Meet Booker T’s protege Gino, whose passion for wrestling is undeniable

Recently, I got to speak exclusively to Gino, the young veteran whose passion for wrestling has seen him go from trainee to trainer at Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling.

At only 23 years old, you’d expect Gino to be a rookie still trying to make his mark. However, he’s a 3-time Reality of Wrestling Heavyweight Champion and the current reigning Vanguard Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Champion.

While he’s mostly competed on the independent scene in Texas, Gino finds himself competing more and more in different states around the country. He’ll be in North Carolina soon, and returning to Virginia to defend his VCW Heavyweight Championship.

That defense will come against a competitor Gino never thought he’d find himself in the ring against. His challenger will be none other than “The War Machine” Rhino. As of March 2020, Rhino will officially have been wrestling for a quarter of a century. Rhino literally debuted in wrestling before Gino was even born.

“I was pretty surprised when I saw it,” he said in our exclusive interview.

Gino recounted getting to watch Rhino deliver the Gore to Chris Jericho and send him careening through the SmackDown set all the way back in 2001. It was one of the most iconic moments of that time, and one that still shows up in highlight reels to this day.

You’d expect a level of excitement to get in the ring with such a legendary competitor, potentially giving Gino the chance to get more eyes on him by having shared the ring with someone of Rhino’s caliber. For Gino, it’s all about what he can learn from Rhino.

“It’s gonna be amazing to get in there and learn off him,” he explained. “That’s just kind of what I do in every match. I feel like I’m just a sponge, man. And anything you teach me, I’m gonna absorb it all and make the most of it.”

Perhaps nothing was clearer to me when we spoke than Gino’s passionate love of professional wrestling. It’s a love that is literally in his blood.

Gino’s father competed in Mexico under the name of El Sanguinario. He wrestled in AAA, CMLL, and even got in the ring with legends like Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Jericho when their careers were just starting to blossom.

“That’s the main reason I’m doing what I’m doing,” he said of his father’s career. “Since I was probably not even a year old, I was at wrestling shows. As a baby, he would take me into the locker rooms. That’s how the love for the business started for me.”

That passion was clearly passed on from El Sanguinario, and Gino started training to be a wrestler at the young age of 14. He found a lucha libre trainer in Houston that had previously wrestled his dad, and that person gave Gino his first taste of training.

Two years later, he found himself training under the legendary Booker T, a man who today is a 2-time WWE Hall of Famer. As Gino explained, his beginnings with Booker were quite simple.

“One day they needed a luchador at Booker T’s, so they kind of just called me as a luchador, and that’s where it started,” he said.

Gino made a connection with Booker early on but was quickly faced with the first tough decision of his career. One of the first things Booker T asked him was if he was willing to take off his mask.

During his first few years, Gino competed under a mask in the lucha libre tradition that his father had embraced. Despite being a self-described shy kid with no confidence who “was very uncomfortable wrestling without the mask,” Gino didn’t want to risk his opportunity to learn from Booker T.

Gino agreed to compete without a mask, but his wavering confidence at such a young age never hindered Booker T’s belief in him. As he started training there, Booker T told him that he expected Gino to get a tryout with WWE between the ages of 20 and 22.

Gino heard him but didn’t think much of the comment. Sure enough, the 23-year-old got a tryout last year with the biggest company in the business.

As Gino pointed out, some come to train with Booker T and expect a fast-track to a WWE contract. That’s just not the case.

“[Booker’s] not gonna give you any handouts. He’s gonna give you the tools. That’s what he does at Reality of Wrestling. He gives a lot of people tools to make it in this business, but it’s just up to you,” he said.

Today, Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling hosts shows at least once a month at the World Gym Arena in Texas City, Texas. They produce a weekly show for local syndication that is also available online. WWE’s own Ember Moon is just one of the success stories that been trained by Booker T.

Gino was there to help as their current location, the World Gym Arena, transformed from a mall space into a gym and wrestling venue. From humble beginnings, the goal for Gino, Booker, and the rest of ROW is to “make Reality of Wrestling the flagship in Texas wrestling.”

As ROW continued to evolve, Gino found himself in an unlikely position for such a young competitor as a trainer at the school Booker T runs. While Gino’s skills and knowledge were clear, he explained that the real reason he became a trainer is that he’d never leave.

“I was always there. There was no way that you could take me out of that gym,” he said, but the benefits of becoming a trainer were clear to Gino.

“I’m helping people out not just for myself, but I’m helping out wrestling in general because I’m helping the guys that are gonna be here for the future. So I feel like that’s my way of giving back to the wrestling business,” he continued. “I’ve been privileged enough to get a lot of knowledge from lucha libre and from Booker T that I can give someone knowledge now.”

It’s a trend you’ll likely have already noticed. Gino loves wrestling, and that passion drives everything he does to the point that he said, “when I’m not in training, I’m just thinking about training.”

Recently, Gino got the opportunity to compete on a co-branded show between Impact Wrestling and ROW. He faced off with Eddie Edwards, the only gaijin to ever capture the GHC Heavyweight Championship and a former Impact World Champion.

Edwards didn’t take it easy on him, giving Gino what were described as “the hardest” chops he’s ever taken in his entire career. Of course, Gino pointed out that the pain “comes with the package” of wrestling.

“You’re gonna get popped in the mouth a couple of times, and you gotta be able to like it,” he said.

The match went fantastically, and Twitter had no shortage of praise and acclaim for the two men once it was over. Yet, Gino was most focused on what he could learn from Edwards.

The same was true when he faced off with Impact Tag Team Champion Ethan Page at Heavy Metal Wrestling’s Fight the Power. However, there was an extra benefit to his clash with Ethan Page. After hearing tales from Booker T about how much fun it was to get in the ring with Canadian wrestlers, he knew the match could be special.

“I was pretty excited to wrestle Ethan Page because [he’s Canadian], and this is my first Canadian wrestler that I’m gonna wrestle,” he said. “As soon as I went in there, stuff was just clicking. It was like we’ve been wrestling each other for the longest.”

Of course, Gino was just geeking out over being in the ring with such top-notch talent.

“You can only get better by wrestling people that are better than you,” he said. “Those two weeks that I wrestled those two guys, I feel like I’ve learned and I’ve experienced so much more than I have in the past six months.”

That passion didn’t falter at all when I asked Gino about intergender wrestling, which is becoming more and more accepted or common as of late. Tessa Blanchard recently got very close to becoming the Impact World Champion, and he felt it was a no-brainer to make that happen.

“Why not make her the Impact Champion?” He continued, “because Tessa is super talented. She’s super professional. Everything I’ve seen from her has been super great, so why not make her champion?”

“If people don’t like it, don’t watch it. It’s that easy,” he said of people who don’t support intergender wrestling. “You gotta take a step back and know that it’s pro wrestling. And when it comes down to it, it’s entertainment.”

“Wrestling is an artform, right? A lot of people don’t like to call it an artform, but it’s what it is,” he continued. “You can make wrestling anything you want, because everybody has their own canvas, and everyone can paint their own picture. And if your picture wants to have a girl wrestle a guy, let it happen.”

Gino has wrestled former ROW Diamonds Division Champion Hyan and AEW competitor Kylie Rae in the past, both of which were truly special matches. His faith in them being main eventers within the industry is driven entirely by their skill, rather than the fact that they’re women.

For as much as Gino has done to give back to the wrestling business already, there have been others supporting him along the way. Senior Vice President of WWE and industry legend Bruce Prichard was recently asked on his podcast who he would choose if he could sign one person to WWE right now.

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Without missing a beat, Prichard named Gino. It wasn’t actually a surprise to him, as this was far from the first time Prichard had been a part of Gino’s career. Prichard has helped out at Reality of Wrestling before, and he’s helped fellow ROW Heavyweight Champions Ryan Davidson and Rex Andrews, as well as NXT star Brennan Williams.

“Bruce gave me a lot of confidence in my early years,” he said. “Kind of just finding that groove. Finding Gino. Finding the Gino that I am now.”

“Bruce has always been pretty good to me,” he began. “So as soon as I saw that he made that public, where he was like ‘yeah, Gino’s the guy,’ I was like ‘oh, okay man this is pretty cool.’ Because you know that’s Bruce Prichard. Everybody respects him, so for him [to say] that means a lot.”

For as much help as legends like Bruce Prichard or Booker T have been to Gino throughout his career, he remains appreciative of the fans that have followed him on this journey.

“I would like to thank them, because it’s been a long, long journey. And I know that journey wasn’t great at all times. I know I have some stuff pretty early on that wasn’t the best,” he said. “Them showing support now, it means a lot because I feel like I’ve come a long way since then. I always appreciate the support.”

Gino talked about the value of the journey, rather than focusing on the destination. So many wrestlers focus more on goals like getting signed to big companies. Gino will surely reach that goal in time, but for now he’s just enjoying the journey and learning everything he possibly can.

For anyone who is just now learning about Gino, he is ready for them to come along with him for this journey. “I only hope to get better and better as the years go on, so I’m hoping that those people that are barely getting into seeing me wrestle, I hope those people stick along for the ride.”

If you’re lucky enough to be in Texas, you’re sure to have the opportunity to catch Gino at a show near you. Of course, with the way he’s growing, even those outside of Texas could see him soon at their local indie.

With a passion like his, it’s only a matter of time before we see Gino in WWE, AEW, Impact Wrestling, NJPW, or some other platform. It’s time for those who don’t know him to buckle up, because this is a quest to greatness you don’t want to miss.

Editor’s Note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.