DEFY produces top tier talent in the Pacific NW wrestling scene

It’s a Saturday afternoon, and the Central District's Washington Hall is about to get loud.

The century-old building has held countless performers throughout Seattle's history. Jimi Hendrix once played here. Just a few feet away from that stage, a wrestling ring now dominates the center of the room.

We’re a couple hours out from an event put on by the independent wrestling promoter DEFY. Tonight’s show is called “Violent Minds,” and athletes are still warming up. Men and women in workout gear are in the ring, doing a kind of shadow-boxing: moving in slow motion through flips, submission holds, and throws. It's almost like they’re underwater.

“I always say that watching people plan professional wrestling might be the funniest looking thing in the world, because they're doing like, weird moves. You're like, 'What are these people possibly doing?'” said Nicole Matthews, a featured wrestler at the night's event.

It’s rare for the media to get a behind-the-scenes look at this planning process. It breaks a pro-wrestling industry tradition known as “kayfabe,” the practice of staying in character and keeping the audience in suspense. Sure, this is scripted combat — but you don’t want to spoil the fun of surprise.

Nicole is open about the fact that she is a performer, as well as an athlete.

"Kayfabe [is] where you pretended to real to the fans," Matthews said. "But like, you can't really do that without insulting people's intelligence anymore, right? But you know, there's still a couple of secrets you don't want to reveal, and there's an art to putting together matches."

It's that kind of transgressive attitude that gives local independent wrestling promotions a more grown up feel than the national brands. They can experiment with convention more than industry giants.

The founders of DEFY Wrestling have likened their style of shows to alternative rock versus the pop rock of World Wrestling Entertainment.

We were able to spend some time with Nicole Matthews backstage, as she was preparing for the night's matches. She told us what drew her to become a wrestler in the first place.

"Honestly, it's just the combination of the athletic nature of it, and just the theatrics as well," she confides. "I always heard people refer to wrestling as musical theater for athletes."

The theatrics are the side Matthews really leans into. She is a "Heel" after all. The wrestler that audiences boo and hiss at. And she says that when people boo, she knows she's doing her job well.

"It's amazing," Matthews said. "Nothing gives me more joy than a arena full of people booing me. It's just such a good feeling."

Outside of the ring, Matthews is a thoughtful and patient guide to the intricacies of her choreographed sport.

Inside the ring? She’s the heel, the rogue, the villain. Her signature finishing moves reflect that.

"One's called a 'Roll the Dice,' which is, I grab them from behind and plant them on their face," Matthews said. "So I'm gonna do whatever works, you know. And sometimes I roll them up and put my feet on the rope, because I don't mind cheating."

"Because you're a bad guy?"

"Because I'm a bad guy Exactly."

Not long ago, DEFY's version of professional wrestling would have been nearly impossible in Washington state. Fees and regulations governing “theatrical wrestling” events put independent wrestling — anything smaller than stadium or arena shows — in a full nelson for much of the 1990s and 2000s.

Jim Perry helped lobby for a law to change that. He left a job as a creative director at an advertising agency to co-found DEFY in 2017.

"The laws were set up with the Department of Licensing, that if you didn't have a huge 20'x20' ring, and they didn't have all this space between you and the fans, essentially the exact corporate footprint of one of those big events: Get out of town, you can't run here."

Perry and his partners teamed together with the Department of Licensing to propose new laws that would actually allow independent wrestling to work in the state. Seven years later, they're in Washington Hall, with a completely new license for theatrical wrestling.

Perry also says that the audience is changing.

"It turns out, it's a lot of people like you and me," he said. "We like to tell stories, we like to get into those stories. People find that with this too, because of those layers, and because of the nuance storytelling the wrestling provides."

Perry and his business partners are setting their sights on a rarely achieved audience: the Venn diagram of pro-wrestling fans, and KUOW sustaining members.

In recent years, DEFY has become a proving ground for top-tier wrestling talent. Some DEFY athletes have signed with All Elite Wrestling, which reaches a national television audience and competes for fans with World Wrestling Entertainment.

One of those success stories is local wrestling prodigy Nick Wayne. He was picked up by All Elite Wrestling last year and made his debut at an All Elite Wrestling event in July, two days after turning 18.

"DEFY is a place that helped me grow so much as a professional wrestler and as a human," Wayne told Soundside. "I've spent so many years here just watching or wrestling here, and done some amazing things in this building. A lot of these people are my family. So I want to be here and still support them."

As the action picks up in Washington Hall, Mathews — now clad in black boots and a glittering red and black unitard — saunters into the ring and sizes up her challenger: Masha Slamovich.

For a while, it looks like Masha’s fight. She executes a flying heel kick and throws Matthews to the mat. A row of fans have to clear their seats as the women bring the fight over the ropes into the audience. You get the feeling that the referee is just for show.

But Matthews isn’t fazed. She grins and struts for the audience between moves.

It’s 15 minutes of over-the-top moves and mean-mugging. And in the end, Matthews gets the three-count and is announced as the winner of the match.

But ... she cheated!

Matthews did exactly what she said she would do. She broke the rules. Put her feet on the ropes, and rolled Masha Slamovich into a pin. You know, like a bad guy would.

DEFY's next event is at the end of the month, back at Washington Hall with "Last King."

And Matthews? She'll be back in the DEFY ring in October when she's aiming to take the belt.

Listen to Soundside’s full conversation with Nicole Matthews & Jim Perry by clicking the play icon at the top of this story.