Author: Back in 2015, we had the privilege of hosting a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session with Savio Vega. Over 300 questions were asked to the Puerto Rican veteran, and he held nothing back with his responses. For one fan aptly named "SavioVegaGuy," Savio gave him his moment to shine by finally answering a question that has been building up for over a year.
Relive all of the great moments from this Reddit AMA below!
Did you know that this interview with Savio Vega is available to listen to? Hit play and follow along with the article below!
Savio Vega Reddit AMA Hosted By ProWrestlingStories.com
Savio Vega AMA:
Hello Wreddit, I am Savio Vega and I will be taking your questions from 5PM ET. Thank you very much and it’s a pleasure for me to be here with you guys, and of course, the world needs to know about Savio Vega!
I want to thank /u/broken_beat and his website Pro Wrestling Stories (@pws_official on Twitter) for setting this up today. /u/broken_beat will be transcribing my answers by phone.
If you want to get in touch with me on Twitter it is @SavioVega . On Facebook, I got three pages. Two with a lion picture (here and here) and Savio Vega (Official fan page).
I look forward to talking to you all. Ask me anything!
SavioVegaGuy asks:
"Hi Savio,
Over the years, a wrestler’s ring attire has helped give a glimpse of their personality as they compete. Steve Austin was no frills and wore trunks, boots, and kicked ass. The Undertaker dressed up as Count Creepy and wore primarily black. Shawn Michaels dressed as an effeminate male stripper (what up /u/uptomyknees). These are among the many performers who let their personalities out through what they wore.
For yourself, the most iconic gear you wore was the black pants and red shirt with the stripes (it’s even getting immortalized in WWE 2K16). During that time, that gear stood out compared to many people on the roster. On top of that, we saw your personality reflected with the color red. Red represented your fiery temper (or maybe something to do with Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. I don’t know.) and that temper had you steamroll through the competition.
Unfortunately, this gear preference would not last and you ditched the red shirt for sleeveless undershirts when you partnered up with the Nation of Domination and eventually Los Boricuas™. In many ways, one could compare this to Samson and totally not Hercules getting his hair cut and losing his powers. Compared to your time with the red shirt, this time period was not that great and you would eventually leave the then World Wrestling Federation.
What I want to know is do you think keeping the red shirt would have helped you out or were things destined to go the way of Dean Ambrose’s hairline following your loss to Mabel at King of the Ring 1995?
Oh and did you ever rib fellow BSK member Undertaker about his fear of cucumbers?"
Savio Vega:
"(laughing hysterically) Well, you have come out and put nice stuff on this. The red shirt didn’t help me win or lose. Maybe yes. I don’t know. I have to think of my friend Bret Hart with his pink and black. I don’t know, because Shawn Michaels wore the red pants and it helped him a lot. I don’t know. It was the attitude era. I had my attitude, too. Maybe that had something to do with the push. I don’t know man, but this was funny.
I think what help me lose was my hairline. But I don’t like it. I let the hair grow a little bit and oh my god.
You’re very intelligent to put this all out there. It’s like when you go to Bourbon Street and someone makes a cartoon of you and you took all the good stuff out of me. Maybe if I turned to black and pink that would have helped me out. Bret, I love that guy.
Oh yes, Undertaker hated cucumbers. He absolutely hated them. It was like kryptonite to superman."
KingMabelGuy asks:
"Hi Savio,
You have had a fantastic career. From your early days establishing yourself as an icon of Puerto Rican wrestling, through to the WWF and promoting asian wrestling as Kwang the Ninja. Before long you obviously established your most succesful and well known persona of Savio Vega, friend to Razor Ramon.
Here you really put Carribean wrestling on the map, following on from the legendary Carlos Colon. Later you would join the Nation of Domination before returning to your roots with Los Boricuas before unfortunately leaving the WWF.
What I would like to know is, that throughout that legendary career, was there ever a better moment for you, than being the man to help launch King Mabel into stardom at the 1995 King of the Ring?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Yeah, that match was supposed to be taken by Scott Hall, Razor Ramon. He was supposed to wrestle to the finals. I don’t know if this would have been for me, I wasn’t supposed to wrestle King of the Ring. But Razor hurt his ribs so Jack Lanza told me I was going to work four times. So I say, "What are we going to do?" And he explained to me what they were going to do and I said, "Let’s do this!"
Nelson (Mabel) he was a great person, rest his soul. He has always been a nice people to me. Last time I saw him was years ago, I don’t even remember where it was, we did a signing autograph and stuff like that and he came all the way over to me and we hugged.
But that night, I hurt myself in the first match with IRS when I took a bump outside. But I never said nothing to nobody and just continued to do my job and did what they told me to do. So I did my work and did all the things they told me. But I remember that night like it was last night. I loved working with all those guys in just one night. I’m happy with that. I’m glad that I helped Nelson, or King Mabel, at that point in his career."
budgies_are_cute asks:
"Hi Savio,
Years ago, when you came to my area for a house show with what was then the WWF, you took a picture backstage with my brother, who had spina bifida and was in a wheelchair.
He passed away this year, at the age of 33.
You took the time to provide him with a memory. There were no cameras, there was no press, you did it because you wanted to.
Thank You."
Savio Vega:
"I’m so sorry for that. Rest his soul. That’s the way I am. Sometimes I see persons who can’t come to the ring or something and I say, "Come with me" I just want to make their life easier. If it’s in my hands and I can do something to put a smile on a kid’s face, give them a pass, give them a shirt or a picture, I want to do it. It doesn’t cost me anything, but it causes them happiness. I’m sorry for the loss."
SavioVegaGuy responds:
"Stuff like this is why I legit love a lot of the people in pro wrestling. A portion can be complete assholes, but it’s nice to know the good ones outweigh the bad."
Savio Vega AMA:
"Thank you!"
inmynothing asks:
"Special thanks to Savio for doing this and fulfilling one of our Wreddit dreams.
I hated your Strap Match with Austin as a kid, and now as an adult it’s one of my favorite strap matches. Why do you think it appealed more to me as an adult than it did as a kid?"
Savio Vega:
"It’s also one of my favorite matches that I ever did. We did it twice. We did it two times, because the first time in the pay per view the light went out. So the only people to see that match were the people in the arena. So we had to do it again in an encore PPV on Tuesday and they added five more minutes to the match. We added more stuff to the match. I love that guy.
The way we took the match and explained the match step by step in the ring, everybody understood the match. Nowadays, watching back, you can probably see things that you did not see as a kid. Now that you are an adult, you can see the details like why he took that bump, why it went like that. You can now see more details than you could when you were a kid."
Crooty asks:
"Hello, Mr Vega, I’m a huge fan of yours.
In your career you found a great amount of success in stables. From the powerful black power stable "The Nation of Domination" (which also created the mega-star that is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) to the Puerto Rican stable "Los Boricuas" it is arguable that these factions were huge part of your success, the dominance of a fearsome stable united under one cause always turns heads, especially when filled to the brim with charismatic stars such as yourself.
There are other examples of this, Evolution produced stars like Randy Orton and Batista. The Shield created three huge stars that are currently dominating the main event scene. Stables can also breathe new life into stars as we saw with the N.W.O which made people like Hulk Hogan again. Stables and factions get talked about for years to come, groups like the Nation of Domination, Degeneration X, The Dudley Family, The Nexus, The Bullet Club, The Four Horseman and Fortune being huge parts in wrestling history.
My question is, do you believe that if placed into a powerful stable, could the career of Shawn Stasiak reached the heights of a man like John Cena? Or was his career always destined to fall apart like house of cards constructed by Michael J Fox, following his loss to William Regal on the 22nd of April edition of Monday Night Raw in 2002?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"(laughing) Wow, my god. You know what, Shawn Stasiak is a great people. He’s a doctor I believe right now. Nice people. I don’t know if he’s married or have kids now. God bless him. He’s alone in the world. His mom passed away. His dad passed away. He came to work in Puerto Rico. Nice body, worked hard. The company was looking in the other direction though as we say.
I agree with you with what you say that factions make superstars."
nemskip asks:
"Why did roman and dean lie to us saying you were their 3rd man?"
Savio Vega:
"I don’t know! I don’t know to be honest. I got so many calls, friends sending me the videos. I guess they just tried to see how the people would react maybe? Maybe they wanted to put my name in the middle so the people in Puerto Rico would buy the game. Why mention Savio Vega after almost twenty years just to mention? I guess just to give a little bit of a push for the game. They had a poll on WWE.com and the people voted they wanted to see Savio over Jericho to join them. This meant a lot. Now they have the Dudley’s working there from my era. Taker is still there. Austin will hopefully be doing something at WrestleMania. If they call me, I will have to put myself in shape! But I could jump in the ring and do what I do. But why they did that? I don’t know to be honest."
iLikeElGenerico asks:
"How do you feel being in the new WWE video game? Are you surprised at how well the announcement was received by fans?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"I know they were going to put me there because they called me and I had to sign a contract and all that stuff. To be honest, I was in Chicago when I was coming down and was surprised when I saw an avalanche of texts on twitter. I was like, "What’s going on here?" I was seeing photos from friends on whatsapp and all that. It’s like what I said in another interview, I’m happy of course, but I am happy that my friends are happy and that they are happy with what they see. A lot of people say they are going to buy the game because I’m in the game and I’m happy that they are happy."
lyla2398 asks:
"Would you like to be in 2k17 as well?"
Savio Vega:
"Of course! I’d love to."
french_st asks:
"Who do you respect most in wrestling and why?"
"Wrestling is something that will be with us until we are gone and beyond."
Savio Vega AMA:
"To be honest, I respect everybody. I respect all the boys from the old timers to the guys who started last night. Because when you get in the ring and get into wrestling, you fall in love with wrestling. To us, the wrestlers, it’s like being a drug addict to be honest. When I say that, it sounds strong, but it is. It is strong. You can see the old timers are still around. They never want to leave the ring area because we love wrestling. It is something that I cannot explain. You can say you want to retire, but someone might call you up and ask if you want to have another match and it’s like, "I’ll be there." It’s something you do until the day you die. And when you die, you continue because people are still talking about you. When you pass away, people are still talking about you and remembering you. Wrestling is something that will be with us until we are gone and beyond. In the future, wrestling is still alive because somebody is going to be keeping it alive. We still mention wrestlers from the 50’s and the 40’s. I don’t remember some of these guys, but people mention their names. And I say, "Yes, I have heard of this man." I respect everybody and when you’re in wrestling you’re in it forever."
blaaze6 asks:
"What is your opinion on Billy Joel?"
Savio Vega:
"Billy Joel, who’s Billy Joel? If he’s a wrestler, I’ll be honest, I don’t know."
CoolHandHazard asks:
"Who was your favorite guy to wrestle?
Thanks for the AMA Savio!"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Steve Austin. As soon as he got his feet in WWF, we were in San Antonio when he got his tryout with WWF. I remember when we were in the back and Pat Patterson came up to me and said, "You two are going to have a match. Let us see what he has. You are going to go over." I said to Stone Cold, "I don’t know you, you don’t know me. My finish is this." And that was it. From that moment, we had chemistry, brother. You can see it in the matches we put on. From that day on, they put us together all over the United States. That match at WrestleMania wasn’t the greatest match I remember. I don’t know what happened, it wasn’t that strong. We had better matches than that. But he was a blast.
Also Goldust, I loved working with him. I had good matches with everybody but my favorite was definitely with Stone Cold."
LaboratoryTuxedo asks:
"Savio Vega, what are some of your craziest experiences working in Puerto Rico?"
Savio Vega:
"Wow, so many man. I remember one time working with Bruiser Brody. The fans believed everything big time. And the heels, especially in Puerto Rico, get real heat. I remember one time working with Brody and he saved my life. When I turned around there was an old man with a knife. This was when I was doing my heel stuff out there. We have seen people throwing stuff, batteries and all this. One time when I was wrestling as TNT as a heel, this woman hit me and my manager with her shoe. I looked at her and started yelling at her. There was a guy who then threw a beer at my face. He then grabbed me by the pants and that was like, "Okay, that’s it." I punched him and he was out. My manager El Profe and I just then took off in the car. This guy was suing me and in court I paid a fine and that was over with.
Crazy stuff in Puerto Rico. Fans jumping in the ring and trying to hit the wrestlers. That happened once in a while."
Patrazor asks:
"What’s you opinion on Bret Hart?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Bret Hart to me is a great person. Nice people, good people. Since I started in WWE, he always remained good. He was never a cocky champion or some bullshit like that. He was always a good people. I remember one time when we went to Calgary and he just bought a big house and he invited us over and had a party for everyone. He took us and gave us a tour of the house. Bret was always a good person to me.
I don’t know if people know, he started his career here in Puerto Rico. His first match was in Ponce, Puerto Rico and when we talked about that and he told me that, I was like wow.
Many years later, a guy took him to Puerto Rico for a special appearance and I went there. If a friend comes to Puerto Rico, I come to see him. We watched a game together, Canada playing somebody for the championship. I never watch hockey so he explained the game to me and it was a pleasure to have him here with me in Puerto Rico. Bret has always been a good friend to me. I remember playing with his kids in the ring and his first wife. What a family man, good, good people."
seanykizzle asks:
"Do you feel that you should have won the 95 KOTR? What was your reaction to the crowd chanting "ECW"?"
Savio Vega:
"I don’t know to be honest. I know they weren’t going to give it to me because they already had what they want to do. It could be good anyway. The push was good for me at the time. This was good because we were right there in Philadelphia and they compared me to the Rocky movie. "He beat IRS, he beat Yokozuna." And I had to face the big monster. I wasn’t even tired. I was feeling good and feeling adrenaline. They chose me to do that job. One bullet one kill. I was happy to do that job."
MisterTruth asks:
"Savio, who is your favorite travel buddy and can you tell us briefly about a crazy incident involving said person?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Definitely of course the Boricuas. But one of my favorites before them was with Mr Fuji (Uncle), Yokozuna and Junior (Rikishi). Uncle was the GPS because he knew every arena from every town.
Quick story here, we were driving somewhere, I don’t remember where, Mr Fuji was in the back sleeping, Junior was next to me sleeping but woke up. I asked, "Do you remember the exit?" Junior said "No, I don’t!" So he went, "Uncle, wake up!" Mr Fuji was sleeping he was snoring. He opened one eye and said, "Next turn." He was a walking GPS, love him."
lotsohugs asks:
"How come you never went to ECW or WCW after your WWF run?"
Savio Vega:
"When my contract finished in WWF, we already known it was going to happen. We already had in mind opening IWA in Puerto Rico with Victor Quiñones. By the time we worked with WWF and Los Boricuas were out, we were still in the company doing Super Astros, another branch Vince tried to make it for the Spanish market. But that was showing on Univision TV. We did a season, thirteen shows, everybody was buying the product. It was high. When thirteen weeks were finished, we talked the negotiations for one hour show. It was like sixteen thousand dollars per show, and they said no. Someone said something disrespectful and Vince came and he responded to it and here comes our jobs. There was nothing for us. He was already moving the stories to different directions for different people. We already had IWA with the permit here in Puerto Rico so we opened. I went to Taker, he was a good friend of mine. I said, "Brother, I have to go." He said, "Let me see what I can do to give you two more years." I said, "No, I have something here." I should have taken those two years but we had a good thing here in Puerto Rico. I never thought to go to WCW or ECW. What we did here in Puerto Rico was a lot of fun to be honest."
Nickleback4life asks:
"What do you consider to be the definitive Savio Vega match? For example, if you only had one match to show your grandkids which one would you choose?"
"I have so many matches that I can say to my grandkids. ‘Watch grandpapa kicking Undertaker’s ass!’"
Savio Vega AMA:
"The Caribbean Strap Match and the couple of matches I had with Goldust. I had matches with everyone there in WWF except for Shawn Michaels. He and I never had a match. I had a couple of matches with Undertaker as Kwang.
One of the greatest matches I remember was with Bret Hart of course. He was the champion and I was Kwang and we broke the record for ratings at that time. I don’t know why they changed that character because when the ratings go up, the people believe in that character. The people believed that that character Kwang could beat Bret Hart.
I have so many matches that I can say to my grandkids. ‘Watch grandpapa kicking Undertaker’s ass!’"
NotRye asks:
"How are you?"
Savio Vega:
"I’m okay! Thank God. Just looking to make more money. If you have a booking, call me (laughs)"
jwest27 asks:
"Did you have a lot of interactions with Vince? Any good stories?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Yes, when I met Vince in ’94, good people with me. JJ Dillon was there too, great, great person. One time they call me to do voiceovers in Spanish because Carlos Cabrera went somewhere, on vacation or something, so they call me and had me in Stamford for almost five days. They gave me a key to the office, the whole office including Vince’s office. I thought, "Great, I’m going to sit in his chair!" So I had access to the whole company. And of course, I wanted a key for the gym.
I was working out there and I invite Vince to work out one day. "Hey, you want to work out with me? Let’s see what you got!" He said, "Yes! I love it!" He couldn’t do it the first day because he had meetings but the next day around 6 o’clock he came in. He said, "I want to do a little warm up." And then he was ready. He worked, really, really hard. It was with him while working out that I realized I had an injury in my neck C7, tingling in my arms, the C7 strangled my tricep. It was working out with him and we were doing tricep and I could not lift the dumbbell. After five I could not do anymore. He was pushing me, "Come on, come on!" I couldn’t go anymore. He said, "Go check yourself." So I did. After that, the nerve got worse and worse. After that, we went to Meadowlands and I saw my face in pain. And I remember coming straight from the ring to the office. They had a meeting with Undertaker and I interrupted. I said to Vince, "I need to talk to you now." I laid down on the couch and said, "I have so much pain." And he said, "Go, get checked out." And they put me out of booking for a long time. That’s when they came out with Brawl For All and called me up. $5000 win or lose? Come on, let’s do this!
I cannot say that I have anything wrong with Vince because I learned a lot from him in the company. This helped me make it in IWA in Puerto Rico.
I used to sit down with him in Gorilla Position and he always had the headset on. "One of these days, they’re going to tell you to get the hell out of his chair!" people would say. And one day he came and he said, "No no no, stay there." I told him, "I want to listen and learn." And he was happy about this and let me. When I had nothing to do on Monday’s, I would sit back there with the headsets on just listening and listening."
naimnotname asks:
"Savio, when you fought Brakkus, you had probably one of the coldest stares I’ve ever seen in unarmed combat at the time.
Did he piss you off or something?"
Savio Vega:
"No, no, no. When I received the call they had in mind for Brawl For All, I was in my house with a pack of ice on my neck from a massage because I was hurt. Bruce Pritchard had called me and he said we have this opportunity. He said, "We will pay $5000 per match and if you win, you will make $100,000 and go to the pay-per-view." I said, "Okay, let’s go!"
Before the event, there was a big meeting with all the boys because we were going to come up with the rules. Vince wanted us to know the rules. We had Ken Shamrock who was a MMA wrestler. There was going to be take downs, how this was going to be. There wasn’t going to be kicks because I was the only one who could kick being a martial artist and they didn’t want me to kill anybody.
So my first match was with Brakkus. Brakkus called me and he had this funny voice. "Savio!" "Yes bro?" "We gonna fight?" "Yes Brakkus." "Will it be for real?" "Yes Brakkus." So I had to explain everything to him. I knew if he hit me with one of those 2×4’s, I was going to be out. So I had to take him out. After he lose, he was pissed, he didn’t want to lose. And he left not soon after. From that point I heard nothing from him."
HEELHousell asks:
"Hey Savio, thanks for taking the time to do this. The Attitude Era is known for its time of crude humor and violence. As a pioneer of the time, I would like to imagine you would also thrive in Philadelphia alongside the ECW boys. With that said…
Would you fight New Jack?
Thanks."
Savio Vega AMA:
Yeah, I worked with New Jack here in Puerto Rico a long time ago. Of course. I loved the guy. He was a great guy. A good person. I would wrestle anybody. I’m not that type of pussy that says, "No I don’t want to wrestle that guy." I say, "Come on, let’s do this! Let’s dance!""
thepugface asks:
"Savio,
If you were a hot dog and you were starving, would you eat yourself?"
Savio Vega:
"(laughs) Of course! Yes!"
SavioVegaGuy asks:
"In a related question, would you eat the moon if it were made of barbecued spare ribs?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Oh yeah, I love barbecue!"
Adarkox asks:
"Bendicion, Tio Savio!
Loved watching you in the IWA way back when it was a thing. That was a big part of what made me a fan of wrestling in general.
My question: Out of all IWA’s lifespan, what was your favorite moment?"
Savio Vega:
"Wow, I say it’s hard to pick to be honest. Hard to pick. Because I have so many moments in where there were tears that would come out. To be honest, I don’t know. So many, so many. Still today and yesterday (last night), I watched a video a fan posted to me. I watch it and I didn’t remember those moments. We do so many things every week. Every week was something new. So it’s hard to say, to be honest. To me, every moment we did with IWA was great. Very very good. Just having fun. That’s the name of the game, having fun."
Keep-reefer-illegal asks:
"I have to ask, what is your opinion of Lucha underground?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"I watch a couple of matches, you know, not the full segments or full show, just a couple things. I think it’s great. It’s a soap opera that needs to have another kind of flavor, but like I say, I don’t watch it so I can’t make a big comment on the product. I don’t know the numbers. If they’re going to take that to another level in the States, I guess so far it’s a TV show, but it’s good. It’s good. It’s another way to watch wrestling."
thepostaldud3 asks:
"What was the most fun thing you ever did while in the WWF?"
"The fun moments were always with the British Bulldog, Davey Boy and Owen."
Savio Vega:
"The fun moments were always with the British Bulldog, Davey Boy and Owen. God bless their souls. They must be making everyone laugh where they are. One time was with Mike Chioda in England when he was passed out. And here comes Davey Boy sitting next to Chioda. He was passed out sleeping. Davey Boy grabbed his clippers and shaved him. Chioda wakes up, sees what happens, jumped in the elevator and went straight to the airport.
Another time in Singapore, Davey grabbed Dink (from Doink and Dink), and tied him in a chair and put foam all over his face and head and everything. And he put him in the middle of the hallway and he was there for a couple of minutes.
Another time, Owen was leaving the arena somewhere and he got stopped by the police and the driver was Lex Luger. So we start talking to Luger and Owen said, "Fuck you!" from the backseat. And the police said, "What did you say?" And Lex said, "I said nothing!" And Owen said again, "Fuck you!" Lex was taken out of the car with his legs spread and arms behind his back. The police were in on the joke with Owen and Lex was pisssssed. Everything was a happy moment with those guys."
Daniel_Arshad asks:
"Hey Savio, thanks a ton for doing this!
I’d like to know how hard was it to work with Ahmed Johnson? Any stories in particular about your time with him?
Once again, thanks!"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Ahmed Johnson, nice people too. Nice man. I believe we were there in Dallas his hometown when he came for a tryout. It was just a regular house show, I said something to him there, I’m not going to say it here now, but you see this big black man who wanted to take something all the way, but you had all the BSK guys there with me and he just looked at me, laughed and said, "You motherfucker!" From that moment there we were friends. Working with him was easy. Hard working and we got on very well."
jaketrillenhall asks:
"What do you think of Dutch Mantell?"
Savio Vega:
"Good people. I worked with him here in Puerto Rico. I met Dutch a long time ago. Then we had the opportunity to work together in WWF. We were not that close, you know, but once he came to Puerto Rico he was working for Carlos. One time I was making my way to the office and he was at the bus stop and I said, "Hey what are you doing?" He said, "Taking the bus." I was in my H2 Hummer and I said "Come on, let’s go!" He told me he loved working with us guys in Puerto Rico. The houses were packed everywhere we go in PR. I love Dutch. He’s a great person, what can I say."
ILikeYourPoetry asks:
"Hi Savio…thank you so much for doing this.
What was it like participating in the Brawl For All? Did those in the back assume it’d be a giant mess, or did they have aspirations it would be the next big thing?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Well I guess when we had this it was more for the money and the moment. I mean, what was the purpose of that? Getting the guys to beat up each other? At the time it was okay, but, you know, you see Bart Gunn knock out almost everybody. The purpose was to make some money. But right there you could hurt somebody bad. Steve Williams Dr Death got hurt big time, he fought Bart Gunn and he knocked Steve out. Ugly, ugly, ugly. The purpose of that was for the people to see us knock out each other."
Hubria asks:
"Hi Savio. First off I must admit all I know about your career was from videos prior to the AMA. That said, how was adapting to the WWF after your early career in Puerto Rico? Did you notice a difference in style during the transition? Also, how was replacing Shawn Michaels in the Main Event of No Way Out: In Your House with such famous individuals as your partners and opponents?"
Savio Vega:
"Nice. That was really nice. I remember that match. That’s when Shawn wasn’t working or something like that. They said, "Let’s have Savio! He knows what to do so let’s do this." So they had me in there and switched what they were going to do. That’s when Mick Foley and I got together and we talked about bringing out the barbed wire and he loved it. He loved all that shit. Steve didn’t like that. Terry Funk, they were kind of pissed because they could not come in to save him because of the rules or some bullshit. Only Mick and me knew what was going to happen. Then I came out and started rubbing the barbwire and they were like, "What the fuck was that?" But it was good. It was a great match, anyway."
Nickleback4life asks:
"What member of the WWE Universe would you want to wrestle today?"
"I could take to school John Cena!"
Savio Vega AMA:
"The guys that I watch that I know, and I don’t know all of them you know, I guess I could have a good match with Randy Orton. I could take to school John Cena!"
bonermedicine asks:
"Hello Savio! we all need to know, what does the green mist taste like?"
Savio Vega:
"That’s a ninja secret. (laughs)"
Herr_Opa asks:
"Hey Savio. Big fan who grew up watching you in your IWA days.
2 questions :
1- What did you draw inspiration from to do your heel General Manager stuff?
2- Given your entrance theme was (still is, I think) a badass remix of Engel and Tier by Rammstein, do you listen to them at all?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"1- The story was I was part owner in IWA and I was the general manager of the company. So we took that position of the General Manager in front of the camera with the flavor of being a mean SOB General Manager where he was running the company with an iron fist. The idea came out good. Here in Puerto Rico we got together with a lot of the guys and the general managers were like "It’s my way or the highway!" And I took a lot from this.
2- I don’t listen to that music. They remixed it of course as you say. The song came out something great. Still using it today and the people are hooked on that."
chrisco83 asks:
"Where is your Kwang mask currently?"
Savio Vega:
"Well I have one around here. The kids still play with that. I have the other ones that I used outside, I still have that here at home."
Pjp288710 asks:
"What do you think of Los Matadores?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"I know them big time. I know them since they were kids. I remember them when they were babies, kids. Good guys. They’re coming from Puerto Rico and they know how to work of course. I saw them a month ago when they showed up here in Puerto Rico. I took my kids there to watch the matches and saw their match. I guess they’re going to change their characters and take off their masks. They’re going to be the new Los Boricuas or something like that. I hope they call me to be a Boricua with them I don’t know, we’ll see what happens."
FamousMRNobody asks:
"Who are some of your closest friends in the business?"
Savio Vega:
"Miguel Perez, we always were together. My brother of course, Dennis Rivera. Victor Rodriguez, he passed away. That was real friends. People who could say to my face what I was doing wrong and what I was doing right. No talking trash behind your back. They were real people."
rowdyroddypiperjr asks:
"Can you wish u/therealdanhill a happy birthday?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Of course. Happy birthday, /u/therealdanhill! (laughs)"
SteveMcQueen36 asks:
"What are your feelings on Medical Marijuana in wrestling for pain? Do you smoke?"
Savio Vega:
"If that helps and the people feel happy, you know, if smoking helps their sickness, I mean hey, God bless them and continue. If it’s just for get high and being crazy, don’t do it. But if it’s medical and it helps a lot of people, and I know people who are using it for cancer and ask how they feel and they say it helps with the pain and feel better. This is what I say, if it helps you, go ahead. And no, I don’t smoke. No thank you."
german1316 asks:
"Hey there Savio big fan, I got introduced to you from my father who was also a crazy huge fan and always felt you never got the recognition you respect as a worker. My question is two part, one is their any wrestler you felt should have been bigger and two with how the locker room is today with allegations of racism, has their ever been a moment where you were discriminated or seen a case of discrimination while you were working in the then WWF?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Yeah one time I felt discriminated against from Vince Russo. The words he used, I didn’t understand it at the time, but looking back I felt it. Later on I asked him, "What did you say?" And he said "Nothing, don’t worry." He didn’t have the balls to say it to me again.
With discrimination these days, so many people are touchy by a lot of things. Back in the 90’s, we had a white faction, the Puerto Rican faction and a black faction but everyone was in the back laughing and enjoying it.
As for a wrestler who should have been bigger, at that time, I guess everybody got their push. Everybody got their stuff. I guess Savio Vega of course."
iLikeElGenerico asks:
"What’s your opinion on the New Day, and the comparisons they received at first as "the new Nation"?"
Savio Vega:
"(laughs) They’re funny, funny guys. That characters of those guys, they could be turned to be mean sons of a bitches if they wanted to, but right now they’re being funny. But they could be a mean son of a gun if they put some flavor on it. It’s a new day, they could beat anyone up! I don’t know, what they’re doing, it’s the office brain. I could turn those guys heel, of course!"
TheRealMagician asks:
"Will you ever consider wrassling one final time in a WWE ring?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"Yeah, of course! With a good story, of course. Could be good to do something, of course, why not. To show up and show my face in the new era and do what I love and make some money."
TankSwan asks:
"Hey Savio, Do you know of any Puerto Rican talent up and coming we should look out for?"
Savio Vega:
"To be honest, I’m going to push this, my brother Dennis. He’s been in the business a few years now. He’s really good.
Hulky Junior, from one of the independents. The kid has good timing.
These guys need somebody to push and work with them. I like to help these guys. The guys need to not be nervous, listen and relax.
Yeah, there’s a couple talents here in Puerto Rico that just need to be put in the spot and they need some older talent to teach them."
Fundertaker asks:
"I started watching wrestling when I was about seven years old, at the height of the three way feud between Los Boricuas, DOA, and the Nation of Domination. At the time, it just seemed like three wrestling groups feuding, but as I got older, I felt like the "Gang Warz" were meant to be racially charged. What were your opinions on the role race played in the storyline?
Also, I think I remember from my Ground Zero ’97 VHS that the triple threat match between you, Faarooq, and Crush was the first three way match in WWF history. What was it like putting the match together? Who’s idea was it?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"The idea was from the company to have that done because that was when Farooq fired Crush and fired me, so we had this match. It was a good match until we did the neck breaker and I fell one way and Farooq fell the other. The idea came from the company.
I see nothing malicious from what was done in the story. There was nothing racist there. I loved the Nation of Domination, to be honest. I had so much fun working with that group as a heel. But did we see something racist there? No, not at all. If there was, I missed it. These were all good factions."
Cpt_Polux asks:
"Hi Savio, latin fan here, from Chile
Your favorite match, sandwich and book?
Te gustaría entrar de sorpresa en algún total rumble? Lo ves posible?”
Savio Vega:
"What he’s saying here, he wants to know if I want to be a surprise Royal Rumble entrant. But being a special entrant, coming to the company, of course. Why not.
Favorite sandwich? (Laughs) Chicken.
Favorite book, I always start reading and then I stop. I have to read more."
Luger180 asks:
"Who was everyone in BSK?"
Savio Vega AMA:
"It was the Undertaker, Yokozuna, Paul Bearer, Mr Fuji, The Godwinns, Papa Shango/Kama, Fatu and myself. Real friends to be honest. Real friends, real brothers. If there was anything anybody need, the others would look out for you. It was a good friendship."
Slickrob asks:
"What did you think of Bruiser Brody?"
Savio Vega:
"Oh my God, good person. I met him here in Puerto Rico when I was working as a security guard for wrestling. I loved the character. A couple years later, I had the opportunity to work with him and he protected me, like I said before. He saved my life. I worked with him in Japan too for Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling. There is a big tournament that they run every year there. Of course what happened in Puerto Rico was sad. That stupid thing marked wrestling in Puerto Rico forever. It was an injustice. A lot of money was involved with that stupid shit. And here in Puerto Rico we talk a lot about that. We still have Jose around. And I don’t know if he feel guilty or what, I never talk to him about this, but it’s sad. It makes me sad. I was there. A lot of people think he just passed away there. They took him to the hospital and had surgery on him. Through the night, he bleed and he died. It happened how many years ago and I’m still affected. I don’t like to talk about this too much. Bad, to be honest, bad bad bad. I wish to talk to Brody’s kid one of these days. He has one. I never had a chance. He was just a kid when this happened. Man. His wife remarried again and has a kid that is 21 years old or something like that. I hear he wants to know nothing about wrestling."
iLikeElGenerico asks:
"Any memories or ribs that stand out from the late Owen Hart?"
Savio Vega:
"Like I said before, the ones with Lex Luger. One time we were coming down to Allentown, PA and the arena was in the mountain. And here we are coming down and we see a deer and I was driving. And I was like "Oh a deer, look at that!" And as soon as I passed it, it hit the car. And I was so stupid and pulled over and Owen was like "You hit it you hit it!" And Jim the Anvil Neidhart looks at me and says, "Come on, are you going to believe him?" It was Owen who hit the side of the car.
Love him, he was always making you laugh."
Savio Vega AMA:
"Okay everyone, I have two shows tonight so I have to shit, shower and shave (the 3 S’s) so I have to go. Thank you for all of the questions! Thanks to all of the fans who still remember Savio Vega. Thank you very much. For those who do not know Savio Vega, look for my matches on Youtube. Get to know the motherfucker! You can also see a lot of my matches here on prowrestlingstories.com. Thank you very much. If you want to follow me, see above. I also have Instagram @tiosaviovega.
On January 18th, keep an eye on Amaro Productions (Twitter @amaropro) and on Facebook at Amaro Productions Inc. This is a company coming up slowly but strong.
Take care and talk to you all soon."
Pro Wrestling Stories:
"Taping the Savio Vega AMA and talking to him again was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone for the really great questions and for getting involved! We had a lot of fun with this and Savio laughed throughout the whole experience. Hopefully, this Savio Vega AMA made a lot of people smile!"
These stories may also interest you:
- Savio Vega – How The Kliq Tried to Get Him Fired from the WWF
- Bruiser Brody – His Final Moments and the Deceitful Trial That Followed
- Kurt Angle on Drug Addiction, Almost Breaking Undertaker’s Streak, Making Hogan Tap Out, and More!
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