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Vinny Pacifico: From Losing A Tooth On AEW Dynamite To Taking TV & Film By Storm (Exclusive)

Vinny Pacifico has used a positive outlook to pursue his pro wrestling dreams and propelled himself to other entertainment avenues at the same time.
Sid Pullar III|
Vinny Pacifico

The wrestling world is filled with stars who came from humble beginnings. And many have leveraged their pro wrestling careers to transition into other entertainment ventures. Independent wrestler Vinny Pacifico is doing just that, and has now begun his own journey to expand beyond the squared circle.

While most of his work can be seen on the independent scene, Pacifico most recently made an appearance on the March 12 edition of AEW Dynamite.

Facing Samoa Joe, HOOK and Katsuyori Shibata of The Opps, Pacifico found himself on the receiving end of the corner dropkick from Shibata that led to him losing a tooth in the process.

"Shibata is a hell of a talent. You know, we wrestled, I go to the corner, gave me the nice dropkick right to the face and I heard a crack," Pacifico told The Takedown on SI. "So two weeks prior to that, I had my front tooth chipped, a guy headbutted me right in the face and it chipped. I got that fixed by my dentist."

"And then I'm at AEW, I get dropkicked and I hear a crack and I'm like, 'oh my God, please tell me it's not the front tooth again.' Thank God, it wasn't. I get out of the ring, I cough and my tooth falls into my hand from the back left side, and yeah that's something I'll never forget. I still have the tooth with me."

A long time wrestling fan who started training to become a pro wrestler at just 14 years old, Pacifico made the decision he wanted to pursue his dreams of pro wrestling early in life and didn't let anything stop him from accomplishing them.

"I started out watching wrestling from the SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 game. My cousins were playing it, I said 'this is awesome.' Started watching it, became an instant fan right away. John Cena, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, Boogeyman, those are the guys that I was like mesmerized, you know."

"Throughout the years, I was playing football, and at some point I was 14 years old in high school playing quarterback, I said, 'Dad, I'm lucky to play on this football team, but I want to wrestle. I don't think football is for me anymore.' I felt like I wanted to do something different and I didn't want to go through life with any regrets."

Giving him extra motivation, Pacifico recalled a meeting with his pro wrestling hero, Bryan Danielson, that gave him the added push to pursue his dreams of competing inside the ring.

"I went to a meet and greet in the city with my father. I was like so excited for it, I had a few of my friends with me, I had a meet and greet with Bryan Danielson," Pacifico said. "I asked him for advice, I said, 'hey you really inspire me, I love you, I would love to start wrestling, do you have any advice or insight?'"

"He was so motivational, he's like, 'go for it.' Took his time to talk about it, gave me some insight, and that was something that was special to me and I'll never forget that. And I hope down the line I pay that forward when people ask me for advice."

"I always want to be motivational to other people, but he is somebody who I'm sure a lot of people have got inspiration from him and learned from him and love his work. So yeah that was an amazing experience meeting him and that was when I knew 100% this is what I'm gonna do."

While he started training at 14 alongside former AEW star Sonny Kiss, Pacifico soon found himself in Ring of Honor before long and began training in their well renowned dojo.

"So I started training at 14 along with Sonny Kiss, Mike Orlando, Aaron Bradley, a lot of really good people. From there, I just didn't stop, I started out with two of my friends from high school, they quit, kept training, eventually started training at the Ring of Honor dojo."

Under the guidance of former ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham, legendary ROH wrestler Delirious and others, Pacifico found himself learning from veteran talent in his teens that helped him become the wrestler he is today.

"That's when things got really good for me under Jon Gresham, Cheeseburger, Rhett Titus, Delirious, amazing talent, amazing people and learned so much from them," Vinny said. "And I got to travel the road for Ring of Honor and wrestle for Ring of Honor and travel with them. It was great experiences, I learned so much in the ring, outside the ring."

"I've been blessed to wrestle some amazing talent and learn from some of the best in the game you know so that's how I kinda got my start."

"I learned a lot of great life lessons from them and so I am very grateful for my time there. I used what I learned all over the world now. I've wrestled in so many countries at this point."

These building blocks for his wrestling career have helped Vinny travel around the world, gaining experience and exposure which has allowed him to make a name for himself on the indies.

"I'm very blessed to say I've been all over the world, Japan, Puerto Rico, Netherlands, Romanian, Hungary, Germany, France, Finland, England, Canada, it's been crazy. I'm just grateful for everything, you know. It's very hard work, it's mentally taxing, but I'm very grateful to be where I am now."

Working your way up the ladder on the independent scene can be extremely difficult, but Vinny has been blessed with opportunities not a lot of pro wrestlers ever get the chance to.

Transitioning into the world of TV and movies, Pacifico finds himself getting involved in other entertainment projects recently.

"How it started out was I was wrestling in Hungary and I got booked for a major movie coming out soon, Frequency of Miracles. It's based off The Secret where people get interviewed and tell their life story, their mindset, how they deal with their journey and ways their mindset works in terms of success."

"And I been lucky enough to be along legends, Les Brown's a legendary speaker, Dr. Bruce Lipton, amazing, amazing people. So I got to do that and people backstage were very impressed. people on set were very impressed with how I spoke, the way I told my story, they were inspired by my story, which was very cool because these people are legends, you know."

Using this role in Frequency of Miracles, the independent star is about to star in his first TV role for a mental health based TV series called, Men's Speaking.

"So I got the opportunity to be introduced to people who run a new TV show coming out very soon called, Men's Speaking."

"It's a mental health based TV show, which includes a celebrity, a Navy vet, a thought leader and another person, so it's four people sitting at a table and they just talk about their experiences, their mental health, how they deal with it, finding self love and all these awesome things, you know."

"So yeah it's really crazy to get that opportunity because Frequency of Miracles got to tell my story to a whole new audience, it's gonna be on Amazon and Gaia. Getting on a TV show kinda getting to tell my story, the mental health struggle that we deal as a wrestler, shining some light on pro wrestling as well, which is a really cool thing."

Building on these first two initial roles, Vinny has now been booked for a second TV show that is based out of the United Kingdom. Going from more reality based roles to an official acting role, Pacifico revealed that he has landed yet another gig on TV.

"Then literally three days ago also I got booked for a UK TV series, a fiction one, so it's gonna be more of an acting role, like an interview base one."

With a positive outlook that drives him to inspire and motivate those around him, Vinny Pacifico says he always wants to stay busy with everything he's doing in the pro wresting and entertainment world.

Having a family, home life, various independent bookings and his expansion into acting, Pacifico finds his balance through hard work, dedication and keeping the right mindset.

"I do my best possible to take care of my people," Vinny said. "As long as you do your best and you realize what you need to do to take care of what you need to take care of, you will be fine."

Our full conversation with Vinny Pacifico will drop this coming Thursday, April 3rd over onThe Takedown on SI YouTube channel.

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Sid Pullar III
SID PULLAR III

Sid Pullar III is a lifelong pro wrestling fan who has been covering the business for the past eight years. Starting off as a podcaster and creator of the Tru Heel Heat Wrestling YouTube channel, he made the transition to news and feature writing with Sportskeeda and WrestleTalk in 2020. His passion for the industry has been documented with over 3,000 videos on YouTube and 8,000 written pieces across multiple outlets, such as Fightful, WrestleTalk, The Takedown and more. Follow him on X @TruHeelSP3

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