Meet Enrique Calderon

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Enrique Calderon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Enrique with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I get my work ethic from my mom and dad coming from a family that didn’t have much at all growing up, my mom came from Mexico to the U.S. in her early 20’s and was only supposed to come visit for a few months but ended up meeting my dad and worked her butt off to become a citizen while balancing work , School, and taking care of a little kid who barley knew any english. My dad was adopted at a very young age and at a early age always felt like an outsider coming from LA getting involved in drugs and gangs my dad had to get out of LA and move on to get a fresh start on his own at the age of 16. He then moved to Az where he got a chance to get his life together and went to school to become a chef, now he is the head chef at Mercy Gilbert Hospital.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a Professional Wrestler, I started training to become a pro wrestler at the age of 19 I was always a big fan of WWE idolizing guys like John Cena and Rey Mysterio, and Eddie Guerrero. Overtime my love for WWE slowly started to fade away as I wanted to be accepted and loved by my piers but was always made fun of for my love of pro wrestling and being a fat kid. I would get bullied all the way up to my freshman year and that is when I decided to drop WWE and move onto to something I thought would make me more popular. Overtime I started hanging out with the wrong group of people and guys that were not good influences on my life. I started drinking, doing drugs and going to party’s I thought I was the coolest guy in high school. After I graduated my addiction to weed and pills grew even stronger as I would try anything my friends would put in front of me, and at the age of 18 I tried my first Percocet and I loved it. I started out doing just 2 pills a day then it grew to 4, then 6, then all of a sudden me and my homies are popping 10 pills a day, I thought I was invincible I kept telling myself “I could never overdose that’s only in the movies”. January 1st 2021 I OD in my room on opioids/Percocet, paramedics came into my room sprayed me with 4mg of Narcan and I woke up, not knowing what the hell happened to me. Officers were also on the seen And gave me two options I could either one serve time in jail for the leftover blues (Percocet) that were in my room or go to rehab, so I chose to go to rehab to try and better myself and it was in rehab where I started to attended countless of AA meetings, spoke to a therapist once a week got my blood drawn every single day when I woke up in the morning to see if I did any drugs in the middle of the night while everyone was sleeping. The only thing I really felt comfortable doing while I was there was to sit in the lounge where they had a big TV and all they would play was a rerun of an old MMA show and one particular program that caught my eye, which was Friday night SmackDown in Spanish. Being so long that I haven’t watched wrestling, it brought back so many old memories of when I used to be a kid wrestling with my cousins and arguing over whose favorite wrestler is better, I got released after a month of being there when my release date was coming up I always knew I needed to find something to keep me busy and keep my mind off of my addiction so I thought to myself what the heck why don’t I give this wrestling thing a try? I got home Immediately started searching for Wrestling schools near me, and that is when I found TraininAz ran by Dom Vitalli and Jon Wolfgang. It was at this wrestling school Where I learned not only how to be a professional wrestler, but also how to be successful in life and become the person I am proud of being today.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1. Must have discipline, with no discipline, you’ll never accomplish the things you want in life.
2. Must have balanced in your life if you know your purpose in life and what you’re striving for then go all the way for it, but remember the path you paved to get there is the dream not the destination.
3. Must have a great support system, anything you want in life no matter what it is, it’s never a one man or women job there’s always people there to help you along the way embrace those people!!

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

My wrestling coach Dom Vitalli has been the most helpful, and impactful person in my life before I met Dom, I was a shell of myself trying to get over my addiction had no confidence and no friends was barley getting through life. He taught me everything I know in the ring but most importantly he showed me how to be a man and got me to be someone I am proud of being today. He shows me everyday how to be a professional, how to be confident in myself to know I can do anything I set my mind too as long as I work hard for it. Was never a time too late to text him or call him whenever I had something on my mind whenever I needed something. Even after becoming a father to his first born son always found time to watch my match critique it and show me how I can be a better wrestler. Dom Vitalli turned my life around 360 for the better and I can never thank him enough for everything he’s done for me and countless other people he is a huge father figure in my life and if I can be half the man that he is when I grow up I’ll be alright in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://PCWAZ.com
• Instagram: thequique_calderon22
• Facebook: Enrique Calderon
• Twitter: thequique_calderon22
• Youtube: PCWAZ
• Other: Check out when all of our shows are on the PCWAZ website

Image Credits

Photographers
Greg Rothstien
Rachel Laughton
Rusty Rutherford