When it comes to breakout new wrestling stars, there’s no one from the past two years who can compare to Braun Strowman. He debuted on national television as a giant, fighting on behalf of the Wyatt Family, and had a little extra mystique around him for having scarcely worked at all for NXT before being called up to the main roster. Add on his incomparable size and strength, and was an immediate star.

Strowman progressed from a henchman to a stand alone star, feuding with Roman Reigns, The Big Show, Kane, and perhaps most memorably of all, Brock Lesnar. While The Beast Incarnate is a unique physical specimen in his own right, Strowman had the unique capacity to make Lesnar look outsized and outgunned.

The most surprising thing of all about Strowman? While it would be easy to dismiss him as Vince McMahon’s prototype for a star, given how big and imposing he is, he also got over organically with hardcore fans. He combines a straightforward, old school monster style with the fact that he’s not Roman Reigns. While fans resented WWE shoving The Big Dog down their throat as the next top guy, Strowman became a de facto underdog and champion of fans who didn’t feel heard.

But what of Strowman as an actual person? How does a man of his size and stature function in the normal world ,and where did he come from? This article take a look at 15 little known facts about Strowman’s personal life.

15 Bray Wyatt Was His Real Life Mentor

In a visit to Steve Austin’s podcast, Braun Strowman discussed the early days of his WWE career when he was lumped in with Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan as part of the Wyatt Family stable. Interestlingly, Strowman’s relationship with Wyatt transcended their on screen roles. The big man spoke candidly about his theory that Vince McMahon grouped him with the faction specifically so the more experienced Wyatt could mentor him about life on the road and developing his character. In the process, though, Strowman indicates the two became good friends.

Strowman continuously returned to the theme that he’d learned more from Wyatt than anyone else in the business. It sounds like their relationship continued, even after their acts were separated and when they worked separate brands, as they continued to keep in touch via text message from the road.

14 He Got Into A Barroom Beef With Kurt Angle’s Ex-Wife

Braun Strowman is a big star in wrestling now, and there are rumors of him having real life heat with Brock Lesnar, and perhaps developing professional conflicts with Roman Reigns as they vie for top billing among the new generation of WWE stars. In a truly confusing scenario, though, Strowman stumbled into his best documented real life beef with Karen Jarrett—Jeff Jarrett’s real life wife, and the ex-wife of Kurt Angle.

While exact details vary from different tellings, the gist of the story seems to be that Karen approached Strowman in a bar and asked for an autograph for her son.

Strowman dismissed her, according to The Wrestling Observer going so far as to say, “F--- your son,” unaware that her son was also Kurt Angle’s child.

Strowman back pedaled, not wanting to create heat one of the biggest stars in the history of the business. Stories, in particular diverge regarding whether Strowman was joking or completely serious when he got down on his knees to apologize. Regardless, it was an oddball conflict between an unlikely pair.

13 He Won The Arnold Amateur Strongman Competition

Arnold Schwarzenegger lends his name to one of the biggest fitness festivals in the world each year in Columbus, Ohio, and one of the features of the annual event are bodybuilding and strongman competitions. Years before he set foot in a wrestling ring, Braun Strowman would emerge the first place finisher in the Arnold Amateur Strongman Championships.

Of course, the fact that Strowman would win a competition like this isn’t a huge surprise. Just looking at him, he has one of the mostly absurdly huge frames and impressive musculatures of any man alive. Moreover, a big part of how he’s gotten over in WWE has been via feats of strength like superplexing The Big Show and tipping over a gimmicked ambulance on Monday Night Raw.

12 Strowman’s Body Weight Fluctuates Daily

For a person as big as Braun Strowman, with as rigorous a fitness routine as he has, it may be little surprise that his weight can vary by the day. Unlike the average person who may gain or lose a couple pounds, Strowman has claimed in several interviews that his weight can fluctuate as much as 10 to 15 pounds between days, depending on what and how much he eats.

Of course, by proportion, this isn’t actually such a huge percentage of weight for a guy who weights in in the neighborhood of four hundred pounds. Still, it’s an impressive range for the average human being to think about.

Strowman commented in his visits to both Steve Austin and David Shoemaker’s podcasts that he eats a high volume of his meals at Chipotle.

In describing what he ate—including three scoops of beef and two scoops of chicken per sitting—Shoemaker’s home site, The Ringer, calculated he’s probably eating around 1,500 calories for each of those meals, and maybe more those times he chooses to carb up.

11 He Has An Amateur Wrestling Background

Braun Strowman has built his name on his tremendous look, invincible aura, and straight ahead power wrestling style that focuses on slams and throws. Unlike traditional pro wrestling, giants, however, he’s far from lumbering. His offense includes a dropkick that is truly impressive for a performer of his size, and the guy is clearly more limber and fluid in his motion than most super heavyweights.

Strowman has discussed his athletic pedigree in a number of interviews. One of the more interesting throwaway facts that he has slipped in on more than one occasion was that he did some amateur wrestling in high school. WWE hasn’t done much to play up that fact and, to be fair, Strowman switched his focus to football and heavy lifting in the years to follow. Still, it’s fascinating to think what an imposing presence Strowman must have made on the amateur mats.

10 Strowman Was Petrified Of His Infamous Garbage Truck Stunt

The main event of TLC 2017 saw Braun Strowman join The Miz, The Bar, and Kane in opposing the newly reformed Shield (or, as things played out, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Kurt Angle). The bout was fun, if a bit overly long and unfocused at points. In a key narrative turn Strowman splintered from his teammates, in particular coming to blow with fellow monster Kane, before the heels ganged up to throw him in the back of a garbage truck. Strowman would infamously return a week later, emerging from the back of a garbage truck. While those with a more careful attention to detail would notice it was a different truck, besides the logical issues with him having survived in the back of the truck for a week, it was nonetheless an entertaining and unique visual.

Strowman opened up in subsequent interviews about not having felt comfortable being stuffed in the back of the garbage truck.

He cited faith in Vince McMahon never actually putting anyone in harm’s way, as well as WWE’s production team. Nonetheless, the Monster Among Men uncharacteristically opened up about feeling terrified that something could go wrong.

9 Strowman Played Semi-Professional Football

In his visit to Steve Austin’s podcast, Braun Strowman went into some detail about his short lived football ambitions. In makes complete sense that the enormous man would have played high school football, but apparently his middling academic record cut short his career, only allowing him to play for two seasons, which cut him off from college prospects. From there, Strowman referenced getting interest and scrimmaging with arena football teams, besides going to the NFL combine to take his crack at the big time. Despite good numbers, his limited experience, and particularly not having played in college, meant no one pursued him very seriously.

Strowman is a model case for not getting what you wanted, but getting something better in return. While he may well have been coached into a reasonable career as a football pro, his unique physicality made him a can’t miss pro wrestling prospect in the end.

8 He Played A Lot Of Gameboy As A Kid

Based on his sudden explosion of fame as a top WWE star and being a fresh face in the line of WWE video games, Braun Strowman garnered several interviews with the video game press upon his game debut. In these talks, he didn’t hesitate to share his own background as a gamer growing up as a kid in the 1980s into 1990s.

Strowman relayed that his father played professional softball and to make his career work and maintain a family connection, Strowman often found himself in the backseat for long car rides going from city to city. He entertained himself by playing Gameboy. Strowman expressed his frustration at never beating Super Mario Bros. for Gameboy, and commented on other favorites like The Legend of Zelda and Tetris.

7 He’s On Tinder

Nowadays, Tinder is an increasingly quintessential part of the dating scene as men and women use it to connect with partners on a pretty superficial basis, express interest, and coordinate meetups. Interestingly, it came up last year that Braun Strowman is on the app.

Strowman’s profile shows him standing in the water, flexing his signature muscles, with a profile commenting on his love of the outdoors and of steak.

Interestingly, he leaves out his career as a WWE Superstar, probably out of an interest in keeping his professional pursuits and his dating life separate from another, and staying out of trouble. Of course, given Strowman’s unique look, it was only a matter of time before a fan recognized him and broke the news.

6 He Didn’t Start Weight Training Until His Late Teens

Braun Strowman is such an enormous and powerful presence that most fans would probably anticipate he started lifting weights at a very young age. While he wasn’t exactly old when he got going, Strowman reports that he actually didn’t start any sort of regimen until his late teenage years. Apparently, his mother worried weight training would stunt his growth. Either he waited the appropriate amount of time to overcome mom’s reservations, or she was dead wrong, because he certainly didn’t wind up short of stature.

Strowman commented on Steve Austin’s podcast that even before pumping iron, he was “country strong” with some innate strength and size to him that set him up for near immediate success when he did start to take working out more seriously.

5 He Worked As a Mechanic

In pro wrestling terms, a mechanic is a performer not necessarily viewed to have star potential, but nonetheless someone with sound fundamentals who can execute a good match and help other wrestlers look good. Curtis Axel might be considered one today, while Steve Austin was purportedly signed by WWE for this role originally, before exploding as a first rate star.

Braun Strowman isn’t a wrestling mechanic, for neither having the cleanest technical game, nor having any shortage of star power. However, in the regular world, he claims to have quite literally worked as a mechanic earlier life to help make ends meet. It’s difficult to picture someone as enormous and now famous as Strowman working a blue collar job, but he did what he had to en route to making it as a world class strong man, which got his foot in the door for wrestling.

4 He Got His Ring Name From A Baseball Player

Braun Strowman’s legal name is Adam Scherr, and he reportedly arrived at his more famous ring name from baseball player Ryan Braun. Braun isn’t exactly a crossover star, but was a highly successful player for Major League Baseball where he earned a 2011 National League Most Valuable Player award. Braun played left fielder and third baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Strowman is a fan of the Brewers and pulled the name when he was in sore need of one in developmental and got to talking about his namesake with other wrestlers there.

The name Braun, in particular, struck a chord given his body type and the brawny persona he was angling toward even then. Everything worked out in the end, and Strowman seemed to be having fun on a WWE trip through Milwaukee where he shared the full story during a local radio interview.

3 Strowman’s Father Was a Celebrated Softball Player

The Unites States Specialty Sports Association may not be all that familiar to casual sports fans, but for those who follow less mainstream professional athletics, it’s an important organization for spotlighting top athletes who might otherwise fly under the radar. Among those athletes was Rick Scherr, whom the LA Times among others proclaimed one of the greatest professional slow-pitch softball players of all time.

Strowman’s dad is a USSSA hall of famer now, and the Monster Among Men himself has discussed how his dad set up for his eventual career in unexpected ways. Most notably, Strowman spent time in his childhood traveling in the country in the backseat of his old man’s car, thus preparing him for his own life on the road as an adult.

2 He Was A Big Wrestling Fan As A Kid

Lots of top WWE stars weren’t actually wrestling fans growing up, but were rather drawn into the business based on their size or athleticism. Sometimes it happens after an earlier career pursuit like professional football didn’t pan out due to injury or not being able to cut it at the professional level.

There’s a sense in which Strowman wrestling was a plan B or C, after his football aspirations didn’t work out and after he’d competed as a strongman.

By Strowman’s own account in a variety of interviews, though, he was a wrestling fan who collected WWE action figures when he was younger, before trading Stone Cold Stunners with his friends in the hallways of his high school.

Given that interest, it’s funny that Strowman wouldn’t wind up really pursuing the business until his late 20s, but he seems to have accomplished what he wanted to outside wrestling before going full throttle and making an immediate impact in WWE.

1 Finn Balor Has Been A Friend And Advisor

Braun Strowman is still young in the wrestling business, and got some big time breaks very quickly on account of his unique size, strength, and presence, not to mention his capacity to improve quickly. He’s had some clear on the job training, including working a lengthy series of matches with The Big Show that were pretty clearly designed to help bring along the new giant. As mentioned earlier in this list, his early pairing with Bray Wyatt was also largely one of mentor and student.

Strowman has also, however, singled out Finn Balor as a mentor, less regarding the WWE landscape—which he came to around the same time—but the wrestling world and wrestling psychology at large based on his extensive experience abroad. Though the two haven’t interacted meaningfully on WWE television, they have reportedly developed a good relationship behind the scenes, and Strowman trusts Balor as a friend and as a wrestling guide.