LGBTQ pro wrestling is getting its own weekend festival of supershows during Pride month 2022. Pro Wrestling VIBE, the newly rebranded name for LGBTQ pro wrestling production house Butch vs. Gore, will host Pride and VIBE Weekend on June17-18, 2022, featuring two stacked cards celebrating LGBTQ pro wrestling’s continued ascendance.

Pro Wrestling VIBE producer Billy Dixon announced the news Friday, saying the weekend will feature LGBTQ wrestlers and allies from across the U.S. and international talent depending on where Covid restrictions are at come Summer 2022. The festivities will be held at the KNights of Columbus in Ridgefield Park, N.J., the same venue where Paris Is Bumping: Solid Gold ‘21 was held in July.

Pride and VIBE Weekend will feature the second Cassandro Cup, the LGBTQ equivalent of the famous Super 8 tournament Edith Surreal won earlier this year. It will also host the third Paris Is Bumping event, Paris Is Bumping: The Legends Ball, after Dixon brought the wrestling-meets-ball culture spectacle under the Pro Wrestling VIBE banner last month.

Details are sparse at the moment, but Dixon confirmed to Outsports that Paris Is Bumping’s hall of fame ceremony Paris Honors will return and a Lady Gaga Open Invitational Scramble match will take place during the weekend. The company held a Britney Spears Open Invitational match at the first Cassandro Cup in March.

Pride and VIBE Weekend comes as a number of top independent promotions, including Game Changer Wrestling, IWTV and Scenic City, have implemented similar pro wrestling weekend festivals in recent years that have drawn large crowds. EFFY’s Big Gay Brunch has become a staple of GCW’s The Collective festivals since debuting in Oct. 2020, Pride and VIBE Weekend is the first to craft an entire weekend specifically for LGBTQ pro wrestling.

“I think we’re at a point in our revolution to try new and daring ideas,” Dixon told Outsports. “I think our fanbase wants to see us conquer new mountains and goals. Is it scary? Obviously. I think it’s great how across the board indie wrestling is creating multiple day events that fans look forward to. I believe we as performers will deliver shows that will be remembered for years to come.”

Pride and VIBE Weekend is the first event announced by Pro Wrestling VIBE since its Oct. 2021 event Human Nature was canceled and the company refocused its efforts on 2022, but it isn’t the only event Dixon has planned for the new year. The company teased Billy & EFFY’s High School Reunion, an event featuring the first all LGBTQ Rumble match, during Paris Is Bumping: Solid Gold ‘21, and Dixon plans to fulfill that promise, just not at Pride and VIBE Weekend.

“I fully intend to honor that promise this year, but at a venue that a Reunion feels more appropriate,” Dixon said. It should be noted that IWTV’s Wrestlemania week events were held under the name “IWTV Family Reunion” in April 2021.

Tickets for Pride and VIBE Weekend are set to go on sale in the first quarter of 2022.

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