“Deuce” Jimmy Snuka Jr. Teases Massive New Project, Growing Up with the “Superfly” as His Dad, Deuce & Domino, PCW Return, more

Show: Wrestling Epicenter
Guest: “Deuce” Jimmy Snuka Jr.
Date: 10/27/2026
Your Host: “Arizona” James Walsh

I, “Arizona” James, grew up in New Jersey. I moved to the Grand Canyon State a few decades ago, though. The funny thing is, that also describes my guest this week. Only, my father was a Sargeant in the US ARMY. And, well, my guest’s father was “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka! I’d say we both had cool dads, would you not agree?

A month or so ago, “Deuce” Jimmy Snuka Jr – My guest this week, if you didn’t work that out, appeared for Phoenix Championship Wrestling at their record breaking Anniversary event rocking the mic in an energetic promo and knocking “MK” Matthew Roblez’s block off in the process. I came to find out that Deuce has also been helping train at PCWAZ’s training center, the Arizona Pro Wrestling Training Center, #TraininAZ. So, it was a natural fit that I’d extend the invitation to Deuce to do our show. He accepted, which I was more than grateful for. And, well, here is the result of our chat.

In this conversation, transcribed verbatim, you will see our conversation about his entire career, his childhood, his life after wrestling, the Deuce & Domino team, and so much more.

Don’t forget to check out www.WrestlingEpienter.com for mroe great content like this!  We have been blessed to welcome everyone including “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka himself as well as the Hulkster, Randy Savage, Bruno Sammartino, Superstar Billy Graham, Steve Austin, Batista, and nearly 950 others over the years. All of our interviews are available on our website. So, check it out. And, buy somethin’ through the store, will ya?
YouTube linK: https://youtu.be/nYsXH4cM7K0

“DEUCE” JIMMY SNUKA JR.

“Arizona” James: Welcome back to Interactive Wrestling Radio. It is a distinct privilegeóeasy for me to sayóto welcome on a gentleman whose father I had on about 12 years ago, maybe 13 years ago at this point, to promote his book. And I’ve always wanted to have this gentleman on. In fact, we have a lot in common. He’s a fellow former Jersey boy living out here in the desert. He is Deuce, Jimmy Snuka Jr. Are you with me, sir?

Deuce: I am here. Great to be on here. Appreciate it, my man.

“Arizona” James: Yeah, it’s such a great pleasure to have you on. We did speak about doing one quite a few years ago, but after I met you at the PCW show that you were at just a month agoócan’t believe that’s a month ago already, that’s incredibleóum, I had to have you on. So I’m so glad you agreed to come on and do this with me. Let’s talk a little bit about that. You were part of the PCW show. What did you think of what those guys are doing?

Deuce: Uh, honestly, man, so IóI’ve been out of the wrestling ring for probably, I want to say five or six years at least, and I think the last show I actually did, or the last time I was even in a wrestling ring, was about that long ago here in Arizona. And so to get back in the ring and to be part of what those guys have got, I mean, there’s aóthere’s a distinct reason why I went andóand did something with them, because IóI really actually appreciate and love what those guys have going on. You know, um, like I’ve spent a little bit of time. I knew John Wolfgang first, and then, oh, oh sorry, that’s not true. I actually met, uh, Dom Vitali, weóYep, we actually did a few shows together, uh, here in Arizona, I believe, maybe in California, I’m not sure. But I met him many years ago after I was done at WWE. And, you know, always a good guy, but I didn’t know him a whole lot, just knew, you know, had met him on the shows, kind of a thing. And then I’d, uh, met John Wolfgang probably, I don’t know, maybe a year ago, he came to see me speak, as I do a lot of, uh, public speaking, I get asked to, to do that, uh, periodically. And so he, he came to hear me speak, uh, because we have a lot of similar beliefs and things like that, and he’s always trying to get better. And so when I saw what they were doing and realized they had a wrestling school, you know, it was those two guys, IóI wanted to, you know, get in there and be a part of a little bit of what they were doing. So, for sure.

“Arizona” James: Absolutely. I grew up in New Jersey. There is independent wrestling shows every weekend somewhere in Jersey. I saw you in your very early days at several of those shows. Um, out here in Arizona, we’re not as lucky. There’s not as many of those around here. Um, I’m embarrassed that it took as long as it did for me to find PCW, because those guys have the right mindset, and I love what they’re doing. They really do put on aóa great family-centric show, and, um, I did hear that you’re also offering some assistance, or have been the past couple months, at the Arizona Training Center, the Train in AZ, Arizona Pro Wrestling Training Center. Um, what do you think of how they’re operating and what they’re doing?

Deuce: Yeah, so that was, I think, where I first saw, you know, really what they were doing. IóI think I went to the show after I went to the training center, is the way it went. So when I first saw the training center and the way that they were training, the way that they were interacting with the students, I was like, man, these guys, they really have it together, like I feel like they’re doing a good job, right?

“Arizona” James: Exactly.

Deuce: Cuz when I first started training in wrestling, right? IóI called up my dad and I started training with him, and so IóI learned from, you know, inóin many’s, uh, opinions, not just my own, you know, one of the best that had ever done it. And so when I saw what they were doing and compared it to what I learned from my father, what I learned from OVW, you know, andóand WWE and the way that they train, I was like, okay, these guys know what they’re talking about. So, IóI was excited to, to be around the school, around the, the students that they have there, and then of course to, to get on, you know, some of the shows and stuff they were doing. So, IóI really appreciate what they’re doing, I like it a lot. You know, a big thing in wrestling is, you know, you got to trust yourself and trust the other guy, and when I saw, you know, John Wolfgang, Dom Vitali, those are trustworthy guys. So, thatóthat’s a big reason why I decided to, to link up with them a little bit.

“Arizona” James: Exactly. Is that something we’re going to see continue on or was that aóa thing that you’re already done with or you’re going to continue on doing things with PCW in the future?

Deuce: IóI can see myself doing things with PCW in the future, for sure. You know, I’móI’m helping out down there at the school a little bit, you know, and just, just sharing, you know, some of what I know andóand learning from them too, right? Cuz youóyou’re always learning in this game, oróor hopefully in any game if you’re willing to do that. And then, uh, yeah, Ióand their shows, I mean, you’ve seen their shows and if, you know, anybody checks on what they’re doing online, it’sóit’s incredible, like a really good, you know, like you said, a family-friendly show, but really high-quality wrestling, good storytelling, a lot of good stuff.

“Arizona” James: Awesome. Absolutely. And we mentioned it in the intro that I had the honoróand it was an honor, sincerely an honoróto have your dad on, uh, when he was promoting his book. And, you know, I’m lucky enough to have had some of the greatest of all time, including your dad on. You yourself, youóto you, he’s dad. To me, it’s like superhero of theóof the wrestling business, but to you, he’s dad. What was it like growing up with the super-with the, uh, Superfly as your dad?

Deuce: Yeah, so IóI like you. IóI saw him as a superhero, in all honesty. And I think most or maybe, you know, hopefully many sons, right? They see their dad asóas somebody to look up to. But I really did, you know, see him that way. Like I lovedówell, and I still do, IóI love superheroes and comic books growing up, right? And when I would travel on the road with my dad, he’d always get me like three comic books to read on the road with him. So, you know, thatóI grew up reading these comic books and to me, my dad was Superman. And, um, you know, so itóit wasóit was that way for me as a kid. It was that way for me seeing him, you know, what he did for work. And probably theóIóI would say probably the greatest thing though, is my dad always, the way that he talked, the way that he worked, the way that he did things, he was always trying to help me to want to be great. Like that wasóthat was a common theme in our house. So, you know, you talk about being, you know, a superhero or, you know, the Superfly, in his mind, he wanted to be great, and I really believe that for me and my sisters, heóhe wanted our family to be great. He wanted his kids to be great. So, IóI got to thank my father for that, for sure.

“Arizona” James: Beautiful. And, um, it was interesting. I did watch another interview you did fairly recently with another podcast, and I saw that you didn’t originally want to follow your dad’s footsteps into the wrestling business, but eventually chose that you wanted to do so. What was the turning point? What made you decide this is what you wanted to do?

Deuce: So a big piece of it was, you know, I saw wrestling asóas a little bit of a hardship because my dad was gone all the time, and I had a close relationship, a close love with my dad. Like we were very close. I didn’t have any brothers, and so, you know, my dad was my older brother in a sense. And he always wanted a son, and, you know, I’m the oldest and so we had that kind of a relationship. And so for him to be gone all the time was really tough on me as a kid. And so when I went to wrestling or I saw wrestling, right? IóI thought I was like, oh, that’s a hard life, and Ióand I didn’t really want that. And so that was the initial, I don’t want to wrestle, feeling.

“Arizona” James: Yep, understood.

Deuce: Um, and then, you know, I got to a point in my life, I mean, I was 28 years old, and when I decided to wrestle, andóand I don’t know if many people may not know, my dad didn’t start wrestling till he was 27, so I was, you know, a year after him. And if you’ve ever been doing something, whatever, a job, sports, dating, you know, anything, if you’ve ever been doing something and you really get this overwhelming feeling like, man, I need to be doing something else, like this is not what I’m supposed to be doing, that’s exactly what happened. I was working at a TV station, I was working as a youth counselor and, you know, I’d wake up at 4:00 AM to drive, you know, 45 minutes, finish that job, and then drive the 45 minutes back home, you know, eat something, go to my other job, and I was justóI was like, this sucks, you know, I’ve got a wife and kids and a family and I need to be doing something else.

“Arizona” James: Um, so I’ve been around a long time too. And, uh, one of the first things that I did promotions for was when they were desperately still holding out hope, smoking the hopium, if you will, uh, that the XWF would end up being something. You got a chance to be part of the XWF, uh, with your dad, which, you know, it didn’t last more than one Taping, but that was kind of your first major exposure. Did you guys have any hope that the XWF would beówould have legs? Let’s put it that way.

Deuce: Well, itóit was a solid idea, right? Because ifóif you remember during that time, a lot of the vintage changed directions with WWF, right? And they were going away from the older guys, Hogan, you know, mean Gene, my pops, like they were going away from those guys andóand doing theóthe next generation, which rightfully so, but they just kind ofóthey didn’t include them at all. Like that was before the time where they were bringing theóthe old-timers back for Royal Rumbles and all of that stuff, right? And so the thought of the XWF, itóthere was a lot of good ideas that they had and it was basically, let’s mix these young guys like myself and a lot of, you know, Frankie Kazarian andóand there were just a bunch of all these young guys that they had ideas for toóto mix them with the older guys andóand bring them up. And so, you know, Hogan and all those other guys, and so once it didn’t work out, that’s really when I see Vince kind of take the idea andóand now incorporate some of that. So, we all thought it was a great idea and, you know, that it was going to work, but, you know, they didn’t have probably the right structure or, you know, maybe the right people running it, I’m not sure. But, yeah, weówe definitely had big hopes for it, you know, and then, you know, Vince took some of those ideas and then, you know, I think TNA ended up filming out of there and,

“Arizona” James: Yeah, exactly, the sameóthe exact same sound stage as well.

Deuce: Yes, exactly. Pretty incredible. Yeah.

“Arizona” James: It wasn’t that long later. You were talking about five years later that we finally got a chance to see you in the WWE. And when you did get there, well, let’s not bury the lead. How did you end up getting your foot in the door with WWE? Because I know obviously being a junior, being a second-generation guy thatóa generation guy that has the name and the affiliation with his dad, that there was always going to be, um, a path for you. But how did you end up getting your foot in the door in WWE?

Deuce: So it was actually hard for me to get in there. IóI did probably three dark matches, I think, to try to, you know, basically that’s a tryout to get in there. And I, you know, they didn’t go well or they didn’t feel like I was ready or whatever. Nobody essentially called me back or gave me a chance. And it, it goes back to that, you know, time where I tell you, you’re doing one thing and you really feel like you need to be doing something else. Well, I’m probably four and a half years in the business now, and I’m still not in WWE, and I was super frustrated, like big time frustrated. And I basically, lovingly, respectfully, but quite upset, IóI basically had a, a heart-to-heart, you know, come-into-father-and-son moment with my dad. Right. And I basically had said to my dad, you know, “Hey, can you take me to Vince? Can you introduce me to Vince?” And it went back to some advice that, uh, the Rock had given me, that Dwayne had given me when I first started wrestling, is, you know, I called him up when I wanted to get in, and he’s the one who told me to train with my dad. And one of the best advice he ever gave me was, you got to use what you’ve got. You got to use what you’ve got. And that’s what he did, right? Heóhe had his dad, he was friends with Pat Patterson who was, you know, doing the matches for WWE and they called them up and that’s how Dwayne got in. And so four and a half years of being frustrated, I was like, “Okay, dad, you know Vince and he trusts you, so can you take me to Vince and introduce me? I was like, I’ll do all the talking. I know exactly what to say, but I need you to introduce me. I need you to, you know, use what I got.” And he didn’t want to. I think, in some ways because he probably wanted me to, you know, earn myóearn my own way in there, he wanted me to do it myself, probably. Um, you know, just these different things, and, and I never really asked him why, I just was so frustrated about it. So, when he finally did agree after me pushing him andóand asking him, I believe that Raw was at Madison Square Garden that time and we were in Jersey, and we flipped the car around and drove to the garden and basically when we walked in the building in catering, you know, that Vince was walking in on the other side of catering. There was nobody else in there, but Vince and his security guard. My dad walked up, hugged Vince, said, “Hey, you know, this is my son, I think you’ve seen him,” and Vince was like, “Oh yeah, you done a couple dark matches,” andóand then I just took over from there and I justóI talked to Vince and, you know, asked him about getting a job there and I suggested, you know, when he told me I wasn’t ready for TV, I knew he’d probably say that, and I suggested how about OVW? And he said, “Yeah, that might work.” You know, weówe said goodbye, thanked him, 30 minutes later, Johnny Ace came up to me, Vince’s right-hand man at the time, andóand they offered me a contract to go down to OVW. That’s how I got in.

“Arizona” James: Very cool. And, and I had a question about OVW because it’s still around now, and Al Snow runs it and they’re still doing things where they try to train guys the right way, but did you learn a lot in your time in OVW?

Deuce: Oh my gosh, that was incredibly valuable in OVW. You know, IóI spent three and a half years down there, so four and a half years before I got my first WWE contract, and then I’m in OVW for three and a half years before I got to WWE TV. And so I saw a lot of guys come in to OVW and go up to TV while I was down there the whole time. And I really got to thank, so we had some great trainers, of course, Al Snow was one of them, and he was the last trainer, uh, I had down there, and he was so good, taught, taught me so much. Then we also had, um, Lance Storm and then Bill DeMott would come in sometimes. We had visits from like the Dudleys came in, uh, you know, just I think that was a one-off or maybe they came a couple times, but so thereóthere was just a lot of knowledge in there. And we think about that time, right, I was in there with guys like Miz was there, CM Punk came that time, Cody and I, you know, we’re up and down the road together. So, some of, you know, these guys that have had hall of fame careers now in the business, they, you know, I was in OVW with those guys. Beth Phoenix as well, so, Nikki James, you know, that was just a incredible crew.

“Arizona” James:  You mentioned a few other generational guys, guys that had dads and grandads in the business, and we’ll talk about legacy in a few moments, but, um, I just recently had on Jamie Dundee, who obviously his dad just recently passed away and he had a little bit of aóonline meltdown. Um, but he talked a little bit about the difficulties of being in your dad’s shadow. Did you feel a lot of that, that you were in your dad’s shadow at all?

Deuce: So, IóI don’t know that I necessarily felt it that way as much as because the wayóthe way my brain operates aóa little bit is that when I get the knowledge, when I know I’m supposed to do something, I just go after it. And so I didn’t really think of being Jimmy Snuka’s son as much as I was like, “Okay, this is what I need to do, okay, what do I need to do to do this?” You know, “Okay, train with dad and let’s go.” And then when they gave me the job at OVW, Vince literally told me himself, “I don’t want you to be Jimmy Snuka Jr., I don’t want you to do the Snuka thing, find your own way, you know, basically find some something else,” right? And so I didn’t have the, maybe you could say the weight, I guess, of that being the son. IóI mean I did a little bit on the indies and, and that whole thing and I had to kind of use that or utilize that because that’s what I had, and that was fine. But getting to WWE, I didn’t really have that pressure, I guess, of it. And so it didn’t bother me that much, except for when I had to make the switch and, and do the legacy thing. Now that, that had some weight to it. That was difficult.

“Arizona” James: I got you.

Deuce: But at first, no.

“Arizona” James: Okay, cool. Um, it’s interesting, um, I like to people listen when I’m at the wrestling shows, whether it’s an indie, whether it’s WWE, and I like to hear what people think. And I heard more than one person at the PCW show say, ” Wow, Deuce, I didn’t know that was Jimmy Snuka’s son.” You had the character, it was completely different, uh, like she said, they wanted you to be something other than Jimmy Snuka’s son. Um, how did the idea come to be Deuce and Domino, the greaser look, the 50s theme, and maybe a little bit of Andrew Dice Clay thrown in the mix?

Deuce: Sure.

“Arizona” James: You know, IóI think I didn’t think at the time that that was going to serve me well what Vince told me, you know, but I realize, matter of fact, just even right now, I realize even more howóhow good that was for me. And and here’s what I mean by that, is when we came up with the Deuce and Domino gimmick, right? That forced me to figure out something.

“Arizona” James: Whereas Jimmy Snuka Jr. in some ways would have been easier, I didn’tóI didn’t have to figure out a whole lot, right? But because Vince essentially forced me to figure out a way to get to TV without the Jimmy Snuka thing, is that pushed my creative juices for, basically, Domino and I to come up with, okay, weówe need a way to get to TV and we need something that was different and, you know, that was a huge, huge thing that my father would always talk about in our home, is he would always say, “Son, you got to be different. You can’t be like everybody else.” You know, and if you look at the way he wrestled, look at what he wore, look at him, right? Heóhe was very different. Everything he did from the tiger print, nobody’d ever worn that before, he was the first one, right? The animal prints, you know, coming off the top rope. And so that was my training mentally and understanding I needed to do something different. So when Domino said, “I’móI’m doing this Andrew Dice Clay gimmick and, you know, Andrew Dice Clay said heóhe based it off of greasers,” as soon as he said that word, it was like a lightbulb went off in my head. I was like, “That’s different, I love greasers, I grew up on the movie Grease, and Grease 2, and The Outsiders. Nobody’s ever done greasers, that would be cool, we should do that.” And Domino’s like, “Yeah,” and so that’s how we basically created Deuce and Domino, is he took the name DominoóI forget exactly why he said Domino, but, you know, of course, it was based on Andrew Dice Clay, and I took the name Deuce because I’móI’m the second, right?

“Arizona” James: The second, right. Yeah, that’s.

Deuce: Exactly. So I just said Deuce, andóand that’sóthat’s where Deuce and Domino came up.

“Arizona” James: You guys won the tag team titles. That’s amazing. It felt like though maybe there wasn’t as much of a focus on tag team wrestling overall in WWE at the time. Do you guys feel like you were given enough of an opportunity to make the tag team titles your own?

Deuce: Probably not. Probably not. Andóand I think there was, you know, some of that was maybe the way that the office felt about tag team wrestling at the time, you know, that thereóthere we didn’t have a ton of tag teams, you know, going at it. Like London and Kendrick, they had the titles before us and they had held them for, I think, over a year or something.

“Arizona” James: Yeah, they did, yeah.

Deuce: Yeah, they did, yeah. And, and so, and we had done so much with the tag titles in OVW, because we, I don’tómost people don’t know is we actually were in OVW together as Deuce and Domino for about a year.

“Arizona” James: Mm-hmm.

Deuce: So, as soon as the office saw the gimmick, which we literally put together like the night before, two nights before, and once the office came down to OVW, they saw what we did and they’re like, “Okay, we need you guys to come up to TV and do a dark match,” and they were trying to put us on TV, but, you know, we weren’t ready, right? And so that year in OVW really gave us an opportunity to tell stories, understand the gimmick, and all of that. So, by the time we got to TV, like we knew who Deuce Domino and Cherry was. We knew how to interact and do the whole thing. And so we were excited to do a lot of what we did in OVW, like we had a great angle with Cody Rhodes and Sean Spears and, you know, all of that. We were looking forward to doing that on WWE TV and didn’t feel like we got the chance, too. So, yeah, we missed out there.

“Arizona” James: Yeah, I agree. I agree. And Cherry was a big part, Cherry, I should say, I almost said Sherry, just force of a habit, was a big part of the, of the persona. Um, I feel like that’s missing these days, having, you know, the pretty girl on the arm and all that kind of thing. Do you think that she added a lot to the overall package of Deuce and Domino?

Deuce: Oh, for sure. Andóandóand I got to give that credit to Domino, right? That was his idea. When we came up with the greasers, Domino was such a creative guy. Like he literally said, “Well, and we should have a girl on roller skates and we’ll call her Cherry, you know, like from the movie The Outsiders,” and, um, you know, and because again, like nobody had ever done the roller skates thing, right? And, and, you know, and then we should come out in a car, like he had this whole idea of it. And so a lot of those ideas, you know, I contribute to my partner, to Domino. And itóit did, it added to the whole thing, for sure.

“Arizona” James: Very good. How is he doing, by the way, Cliff Compton, a.k.a. Domino, if you will?

Deuce: Yeah, he’s in Vegas now. He actually works for, uh, Cirque du Soleil in, uh, Las Vegas at one of the casinos there. Yeah, he’s part of one of theóthe shows. I think I heard there’sóthere’s anotheróanother former wrestler, I forget his name, he was after us, but I think he works for Cirque du Soleil as well.

“Arizona” James: That’s interesting that they’d be working for that, because when I had, name-dropping now. When I had LA Knight, who’s one of the big guys now, uh, on the show, he kind of compared a lot of the wrestling of today to Cirque du Soleil, and he said that’s never been his style, he never wants to do things like that. You saw a little bit of it, it’s not really PCW’s thing to have, you know, the acrobats. Um, but they do have a couple of guys that do high-flying. What do you think of how it’s gone that route as the son of a guy who, you know, had the dad who famously jumped off the top of the cage?

Deuce: Yeah, IóI mean, I love seeing, um, you know, I think anybody can appreciate athleticism, right? And some of the stuff these guys do nowadays, it’s crazy. The girls, too, right?

“Arizona” James: Mhm.

Deuce: IóI mean, it still pops me to see a lot of what they’re doing. I think, just for me, as long as they’re doing it within a story, right? Like it’s part of the story, then I’m all for it. But, man, the athleticism and the stuff these guys do now, it’s crazy.

“Arizona” James: Yeah, absolutely. And, uh, IóI heard you mention this on another podcast and I loved your answer. So, as much as I hate asking the same questions other people ask, I’m going to ask it anyway. You had a tag match where you and Domino got to face your dad and Sgt. Slaughter, who I’m desperately trying to get on this show at some point, one of the few that I’ve not had on. Um, what was it like to be opposite sides of the ring with your dad and Sarge?

Deuce: Man, highlight of my career.

“Arizona” James: That’s what it was like.

Deuce: You know, people have asked me, “What was your favorite match ever?” That was my favorite match ever. I absolutely, you know, love that. And it goes back to, like what I had said earlier, is that, you know, IóI’ve been close to my father, you know, ever since I can remember. And so how many second generation or third generation, generational wrestlers get to be in the ring on a WWE pay-per-view and wrestle, you know, their, their family member like that? How many people get to do that? Let alone their father. I know it doesn’t happen much, right? It hasn’t happened a lot. And so I was, um, you know, I was in awe, uh, to, to get the chance to do it. So much so that, you know, IóI when I was on the top rope, there was a moment in that match where IóI have Sgt. Slaughter on the ground and I climb to the top rope like I’m mocking my father, right? And I’m getting ready to superfly Sarge, and I look at my dad, and that was like the moment in, in the match that probably was my favorite is because I look over at him, you know, for a second and I like, you know, uh, like I think I like throw my hands at him like I’m mocking him and then go to do the superfly. But that’s probably one of my favorite moments in the whole match or in my career, standing on the top rope, you know, looking over at my pops on the ring apron, just before I do the superfly, probably my favorite moment, uh, of all time, uh, in wrestling. Deuce: And then, you know, the match is over andóand, and, you know, I’ve told this before, but I’ll say it again, is once the match was over, right? And I come through the back, and I’m excited, I’móI’m on cloud nine of course, because just got to wrestle my dad everything, and we come through the curtain, and IóI believe I was the first one through, and I saw Vince there in gorilla, and I’m just excited. I’m like, “Vince, thank you so much for this match, right? Appreciate it,” and Vince looks at me and he’s like, “I didn’t do it for you, I did it for me.”

“Arizona” James: By the way, you do a good Vince impression!

Deuce: (laughs) I’ve heard him a few times. So, yeah, yeah. You know, but I think what’s, what’s fun about that is a lot of things is one, Vince wanted to see that match and thank goodness he did because he didn’t have to do that and I got to experience that highlight of my career. On the other hand, too, right? Is, I think, if I don’t, if I’m not mistaken, right? Later after that, Vince wrestled Shane, many years afterwards, right? On a pay-per-view, I think.

“Arizona” James: Yeah, they did the, he did the thing where he booked God as well, but there’s a few of those things where he did with Shane, but yeah. Wow.

Deuce: Yeah.

“Arizona” James: What was your opinion of Vince? Did you have a positive overall opinion of him?

Deuce: So, for me, man, I, I really, I cannot complain anything about Vince and the way that he treated us and treated me. And here’s what I mean by that, is every time I asked Vince for some thing, for instance, when my dad introduced me and I asked Vince for a job, okay, Vince didn’t say yes, Vince said, “That might work.” Those were his words.. And then 30 minutes later, he must’ve thought about it and thought, “You know what, let’s put him in OVW, let’s see what happens,” right? And it happened. When I asked him for something else, right, for our tag team, Vince, he delivered. And so every time I asked him for anything, he always delivered on what he said he would do.

“Arizona” James: Hmm.

Deuce: And so, you know, what do you say about somebody that always does what they say they’re going to do, at least for you?

“Arizona” James: That’s right.

Deuce: It’s high trust there. And, you know, my pops always, that was the first thing my dad taught me, or one of the first things, is you got to trust yourself and trust the other guy. And so, you know, me trusting my own skills and everything, and then trusting Vince with whatever he said, it, it always happened. So, that was one thing. Here’s, here’s probably two other things. Quick story. So, one is there was a pay-per-view where they forgot to get our car out, andóand we were, you know, they didn’t, they couldn’t figure out how to get the car out. Vince jumps up out of gorilla and starts yelling and screaming at these guys, you know, that they need to figure out how to get our car out of the, you know, because the sets are different, right? That they needed to basically get our car out there so we could come out in the car, uh, for the, for the show, and so he did. And so his care for us, and we’re not even top guys, right? We’re just, we’re just this tag team, but he cared that much about the show, to make sure that we got the car out there. The other thing is this, is I believe it was at the garden, I’m not sure, it was a, it was a definitely a, a TV taping, though. And I saw Vince, Shane, Stephanie, and Linda McMahon all cramped in this little room, watching the show after TV was off the air. They’re watching themselves back in the segment,

“Arizona” James: Mhm.

Deuce: And they were giddy, like they were popping for each other. They were popping for what they were watching, and I only saw it for about 5, 10 seconds, maybe as I was walking in the back, and the thought that I got was, man, these guys really love what they do, they really love the product, right? And, and how can you not love it that much, you know, when it’s, it’s what you do for a living and, you know, what you do for your family. So those were my experiences that I had, and so, man, I have nothing to complain about on that side.

“Arizona” James: A lot of people say that you didn’t become Jimmy Snuka Jr. because Vince McMahon hated to be called junior. Do you think there’s anything to that?

Deuce: (laughs) That may be true, and maybe that coincides with what he said, “I don’t want you to do Jimmy Snuka Jr., right? Don’t do that. If I remember right, when Ted Dibiase, uh, did his thing, right? I don’t think they called him junior if I think about it now.

“Arizona” James: Nope.

Deuce: Didn’t they just call him Ted Dibiase?

“Arizona” James: Yep.

Deuce: That’s what they did.

“Arizona” James: And then you’ve got You got Brian Pillman Jr. now, they changed him to Lexus King and his guys that, you know, they changed the name entirely. I guess, even still, they still don’t like juniors too much.

Deuce: Yeah. So, I mean, IóI can see that being at least partially right, and which is one reason why, um, you know, when they said, “Okay, we want you to do the Snuka thing, but you need a different name.” That’s one of the reasons why we use Sim,

“Arizona” James: Mhm.

Deuce: You know, they asked me, “Okay, you know, what’s a name?” and I said, “Sim.” I remember telling Triple H, and, um, and he was like, “Okay, why Sim?” And that’s in, in Samoa, right? It’s short for it’s Jimmy, or Jim. And so my family actually calls me that, like my sisters andóand some family members, they call me Sim. And so I was like, “Yeah, let’s just use Sim Snuka.” So that was one of the reasons for that.

“Arizona” James: We mentioned Legacy a little bit earlier, but it didn’t last long for you. I know they ended up doing with the three guys you mentioned—Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, and of course the leader, Randy Orton. Why didn’t that last longer for you?

Deuce: I don’t think they felt like it was a good fit, in my opinion. I mean, when I do look at, you know, Ted and Cody and Randy, right, that’s a good look for them. And it looked similar to like when Edge did the Major Brothers, right, who ended up, I think they changed their names Kurt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, right?

“Arizona” James: Zack Ryder, yep. Mhm.

Deuce: Exactly. Is that—that was a really good look for Edge and those guys, and I think that was similar to Randy and Ted and Cody—that was a really good look for them. That definitely would have changed my career for sure though, had Legacy stayed together the way that they had it, you know, when we started. Yeah.

“Arizona” James: Of course I got to ask about WrestleMania 25 and the spot that—I think the internet is a bad thing sometimes, because they shed light on things and they kind of exaggerate things. But the spot with Undertaker, he does his dive over the top rope, you were the cameraman, you were apparently supposed to catch him, doesn’t go well. I mean, it’s wrestling, it happens. How much did that impact your WWE career, and do you attribute that to why that was pretty much the last thing you were involved with?

Deuce: Probably. And maybe it was a slow build of things, like I think the Legacy thing not working out was probably one, and then probably two, the Undertaker situation, and then at that point it was like, okay, you know, what do we do with him now? And I heard this quote before that I don’t think I’ve ever said it in this situation, but I believe that it holds true: it’s better to be ready for an opportunity and not have one than to have the opportunity and not be ready.

“Arizona” James: I like it.

Deuce: And I feel like that I wanted that opportunity. I actually hustled and was bold with Undertaker and Shawn Michaels and tried to, you know, do something with them, and I was given that opportunity. In all seriousness though, I probably wasn’t ready for it, you know, for whatever reason, either mentally, emotionally, or, you know, just understanding the magnitude of that moment. I probably wasn’t ready for it. I think on the other side of that though, it really did teach me a lot. It’s been a great life lesson now, because even though that might have been the last thing I’ll do on WWE TV, you know, who knows? I don’t know. Maybe I can prove myself another way, a different way, I get to make that up somehow, or maybe not. I don’t know. The great thing it’s done for me is—and I’ll reference two things: I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the movie For Love of the Game.

“Arizona” James: Yeah, I have.

Deuce: It’s a movie with Kevin Costner, it’s a baseball movie, right?

“Arizona” James: He made the best baseball movies, there’s three of them, but yes, he made great movies about baseball.

Deuce: He did, right? I love those. And my dad was a huge baseball player before he wrestled, so, yeah, love baseball movies. So in this movie of Kevin Costner, there’s a guy that he plays ball with, and the guy goes up to try to get a ball, and the ball bounces off his head. And everybody’s teasing him, everybody’s making fun of him. And Kevin Costner basically goes up to him and tells him, “Hey, don’t worry about that one, man, we’re going to go and fix this, and, you know, you’re going to be great,” and the guy ends up, you know, doing a save on a home run later on. Same situation—I think it was Eli Manning and the New York Giants—is there’s a guy he throws the ball to, and basically the ball bounces off his head, everybody’s making fun of him, it’s on ESPN, etc. Eli Manning does the same thing and basically talks to his boy, and he makes the incredible catch in the Super Bowl where he catches the ball…

“Arizona” James: David Tyree!

Deuce: Yes, you know the play!

“Arizona” James: I know the play, I’m a Giants fan!

Deuce: Oh, nice! See, I didn’t even know that. There you go, man.

“Arizona” James: There you go, yeah, that was incredible. And that was like one of three catches he made all season, which is another incredible story. Right?

Deuce: Exactly. But had he messed up, right, when he messed up the other catch where it bounced off his head and it was terrible, and Eli didn’t do what he did and still trusted him, he never would have had that Super Bowl moment. And so for me, I’m saying, okay, did I screw that up? Could that have been better? Absolutely. And that sucks, and I wish it never happened. On the other side of it, right, I hope that at some point that there’s something I can do, right, that maybe I get my Super Bowl moment. That’s where I’m going for.

“Arizona” James: Beautiful. And after WWE, you did stay in wrestling for a little while, you did some independents. In fact, according to Cagematch, there was a couple that you got to do where you got to team with your dad, which is pretty cool. But then you stopped. What made you decide when you stopped wrestling—before your recent resurgence into it—what made you decide to step away?

Deuce: It was time, right? Like, when I started wrestling, I had a family, and I still have a family, you know. I’ve got six kids, I got two grandkids, and so stopping wrestling, like, I just couldn’t afford to keep doing it, and I needed to get a regular job type of a thing. And so that was one of the reasons. It was just life, right? Life took over, and I needed to do that. And so because I couldn’t make a living at wrestling anymore and I knew I needed to step away, that was a big reason for, you know, just—it just didn’t make any sense anymore. So that was one of the reasons. Family.

“Arizona” James: Well, there you go. Beautiful. And I guess the same kind of question, but on the other way: what made you decide that you wanted to put your toe back in the wrestling industry?

Deuce: Oh man. So I wasn’t looking to—I wasn’t looking to get back in the wrestling industry. I had no plans for that. And here we go with the same theme, right, is I was not planning on it, and then a project fell into my lap. It’s a wrestling-related project. It’s a really good one, a really big project, and I knew that I couldn’t do this wrestling-related project without getting back into the ring. Like, I needed to get in the ring, be around the business, and that way I could properly prepare myself. Because, you know, if we go back to the Undertaker moment, if I wasn’t ready for that moment and that happened, there’s no way I’m going to get back in the ring and not be ready this time for a big moment. I knew I had to be ready. So that was really a big driver for me in saying, okay, I need to start taking some bookings, and then of course, you know, do the stuff with Phoenix Championship Wrestling and their training center here in Arizona. So it was a perfect opportunity for me to do that, and they were good for it, so it helps them, helps me get ready. So that’s the reason right there.

“Arizona” James: I’m going to give you a little compliment. When you went to the ring—and for those who didn’t see it, I’m sure it’s up there on YouTube—you go to the ring, Dom Vitali introduces you, and you rocked the mic. I mean, I did not know that you could do that! I really didn’t! I didn’t know that you could own the room like that on the microphone. Did you find that you’re more comfortable now, being a little bit older and knowing what you know now, that you could rule the room like that?

Deuce: Absolutely. You know, life…

“Arizona” James: Public speaking might have helped, too, for that matter.

Deuce: Oh, completely, completely! And, you know, to be totally transparent, I always felt, I think, comfortable to a point on the microphone. We just didn’t really get a whole lot of maybe chance to do the mic so much. Like, if you look at some of the backstage stuff we did, right, with Flair, Batista, just any of that backstage stuff, or, you know, I got to talk a little bit on the pay-per-view. Right, I feel comfortable doing it, but, yeah, definitely being a little older now and doing a lot of public speaking and all of that, I—yeah, I would say… you might find this interesting, is I actually get nervous every time I have to speak or teach or like any of that. Get in the ring, I’m always super nervous. But what I’ve learned is that’s just part of me getting ready, and now I look at it as I’m just excited, you know? You can see it as being nervous, but now I’m just excited. I’m super excited to do this, and so it’s a little bit of a mindset switch. But I really appreciate that compliment. That’s a great compliment. You made my day. The interview’s over now, man, we can’t go any higher than that!

“Arizona” James: Well, you did ask me when we were talking before we started more about who you are and what you do aside from pro wrestling, so let me ask you: what are you up to these days? What were you doing before you got back in as much as you are back in? What is Jimmy Snuka’s day like other than that—Jimmy Snuka Jr., I should say?

Deuce: Yes, well, appreciate you bringing that up. So what I do now is I actually utilize a lot of what I learned in the ring and growing up with my father being around the business in sports and entertainment, right, I’ve been around it all my life. And so we know that everybody’s in some type of a battle, some struggle, right, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, relationships, whatever. And so what I do now is I actually help people, athletes, coaches, and organizations, teams, companies, schools, I help them basically win those battles, win those struggles. So I utilize a lot of what I grew up with, and now I get to help other people, and it’s incredibly fulfilling.

“Arizona” James: That’s beautiful. And one of my best friends—and it’s kind of an unlikely best friend—is a guy that you might remember named Eddie Mansfield. We talk quite a bit, very interesting guy, very opinionated, as am I. And we get along well, but he always comes on my show and talks about his project, and he gives me another nugget about whatever project he’s working on, but he never quite tells me what exactly it is. You probably can guess where I’m going with this. Can you give me any more nuggets towards what the project that fell into your lap was?

Deuce: I can tell you—I’ll give you a couple pieces. And the reason I can’t say a whole lot is because we’re in the process right now of trying to, I’ll say, attach a couple of people, a couple of organizations to the project right now, and they’re big situations. And so I don’t want to say what the project is exactly until those people and those organizations are attached to the project. So I’ll say that. You’ll just know that it’s a huge wrestling-related project. I don’t think it’s ever been done, not like this, before. And you’re going to love it because it hasn’t been done before, and the people that we want to attach to it, they’ve had this type of success with it before. And so that’s some of the reasons. I will tell you a couple of things: you’re going to want to remember the name Squared Circle.

“Arizona” James: Squared Circle?

Deuce: Squared Circle, yep. You’re going to want to remember that name, and you’re going to want to remember the name Big Time.

“Arizona” James: Big Time and Squared Circle.

Deuce: Big Time and Squared Circle, yes. So when you hear those, when you see those on the internet or you hear those talked about, you’ll know that that was the project I was talking about. It’s a great project though. Obviously, I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t excited about it, but it’s exactly what I was looking for that I didn’t know I was looking for.

“Arizona” James: Beautiful. I’m looking forward to hearing more about it. And where can people find out more about you and get in contact with you, and maybe even think about bringing you in for a booking if you were interested in taking them?

Deuce: Best way is probably on Instagram at @JSnuka2—J like Jimmy, my last name Snuka (S-N-U-K-A), and then the number 2, like

Deuce. So @JSnuka2 on Instagram. You can find me on Twitter that same way as well.

“Arizona” James: Beautiful, man. Well, I want to thank you. I kept you a little longer than I said I would, but I really appreciate it, and this was a whole lot of fun. If there’s ever anything I could do in the future to help you out, let me know, and of course I’ll tag you and send you some links when I get this up online.

Deuce: I appreciate it, Jim, thanks so much. Appreciate you having me on and taking the time, man. Always good to talk with somebody that, you know, loves wrestling and appreciates what we do. Sounds like you’ve been a fan for a long time, so thank you so much for having me.

“Arizona” James: I appreciate you.