Curt Stallion Q&A on his influences, goals, and favorite moments

During EVOLVE’s 10th anniversary weekend, our JJ Williams caught up with Curt Stallion on how his career got kicked off, some of his favorite matches, and his goals for the future

JJ Williams: Where are you from and what got you here?

Curt Stallion: I grew up in Crane, Texas. You can Google it for perspective. I was a juvenile delinquent that graduated high school at the very bottom of my class, yet was in the top 5% for academic testing scores out of the entire school district. I was bullied as a preteen for being white in a Mexican dominated community. That is, until I started to fight back. 

Outside of grade school, I’ve been shot at, had guns to my head, knives at my throat, and partook in more street fights than I care to recall, more than often pitting me against more than one person. I’ve got more dead friends than most anyone I know and I’m definitely not bragging about it. I’m a firm believer in honesty and being true to oneself, regardless of circumstance.

JJ: What lured you into becoming a professional wrestler?

CS: Professional wrestling captivated me at an early age during a time when I was so conflicted about growing up and what my life would become. With assumptions of working the rest of my days away in the oil fields like everyone that came before me in Crane, Texas, my aspirations and goals seemed limited and, even worse, not my own. That’s where pro wrestling came in and changed everything. I knew my life needed professional wrestling because I’m not wired to be a robot and the oil fields were too life consuming for my tastes. Being programmed for oil production did not work on me because I knew from the time I was ten years old what I was going to dedicate my life towards. There were many speed bumps along the way, but here we are now.

JJ: When did you start training?

CS: I got a call from my friend Cristobal Salcedo one day telling me that I need to cancel my plans of going to a tech school and move back home because he found a pro wrestling school a mere thirty miles away. I legitimately packed everything and a week later, I was home and training with Old School Wrestling in Odessa. Texas, under the late great Fred Urban III and Jastin Taylor. This was in October of 2012. My first match in front of a live audience was on July 20th, 2013, in Andrews, Texas.

JJ: Who are some of your biggest influences?

CS: On screen, Goku, Han Solo, Randy Orton, Katsuyori Shibata, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and Triple H. In person, ACH, Michael Elgin, Matt Riddle, Kyle O’Reilly, Silas Young, Mark and Jay Brisco, Rey Fenix and Pentagon, and even though he’s younger than me, Trevor Lee.

JJ: What are some of your favorite moments of your career thus far?

CS: My first big match and that it was against ACH, my first round trip flight being bought by ROH, being in the 2017 ROH Top Prospect Tournament as well as making it to the semifinals and getting to work at the Manhattan Center in NYC, Paul Turner taking me up to the Hammerstein Ballroom where the first ever Monday Night RAW took place was the cherry on top of that night too.

Being in the first class of the NJPW Los Angeles Dojo under Katsuyori Shibata, Rocky Romero, and Scorpio Sky in March of 2018, wrestling one on one with former ROH TV Champion Silas Young in San Antonio, Texas, at the Aztec Theatre in front of friends and family, signing with EVOLVE, wrestling live on the WWE Network for EVOLVE in the famous 2300 Arena in Philly on my 29th birthday, and wrestling Matt Riddle for EVOLVE in Boston the day after the WWE Network special.

JJ: After all of that, what are your current goals?

CS: Gain some weight, PWG, work overseas in the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan, bring professional wrestling to prominence in places it doesn’t have much viewership, sign with WWE, and main event WrestleMania.

You can follow Curt on Twitter and check out his shirts on Pro Wrestling Tees.