Long before Tom Cruise developed an insatiable need for speed and began saving the world from seemingly impossible missions, he was just your typical high school teenager!
But there was one skill he had in his younger years that prove he’s been an action movie star in the making for decades now!
Old pictures have recently surfaced showing Tom on his high school wrestling team, and according to one of his teammates, he was pretty darn good!
At a young age, the actor and his family were uprooted from their home in Louisville and moved to New Jersey where he attended Glen Ridge High School, and according to his team captain TJ, wrestling helped him cope with his new environment:
“He had times where he was struggling to be accepted. With wrestling, you made your own mark at school, he certainly felt like that. It wasn├óΓé¼Γäót a popularity contest, but we both were looking to make our own mark.”
Although Tom isn’t the tallest guy, TJ says he never let his small stature get in the way and compensated by getting in great shape!
He goes on to say:
“He didn├óΓé¼Γäót start until later than all the other wrestlers. He├óΓé¼Γäós not a big guy, he was about 5ft 5in and 130lbs. To be a wrestler you had to be in great shape and physically strong.”
In addition to helping him fit in and get into great shape, TJ also says wrestling indirectly steered Tom into acting!
While he was recovering from an injury, Tom was sidelined and decided to audition for the school’s production of Guys and Dolls, and the rest is history!
We never really pegged the Mission Impossible actor as a wrestler, but it’s not too surprising when you consider he’s been in more action movies than we can count!
[Image via Jeff Rayner/Coleman-Rayner.]
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