AEW Security Team Member & Veteran Wrestler Gabriel Gallo Talks Recent Gruesome Eye Injury, TraininAZ School, PCWAZ’s Growth, more
Show: Interactive Wrestling Radio
Guest: Gabriel Gallo
Date: 10/31/2024
Your Hosts: James Walsh
At the end of September, Gabriel Gallo was in a match at the PCWAZ Live on broadway event from Skyline which saw over 1,600 fans in attendance. I was positioned by the hardcap in the crowd and ended up sat in front of Gallo’s wife and daughter who cheered for Gallo on his entrance. I’ve seen Gabriel Gallo wrestle before and he’s always an impressive guy to watch as he’s physically imposing and leaves it in the ring. But, on this night, he was noticably bleeding from the eye region and it was clear he had somehow hit himself with a his chain on the entrance to the ring. As the match went on, the blood became uncomfortable to see pouring out. But, to his credit, he did the match and got the win. After the show, I was asking some of the wrestlers if they knew how he was doing as clearly the blood was not part of the match. No one had an update. But, I did reach out to him directly online and got the story! He’s the toughest son of a gun I’ve ever seen in person and I’ve seen some tough guys in my day!
Gallo is not just a performer for PCWAZ but also is one of the main trainers of the Arizona Pro Wrestling School, perhaps better known as #TraininAZ. Aside from his credibility as a 20 plus year ring veteran and an Arizona mainstay, he is also a security guard for AEW. So, his credibility cannot be questioned and his professionalism is off the charts.
In our conversation, we discuss his injury, his work with AEW, the growth of Arizona wrestling, and more.
PCWAZ returns on November 23rd with Live on Broadway headlined by a World Title rematch as CLAS challenges the man who beat him for that title, Jon Wolfgang, in a Steel Cage! Gabriel Gallo will also be on hand as well as all of yoour favorite top Phoenix Championship Wrestling stars! For location and tickets, visit the PCWAZ Facebook page!
To listen, check out www.WrestlingEpicenter.com.! If you use this content on your site, please remember to link back to our site!
GABRIEL GALLO:
On injuring himself at PCWAZ Live on Broadway:
“I’m doing OK now. I’ve mamanged to heal up a bit. But, it was a rough couple of weeks after it happened. I’m doing pretty well, though, considering.”
On what exactly happened and the extent of the injury:
“What actually happened, and what is most embarrassing about it is it was me. It was me! 100% me! (laughs) What happened was the ring we use at PCWAZ is slightly higher than the rings I usually slide into. So, when I slid in the ring, the chain bounced off the mat and struck me in the eyeball. It exploded my contact lens… I wear permeables… They’re harder than glass! It shattered it in my eye. So, I had broken glass bits in my eye from the first few seconds in the ring. I thought about it and I’ve watched the tape back… Honestly, I’ve never been hit that hard in my life. Like, if that was a fist, it would be the hardest punch I ever have taken in my life. When we started working, I thought maybe my contact had come loose. I didn’t even know I was bleeding until halfway through the match. Then, I thought my eye was gone when I saw the blood. It was just shattered glass pierced inside my eyeball. I had to go to the hospital afterwards and they had to dig it out. It took 3 and a half hours.”
On how he continued in spite of the injury:
“Well, it was our 6 year anniversary. We had over 1,600 paid in the arena. Everyone on that show I had a hand in training at some point if not all the way… It was 6 years of all of their hard work that went into this show. My eye was already gone! What did I care? I figured I wasn’t going to get out of that ring unless it was in a body bag… Not with all the hard work my kids did to get there.”
On the extent of the long lasting damage:
“It comes and goes. It did do a lot of damage. But, it is not going to stop me. Sometimes I power through, sometimes I put the patch on it. It is very light sensitive right now. But, I’m going to the doctor every week and they’re keeping progress on it.”
On falling in love with wrestling:
“I grew up in a small town and we all would do wrestling moves to each other. I grew up loving it. That is probably the same story every other wrestler has. But, I was lucky enough to meet some guys and get trained which wasn’t easy because there wasn’t any wrestling in Arizona back then. But I lucked out and met the right people after a few mishaps. I ran into Navajo Warrior, Mike Knox, Luther Reigns, Horse Shoe, and CC Starr…. They trained me.”
On breaking in when the business was shrinking due to the closure of WCW and ECW:
“I do sometimes think about that. I call those years the hobiest years. But, it wasn’t until about 3 years into my wrestling that things really came crashing down. Yeah, 9/11 things and the buy out (of WCW) and if you were from WCW and ECW and you weren’t signed to WWE, you were on the indies making money, what little of it there was. I call those years the hobbiest years because there was so little money to be made. But, I pride myself that I was able to stay busy and be active during that time.”
On Navajo Warrior’s influence on his career:
“Navajo Warrior, a lot of people don’t realize, trained all of us. He trained Mike Knox, Luther Reigns, he had a hand in training John Cena. When Navajo trained me, he was training me to be his tag team partner. So, i traveled with him up and down the roads for 3 and a half years. Nav and I are like brothers, like family. We have all kinds of sorted history. But, now, I’d like to say that in my old age, I’m more like Nav than I’m not… Especially in helping young guys. Nav always had the reputation that if you wanted to get signed, you wrestled Navajo. If you worked with him, you’d probably end up with a contract! (laughs) Nav is the version of a worker that I always wanted to be… He could make anybody look good!”
On being an AEW Security Guard:
“That was just pure dumb luck, man. One of the guys was working here and he asked me if I could come in and help for a weekend. I did and I guess it went well because I’ve been working there for going on 2 years now. It is a good job. Everybody is great! And, I get to travel and not take bumps! And, I had worked security before. I worked security for all the Toby Keith restaurants throughout the country. Me and Derick Neikirk who was a former WWE wrestler. In fact, Val Venis worked for us too. In fact, anybody that was worth a shit in the area worked for us, I got them a job too. (laughs)”
On if he ever wishes he could wrestle on the AEW shows he works security for:
“Not really. It is their time now. I would have loved to have wrestled in front of that kind of audience but I wouldn’t do the things these guys do. Canadian Destroyer what? (laughs)”
On the growth of Phoenix Championship Wrestling”
“Ever since COVID, we’ve seen our audience grow each and every show. Every time we put a show, it is a bigger crowd than the previous one. It isn’t just us. There is now a lot of wrestling in Arizona doing well. When I started in 2000, there wasn’t a lot going on. In fact, we are the first company to start in Arizona with Western States Wrestling to start up in almost 20 years. Watching from crowds of 10 people then to now where it is, it is a totally different story. There is actually a wrestling scene out here now!”
On the virtues of #TraininAZ, the wrestling school:
“I train over at the Arizona Pro Wrestling Training Center, #TraininAZ. Anytime you look on Instagram or social media, we use that hashtag. We do tryouts a couple times a year. Everyone you see on PCWAZ as a mainstay were trained at the Arizona Pro Wrestling Academy. Our trainers are myself, Dom Vitalli, Hammerstone, Graves, there’s a whole lot of guys who help train the kids. CLAS is helping train. He’s one of the generations in there, he trained here and now he’s helping train also. And, it is all hard work. Everything in there is earned. So if you want to learn to be a pro wrestler and earn everything, we’re the place to go! We’re known as the place you actually have to work.”
On how training has changed in recent years:
“Wrestling is always evolving and you have to change with it and be aware of how other places are training. So, we pay attention with how things are done other places like the (WWE) Performance Center. I pay attention to what I do and keep aware of what is hot and what is not, basically. Right now, you can’t train to be a pro wrestler the same way you did in the 1980’s. It isn’t that you wouldn’t be well received. People just wouldn’t even know how to work with it! So, you have to adapt to what is happening and I think we’ve been good at it. All of our guys and gals are in high demand!”
