Synopsis:

A no-holds-barred heist caper packed with body slams and backstabs for fans of over-the-top action!

After being crippled by a shady wrestling promoter, a former pro wrestler gathers a team of others wronged in the ring to rob the promoter blind during the biggest wrestling event of the year!

Review:

In my review of Ringside I wrote that: "Wrestling is a business that chews people up and spits them out and also has a massive power and money imbalance." Wrestle Heist is a total blast. It takes the wild characters of wrestling and puts them into a classic heist set-up against a horrible villain. We have a group of characters that we actively root for, a high stakes intricate plan with many moving parts, and a bad guy so awful he comes a stand in for every bully and power hungry rich prick we've ever encountered in life. There's clear good guys (which isn't to say they aren't flawed), high stakes, and a clear villain.

Wrestle Heist combines the world of wrestling with a heist story. (No shit Brian). But I wanted to state the obvious up front and build out from it a bit. Wrestling is an art form with something of an established form and the heist story has a broad structure that audiences are familiar with (plan formation, crew of disparate personalities, the job, the aftermath). When combining the two you have to make sure you maintain the integrity of both elements. If you fuck with either piece too much, the audience will know. It turns out that in the right hands, these two elements work really well together. (considers using tag team wrestling as an extended metaphor then rejects the thought)

Kyle Starks is clearly a wrestling fan and there are a ton of Easter eggs, in-jokes, and funny ideas for wrestling fans. Like, imagine an Ultimate Warrior type character who never stops talking like he used to in the ring or cutting a promo. Or how the mystique of a luchador wrestler never taking his mask off can be used against the bad guy and the audience. Wrestling fans may notice that a character is a mash-up of a couple different biographical points from real life wrestlers.

Wrestle Heist has great colorful characters, is entertaining as hell, and is a wild heist story to boot. Wrestle may be an unlikely crime comic but it’ll likely wind up being one of the best crime comics of 2026.

As an extra for wrestling fans, each issue ends with pages done in the style of wrestling ads with rankings, ads, and other fun stuff.

Rating: positive/highly recommended

Availability: This is a new release. You can find it in print and digitally and at your library

Pair With: There is a small but worthy selection of wrestling crime novels: Blood Red Turns Dollar Green by Paul O’Brien, Hoodtown by Christa Faust, and more recently Living the Gimmick by Bobby Matthews. There’s also a great short story by Ray Banks called “The Last Kayfabe”