Wrestling legend Ernest "The Cat" Miller has always been quite the athlete, from his time playing football to his run in WCW, and he even had a short stint in WWE. He still remains active, and wrestled Joey Janela in 2022 at the age of 58. Miller is also a life-long lover of karate.Miller talked about how he had to quit his first love of karate, for a time, to join WCW on an episode of Eric Bischoff's "83 Weeks" podcast. He said that he was teaching the martial art when he was first asked to be a professional wrestler. It was former WCW executive Bischoff who convinced him to give it a shot."When I got asked and talked to Eric Bischoff about karate and how much I loved it and what he thought wrestling would do for me if I came to wrestle and got my name bigger in Japan," he explained. "I'd be able to go to Japan. I'd be able to do this with my style of karate... I didn't just leave karate. I left karate because a lot of the respect I had for Eric Bischoff. It was trust. It was hard for me to trust anybody back then... Eric said, 'You know what. This will help you be a [bigger] brand, if you came to WCW.' He said, 'I might even want to open a school with you.'"Miller said that Bischoff's wife and son used to come watch his karate classes. As for Bischoff himself, Miller said that he could always talk to him about anything. Nowadays, Miller is back to teaching what he loves, which he called his "safe space."If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "83 Weeks" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
