Sam Adonis Talks How Indie Wrestling Is A Segmented Market, Being A Heel In Today's Pro Wrestling
The video above is an interview with Sam Adonis by Impact Backstage Interview Alicia Atout from her YouTube channel, AMBY. Adonis talked about being a heel in today's wrestling environment, growing up with wrestling, and how indie wrestling is a very segmented market. Below are some highlights from the interview:
Happy with how his wrestling career has been so far:
"I've been super lucky that I've pretty much done a lot of things I wanted to do in wrestling. As a kid, I didn't care about going to WWE. I was really into Mexico and Japan, and the last two years I've been able to do a lot of both of those. I'm really happy with how things are panning out and we will see what happens in 2019."
Being a heel and honing his character:
"It's kind of weird because I don't think wrestling fans like the term 'heel.' It's almost like they don't understand what a heel is nowadays. In my opinion, it's a morality play, you want to have good vs. evil, so you can provoke genuine emotions from people. A lot of times wrestlers aren't creating an emotion. They just go out there and display what they're capable of doing. In my opinion, that's not what I like to do. I sometimes like to push the envelope, I like to make people angry. [Being believable]. I've been lucky enough in the last ten years to travel the world and really become Sam Adonis.
"I was 300 lbs. when I graduated high school. I was a fat kid and becoming a bad guy when I first began was going through the emotions. Now we live in a society where people don't necessarily admire somebody that betters themselves. A lot of times people they look down at that because they are envious. I'm outspoken, I'm very confident in what I do in professional wrestling and I tell you about it. A lot of times people really buy into what they are seeing because Sam Adonis the character is an extension of Sam Adonis, the person."
Growing up with wrestling along with his dad and his brother, WWE Announcer, Corey Graves:
"My dad was like the biggest wrestling fan in Pittsburgh. We [Adonis and his brother Corey Graves] grew up idolizing Bruno Sammartino. My dad was really into wrestling, my brother was into wrestling. My brother started training when he was 14, when I was 9-years-old, so being around that and knowing the wrestlers and have them corrupt me at such a young age, it kind of turned me into the person I become."
How indie style wrestling may turn off casual fans:
"I've been lucky to be a professional wrestler for seven years where it's been my job. As a professional, you have to appeal to the masses, you have to appeal to many people you can. Moms, dads, grandmas, uncles, nieces, nephews, like many people. A lot of indie style wrestling, in my opinion, is a very segmented market. You're basically saying, 'This is for the pure wrestling fans.' The pure wrestling fans might say, 'Wow, this match was great', but then if somebody that doesn't like wrestling watches that match and sees a Canadian Destroyer they might say, 'Well, that guy jumped.' I think it looks stupid. I think when you slap a leg you insult the intelligence to the consumer. Yes, wrestling fans are consumers, but in my opinion, I feel like we could have a much broader market if we were to hone in a little better and be more professional in a sense."
Adonis also discussed how he only likes wrestling before 2002. You can hear his full comments in the video above.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Alicia Atout – AMBY Interviews with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.