Mikey Jay
Photo: Rosie Di Lorenzo
Mikey Jay is a name that is synonymous with the best of the best in Australian independent wrestling. In the past, Mikey was 1 half of the creative team behind Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW), which grew from humble beginnings to be arguably the most globally recognised Australian wrestling promotion. In fact, Mikey & his creative partner Criss Fresh guided MCW to unprecedented success. Right through to the point that they were able to partner with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) - the second-biggest wrestling promotion in the world. This partnership saw Mikey & Criss promoting an MCW show featuring NJPW's biggest star, the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada in the main event of an MCW show at the Thornbury Theatre.
Whilst this success with MCW was incredibly gratifying from a personal & creative standpoint it also brought about a lot of stress & pressure for Mikey. These pressures eventually saw him beginning to suffer burnout before ultimately stepping away from the promotion.
During his time away from wrestling Mikey soon realised that his inner passion for the Australian wrestling scene hadn't been fully extinguished. Hence the creation of the new promotion Renegades Of Wrestling with long-time creative partner Criss Fresh.
"I was looking at everything in a post-COVID world & it felt like the market was still there for a modern world-class Australian independent promotion," explained Mikey. "It did feel like there was a little bit of unfinished business there & after speaking with Destroy All Lines that pushed us to think now was the time to dip our toes back in."
For Mikey & Criss the process of forming Renegades was not done hastily. In fact, according to Mikey, it was a "good 5-6 months" bouncing ideas back & forth before they decided "we've got something here."
In terms of how they came to form the vision for Renegades Mikey told Pario it simply came down to "looking at what other people were doing & going 'this doesn't feel right' or asking 'would we do anything differently?' with the answer to that question ultimately being yes we would."
In speaking with Mikey we wondered what it was that he & Criss planned to do differently & what the overall vision for Renegades entailed. As we came to learn during our interview the biggest difference that they see between Renegades & their past experience with MCW is simply the scale & scope of the promotion.
"We want to be a national promotion with the best talent from all over the country," explained Mikey. "Eventually we want to branch out beyond Melbourne, it's just a matter of learning to crawl before we start walking. We want to establish ourselves first & we felt the best way to do that is in the town where we live."
Obviously branching out into cities that already have regular monthly wrestling promotions could have been seen negatively by those previously established groups. As Mikey explained to Pario though he understood that this may have been a concern & was proactive in speaking to those promotions to allay those fears.
"I have had conversations with most of the promotions around the country & explained that that is not our intention... We feel like we are simply offering an alternative product.
"We aren't running often enough to be seen as proper competition for those monthly promotions. You're also not going to get the same main event scene at Renegades as you would in say PWA or MCW, there will be a mix of people. That was all by design because we don't want this to be another MCW or PWA or Wrestle Rampage or Riot City [Wrestling] or EPW etc."
In regards to what fans should expect from the Renegades roster, Mikey explained that this promotion will be all about showcasing the depth of the Australian wrestling talent pool.
"There are plenty of promotions that can use the same 5-6 talents at the top of the card, but we look at the scene & think there's so much more depth of talent in Australia. We are looking at the next crop of talent coming through... Some of the talent that we are giving opportunities may not be getting those same opportunities elsewhere, yet, but I'm sure once they get a run at Renegades they will stop popping up more elsewhere as well."
When it comes to the creative process behind a show Mikey told Pario that it is a long & painstaking process that can take weeks or months.
"There's a lot of back & forth. A lot of discussing ideas, plans & who is available. With Renegades, in particular, we want to make sure that we're not just coming up with ideas for matches & angles from show to show. We want to have a longer-term plan for the promotion that builds storylines or characters so that Renegades can be seen as being on par with the top independent promotions from around the world."
Ultimately all of this prep work before a show is simply about "alleviating show day stress as much as possible."
Looking back on his time with MCW, & in particular the Okada show, Mikey recalls that being a rather stressful period because there weren't expecting to have such a big name available to them.
"Originally when we were having those discussions about being able to book someone from New Japan we were expecting to get someone like Kushida or Hiromu Takahashi but then the message came back saying 'how about Okada?', Mikey said. "Our response was, 'are you sure you don't want to start with something smaller?' But the answer was 'it's Okada or nothing.' So we immediately went ok I guess were booking Okada then."
Thankfully all of the hard work that Mikey, Criss & the MCW team had put in before that opportunity was presented to them placed them in good stead to pull off the show.
"That moment was something that we were all building & striving towards," said Mikey. "If we hadn't put in the work beforehand & Okada had simply fallen into our laps then maybe I would have felt some level of imposter syndrome."
Looking ahead to the future of Renegades we were given some teases as to who Mikey, Criss & the team may be looking to feature on future shows.
"We've certainly got the intent to have a stacked & diverse roster... There are a few people that we've been talking to that we want to bring out or bring home, & that's something that we will see unfold over the coming months.
Keep up with Renegades of Wrestling on social media at: @ROWrestlingAU
Keep up with Mikey on social media at: @Mikey__Jay
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