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Amazing talent makes amazing return to TNA

jvarsallone@MiamiHerald.com

The fans are chanting, `You're amazing [clap-clap, clap-clap-clap]. You're amazing [clap-clap, clap-clap-clap].'

Because he is.

Amazing Red (Jonathan Figueroa) is in TNA Wrestling, dazzling crowds with his quick-paced, aerial offense. The name fits this very humble athlete -- something former WWE star Savio Vega realized.

``I started out as Red,'' he said. ``I went to Puerto Rico to wrestle for Savio Vega. He saw me and actually gave me the name `Amazing' on top of the Red. He was like, `You're amazing. You know what? You're Amazing Red.'

``That was a real big honor. Savio Vega, I used to watch him when I was growing up. He was Kwang and other people. It was awesome to hear it from him -- someone I looked up to.''

Red, 27, learned a lot there.

``It is very different in Puerto Rico than it is [in the United States],'' Red said. ``The heels [in Puerto Rico] get hit with batteries. If you're a heel, they really believe that you're bad. I was on the bad side. You have to curse at them.''

So the fans threw batteries at Red.

``They hated me more because I was a small wrestler, and my hair was in a fro. They told me to take it off, and I'd be fighting with the crowd.

``There was no security there. Fans would come right over. One guy almost went to hit me. They won't even say anything to him. It's not like over here where [security] stops them. There, I would get beat up.''

In Puerto Rico, Red had to be more concerned with those outside the ring than inside.

``The fans pulled my hair a couple of times,'' he said.

And the company didn't want him to go good.

``With my cousins [Joel and Jose Maximo], we were a team [S.A.T.], and they didn't want me to break up from them because then they would have to be faces, too.''

So they remained bad guys.

``In Puerto Rico, the people really get into it,'' Red said. ``They bang their chairs. They really bring the good guy up.''

After the event, it's a totally different reaction from fans.

``They're really nice afterward, saying hi to me,'' Red said. ``They'll invite you to the house. They'll bring you food.''

Red also experienced pro wrestling in Japan where it is big-time, along with sumo wrestling and baseball.

``It's a different atmosphere than Puerto Rico or the United States,'' he said. ``They respect you a lot in Japan where they want to just watch you. They don't even want to bother to talk. If you do something cool, they'll clap, but they won't get out of their seats. They want to just see and just appreciate wrestling, the things you're doing.

``They'll watch the match from beginning to end. You'll never really see them get up to go use the bathroom. They're respectful. Everything you do, they'll give you claps. Stuff that won't get reaction [in the United States] will get reaction over there all the time.''

Red enjoyed working outside the United States.

``I found different ways of wrestling and just incorporated it in my style,'' he said. ``Now I know in Puerto Rico you can do less but get a bigger reaction. In Japan, you just do whatever you're good at, and you get respect.

``Over here [United States], you kind of like kill yourself,'' Red laughed.

American fans expect a lot, and Red meets their expectations.

During the TNA Hard Justice pay-per-view in August at Universal Studios Orlando, Red competed in the Steel Asylum match, and the crowd was again chanting for him.

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