James Willems & Johnny Mundo Of ‘Haus Of Pain’ Discuss Their In-Ring Personas & Favorite Wrestling Moves

James Willems & Johnny Mundo on Professional… by Uinterview

It was always James Willems‘ life-long dream to wrestle professionally. He was an incessant viewer of the sport as a kid and even built a ring in his backyard where he and his friends would practice their favorite moves. But when he grew older, he set his dream aside. Now, Willems revisits his first love and learns to become a professional wrestler – even if only for a week – in the new Rooster Teeth documentary Haus of Pain.

Willems and wrestler Johnny Mundo, who helped train Willems for the movie, spoke with uInterview about common misconceptions about professional wrestling, their in-ring personas, and their favorite moves. You can watch their thoughts on the film and working together here.

Having only viewed the sport as a spectator, Willems had several misconceptions about wrestling before he spent a week training for his first and only professional match – albeit, he was always a huge fan of the sport and doesn’t share many of the misconceptions held by non-wrestling fans.

“I think the biggest misconception is that [wrestling is] this hard, tough-guy thing. It has plenty of tough guys but my experience, as difficult as it was, wasn’t necessarily about [that],” Willems told uInterview exclusively. “It was a lot of dudes who also love wresting. Once you have someone there who has a shared common bond of loving wresting, you already have something to talk about. It’s more like family.”

Willems continued, “I thought it was going to be a lot meaner, darker, and harder than it was. But it was actually just a lot of supportive people that want to see you be the best wrestler that you can be.”

One of Willems’ biggest supporters was Mundo, who has had a long professional career, wrestling for nearly a decade in the WWE. He now wrestles in the Lucha Underground and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide.

Mundo believes people often mistake today’s professional wrestling as an un-athletic and ungraceful sport without much thought put into it.

“I think that when people think wrestling, they are stuck on ’80s, the land of the giants,” Mundo said. “Big dudes that are doing things that don’t seem exceptionally athletic. Impressive? Yes, because of their size back then, but now, it’s really elevated.”

“Wrestling is faster-paced, it’s still hard hitting, but it’s more acrobatic and the possibilities have just grown … It’s become more of a complicated art form.”

One of the things non-wrestling fans may also miss is the amount of thought and effort wrestlers put into creating their characters.

In Haus of Pain, Willems creates a persona named James Angel, an insufferable nice guy who wants everyone to understand how nice he is. The character, Willems admits, came from a place inside him.

“One of the great things that Johnny brought to our training was about how to amplify yourself. The best character you’re going to find, the best character you’re going to portray is an amplified version of yourself,” Willems explained. “Everyone has sort of an egotism to themselves, so I said, what if mine was uncontrollable.”

Mundo, on the other hand, has gone through many names but has maintained a common thread throughout his heel characters – for non-wrestling fans, a heel is a villainous wrestler.

“The one common thread with all of those characters is, ‘I think I’m great,'” Mundo said as he slowly got into character. “Johnny Mundo is the Mayor of Slam-town, the Shaman of Sexy, the Guru of Greatness … The seats are all facing the ring because people should be watching me and telling their wives, girlfriends, and daughters about Johnny Mundo!”

You can watch James Angel and Johnny Mundo in Haus of Pain, available on Rooster Teeth – and be sure to tell your wives, girlfriends, and daughters.