Few would argue that MLW faction the Dynasty is one of the premier factions in professional wrestling today. Since debuting for Major League Wrestling just over a year ago, the group’s main trio of Alexander Hammerstone, Richard Holliday and Maxwell Jacob Friedman has not only consistently been one of the most entertaining pieces of MLW’s programming over the past year, but one of it’s most dominant inside the squared circle. From July until November, the duo of MJF and Holliday held the MLW Tag Team Championships for a total of 119 days, while Hammerstone became the inaugural MLW National Openweight Champion, holding the title for 326 days and counting.

Recently, Hammerstone joined me to discuss working with the Dynasty, as well as how MJF’s departure from Major League Wrestling will impact the faction moving forward.

How the Dynasty has impacted his career:

“The thing with Max is Max is one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met in wrestling. I still get caught up sometimes in the things I think are cool in the moment, or I get married to an idea that I want to do this thing. Max is always, always, always able to step back and see the bigger picture. Sometimes, people might say ‘oh, what he did here was boring,’ because they look at this one thing. In reality, Max is one of the most over wrestlers in the world right now. So if you try to judge this one thing he did and say ‘oh, this match was lame,’ or ‘this segment was boring,’ or ‘that thing he said wasn’t this,’ because he’s not trying to do the coolest thing every single time. He’s working on the bigger picture.”

“He’s really taught me to step back and view things for the bigger picture sometimes. Some wrestlers are so concerned with getting this move in (during) a match, and it’s like, ‘why? Why are you doing that?’ Yeah, you’ll have a cool .gif you can put on Twitter, but that’s not going to get you the $100,000 contract. Max was always able to see that bigger picture.”

“Holliday, he’s such a good character. He’s such a good promo guy. The thing with him is when we first started the Dynasty, he wasn’t getting the fair shake. It was kind of like me and Max were going back-and-forth, and Holliday was just there if you watch the very early Dynasty stuff. The first couple episodes and promos that we did, they almost didn’t give Richard speaking lines. I just kept trying to get him to squeeze in and take his share.”

“Like I said earlier, once he started talking, they realized how good he was, and they gave him more and more and more. I’ve just learned to be more of a spontaneous character being around Holliday. As much as people might think we do multiple takes of promos or sit there and decide what’s going to be funny, some of our most iconic Dynasty lines are just off the cuff, because we’re just playing off of each other. Very, very seldom do we go ‘ooh, let’s re-shoot that.’ It’s usually ‘that was great! Let’s take that.’ He’s taught me how to be a character in the moment a lot better.

”

How MJF’s departure will affect the Dynasty:

“Obviously, to an extent, Max had a lot of eyes on him and a lot of people with the perception he is what he is just because he’s on a competitors show. So, there’s some people who were watching specifically for him and being like ‘ooh, he’s the star, and these guys are with him.’ I do think MLW and just the way we made sure we came across from the get-go was very much (that) we stood out in our own way.”

“When the Dynasty first started, I was concerned about it hindering me in that regard (of) ‘is this going to steal my thunder (and) steal my spotlight?’ I’ll be honest. I’m a selfish guy. I want the biggest piece of the pie.

I want to stand out, I want to be the top guy in the company. But as we got rolling, I didn’t feel that at all. I didn’t feel like it was chaining me down, I didn’t feel like it was holding me back. I know we were a group faction, but I feel like we all found our ways to stand out on our own.

”

“With Max gone, I think to some fans the perception might be me standing out more, but that’s all it is. I don’t think it’s anything other than fans are going to perceive things the way they perceive them. The way it is is I’ve been a singles champion having big-time singles matches and big-time main events for months now, so regardless of Max’s position, it is what it is.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used. 

The Women’s Evolution continues to be one of the most talked-about subjects in professional wrestling today. Whatever your opinion on the subject may be, it’s certainly one that inspires debate regardless of the circumstances it’s brought up under.

Recently, Femmes Fatales Champion Alexia Nicole joined me to discuss her feelings on the origins of the Women’s Evolution and the origins of her nickname among other topics.

How the Women’s Evolution started on the independent scene:

“When I started training, part of the reason I started training was because I’d watch TV and the Diva’s matches would be five-minute pillow fight matches. I didn’t like that, personally, and then when I started training I realized wow, there’s these really great female wrestlers working everywhere. It was kind of fun to see because as I started wrestling more, you saw Shimmer becoming a bigger deal, Rise started, Shine started. All of these women’s promotions started and became huge in Japan. The Knockouts in Impact, you just saw them getting better and better. Literally everywhere started having great women’s matches and really showcasing them. I honestly feel that WWE was the last place to really do it, and when they did it, they just came out – on NXT, they were using the women, but I remember one night on RAW Stephanie McMahon came out saying ‘this is the Women’s Evolution!’ And I’m like, if you just say it, it doesn’t mean anything. Show me it, don’t just tell me it’s happening.

I want to see it. I don’t want to be forced into thinking this is going to happen.”

“I was excited for them to be brought up because I was a fan of all three of them, but to just flat-out tell me ‘we’re starting an evolution now,’ don’t tell me. I don’t want teams going after each other. I just want good matches!”

The origins of the nickname “The Bubblegum Princess”

“It was at a Smash show. I chew gum when I’m nervous, or, I used to at least. Now, it’s just I do it because I have to. I just chewed it out of habit so that I wouldn’t grind my teeth. I was at a Smash show, I was backstage, I was supposed to cut a promo. I was chewing bubblegum at that time, so I just used it in the promo because I was really bad at promos at that time.

It went over really well, I used it in my match right after that. I saw the pictures after, (and) people thought it was the coolest thing for some reason. So, I was like ‘okay, I can roll with this. This works,’ and it’s just really evolved over time into something that I’m actually really comfortable with doing.

”

Differences between working adult crowds versus kid-friendly shows:

“It’s so funny – there will be times where I’ll wrestle a really ‘adult’ show on one day, and then go to a super kid-friendly show the next day and I’ll really have to think about ‘oh god, should I wear this gear? Should I not wear this gear?’ If I’m a heel, I really have to tell myself to not swear, and I always still let one out by accident.”

“I don’t think there’s one I prefer; I just like when fans are really into the show. There’s definitely a couple of promotions that I’ve worked for that are great promotions, the locker room’s fantastic, you can have these great matches, but the fans just do not care no matter what. I hate it so much, because why would you spend your money to come to a show to not make noise?”

“I love working different types of shows, but the one thing I hate doing is working a show where nobody cares. Whether it’s because they’re not wrestling fans or they don’t get it – and that also comes with, again, adjusting your style. If they’re not wrestling fans, don’t do crazy shit. If you see they’re not biting for the hokey stuff, or they’re not biting for the crazy shit, change it up. But, there’s definitely been shows that I’ve been on where all of those things have been tried and nobody cares.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.

Alicia Atout is one of, if not the premier interviewers in the professional wrestling scene today. Since founding AMBY in 2013, Atout has become a household name in both pro wrestling and music for her in-depth interviews and conversational approach to interviewing. It’s not only earned her the opportunity to interview some of wrestling’s top stars but work in a backstage capacity with Impact! Wrestling, AEW, and, currently, Major League Wrestling.

Recently, Atout joined me to discuss how she’s passing the time through the COVID-19 pandemic, binge-watching Tiger King, who inspires her, and more.

On her upcoming interviews:

“So, there have been a lot. Today (March 25), I recently, like an hour ago spoke to Session Moth Martina, I have TJP, Melina, and Kylie Rae coming on today, so that’s going to be a really stacked and fun day. Yesterday was super busy; recently I had Chelsea Green on, Francine, Danhausen, Mayra Dias Gomez, like, it was really busy. And the thing is, trying to line all these up, I don’t know why, but I had like a home run yesterday! Everybody was just like ‘this is the time I’m free, this is the time,’ and it was just flawless. I also had Chris Bey on, Killer Kelly, I did some music – I had the Black Dahlia Murder on, so like it’s just been a lot.

But, it’s kept my mind off all the craziness, so there’s that.”

Keeping busy during the COVID-19 pandemic:

“So, I’ve been playing a lot of Galaga, I’ve got two handheld games, so I’ve been playing that a ton. The last three, four days has just been research and interviews, I haven’t really done much else. Around 7:30 I’ll clock out from the interviewing, I’ll chill with my family, we’ll watch some television together.

“I binge-watched Tiger King, which is some crazy s**t! It’s the most bizarre show I’ve ever seen! It’s got to do with big cats, zoos, animal rights, polygamy, murder. It is weird, but it is really intriguing. I’ve watched the whole season, I think it was seven episodes, an hour-long each, in a day and a half.

”

Who inspires her outside of wrestling:

“A lot of that comes down to my family because if it weren’t for them pushing me and seeing a passion and kind of igniting it and keeping me on the go, I don’t know where I would be. They’ve helped me a lot, especially when I first started with the music stuff, so definitely my parents. My sister right now, she’s a nurse so seeing, especially lately with the Coronavirus going on, seeing her clock into work every single day, being one of those health professionals out there right now really helping people, that’s been super inspiring to me. It kind of makes me think if she can go in every day and see the sadness and hurt and pain and push through and still help people, not let that get to her, whatever I’m dealing with, (I) can push through too.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.

Alicia Atout is one of, if not the premier interviewers in the professional wrestling scene today. Since founding AMBY in 2013, Atout has become a household name in both pro wrestling and music for her in-depth interviews and conversational approach to interviewing. It’s not only earned her the opportunity to interview some of wrestling’s top stars but work in a backstage capacity with Impact! Wrestling, AEW, and, currently, Major League Wrestling.

Recently, Atout joined me to discuss her interview prep, as well as her personal favourite interviewers. She also chatted with us about developing her acting skills as a backstage interviewer.

Researching her interviewees:

“Before interviews, I always try to research just to know what’s going on with people. Like, I’m sure you know this, (but) just so you’re on top of what they’ve been up to, if there’s anything you really should cover, anything they want to promote, too.

So, I do a decent amount of research, probably about like an hour, hour and a half per guest, so I always try to sneak that in the day before so it’s fresh in my mind as well.”

“You can know someone inside and out, but at the same time when you’re doing five interviews in one day, it’s so easy to mix up who’s been where, you know what I mean, like the little things like who likes Doritos over Cheetos or whatever it might be. There’s a decent amount of prep that goes into it, and at the same time, if it’s a guest that I’ve had on for like three times, like Chelsea Green, we follow each other, we keep up with what each other has been up to, so with her, it’s like ‘okay, I want to talk about blank, blank and blank, here are bullet points, let’s just go into it and have a conversation.’ So, it differs on the guest, it differs on how many times I’ve spoken to them and my relationship with them, but I try to go in with some kind of baseline to guide everything through.”

Developing her acting skills as a backstage interviewer:

“Now that I get to actually act off of stuff and have more fun with it and really play off of all the guys I’m in the locker room with, it’s a blast. As far as kind of training for it, I think it’s just one of those things I’ve adapted really naturally and luckily I just didn’t suck at, (because) when I was first told ‘yeah, there’s going to be more acting,’ or ‘you have to react to this a certain way, you have to get angry, or sad,’ I’m like ‘oh, gosh, I don’t know how to do this.’ Literally, the word that ran through my mind was ‘ahh, shit.’ Luckily, it just kind of came naturally and when it comes to that locker room, I feel very comfortable with everybody, so I also don’t feel like if you do mess up, or if they mess up, no one’s judging each other in that sense, which is really nice to have.”

“It was very organic as far as the acting goes. Luckily I was able to pick it up pretty easily, and I don’t really get anyone really saying anything negative about that aspect of my job, which makes me so happy because probably in the three years I’ve been doing wrestling stuff, what I was definitely most nervous for.”

Which interviewers she enjoys watching:

“It’s interesting, because when I first started there weren’t a lot of people I watched, simply because I wanted to craft my own style. Because I end up doing all the research, I find when I watch other people interview, I don’t really discover too many things that are new about a person. So, I don’t know.”

“The only real people that I’ll tune in to – and I’ve seen (Chris) Van Vliet’s stuff for research, and we interviewed each other and it was so much fun to do, but I’ll watch Renee Young’s stuff once in a while; having reruns on TV and that kind of stuff, because I think her approach is very similar to (mine) where it’s just you sit down, you shoot the breeze with someone and that’s that. Otherwise, it’d just be old Mean Gene promos whenever those come on, because they’re just so fun and so full of attitude and frustration, and I just think that he’s the best.

“

“Those are a couple, but it’s weird – as an interviewer, I don’t go down that interview rabbit hole. I think it’s maybe because I’m so consumed with it myself, I just don’t care as much to listen to other people do it. I don’t mean that as a dig whatsoever, there’s so many people who are good at it, (but) for me it’s like, ‘okay, I’ve heard so many people answer these questions, I’ve already heard them answer these questions, I’m just going to step away,’ and that’s when I’ll try to get in my TV time or something like that.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.