Enes Kanter was a bored college freshman at Kentucky when he discovered professional wrestling. He was ineligible to play basketball there and was looking for a new hobby while biding time in his dorm. Flipping around on his television one day, he found The Undertaker and the WWE. He had never seen this before in Turkey, where he lived the first 17 years of his life, and clung to it immediately.



The movements, the character, the legend-building, it all appealed to him. Pro wrestling had a new mark.



Kanter debuted his public affection for it at Kentucky’s midnight madness in 2010. He found a black Undertaker hat on eBay, got the school to wear out the smoke machine, and came out as his favorite wrestler. The fans roared. Kanter found his audience.



“That world is like my world — talking trash, get in people’s head, it’s the show, people, fans cheering, applause,” he said. “It’s my world. I love this...