UTI Tag Teams With Pro Wrestler Adam Scherr

Looking at 6’8”, 335-pound Adam Scherr, known in the WWE^® as Superstar Braun Strowman^®, you might not guess this was a guy who was bullied as a kid. Who had dyslexia and had to take night classes to graduate high school. Who wasn’t sure where his place was in life. But you can bet he figured it out.

Scherr has some amazing titles to his name. In 2011, he became the North American Strongman National Champion. In 2012, he won the title of Arnold Amateur Strongman World Champion, beating out more than 50 men from around 20 countries.

From high school on, he developed a passion for working on cars. As one of the world’s strongest men, picking up a Toyota Corolla with 600 pounds of weight in the trunk was no problem — he once did it 17 times in 60 seconds.

Scherr’s prowess as a strength athlete caught the attention of professional wrestler Mark Henry, who recruited the Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, native to try out for the professional wrestling league. He signed in 2013, and today, the 39-year-old continues to bring his impressive size and strength to the ring, creating memorable moments like a ring collapse after slamming an opponent down.

Universal Technical Institute (UTI) is thrilled to introduce Scherr as a program ambassador. He’s not just a pro wrestler — the lifelong learner is also planning to hone his skills and head “back to school” at UTI. After an 11-year career working in an automotive shop that began when he was a high school student, the relationship brings Scherr’s passions full circle.

UTI talked with Scherr about how his love for cars began, how his automotive experience has impacted his wrestling career and what he looks forward to in his relationship with UTI.¹

UTI: How did your passion for cars begin?

Scherr: In high school, I took auto mechanics class, which was where I really learned that I love being a hands-on learner and that I was so much more capable of learning when I was able to put my hands on something and have someone show me how to do something.

A lot of people don't know — I grew up with a few learning disabilities, including mild dyslexia. I had really bad reading comprehensive problems as a child. I had to go to extra classes to be able to get over my dyslexia, to be able to read and improve my comprehension, so I kind of gravitated towards being able to use my hands with my auto mechanics class.

UTI: When did you start doing professional automotive work?

Scherr: The summer before my senior year of high school, I got a part-time job with the local tire shop in the community that I lived in, Pit Stop Auto Service, changing tires and oil, doing basic small repairs, stuff like that, starting to hone my craft.

I did that throughout the summer, went back to school, continued to work part time and then graduated from high school, which wasn't an easy task. I had to go to night classes to make up for some of the schooling I didn't do when I was younger.

While doing that, I joined a community college and was going to school for physical education, while still working part time as a mechanic. I realized schooling like that wasn't for me. I just had enough in class, having someone just lecture over and over, then having to go home and read the same stuff over and over.

I thought, what am I doing? This isn’t what I want to do with my life. So I actually dropped out of college and went full time to working as a mechanic at the Pit Stop, where I went on to work for 11 years of my life. It's the longest job still that I've had in my life.

UTI: What kinds of skills did your auto mechanic work teach you?

Scherr: It’s crazy how working as a mechanic, not only did I hone a craft and a skill of being able to repair cars, but I also learned a lot of people skills, because I ran the front desk and helped manage the shop in a very small community.

It’s hard sometimes when you go in, and you know there’s something's wrong with the car. You’ve got to be the bearer of bad news and tell somebody, “Well, we’ve got to replace your transmission,” or, “You need a whole new motor.” It’s learning those people skills, along the way of also figuring out how to be able to repair the breakdowns and damages.

Also, hands-on learning, being able to physically do something and then get the reward of being successful, I think that falls into a lot of where I am with my career in wrestling. It’s the same thing: I have to apply myself physically and mentally, but above applying this stuff and continuing to hone your craft, every day you never knew what you were going to get to work on.

Sometimes, you work on the same stuff over and over. So it was the aspect of trying to figure out ways to do it. I was working at a flat rate, so there was a lot of learning and adapting along the way.

Now where I’m at in my wrestling career, it’s the same thing. Every time I go out and perform, it’s an opportunity to learn and be able to hone my craft to be better. It’s so nuts how they kind of go hand-in-hand with each other.

UTI: What advice would you have for someone considering an automotive career path?

Scherr: The cool thing about life is, it’s OK to fail. You’re going to fail, but know that you're willing to work, and continue to strive to be better. You can make anything you want in your life.

Taking that leap for myself was very nerve-wracking, leaving the skill trades to go into the wrestling community. It just takes believing in yourself.

I’m a firm believer if you believe in yourself, the rest of the world will believe in you. If you do what you love for a living, you never work a day in your life.

UTI: What was one of your most significant takeaways from your auto shop career?

Scherr: Working with customers, being diplomatic, being able to talk back and forth. I’ve always been very, very shy. I grew up very bullied and kept to myself because I didn’t know how to deal with it.

So, it was just neat being able to find something that I was good at and all of a sudden be like, hey, everybody in the little community that I live in goes, “Adam can fix your car,” and then all of a sudden I started getting friends and people started appreciating me.

It gave me that sense of fulfillment, of being able to do something and help somebody else out, knowing that everybody in the little area that I lived in depended on me to help keep their day-to-day lives going by keeping their cars running and maintaining their tires.

UTI: What’s your typical day like today?

Scherr: I usually get out of bed at seven, eight o’clock, sometimes a little later if I had a rough night or a long schedule.

As far as like my normal day-to-day routine, I wake up in the morning, get up, get moving around, and I usually do about an hour of cardio every morning. After I wake up, I don’t eat anything. I'll drink around 20 ounces of water, because that tricks my body into thinking that I’ve had food. It starts your metabolism going. When you do your cardio without actually eating food, you burn calories almost two to three times what you would normally do, because your body’s already processing what it thinks of as food, but it’s only water, so there’s no actual caloric intake.

So I start with that, and I come back and usually eat breakfast. Depending on what I’m doing that day, it will either will be 50 to 75 grams of protein powder and around 100 grams of oats, or if I have a rough match, I’ll have maybe 20 eggs and like 4 cups of oatmeal when I need power.

I eat every two-and-a-half hours. Right now I eat between around 8 and 10 ounces of cooked beef, chicken or fish and between 150 and 400 grams of rice. I do that six times, every two-and-a-half hours, so I’m pretty much eating all day.

Basically, I’m eating around 6 to 6.5 pounds of meat a day and around 4 to 5 pounds of rice a day. I’m like a giant cow. I just try to graze all day long.

I spend about an hour to hour-and-a-half in the gym every day, depending on how my body feels. In Florida, on my way home from the gym, I grab food and I go and tinker around in my buddy’s shop. They build race cars, do restorations, paint, you name it.

I’ve got to be really good friends with them, and I keep all my race cars at the shop. It’s a great friendship formed, and being able to get back to my roots, getting my hands dirty, getting some grease underneath my fingernails, that’s what makes me happy.

I’m a giant kid at heart. I want to get dirty and want to break stuff. Every time we can take cars to the track, I break them. So, there’s never a shortage of working on stuff.

UTI: What’s your car collection like today?

Scherr: My love and passion for cars and racing has just grown more and more over the years. I’ve been blessed more financially, so now I’m up to nine cars in my collection.

I’ve built a 5,300-square-foot, one-bedroom, two-bath house. I’ve got an 18-foot wrestling ring in the garage, and I could still probably get 10 cars in here.

I’m a gearhead. I love horsepower. I love going fast. I love the adrenaline.

I have a 1987 Buick Grand National. I have a 1997 Toyota Supra. I have a 2015 Dodge diesel truck. I have a 2020 Twin Turbo Mustang. I have a 2022 Scat Pack Charger. I have a 2022 F-150 single cab for travel. I have a Coyote 10-speed with a 3-liter Whipple supercharger on it.

I’m addicted to cars. I guess I could have worse vices in the world. This is one of mine.

UTI: Other than cars and wrestling, what other hobbies do you enjoy?

Scherr: I’m a big outdoorsman: hunting, fishing, camping, four-wheeling. I have a great partnership with Polaris. My house got endorsed by Polaris, so I have a bunch of their toys up here that I work with on the property, with 580 acres up here in Wisconsin.

I just enjoy being outside. A lot of people grow away from what they love as a kid, but for me, it’s all coming back into my life.

That’s the same thing with now working with UTI. It’s such an awesome opportunity for myself to get back to my roots and do what I love and to help inspire other people to chase their dreams and realize how much there is out in the world. It’s just you’ve got to go out and get it.

UTI: Speaking of UTI, why did you want to team up with our schools?

Scherr: I think a lot of people are in the same boat as me. They got burned out on textbooks. They got burned out on lectures. They got burned out on writing these giant papers and all this stuff and finding no purpose.

I’m such a firm believer in doing what makes you happy, as long as you don't take someone else’s happiness away. I think this is such a great opportunity, to help shine this light on the community and around the world for people who are worried about taking that step into the trade world.

You never know what can happen. Just take a chance on yourself, and try something different. You might realize that what you think you love isn’t actually what you want to do. There’s something else out there in life. It’s finding that and grabbing ahold of it, and just making the most out of it.

UTI: If you had to choose, what do you prefer: ATV, motorcycle or side-by-side?

Scherr: I’ve got to pick side-by-side. First of all, where I live here in Wisconsin, you’re allowed to ride them on the road.

I have the new Ranger XP 1000 Trail Boss. It’s their new six-seater they came out with. It’s fully enclosed with AC, touchscreen navigation and Bluetooth. They hooked it up with Rockford Fosgate speakers. It’s got my gun racks in it. It’s got a winch.

It is the ultimate off-road vehicle for using it to work on the property. For me, the most fun is just throwing the tunes on and getting out and getting dirty.

In Wisconsin, they do a snowmobile and ATV race on the lake when it’s frozen every year. I had the side-by-side there, and since it has heat, everybody was fighting over getting inside of this thing because it’s negative degrees outside, and it was a nice, cozy 90 degrees cranked up with the heat inside the side-by-side. So it’s really neat. That’s why I think if you had to pick one, you can use it year-round.

UTI: What are your future goals?

Scherr: I’m looking forward to going back to school with UTI. I’m really wanting to get certified and where I’m actually good at welding, because right now, if I’m welding something, it looks like I’m just taking a piece of bubblegum and sticking it on.

I’m pushing myself trying to get better every day. Knowledge is power. Why not learn and know as much as you possibly can?

But I don’t know what’s next. I’m someone who just likes to walk. I’m not worried about the destination. I’m worried about the journey.

I enjoy the process of just going, so whatever opportunities come in front of me in life, I try to take and make the most out of it. Some things just aren’t meant to be, and some things are, so that’s my whole outlook. 

For students and people who are wanting to take that next step of learning something and stepping into the curriculum with UTI, there’s that opportunity of the unknown of, I don’t know how this might go, but I want to find out. I’m going to take a chance on myself. I’m going to throw the dice and I’m betting on myself, because I want to see what happens because I believe in myself.

UTI: Finally, we’ve got to ask: What can you bench?

Scherr: The most I've ever benched before in my life was 585 pounds. When I was competing as the world’s strongest man, there were never bench press events, so I never really focused on it.

One day, I was like, let’s see how much I could do. So I was really impressed with not training that I could hit that, but the big things on my list were squat, deadlift and overhead press. I squatted 905 pounds, I deadlifted 1,055, and I cleaned and pressed 465 pounds over my head.