Suge D, also known as Pineapple Pete, recently appeared on Talk Is Jericho and discussed several topics; highlights include a reflection on how he connected with All Elite Wrestling and the origin of Pineapple Pete.
On getting a shot with AEW:
Suge D: “I get hit up with [QT Marshall] and he’s like, ‘Hey, Jacksonville, can you do it?’ And this is literally those situations where people cut promos about all the time, where they’re like, you know, ‘I give my life for this, man, it’s like life or death, this is what I do,’ you know? And you hear that so many times, it’s a cliche in a promo, but it’s like yo, this is real life or death, like you can go down there, breathe the wrong thing, you’re done. But I want this too much. I’ve come this far, why not go a little further? So I was like, I’ve got nothing going on, sure, I’ll go. Go to Jacksonville, me and Kip Sabian, we know each other from the England days, as far as goes, wrestling, all that stuff. So we go, we have a fun one, and you know, I’ve been in wrestling long enough where it’s like, okay, that was what it was. If they call you, they call you. If they don’t, they don’t. Move on.
“I get a call for Atlanta, the circumstances around that call, though. Oh God, QT forgive me. QT texts me at three in the morning while I’m asleep at like one I’m the morning, so that’s like booty call hours, that’s like WYD text hours, like, ‘Hey girl, what you doing?’ So I’m asleep, and if it weren’t for the fact that I woke up at around six AM, just for whatever reason, and I always check my phone just in case because things happen, I went and I checked my phone, and it’s QT talking like, ‘Hey, can you show up to the school at 11?’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, crap,’ and all I can text him is, ‘Do you mean 11 tomorrow or 11 today?’ because he texted it, you know, it’s not the next day for me until I go to sleep, so it is what it is. So I wanna go back to sleep, but I’m like no, let me just put my bag together because, if worst comes to worst and he says yes, it it today, I gotta get in the car and I gotta go. And sure enough, an hour, he’s like today, and I’m like okay, whatever. Jump in the car, where in Atlanta, yes the marathon taping.”
“You never envision getting the 3 AM text about that, but it’s like, I don’t care. I’m not here to trip about circumstances, I’m here to get the job done, like I want this so you chase it, you figure it out.”
On the origin of Pineapple Pete:
Suge D: “Pineapple Pete was a fashion choice by chance that you happened to pick up on. When I showed up, I had wore a button-up the first time in Jacksonville, and it was a floral button-up, you know I can’t do denim because Orange Cassidy. There’s also this cool flowery robe thing I wear but Hikaru Shida could beat the s— out of that robe. So it’s like, whatever, we’re not doing that. So we’ll do the button-up. So I show up, and I’m like hey, you know, I’m flashy, I like to stand out a bit, so I bring this lemon shirt, but let me bring this pineapple shirt that I’ve got too, you know? And these are old shirts, like this shirt’s four, five years old. I’d have worn them to parties, done all sorts of weird stuff and whatnot, so I show up, and the only reason I chose the pineapple shirt, it was gonna be the lemon shirt, but the only reason I chose the pineapple shirt was because it matched my gear that day. So I was like okay, let’s just run it, we’ll put it on, it’ll be something fun. Well put it on. So get out in the crowd, right, show’s moving, we having a good time, I’m acting a fool, and during breaks, people keep rolling up to me, and they’re like, ‘Pineapple Pete!’ ‘Pineapple Pete’ this and ‘Pineapple Pete’ that. So I’m doing the, ‘Huh, yeah,’ like, ‘Oh cool, alright, yeah, this is funny, man,’ but I’m not understanding what’s going on, it’s like I’m missing something. So somebody finally rolls up to me, and it’s like, they have commentary in the monitor in the back, so it’s like we can hear it even though you can’t because you’re out there. But it’s like, ‘Yo, Jericho is like on you,’ and I’m like, the first time I heard it, my heart stopped because I was like, oh my god, like on me, like he’s burying me, and it’s like, because you know, unfortunately, on the indies, you get people who try to be stand up comedians and not actually put over the match, so sometimes it just completely deflates. So I’m like, okay, I guess I’m done, grand opening, grand closing. But it’s like, no no no, you just have to hear it, you have to see it. So when we go to lunch, that’s when you come busting out. And you’re like, ‘Pineapple Pete!’ He’s like, ‘What’s your name, kid?’ And I’m like, ‘Suge.’ And he’s like, ‘Hey, man, listen,’ like it really messed with me that day because I wasn’t expecting to run into you the way we ran into each other. But it was like, ‘Look, I hope your wrestling can back up all this stuff that I’m talking about you right now because I’d hate to be wasting all this good material on somebody who can’t work.’ So okay, no pressure.”
The full episode is available here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6RCyBjm8wkqIDlGtQKapU2
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