Speaker 1: You know who's gonna be pissed they didn't think of
Speaker 1: that is Logan Paul. He's gonna steal that gimmicks. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, he's stealing that one hundred yeah, and then
Speaker 1: you're gonna go no.
Speaker 2: You gotta get your hands on him in real life.
Speaker 2: That's the only way you can stop him.
Speaker 3: Man, only way.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, are you Ready's about to hit the fan?
Speaker 1: Welcome to on Sanctioned Thursday's are wrestling with Ready.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the show that you guys
Speaker 2: asked for, that you guys got and we keep it
Speaker 2: going because you guys keep listening. Unsanctioned And today we
Speaker 2: start our series where we're shining a light on some
Speaker 2: of the hard working talent in the independent wrestling scene.
Speaker 2: And today is our very first guest and his name
Speaker 2: is Vinnie Pacifico. Welcome to the show. Vinnie. How are you, sir?
Speaker 3: Doing very well? Thank you for having me, happy to
Speaker 3: be here.
Speaker 2: How often do you work out? Because you're swol as hell, bro.
Speaker 3: Appreciate that pretty much. These days a week, I have
Speaker 3: one active recovery day.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get in good shape. I'm forty eight
Speaker 2: years old. I've been busting eyes at the gym and
Speaker 2: I did a move wrong and I hurt my back
Speaker 2: and it's been screwed for a week. And it's the
Speaker 2: most mentally depressing thing I've dealt with in a long time.
Speaker 3: What do you do?
Speaker 2: I was doing the sled press and I used my
Speaker 2: back instead of just the chest, and I felt a
Speaker 2: pinch right away, and I was like, yeah, I'm old.
Speaker 2: This is going to take a while to recover from.
Speaker 2: But I was doing so good man, and now I'm
Speaker 2: hurt and old and broken. But you're young and you're
Speaker 2: in good shape, sir. I want to talk to you
Speaker 2: about what it's like to go from being a fan
Speaker 2: of something you love to doing that same thing you
Speaker 2: were a fan of. So I grew up loving pro
Speaker 2: wrestling and Jeff grew up loving pro wrestling, but we
Speaker 2: didn't ever wrestle. I got to work for WWE in
Speaker 2: different capacity and work with talent, but I never got
Speaker 2: to like wrestle right, which would which was like every
Speaker 2: kid's dream watching Rick Flair throw a figure four on
Speaker 2: Ricky the Dragon Steamboat and going no, Ricky, don't tap please,
Speaker 2: Like that's everyone's dream. To go from that to the
Speaker 2: guy in the ring the kids are screaming, no, don't tap.
Speaker 2: I wonder if you can talk to me about that,
Speaker 2: because I know you were a fan of wrestling and
Speaker 2: now you you still are. Like I'm a fan of movies.
Speaker 2: I like acting in a man watching them. But to
Speaker 2: go from being a fan to becoming that, what's that like?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 3: So I started my training at fourteen. I was playing
Speaker 3: football most of my life and I was a fan,
Speaker 3: of course wrestling. And I just said my father, Hey,
Speaker 3: I love football. I was playing for my high school
Speaker 3: football team. I said, Dad, I love this, but I
Speaker 3: want my wrestling. I believe I don't try for my dream,
Speaker 3: or I don't try this. I won't ever. I don't
Speaker 3: want to. I don't want to look back in my
Speaker 3: life and have any regrets.
Speaker 1: You know, did your dad know about pro wrestling or
Speaker 1: was he thinking, yeah, you can go for the wrestling
Speaker 1: team and you're like, no, no, no, pro wrestling?
Speaker 3: He knew, yeah, yeah. We would go to wrestling hurde
Speaker 3: all the time together, you know, And so I told
Speaker 3: him that. He was very supportive. We went to a
Speaker 3: meet and greet with Brian Danielson in the city of
Speaker 3: New York in New York City, and I was like
Speaker 3: thirteenth a time I said, Hey, I'm wrestle. I acted
Speaker 3: for his insight or his advice or just words of encouragement.
Speaker 3: He was so encouraging and he.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you meant the nicest wrestler in the world to
Speaker 2: get you into wrestling. Lucky.
Speaker 1: Then that's also why the East Coast is so much
Speaker 1: cooler than the West Coast when it comes to wrestling.
Speaker 1: Like being from Jersey or New York or any of
Speaker 1: like Florida. You tell your dad you want to get
Speaker 1: into pro wrestling, and he's like, yeah, let's find his
Speaker 1: school and let's find If I told my dad I
Speaker 1: wanted to be a pro wrestler, like in Washington State,
Speaker 1: he'd been like, what are you talking about? No, go
Speaker 1: get a mop, stupid, you don't get nobody wrestles like
Speaker 1: that was like so outside.
Speaker 2: The realm of whatever. But I love this. I keep going, sorry, well.
Speaker 3: No, of course I was. He My father's amazing and
Speaker 3: he really uh. I gave him old credit in the
Speaker 3: world because he didn't know. He was an unknown world
Speaker 3: for him, you know, he was he was a quarterback.
Speaker 3: I was a quarterback playing football for the football team,
Speaker 3: and we were just so aligned with that. But he
Speaker 3: put his trust in to me and he, uh he
Speaker 3: got me into it and he was there every step
Speaker 3: of the way. He would drive me to training every
Speaker 3: week until I drove And yeah, I just I'm very
Speaker 3: blessed to have had that support that early on, because
Speaker 3: I know some people might not have that and I
Speaker 3: wouldn't be where I am now without it. So yeah,
Speaker 3: and then, uh so once I began training with the
Speaker 3: Ring of Honor, that was when everything changed for me
Speaker 3: in my whole life. You know, I grew as a man,
Speaker 3: I grew as a performer, I grew as I just
Speaker 3: grew it every which way possible.
Speaker 2: Is that where you started.
Speaker 3: I started at ETPW and then I changed just into
Speaker 3: Ring of Honor around like seventeen or eighteen.
Speaker 2: Wow, dude, it's seventeen years old.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then I worked for them from when I
Speaker 3: was like eighteen or nineteen until I was twenty and
Speaker 3: then COVID happened. But uh yeah, it was just an
Speaker 3: amazing EXPERI in me getting to be in that atmosphere
Speaker 3: that young and beat and learn from, you know, delirious
Speaker 3: Jonathan Gresham, Cheeseburger, Red Titus, and Wilferrara. Those are the
Speaker 3: best people that learned from I also great human beings
Speaker 3: to to uh have in my corner and have in
Speaker 3: my ear. So I was just I was very blessed
Speaker 3: to be an a spot.
Speaker 1: Would you guys do during COVID do you guys?
Speaker 2: Wow? How did that work?
Speaker 1: Nothing?
Speaker 3: I mean during COVID wrestling were very slow, So I
Speaker 3: kind of focused on my personal life, my family because
Speaker 3: I was always traveling. It was since I was like
Speaker 3: seventeen and I started debuting and just hitting the road.
Speaker 3: I never stopped. I was traveling every week. So I
Speaker 3: kind of just took the time during COVID whenever I
Speaker 3: can wrestle, I wrestled, but I send the time to
Speaker 3: grow my relace with my now wife. Took the time
Speaker 3: to travel like and like I've always travel and wrestled,
Speaker 3: but I made sure to travel and to core places
Speaker 3: and you know, just to enjoy the area, you know,
Speaker 3: and do a lot of family stuff because I didn't
Speaker 3: get the chance to do that when I'm always traveling.
Speaker 4: Nice, so I wanted to look Japan is my favorite
Speaker 4: place in the world, Okay, and you wrestled there.
Speaker 2: How old were you when you went to NJPW.
Speaker 3: I worked for New Japan last year, but Lou was
Speaker 3: in the States.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was in the States, so you have you
Speaker 2: haven't had the culture shock of traveling over there yet.
Speaker 3: I went to the Japan last in December, all.
Speaker 2: Right, So tell me about Did you wrestle there or
Speaker 2: were you just going to visit?
Speaker 3: I worked for Jato in Japan and I wrestled and
Speaker 3: it was phenomenal. It was Yes, the culture shock was there.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: First of all, the beauty of Japan is just something
Speaker 3: you can't even explain, right. The wrestling. I love gritty,
Speaker 3: technical wrestling, and that's what we have to do out there.
Speaker 3: And the crowd was great. It was just such an
Speaker 3: amazing experience. But New Japan and the States had a
Speaker 3: lot of the same atmosphere. I felt like the passion
Speaker 3: from the crowd that you get from Japan felt very
Speaker 3: similar to when I was working for New Japan in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: Do you find the crowd cheers for different things in
Speaker 2: Japan as opposed to what the crowds on the East
Speaker 2: Coast prefer, Yes.
Speaker 3: So I would I would compare slightly Japan with the
Speaker 3: Northwest because they appreciate character or things that are different
Speaker 3: so much as well. So part of my character, I
Speaker 3: use energy drinks to fuel up my own and the
Speaker 3: company and people of the people in Japan. They were
Speaker 3: screaming at that, like I had the drink in the corner,
Speaker 3: and the crowd in Japan was just so like, get
Speaker 3: the drink, at the drink and it was so cool
Speaker 3: that eat for power, Eat for power.
Speaker 2: It's like pop out the sailor man getting his spinach. Man,
Speaker 2: I love that shit.
Speaker 3: Finally got it. The place erupted.
Speaker 1: You know who's gonna be pissed they didn't think of
Speaker 1: that is Logan Paul. He's gonna steal that gimmick. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, he's stealing that one hundred.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you're gonna go no that thing. You
Speaker 2: got to get your hands on him in real life.
Speaker 2: That's the only way you can stop him. Man, only
Speaker 2: way people get listen. People artists gets stolen from paint
Speaker 2: like Picasso stole from Modiyani. People don't like to talk
Speaker 2: about or Modigliani is the only way Americans know who
Speaker 2: he is. But Modiyani was his real name, and he
Speaker 2: stole from him, not only his art but his style
Speaker 2: sometimes as well. And that was like when he was
Speaker 2: doing things in a more African style, that was all
Speaker 2: coming from Modiani. Like, artists are always going to steal
Speaker 2: every day.
Speaker 1: My jokes are on memes on Instagram every single day.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I, that's my bit. They just rapped up anyway.
Speaker 2: But you know no, but even guys like like great
Speaker 2: coaches like Andy Reid will admit it. He goes, oh,
Speaker 2: I steal from college all the time. I see a
Speaker 2: play that I like. I totally. He doesn't give the
Speaker 2: other coach credit. He just steals. The artists steal. But
Speaker 2: now we don't point. We have a time stamp.
Speaker 1: Yes, now everyone talked about this and Vinny did it first.
Speaker 1: Logan Paul, if you if you try to take it,
Speaker 1: you little squeaky creep.
Speaker 2: This is Venice's baby.
Speaker 1: If you want to fight him, you can find him.
Speaker 1: But he's got something better than prime Son.
Speaker 2: Outside of wrestling, where do you find a lot of passion,
Speaker 2: Where do you find a lot of peace? What other
Speaker 2: interest do you have that you focus on or is
Speaker 2: it all wrestling? Twenty four to seven?
Speaker 3: A lot of it is wrestling, but I really do
Speaker 3: enjoy helping others. That makes me very happy. You know,
Speaker 3: I work for my side job. I work as a
Speaker 3: bus driver for special needs children. I enjoy that.
Speaker 2: You know, bro, if you'd like the sweetest dude, you're
Speaker 2: sweeter than Brian Danielson. What the hell?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: I love again? I right? Travel I love to Just
Speaker 3: it's wrestling mostly, but I do. I love traveling. Traveling
Speaker 3: is amazing. I love superhero movies, horror movies. I actually
Speaker 3: I filmed the movie this year, my first ever movie.
Speaker 2: Congratulations, What do you mean you filmed? Do you acted
Speaker 2: in it? Produced it, directed it, We.
Speaker 3: Acted in it. I acted it. It's going to be
Speaker 3: coming out very soon. A wrestling movie, but it's hard
Speaker 3: to this bit of horror element to it and hold.
Speaker 2: On, it's a horror wrestling movie. Oh my god, I
Speaker 2: love this. Is it like happening during like a night
Speaker 2: where they're gonna be like an actual event.
Speaker 3: I don't don't spoil it.
Speaker 2: Don't spoil it. No, don't spoil it. Don't spoil it.
Speaker 2: I actually want to watch it.
Speaker 3: I don't know for sure about all the details, but
Speaker 3: I do know that's something that I've been really invested in.
Speaker 3: You know how how my character in wrestling gets to
Speaker 3: react to things that I wouldn't react in the wrestling show,
Speaker 3: you know, because it's a movie. It's a different scenario,
Speaker 3: different different timelines, just different everything. But it's still powerful.
Speaker 3: It's still the character who I am as a wrestler
Speaker 3: in a movie, and you see it much deeper.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I'm very grateful for this opportunity because it's it's it's
Speaker 3: it's me as a wrestler, but just put into a
Speaker 3: movie format with the real story that can't get behind
Speaker 3: you know, absolutely. Yeah, It's something that I've been really
Speaker 3: diving deep into, just like I've been watching about the horror
Speaker 3: movies to see different ways people react to things. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I just love horror. I love comedies. That's what I
Speaker 3: love to do it.
Speaker 2: I love the gym, of course, the gym.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I can tell bro you thick, How old are you, Vinny?
Speaker 2: Twenty five years old? Dog? You have so much time
Speaker 2: to chase this dream. You're so you've been doing it
Speaker 2: since you were fourteen.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: I wish you nothing but success, I wish you nothing
Speaker 2: but health. I wish you nothing but continued energy. Drinks
Speaker 2: and nobody's stealing that idea because I love that gimmick.
Speaker 2: I think that's so slick. I think it's so slick,
Speaker 2: and we'll call his ass out if he steals.
Speaker 1: I got your back, dude, I'll be I'm pretty loose lipped.
Speaker 2: I got you awesome.
Speaker 3: I'm not afraid you very much. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: Guys, Vinny, where can people follow you on social media
Speaker 2: or do you do that stuff? Yes?
Speaker 3: Instagram is Vinnie Pacifico, Twitter Vinnie Pacifico one, and Facebook
Speaker 3: Vinnie Pacifico and TikTok also Vinnie Pacifico.
Speaker 1: We were watching the producer centers a bunch of your
Speaker 1: stuff so we could watch before we got to talk
Speaker 1: to you and meet you, and learned that that's your
Speaker 1: real name, Vinnie Pacifico, not just a great wrestling name
Speaker 1: that Vince made up. It's your actual name, which is
Speaker 1: pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're definitely born to be a wrestler. Dude, what's
Speaker 2: she all? The best?
Speaker 1: Brother, You're the man.
Speaker 2: Although Vinny Pacifico the quarterback would have sounded cool too, Man,
Speaker 2: Pacifico for sixty yards, that would have been good. All right, man,
Speaker 2: thank you very much for being on the show. Everybody
Speaker 2: tune in every single Thursday. Thank you for making these
Speaker 2: shows special for us. Tune in every Wednesday for our
Speaker 2: regular show as well on behalf of Vinnie Pacifico, Mister
Speaker 2: Jeff Di, I'm Freddy Prince Junior telling everybody pea. This
Speaker 2: has been a production of Iheart'smichael Toura podcast Network. For
Speaker 2: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: I love you