Curiosity, Unpacked
Curiosity, Unpacked is a conversational podcast about the stories behind the surface.
Each episode sits down with people from all walks of life to explore the moments, decisions, and experiences that shaped who they are — not just what they do. From career pivots and personal challenges to quiet turning points that rarely get talked about, these are honest conversations that go a layer deeper.
This isn’t about highlight reels or polished success stories. It’s about unpacking the journey — the doubts, the lessons, the unexpected paths — and understanding how people become who they are.
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering “how did they get here?”, this is a space for slowing down, asking better questions, and staying genuinely curious.
Curiosity, Unpacked
Post Match Interview - Mitch “One Shot” Ryder
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Post match interview with Mitch “One Shot” Ryder from immediately following Pro Wrestling League’s The Purge on June 20.
Mitch gives us his immediate thoughts post a gruelling battle Royale that saw him enter the 30-man match as entrant number 2 and battle all the way to the very end.
Welcome back to Curiosity Unpacked. Curiosity Unpacked on the Road. First ever in-person uh interview, which is really exciting too. Host the purge for Pro Wrestling League here in Brisbane. Um, really exciting. Mitch Ryder to my right here. An insane last couple of hours, um, especially with this match. Um, two two rings, um, and just yeah, an insane 75 minutes or however long we went on for there. We want weapons everywhere. Um, entrant number two out of 30. Um yeah, were you excited by that, or was that tough when you drew when you drew number two?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I love the challenge, right? Like, I I like I love the idea of coming in and being like the Iron Man, like being like, nah, I've got the gas tank, I'm good to go. Yeah, I've been sick all week, so that kind of sucks. So that sort of threw that like confidence a little bit out, but like for the most part. It's certainly not an advantage, but like it's a bit of a sense of pride. I'm like, if I can start from the very first two people and go all the way to number 30 and win, that's a good time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love it. Pretty cool little start too. Um getting to be in there with um Showtime Jake Nova. Number he was number one. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Two two Titans of the Queensland Wrestling Space. I think that was a pretty cool little moment.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, man. We uh we were lucky. We we had a match last year, a singles match. Um Main Event had a show that we had here. Don't for the life of me know what it was called, but it was um it was a big show that we had with the main event, and it was it was a it was a pretty good match. Um and I think people were excited to see it again, uh at least a little two minutes easier of it. Um yeah, it's working with him as much as it's physical. Uh it certainly brings up the message for both of us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love it. You took a pretty big power bomb right pretty early on uh in the first couple of exchanges. And unfortunately, uh correct me if I'm wrong, you were the one in there, but it felt like it was pretty tough to get your offense going pretty much from then onwards. Yeah, it spent like a lot of the time you were the first or second line of attack when a new entrant would come in. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it spent a lot of time on your back, unfortunately. Um, which is not a good time. Um, unfortunately, you're probably used to it from years of experience. But um, yeah, that was I I think it was you're probably fighting a uphill battle from the beginning there that made it tough.
SPEAKER_00100%. Like it's yeah, I just felt like I was kind of up against it from the beginning. Obviously, with entrant number two, and like I said, I was like, oh no, I love it, let's go get into it. But I took that big powerball for Jake, and then honestly, it kind of was pretty downhill from there. And I just I managed to hang on and hang on and hang on pretty much till the the I was in there still when number 30 came out. Yeah, um, I wasn't in there much longer after that, but it was um I did hang on as long as I could, but yeah, it was just yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think you were probably the last, I don't know, six or seven in the end there. Um tough little moment to to get eliminated, but um, yeah, you've got to be proud of the efforts to to make it that far from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00I made I formed some alliances while I was or an alliance in particular that I've I've always always had with Solomon Blackwell, but then I had an alliance in there with DC Dante, someone that I've been training with and and someone that I guess I I can't necessarily say showing the ropes. He's actually a world taekwondo champion, so yeah, he certainly can kick my ass if he wants to. But from a wrestling perspective, we've been working closer together, and then that brother turned on me tonight. So yeah, conversations need to be out there. Yeah, don't love it. Um I you know, it looked like we were working together, we were working together the whole match and it gives me the face.
SPEAKER_01So more to come, more to come potentially. We'll see. Stay tuned. Under bigger and better things, so we'll see. That's all a lot of weapons in there. Um you had a good little run at the beginning, there wasn't really anything, um, and then it felt like every entry coming in had a new weapon. What was the worst that you'd copped in there? Um you've actually done pretty well. I saw some I saw some backs that were pretty uh not too bad, but I oh man, that's tough.
SPEAKER_00There was everything from buddy Thor's hammer that you buy from Kmart to obviously this you know the standard steel chairs, there was a crutch in there, there's Lego in there. Thankfully I just did clear the Lego. Honestly, I think the very worst thing that happened to me, it wasn't even necessarily something that someone threw a weapon at me or hit me with a weapon. I took something very, very, very early on. Probably, probably with when I think number entry number five was when all the weapons came out. That's the cockroach. Yeah, um, and I believe I don't really remember exactly what it was, but I he hit me with something, and I like when I was falling from that, I went like I took a bump, and my triceps sort of elbow bumps on the chair. Yeah, yeah. That is very painful right now.
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, I got a whole new respect for you watching it to be completely honest. Um yeah, I was certainly not. I mean, if you called out to me, I would have come and helped Jub, but I'm not sure. Not that I would have been able to pretty much help, but I mean I'm I can see you jumping a gun. Oh, you got the height too. Like that's probably about as far as pull my hamstring getting in there, I think to be honest. Oh, I don't know, we'll see. Um you touched on Solomon, obviously, yeah. Um, the winner of the um of the purge in the end. Um had a really nice moment there at the end when you were trying to recover and get up off the ground after your elimination. Um but that was a really nice moment too. So I guess talk to me about him and that sort of connection that you guys have got.
SPEAKER_00There's there's probably like I probably have I've got less than five people that I've that have come into wrestling that I have you know latched onto from a you know real love and and and real like adoration and friendship and you know true brotherhood, there's probably like less than five. Yeah. Um he's on that, he's on that hand. Yeah. Um, and so obviously, you know, I want to be the guy that wins, but to see him win is a really I don't even want to say bitter sweet, like it's really nice. Yeah, happy for him. Um, I did everything I could. You know, there were odds against me at the end when when DC kicks me, but to see to see Solomon get his hand around, like his brother that is absolutely one of the best wrestlers in the country, without a doubt. Um, better than I think a lot of people here realize, a lot of people in the crowd realise, like he's just so good. Yeah, um, and so he deserves a win. And I think whoever, whichever belt he goes after, is it the open weight, is it the uh the main pro league championship, I mean they're in trouble for sure. It's probably a bit of a shame we didn't get to see a little bit more of him. I think he was probably his number 29. Yeah, mid-lane. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, late in the game. Yeah, yeah. Good spot to be. 100%, 100%. There's probably a little bit more left in his tank than there was left in yours by the end. A little bit. Um, yeah, so as I said, it was a really cool event. Yeah, um, yeah, really cool to be able to see you do it in person and um yeah, get get a really good admiration for it. And even just in the end here, like as we were waiting to sort of put all this together, you got stopped by a lot of people, which is um it's really cool. It's I think it's a really nice moment that um, as I said, I've been to a couple before, haven't been able to go to too many, but um I think it's a really cool community and yeah, just being able to even be here for the last two and a half hours and just sort of switch off and just sort of steer into the entertainment of it all. It is it's really cool. And um, I think there's a lot of people that clearly put a lot of time and energy into it outside of actually wrestling in it. I think it's um yeah, it's a really special space.
SPEAKER_00It's a it's a real it is a really big production, and and I'm so glad you touched on the fact that you can come here for two, two and a half hours, whatever it is, and kind of just leave everything else at the door. 100%. That's honestly I think why people gravitate to Pro Wrestling, because it is one of those things that really sucks people in. Um and it's just I mean, it's I mean, it's my love, but it's it's so many people's just escape from you know, sometimes people are going through some shit. 100% it's a great way to kind of forget that for a few hours, and I'm glad that we can do that. Yeah, absolutely. As a as a collective, because yeah, a lot of people do go into putting it on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and to be honest, like I'm I'm sitting there like a kid in a candy store like 27, 10, and 28 this year. And as we spoke about on the podcast episode we did of only started getting back into it now. But um, yeah, it's just it takes you back to when you're a kid, and I think that's a really cool thing. And um, as much as you can chase those things in life, I think that's that's really special. So um, but yeah, thank you. On to the next one, onto the next man, next week, next weekend. Next weekend, Melbourne.
SPEAKER_00What's the recovery look like now? You know what? As we've been standing here, I continue to feel worse physically. And I'm just all I can think about. Shout out to uh Albion Bathhouse. That's that's where our brother's gonna be, probably tomorrow. Tomorrow on Monday, I'm gonna just go to uh hot cold pool, sauna. Generally, when do you start to like is tomorrow horrid? Um just depends. I mean, I hope it's not too much worse than how I feel currently. Yeah, there's like there's like because there were and then that's when you kind of know that something like is actually not good. Yeah. Because if something hurts out there, you're like, oh, this is gonna really hurt. And there were a few moments tonight, like I said, when I bought on that that uh chair, and then there was one instance where someone went, someone threw me out and I smashed my leg on the apron. Yeah, yeah. So like just those sorts of things. I'm just like tomorrow's gonna be average because it's already average on that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love it. As I said, don't envy it, but um, yeah, thanks for doing this, mate. And as I said, it was a pleasure to be able to watch you do it. Oh let's get back in there. Um yeah, it was uh a privilege to be able to watch you do it. So thanks, man. I appreciate you so much. Can't wait for the next one. Hell yeah. Love it. Thank you.