photos provided by Heather Gonzales

Power! Pride! Pro Wrestling: A Drag Wrestling Extravaganza

The wrestling event returns to Cincinnati next month, a glitter-infused mashup of old school wrestling meets drag show, featuring queer and allied wrestlers and queens from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and more. Taking place inside of Rhinegeist Brewery, this event features a very real and very large wrestling ring in the middle of the taproom, surrounded by concrete floors and more folding chairs than somebody could swing.

“I’d actually retired from wrestling in 2019,” says founder Heather Gonzalez, known in the ring as Hardcore Heather Owens. “Cincinnati Pride posted that they were looking for more committee members, and they’re like, ‘Heather, you used to wrestle, right? We want you to help us put on an all-queer wrestling show.’ And I’m like, okay!”

That spontaneous “okay” became something bigger. “It was supposed to be a one-off Pride event, just for fun,” Gonzalez says. “But people showed up. The crowd loved it, and we were like, well, I guess we’re doing this now.”

From One Night to a Movement

Kora Sline and another wrestler face off at Power! Pride! Pro Wrestling.

Since that first match four years ago, Power! Pride! Pro Wrestling! has evolved into a regional phenomenon, blending the camp of pro wrestling’s drama with drag’s defiant joy.

“It’s a blend of everything I love; performance, athleticism, and community,” Gonzalez says. “Wrestling is storytelling, and queer people are natural storytellers.”

Each show hits at a hundred out of a hundred. The wrestling is brutal; real slams on concrete, real blood on the ropes, fresh bruises caked with glitter. The drag is primal, part theater, part exorcism, with queens not just hitting their dance moves, but also taking or giving a hit. (Brock Leah Spears can swing a chair like you wouldn’t believe.) 

This year, PH Dee will be joining returning performers Brock Leah and Kora Sline, with DJ Boywife (who Queer Kentucky featured last spring), safely handing beats away from the ring. On the wrestling side, expect to see new and returning wrestlers, including Cincy-fav “The QueerBilly” GG Jacobs going up against the wrestler who stole my heart as a first-time attendee three years ago; the gloriously unhinged, delightfully controversial Super Oprah.

“It’s not about money or fame,” Gonzalez says. “It’s about giving queer performers a ring to stand in- literally and figuratively.”

She says fans often tell her it’s the first time they’ve felt safe at a wrestling show. “Every event, someone says, ‘I didn’t know wrestling could be queer,’” Gonzalez says. “When people see us, the crowd, the joy; they realize it’s not a gimmick. It’s queer art with bruises.”

The Drag of It All

For Cincinnati drag artist Kora Sline, who’s returning to the show this year, the combination makes perfect sense. “Drag and wrestling are both character and spectacle-based,” she says. “They just fit so well together.”

Sline first joined Power! Pride! Pro Wrestling! last year. “We had so much fun, it was my first time doing it,” she says. “We had a little storyline where we helped one of the other wrestlers, and it kind of just blossomed from there.”

Behind the curtain, Sline says the bond between drag performers and wrestlers feels surprisingly natural. “The wrestlers are a lot like my drag performers,” she says. “We all get that it’s about giving everything you’ve got to the audience.” She’s watched first-time attendees, some from as far as Lexington, leave stunned and smiling. “People told me they had no idea how fun it would be to actually cheer for someone, to root for a drag queen in a ring,” she says. “It’s definitely an experience.”

Joy with Muscles

Two wrestlers collide in the ring during a Power! Pride! Pro Wrestling event at Rhinegeist Brewery in Cincinnati.

Then there’s Stxrm Garçon, a rising star within wrestling circles and the first-ever trans woman to win the Divine Women’s Pro Championship. At Power! Pride! Pro Wrestling! Stxrm will be defending her championship belt at the November event, taking on Juniper Gates, another trans female wrestler rising through the ranks. 

“Oh my gosh, I always tell people that I was born wrestling because my grandmother loved it,” she laughs. “She had it on DVR, she had it on cable, she had it.” She started watching for the divas. “The men bored me,” Garçon says. “I’d watch the whole show just to get five minutes of my girls.” Now she’s the one stealing the spotlight. “What really made me want to get involved was the fact that it was such a light in darkness,” she says. “At other promotions, the audiences were very conservative. They didn’t really understand LGBT wrestlers or representation in general.”

Performing for queer crowds changed everything. “It feels more at home,” Garçon says. “Queer wrestlers, we give that little pizzazz, a little oomph. The audience loves the extra diva and the sass.” She pauses, grinning. “It’s storytelling, it’s theater, it’s drag. It’s the same heart, just in spandex. It’s camp, it’s chaos, it’s everything that makes being queer fun. It’s loud, it’s sweaty; it’s joy with muscles.”

Unity in the Ring

Promotional poster for Power! Pride! Pro Wrestling, featuring drag performers and wrestlers appearing in the 2025 show at Rhinegeist Brewery in Cincinnati.

Gonzalez says that energy, the laughter, the camp, the belonging, is exactly why she keeps running the show. “We’ve had drag queens, trans wrestlers, allies- everyone’s welcome,” she says. “If you’re ready to throw down in heels or boots, we’ll find you a spot.”

For the Kentuckians who travel north each year, Power! Pride! Pro Wrestling! feels like something rare: a night where everyone’s in on the joke, the story, and the fight.

Power! Pride! Pro Wrestling: A Drag Wrestling Extravaganza returns to Cincinnati on Friday November 14, 2025. Tickets and info at eventeny.com/events/powerprideprowrestlingadragwrestlingextravaganza-23225.