Tom Cruise fans shocked after learning an injury is the only reason he became an actor

As one of the biggest names in Hollywood, you'd would think Tom Cruise was always destined to act - but his life almost took a completely different turn.

It's hard to think of him as anything else other than Tom Cruise right?

The Edge of Tomorrow star has certainly made his mark on film with his action-packed filmography and death-defying stunts all done by himself, of course.

However, in an alternate universe, there's a chance that Cruise might have never graced our screens - at least not as an actor perhaps.

Yup, the star isn’t one of the Hollywood actors who always wanted to be on the big screen and it's only by chance that he ever took it up in the first place.

Before he became Tom Cruise, he was Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, and was somewhat of a prodigy when it came wrestling.

As a child, he would often move around, which lead him to join various different schools. He also has dyslexia, with Cruise describing himself as a 'functional illiterate' to PEOPLE in 2003.

He eventually turned to sport, adding: "Baseball, wrestling, soccer, football, hockey, you name it—and really blew off a lot of steam there."

His former wrestling captain at Glen Ridge High School, Tom Jarrett, told The Daily Mail back in 2013 that he also believed that 'wrestling gave him some focus and a way of dealing with his aggression'.

Tom Cruise had different plans for his life back when he was young man (Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images)

"He had times where he was struggling to be accepted. With wrestling, you made your own mark at school, he certainly felt like that. It wasn’t a popularity contest, but we both were looking to make our own mark." Jarrett said.

‘He really wanted to achieve but didn’t know what to achieve in. I think his disabilities like dyslexia held him back, so acting and wrestling were perfect for him."

According to the biography Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor, the Top Gun star even had aspirations of going to college on a wrestling scholarship.

But like many student athletes, an injury to his knee ended up dashing those dreams - however, it seemingly opened up another opportunity.

While recovering from his injury, Cruise decided to audition for a part in the musical, Guys and Dolls, and the rest is history.

And people on social media couldn't believe that this was Cruise's origin story into acting.

It is only by a happy accident we even have Tom Cruise in Hollywood (Han Myung-Gu/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you a busted knee, become Tom Cruise,” joked one Twitter user.

“Wild how life just flips the script like that,” a second added.

“Crazy how one moment can change everything,” another commented.

“In an alternate timeline there's a former WWE and TNA champion Tom Cruise, and a franchise of Mission Impossible films starred by Kurt Angle,” someone else joked.

I mean, Cruise is such a huge name now that he even has a strange clause in all of his contracts.