MONSTER BASH wRESTLING RECAP!
The Reviews are IN! And so is Queer Wrestling! Thank you for making MONSTER BASH a SMASH!!
SHE-E-O goes for a flying clothesline against the Riot Ghoul’s! 📷 Anna Gustafson
Happy Halloween🎃and thank you to everyone who came out to MONSTER BASH queer wrestling match last week! It was our first ever LIVE Wrestling Match featuring EVERYBODY Instructors Candy Pain, American Oni and featured students from our highly popular Wrestling 101 classes at the gym. Plus a few other folks from the community, some of whom also wrestled at Trans Dudes of LA T-Boy Wrestling earlier in September!
ICYMI: Here is a BRILLIANT write up on that historic night in the LA Times by Jireh Deng!
🔗www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2024-10-11/t-boy-wrestling-trans-dudes-la
L.A. Times T-Boy Wrestling feat. EVERYBODY Personal Trainer Paulo Diaz. 📷 Carlin Stiehl
Planting the seeds at Wrestling 101.
We went full nelson for this one and rented a full size 18x18 professional wrestling ring, which was constructed on site at our sister space: SIBLING Studio with the help of our wrestlers and local community volunteers. Kids, adults and even a few doggos got in the spirit by dressing up, holding signs, and cheering on their favorite wrestler. We fueled up on empanadas, hot chocolate, ice cold Modelos, had our cards read by Jessica Jensen, faces painted by Paint On Your Face , and played cornhole provided by local queer league Fun Bags LA. It was giving all ages FALL FAIR FUN!
📷 All photos by Jocelyn Perich and Anna Gustafson
Best of all, we were able to donate $500 to the Border Butterflies Project after expenses! The Border Butterflies Project is an arm of the Transgender Law Center providing resources to LGBTQIA+ Asylum seekers at the U.S. Southern Border. Please follow, share and support if you are able!
MONSTER BASH featured 6 rounds of queer and campy WWE-inspired wrestling featuring Riot Ghoul’s vs. SHE-E-O, Toxic Femme vs. Feminist Killjoy, Gender Cop vs. Gender Goblin, Malady Practice vs. Creature, Leather Daddy, Macho Mummy, and more! There was even an on-site Medic from the Professional Wrestling circuit. (You know, JIC!) Thank goodness he didn’t have to move a muscle.
But you know who did? Our brilliant Halftime Show cast & crew! Thank you to our PUMP THE JAM instructor MK Lordz for a soul stirring singalong to Yeah Yeah Yeahs Heads Will Roll and Halloween by Aqua featuring haute moves from some of our members. Even our REF, Oldie Hawn jumped in! PS, You can join MK’s Pump the Jam every Tuesday & Thursday at 8p @ EVERYBODY!
AMANDITA gave us G.L.O.W. wreslting match vibes with the tunes, while our HOMEBODY VOD producer ANNA handled the 80’s inspired tones. Shout out to our Ring Daddy Abby, Yay/ Boo Applause crew LGBTQ Studies professor Julian Sanchez and local poetry night producer Karla Lamb! Thank you again to all of our volunteers, wrestlers, and wranglers!
Will we rumble for a good cause again? YESSSS!! Stay tuned on @everybodylosangeles social for our upcoming weekend Wrestling 101 classes if you’d like to get more involved.
Riot Ghouls vs SHE-E-O 📷 by Jocelyn Perich
A note from our Sam:
Thank you to our entire crew for all your hard work and dedication-- I know there were a lot of hours put in to make this happen. I appreciate everyone's commitment to this, and I personally think this does more than just generate income for the benefit-- it builds our community, it allows time for folks to meet and socialize, and it serves an even greater purpose beyond that.
I spoke to a lot of people after the show who had such a great time and who also couldn't even put into words why they had so much fun. I think the scripted characters everyone put together achieved exactly the tone and message that I had hoped for in our initial meeting.
📷 by Jocelyn Perich
What I think this kind of spectacle of "sport" creates is really an opportunity that we rarely get to have in our community or world. It allows us to channel some of our more animal instincts and abandon the rules a bit... of course that requires a lot of careful planning and intonation which I felt was done exceptionally well.
Watching performative wrestling like this is kind of akin to what comedy clubs can do when people are given permission to laugh at things that are forbidden, unspoken or taboo in our culture-- except the bodies do the talking with big, exaggerated movements instead of words, and they are not simply laughing but also booing, cheering and loudly reacting to what is happening in the ring (almost as another character of the show). The showdown between “Toxic Femme” and “Feminist Killjoy” really nailed (ha) some of the more subtle tensions in our communities with true comic genius!
📷 by Jocelyn Perich
I love how the "match" gives us permission to root for the one we want to win (the pairings were sublime), and I noticed an interesting tension between some of the characters where people were not sure whether to boo or cheer... That has so much potential to mine and explore!
Macho Mummy vs. Leather Daddy 📷 by Jocelyn Perich
I thought everyone did such a great job of both playing their characters and either slightly or overtly subverting them- turning them into complications for us to reflect on even at some of their most memorably campy moments. It was working on so many levels, really. really was blown away with what folks brought to the stage, as well as behind the scenes!
Thank you all for showing up the way you did. It means so much to me and to our incredible, diverse, weird & wonderful community.
-SAM / Co-Owner EVERYBODY
📷 by Jocelyn Perich