Show: Wrestling Epicenter
Guest: Hawaiian Lion
Date: 08/29/2025
Your Host: James Walsh
A few weeks ago, a wrestler who retired a few years ago returned to the ring to team with his former tag team partner and trainer one last time. An Arizona icon, the Hawaiian Lion stepped back into the squared circle in an emotional encounter that saw himself and Navajo Warrior team up against Hollywood Yates and Mike Knox. Knox couldn’t wrestle due to an arm injury that has since been reported and had an impact on the NWA World Tag Team Championship scene. The IZW originals tore it down and paid tribute to the Navajo Warrior on his “Last Mile” tour. That tour, by the way, ends in November as IZW presents Long Live the King. And, standing at the end of that last mile is none other than AEW Trios Champion Samoa Joe who will go one on one with Navajo Warrior.
The Hawaiian Lion will also reunited with his Tribe tag team partner as Tribemania runs wild once again in Impact Zone Wrestling as GQ Gallo returns to the promotion. Gallo is famously a security guard for All Elite Wrestling. He’s the guy who you see every Wednesday and Saturday night that you just know is the toughest guy in the arena and isn’t in the ring.
The first rows are already sold out for IZW Long Live the King from Bullshooters in Phoenix, Arizona. But, if you want to attend, you can stilll get in while the getting is good! All you have to do is buy tickets! www.IZWTix.com. Tell ’em the Epicenter sent ya!
For more great interviews like this, visit www.WrestlingEpicenter.com!
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/moKbx3GimgU
HAWIIAN LION:
On returning to the ring at IZW Psycho Circus:
“I was at the last show where Navajo Warrior and Gallo teamed up one last time. Nav kind of pulled me in and I was happy to come out of retirement and wrestle. It is funny you said “one last time” because I have decided to wrestle again. At IZW Long Live the King, I will team up with my former partner GQ Gallo again. It is like going back to where it all began early in my career.”
On how he fell in love with pro wrestling:
“The story is probably the same all across the board, from watching it on TV. For me, I remember flashes of the AWA in about 1985, 1986. I watched it through school and I remember I had a friend and our plan was always that we would become wrestlers. We tried out for wrestling. We walked into the wrestling room and we didn’t see a ring or anything. My friend as like, “Where’s the ring?” The coach said, “Oh, this isn’t that kind of wrestling.” He turned around and walked out. He never turned back. I stayed. I wrestled throughout high school into college. And, in the military…. I don’t know if you ever heard any of those carny stories? I went to a fair in Germany when i was stationed there. They had a guy named Cosmos there who was literally out of the past. Barrel chested, handle bar mustache. Well, I wrestled with him. He threw me around. You could tell he was telling the shots. The only English word he knew was “business.” But, I wrestled with him… And, from then on, I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do.”
On getting into the business:
“It was a few years later when I got out of the ARMY. I went to college and stuff and a trainer walked in named CC Star who passed away last year. He connected me, Mike Knox, and others with Navajo Warrior. The rest is history!”
On defeating Navajo Warrior for the IZW Title so early in his career:
“I was so early in my career and I might have been a little mroe cocky. I thought I could do anything! Looking back, to be as young as I was, to be in the ring with the Navajo Warrior and to get the honor of wrestling him and winning the title from him, I don’t think there could have been anyone better to be in the ring with. And, I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.”
On the changes in wrestling since he got in:
“Back then, you would have big guys that you would marvel at. They were larger than life. Now, you have guys that are really more human sized. Somewhere from 5’7 to 6’1, ranging in weight from 170 to about 200 pounds. With that change did come incredible athleticism. But, I kind of wish there was more of a middle ground. If you like old school style, well then “you’ve got to get with the times.” But, if you like the modern style, you don’t “respect” old school. There has to be more of a middle ground. That said, I’m more a fan of old school. Ricky Steamboat versus Jake Roberts, the Hart Foundation versus the Bulldogs. It meant something! I mean, it all means something. But, you know what I mean?”
On if it is fair that Jim Cornette suggested modern wrestlers ought to just train to be stunt men:
“It is! Unfortunately, wrestling has become something of a middle ground now to where you wrestle until you get your shot in Hollywood. Or, you land a spot on a game show or something like that. Wrestling has become a stepping stone.”
On IZW’s brief stint on TV:
“IZW has had a few stints on TV dating back to 2002, 2003. We had a show that aired on a Spanish language channel… I can’t recall the channel but where I worked was largely Spanish speaking and when I’d come in, they’d point at me and be like, “Were you fighting on TV?” That was cool. We had a few different shows. One from the Sets in the mid 2000s, we had a shot from the Celebrity Theater that was on TV. The thing about it was, Navajo set it up in such a way that we treated it like big time TV. We had a hard cam, we had times we had to hit. In addition to training us to wrestle, he was also helping to teach us TV. And, we had a roster that believed in it.”
On his neck injury:
“I woke up one morning, the night before I had wrestled Dean Radford. And, he wrapped a chain around my neck The stunt went bad. It linked up around my neck and started to choke me out. I was able to get it off but the next day, when I woke up, I couldn’t use my right arm to push. I went to the gym and my left arm went but my right arm wouldn’t push. I remember looking at my right arm and saying to it, “What’s wrong with you?” Well, my right tricep was injured. My right peck, my back started to atrophy. At the time, I was a full time wrestler. This was my livelihood! I went to doctors, acupuncture specialists, and so forth… I did all of this not realizing that my neck was broken. When I saw a specialist, they told me my C5 was essentially just gravel. The injury happened in February. I didn’t have my surgery scheduled until July. So, I worked with it. And, I was in a space where I thought if this is how I die, fine. That wasn’t a good attitude to have. My son was still very small. But, I was still living that dream. I still wanted to get signed.”
On Arizona’s growth and if there is a rivalry with IZW and other successful Arizona promotions such as PCW:
“No, there is no rivalry. Of course, there is always going to be egos involved and some egos might get bruised. That is the nature of this. But, I have worked PCW shows for Dom. I see his way of doing things and running his promotion and it is a little different from how IZW runs their promotion. When I look at how big Arizona has grown and how big Arizona is going to be, I think the scene has a lot of potential for growth. And, I would argue that the crop of talent Arizona produced in the 2000’s, perhaps up until about 2010, might have been among the best crops of talent in the country.”
On the Raja Jackson incident:
“From the can incident and Raja Jackson maybe not understanding to them apparently making up…. But, to give yourself to that person and to be thrown down and hit your head and have the unprotected shots to the head that followed… It is sad. I don’t know what Raja’s situation is. Is there a mental illness? Was he intoxicated? I don’t know what his situation was. But, to go in there to perform a work and it quickly turns into a shoot, that is a very dangerous situation. You go in there trusting somebody with your life.”
On why he chose to retire a few years ago:
“Well, I was over 50 years old and I started to feel like I wasn’t performing up to my standards. Then, COVID hit. I was having trouble keeping up from injuries as well as I wasn’t really taking care of myself the way i should have been. It just felt like it was time for me to step away.”
On how he feels returning:
“I have changed a lot of what I was doing. I’m feeling better in myself and I found I missed it. I am excited to wrestle again in November at IZW Long Live the King as part of the Last Mile tour. Samoa Joe is going to face Navajo Warrior in Nav’s final match. It should be a special.”
