On November 15, 365 Pro Wrestling held the inaugural Queen of the Island Tournament in Victoria. It was a landmark evening, featuring 11 women's wrestlers – including the 8 that made up the tournament bracket. When that bracket originally dropped, consensus among the 365 faithful (at least the ones I talk to!) all chose Liiza Hall as the winner. It seemed obvious to us. So, you can imagine our surprise when she lost in first round, albeit after a genuinely incredible match, to relatively unknown Cherry Blossom. Hall came out to cheers, but as the match progressed, we could see the terrifying bully Liiza, the one that it's cemented in all of our heads as a KILLER, come out more and more. When Blossom got the 1-2-3 and the victory, the jammed-packed crowd erupted in joy at the surprise triumph. Cherry Blossom established herself as someone not to fuck with, because everyone who regularly attends 365, and really any indie wrestling company in the PNW, knows that Liiza Hall is not someone to be fucked with. So bright is her star and strong is her ability in the ring, that getting a win over her is a huge step for anyone coming up in the scene.

Hall has been at the forefront of a quiet revolution of women's wrestling on the Canadian west coast. It's a scene that is genuinely on fire and growing at a rapid pace, with tournaments like the 365's Queen of the Island and BOOM! Pro Wrestling's Coco Harriet Invitational putting the spotlight where it belongs. It's a big change from when Hall first stepped into the scene herself. “It's really nice to see how much it's grown in the last 10 years. When I first started wrestling there was probably the same three or four ladies all the time,” reflects Hall, taking valuable time away from her new kitten, Frankie, to talk on an idle Thursday afternoon. “Now I get to wrestle the new trainees from Lion's Gate. I get to wrestle a bunch of people from Portland and Washington. Even here, we have, it might sound like a small number, but even having five or six women who are consistently wrestling in one area is a big deal. It's nice to see more women trying to get into the sport. I love it.”

Liiza Hall showing how much she loves all her opponents. Photo by the big dawg @darrenhomedia.

Growing up around wrestling, her mother is famed BC wrestler Raven Lake, may have given her a head start in some regards, but it's not really a surefire thing when you're in a family famous for something. It seems like growing up with a parent heavily involved in something, you could go one of two ways. You could follow your parents' path or do what I did and shun your parents' interest – in my case it was my dad's love of cars. I'm four+ decades into my life and still don't have a drivers license. Apparently, I'm the same as Liiza Hall's sister, who decidedly was not excited to follow in their mother's footsteps into the proverbial squared circle. “That's where my younger sister went – she doesn't go to wrestling shows. She doesn't find them fun at all. She doesn't like it. I on the other hand, I love it,” Liiza tells me, on an idle Thursday afternoon. “I remember watching a Kyle O'Rielly vs El Phantasmo match when they were both three or four years in. This was at Bridgeview Hall (Surrey, BC). I was a kid, 8 or 9 at the time. I thought 'Oh my god, this is awesome.' I was so invested in the match. It's a core memory for me.”

I'm very glad Hall's path followed her mom's, at least the wrestling part, because few things make the wrestling nerd in me happy like watching Liiza Hall bend, stretch and straight up bully her opponents. I've been lucky enough to get to watch Hall regularly as I got into indie wrestling. Large, small, female, male – Hall is an equal opportunity bully, ready and willing to punish anyone unfortunate enough to find themself standing across from her in a ring. You can imagine my surprise when Hall informed me that, even in the 2025, she encounters criticism of intergender wrestling. “You see it online all the time. And heard it when you go out to a match, when you're actually doing it. You might think the wrestlers can't hear you when they're in the zone during the match. But we definitely can,” laughs Hall. “I've heard people saying things like 'They shouldn't do this.' 'Is she okay?' 'What's going on here?' People, even after the match, never mind online, people will come up to me and say 'Wow, I can't believe that you just wrestled a full-grown man and you kept up with him. You were actually fighting and you won.' Maybe from their perspective they're just seeing grown men beat up on women, but it's the other way around. We're fighting them, we're working with them.” In moments like this, I'm grateful to live in my beautiful little bubble of wrestling and (mostly) cool wrestling fans.

Photo by the phenomenally talented Wyatt Parrish @wyattparish_

A holder of belts from many promotions – including multiple long-term runs as the champion of my beloved 365 – Hall has racked up an incredible roster of opponents from promotions across North America. I couldn't pass up to the opportunity to ask her about some of the names that jumped off the page at me in a lightning round of sorts.

Marina Shafir - We probably wrestled almost 20 minutes and it was all mat wrestling. We were fighting each other for everything. I just felt like it was, not easy, but natural. I felt myself getting fired up while I was doing it. After the match I was like, “That's what I wanna do all the time.” That catch wrestling style.

Nicole Matthews – Teacher. Growing up, honestly, I looked up to her so much. I got to see her wrestle in the local area. I got to base a lot of things I do now off of her.

Drake Kwon – Pure title. DOA. What else? Honestly, he slapped me so hard the last time I wrestled him. I'm just like “Damn.”

Okay, now I gotta ask who is the hardest chop? Nicole Matthews. I've done so many matches with her, tagging or singles. 100% she's hit me the hardest.

Amira – She's just so much fun. I love her. I love wrestling her. She's so good at what she does.

Serena Deeb – I got to learn a lot of from her. Ring-wise, crowd-wise. She's very meticulous, I'll say. I loved being a part of that show. I actually got covid on that trip. Flying home, I took my test, got on my flight to Seattle and when I landed they were like, “Yeah, you've got covid. You can't go to Canada.” Okay. I guess I'll just spend 10 days here. It was like a little vacation in a hotel. I got to eat Skip the Dishes every day.

Trish Adora – She's so fun. I got to work her in Montana and I think Portland a few times. I feel like our vibes just matched so well. She's so nice and she loves to thrift, which I'm all here for.

The crew has been very lucky that Liiza has been a big part of the scene the whole time I've been into indie wrestling. If we see her on a card, we know there's at least one guaranteed banger on there. If you like wrestling, like, that real nerd, capital-G Graps shit, and you aren't up on Liiza Hall, what is going in your life? You gotta sort your shit out and get knowing. If you're just a casual fan and are looking for someone to maybe make that nerd shit a little more accessible, then you can't go wrong with Liiza Hall. We were very lucky to get some of her time away from a new job and, more importantly, a NEW KITTEN, to talk about going to the movies, Bruno Mars and the emotional rollercoaster that is cat ownership. Tap in and get knowing one of the scariest (in-ring scary only) people in PNW independent wrestling.

Keep with Liiza Hall on Instagram / Twitter

With mentor, partner and hardest chopper, Nicole Matthews. Photo by Mark Steffens @fotoguyphotgraphy

1. What's the first album you remember buying with your own money.
Bruno Mars, the yellow one. What's it called? It has a “Grenade” on it. “The Lazy Song”... Doowops and Hooligans.

Do you still listen to it? Anything from it?
I do. I have that CD in my car. I never really cared for CDs until I got a car and it doesn't have a plug in to use my phone. So I'm constantly switching out CDs.

2. What's the last thing that made you cry, happy or sad tears?
I had to take Murphy to the vet. He was scratching and he scratched his neck a little bit. I woke up Ty in the middle of the night, like, “You need to get up right now!” in tears. He ended up being totally fine. He has a little dust allergy, we're thinking. But yeah, that's the last time I cried.

3. If you were responsible for one household chore for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
Sweeping.

That's a nice immediate reward kind of chore.
Exactly. You're just chilling out, sweeping the floor. Dishes are worst.

4. I gotta disagree there. I'm a huge Zen of Dishes guy. But I digress. When's the last time you did something for first time?
I actually just got a new job. I'm a tap room manager at a brewery. It's the first time I've ever had this type of job so it's a big learning curve for me.

What's the most surprisingly easy or difficult thing about it for you so far?
The most difficult – learning how to use Canva. We use Canva a lot. And people calling in sick, but that doesn't happen much.

5. Have you ever seen or felt a ghost or spiritual presence you couldn't explain?
Oh my god, yes. Okay, so, townhouse, I'm like 11 or 12. I'm sitting in my room, chilling, and I hear someone yell “Mama! Mama!” I'm like, “Oh, my sisters must be home.” So I open my door and yell at them “Mom's not here right now!” I close the door and my sister calls me on the phone. She says “Do you want anything from the store?” I'm like, “Huh? Aren't you downstairs? Couldn't you come and ask me?” She says, “No, I'm at the store.” Oh my fucking god. It was terrifying. I just stayed in my room until they got home. That was the most crazy experience and from then on I was like, “I don't wanna be here on my own.”

6a. So you actually get two guest questions because our last guests were The Flamin' Aces. First, from Zaye Perez – what's the last movie you saw in the theatre?
Fantastic 4. It was good. I liked it. Me and Ty have watched every Marvel movie together, so it's tradition.

Are you a popcorn at the movies person?
Oh yeah. Full bag. With the dill pickle sprinkle stuff on it.

6b. And from Spencer Scott – If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would you eat?
Soft pretzels with some cheese dip. (Editor's note: we cannot stress how quickly this answer was given. This is a person who LOVES some soft pretzels with cheese dip.)