Thirty-four-year-old professional wrestler Mike Parrow has come out as gay in a new interview.

Parrow, who is based in Orlando, Florida, told his story to Gay Star News.

The 6'4” 300 pound wrestler came out to friends, family and fellow wrestlers about four years ago.

Parrow told the outlet that he attempted to suppress his sexuality.

“I've always known I'm gay. That was never a question in my mind,” Parrow said. “But growing up, I went to Catholic school my whole life. My mom's a Sunday school teacher. I came from a small town in upstate New York. It didn't have a flourishing gay community.”

“I tried to hide it. I played football and did manly stuff. It wasn't because I was gay. Those were the things I gravitated to – competitive stuff.”

Parrow said it was “easy” at first to be in a relationship with a woman. “But the older I got, the harder it got for me to have any kind of emotional relationship with a woman.”

In his twenties, Parrow tried dating men. “It was the worst experience of my life. Gay men can be the meanest, cruelest people you've ever met in your life. I was 'fat,' I was 'ugly,' I'm a 'closet case,' and at the time I was just looking to understand what's going on,” he said, adding that the experience pushed him “further back in the closet.”

The closet, Parrow said, turned him into a lonely, depressed drunk, and he even contemplated suicide.

“I felt like nobody knew who I really was. So I became very lonely. Very distant from my friends. I was very angry. I was very rude and mean, and a lot of things would just set me off,” he said.

Parrow said that he tried conversion therapy, which he called “an absolute joke.”

His life turned around after he met his future fiance Morgan and slowly started to come out to those closest to him.

Parrow, who wears the number 49, said that he was affected by last year's mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Forty-nine people died and dozens were injured in the massacre.

“That's why I wear the 49. To honor them and be myself. To remind me that you do need to tell people. They do need to understand that not everybody's the same, that everybody has a journey: You need to keep going forward,” he said.