From day one, Raven knew he wanted a life of action, adventure and travel. Becoming a sports-entertainment superstar has given him that and more, but his second choice might have topped even that.

"My two childhood dreams were becoming a professional wrestler and joining the CIA, because I thought that would be the most action-packed adventure job you could find," Raven says. "All the really good jobs, like being a pirate or an Indiana Jone-type can't be done anymore." Working toward that goal, Raven attended the University of Delaware and pursued a degree in criminal justice. His wrestling dream was still very much alive and well, but this was a time when more normally proportioned men such as Raven were few and far between in the ring, so his pursuit of adventure and danger led him toward his other dream job- a career in the CIA or FBI.

While in college, Raven also enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and went through basic training. He also served in the reserves immediately after college.

During his junior year in college, however, Raven attended a Florida Championship Wrestling show and saw Ricky Santana-currently a road agent with the Federation-and decided that he was more cut out for a life in the ring than a career as a Fox Mulder type government agent. "(Santana) was this pretty-boy Cuban heel," Raven remembers. "I thought, 'Man, I'm better looking than he is and I'm better built than he is. If he can do it, I can do it.' That kind of swayed me to try to become a professional wrestler. I decided to finish up and get my degree, and then immediately started pursuing professional wrestling." Years later, Raven says he definitely made the right call. While the life of a CIA agent may very well be dangerous, he says it's not like what you see in the movies or on TV. For one thing, Raven says, the idea of being bogged down in paperwork or stuck behind a desk holds no charm for him.

And, although he still holds that degree in criminal justice, Raven says he won't be revisiting his special-agent dreams once he retires from the ring-which won't be happening for years, he adds. "I'd be too old. You can't go back," he says. "I don't have any regrets. I'm glad I made the choices I did. Being in the CIA or FBI would have been my second choice, anyway. This was my first choice, and it's first by a lot."