Suge D Talks His Emotions Receiving AEW Opportunities During A Pandemic

By Jason Ounpraseuth

Sugar Dunkerton, better known as "Pineapple Pete" Suge D to AEW fans, has made waves on AEW programming since wrestling Sammy Guevera on Dynamite last April. Suge D will face former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho on tonight's episode of AEW Dynamite.

Suge D recently spoke to Wrestling Inc. about the health and safety precautions that AEW is taking. On an episode of "Indie til Infinity" on the We The Independent podcast, Suge D expressed his thoughts on the current pandemic.

"It's just a lot of strange that has come from me personally in the midst of such great disaster, tragedy, disease, and for all the good that's come in terms of me being able to find new ways to connect with people, find new ways to show everybody that I'm of worth in different ways, different capacities, I can't help but feel a little bit of sadness in terms of everybody not being able to enjoy my accomplishments the way I'd like them to be enjoyed because let's be honest, what is there to be really really really be excited about? There's lot going on," Suge D said. "When you're in a situation where people are losing family members and can't even attend the funeral, can't even go to the funeral because of distancing limits and the fear of people getting infected. You have to start taking this seriously.

"I know I've gotten a lot of congratulations and you deserve it and all this stuff that's happening so far with all the shots that I've been making with AEW so far."

Suge also gave his thoughts on his current AEW opportunity. He admitted that he would have liked to have all this happen under different circumstances, but can only do what he can in the most responsible way he can.

"It's definitely exciting," Suge admitted. "It is definitely a new challenge and a new mountain to climb. I don't know where it's going to go, but would I have wanted this under circumstances? Absolutely. Would I have wanted a crowd there to really will me on and cheer me on just to see if they're really feeling me? Absolutely, but I know two things to be true. The first one being that you are very rarely asked to be great during convenient circumstances, so it was a matter of taking a choice to whether you take that chance and you go forward or you stand back and you let it past you by. A lot of people claim they love wrestling, but when it comes to showing it, you find out who's really lip service and who's about that action. I am about that action in the most socially responsible way I've been able to thus far, so I'm taking the risk and seeing what happens.

"That's life right? The other thing that I'm noticing the midst of all this, which can be a lot to have to live with, is just the fact that I get this feeling in my head that I don't know when's the next time we can be in front of crowd is. I don't know, and yeah, there's a bit of an empty feeling. Like going out there and doing a performance art for nobody truly there to feed off that energy, do you take what you can get? When you're hungry, do you complain about any kind of scraps you possibly can get, or do you just go without?"

Suge D talked more about how the pandemic is big moment for everyone as people will have to adjust when things go back to some type of normalcy. He talked about wanting to push forward and keep his dream alive for as long as he can.

"You can say what you will, but I am actually, for better or for worse, one of the few independent wrestlers in the world that is still wrestling right now. Believe it or not, and that's crazy to me," Suge D said. "That I am still doing this despite everything that's going on, by the grace of God, and that's an episode, an, interview and intro onto itself.

"I just want to be able to believe in a world where I can be able to tell this story in front of people, a lot of people, as many people as humanly possible, but in the mean time, I just gotta push forward. I can't let this dream die. I can't let it fall apart. I can't let it fester. I can't let it whither."

You can listen to Suge D's full intro as well as his conversation with Beyond Wrestling's Drew Cordeiro on We The Independent by clicking here. You can also see a clip of Suge D's intro below. If you use any quotes from this article, please credit We The Independent with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

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