Former WWE Superstar Chris Masters (Chris Mordetsky) made headlines today when he became the unlikely center of an extraordinary tale of heroism after rescuing his own mother from her burning apartment building. Masters, best known as the chiseled strongman who neutralized his opponents with the unbreakable Master Lock full nelson, had been training in the gym when he received a call that something strange was going on at his mother’s Los Angeles apartment.

When Masters arrived to investigate, he found his mother Diane, 57, was being apparently held hostage by her neighbor in the apartment she shares with Masters’ uncle, Leo Taliaferro. The neighbor reportedly threatened to set the apartment ablaze if Masters or anyone else made a move to break down the door. Once police arrived, according to Masters, a fire became visible inside the residence and that’s when the story became truly astonishing.

Sprung into action by the threat, Masters reportedly began to direct the officers and actively aided them in freeing his mother from the house. “I was like, ‘break those windows and get my mom out of there!’ ” Masters said. An initial attempt to snake a hose in through a broken window proved fruitless because it was blocked by a tree, so Masters used his strength to snap a 10-foot tree down to the ground and clear the path to her bedroom windows.

“I bear-hugged the whole tree down to the ground, which scratched my forearms up,” Masters said of his feat of strength. “Basically, I took the tree and tackled it down to where it was parallel to the ground. Then [after the police had smashed most of the windows] I broke the last piece of glass with my forearm, and then out of nowhere, my mom pops up. I’ve never loved my mom any more than that moment in my life.”

Masters called the relief of her sudden rescue “indescribable.” The whole ordeal left “The Masterpiece” slightly shaken, but more grateful than anything else.

“It was the craziest day of my life,” Masters said. “I was raised just by her, so I don’t know if I ever would have recovered. I was hell-bent on [getting her out].”

And in case the WWE Universe was wondering where Masters got his toughness from, there’s a solid chance he got it from his mother. “When I brought her out of the house, the first thing she was worried about was my baby pictures in the old photo album!” Masters laughed. “She’s a tough woman.”

Follow Chris Masters on Twitter  @ChrisMasters310