Johnny Mundo & James Willems Discuss ‘Haus Of Pain’ & Wrestling [VIDEO EXCLUSIVE]

James Willems always wanted to be a professional wrestler. As a kid, Willems would watch wrestling giants thrash about in the ring, hoping one day to join them. At age 15, he built a ring in his backyard where he and his friends would film matches and try out moves.

As he got older, he let his dream recede into the background and he instead went to college and pursued a different career. Now, in his thirties, Willems has returned to ring along with his friend Lawrence Sonntag, to live out his lifelong dream once and for all. Willems recorded the journey for the new Rooster Teeth documentary Haus of Pain.

Willems and his trainer, professional wrestler Johnny Mundo sat down with uInterview to discuss the new film and all the training that went into it.

For the film, Willems only had a week to train for a tag-team match he’d fight with Lawrence. Mundo knew a week wasn’t to train Willems but the two of them worked together as hard as they could.

“When we first got into the ring, James, who has been a wrestling fan for his whole life, had a lot of really good instincts,” Mundo told uInterview exclusively. “And his expectations were relatively low too, which is cool. He came in humble and wanting to learn stuff.”

Willems wanted to learn all that he could, but ultimately, he’s thoughts were with the people who would come to see the match – he mostly just wanted to put on a good show for them.

“Johnny understood that we aren’t going to be the best wrestlers in the ring but if we can make sure that everything we do, every punch that we take, every punch that we give, or body slam that we give, if it all works towards the narrative of the match and the characters then it will be a good match,” Willems said. “[I] wanted it to be a good match, we didn’t want people to feel like they wasted their time coming to see it.”

But it wasn’t just about a good match. Willems got to live out his childhood dream and Mundo got to spend a week with another lifelong wrestling fan. The two fans chopped it up throughout the filming of the movie, in some cases, rediscovering the joy they derived from wrestling, to begin with.

“I felt like a kid again,” said Willems.

When speaking about trying out different moves that, while maybe a little advanced for Willems, were the most fun, Mundo said something that rings true to the entirety of Willem’s experience.

“If you don’t try it, you’re just going to be thinking about it the whole time. You just have to get it out of your system.”

Watch Willems achieve his lifelong dream in Haus of Pain available on Rooster Teeth.