411 Interviews: Uhaa Nation of Dragon Gate and Evolve Wrestling

Uhaa Nation was one of the late breakout stars of 2011. He made his Dragon Gate USA debut in the fall, and on Christmas Day, he wrestled on Dragon Gate Japan’s last PPV of the year, Final Gate. Nation has also recently wrestled for FIP, AIW, CZW, Beyond Wrestling, and many more places in recent months. On Saturday, January 14th, he makes his debut in Evolve Wrestling against Pinkie Sanchez. The event is called Tribute to The Arena, because it will be the last wrestling event to ever take place in the former ECW Arena of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That event will be an internet PPV over at WWNLive.com. You can sign up for a WWNLive account to watch all DGUSA, Evolve, and FIP iPPVs HERE .

TJ Hawke: Evolve 10 is coming up, and you are scheduled to face Pinkie Sanchez in your debut Evolve match. What are your thoughts on this matchup? What are your goals for your time in Evolve?

Uhaa Nation: I think this a great match up. It’s gonna be good getting to wrestle Pinkie in my first ever match at Evolve. As far as my plans for Evolve… Simple: I want to DOMINATE.

TJ: Before Evolve, you got a lot of attention for your work in Gabe Sapolsky’s other promotion, Dragon Gate USA. How did you come to work for DGUSA?

UN: I did a tryout back in November and got put on the shows the rest of that weekend. Coming into the tryout it’s not what I expected at all, but good things come to those who wait.

TJ: What was your first weekend in DGUSA like when you debuted by beating up Brodie Lee, and then by dominating a four way match the next night against Sugar Dunkerton, Flip Kendrick & Facade?

UN: It was an amazing weekend although the four way was not one of my favorites. I really enjoyed the weekend overall as a whole, and I am looking forward to doing more with Brodie Lee as well.

TJ: Your work in DGUSA obviously impressed Dragon Gate officials, as you recently completed your first tour of Dragon Gate Japan. What was your first international tour like? What were some of the most valuable things you learned on the tour?

UN: The tour was probably the most fun time of my life as far as wrestling. I know many people have made names for themselves in Japan and I want to be one of those people. I developed a higher respect for wrestling.

TJ: You’ve been closely associated with AR Fox, as I believe you guys trained together with Mr. Hughes in Georgia. Since you “broke out” so to speak, you guys have wrestled each other all over the country, like in AIW, CZW, and more. What is it like working with Fox? What kind of impact has he had on your career so far?

UN: Working Fox is probably easier than anyone else for me. When we work together, we always want to steal the show no matter if there are 5 people or 500 people in the crowd. We are not scared to go out there and try new things with each other, and to be honest without him I would not be where I’m at now in my career.

TJ: For this section of the interview, I was hoping that you could share your thoughts on some of your most recent prominent matches:

Beyond Wrestling Back in Flesh 2011: WWA4 All Stars (Stitch Cipher & Uhaa Nation) vs. Team Tremendous (Dan Barry & Ken Scampi) vs Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous (Darius Carter & TJ Marconi) vs Jollyville Fuck-Its (Russ Myers & T-Money)

UN: This match was crazy. It was my first time teaming with Stitch; I didn’t get to do as much because of all the people on the match. but I had fun.

FIP Jeff Peterson Cup 2011: Uhaa Nation vs. Jake Manning(c) for the FIP Heritage Title

UN: One of my most memorable matches today, mainly because it was where I won my first major title on the indies. Even though it was a short match it will always be remembered well by me.

DGUSA Revolt 2011: Ricochet vs AR Fox vs PAC vs Rich Swann vs Sabu vs Uhaa Nation

UN: In this match, I got to show what I could do, and that I could stand toe to toe with the top guys.

Dragon Gate 2011: Uhaa Nation vs. Cyber Kong

UN: Cyber is a great guy; he is hard hitting and very respectful. It’s another match that will stand out to me. It’s not very often I get to wrestle guys my size and weight so it was a challenge to figure out how to get it over, especially in front of a Japanese crowd. We made it work though.

TJ: Thank you so much Uhaa for taking the time to do the interview. Is there anything you want to promote while you are here (Facebook, Twitter, website, merch, how to be booked, etc)?

UN: Your welcome it was a pleasure.

Yes, you can follow me on twitter at @UhaaNation and Facebook . You can contact me there for bookings.

Thanks everybody for reading! You can send feedback to Twitter or at my email address: [email protected]. If you are a wrestling personality who would like to be interviewed by 411mania, you can also contact me in either of those ways.

PLUGS!

Be sure to check out some of my past 411 Interviews

Kevin Steen Part 1 & Part 2
Eddie Edwards
Johnny Gargano
Mike Quackenbush
Nigel McGuinness
Lance Hoyt/Vance Archer/Lance Archer
Adam Cole
Gran Akuma

Be sure to follow 411mania on Twitter!
411mania
411 Wrestling
411 Movies/TV
411 MMA
411 Music
411 Games

For all of my interviews (like TJ Perkins , Steve Corino , Davey Richards , Jimmy Rave , Joey Ryan , Kyle O’Reilly , AR Fox , etc.) before 411mania, check out my Road to Mania Blog (where I still do stuff like Wrestlemania Build coverage, Wrestling DVD reviews, movie/TV reviews and more).

Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can’t Lose.