In the world of professional wrestling, the energy of the audience plays a vital role. The dramatic and athletic in-ring action, paired with over-the-top storylines, is enhanced by the crowd’s reaction, making every match unforgettable.
Milhouse Malott, founder of Las Vegas’ PrideStyle Inclusive Pro Wrestling, emphasizes that it’s the ringside mania that truly brings a match to life.
“It’s the feral-ness of being allowed—regardless of your identity, gender, or anything—to scream and yell at people, to cheer and boo and flip people off.
The action is flying right past your head,” Malott explains.
“There’s just something about getting to let go and giving into that primal human desire, to be a little crazy for a while and not have to worry about the repercussions of it.”
Whether it’s witnessing a masked luchador executing a perfect clothesline on an opponent three times his size or experiencing the thrill of Mariachi Montana, a barrel-chested tag team duo, steamrolling through a fatal four-way match to victory, the adrenaline-induced excitement of events at PrideStyle never fades.
Since its inception in 2021, this local wrestling promotion has transformed casual fans into lifelong evangelists, all while combating the bigotry often associated with the sport.
“It catches you off guard until you take a moment to think about just the nature of wrestling and men rolling around in their underwear and putting on soap opera stories for each other,” Malott remarks.
“The core essence of it is quite dramatic and quite queer. Wrestling is a niche that a lot of people believe is dominated by traditional, cis white male, masculine performers.
“I think we show, and so many other places show, that it’s such a varied space.
The wrestling kids are like the cousins of the theater kids.
It’s very much drag, it’s very much theater.
Once people peel back that layer of thinking it’s this machismo thing, they’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I love wrestling.’”
This week, PrideStyle will debut its first-ever Shooting Star Fest, a three-day event featuring ten companies and eight shows at Swan Dive in the Downtown Arts District.
The festival coincides with WWE’s WrestleMania, the biggest event in professional wrestling, which returns to Las Vegas for the first time since 1993.
“We’ve grown to this place where not only have we gained the respect of our queer peers and allies, but of the wrestling industry as a whole, to the point that we are able to host our own collective, our own festival with people that support not just wrestlers, but inclusive pro wrestling.
It feels very triumphant in a lot of ways,” Malott says.
Regional and international promotions participating in the festival include GrapHouse from Las Vegas; New Texas Pro Wrestling from Houston; WrestleCore and Dusk Pro Wrestling from Vancouver; Banger Zone Wrestling from France; New Tradition Lucha Libre from Palmdale, California; Oasis Pro from Northern California; Uncanny Attractions from Austin; and Pandemonium Pro from LA.
Shooting Star Fest is among the many Las Vegas wrestling events accompanying WrestleMania’s two-night run at Allegiant Stadium.
Malott is confident that “our community is going to show out and show up.”
Within just a few years, PrideStyle has evolved from modest shows attended by 40 fans at the Boulevard Mall to regularly selling out 200 tickets at Swan Dive.
It has become a unifying force within the diverse local community.
“There’s a group of trans and queer people that come, and it’s their support group’s monthly outing that’s non-therapy related,” says Malott.
“We have couples, queer and non-queer, who treat their date night every month as an outing to PrideStyle.
Someone even got married in a PrideStyle ring.
It’s crazy to see the growth and the love that it’s fostered.”
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