wrestling / Columns

411 Wrestling Interviews: Luke Robinson

May 18, 2011 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris

Pro-wrestler, Luke Robinson, is one of the contestants and aspiring WWE superstars on the new season of WWE Tough Enough. Robinson emerged as the early favorite in the series winning two skills challenges and even got the chance to get an in-ring session working with WWE and pro-wrestling legend, Stone Cold Steve Austin. However, after that, fellow contestant, Martin Casaus, won 3 straight skills challenges and Luke even found himself in the bottom 3 that might go home at one point. Recently 411mania got the chance to speak with Luke for a one on one, exclusive interview:

Jeffrey Harris: Early on in the season you emerged as one of the early favorites after winning the skills challenges. You got to even to an in-ring session with Stone Cold Steve Austin. How did that feel for you to be a new guy coming in and seasoned pros are giving you props and even working with Stone Cold?

Luke Robinson: There was a duality to it. At one point it was surreal. A lot of people have a dream that never even comes close to coming to fruition and I got to do something that every wrestling fan and millions of people who have talked about being in this business got to do. On the other hand, it felt like something that I had earned and that was my strategy for the whole competition. I deserved to be in there. Like that Stone Cold is just at a point where I want to be in my career that I shouldn’t be star struck that I should want to believe that I could earn to be in the ring with him. So it was a duality of I can’t believe this is happening – after a while I was like heck yeah, he sees a future in me, he sees a superstar in me. I’ve been in the ring with Stone Cold Steve Austin. I’m going to do my thing.

Jeffrey Harris: You have a pro-wrestling background before Tough Enough. How did you start in pro-wrestling?

Luke Robinson: I used to kind of be one of those jerks who would tell all my buddies pro wrestling is fake. I didn’t understand what it was about. I was walking by my brother’s room when I was fifteen. He was watching RAW. Mic Foley and the Rock were feuding and I stopped in to watch a little bit of that and I basically fell in love with the story telling. And so me and my buddies would start putting on wrestling shows in the basement. We had strobe lights, we would make our own storylines, and imitate our favorite WWE characters. My buddies’ dad brought home like a work belt, and we turned it into our first championship belt. As time went on – we were all jocks. This was like our dirty, little secret that we loved pro wrestling and didn’t tell anyone. I was working out at a gym where Tony Atlas was personal training, and I approached him and he kind of dismissed me like, “Oh alright. This skinny, little, under 150 lb. punk wants to get into wrestling.” Well the owner of the gym, he was my cousin, he said, “Give this kid a chance. Talk to him.” He [Atlas], realized I had a passion for this, took me under his wing, and over the years I trained with Tony and one particular summer after I transferred back to speed school – I was going to college out of state, and I was like this isn’t what I want to do. And I trained with Tony five days a week all that summer and got close with him and he helped me network into the wrestling independent scene and now here I am today.

Jeffrey Harris: What’s that like just going from the indy scene to Tough Enough? You’re not in WWE yet, but you are the right path and on the cusp of it.

Luke Robinson: Yeah I think again, I keep talking about this duality that it’s partially surreal and partially like wow, I can’t believe this is happening to me. But on the other hand, again I felt, anything I do, anything I start, I always believe that I’m going to be the best at it and I’m going to win at it. The same way growing up in sports, I had this attitude of I’m not going to go into it if I don’t think I can win. So even then in sports if we’re playing the best team and they haven’t lost, I go in thinking we’re going to be the first ones to beat them. Well my wrestling career has kind of been the same way in that I’ve been very lucky to be surrounded by wonderful people including Mr. Atlas. So I was always guided by the right train of thought that to know that this is a long path, there is going to be a lot of hard work, but on the other hand they taught me to be respectful and humble at the right times but you have to believe in yourself because if you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will. Being right here, at the cusp of this dream, it partially feels like I’ve done everything I can in my life to always believe it would happen. So part of it feels surreal and part of it feels natural like this is the way it’s supposed to be for me.

Jeffrey Harris: Later in the show, Martin Casaus emerged as the new favorite and won the skills challenge several weeks in a row. He was getting the respect of the trainers and they stopped calling him Donny Osmond. You weren’t happy about, and I thought you were being a little cold and rude towards Martin. In hindsight do you think you could’ve handled it a little better?

Luke Robinson: I would not change a thing about the way I handled myself. People forget that we are in the middle of a competition. We are not in the middle of the WWE locker-room. A lot of people wanted to throw out parallels like Christina in the elimination, in the bottom 3 that day goes, “He’d be immature in the locker-room.” Uh I think they forgot we are in the middle of a competition to be in that locker-room. That’d be like shaking hands the first period of a hockey game. I’m not going to do that. I’m there to win that contract so I can be the one in that locker-room then I’m going to be respectful as all hell to everyone else. While I’m in that competition, I think Martin was gassed out of his mind during that skills challenge where they said that I was being selfish. What you didn’t see is that he could hardly stand up because he was blown up. I was clearly in the best shape out of anyone in that competition. And that’s why I was upset. I know that there are people that are going to better – they might be a better technical wrestler, they might bigger, they might be stronger. But I never cared about being the biggest or strongest or the best tag wrestler. I just want to be the best all around. And that’s why I never ever stopped believing that I am going to be the next WWE superstar because I don’t see that same fire and larger than life persona in Martin.

Jeffrey Harris: Were the trainers wrong because they didn’t take kindly to the way you reacted to the situation? And Stone Cold called you a dip****. Do you think he was maybe testing you?

Luke Robinson: I think a bit of was a mental test. And I know for a fact that Steve Austin has the same attitude and belief in myself that I have myself. He was doing the Ringmaster and he wasn’t happy with that. He knew he was bigger than that and better than that. And Steve will be the first to tell you that it doesn’t necessarily matter if you’re the best technical wrestler in the ring. You have to be larger than life. You have to believe in yourself more than anybody else and people are going to feed off that energy. I think Steve was giving me a little test and actually had a healthy respect for the way that I carried myself despite the fact that he may would have wanted to see a little more sportsmanship if you call it. But again I have no regrets. I don’t want to be the next Stone Cold Steve Austin. I want to be the first Luke Robinson.

Jeffrey Harris: Why do you think made the bottom three though?

Luke Robinson: To be honest, the answer is because they know that they just saw me kicking ass every single day and that might not be the best for TV and that they wanted to try to test my mental fortitude and see how I would handle that adversity. I guess that in the show, I hadn’t had a bad day since I got there. It was bogus to get into the bottom 3. I’ll say that to any of their faces without wavering. Again, the other thing I mentioned on the show is that it’s like getting 100 on the first test in school. And the teacher said, “We’re going to monitor your test scores.” And then the next time you get a 98 and a 95 so it looks like you are going down. And the person who failed the first one but got a 60 on the next one and then a 70 on the next one, they are showing an upward trend but they are still in the failing level—grade. I did hold steadfast to that principal. I kind of got a little bit graded on a curve in that it kind of was – it wasn’t fair for me to be in the bottom 3 because I didn’t deserve to be there.

Jeffrey Harris: Did Stone Cold saying, you go around thinking that your **** doesn’t stink upset you at all?

Luke Robinson: Yes and no. I don’t know if he really believes that or just wanted to actually test my mental resolve because there are times where Steve told us, “You have to be an asshole in this business, and if even if you don’t believe in your own star, how are you going to be able to convince anyone else of that?” I grew up in Maine on a farmhouse overlooking the river. I was raised by wonderful parents who taught me to be humble and appreciative of what I have. But they also taught to believe in myself and have confidence. So the reason it bothers is that I’m far from that. I know my weaknesses. I know my strengths. But I’m very comfortable and confident and love who I am. And I told Steve, if you don’t love yourself first, you can’t love other people. And I see tons of miserable people because they don’t like who they are when they look in the mirror. And I do. I love who I am. I love the people around me, my friends, my family, and I’ve been blessed. And I certainly do not have that arrogant that they trying to kind of put on me.

Jeffrey Harris: What was your impression of Ivelisse? Despite her indy wrestling background, she was struggling a lot. Do you think she really wanted to be there or do you think she got her own the way she complained about the injuries and the endurance and cardio challenges?

Luke Robinson: She kind of has that little fiery, like Puerto Rican attitude. But I believe that she wanted to be there and that she was working hard. But sometimes she’d pick the wrong excuse. Like in the 3 minute challenge, Steve goes, “What were you partying last night?” And she goes, “I just want to make it clear I went to bed early and didn’t party like Luke and Jeremiah did.” He [Steve] goes, “So you’re telling me you don’t have an excuse for why you suck?” I think a lot of people just wanted to play it safe. The name of this game is entertainment and to be larger than life and take advantage of your opportunities. It’s not about playing safe. I said before, well behaved people rarely make history. And a lot of these were just afraid to – when the red light came on. They burned up, choked up, instead of embracing it. And again that’s what a superstar is; you’re on 24/7. When that red light turns on, you’re on and ready to rock and roll. And I wasn’t going to let any opportunity pass me by. I was going to be me, do my thing and rock and roll all night and kick ass in the day and that’s what I did every day.

Jeffrey Harris: Did you make any friendships from the show?

Luke Robinson: Absolutely. Jeremiah and I will be lifelong friends. When we got to see each other again for the first time – we always joked that once the leash was off, when we’re in the mansion we can’t really go anywhere. We ended up tearing it up Atlanta for Wrestlemania weekend and no doubt will be a lifelong friend. We always consider ourselves the new Wolf-pac and we’re ready to kick ass, *WOLF-PAC HOWL*.

Jeffrey Harris: So how will the finals be picked? Do the fans pick or does Stone Cold pick?

Luke Robinson: We don’t really know where any of that’s heading so I can’t really comment on that. All I know is that we need to show up ready to perform when that red light is on and I’m ready to look like a superstar.

Jeffrey Harris: After being in the ring with Stone Cold and bumping with him and doing moves with him, what did you learn about Stone Cold that you didn’t know going into that show?

Luke Robinson: Steve is an amazing person. And what I’ve been mentioning throughout this interview is what I learned from Steve is that you have to be ready just to turn it on. Because he can be such a sweet guy, give you great advice, and when you’re in that bottom 3, there’s no doubt in your mind that’s the Rattlesnake. That’s Stone Cold Steve Austin. He might just be giving you a hard time but he’s so believable. That’s what I learned about Steve, believe in yourself so much that even when someone thinks they might know they’re watching a show . . . Steve plays it, “This is me, 100%. You better not look at me wrong or I’m going jump down your throat, put my foot in your throat, kick your teeth I and and not feel bad about it.” He made me believe it when I was in the bottom 3.” And I tried to be strong. I believed in myself, but that’s how good of a performer he is. That’s the kind of performer I want to be where no matter what, people go, “I always 100% believe in him because there’s no doubt that he believes in himself that much.”

Jeffrey Harris: Who are your major inspirations as a wrestler besides Tony Atlas?

Luke Robinson: Growing up I fell in love with the Rock’s showmanship and flourish . . . he’d always make me believe but with grace; so all that strength combined with the grace. Shawn Michaels is an inspiration to a lot of young wrestlers and he is for me too because he makes me believe in the story. And he could have a great match with anybody any size, he found a story to tell. No matter if the person was 7 feet tall or if they were Rey Mysterio, he’d find the right story to tell and make you believe in it. The other person that I love is Mic Foley because he’s willing to put everything on the line to entertain the fans. So those are my 3 major inspirations.

Jeffrey Harris: So what is your favorite wrestling match ever?

Luke Robinson: If I could pick one that just encompasses everything and it’s a classic, and a lot of people will say this, but the Steamboat vs. Flair match [From WrestleWar ‘89]. And the reason is, this is what I love about that match, it’s like thirty minutes into the match and Steamboat gets pushed off the top rope. And it’s been kind of a back and forth battle. A lot of classic matches that great are where someone works a body part from the start. What I liked about this one, it was just kind of a drag out until Steamboat takes a tumble off the top and his knee gives. So then he gets back into the ring and he’s getting over to Flair to slam him and his knee gives out and Flair rolls him up. So I thought it was so brilliant how – the story was, hey we’re in a drag out fight, there’s no opening. And it was so late in the match where Flair sees that opening and is able to take advantage of it. So that’s the best to me when like even as a worker, you watch a match and they get you. It told that story of two bulls going out and finally there just was just that tiny opening and [Flair] took advantage of it.

Jeffrey Harris: Luke thanks for your time and good luck with your career.

Luke Robinson: Thanks man. Like I said before, I always believe it. I shoot for the top: future legend baby.

Thank you to Luke for taking the time out of his schedule to speak with us. The next 411 Wrestling Interview will be with another top contestant from Tough Enough, Martin Casaus. New episodes of Tough Enough are broadcast Monday on USA. Also remember you can follow 411wrestling.com on Twitter:

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