Brock Anderson was a recent guest of the AEW Unrestricted podcast, and he shared how his parents reacted when he told them he wanted to be a pro wrestler. Brock revealed that they were adamant that he get a college degree first.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
His parents’ initial response: “I knew since twelve years old this is what I wanted to do. Once I graduated in high school, I looked at my parents, and was like, ‘This is what I want to do. There’s no point in me going to college.’ That immediately got ixnayed. ‘Don’t ever bring that up again. Go get your education, we’ll double-back to this when you got that piece of paper in your hand.’ So I went and did that, graduated December ’19 from East Carolina [University]. January 2020, I was like, ‘Alright. Let’s start rolling.'”
Watching wrestling with more detail than the average fan: “I don’t really remember having a flat-out sit down conversation [with my parents about wrestling]. I think I started asking specific questions that the average viewer wouldn’t ask. Growing up in a wrestling house, you watch all the wrestling. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, whatever. Whatever day they had it on, we would watch it. It would at least just be background noise. If I saw something, I’d ask Dad, what’d you think of that? Should he have done that, or how could he have made it better? Or I’d hear things on podcasts about back in the day, I’d go, ‘What about this guy, or that guy?'”
Brock’s mother’s concerns: “He would hesitate, like, ‘Why are you asking that? What’s your angle there?’ Just curious, just curious. I think finally he had to ask me one day. His recollection of me asking him is different than mine. I don’t ever remember a sit-down and asking him. I know my mom didn’t want me to be in the wrestling business, but I think she knew there was a strong possibility. She never discouraged it, but she never encouraged it. Just being a mother, being worried about my safety. It wasn’t that she didn’t want me to be happy or anything; she’s just one of the few wives that has been around the entire duration of her husband’s career. So she’s seen everything in this business. She knows how dangerous it can be, she knows what bad habits can happen. She was not gung-ho about it. I think my dad was maybe thirty percent about it. He never discouraged it; never encouraged it on me either.”
