No matter what your sport of choice is, making it to the professional level is one of the toughest things to accomplish. However, some people have what it takes both mentally and physically to climb to the top in more than one sport.
Quinn Ojinnaka was selected in the fifth round of the 2006 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons and went on to play in the NFL as an offensive lineman from 2006-2012. Following the conclusion of the 2012 season, the Seabrook, Maryland native decided to pursue another childhood dream, professional wrestling.
Ojinnaka started his professional wrestling training following the conclusion of the 2012 NFL season and has climbed the ranks over the years. Now best known by his ring name ‘Moose’, the 34-year-old is living out his childhood dream as a professional wrestler on the Impact Wrestling roster. We caught up with him ahead of one of the biggest matches of his career as he prepares for Slammiversary XVI this weekend in Toronto.
Christian Marin: When did you decide you wanted to be a professional wrestler?
Moose: It was something I knew I wanted to do as a kid. I think when I was about 10 or 12-years-old I watched it and fell in love with it and decided I wanted to be a wrestler.
CM: Who did you idolize growing up?
Moose: Razor Ramone and Ric Flair, those were pretty much my top two guys.
CM: In football you prepare for every game by watching a lot of film, did you have to watch a lot of film as you made the switch over to wrestling?
Moose: Yes and no. You’ve got to understand I’ve been watching wrestling pretty much my whole life so things that people don’t realize is that when you learn stuff from just watching it as a fan that you don’t even know you’re learning. I watched it as a fan, so I guess that means yes I did watch a lot of film, but at that point I was just watching it as a fan and not watching it to study, you know?
CM: Was the biggest shock to you when you made the switch?
Moose: Hitting the ropes was actually surprisingly painful. It was like something that’s so simple that I didn’t think was going to hurt so bad. I remember the first day after wrestling training I was just swollen on my back, it was just killing me from the ropes.
CM: Which of the two did/do you feel more at the end of each day?
Moose: If I’m just being honest it’s definitely football. It’s just a big difference because of the position I played in football, I was an offensive lineman and you’re talking about in practices and games you have a 300-pound guy running into you or you’re running into a 300-pound guy, so I would say football.
CM: You’ve had guys like DeAngelo Williams and Gary Barnidge come out to the ring with you and have your back at a fight. Do you see any other former or current players joining you in or around the ring anytime soon?
Moose: It would definitely be fun if I had guys like DeAngelo [Williams] and Gary [Barnidge] come in and be a full-time talent at Impact. I know DeAngelo already said he doesn’t want to wrestle full-time, but it will always be fun. You never say no in this business.
CM: Will we be seeing DeAngelo Williams with you at Slammiversary?
Moose: You’ll have to tune in to find out [chuckles]
CM: Is there any former or current football player you would want to go one-on-one against inside the ring, maybe settle some differences?
Moose: DeAngelo, I don’t know if I want to wrestle him because he’s a good friend of mine, but guys could tell at his only Slammiversary match last year that he did excellent and some say he had the best debut performance from an athlete ever, so he’s definitely one of them.
CM: Who’s the toughest person you’ve gone up against in the ring?
Moose: Bobby Lashley. He’s an MMA fighter so that’s legit, you have to be pretty tough to dabble in that sport.
From the football field to the squared circle, Ojinnaka has been able to take on some of the toughest and biggest athletes and has managed to put a lot of them in their place. On top of making it to the NFL and as a professional wrestler, he’s also responsible for his intro theme song.
Moose will go head-to-head against Austin Aries this weekend and they’ll be battling it out for the Impact World Championship.
