SEGMENT #3: BEFORE THEY WERE “SUPERSTARS”: HARVARD CHRIS Chris follows up on that Rewind flashback, saying that he thought it’d be Maven that would win. Then it’s JOSH MATHEWS WITH THE RUN-IN! He and Ernest Miller are beating Nowinski to within an inch of his life! Who will stop this? Me, I suppose, since that was actually all in my mind. This is what might happen if Confidential ever declares an allegiance to either Raw or Smackdown, rather than being the Switzerland of the WWE. Meanwhile on TV, Chris states that his Tough Enough loss didn’t deter him. In fact, he started working independent shows that very weekend, and continued working them for six months. Then, the WWE offered him a Wrestlemania tryout (uh, that was actually at Axxess, Chris) which they were so impressed by, they gave him a developmental contract. It wasn’t always with the wrestling for young Nowinski, however. Once he was just a nerd from Oak Park, Illinois, like my cousin Rimmy. Even Chris’ mom calls him “kind of boring” as a kid. The Nowinski family love train continues as one of his sisters says, “Chris was a nerd.” All that changed in high school, though, as Chris started playing football and racked up a huge list of accomplishments, both physical and academic. To cap it all off, Chris even contributed to the dramatic arts in his school’s production of West Side Story as Diesel. For the record, Kevin Nash played Maria. Despite his many high school accolades, Chris realizes now that he had “a lot to learn as a person” when he graduated high school. That would become abundantly clear when Chris joined the Harvard football team in 1996. Chris thought a lot of himself and tried to do less than his potential had indicated to recruiters. His teammates took to calling him “Pussinski”, while the defensive coach berated and threatened him until he turned things around. After a difficult freshman year, Chris learned his lessons and became a valued member of his team. Apparently not too valuable, as pro football didn’t seem to be an option, at least judging by the lack of a mention it gets on this show. But Chris might not have gone to the NFL anyway, since he became a wrestling fan after he graduated college in 2000. Deciding to follow his new-found dream of becoming a pro wrestl… sports entertainer, Chris enrolled in Killer Kowalski’s school, training at night while working as a pharmaceutical consultant (?) by day. Three months later when he saw an ad for WWF’s Tough Enough, he put together a demo tape and found himself picked for the show. He now admits that he “was not fun to live with,” something he understands is a very important part of the business of being a sports entertainer, since you need to get along with the people you tour with. Now he hugs everyone, so they know they are loved. Okay, I made that last part up. I hope.

From 411mania.

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