Fuego Del Sol recently spoke with Fightful about a wide range of topics, including his thoughts on his run with AEW and the friendships he made along the way. One of those relationships was with Emi Sakura, who Fuego calls one of the best on the roster and recalls teaching the Joshi-Star how to do the moonsault. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On meeting Emi Sakura and making friends with a lot of the AEW roster:
Absolutely. Emi is the best. She’s always been so kind to me, and our face light up when we see, ‘Emi!’ It’s always fun. Anytime anybody needed help, I feel like there’s a lot of gaga about frustration or this or that in AEW, but down to its core, we’re a family, man. I’ve made so many incredible friends. You mentioned, some of the people that reached out on social media, there was a plethora of people that sent me text messages or called me, you know, you get caught up in the in the kayfabe of it all, and you don’t want to expose characters and all that. I want to be respectful of that. But it was such a great family dynamic. There was so many times people helped me like that, or, or would show me things like, I’d help Emi like that, but then Bryan Danielson and Yuta would get in the ring early on, and I would help them and they would help me and we would do drills together. Or Ortiz was working on his body and he would say, ‘Hey, I’m going to the ring early, do you want to come help me and we work off each other and play.’ Me and Dante Martin would chain wrestle for hours before the show, even though we’d never wrestle each other. That dynamic is something I’m going to miss the most. It’s just how much I learned behind the scenes, and the friendships and bonds that create it is, and I’m glad Emi shared that because that’s something people don’t get to see as often. It’s such a cornerstone of what makes AEW so special. That’s the thing I’m gonna miss probably the most is just the relationships, the bonds, and getting to learn and share that locker room with so many incredible people.
How he taught Sakura how to do the moonsault:
Well, she used to do the moonsault a lot, but the older you get, you switch out moves in your arsenal and she hadn’t done it in a while. I understand the fear. Literally just a few weeks ago, I had to build up my strength to do the moonsault again and it was something I used to do in my entrance. I did it in my sleep. But with a broken foot and you haven’t done it in four months, it’s like learning to ride a bike. Slowly, but surely, you learn how to do it again. She approached me. I said, ‘Of course, I’ll help you.’ We got the crash pads out. We worked on it, worked on it, worked on it to the point where I could see her confidence slowly rise and once she hit it that night it was like I won a match. ‘Cause she nailed it and it was beautiful and it was awesome. I was just as happy for her as if I had just got signed again. It was awesome.
Fuego recently revealed on Facebook that he plans on opening a wrestling school in Oklahoma. You can read about that venture here.