In PWPonderings’ latest exclusive interview, Scott Mitchell (@Scott44Mitchell) sits down with EFFY (@EFFYlives) to find out if EFFY is indeed “fine,” his mindset on his upcoming match against Allie Katch, the upcoming Big Gay Brunch event, including a run down of the announced matches, working with Zack Sabre Jr. at the event, the importance of it all, the booking of the event, his goals, opponents he’d like to share the ring with, and so much more.

Is EFFY indeed “fine?”

“I’m going to give you a little information. This question of whether or not EFFY is fine has never actually been the question. My dad told me in 2014, long ago, he said, ‘I don’t know how you’re alive.’ That was 2014. I was 24, and he had obviously known me a long time at that point. I used to be really crazy. Now, I can get into some of that crazy and be just fine and be okay. The question isn’t whether I’m fine. It’s whether you are going to be fine around me. I don’t think everyone can handle being around an EFFY for as long as they have to be around an EFFY. So, when I’m leaving this championship behind and going, okay, I really was a great champion, I was a fighting champion, I tried at times to be a work-rate champion. I tried new things. I tried Lucha, I tried everything to present my skills as a wrestler, to present my skills as a champion. But, EFFY is also about efficiency, effectiveness, and effort. How much effort am I going to have to put in if I keep doing things the way I’ve been doing them, and I’m losing the belt? Yes, I was destroyed in a lot of ways mentally by Mance Warner over a lot of different conditions, but what remains is that what he did worked. If I’m getting too crazy for you, if you’re genuinely worried, if you’re scared that I’m not well, I need you to ask yourself if you’re scared for me, or if you’re scared for yourself. We’ve seen before, I can cause a bit of controversy, do things that are a little bit scandalous. When you’re around me too much, you can’t expect me to censor myself for your benefit. You can’t expect me to be someone else for your benefit. You can’t expect me to always have to be the good guy. When I made EFFY’s Big Gay Brunch, that was a good guy move. That’s the good guy. Here’s all the queer/gay talents, different styles, different people, different voices, different things. Now that I’m giving you this, EFFY can do whatever EFFY wants. That may be something sillier than you think, that may not be the match you think, that may be being greedy about whatever match I want, that may be stabbing someone who may be on the show, when Anakin Murphy stabbed himself in the head, and then was mad at me for stabbing him with a screwdriver. When I do these things, I permit myself to be the EFFY that I am. The effort for me has never been faking it. People say that they love my character; this is me all the time. When I get in the ring, as Emil says, this is the GCW Champion reigning and defending. This is EFFY. Now, I’m back to being just This is EFFY. So, when they say this is EFFY, and you look at it, whether you think it’s fine or not, it’s here, it’s working, it’s doing its job. If you’re not fine with being around EFFY, who you don’t think is fine, that’s your problem. The fact is, I’m getting things done effectively. Now, I’m figuring out what the next steps are going to be, and I feel bad that people are trying to get in my way and say, stop no, we’re worried about you. A lot of y’all need to get away from EFFY, and it doesn’t hurt EFFY’s feelings. A lot of y’all don’t need to be around EFFY. EFFY has been EFFY for as long as I’ve been EFFY. Since the first time White Mike licked whipped cream out of my ass in a wheelbarrow, and your boy, Cornette, got mad the first time. Since then, it’s been all uphill, fighting children, messing things up, doing whatever I do. They never thought I was fine. So if the people close to me don’t think I’m fine either, then you have to go find your fine somewhere else. I am fine, and I’ll continue to be, but I don’t think people can handle being around me, and I tell them that. I can destroy your life if you’re around me, and it’s not on me. My life’s not destroyed. But if you’re too close, if you’re too near, if you’re in the path of the destruction of EFFY, I’ve warned you, I’ve told you I’ll see you on the other side, but I cannot change my destiny or what I’m doing to appease someone else’s sense of normalcy, when my job is to be a professional wrestler, and there’s nothing fine about that to begin with. So for me to be fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. Trust me, I’m fine.”

Next week at Joey Janela’s Spring Break, you will be facing someone you have a ton of history with in a Loser Leaves GCW match, Allie Katch. What’s your mindset heading into this one?

“I have an attorney that I talk to. I am allowed to be there for certain stuff. Once the match is finished and the truth is revealed, that’s where we will really have to figure some things out. Because I’m going to be there legally. I don’t want to fight her. I don’t want to fight her. I texted her, and I don’t know if she got an Android phone or if I’m blocked, but I said, ‘Don’t do this to yourself, just lie down. I’m good.’ If I have to hurt her, I’ll feel really bad. A lot of people think I broke her leg, but I didn’t. The New York Council Commission broke her leg because they forced us to have those dumbass slippery mats on the floor. It is a situation where I’m not lying down quietly. She keeps talking about how she’s on the comeback, and how she’s learning so many moves in wrestling, and how she’s learning all these techniques and training styles, and that’s the problem. That’s the problem. I don’t train in any of those things. I train to do two things. Win and entertain the fans. Sometimes, that’s with a screwdriver nail, sometimes that’s with the blood, sometimes, maybe that’s with me putting my ass in your face. I don’t care what it takes to win. I’ve been swinging paddles, stabbing children, and doing what I have to do to get by. Coming here, trying to have a professional wrestling match with EFFY, and trying to take my legacy and all of that, you may need to be punished. But I don’t want that to have to be the case. I want you to be please just lie down, Allyson. Lie down, and don’t make me do this, because you’ll unleash a fury that you’ve never seen. You’ll say EFFY, is he fine? He’s more than fine. He’s a freak athlete with unlimited potential. He may be on peptides right now, he may be juicing up with Mexican stem cells. He may be in a real freak mode, and he doesn’t want to have to unleash that. Luckily, I have a few other performances. Wednesday night, with PWU and Hybrid Wrestling, Joey Janela and I will tag against the Backseat Boyz and Bustah & The Brain. The next night, I’m going to have a triple threat match with Jimmy Lloyd and ISHIN from DragonGate at the New Japan Desperado Invitational. I’m hoping by Friday, she sees after my double victory, that she shouldn’t do it, she shouldn’t try it, she shouldn’t risk it. People forget, I’ve had a light-match schedule recently. I’m going to be so fired up and ready to go that I’m not sure what I’m going to do. In the court of law, I can say I was in a blind rage. If you want me not to be fine, make me defend it in a court of law. See, look at all the evidence, but you’ll know the truth.”

Also, I would be remiss if we didn’t spend a lot of time talking about EFFY’s Big Gay Brunch 11. What is your mindset heading into this year’s event?

“To me, I had to do something where I paint myself as an asshole a little bit. I don’t mean in a character sense. I mean, when I’ve always been booking shows, I’ve always been like, please as many people as I can get in, and please as many hands on deck. Sometimes it’s worked really well, and sometimes it hasn’t worked as well, and that’s fine. But this year I said, what I gave them last year was so potent, what if I made it into more of a concentrated liquid? I’m coming back this year on the Brunch, and it is a seven-match card. I’ve had up to 11 matches on a Brunch before. I’m coming back with a seven-match card because I don’t want to take any time away from any of these matches. We are the biggest, most historic, craziest, LGBTQ show in the world of professional wrestling. We are putting on the best of the best of the best of what people want to see. We are putting on a variety show of the best of the best, and I think this show is going to hit like crack in the 80s. People are going to finally get the vision that I’ve been trying to put out there, which is that the best professional wrestlers are better when they are fully themselves and having the time of their lives. You can tell when you watch EFFY or wrestle EFFY, the number of people who come up to me after any match and go, ‘Oh my God, that was so much fun.’ I’m just like, is it not always? They go, ‘No.’ I’m okay, I’m glad I’m doing what I’m doing. I want people to go out there and go, ‘Oh, you don’t have these high stakes on the match, you’re letting us have the match we want to have, if we have a crazy idea, you’re going, oh wait a second, not because you’re saying no, but because you’re trying to figure out a way if we can actually do it.’ There’s a team of people around us in these Collectives who know how to make anything happen. To now have this show where I can go down the matches, and it’s insane. I have Nyla Rose facing Dark Sheik at the Brunch in a singles match. Forbidden Door style. I have Mercedes Martinez in what she’s saying is her retirement year. Let me be clear, girl, you do what you need to do, but I’m going to unretire you eventually because I never got my match either. Vipress and Mercedes. Y’all don’t even know half of the tension. I was asked by both parties not even to book the match because of prior real-life endeavors between the two of these women. I said fuck it, I’m booking it. I have Mad Dog taking on Brick Savage in what is bound to be the bloodiest, meatiest, craziest, wildest thing. I took four of the best women’s wrestlers on the planet. Kidd Bandit, Steph De Lander, Charli Evans, and Allie Katch. Which I do want to say, I think Bret is putting something out there where we are going to call neutral territory on Brunch because we already put tickets on both of our names. And, we’re saying GCW is presenting it, but it’s not a GCW show, so we’re calling neutral territory on Brunch. We’re both going to be there, is how GCW is putting it. Then I have the greatest match that’s ever been announced in the history of mankind. Which is, and I’m going to try and say it perfectly the first time. EFFY’s Big Gay Brunch, presented by GCW, presents Parrow’s Punishment Highway to Hell Twinks Unleashed. This is a twist on a fresh classic. We’ve done twink gauntlets before. We did one in Chicago where Parrow was pinned by Jimmy Lloyd dressed as Baby Bop. This year’s different. Parrow stopped me from going a little crazy in Chicago. I don’t remember what happened, but it looked like he was wearing an outfit from a clearance rack at Macy’s while he was stopping me from stripping down to get a match. I said, let’s put you in charge this year, and he told me we’re going to have a Parrow’s Punishment, Highway to Hell, Twinks Unleashed. I said what is that, he said these twinks will battle each other until there’s a grand twink left, and then that twink will face Parrow. Parrow will be fresh, not beat up, watching from the stage, and just watching these twinks beat the hell out of each other, before the final twink will face Parrow, completely unharmed, unfazed, ready to go. It’s going to be unbelievable carnage; there may be a sacrifice. We don’t know everything that’s going to happen. We do know this, though. There’s another match yet to be announced, and it’s a big, crazy tag team match. We’re going to have Team Brooke Havok, which will have some newbies, against Team Billy Dixon. Billy Dixon said I got the baddies in town. This is happening. Some people here four-on-four tag and just think that’s crazy. Like y’all, I put the all-stars of the all-stars on this show. There’s not a place on this show that’s not full of unbelievable talent. The up-and-coming talent that are going to be on this show, in places they need to be in, will surprise people, too. I don’t have to tell people everything anymore. I can do whatever I want. I can bring in who I want to bring in. I want to put on the craziest show ever. That’s why I said that this year, last year I was a good boy, I want to fight Shiek, she’s my friend, I want to defend my title, that’s beautiful, and I let Kidd Bandit and Zack Sabre Jr. have a really incredible and historic cool match that I don’t think could have happened anywhere else. This year, I said, I’m going to be a greedy little pig, and I’ll let people in on a secret. In 2015, I went to the Battle of Los Angeles. I got tickets with my friends, and Zack Sabre Jr won that tournament. My picture on Venmo has been a photo of Zack Sabre Jr from the event. Since then, we’ve spent time together, and I booked him on my show now. We got to spend time in Japan and America, and I don’t think people realize we’re close friends now. I think he thinks he’s coming in to just have a nice exhibition contest, but when you look back on my legacy, I have done some wild, psychotic, crazy, weird, unpredictable, violent, super crazy, I don’t know, I’m going to the limits of limits for this show to give the craziest Zack Sabre Jr. match you’ve ever seen in your life. I remember seeing him and Mance wrestle. I was seeing stuff I never saw Zack Sabre Jr. do. I saw that with Kidd Bandit, too. He’s done stuff with DDT, he’s kissed Chris Brookes, blah blah blah, we’ve all kissed Chris Brookes. That’s nothing special. But, once you leave Big Gay Brunch and you see EFFY vs. Zack Sabre Jr., there’s one thing you’ll say again, and that’s you’ve never seen Zack Sabre Jr. do that. I want people to know, I’m not letting anyone down. I don’t like to advertise a show on falsehoods. I’m telling you. You’re going to see the craziest shit of your life with EFFY vs. Zack Sabre Jr. Then you may be saying, is that it? No. That’s not it at all. We got Cosmo The Queen of Melrose, who’s hosting the whole show. She was on a Facebook/YouTube show where people share their stories. She is also now one of the top stylists in Hollywood. She has two or three stores in Hollywood and Vegas. Her following is in drag and in the gay West Coast scene. She’s one of the most charismatic, crazy, wild people. She was in a musical with Matt Cardona called ‘The Last Musical.’ So she’s been around professional wrestling a little bit. We got introduced, and things got crazy. To me, this is such a marquee thing because wrestling people will be like, I don’t know who that is. But as soon as this was announced, we got reactions from people in the LGBTQ community who don’t know we exist, don’t know these wrestling shows are happening, don’t know how much fun they’d have at these shows, and don’t know how much fun they’d have at these shows. They’re coming out to the show to see Cosmo. Like anyone who comes to see one or two things, they’ll get in the venue, see the whole show, and go, ‘what the hell, this is incredible, this is magic.’ I cannot wait to see what Cosmo gets into and how we get Cosmo involved. Being with someone who is also a content creator in that way, meeting with people, meeting with Nicole Kidman, it’s like now we can combine those two worlds and let people choose between being a part of this aspect of their life, too. I think we’re never taken seriously by the gay community in a lot of ways because we’re our own brand. The wrestling community has accepted us with wide open arms. But I still hear from gay people, isn’t that domestic violence? Isn’t this? When they get in there and see what we’re doing, I think they’ll feel not only safe but excited by the violence. I did a match once with Billy Dixon, and we went outside and shared a cigarette. A woman came up to us and said, ‘Oh, good, you guys are actually friends.’ She had a pit in her stomach because she thought we were so mad at each other. We have to be able to go. These are our popular ones. We have to make them feel safe and have fun. Then, once they’re in it, they’ll be like, ‘oh it’s consensual, right? Let’s get freaky.’ I think Cosmo will be bringing a lot of eyes to this, who may not expect themselves around wrestling, having fun. I will say, Cosmo did ask what it feels like to hit someone with a chair. So, we may make her dream come true.”

You will be working with Zack Sabre Jr. in what is sure to be a match of the weekend candidate. What’s your mindset heading into this one?

“To me, I need to check off on my bucket list, here’s someone you idolized as a wrestler and thought was so cool, here’s someone you had a match with, and here’s someone that you’re friends with. This is going to complete the trifecta. I idolized you as a fan, I’ve become your friend, and we’ve had wonderful times hanging out as just people. It’s the trifecta. I’m going into this, and at first, my thought was, if it’s not what he expects, does that change anything? Then I thought, well, what does he expect? Then, I realized, nobody expects anything. This, to him, is going to be the most fun he’s had in a month, and I think I just need to push his buttons to see how strong he really is. I’ve seen tap people out, break people, beat people up, but I want to see what happens when he’s a deer in the headlights with someone like EFFY. I have to forget fanboy Taylor, I have to forget being friend Taylor. This is his introduction to EFFY in the ring. All my friends have wrestled me before we really became friends, and I think it helps, but we became friends before we wrestled. It’s going to get nasty and weird, and I’m so pumped to see where that goes.”

Three other big matches already announced are Nyla Rose vs. Dark Sheik, Mad Dog Connelly vs. Brick Savage, & Mercedes Martinez vs. Vipress. What were your thoughts about putting these three matches together?

“I just want things to get intense and crazy and hardcore in a sense, but I also want to highlight how EFFY’s this big smiling face on the poster, and he may be doing something silly, or maybe you saw him doing something silly, maybe you saw him kissing Minoru Suzuki. Maybe you saw him eating eggs out of someone’s mouth. Then, to go, like, all this rainbow and glitter and drag and fashion at its core, the LGBTQ community is better at wrestling than you. We’re better at storytelling than you. We’re better at having serious matches, with real drama, with real heat, with real moments of nervousness and violence than you. I don’t want to have to tell people, ‘oh, we’re so glad we get to have a show,’ I want to go, ‘if you’re watching this,’ and they won’t believe you, but ‘these are better matches than any other wrestling show I saw this weekend.’ It goes back to the thing of like, if I see a performer and I’m directing them or agenting or helping them. I’m Scorsese with that. I hired you because you’re you. Do what you will with the material. Here’s what I’d kind of like to see, but you’re free to do what you want. Even looking at some of these performers who have been around a long time, it’s very rare that their skill hasn’t had to overcome bad booking, or that their skill hasn’t had to deal with a dumbass white guy in the back telling them how to wrestle, or a dumbass straight person in the back telling them how to do their story. Now, I get to go, look how good it could have been if you just let them do what they wanted; instead, you thought you knew better. It’s this thing where, like, once again, my stubbornness. If you’re cooler than me, I’d be happy to take a suggestion, but if you’re a dweeb telling me how to get over and be cool, wrong. So, when I hire all these cool people, and I give them these singles matches that will bang and go crazy, and people say, ‘I’ve been watching them wrestle all week, and I’ve never seen them go this crazy,’ just know it’s us flexing on you. It’s us flexing and being like, yep, this is it. I didn’t want that message to be muddled. I wanted these singles’ strong matches where leashes are off, and everyone has the time of their life. Four out of seven matches here are singles matches. To be able to put the boldness and highlighting on two people in a match where historically we’ve had a little more than that, I think it’s taking a swing. I think it’s also giving a really direct beam in on these things as they’re happening in the matches.”

Another match that I think could be an absolute show stealer is Steph De Lander vs. Allie Katch vs. Charli Evans vs. Kidd Bandit. What are your hopes for this match?

“You often see a fatal four-way match, but what if it’s literally a beyond all-star fatal four-way match. I watched Megan and Steph have that match at GCW last weekend. Talking with them a little bit after, they were like, ‘Oh, how was it?’ I was like, ‘y’all beat the f*ck out of each other.’ It was like 95 all Japan style. It was crazy. To have her coming off this TNA run, where they didn’t know her injury, didn’t really know what was going on, and didn’t really feel like looking into it further, and figure out what was happening. She’s now coming out and being like, I’m great, I’m stronger than you remember, and I’m better than you remember. You’re looking at three people here who, Allie pointed out online, Steph De Lander, Charli Evans, and Allie Katch didn’t have Mania matches last year. They were not at Mania last year. They were either injured or out of the country. Kidd Bandit got to come in and have dream matches, sick moments, and got to do all of her dreams. Allie said, just be careful, you got three girls in here who are coming after you because they are coming after you. They are hungry as hell. Kidd Bandit is going to be on a little bit of a hiatus; she’s going to go away for a little bit, and I think like what a crazy way to go out with four of the baddest women on the planet, duking it out, showing what they want to show, doing what they want to do. Not only is women’s wrestling elite, but y’all are sleeping on these girls, and they’re right in front of you. They’re the workers you want these boys to be in your mid-ass six-minute tag matches. Grow up, and look at what’s actually good. Look at what sells. Look at what really gets in front of people. This match is going to slap… I hope nobody gets hurt. I hope nobody gets hurt. I know people are tuning in and being like, ‘Aren’t these girls injury-prone?’ They’re not. I also hope that Charli Evans and Kidd Bandit can have a really meaningful moment, too, because they’re two of the most visually interesting performers, but two of the craziest, most brutal kickers, punchers, and hitters in the business. This one is going to be crazy.”

Are there any matches you’re really looking forward to at this event that you could see being an absolute show stealer?

“It’s going to be Nyla and Dark Sheik. These girls are coming to work. These two are seasoned professionals. I’ve known Nyla Rose since maybe 2016-17, I’ve known Dark Sheik since 2018, I go way back with these girls. There are sides of them that people haven’t even seen yet. For them to both be trans women, two women who have been overlooked, two women who are extremely good at professional wrestling, but are not always given the ultimate chances to showcase that, with Sheik last year, I had the match I wanted to have with Sheik. Now, I get to go, y’all go have the match y’all want to have for you and for whatever you think this needs to be. I’m hard-pressed to say Zack and I should main event over that. I don’t think that should be the case. I have an idea in my mind about how I want to go about everything. But I have to make sure my eyes are on that match. That is the match of the week for me, and I booked it.”

What are your goals for the upcoming installment of EFFY’s Big Gay Brunch?

“Make like 58,000 dollars. There’s so much sh*t I have to pay for for the show, so we have to sell more tickets. Listen, it’s become this thing that I go through periods, obviously, I’m such a brat. It’s so stressful. I just said 58, I’ve never made that. There was a show we did for Big Gay Brunch, where I made more the night before wrestling just on the match than I did for the Big Gay Brunch. So, people always think I’m killing it. I do this for the love of the game. I don’t want it to ever feel expected like, ‘Oh, Brunch is back.’ Is it? Do you know? Instead of being that, I want to fall into the rhythm of this being work, but work that I enjoy. I have to remember that we don’t always have this, and we don’t always have this to enjoy. It is stressful, it is hard, people are terrible to deal with, but people are great to deal with. I have to be able to do it with no hands, and do it with muscle memory, and get used to doing it. I would have hoped by Big Gay Brunch 11, one of you gay children would have killed me already and taken the throne. But they haven’t. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. I’m going to try to do it more often. I’m going to try to do some with a little more frequency, but I’m also not going to beat myself up about it. Everything right now is going into that show. That show is Saturday, the Clustf*ck is Saturday night, and I’m going to leave again on Monday from Vegas. I’ll leave Thursday again for Freelance, I’m going to Austin, TX, on Saturday with Uncanny Pro. It doesn’t stop. I’m at the ECW Arena the week after that. I’m going to have to take it a day at a time. Right now, I have a really enjoyable schedule for WrestleMania week, and I have a really big event right at the end of it. I want to make sure that I’m putting my best foot forward and not letting the stress get to me, and still enjoy myself while I’m out here. There’s nothing worse in the world than someone being excited to meet you, but you’re stressed about something stupid, and I don’t want that to be the case.”

What are your future goals for yourself for 2026 and beyond?

“I’m trying to finish a book. I feel like saying it out loud helps it a little bit. I’m really stuck between two ways of framing it, and I’m trying to figure out if one of them is offensive. We’re going to find out. What I realized is I’ve been doing more seminars, courses, and interviews, with the interviews expanding on talking to other people about themselves and not just about me, and I see an importance that I can play a role in framing wrestling in ways that are not me wrestling. I see a way that is possible. I want to have things set a little more in stone, be that seminars, courses, and the way we teach people and being like, ‘Hey, whatever you learn from this, you can learn from me,’ but I don’t have to go teach it every single time, and finding a way to get that information to people, a supplemental info that they can take in, but it doesn’t require me to do it everytime. It’s just something we’re trying to take in. I don’t have any intentions of stopping wrestling. I told someone the other day, I said, ‘I’m just going to keep pulling the pantyhose up, and putting the gut out if I get old and fat, and doing what I’m doing until people don’t want to see it anymore,’ but as long as there are people who are interested and want to see EFFY and do things with EFFY, I’m not hanging on by a thread for the top spot, I’m in the top spot because people continue to want to see me and people continue to want to come out and see me wrestle. I love wrestling, I love that part of it, calling the matches, having the matches. But, I do see that with the extra time, how can I maximize building the rest of wrestling so that there’s wrestling there for EFFY to wrestle. If I can get someone else over or get another promotion or teach people, I’ll always have a job. But, I’m always going to need to jump in there and do that part of it too.”

Do you have anyone else you’d like to share the ring with?

“Yeah. 100%. I think, especially coming up in the gay scene, there are a few I’m looking at that I’d love to have. Kairo Cortez, out of North Carolina, and Jay Luxx have been doing a lot out of Florida. But I also love intergender matches, and I love matches with fem-presenting talents. If there’s one thing EFFY’s going to do, it’s post your sh*t and make you look crazy when you do your moves. I want to get in there with Charity King out of Texas. I want to wrestle Nixi XS. She’s giving the aesthetic and the magic, but I also know she’s a really good wrestler, too, and would love to be a part of getting in the ring with them. Then, I’m actually really excited because I’m doing something I didn’t think I ever would. It’s not an announcement because they dropped a flyer, but I am going to be challenging for the NWA championship. Historically, I haven’t had the best relationship with NWA because I talk a lot of shit. But it seems like the controversy of that has made me into a figure that may be just what they need right now. We were able to work things out with Billy Corgan, and I’ll be coming in and fighting for the NWA belt. Maybe I’ll find myself in another position where I take this NWA World Championship, make something of it again, and take it all over town and show the world EFFY is a champion. But maybe I just chill out. I don’t know. We’ll see.”