[0.0] "Saw it in person. Loved it. The show frankly felt euphoric for me. It's rare to feel accepted sometimes so the atmosphere at the show was pretty validating. VENY vs Edith Surreal is my favorite match I've seen live and it's not particularly close. Makes me want to give the show a 10. Knowing how poorly the promoter handled absolutely everything though... well it's a real shame."
[8.0] "A really fun show to watch. You knew that, being booked by one person with money and markdom in equal measure, you weren't going to get a Wrestle Kingdom full of 5 star classics, but I think what I saw was better, in a way. It was people who are typically marginalised and ostracised in the community getting to do the Indie Show Things(TM) in front of a crowd they knew wasn't going to do things like toss slurs around. The fun chaos moments - including an impromptu track race mid-Rumble - added to it all. Sure, the camera sometimes missed spots, and the commentary was a bit of a negative, but do you know how hard it is to get a decent commentary team these days? You should watch this show. EDIT: Even considering what we know about the scummy actions of the promoter, I stand by this rating, as this is on the strength of the workers, and the workers did great."
[0.0] "As a transwoman, the colossal failure of this show and complete unprofessionalism on part of the promoter is probably the single most disappointing wrestling-related thing that has occured in years, at least on a personal level. I can and will surely applaud the effort to promote transgender wrestlers, but from its very conception, this show felt more otherizing, as if placing trans performers within an in-group instead of simply presenting them as wrestlers. Any other criticisms that I have are more fitting to be levied at TransGraps herself, of which I suppose is more of an ideological disagreement with her "No True Scotsman" ethos regarding other trans folk. In any case, a sad failure that is definitely best forgotten to time."
[0.0] "Would rate this higher if not for the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the event. Nothing too spectacular in the ring, which is fine, but all the backstage politics and issues with the promoter sour this event for me sadly. Hopefully if there's another one, it's ran by someone with more professionalism. EDIT: dropped my rating down to a 0 after finding out more information. This event was a disaster backstage, and it probably set trans wrestling back in the eyes of most fans despite its lofty goals."
[1.0] "An overall bad show with inexperienced workers lining a lot of the card who needed some guidance or structure from a veteran in the back for their matches. The matches either went on too long, like Kidd Bandit vs. Don't Die Miles where there was about three minutes of Bandit hitting almost their entire moveset and then the rest of the match collapsing due to poor pacing, Miles just stiffing Bandit at some points, and just being out of place for spots. The battle royale was also way too long and just generally messy, revolving around a door that didn't break until the final 2 entrants and didn't even break on the first move, and outside of a gag involving the running track in the background it was just watching bad wrestling. There was the opportunity to have a 2nd decent match on the card with Gisele Shaw vs. Sonny Kiss, but they opted to instead book Candy Lee going over Shaw to face Sonny Kiss instead, with Lee being the worse choice. The only good match on this card was the main event of VENY vs. Edith Surreal, which was a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of the card even if it wasn't extraordinary or anything. Outside of the matches being bad, the venue design itself was pretty generic and low-rent involving black curtains hung up with various LGBT flags draped around, the commentary team was inexperienced and didn't have access to the wrestlers' pronouns from the promoter which resulted in misgendering to the point one of the commentators got off the booth out of courtesy to the workers and audience. The biggest one, however, is that the promoter (which leading up to the event was already getting flak for making odd, very intrusive tweets about VENY staying at her house, ) seemingly didn't pay any of the talent, from the referees to the graphic designers to the wrestlers themselves while having their mother pay for most of the show, which has resulted in almost everybody involved with the show seeking payment, travel, and temporary housing from other talent/secondary management on the show. An absolute sloppy shindie show ran by an incompetent promoter."
[0.0] "This is a bit personal due to everything going around this event but an event where nobody got paid and my sponsorship money was stolen gets a FAT fucking 0."
[1.0] "What a disaster. Let's break it down into a few categories: 1) Production. I suppose I've seen worse-produced shows in the sense that Wrestle Queerdom never completely lost the feed and had multiple camera angles, but the overall vibe (missed music cues, simple things like forgetting to ring the bell, and the AWFUL commentary team that featured constant sexual innuendo in addition to having a commentator REMOVED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SHOW) was uncomfortable and borderline unsettling. I imagine being there in person would've been better as the audience seemed to be supportive. 2) Theme/gimmick/surrounding circumstances. Okay, here's the deal: I love pro wrestling and I love that pro wrestling is about as supportive and accepting of trans people as any other special interest hobby. Taking ASUKA/Veny for example -- a meaningful percentage of Japanese citizens consider being trans to be a mental illness, and yet she gets constant bookings and is a pushed act in multiple promotions. With that being said, what did queer people do to deserve this show-runner? From the terrifying voice recording of Veny in her house ("I think I killed Veny...") to the revelation that SHE PLANNED ON THE PROFITS OF THE SHOW FOR HERSELF until that voice recording went viral, I just can't get over the fact that a competent person in charge could have put together something that didn't leave such a bad taste in people's mouth. The main talking point going into your show shouldn't be "Is Veny safe? "! Also, like, why did one of the commentators feel the need to perpetuate the stereotype that LGBTQ+ people are just, like, sex-crazed people with that always on their minds? I feel bad for the talent because there is a genuine and necessary spot in wrestling for queer and specifically trans people, but this spot is so far away from the bare minimum expectation that it just really made me sad. 3) The wrestling. Everything I said above could be forgiven if this ended up being a great wrestling show. But it didn't. It wasn't good or even passable. The wrestling ranged from AWFUL (Mercer/Drifter, the battle royal) to decent at best (Veny/Surreal, the one match that I would even come close to recommending from the show). Shea McCoy can do things but her opponent couldn't. Gisele Shaw carried Candy Lee away from a complete disaster. Kidd Bandit and Don't Die Miles had about 90 seconds of cool action interspersed between an impossibly long 17 minutes. Sonny Kiss proved why he's not on AEW TV by being outperformed by Shaw against the same opponent. Cherrill vs. Joan Jenson was ostensibly comedy, I guess, but I don't know who would've laughed at it. I love that Surreal comes out to that incredible Grimes song but despite some athletic potential even she isn't anywhere near the level of Veny. Overall, this show is between a 1 or a 2 for me. As a wrestling show, it's a 2, but all the frustrating surrounding circumstances bring it down. Queer wrestling deserves better."
