NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
Cristiano Argento has been tearing up opponents in the ring for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) as he worked his way up the ladder for a few shots at some gold.
But the road to one of the most prestigious pro wrestling companies in the United States was a long one and one that not many wrestlers have taken.
Argento was born and raised in Osimo, Italy – a town of about 35,000 people located on the eastern side of the country closer to the Adriatic Sea. He told Pakinomist Digital that he started training in a ring at a boxing gym before breaking into the independent scene in Italy. He wrestled in Germany, Sweden, France and Denmark before he came to the realization that to become a professional wrestler he had to come to the United States.
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
Cristiano Argento appears in the National Wrestling Alliance (Instagram)
He first worked his way to Canada to be trained by pro wrestling legend Lance Storm. He moved to Canada, leaving most of his friends and family behind and without a firm grasp of the English language.
“At that time my English was terrible. I didn’t speak English at all,” he said. “But I was with my friend, Stefano, he came with me and he translated everything for me. I probably missed 50% of the knowledge Lance Storm gave us because I wasn’t able to understand. I only got a summary and everything I was able to see. I’m sure if I did it now with a proper knowledge of English, it would have been a different scenario.
“Eventually I moved back to Italy after the training and I said, OK, now I want to go to the US. So I studied English more properly and finally I got my first work visa, which was in Texas. I was in Houston for a short time. I trained with Booker T on Reality of Wrestling. I participated in his show, which was my debut in the US, where I got a new work visa, Pennsylvania. currently living since 2017. Since then, my wrestling career has been fortunately keep growing, growing, growing and growing until now wrestling for the NWA One of the bigger promotions in the US.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON Pakinomist
Argento said his family believed he was “nuts” to chase his pro wrestling dream.
He said they were more concerned about his well-being since he was halfway around the world without anyone he knew by his side in case anything went sideways.
“My family, friends, everybody was like, why do you want to move to the opposite side of the world not knowing the language, not knowing anyone alone, to try to be a professional wrestler? And I was like, well, we have one life, I love it, and that’s what I want to do,” he told Pakinomist Digital. “In the end, my family was really supportive. But when I first said, ‘Hey, Mom and Dad, I want to do this’. They looked at me like, ‘Are you crazy? Are you drunk or something? What are you talking about?’ And I said, no, that’s what I want to do. And they knew I loved this sport because in Italy I traveled around Europe and spent time in Canada training, so they slowly began to understand that this is what I want to do with my life. They were proud of me.
Cristiano Argento works out in the gym. (Instagram)
“They’re still proud of me. I think more like the fact that you’re going to try it, that it’s hard than more like you’re going to leave us. The fact that, oh, my son is going to be on the opposite side of the world in a six-hour time difference and we might see him when, like, I don’t know that it was that hard for me. It really wasn’t that often that it was hard for me. Heartbreaking not being able to see my family every day or every month, if i’m lucky i think that was the biggest part of the worry or i was here alone and if i didn’t have any problems so they were scared.
Argento is living out his dream in the United States. He suggested that the name of the United States as the “land of opportunity” was not far from what is preached in movies and literature – it was the real thing.
“I was inspired by people who came to the United States and made it big,” Argento told Pakinomist Digital. “The US has always been like the land of opportunity. That’s how they sell it to us, and that’s what it is. I feel that in myself it was true because everything I tried to do so far, I was able to achieve much more than if I wasn’t here. I’m not yet where I want to be, but I see that there are so many opportunities in this country. Not just in any business to achieve the goal, but I was really happy to achieve the goal here.
National Wrestling Alliance star Cristiano Argento poses in Times Square in New York. (Instagram)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pakinomist APP
“But my big sources of inspiration were big actors who moved to the country, who didn’t know English, with no money, with no support system. I had a dream, I have to go right there to make it happen, and I want to go and do it, and I want to make it happen. So those people were always the biggest inspiration, even if it wasn’t in wrestling, just how they were pursued by their passion. is how alone… You don’t know the language, you’re like, let’s go, let’s do it.”
Outside of the NWA, Argento has appeared for International Wrestling Cartel, Enjoy Wrestling and Exodus Pro Wrestling this year.
