Vinny Pacifico has fond memories of his pro wrestling debut in Japan.
The end of 2023 fulfilled a big first for Vinny Pacifico. On December 27, “The Energy Drink King” had the opportunity to compete in the Independent Junior Heavyweight Festival in Tokyo, Japan, marking his official debut in the country. Pacifico made it to the second round of the tournament, defeating Harry Dux before falling to Kota Sekifuda. Despite his eventual loss, Pacifico remains forever grateful for his Japan experience, and hopes to return there again soon.
Speaking with WrestleZone’s Ella Jay, Pacifico shared some of the main takeaways from his travel abroad.
“[From a] wrestling standpoint, I really enjoyed my time in Japan,” Pacifico said. “Everyone there is very, very welcoming, very nice, and everyone wants to work together to make the show as amazing as possible. I noticed that, in Japan, it’s very traditional — everyone is just super calm, relaxed. I know sometimes on the indies in America, it’s a lot different, but in Japan, everyone’s calm, relaxed, very helping, giving out snacks. It was very, very, very, very cool.”
“I got to speak to Taka Michinoku a lot. He was very cool. A lot of people out there were just so welcoming, and like I said, eager to teach, eager to help. The crowd was phenomenal. Other than that, I had the best time in Japan. I’m looking forward to going back.”
Learning Opportunity
Looking back on his experience, Pacifico previously stated (via Twitter) that he learned a lot from it. When asked to recall some of the specific things he learned about himself or wrestling through his time in Japan, Pacifico cited his ability to adapt.
“I learned that I am very adaptable. I could adapt to certain things that you would not see coming in wrestling,” Pacifico said. “I’m very fortunate to be trained by Cheeseburger, Delirious, Jonathan Gresham. Throughout the years, they really nailed that into me — learn how to do things on the fly, learn how to work with anything, work when you don’t even know what’s going [on]. Just to be completely in work mode at all times and know how to adapt.”
“So I was able to adapt to certain things that I was very fortunate to. And I learned I’m very good at traveling. It was very weird to get around at first, but I got it pretty quick. The food was phenomenal. I posted about it constantly. The food in Japan, they do food right. They have these [strawberry] gummies, probably the best I’ve ever had in my life. They do candy, and they do food better than America, I gotta say.”
Watch our full interview with Vinny Pacifico below:
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