When I first started interviewing wrestlers, I was under the assumption that you could detect and guess someone's original wrestling inspiration(s) by simply watching them in the ring. Little movements, bits of movesets, etc., I genuinely (and incorrectly) believed this formula meant something. As this hypothesis is being dis-proven more and more all the time, no one has surprised me with their long-running favourite like Rashad Tyson. “My favourite wrestler I first knew I liked, and specifically thought, 'I'm gonna follow this guy's journey,' was Randy Orton. Specifically bald Legacy Randy Orton.,” Tyson says, shocking me on an idle Friday morning. (If I was drinking coffee I would have spat it out hilariously.) “The whole angle was so entertaining to me growing up. Just his stare alone was the wildest thing. I love a good bad guy. The best bad guys to me are built out of trauma and like, Randy Orton's whole story about his anger issues, 'Don't push me to the edge' and that. I don't wanna resonate with this, but I think it's kinda cool.” Randy Orton. This man, Rashad Tyson – this man I declared my new favourite wrestler on Instagram after seeing him live for literally 3 minutes because of the love I could feel pouring from every corner of the room – came up loving one of the most evil mufuckas to grace a wrestling ring?? How could this be? But if you stop to think even for a moment, it makes perfect sense. Wrestling is about reactions and connections. It's one of the few places where Horseshoe Theory actually applies. Orton connects to the lizard brains of the audience, Rashad connects to their hearts. In the end, it's really the same thing. They’re both just making connections and getting reactions. And there aren't a lot of wrestlers in the Pacific Northwest that are making those connections with the audience like Real Talk Rashad Tyson.

That energy and connection that was evident from the get-go, but this is wrestling. And while I think moves are highly overrated these days, you still gotta have some moves. My guy flies over ropes, can slap on a hold or, best, just throw a good suplex. Because at the heart of it, he likes the same in wrestling that I do. SUPLEXES. “I love throwing punches back and forth. I don't like getting chopped but I love throwing punches, I love a good strike-off. That and a good suplex,” Tyson says with enthusiasm when asked about his favourite parts of in-ring work. “Everyone knows what a suplex looks like, for the most part, but to see one done with precision, super clean, that's all I wanna do. Variations of suplexes. Also training under Nicole Matthews, I get to learn a bunch of cool shit too. Give me a good suplex. I love a good suplex – once that body hits the mat, everyone knows ‘He took a move.’ With like punches, depending on where you are in the crowd you might not be able to see everything, but you'll hear someone take a suplex.” A wrestler with a proper, healthy reverence for suplexes is a wrestler after my heart. Rashad Tyson is after my heart.

That first-time-seeing-Rashad-Tyson I mentioned earlier, was in November last year. At the Commercial Drive Legion in Vancouver – better known to wrestling fans in the city as the Boom Box. Home to one of Canada's coolest promotions, BOOM! “Man, I really love what Max and Wild Eyes have built there. BOOM! was one of the first companies that I debuted at when I first started wrestling in Canada. The energy gives me the same kind of vibes I feel at SOS down here in the States. Whether you're standing in the crowd or you're in the back – the energy is like nothing I've ever really been around before,” Tyson's voice fills with the same excitement I felt at that show. It's only fitting. “You can tell they take extra effort to make sure everything fits a certain aesthetic and looks a certain way. The production value alone – I think that's what keeps people wanting to come back. It makes you want to go all out when you're in the ring too.” I'm not really big on the idea of “fate” but I think I was meant to find this amazing wrestler in this amazing wrestling environment.

Our guy fucking did it! “Never give up.” - Randy Orton, Photo from excellent person and top non-wrestler wrestling person, Dyanna Corona.

The relationship between Rashad Tyson and the BOOM! fandom (Is it a Boomiverse? What is the term here? Someone help.) is clearly a special one. For months Tyson has been coming up to Vancouver, to BOOM! to, quite frankly, lose. Loss after loss after loss and from what I can tell, having only joined the party late in the journey, the losses just made people love him more. It seems be an ongoing, in a variety of places too, if what my sources in other wrestling communities tell me is true. Everyone is rooting for Rashad Tyson. Just recently, Tyson's spot in BOOM! was on the line in a match and dear reader, our man won. The Streak is over and the man gets to stay where the people love him. I fist pumped the air when I heard that he won. It means I'll have an easy time seeing more of Tyson in the future. This is huge news for me, wrestling fan.

I was honoured to get some of Rashad's time for another round of 5 Questions with Rags. It was a great chat and, much like the first time I saw him wrestle, instantly at the top of my favs. You should follow Rashad Tyson on social media things if you do the social media thing, because he really is great and then you'll know where to go to experience the greatness live! Real Talk, homie.

Real Talk on Twitter! Real Talk on Instagram!

This is *exactly* how it feels to chat with Rashad Tyson. Photo provided by Rashad Tyson.

1. What is the first album you remember buying with your own money?
The first album I ever bought with my own money was 50 Cent Get Rich or Die Tryin'. I was a big G-Unit head growing up and looking back at it – one of my favourite albums growing up. 50 was my guy growing up. I patterned a lot of my music tastes around that first album. I think it was 2004? 2003? (My man’s is correct, it was 2003.)
Do you still rock it?
I hit that point where all my music is on my phone, so I do and I don't in that I don't have the full album but I have my favourite songs from the album on there.

2. If you could spend the day with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?
You know what, I would probably...honestly, I would love to spend the day with Tupac. Just picking his brain. All vibes. Another one of my favourite artists growing up too, other than 50. Very much shaped my music tastes. I would like to get his take on what it's like to be living in America today. Tupac was one of my guys growing up. He was unfortunately take from us too early, but I would love to pick his brain about the state of things today.

3. What is your best memory of a mentor or teacher growing up?
I had a professor in college who found out I was just about to start training for professional wrestling – it was extra curricular, not attached to school in any way – he took an effort to have the entire class wish me luck. I just thought that was such a cool thing to do. He also gave me so me advice too, that kind of resonates with what I'm doing now. He always said, “You are the author of your life. The screenwriter. The producer. The director. Remember that at the end of the day you make the choices in your life,” something along those lines, but it's almost verbatim. We're still friends on Facebook. He's always asking me when my next show is in the Spokane area. It's just kinda cool having a professor being along on the journey like that.

POWERFUL. Photo provided by Rashad Tyson

4. When's the last time you did something for the first time?
Oh my god, actually, a week ago I tried escargot for the first time. Not on my bucket list.
Is it something you'll try again?
I don't know. I consider myself a pretty big foodie, but that might have been the line. I don't know if I can ever do that again, honestly.
Well congrats to you for trying it!
It was very chewy. I was not ready for that. I might venture back down that road one of these days but not any time soon.

5. When is the last time you cried, happy or sad tears?
I just wrapped up the latest season of Black Mirror and one particular episode this season got to me. It's about this actress who goes into an immersive 1920s movie and they have to play the character verbatim. It's this idea of ‘so near but so far away,’ and then falling in love with AI. On the face of it, I didn't think it was something that could make me so emotional. But the question of “How much are you willing to want to forget someone?” That stuck with me so much. Even right now, talking about it, I'm getting kind of watery eyed. But yeah, that one got me a couple of weeks ago. Usually, if it's a pretty solid movie, I can't hold back the water works.

6. Your Guest Question comes from the homie Casey Ferreira. What's the biggest non-wrestling influence on your work?
Oh my gosh. So, when I first started out I was very much trying to build this character of a social media influencer. Most of my antics from that I still do today. One person that influenced me while I was doing that was David Dobrick and his Vlog Squad. David had this like, shenanigans atmosphere about himself that I kinda bring myself to the ring. Yeah, David Dobrick and his Vlog Squad from the late 2010's.