Degrees for Professional Wrestlers?

Question
Before I ask anything, thank you so much for providing this service for free! I would never have been able to obtain an answer otherwise, and your expertise is much appreciated!

I am currently attending college and--just entering Sophomore year--have yet to find a subject I want to pursue. I was wondering what degree would best give an edge to someone wanting to enter the professional wrestling industry as a wrestler? I know physical therapy and business are two out of many that would be useful, but is looking at a degree in computer science, English, or art going to be detrimental in attempts to enter the industry?

If someone having trouble or just starting the process of trying to become a wrestler wanted to be involved in any additional aspect of professional wrestling (lighting, editing a website, handling customer service/sales, planning a program, etc...), would trying to get a degree specific to that aspect of wrestling be more or less beneficial to their potential career than a degree in something more directly related to performing as a wrestler (perhaps something like majoring in performance arts)? Or is it really just a preference thing, depending on what they want to do when they're not wrestling or have retired from the ring?

Out of curiosity, are there any well-known wrestlers with higher-level education in something bizarre and completely unrelated? Like, a Luchador with a veterinary license or a legendary hardcore wrestler with a B.A. in Fashion Design?

I'm sorry if I asked too many needlessly complex questions (don't feel obligated to answer all of them!)--I'm at a real impasse in my life and am in need of some informed advice. Any response you provide will prove invaluable! Thank you so much for your time, have a wonderful day!!

Answer
Hello Melissa,

First off, keep in mind that you know yourself better than anyone. If any advice doesn't fit you, by all means disregard it. The whole point is to try to help you.

Professional wrestling on the whole is not mad about qualifications- unless you are trying to enter a major company like the WWE in a non-performance role, like as an artist or management position. So, you have to ask yourself: what areas could you use really use additional knowledge and experience in?

When it comes to choosing to get a degree for a non-wrestling role or majoring for a wrestling role, I would advise to get the basics down first. If you could really use the performing arts degree experience, for example, that beats out going for an IT degree.

Majoring in a degree of use in a non-wrestling position can help as a backup, or to do once you have retired from the ring, but if you aim to be a pro wrestler as a main career, then that would have to take priority. After all, if you succeed as a pro wrestler, then that experience (and connections) can only help you in these other positions and you can learn about these other things at your own pace- even if you want to do one of these side things ASAP, you probably won't be doing it when you first become a pro wrestler, since that would occupy all your attention. You have plenty of time to develop the skills to work in a non-wrestling position in pro wrestling.

If you are sound with the performance aspect, can generate the ideas for your character and what you do in the ring and can handle yourself financially, then side degrees are beneficial, as long as you can still focus on improving yourself as a wrestler. If you need to work more on the wrestling side of things, focus on that if you intend to be a pro wrestler first and foremost.

Some degrees are going to have more practical use for pro wrestling than others. Subjects such as sociology, nutrition, foreign languages (always useful if you want to wrestle abroad) are going to be used more than subjects such as computer science or engineering. This does not mean, however, that subjects that on the face of it are suitable only for a non-wrestling position cannot help you as a pro wrestler.

A more scientific subject may be useful in terms of mindset. When you go through such courses, it develops certain skills. It can help you to better structure matches as you could relate to a physical or scientific structure in terms of elements and design, to give a possibility. Such subjects can also shape your pro wrestling persona.

For the most part, what degrees to choose to do depends on your preferences. Some subjects have a more direct impact than others, but more than the course itself, it is what you get out of it that counts. It may be a hard work ethic, for example- something that is very useful in pro wrestling.

So, again, it comes back to the question of if there you need any particular experience to cover the basics. Apart from that, it is what you think could help you to add depth to your characters, you as a person and what could aid you in supplementary roles- and work beyond wrestling.

Degrees are not needed to become a pro wrestler, nor to succeed as one.


I'll now go through some areas of use to pro wrestlers- and other positions in pro wrestling, as well as some other that may or may not be of use (its what you make of it, after all)

As stated above, foreign languages are handy. This helps you with communication when working in foreign countries, so there are places where you don't need to rely on translators. Many people speak some degree of English, but where that isn't the case, or if you want to have less of a communication barrier, foreign languages are handy. They also make you more marketable to foreign markets (for promotions like WWE) as you can directly communicate with fans of other nations in their language.

Spanish and Japanese stand out, as both Mexico and Japan are centers of pro wrestling. Remember that it is hard for foreigners to get work in these countries due to competition. Other languages such as French, Italian, German, etc., can help you to work in promotions in those countries. It's also good if you just want to travel. You don't need formal education to pick it up, but it does help the process along.

Performance arts makes for a useful degree, as you already know, for obvious reasons. Anything relating to performing in front of an audience is helpful- that is exactly what you have to do as a pro wrestler.

Psychology, Sociology or whatever name it is called, such as Behavioural Psychology in Maria's case in memory serves, is another useful subject. Knowing about audience reactions to personality traits and actions would be useful for developing and refining characters. Understanding how the brain works is also of aid for getting into the mindset of a character and making them more than one-dimensional. Knowing the influence of cultural values is another helpful point. You need to appeal to the audience; understanding the audience helps you to appeal to them.

Studying humanities- of which there are many- help give you information that can be applied to creating characters or else the skills developed- such as analysis skills- can be applied. There is overlap with social sciences as well.

Knowing about medicine/nutrition can help you to stay fit, plan what you eat, how you exercise and take measures to prevent injury, e.g. massage. Studying something like nutrition can be quite useful, depending on what you do or do not know (and if you don抰, where else you can learn it from.)Biology can be of some use, in a similar vein.

The ones above are the ones that are of the most use in pro wrestling. There are some other stuff that can be of some use, depending on what direction you go in. These are more of the side skills and knowledge.

Computer skills beyond Microsoft Office and knowing how to use MySpace, Twitter and other various social networking sites aren抰 particularly useful in pro wrestling unless you get into a big promotion, in which case you would need to know programming and/or maintenance. As a pro wrestler, the Internet is a excellent resource to keep in touch with people, get your name out and maybe even attract some new fans.

As stated above, economic know-how is of use for financial planning, but would also be of aid if you wanted to run a promotion yourself. Maths doesn抰 have a direct relation to pro wrestling, unless you are talking about accounting or something else financial.

After pro wrestling, there are those that choose to pursue other interests such as running a restaurant or an auto-shop- interestingly, it抯 usually a small-business type thing- and others become promoters or pro wrestling trainers (or both). A degree in communication/management can thus be of a fair bit of value.

Fashion design is of limited use, considering wrestlers don抰 change their outfit much. Usually, that is, I know of at least one promotion where costumes changed regularly. There are numerous independent wrestlers with a fairly generic costume out there. I wouldn抰 necessarily say you need to know fashion design though. If you know your character and have some fashion sense, that should be enough. With or without a degree, if you are very good at fashion you might be able to help out other new wrestlers if they have no clue what to wear, which does happen.

When it comes to unusual degrees, the one I consider to be unusual would be Matt Striker, who has a degree in educational psychology, a rather academic subject for a pro wrestler. That actually isn抰 entirely removed from the world of pro wrestling, as it could be very handy if he were to be a pro wrestling trainer. Since Christopher Nowinski was the youngest WWE Hardcore Champion, that he has a Bachelor Degree in Sociology and from Harvard, no less, might be considered unusual. There抯 also one or two places that study pro wrestling (more from the angle of exploring why it appeals to the public and storytelling parallels to other mediums, as the soap opera), but I haven抰 heard of anyone going on to be involved in pro wrestling.

Many, if not most wrestlers haven抰 got degrees, so feel free to study whatever interests you and must help you in either part-time work or work after wrestling. If you抮e stumped on what character to be or need work before you act sufficiently, it can be a good idea to develop on that. Otherwise, whatever you feel is best to prepare you for life.  

As always, if you have any further questions, feel free to ask.