At only 20 years of age, “Lyte Playa” Roger Ventura is already one of the most accomplished athletes in the New Zealand industry today. Hailing from Africa, Ventura began his career in what was then Mania Pro Wrestling (MPW) aged just 14. Trained by the late Steve Hodgson, Ventura made his mark as an aerial specialist of amazing versatility.

Ventura captured the IPW Heavyweight Championship in 2004, from “Double D” Davey Deluxeo. Though plagued by injury in recent years, he made a comeback at last year’s NZPWI Invitational, wrestling a dark match against old nemesis Lil’ T.

This year Ventura goes into the NZPWI Invitational as one of the 8 tournament competitors, taking on long-time friend “The Deal” Dal Knox. Now adding mixed martial art training to his repertoire, Ventura is looking to cement his status as one of the most exciting grapplers in the New Zealand scene.

Ventura took time out on Sunday to speak to NZPWI Editor, Kirsty Quested.

Entire interview Size: 1.5Mb File Type: Windows Media v9

Beginning his wrestling career at just 14 years of age, my guest at this time has gone on to become one of the most versatile and exciting athletes in the New Zealand industry today. A former IPW Champion, he combines aerial expertise with a solid striking ability. He will be taking on best friend Dal Knox in the first quarter final of the 2007 NZPWI Invitational. He is Lyte Playa, Roger Ventura.

Kirsty Quested: First of all, thanks very much for taking the time to speak to us today, we really appreciate it.

Roger Ventura: Thank you for having me.

Not a problem. It’s a bummer what happened last night at Fallout. Did you have any idea Alfred Valentine was going to interfere?

Nah, I didn’t. I didn’t have any idea. People didn’t have any idea. But my body didn’t have any idea most of all. It’s knackered from last night, man. I’m just bumps and bruises all over, my face is pretty beat up as well. I’ve got a cut up on my forehead, busted my lip open, and I’ve got a graze just under my eye.

Sounds like you’re pretty… although, I must say from what I’ve heard, it sounds like it was a really good match, with Davey.

Yeah, up until the end there I was real happy with it. I watched it on video, somebody filmed it for me, and I was impressed with the match itself. But the outcome, you know… if I had my way, I’d have it different [laughs].

You got your start in MPW at just 14.

That’s right, yeah.

How’d you manage to get taken on board at such a young age?

I actually sometimes ask myself that too. Because I went into the gym, the Mania gym, and I asked him, “I really wanna be a wrestler, you guys gotta let me in, please please.” And at first they were kinda like, “you’re a 14 year old fat kid. What the hell are we gonna do with you?” type of attitude. Because no-one really knew me, so I don’t blame them. But Steve Hodgson, he was the guy who had the final say, and he looked me up and down, and he said to me “you know, you’re not what we would put in the ring, but hey, we can change that. You will get bigger, you will get stronger, and you will get older and wiser.” So he said to come along and join. And for that I was really thankful, he’s the one who laid down the final word who let me join, you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah right. You were trained by the late Steve Hodgson; how do you look back on those early days with him?

Oh, it’s like, you can’t put a price tag on that. I’m eternally grateful for him letting me join, because he could have said “bugger off. I’m a wrestling trainer. I don’t need to be spending time babysitting 14 year old fat kids.” But he took me in, and he trained me, and he taught me… and even up to the last day I spoke to him, which was ages ago, about 2003, maybe early 2004, he respected me, every time I spoke to him, and he was never rude to me and he was never wrong with me in any way. He always treated me like a son, and always trained me well, and if I had a chance, I’d really like to speak to him again and thank him, for that, because I wouldn’t be here today if he didn’t bring that attitude. Even though he accepted me, he could have had a really down attitude with me, and I could have just walked out. But you know, he made the wrestling gym look like a place where I wanted to be at.

It’s been a great loss for the New Zealand industry.

Definitely.

You defeated Davey Deluxeo to win the IPW Championship when you were just 16, that right?

Yeah.

How do you look back on that victory?

That was awesome. Look back on that match, and I wouldn’t change anything in that match. That was just one of the best moments, and matches, of my whole life. That was great. Everything flowed, everything went well, everything just came together like a puzzle. I don’t know if you saw any of the footage or anything, but I was all teary-eyed, after the match, I was trying to hold it back. You know, I was like “I’m from Africa, I gotta keep it up, I’m a tough dude”, but nah, I couldn’t hold it back. My family was in the crowd, my cousins were in the crowd, my uncles, my aunties… it was just awesome, people standing up clapping for me, I got the belt with me, I just broke down.

You wouldn’t be the first. You wouldn’t be the first wrestler to get teary on winning a championship.

Yeah, definitely.

You have an interest in mixed martial arts, is that right?

Yeah.

What kind of martial arts training are you most keen on?

Actually the grappling. Being from a pro-wrestling background, I only got into mixed martial arts about two years ago. I only started taking it seriously about one year ago. But because I’d already been pro-wrestling with IPW and MPW, I was already a good grappler. So the striking didn’t really appeal to me that much, but it’s always had a, I’ve always had a place in my heart for it. I’ve got a cousin who at the moment is a NZ champ boxer. And I’d done boxing with him, sort of as a way to keep fit, but I never really took it seriously. But last year, I bumped into this old guy, I never knew who the hell he was. He comes up to me, he’s a Welsh guy, and he goes “I heard you’re a wrestler. Would you be keen for a roll in the ring?” And I said “hey dog, you look about 492 years old. I’m 19. I don’t think it’s a fair match up. I’ll probably crush you.” And he goes “aw come on. I won’t bite, I promise,” and I said “all right then, let’s get in the ring,” and we got in the ring, which was a mixed martial arts ring, and they let us use it just so we could have a spar, and he embarrassed me in front of everyone. He had me tapping out in about 10 seconds. And I just said to him “hey… you gotta teach me how to do that man,” and ever since then he’s been training me. His background is Jujitsu, Japanese form, and ever since then I’ve been training under him for the last year.

Right. Because you’d always been known as an aerial specialist, but you’ve been developing a reputation as an effective striker, would you say that’s brought about the evolution in your style recently?

Yeah definitely. Training in the mixed martial arts, I’m getting to meet and train with a whole bunch of different guys, and one of the guys, who had a really big influence on me as far as the striking goes, a guy by the name of Alex Porter, who is a Muay Thai fighter, and he actually took me through a lot of striking. Mainly kicks, because that’s what I wanted to focus on, is low-body striking, because with the upper body, I was always good at grappling. But as far as weakening the lower body, I wasn’t really well, in that area. So he took me through that, and that’s why… if you watch the matches closely, you’ll see that a lot of my kicks are Muay Thai style kicks, and that’s all because of Alex, yeah.

You’ve suffered a fair amount of injury over the years, most notably at Capital Punishment last year in Wellington; how’s that affected your passion for the sport?

Actually, I hate it that it happened, but I’m glad it happened at the same time. But it happened… the back injury that I got at Capital Punishment kept me out for months, and I just… I couldn’t do anything, because it was a back injury. I dislocated a vertebrae in my spine. So, I couldn’t run, because it would upset the vertebrae. I couldn’t cycle, because the lower body movement would upset the vertebrae. I couldn’t wrestle, I couldn’t do any weights, so I literally couldn’t do anything. You often hear people say “I’ve bunged the old shoulder, so I’m just doing a bit of bike”, but that wasn’t the case with me, because I hurt the core, so I couldn’t do anything.

Must have been really frustrating.

Oh it was. I was angry, I was sad. I was just wanting to get back in the ring. I was getting hungry; I know it’s a cliché but that’s honestly how I felt. I just could not wait to get back in the ring. I was training, I upped my training up to 2, 3 times a day, as opposed to the one time a day I was when I wasn’t injured. As soon as I got out there again, I started training 2, 3 times a day. And I haven’t stopped. Every since I came back from my injury, which was last August, we’ve just passed the one year mark, and I haven’t stopped training like a madman, because that hunger still hasn’t worn off.

And you’re all OK, you haven’t suffered any twinges or setbacks or anything like that?

Not in the back, no. My back’s been 100% fine. I’ve been fighting through other injuries. If you watch any of my matches which took place at the start of this year, around February, you would have noticed I did every match with a strapped left shoulder?

Right, yeah I did, yeah.

I had a torn tendon in my left shoulder, so I just kept strapping it to limit the range of motion, so that it wouldn’t bother me too much in the matches. But each match that I did, it was getting worse and worse and worse. And then I just had about a month off, just one month off, and somehow, it came right. I was doing a lot of physiotherapy, a lot of yoga as well, to loosen up the ligaments and tendons, and that helped a lot, and my shoulder’s come right.

Ah, that’s good to hear. Good to hear.

I stand here now, injury free.

Has it been difficult coming to terms with the size differences between you and most of your opponents?

Oh definitely, definitely. I think that’s also another big factor on my in-ring style. Like, you spoke about my striking? In terms of wrestling, I literally, I can’t lift a lot of the boys I fight. You know? I mean, last night I was in the ring with Dave, and Dave’s weighing in at 103 kilos.

Is he really?

I’m 75 kilos. So there’s a big difference there. I probably could lift Dave if I gave it my all, but in saying that I’d probably injure something else…

Yeah it wouldn’t… it’s not worth it.

… yeah, so that’s affected my style a lot. I’ve sort of, I’ve had many situations in the ring where I’ve gone to pick somebody up, and I’ve either stalled, because I can’t do it, or I’ve hurt myself doing it, because it’s just too much for me. So that’s why I’ve based my style mainly on striking and high-flying. Attacking low, attacking high.

For sure.

The NZPWI Invitational. You were in the dark match last year, and in the First Invite Eliminator; how’d it feel to get the call from Dion McCracken inviting you to be in the tournament itself this year?

That was overwhelming. That was absolutely awesome, because… last year, like I was saying, I was injured, and I made my comeback in August, for that dark match, that was my comeback. And I said to myself, I’d really like to be in the tournament, but I’m just going to have to shut up and sit down, because for the last 6 months, I’ve been on the sideline with an injury. So you can’t be out for 6 months and expect yourself to be chosen for a tournament like this, you know? So I said all right, but I’m in for next year. That’s my goal. And initially, when the brackets had been done, I was sitting there going “OK, let’s see… brackets, where’s my name, where’s my name, where’s my name… OK, my name ain’t there. Cool. Cool.” So I just sort of kicked back – chill – sort of, what are we gonna do about this, it’s all right. Just calm down, stay calm… and I was sitting at home, I was just chilling, I was just watching TV, and Dion calls me. And he goes “I’m hosting a tournament. Just wondered if you want to be part of it?" And I was like “Ha-ha, very funny dog. But I don’t find that funny, I actually think you’re pretty sick, for trying to pull a joke on me like this.” And he’s like “Rog… I’m serious. I need you to fill a bracket in the tournament.” I was like… “am I on Punk’d? What’s going on?” I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know what to say to Dion… so it was great. It was awesome.

You’re going to be facing an old friend in the quarter final, Dal Knox… how do you go into a match like that? You know, friend against friend, so much at stake?

I don’t know. I’m kind of… I’m a little bit worried, like, Dal’s the kind of person, I can throw a kick, as hard as I want, but on that last minute, I’ll pull back, you know what I mean? Dal’s my buddy… we started working, we used to work together last year. We were working together – I ended up moving onto a different job – but now we still train together, and we’re training Monday to Friday. We’re in the gym together every single day, we wrestle together, we’re in the ring together, every week. And out of the ring, me and Dal, we get together, we have chicken, we have Kool Aid… honestly, I can tell you he’s my best friend. So it’s gonna be difficult to not pull back on that last second when I kick him in the head, you know?

And what about him, do you think that he would still bring you up for the Knox Out, if he could?

I think so. I mean, as much as we’re best friends, I think we both know why we’re in the ring in the first place. We met each other in the wrestling industry, but neither of us would be in the wrestling industry if we weren’t in it to win it, you know what I mean?

Yeah, for sure.

So, in the same way as it’s gonna be hard for me to kick him in the head, I think it’ll be hard for him to Knox me out, but we’ll both do it if we had to.

I think the fans can look forward to a helluva match from the pair of you though?

Oh definitely, I’m looking forward to the match as well.

What are your thoughts on the other tournament competitors? Who do you think’s worth watching out for?

Um… I’m pretty wary of Cruz. I locked horns with him in the Eliminator last year. I kicked him in the back, and he wasn’t looking, he was looking the other way. I kicked him in the back, and then I laughed. And then he turned around and kicked me, and I wasn’t laughing no more. I was like “Jeez! This dude’s ruthless.” As far as he goes, out of the Aussie boys, he’d be the one I’d be looking out for, only because I know what he’s capable of. Dallas, I’ve never been in the ring with Dallas, but he looks pretty damn scary.

He does, doesn’t he? He’s huge.

He’s a big boy.

It’s been great to see Ignition moving back to its original one hour time slot. What sort of effect would you say that having a weekly show has had on the IPW roster in general?

Oh, it’s been great. It basically just brings us into the fans’ homes, makes us household names with the fans who are tuning in. We traveled to Wellington in April, and some of the other boys traveled down to Christchurch for the Armageddon show. And the show had only been on for a matter of weeks back in April, and I remember, we walked into a restaurant, and this Indian guy comes up and says “please, it is on the house for the IPW boys.”

Nice one!

I said “excuse me?” and he says “it is your choice, it is on the house.” I said “for who?’’ he goes “Mr Ventura.” I was like “how do you know me? I’m from North Shore City, Auckland, you are in Wellington,” he’s like “I am tuning in to Ignition.”

Wow.

I’m like “all right then.” I think it’s more than just coming to the shows and seeing us once a month, in whichever city we are at, people are seeing us every week, and it’s making us more of a household name.

For sure, for sure. I was actually covering Armageddon down here in Christchurch, and I was eavesdropping on the crowd, and I could hear them: “that’s Jon E. King” and “that’s Vinny Dunn…”

People recognizing them from TV…

Yeah, yeah.

That’s awesome.

With the show, and IPW now touring, not to mention, the Invitational… what do you think of the direction New Zealand pro-wrestling’s headed in?

It’s going in a good way at the moment. It’s awesome, I’m loving the whole touring thing, getting to meet new fans, getting to meet new people. You’ve got to spread the word of your product, it doesn’t matter what business you’re in. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling toilet paper, or if you’re making peanut butter, or if you’re doing a wrestling business, if the people don’t know that your product is out there, the people aren’t going to buy the product. At the moment, NZ wrestling is such a quality product, I think it’s really good, it’s a really good product, and fortunately everyone’s getting out there. We’re doing it, we’re doing shows all over… doesn’t really matter what wrestlers, what show it is, the fact that people know there are Kiwi wrestlers out there. It’s awesome, it means that we’re growing, I mean how many times have I come across somebody and I say “I’m a pro-wrestler” and they say “I didn’t even know you fullas do that in this country,” and now people are finally saying “you gotta check out the Kiwi wrestlers, they’re bloody awesome,” you know?

For sure.

It’s definitely on the up-and-up.

A little birdie told me that you’ve got a fixation with Kool-Aid.

[laughs]

Care to elaborate?

Yeah, I actually do, Kool-Aid and chicken! It’s my favourite beverage and my favourite food, but it’s not my fault that everyone knows about that. I’ll tell you how that came about. That was actually a last minute bloody mistake. We were up in Whangarei, and the show was about to start in 20 minutes. One of the wrestlers was supposed to do a promo for the camera, for the TV show, and he pulled out at the last second, I don’t know what happened. And the camera guy grabs me and he goes “You! You got a loud mouth. Do a promo.” And I said “hey dog, I haven’t had time to warm up, and I need to, the show’s starting soon,” and he goes “Mate. Do a promo. We need it for the TV show. We need you to talk,” and I said “hey man, you can’t just be coming up on me, telling me to do a promo. What am I supposed to talk about?” And he goes “well, what did you do yesterday mate?” I said “I had some chicken and Kool-Aid with my boys,” and he goes “right, we’re talking about chicken and Kool-Aid,” I said, “are you serious?” and he says “Do it.” And my promo came up as chicken and Kool-Aid. By the next show that we did, I had these little kids in the crowd going “chicken! Kool-Aid! Roger Ventura Chicken! Kool-Aid!” And it just grew from there, like everyone’s always talking about chicken and Kool-Aid, and it’s my favourite thing.

You could almost put a Roger Ventura franchise on it.

Yeah! I was looking at maybe asking them for some sponsorship or something [laughs].

So what do you like to do when you’re not wrestling, and when you’re not practicing mixed martial arts?

To be honest, I just like chilling. I like appreciating my family and my friends. I spend so much time training… if I’m not in the gym doing weights or cardio, I’m in the ring doing mixed martial arts, if I’m not doing mixed martial arts I’m wrestling. And when I’m not doing any of those, I’m on the show, you know? I’m on the road, traveling. I’ve got a lot of family who I need to catch up with, I spend time with my parents, with my brother, with my cousins, I’ve got a lot of cousins over here. I’ve got cousins in Australia and Africa still, I’ve got cousins in America who I haven’t seen in 12 years, I’ve been doing a lot of spending time with them. I’ve been traveling a lot, spending time with all my family. And on top of all that, I’m at Uni too. So you know, I’ve got to study as well.

Yeah, what are you studying at University?

Currently doing a diploma in fitness and health.

Ah right.

So it’s coming to the end of it, I’ll be finishing it off this year, and I’ll have a lot more time. Probably more time to train [laughs]. I’ll have more time, but yeah at the moment I’m like juggling, wrestling, university, working, training, family time, you know?

Wow. It doesn’t sound like there’s any spare time at all. All the best for your diploma by the way, you’ll be coming up to the end of it now, exams coming up?

Yeah, yeah coming up. Up till then, I’ll be really happy to finish, I’m not digging these early morning starts you know? It’s like – 7am lectures – it’s like damn, let me sleep dog!

Of all the wrestlers in the world, alive or dead, who do you most look up to?

Um… probably… there’d be two, but if I had to choose one…

Well who are the two?

Two would be Lo Ki (currently wrestling as Senshi in TNA), and Mr. Rey Mysterio. They’ve been the biggest influence on me. Rey was my first big influence. When I first started wrestling, when I was 14, Rey was just coming into WWE. There was a lot of talk, like some of the boys who were training in the wrestling gym at the time, in MPW, they were like… at the time, I was 14, I was five foot four. They were like, “look man, you’re not going to get anywhere. Not trying to be stink, but you’re going to have to go on some serious drugs if you want to get anywhere." And I went “says who? Look at Rey, look what Rey’s doing,” and they’re just like “well, uh, er, well…” and I’m like “yeah shut your ass up.” So Rey’s sort of the person who made me say, when everyone would say “you’re too small to be a wrestler,” I’d say “well how do you explain Rey?” And people would sort of stall.

And he’s not the only one, I mean you’ve got Petey Williams over in TNA.

Petey Williams, we’ve got Jamie Noble, Jamie Noble is just awesome, he’s off the chain. And in saying that, that’s where Lo Ki comes in, you know he’s also only five foot seven. So when I came across Lo Ki, I thought, here’s another guy who’s only five foot seven, six, five foot seven, and I was like – well here we go, here’s another guy who’s just had a massive influence on me. And especially with my interest in MMA, that’s what brought me even closer to the style of Lo Ki. I really like Lo Ki’s style, the way he handles himself in the ring, the way he presents himself to the crowd. The same thing can be said for Rey. The two of them have definitely had the biggest influence on me.

So, who would be your ultimate dream match? Would it be one of those two?

Yeah that’s what I say, it’s hard to narrow it down to one, because with my style, I’m a high-flier and a striker, I’d really like to go up against Rey. One on one. High flying galore. And I’d really like to go up against Lo Ki, strong style, stiff to the max you know?

Yeah, yeah.

What does the future hold for Roger Ventura?

Who knows? I know where I wanna go. I don’t know where I’m going to go… yesterday’s always gone, you’re never promised tomorrow, but every year I’d like to take what I have and make it bigger and bigger. Ever since I’ve started wrestling, I’ve made it bigger and bigger each year. I’ve gone from not even getting a match on the card, to getting a match on the card, to main-eventing, to winning the title, to traveling, to going national, to fighting in many cities that I never even knew were around. You know, being from Africa, I was like “Hamilton? What is this place?” Then I saw it and I was like “oh this is beautiful!” I rang my family back home, I was like “you gotta check this place out, Hamilton.” We go to Wellington, what the hell is that? And then I call my family back home and say “you gotta check this place out, Wellington,” and it’s been really good, my family back home in Africa, they’re like “Oh Roger you’re doing all this traveling, it is great” and I’m like “well you can thank wrestling. It’s taken me everywhere.” My next step would be international. Take the name, and go overseas, do a bit of fighting overseas. Eventually I want to break into the States, and once again, who knows how it’s gonna blossom. A million things can happen.

For sure, for sure.

Well Roger, thank you so much for your time today, just like to say we really appreciate you spending time with us, and all the best for the Invitational next month.

Oh thank you very much, thank you very much.