HOODSLAM is a raunchy, gritty, West Oakland-native, queer- & POC-forward professional wrestling show. With a huge dose of performance art and copyright infringement.

Every night, you’ll hear the audience chant “THIS IS REAL.” Of course, it’s pro wrestling. It’s stage combat. But it’s more.

Ever since I was little (and growing up in the burbs), I felt like I missed all the cool stuff. I was in diapers when Kill ‘Em All came out; 12 when Kurt Cobain killed himself; 16 when the first wave of rave culture died. I’ve been chasing something this cool my whole life.

I met pre-openly racist Hulk Hogan at the Boston Garden once. (I was 8. He was huge.) After that I couldn’t have cared less about wrestling. It’s not what draws me to HOODSLAM (though I’m learning).

It’s the characters (almost all of them references to books, games, wrestling, and nerd stuff), the surreal storylines, the uniforms with literal years of lore in them, and their open-to-all-but-no-permission-needed point of view. It’s lovingly crafted high-concept art in a perfectly low-brow box.

For me, that’s as real as it gets.