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Cristiano Argento has been destroying his opponents in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) ring as he climbed the ladder to get some chances at some gold.
But the road to reaching one of the most prestigious professional wrestling companies in the United States was long and not many wrestlers have taken it.
Argento was born and raised in Osimo, Italy, a city of approximately 35,000 located on the eastern side of the country, closer to the Adriatic Sea. He told Pak Gazette Digital that he began training in a ring at a boxing gym before starting out on the independent scene in Italy. He wrestled in Germany, Sweden, France and Denmark before realizing that to become a professional wrestler, he needed to come to the United States.
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Cristiano Argento appears at the National Wrestling Alliance (Instagram)
He first made his way to Canada to be trained by professional wrestling legend Lance Storm. He moved to Canada, leaving behind most of his friends and family and without a firm grasp of the English language.
“At that time, my English was horrible. I didn’t speak any English,” he said. “But I was with my friend Stefano, he came with me and translated everything for me. I probably missed 50% of the knowledge that Lance Storm was giving us because I couldn’t understand. They only gave me a summary and everything I could see. I’m sure if I was doing it now with a proper knowledge of English, it would have been a different scenario.
“Eventually, I came back to Italy after training and said, OK, now I want to go to the US. So, I studied English more properly and finally got my first work visa which was in Texas. I was in Houston for a short period of time. I trained with Booker T on Reality of Wrestling. I got on his show, which was my debut in the US. That was amazing. I finally got a new work visa in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I currently live since 2017. Since then, my wrestling career, fortunately, continued to grow, grow, grow and grow until now wrestling for the NWA, one of the biggest promotions in the United States.
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Argento said his family thought he was “crazy” for pursuing his professional wrestling dream.
He said they were more concerned about his well-being given that he was halfway around the world with no one known by his side in case something went wrong.
“My family, my friends, they were all like, why do you want to move to the other side of the world without knowing the language, without knowing anyone, on your own, to try to become a professional wrestler? And I was like, well, we have a life, I love it, and that’s what I’m going to do,” he told Pak Gazette Digital. “In the end, my family was very supportive. But when I first said, ‘Hey, mom and dad, I want to do that.’ They looked at me like, ‘Are you crazy? Are you drunk or something? What are you talking about? And I said, no, that’s what I want to do. And they knew I loved this sport because in Italy I was traveling around Europe, spending time in Canada training, so they slowly started to understand that that’s what I want to do with my life. They were proud of me.
Cristiano Argento works out in the gym. (Instagram)
“They’re still proud of me. I think more about the fact that you’re going to try that, which is hard, than the fact that you’re going to leave us. The fact that, oh, my son is going to the other side of the world for a six-hour time difference and maybe we’ll see him, when, like, I don’t know. Not often. I think it was more that. And for me too, it was very difficult. It was heartbreaking not being able to see my family every day. or every month. Like once a year, if I have luck. I think that was the most important part for them because of the worry or because I was here alone and if I have a problem, I didn’t have anyone. So they were scared, if you have a problem, anything, and they couldn’t be here by my side.
Argento is living his dream in the United States. He suggested that America’s nickname as the “land of opportunity” was not far from what is preached in movies and literature: it was a real thing.
“I was inspired by the people who came to the United States and succeeded,” Argento told Pak Gazette Digital. “America was always like the land of opportunity. This is how they sell it to us and this is what it is. I feel like, for myself, that was true because everything I tried to do so far I was able to achieve a lot more than if I wasn’t here. I’m still not where I would like to be, but I see that there are a lot of opportunities in this country. Not only in wrestling but like in any business to reach the goal. I am very happy with the decisions I made here.
National Wrestling Alliance star Cristiano Argento poses in Times Square in New York. (Instagram)
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“But my biggest inspirations were big actors who moved to the country, who didn’t know English, no money, no support system. I had a dream, I have to go there to make it happen and I’m going to do it and I’m going to make it happen. So those people were always the biggest inspiration, even if it wasn’t in wrestling, just how they handled their passion, how they pursued their dream without being afraid of anything, how far away you are, how alone you are… You If you don’t know the language, you say, come on, let’s do it.”
Outside of the NWA, Argento has performed for International Wrestling Cartel, Enjoy Wrestling and Exodus Pro Wrestling this year.
