The Full Queer, Activist Wrestlers Gripping the Bay

The Bay Area has a queer pro wrestling team and they’re awesome. The Full Queer (FQ) is here and ready to wrestle, soar, slam, and suplex as a form of performance art, activism, and fight for rights. Marco Mayur began the team in 2021 hoping to create spaces in wrestling that explicitly focus on LGBTQ+ performers. They will be at Armistice Brewing Company on Sunday June 4th.

Ellie D, Rosie Fingers and Lara Frazier show off their wrestling skills.
All Photography by Vita Hewitt

I met Rosie Fingers at the Joy on Joice Festival in Chinatown a few weeks ago. I had covered myself in gold body paint and was about to battle with the artist Midori who was playing Godzilla. Rosie informed me that she was both a Godzilla enthusiast and a wrestler. She offered to teach me a few moves. I quickly found myself in a headlock and facing a very angry little white dog. Afterward, I would learn her name was Mabel.

Rosie and Mabel prepare for battle.

Rosie and Mabel were my Gateway to the Full Queer Wrestling team. I had to know more. Luckily for me they agreed to show me some of their fantastic skills. On a cold spring afternoon I met Rosie along with Lara Frazier, Ellie D, Jackie Orange, Dingle Dingledome Jr., and Lex Devine in Dolores Park. There were a lot of laughs, a few smackdowns, and one epic arm wrestling match. Meet some of the members of the Full Queer wrestling team.

Rosie Fingers, Ellie D, Dingle Dingledome jr., and Lara Frazier arm wrestle as Lex Devine and Jackie Orange cheer them on.

Rosie Fingers (she/her) has a background in art and activism. I wonder aloud how much wrestling hurts. In response, Rosie shrugs and says, “I was an activist. When you’ve taken a few non-lethals, taking a body slam is like a walk in the park.” I nod like I know what she’s talking about. She continues, “You can never allow your body to be seduced by the nostalgia of the time before you knew pain.”

Full Queer says that they are “wrestling for rights”. Rosie clarifies this for me. “Many of us come to Full Queer with experience as community organizers. We apply those lessons in collaborative community-building wherever we can.” She adds “All FQ events are all ages; we are relentless challengers to the notion that queerness and queer inclusivity is antithetical to “family friendly” spaces.”

Lara Frazier and Dingle Dingledome posing with flair. Frazier is a former ballerina.

In addition to FQ’s annual shows at the Folsom and Bearrison Street Fairs they also perform quarterly at Armistice Brewing Company. The team has trained in wrestling schools and dojos. “Every show is a mixtape of knowledge and techniques learned across time and space.”

With such a wide berth of skills and political activism I ask why each of them chose wrestling.

Rosie Fingers combined her background in activism and art into wrestling.

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“Wrestling is my protest art. We are all going through things that feel as insurmountable as getting up from a flying elbow drop or gutwrench power bomb. If I get up, you can get up too. Our victory is in our resilience.” – Rosie Fingers (she/her)

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Ellie D gave good snarl.

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“I’d gone through life being told that I was too big and loud, that I should make myself smaller — but pro wrestling values those parts of me and as given me a newfound joy and comfort in being myself.” – Ellie D (she/her)

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Jackie Orange and Lex Devine skipped through the rainbow archway in Delores Park.

“I don’t wrestle, but I want to produce wrestling because I’ve always felt constrained by other people’s expectations, and wrestling is the only way to tell the stories I want to tell because it demands so much buy-in from the viewers and in doing so creates opportunities that don’t exist in other media.” – Lex Devine (he/him)

Lara Frazier smiled for the camera as Rosie and Ellie D did apparently violent things in the background.

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“I wrestle because it’s the one time I can authentically be my over-the-top self and get cheered for it.” – Lara Frazier (they/them)

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Buy tickets to their June 4th Event at Armistice Brewing Company here

Follow FULL QUEER PRO WRESTLING here: @fullqueer