5 Questions with Rags #95 - Steven Bradley or "It's not hard to understand, just follow this simple plan"

You always learn new things when you interview someone. Sometimes you even learn something incredible and shocking. If you don't learn something new, you're probably not a very good interviewer. But luckily, I am great interviewer, and as such, chatting in the First Met Hall in Victoria on the night where he would later win the 365 Combat Championship, Steven Bradley gave me two truly incredible and shocking facts.“I do not get free Old Spice,” says Bradley about his turn as a real-life Old Spice model. 'I do not get free Old Spice,' these words echo in my ears like a gunshot, months after this conversation took place. Bradley is far less concerned than I about the lost possibility of free Old Spice, quickly shifting the over to the overall positivity of the experience. “It was very strange. It was a very cool little side-quest I got to do. I was just at work and I saw an Instagram thing for a casting call for guys with good hair. I had already starting doing the mullet and I had the mustache going, so I thought, 'Yeah, I think I can do that.' It was so much fun and then seeing it and having people be like, 'Dude, I saw you in a commercial!'”

And after that, Bradley immediately drops another, far more shocking, truth bomb: “I’d never watched a match until January of 2022.” What the fuck, man. How was it possible that this hoss, this guy who was a 365 fan-favourite the moment he stepped into the ring, had seen his first wrestling match only four years ago?! “Almost every single person you see on the independent scene is like, 'I watched wrestling as a little kid. My dad took me to shows. I got to see all these superstars in the early 2000s.' I started watching wrestling in 2022, three months before I started training. My friends were watching AEW and they said, “We watch AEW on Wednesdays, wanna come watch? I watched it for two weeks and thought, 'Yeah I can do this. Those guys are athletic, freak athletes for sure, but they don’t look like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant or Brock Lesnar. They look more normal.'”

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From the Front Row - 365 Pro Wrestling Recap - 20.02.2026

Another Friday, another 365 Pro Wrestling throwdown. Apparently there's been a round robin tournament for the 365 Cup that a bunch of us were unaware was happening. Luckily we got some clarifying announcements and the round robin is nearly done. The winner will win the 365 Cup and get a title shot, I believe? I could be wrong on this. I have a hard time hearing a lot of the mic work from years of working at and covering concerts. Protect your fucking ears, kids.

DJ Kash vs Sawyer Stein

Very stoked for this one as I'm always a big fan of a Face vs Face opener and these two are both big time good guys. Starting out with some solid grappling – haven't seen headlock-trading look so good in a minute. Kash hits a shockingly large shoulder block on the much thicker Stein. Stein responds with a thunderous clothesline but misses a splash right after. Kash comes off the ropes while Stein is down and hits a very strange low blockbuster. Around this point an incredibly mean fan in the crowd yelled at Stein, “You can't lose to a child!” After a huge vertical suplex from Stein sends Kash crashing into the mat, the two trade some pretty hard-hitting forearms to each other. Single-knee Codebreaker from Stein (I'm sure this move has a proper name, but damned if I know it!) shows Kash whose knee is the boss. Kash eventually gets his momentum back and goes up to the second rope to finish Stein off but is met with Sawyer's lovely and devastating superkick. 1-2-3. Stein wins! (365 Cup Match win = 2 points)

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From the Front Row - 365 Pro Wrestling Recap - 16.01.2026

Something was in the air on Friday at the First Met Hall. I don't know what the hell was going on, but 365 Pro Wrestling put on one of their best wrestling shows in ages. Now, this is definitely not to take away from the very good run they've been on – they've been killing it and I love going to these shows. But Friday night had everything lining up in a magic manner from opening bell to the end. To use very specific wrestling speak – it was, by gawd, an absolute slobberknocker! Gonna have to start calling this shit Friday Night Heat if this is where we're headed on the regular. Let's get after it.

Damian Desire vs Inferno
Insane opener. First off, we gotta give a shout out to the wrestling boots of Damian Desire. Best boots in the PNW scene from what I've seen. Many stars of love. Both guys come out of the gate with bonkers speed, matching each other move for move. Leap frogs! Springboards! Simultaneous dropkicks! Simultaneous kip-ups! HOLY MOLY! Just two fan favs showing who know how to get a crowd revved up. If there's one thing the people love more than cheering a handsome muscle man who is quite good at wrestling, it's booing a handsome muscle man who is quite good at wrestling. And when it comes time to break the whole good guy vs good guy dynamic, Damian Desire steps into the role perfectly, turning into an absolute bruiser on a dime and battering the smaller Inferno. I love a dirty spinebuster and Desire smashes Inferno with one. Then a goddamn avalanche side suplex on the Flaming One. Inferno comes back with a devastating back rake. At this point I am having a very hard time taking my eyes off the ring to take notes. Holy shit, Inferno fucking powerbombed Desire. And wow, it was a picturesque powerbomb. Inferno wins with a Swanton Bomb. (I'm writing so much about wrestling right now that I just added “Swanton” to the dictionary on my word processor.) This match was very fucking good.

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