CJ Atkinson Forum Chat AMA and GIVEAWAY Wed to Friday (3/30 to 4/2)!

Introducing long time yoyo professional CJ Atkinson for our next Forum Chat AMA and GIVEAWAY this Wed to Friday (3/30 to 4/2)!

We are excited to host an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with CJ Atkinson! @CJ_trnbkl

CJ is a long time yoyo professional yoyo player (and personal friend) turned wrestler who took his two passions and has now combined them into an epic yoyo and company!

Presenting Turnbuckle and their first release the Tiger Driver!

So start asking questions and let’s make this a fun thread with such an interesting yoyo professional! If you google you will notice CJ has some fun tutorials out there too and he has also helped work behind the scenes with Recess! Not to mention he has a LONG yoyo competition career and also has some great insight to competing for a long time now!

Post your question in THIS THREAD any time Before Friday (4/1), CJ will be answering them throughout the next two days.

We will be GIVING AWAY PRIZES!

Every question counts as one entry - up to three entries max per question asked. Entries stop counting on Saturday 4/2 at 11:59pm PST.

We will give away one grand prize winner $100 Gift Certificate to YoYoExpert!
Two runner ups will each get $50 Gift Certificates
and CJ’s favorite question will win a Tiger Driver!

Winners announced on Monday 4/4/22.

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A little bit about the Tiger Driver yoyo too coming soon to YoYoExpert!

The first of the Four Pillars, this is Tiger Driver.

The Four Pillars of Heaven are the legendary wrestlers from All Japan Pro Wrestling. Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Toue, and Toshiaki Kawada. The matches they had are widely regarded as some of the absolute best in the history of Pro Wrestling. Their influence over our craft is evident even to this day. Timeless.

Tiger Driver was a finishing move that, when it hit, you knew that was it, game over, count the 3. That kind of consistency is the inspiration behind this yoyo. Consistent stability, string rejections, direction changes, regerations. Tiger Driver is built to handle whatever you could possibly throw at it and still come out on top.

64.8 grams
54.7mm Diameter
46mm Width

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What fight are you most looking forward to this weekend for Wrestlemania? If you’re not a WWE fan, who is a wrestler you’ve always dreamed of meeting in person?

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@CJ_trnbkl how many times have you hurt yourself (or others/siblings) play wrestling when growing up :sweat_smile:

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Have you found that your yoyo skills improve your performance in the ring?

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-What got you into yoyos in the first place?

-Have you noticed any overlap between yoyo play/manufacturing and wrestling?

-Hope did you first meet Andre? And what were your thoughts when he mentioned YYE was his company?

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How much design input do you have when helping out other companies? I believe you’ve contributed a lot to some of Recess’ designs as well as the Dunk series. Have your own personal yoyo preferences snuck their way into those designs, or is Turn Buckle where you’re really striving to make the yoyo designs you want to play?

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Hi CJ. Thanks for doing this! What’s your favorite yo-yo of all time?

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What is your favorite trick?

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What is your favorite wrestling move to perform?

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So! Tbh, none of the specific wrestlemania card has me super excited this year. Brock and Roman should be pretty okay and I’m sure hoping for Bianca Belair to steal the show. They did her dirty when Becky lynch returned and I’m still annoyed about it hahaha.
I’m in the middle of my trek to Dallas for mania weekend stuff at this very moment, and as far as wrestling as whole goes, I think I am most excited for GCW: the wrld on lucha

As far wrestlers I’d love to meet, Malakai Black, Bryan Danielson and Excalibur are three people that immediately come to mind.

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The worst injury I’ve had was actually before I had even debuted as a pro wrestler, I was still in training. Stage three separation in my left should put me out for close to three months. Not being able to wrestle was honestly the worst part of it. I think I worked at Starbucks at the time too so pouring milk for lattes wasn’t fun :joy:
Beyond that, I’ve been fortunate enough to not have anything super devastating happen to either me or any opponents. Mostly it’s a lot of black eyes because I’m dumb and never remember to protect my face hahaha.

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whats your favorite brand of hair dye

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Not the physical yoyoing specifically, but the experiences I’ve had from being on stage at yoyo contests I think definitely has helped my overall ring presence and comfortability in front of an audience

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Got any wrestling inspired tricks? Or even any wrestling moves inspired from yoyoing?

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  • does wrestling ever inspire new yo-yo tricks or elements?
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I’m assuming it’s a move in wrestling but where does the name turnbuckle come from?

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What’s your favorite yoyo colorway ever?

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It’s actually not a move! Turnbuckles are the devices used to secure the ropes to the ring. Also just a side note, “rope” is a bit of a misnomer, because very rarely are ropes actually made of ropes, but instead steel cable covered in essentially a garden hose.

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Lunar Tides!
I also use Ion products as far as lightening and toning goes.

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