Hampshire primary school teacher turned professional wrestler captivates pupils with skills
ITV News Meridian's Andrew Pate has been speaking to the man behind Karl Atlas, the wrestling teacher.
A teacher-turned professional wrestler, is bringing the heat to his Year 3 classrooms, where he teaches the four Rs - reading, writing, arithmetic and wrestling
Outside of the ring, Carl Restall, from Hampshire, teaches his pupils at Denmead Primary School. However, inside the ring, he turns into Karl Atlas, a wrestler who rides the ropes and takes down his opponents.
He has now combined his two loves for a force of good, raising money for charity, running a wrestling event, where the profits go towards new classroom equipment.
Mr Restall told ITV News Meridian why wrestling is a lot like teaching.
Mr Restall believes that a lot of the skills he uses to teach his 7 and 8-year-old pupils also help him to captivate a wrestling audience.
"I think there is a lot of cross over there. Being adaptive and being able to change on the fly, you never know how an audience is going to react, same as you never know how a class is going to react," he said
"Once upon a time you would call it attention-seeking. I call it connection seeking. I think good teachers seek a connection with their class and good wrestlers seek a connection with their audience.
"Teachers need to have a presence; they need to fill a room.
"They need to command a room the same as wrestlers, to take the audience on that emotional journey. Whereas teachers take their kids on a learning journey."
Mr Restall's pupils told ITV News Meridian what they think about his wrestling
The Year 3 pupils of the class love Mr Restall's unique smackdown approach and call him 'really kind' who sometimes 'can act really funny and he's a really good teacher.'
So whether he is Carl Restall or Karl Atlas, his pupils give him top marks.
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