So I do enjoy fighting/action games, but I’ve never been super selective about specific fighting styles when it comes to tht. I don’t know that I’d even call pro wrestling a fighting style per say, I think of it more as combat theater. That’s not to say there aren’t a lot of wrestlers with legit fight backgrounds, because there definitely are,but I leave the intermingling of that nature to the guys who are great at it.
I actually do come out to the ring with a yoyo, but as far as using a yo-yo as an actual weapon it just never really makes sense in any kind of practical sense, because to hit someone with a yo-yo with a believable amount of force will almost certainly cause the yo-yo to stop spinning and therefore not come back to the hand. And at that point, it sorta loses what makes it an yo-yo. Yo-yo is literally Tagalog for come-come or return-return. If it’s not coming back to you, it defeats the purpose imo.
I LOVE LUCHA. A good amount of my actual training was in traditional lucha libre, a style known as “Llave” (pronounced yah-vey). I have a special love of lucha because it’s so much of what I learned when I started.
Lucha underground was dope, without question. The perfect blend of cinematics and pro wrestling. Dario Cueto was a perfect GM character and really tied the whole series together.
Best part of my yo-yo career tbh is probably between launching Turnbuckle and being fortunate enough to teach new kids to yo-yo. The kids are the future of our little community and it’s so integral to give new people license to enjoy and explore something new. I also won the fixed axle division at Cal States 2014, that was pretty cool, even if there isn’t any footage of it hahaha.
As far as wrestling goes, I am the only person to ever win Chikara’s Rey de Voladores tournament twice. Chikara is gone now but I’ll always cherish that, nobody can take that away from me.
As far as stepping away from actual yo-yo competition, it was a combination of a number of things, first of kids these days are just incredible and on a competitive level I just can’t keep up, and that’s cool. It’s incredible to see how good and how quickly people progress in yo-yo nowadays. Being on the back end of things is just more rewarding for me now. Helping people learn, and making yo-yos people love means more to me than winning a contest ever could.
The combination of the two just…made sense I guess. I’m the type of person who has little interest in doing anything if it’s not something I love. It just felt like, combining my two loves would be a fun adventure.
I don’t think there was a specific event that lead to me deciding to create Turnbuckle, it was just more of everything falling into placeb at the right time. Once I came up with the name my head just starting flooding with all these ideas and things. Everything from the packaging, the four pillars series, colorways. There was and is SO much inspiration to draw from.
Favorite company? I loved SPYY back in the day and Turning Point probably makes the best yo-yos in the world right now. I’d say Recess and Turnbuckle but I think I’m probably a bit biased on that front .
Favorite colorway is tough, that Saturday Market jawn that one drop does is super dope. I love a good fade, the Misawa colorway for Tiger Driver is suuuuuch a pretty color spinning. Beyond that, a nice blasted clear anodize is perfect. Nothing crazy, just a super clean look.
Pizza, hm. Mushrooms, roasted Garlic, and Ricotta.
I’m sure I watched this one live at the time since it was during the go home show for Hogan vs. Sting and I was watching all the wrestling then. Good match still too.
Nope, definitely a classic moment in Indy wrestling. The snake guy doing the hypnotism was one of my trainers. I buried him alive and took his face in chikara canon. Fun stuff.
Also…
The Rock and Roll Express.
Possibly Randy Savage.
I think my mom was a little hesitant at first when I told her I wanted to start training to become a professional wrestler, but she’s become one of my biggest supporters over the years and I’m super thankful for that. Several ex’s just thought I was crazy and wasting my time but good riddance hahaha.
Everyone in my life right now is incredibly supportive of everything I’m doing and I couldn’t ask for much more.
I love Vans old skools, those are my typical kick around shoes. I was really into SB dunks for awhile, and I like the adidas ultra boost and NMDs for the gym.
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