Retirement match? Goodbye match? Yeah, those are two different things.
“I’m just in love with life,” Vampiro said in an interview with Brass Ring Media. “I would like to say for next week’s match and everybody’s really focused on that it’s a retirement match. I’ve kind of retired, but this is more like a goodbye. Come and see me to say goodbye. Come and see me to let me say thank you to you. Everybody says to me, ‘thank you for all you’ve done to the business.’ I kind of don’t really need to hear that. I’d really like to say thank you all for continuing to support this business.”
See? Big difference.
The event that Vampiro is talking about is JCW Strangle-Mania in Las Vegas over WrestleMania weekend as part of GCW’s The Collective. Vampiro will take on PCO and Big Vito in a Triple Threat Match.
The price of longevity
Vampiro had a long in-ring career and has paid the price for that longevity.
“All the injuries I have up top, my nerves, my neck and my back are so bad,” Vampiro said. “So many times with the head concussions. You can’t really tell, but I don’t have a connection between my brain and my hands and my my legs. The nerves have been so damaged, so I’m working on getting that coordination back. I’m almost there.”
Should Vampiro being having this wrestling match at JCW? That was an important question to ask and he answered openly and honestly.
“I shouldn’t be doing this,” Vampiro said. “But, I’m in with my friends, meaning the whole ICP community, the whole JCW community. I’m not even paying attention that it’s WrestleMania weekend. And I’m not being rude or arrogant. I’m just part of the the psychopathic family. I’m part of the JCW history. So to me, this is just a great thing to do. Should I be doing this? Absolutely not. Can I? I can’t even do a quarter of what I used to be able to do, but it’s the ritual of dressing up and putting the paint on and going in the ring in that moment.”
Vampiro is realistic about pro wrestling. The authenticity and understanding of where he is and what he means to the business is refreshing. He talked about the pros and cons of his career, but said he doesn’t regret any of it and wouldn’t change any of it.
“I wouldn’t trade my life for anything, because I’ve been able to do what I want under my certain conditions,” Vampiro said. “So, I’ve been kind of independent and rebellious my whole life. There are certain things in my career as a pro wrestler that I absolutely am blessed for and that I love and I will never, ever trade for anything else. And there are certain moments that I question deeply. The political part of things, behind the scenes, the cliques, that kind of shit. I don’t have anything good to say about it. So my love hate and relationship with pro wrestling, it’s kind of 50/50. I could take it or leave it. I don’t sit here and mull it over. I fucking loved what I did. I love what I do. I would do it again the exact same way.”
Imagine being in a prison
Vampiro had a lot to say about the state of the wrestling business today and he honed in on why working as a pro wrestler is such a hard job. It’s not the bumps or bruises. It’s the politics. It’s the game.
“Imagine being in prison and you have the whole prison against you,” Vampiro said. “Doesn’t matter what your color is or what your spiritual philosophy is, you’re against everybody and everybody purposely goes against you … And every time you would go to work, you would just have to deal with that vibe. It’s so infantile. It’s so disgustingly stooge oriented.”
As for the Vampiro character that is saying goodbye on Friday? It’s something that was developed deep within the man when he was only a child.
“The gimmick basically came from an Anne Rice book or book of Dracula,” Vampiro said. “When I was younger, family was really poor, didn’t have a lot of money, couldn’t go to the movies or anything, so I had to hang out in the library because it was free. So, I read monster horror books and the story of the vampire. I never, ever looked at it like a horror story. I looked at it as a love story. Here’s a guy who dresses different, has an accent, his diet is different. He comes from another place and just because of that, he’s different. People call him a monster. So, that really resonated with me because lower income family, I dress different. I came from a different part of town, spoke different, and I was the outcast in school. I would get bullied because of my size. They would call me a monster … That really was the start of being Vampiro when I was six or seven and I always knew, because of music and street culture, that I was going to be involved in the arts.”
The rest was history. Vampiro says goodbye and more importantly to him, fans can say goodbye to him at JCW Strangle-Mania on Friday as part of The Collective with GCW.
What WrestleMania weekend events are you looking forward to most? Let us know in the comments!
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