Daniel Makabe on Not Being Able to Wrestle for Most of 2020 Due to Pandemic Restrictions

– POST Wrestling and Andrew Thompson recently interviewed wrestler Daniel Makabe. Below are some highlights and a video of the Daniel Makabe interview:

Daniel Makabe on having an extended layoff from wrestling due to the pandemic restrictions: “My last matches were in March overseas and then I didn’t wrestle for almost seven months and then came back and had the one match in October as a part of The Collective against Lee Moriarty, which got a lot of people talking again and then it was kind of radio silence for me because we have very strong restrictions here, especially here in British Columbia so, not only can you not promote shows currently, you can’t even train currently. The gyms are all closed and I can’t — I mean I can cross the U.S. border but it’s not easy. It’s quite difficult so, not being able to wrestle for the majority of the year, right as things started to really seemingly happen for me, definitely caused some stress and I like to think I’ve kind of adapted and I’m in the new routine, whatever the new normal is. That’s a term people have been throwing around a lot in 2020, the new ‘normal’. But… it’s definitely led to some down moments and some bouts of depression because it’s such a huge part of my life and I was really kind of getting into a groove of every weekend, going somewhere new whether it’s all over the U.S. or as far as the east coast to Canada or the east coast to the U.S. or to Europe and my weekends were kind of full with seeing all these familiar faces and meeting new faces and new fans and so yeah, that’s been an adjustment for sure and kind of having the self-realization of like, ‘Wow, this has become a really important part of your life in the last few years’ as things have started to happen for me so…”

Daniel Makabe on competing in the 16 Carat Gold tournament for wXw and the Ambition 12 tournament: “So it was my second time going over for wXw. It was actually my first 16 Carat weekend so, and 16 Carat is their biggest weekend of the year. I guess it’s comparative to a WrestleMania weekend where you can go to shows all day for like four or five straight days, you know? So they run this big building in — it’s kinda in the middle of nowhere. It’s this big kinda warehouse looking thing called the Turbinenhalle. They do such a good job of the lights and the set and the stage and the video screens that it feels like this massive event and they were the biggest crowds I’d ever worked in front of. There was like 1,100 each night and I think the Saturday night was 1,600 people which for independent wrestling, that’s pretty big, when I’m used to working in front of maybe 200 people so, and yeah you’re quite right, I did win the AMBITION tournament that weekend. AMBITION 12, which was huge. It was my third time doing an AMBITION tournament for them, which for those not aware, it’s more of a shoot-style wrestling, kind of like a UFC. It’s submissions and amateur wrestling and hard strikes. You can only win by submission or knockout and to win the tournament, you gotta win three matches back-to-back-to-back like the old school one night eight-man tournaments so, the fact that they had the confidence in me to go all the way and win the thing was amazing. As someone who’s such a fan of the style and the amount of people — we all got a shirt at the beginning of that weekend with the AMBITION logo on it and they go, ‘Okay, can you wear this during the pre-show ceremony where you all [are] gonna come out?’ The faces on this shirt, it’s like Tim Thatcher, WALTER, Zack Sabre, Bryan Danielson. I’m trying to think of some other ones but all previous winners of this tournament and now it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m one of those guys too.’ Maybe next year, they come out with a new shirt, my face will be on it, right? That’s crazy. To be in the same kind of ballpark as those guys is humbling.”

His thoughts on Fred Yehi: “Fred Yehi is criminally underrated. The fact that he’s not signed to a major promotion. He’s so good, very smart. He’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever been in there [with]. I’m probably a good four, five inches taller than Fred and he was tossing me around like I was a child and I didn’t have a choice in the matter. So strong, so much energy and just cardio for days so, we did wrestle. That was kind of a big breakout for me actually. Getting to wrestle Fred in New Jersey right before WrestleMania last year in New York, New Jersey area for Pizza Party [Wrestling’s] first show. That was huge and the fact that, yeah, I mean we kind of hit it off real well and he’s a super nice guy and I was really looking forward to the rematch. We were supposed to wrestle this past April in Tampa like you mentioned, for Pizza Party, its like one-year anniversary show. Kind of a nod back to the first time and so yeah, Fred Yehi’s work is so good, it’s so — going back to when I’m talking about guys like Daniel Bryan and Drew Gulak and those guys who really had the standout matches for me early in the pandemic, Fred Yehi is the guy like that who works so snug and so realistic and he’s just so good at what he does.”