PAYNE DIVIDENDS: New coach's past life as pro wrestler helps build bond with HHH players

It was a move B.J. Payne had done countless times.

But this one was different. This one didn't end the way all the others did.

"I thought, 'This is it.' "

As Payne came off the ropes in what was supposed to be just another match, the World Wrestling Entertainment performer took an expected elbow from Ric Flair's son, David.

But when the rising star hit the mat, the sensation he would normally feel coursing through his body suddenly wasn't there.

"I couldn't move," he said. "I couldn't move for eight or nine seconds. I could feel fire shooting through my body."

The wrestler with such promise now faced uncharted waters, as he wondered whether the dreams he had carried with him for so long were ending as quickly as they began.

Dreams that were jumpstarted years before in Ohio, where Payne -- now the head football coach at Hilton Head Island High School -- began to turn a childhood fantasy into a reality.

MAKESHIFT RINGS

Before he donned his trademark shaved head and goatee, Payne grew up like most boys his age in Fayetteville, N.C.

The 4-year-old was beginning to tap into the world of professional wrestling. He liked what he saw.

"It was something that drew me in," he said. "I had an immediate interest in it. I loved the entertainment portion of it."

Whether it was in his home in Fayetteville or in Massillon, Ohio, where his family relocated a year later, Payne's bedroom walls were littered with the pictures of guys like Flair, Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A.

He wanted to be just like those men he read about in magazines. He wanted to be like the Rock and Roll Express, who he would dress up as while running around his parents' house.

As he constructed makeshift rings in his basement, Payne would adorn something similar to the duo's signature tights -- complete with bandanas and handkerchiefs tied around his arms and legs.

"Jumping off the bed, or jumping off of anything like the top rope," Payne says now. "That was me."

Yet it was another sport that ran through the bloodlines of the Payne family. B.J's father, Brooks, played football for Frank Howard at Clemson before eventually moving the family to Massillon -- home of one of the country's high school football powers -- in order to coach at Massillon Washington.

So Payne traveled that route while biding his time until wrestling once again came calling. He was a defensive tackle at Mount Union, where he helped deliver three NCAA Division III national championships to the Purple Raiders.

But wrestling was always on his mind. His coaches, namely head coach Larry Kehres and defensive coordinator Don Montgomery, understood that. The pair joked about ending Monday film sessions by 9 p.m. so Payne could be home in time for "Monday Night Raw."

His passion extended to the airwaves when Payne hosted a talk show on Mount Union's student-run radio station titled, "House of Payne." The show helped him meet one of his closest friends and confidants in the process in Accie Conner -- better known by his stage name, D'Lo Brown.

"He was interviewing us backstage before a show," Conner recalled. "For some reason in the interview, we just hit it off and started talking."

It continued on the football field, where Payne took every opportunity to mention WWE in front of the television cameras, all while fitting his head with the organization's bandana before sliding on his helmet.

"It was something I always had a passion for," he said.

That was never more apparent than after Payne's final collegiate game at the end of the 1998 season. Two days after the Purple Raiders put the finishing touches on a 44-24 win over Rowan in the national title game, Payne was in the ring preparing for his future.

"When I decided that it was something that I wanted to pursue, my family was as supportive as anybody could be," Payne said. "They just said, 'Make sure you get your degree, as long as you have something to fall back on.' "

That degree would someday come in handy. But for now, Payne was more interested in his goal of becoming a professional wrestler.

A goal he would live sooner than he expected.

PAYING HIS DUES

Consider it the minor leagues of wrestling.

Payne was paying his dues just like all the others before him. He was working hard to hit as many circuits as he could -- whether it be in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky or West Virginia.

Anything he could do to get noticed.

He'd collect his checks, generally between $150 and $200, and move along to the next stop. Too often along the way he would see equally eager colleagues attempt dangerous stunts for nothing more than gas money.

They all had the same goal of reaching the upper echelon of professional wrestling. It didn't matter whether the shows were in front of 1,000 people or 10.

"For me, it wasn't about the money," he said. "This is what I wanted to do, it's what I loved."

People were clearly watching.

Payne was in Louisville, Ky., when he got the phone call one day to meet Jim Ross -- WWE's executive vice president of talent relations at the time -- along with Dan Marsh and Jim Cornette, who was then in charge of talent development.

They were offering Payne a professional contract, which would be shipped to him the following day.

"That was pretty incredible," he said. "I guess it would be like getting drafted in the NFL on draft day."

Sure enough, the contract showed up at his home less than 24 hours later. One of the first calls he made was to Conner, who reminded Payne that this passion of his would no longer be fun. It was now a business.

Not that it would have influenced his decision.

"Everything at that point, that I had wanted since I was 5 years old, was sitting right in front of me," he said.

LIVING THE DREAM

Between playing shows in front of thousands of fans at places such as Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, or Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Payne would spend every waking moment with his newfound group of rock-star status friends. The cadre of wrestlers was learning the ways of the business with Ohio Valley Wrestling.

Wrestlers such as Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar and John Cena. The brotherhood, as Payne called it.

"It was a true fraternity," Payne said.

Orton would eventually become one of his closest friends. The then-20-year-old gravitated toward Payne, who treated him differently from so many others. Unlike his new colleague, Orton reached the WWE through a rich wrestling bloodline.

"Just because my dad wrestled, I basically had a contract," Orton said. "I didn't have a lot of friends down there, is what I'm saying. But B.J. and I were buddies. He always had my back.

"It didn't matter to him. He had busted his (tail) to get to where he was, and I was really just handed it. I respected that about him."

Some of them showed sides to Payne few others saw. Guys like the hulking Paul Wight -- also known as The Big Show -- who lived with Payne for more than a year after undergoing surgery.

"It was great to see just the human aspect of somebody who is 7-foot, 440 pounds coming off knee surgery trying to walk up steps every night," Payne recalled.

Payne was taking on some of the best early in his career, too. He feuded with the legendary Rip Rogers in a tag team when he first broke into the business while also working an angle against both Cena and Lesnar for over half a year.

"I thought B.J. had the potential to follow the guys like Cena, Orton and (Dave) Batista," Conner said. "B.J. is one (heck) of a talker and in wrestling, that's 75 percent of it."

Payne was rising fast. But it would soon come crashing down.

THE INJURY

Jon Heidenreich is a name Payne will likely not forget anytime soon.

"I'm not a big fan, for obvious reasons," he joked.

It was 2001 in Louisville, and the two were taking part in a routine training session.

Yet it was anything but routine when Heidenreich brought down Payne for a slam, and the budding wrestler landed awkwardly on his head -- forever altering his future.

"Right then I knew something wasn't right," he said. "Something just wasn't right."

But Payne's football mentality forced him to work through the issue. It was the difference between being hurt or being injured, he says.

"Back then, I didn't know how bad he was hurt," Orton recalled. "A lot of us didn't talk about that. You would nurse the injuries and do the best you could to get by."

So he continued humming along, taking part in his usual matches. The only problem, though, was that the injury never left.

"I was bull-headed," he said.

Payne learned that first-hand when he got the brief scare from Flair, as he laid motionless on the mat fearing the worst. He eventually did get up -- the match was halted -- but was greeted backstage by Ross and Cornette, who immediately ordered Payne to meet with a local neck specialist.

The news he got from the doctor wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"He walked in, looked at me and said, 'I hope you've got a college education. ... Your wrestling career is done.' "

Payne didn't want to believe it. He couldn't believe it.

So he got a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth.

Each one shared the same sentiment -- the wrestler had several severe bulging discs and was also dealing with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal column.

"It was one neck injury that followed up with another followed up by another," Conner recalled. "It was one those things. He just broke down."

But the fourth doctor deemed it possible to make a comeback with intense rehab, so Payne embraced the only available avenue to stay in the business.

Payne endured four months of weekly cortisone injections in his neck before making his way back into the ring. He had conquered his demon, albeit temporarily.

Several months elapsed before the issues began to crop back up. Whenever Payne would lift weights, he would feel the nerves pinching at him. When he sat down to eat, he would suddenly notice his hand had fallen asleep as it laid idle on the table.

He would wake up in the middle of the night and his body would be numb from the waist up.

"Every day, it was an issue," he said. "It was becoming serious."

So Payne went back to his doctors, who informed him that he would need at least another year off to repair the damage done by the repeated pounding his body had taken.

And it wasn't just his neck. Payne suffered a broken kneecap at one point and had to have 16 staples put in his head in order to sew up the damage done by a chair during a match.

"You get deflated," Conner said. "You almost can see things before they can see things. ... You never want to say it. You want to keep their spirits up.

"You never want to say, 'Bro, it might not be in the deck.' Because you never want to put the light out on somebody's dream."

But Payne continued his second rehab for a short period of time before getting the phone call no wrestler wants to get.

WWE executive John Laurinaitis was on the other end of the line. The organization was taking a 90-day outclause on his newly signed contract.

"When the office calls, it's one of two reasons," Payne said. "It's either really good or it's really bad."

But Payne still found work. After finishing up his 90-day period with WWE, he moved on to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

"I tried to do everything I could to stay with it," he said.

Yet it never came together. Payne spent only a month or so with his new company before finally coming to grips with the fact that his wrestling career was finished.

It was time to start over.

A NEW BEGINNING

Payne has never been one to stand around idly.

So when his wrestling career ended, Payne didn't sit around and sulk.

"I knew one day, no matter if I would have had a 20-year career in wrestling, one day you've got to do something else," he said.

So he decided to place two phone calls -- one to his former high school coach, Jack Rose, and the other to Rich Sheppas, then the coach at Massillon.

Payne knew football was the next phase in his life. And it didn't take long for that phase to come to fruition.

"Jack said, 'I've been waiting for this phone call for eight years. I want you to coach for me,' " Payne recalled.

Just like that, Payne was a defensive line coach at Canton GlenOak in Ohio. Three years later, he got his first head coaching gig at Lexington, where he guided the Minutemen from a 2-8 record to a 10-0 mark in just a three-year span.

"That first year we took our lumps, ... but the experience those kids got was amazing," he said. " ... The year that we went 10-0, that senior class went 0-18 as seventh- and eighth-graders."

He parlayed the success at Lexington into his current job at Hilton Head High, where he took over for Tim Singleton, who was fired last November after a nine-year run with the Seahawks.

And it was his wrestling tenure that drew the attention of athletics director Mark Karen. The Seahawks' AD saw it on Payne's resume and made sure to inquire about it during one of his first interviews.

"I think it's actually something that can play well in a high school setting," Karen said. "It's one of those relationship factors. The kids can relate to what he did and he can use that."

That is exactly what has transpired. Payne has already become one of the Seahawks' figureheads, thanks in part to his wrestling experience.

There is no shortage of students approaching him in the hallways asking for autographs of Payne's former colleagues or kids bringing up the latest wrestling plot lines in class.

"He uses it to his advantage, and he should," Karen said. "When you've got a tool like that, why not? Of course, he took some hits from the community, taking jabs at him, but it was a profession. It's what he did and how he earned a living."

Payne shares his sentiment. Rarely does he let other people's opinions shake him. That comes with the job of being in a high-profile sport.

"People can say whatever they want to about wrestling," he said. "Everybody's got their own opinions."

His players certainly enjoy it, that's for sure.

"When they were first hiring him, we kind of joked around about it," quarterback Michael Julian said. "I give him crap sometimes. We all go on YouTube and watch his videos and whatnot."

It hasn't taken long for Julian to connect with his new coach, as Payne recently used his relationship with Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez to help land the signal-caller his first offer with the Wildcats.

"It just lets me trust him. It's special," Julian said. "The fact that he was able to come in and do that, being here such a short (time), it's helped out a lot. He's been great."

Payne hopes to impact more kids at Hilton Head High, in part, with the help of his pro wrestling background.

"I went after my dream," he said. "It might not be the normal thing that people see, but with that, I met some of my best friends. I got to travel, I got to see everything.

"I would not change those years for anything."

This story was originally published June 3, 2012 at 1:14 AM with the headline "PAYNE DIVIDENDS: New coach's past life as pro wrestler helps build bond with HHH players."