‘Being a teacher is exhausting after my WWE run – but I haven’t quit wrestling’-Alistair McGeorge-Entertainment – Metro

From headteacher to WWE wrestler and back into the classroom – Eddie Dennis has lived quite the life.

It’s been almost a decade since the 38-year-old Welshman quit his school job to focus on wrestling full time, which led to him becoming a star on WWE’s NXT UK brand.

In March 2023, he announced his retirement from the ring and took up a job with the sports entertainment giant as a writer, only to leave and make his grappling comeback a year ago.

Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Dennis has reflected on how he swapped his WWE role to go back into teaching, while still wrestling up and down the UK at the weekend.

‘Doing wrestling at the weekends while I teach is definitely the most difficult thing, and it’s infinitely more difficult now than it was when I was on the come up,’ he admitted.

At first, the so-called Welsh Dragon planned to take time off from everything after his WWE writing job, which he left after struggling with the remote nature of a role for the US-based NXT brand, initially intended as a stepping stone to something permanent closer to home.

Eddie Dennis is still wrestling after returning to the classroom (Picture: WWE)

He leads another life at the weekends (Picture: WWE)

It wasn’t long before Dennis was picking up wrestling bookings again, and the idea of going back to supply at his old school snowballed into a much bigger position.

‘September comes along and I’ve got this middle management pastoral care position within the school, and I’m teaching full time, and I still have wrestling independent dates on the weekend, absolutely burned up and exhausted,’ he laughed.

‘It gets to four o’clock on a Friday, and almost the last place I want to be is a professional wrestling ring.’

The 38-year-old star originally left teaching to chase his wrestling dream (Picture: WWE)

He’s teaming with Mark Andrews for a bout in Wolverhampton this weekend (Picture: Burning Heart Pro Wrestling)

Dennis – who will be at Burning Heart Pro Wrestling in Wolverhampton this weekend with his FSU tag partner Mark Andrews against Robbie X and TNA Wrestling’s Zachary Wentz – confessed it was easier to push through earlier in his career.

‘When I was in my late 20s, and the scene was blowing up, and my notoriety within the industry was doing this [upwards] trajectory, it was much easier to work 50 hours as a head teacher during the week and then travel four hours to an event,’ he said.

Dennis acknowledged he’s ‘probably reached the highest point’ he can in wrestling, having tasted WWE success before moving back to the independents – and the classroom.

Dennis admitted it’s harder to stay motivated after already hitting his career high (Picture: WWE)

He’s performed at venues like Blackpool’s iconic Winter Gardens (Picture: WWE)

And despite his continued passion for wrestling, his pupils are always there to bring him down to earth.

‘When you are talking to casuals as talk as opposed to wrestling fans, WWE is the only thing that exists and makes sense, and everything else is just hobby wrestling, or not even a thing,’ he laughed.

‘So I get on a daily basis, “Sir, sir. Did you used to wrestle for WWE, did you used to be a WWE wrestler? Have you met John Cena? Have you met The Rock? Have you met Roman Reigns?”‘

When Dennis announced his wrestling retirement almost two years ago, it wasn’t because he was ‘ready’ to hang up his boots.

Last year, he rejoined WWE as a writer for NXT (Picture: WWE)

He explained: ‘I was offered a unique opportunity to go and be a writer for NXT. And at my age, I was like 37 at the time, I was probably too young to be doing it, but also too old to be turning it down.’

The job didn’t quite work out as he’d hoped, with the goal originally being to serve as a writer for the NXT Europe brand, which is yet to come into fruition.

‘I ended up spending the nine months that I was there – save for 10 weeks when I was in the US working boots on the ground – working remotely here in the UK,’ he recalled. ‘That’s the element that didn’t work for me.’

He’s still loving wrestling, even with the tough schedule (Picture: WWE)

He left on good terms with the likes of NXT boss Shawn Michaels, and he insisted ‘the doors are never closed’ regarding WWE, AEW or any other opportunity, providing he can stay close to home.

‘As soon as I left that environment, I immediately wanted to wrestle again,’ he said, admitting the drive never went away, despite a rollercoaster career which has seen him suffer torn pecs and a separated shoulder.

That brings him to this weekend with Burning Heart Pro, a company he has described as ‘the pinnacle of British wrestling’.

Dennis knows his final match is coming (Picture: WWE)

‘It’s like all of the coolest people combined to make a bit of a super show,’ he quipped, referencing a roster featuring fellow WWE alumni the Grizzled Young Veterans.

Working with a roster like that is a very deliberate choice for Dennis.

‘Pretty much everything that I do from now until when it does stop will involved people who have a close emotional attachment to me,’ he said. ‘Every time I wrestle, I feel like it like might be the last time.’

Burning Heart Pro Wrestling returns to Wolverhampton on Saturday, November 16 at the Wolverhampton Astoria. Limited second row and general admission tickets are available now.

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