“My family is really supportive,” Nowinski says. “At first they thought I was crazy, but as long as I wasn’t asking for money.”

So rather than build on his own experiences, Nowinski borrows his character’s set of personal traits from another portion of the Harvard community—finals club members.

“The people in the locker room are a lot nicer than the average person you meet at Harvard,” Nowinski says. “My character is based a lot on the finals club guys who thought they ran the place, the people who were full of themselves [and] who never left their mansion or the yard, with no perspective.”

And with his unique insights into the world at Harvard, Nowinski also has the luxury of writing much of his own material.

“I do get to write most of my stuff since the inspiration for my character comes from my experiences at Harvard and no one else has those. No one can see the world through my eyes.”

The fans’ general distaste for him after Tough Enough has only further cemented his position as a “heel.”

“I enjoy being hated by people, especially when they hate me for the wrong reasons,” Nowinski says. “Like Tough Enough—if they hate me for that, go ahead.”

With the sentiment of the fans squarely in opposition to his character, Chris Harvard often finds himself on the losing end, much to the crowd’s satisfaction.

“I don’t mind losing at all, especially [considering] the kind of character I play, I should be losing most of the time,” Nowinski says. “They like to see me lose. I like to entertain in this way. I did a little theater here and there and I’ve done sports. What I like about this is that every night is live, in front of an audience. A lot of it’s scripted but a lot of it’s [improvised].”

And as any who know him can attest, performing is certainly something that Nowinski has always taken pleasure in.

“He’s definitely enjoying this,” Murphy says. “He really enjoys performing.”

But the hours wrestlers keep are certainly not easy and a packed schedule dominates much of Nowinski’s week. Though three shows are aired each week on national television, the list of performances not aired is equally long.

Nowinski’s week starts on a Friday night with a flight out of Logan Airport to the next city on the scheduled tour. After the house show, he is off to the weight room or a tanning salon—a cycle which will repeat itself every day until Tuesday, with a flight home to Boston.

It’s a cycle, but it does have its ups and downs—like being hit over the head with a steel chair.

Luckily for Nowinski, he has never been on the receiving end, but he has on occasion had the opportunity to flatten other wrestlers’ foreheads with a sudden blow to the head.