Luigi Primo Opens Up About His AEW Appearance, Possible Ethan Page Revenge, Getting Knocked Out By His Own Dough & More! - Exclusive
What goes together better than peanut butter and jelly? Or chocolate and peanut butter? Pizza and pro wrestling, of course!
It should come as no surprise to you that one independent wrestler has decided to embrace both of these loves and that man is Luigi Primo. Hailing from Austin, TX the dough-wielding grappler has gripped fans' interest with his multiple viral videos showing him flexing both his pro wrestling moves and pizza tossing skills. Most recently, Primo was featured on AEW Dynamite when he briefly made a backstage cameo before being abruptly laid out with a big kick from Ethan Page. The clip has been shared on social media thousands of times at this point with interest in Primo seemingly at an all-time high.
In this exclusive interview, Primo talks with Wrestling Inc. Senior News Editor Nick Hausman about his All Elite debut, how he learned his diverse skill set, and more!
The Origins Of The Best Pizza Chef Ever
My guest at this time is the best pizza chef ever. You may have seen him this past Wednesday night on AEW Dynamite or just your Twitter in general. He seems to have just taken over everybody's Twitter streams this week. It is the one, the only, Luigi Primo. Luigi, thank you so much for taking the time out this week to talk to me.
I'm Luigi Primo, and I make the best pizza.
Oh, my god. Luigi, I got to go into my team today and say, "Guys, I'm talking to Luigi Primo. What does everybody want to know?" And they lit up, Luigi. Now, first of all, universal question from everybody, where did the pizza skills come from? What's the origin story here of Luigi Primo?
So when I moved to Austin, Texas, I was working in pizza restaurants and picking up skills for making pizza because I worked in a pizza restaurant. And also at the time I had begun training with pro wrestling. And so, obviously, the idea to incorporate that into the wrestling, it came to me as a pretty obvious choice for something I hadn't seen done before.
Oh, man. Dude, it's so hard to do what you do. Did you ever do the pizza tossing? I know there's pizza dough tossing competitions. Was that ever anything you ever did?
I did. I entered one in 2021, and I did bad. I'm super green at pizza throwing, believe it or not.
No. I find that very hard to believe, because-
Yeah, no. Dude, compared to these other guys, I am super green, but none of the guys that I know who are doing competitive pizza topping can do any wrestling.
That's true. You're in a league of your own.
Whereas I can wrestle and make pizza.
The challenges of wrestling and making pizza at the same time
So what are the difficulties of doing both at the same time? You're kind of creating your own style in a way by doing what you're doing.
Yeah. Like a lot of people, early on, I wanted to have my character and be my character and I also wanted to wrestle. So the idea is you come out and do your intro as your character and then you just do wrestling moves. Right?
Sure.
That's what a lot of people do. So even a lot of serious wrestlers and vets were like, "Listen, man, you got to do more pizza stuff. It doesn't make sense that you're not doing more pizza stuff." So that's when I really had to start building on the arsenal of pizza-based offense, such as getting people down on the mat and then dropping an elbow ... topping the pizza, chopping someone, giving them a slice. And of course the pizza cutter. So everything, in addition to just spinning the dough while I'm wrestling someone, which is something that I do, also, the story of the match has to parallel the story of making a pizza. I knead the dough. I'm giving him a trapezius claw. I knead the dough. That doesn't work. So then I have to get him down. I have to top the pizza, and that doesn't work. Okay. So I have to put it in the oven. Come off for a splash. That stretches the metaphor, but go with me here. I go off the top, that puts him in the oven, that doesn't put him away. So then finally, last thing, pizza cutter, which is the last thing you do to the pizza.
Pizza Critics
You just blew my mind right there. I loved every part of you describing wrestling and pizza, all intertwined like that. It was wonderful. It was a glass of beer away from being my favorite metaphor ever. So when I see what you're doing man, it's hard not to think about other talents of this generation, like Orange Cassidy, Danhausen, and starting to play and stretch with that a little bit. Wrestling became very serious for a while. And some people aren't really a fan of the style and the kind of gimmickry that you and others bring to the table. What's your response to critics like that?
Yeah. I mean everybody's different and I respect other people's tastes and I understand certain people have certain tastes about wrestling and I respect that. I'm not at all one of these people that are like, oh, this guy needs to get to the 21st century. In fact, it kind of bothers me when people have that attitude because people are allowed to like and not like things.
Sure.
100% they're allowed to do that. So I'm not mad about it. On the other hand, I've seen how much people like it and how much it resonates with them. And I love it and I'm passionate about it, but for me, a calling is not just something like, oh, I love to play Pac-Man, it's my calling because I love to do it. The second half of a calling is other people calling you to do it and being like, wow, this means a lot to us.
So it's a combination of my passion and people getting something from it. It being something that people enjoy and is useful to them. So to me that's why it's a calling, is because people enjoy it. So I'm not going to compromise the character, do anything just for other people. But that's why I know it's good. Not just because it's the right thing to do. I mean, for instance ... I love doing arm drags, I love doing tilty kind of stuff, I would do a whole match of that if I could, but that's not necessarily what I've been called to do.
Yeah, dude, I dig it, man. I love the mentality. And everything comes together here.
All Elite Pizza Power
Dude, 72 hours, what a whirlwind. And you were only on TV for two seconds. So let's walk through it here a little bit man, because this thing is popping up everywhere. So how did you get on the radar here for AEW? When did you first get wind you might be doing something with them?
Yeah. So I guess the meme must have been making some headway and other people had seen it, because obviously if you're a wrestler or you're in the wrestling business, I'm sure you got dozens of your friends who weren't in wrestling like, have you seen this? And you're like, yes, yes I have. Because every time there's a viral video, we all get the video. So I'm guessing a lot of wrestlers got it. And a lot of people got it to where eventually certain people had seen it in certain places. And then I don't know if this is the case, but I think what tipped the scale was on Monday, I was just posting dumb stuff on the internet, which is what I often do. And I just said something like all you can eat wrestling. And I was like Pepperoni Khan. Just the dumbest possible things I could say.
Sure.
And then I think that must have been what caused a lot of people to maybe tweet at them.
Oh.
Because then moments later I got a message that was like, what's your number, I'll just say from someone in AEW.
Fair enough.
I don't want to tell tales out of school, but someone in AEW, and I was quite surprised to get the message.
Yeah!
And so then I got texts about just that booking information. And then it was Monday at the time, and they were like, can you come to TV Wednesday? And I was like, yep, I sure can. And then I got my flight info and I told my day job, sorry, guys, see you Thursday. Bye. And so then Tuesday morning I was on a plane and then Wednesday, we went and did the show in Albany and did some taping.
Yeah. And so whose idea was it for you to just get rocked like that?
I couldn't even tell you. It was just something that somebody was like, do you know to be in gear? Get in your gear. And I was like... So I got in my gear and then this was actually pretty sweet, one of the production guys was like, come on faster, while I was tying my boots. So I freaked out and he's like, I'm just messing around, man. It was pretty awesome.
Yeah, dude. And so this has got everybody buzzy. It's been shared everywhere. Are we going to get to see you get revenge on Ethan Page? Do you think there's a chance that happens?
Dude, I think there's a chance. I don't know if you saw the ratings from Wednesday night, but we saw a sharp spike. So I'm hoping that the decision makers at AEW will see that and want to get more pizza points.
Lethal Pizza Dough
Have you ever had anything go wrong in a match while tossing dough?
I've dropped the dough. I've missed my opponent's face with the dough. I've had my opponent fling it out of the ring or I've had a runner take it away when we were supposed to use it for something later. Had somebody take a bite out of it. I've been knocked out by it.
You got knocked out by your dough?
Yeah. I was in the ring and I was sort of out of position and I was in the ring with Sean Hernandez. I threw the dough thinking I'd throw it and he'd catch it. And then I'd kick him or something. But instead he catches it and then he just winds up and smacks me in the face with it. I go down, my ears are ringing and I'm bleeding. There's this picture of me with a belt because I ended up winning the match. Didn't pin him. Pinned the other person in the match. But I have a belt. My face is just bleeding because I got smacked with my own dough. So I always consider that a point of pride, that I was busted open with my own pizza dough.
Fantastic story. All right. Last question for you here. Are you a fan of pineapple on pizza?
The thing I don't like about pineapple on pizza is it's this big... got this crusty brown surface with those spikes on it. So how are you going to put that on a pizza? And the top is all... the green part is all spiky.
You talk about the actual raw pineapple.
Yeah. Why would you put that on a pizza, Nick?
It's a stupid thing to do because obviously, if it's not chopped up, then you can't eat it, it's just tough to put a pineapple on a pizza.
Right. I'm not sure if anybody's ever tried chopping it up before.
You know what? That's a very good point. We should put that in somebody's ear. Luigi-
Yeah. I'd be interested in seeing how it works.
All right, Luigi Primo. Want to thank you so much for the time. I hate to wrap it so quickly here, but I have to jump over to another interview right now. You're wonderful. I thank you so much for the time. I will make sure we do not include anything about the silicone pizza dough and destroy your reality. And yeah man, and we'll just generally plug you and make you look very good.
Yeah. Thank you very much. It's great to talk and I'm sorry I was late to the interview.
You were a half hour late. I get a free pizza, next time.
Oh yeah, that's right. I owe you a free pizza.