5 Questions with Rags #86 - Eli Surge

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I take a lot of new people to wrestling – Friends, siblings, parents, acquaintances, work associates, people I yell at on the street. I can say for near-certain that there is no one who connects with the crowd more instantaneously on a consistent basis than Eli Surge. BIRDS AREN'T REAL. The tinfoil hat (always with extras to indoctrinate the crowd). You know what this guy is about and from the moment he steps out from behind the curtain, it's entertaining as fuck. And this is before he gets into the ring with his very excellent wrestling – a hard-hitting and technical style, replete with flourishes like out-of-the-ring moonsaults. (It would be weird if a guy into aliens didn't have a moonsault in his arsenal right? Good call, Eli.)

I've only ever known Eli Surge as the Conspiracy Man – aliens, birds-as-surveillance, Bigfoot and whatnot – but, it wasn't always so, and the story of how it kinda came to be is now one of my favourite stories. “ The conspiracy gimmick started out of frustration, honestly. There was a company that formally ran in Vancouver that had a big show. Three of my friends were in a match with a fly-in talent and I was frustrated as to why I didn’t even get an opportunity on that show,” says Eli, talking to me while taking care of his laundry. “'Fuck you' to gender roles,” he says emphatically. Fuckin' eh, Eli.

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5 Questions with Rags #86 - Daniel Makabe

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I'm listening to Your Old Droog as I stare at the block of text transcribed from my recent interview with The Wrestling Genius, Daniel Makabe. There's nothing particularly similar about them – Makabe is from the west coast of Canada, listens to and plays hardcore music, presumably doesn't wear a fancy gold watch and, most importantly to me, wrestles; Droog is from the east coast of the US, wears a fancy gold watch and most importantly to me, raps. They are worlds apart. But there's a through line between both of their outputs. They both create work – Makabe wrestling and Droog rapping – that speaks to a certain kind of fan. You might have to dig a bit and let their work breathe to get the most of it, but when you find the vein, it gets into you deep. That's not to say their stuff can't be enjoyed by a casual passerby, but they're both clearly Students of the Game, and as such their shit speaks to a certain kind of dedicated fan. They create for themselves – and if you like it, that's cool, join the party; there's a trove of treasures awaiting you. And if not, shut up and keep on moving. (Also, I've tried to get my brother, who likes wrestling and hip-hop, into both with less success than I would like.)

There's a reason I gravitated towards Makabe when I got properly into independent wrestling – and after talking to him, I'm pretty sure it's the thing I just mentioned. We might be deep into different kinds of music, but Makabe is a nerd like me and obviously, the vibe can be summed up with something from his music fandom. “Blake from Jawbreaker, in one of the years when he wasn't doing Jawbreaker and was swearing that there would never be a Jawbreaker reunion, did a band called Forgetters. They did a 7-inch and they did an LP, it came out in the early 2010s. The LP's okay, the 7-inch is really good though. The 7-inch has a song called “Too Small To Fail” and I always used that as a personal mantra and also as a business model or whatever,” says Makabe during our long-winding phone conversation. “I've never wanted to be a TV wrestler. I've never wanted to have a contract. I never really wanted this to be my job. I think it would take the fun out of it. And first and foremost, this is art for me.” Amen, brother.

“I don't love when people are like 'Pro wrestling is an art.' It is, but it's also sport. It's a weird hybrid of both. For me it's a very physical release and form of art. I wrestle primarily for myself. I want people to like my matches and I want the people who appreciate my style of wrestling to like the matches, but I wanna like my matches first and foremost. And I've never wanted to get to the point where I'm too big and I get a bunch of unwanted attention from those who aren't going to appreciate what I do, are gonna poke holes in things without getting the big picture. ‘Too Small to Fail’ has just always felt appropriate for me.” It's an ethos that has served Makabe well. His immense wrestling talents have taken him around the world since he first stepped into a homemade wrestling ring more than 20 years ago, never compromising his style.

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5 Questions with Rags #85 - Travis Williams

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Few things in life make happier than booing Travis Williams. Every time I see him walk out from behind the curtain, every fibre of my being wants him to know that I can't stand him. Deep inside my lizard brain there's a calling that needs me to BOO him. But then he wrestles and my evolved mammal brain snaps back into control and I can't help but love watching him, and his very excellent professional wreslting. It's a delicate balance that a select few seem to be able to perform with any kind of regularity – to make people hate you in such a way that you keep them from cheering while also being incredibly good, and genuinely spectacular, between the ropes. For that very reason, Williams has been at the top of my list of wrestlers to talk to since I decided to take the plunge into writing about wrestling. After talking to him for this piece, it's hard to imagine wanting to take my ire out on him again, but I also know that no matter how charming and sincere he may be, the next time I'm sitting in one those hard wrestling-crowd chairs and I see Travis Williams walk out from behind the curtain, I'm going to absolutely let him have it.

Williams' presence at 365 Pro Wrestling is absolutely one of the main reasons I can call myself a fan of indie wrestling, for whatever that's worth. Like I'm sure your local indie is to you, 365 a special place to me, members of my actual family and the incredible community of fans and performers. Hearing Travis talk about 365 when I asked him what it meant to him, it's obvious he feels the same. It's probably why, even as our most consistently and hotly hated heel, Williams has such a connection with the crowd here. “365 is my home. It's the place that I got an opportunity and that I gravitated towards when I lost my other home. I feel like it's kwhere I really improved my craft. I constantly bettered myself and I feel like it's where I grew the most. Especially in those shows where there wasn't a lot of people – the Pandemic Era when there was like 25 people in the crowd, if that. We all just tried as hard as possibly could and that's what helped me grow more than anything.” It's important to note, that while 365 may be home, Williams seemingly makes similarly strong connections with audiences everywhere he goes and seemingly always as an absolute prick in the ring. Have a look on Twitter the night he shows up for a new indie promotion – people are going to have things to say, often with a begrudging respect.

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5 Questions with Rags #83 - Judas Icarus

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One of my favourite things about wrestling is it starts at different places for different people. Everyone has such a radically different entry point. Maybe it was someone who raised you that instilled a love for it. Maybe it was an older brother who performed spectacular maneuvers on you (shout out, Kelly!) Maybe it was a friend at school who introduced you to it. Or maybe you were just flipping through the channels one day and got captivated by the image of a monster. “My first go was just flicking through channels as a kid and I remember something to do with The Great Khali. I was like, 'Wow, that’s crazy.'” That's how it started for Judas Icraus, one of the most unique, hard-hitting and fast-rising wrestlers not just on the West Coast, but in Canada as a whole. The Great Khali. As I write this, I'm having a hard time thinking of two more different wrestlers than Judas Icarus and The Great Khali, but really, isn't that what makes this wrestling thing so special? There's room for everyone – performer or fan. Everyone can belong.

But we don't exist on an island and we gotta have people who support our interests or get weirdly into them with us. And thankfully for everyone in the PNW (and quickly beyond) who likes wrestling now, the man known as Judas Icarus found himself in an environment where his experience seeing The Great Khali could germinate and grow into, quite frankly, a fucking awesome young wrestling career. “Then my mom, for Easter, which was crazy, because my mom never got me a present for Easter, but she got me a triple-pack of figures – Triple H, Batista and Randy Orton. Awesome. And I got into wrestling figures.” Icarus tells me in his shockingly soft-spoken out-of-the-ring voice. (His in-ring voice – and uhhh sounds? – is hard, rough, and kinda scary.) “Then I met a friend, my longest friend that I still have, who was really into wrestling figures. He was a huge Jeff Hardy guy. We bonded over it. Played Smackdown vs Raw all the time. Then we met more friends in elementary and high school that were really into it. Then we started doing backyard wrestling a bit, had a backyard fed. We had a trampoline fed. We had entrances. We had full episodes, full seasons. We ran in it pretty well into the depths of high school.”

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The People's Champ - Krofton - on a great year and the rise of 365 Pro Wrestling

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For almost as long as I can remember, music was the thing – my love for it was the thing that drove me. But I say “almost” because before that, there was professional wrestling. Some of my earliest memories are watching wrestling with my grandfather and my uncle (Not together though, because, from what I can remember, they were very different wrestling fans). By the time I left high school, wrestling started to fade from my vision and that's when music took hold. But over the last five or six years, wrestling has taken its place back at the forefront of my mind. Wrestling is what gives me the feeling that music used to. Wrestling is what gets me out of my house. Wrestling is where I've found new community. Wrestling is what makes me feel like a kid again. And it's 365 Pro Wrestling has been the key to regaining that feeling. And there is no one that represents 365 like the Peoples Champ, the man known as KROFTON. I’ve interviewed hundreds of musicians but I’ve never interviewed a wrestler, or even written about wrestling. There is no one I could imagine starting this new wrestling-based phase of my writing with than the very tall man, Krofton. Luckily, he was more than game to dish about this insane thing he loves and when it finally happened, after weeks of planning, he answered the phone ready to go.

He may not the champ of 365 anymore, but he’s the champ of our hearts. Photo by Darren Ho Media.

It genuinely warms my heart to hear Krofton, a 20+ year veteran of the west coast indie wrestling scene, echo the feelings I have as an outsider, a fan. “We are a family, honestly. All the way from Garrett to Eddie and everyone in between, even outside of wrestling, if something's going on or someone needs something, we all know we can reach out and talk to each other. We all go out and support each other for different things. We all just want to see each other get better. Nobody's negative, we just want to do the best we can in the ring and we're always trying to help each other get better. There's really nothing better than 365.”

A clear fan-favourite, evident by the number of Krofton shirts often worn by children at 365 shows – perhaps the greatest marker of a professional wrestler's popularity – Krofton is there before and after the shows, interacting with fans. His in-ring cohorts speak of him with high praise. There's a reason he's been a mainstay on the scene for as long as he has. And, even after all the time he's spent between the ropes, the legend of Krofton continues to grow, with 2023 being a banner year for the man himself. “Last year I had a really good year. God...I wrestled Sebastian Wolfe not even 24 hours after he made his AEW (All Elite Wrestling) debut. I felt it. I felt that energy from him. I was in the ring with Max (Benson) and Travis (Williams) when Legacy came back. That match was – there was a point in that match where we were screaming at each other and we couldn't hear anything in the ring because you guys were so loud. That won match of the year for 365 and it's a high placement.”

Krofton & the mighty Eddie Osborne (pre-recent hair cut) - Guilty By Association. Photo by Darren Ho Media.

When I pressed him to narrow it down, it turns out his high point last year didn't even come in the familiar confines of his home 365 crowd. “I gotta say, it was going to Ontario and wrestling Joey Allen. Going in to a building where I've never been, not knowing if anyone there even knew who I was or the history of what was going on – we went out there and we beat the shit out of each other. And then not even 20 minutes later I was out there in a 3-way hardcore match getting skewers stabbed into my head and getting superplexed through a table. And the greatest thing, I never even expected, I got a “Please come back!” chant at the end of the match. That will always mean something to me and I'm going to go back for sure.”

And in case you are wondering what's worse – skewers to the dome or taking a superplex through a table – you can put those worries to rest. “Skewers are worse. It was a 'Oh my god, they're stuck in my head!' and then seeing the horror on everybody's faces as I'm staring at them in the crowd. Looking at the four little kids staring back at me with the same look I know I had on my face. Going through a table? Whatever. I used to jump off fences to impress people in high school and go through particle board stacked on those little blue rubber chairs. I busted my tailbone a few times as a teenager doing that stuff. It's not so bad.”

Yeah, okay, I buy that the skewers are worse. Photo by Steve Skullmaster.

Krofton may be the man, but he's just a cog in the beautiful machine that is 365 Pro Wrestling. It's a machine that's only been gaining momentum in Victoria over the past few years and is ready to hit the next level this Friday, February 2, with Capital Combat. Running at the First Met Church (Corner of Quadra and Balmoral) for the first time, the venue will be their biggest to date in the city and they've got a card to match. The excitement in Krofton's voice is palpable when I ask him about this momentous night. “Talk about a show. 11 matches. The best of the best. Judas Icarus and Travis Williams. You got Evan Rivers making his debut out here. Those three alone are crazy. I've never met Evan, I've watched all his stuff. I'm looking forward to him and Legacy – that match is...I don't think the ceiling is going to be high enough for them. Artemis Spencer and Devon Shooter – talk about a 10-Star match. Becky Beech & Josh Caldwell, the Yacht Club – I love them. They're going to die but I love them. I'm 6'5 and I'm about to wrestle a 20-year midget wrestling superstar. I don't know his exact height, but I've seen videos of him and it is going to be something. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do but I plan on bringing it all.”

“It's 365. $5 beers. It's great entertainment. If you got nothing to do February 2nd, that is the place to be. Some of the best wrestlers in Canada, including some that are not going to be around much longer, so you gotta come see them before they're gone.”

An absolutely insane of PROFESSIONAL GODDAMN WRESTLING. I can’t stress how great this night will be.

PS. I didn’t really have anywhere to put this, but the world really needs to know how good of a wrestler Devon Shooter is. Every time my friends and I go to a 365 show, we walk out talking about Devon Shooter. He is so good at seemingly every aspect of wrestling, I had to ask Krofton if it was true. “Devon Shooter is so underrated. People don't even know. He's the man. Anyone who's in the ring with him learns something. Even guys who have been in the business for 20 years. He is such a humble, good person, I don't think any of deserve the right to know him. I'm so happy he's in our lives in 365 but I'm so grateful to call him a friend. In that ring, he can go. He's probably forgot things most of us couldn't figure out how to do in the first place. “

Yeah, Devon Shooter is awesome - but I’ll still root for Krofton if/when they share a ring again.