The Joys Of Fame And No Fortune

It's not every day that a person gets to write for one of the most influential news sites in the world. I've had that privilege, and I'll tell you what: It's hard work— and it didn't come with any fortune. In fact, it took me a long time to earn just enough money to live on—I'm still struggling for now. But there are some really wonderful things that came out of it as well: A lot of people who helped me write; many opportunities and experiences I never would have had otherwise. Writing is one of those things that can be difficult without having much going on directly, but is unbelievably fulfilling when you're doing something worth writing about or experiencing.

I've taken plenty of flak for my work, whatever I do, which is why I always hope that if people like what I'm doing, maybe they'll also like reading or seeing it. So let's get this straight: I don't care to be an international celebrity or anything like that—that's not who I am. It's not my job to entertain you, so if it's not interesting, something's wrong with you and your moral compass. That said, when writing about pro wrestling, things that have actually happened can often be more interesting than what you can write about if you're just going by conjecture.

This is the story of how I became the world champion, without any background in the sport. It's a story about how I took some chances, acted on impulse and was lucky enough to get paid for it.

It's a pretty funny story—involving a little-known company, lucha libre (Mexican wrestling)—and at least one death threat .

I'm sure that plenty of you have seen it all before, but my story is different. There's much less to know about me before this happened than there is with an established wrestler or celebrity (such as Steve Austin, who was recently revealed to be CM Punk). There's not much to know about me, period, but there's one thing: I've always wanted it.

My name is Mike Ross, and I'll be taking you through my journey to stardom in the world of wrestling.

I was born in 1979 and grew up in the military community of Fort Campbell, Kentucky during the late 80s and early 90s when the post was run by General H. Norman Schwarzkopf . My dad was a German immigrant who served three years in Vietnam as a medic on helicopters; my mom is an American from Detroit. They had me when they were young (my dad was 18), so it was pretty rough for them as far as living conditions went. I had all the advantages of a military base and relatively good schools, though. I was a smart kid and started working hard at a young age, maybe a little younger than most kids my age.

I was the first person in my family to go to college, starting in 8th grade with some very small classes and eventually graduating from college with two bachelor's degrees by the time I was 23. I'm sure that I owe everything to how fortunate I've been; just like all of us do.

My father died of cancer when I was still in high school, so he wasn't around for my achievements. Still, I wasn't usually the kind of person who got up on stage at my high school to accept awards, though I did get a few. I didn't have much reason not to work hard and do well in school, so that's what I did.

My senior year in high school was difficult because there was no one left at home for me to take care of. My dad had died only months before I graduated and my mom couldn't really handle being alone for long periods of time at first. So I lived at home and went to school, but I took as many courses as I could in summer school, to get out of there faster. When school was over for the summer, for some reason, it was really hard for me to stay at home.

I had applied to college with the intentions of studying finance and economics. But then I had few extra applications lying around that I didn't plan on using myself. They were from schools like Northern Kentucky University (NKU), which isn't a big name or anything like that, but has a lot of great programs within its business faculty. I filled them out on a whim. I thought that I was going to study finance, economics and possibly business administration, but since I filled out the application forms from NKU, I thought at least I'd go down there and pay them a visit. It was only about 100 miles away from Fort Campbell, so it wouldn't be that bad.

I did end up going there for an interview with the business faculty before my senior year in high school ended. They asked me why I wanted to get my business degree at NKU (off of first impressions, you could tell that they didn't think much of me as a student). I told them that I didn't want to go to a state university because they wouldn't offer me the same opportunities they had at a private school or that I might not be able to afford that kind of education. They weren't impressed by my answer and said, "Well, we're not really sure what we want you to major in, so why don't you take all of our classes for the first year, then decide?"

I'm not sure what made me think about taking classes at NKU, but it was something like "what the hell; this is going to happen." But I still went through with my application and interview. And they offered me admission into their business program.

I was 18 and had just graduated; it was a strange, interesting time to be going through. That first year of college, I took general business classes. I already knew what I wanted to study; it was just that at a state university, there's no way to do that. They won't allow you a major without going through the system, and it's pretty much a waste of time to go there if you're not going to take those classes. So for me, it felt like an opportunity to learn about things that interested me—like taxes and real estate—which didn't matter in the end since my degree wasn't in any of those things.

On my first day of school, I met a student by the name of Chelsea. She was really pretty, really smart and took a lot of the same classes as I did. We had some classes together during our first semester and I eventually asked her out on a date. She said yes; we went to one of those restaurants where you sit down and get your meal after you order it (I hate those kinds of restaurants). We dated for a couple years.

I learned that people didn't always say what they meant to say and how much trouble that could cause for other people who were expected to read into their words.

Conclusion: The night before we were to go our separate ways, she asked me if I'd go to her graduation with her. I said yes. I was supposed to graduate the following month and didn't have a class that weekend. So we still had time together before then.

She graduated on Friday and as it turned out, there was a party later that night in town that she wanted to go to with some of her friends. We drove down there together and ended up hanging out at one of her friend's houses that night.