For those who like Pride Month with a bit more rancor, fury, and punch, The Wrestling League served up its second annual LGBTQ+ Pride event on June 12 at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln Ave.
Pride and Punishment was billed as a bruise-bash brawl, but was actually a welcoming queer-flavored wrestling event featuring LGBTQ+ wrestlers and allies, trans individuals, drag queens and queer wrestling fans. To say this writer has never seen anything like it is clearly an understatement.
Pride and Punishment was a healthy expression of fury aimed at the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community by the current administration. This isn’t to say the show was political though; it was too much fun for that.
New League owner Jazmine Williams said at the outset that this was her first return to the wrestling stage after her transition, and she was happy to be back. She also said, “There are so many negative things going on we need to do something creative and positive. Here at Wrestling League, no matter what they say about us we are always going to be here.”
The fights themselves were mini spectacles packed with hilarity and mock rage, with Chicago homo-punk icon Germ T. Ripper (formally of The Rotten Fruits) seasoning the proceedings with fistfuls of fairy dust.
The most memorable pairing of the night featured the duo of Disco Ray and Seneca Sunshine (who are known as Ray of Sunshine) against The Sluts, who bore more than a passing resemblance to Lux Interior and Poison Ivy of trash rockers The Cramps.
With sex toys used as weapons and the distinct costumes it may have been hard to take the performance seriously, but really who cared?
Funnier still was the match up of handsome Matt Cage against living Ken doll Nik Davis, which featured a flood of trash talk, a hilarious segment where Davis ran from Cage in mock fear for his life, and an original kiss off with Cage flinging his crotch sweat at his opponent.
More violent and altogether more suspenseful was the battle between Britany Kay and Blair Onyx. Kay was defending her title, but Onyx stole the show by channeling the Marvel Universe’s Nebula (of Guardians of the Galaxy) with her wind-up toy movements and neurotic grin. Then there was the monster-mash up of Mad Maurice (whose entrance theme was Alice Cooper’s “Feed My Frankenstein”), proud Puerto-Rican transplant Carmelo Colon and the crazed Max Wilde. Maurice and Wilde tried their best to subdue Colon but clearly, he wasn’t having it. The result was a pile up of limp wet bodies at the finish.
With all the smack talk, costumes and queer cheer, it was hard to take this completely seriously, but that seemed to be beside the point. Pride and Punishment came off as a great big, rude raspberry to the current occupants of the White House with no apology. That’s just what the Chicago LGBTQ+ community needed right now.
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