Pierce McLain and Fil Baird pose with a statue of “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes (Courtesy Film Baird)

“Everywhere you go, everyone is wearing a wrestling shirt. It’s, like, the opposite of real life.” Pierce McLain is talking about his recent trip to Dallas to see Wrestlemania 32. “It’s a unique experience to be in a city that has just been taken over by wrestling fans.”

McLain and his friend Fil Baird, who created the wrestling zine Hug it Out, share their fandom and expertise with local audiences at the Black Cat tomorrow night. They’ll screen Wrestlebuddies II: The Other Side of Mania, a video program of some of their favorite matches from this year’s event.

For D.C.-area wrestling fans, this is a rare treat. There’s not much of a local professional wrestling scene, but McLain remembers that it wasn’t always that way. “[Dischord recording artist] Alec MacKaye once told me that their mom was a huge wrestling fan. She would go to all the shows at the D.C. Armory back in the day,” McLain said. “Bobo Brazil was her favorite. He thinks they still might have all the old programs in a box somewhere.”

McLain is doing his part to raise the sport’s local profile in a city where it has all but disappeared. Hug It Out started out as a print zine created by McLain and Baird, two close friends who met working at The Black Cat a decade ago. “Going to our first Wrestlemania in New Orleans two years ago gave us the motivation to make the zine happen,” Baird said. “At that time we didn’t know that many people who were into wrestling, so having a zine was the easiest way to make friends with other nerdy fans.”

The zine featured thoughtful pieces on professional wrestling fandom and explored the sport not as an oddball pastime, but as an art form.

“A lot of adults who like wrestling like it ironically. I have very little patience for that,” McLain said. “Wrestling is not a guilty pleasure for me. It is my favorite form of art, period. I get the same satisfaction from analyzing it with critical and academic eyes that any cinephile gets from being an armchair critic.” McLain should know from cinephilia. He also produces a podcast on horror film called Cat Cave Cinema.

Professional wrestling has undergone a fractured transformation in the internet age. Vince McMahon’s WWE remains a towering conglomerate, but it hasn’t made a palpable dent in the mainstream consciousness since the Attitude Era of the late ’90s, which spawned wrestler-turned actor Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock. The independent promoters at Maryland Championship Wrestling put on shows in Joppa, MD, which is the closest D.C. gets to a wrestling scene of its own. Those who want to see a scripted professional body slam must either wait months for the WWE to come to town, or hit the road.

WWE legend Mick Foley approvingly holds a copy of Hug it Out (Courtesy D.C. Zinefest)

“We have to travel a lot to see our favorite indie wrestlers,” Baird said. “I never thought I’d make major trips specifically to watch professional wrestling, but I’ve flown as far as New Orleans, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Dallas.”

Going on road trips to see live wrestling inspired the creators of Hug it Out to host events that highlight some of the best matches they’ve seen with area fans who can’t travel to see them.

“It’s really hard to keep up with the wrestling world. I spend an ungodly amount of time and money on it,” Baird pointed out. His effort makes him a valuable resource, and he wants to share that with fans. “So, about four times a year, we’re just going to say, ‘hey, come watch the stuff that we think is really worth watching that you may have missed.'”

Like unscripted sports, pro wrestling is very much about camaraderie. “My favorite thing about wrestling is meeting other nerdy fans,” Baird said. “It’s an art form that is best experienced with other people. Being a wrestling fan is often isolating, so we want to have a place where it’s okay to be nerdy about wrestling in public.”

“We don’t want anyone to feel belittled for what they watch,” McLain clarified. “That’s why we gave it a silly name. It’s just supposed to be a fun place to be a fan with other fans. If we can show people something they’ve never seen before and that sparks something in them to do more research, that’s just a bonus.”

Will the Washington area ever return to its glory days as a hub of professional wrestling? Perhaps. In the meantime, just hug it out.

WRESTLEBUDDIES EPISODE II: THE OTHER SIDE OF MANIA takes place Wednesday, April 27 at 7 p.m. at The Black Cat’s back stage. Free.