Former TNA Star Amazing Red Reflects On Influence Across The Industry

Few men in professional wrestling can claim to be as influential as The Amazing Red. The future TNA Hall of Famer has been credited with creating some of the most jaw-dropping moves that still get used to this day, as well as playing a role in training a whole host of wrestlers who have passed through the House of Glory wrestling school.

Despite his influence, whenever someone gives Red his flowers for how influential he has been, he still can't understand it. However, during a recent appearance on Chris Van Vliet's "Insight" podcast, he revealed that it was backstage at TNA Slammiversary 2026 where he finally let his guard down and gave himself a pat on the back.

"I saw [Mike] Santana there, my boy Santana man, and I seen tears in his eyes, and then I went to the locker room and everyone's there clapping and hugging me and sharing stories of how I helped them in the business," Red said. "I'm just there like 'I have no idea,' and it kind of just hit me where it's like 'Wow, you did this man, like you really did do this,' and I'm just very humbled. There's nothing else I can feel about this beside very appreciative and giving the glory to God. I just feel like I was just a kid living a dream, moving straight, just moving straight, nothing else in my pathway and you could not tell me no."

Red explained that a lot of his innovative style came from being compared to Rey Mysterio in his formative years and wanting to take that a step further. He wanted to mesh the style of the WCW cruiserweights, Lucha libre, Japanese wrestling, as well as martial arts movies and create a style that was so unique to him that only he could outdo himself. 

Amazing Red was then asked about some of the moves he has created over the years, such as the Code Red and the Infrared. However, he didn't do it alone as he gave a shoutout to his cousins The SAT (Joel and Jose Maximo, The Spanish Announce Team), as well Quiet Storm, Chris Divine and Brian XL from New York. So much so that a number of moves that people across the industry use today were created by Red, his cousins, and his friends, all by using action figures.

"Joel had this thing where he would do things with G.I. Joe's and that's how the Spanish Fly was born," Red said. "Put them together, threw them, they backflip...[The SAT] said 'Listen, you're going to front flip, we're both going to back flip.' Obviously this is not going to work so I'm scared, I'm like 'I don't want to do this.' [They said] Trust me...Later on I found out he did it with toys, but I'm up there, he says 'I'm going grab you in the double Rock Bottom and we're going to backflip.' But then what made it safer is the crash bag was pulled in, so you know what? Let's get it. Once they did the move, Mikey's just like 'Do it again.' Did it again, Spanish Fly."

Red went on to reveal that he was the one who accidentally created the Canadian Destroyer, only for Quiet Storm to be the first to intentionally try it. The Infrared was also a mistake as he was trying to do a Spinal Tap but ended up rotating too much, and the Code Red was his attempt at what he originally called a Baby Powerbomb. Since then everyone from Darby Allin to Sting has adopted the Code Red, but it was when John Cena did it in WWE that even Red's family got excited. "What wowed me was the John Cena thing the most because my phone was blowing up. 'John Cena just did Code Red,' like that's kind of cool. But it's kind of cool to see things that you come up with, that sound and look impossible, be a thing."

Please credit "Insight" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.