>> PAYTON: Elaborate costumes.

Larger than life personas.

Awe-inspiring feats of athleticism.

>> PAYTON: Oh, no, no, no, pro wrestling.

♪ >> PAYTON: Hello, friends, and welcome to "Flyover Culture," your guided tour to pop culture in the Midwest.

I'm Payton Whaley and today, I'm strapping on my tights for our hardest hitting episode yet.

Metaphorically, otherwise we'll have to, like, start a Patreon or something.

Pro wrestling has a little bit of something for everyone.

For some, it's, like, Shakespeare with suplexes.

These long-running storylines, punctuated with high-flying maneuvers and intricate physical dedication.

Other times, it just feels good to see a guy get thrown through a whole section of Menard's.

Today, we're focusing on one promotion in particular, Paradigm Pro Wrestling.

For the past few years, Paradigm has been making waves for itself as a Midwest-based and Midwest-focused league of athletes.

They were kind enough to invite me down to Jeffersonville, Indiana, to get to know their wrestlers, their unique rule set, and, of course, lots and lots of... >> Paradigm Pro Wrestling is an independent wrestling organization.

Another way of looking at independent wrestling as a whole is kind of like the minor leagues of professional wrestling.

A lot of people that come through us end up on televised companies, things of that nature.

A lot of people -- not necessarily have gotten their start with us, because we're kind of like, you know, Double-A or Triple-A, but they have gone to us before they have gone on to the TV promotions.

There's not really an official hierarchy in wrestling, but we're one of the better known independent companies in the country currently.

>> PAYTON: Paradigm Pro Wrestling launched about five years ago as a way to give pro wrestling a home base in our neck of the woods.

>> It's a lot harder hitting.

It's a lot rawer.

It's a lot more violent too, if we're being honest.

But, you know, the wrestlers are all respectful of each other, and we try to keep it as safe as possible, but they're going to hit each other a lot harder than any other places.

We are a niche market, right?

We are a niche of a niche market.

We're never going to be the biggest.

We're not trying to please everybody.

We're just trying to be us, do our thing.

>> PAYTON: From here, I got to know some of Paradigm's biggest names.

Austin Connelly, Brutus Dylan, Sage Phillips and the ankle breaker herself, Jordan Blade.

>> I have been a pro wrestler for five years.

I've been training for seven years.

I mean, with me pretty much, it is what you see is what you get.

I have a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

So I definitely use that to my advantage.

I have a gold medal in power lifting.

Just a powerful, like, badass really is what it is.

>> Brutus Dylan is a 6'8", 400-pound monster that literally as soon as I step into the ring, whoever I'm across from, it's definitely going to be a fight.

I'm pretty much like a brawler or -- definitely not technical or anything like that.

I guess you could say I like to beat people up.

So -- [ Laughter ] >> I like to think of us as like the punk rock of pro wrestling.

We're not the biggest.

We don't try to be the biggest, but we are one of the more unique.

We're not necessarily going to be as polished production-wise.

Part of that is budget limitations, part of is by choice.

We're in smaller venues.

We're in darker venues.

Kind of punk rock there.

>> Definitely gives off with that vibe.

But there's something different about being an independent wrestling show, and, like, there's a lot more chance of you interacting with the wrestlers as well.

So you get that intimate thing with them, whether it will be at the merch stands or them yelling at you across the ring.

>> We typically wrestle out of the arena in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

And, you know, it's very, like, dingy and dark and definitely not as polished or as lit as a WW -- or WWE.

The matches and everything, they're fast paced.

They are hard hitting.

>> I love the independent scene.

I love being able to go and be creative on my own terms, and just do what I want to do, and have people give the trust to me to be able to do what I want to do.

>> For a lot of wrestlers, it's, like, an extension of their actual personality.

You know, it's your actual personality turned up to 11.

For others, it's nothing like their actual personality.

You would never suspect that they wrestle, until you see them get into character, and they are totally different.

>> PAYTON: What sets Paradigm apart is its emphasis on the UWFI rule set.

The name comes from a defunct Japanese promotion, called the Union of Professional Wrestling Forces International.

>> When we ran our first UWFI rule show in 2019, it was the first time in 25 years that the rule set had been used in the United States.

>> PAYTON: In a few words, UWFI matches can end through knockouts, TKOs, submissions, or from UWFI's point system.

There's a bigger emphasis on strikes and grapples, and less on using the ropes and going outside the ring.

And all hand strikes must be open handed, hence all the slapping.

>> People really enjoyed it.

The wrestlers liked working the style.

The fans liked it because it was different, it felt different than the wrestling you see.

And we had originally just planned to do it as a one off.

We were just going to do one show under UWFI rules, as kind of like a test to see how it went, but it ended up being the most successful event we ever had at that point.

>> They are absolutely just sprints.

Everybody is going as hard as they possibly can with everything, with every UWFI match.

It's a great challenge, and it's helped me push myself even farther than I even thought I could go.

And helped me, like, learn more about, like, the actual techniques, the actual forms that -- the real sport of wrestling.

>> And it's definitely not as predictable as, you know, something you may see on WWE, or -- and even in a traditional, you know, professional wrestling match, and that's one of the reasons why I like this style so much.

And, I mean, again, I'm a blue belt in jiu-jitsu.

So, you know, stuff like this is right up my alley.

>> PAYTON: These wrestlers tell me that UWFI simply has je ne sais quoi that other types of wrestling don't, for both pros and fans alike.

>> I really liked, like, the shoot part of it.

In terms of it makes it seem like more of the athleticism and the competition and the reaction time as it is in a real fight.

>> In the early '90s, their kind of calling card at that time was they promoted pro wrestling as if it was a shoot support, like MMA.

Meaning, like, full contact.

This is not predetermined.

This is not cooperative.

It was, by and large, but they promoted it like it wasn't, and they worked a lot, what's in wrestling parlance called stiffer, right?

So they are not necessarily pulling their punches.

They're going to hit each other.

It's going to look real because they are really making contact, but they have just agreed on a winner.

>> Again, we are both telling stories, but one of them, I can beat the crap out of somebody -- I can beat the crap out of somebody in pro wrestling as well, but, like, I probably, like, need to make it a little bit more, like, luxurious looking -- [ Laughter ] -- in professional wrestling.

I need to, like -- if I'm beating the crap out of somebody, maybe I take them through Narnia before I, you know, finally end their life.

And, then, you know, in UWFI, like, I just go ahead and end their life, like, you know?

>> PAYTON: And on top of UWFI, Brutus Dylan takes part in hardcore matches, which is where you tend to see stuff like this.

>> I'm currently in four different companies their hard core champion.

It's just a different dynamic than a normal wrestling match.

You know, because you are going into it as, like, anything goes, you know?

And you can use whatever weapon that you can find to actually do your opponent even more harm.

I'm going to be honest with you, there's no way to actually fall through a door correctly without -- without it hurting.

[ Laughter ] I'm just -- I mean, I'm just going to be completely honest.

It's -- it's the -- I like to call it, it's the hope and pray factor.

>> PAYTON: Pro wrestling asks a lot of its athletes.

Training, storytelling, and a heck of a lot of bodily punishment, but something about it just makes it all worth while.

>> It's very cliche, but it's very true.

There's this feeling that I get when I'm out there, even when I'm training with my students.

I get this feeling of that adrenaline that I just always want to keep coming back to.

I -- I really have a passion for it, and I have a passion for every single person that comes up to my merch table to tell me how -- like, how much they love my work, or how long they've traveled to come see me.

Also, I'm very grateful that throughout these five years, no matter how much I've lost or how much I've gained, wrestling itself has just been the number one constant in my life.

It's given me a lot after I have lost a lot in my personal life.

I just feel like I want to give back to it in that way.

>> I've always had the notion of whether it be five people or 500 people, I'm going to be the same guy, whether, you know, like I said, there's only two people in the crowd or there's 2,000 people in the crowd, you know, like -- >> PAYTON: Wrestling provides an outlet for these athletes to express themselves unlike anything else.

>> But I always try to create moments.

Like, make sure that I do something that the fan will remember, because that's the most important part is that the fan is able to take something home with them.

>> I'm 6'8".

I'm a 400-pound dude.

You are either going to react to me one of two ways.

They're either going to be, like, oh, my God this dude is huge and he's scary, or they're going to be, like, this dude, you know, does some cool stuff and we want to see him, you know, throw people around.

You know what I'm saying, like -- whether I'm making them cheer or boo.

I think that's what just draws me back in, man.

I tell you this, it's definitely not the pain and suffering that I go through.

[ Laughter ] >> For me, it was always to be able to just show, like, I can talk to people or I can be a presence in front of people.

When I grew up, I was diagnosed really young, I think first grade, with Asperger's syndrome.

You have a hard time understanding social cues.

I would get frustrated about little things that I shouldn't get frustrated about.

So I feel like when I found professional wrestling, it gave me, like, oh, I can use this as an avenue to try to channel that energy.

>> PAYTON: But no matter what they're feeling, what's going through their heads, they can leave it all in the ring.

>> I love Indiana, you know.

And I love that Midwestern, John Mellencamp, we're going to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and we're going to do this ourselves.

We've got all the talent in the world, but people don't know who we are because we're in the Midwest.

And we decided we were just going to embrace that.

>> That's -- that's 12-year-old me being like holy -- like, I get to do this.

Like, I get to live out -- like, legitimately, like, live out a dream, which most people don't.

Most people have dreams when they are kids, or whatever, that they want to do, and life happens, and I understand that, and then they just give up on it because they don't think it's attainable.

And I almost did that because I didn't think being a professional wrestler was going to be attainable.

But I still, like, had to -- I had to make it happen the way I had to.

And, like, it's just like -- I'm just a person, like, it has to get done.

It just has to.

I have no choice.

>> PAYTON: A big thank you to Gary Wilson and the Paradigm Pro Wrestlers for sharing their time with me.

Thanks for watching, and I will see you next time.