We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jamien Watts. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jamien below.
Hi Jamien, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
You know what? this is an amazing question and lately I’ve been asking myself “How am I so resilient?” Many others would get in my shoes and give up if they went through half of what I go through. I then I realize that I was raised by some STRONG black women. I grew up in a big household, so times weren’t always easy, but I have never seen my grandma or mama give up. Those ladies never shown any signs of wanting to give up. Many of my friends tell me how much they admire my will power to keep going no matter what. My close friend Nakiymbaa compared me to the Phoenix. She said i would go through things and then cocoon myself from the world and then rise from the ashes stronger than ever! I always hold on to faith that i have big things coming and that also motivates me to keep going.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Well since the age of 7 I have been practicing martial arts. I start off learning kickboxing which is a striking art. I get my inspiration from watching professional wrestling when I was 6years old and seen Rob Van Dam. Thats when I knew this is exactly what I wanted to do. Throughout the years I would watch wrestling, but not practice It because there were not many opportunities for professional wrestling in Louisiana. In 2021 I became a Jiujitsuka and competed in well-known grappling tournaments such as American Grappling federation (AGF) where I placed third in New Orleans and International Brazilian Jiujitsu Federation (IBJJF) where I also placed third world. My last competition was in April of 2023 and then took a leap of faith and moved to Georgia to train professional wrestling in Conyers at Platinum championship wrestling. I caught on pretty quickly being that I had a martial arts background and my character THE HOT BOY came pretty naturally. In 1997 lil wayne, Bird man, Juvenile, Mannie fresh, and turk were in a group formed in New Orleans, La called “The Hot boyz” and my favorite element is fire, so branding was pretty given. Louisiana is my brand, and I want to spread more awareness to how amazing my culture is. We literally bring the HEAT! I wrestle at this lucha show called “cuatros casa de lucha” at PCW in Conyers, GA on every 3rd Friday if anyone wants to see me in action. Doors open at 7:30p.m. and tickets could be purchased through www.Platinumchampionshipwrestling.com.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Throughout my Pro wrestling and martial arts experience my trainers have taught me so much knowledge that I apply to everyday life also. They taught me to be confident, to be LOUD, and as my Lucha trainer elemento taught me is to be open minded. With those important qualities you should have to issue standing on your value and worth. Know what you bring to the table and STAND on it!
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
The name Kaizen was given to me by one of my former ABA clients in reference to the anime JujJutsu Kaisen. The name means “Always continuously improving for the better” In which is a quality of mine that I admire. If something is your art and passion, then you should continue to make it better. It’s your canvas! Which is why I’m always studying different wrestling styles and researching ways to add my jiujitsu and lucha into my move set. Thank you, Josh Mancuso, Ashley Mancuso, Mike, and my amazing other professors from jm modern jiujitsu in Baton Rouge, la. Thank you, Eric Raposo, who is one of the greatest black belts in BJJ in the world who trained me also who has a great facility located in Slidell, La Raposo Bjj.
I started learning Lucha Mexican style in April of 2023 from the AMAZING ELEMENTO! which has helped me to be comfortable and move better in the ring. Bill, Brian, and Naja do such amazing jobs training us to be the best pro wrestlers. Im so grateful for my family at PCW. Alona and Mike who do such and amazing job with media and production. Cuatro has helped so much with character development! he’s everyone’s personal hype man. Trey Shaw who’s an amazing wrestler at PCW and also coaches upcoming talent is also an amazing leader and teaches us to stand on our value and better our art! And a HUGE thank you for one of my best friends Edward Draven for helping guide me through this indie’s scene.
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