Vinny Pacifico Talks Wrestling Worldwide, Breaking Into Acting, and His Love for Theme Parks

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Between wrestling around the world and the many movies and shows he's set to star in, Vinny Pacifico is staying busy both inside the ring and in the acting realm—and is becoming a hot commodity with both careers.

In addition to doing work with Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and honing the character he's currently playing over there, Pacifico has tried his hand at acting in the last two years and has already found significant success by partaking in projects such as ​Fragmented Mind, Dead Man’s Creek, Between The Living And The Dead, Family Ties, and Crimzon Harvest. His biggest role, however, will be as Powerpunch in Mr. Reset and the Society of Turnbuckle & Bone, which will be ​available on VOD for rental and purchase beginning Tuesday, June 2nd.

Over three years removed from their last chat, WrestleRant caught up with Pacifico to discuss all of the exposure he's gotten in wrestling, breaking into acting, his growing love for Orlando and its theme parks, and much more.

You were already killing it on the wrestling scene. Is there any promotion that you have not done work with so far on a mainstream level? And obviously all the smaller promotions too, but on the mainstream level you've literally been everywhere in the last couple of years.

Thank you. GCW is the only one I think.


That's kind of crazy. You would think, like, WWE. No, you've done there. AEW, no. Vinny's been on the show. That's kind of crazy that GCW is the only one that's eluded you so far.

They're amazing, obviously. It's just I guess timing. They have their own talent. But I love what they're doing. I always just stay grounded and just stay ready for everything. As of late, I've been doing a lot of Hollywood Wrestling. What they've been doing with me, UWN, on TV has just been crazy. They took my character that I already have and they turned it into a heel that's just the grossest, the grimiest heel I've ever done, but I play it so well. On Tuesday, I had tapings. There were people in the crowd telling me to meet them outside to fight me. It was that crazy. That's old-school heat right there. And I'm, like, “Wow, I can't even believe this.”What they're doing with me is amazing. And I've been loving my work there. It's just been so much fun and using the energy drink to like win matches and spit in my opponent's face and they get blind and you pin them.


How long did it kind of take you to get into that character? Was that something that you were already comfortable doing or was it a total drastic change from what you've already been doing on the wrestling scene?

A lot of time, I'm babyface, but I love being a heel. I love being a heel. It's just so much fun for me. But now they utilize my Italian-ness. They pulled it out of me. I's simple because it's like a full 360 from me being a face, so it's kind of easy to do, but it just works so well. It was crazy what these fans were saying to me. I can't even say it on camera, but they were really graphic and gross what they were saying to me.


When you get handed a character like that, does it kind of allow you to tap into your acting mentality of like, “All right, I'm given a character of what I have to do, and let me just kind of run with it and see what works”?

One hundred percent. You know, I got cast for this film called Crimzon Harvest with Felissa Rose, Lew Temple, and Robert Mukes in September. They had me playing an evil detective. That was pretty simple because I kind of utilized my heel Vinny persona. It helps with the acting. It helps everything. I always say that as a wrestler, you're a performer, you can do everything. You can do anything as a wrestler. I also think any performance art like helps everything. So, if I'm a wrestler and I wanted to be a dancer, that helps wrestling, and that helps dancing. I feel as a wrestler, you can do everything you want to do and become like this multifaceted performer.

​What's it like practicing or rehearsing lines compared to rehearsing lines for a promo? When you cut a promo, is that completely off the cuff for you? How is that process similar or drastically different?

When I was trained, I was trained by Ring of Honor, and they were really good at off-the-cuff promos. I've always been off-the-cuff. I had scripts here and there throughout my career in wrestling, but I think a lot of the time it's mostly been improv and I love that. I play it really well. Like I said, Crimzon Harvest, I had a whole monologue. I had a whole three-minute talking scene, and that was pretty much all improv, most of it. They gave me bullet points, but I was able to do it. And that helped me land other roles, that whole scene. So, because there were people watching who are directors behind the camera that are hanging out watching, it really helped. But studying a script, it's harder, definitely. When I can put my own flavor on things, I'm able to utilize my improv skills, I think that's a really good strong point I have. It's definitely different than wrestling. Definitely different.


How familiar with you, or how big of a fan of the horror-thriller genre were you going into it?

It was so cool. Mr. Reset was my first ever film I ever did, which is a wrestling-themed, horror-psychological thriller. It's very wrestling-based, so it was a very easy film for me to transition to because I played who I am as a wrestler times 10, and that was really cool for me. That kind of started my love for acting. Like I said, I got to wrestle, got to have matches and all these different things, but I will say this, it helped reading lines and having to put my character in different positions. I loved it. I loved the transition... I love the horror community because they're also supportive and kind, but I will say, I was a big horror fan growing up. Like, I like Halloween, It, Freddy, Jason, Saw. I love Saw more now... I love the horror industry. I love the people in it, and it's just been amazing.


How did you first get involved with acting?

Mr. Reset was the first one. That director came to me and said, “Hey, Vinny, I watch your career. I know your character. I love your character. I know all these different things, and I know you went through these things. I want to build this horror, fiction, psychological, conspiracy theory movie. I want you to be this character, but I want you to play this. I want you to play Powerpunch yourself.” And that's how it started. We filmed. I loved it... Getting my wife involved, she played my wife also. She played my partner. She was amazing. She killed it. She freaking killed it. But I have to do things that I wouldn't do in the ring. I have to be able to adapt and use the character in other ways that I wouldn't use in wrestling, so it's really cool. That's how I fell in love with acting. And then from there, a year, six months went by, I was wrestling and wrestling. Once the movie was done, I was doing a lot of global stuff. I had a European tour. I had a Middle East and a European tour together. Three European tours and a South American tour of wrestling. I did Crimzon Harvest, and that's when everything really started picking up for me, fast. I went to a horror con, met some really good people, and from there, everything snowballs. One thing I want to mention is, every single thing you do matters. Every single person you meet, talk to, handshake, that everything matters so much. That's an inspiring thing that I have been able to learn. Because a lot of people say, “Oh, that doesn't matter. Why are you posting this? Why are you going and filming this promo? Why are you filming that? This doesn't matter.” But you know what? Everything matters.


That's a great piece of advice. Has that probably been for you the biggest lesson you've learned in your acting journey so far, and in wrestling as well?

Yeah. Everything you do. Even if you cut a promo and you're like, “All right, this promo is for this show,” whatever, and you post it. I don't ever believe phoning anything in. Some people may phone things in or a video or a promo, anything, you don't do that. Everything you do, give 100 percent to, because like I said, you never know who's gonna see it. You never know who's watching behind the camera. You never know who's decision-making is behind the camera. Things have happened as of late in my career... I can't get into it, but you just never know who's watching and you never know who's gonna call you when something opens up. Always gotta be prepared, and that's how a lot of things happen in this industry. You meet people and create relationships and don't go in expecting everything. Don't go in to expect, “Oh, I'm gonna meet this person, this is gonna happen. I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna do this and this.” No. Just go in with good intentions and shit will happen.

Mr. Reset comes out June 2nd. You mentioned when you had filmed it and all the other stuff that happened in the meantime before it comes out. When did you film it?

It was a while ago, like a year and a half ago. We filmed this movie and, we went through producers, and went through possibly selling the film. We went through so much different stuff with this film. People wanted to change it, fix it. People wanted to put their own spin on it. And the people that were doing that didn't know what we were going after. They didn't understand it. So, we're seeing these people come in and they wanted to do their own spin on it. They wanted to add this or pull that. And me and the director and the team are looking at it... They wanted to change into like something completely different. I think this film will really hit horror and wrestling fans. They wanted it to just hit a completely different demographic. That wasn't the vision we wanted. Everything's respectful, but we went our separate ways. Now we're doing it on our own. We got all these different places distributing it and that's it. You have to be able to do what's right for you and what's right for what you believe your film should be, not what other people think.


Have you had a chance to not only just rest, but also let it sink in that this has been your life for the last year and a half?

No, I haven't able to. When you're working so hard and you're just nonstop mentally going and going, it's hard to take a step back. And that's a problem I have. I'll tell a little, funny story. Me and my wife, we love traveling together. We love doing theme parks and stuff. Recently we were doing a SeaWorld, Disney and Universal trip. We had so much fun in Orlando. We had so much fun. And I wrestled that trip also. We made some work happen, too, but it was great. But I'm realizing as I'm at the theme parks, I'm doing business. I'm answering emails, sending emails, answering phone. I love that. I don't mind ever. But I'm bumping into people, answering emails. Why can't I put the phone down for a few minutes and just enjoy where I am? I love Disney. I love Universal. I love these places. Being present is something that I have had to work on.


It's definitely not easy. Especially when you're at Disney, too. You definitely want to let it soak in. I mean, there's so much to enjoy there.

When you're at any of these parks, really, it's the best. It's the best. But also I will say, I want to move to Orlando eventually. I would spend time in Orlando for two or three weeks just to see if I would like living there. I love the theme parks. I love what's here. I love everything about it, but I want to see how it is to be here at a longer time to see how much I love it. I'll go to the gym. I'll train my body. I'll work out. And then I'll go to Disney Springs and just walk, just get my cardio in and just walk and then do business. If I'm on the phone, I'm walking. I'm burning calories. When your mind's immersed, you're burning more calories, you're getting more steps in. It's great.


That's such an interesting concept because I'm the same way where I love Disney so much and I'm from Connecticut. So, I get the Northeast lifestyle, especially with the weather. But I've always like felt if I were to move to Florida, with Disney itself, I feel it would be less special when it's right there in front of you. Have you gotten that vibe yet?

No, it's still amazing every single time I go, so I don't care. The thing is, you have Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, Epic Universe, I think Sloth World is coming out. You have Gatorland, you have Busch Gardens an hour away, you have a lot more stuff, a lot more. You have the coolest mini golf places, so there's just so much to do. These theme parks are always changing things up. Disney's always adding stuff and changing stuff. The thing is, they have like 25 plus resorts and there's always things to do at these resorts that are different. I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. Sometimes people will just pop in and have dinner and leave. That's fun. I would love to do that. There's a million different restaurants, too. If I want to one day just be in T-Rex Land, I'll go to Disney Springs. If I want to one day feel like I want to be on a pirate ship, I'll go to Pirate of the Caribbean or a pirate's restaurant. There's just so many different vibes and so many different moods you could be in. I can't see myself getting tired of it.

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