Muscleman Wiese eager to make wrestling debut
After packing on 40kgs (88lbs) of muscle, ex-Germany goalkeeper Tim Wiese will make his full WWE debut on Thursday in what he describes as the ‘Champions League’ of wrestling.
The 34-year-old made the last of his six friendly appearances for Germany in 2012 and was part of their 2010 World Cup squad. But after hanging up his boots three years ago and dramatically beefing up, Wiese is poised to make his professional wrestling debut in Munich.
At 1.93m (6ft 4in) and weighing around 130kgs (20st, 6lbs), Wiese will be an imposing figure in the razzmatazz world of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) having radically changed his figure.
Wiese bulked up with an intensive schedule of weight-training sessions and a diet which included a kilo of meat per day. He has trained for his debut in Orlando, Florida and will wrestle in “The Shining Stars” team, alongside established WWE stars Cesaro and Sheamus.
“This is Champions League. WWE is the biggest thing in wrestling, so I’m full-focused and blending out everything else around me,” Wiese told SID, an AFP subsidiary.
Wiese has yet to be given his wrestling nickname, and expects a few boos from the crowd as part of the show. “I think I’ll be playing the role of the bad guy,” he said. “I’m being pushed in that direction, but that’s okay.
“My god, in football, I was already the bad guy who opposition fans would insult. I’m okay with that, it doesn’t bother me. They can all hate me.” Wiese turned his back on the Bundesliga in 2013 after 269 appearances in Germany’s top flight for Werder Bremen and Hoffenheim, for whom he made the last of his total of 269 Bundesliga appearances in January 2013.
After falling out with the club’s bosses, he was banished from the first team, even though he had three years left on his contract, which allowed him to hit the gym.
“Eleven games and three years of paid holiday. That’s like winning the lottery!” he said in 2013 after playing less than a dozen matches for Hoffenheim.
“That was just the truth. What more should I say?” he said looking back. “Should I have given up my contract and relinquished the money? Who would have done that? I made peace with it.” His Hoffenheim contract finally expired earlier this year, allowing Wiese to realise his dream to enter the adrenaline-fuelled world of WWE.
“I was a big fan in the 90s and, when I was a boy, I collected the cards and played out bouts in the playground,” he said.
“I kept track of it, even during my footballing career, but never thought of myself as a wrestler.
“The question came when I had already finished with professional sport.
“I didn’t take it seriously as first, then things became more concrete. “I’m ready and prepared for the drills in the US. I’ve been chased from one side of the ring to the other.
“It’s been a long time since I worked as hard as I did in the last few weeks.”
While his former peers and ex-football colleagues are becoming television pundits or studying to become coaches, Wiese enjoys being different. He becomes animated when discussing work-outs endured in the ring.—AFP