Former WWE Champion Uses Bad Decisions He Made Growing Up to Inspire Teens

An auditorium of middle school students is motivated to change the way they define success when Marc Mero, America's No. 1-requested school presenter and former WWE Wrestling champion, inspires them to make smarter, healthier decisions for a happier life. Be warned: This is no run-of-the-mill lecture, this is a heartfelt imploring from a man filled with wisdom from experience who cares about the kids he addresses. Get your tissues ready.

After tough teenage years using drugs and alcohol, Marc Mero learned to appreciate those who truly care, and now spends his time spreading the word to schools across the country. 

In this video, Mero, a former WWE Wrestling Champion, and the most requested school presenter in America, brings an auditorium of middle school students to tears, while encouraging them to care for themselves and each other more.

"My mom empowered me to become special in sports. See the greatest gift my mother ever gave me? She believed in me," Mero says early on.

"You show me your friends, I will show you your future," he tells the rapt audience. Through struggles with drugs—he says he should have died from overdoses on three separate occasions—Mero shares his own personal experiences of being a rebellious young man. Through everything, he says his mom believed in him.

In his dramatic telling of his own life, particularly about the friends he hang out with, Mero touches a chord. Teens aren't prone to listen to someone because they say "I told you so." Mero, though, shows them rather than tells them, baring his soul about losing his mother too soon.