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(Jupiter, FL) Over the last year or so, there has been an influx of new talent rise to the ranks in World Wrestling Entertainment. Kevin Owens, Braun Strowman, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Neville–just to name a few. Many of them were already familiar names to the hardcore wrestling fans, but their profiles have been greatly raised of late.

St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams can relate.

“Yeah, I feel like the last couple of years, one of the up and coming NXT stars and then get their shot and never want to go back,” said Adams, who is an avid wrestling fan. “That’s kind of the attitude I’m taking here. I’ve built a lot of great relationships in this clubhouse and I wanted to put myself in a position where I could stay around and be a great team player and do whatever I’m asked to do.”

In part, that meant changing his off-season routine. Adams stayed in St. Louis and continued to work with the team’s pilates instructor, Kim Wallis, and strength coach Pete Prinzi.

“Only took a couple of days off because I knew that I wanted to make this lifestyle change,” shared Adams. “It was many days of two-a-days and sometimes three workouts a day and just getting the eating nailed down and it was very, very good.”

Adams has trained every off-season and lost weight in the past, but never quite like this.

“I think Mike pulled a little double-take and Waino looked at me three or four times,” laughed Adams. “But that’s nice. That shows that I worked hard this off-season and makes me feel good. It means a lot from your teammates and coaching staff as well, who’ve said ‘good job’ with the off-season work and everything.”

“The big thing for me was just finding somebody that understood the body and the way the body was supposed to move–and that was Kim. She did a great job putting together a program and she coordinated with Pete, our strength coach, to make sure that we were doing things right.”

Pilates were incorporated into the strength training for Adams and a sports dietician put together a menu for him to follow each day.

“It was a new thing for me at first to catch on, but now it’s like I come off the field and I can tell you roughly what time it was based on how hungry I was,” said Adams. “It’s nice just the way I feel–the way I’m sleeping, waking up with more energy. That whole lifestyle change made me find the fire for the game again that I feel like maybe slipped away the last couple of years. I’ve got that back for this year.”

The 28-year old Adams played in 142 games at first base for the Cardinals in 2014. Injuries limited him to just 60 games the following year and last season he had a little over 300 plate appearances.

Entering this year, the Cardinals have penciled Matt Carpenter to be the everyday first baseman.

“No, I wanted to take this on myself,” stated Adams if that is what triggered this lifestyle change. “I didn’t let anything else influence it. I think it’s going to make me better for everything that people are speculating why I did it…there were distractions at home that I needed to get away from. I feel like built a relationship with Kim last year with the pilates–that helped my body feel way better.

“Knowing she worked with other athletes in the St. Louis area and even outside, she had some remote clients from the NFL, NHL, and baseball also. She was just the person for me to do it. I’m glad that I chose to stay in St. Louis and work with her. I wanted to become a better version of myself–so I feel like that kind of sparked it, to seek somebody out and get out of Central Pennsylvania.”

“Really, the only cheat meal that I had was the night of the Super Bowl,” shared Adams. “After the game was over, I ran out of yogurt and didn’t have any yogurt in my fridge, so I ordered a Papa John’s pizza. Felt really, really guilty after eating a slice and half of that–and my stomach definitely was not used to that kind of stuff.

Now Adams gets his pizza fix with something like a sprouted grain crust with spinach, mushrooms, and shredded chicken breast on top. And WWE has been taking care of his wrestling fix.

“I was happy to see (Orton) win the Rumble and get his chance at headlining WrestleMania,” said Adams. “I feel like the old Viper is getting ready to come back out. If that happens–then the whole roster better watch out.”

“Yes and no,” he answered if disappointed by Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho’s friendship coming to an end. “KO and Jericho, they’re good together. They work well together and they’re just funny. Every week you’re tuning and know that you’re going to get some laughs out of them. We’ll see that how goes, but I feel like that’s going to make for some good matches down the road for sure.”

The Undertaker vs. Strowman would be a WrestleMania main even if Adams was in charge of creative–although, he also leans towards including Orton somewhere.

“Orton’s my guy,” he said. “I always want to see him on top for sure.”

So by transforming himself from more of a Strowman-esque to Orton-esque physique, should Big City now be changed to Big Skinny?

“Carp asked me today in the cage, when we were doing our early work, if Big City was still okay or if we needed to change it up,” chuckled Adams. “I don’t know if Berkman and Freese would be too happy if we change up the nickname, but we’ll see what happens this spring and where the nickname goes.”

“Like we said earlier, lifestyle change,” he smiled. “It helped me get to where I feel like I need to be. I just feel like a better athlete because of it, for sure.”

photo credit: STLBaseballWeekly.com

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