We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jhonny Puttini a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jhonny, so great to have you with us and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with the community. So, let’s jump into something that stops so many people from going after their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. We’d love to hear about how you dealt with that and persisted on your path.
I have to admit that working for 15 years in the wrestling business hasn’t been always a piece of cake. I found my own share of haters in the years, colleagues who did everything they could to stop me, family members who didn’t believe me and people who called themself friends that really managed to damage me and my reputation in many occasions. How did I overcome it? Where did I find the strength to keep pushing despite all of this? I was temped many times to quit and never go on a wrestling ring again, to hang my referee uniform for good, but I love this business so much that I could be never give up. My passion was a huge motivation, my fans gave me lots of confidence and I surround myself of people who really believes me and give me resilience. If you love what you are doing you just need to find the right people to be with you and their voice will be stronger that the haters.
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?
I am originally from Italy and I have been a pro wrestling referee for 16 years. I am doing this professionally and since the past two years I have been doing it internationally. I started in Italy when I was 16 years old, which is the legal minim age in my country to sign up in a pro wrestling gym, and I have been doing this for half of my life now.
As many people who start the pro wrestling journey, I wanted to be a pro wrestler when I started but immediately felt in love with the referee role and I am still extremely happy of my decision.
I had a rocky start, the gum and the events were really far away but thanks to my father, who was my biggest supporter, and determination I did all the sacrifices necessary to make it. My friends went to the club, birthday parties and the beach, I went training every weekend.
In the years I found myself referee any kind of wrestling match, from the big sport centers to the small countryside fairs. I spent 14 years referee across Europe and I even open my own promotion and academy in 2012. I was so proud of it, but unfortunately I did trust the wrong people and a few years later I found myself fired from my own creature. I was very tempted to give up as that did hurt me deeply. Instead I decided that Italy was just a bit to small for me and my ambition. So I came to the USA last year for a 7 weeks tour.
I always dreamed to go to America, visit all this iconic sites and do wrestling where the bests academies and promotions are. So I did it, I rented a car and went across the country, seeing all the most incoming sights, and getting on a different ring every weekend. I even had the chance to meet my childhood idols, Hulk Hogan included.
I came home that I was extremely happy and honestly I just felt ready for my next adventure.
Here I am now, in my third continent, Australia. I am living in Sydney and will be here for a year, working on many different pro wrestling promotions and training in a good academy.
I found my strength in my fans and my partner who are constantly supporting me. I am planning my next trip and always looking at my future which I hope one day will bring me back to the USA.
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?
The most important skill that I had to work on , and sometimes am still work on, in self esteem. One has to believe in himself to be able to give up things to follow his dreams. Then another quality that really helped me is planning, being organized or having someone to help you being organized is important, so you can plan your next step while enjoying your achievements
Finally, resilience is important. Haters will always be there, someone will always say something bad and difficulties will always be around the corner, but you have to keep pushing and working hard and take those world like water on a duck’s back.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
I honestly have to say that if it wasn’t for my father I wouldn’t be here today. The rest of my family never believed in my, except my father who did all he could to support me. I wanted to go to the pro wrestling academy for years and he was the one who took me, who made sure I could always go every week, no matter how many sacrifices he had to do. I do miss him so much, especially because I own him all the success I had in my business as he was the one who made it possible at the beginning. He always taught me to work hard and believe in my own abilities which came in handy during hard times
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jhonny_puttini?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PuttiniJhonny
- Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/jhonny-puttini-452580204
Image Credits
Santhel Della Sale
