Marco Polo was a 13th-century Italian world traveler whose journeys were made famous upon the publication of The Travels of Marco Polo. “Marvelous” Marko Polo also claims to have traveled the world as a male model while simultaneously showing off his physique in wrestling rings throughout Georgia. After recently winning the Pro Wrestling Resurrection United States Championship, Marko took a rare respite from wrestling and modeling to spend some time at home for the holidays. As part of his vacation, Marko accompanied Wrestling with Pop Culture to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History to check out the Marco Polo: Man & Myth exhibit of artifacts and writings (on display through Jan. 5). After spending a day at this museum with one of indie wrestling’s most cultured characters, the following exchange occurred.

I suppose the most obvious question, at least given the subject matter, is if there is any relation between “Marvelous” Marko Polo and Marco Polo, the explorer that is the subject of this exhibit.

There is no family history or anything like that. I chose the name because of the person himself. What I didn’t like about the exhibit was they made it too educational. I want to hear about the women he traveled around the world to meet. That’s the stuff I want to hear about. Everything else is too educational and I couldn’t care less about it. I can read a history book to find out about that stuff. I’d like to see the stuff they didn’t show.

Jonathan Williams, you asked me to do this interview. But what does this have to do with wrestling? I want to talk to you about what’s going in with Marko Polo in wrestling right now. That’s the stuff I thought we’d be talking about.

We’ll get to that. But given the similarities between your lives and, uh, explorations, I wanted to get your thoughts on the Marco Polo exhibit.

There are a lot of similarities. I’ve traveled the world; I’ve been to France, Spain, Canada. You travel around, you meet a bunch of women, you do a bunch of stuff that … the difference is he wrote it down. I don’t like to put my business out like that. I do it with a little more swag than he did, but he was 100 years ago.

Well, a few more years ago than that.

A few more then. So I updated it. Probably a few years from now – a hundred, a thousand, whatever – they’ll do an exhibit on this Marko Polo. Then there will probably be another one come around in a thousand or so years after that. That, in itself, is awesome because they can finally call it Man, Myth & Legend. They just have Man & Myth on this one, but now they can add the moniker of Legend and that will be me. Then they’ll have my black face scattered across all these billboards rather than that Italian guy looking like Lanny Poffo.

What’s the inspiration between the slight variation of spelling between Marco Polo and “Marvelous” Marko Polo?

The slight variation is the right way to spell it. It’s spelled just like it sounds. Mar-ko comes from a K, it’s not Mar-so. People need to understand that a little more and the way I spell it they know exactly how to say it. Marco Polo was a world traveler. I also am a world traveler. So it’s a match made in heaven. It’s a no brainer.

Your travels are a result of your male modeling career. How did that segue into pro wrestling?

Like I said in the Georgia Wrestling Now interview I did with you before, pro wrestling saved my life. Me being bullied in school and fighting every day, it was pro wrestling that helped me keep the bullies away. When my father took me to a house show at the Joe Louis Arena and I saw Hulk Hogan, the wheels were already turning. So the first change I got to get into the ring and learn, I took it. Now I’ve been wrestling for three years and I take on all comers.

Marco Polo is known for collecting silks, pottery and other cultural artifacts during his journeys. Having now seen the exhibit, how do his journeys compare to yours? What will be featured in the Marko Polo exhibit?

I’ve seen the silks of women’s panties all over the place, but I don’t know if I kept those. Somebody will make it educational and fit for kids, but my memoirs will probably have to be edited down at some point to make it TV friendly.

You’ve touted the lavish lifestyle you live, so I wouldn’t expect you to be much of an outdoorsman. Yet you did seem particularly drawn to the ger he lived in while traveling. What was it that drew you to this particular part of the exhibit? How does that lifestyle compare to how you live when you travel?

Oh, yeah. I could put that in my back yard or down in my spare room. Do you know what kind of freaky stuff I could do? Just keep going with that thought right there. That is just too awesome to pass up, so I may see if I can buy that thing at some point. When I travel I stay in a hotel. Something like that is just different. Of course I’m not going to sleep outside, but when we went to this exhibit I told you that ger reminded me of the Jeju Spa. Just going into those spa rooms and having aromatherapy in that room would let me max out and relax. If all those people hadn’t been in there, I probably would have fallen asleep in there. It just seems comfortable.

As is pointed out in the exhibit, there is some speculation about the accuracy of some of Marco Polo’s writings. How much of his legend do you think is truth or myth? How accurate will your claims of world travel and other exploits be once you decide to fully share them with the rest of the world?

When you start doing things that nobody else has done before, a lot of people are going to say it’s bullshit. But I know what I’ve done and he knows what he’s done. So what if he embellished it a little? You weren’t there, how are you going to prove it? Same with me; if I go to Japan or even to Florida and I do something and come back and tell my friends about it, the only people who are going to know are me and the people who were there. There’s no way to prove it unless you have video, and there there’s no video from back then to prove what he did and didn’t do. Me, myself? I’m a private person. I don’t like to do videos. I can prove it if you want by doing it again. But what’s the fun in that.

Some people might pay good money to see the Marko Polo sex tape.

No. I don’t need a sex tape to be famous. I’m already famous.

Aside from the ger, what other parts of the exhibit were particularly impressive to you?

There was a quote where Marco said he saw a unicorn, which was actually a rhino. It’s awe inspiring for someone like that to do what had never been done. Traveling the world was just unheard of aside from Christopher Columbus, who was a convict. But for someone to just travel around and be welcomed in by all these tribes and all these different women, if you really think about the artistic value of it, that’s pretty much Captain Kirk. That’s what they based Captain Kirk off of was Marco Polo. He traveled around, goes to these different lands, has sex with these alien beauties – what’s the difference? They just updated it.

Are you implying that your life is similar to Captain Kirk’s?

Yeah!

You wanted to talk more about your wrestling career earlier in this interview. So, where will you be wrestling in the near future?

I am now officially the PWR U.S. Champion. I stole it before and I’ve got no problem saying that. But I officially won it fair and square by defeating Kevin Blue. Kevin Blue was a worthy task. He rocked me a couple of times and even hit me with my own cane. But I broke that cane on his leg and now he gets to be one of the many who have fallen to the Beauty Mark and it sucks to be him. Now there’s a level of class to that title. When you see a picture of that belt around my waist, there’s a level of prestige that’s added to that belt just because I’m wearing it. And that’s true of any belt. So you’ll see me looking to obtain other titles the first and third Saturday of each month at Platinum Championship Wrestling. When I return to NWA Atlanta or Syndicate Promotions Wrestling remains to be seen, depending on the dates of their events. I’ll be doing some traveling to Mississippi, Florida, Kentucky and a couple of other places. I’ve also been contacted by Southern Fried Championship Wrestling. A lot of the indies from all around are calling, so I’m pretty much going to be appearing everywhere at some point in time in 2014.

I don’t think Marco Polo ever claimed to have competed in a wrestling ring. If you were able to somehow come face to face with Marco Polo, what would the relationship between the two of you be? Do you think you’d be opponents, tag team partners or might he provide managerial advice to “Marvelous” Marko Polo?

With somebody like that, I can’t really say he wouldn’t be a good manager. I mean, he’s been there and done that, so he could teach me. I can sit here and meditate and channel his ghost and learn some different stuff. From the stuff I’ve seen in this exhibit, I’d definitely like to know more about the ancient Chinese secrets that he learned.