Effy faces Slade and Dr. Wagner Jr. in a busy weekend of wrestling

Effy has two high-profile matches coming up as PRODUCE Wrestling stages events in New York this weekend. On Saturday, he’ll meet Slade in a bounty match at Assembly in Kingston. Then he heads to Brooklyn to face Lucha Libre veteran Dr. Wagner Jr. at Lucha Fresca.

Effy and Slade have plenty of history, and Effy says one of their past encounters was followed by Slade stepping away from wrestling for two years. Slade has since returned, and Effy says he had to remove him from a personal list of wrestlers who had retired after facing him.

Effy said he doesn’t believe those wrestlers left because of a bad match. Rather, he thinks some came to understand how completely he has devoted himself to wrestling and questioned whether they wanted the same life. He also said Slade is difficult to predict and that their past meetings have given him a sense of what to expect.

“Now I have history with Slade,” Effy said. “I’ve been in there with him, and I know what he brings. If it’s just the two of us, I’ve got things to get out of my system.”

Effy was just as eager to meet Dr. Wagner Jr. He pointed to the Lucha Libre names he has faced before, including Pimpinela Escarlata and Psycho Clown, and said he was looking forward to taking on Wagner in front of his sons, El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. and Galeno del Mal.

Effy’s comments about the match were characteristically provocative. He predicted Wagner’s sons would watch him beat their father and said he wanted to show them just how formidable he is, while also expressing respect for Wagner’s standing in the sport.

“I’m honored to be in the ring with him,” Effy said. “But I want his sons to see what I can do. I think Dr. Wagner knows my reputation, and if he doesn’t bring the fight of his life, I’m going to embarrass him in front of them.”

The bravado is part of Effy’s appeal. He was ranked No. 72 on Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s 2026 list of the top 500 wrestlers.

Effy, whose real name is Taylor Gibson, has also spoken about being a gay man in a sport where most of the performers are straight men. He said wrestling gave him room to present himself as he is, and described the work as a kind of live, improvised performance: a fight scene built with another wrestler and performed in one take for the crowd.

Early on, some audiences reacted negatively to his presence in the ring. Effy said he learned to make that reaction part of his performance, while also showing that being gay didn’t make him any less physically imposing. Over time, he felt his visibility helped create a welcoming space for people who might not have thought wrestling was for them.

“People were coming to see this wild gay wrestler, not to attack it, but because they hadn’t necessarily thought wrestling could look like that,” he said.

Effy said the positive response has encouraged him to experiment and push beyond conventional wrestling. Some of his work is deliberately extreme, he acknowledged, and not every idea lands. Still, he said being able to follow his instincts and perform as himself has made the work creatively fulfilling—and helped turn wrestling into a career.