N.Y. ‘Fight For Pride’ pro wrestling to feature a rare one-on-one match between Black trans women

The growth of LGBTQ figures in pro wrestling and events who highlight and celebrate the LGBTQ community, both during Pride month and beyond, has seen the Venn diagram between LGBTQ-led and allied promotions, Pride and LGBTQ advocacy organizations and the expanding base of LGBTQ pro wrestling fans widen in recent years. Especially as pro wrestling emerged as a source of both joy and resistance for LGBTQ populations under political attack.

Indicative of that burgeoning relationship is the new partnership between New York City-based promotion Battle Club Pro and NYC Pride. On Sunday, Battle Club Pro will hold “Fight For Pride II,” the first pro wrestling event held in association with NYC Pride, in Brooklyn, NY.

The link between the two groups has been roughly a year in the making. The first “Fight For Pride” event was held last year and, according to out pro wrestler and event organizer Brian Bomb, it came together just weeks before the event was held. Bomb and Battle Club Pro representatives reached out to NYC Pride about working together last year after his experience working with San Francisco-based promotion Full Queer, who regularly collaborate with LGBTQ organizations and events.

“I’ve always been secretly jealous of how supportive the San Francisco area is, like the Folsom [Street Fair] event for example. There’s like 1,000 people watching this wrestling event, and I’m like, ‘How the hell do I live in New York City … and we don’t have an event like this,” he said during a recent appearance on the “LGBT In The Ring” podcast. “I think the significance of [working with NYC Pride] is beyond anything … my dream is to have the wrestling event at the parade.”

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The event will feature a large number of out LGBTQ pro wrestlers from around New York and New Jersey alongside out talents from across the country, including Full Queer co-founder Marco Mayur and Florida-based rising star Jay Luxx.

“My first ever Pride was in New York,” Luxx said on the “LGBT In The Ring” podcast. “I take inspiration from New York, the fights that have gone on in New York, from our Black trans brothers and sisters … I think what Brian is doing here is allowing all of us a space where we can be ourselves and shine our light the brightest way possible without anyone having any fear of holding back.”

Bomb is taking care to make sure certain matches pay homage to the city’s history of queer performance art, most notably drag and ballroom, and preserving the connective tissue that pro wrestling has to the city’s history of queer civil rights advocacy.

The relationship between pro wrestling and drag has been cited extensively over the years, and ballroom began to be mixed in thanks to out pro wrestler Billy Dixon’s “Paris Is Bumping” events dating back to 2020.

“People dressing up to put on a performance while exploring another facet of themselves. There’s a reason why so many LGBTQIA+ people are fans of pro-wrestling,” Matthew Şenız-Cheng, NYC Pride Associate Director of Corporate Partnerships, told Outsports.

Key among the planned matches is the bout between Brianna Bandz and Nikki Winters, two Black trans women who train together at Brooklyn’s T2T Academy and have a close relationship dating back to before either stepped into a ring for the first time.

One-on-one matches between Black trans women are rare, even as the LGBTQ pro wrestling movement has made advancements in recent years, and this match in particular hearkens back to the history that Black trans women and other trans women of color were leaders in the initial LGBTQ civil rights movement that was catalyzed at Stonewall in 1969.

“This match is super duper important to me,” Bandz said on the “LGBT In The Ring podcast.” “It’s much bigger than people think … New York is where everything did start.”

That blending of pro wrestling and queer culture and history lends to the double meaning of the event’s name.

“It connects our theme for NYC Pride 2025: ‘Rise Up: Pride in Protest,’” said Şenız-Cheng. “With over 600 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills being introduced, trans health care under attack, and LGBTQIA+ … help lines being shut down, it matters to create events that speak to everyone along the rainbow spectrum.

“Visibility matters, and it’s important to provide ways for our community and allies to gather in community – be it in the wrestling ring or in formation during the Pride march.”

Bomb echoed that sentiment. “Obviously it’s about fighting in the ring and fighting in this industry as out LGBTQ people, trying to fight for visibility, authenticity and just being ourselves, but also, if you look at the broader social and political movement that we’re in, especially for our trans siblings, it’s a fight for Pride not just inside the ring but out of it,” he said. “That double meaning is very, very important to me.”

Battle Club Pro’s “Fight For Pride II” will take place in Brooklyn on Sunday, June 22 at 3 p.m. ET. Fans can find more information here.

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