Of all the wrestling going down this WrestleMania weekend in Las Vegas, Vampiro's retirement match will be one not to be missed.

The wrestling legend's sendoff is set for JCW's Strangle-Mania event at midnight on Friday, April 17th at the Horseshoe Hotel & Casino where he'll be taking on PCO and Big Vito. Ahead of the highly-anticipated bout, Vampiro caught up with WrestleRant to discuss calling it a career, why now was the right time, what makes JCW stand out, his thoughts on WWE buying AAA, memories of working with Penta and how Penta was nearly fired in Lucha Underground, and more.

All eyes are going to be on you going into JCW Strangle-Mania. Are you feeling the pressure right now? How are you feeling?

As you can see I''m coming from therapy. I've got so many injuries from wrestling that I'm angry that I can't enjoy life the way I'm accustomed to, so going into JCW knowing the opportunity I have to do this one last match... I'm grateful. I'm going to go out there. I'm going to do the best I can. I'm extremely limited. But the more important thing is the excitement around what JCW is rekindling among a lot of wrestling fans. Just to be a part of that, I don't want to have the weight on my shoulders that all eyes are on me. I think all eyes should be on JCW.


The rest of the card is going to consist of the likes of Nic Nemeth, James Storm, The Good Brothers, and a whole crop of fresh faces as well. Is there anyone on this card or a few different people that you're excited to see involved with the event, whether it be regular faces with JCW or someone coming in for the first time?

I've answered this a few different ways, but I'm going to continue down the path I'm going on. It's a big wrestling weekend. Anybody who's involved in wrestling as a fan or whoever wants to be in the business will be there. To be such good friends with Violent J over the last three decades and go through this journey with him, like, he's a fucking wrestling fan. I think the most important part of this weekend is, the fans get a chance to come into our world and to see what the underground is like. JCW has always been there through all the fads and phases over the last three decades. The only real constant is JCW, good, bad or ugly, good levels of production, smaller shows, talent not showing up, whatever you want to say about it, JCW has always been there. I think the excitement for us to be behind the curtain and see all these newer people coming in and checking it out. I think that's a real big thing.


You talked about how JCW has that underground vibe to it. How is it important or why is it important that wrestling needs more variety?

One hundred percent. I think the greatest thing about it is you got an underground, successful musician, who is an underground successful indie wrestler, who is a professional wrestling fan. Right off the bat, we don't have the corporate pressure of having to be responsible and answer to all the corporate people who have their fingers in the pie. If you play in the NHL, you don't go out there and wing it. You have a whole structure of coaches who teach you how to win the game. When you go into the bigger wrestling companies, you've got a lot of corporate people who've never been in the gym. And then when you come to an indie wrestling show, you got motherfuckers who are working three and four jobs a week. Some of them drink, some of them smoke marijuana, some of them are fighting with their girlfriends. Some of them are rocking and rolling in their bands on the weekend, but we all come together and just say, fuck it. Our only outlet is pro wrestling. We're not going to let that go a corporate route.

I can sense the passion coming from you when you talk about JCW and going into this last match. How hard is it to let that go? At least from an in-ring standpoint.

I'm dying. I'm broken. I'm brokenhearted. I mean, I'm 59 years old. I've been doing this since I was 14. It's kind of like I don't want to quit. I don't want it to be my last match. But like I said, my injuries are so devastating that I sometimes I can't even put my socks on. This is a young man's game as well, but I'm fucking dying inside that I've got to do this. I've got to say goodbye, you know? I'm probably going to break that rule too. I don't know, man, but it's hurting my heart... It makes me cry. I miss it. I was blessed. It's hard. It's real hard.


Why was now the right time?

To be honest with you, I've already kind of retired. But to see somebody like Violent J, who I consider a friend, a brother, a family member... I see Shaggy and Billy and all the guys in the office and all the guys in the dressing room, to have somebody I call a friend like Violent J and to see him throwing it all in there, spending his last penny, taking his last penny and just throwing his last moment of free time because he believes in this. It's in his heart and to be able to support him from the heart is why I can care less about a retirement match and one more match and to see my friend live his dream and support him, that's why, that's the only reason.


Do you intend to still be involved, even if it's not in an in-ring capacity, with JCW and helping out your friend?

If there's room for me and I have something that I can give that's going to benefit something, and if it's the right move business-wise for a company and myself, yeah, of course, I'd love to be to some extent, but I'm so busy with my other projects in life right now that there comes a time when you've got to make a decision. If JCW would benefit from me being there and I could contribute in a positive way, then yeah, of course, why wouldn't I? But if they don't, then no, my heart's complete for sure.

Over the course of your career, all the success you've had, all the companies you've been synonymous with, AAA has been among them. WWE acquired them last year. Have you seen anything of what they've done as far as how different it was from what it was previously?

I'm so far out of touch with wrestling. I don't watch wrestling. I think when they bought AAA, down here, it was treated like the second coming of Christ. And how long did it last? Two weeks? A lot of Mexican wrestlers thought, "This is our moment. We're going to get that opportunity." And those of us who've been there are like, "No, you're not." They're going to use you. They're going to give you a shot and after about a week and a half, it'll go back to what it was. Penta had more hype going in to then when he's been there. He did two or three matches and they don't even mention his name anymore. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. I don't know. I don't watch it. They had Rey Fenix. He was was the breakout star of Lucha Underground. Has he been on the WWE show?


Penta might be one of the only people had that has stood out in the last year since they've signed him as far as being “successful,” whatever that definition of that term might mean.

I hope this helps you and other wrestling fans. Take Pentagon and put him in an indie promotion in Poland right now by himself or in India or go to Japan. Will he draw by himself? He is part of his successful TV promotion. Anybody there cannot go anywhere in the world without the WWE machine will draw won't mean anything. To me, success is different, right? When AAA got bought, the fans really thought that the WWE was going to be doing more house shows in the Latino areas in the United States and taking Mexican talent. Right now, it's a good breeding ground. They have a great TV audience. They can send their midcard guys down here to get seasoned. They can include the Latinos who don't speak Spanish who live in the United States and bring them down here and call them Mexicans. I think I'm probably going to get myself in a lot of trouble if I keep telling you the truth. I'm just thinking that the indie scene is what's going to be the big breakout scene. I think it's the indy scene. The territories are coming back and I think JCW is at the front of that.


On the subject of Penta, can you talk about that amazing match you had with him in Lucha Underground and where that ranks among others in your career?

That's the fucking reason I'm going to therapy every day (laughs). I think it was a great moment because it was fun because nobody knew about it. Even Pentagon. Nobody even knew about it till the day of. Nobody knew the storyline other than maybe Chris DeJoseph, probably Eric Van Wagenen and maybe one other person and myself knew the storyline that I was the master. Nobody wanted to work with Pentagon. We needed a bigger name guy to lose to Pentagon so that Pentagon could could have that push. Nobody wanted to work with Pentagon and he wasn't getting it. They were going to fire him. He wasn't clicking. He wasn't understanding. He was trying too hard and we were just trying to tell him, “You're a heel, don't stand up and ask for applause after you do a big move. Kill your opponent. Try to win the match.” Just those little details. We took a long time teaching him the American psychology and nobody would do the work. So I said, "Fuck it. I'll be the master. Let him beat me. I'm old and broken anyway, and I have way more of a name than anybody here. If he needs a victory, that's going to be a surprise. Let's do this.” So we took a whole year to do that angle. We kept it quiet and, you had to be there. What you saw on TV... It was a 47 minute match. And on a TV show that has 43 minutes of TV. You can imagine how much trouble we got into when we went nuts. The walls were moving. The walls were shaking. The energy was mental. I was like, “I'm probably gonna get fired.” I really enjoyed the fact that gave that young man an opportunity to go where he is today. I didn't make him, but I was part of his ascension. It was the best experience I've had.

Country Gentlemen were interviewed by Kyle Davis beforehand and were interrupted by Murdoch, Mike Knox and Franks. Knox is out injured at the moment, so Franks filled in for him. That pretty much telegraphed the finish, but it was the right one with Country Gentlemen advancing. The match itself was decent, but it wasn't all that interesting due to the heel vs. heel dynamic.

This was another heel vs. heel match, but this was better than the opener because Slime Ballz also excel in the underdog role, so they were basically the babyfaces by default here. Since they're the United States Tag Team champs, I get having them move onto the next round, but it's strange that Mims and Pope would join forces only to not have much luck so far. Maybe that'll change, but they're not off to a strong start together.

I have no idea who Adonis is, but I automatically assumed he was winning because I can't recall JAC winning too many matches prior to this point. Well, I was wrong. There was no setup for this match and nothing was at stake, but I thought it was well worked with both guys having solid showings. The key now is following up on this for JAC and having this win actually amount to something.

I thought Drake was supposed to team with Aron Stevens, and then his "cousin" Lockjaw was announced as his partner, and then Stevens stepped up instead. I don't know what was up with all the changes, but it obviously cost them in the end. Also, Latimer and Nihan are a really random duo, but it made sense for them to win. It was an adequate main event for as long as it lasted.

This edition of Powerrr was all about the Crockett Cup, and although none of the matches were barn burners by any means (did anyone honestly expect them to be?), it's still the opening round and thus all three bouts were what they needed to be. It was a fine show on the whole, but I would've replaced JAC vs. Adonis with a women's match. Bryan Idol vs. Carnage in a No Limits matchup was advertised for next week.

The Dogs aren't exactly off to a strong start in AEW, so I was shocked when they won the Trios titles here. I'm not at all against it, but JetSpeed and Mistico just captured the belts at Revolution and barely had a run with them. Oh well. The match itself was very entertaining and served as an exciting opener. Here's hoping the booking of The Dogs improves now that they're champs, assuming they win their match against Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong and their partner at Dynasty.

Statlander and Shida worked well together as partners and this was a quick squash for them, but I'm confused. When was it established that they're teammates now? Was this a one-off? What do they have in common at this point? Shida still has her sights set on the AEW TBS Championship, while Statlander is directionless after failing to regain the AEW Women's World Championship. This was random, but we'll see where it goes.

I said the said thing when he faced Jon Moxley recently, but Bowens' single push failing was disappointing. He did what he could, but AEW never properly followed up on his momentum. I'm glad he and Rush had a competitive contest so Bowens wasn't dominated, but Rush winning was obvious. It's a shame the Casino Gauntlet didn't get more build due to it happening out of nowhere with Kyle Fletcher getting injured, but holding matches to determine the first two entrants was better than nothing.

I thought it was weird that Hurt Syndicate randomly returned in a vignette of all things on last week's Collision, and it was even weirder that their first bout back was on Collision and not Dynamite. On the bright side, it makes Collision feel more important, but this should have been a bigger deal than it was. Nonetheless, it was a solid showcase for Hurt Syndicate, who said last week that they're potentially looking to recruit a new member.

We found out on Dynamite that the Bucks will battle Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita at Dynasty, so this was a warm-up for them and it made sense for it to be against two other members of The Don Callis Family. It was a quality contest despite the outcome never being in doubt. The Bucks should keep racking up victories before they challenge for the AEW World Tag Team Championship again eventually.

As I mentioned in my last paragraph, Okada will be busy at Dynasty, hence why we got this on Collision and not at the pay-per-view. That's fine, especially since not a single soul would have honestly believed that Reed was winning. That's in addition to Okada vs. Takeshita II being imminent, possibly at Double or Nothing. Reed is talented, though, and I thought they had a fun bout in the time they were allotted.

On paper, there were plenty of other matches that could have gone on last instead of this considering it had no stakes, but I appreciate them giving the women the main event spotlight. Plus, it tied into Dynasty as Alex Windsor will be facing Shafir on the Zero Hour pre-show and Jamie Hayter will be challenging Thekla for the AEW Women's World Championship. They had a good match and Hayter pinning Shafir for the win was the right call.

The AEW World Trios Championship changing hands in the opener made this show more newsworthy than I was expecting so close to Dynasty. It was an enjoyable edition of Collision and it didn't feel like filler whatsoever. Okada vs. Reed was another highlight and we got some star power with the Bucks being in action and Hurt Syndicate returning to the ring. It had relevance to Dynasty, which isn't always the case with Collision right before an event, so that was refreshing.

Talking segments starting SmackDown is hardly uncommon, but it's certainly uncommon for the segments to be as short as this was. I'm not complaining, though. I actually wish more talking segments in WWE were as straight to the point as this was. It established that SKY wanted Cargill in the night's main event with Ripley giving SKY her endorsement. It was what it needed to be.

Bayley and Bliss have had a ton of run-ins over the last decade-plus, dating back to their days in NXT. They've probably fought over every women's championship WWE has as well. Bayley was in her hometown here, so it made sense for her to win, so the fact she lost was lame. What makes even less sense is that Bliss is a babyface, so it's not like the win was designed to put heat on her. Very strange. The match itself was good, though.

Yes, it's rather random WWE waited over two months to put Keys back on WWE TV after he debuted in the men's Royal Rumble, but the only thing I can think of is that they wanted to formally introduce Keys in his home state, not to mention the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is on next week's SmackDown and he could very well win that. I thought he came off great here. I hope he can continue to be featured and build momentum.

As if this storyline couldn't get any worse. Ugh. The thing McAfee was hyping up on his talk show all week ended up being the announcement that tickets for Night 1 of WrestleMania 42 will be 25 percent off between now and Monday's Raw thanks to a sponsor. To recap, McAfee repeatedly said the current product sucks and that there's no reason to watch WrestleMania outside of Orton, yet he's out there shamelessly promoting a discount because tickets aren't selling the same way they were last year. The rest of this segment was equally abysmal. WWE has completely lost the plot with this program, unfortunately.

The MFTs confronted Fatu backstage earlier in the night to set this up. I had no desire to see Fatu rekindle his rivalry with The MFTs, but the bout was fine. It also played into Tonga wanting to prove himself on his own. The focus was more so on the post-match angle with Drew McIntyre attacking Fatu with a chain, which was well done. I'm looking forward to their Unsanctioned match, but imagine if it was a Dog Collar match instead.

Most of SmackDown is terribly uninteresting these days, but the United States Championship picture has been the best thing on the blue brand for many months. I hate that Carmelo Hayes won't be involved in the WrestleMania match, but Williams and Zayn are playing their respective roles exceptionally well. Zayn did a terrific job acknowledging the boos he's been getting recently here. The full-fledged heel turn has to be imminent.

I'm surprised they didn't bother to advertise this prior to the show. That's not to say Danhausen is any sort of major star, but he's gotten over with the WWE audience fairly quicker and that may have been a draw for some people coming into this episode. Nonetheless, call me crazy, but I thought this was fun. Danhausen's "curses" mean something and Wilson has been the perfect foil for him.

This started so close to the top of the hour that I thought it'd be more of an angle than a match, but nope, they just started way later than they should have despite SmackDown being a three-hour show as it is and there being zero reason for an overrun. What we got was enjoyable, but it's not ideal that WWE has had to rely on SKY to add fuel to the bland feud Ripley and Cargill have had so far.

I didn't hate the entire episode as others did, but there's no denying that the stuff with Rhodes, McAfee, Orton and now Jelly Roll is dominating the show and therefore brings the whole thing down. What an absolute mess that's turned into. Everything else was hit or miss for me, making for a subpar show. The only thing SmackDown can do coming out of WrestleMania is blow everything up and start from scratch because a majority of these episodes feel like a chore to sit through.

It was the battle of directionless Ring of Honor tag teams. Top Flight are higher up on the totem pole than MxM Collection, but not by much. They had an acceptable outing, but this would've been better if we knew Top Flight were actually gunning for the ROH World Tag Team Championship, or the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Scorpio Sky. Otherwise, their matches are meaningless.

I believe Rush will be in action on Saturday's Collision against Anthony Bowens to determine the second entrant in the Casino Gauntlet match for the AEW TNT Championship at Dynasty, so this felt like a quick warm-up for him before then. I love watching him decimate dudes. I'd hate to be his opponent for that very reason. He hits hard and that helps him stand out. Now let's give him something more significant to do, please.

The IInspiration just made their ROH debut on Thursday night where they beat a pair of jobbers. We heard from them before this bout in a backstage segment, so I figured they'd rack up another win and regain some momentum, but evidently not. The match was fine, but I was stunned by the result. I'm not complaining, as World and Hyan have a higher ceiling at this point, but Tony Khan's use of The IInspiration so far has been questionable, to say the least.

I'm glad GOA are getting consistent television time alongside Ricochet in The Demand these days. That means they're above doing ROH TV matches, but this was quick and painless with them dominating these "local athletes." I wouldn't be surprised to see them in the TNT title Casino Gauntlet at Dynasty, if not in the corner of Ricochet for his match against Chris Jericho.

Sisters of Sin had their opportunity at the AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship a month or two and lost, so now they're back to not doing a whole ton until a pair of babyfaces capture the titles. They're basically background players for Thekla for the time being, but giving them the occasional win on ROH TV won't hurt. This followed the same formula that GOA's squash did right before it.

It's been a bit since we last got one of these matches, so I guess we were overdue. I enjoy Castle and The Outrunners together, but man, they've been having these enhancement matchups for months and they haven't amounted to anything. And I have no idea what they're waiting for. Why not just fight for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, win the belts and get it over with? Maybe at Supercard of Honor, but there's no indication that's where we're headed.

What a weird main event to do on a random edition of ROH TV. Both of these guys are great wrestlers, so it was better than doing a one-sided squash or something like that, but it'd be wonderful if it had some stakes, like a shot at the ROH World Television Championship or something like that. If nothing else, they had a fun sprint and ended the episode on a high note.

Yes, I'm sure the only thing people were clamoring for coming off a two-plus-hour edition of ROH TV on Thursday night was more ROH. Jeez. On the bright side, this was less than an hour long, and I assume it was taped on Wednesday because it had an actual crowd and didn't emanate from that studio ROH TV has been as of late. There's no need to seek out this episode, but at least it was tolerable.