Hold for Impact

This series documents the raw, chaotic world of Vancouver’s underground pro wrestling scene—where violence is performance, identity is fluid, and the ring becomes a stage for something far more personal than spectacle.

Set within Vancouver’s independent wrestling scene, this photographic series documents a frenzied subculture where performance, physicality, and self-invention converge. 

This series documents the raw, chaotic world of Vancouver’s underground pro wrestling scene. Where violence is performance, identity is fluid, and the ring becomes a stage for something far more personal than spectacle. I wanted to be close enough to feel the heat and momentum but far enough to witness what lingers behind the curtain.

Visually, the work is driven by a deliberate tension between stillness and chaos. A mix of portraiture and high-octane action, the images carry a jagged rhythm flashing between punch, tenderness, absurdity, and intimacy.

The strength of the series comes from this contrast, which matches the ring-side intensity against the liminal spaces that surround it.

Backstage, I witnessed the trust and care shared between competitors. Opponents would collaborate, figuring out the combinations and sequences that would build towards a pre-destine result. The unguarded pre-fight rituals blend into quiet interactions, surrounded by overlooked objects that shape these moments. These scenes are an understated ethnography, bathed in a sense of muted calm that is just moments away from being shattered.

This is a project not only about performance but also about transformation. Wrestling is often seen as fixed, with binary identities of hero and villain. What I discovered was something far more fluid. I learned how characters are born during their training and evolve throughout their careers. Wrestlers might start as a ‘heel’ (a villain) or a ‘face’ (a hero), though this identity can arc unexpectedly, shaped either by crowd reaction, personal emotion, or the collective narrative.

Costume and make-up are integral to these identities. Wrestlers borrow from a broad and layered canon—comics, Mortal Kombat, punk, heavy metal, gothic subcultures, and wrestling legends. With these influences, they build personas that extend their own fantasies about themselves.

Ultimately, the series showcases wrestling’s fringe spectacle as an axis of identity, showmanship, and storytelling. In the ring, nothing is static.