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[announcers speaking in Spanish]
[crowd screaming]
[announcer shouting in Spanish]
-[ominous music] -[crowd faintly cheering]
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
[crowd cheering]
I got to give you this
'cause I don't want it to get broken.
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
[yelling] What the fuck are you waiting for?
[crew speaking in Spanish]
Jesus Christ, get him the fuckin' microphone.
[man] He's got it, he's got it.
He doesn't have shit.
-He does!. -It's not turned on!
[crowd excitedly cheering]
[wrestler speaking in Spanish]
Not yet, not yet, not yet!
[crowd cheering]
[wrestler speaking in Spanish]
[intense music]
[wrestler faintly shouting]
[crowd] Vampiro! Vampiro!
Vampiro!
[crowd excitedly cheering]
[pensive guitar music] ♪O' my little one
♪This is how it's done
♪You play your part
♪And I'll play mine
♪O' my little one
♪It'll be just fine
♪Your bruise will fade
♪And your bones didn't break
♪O' my little one
♪It'll be just fine
♪Your bruise will fade
♪And your bones didn't break
♪But your love drags me down♪
♪Like the clothes when you swim♪
♪Down, deeper down
♪Like the roots of old trees
♪I shiver 'cause I'm cold
♪But you don't wanna know
[exciting music] [announcer] "CTV News"
with Leigh Chapple.
Well, sometimes, life can be stranger than fiction.
A man from Northwestern Ontariobecame an unlikely superstar
in the world of Mexican wrestling.
CTV's Eric Longley has the story.
[crowd cheering] [announcer] Vampiro!
[crowd] Woo!
[Eric] He was born Ian Richard Hodgkinson
in 1967 in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Now, he is known simply as Vampiro,
a superstar in the world of Lucha Libre,
professional Mexican wrestling.
How he got there is a tale almost too unreal
to be believed.
[interviewer] Okay, in three, two, one.
Tell our fans how long you've been in the business
and how you got your start.
I've been in the business two years and six months
and I never wrestled before.
[intense music][announcer shouting in Spanish]
[Vampiro] I'm not a traditional wrestler.
[translator speaking in Spanish]
[Vampiro] I like going out thereand being real wild.
[translator speaking in Spanish]
[Vampiro] I like fighting.
Yeah.
I like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols.
Yeah, punk rock music.
[crowd faintly cheering]
[Vampiro] I was like 20 years old,
21 years old.
Guns N' Roses had just broken
and Vampiro showed up.
[announcer shouting in Spanish]
-[crowd excitedly cheering] -[intense techno music]
[Chavo] The heroes were beating him up
and he had that long, braided hair with the vampire makeup
and the women would go crazy.
He was like a rockstar.
Vampiro became famous in wrestling not because
'cause I was a really horrible wrestler.
I couldn't do a wrestling hold
if you paid me to do it.
I never learned to be a pro wrestler.
I was a rock-and-roll kid.
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
Hi.
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
[Vampiro] But I'm a strong mother fucker
and you feel my presence,
when I turn up the energy, that's that.
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
[Vampiro] Being that I had no guidance,
I relied on charisma or the ability to connect
with the audience and whatever the audience would give me,
I would return it energy-wise
and that was part of the allure of Vampiro.
Wow, thanks a lot.
[translator] Gracias.
How old are you? [laughs]
[Vampiro] All the girls startedfollowing the Vampiro character
because he was this rock-and-roll type
rebellious young man.
That was the boom and that's kinda the way it went.
[Ayako laughs]
[Jeff] Vamp, all those years ago,
leaving Canada and goin' down there
and learning a second language,
it's literally the cornerstone of what he does now.
He not only knows the wrestling side
and he knows the Lucha Libre style,
but he's bilingual and he can get on the headsets
and he can communicate with wrestlers.
And not just wrestlers, the production people.
And so, me watching him work the TV side of it,
hats off to him.
[soft music]
[singer speaking in Spanish]
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
-[crowd cheering] -[chair bangs]
[Daniel] We're in Mexico City.
We're in a stadium, there's 22,000 fans,
and there's about 90 wrestlers.
[Vampiro] It's the biggest showin the history of the company,
for many reasons.
Of course, nobody ever thought it would get to one show,
let alone 25 years.
The thing that I'm seeing that's the biggest
is the company investment-wise and sponsorship-wise.
They've never had such a cashflow
going into promoting this product.
How many people are you thinking
are gonna watch this on your platform?
Hey, Dash.
-Hi. -Hi.
I'm in a meeting with for wrestling, a big,
a Pay-Per-View thing.
Can I call ya in a bit?
-Okay. -Are you okay?
-Yeah. -I'll call ya right back.
-All right. -Okay, bye.
Sorry, man, my daughter called me
and I had to take my daughter's call.
Hell yeah, man.
It's gonna be a good day for everybody.
[Vampiro] So I think focus on the 25th anniversary,
just the generic stuff.
The importance of Lucha Libre being the influence
that it is worldwide.
Pro wrestling started in Mexico.
Pro wrestling is not an American invention,
nor does it come from Europe.
It is a thing that started down here.
[congregation singing in Spanish]
[Vampiro] In the golden age of movies in Mexico,
when masked wrestlers came out as Santo
and he started doing these superhero-type movies
in the late '50s, early and mid '60s,
that put wrestling in that iconic status.
That was our Superman, that was our Batman,
that was our Deadpool, that was our Avengers.
And the way that it worked is you can actually go
and see these superheroes live,
and you can touch them.
It was something that came to your town
and you could actually see your superhero.
That's what made Mexican wrestling so important
because the hero would fight for the commoner.
[Vampiro] All that kinda shit you need to know
so if you're a first time person watching this insanity,
you gotta have that little heads up, right?
All right, take care.
Thank you, guys.
[Vampiro] Ricky!
Could you do that interview outside?
-[Ricky] Yeah. -Okay
So tell me about your job.
No, nothing.
I'm just talking to a guy.
So you got your job, you start work tomorrow.
That's good.
What about school?
Did they call you?
You go to school next week.
Okay, well good.
What time do you work?
Okay.
Okay, well text me after your boxing class, okay?
You have boxing tonight, right?
Okay, did the gloves work?
Punch like I told you to.
Hit with the top two knuckles, okay?
All right, well I'm veryexcited that you're doing that.
I'm glad.
K, I love you very much, and I'm very proud of you, okay?
Do you miss your dad?
[somber music]
[intense music]
[fanfare]
[Vampiro] I remember when I first got here in 1989,
and I walked into the gym in the Arena Mexico
to try to understand how to become a pro wrestler.
To where I am today, to seeing everybody here.
I feel very small.
I remember when I first got here.
The Señor Fantasma, he used to take care of me,
make sure on the road that nobody would beat my ass.
You know, 'cause I was handsomeand stole all the women.
It was a tough thing when I first started out.
And to be with everybody else that I shared the ring with.
Jeff Jarrett, you know.
We spent a lot of time together
when we were working together in WCW,
and I remember, he used to say
Why are you doing all that shit?
Why are you flipping and flying?
And I said hey, man.
That's Lucha Libre in Mexico.
This is something that only happens in one place.
Every other company in the world
tries to copy what goes on here,
but they can't.
They can't because this is a family.
It's only in Mexico and in AAA that this happens.
And it's a pleasure and an honor to grow up with you,
to live with you, to share with you,
to bleed, sweat, travel, live, eat, sleep, dream.
And to reach our goals.
It's the best place to be.
I call it my family, and I'm very grateful
that you're all here to be a part
of our 25th anniversary
because it's just the start.
Muchas gracias, thank you very much.
Everybody, it's truly a pleasure.
[applause]
[crowd chanting]
[applause]
The best wrestling is behind the scenes.
[laughs] That's true.
It's me who tells the story.
Editing, guiding the TV cameras.
Shoot this angle.
Go back, go frontwards, look at his face, watch his eyes.
So now, my roll, everybody's like
don't you wanna get back in the ring?
And I'm like
Fuck, of course I do, but
I'm in the ring now more than ever because
I'm the guy guiding the show.
Now when I'm behind the camera,
and I'm in front of my TV board,
I have the headphones on and I gotta adjust things,
and I'm talking to thereferee, and I'm watching this,
and I'm listening to the announcers,
and I'm like fuck!
I'm the guy guiding the show,
and that is such an awesome feeling
because it's powerful and it shows
'cause when I'm directing,
I'm not sitting there hoping to go by the script,
so I'm more intense as a director
'cause I'm still wrestling,
but from a different point of view.
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
Don't you fuckin' drop him!
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
Get that camera ready!
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
Oh!
Goddamn!
When I produce TV, they're like
why do you punch the screen?
The fuckin' screen costs $5000.
Why are you throwing chairs?
Well, that's to inspire you to turn it up.
For somebody like Ian, who has to manage all that talent,
who has to make sure that the whole thing runs,
who has to make sure everybody shows up on time,
and can actually do the job,
I don't know how he does it.
I really don't.
That's what makes him valuable.
[Vampiro] There's major heat going in.
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
They beat Sexy Star up on purpose,
and she's arrogant just like anybody else in this business,
and she lost her cool,
and, uh,
do I think that she lost her temper?
Yes. Watch the match.
If anybody knows anything about this business
you can tell.
I watched it.
I rewatched it.
I was there.
She had it on very snug and didn't let go
when she was supposed to, and I think
the other girl loosened up just a bit too much,
and was too naive.
She popped the elbow.
Is it an unfortunate circumstance?
Of course it is.
Accidents can happen,
but when you deliberately try to hurt somebody
that means you're taking money out of, potentially,
their spouse's pocket, or their kid's,
or who knows?
They may have something going on where they're
supporting their extended family,
but when you deliberately try to hurt somebody,
that's when things get sideways.
We know what we're doing,
and so when you cross that line,
that is a cardinal sin in our business.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
Ah, fuckin' threw a fuckin' snake.
Jesus Christ!
He fuckin power bombed the snake.
[laughs]
The fuckin' sname can bite you.
Who brought a snake out there?
Dude, he fuckin' threw a python!
Get out there with the snake.
You saw it, and you saw it!
And you saw it.
Whoever rematches gets the snake.
See that thing out there?
I'm in the profession of makingpeople feel uncomfortable.
[Vampiro] Jeff, you gotta go in the ring, c'mon.
No! [laughs]
Jeff, fuck, for Christ's sakes.
Get your shit, c'mon.
Jeff!
Brother, he was about to get fucked up.
He fuckin' pushed the wrong people.
You're going in the ring now you stupid ass, c'mon!
I've been fighting with that guy my whole career.
The reason I didn't break in the United States
and become the mack-daddy mega champion
is 'cause he said I wasn't famous enough.
He ruined my career in the United States.
I quit wrestling until Reach Underground
because of that fucker.
C'mon!
[Vampiro] You fuckin'
Hey!
Here we go!
[crowd cheering]
[intense music]
[Vampiro] Oh my god.
What's this fuckin' stupid fuckin' guy doing?
[Vampiro] Pro wrestling in general,
when you mix drugs and alcohol
and steroids and stupid people who have egos,
that's common.
The match, the match got out of control.
I got it!
In our industry...
[Vampiro] Fuck!
The worst drug in professional wrestling
is believing your own hype.
So how am I supposed to calm down 97 steroid-filled
people addicted to ego?
What's going on?
It's fuckin' bullshit, is what it is.
Get the fuck out of here.
Fuck you, motherfucker.
[Vampiro] I haven't seen that, I dunno.
I haven't seen that, probably in about 15 years,
where the whole dressing room was ready to go.
It got intense back there.
[indistinct yelling]
[Vampiro] It doesn't matter if it's Lucha, a movie,
or a rock concert.
Nobody has the right to threaten anybody else.
Fuck that!
You don't wanna talk to me!
[yelling and screaming]
Come here, you little cunt!
Go ahead!
You're a fucking ball-less cunt!
[laughing]
It's really difficult, for example,
when the people has some alcohol problems
or drug problems, even in the company.
How to manage all that situations.
You okay?
Yes.
I knew you were about to go.
I know.
That's why I [stammers]
I don't know what else to say.
It's okay.
No, it's not okay.
You okay?
Yeah, what the hell?
I know.
Sorry.
You run the show, you run the show.
I am!
[Vampiro] You know what? Can we talk here?
'Cause I gotta make sure this guy does it right.
If you say [speaks Spanish] again,
I'll do the scene where...
I'm gonna say like [speaks Spanish] or something.
Pendejo.
Pendeja is female.
Pendejo.
[Speaks Spanish]
Maybe give me the slap, and give me your, like...
And when I grab you here, I'll go one, two, three, down.
You good with that?
Yeah.
[intense music]
This fuckin' phone.
Bullshit.
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
I gotta give you this 'cause
I don't want it to get broken.
What the fuck are you waiting for?!
Jesus Christ, give him the fucking microphone.
[man] He's got it, he's got it he's got it.
He doesn't have shit.
[man] He does! [Vampiro] It's not turned on.
[speaking Spanish]
Not yet, not yet, not yet!
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
[arguing in Spanish]
I put so, I have a lot of injuries
from the years I was in the ring,
and I take a lot of strong medicine for that
so I can get by.
And I put so much heart and soul into...
I've been working on this show for about nine months.
And every match that goes on, I'm in there, you know?
And when the medicine wears off,
and I got 86% of my body has chronic arthritis.
Broken neck, broken back.
So right now, of all that happened today,
I feel like I got hit by a truck.
I feel so messed up.
How am I feeling?
I want to go home.
I want to have ice cream.
And I want to play Playstation with my daughter.
Vampiro!
[announcer] Vampiro?
[Vampiro] I got a young girl who depends on me.
My daughter needs love.
My daughter needs to know her dad is there.
So, even though we're doing a movie,
and we're doing this, and I'm talking to ESPN,
and I'm running the show.
Are you okay?
Did you eat good?
I straighten my hair, look at my makeup.
You look beautiful.
I will put my daughter before god.
I will put my daughter before anybody.
My daughter comes first, and if she needs dad,
or if I need to say hey are you okay?
Did you clean your room?
Tell me, show me your eyelashes.
Show me what you just did.
Awesome.
I'm there for her, and that's what a dad should do.
I fuckin' hate wrestling.
[doctor] I know, but this is not the message
I'm getting from you.
You keep coming back, right?
With all these injuries.
[Vampiro] I just don't know how to do anything else.
I'm dying to get away from wrestling.
They keep fuckin' booking me.
[doctor] How many concussions have you had?
I think 24.
Be that producer, man.
Produce the good shit.
Do your talkshow stuff, right?
Whatever you wanna do, but
start living that lifestyle where you're not in the ring.
Get you out now, maybe you're not a quadriplegic.
Get you out now, maybe your daughter
has a dad to walk her down the aisle, like fuck.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah, you haven't seen him.
[dog barks]
How are you, okay?
Yeah, I'm okay.
It's cold though.
-I see that. -It's friggen cold.
Chunk!
[dog toy squeaks]
[Vampiro] She was gonna leave home one day,
so I kinda built this to my liking.
You know, everybody puts this kinda stuff
on the outside of the house,
but I don't live on the outside.
I live on the inside,
and I always wanted to live in a mausoleum.
Everything is kind like witch's brew and bat wings.
Like for spices.
Do you unplug it.
This was supposed to be my place for when
my life plan was just to be here.
I built it like I built this big, concrete slab.
Just like a morgue.
You know, put the body on a slab.
That was the idea.
Try to keep it in that vein of horror movies
and things like that.
'Cause I thought this was gonna be it for me, forever.
But it's not.
Not right now anyways.
I wanna put my black leather chair on my stage
and play video games for the rest of time
and live in my mausoleum.
That's exactly what I...
That's where I would be happy.
I don't want anything else in life.
But, yeah, that's my plan.
[filmmaker] How do you feel about that?
I mean, that's the way he is.
I agree with it.
I like it.
There's nothing, like I mean.
That's just the way he is.
When I lived in Mexico, I barely had time to see him.
I would see him every second week for a couple days,
maybe a weekend.
I have a bunch of my dad's pictures,
when he was a wrestler.
My first memory,
actually, it was in the airport.
And I remember a lot of people just were asking
for him.
They were just taking pictures.
I didn't even know my dad was a wrestler.
I really didn't.
It didn't click in my head that that's what he was doing.
The one time that I do remember was
I was at one of his fights,
and he was trying to get me out of the crowd.
So I didn't really get to see him or connect
with him at all.
You know, I had a couple memories
and I always had good times when I seen him
but I never really had the chance to
connect with him the way that I did.
[Vampiro] We're at my daughter's school,
her gymnastics school.
She's been coming here for three years now,
since she was two.
This is probably what I look forward to
the most out of anything.
When I'm on the road or whatever, I always call home
and I ask how she did in class,
and I'm always the first parent here.
The last one to leave.
This is a real big deal for me
to share this with her, you know?
It's something athletic.
We play together.
We practice together.
She always asks me if she does okay.
It's a pretty important thing
between me and my daughter.
Big time, yeah.
I thought to myself,
this would probably be the best
place for her to finish her high school
where I can kinda keep control of things
and work and be at home.
I needed to learn real quick to be
a stay-at-home dad.
He's never lived with a teenager before.
He's never lived with a woman before, really.
So, it's like, he got me at a really difficult age.
I think that's the worst age he could have decided
to move in with me.
That's like 16-15,
when you're a teenager, that's not the age
that you really wanna be living alone with your dad.
I didn't really trust him.
I didn't really open up to him,
but then, once we moved here,
obviously we were gonna have to learn
to communicate together, so we can live together.
And that was a really hard part
'cause I'm not used to him yet.
I'm still trying to figure out how he works.
Just like he's trying to figure out how to be a parent.
[Vampiro] Don't drive like I drive.
[Dasha] No.
[Vampiro] Don't break all the rules and drive too fast,
and all the things that you're not supposed to do.
You have to go on the 16th and pick your courses.
Your classes.
I would rather you just go out there,
and see what happens.
I know you'll make something happen,
but I did that and I'm paying for it now even though--
At least you're living your life, doing what you want.
But it's not easy, Dasha.
It's tough.
[Dasha] I know it's not easy,but at least you're doing it.
I think the question is
the fact of why you keep on going back to wrestle
if you don't like it.
When I started wrestling...
I had a mission
to become an iconic person in my industry,
but I also--
How did you become a wrestler?
[Vampiro] You know, my mom was divorced,
and there was myself, my mom, and my sister.
I was a hockey protegee.
[Edna] This is Ian in 1979.
[Vampiro] So that was the greatwhite hope of the family,
that I was gonna...
I was kinda destined to make it.
That was where everyone was pushing me to go.
[Edna] When I baptized my kids, I said this is it.
I brought my kids into the world,
they're baptized.
They belong to God now.
Whatever happens, happens, and that's it.
[Vampiro] There was something burning, building,
and it was getting bad.
I was getting into fights.
I was picking fights.
I went to a catholic high school.
I put my faith in God, and I went to see the priest,
and there was a sexual assault incident that happened there,
and uh,
[stammers]
I didn't know how to talk about it.
I couldn't tell my mom.
I didn't know what to do.
So I started taking drugs.
To understand what was going on,
and try to hide the shame,
and deal with the pain.
We went on this hockey tournament,
and,
I stayed with an older guy from Sweden.
He said "have you ever heard of the Sex Pistols?"
And I saw a photo of Sid Vicious with the blood
and the spiky hair, and I said
that is who I wanna be right now,
and I was getting into fights at school,
and people were pissing me off,
and I had this look, and I was ready to go,
and I was just fuckin' depressed.
It was a Saturday night.
I remember it was seven o'clock.
I'll never forget it.
And I looked, and I watched the TV,
and it was AWA wrestling from Minneapolis.
And all of a sudden, the Road Warriors came out.
There were these two guys, full of steroids,
painted up, tattoos.
And they came in the ring.
They fuckin' hit the guys.
They pressed 'em, they slammed 'em.
And it was over.
It was like a punk rock song.
It was a minute, minute and a half at most.
And I was like
what I just saw was a mix of punk rock and sports,
so I took my desire and my passion of music
and my ability to be an athlete and Vampiro was born
in 1984, right at that moment.
I found out that there's a wrestling promotion in Canada,
in Montreal.
International Wrestling Alliance.
They were gonna do a tour:
Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie.
To all these bullshit little towns.
And I told my mom I gotta go.
We don't have any money,
and I sold my hockey equipment to get a bus ticket,
and I waited for two days outside the arena.
I begged the ring guy,
I said may I please work.
When I was in Montreal, and all this wrestling
stuff was happening,
I would train at World Gym
'cause that's where all the wrestlers would come and go.
My friend Robert, he was training there too, my friend,
and we met.
We started just working out together.
You know, we started hanging out more.
And I started introducing him to different shit.
[Vampiro] He was involved with people who sold things,
did things, saw things, made things happen.
And I would go along with him,
and one of the major mafia families in Montreal
liked me because I would never ask or never talk.
I would just be quiet,
and they would always say he's a good kid.
He understands.
So they would start to bring me along
to other types of jobs.
We had a little thing going on.
We used to love going out at night,
sticking up and robbing pimps.
You know, sometimes, we would have to go collect money,
and there was drugs involved, things like that,
or stolen goods.
I said to myself, to my mom,
to anybody who would listen to me,
I gotta get out of here.
Because if I don't, something's gonna happen,
and I'll probably get killed.
When I first got to Los Angeles,
I think I was 18.
I mean, I was starving.
I had no money.
I came here because I was invited
to watch somebody's house while they went out
and did a movie.
And all around here, right here,
everybody looked like a vampire.
White skin and skinny and leather jackets
with studs and the jeans tucked into the cowboy boots.
Just like the beginning of Guns N' Roses
and all that kinda stuff.
This area of town at that time
was where everybody hung out.
Was right here.
I was floating around Los Angeles,
trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life,
and I was working for different music artists.
The big one I worked with was Milli Vanilli,
and I spent a year and a half with those guys,
touring the world.
This was before their scandal broke.
This was before everybody knew
that they didn't sing on the album,
and it was all playback and it was fake
and all that kinda stuff.
But what that did to me was give me this education of
fans and artists and then the people in the middle
who were the machine.
I lived with those guys.
I lived in their house in Beverly Hills,
and I knew everything.
And their manager, the guy who made the songs in Germany,
Frank Farian.
He did Boney M. and all these other bands,
these disco bands.
And he was like you tell those two fucking guys
that if I don't get my share of the money
from this MTV world tour
that I am going to expose the real singers,
and I'm gonna tell everybody that it's fake,
so they would, every time they'd say
okay, yeah, tell him we'll meet him in England.
So we went to England and there was like
soccer stars from Manchester United and all these
people and all this stuff,
and I would look at Milli Vanilli,
and they were trying to steal a watch
and they were taking these things,
and I was like what the fuck are these two guys doing?
And they were just two gang bangers from Europe,
and we would wait 'til all these famous rockstars
and celebrities at the time would get high,
and well, you know, uh...
One of the things one guy taught me
you wouldn't even know who he is,
but he was a very famous wrestler,
Rowdy Roddy Piper.
And he told me that when you're done wrestling,
never go to the guy who makes the matches or the promoter.
Never go and say how did I do.
What I'm trying to say is I'm so confident
in everything I do, I don't care what anybody says.
I know I rocked it.
You're that way.
Yeah.
Don't ask for applause.
Don't ask for hey, did I do good?
You did good because you're you.
Yeah, I think you should get braids back.
Like dreadlocks.
They look so [sings] mint!
[laughs]
[Vampiro] If you look at the early version of Vampiro
with the suits, and the cowboy boots,
and the braided hair, that's where all that came from.
You know, I stole everything from Milli Vanilli.
[woman] They came to watch him in Mexico
when they were playing.
I was kinda torn because I look at,
I used to hang it up in my locker at school.
Well, no, it's The Ramones. [laughs]
Who cares about Ian?
[laughter]
It's The Ramones, c'mon!
[Vampiro] You know, Montreal, mafia, wrestling,
Los Angeles, Hollywood, rock n' roll.
It was time.
I graduated.
Hollywood was just too much,
and I literally didn't even call Mexico.
I just showed up to Arena Mexico.
[Vampiro] When Vampiro hit, and it hit right away,
I was wrestling six and seven times a day,
seven days a week.
'Cause everything was very nice, very safe,
very mom and dad.
And that was wrestling, and then all of a sudden,
you know, the devil comes.
It was pretty cool.
You know, every show was either between 4000
would be the small ones,
and up to like 18, 19,000.
Six, seven times a day, every day, all over the country,
and it was just this blur.
And there was just this excess of no sleep,
alcohol, drugs, girls.
You know, at 23 years old, I was fucked.
Couldn't walk, my knees were shot, my shoulders were gone.
I remember I blew my knee out in a match in Monterey.
A guy did a moonsault off the top rope,
and I didn't know what the fuck was going on,
and I couldn't catch him.
My knee just popped.
My leg went out to the side,
and there was three more matches to do that night,
and I was crying in the dressing room.
My knee was the size of a basketball,
and it was in pain,
and they didn't care.
They were stunned.
They were like "so?"
You have to go do the other shows.
There's a total of 40,000 tickets sold tonight.
And I remember the promoter got a doctor.
He got a veterinarian guy, came in,
and he injected my knee with, uh,
I don't know what the fuck it was,
to freeze my knee up.
They drained my knee right in the dressing room,
and they wrapped me up,
and they filled me full of Nubain
which is like synthetic morphine,
and I don't even know what happened,
but I just remember at the end of the night
I was left alone in the dressing room.
Didn't even have money for a taxi
to go to a proper hospital,
and I just remember saying to myself
I'm probably gonna die doing this.
[Dasha laughs]
I tool about 50 muscle relaxantsso I could move my head today.
I used to have a straw made out of sterling silver,
and I'd wear it on my ear.
And my friend, he would be standing on the stairs,
and I'd come in the barn.
I'd fuckin' pull that out, and I'd go like that
and I'd point at the stairs,
and he'd know exactly what it meant.
And it would just be [grunts].
Oh, it was like a snowblower.
Used to do an ounce every weekend.
By myself [laughs]
We had this running joke, you know.
[laughs]
That there's a stretch of highway from Mexico to
a city called Puebla.
It's a straight shot.
We would make lines like, not that long,
but long as a fuckin', 'bout 10 feet long.
We just put all the tables and dressers together
in the room.
One big line, and we'd call it the highway to Puebla.
I'm surprised we didn't die.
I swear to god.
I'm surprised we didn't die.
Just look in the news, man.
Last 5, 6 years.
How many pro wrestlers have they found dead?
All of them.
I would do so much, it wouldn't stop.
I had no limits.
It was kinda scary.
It was free, so.
But I was addicted to sleeping pills and pain pills.
For about eight years.
Pretty bad.
Lotta fun though.
But I've been clean for about 11 years.
We have to present ourselves as these
muscular superhero dudes
Where we're gonna go and fight.
And they travel in shitty cars,
sleep in shitty hotels, eating restaurant food.
Never recovering.
Then there's the depression and the loneliness
and the insecurity of not being at home,
and you know, not having contact
with your family, and your wife, your kids,
and it's a fucked up cycle.
Oh, here he is with his rival.
[Sister] Konnan? Yeah.
[interviewer] Konnan we are from the
hero of the ring program, and we've come
to ask you if you can set up our cameras and microphones
to get in your house and have a little
talk with you.
Can we talk?
Yeah, sure why not?
[interviewer] Okay, [speaks Spanish]
Is it real?
Yes.
[interviewer speaks spanish]
[Jeff] Konnan was the enormous,
the Hulk Hogan, if you will,
of Mexico, but then there was this character
known as Vampiro.
As I started watching and understanding the story,
that a guy got into this business,
and came up the hard way and went to Mexico,
and didn't just have a short stay there.
He became iconic, and his main rival was Konnan.
[interviewer] Konnan, do you have horses,
pretty good horses?
Yes, like I told you before,
I do have 'em in the back.
You are a very good lover of the human
and the animals?
[Vampiro] When I got to Mexico,Konnan was the guy, right?
Konnan was fuckin' Hulk Hogan.
He was just Konnan.
He was extremely muscular,
and here's the new kid on the block.
He had all the heat,
and all of a sudden I came in,
had no physique.
You know, and I was doing my thing,
and I started, and I became the new sensation over night.
I think when you're creative,
and you're into what you're doing,
and you're as passionate as you are,
as some of us get.
I think he was really easily manipulated
by guys in the office.
And you had asked were there guys in the dressing room
jealous of you?
Of course there were, and they were jealous of him too,
so they would play us against each other.
He said this, he did that.
You see what he's doing?
He's getting one over on you,
and that really fuckin' ate him alive,
a lot more than it did me.
To the point where I think he wanted to kill me
at one time, apparently.
But he hated me, bro.
He fucking hated me.
When he finally went to WCW,
he was there for two years before I went.
[WCW announcer] Well, Mike. Here's a newcomer to WCW.
[Mike] Well, this is El Vampiro.
Known in Mexico as Vampiro Canadiense.
[Vampiro] He had the ear of Luger,
Hall and Nash, and every other slingin' dick
up there that was in charge,
and he was like bury this fucking guy,
and they made my life hell for two years.
I worked against Rick Flair in Nevada one night,
and that was the icebreaker for the younger guys
starting to get into major programs.
And out of that came, I worked with Hulk Hogan.
I just had this idea.
How cool would it be, me being a musician,
man, let me play with a band.
It was a Monday Night Nitro, man,
and The Misfits were across the street.
God works in strange ways, man,
and I went over, and it was like 11 o'clock,
and they were Misfitted out.
And I met Jerry Only.
You know, Mike.
This ain't no debut.
Being a Misfit basically meaning
you're an outcast from society.
This is a lifestyle.
This is something that happens to you
when you go against the grain.
Kids picking on you in school.
Parents yelling at you.
Just being different from everybody else.
[Vampiro] You wrestling rednecks don't get it.
But the kid at home who's on a skateboard,
who lives in his basement and who's picked on at school
is gonna say oh my god.
The Misfits and Vampiro are on national television.
They didn't, those older guys, didn't get it.
[punk rock music]
There's just too many prema donnas here in WCW
and I don't like anybody here,
and I really don't care about the win and loss record.
I just wanna get into some good fights
and keep breaking the rules and setting a good example.
Russo took a lot of flack about it.
I think Russo's big downfall was his
favoritism to Jeff Jarrett at that time.
That rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
Are you listening?
This could be as good for you
as it's gonna be for me.
What was it like working with Vamp?
During the Monday Night wars?
He came in and had the dreads,
but he had the white face pain, black hair
and just that sort of Vampiro vibe.
And Sting who was the biggest star in the company,
sort of the franchise name,
who had the Crow persona,
had gone from the flat-top, blonde hair,
blue eye, California kid Sting
into the Crow persona which was black and white
face paint, black hair, trench coat.
There was an immediate resemblance of the two.
[Vampiro] There's a lot of slogans being used.
Everybody was all steroided out of their minds.
There was stupid amounts of money,
and there wasn't a lot of room for a new guy like me
to come in and light a fire
under a lot of people's asses.
'Cause I was gung ho, man.
I was at my peak.
I was ready to rock.
You know, me and Vampiro's,
especially in the early days.
You know, I think sometimes he likes to remember it
as being abrasive.
I don't recall it that way.
It was the business.
[Vampiro] My first marriage, I was, unfortunately,
at the height of being Vampiro.
Even though I was devastated, I can only imagine
how horrible it must have been for my wife
to be around somebody who wasn't
accessible as a human being.
[Jeff] Nowadays with social media,
people would have known who he was
walking in the door.
In that era, Vampiro walkin' out
to that Monday Night Nitro audience,
a lot of 'em immediately went
is this a Sting storyline?
Is he supposed to be Sting's partner?
All the questions that came out,
which is okay.
Had we had the ability, and I say we,
the wrestling business had the ability
to truly show here comes an icon,
it'd been really cool.
But he didn't get that opportunity,
and neither did the wrestling business.
How 'bout if I say it like this?
The company, WCW, ruined three years of my life.
How's that?
[interviewer] Strong statement.
Well, it's true.
Fuck 'em.
[announcer] This stuff almost crushed him.
Spike!
Spike, nail in the coffin!
Vampiro, nail in the coffin!
What in the world is gonna happen now?
Oh my god!
One, two, three...
[Vampiro] When I broke my neck in WCW,
I had a three year, six million dollar contract.
I let it go.
I came back to wrestling.
I went to Japan,
and they offered me a nineyear, $600,000 a year contract.
I turned it down 'cause it was 30 weeks a year.
And I did not want to be away from my wife
or my daughter.
I put them first.
You said I should be a millionaire.
Yeah, well, fuck.
I should be. I was.
But when I broke my neck, and this business
just threw me out the door.
And she left me.
I don't even blink an eye about doing it
'cause I...
It's for her, you know?
So that's that.
Once I accomplished that, I didn't wanna do it anymore.
'Cause I did it,
And I couldn't go any higher.
[Dasha] Yeah.
[Vampiro] You were born.
You were a baby, and I remember telling your mom,
I didn't wanna be a dad who was on the road.
[Dasha] Yeah.
[Vampiro] I wanted to be there for you.
And I did everything to be as close to you as possible.
[Dasha] Yeah.
When I was injured, there was nothing I could do,
I couldn't make a living,
so I had to continue fighting, wrestling,
and I think one of the things that I don't like
about myself is that...
I use Vampiro to make a living.
[heavy metal playing]
[Vampiro] You know, I don't kno.
I just wanna give the fans good matches,
and leave 'em on a high note.
That's about it, you know.
Stay healthy.
Do some more traveling.
I try to keep control of my character.
'Cause my character is really not a character.
This is the way I am 24/7.
I just wanna keep control of that.
I also wanna meet the people that I've offended
over the years.
Fans and wrestlers and whatnot.
And just apologize and set a lot of things right.
'Cause I'm sure when I was younger,
over time, due to circumstances, I was a real
unapproachable person, and I'm sure
I was rude to some people,
and I'm sure I offended many,
and I wanna set that straight too.
I wanna punch the guy in the fuckin' balls.
Yeah, come over here.
Fuckin', fucking asshole.
I don't care who likes me.
I wanna get paid so she goes to school.
I don't give a fuck who likes me.
'Cause I don't like anybody.
I like one person.
[man] see that, your father likes you.
I did what's right.
I took care of my family.
I took care of my mom.
I love my wife.
I love my daughter.
I don't hurt nobody.
I fuckin' hate people so much.
I hate them so much.
And I say this affectionately,
so it's not misconstrued from anyone ever hearing it.
Please don't fuck this up this time.
[Kevin] He takes on, sometimes, too much,
and his energy, where he needs it in one direction,
he inadvertently divides it.
Okay, do not fuck up this match.
And when he's having to deal
with so many different types of personalities,
it disrupts his energy,
and it makes him nuts,
and he's not always the most pleasant person
to deal with.
[crowd cheering]
[Vampiro] I was always depressed that I would
never get to say goodbye to the ring
the way I wanted to.
How was I gonna be a dad,
work, and be Vampiro,
and still avoid my horrible past?
So I think I had to realize that I needed
therapy for me and for her,
and this was kinda the only place
that was secluded enough.
I wasn't gonna hear Vampiro every time
I turned around.
My daughter had to go to high school.
I had to drive her to school.
I had to go home, live on a small budget,
and cook, and clean.
[Dasha] I was rock bottom in Mexico,
and I know that if I didn't move to Thunder Bay,
I literally wouldn't have made it.
I wouldn't be talking here.
I had a lot of issues with bullying
that just wasn't really healthy.
Mentally, emotionally.
I didn't tell anyone, really.
I didn't and then my dad was the one
who was just like what's going on?
What the hell?
If it really wasn't for him then I don't know.
And I absolutely think it was something
I needed for my sanity and I think
it was the right thing for my daughter.
Going to Thunder Bay, Ontario,
the town that I literally did everything
under the sun to escape from.
Going back there, and opening a Krav Maga school,
a self-defense school in that little town
that only has 90, 000 people,
and saying to myself
this is what I'm gonna do with my life.
His weeks go by crazy.
He's working 24/7.
And then when he comes home,
he goes and works even more.
He comes home and then he's working
with the Guardian Angels.
It's like, he patrols all night.
I was a counselor for the city of Thunder Bay,
and when Ian got back here,
he looked me up and wanted to introduce the concept of
Guardian Angels, so I took him to city hall
to meet the Mayor, and through that
we had discussions about the Guardian Angels
coming back to help our city through Ian.
[Vampiro] I'd like to say hello.
Thank you Mr. Mayor, council.
For circumstances that really don't
have anything to do with this meeting,
I had to make a life choice.
[Vampiro] When I joined the Guardian Angels,
I called Curtis Sliwa, New York City,
and I told him my story from Mexico,
and I said I want to do something with
this fame.
I don't wanna just ride off into the sunset.
I have this energy.
I know who the Guardian Angels are.
I'll never forget the day.
I was nine years old.
I saw it on the news, guys going down
in the subways in New York City,
martial arts guys to fight crime.
I just knew one day that I wanted to ride the trains
of New York City with the Guardian Angels
and just be a volunteer.
I said but unfortunately I live
in Mexico City right now.
Can I bring the project down there?
They gave me the ball.
I ran with it.
[Curtis] And Mexico embraced Vampiro.
And now, instead of just saying
oh, I want to max and relax and retire off
my past laurels as one of the great wrestlers,
you know, in the tradition of great wrestling
in Mexico.
I wanna give back to my community.
[Vampiro] All right, brother.
Thank you.
You good?
No, I'm not.
Come on, man.
[fan] If, when I have kids or something,
if I have a boy, I'm gonna name him Ian.
I'm gonna name him Ian.
And, honestly, if I have a girl,
I might even name her Dasha.
'Cause that's his daughter's name, you know.
He's just, it could be a little weird, I guess,
the more I talk about it,
but it inspires me so much.
My dad leaves every Thursday to Monday.
First week, he will go to Mexico City.
Then he comes back, and then he goes to Los Angeles
and records his actual TV show.
Comes back, leaves on Thursday again and then
leaves on Monday again.
And that's what happens every week.
This desk is what brought me back into
the wrestling industry.
So like, do I still got a job?
There's been an invitation for us
to return to the temple.
But it's not like it was before.
[Vampiro] I couldn't have done swithout anybody else.
It's with him that I have a second career
in this wrestling industry.
[Douglas] People see that mask, and they know
that that's Lucha Underground.
We brought it over from Mexico with the goal of
introducing this key piece of Mexican culture
to folks here in the States.
So our two main executive producers are
Mark Burnett of Survivor and Robert Rodriguez,
famed movie director of From Dusk 'til Dawn,
El Mariachi, Sin City, Spy Kids.
We went searching for a color commentator,
and decided that Vampiro would be great.
In Mexico, his familiarity with the moves
and the talent and the stories.
And that he would be perfect from that.
[Vampiro] When this company first started,
I was hired to be the color commentator.
But then I saw that there was so many holes.
They didn't have a guy to get in the gutter
and get his hands dirty.
So I became an agent which is basically
the one who puts together the matches
so they make sense and it translates on television.
And I coordinate the camera operators with
the in-ring action.
He's a great commentator.
But then, he goes the extra step
where he's really a part of the show.
I've seen him get in the ring and perform.
You just never know.
I never know when he's gonna, all of a sudden
get in the ring and do something,
and, of course, me, I'm looking at it going
oh, I hope he doesn't get hurt.
I hope he doesn't get hurt.
Because if he gets hurt,
you lose somebody who's doing two other jobs.
So, he's gotta stay safe.
[Matt] Everyone has something to say
when they've met Vampiro.
You know, whether he's got these tall tales,
or this legendary stuff about him,
but the one thing that no one understands
that underneath all this
he's a dad.
And I'm sorry but to see theway that he loves his daughter,
to see all of the machismo and the bravado
just melt away,
that's the person I'm friends with.
The Vampiro that the world sees?
You can have him.
It's the guy that's here.
That's what, to me, is the measure of a man.
They say anyone can have a child,
but not anyone can be a father,
and I tell you this all the damn time.
You're a good dad.
You do good things.
You talk about how old you're about to be,
and what have you done in this world?
You made a daughter that's gonna grow up
to be a beautiful woman.
You've spread positive energy to people.
Even though you're definitely insane,
you're a good dad.
[Vampiro] I'm in this scenario which is Hollywood,
working for two of the biggest names in
cinema and television today.
As great as all of this is,
the greatest part of all of this is
somebody...
Somebody loves me.
[Dasha] Right here.
[Vampiro] I can't sit in that chair.
-I can't get in it. -[Dasha] Why?
[Dasha] Dad, just go to bed.
Okay, so what now?
[Kevin] The altercation between Ian and I
in Monterey left me a little bit concerned.
When he broke it down to me, he basically told me
I wanna take your suplex.
He asked to take it, and I am aware,
to a very large degree of his health history.
We talk a lot about that.
I suggested to do other things.
I said, for the moment, for the people,
I thought it was unnecessary.
We went out there.
We did business,
and the moment his body hit the canvas,
I knew that something was wrong.
I could just tell.
So, very discretely, I tried to stand over him,
my finger in his face, and behind my teeth I said
dude, are you okay?
Tried to be as discrete as possible.
I was asking him are you okay?
And he didn't answer me.
And he was hurt.
[Vampiro] I got a lot of issues,
and I can't deal with a lotta people.
I get panic attacks.
I freak out.
I just, fuck, you know?
I don't know what it is,
but this whole celebrity thing, it drives me crazy,
and I'm a nice guy,
[speaking to children in Spanish]
But it just makes me insane.
I'm not complaining, but it's just like
I hate people who fuck around.
[speaking Spanish]
I hate seeing it.
I fuckin' hate it, you know, this celebrity.
And we do everything possible to not let
me be around her publicly.
To keep Vampiro away from her,
but now, the whole world knows it.
I wasn't joking.
I fuckin' don't want it.
I wanna come here every day.
How cool would that be?
I could wake up, I could make her breakfast,
and take her to school, and come here,
and just be dad, man.
Fuck.
But I'm gonna be Vampiro for a while.
I can't walk.
[somber music]
[Vampiro] Thanks for seeing me again.
[doctor] Yeah, no problem.
Did you just get back?
[Vampiro] Yeah.
I'm dying to get away from wrestling.
They keep fucking booking me,
but I did something on purpose.
I told one of the guys in the back, I said
when you go out there, grab me and suplex me.
But Japanese style which means
just drop me on my head, basically.
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
No, no, no, no!
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
Ian was damaged when he come to see me, right?
All those years of wrestling, all those concussions.
The way I remember,
I don't know if Ian remembers the same way,
but we had done a bunch of x-rays
because he was just hurting all over.
I remember walking in there and I was like
how are you even fucking walking?
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
[Vampiro] It's like Vamp, you're 50,
you got arthritis, you can't walk,
you can't even do a pushup,
you can't comb your hair, you body's fucked.
You got, 86% of your body's got chronic arthritis.
You got 25 concussions.
You've broken your nose 16 times.
Your eye socket four, your back, your neck.
Every fucking thing on you doesn't work.
Why are you doing this?
'Cause I just need to see if I can one more time.
[crowd cheering]
[doctor] Did you lose consciousness on this thing?
No, but I couldn't close my hands.
I couldn't put my shoes on.
I couldn't pull my pants up, fuck.
[doctor] Yeah, no no.
You can't be doing that.
The older you get, the less you bounce too.
You have to think about it.
The more brain injuries or bone injuries
in general that you get.
You're not gonna recover from them.
I think, probably, he's a couple concussions
away from dementia if he keeps going.
And I don't want him to do that.
[Kevin] All of the years of damage and abuse
that his body's taken.
It could be anything that happens to him.
It could be the very last bump
that guy's taking in the ring.
He has a great life.
He has people that care about him,
and he has a lot to live for.
And it would be a shame for that to end over
something so trivial and petty like that.
[Dasha] I mean, it's just a matter of time
until he gets hurt badly,
and that's something that I'm not ready for.
That's something that I don't
ever want to see or witness at all.
Wrestling's your life, I know.
I get it.
But you gotta fucking stop.
[Dasha] He had cancer, and he has arthritis,
and you can see him hurting, you know?
It really hurts because it was to the point
where I literally thought that I was gonna be like
pushing my dad in a wheelchair.
Like I really was.
He'd be crying on his bed 'cause of the pain,
and I really wouldn't be able to do anything,
and he didn't want any help.
He would complain about it every day,
and like, to the point where he literally
wouldn't be able to do anything at all.
I can't continue to fight.
Well, yeah, no, you definitely can't.
But I do...
But I'm making myself look stupid.
I'm embarrassing myself.
Why?
'Cause I look horrible.
I can't compete with the younger guys.
It's just not my time,
and it's not because I'm afraid or they're better.
It's just my heart and soul are not
in the ring anymore.
When I go to the ring, I'm thinking about other things.
I'm not focused.
-I don't concentrate. -Yeah.
I don't want to be there.
I love producing.
I love being behind the camera, and writing
and moving the cameras,
but when I have to put the wrestling gear on,
and I've gotta go into the ring,
it kills me.
It kills me because I don't love it anymore.
And that relationship's over,
and it breaks my heart,
and I love the fans,
and I love my industry,
but I don't love being Vampiro at all.
[Dasha] Yeah.
I don't wanna be this guy anymore.
I don't want it,
but I'll continue to go until I just can't.
Like we come through this life,
and we relive our lives like a thousand times
until we get that purpose right.
Until we come here, and we know
what the purpose is.
I don't know.
I don't know what my purpose is either.
I thought it was wrestling, but
[Dasha] You just gotta go with it.
I don't even know.
Too young to know.
I don't think you will ever know.
I don't think you're ever gonna find it.
I haven't but if you don't worry
about the destination, but you enjoy the journey.
You understand that?
[Dasha] Yeah.
[Vampiro] That's what it's all about.
[somber music]
[Vampiro] You gonna be okay when I go?
[Dasha] Yeah.
[Vampiro] I know it's hard, but I hope
I have the house in good order for you.
I'll get all the stuff you need,
all the supplies, so just
with the money that I send you,
do your best to budget with your food and that.
Make sure you call that person for that job.
[Dasha groans]
Yeah.
[Dasha] He's never gonna stop being a wrestler.
He enjoys doing it.
That's something he's done his whole life
which is something that I completely accept
because that's who he is.
But, do I agree with it?
Do I like it?
No, I don't.
I really don't.
[Daniel] It's funny how it changes.
The analogy I always tell people is
they're your little girl until about 11
and then it becomes 90% your a little girl
and 10% I don't know who this person is,
and then for the next two years
it starts to switch
where they become 90% I don't know who this person is
and 10% your little girl.
And then suddenly, one day, around 13, 14,
the little girl is gone, and they're this person.
And all of a sudden, you have to have
a completely different dynamic and relationship
because they are now a complete individual person.
Still your little girl.
Always will be your little girl,
but not, you know?
So now, all of a sudden, you'rein an adult conversation.
And that creates a completely different relationship.
For me, it's just amazing to see her.
'Cause she's been in this park her whole life.
And now she's, just recently, this is her big thing,
she's got her little purse with money .
She's buying things on her own and,
to most people that's like...
But for me to see that is, my god, you know?
Instead of us going into a state of panic
that I'm on the road again,
I actually kinda said this is a great way for me to
help you learn how to manage your finances,
your house, your life by yourself.
It's like use this time to see what's going to happen
later on when you're on your own.
I wish I was there to be the parent,
but I think where I'm at with the relationship
with my daughter right now, there's so much trust.
She's actually teaching me
to start to learn how to let her go.
She's kinda like let me grow up,
and it's, fuck, I was never ready for it.
You know, I don't know.
I'm trying to be a good dad, and it's tough.
It's gotta be tough for her to have Vampiro as a father,
I think.
Oh, man. This is the fuckin',
the best news all day.
[phone beeps]
[Vampiro] She's like stop calling me.
[laughs]
Leave me alone, and I'm like
I'm just trying to, you know,
just trying to, you know, send her a message,
and she's like fuck, dad, I'm fine.
See, yeah, but I'm not.
So you gotta understand, this isn't for you.
It's for me too, you know?
[stammers]
All this fucked up stuff that I do,
it's so you're gonna be okay.
She goes well let me be okay.
Okay. [laughs]
It's weird.
You know, I thought it would be harder for her,
and it's not.
It's real hard for me.
I don't know what's going on.
[bagpipes]
-[Vampiro] Okay. -[Dasha] Okay.
-Proud. -Okay.
You good?
Yeah.
[Vampiro] I'm fine, thank you. How are you?
[man] I'd love to chat sometime.
We're debating going to an extra city.
[Vampiro] But when are you thinking of going?
[man] March break, next year.
I mean, there's a lot to see.
I guess I shouldn't punch that, huh?
Don't make me give you detention.
[Vampiro] It's just awesome. I remember,
I was right there with the doctor,
and she came out, and there was just this little thing,
and it was a girl, and I just remember taking her home, and
I wouldn't let anybody near my daughter and,
I wouldn't let anybody changer her diaper
or feed her. I did everything.
I prayed so hard that this day would never come
because I just knew that this was the end, you know?
She's gonna be gone,
and uh,
I don't know if I'm gonna cry
'cause I'm proud or...
[cheering]
Dasha Hodgkinson.
Confederation college, general arts program.
[cheering]
[Dasha] Thunder Bay was a turning point in my life.
There's just things that I had to learn the hard way
that I'm so grateful that I learned them here
and that I learned them by myself.
I guess that's why he brought me here.
I don't know.
I don't know why he brought me here.
Maybe he just knew that it was gonna be
a good place for me to find myself.
Wow, they did it.
[somber music]
The relationship that me and my mom have
is way different than what me an my dad would have.
I think I've got the best combination of parents though.
It's like they both gave me specific things
for me to be able to be the way that I am today.
I literally wouldn't be who I am
if it wasn't for them.
What?
This is it.
This is all they're gonna do.
-You proud? -Yeah.
I was so bored.
-Holy smokes! -Well you did good.
I'm very proud of you. -Thank you.
I started to cry.
Did you?
[laughs]
[Vampiro] And that's it.
18 years in the making.
One hug, and off to the races.
[crowd cheering]
[Vampiro] This is the intense part 'cause
where things have evolved to now is
I convey the message from the directive
to the talent.
In between that, there's a huge gray area.
[commentator] Oh!
[Vampiro] You can't do that unless you were a wrestler.
'Cause wrestlers have a different mentality,
a different mindset, a different temperament.
And I feel zero pressure.
I feel calm.
I absolutely get it.
I love it.
And it's the only thing I don't have to try at.
It's just there.
This is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now.
This is home.
The beautiful thing about pro wrestling
is it has a great entrance plan,
but it has a shitty exit strategy.
[crowd cheering]
[wrestler] Let's go, bitch!
Let's, you and me, now!
Let's go!
I need my music, right now.
C'mon, man.
And all the production aside.
Where's the fucking music?
At this point in the trip,
I don't know if you need your music.
You're being called out.
[crowd cheering Vampiro!]
[crowd cheering]
♪Someday, you'll remember me
♪And picture my face
♪Someday you may smile at me♪
♪And i'll walk away
♪Yesterday I needed a buck
♪Today I need a bank♪
♪But I know who was always there♪
♪It's me I have to thank
[Vampiro] This is what I do.
This is what I know.
This is where I feel at home.
All of this is so that I can have her
have a chance.
As much as I wanna get away from it,
where am I gonna go?
♪Yesterday I needed love
♪Today I need some hate
♪But I know who was always there♪
♪Now baby it's too late
♪I wanna say
♪Picture my face
♪I gotta say
[announcer speaking in Spanish]
[crowd cheering] Vampiro! Vampiro! Vampiro!
["Ser, Ser, Ser" by Garigoles plays]