Sam Adonis On His Decision To Sign With MLW, Says Pro-Trump Character Did ‘Irreversible Damage’ To Him

Sam Adonis is making his MLW debut at Fightland this weekend, and he recently discussed his decision to sign there, the damage that was done to his career by his pro-Trump character and more. Adonis took his heel character and added waving Trump flags to rile people up further, particularly in Mexico, and he spoke with Wrestling Inc about the character and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On signing with MLW: “It’s really kind of cool and funny in a way. I’ve been very anti-contract, probably as long as I’ve known you. I think in professional wrestling, contracts are most of the time a bit of a farce or a facade, unless it’s real life-changing money. There’s very little incentive for any wrestler to sign a contract. We’ve kind of reached a point where young wrestlers are conditioned that signing is a milestone, that you’ve got to sign, and you want to basically put out there online and say, “This person has signed with this company.” And due to my personal experience, background in the wrestling industry, I have really had no interest in signing anything other than the right contract. I had a contract with WWE when I was 21 years old, and that kind opened my eyes to the real world of professional wrestling.

“And since, then I’ve been very, very busy. I’ve been very fortunate to be one of the busiest unsigned talents on the planet. I’ve had a lot of obligations to Mexico, and it’s basically just been my path and my journey to keep those commitments in Mexico. For the first time, MLW came to me and actually presented me with an opportunity that I pretty much couldn’t refuse it. It’s kind cool in my opinion. I look at MLW a little bit of the way that ECW was structured 25 years ago. It’s almost like an Ellis Island, if you will. MLW is a higher production, a higher-value production, a higher-quality program, but they also are taking advantage of finding the best young talent out there. So there’s not too many places where you can find a guy that his main priority is New Japan, like TJP, and throw him in the pot of MLW. Somebody like Lince Dorado, who’s straight out of WWE, throw him in the pot. You get Taya Valkyrie, who’s still in Mexico with me, a lot of the AAA luchadores. It really seems to be one of the only melting pots of professional wrestling, where you can be committed to the brand, but still be able to fulfill other commitments. And that’s what was important to me. And at this current time, that’s something I’m very excited and happy to look forward to.”

On his goals in MLW: “Well, the funny thing is, I’m probably the only guy with MLW that has kind of been along for the ride since day one. I was a wrestling tape trader, just like you probably were 20 years ago. And I remember the first MLW DVD coming out on highspots.com, Genesis, it was just this title tournament, and it was from the ECW Arena. And to me it was like, “Whoa, what is this?” And basically they picked up the pieces where ECW dropped off. They were able to create a niche of their own. And like I said, the talent has always been so diverse. There’s been a million guys from a million eras and regions coming together for this. So the talent pool itself has been historically fantastic.

“Hammerstone right now is definitely someone that I have my eyes set on, and it’s kind of cool. There’s a bit of a mutual respect for Hammerstone and myself, because he’s one of these guys that plays by his own rules. And that’s something that I really, really, really admire, because everything… and it’s not just wrestling, it’s society in general. Everybody wants to fit in, Everybody wants to do what everyone else is doing. Hammerstone, he waves the banner of MLW, he signed a long-term deal, he is happy to be MLW’s guy. And the dude has talent. He’s unbelievable. The physique he has, the caliber of matches he puts out. I see him as almost the perfect foil for me. A lot of people that don’t watch myself, they don’t realize I’m six-foot-four and 245 pounds. I’ve wrestled Hammerstone multiple times, and I’m salivating at the thought of a high-profile singles match, Sam Adonis against Hammerstone, potentially for that same title that 12-year-old Sam saw on MLW Genesis when he was a kid.”

On leaving his his pro-Trump character behind: “Oh, I believe that character has done irreversible damage to my career. I thought that I would be able to… I’m definitely grateful for all the press and the attention that doing that character has got me. I would say in 2017, there wasn’t very many individual wrestlers that have had more worldwide press than I did. I was in GQ Magazine, Vice, Reuters, Newsweek, Bloomberg, everywhere. They were talking about me, and I was under the assumption that I could paint the picture that, “Hey guys, it’s wrestling. I’m the same as the Iron Sheik. I’m the bad guy that riles you up and eventually get my butt kicked and sends you home happy.” I think a lot of people took that to heart and didn’t want to hear that. They just saw, ‘Oh my gosh, this is controversial, this is bad. We don’t like that guy.’ And I think in the end, it kind of hurt me at the end of the day. There was never a Trump gimmick. I’ve been Sam Adonis, who’s just the brash, ridiculous, over the top, Ric Flair plus Roddy Piper, a little bit of craziness sprinkled in there, and the Trump flag was just a prop to get people wound up. And I think being known for that has done a lot of damage to me. And right now I’m very excited to get that point of my career behind me completely. Because those who know, and you know firsthand coming from where you’re wrestling in Chicago, those who know that I could do anything with anyone, the bigger the crowd, the more expensive the pay-per-view, the better I am. That’s what I do. I’m a big game player, if you will, and I want these opportunities to show people that it’s much more than just being a gimmick in Mexico. I’m just really looking forward for everyone to be able to see what I’m capable of.”