This is Kowloon Part 3: Savino

[Lo-Drew]

The past few weeks we've gotten a chance to sit down with M.A.E.V.E. and Akeem The Supreme, two thirds of the unit Kowloon. In the next week, it'll mark the one year anniversary of the signings of Kowloon and within that year, we've learned a few things about the threesome. The flashy Akeem, boasting a MMA background, has displayed impressive striking prowess. The X Division Champion M.A.E.V.E; who sports a taciturn, haunting, demeanor that seeps into her feral and remorseless wrestling style. And then there's Savino; tactical, reserved, measured, calculated.

This is not a surprise when you consider what Savino has had to endure in his twenty five years of life. The oldest of three siblings, His father passed away at the age of two suddenly thrusted him to become the man of his household once he became a teenager. The constant fear of his mother being unable to keep a roof over his head humbled Savino early on and gave him a desire to find a way to take care of his family. For him, he found that in pro wrestling at the age of 12 and decided three years later that this was the path he wanted to take. He took the time to consider the available wrestling schools one he graduated high school and decided that he wanted to be trained at the famous Golden Gate Wrestling Academy as he felt their mat based, brawling style was exactly what he envisioned himself to be as a wrestler. Passing through with flying colors, Savino hit the ground running. Now ten years later and almost five years since he made his pro wrestling debut, Savino can sense that this is the opportunity he's worked for and that the chance to become a top star is there for the taking. We talked to Savino about his thoughts about his match at Resurrection and more!


[This interview was conducted on Monday, May 17th, 2021]

-Akeem had mentioned to us last week that you suffered an elbow injury in your match with Chanel Hunter a couple of weeks ago.

Savino: Yeah it's nagging a little bit. The doctor told me it's a minor sprain. Nothing serious but he advised me not to train for a week. So that's what I did, even though that was tough because I like always mixing it up with M.A.E.V.E. and Keem. But I'm not going to argue with the doctors.

-You have a match tomorrow. There hasn't been word that you will be pulling out so the assumption is you'll be ready to go.

Savino: Yeah. It has felt better throughout last week. I still feel it a little bit but I think I'll be fine. I was raised up in the church and one verse that comes to mind is "no weapon formed against me shall prosper." So you take it, deal with it and keep it moving.

-Let's talk about that match with Chanel if we can. You took exception to her attacking you after a previous match in which you lost to her. A couple of weeks ago, you confronted Chanel after a match, which led to the No DQ match we saw. There was a level of brutality and fury that we saw from you that, from what we've seen, isn't what we normally expect from you.

Savino: I was heated, for sure. Looking back at it, I think that was what hurt me in that match.

-You wrestled with a lot of emotion in that match.

Savino: When I lost to Chanel, that was tough but you're not going to win every battle. So I chose to fight another day. But when she kept her hold in after the bell, that crossed a line with me. It went from "ok you beat me" to "ok you don't have any respect for me." As a man, I wasn't going to lay down like that and when I watched the No DQ match, I saw moments where I was looking for the kill shot. You know, when you wrestle angry or do anything in that state, you're going to make some mistakes and you're not going to think through situations that you normally would.

-What do you mean?

Savino: I make it a priority to go to the ring with a gameplan. I think going into it, my mentality was "ok you're going to feel me. I'm here." And I think having that in my head, I saw red a little bit. You throw the rules out of the window and it's hard not to get sweeped up into that temptation to go buck wild. When you know the ref is just there to make the count and weapons can get involved, for me I couldn't implement what I normally would.

-Matches where the rules are relaxed can present a lot of unpredictability and unique scenarios.

Savino: And I knew that. Personally I struggle when my initial plan isn't working or if my opponent throws a wrinkle during the match that I didn't anticipate. When I rewatch that match with Chanel, there were periods where I didn't recognize myself there. I'm comfortable wrestling a grimy, hard hitting style of match. A lot of what I do is built on that. But we ended up brawling before the bell rang and then even afterwards, there's a point where I'm trying to choke her out with my hold outside of the ring when I couldn't win that way.

-The way the match ended, everyone got the impression that this rivalry between you and her has not ended.

Savino: I don't think it has either. Though, she has a big match ahead of her and I have a big match ahead of me. While her match with Kayl is the most I'm looking forward to seeing personally, me and Akeem have a really good opportunity to make something happen with this tournament. So my focus is on that and focusing on how I can be the best teammate for him and support him.

-It's interesting that you bring up Brittany Kayl. You two had a singles back on Shotgun 09.15, a match that you lost.

Savino: Man let me tell you. I thought Kayl wrestled circles around me that night. I had some moments where I was able to wear her down but from the jump, she had me behind the eight ball. She's so dynamic in the ring and I don't think the tape does her justice. She has this uncanny ability, not just to endure when someone's on the offensive against her, but just her athleticism and her awareness of the ring is just on another level. I thought that was my "Welcome to GCW" moment because it's just a different level than anything I've seen in the ring.

-Kayl's a true all arounder. Capable of winning matches through the air as much as she is on the mat.

Savino: And she's fluid. That's the only key. So when she's in between moves, you know, when she's doing her offense, none of it is wasted. Every move is linked to the last one and it's always thought out and just fluid. And she's quick on her feet. She's a former World Champion for a reason and she's an all world wrestler. After our match, I knew I didn't wrestle my best because I just wasn't at her level. But I think that's needed because now I know. I think it's one thing to look at the greats and try to analyze all the reasons why. It's a different experience seeing it in person and seeing how far you have to go to even be on that level. So I took that in stride and I definitely want to face her again down the line.

-So let's talk about Resurrection. Akeem was really bullish about your chances in this tournament. One thing that's been clear to everyone is the camaraderie that you, him and M.A.E.V.E. share. You three don't hesitant to encourage or build up one another publicly, whether you guys are teaming up with one another or competing in the singles realm.

Savino: It's special. I can't speak enough how much I value those two, not just wrestling but in general. The last two years, those two have practically been family to me and I think there's something beautiful about it. In today's day, there's this call for diversity and fighting for minorities and women to have similar opportunities that they haven't received. And I support all those efforts and am right there on the front lines with them. Someone once told me, historically, the two most mistreated types of people are black people and women. Now you hear that and you say "what about the Native Americans? What about Jewish people?" I don't think comparison is what's relevant about that. What's relevant is all those types of people have been historically marginalized. There's something special about with Kowloon, it's two black men and a white women, together, building something. Unified.

-All from different backgrounds, too.

Savino: Me and M.A.E.V.E. both came out the mud. We had different experiences and we've had different types of suffering that we've had to go through and still do, but that is something we have in common. Black, white, men, women, we are suffer in some way. There is no superior. I think there's a lot of unrest and a lot of anger over things that have gone on with the police and you know, Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright, George Floyd. I support my people and I support the fight but for me, the vision is that we get to a point where we don't talk about race. We view one another as what we are, people. To me it's not us vs them. It's trying to convince those who don't see why these injustices to minorities, to women is damaging to us as a society, as a whole. That's the key. It's always about us.

-You see Kowloon as an example of what that could look like.

Savino: You have to strive for perfection. We're not going to get there, but if we're unified, we're going to get achieve excellence.

-A big part of the collective success of Kowloon has been that unified front that you've mentioned. The three of you have made it clear that you're singles wrestlers and thus each of you have different goals that you're striving for. And yet, it seems despite that, it all falls into concert with one another and the three of you are in lock step.

Savino: That's something we established very quickly when we decided we were going to do this. We just realized how much we had in common and how we had an opportunity to really create something. I think that was something that was really appealing. We get to create something from the ground up, make it our own thing and we can support each other and build off that foundation. We always train together as often as can. I make sure I have time craved out of my schedule for them. And those can get a little intense because we get really into that. But that's only made us stronger wrestlers and we even do some cross training. So certain times, Keem will show me or M.A.E.V.E. something MMA related and how we can add that to our arsenals. Certain times I point out to them different spots in the ring that are best for locking in a submission or a strike. I think people can recognize when something is real and I'm grateful for how open those two are. I can't imagine going through something that M.A.E.V.E. and trying to wrestle with something like what happened to her. She's such a picture of strength and such a great friend and a great ally. She stands for things and she'll admit that she struggles with maintaining optimistic and wanting to fight for people. But she does and that's something I admire.

-You and Akeem go out of your way to really esteem her.

Savino: I respect her so much as a person. Akeem, too. That's my brother through thick and thin. He's just one of those guys that's going to be right with you if something goes down and that's valuable. That's something about him that I appreciate and I think all three of making efforts to stay connected, stay together, be of one mind, that's why we've been able to have some success. That's the culture that we've built. What can we do to serve the other?

-Iron sharpens iron.

Savino: So one person sharpens another. So we're always thinking about how we can push one another. How can we stand out a bit outside the ring and what marketing options that we can pursue. That's the other thing. We recently just opened up a Twitter account and we're paying someone to run that for us. That's something I picked up from when PUNK HAZARD was around and that were all in on their branding. I hit up Alexis every now and then and pick her brain about what it was like being part of a collective and how can I be better at supporting Keem and M.A.E.V.E.

-You and Alexis talk often?

Savino: I've known her since I started training. Yeah I was there at Golden Gate right before World Hazard and she would drop by after Grayson and Sharon was done with our class because she was running MAX. She's a legend when it comes to wrestling in the Bay so anything knowledge that she's willing to drop on me, I try to absorb as much as possible. But we didn't really talk much when I was training with Grayson and Sharon. But I reached out to her right when Kowloon started and I just asked her a lot of questions. And from there we'll trade texts about a recent match of mine or she'll send me pointers about what I could work on and other stuff that's not wrestling. There's little things PUNK HAZARD did that we've absolutely taken. The unit colors, doing soundtracks. Those were a big thing they did as a way to connect with the people and you know we try to ultimately go with our vision. But it's always helpful to learn as much as possible from those that paved the way.

-You are one of the many that have come from that school. Another person that comes from that school is the current GCW World Heavyweight Champion Nadia Allen, who's main eventing Night 3.

Savino: I've never met her personally but right now she's doing her thing. Would love to see her in the ring one day. I don't know who Grayson or Sharon would root for but I think that would be interesting. It's a honor to be one of those guys that have come out of there but honestly, one of my goals is setting up something like that in Oakland.

-Creating a wrestling school of your own?

Savino: Something like that, but it has to be in urban Oakland. I think it would be so impactful or at least I would want it to be. When I decided I wanted to be a wrestler, I had to save up and drive to San Fran. Ante Up was an option, but that's further down the road. Both of those schools are great and for me, I've thought about what if something like that was in Oakland. Me and Keem hold weekend basketball for the kids because it's something for them to do. They don't have the same tools or the same choices of what to do because where they live is poor. I want to take care of my community. I feel like that's more important than anything I'm doing for myself. I guarantee there's kids there that think wrestling is cool and maybe want to take a shot. And for me, rather than having them go somewhere else, if there's a school right there, not only does it prevent them from having to go elsewhere, but hopefully it shows it's possible to make it out of the mud. It's absolutely possible and it would be my way of giving back to them. You hear a lot about Bay Area wrestlers but most of them come from San Fran or San Jose and they either go to Ante Up or Golden Gate. I think a batch of kids from Oakland coming through would be really cool to see. I have to save up but that's definitely a big goal of mine.