If you were the child of a proud “redneck” family in the early 2000s (like I was), then professional wrestling was more likely than not playing on the television screen at your family gatherings. Summer barbecues at Grandma’s house, where my extended family congregated, were often interlaced with Stone Cold Steve Austin spit takes and monologues by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. For us, wrestling was not only a group pastime but also a cultural cornerstone of modern American life — one that celebrated at times a toxic masculine machismo exclusionary of Queer and Trans people.
Now, 20 years later, it seems that wrestling (particularly the local, independent kind) is making a resurgence across the US. But this time, it is being fueled in part by the passions of Queer and Trans performers and their fans.
This past summer, wrestling troupes were featured in several Pride events around Washington state, and among them I saw several Queer and Trans wrestlers, referees, and production staff. A reclamation of wrestling culture by the local LGBTQIA+ community has begun, and this time it’s a trend across the country.
In 2024, T Boy Wrestling, started by social group Trans Dudes of LA, held several events, including in Portland, Oregon, in 2025. After it dissolved, T4T Wrestling was created and held its inaugural bout in Los Angeles in July. In Seattle, Queer Wrestling held a “Stonewall Brawl” at Cappy’s Boxing Gym in June.
SOS Professional Wrestling is a local production company started in 2021. Along with hosting monthly shows, SOS also holds an annual Bumbermania at Bumbershoot in Seattle. Although not explicitly focused on LGBTQIA+ wrestlers, nonetheless SOS has served as a platform for Queer and Trans performers as well as fans.
In honor of SOS’s upcoming fifth anniversary, I attended its August “Bump in the Night” show to learn more on how Queer and Trans people have become dedicated patrons of local professional wrestling.
Bump in the Night
Performers in sweatpants and gym shorts were running through their choreography two hours before the show as I was approached and greeted by SOS’s solo video production guru, Chris. Despite my being uninitiated to the world of capturing live wrestlers barreling into each other, Chris was very welcoming and eager to show me the ropes of filming the matches.
“Wrestling is basically like a drag show for straight men,” he explained.
SOS’s two in-house photographers, Franny and Jamie, coached me on where the best spots to shoot footage was, and to get the hell out of the way when the wrestlers throw themselves into the front-row audience.
“You’ll do just fine,” they assured me. I was tasked for the night to be a back-up videographer as I witnessed the show alongside them from the edge of the ring.
Killing time before the show, I was politely greeted by a shirtless man with bulging muscles, who had just finished his practice fight. He informed me that his character was called “The Butler.” A bachelorette party later in the night would cheer him on, as his opponent pulled down his wrestling briefs to reveal to the crowd a pink thong underneath.
The announcers conducted a call-and-response game with the audience throughout the show. They would say something that started with the word “island” (e.g., island steel), and the room would promptly repeat it back.
In the case of The Butler, who during the fight slammed his crotch into the ring pole, the announcers got cheeky.
“Looks like The Butler just got hit right in his island gooch!”
The crowd then responded back, “Island gooch!”
Queering the ring
Unlike the wrestling I grew up with on TV, SOS had multiple matches that pitted strong, formidable women (both cis and Trans) against men. The first pairing of the night saw Becca Byrne kick the crap out of a mean male antagonist with a mullet and porn mustache.
Another saw three men dressed in camp counselor get-ups — ascots, camp fire tees, and green short shorts — parade onto the stage like the Three Stooges. While his men licked their wounds from the fight they lost last month, the leader of the group, Camp Counselor Coleman, demanded his cowardly counterparts toughen up, because “there is no such thing as monsters!”
That’s when the lights went dim, as Su Yung the Undead Bride, dressed in bloody slasher attire, came out to seize her next victims. She proceeded to then wreak complete havoc on them, slamming them on the ground with trash cans and spitting blood in their faces while they floundered and failed to mount any sort of effective resistance. At one point, they helplessly smacked her with pool noodles as she stood there unfazed.
Although there were no explicitly Queer narratives in the show, the subversive undercurrents were most certainly there. When the three campers somehow, at the last second, beat their opponent, the crowd booed them and instead cheered for Yung, the Jason-esque antiheroine.
Several times, when the men were matched up against one another, the audience would cheer for them to “kiss, kiss, kiss!” During one fight, a wrestler decided to play along with the crowd and gave his opponent a small peck on the cheek.
The finale of the night saw a double tag-team match-up: Calozzi and Skylar against Drinkin’ Buddies. Skylar, a Trans wrestler, played her role as the antagonist faithfully, along with her partner, as they mocked and jeered the audience as well as the opposing team.
Her team eventually lost their match, but in the end, their masterful performances provided me with a catharsis from the goings-on of the world. Our community may be facing incredible challenges outside these walls, but when we’re in the ring, we are the fighters and champions of our own stories.
SOS Pro Wrestling’s five-year anniversary show will be on September 11 at 7 p.m. at Edison Square in Tacoma. Tickets can be found at https://www.eventbrite.com/o/sos-pro-wrestling-34042377159.
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