Circle 6 isn’t just a wrestling promotion—it’s a movement. A gritty subculture carved from chaos. It’s where live music collides with raw, violent and blood-soaked storytelling. And where wrestling fans alike claw their way out of the boredom of their dull lives for one night of pure, unapologetic mayhem.
This summer, Circle 6 joined forces with New Fear City for the Great American Trash tour—a rowdy, no-holds barred pilgrimage of punk, pain and pure deathmatch wrestling, tearing through cities across the U.S. I stepped into the fiery pit of Circle 6’s Brooklyn stop ready to get blood on my boots—well, sneakers. And trust me, I didn’t leave disappointed.
But behind the blood, beer cans and broken glass is a vision stitched together by two men who knew wrestling needed to get feral again. At the height of the pandemic, Mike Gevorgian and Jonathan Bowles— best known as JB, put their heads together, and in March 2022, birthed their own version of Dante’s Inferno. I got the chance to sit down with JB, pick his brain and dive headfirst into his vision for wrestling.
What I found was a mind hell-bent on ripping up the rulebook and setting the wrestling world ablaze—one bar fight at a time.
JB didn’t hold back when I asked about how it all started. “I’ve been working in and out of the wrestling world ever since 2014,” he said, reflecting on the early days. “But just mostly on the merchandise side of things. And then eventually, you know, a lot of things started taking off—doing great.” He explained that he and Mike always toyed with the idea of running their own shows, but they couldn’t ignore how poorly people were treated in the business. “People [were] not getting paid, you know? These guys are out there, putting on a great show, putting their bodies on the line and they are being treated very poorly, not paid well, and not given good accommodations. At the end of the day, it was not fun.” The disappointment in his voice said it all. But with every problem is a solution and this new company was going to be an answer to what was wrong in the business. “And, we were in a place where it’s like, ‘All right, we have the opportunity to do our own thing now,’” JB said. “‘So we might as well do it. And if we’re going to do it, let’s make sure that we do it in a way that is good for everybody.’ You know, putting the talent first— putting the wrestlers first. We just wanted to do something really, really different. That’s kind of how it all started.”
JB walked me through how Circle 6 evolved from carnage and mayhem to what he calls an “immersive, live-action experience.”
“When Circle 6 first started, there were other people involved and it was very deathmatch heavy. And we didn’t do any no ring shows. They were all in-ring shows and a lot of deathmatches, a lot of blood and guts. And about, a year or so into it, I was like, ‘You know what, I think we kind of need to differentiate ourselves a little bit. This is not working.’ Deathmatch has its place, but it’s not marketable on a large scale,” JB explained.
“And so I had heard of Casanova Valentine quite a bit. And that is the first thing that sparked it in my mind. We had an opportunity with a new bar in LA that was opening up. And they’re like, ‘yeah, we’d really love to do some wrestling stuff.’ And so really the only thing that we could do at that time was stream our pay-per-views and we could have watch parties and stuff. And then, we realized, ‘Man, who is going to come at three o’clock in the afternoon on a Friday or Saturday,’” he joked.
He revealed that this is when the idea of incorporating bar fights set in. “So I went back to the bar and I said, ‘Would you guys let us do bar fights here, like wrestling without the ring?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I don’t care. You guys do whatever you want to do.’ And so knowing that Valentine is the king of that stuff— king of the no ring deathmatch, I reached out to him and I said, ‘Cas, we have this opportunity here at the bar. I want to start a no ring branch of Circle 6.’ And I had the name in mind already, Barroom Blitz. And we just booked the first one. And I’m not going to lie, just from that first one, we’re off to the races. It just felt right. It felt great. And it really, really took off. And so that was something that I think really was pivotal for Circle 6.”
From there, JB took over the creative side of everything, inspired to give fans an experience that they’ll never forget.
“I started making all the decisions because it was very obvious what was working and what was not working. And I referred to it as a live action immersive experience. I don’t like to use the term wrestling because even though there are a lot of wrestling fans with the general population, if you say wrestling, their immediate reaction is like, ‘Oh, that stuff’s fake.’ Or ‘I used to watch that when I was a kid.’ And there is this barrier —it’s never going to be universally embraced, even though it is taken off quite a bit more now. And I think that it’ll probably be more successful than it’s ever been. But just from a perspective of being in Los Angeles, being in Hollywood, it’s just not cool. So how do we make this cool? How do we make this something that people want to go to?”
He didn’t mince words about the indie scene — and made it clear he wanted to revive one of WWF’s OG secrets: mixing wrestling with music.
“Honestly, if you go to a lot of indie wrestling shows, it’s a bunch of guys, there’s no hot girls. And people, they go, sit, cheer, clap and then they go back into their mom’s basement, you know? That’s not what we wanted. We wanted nightlife. We wanted this to be the place to be. And so borrowing from, you know, WWF’s original plan, which was when they brought in rock and roll to wrestling. And we leaned really heavy into music, really heavy into a nightlife type of vibe. And I just find that with the no ring stuff, it immediately takes the argument out [wrestling being fake] of people’s minds. It takes that wall down, that defense that people have, because if the fight is happening this close to you, it’s a lot harder to say, ‘oh, that shit’s fake. This is boring.’ And so I always refer to the movie Roadhouse, the original one with Patrick Swayze and the new one with Jake Gyllenhaal and Conor McGregor. This is you are in a live action Roadhouse bar fight type of environment.”
JB’s vision sounded wild on paper—but living it? That’s a whole different beast. Working alongside these men who pour so much into this brand is exactly the energy I love to match. I got to see the live-action Roadhouse he described, up close and personal. Here’s what went down: From the moment I walked in the venue, the vibe was pure, controlled chaos— and right there to greet me was Shaun Hoff, the plug, the vibe curator, the man who knows everybody worth knowing. Shaun made sure I felt right at home—and by ‘home,’ I mean smack in the middle of the madness. I was that girl—front and center, sneakers planted right where the fists were flying and the night was just getting started.
The first match of the night set the tone real quick: Su Yung versus Hot Dog Starkes. Now, I’ve seen plenty of Su’s matches online, but watching? Whew—she’s a real baddie. Entertainment is honestly an understatement. Hot Dog even brought his son—Baby Hot Dog— who ended up battered and abused by Su like a prop in a horror movie. And the weapons? A food grater, some random kitchen utensils, a frying pan—it was like an episode of Chopped gone completely unhinged. Next up was Oni King versus AJ Gray—who’s known as one of the hardest strikers in the business. These two men came in with something to prove and you could feel it in every punch and chop. Before long, they took the fight outside—like the walls couldn’t hold them in—trading shots in the open air. Everyone in that crowd felt every single hit. Then there was the Great American Gauntlet match—pure mayhem with a side of… a conga line? Listen, I’ve been to quite a few wrestling shows, but i’d never seen a conga line break out during the middle of a match until that day. And honestly, I lived for it. The Gauntlet featured CPA, Mouse, Ron Voyage, Casanova Valentine and — look, there were a few more, but my brain was too busy processing the conga line to keep track. The prize? A shot to cash in for a title held by another wrestler. Casanova Valentine won it and didn’t waste a second — he cashed in that same night. And then came the Circle 6 World Championship match: the challenger Bam Sullivan versus the champ, ‘The Judge‘ Joe Dred. This one got bloody quick—light tubes came out like party favors, and before long the bar floor was littered with shards of fluorescent bulbs, splintered door fragments, and Bam’s dreams of taking the title. My first in-person deathmatch was everything I knew it would be — raw, gory and filled with adrenaline. Exactly what I came for. Finally, it was time for the main event—the final showdown for the No-Ring Deathmatch World Championship: the challenger, Matthew Justice, versus the champ, Gabriel Skye. I didn’t think this match could top the brutality of the last face off… but I was wrong. Ladders, chairs, a little outside brawl for good measure, and the occasional beer break kept the fans engaged as these two fought to the bitter end. And yeah, Gabriel won the battle—but he lost the war. Kit Osbourne and Casanova Valentine attacked him right after, with Casanova cashing in his Gauntlet prize and walking out of brooklyn as the new No-Ring Deathmatch World Champion.
If the night proved anything, it’s that JB’s vision isn’t just talk—it’s a reality. From the wild matches to the packed bar to the live music from local bands Bazooka and Butthole University (grow up, y’all!), Circle 6 felt less like a wrestling show and more like interactive experience he dreamt of creating. JB always knew the music mattered just as much as the mayhem. “If people are going to go to a bar, go to a club, there’s going to be music. And I just found that if you leave it quiet during the fights, it just makes it that much harder for the people to connect,” he expressed. “Now, at first, everybody — especially the wrestlers — were like, ‘wait, what?’ Because they felt like it was distracting people from the match. But if they can really get into it and they can move with it and play along with it, then it just makes all the difference in the world, you know? That’s another level of possible connection with people. And we actually see, a lot of times, it’ll be maybe the crowd is a little bit more there for the bands, and then sometimes they’re there for the wrestlers. But by the end of the night, everybody’s kind of, into the whole thing.”
It’s a gamble —betting on the vibe instead of just the headliners. But Circle 6 is proving that its chaos, community, and brand-first energy can stand on their own. When asked about how he balances star power with homegrown talent, JB made it clear that building the brand always comes first.
“I’m going to be honest, it’s really easy to fall into that — like, ‘oh, if I book this person, I know we’ll sell a bunch of tickets’. But that comes with a price tag. And if they’re not there, then you’re not selling any tickets. We’ve really had to slowly grow into having the brand be more known than the wrestlers. But then when you have a brand that everybody wants to be a part of, then you can bring in a big name person — like Matt Riddle. There’s all kinds of people that we would love to work with. I mean, one of my secret goals is to — it’s not a secret — but like, little side quests, I want to do one of these with Jeff Hardy. I want his band to play and for him to fight,” he laughs. “Yeah, it’d be awesome, you know? It’s more important that the brand is over without big names, just because, big names are not always available. So I definitely prefer to build, you know, stars from the inside out.“
But it’s not just JB who believes in the havoc-first, brand-over-names approach—the wrestlers feel it too. As Circle 6 World Champion Joe Dred put it:
Wrestling for Circle 6 isn’t like wrestling anywhere else. With no ropes, no rules — just raw, unfiltered chaos. Barroom Blitz forces you to fight with nothing but grit and instinct. On the Great American Trash Tour, we fight every night — new cities and new matchups — and in August, ‘Smells Like C6’ is gonna be even louder, nastier, and wilder. This belt doesn’t collect dust like other companies… it collects victims. And I’ll defend it in every filthy bar, dive venue, and warehouse this country’s got. Bow or bleed. I dare someone to try and take it from me.
Joe’s fighting words say it all—Circle 6 doesn’t want to blend in with anyone else. And if you ask JB where it’s all heading, his answer is simple: Louder is always better.
“I’m a big fan of the Savannah Bananas. And so their guy, Jesse, who came up with that whole thing, said he had never paid for regular advertising. And he also said that attention is the best marketing,” JB told me. “And so, if I had to pick one of those — bigger or louder — I would say I want it to be louder. Because if it’s louder, it can’t help but be bigger, you know? And that’s why we’re doing so many shows in the next three months, because we want to get it louder, to get more intense, and to get more attention. And that is ultimately what I think will help us grow. So yeah — Circle 6, we want to be one louder.”
