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by Les
Honig
He seems brash, angry and mercurial in the ring but to those who have personally known and enjoyed knowing UPW’s own Aaron Aguilera over the past five years, the image is quite different: a sincere, humble, hard-working, tirelessly dedicated worker, someone who cares for the success of those around him as well as his own, and who will go out of his way every day to make their own careers better as he works to improve his own.
That is why so many of his professional colleagues as well as his fiercest fan critics are now cheering the deserved arrival of the moment he has dreamed of for so long: a new WWE developmental deal and a chance to make waves big time in the nation’s top sports entertainment company.
Having arrived several weeks ago at Titan’s premiere training facility, Louisville-based Ohio Valley Wrestling, this latest chapter in Hardkore’s life is but only one in a story of gaining success through dogged determination despite the heaviest odds arrayed against him.
Growing up as a troubled teen in Orange, California; the young Aguilera was first shown the positive personal rewards that being a pro wrestler could produce by El Jefe, who met Hardkore’s dad in prison and promised to look out for his son when he got out. It was during a trip to Tijuana, according to Aguilera, that he was first introduced to our sport.
“We would go down and watch the matches and I just fell in love with the shameless violence of the ruidos (the heels) and how they would dominate the technicos (the faces). The ruidos always got the most heat and always would win and then the fans were so furious with them they’d invariably be chased right out of the building. That kind of excitement really intrigued me and made me a fan instantly.”
Deciding this was the path for him to follow, Aguilera first sought out a local luchador-style federation for a ring education and was further smitten by the mat bug. “It really was a great way to channel the many aggressions I had. I still remember my first match so clearly; how I beat the hell out of two guys and kept saying to myself, ‘I can’t believe they’re actually gonna pay me for this instead of sending me to jail!’”
Having made his goal to perfect his new craft while always entertaining the fans, Aguilera continued to compete actively until he discovered a very promising new facility in Mission Viejo, California: Extreme University.
“Rick Bassman and Tom Howard had started this company in a gym with all kinds of things going on. There were bodybuilders there, jui jitsu, karate and kickboxing guys all working out but for the wrestling part at first, it was just me and Tom.”
While he remembers those earliest days as UPW’s first trainee as a time when he served as “Tom Howard’s bump dummy; just getting beat up and getting my ass kicked by Tom,” he skill credits our current heavyweight champ as being the man who really was the catalyst for his later success.
“When I look back I am totally grateful for all he did during those days and the later ones when a bunch of huge guys joined our class; guys like Sylvester Terkay, Big Stephan, the Russian Nightmare, Andrew Brynarski, Hank Hill and Josh Dempsey. Those first one-on-one sessions with Tom and the others where I was still the smallest guy; even being 6’6”, made me so much tougher. That’s why, I think, a lot of people here at OVW now like to work with me because I know how to take so many different moves.”
Always a shrewd and perceptive observer of talent, Bassman soon noticed another frequenter of the gym who he thought would make a perfect teammate for Aguilera; the up-and-coming martial artist, Justin McCully. Already using the facility to perfect his outstanding jui-jitsu skills, Rick first convinced Justin to consider a career in wrestling and then facilitated the pairing of the two to form one of the fed’s most successful early tandems: Hardkore Inc.
Having grown up only literally blocks from each other, both athletes immediately had hit it off and soon were competing as a talented tag-team.
“It was almost a foregone conclusion we’d end up together,” says Aguilera, “because when I looked at him it was like looking in the mirror. There was this young kid with a crazy hair cut who didn’t care what he wore and had such an extreme style. Once we did pair up it was perfect. We liked the same wrestling styles; liked to do the same crazy moves including the high-flying ones. Everything immediately just clicked.”
Holding the UPW belt three times during those years, (losing it only to Tom Howard and Hank Hill’s Big Time and to the Ballards), it wasn’t long before those in WWE started taking note of the duo’s exceptional abilities and charisma and once they were seen by top talent scout Bruce Pritchard in a now-celebrated San Jose performance made famous in the Discovery Channel’s “Wrestling School documentary”, lightning struck in the form of a Titan developmental deal.
Thus began Aaron’s first great moment, which was unfortunately to lead to his greatest frustration as well, when McCully decided to pursue his martial arts career instead and Hardkore signed the contract himself but was almost immediately injured and forced to the sidelines as fellow UPW’er John Cena headed off to OVW for training and current mega stardom.
Bad fortune continued to strike the deserving grappler as his recovery brought promises of upcoming training at a trio of developmental territories, each of which in turn lost affiliation with WWE just as he was told to be ready to leave; and final discouragement when what seemed to be a final guarantee of enrollment in Ohio Valley turned to a cancellation of his contract as the purchase of WCW filled the World Wrestling Federation roster with a surplus of competitors.
After two years of waiting and hoping, Hardkore was down but as was typical of his attitude, definitely not out as he, in his own words, “started again from square one.”
Competing again, now as a solo matman both in UPW and in a variety of other Southland feds, he was soon tapped to become a very valuable member of Ultimate University’s training staff; heading the beginner’s Wednesday night class for the past several years.
“It was definitely an honor to be asked to do this but also kind of weird for me to teach since I felt I was still learning myself and preferred being a student so I could expand my own knowledge.” Despite a very demanding approach, though, he did succeed in imparting much of his hard-edged training regimens to his own new charges.
“Since I had first learned old school lucha where we did a lot of cardio and conditioning I focused on that pretty much with my students. I had a bunch come up to me and tell me that it was a very tough, hard class and a few even dropped out. Rick, once or twice, had to encourage me to cool it and tone it down.”
Feeling, however, that his career was at a professional standstill, Aaron recently approached Rick Bassman and asked if they could meet to chart a plan for one last effort to make it back to Titan Sports, an opportunity that had once nearly been his.
Meeting with El Jefe and UPW’s head promoter the trio discussed their options and this led to Bassman arranging a meeting for Aguilera with Johnny Ace, Vice President of Talent Relations, at the Staple Center during May’s Judgment Day pay-per-view.
According to Aaron, “He asked me how my back was and I assured him it was better. I told him I was fine; never stronger, having put on 30 pounds of muscle since the time of my first deal. He told me that he wanted to see me work the next day at a dark match in San Diego where Raw was being done and what followed was a very good encounter with La Resistance there. Johnny came up to me in Vegas the next day, (during a Smackdown taping), and said that he was pretty pleased with my match and told me he wanted me to get just a little bigger. He said, ‘It looks like we’ll be sending you to OVW’ and the very next day I got the call I had long been hoping for from Tom Pritchard offering me the contract.”
Now firmly settled in his new Kentucky home, and having been already greeted by a host of his fellow UPW alumni including Big Chris, John Heydenrich, Horshu and Maddog and Mark “Smelly” Bell, this lifelong mat learner is now savoring his new opportunity but not losing sight of his need to grow and adjust to WWE’s own rigid standards.
“I am being taught here by people like Nova and Lance Storm who are some of the best workers I have ever seen and I realize now that I have so much still to learn. So far I have only scratched the surface.”
Still, his many followers here in So Cal know that while he continues to pursue his own vision quest to ultimate fulfillment through constant striving and self-improvement. the day when his famous words will indeed ring true in America’s living rooms happily looms ever and ever closer:
“Watch out everyone because Hardcore Kidd’s World Tour is coming to a city near you!”
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