Pro Wrestling Culture #535 - A conversation with StarBuck

January 2, 2026·50 min·4 clips

Starbuck explains why Fabio Ferrari is the dictionary definition of a professional wrestler.

1. Pro Wrestling Culture hosts Aldo Fiadone and the Professor conduct episode 535 with Starbuck, real name Mike Wildside, a European wrestling veteran, promoter, and coach based in Finland. 2. Starbuck has competed against Great Muta, Marufuji, Genichiro Tenryu, Ultima Dragon, and Tajiri, and describes himself as a power broker in the independent wrestling industry. 3. The core question of the interview is what separates wrestlers who become stars from those who do not, explored through Starbuck's own career decisions and his assessment of others. 4. Starbuck calls Fabio Ferrari one of the best heels in all of Europe, saying that if you opened a dictionary to 'professional wrestler,' Ferrari's picture should appear, citing his voice, size, and in-ring skill set. 5. He distinguishes three types of people in the business — entertainers, performers, and wrestlers — arguing these categories overlap but are not the same. 6. Starbuck describes a six-man tag at Korakuen Hall for All Japan Pro Wrestling where only Keiji Muto was seated at the pre-match table, explaining that who sits and who stands communicates hierarchy in Japanese wrestling culture. 7. Akira Nogami vouched for Starbuck to Muto with the phrase 'European style, very good,' which Starbuck says was enough to earn blind trust, leading Muto to open and close the match with him despite having no obligation to touch him. 8. He equates Giant Baba's handshake deals with Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, and Terry Gordy — no written contracts, always paid to the last penny — as the standard he holds himself to as a promoter. 9. Starbuck says he chose the name Mike Wildside after Motley Crue's 'Wild Side' without thinking about what image the name projected, and that Al Snow immediately challenged him with 'what's wild about you?' when they met in Windsor, Ontario. 10. He argues that wrestlers must embody their ring name completely — using lightning-quick movement as the price of calling yourself 'Lightning Kid' — and that his failure to think this through was his first career mistake. 11. On Ludwig Kaiser (Axel Dieter Jr.), Starbuck says he could see potential early but could not predict success because Kaiser was too thin, and that Hulk Hogan had rejected Bret Hart for similar reasons before Hart became a star. 12. His mentor Lance Thor identified three requirements to even have a chance in wrestling: look, charisma, and in-ring skill — but Starbuck adds that Ted DiBiase's Hall of Fame framework identifies heart as the fourth and most important quality, the only one that cannot be taught. 13. Starbuck says 22 years of coaching in nine countries on two continents has shown him that gifted wrestlers with every visible tool often fail while less physically imposing wrestlers with genuine drive succeed. 14. In 1995-96, with an Ontario-based agent who had reached WWE's JJ Dillon and Scott Damore, Starbuck turned down TV enhancement work for both WWE and WCW, paying $200-250 per appearance, to avoid the jobber stigma. 15. He says Chris Jericho told him off-air — possibly during a 2019 Talk Is Jericho appearance — that he would not have fit in at WWE anyway. 16. In 2012, New Japan Pro Wrestling invited Starbuck to lunch in Tokyo and offered him a contract when he was the first Smash champion in history and ranked top five in popularity across all Japanese companies in Weekly Pro Wrestling magazine. 17. He declined out of loyalty to Tajiri, whose financial backer had just departed and whose company Wrestle New Classic was operating with reduced resources after the split from the original Smash promoter. 18. Wrestling journalist Fumi Saito, with 40 years covering the Japanese industry, told Starbuck over dinner in Tokyo that Tajiri understood his unique talent while New Japan would have made him just another spoke in the wheel. 19. The interview is expansive and philosophical, with Starbuck delivering long, story-driven answers that cover loyalty, identity, and career philosophy more than match-by-match highlights. 20. Fans of the independent and Japanese wrestling scenes, especially those interested in behind-the-scenes career decisions and the business of wrestling outside the WWE mainstream, will find this most rewarding.

As heard by us

A practical talk about wrestling identity, star potential, and the discipline behind a believable name.

Pro Wrestling Culture uses this StarBuck interview to circle a simple question: what makes a wrestler feel real. The strongest stretch is the focus on the whole package, since StarBuck keeps coming back to the fit between image, work, voice, and promo.

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Why you'd press play

You want StarBuck's blunt advice on a wrestling name, image, and promos that all match up.

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