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Wrestling training doesn't come cheap and sadly for many wrestlers that is the only route into the business. This means that many current and former WWE stars were forced to work regular jobs for minimum wage whilst working their way up to their WWE career.
There was a time when these stars would be working in restaurants or making coffee in a small boutique around the corner from their home. The whole time many of these stars were working by day and training for the career that they truly wanted at night.
Many stars have put blood sweat and tears into making it as a WWE superstar and that includes working some of the strangest and hardest jobs in order to make a paycheck.
Here are just five current WWE stars that once worked regular 9-5 jobs.
#5. Naomi - Daycare for toddlers
WWE has made it clear throughout the course of Naomi's career that the former SmackDown Women's Champion has a background in dance. Whilst this was well-known, the company went on to release a regular Youtube series called 'My first job" where Naomi was able to confirm that she once worked at Marshall's.
In the video which has been posted above, Naomi claimed that she hounded the store continuously when she found out they were hiring because it was a place where she often shopped and really wanted to work there.
She revealed that she wanted to work the cash register but she was put into stocking, which wasn't the fun job that she dreamed of. Naomi then moved on to work at a daycare with toddlers. This was a job that the former Champion worked for a number of years, and she revealed that she found it very rewarding.
The skills Naomi learned here would have helped much later in life, when she married Jimmy Uso and became the step-mother to his two young sons.
#4. Roman Reigns - Furniture store
It's become a well-known fact that Roman Reigns was looking at a career in the NFL before an illness saw his dreams left in ruin. The time between his football career coming to an end and his wrestling career starting to blossom is one that the former WWE Champion spent working a regular 9-5 job.
Reigns spoke to ESPN back in 2017, where he confirmed that he was working 9-5 in his sister's furniture company after his football career ended and at the time he just knew that he was destined for something else.
“I was just working nine-to-five. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be putting on the furniture shirt. I was supposed to be doing something else. And I didn’t know what it was at that point, but I knew WWE could possibly be that team I was looking for. Thank god I was right. They helped me out and gave me an opportunity and I’d like to think I hit my head on the goalpost.”
Luckily, Reigns went on to find his calling when he signed for WWE just a few short months later.
#3. Becky Lynch - pub/sandwich shop
It's hard to imagine Becky Lynch doing anything but wrestling, but the Irish star went through a number of jobs before she finally believed that her calling was in the squared circle.
The former WWE Champion appeared on My First Job on WWE's Youtube channel a few years ago where she revealed that she once worked as a flight attendant, which was her first real adult job, but ahead of this, Lynch worked a shocking number of ordinary jobs.
Lynch revealed that her first job was when she was about eight years old and she started a car wash with all of her friends. She later went on to work in a bar when she was 14, where she would work the tables. She said that she refused to use the uniform and then walked out after two weeks.
She also worked in a sandwich shop, but that didn't last long. The former Women's Champion recalled that she later worked as a pizza chef but her pizza toppings were not up to standard. All in all, Lynch worked many jobs before she managed to find her way into a WWE ring.
#2. Kevin Owens - Gas Station attendant
Current WWE star Kevin Owens is a family man and he's made it clear that he's proud that he can support his family now that he's made his way to the top of the WWE pyramid.
The former Universal Champion has been through many struggles in his life and whilst coming up through the ranks in the wrestling business he was forced to subsidize his income in order to support his family.
Whilst talking to Mlive back in 2017, Owens revealed that for the first seven years of his wrestling career he worked as a gas station attendant. The great thing about this job was the fact that his job allowed him the time off to continue to pursue his dream job, which has since allowed him to join WWE.
"I don't hope for it, but if they want to then they're more than welcome. I have no preference. I just want them to be happy. I always pursued this dream, but for the first 7 years that I was a wrestler, I worked at a gas station part-time. I finished high school but still needed a job to make money to live on. I was lucky enough to have the boss to give me time off I needed to wrestle. I think you can be happy doing whatever you want in life as long as it fulfills you can you get something out of it."
#1. Kofi Kingston - Staples
Former WWE Champion Kofi Kingston has been part of the company for so long now that it's hard to imagine him doing anything else, but there was a time when Kingston worked an ordinary 9-5 job.
Kingston was living a life in a cubicle where he would proofread catalogs at Staples' headquarters in Boston. It was the desk job here that taught Kingston that this wasn't a job that he wanted to have for the rest of his life and inspired him to leave and pursue a career with WWE.
This was the job that Kingston walked into after graduating from Boston College and after staring at the bare walls for a number of years, in 2005 he decided to try something new.
The former WWE Champion talked to Lilian Garcia on Chasing Glory last year where he revealed just how much he disliked his first job.
"Out of college, I was working for Staples at the corporate headquarters talking about office supplies, and like 700-page bind guides that went out, I’d have to proofread those. I didn’t need to go to college to do this. And I’d have to sit there, and you would have to make sure — the chair section, you have to make sure all the chairs face in — just like little, stupid things like I couldn’t believe this was going to be the rest of my life."
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