WWE star JC Mateo spoke with Hawaii News Now about various topics, including his childhood as a fan of Hulk Hogan.
Mateo said, “Just seeing him on TV, the red and yellow, and it’s like, ‘Say your prayers and take your vitamins.’ I was like I’m going to be like him when I grow up.”
On getting into amateur wrestling in high school:
“I saw a flyer that said ‘wrestling.’ I thought they were going to teach us how to like do elbow drops from high places. I showed up and I was like, ‘Wait a minute!’ There’s like no ring. It was just a mat.”
On how he got inspired to get into pro wrestling:
“I remember flipping through the TV one day, on the local access channel, I saw that there was a show coming up like in two weeks on Sand Island Access Road. So I rode my bike from Foster Village all the way down to Sand Island Access Road and watched this wrestling show. It was everything that I wanted it to be and more.”
On the grind of independent wrestling:
“Three shows a week, every week, every month. It gets kind of rough after a while on the body. I drive for six hours, like from Northern California to Los Angeles, and I didn’t get paid. There was no money, so it was like, that was all out of my pocket.”
On his WWE tryout in 2014 and other contacts from the company:
“They said no at the time, and that kind of hurt my ego… From 2020 to 2024, I had like two or three other offers from them (WWE). It’s very fortunate in my career where I could turn them down and be fine with it, and then finally they got me.”
On signing his WWE contract:
“I kind of felt like I was in a dream, just because I was like, ‘What if my mind is playing tricks on me?’”
On his message to aspiring wrestlers:
“The main thing is just never give up. You can’t give up. Like, as if this is your dream, then you gotta do ‘um.”
