Post by acesky on Mar 4, 2024 20:29:24 GMT
The first part of my story.
Ace Sky confessional interview:
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"My dream wasn’t to be a big star in mainstream American wrestling, not only did it not seem possible due to my size, my goals were very different from others. I did not do this to become rich and famous, my desire was to earn the recognition and respect of the legends I looked up to as a child. The wrestlers I admired made their name internationally before globally, especially in Japan. That was my pipe dream, that was the fantasy of being a wrestler in Japan. At 21 years old I achieved that goal.
I pride myself on being self-made, I came into the industry as an outsider, didn’t have any familial ties to the business, even though I had this great athletic resume of soccer, gymnastics, amateur wrestling and taekwondo, my start in backyard wrestling was looked down upon. However despite the “ blood, sweat and tears” , the sacrifices I do have to admit there was coincidence, right place, right time and knowing the right people that also helped me get to where I am and where I got in Japan by 21:
I was on a roll for a while, black belt in Taekwondo on my 10th birthday, licensed pro as a wrestler by the strict state athletic commission on my 15th birthday. Was able to make my pro debut on the first live taping episode of my first federation’s cable-access show that I was excluded from it’s first year because of my age.
Was able to skip past junior and high school at 11 years old to attend the state university as both a student and professor’s assistant teacher. Five years later expelled for selling weed and magic mushrooms to students, luckily evading any jail time due to my age and just having it put on my academic record ruining my other dream/goal of working for NASA as an astronaut.
That also ruined my reputation locally, didn’t make a heel though, you have two ways to deal with scrutiny, I just stayed myself and every night parents would go from hating me, not letting their kids high-five me during my entrance to cheering for me as I fought back against guys twice my size.
After three years of wrestling in the south, at 18 in 2001 I moved out with an RV to Chicago Illinois to work during the week at a startup tech company as a coder and wrestle on weekends. Unfortunately my dates for wrestling gigs interfered and I was let go in 2002. Despite getting recognition among the IWC as a notable name included in the generation of early 2000’s independent wrestling I was not getting paid much, I was broke.
That was when “ paying your dues” lost it’s romanticism. When I was in wrestling training I loved doing the stuff everyone else hated, bumping drills, setting up and taking down the ring, cleaning. I did that all enthusiastically, without asking for any pay, all from the influence of reading the auto-biographies of my idols about “ paying your dues”.
In 2004 I got my first break, with my first international tour. It was in Europe and the UK from October 16th to December 27th.
The rings were better than the unkempt rings I was wrestling in back in the US, to this day I don’t know how I evaded HPV and ringworm from those rings. My style of the terrific trifecta of technical, martial arts striking and Lucha-Libre fit well with the UK cruiserweight style.
I got back home and was contact through Myspace of the opportunity to work for Toryumon Titans, all the Japanese cruiserweight federations combined into one big federation.
I had a 2 year deal and made my debut on January 8th 2005 and had my farewell match on January 8th 2007. I had a few matches in the West Coast which is where I landed next and caught the attention of the biggest wrestling federation in America, at just 25 years old. "
Ace Sky confessional interview:
"My dream wasn’t to be a big star in mainstream American wrestling, not only did it not seem possible due to my size, my goals were very different from others. I did not do this to become rich and famous, my desire was to earn the recognition and respect of the legends I looked up to as a child. The wrestlers I admired made their name internationally before globally, especially in Japan. That was my pipe dream, that was the fantasy of being a wrestler in Japan. At 21 years old I achieved that goal.
I pride myself on being self-made, I came into the industry as an outsider, didn’t have any familial ties to the business, even though I had this great athletic resume of soccer, gymnastics, amateur wrestling and taekwondo, my start in backyard wrestling was looked down upon. However despite the “ blood, sweat and tears” , the sacrifices I do have to admit there was coincidence, right place, right time and knowing the right people that also helped me get to where I am and where I got in Japan by 21:
I was on a roll for a while, black belt in Taekwondo on my 10th birthday, licensed pro as a wrestler by the strict state athletic commission on my 15th birthday. Was able to make my pro debut on the first live taping episode of my first federation’s cable-access show that I was excluded from it’s first year because of my age.
Was able to skip past junior and high school at 11 years old to attend the state university as both a student and professor’s assistant teacher. Five years later expelled for selling weed and magic mushrooms to students, luckily evading any jail time due to my age and just having it put on my academic record ruining my other dream/goal of working for NASA as an astronaut.
That also ruined my reputation locally, didn’t make a heel though, you have two ways to deal with scrutiny, I just stayed myself and every night parents would go from hating me, not letting their kids high-five me during my entrance to cheering for me as I fought back against guys twice my size.
After three years of wrestling in the south, at 18 in 2001 I moved out with an RV to Chicago Illinois to work during the week at a startup tech company as a coder and wrestle on weekends. Unfortunately my dates for wrestling gigs interfered and I was let go in 2002. Despite getting recognition among the IWC as a notable name included in the generation of early 2000’s independent wrestling I was not getting paid much, I was broke.
That was when “ paying your dues” lost it’s romanticism. When I was in wrestling training I loved doing the stuff everyone else hated, bumping drills, setting up and taking down the ring, cleaning. I did that all enthusiastically, without asking for any pay, all from the influence of reading the auto-biographies of my idols about “ paying your dues”.
In 2004 I got my first break, with my first international tour. It was in Europe and the UK from October 16th to December 27th.
The rings were better than the unkempt rings I was wrestling in back in the US, to this day I don’t know how I evaded HPV and ringworm from those rings. My style of the terrific trifecta of technical, martial arts striking and Lucha-Libre fit well with the UK cruiserweight style.
I got back home and was contact through Myspace of the opportunity to work for Toryumon Titans, all the Japanese cruiserweight federations combined into one big federation.
I had a 2 year deal and made my debut on January 8th 2005 and had my farewell match on January 8th 2007. I had a few matches in the West Coast which is where I landed next and caught the attention of the biggest wrestling federation in America, at just 25 years old. "