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Cristiano Argento tore apart his opponents in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) ring as he moved up the ranks to get a few chances at gold.
But the road to one of the most prestigious professional wrestling companies in the United States was long and few wrestlers took it.
Argento was born and raised in Osimo, Italy, a town of about 35,000 located in the east of the country, closer to the Adriatic Sea. He told PK Press Club Digital that he began training in a ring at a boxing gym before breaking into the independent scene in Italy. He wrestled in Germany, Sweden, France and Denmark before realizing that to become a professional wrestler he had to go to the United States.
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Cristiano Argento performs in the National Wrestling Alliance (Instagram)
He first traveled to Canada to train under professional wrestling legend Lance Storm. He moved to Canada, leaving most of his friends and family behind and without a strong command of the English language.
“At the time, my English was horrible. I didn’t speak English at all,” he said. “But I was with my friend Stefano, he came with me and he translated everything for me. I probably missed 50% of the knowledge that Lance Storm was giving us because I wasn’t able to understand. I was only given a recap and everything I could see. I’m sure if I did it now with a good knowledge of English, the scenario would have been different.
“Eventually, I went back to Italy after training and said, OK, now I want to go to the United States. So I studied English more properly and eventually got my first work visa in Texas. I was in Houston for a short time. I trained with Booker T at Reality of Wrestling. I went on his show, which was my debut in the United States. It was great. I finally got a new work visa in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I currently live since 2017. Since then, my wrestling career, fortunately, has continued to grow, grow, grow and grow until now wrestling for the NWA, one of the biggest promotions in the United States.
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Argento said his family thought he was “crazy” to pursue his professional wrestling dream.
He said they were more concerned about his well-being given that he was on the other side of the world with no one he knew by his side in case something went wrong.
“My family, my friends, everyone was like why do you want to move to the other side of the world without knowing the language, without knowing anyone, on your own, to try to become a professional wrestler? And I was like, well, we have a life, I love it, and this is what I’m going to do,” he told PK Press Club Digital. “Eventually, my family was really supportive. But when I first said, ‘Hey, Mom and Dad, I want to do this.’ They looked at me like, “Are you crazy? Are you drunk or something? What are you talking about? And I said, no, that’s what I want to do. And they knew that I loved the sport because in Italy I was traveling around Europe and spending time in Canada training, so they slowly started to understand that this is what I wanted to do with my life. They were proud of me.
Cristiano Argento trains at the gym. (Instagram)
“They’re always proud of me. I think more about the fact that you’re going to try this, that it’s hard that you’re going to leave us. The fact that, oh, my son is going to go halfway around the world with a six-hour time difference and we might see him, when, like, I don’t know. Not often. I think it was more like that. And for me, too, it was really hard. It was heartbreaking not to be able to see my family every day. or every month. Once a year if I’m lucky. I think it was the most important for them because of the worry or the fact that I was here alone and if I had a problem or a problem, I had no one. They were afraid, if you had a problem, anything, and they couldn’t be there next to me.
Argento is living his dream in the United States. He suggested that America’s nickname as “the land of opportunity” wasn’t too far from what is preached in movies and literature – it was reality.
“I was inspired by the people who came to the United States and were successful,” Argento told PK Press Club Digital. “The United States has always been like a land of opportunity. That’s how they sell it to us and that’s what it is. I feel like, in myself, that was true because everything I’ve tried to do so far, I’ve been able to achieve so much more than if I wasn’t here. I’m not where I’d like to be yet but I see that there are so many opportunities in this country. Not just in the struggle but like in any business to achieve the goal I’m really happy with the choices I made here.
National Wrestling Alliance star Cristiano Argento poses in Times Square in New York. (Instagram)
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“But my big inspirations were big name actors who moved to the countryside, who didn’t know English, no money, no support system. I had a dream, I have to go there to make it come true and I’m going to go there and I’m going to do it and I’m going to make it happen. So those people were always the biggest inspiration even if it wasn’t in wrestling, just how they handled their passion, how they pursued their dream without being afraid of anything, how far you have come, how alone you are… You I don’t know the language, you’re like, let’s do it, let’s do it.
Outside of the NWA, Argento has performed this year for International Wrestling Cartel, Enjoy Wrestling, and Exodus Pro Wrestling.
