Serpentico Recalls Almost Quitting Wrestling Before AEW Started

Serpentico and Luther of Chaos Project were on today's episode of Talk Is Jericho. Chris Jericho noted a Facebook post of Serpentico's he saw, and Serpentico explained his mindset when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

"After 18 years and you've had multiple, not tryouts, but you've been doing extra work for NXT, Impact and Ring of Honor and nothing really comes back out of it, you kind of get demoralized," Serpentico admitted. "After a while, I'm like, 'Do I really want to keep sacrificing my family and not being home on the weekends' because I had a pretty full schedule for an independent wrestler, actually making a living on the indies after so long. But because I was making a living, I would wrestle Friday, Saturday and Sunday and come home Monday.

"I would schedule bookings throughout the week and try to make connections and then leaving on Friday. So it was a lot of work. I would work all across the states. I would do Canada, Mexico, but after a while, it becomes a grind where it's fun but where is this leading me to? I can't do this forever. I want to build a family. I want to have a house. I want to do all these things that I can't do because it's really hard for me to juggle everything at once, and then once the pandemic hit, everything stopped. All my bookings dried up.

"I had around 10 WrestleMania weekend bookings for last year, and on the same day, they all got canceled. This is my rent. This is my livelihood. What am I going to do now? There's no way I can bounce back from this, I thought, because I like to think that I'm a very forward thinker, and I realized, well, this has never happened before. This is unprecedented. How am I, out of millions of wrestlers on the planet, going to jumpstart my career after this is over. I realized that this is it. This is something telling me, 'Alright, you should probably stop, regroup, get 'real job' and then start over from scratch."

Serpentico recalled what happened after he posted on Facebook.

"I wanted to quit, until AEW came around," Serpentico stated. "I live in Orlando. Me and QT Marshall go way back, trained at Bubba and D-Von's school. I was dead set against sending an email or asking for help.

"I put something on Facebook. 'Hey, this is real. I'm not the only one, but this is my story. This is what happened. I lost my job. I lost my wrestling gigs. All my money dried up I'm living off of savings, but just  wanted you to know, you're not alone. We can get through this together.' I've never asked him about this, but maybe two hours later, QT texted me, 'Hey, do you want to come to Jacksonville?' I'm like 'Okay, sure. I'll come down.' This is great.

"I'll wrestle you and Dustin. That'll be my final matches. I didn't expect anything to come out of this. I'll just do this, and go make a couple bucks and pay my rent. I came in, did the match and they were happy with it. And then they texted me for the next week and the next week and the next week."

Serpentico originally debuted in AEW as Jon Cruz. However, he revealed which match as Serpentico got him noticed by Tony Khan.

"I didn't debut Serpentico until I wrestled Darby, and that was maybe a month or two after," Serpentico noted. "QT would ask, 'What character do you want to use?' I'm like, 'Well, it depends on the match,' because if it's just a regular tag match, I'll do Jon Cruz because I think Serpentico could stand out on his own if he's by himself in a singles.

"So it was always tag matches until one day he texted me, 'You're doing a tag match on Wednesday, and you'll do a singles on Thursday. And on Thursday, you'll wrestle Darby Allin.' I'm like, 'Oh, can I be Serpentico with that?' He's like, 'Sure, and I did.

"And I didn't know this until October where Tony stopped me and told me, 'Hey, the match with Darby is one that sold me on you,' because he had no idea that Jon Cruz and Serpentico were the same person. The match was over and then because we have no fans, we go on break and we walk back to the tunnels, and he met me halfway. He's like, 'I had no idea that was you,' and I'd been here for two months already doing so.

Serpentico later expressed his gratitude and appreciation for Luther.

"I am very fortunate, and I told Lenny this in private, if it wasn't for him, I don't know where I'd be," Serpentico admitted. "Tony put us together, and he was all for it. He could have said no. He's been wrestling for 30 plus years. He could have said, 'Well, it's not for me. Who is this guy?' And he welcomed me with open arms, and he trusts literally any idea I have. I'm like, 'Hey, what about this this week?' And he never thinks. He says, 'Yes, let's go. Let's do it. Let's do it,' and it's it's something that I appreciate because not everyone would be that way."

Serpentico noted that he was not signed when he and Luther were paired together. He recalled the night he was signed to AEW.

"Our first match together, we were walking out and my exact words to him were, all I wanted, this match, was to get him signed," Luther recalled. "That's all I said. I don't care what happens. All I want is for you to get signed. You're a good guy. You deserve it.

"We did that match, and the next day, I wrestled Scorpio Sky," Serpentico said. "Tapings run so late. I walked back a mile to the locker room. There's nobody there. Everyone went home. I just changed by myself, and I'm taking my boots off.

"A few minutes later, Christopher Daniels comes in asking for me. I'm like, I'm in trouble. What did I do? What mistake did I make? He pulled me aside, and he said, 'Hey, this is for all the hard work you've done the last few months. This is for you' and just signed me right there."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.