Few things in life make me happier than booing Travis Williams.
See?!?! LOOK HOW HAPPY I AM!
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.
Somewhere, Lance Storm is very proud. Photo by the gawd Darren Ho.
Part of the glory of watching Williams mature in the ring before our very eyes has undoubtedly watching him take a staggering variety of spectacularly devastating moves. I had to ask this young man who's been through so much which move lingers in his brain as the worst. “Worst move to take – A powerbomb always sucks. That might be obvious though...” he thinks a bit longer. “The older I get the more I realize that everything kind of sucks to take. There was definitely a period though where it was no big deal. 'Okay, whatever.' Now it's pretty evident that everything sucks. I can't think of anything specific but I can give credit to the powerbomb for being one of my least favourites.”
Despite being somewhat of a technician in the ring, Williams takes more than his fair share of moves outside the pail, risking himself in all kinds of wild situations. “I got tossed from the stage into the ring by Shaff at a DEFY show in Portland, I wanna say 2018 or 2019. That's probably the stupidest thing I've done as far as testing my body's limits,” Williams recalls some of his more questionable wrestling choices, with a palpable glee in his voice. “Dumbest thing involving wrestling would probably be jumping off of a ladder with Shareef Morrow in New West. The table was too far away – and it was too late by the time we were up there. We couldn't fix it so we just kind of gave it our best shot and we both clipped off the side of the table. I bruised my ribs really bad and he smashed his face real good. The person who was taking care of everybody at the time, she was crying, it was a real sight. Leading up to it though I had a real good time. That was probably the dumbest thing I've done in wrestling.”
I consider myself incredibly lucky to be a wrestling fan in the time and place I am and have the privilege of watching Travis Williams begin his rightful ascension towards the upper echelons of professional wrestling. I'm honoured to welcome my favourite person to hate as a guest here and am thankful he was so willing to give me his time for a discussion of wrestling and another silly round of 5 Questions with Rags. If you have a chance to see Williams wrestle live near you, you should be jumping on it. If you're not a wrestling fan, you probably will be after you see him in the ring. And if you already consider yourself a fan and you haven't seen him live, I can assure you, one fan to another, you're absolutely blowing it and need to rectify that error AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Long live The Professional, Travis Williams.
(Also, while he’s living, you should follow him on Twitter. It’s definitely the best place I’ve found to keep abreast of all the Travis Williams happenings. Uhhhh, probably other social media platforms too.)
Do you really wanna know about some gangsta shit? Photo by the vet Darren Ho.
1. What's the first album you remember buying with your own money?
I don’t know if I remember my first…Maybe I did buy it but also there’s a good chance that it was just off LimeWire…I don’t know the album specifically, but it was Three Days Grace. When I was a kid because I was super into wrestling highlight videos and those were tunes you found on all those dope highlight videos. So yeah, Three Days Grace and maybe a little bit of Linkin Park in there as well.
2. If you had to choose one chore to be responsible for for the rest of your life, what would you choose?
Washing the dishes for sure. No doubt it my mind. I can just throw on some headphones listen to good music or a podcast and just zone out. It’s pretty relaxing.
3. If you could spend the day with anyone living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?
I’d probably say my grandpa. My grandpa passed away a few years ago. I would like to hang out with him again. Go fishing or something like that and just listen to him talk and he was such a funny dude. Such a character.
4. What’s the best memory of a teacher or mentor you have?
I would say grade 9 – may have been 10 but I think 9 – grade 9 Science. Mr. Eckhart, Mr. E. He was just such a cool, down-to-Earth person. He was good at making you not feel stupid for asking questions and he was also just someone you could talk to. He was really inspiring in that way. He was like a teacher who didn’t feel like a teacher, if that makes any sense, felt more like a friend.
5. I went through the last couple years of your matches and grabbed some names of opponents that jumped out at me. Give me the first thing that comes to your mind when hear these names.
Cody Chhun – Extremely talented. Shockingly not signed to a contract yet. I really enjoyed working him at NEW a couple years ago. Oh, and Chhunarooni – that also comes to mind.
Juice Robinson – Grateful to share the ring with him. A good example of someone who is just cool as fuck. Nice as fuck, cool as fuck. Couldn’t be more grateful, it was an awesome experience.
Nick Wayne – Extremely talented, again. Finally – that’s the word I’d use because it took so long for us to actually wrestle. We had a tag match when I was early into my career – he was probably already like eight years in at that point. <laughs> He’s been wrestling since he was out of the womb. Also extremely cool, extremely humble. I hope it happens again, I really do. Maybe we can add Jude and Jordan Oliver into the mix. The ideal.
1 Called Manders – One hell of a lariat. Also, extremely cool. That’s one I know will happen down the road again, so I’m looking forward to it.
Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) – Surreal. Surreal experience working them and getting to know them more and more as each Prestige show happens. Extremely cool guys as well. That’s one, when we found out it was happening, we were both like – you know we wanna stay professional here but also – holy shit. It’s cool it got to happen. I learned so much. I don’t wanna speak for Jude but I know he learned a lot too. We both picked up so much knowledge from them. That’s one that I’m grateful for again.
Matthew Justice and Mance Warner – Stiffest chair shot I’ve ever taken. Tough AF. I’d like to say I want it happen again but I’d also be okay not getting cracked in the back with chairs like that. They’re both very, very talented and cool people. The bell rang, I was out on the floor – I looked to my right, Mance Warner, looked to my left, Thrash – chair shot, chair shot, back to back and was thought, “Oh boy. This is gonna be a long night.”
6. So normally I get the Guest Question from the last answerer, but Krafty Kuts and Jimi Needles neglected to leave me a question so I dug into the archives to grab a past question and this one comes from the ultra-groovy Flamingosis – If you could only eat one type of breakfast sandwich for the rest of your life what would be on your breakfast sandwich?
Oh hell yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. It would be an everything bagel. Two eggs. Mustard – I’m a mustard guy. Tomato. And maybe a sausage patty, but I would take it off some days if I’m not feeling it.