The Murder Surgeon Will See You Now: An Interview with Dr. Redacted
All Guts, No Glory #4
Dr. Redacted is on a roll right now, quickly carving out a spot in the deathmatch scene with his unique gimmick, willingness to bleed buckets and tendency to jump off of things while wearing a trash can on his head. Following an intense Wrestlemania weekend performance that included an absolute war with Matt Tremont, the Doc jumped on the phone to talk about his career beginnings, how he got into the deathmatch scene and what he loves about it.
You can support Dr. Redacted by following him on Twitter and Instagram, and buying his merch at Deathmatch Worldwide.
You showed up on the indie scene in the last year or two really, but you were active as a wrestler before that, right?
I was doing Kaiju Big Battle, I had played two different characters. I was American Beetle, and on the indies I would also play this character called Dr. Cube. And they were like, "Hey, you're getting too much hype doing this character and we want this costume back," so I gave it back and then they fired me.
I was like, "Well, I kinda liked what I was doing already," so I wanted to make it my own, and then the internet helped me with the name. Because of the fans and y'all, I got the name Dr. Redacted now, which is pretty sick.
What made you make that shift, because you weren't a deathmatch guy with Kaiju Big Battle necessarily. What brought you into this side of things?
If you ever watch some of my Kaiju Big Battle matches I did, I was the one who kind of did the crazier stuff. I would do balcony dives and stuff like that, then when Covid happened and I was doing Dr. Cube on the indies, people were like, "You can do whatever you want. If you want to use this crazy gimmick during your match, you can," and then I would start to do it. I couldn't do too much because I didn't want to ruin the costume—it's not mine and I didn't want to ruin the mask or anything, so I dipped my toes in and once the mask came off, it was like "OK, let's go fucking crazy now." And then I did.
Is it the spectacle of deathmatch that draws you to it or have you always just liked doing the craziest shit possible? You've become known for being off-the-wall and reckless, even for a deathmatch guy.
[Laughs] The first time I ever got a taste of it, it was me and JTG. That was the first time I really went balls to the wall, that was like a taste. I liked watching ECW, I went to the same high school as Mick Foley. I've said that on a few podcasts, but it's a fun fact that I love to just throw out there.
I always loved it and the spectacle of it. Maybe I just like that idea of amping it up and going as crazy as you possibly can. Once it was offered to me, I was like "Yeah, I'm going to do whatever I want, whenever I want."
Do you plan to stay in the deathmatch scene for a while?
Oh yeah, I love it. Literally the best type of wrestling fans I've ever encountered. I love the idea of it. I don't know if somebody should love something like that, but I do. I care a lot. It's literally like the most fun, doing stuff like that. People will book me in non-deathmatches and stuff like that and I'm like "This is cool, but I'd rather be doing this."
It's like when Casanova Valentine talks about doing all kinds of wrestling but this is his specialty.
Yeah, exactly. That's the best way to put it. Cas is the man, by the way; we like him.
What's the hardest part for you as a deathmatch guy and as an indie wrestler in general? Is it the physical effects of it or are there a lot of mental hurdles to overcome to keep bleeding all the time?
I don't mind the bleeding or even rolling around in glass part. Mania week just happened and the whole time, I hate the idea of people mailing it in or going easy or whatever. It's all bullshit. I'm one of those people who wants to put on the craziest thing I can, but when you got four dayss in a row of glass and crazy and everything like that, you're like, "Man, I've got to figure out ways I can top all this but at the same time not completely and utterly destroy my body so I can do it again tomorrow, and then get on a six-hour flight and go to these shows and do it again there.
You're straightedge too. You're doing a thing that takes a pretty heavy toll on your body. Do you find it particularly hard to manage the pain as someone who's just feeling it raw?
I'm not someone who's going to get addicted to painkillers but I have no problem taking extra-strong ibuprofen. If you're going to use pain pills and you're going to use them for the right reasons, I don't see an issue with that.
What are your goals moving forward from here? Do you have dream matches or promotions that you want to hit?
I just want to go everywhere and anywhere. I have some plans this year I can't really reveal yet but Japan is a big plan. Japan will always be the goal. Just want to go there and do the damn thing, for deathmatch and non-deathmatch. I'd love to go to England, I know Australia's got this big deathmatch scene right now too so wouldn't mind doing that.
Promotions? Just anywhere. That's whatever to me. I feel like a secret goal of mine, even as I say it out loud on to a blog, is to wrestle in every state. I don't care if I do or don't, but I get to see so many states I wouldn't normally ever. It would be sick to go to all these places and do this thing that I enjoy doing.
Goals? Just keep doing it as much as I can and just be seen. I love meeting all these fans and I feel like everywhere I go, I meet all these people. They're all so nice.
If you could recommend a match or two for someone who's never seen you wrestle, what would they be?
Four matches I just did that I genuinely really like:
Matt Tremont (Ruthless Pro Wrestling)
Danny Darko (ICW NHB)
Otis Cogar (Circle 6)
Casanova Valentine (ICW NHB)