Hey Socaluncensored readers this is Lauren’s Lowdown and I’m here tonight with an interview with Southern California’s most unique Native American Wrestler Thunderwolf. I recently got the pleasure of conducting an interview with him on not only his intense wrestling career but his life on the big screen as well.
1. Let’s start out simple, how’s your day going so far?
TW: It’s been a pretty good day. Just wake up early, work, and do stuff like that.
2. What got you into wrestling and how long have you been at it?
TW: What got me into it…I guess with everybody is I was always just a big fan of it. Even in the early WCW days when Jericho came out and Rey Mysterio. First when I was in like preschool I think. Then I went to show at EWF I was like 13 and I went up to Jesse and started talking to him and started training right then the next week.
3. Who would you say was your favorite wrestler growing up?
TW: The way it sticks out in my mind is probably X-Pac or 1-2-3 Kid then he was Syxx-Pac as far back as ESPN wrestling in the early 90s he was the lightning kid and even back then he always my favorite.
4.Have you ever met him?
TW: I haven’t met X-Pac yet but I hope to.
5. You’ve got a unique ring character, tell me a bit more about this…Is it inspired by heritage or is there another reason for it?
TW: It was mostly for heritage but when I was trying to think of a character I realize that this generation doesn’t really have like a Native American character. Tatanka was pretty much the last mainstream one. Every generation has one there was Tatanka then there was Wahoo McDaniel then Chief Jay Strongbow. There is Navajo warrior but he didn’t really make it to national level so when I was thinking of a character I was thinking this generation needs like that national character so why not use that and run with it.
6. So throughout your wrestling career what would you say is your biggest accomplishment to date?
TW: Biggest accomplishment was going to Japan in 2008 for the pro wrestling expo. I was part of team USA and the craziest thing about it was out of the whole team USA I’m like the only unknown guy who didn’t have a name. The other guys were Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Scott Norton, Christopher Daniels, and me. It was so random I couldn’t believe how I even got that deal but dreams come true at Sumo hall in front of 10,000 people. It was amazing. The whole experience was great. The guy who ran the show took care of everybody and gave us nice hotels. The whole week I was there I couldn’t believe it, this was unreal.
7. So is Japan the farthest you’ve been for wrestling?
TW: Yeah it was Japan then two years later went back there for Zero One and was there a month. I Was going to Mexico every year for Ultimo Dragon show as well.
8. In the other direction what would you like to accomplish?
TW: I still want to go back to Japan, maybe it’s like a maturity thing…Maybe I wasn’t that serious about it at the time I think now that a couple years have passed I think I’m more mature now to be serious about it. Last year I went to Tampa for WWE Camp, I’d like to go back there. Even TNA, I did the tryouts in Sacramento and would like to have something going on there if I could.
9. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if I remember correctly you had a TNA gutcheck tryout correct?
Yes.
10. Is it okay for me to ask what happened with that?
TW: No it’s fine it’s fine. D-lo Brown was running it and the first one I went to was in Sacramento and I went up to him and was like “Hey is there anything I could work on” and he pretty much said “Really there’s nothing for you to work on you have it, you know you could work, and have the looks and everything so just give it some time.” So a few months later there was another one in Bakersfield and I went to that one and then and he looked at me and was like “You sold me on this if it was up to me I would have kept you to be on gut check after the first try out.” But it’s not up to him really it’s up to his bosses. He can recommend people but at the end of the day it’s all up to them.
11. Is there a lot of people that go for that because I’m always looking at lists and there’s a lot of people?
TW: At both ones I went to there was at least ten to fifteen people maybe.
12. What would be your dream match? it could be against anybody.
TW: I hadn’t really thought about that. Wow. I’m thinking like Ultimo Dragon when he was in his prime right before WCW when he was in the war promotion and had the nine belts.
13. What has been the worst match that you’ve ever had?
TW: Probably my first match, probably because I never really understood. Nobody really taught me the psychology of how to run the match and make it work. It was also my opponents first match too so we didn’t really know what we were doing. We kinda just did moves and that was it.
14. Now speaking about being in the ring, what’s the worst injury that you’ve ever gotten?
TW: I broke two bones in my ankle once and then the time I busted my lip. It cut me so deep and looked like someone got scissors and cut your lip, it was that deep. My lip was hanging off my mouth.
15. I assume you had to get stitches for that right?
TW: Well I have a thing where I was like I really don’t want to go to the doctor, so I tried to superglue it myself and it was working fine til I opened my mouth and it fell back down so I had to go to the hospital and they had to stitch it up. It’s just a scar now. I couldn’t go through life missing a piece of my lip.
16. Talking about wrestling promotions now, you’ve wrestled at a lot of promotions so which has been your favorite?
TW: My favorite one to wrestle for right now is probably UIPW. They’re running every 2 weeks. It’s a fun place and everyone there is cool. Or LCW when they were running, or Luchapro because they’ve always took care of me for the years I’ve been wrestling there.
17. Who is your favorite wrestler to tag team with?
TW: Probably Laberinto, we trained at the dojo. Or blood eagle, Steve pain… I’ve known those guys for so long by training with them and we even lived together for a small amount of time. We just kind of clicked with our chemistry, whether it’s working together or teaming together, it always seems to work out because we have that connection.
18. Where are you training at right now?
TW: There really is no training right now, I’m trying to get my boxing license back and turn pro. I’m an amateur one right now but I’m still kinda working on getting my professional one. It’s always kind of bugging me that I’ve never had a pro fight.
19. I know that some wrestling promotions aren’t necessarily in safe neighborhoods, what’s the worst neighborhood you’ve had to go to for a match?
TW: Luchapro is kind of bad you know. When I was in Mexico City my first night there I see a tank, an actual tank going down the street like an army tank. This was like my first time ever leaving California and I’d never been on a plane before and in a country right in the heart of Mexico City and I see a tank going down the street. I was like oh man what did I get myself in to.
20. Okay if the owner of a company came to you and said “We need/want you to design a championship for the company that all the guys can fight for.” What championship would you create?
TW: I’m surprised that no one has ever called a title like a warrior title. I would need warrior somewhere in there. No promotion I think has ever had like the Warrior championship. Something like that. I think it would stand out more from what everyone else is doing.
21. Okay now for a few question outside of wrestling, first off you’ve been in a music video as yourself, how was that experience?
TW: I did two videos for this rapper called Watsky, George Watsky. The first one was like a craigslist ad. I saw a random thing said looking for wrestlers and I applied for it and he said well you can come over to my house and audition. I first thought, “well I hope this isn’t a silence of the lambs type thing.” It was like around the time of the craigslist killer. I hope this guy doesn’t like buffalo bomb me. He was actually like a real cool guy, the first video was like F*&^ an Emcee name which is up to over 2 million views on you tube. Then I did another one this year called Ugly Faces, but he’s blew up since then and is touring Europe right now.
22. I know you’ve been on a thousand ways to die and other various roles, how is that going for you the whole acting scene?
TW: It’s going well. I did a Call Of Duty trailer about a month or two ago for call of duty ghost. I was an Aztec for that one. I think the game comes out in November and its with a DVD which shows the making of the game and I’m in it. They show me getting the makeup on and putting on the clothes. I don’t have any systems but probably just buy the game to get the DVD.
23. Which do you like better wrestling or acting?
TW: Without the wrestling the acting probably never would have happened. The wrestling was like the foundation of what started this. Everything I’ve done in some way I owe it to wrestling. It’s responsible for everything that happened like the travel, people I grew up watching on TV and just acting…So I would say wrestling over acting.
24. Is it hard to balance the two?
TW: So far I’ve been able to do it, when I was doing the Call Of Duty it was the same day of when I was wrestling for Apex. So I filmed for 12 hours when I was on set for the Call Of Duty commercial and luckily Apex was close by where they were filming the game so I went straight there. The thing was though they airbrushed over my tattoos for Call Of Duty and I didn’t have time for them to take it off because I had to make it to the show so when I’m wrestling the airbrush starts peeling off my chest and it looked like I’m shedding my skin during the match. At first I was blank there was nothing on my chest but then by the end of the match you can see my tattoo come out. There was one point the guy chops me and it starts coming off so I dug my nails into my chest and pulled it out and it looks like my skin was coming out of my body. I don’t think people really knew what was going on with that.
25. Where do you see yourself in a few years? do you see yourself keeping the balance with wrestling and acting or doing one more than the other?
TW: I can see my self doing both I would really hope to take either one to the next level. I feel like I’m never really given that chance for the next level to show what I have, whether it’s wrestling or acting. I guess whichever one I get the opportunity first I’m going to run with it.
26. What has been your favorite role that you’ve had?
TW: The Call Of Duty one was probably my favorite one just because the production of it was a huge production. We had to keep everything top secret they didn’t even tell us the name of the game they told us it was called phantom. I thought with Aztecs, Mongol Warriors and all it was weird to call the game phantom but then someone told me it was for Call Of Duty and I was like oh wow. I got to meet the guy from “Locked Up Abroad” he was the guy from “Dude Where’s My Car.” He went to prison in Pakistan for smuggling drugs, true story. I got to meet him I remember watching him in Locked Up Abroad before I filmed that and I said he looked familiar and he was like “yeah man Pakistan is crazy.” I met him and the viking from the capitol one commercial was there he was in it.
27. So is he like the biggest celebrity you’ve ever met?
TW: The biggest celebrity I’ve met was Woody Harrelson. I was in a movie called Rampart with Ice Cube. In the scene he was on drugs and was at a grave and he was walking around just tripping out then it shows me and I’m with like a bunch of other guys just mad dogging him. I went to him after wards for a picture and he was like yeah man sure but my phone was messed up at the time so I tried sending the picture to my email but accidently ended up deleted it. I was kicking myself for awhile after that.
28. I can imagine how disappointing that might have been.
TW: It was like a punch to the stomach, like oh why?
29. Let’s talk a little bit about your fan base, what’s the best thing that a fan has done for you?
TW: The best thing is the fans in Japan. The fans give you gifts so the first time I went to the expo people were asking me my favorite drink and if I liked beer so I was like “yeah I like beer.” They would come to the hotel which was right by where the arena was at. I was walking to the arena and the fans would have cases of beer and were like oh here take it so I was like okay and put it in my bag for later. I have shirts from like a sumo museum right by the arena, I told them I like sumo so I got sumo key chains, sumo shirts and then the weirdest one was eye drops I guess. One guy just gave me eye drops I never even knew he had eye drops. I keep all that stuff it’s all in my room… I never use the eye drops though.
30. Do you have any tips/ words of advice for people aspiring to be a wrestler?
TW: If you wanna do it just go for it. A lot of times things happen unexpectedly like for the tryout for Japan for the expo. I wasn’t even going to go, I thought wasn’t going to make it or get picked, I didn’t want to waste the gas but at the last minute changed my mind and went there. During the tryout I felt I didn’t do great and was bummed out. Then a week later got the call that I had been picked. So it’s stuff like that you never know unless you try it. So if you feel like you can do it just go for it and whatever happens happens.
31. Let’s end with anything you’d like to say to your fans?
TW: Thank you everybody for the support over the years. There were times when I always thought about just quitting it but I can’t stay away for long I just keeping coming back to wrestling because I love it so much. Everybody has always been helping and supporting. I also have the shirts now, the warriors only shirt that came out pretty well so thanks to everyone who has purchased one.
I would like to thank Thunderwolf for taking the time out of his schedule to answer my questions and give us all some insight into his world. If you’d like to know more about him or follow him feel free to check out his twitter and facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thunderwolf/100886519991821
https://twitter.com/realthunderwolf
You can also see his appearances in two Music Videos by George Watsky called F*** an Emcee Name http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHO4GDiDhlo and Ugly Faces http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiVyDMJAm_I&feature=share&list=SPblxhEQYeadFpbYhpeSWgk1zS2dK7YqOk
Call of Duty Ghosts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxnx3W-HA18
As well as appearances in A 1000 Ways to Die and Rampart.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this interview or check out the site in general. Your appreciation is everything!