The WrassleCast

#3. George “The Animal” Steele Lives With Separate Wrestler and Schoolteacher Alter Egos

Intelligent, well-spoken James Myers worked as a physical education teacher at a high school in Madison Heights, Michigan. During the summers, however, he worked another job to supplement his income: He would travel to New York and wrestle as George “The Animal” Steele.

Where “intelligent” and “well-spoken” take a back seat to “the body hair of a caterpillar.”

“The Animal,” as his name suggests, was a crazy, unpredictable wild man who would tear apart turnbuckles with his teeth and grunt monosyllabically. He went on to have a very successful career in the WWF and even earned himself a role alongside Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood.

Presumably because Helena Bonham Carter was not quite hairy enough.

And as far as anyone else was concerned, James Myers and George “The Animal” Steele were two completely separate individuals. That’s right — for 20 years, Myers never once acknowledged that he was “The Animal,” and nobody around him knew he was a famous wrestler in his off hours.

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“We always assumed he spent his summers temping as a boulder.”

This wouldn’t be possible today, obviously — the Internet would track him down within 30 seconds. However, back in the 1970s, the Internet didn’t exist, and the wrestling business was divided into separate territories. Detroit had its own territory, and so did New York, which is where Myers would make all his appearances as “The Animal.” The only way anyone in his home state could ever see him as George “The Animal” Steele would be in a wrestling magazine. Or, you know, if they drove to New York.

Occasionally, one of his students would mention the suspicious resemblance between “The Animal” and their PE teacher. To shut them up, Myers would retort, “Do you really think I’m that ugly?”

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