Threat interview
by Steve

Recently, Steve had a chance to talk with "The American Nightmare" Threat. In the interview they talk about Threat's backyard past, his start in pro-wrestling, not being nominated for rookie of the year, jealousy, and more.

Steve: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Lets start at the beginning. How did you first become interested in pro wrestling?

Threat: Do you mean how did I first become interested in pro wrestling as a fan or as a wrestler?

Steve: As a fan. Unless you got into it as a wrestler first.

Threat: I watched my first episode of "WWF Superstars" at age 7 in the third grade. It was Hillbilly Jim versus a "no-namer". [That] was what I called them back then. After the show, my father said that the WWF was old and was fake. I didn't believe him and I watched every episode, and GLOW, and was hooked until Hogan lost the belt. I even had the fortune of watching Wrestlemania II through V on black box cable at my aunt's house.

Steve: When did you decide that you wanted to be a wrestler?

Threat: I was always under the assumption that the only wrestling in the entire world was WWF(E), WCW, or ECW. I heard of a random promotion that The Rock's dad wrestled for in The Rock's book, but I had no clue what Indy wrestling was or Lucha Libre or Japan pro wrestling. I assumed all wrestling schools were in Texas or the East Coast. I wrestled in backyard federations for a few years until I saw a documentary on pro wrestling on The Learning Channel. It was Jesse Hernandez and the School Of Hard Knocks. I looked him up on the Internet and said to myself, "I've cut enough promos at keg parties in front of people who were there just for free beer. I think I can be entertaining enough to take my backyard act to the big time." And [then] I called Jesse. This was April of 2001.

Steve: Having been a backyard wrestler at one time, what's your opinion of backyard wrestling?

Threat: Backyard wrestling is great. If you have no money, or you have no clue about Indy wrestling (which in San Diego is 99% of everyone including me until I saw Jesse on TV), or you just want to play around, then backyard wrestling is great. The footage that comes out of backyard wrestling is fun to download on the Internet. Most people think that if you want to get into wrestling, then you have to go Indy, but I don't think Indy wrestling is worth the investment if all you want to do is play around. Backyard wrestling to me is like park football. Lots of people like being a street basketball star or a Turkey Bowl MVP, and I say go get yours and be #1 however you want. Sure, the backyarders hurt themselves and look lame when they have websites that have them doing moves in front of zero people. But overall, I say if you want to be in backyard wrestling, you will have a lot more fun there then if you try the Indies and are not ready to dedicate serious time to being #1.

Steve: So you started training in April of 2001 and debuted at the end of June. That's less than three months of training. A lot of wrestlers train for six months to a year before they debut. Do you feel you were prepared for your debut in that short amount of time?

Threat: Looking back now... HELL NO! At the time though, I knew I was ready to make some noise out there. I live for performing in front of people. I have my whole life in one way or another. Jesse's roster was cut when workers left for the IWC, and he needed guys to step in and put on a show and that's what I did. When the Nomad kicked my ass and got the 1-2-3 at the Mountain Lakes Resort in Lytle Creek, CA, you can see in the video every fan jump up and cheer like he saved the world. I did the job Jesse asked of me and that was to entertain the fans. It was still one of my favorite matches, and I prepared the best I could, even letting Will blade me before the match because I thought blood would put me over, but that's a whole other story. So yes, in a way, I was prepared because those fans mobbed me for autographs, but I would have liked to have learned more psychology first.

Steve: Before we get too far, where did the Threat gimmick come from?

Threat: When I was a backyarder, I was playing a WWF video game at my friends house and we used the create-a-character option and made a super wrestler named Threat. I was wrestling under the name "Black Venom", which already looked very similar to Threat, and I made him anyway. My friend was just telling me what buttons did what. Then [my friend] had the nerve to come to our biggest keg party show dressed as Threat because he had the money to afford the spikes and Docs, and he knew I didn't, but wanted to. So I kicked his ass "shoot" style and he ran to his car and drove home and stopped backyard wrestling and [stopped] talking to me. It was hilarious because everyone was chanting, "you fucked up!" for no reason because they were drunk. Then I took the Threat persona. Now I feel I've grown into what being Threat really means, and I know I am viewed as a Threat by a lot of people now. I am closing in on the size the video game character had.

Steve: A minute ago you mentioned the EWF and IWC split, which for those who don't know was a very public split between long time friends Jesse Hernandez and Bill Anderson where Bill took most of the EWF roster and started IWC. All of that went down shortly after you started training. What are your thoughts on what happened?

Threat: Bill Anderson had already left when I began training. Or maybe it went down behind closed doors but I'm pretty sure that the IWC was already in full swing when I began training. One kid at training told me, "Stay away from that Riverside fed. It's no good". Ok, whatever kid. I never heard of it anyways. I don't really know much about the EWF-IWC split. I've never met Bill Anderson. I don't know why all of those workers left Jesse Hernandez, then came back, even though I'm glad most of them are back. I just don't know much about that situation. I met most of the returning IWC workers after I was already given the reigns as a main eventer.

Steve: Yeah, that's my bad. The split was in 2000 not 2001. Actually the IWC died while you were in training.

Threat: Yeah, I was thinking that, but you've been around longer, so I figured you knew something I didn't.

Steve: You have always been very good at promoting yourself with your website and had hyped yourself up a lot early on in your career, do you think that lead to any resentment from other wrestlers?

Threat: Definitely. I know for a fact it has. I don't know why though. A match against me means one more place online you can get a full page report about what happened in your own match. If I knew anyone had a fully loaded website like mine, I'd want to get a match against that person so I could read about myself and maybe get on a video download. The first headline on my website relating to my debut read, "Threat Gets Beatdown By The Nomad In EWF Debut Match". Where is me promoting myself there? It said I got my ass kicked. Get-Beatdown.com isn't just about Threat. Get-Beatdown.com is the world of Indy wrestling as viewed by a person following Threat. I have photos, bios, videos, and news articles about wrestlers you can't find anywhere else. I don't know why these haters have to have heat. Jesse Hernandez told me one day outside of training, "Brotha, I gotta tell you. This guy just doesn't like you because of your website brotha. He thinks you don't deserve it". I missed out on a big feud because a wrestler hated me and wouldn't give me a good match based on a URL. That has got to be some sick shit to hate someone because they want to record their career on a website, so fans have a place to go that actually is worth revisiting weekly. Actually I'd like to change the subject if you don't mind, because bullshit like hating on a hard working entertainer because of a fucking website pisses me off.

Steve: Ok, to change the subject a little, you debuted on June 30th 2001, which is in the middle of the year, which puts you in with the 2001 rookies as far as SoCal Uncensored's year end awards go. When the rookie of the year nominees came up, you weren't nominated, and even a guy who had already retired was. What were your thoughts on that at the time? Did it upset you?

Threat: Yeah, it pissed me off when I saw I was excluded! I was bitter and unruly and very jealous of Pinoy Boy and Joey Ryan. I saw Ryan Rufio wrestle once on a UPW webcast, and I didn't know who Street Style or the other guy was. I figured since Pinoy Boy and Joey Ryan wrestled in UPW and LA that SCU was just a LA/Orange County website and forgot about guys in the EWF. Pinoy Boy and Joey Ryan both helped train me from my very first workout, but at the time the voting went down, part of me was like, what the fuck? If that rookie of the year contest went down in the EWF by a show of applause from the crowd, I would win it hands down, just because I was getting a push and thought being over with the fans meant something in a popularity contest. I thought if the SCU Staff couldn't watch my matches, I had lots of video downloads so they could see that I at least looked like a wrestler and was worth including. The other part of me said, "I am too old to care about an Internet contest where the staff doesn't even visit your shows". So I actually will confess that it was THREAT, THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE who padded the SCU online votes out of bitterness in favor of Joey Ryan by logging into SCU, voting, clearing my cookie cache in my browser, then relogging back on under a different AOL IP# at my mom's house, one day when I was bored. If you noticed, on the last day of the 2001 ROTY online voting, Joey Ryan went from 2nd to last place to winning the Internet vote. That was my bitter ass hacking the SCU voting system! HA! It took me 2 hours of voting and revoting to put Joey Ryan over at SCU but I was like, "If I can't win, then I want my favorite one to win." Bet you didn't know that huh? Wish he would have won the whole thing, then it would have been even better revenge spilling my guts to you about that.

Steve: It's okay. That's why the system is setup how it is with the web poll only being worth 30%.

Threat: It was like that then too. (laughs) Oh, I see what you're saying.

Steve: Yeah, we actually checked the IP logs for the polls a lot, but honestly, on rookie of the year last year, Pinoy Boy was running away with it so bad, with the actual voting we slacked off on the web poll.

Threat: Well it was a fun prank to pull anyways.

Steve: Pinoy Boy actually received every first place vote from the voting panel.

Threat: Well, Pinoy Boy is a great technical wrestler and deserves it now that I look back on that contest.

Steve: Moving on a little bit, do you think EWF doesn't get the credit it deserves on the Internet as a whole?

Threat: Depends on what you mean by "the Internet as a whole". I'd like to read the EWF on the Ross Report but I don't think that's happening. The EWF is a place to watch Indy pro wrestling. It's not the next WCW and it's not the next ECW. It's just the EWF. I love being a part of the EWF more than anything. So when I read that the EWF gets less that it's share of attention on the Internet, or SCU, if that's what you meant, I just think to myself, "EWF needs to push SCU at their shows or something to get represented on this site, because everyone who participates on the message boards are from LA and Orange County and maybe that's why that area's promotions and wrestlers get the spotlight". Other than that, I mean, if no EWF fans go to SCU, then nobody can read the shit they talk there.

Steve: You have been loyal to the EWF and haven't wrestled many shows outside the EWF. Looking at other guys who started in the EWF like Joey Ryan and Pinoy Boy who wrestle as much as they can and are now getting bookings outside SoCal, and in Pinoy Boy's case, even getting booked in the 2nd biggest promotion in the world. Do you think your loyalty to the EWF has hurt you?

Threat: I feel my loyalty to the EWF has helped me. Yes, Joey Ryan and Pinoy Boy are getting booked outside SoCal. That is what they want. I am also getting what I want. I work in a promotion where I am so popular with the fans, I have to get called out with Desire because there are fans who specifically requested their picture with us. I've signed thousands of autographs and sold lots of Threat merchandise. I've made so many skinny little kids make a muscle so I could sign my name and website on their arms. It's great. I get e-mails from fans telling me I am their #1 favorite wrestler. I get a kick out of bringing kids up to Jesse and asking them, "Who's your favorite wrestler, Triple H?" And they yell, "Threat!" That is enough for me for right now. I am just as happy with where I am as a main eventer in the EWF as Pinoy Boy and Joey Ryan are with their careers. When I am ready, Jesse Hernandez is my doorway to the WWE and my loyalty will get his blessings to move up.

Steve: Obviously the WWE is your ultimate goal, but what other goals do you have in wrestling?

Threat: My goals preceding the WWE are winning the EWF American and World Championship belts. Good solid title reigns where I can make those belts as popular as Desire and I made the tag straps when we were champs. Maybe a TV promotion or two. I wouldn't mind flying out to some out-of-state feds to do a show with an interesting angle behind it. Maybe representing the EWF. I also plan on working some Lucha in Tijuana. Japan would be fun, but I read at Frankie Kazarian's website that he had to bring canned food there because he has a strict diet like me, and that doesn't sound too appealing. Mostly my pre-WWE goals are to work around a little in the name of the EWF and make some stops, and put some big names on my website before going to the big leagues.

Steve: What about promotions like UPW and EPIC, would you want to wrestle there?

Threat: Oh definitely! I've been a fan of UPW since they had the webcasts and I could watch some serious squash. Their wrestlers are really good and entertaining. There's a cult Looney Lane following down here and my friends want me to wrestle her so they can see her at my website. Those sex fiends. I've also read about EPIC quite a bit and don't know how well I'd fit in there. I'm used to putting on a show for kids who ask me after the show if wrestling is real or not. I think if I went to EPIC, I would get torn to shreds by their type of fan base. If the call came into Jesse from either promotion asking me to work, I would be very excited. As the norm though, I don't look to either of those promotions as "moving up".

Steve: This year you started getting paired up with Desire, who has been called a rookie of the year contender by some. What are your thoughts on her?

Threat: Desire and I are "BFF" outside the ring. That will definitely bias my opinion of her. At first, I thought she was a stuck up bitch because she was so hot. You know, the hotter they are, the more stuck up they are right? Wrong. At the Tough Enough 2 tapings in Las Vegas, I realized that she is truly a nice and caring girl and is not conceited or anything. Having her in my corner has been great. I always played with girls when I was a kid, and now I have one to kick ass with in the ring. Desire brings out the best in me. Seriously. Having her in my corner brings me a popularity I normally wouldn't have. I have to respond to that popularity with the highest flying, flashiest moving, borderline offensive in-ring antics to meet that extra pop. She also has been there for me when I have severely complicated personal problems and she knows plenty of secrets about me I know are safe. She has my vote for rookie of the year. She gets in the ring 3-4 times a week with mostly guys. She kicks the shit out of guys in the ring and yes, those are real kicks. And from my personal knowledge of her, she ignores the same hating and jealousy I get sometimes and just focuses on what she can do to be #1. She also is popular with the fans and that is what is important, and brings in money to the industry. Plus, she has charisma and body language you just can't teach. My girlfriend will kill me if she reads this.

Steve: What's "BFF"?

Threat: Oh, that's Desire's acronym for, "Best Friends Forever". I forgot that's a chick thing.

Steve: What has been your favorite match so far?

Threat: Actually that is easy. My favorite match in my career was my last match versus Vizzion, where he dropped me on my head on the hard side of a steel chair for the EWF Rookie of the Year Award and the EWF American Championship. I went into that match knowing it was my first singles match since February 16th, my first singles match with Desire, my first singles match with a lesser experienced wrestler, that SCU/Justin Crast was going to be there to review it, and that I had to make Vizzion the jobber look like Rocky Balboa in the match of his career. I spent so much time preparing for that match from my entrance to my attack on Vizzion's shoulder, to what to call, and even when lots of things went wrong, it was me who covered it. Plenty went wrong and none of it was mentioned in the SCU review so I am grateful. That match was easily the crowd's favorite and I knew it was my leadership that made that match. The match had psychology, heated falls, "holy shit" chants, a taste of hardcore to build to the Bradley Mafia main event, and Vizzion the jobber became Vizzion the champion. I did what I planned to do and that was to give those fans a rookie of the year, him or me. Every match I have been in except for the CWA April Cruel's Day show, I have followed someone else's lead and I was itching to show what I can create in a match. I didn't have to deal with people not wanting to put me over because I'm newer and that was a luxury too.

Steve: Who in SoCal would you like to wrestle that you haven't had a chance to yet?

Threat: I'd like to wrestle The Ballards, "Iceman" John Black, tag with Hardkore Kidd and El Jefe, too late to tag with Spanky huh? When I get bigger and better, I want to work Samoa Joe, Super Dragon, The Messiah, definitely HLA Looney Lane in tag with Desire, mainly the last ones because I think with my style and attitude they would make for very interesting matches. Oh, and Looney Lane I added for my friends. (laughs) Oh yeah and I want to work Kaos and GQ Money with Veronica Caine, but I don't think they are considered SoCal anymore huh?

Steve: I'm sure they'll be back before too long, but I don't think they'll ever be SoCal exclusive again.

Threat: Damn.

Steve: What about wrestlers outside of SoCal, present or past?

Threat: The wrestlers outside of SoCal, present or past I'd like to work is Mick Foley, Ivory, Trish Stratus, Nidia, this hardcore chick Precious Lucy I watched on the Internet once, Simply Luscious from ETW, Jamie Knoble in a war of the real trailer trash, the old Undertaker, Ric Flair even today more than back when I didn't know who he was, and that's all I can really think of off hand. I like being surprised about who I'm going against, so I really haven't thought of who I'd like to wrestle that much. I actually haven't until you asked, so those are the names that come to mind.

Steve: Your main goal is getting into the WWE, where a wrestlers look is as important as his ability, maybe more so in some cases. Do you, or would you ever consider using steroids?

Threat: Steroids are illegal.

Steve: Their legality is not in question, their usage is.

Threat: I am not taking steroids and do not know of any wrestlers who are. Yes, is it a proven fact that steroids makes you bigger, stronger, and more girls will offer you sex based on your looks only, but taking steroids is illegal and even though I'd like to be 285lbs of sexual caramel, I'll settle for 255.

Steve: Have you competed in any other sports?

Threat: Yes. I was a three sport athlete in high school. I played varsity football, basketball and I was a 3-year varsity track & field star. I won the CIF 2A High-Jump Championship at age 17, but ditched out on the State Finals to go to the prom. I think all pro wrestlers need to have a solid background in athletics if they want to succeed in pro wrestling. And ask anyone who knows me, my favorite cheer at the School Of Hard Knocks is, "Be Athletic". My friend is a trainee there and when she is on the phone talking to me about eating pizza for dinner, I'm like, "Hey bitch, put that down and eat some salad. Then go workout if you want to make it on an EWF card". I take pride in my dedication to athleticism and it was because it was forced into me in varsity athletics and a lot of things I've learned in pro wrestling, like basing for flyers is the same "hitting position" stance I learned in football.

Steve: Ok, as a final question, what do you think of the scene in SoCal in general? As compared to other parts of the country, how would you rate it and where do you think it is going?

Threat: I rate the SoCal scene #1. Yeah that sounds lame but that is the vision I have of this scene. It has stars, a staff of writers and an official website so people like me who live in a forest on a mountain can know exactly what happened at the last EPIC and GSCW show, plenty of jackasses who make life interesting, lots of shows, lots of Lucha, plenty of different styles, from the puroresu style I read about Rev Pro, to the upcoming EPIC, to the ever controversial EWF and the infamous "EWFJeff", big stars, WWE guys who stomped here first, and everything new and old school about wrestling. I know this place 5 years from now will be overrun by people who finally realized going to see and Indy show is a great way to spend a Friday night. I hope everyone in this SoCal scene is getting what they are looking for, because I have been getting tons more out of this SoCal scene than I ever expected. I've seen other parts of the country but nothing as exciting as what's going on here in my opinion just because I can plug in and get everything from CWA down to WCWA and it's always going to be controversial.

Steve: Is there any last words you would like to say to everyone?

Threat: Yeah. I just want to say the big pow-wow to Lisa, Desire, Paranoia, Jesse, Bobby Bradley, Bo Cooper, Will, Patrick, Octavia, Carly, Anna, Ashlei, and Brittany, all of you think I'm tight so you know I gotta shout out, like this is some radio dedication. (laughs) Thank you for doing this interview, Steve. I really like SCU and what it offers to the SoCal scene, and I hope when SCU grows like all of the scene in general that more and more people can come and get in that mosh pit of a message board for more drama.

Steve: Thank you for your time.

Threat: Visit Get-beatdown.com!