George "The Animal" Steele

When I was a kid the very first WWF wrestling toy I ever got was an action figure of George "The Animal" Steele. I think a Santa at some xmas party I was at randomly handed me some wrapped up toy and that was it. I had no interest in WWF wrestling when I was six, World Grand Prix Wrestling on ATV was way more interesting to me for some reason. But you couldn't get any Cuban Assassin toys, so I was stuck with this. His green tongue was pretty funny, at least.

According to the wikipedia article about him, he has a master's degree and taught at university , so I thought 'wow, so he isn't actually retarded', then I remembered that he was in Ed Wood.. then at the end it says he's a christian fundamentalist and a republican. What is it about wrestlers who play insane characters turning that way in real life? (For those not in the know, The Ultimate Warrior? Batshitinsane.com.)

I guess if you are locked in a character for a long time you start to become more like that character.

Or wrestling just ruins your brain.

One notable exception is Mick Foley a.k.a. Cactus Jack, my favourite character from WCW because he seemed just crazy and demented enough to just randomly physically kill whoever he was wrestling against, is pretty smart and politically liberal.