An Interview with The Toster

 

Interview with The Toster                                                                                             September 9, 2019.

For my first official blog entry/interview I sat down with the Toster via telephone-call. This released to the public, encrypted telephone call allowed for the sharing of vital information regarding professional wrestling in Ontario, a bit of the inner workings of Toste’s life and his pursuits in the world of professional wrestling.

Toste is no stranger to battles, having fought some of his most difficult inside and outside of the ring, nearly dying on a hospital bed, only to arise like a phoenix from the ashes to return to the squared circle professional wrestling ring. He is a true warrior of combat!

Toste grew up to Portuguese immigrant parents who settled in Hamilton, Ontario after he was born at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto in 1984.

I sat down with The Toster for about an hour to discuss his life.

 

What made him decide to become a professional wrestler?:

Toste: Well, Shawn Michaels. I’ve been watching wrestling as a kid and watching Shawn Michaels. I want to make other people want to become professional wrestlers because of me like he did.

 

About his Portuguese upbringing:

Portuguese is actually my first language. I was born at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. We moved from Toronto to Hamilton. My parent’s only speak Portuguese, so whatever English I learned off of Sesame Street or whatever cartoons were in English. So, being Portuguese is no different that being other types of European ethnic backgrounds. There’s plastic on couches, a room that everyone is not allowed to be in, and everyone has a grandma who dresses in black all of the time.

I got my ass kicked a lot when I was a kid and that set me straight. It made me the man I am today.

 

On Toste’s favourite food:

Toast with butter [Toste laughed.]

Portuguese dish alcatra. It’s like a cow-meat roasted that is really good, the way it’s made with mashed potatoes. Whenever I bring that to lunch from construction to security, everyone comes to the lunch room and says “Oh! What are you eating? That smells so good!”

[Here’s the recipe if you would like to try it yourself! https://www.farmgirlgourmet.com/2012/03/alcatra-portuguese-pot-roast-in-slow.html

 

His training:

Due to covid-19 my training has been half-assed. When I’m in the zone my training consists of doing a light jog three days a week. I also do boxing at least three days a week, and I do weight lifting five days a week.

On wrestling training:

The way it started I stayed in high-school in grade 13 so I could wrestle. An opponent during an amateur wrestling match did an illegal throw which resulted in me gaining a hairline fracture in neck. It was almost broken. Sitting at home I couldn’t wrestle. I was depressed and pissed off! I then started searching for pro wrestling schools. And then I found Ron Hutchinson’s wrestling school. I wanted to see if he could get in there and I had money saved up from working part time gigs. I paid the down payment, and [TNA/IMPACT Knock-Out] Taylor Wilde was in his class. I was the top male student while she was the top female student. After three months [the program was three months long] the school closed down and Taylor Wilde went to Rob Fuego’s Squared Circle and I went to Ringmasters Pro Wrestling owned by Ted Herbert.

I had a lot of respect for Ted. I would do my thing and he would pull me aside and tell me do it more like this. He would tweak my moves a little bit on everything. Good advice with ring psychology. Me and Lionel grew close because he was my type of style for wrestling. The first time I got in the ring with him Ted’s face just lit up. He couldn’t wait to see us wrestle at our first show together.

 

Favourite videogames:

Loved videogames. Own every console out there! Working several jobs plus having a little girl it is really hard to find the time to play videogames.

 

The importance of proper nutrition and supplementation:

The supplements that I use include creatine, sometimes a bit too much creatine but it adds a lot of strength. Protein shakes and then I take multi-vitamins throughout the day.

 

How he got in the fantastic shape that he’s in today:

After cancer, I had to get back into shape. The whole cancer thing, me almost losing my life made me change my diet and made me change my training. When Norman Smiley and Steve Keirn [Doink the Clown] said to me “You’re a great wrestler amazing entertainer, but really needed to put on more size!” That was my main goal. Diet really is 80 percent of your gains.

[Toste trained at Florida Championship Wrestling which was a fairly recent developmental territory owned by World Wrestling Entertainment.]

 

About the CWO championship:

My entire indie wrestling career I was always the small guy and no matter how good I was no one gave me the proper shot at what I could become. CWO doesn’t care about size, anyone can become champion if you’re a hard worker. I also got beefed up when I was small. Holding that CWO championship reminds me of the hard work and dedication that I put in throughout my life. To hold that CWO championship belt around my waist and shoulder feels good. It feels like I finally accomplished something, and I’m hoping to win more titles out there!

Inspirational matches:

Shawn Michaels' WWF iron-man match with Bret Hart. And then the Razor Ramon versus Shawn Michaels ladder match as well.