Pro wrestling is many things to many different people, yet it still struggles with its own internal generational battles. Arguments about increased athleticism, altered ring psychology and wrestling’s framing as sport or art (spoiler: it’s both) seem to be endless even as pro wrestling’s evolution opens it to new audiences.

One wrestler who understands that power is MV Young. Young made his name on countless indies throughout the northeast U.S. before gaining recognition in other parts of the country, but Brooklyn, N.Y. is where he is spearheading his own vision of wrestling’s next stage of appeal. Young is one-third of the mind behind Uncanny Attractions, a wrestling company that marries the all to similar worlds of wrestling and drag.

For Young, the pairing makes all the sense in the world. To him, wrestling is just another form of nightlife. “I think that professional wrestling is nightlife in the same way the drag is,” Young told Outsports. “I feel like the drag fans that come to the wrestling shows like the wrestling and then vice versa.”

Uncanny Attractions is set to hold their third Drags and Dropkicks event in Tampa, FL on April 2, but Young is looking to pair pro wrestling with another artistic form of nightlife oozing in personality and expression before making his way to FL: fashion.

On Feb. 6, Young will pair New York Fashion Week with Brooklyn’s burgeoning no ring deathmatch scene for MV Young’s NY Fashion Week No Ring Deathmatch Extravaganza. The project speaks to the former model’s passion for fashion with the chaos and adrenaline of no rules bar fights. “I think it’s a spectacle in the same way that fashion is … I love putting these two juxtapositions of worlds together and seeing how everyone treats it,” Young said.

Aside from Young’s own love for the no-ring, deathmatch-style of wrestling, he believes that the pair will expose new audiences to the spectacle of pro wrestling similar to what he’s seen happen at Uncanny Attractions shows. “I’m really curious to see how the fashion side of the world is going to accept wrestling. I hope with open arms,” Young said.

“You’re going to have a lot of fashion people in that part of Brooklyn… I feel like it’s going to be a really positive thing. I feel like it’s going to lead into bigger things and it’s going to open the eyes of fashion people that wouldn’t give wrestling a second look and turn them on to wrestling, which is really what I want to do; get new fans,” Young told Outsports.

Blood on the runway could take on a completely new connotation on Feb. 6, but the wrestling/fashion hybrid is sure to be as bombastic as the mind behind it.

MV Young’s NY Fashion Week No Ring Deathmatch Extravaganza takes place on Feb. 6 in Brooklyn, N.Y. and Uncanny Attractions: Drags and Dropkicks Vol. 3 rocks Tampa, FL on April 2.

For the full interview with MV Young, check out the latest episode of LGBT In The Ring podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, by searching for “Outsports.”

https://megaphone.link/VMP5315244978