World titles – a joint-record with Ric Flair recognized by the promotion. Cena was first seen on WWE programming in a June 2002 debut opposite Kurt Angle, but he would later breakthrough as the "Doctor of Thuganomics" to become United States Champion for the first time in 2004.

Looking back on it, things may have gone differently for the Hollywood heavyweight, considering he gave up his home in West Newbury, Massachusetts in 1999 to pursue stardom in California. As "The Prototype," Cena worked the indie circuit in The Golden State, but he wasn't making enough consistently to rent a place in his new territory. 

"I was homeless by choice," Cena told Shannon Sharpe during the "Club Shay Shay" podcast. "I parked my car in the parking lot of Gold's Gym, slept in the back, worked at the gym so the gym... I'd go shower, used the locker room, clock in to work... I was well-fed, I got enough rest, and I was happy. This is a very fortunate story of being without a physical mailbox by choice. So I don't regret those days."

Cena made sure to emphasize that he was actively making a choice to pursue his career and he always had the option to return to his family home – even if, as he conceded, he didn't want to do that. It would take some time for Cena even after getting his first WWE contract – $12,500 a year – to cross the red financial line, however, admitting that he had amassed credit card debt throughout this period. Nine months later, he was moved by the company so he could work in the Ohio Valley Wrestling developmental territory, and it's fair to say it was a gamble paid off.

Bryan Danielson called time on his 25-year full-time career in October, marking the end of a run that saw him become the World Champion in WWE, ROH, and AEW. Just 10 years ago Bryan became WWE World Heavyweight Champion in the main event of WrestleMania, later forced into retirement through injury until his miraculous 2018 return, going on to main event WrestleMania once more before joining AEW for his latest run. So none could credibly argue that his career has not come with its own myriad of peaks and valleys. 

But the "American Dragon" also had such a dedication to becoming a professional wrestler, and one to have wrestled everywhere from the USA to the UK, Japan, Mexico, and Australia, and it was a dedication that led him to live a homeless lifestyle. 

"I was in living in Santa Monica and sleeping on a dojo floor, like, on a mat," he recalled in a 2018 interview. "Interspersed between that, sleeping in my car and stuff. So this was for an extended period of my life and I never thought of it as, 'Oh man, that sucks. I have to sleep on this dojo's floor or I have to sleep in my car,' or anything like that. It was a wonderful experience and those sorts of things never bothered me." 

Bryan would go on to explain that he felt growing up poor had helped him reconcile with the situation and what he needed to do, hailing his mom as a huge inspiration in showing that materialism couldn't compare to happiness within oneself and with loved ones. With all that in mind, the fact that Bryan's retirement this year has come as a result of his desire to spend quality time with his wife and daughter is somewhat fitting.

AJ Lee can often appear to be an unsung pioneer in the dawning "Women's Revolution" within WWE throughout the latter 2010s. She went on to become a two-time WWE Divas Champion, her first reign a record that stood until broken by Nikki Bella following her departure from the promotion, but has since seen recognition by the company specifically after her husband CM Punk returned in November last year. Lee – real name Mendez – has since penned a memoir which was released in 2017, shedding some insight into the Horatio Alger-esque element of her wrestling career. 

"At seven years old, I am actually not allowed to call our apartment, 'Home.' My mother doesn't like it when I get too attached to a place and has to repeatedly remind me that it is, 'Where we are staying for now.' She's right because it technically is not ours. We stole it," she wrote in an excerpt (via WTTW). She went on to describe that when her parents fell behind on rent, they would move to a cheaper apartment rather than paying back what's owed. However, one time their landlord had cottoned on to the idea, and Mendez recalled being escorted by law enforcement off of the premises with just an hour to pack up their things. They would move in with their mother's sister, but with a family of five joining a pre-existing family of three, they soon wore out their welcome to the extent that the homeowners themselves moved to another state.

"Once the utility bills became my parents' responsibility, the heat was cut within two months' time," she wrote, reasoning that it was deemed non-essential.

Since departing WWE and effectively retiring from wrestling, Mendez has carved out a career as an actress and writer, marking a significant turnaround from her modest and hard-fought roots. 

In many regards, WWE legend, TKO board member, Hollywood heavyweight, and Forbes-listed billionaire Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is the blueprint for a wrestling rags-to-riches story. Debuting as the much-maligned Rocky Maivia character, a homage to his father Rocky Johnson, and grandfather Peter Maivia, Johnson is now one of the most recognizable figures worldwide both in the ring as The Rock and on the big screen as a litany of iconic characters within iconic franchises. But long before stepping into the ring or on a studio set, a 14-year-old Johnson saw himself and his family evicted from their home in Honolulu, Hawaii, as he would share in a speech at the LA Family Housing fundraiser event in 2018. 

"We were evicted and forced off the island and we didn't have a place to live," he shared with the audience (via Hollywood Reporter). "I wound up moving to a little motel outside Nashville, Tennessee... I know what it's like not to have the security of a home, and to see your family, my mom crying because of an eviction notice."

During this time, Johnson has also said that he had taken to shoplifting, specifically steaks from a local grocery store – only to realize he hadn't the means to prepare them where he was staying. He has since shown to be repentant in that fact, shown in an Instagram reel where he returned to a 7-Eleven from which he used to pinch Snickers bars, attempting to "exorcise his demons" by legitimately buying the store's entire Snickers bar stock. In 2012, Johnson founded Seven Bucks Productions as a nod to a time when he is said to have had only seven dollars to his name.

Fans have come to know Miroslav Barnyashev over the past decade as either Rusev in WWE and/or Miro in AEW, an immensely popular figure throughout his run that has yet to truly break the glass ceiling despite reigns as WWE United States and AEW TNT Champion. But even if professionally he has yet to reach his full potential, there is something to be said about the personal story of Barnyashev, having been made homeless after first moving from Bulgaria to the USA to pursue his wrestling career.

"I was supposed to work for three months," he recalled working as a painter in Richmond, Virginia, during "The Sessions" with Renee Paquette. "But after the first month I got kicked out, I got fired. They told me I was not good at my job... I am not saying I was good at my job but to fire me and to kick me out on the street, kick me out of the house – because they provided the housing... I was in America for one month then I got kicked out with $150 on the street in America."

He continued to say that he moved in with some friends, but by that point, he was 20 years old having already incurred $5000 in debt to emigrate from Europe. Barnyashev would train as a professional wrestler under WWE veterans Gangrel and Rikishi, debuting in November 2008 at a San Diego indie show. He signed a developmental deal with WWE in 2010, and the rest has been wrestling history. 

Damian Priest has had a career-defining year after cashing in Money in the Bank to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania in April. Reigning for 118 days until dropping the title to Gunther in August, Priest has cemented himself as the number one contender once more heading into Survivor Series. But it has been a long and winding road for "El Campeon," having spent time extensively living on the streets. 

"I lived on the street for a few months because I had no money at all," Priest shared in a 2021 interview. "I lived on the street, I slept on the street, and I was homeless and looking for how to eat. Even having work, I suffered. I tried to pay rent, sometimes I did not know what I was going to eat the next day."

He revealed that he had almost completely given up his dream of wrestling at that point, trying to make ends meet as a bouncer and a manager of several different nightclubs. The turning point for him came when he was asked to fully give wrestling up in order to work more hours for more money, with Priest plucking up the courage to turn down the comfort of the job to jump with two feet into wrestling.

"Being homeless was my normal life at the time," he added. "So I was just trying to find a way to eat and find a place to sleep. It wasn't a long time but a couple of months went by where I had nowhere to go, and then some friends helped me. I stayed at their houses for a few weeks and so on until I managed to get up, find a job, and rent an apartment, but it was not easy." 

Darby Allin is an example of the landscape shift within professional wrestling brought on by AEW, an unconventional wrestling talent that by his own admission would have been unlikely to draw interest from the likes of WWE. It's a common statement made by Allin in his promos that the promotion changed his life, and he has been similarly candid with that fact in interviews since. For example, in a 2022 appearance on "The Sessions" podcast, Allin recalled the time he was homeless during the early days of his wrestling career.

He explained that he had to move from Seattle, what he called a "black hole of wrestling" before DEFY Wrestling emerged in 2017, to Atlanta. But he would also make regular trips to Vancouver, Canada, or Oregon, with the idea that he just wanted to give all he could to wrestling. Allin said that way he didn't have a comfort zone, but it allowed him to look in the mirror knowing there could be no excuses for failure – it was just him and wrestling.

"When you don't have the comfortability to sit down on the couch and be lazy and watch episodes of whatever. When you're living in your car – especially in Georgia, it was so hot in the summer – I would have to have like a strict bedtime so I got decent sleep before, then I parked in this hotel parking garage," he described anecdotally. "It was connected to an Anytime Fitness and I got the Anytime Fitness membership. Then I was just cooking all my food there at the George Foreman grill in the bathroom at one in the morning."

Yet another former WWE Champion to have swapped the ring for the big screen, Dave Bautista carved a career in wrestling that he had been told to have been impossible, winning several titles and accolades in multiple runs with the company. He has since become revered for his acting roles, particularly his casting as the beloved Drax character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe debuting in 2014's "Guardians of the Galaxy."

What makes Bautista's story of homelessness different from many others is the fact that his stories come after he had carved out a name for himself in WWE. Leaving the promotion in 2010, Bautista was gambling his stability on making it as an actor and revealed in a 2021 interview with IGN that his house had been foreclosed. 

"When I got the role of Drax in Guardians, I barely worked in three years," he said. "When I say broke, my house was foreclosed, I had nothing, man. I sold all my stuff. I sold everything that I made from wrestling. I had issues with the IRS. I was just lost in everything."

Bautista would have one last run with WWE in 2014 after having been cast as Drax, winning the Royal Rumble to feud with Bryan Danielson, Randy Orton, and then the Shield before departing. For Bautista, it was this acting role that opened the doors for the opportunities he has enjoyed since, "It wasn't many years [earlier] when I was borrowing money to pay for food, pay for rent... It changed my life." 

With the security of his Hollywood career since his Marvel casting, Bautista truly closed the chapter on his WWE career with a one-off WrestleMania return in 2019. He lost a grudge match with the current WWE CCO Paul "Triple H" Levesque and has since said it was the perfect send-off. 

Now reigning on Friday nights' "WWE SmackDown" as one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, Motor City Machine Guns' Alex Shelley had a spell of homelessness relatively recently. Having spent much of his career in multiple runs with ROH, Shelley left the promotion for the last time in 2020, but it was a previous departure in 2018 that saw much of his life change. Shelley revealed his personal circumstances when asked what was on his bucket list in an interview with ROH upon his 2019 return. 

"Again, full transparency: I went through a lot of life changes when I left ROH," he said. "I got divorced, I was homeless, no income, I was paying for school and working for free, and I had some dark, dark days."

Shelley laid the groundwork for a career outside of wrestling during that time, taking a break from wrestling to finish a bachelor's degree in physical therapy to work as a PTA. 

"Honestly, I was very unhappy at points working for companies that, unlike ROH or NJPW, did not value talent," he explained. "So I controlled what I could, thought outside the box. I wanted a degree in medicine and the skillset to fix my own body as well as help my peers."

He would also joke in the interview about "being perpetually broke to the point of lots of student loans" as well as revealing he had stayed with Kazuchika Okada whenever he would go to Orlando over a two-year period on top of living at the NJPW Dojo with most of the roster. Once more, it's a case of things having worked out well for Shelley despite his spell without a roof over his head, having made an instantaneous impact with partner Chris Sabin in their WWE debut in October.