ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A new St. Petersburg-based wrestling promoter is hoping to give LGBTQ+ wrestlers and fans a place to call their own.
The Queer Wrestling Organization (QWO), founded by promoter Reynaldo Garcia, is building a roster of queer wrestlers from Florida and across the country, with its first show planned for March.
Garcia aims to create a welcoming space for people who may not feel comfortable or safe attending traditional professional wrestling events.
"Wrestling has had a very, very complicated relationship with our community, the LGBTQ community," he told Patch. "So I wanted to make a safe space for people who otherwise have turned away from wrestling that are LGBTQ."
He also hopes to challenge some of the conventions of mainstream professional wrestling, including divisions based on gender.
QWO's roster currently includes about 16 wrestlers, with most performers from Florida, as well as California, North Carolina, Tennessee and New York.
Among them are nonbinary wrestler Noah Vail and Kendall Ryan, the first transgender woman in Florida to win a championship belt that was traditionally designated for men, Garcia said.
QWO is designed as a safe space for LGBTQ+ wrestlers and fans, while focusing on the art and physicality of wrestling, he added.
"We want to be more of a pure wrestling promotion," Garcia said. "We want it to be more about the athleticism, about the competition, about getting them over as wrestlers and not undermining them."
His idea for the QWO originally started as something even more specific: drag wrestling.
Garcia, who has a background as a professional theater actor and studied musical theater in college, said the theatricality of wrestling and drag performers inspired the organization.
He eventually decided that focusing exclusively on drag performers would be too limiting — he also had a difficult time finding drag artists who might consider wrestling — and instead expanded the concept into a queer wrestling organization.
The QWO will rely heavily on theatricality and camp, much like traditional wrestling and drag, combined with athletic prowess, he said.
Garcia also hopes to build community around the organization, envisioning a space welcoming to LGBTQ+ people.
"It will be like walking into a queer bar or club, but instead of a bar, there's a wrestling ring," he said.
QWO's first event will take place March 6, at Shear Media Studios in St. Petersburg. The event is considered a "soft launch" that will allow the organizers and athletes to test their production, give the wrestlers a chance to work together, and see how audiences respond to the show, Garcia said.
The larger launch is planned for June 30, during Pride Month. The organization is currently in talks with Coastal Creative about hosting the event, but the venue hasn't been finalized yet, he said.
Though tickets for the March event aren't on sale yet, the QWO is building its audience online, via Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
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