MJF Trained By Brian Myers & Other Current Wrestlers With Surprising Trainers

If someone wants to become a pro wrestler, the only way to do so is to train under other pro wrestlers, learning the ins and outs of the sport from seasoned veterans. While some aspiring performers trained under legends, there are just as many who learned from wrestlers who never became major stars but proved to be effective trainers.

There are also a number of wrestlers who have unexpected trainers. That isn’t to say that these surprising trainers were bad wrestlers, but rather that one wouldn’t have guessed the connection between trainer and trainee due to factors like geography, time, or even a difference in in-ring style.

10 MJF (Trained By Brian Myers)

The current gimmick of Impact Wrestling star Brian Myers — formerly known as WWE undercarder and two-time tag team champion Curt Hawkins — is that of “The Most Professional Wrestler,” a self-absorbed heel who leads a stable of up-and-comers called The Learning Tree. But this isn’t just a gimmick, as Myers is an actual trainer who founded the Create A Pro Wrestling Academy with wrestler turned WWE producer Pat Buck. Of Create A Pro’s alumni, the most surprising and arguably the hottest act to come out of the school is Maxwell Jacob Friedman, AEW’s most hated heel.

9 Zicky Dice (Trained By Seth Rollins)

One of Myers’ Learning Tree proteges is “Outlandish” Zicky Dice, a sleazy, tattooed heel once described by Impact commentator Tom Hannifan as the entire state of Florida distilled into a wrestler. Despite the Myers connection, Dice wasn’t actually a CAP student. The lead singer of emo band Heart to Heart, Nick Zoppo, approached noted emo/punk fan Seth Rollins about training as a wrestler, and moved from California to Illinois to enroll in Rollins and tag partner Marek Brave’s school, the Black and Brave Wrestling Academy.

8 Shayna Baszler (Trained By Mercedes Martinez)

One of The Four Horsewomen of MMA, Shayna Baszler arrived on mainstream wrestling fans’ radar when she debuted in WWE’s Mae Young Classic and continued on in NXT, where she became a two-time Women’s Champion, proving to be adept in the ring as a mean technically-minded heel. But she’s not a Performance Center product, so who trained Baszler in pro wrestling?

While her catch wrestling background came at the training of fellow MMA fighter turned pro wrestler Josh Barnett, she learned the business from Mercedes Martinez, undersung veteran of women’s pro wrestling who’s worked for various indies as well as WWE, Impact, and AEW. Baszler and Martinez even had a match together once in the semi-finals of the Mae Young Classic.

7 Jonathan Gresham (Trained By Mr. Hughes)

Speaking of technical wrestlers, one of the best wrestlers working today is “The Octopus” Jonathan Gresham, the first champion of Ring of Honor’s revived Pure Championship and an ROH World Champion who’s been defending the belt on Impact Wrestling and various indie promotions during ROH’s hiatus. Given his Dean Malenko-esque in-ring style, it will surprise fans to find out that Gresham was trained by frequent bodyguard character Curtis Hughes, a.k.a. Mr. Hughes of New Generation Era WWE, at Georgia’s WWA4 Wrestling Academy, who’s also (more appropriately) trained larger wrestlers like Moose and even Apollo Crews.

6 Xia Li (Trained By Tyler Breeze & Shawn Spears)

The first female Chinese wrestler in WWE, Xia Li, was an NXT staple who moved on to the main roster in 2021, debuting on SmackDown. But she signed to the company in 2017, debuting in the Mae Young Classic before becoming an afterthought. Frustrated with her lack of traction, Li sought training from fellow NXT stars Tyler Breeze and Tye Dillinger (now Shawn Spears), who run Central Florida’s Flatbacks Pro Wrestling School. After training with them, Breeze showed her recent work to an impressed Triple H, who began putting Xia Li on television more.

5 Sami Zayn (Trained By Savio Vega & The Wall)

Hailing from Montreal, Sami Zayn came up in the local pro wrestling scene alongside eternal friend and rival Kevin Owens. While Owens’ training under fellow French Canadians Jacques Rougeau and Pierre Carl Ouellet (a.k.a. PCO) makes a lot of sense, Zayn learned wrestling from surprising sources who did not hail from the area. Along with WCW’s The Wall (a.k.a. Malice in Impact), Zayn received training from underrated WWE midcarder and would-be 1995 King of the Ring Savio Vega, who’s from Puerto Rico.

4 Miro (Trained By Rikishi & Gangrel)

Given Miro’s origins as “Alexander Rusev” in NXT, one might assume that the Bulgarian star was an athlete that WWE scouted and built from nothing, as did many who came up through WWE’s developmental system. However, Miro actually traveled from his home country to the United States to train in pro wrestling in the 2000s, and had some surprising teachers to boot.

The future Rusev ended up in Southern California, training under WWE Attitude Era fixtures Rikishi and Gangrel, who ran the KnokX Pro Wrestling Academy. From there, Miro wrestled in SoCal indies before signing to WWE in 2010.

3 Ember Moon (Trained by Skandor Akbar)

There are some wrestlers whose training makes regional sense, but the timing is actually very surprising. Take Ember Moon (a.k.a. Athena), the former NXT Women’s Champion with some awesome video game inspired personas. Coming up in the Texas wrestling scene, Moon was trained by fellow Texans like Booker T and Lance Archer, but among that group is also legendary wrestler turned manager Skandor Akbar. Given that Akbar transitioned into managerial status in the late-1970s, it’s surprising that he was around long enough to train a young Ember Moon in the 2000s.

2 Kyle O’Reilly (Trained By Becky Lynch)

When future top WWE star Becky Lynch was coming up in the sport, she was trained by a young Finn Balor, which makes sense geographically and given the size of the Irish wrestling scene at the time. In turn, however, Lynch did some training of her own while wrestling in the mid-2000s for Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling. She ended up teaching the first ever wrestling class that decorated tag team specialist Kyle O’Reilly ever attended, and even took part in a six-man match with KOR that included other notables like Gurv Sihra (aka Sunil Singh of WWE) and New Japan heel El Phantasmo.

1 Kazuchika Okada (Trained by Ultimo Dragon)

Most homegrown New Japan stars start out training in the NJPW Dojo before they’re sent out on excursion to wrestle in foreign countries, and then come back to perform as official roster members. NJPW ace Kazuchika Okada is no different in that regard, but he actually trained in wrestling before joining the Dojo in 2007. As a teenager, Okada traveled to Mexico in 2004 and trained with legendary junior heavyweight Ultimo Dragon, competing in Dragon’s Toryumon promotion as well in various Mexican promotions and the United States indies.