{"id":36511,"date":"2019-01-25T20:55:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T01:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=36511"},"modified":"2019-01-25T20:55:53","modified_gmt":"2019-01-26T01:55:53","slug":"sasha-banks-guru-amazing-red-the-man-behind-the-boss-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2019\/01\/25\/sasha-banks-guru-amazing-red-the-man-behind-the-boss-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Sasha Banks&#8217; &#8220;Guru&#8221; Amazing Red: The Man Behind The Boss (VIDEOS)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today on the WWE&#8217;s Social Media platforms, the company released a training video of <strong>Sasha Banks<\/strong> preparing for her <strong>Royal Rumble<\/strong> showdown this Sunday against Raw Women&#8217;s Champion <strong>Ronda Rousey<\/strong>. To prepare for the former UFC Champions&#8217; techniques, Sasha returned to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando and trained alongside <em><strong>205 Live<\/strong><\/em>&#8216;s <strong>Drew Gulak<\/strong>, <strong>NXT<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Oney Lorcan<\/strong> and fellow WWE Superstar <strong>Charlotte Flair<\/strong>. But shortly into the journey, Sasha heads to Brooklyn, New York to meet up with her &#8220;guru&#8221;, indie legend <strong>Amazing Red<\/strong>, at the <strong>House of Glory (HOG)<\/strong> wrestling school. &#8220;Anytime I have any\u00a0<em>big\u00a0<\/em>matches, he is the guy that I go to,&#8221; Banks said. &#8220;He is my guru. He&#8217;s someone I go to and say &#8216;Is this possible?&#8217; and he tells me &#8216;Yes&#8217; or &#8216;No&#8217;. All my biggest matches, I&#8217;ve come to him.&#8221; For longtime fans of the US indie revolution of the past two decades &#8211; or longtime fans of <strong>TNA\/IMPACT Wrestling<\/strong> &#8211; Amazing Red is someone they&#8217;re well acquainted with. But for those who are unfamiliar, he&#8217;s a look at the man Sasha Banks turns to as her most trusted wrestling strategist.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sasha Banks trains with Charlotte to prepare for Ronda Rousey\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c618OJAkngY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Originally from Puerto Rico, the man known as Amazing Red &#8211; real name Jonathan Figueroa &#8211; began training at the age of 16 in 1998, when he convinced former 2x ECW World Heavyweight Champion <strong>Mikey Whipwreck<\/strong> to train him at the infamous <strong>House of Hardcore<\/strong> school. He started out in local indies in the New York area, before heading back to Puerto Rico to work for <strong>Savio Vega<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>International Wrestling Association (IWA)<\/strong>, one of the hottest promotions on the island. Originally wrestling as simply Red, it was Savio Vega that began adding adjectives to his name, before settling on &#8220;Amazing Red&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Amazing Red vs. Jose Maximo - 1998 Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g1MzBg9wgHc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>By 2001, Amazing Red was an emerging star with <strong>Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW)<\/strong>, while becoming one of the top prospects in the New York\/New Jersey area with the likes of <strong>Jersey Championship Wrestling<\/strong> (JCW, now <strong>Game Changer Wrestling<\/strong>) and <strong>Impact Championship Wrestling (ICW New York)<\/strong>. In early 2002, he caught the attention of new indie upstart <strong>Ring of Honor<\/strong>, where he faced the likes of <strong>Low Ki, Jay Briscoe, CM Punk<\/strong> and &#8220;The American Dragon&#8221; <strong>Bryan Danielson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"JAY BRISCOE vs THE AMAZING RED - The Era of Honor Begins (2\/23\/02 Philadelphia, Pa)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xFdrkTv1HwM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>By the summer, he had also garnered the interest in another new promotion, <strong>Jeff Jarrett<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Total Nonstop Action (TNA)<\/strong>, debuting that July against Low-Ki. It didn&#8217;t take long for Amazing Red to captivate the audience and the management, and he was feuding for the X-Division Championship with former ECW World Champion<strong> Jerry Lynn<\/strong> and competing against another bright young star named <strong>AJ Styles<\/strong>. By 2003, he made his debut in Japan with <strong>All Japan Pro Wrestling<\/strong> (under the name <strong>Spriggan<\/strong>), while continuing to be a mainstay with both TNA and ROH. He would win tag team titles in TNA alongside Jerry Lynn as well as the X-Division Championship and in ROH would strike tag team gold with AJ Styles.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2tPN-N5DpG0<\/p>\n<p>By 2005, he had left both TNA and Ring of Honor, branching out to new expanding indie regions, like <strong>IWA Mid South<\/strong> and <strong>New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC)<\/strong>. But in 2006, he announced his retirement from pro wrestling following two matches in January and disappeared from the wrestling scene for nearly two years.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=q-8N2TbtI0g<\/p>\n<p>He made his return to pro wrestling in December of 2008 at <strong>Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW)<\/strong> and in 2009, made his return to TNA. He lasted another three years with TNA, winning two more X-Division Championships, before once again departing the company in 2011.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_36526\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36526\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-36526\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/01\/Cropped-i-2-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/01\/Cropped-i-2-4.jpg 450w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/01\/Cropped-i-2-4-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/01\/Cropped-i-2-4-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/01\/Cropped-i-2-4-420x420.jpg 420w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36526\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: IMPACT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Upon his departure, he opened up the <strong>House of Glory<\/strong> wrestling school in Brooklyn, New York, throwing their first show on May 5, 2012, entitled <em><strong>High Intensity<\/strong><\/em>. In the main event, Amazing Red defeated <strong>Brian Kendrick<\/strong>, on a card that featured such current stars as <strong>Jay Lethal, Eddie Kingston<\/strong>, and an exciting emerging tag team known as <strong>The Young Bucks<\/strong>. As he slowly built up his own HOG from simply a school into a new New York indie promotion, he continued to work the likes of NYWC, <strong>Victory Pro Wrestling (VPW)<\/strong> and even a return to Ring of Honor for the first time in eight years, at the <em><strong>ROH 10th Anniversary Show<\/strong><\/em>, where he teamed with current <em>205 Live<\/em> star <strong>TJP<\/strong> against <strong>Michael Elgin<\/strong> and <strong>Roderick Strong<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Full Match: Amazing Red vs. Ricochet - Title Match!!!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EHeWTfpS-HY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Since then, Amazing Red has primarily kept to himself, running House of Glory (the school and the promotion). He picks and chooses his matches now, usually a handful or so a year, and mostly in a HOG ring. So if you happen to see the name Amazing Red pop up on a show near you, it&#8217;s worth the time to check it out. One of the most gifted and entertaining pioneers of the US indie scene, Amazing Red is not only a guru to WWE Superstar Sasha Banks, but to the entire US indie scene as we know it today.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UYVMQGySUeQ<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today on the WWE&#8217;s Social Media platforms, the company released a training video of Sasha Banks preparing for her Royal Rumble showdown this Sunday against Raw Women&#8217;s Champion Ronda Rousey. To prepare for the former UFC Champions&#8217; techniques, Sasha returned to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando and trained alongside 205 Live&#8216;s Drew Gulak, NXT&#8216;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":36518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[3556,159],"class_list":["post-36511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-north-america","tag-amazing-red","tag-sasha-banks"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}