‘Can ya fight?’ Superstars dish on their unique training styles

BY ANTHONY BENIGNO, NICHOLAS SAMPOGNA & DUSTIN WALLACE

January 30, 2014

Alberto Del Rio

BRED FOR GLORY : I have been fighting my entire life. I was part of the Mexican national Greco-Roman wrestling team. And because of that, I had the chance to go against incredible fighters like Randy Couture and Randy Coleman. When I made the transition from amateur wrestling to professional wrestling, I was working in Japan. A [mixed martial arts (MMA)] promoter saw me and invited me to participate in one of his shows, and the rest is history. I won my first fight, they offered me a contract, and that’s what made me go to California and try to learn some more techniques to be a better fighter.

CARDIO IS FOR PEASANTS : Every time I’m home, I have jiu-jitsu sessions and boxing sessions. That’s the way I like to train. I’m not into weightlifting anymore, and I hate to do cardio on the machines, because it’s pretty boring. So what I normally do when I’m home or on the road is try to find a fighting gym. It’s boxing, jiu-jitsu or Thai boxing. When I’m home I always get to go to my friend’s gyms. So when I’m there, I do one hour of pure jiu-jitsu or one hour of pure boxing after that. When I’m on the road, I combine all those techniques and fuse them into a one-hour or two-hour workout. Wrestling and MMA are really similar stuff. Most of my moves come from jiu-jitsu, Thai boxing or amateur wrestling.

ABOUT THAT ARMBREAKER … My finisher is 100% pure jiu-jitsu. I learned it when I was in Brazil training for one of my fights in Japan. I saw this tiny little guy doing it and immediately I went to his corner and asked, “Can you teach me? That move is fantastic.” So he did, and 15 years after, I still use it.

SO, WHAT SUPERSTAR WOULDN’T YOU WANT TO FIGHT? Oh, I will fight everyone. They wouldn’t fight me. But I would love to have Big Show on my side in a fight.

http://www.wwe.com/inside/superstars-with-unique-fighting-styles-26177894/page-5

‘Can ya fight?’ Superstars dish on their unique training styles

BY ANTHONY BENIGNO, NICHOLAS SAMPOGNA & DUSTIN WALLACE

January 30, 2014

The first rule of Superstar Fight Club is you don’t talk about Superstar Fight Club. But if you have to talk about it, don’t sell yourself short. The sports-entertainment world is ripe with big personalities and bigger muscles and in order to survive, you need to be more than a little tough. So it’s probably a good thing for WWE Superstars that they didn’t just waltz into a wrestling ring without some true hardscrabble fighting under their belts. Riding a wave of uncommon bravery we haven’t felt before or since, WWE.com stepped into the locker room and sought out a handful of these individuals for their training, their tips, who they wouldn’t want to fight and which among them channeled Triple H on the amateur mat. (Hint: It’s not who you’d expect.)

http://www.wwe.com/inside/superstars-with-unique-fighting-styles

‘Can ya fight?’ Superstars dish on their unique training styles

BY ANTHONY BENIGNO, NICHOLAS SAMPOGNA & DUSTIN WALLACE

January 30, 2014

Jack Swagger

WHAT’S YOUR TRAINING? Since the age of five I’ve been doing some form of wrestling, whether it’s been collegiate style, freestyle or Greco-Roman.

TECHNIQUE, TECHNIQUE, TECHNIQUE : You’re training your body specifically for seven to 10 minutes of constant push-and-pull on the body, and so you’re always doing everything to push your body to the limits. Technique and cardio is the name of the game. A guy could be better than you, but if you have the cardio, can push him over the edge to where he’s tired and can’t lift his arms, then you can really break him down [with technique] and take advantage of his weaknesses.

The first time I saw a WWE ring in person was when I went out for my tryout. I was very surprised at how similar a lot of the basic techniques are, so even though I’d never wrestled before in the sports-entertainment world, I felt like I had a foothold above everyone because I had that wrestling technique and background since the age of five. That really helped me advance and learn it faster as far as arm drags, hip tosses, and getting right back up after being taken down. I was able to pick that up very fast because of the technique.

BORN INTO GREATNESS : I was very fortunate to grow up in Perry, Okla., which is considered the wrestling capital of the world. Perry has the most state championships, most individual state champions across the nation anywhere, so the whole town just kind of eats, sleeps, breathes wrestling. It’s funny; I wasn’t a very successful wrestler until I got into high school. In junior high I was mediocre, but I had a very good high school coach. He was more than a coach, he was also a friend. He cared about us. You could trust him. That was really important, to have a coach you could believe in. When he told you you were slacking, you could believe him. And on top of that, he was my friend, so I didn’t mind hanging out with him as much as we did, which was a lot.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF FLAIR : One of the moves I wouldn’t have without my training is the double-leg takedown, where I pick an opponent up on my shoulder and put him down on his side. In the amateur wrestling world that’s called a flair. I just call it a double-leg here; no one else knows how to do it. The toughest part is to figure out what you did in the amateur world, in the fighting world, and incorporate that into sports-entertainment and make it just as impactful. There’s a lot of stuff you can’t do from amateur wrestling. The double-leg was always my takedown in high school and college, but it took a couple of years to make it as powerful as it should be in WWE.

WHO WOULD YOU WANT TO FIGHT ALONGSIDE YOU? The one guy I’d want on my side is R-Truth.

http://www.wwe.com/inside/superstars-with-unique-fighting-styles-26177894/page-2