Tom Cruise Wrestled Way to the Top

13 December 2008

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Before Tom Cruise became one of Hollywood's top-earning actors he was fighting for fame as a teenager - in violent wrestling matches.In a photo obtained by U.S. magazine People, the Top Gun star can be seen posing after an intense match at a freestyle wrestling tournament at New Jersey's Glen Ridge High School, where he graduated in 1980.He remembers, "I was 16 years old. The guy in the first round chipped my tooth. My lip was bleeding. But I was like, 'I'm going to win.'" Meanwhile an Iraq war veteran arrested for waving an unloaded gun on a California freeway last month (Nov08) has been ordered to stay away from Tom Cruise after allegedly escaping a mental health facility to visit the actor.Edward Kyle Van Tassel hit headlines when he was detained for waving the pistol and an American flag on a Santa Barbara freeway on 3 November (08).Van Tassel was ordered to enter a residential mental health facility in West Los Angeles after the incident - which took place one day before the U.S. Presidential election and resulted in a lengthy police standoff.According to the man's attorney, a detective employed by Tom Cruise said that Van Tassel came to the star's Beverly Hills home on three occasions to give the actor a book by martial arts legend Bruce Lee and a letter asking him to support war veterans.At a hearing held on Thursday (11Dec08) to determine whether or not his bail should be revoked, Van Tassel was forbidden from having any contact Cruise and his family.Court is scheduled to reconvene on Monday (15Dec08).

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Tom Cruise Wrestled Way to the Top

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