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.
5 Questions with Rags #84 - Krafty Kuts + Jimi Needles
…Luckily for hip-hop fans everywhere that we live in the age of fast internet and these two could connect properly for this mix. I know it's not just me who had a fucking experience the first time they listened to the mix. It's a monster, for all levels of rap fan. Krafty reflects on the impact the mix made almost right out of the gate. “The mix response has been incredible, just overwhelming. I didn't think I would have been able to match the Golden Era Mixes I've released prior, but we put so much pressure on ourselves to squeeze in as many records we loved in the space of an hour, for everyone to come back and say they’re enjoying it and that they can't wait for a 4-deck show is just incredible.” If for reason, this 4-deck show doesn’t make it to the Canadian west coast, I will be overtaken by a deep, heart-wrenching emptiness.
Jimi, like myself and seemingly everyone else who's heard them, has high praise for the Golden Era Mixes Krafty mentioned. “For me, and Martin may or may not know this, but a lot of people's ''go to'' hip-hop mixtapes are definitely those Golden Era Mixes. So the bar was already set extremely high as far as I was concerned. Now that Volume One is out there and has received so much love, the door is definitely open for Volume Two; in fact we've already started making our list and trading ideas. Can't wait!” Neither can we, Jimi. Neither can we.
5 Questions with Rags #83 - Judas Icarus
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.”
5 Questions with Rags #82 - Krofton
I'm struggling to think of a single person who has entertained me more in the last 3.5 years than the man known as Krofton. A mainstay of the west coast indie wrestling scene for two decades, Krofton is one of the most beloved members of the incredibly loved 365 Pro Wrestling roster. Kids, moms and wrestling dorks (like me!) alike go wild when the first notes of The Real McKenzie's “Chip” hits and Krofton comes bounding out from behind the curtains. An adaptable in-ring performer, you know when Krofton is coming up, something fun is going to happen. Doesn't matter the style of wrestling, Krofton is going to make it work. The man was part of my favourite match of 2023 – which included a long man-on-another-mans-shoulders sequence and a man riding a scooter around a ring to inflict his wrestling violence. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT (It's the first match on this show). Also, no one in local wrestling has done more for me personally than Krofton, blessing the world with my favourite move time and time again, keeping it alive – the BIIIIIG BACK BODY DROP! 5 Questions with Rags is one of the things I like doing most in this world and there's honestly no wrestler I would rather have be the first answerer of the 5 Questions than the big homie, Krofton. He was more than game to get out of wrestling mode at the end of our chat to answer my silly questions – but shockingly wrestling still pops up! Wrestling is all things. Krofton is wrestling. Hence, Krofton is all things. Not really, but he's really fucking good at wrestling and a helluva guy to know and be able to talk with.
1. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money?
It was Green Day Dookie. It wasn't a CD, it was a cassette.
When's the last time you listened to it?
Oh god, half the songs are on my work playlist I listen to every day. I hear “Longview” and “She” and “Basketcase” every day. Sometimes twice.
What's an underrated song on that record people should listen to?
The secret song, about 8 minutes after “F.O.D.” ends. It's stupid and it's corny but it's great.
5 Questions with Rags #81 - Stop The Presses (Ali & Danny)
I'm gonna start this thing off with a personal confession – for a guy who works for an internationally known ska festival, I don't really listen to that much ska when left to my own devices. But at some point in the fall of 2022 whilst scrolling Twitter, a lot of people I really like were talking about this album called Got It by Stop the Presses. I'd never heard the band before, but I was really drawn to the colourful pineapple on the cover and wanted to try to find something new and pleasing to bring back to my ska festival family, so I fired up the streaming and put it on. From the first notes of the opening track “Make the Best of It” I was in. Then “Fat Cats” came on and I knew this album was going to be part of my regular rotation. Got It is a ska album seemingly made for me, a SKAptic – immaculately balancing ska, reggae and rocksteady, full of great hooks and really fantastic, crisp production. Danny graciously explained part of the process behind the album before I ambushed he and Ali with the 5 Questions. “Got It was kind of a return to us writing in the room as a band a little bit more. The past album, it was our proverbial “bedroom album”. in our living room, just Ali and I writing, cavemanning our way to demoing things, trying things out over and over again, getting better through the writing. And then this album [Got It] we were able to bring much simpler demo ideas to Jack and Steve, our rhythm section, and were able to write a lot more on purpose in front of each other, which gives you that dynamic, that extra layer – you put the physical work into it and the music kind of shows that.
The album became a personal audio touchstone, propelling me through intense winter and spring work with its infectious energy and big doses of fun. I made it my mission to get Stop the Presses on the lineup for the Victoria Ska & Reggae Fest 2023, but it turned out to be a pretty easy mission because they were as excited to come up as we were all to have them. I was lucky enough to not only get the whole band up to the Canadian west coast for an unreal set on the Victoria Ska & Reggae Fest main stage, but to rope Danny and Ali into a rousing instalment of 5 Questions with Rags. Which also apparently features a whole extra bonus question because the conversation was so good and easy that I lost the question count.
(I actually did this interview right before last years Ska & Reggae Fest, but through the combination of work with the Ska & Reggae Society/Festival, mental health struggles and living through the grind of life in 2023, this stayed in the vaults until now.)
1. What’s the first album you remember buying with your own money?
Ali – It was two. I was in third grade. I bought Alanis Morrissette’s Jagged Little Pill and Tom Petty’s Wildflowers. Both of those records bring back to a time in my life.
Danny – Mine are only slightly more embarrassing. The first Spice Girls record and Metallica Re:Load. That was the record. I was like 11 or 12, I was at a Sam Goody – the music store that actually had contemporary CDs, tapes and records – Wow! We just listened to Jagged Little Pill less than a month ago together. I’ve listened to at least half of that Spice Girls record in the last six months. I still go for earlier Metallica on the regular, Kill ‘Em All through like, the Black Album, but my brother already had those records already so I’m gonna get Re:Load ‘cause that’s MY record. There’s good stuff on there.