10 Wrestlers That Totally Broke The Mould

4. George €˜The Animal€™ Steele

In real life, William Myers is a generally polite, friendly and surprisingly erudite sort of a guy. In interviews he comes across as thoughtful and somewhat sensitive. Despite being dyslexic, he holds a Masters Degree in Science and before becoming a wrestler; he worked as a teacher and coached high school football and amateur wrestling. In the ring, however, Myers would seamlessly morph into George €˜The Animal€™ Steele, a hulking brute with a carpet of thick brown hair covering his entire body, who, in many cases, would rather eat the turnbuckle pad than fight his opponent. Initially, Myers got into professional wrestling whilst he was teaching and would work mainly on school holidays. Being an amateur wrestling coach, he was a decent scientific wrestler who actually went head-to-head with Bruno Sammartino on a few occasions. However, it was as the bestial caveman George Steele that Myers truly got over... With his green tongue, permanently hunched back and a dazzling array of facial expressions, audiences loved to watch €˜The Animal€™. He was genuinely charming to watch and usually had fans roaring with laughter at his antics. Despite not doing much in the ring, Myers€™ grasp of ring psychology allowed him to do just enough (and at just the right time) to truly get his character across to the fans. In contrast to Myers€™ articulate interviews, George €˜The Animal€™ Steele was barely coherent, usually only making grunting, groaning noises and arching his eyebrows at the camera in a manner vaguely reminiscent of the titular character from the original King Kong movie. Still, Steele was a huge success by anybody€™s standards and actually played a reasonably big part in establishing Vince Jr€™s WWF as the major wrestling product. He also starred in the Tim Burton biopic of B-movie director Ed Wood in 1994, portraying fellow wrestler (and his own erstwhile lookalike) Tor Johnson, who had starred in several features directed by Wood.