Daryl Bonilla

Daryl Bonilla (born February 16, 1975 in Honolulu, Hawai'i) is an actor, comedian and professional wrestler.

Acting

Bonilla began his acting career right out of high school, performing on stage in several local productions.

In 1996 Bonilla was cast as Keao in the indie film Beyond Paradise. Immediately after the film was wrapped, Bonilla started doing local commercials. A 2000 commercial for Bank of Hawai'i, in which Bonilla coined the phrase "That's My Bank!", became so popular in Hawai'i that the bank brought Bonilla back in 2002 and he's been doing commercials for Bank of Hawai'i ever since even getting a bobblehead created of him as well. The popular Bank of Hawaii campaign starring Bonilla ended Dec. 2006. His other film credits include To End All Wars, The Sand Island Drive In Anthem and Beachfront. His TV credits include roles in the short lived series The Byrds of Paradise and Fantasy Island - 1998. He has also appeared in commercials (both TV and radio) for Bud Light, McDonalds to name a few.

Professional wrestling career

In 1997 Bonilla entered the world of professional wrestling when he joined World League Wrestling—Hawai'i (run by former wrestler Lars Anderson) as the TV host of their weekly show. Bonilla, with his acting/comedy background, was a natural in front of the camera. He soon caught on with the fans and became a manager, donning the name DDB or "Dangerous" Daryl Bonilla (DDB was a nickname from middle school).

Bonilla left WLW in 1999 to join upstart promotion Super Wrestling Force (SWF). That promotion closed a few months later and was restarted in January 2000 as Third Wave eXplosion (TWX). That promotion also didn't last long, closing in the summer of 2000.

Along with local wrestler Lopaka, Bonilla decided to help upstart promoter Parrish Ho officially launch his promotion NWA Hawai'i. So along with "The Rocker" Don Lee and "Hotstuff" Kris Kavanaugh, they "invaded" World League Wrestling in June 2000. It was at this time that Bonilla made his in-ring debut as a wrestler. Bonilla was the booker and Lopaka was the head trainer and together they quickly put NWA Hawaii on the map and the company started to grow and create a buzz among the local fans. After a falling out, Bonilla left NWA Hawai'i in June 2001. Under the new bookers wrestler morale and attendance dropped. He briefly returned in 2002 as a commentator but quickly left again, as he was bored and embarrassed by what had happened to the once-promising promotion.

In January 2003, Linda Bade created Hawai'i Championship Wrestling and asked Bonilla to join. Bonilla teamed with Ultimate Fighter Caruso as Caruso's manager and tag team partner, and the duo became one of the top fan favorites of the company, despite the fact that they were heels. In 2004, HCW bookers decided to break up the duo to put Caruso back with his former partner a move that flopped. Around that time, Bonilla left due to acting commitments as well as a lack of interest in HCW, which he felt was beginning to mirror NWA Hawai'i.

In 2005 Bonilla founded Action Zone Wrestling (AZW), which made its debut on June 25, 2005 in Waianae, Hawaii (his hometown) and has attracted talent from mainland US (A.J. Styles, Jaime Noble, Delirious, Larry Sweeney, M-Dogg Matt Cross, Jimmy Jacobs, Super Hentai to name a few) and Japan. AZW has featured several wrestlers from Dragon Gate and has had a working relationship with the organization since 2007. On September 8th, 2008 Bonilla participated in Dragon Gate's debut show in Hawaii at the Waikiki Shell teaming with Akua in losing effort against Nebulous & Kaniala, Bobby Bolt & Rocko Shinoda and eventual winners Nijuu Ninkaku & SABAKI. He wrestled for the company until the end of 2008. He lost the AZW Heavyweight Title to Kaniala on September 22 that year, and he and partner Nebulous dropped the tag team title to Nijuu Ninkaku & Sabaki in November. He announced at BattleClash 4 on January 24, 2009 that he is the owner and founder of AZW, a role he always held behind the scenes but never in front of the cameras.

Bonilla returned to the ring on June 29, 2009, teaming with Kenryu Takadoki to take on the Polynesian Power Trip (Ativalu & Kaimana) for the AZW Tag Team Championship. During the match DDB got into an altercation with Kenjiro Katahira (a former wrestler and part owner of defunct HCW), which led to Kenryu Takadoki fending for himself and eventually losing.

External links

• Daryl Bonilla at IMDb
• IWA Hall of Fame Listing (213)
• Honolulu Advertiser "'That's my bank' — and my bobblehead"
• http://twitter.com/azwhawaii