Better Yet A Navy: The Naptown Team Grows
“Cash Money is an army, better yet a Navy”, the rallying cry of B.G. on his 1999 track Cash Money Is An Army, was, at that point in time, a statement to all who opposed Cash Money Records. While the opposition may have a lot of things going for them, they will never have the talent among the ranks of B.G. and his crew. While nowhere near as hostile as Birdman, Lil Wayne, B.G., and company, Naptown All Pro echos those same sentiments.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I definitely can’t do NAP on my own,” says NAP Owner & Creator Jordan “J-Rose” Rose, “I take care of a lot more than I should and that’s not on purpose, but I am looking to find like-minded individuals who understand NAP’s mission to help fill in the gaps”
That was the original reason for involving the five co-founders of Atlas, Holliday, Kemp, and Tankman who help arrange all matters concerning NAP, but they can only do so much. The team expanded to also include assistance from some of the co-founders’ significant others Bri Brown, Ami Millan, and Carolina Retamoza, who have various skillsets in event planning, and design, and on top of all of that bring a much-needed different perspective to NAP but there were still gaps that needed to be filled.
J-Rose and Chase Holliday got to work finding people to add to the team that would be able to not only bring a skillset but a passion for NAP’s three cornerstones of Art, Community, and Combat. They didn’t need to look far as the answers were in people they’ve known for years.
Jac Van Duzer
aka “Just J” | they/them | Indianapolis, IN
The first addition to the team is both the longest-tenured in wrestling and the person the team has known the longest. Since their first days of attending shows, Jac has made it their mission to help out in any way possible from driving hours and hours on end to make sure talents make their bookings, to helping various talents find themselves and revamp into better versions of themselves. “I hate framing it like this because it sounds so pretentious but, Jac is the closest thing I have to a protege in the non-video aspect of wrestling,” says J-Rose, “they understand so much so fast and handle business like an absolute professional”
Jac also has deep roots in the city with members of their immediate family teaching in Indianapolis Public Schools for decades and themselves previously working for the John H. Boner Community Center, a staple of the Eastside Indianapolis community, spending time helping develop kids and young adults. That passion and experience were exactly what Rose & Holliday were looking to add to the team.
J-Rose adds “Jac is the person outside of the founders most likely to be my right hand. A versatile person who can do many skills and the ones they don’t know, they avidly want to learn. Honored to have them be a part of what we’re building.”
Dalton “Phoenix Nitro” Derrick
he/him | Dayton, OH by way of Atlanta, GA
Upon meeting him for the first time there’s one comment that co-founder Shawn Kemp had about the man known as Phoenix Nitro. “Damn that dude really loves wrestling huh?”
He does indeed. Dalt comes to the NAP team as a member of the Wrestling Video Games Community for over a decade where he’s known as the loud and bombastic Phoenix Nitro. The Phoenix Nitro channel over the span of a few years has amassed nearly 100,000 Youtube subscribers and almost 20,000 followers on social media and that’s without counting his involvement as one of the key members of the content creator group Vybe which has over 100,000 subscribers on their Youtube channel. All this success comes from a love for pro wrestling which Derrick has had since his earliest days and the passion for pro wrestling is reflected in every piece of content he produces, just the thing NAP management was looking for.
“Dalt is someone whose love for wrestling is borderline obsessive,” says J-Rose, “he watches everything, he pays attention to every detail. He’s a sponge for wrestling knowledge.”
That quest for knowledge took Dalton to Dayton, Ohio where he learned and trained in the sport of Pro Wrestling underneath Impact Wrestling TV Star and New Japan Pro Wrestling Bullet Club member Ace Austin with a focus on managerial work where he shot to the top of the class excelling with a natural grasp of psychology and a charisma sharpened from years of being on camera.
“In addition to his role as an on-air host and content creator for NAP, later on down the line I would be open to seeing Dalt manage a talent or two.” says J-Rose “I don’t if he’s ready for all that comes with doing something like that. There’s a difference between managing in a controlled environment and actually being a talent’s hype-man, strategist, and personal promoter. But maybe a little later we’ll give him the keys for something like that haha!”
Xeryus “Xeryhighlife” Stevenson
aka “XThreeee” | he/him | Detroit, MI
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in NAP, or if I even should be involved but after that? Yeah, that restored the feeling baby.”
Those words are fresh off a NAP video shoot the first one ever attended by Xeryus Stevenson better known by his alias’ of XeryHighLife or XThreeee, the final new member of the Naptown All Pro team. Xeryus (X for short) has gained internet notoriety by being one of the forefathers of pro wrestling content on the social media platform TikTok, accumulating 35,000 followers and almost 1 million likes. X also does long-form content on his Youtube channel where he has over 15,000 subscribers and also over on twitch where he crafts the outlandish weekly show SchmackedDown Live full of “sports entertainment shenanigns”
Through these avenues of content creation and doing the most with the tools X has developed a sharp eye for detail and a killer instinct to produce the highest caliber of entertainment.
“X is the type of person to listen to a backstage interview with a wrestler and not only pick up on speech and cadence but also realize that the set they’re using in the background is slightly different than the one they used two events ago.” says J-Rose “That kind of eye doesn’t come around all the time and it’s something that me and the 5 co-founders desperately need.”
X’s official title is “Digital Media Producer” but his influence will stretch far beyond the constraints of the term
As Naptown continues to grow as will its team. “We have lofty goals,” says J-Rose “We want to take wrestling in this city to the next level and become as synonymous as food trucks on Georgia Street and Greatimes lock-ins and we can only do this as a team.”
The next step is establishing the NAP street team where in exchanging for postering and spreading the word about Naptown All Pro those a part of the team will receive discounted or free tickets to events, exclusive merchandise, and a chance to hang around TeamNAP
NAP is still looking for artists in both drawing & painting and music, photographers, videographers, logistics people, those who like to work with youth, and people willing to put their passions into results. If that’s you feel free to message us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram or email us at naptownallpro@gmail.com so you too can follow in the footsteps of these incredible individuals.