Steve Maclin is continuing to expand the purpose of the Boots To Boots platform he launched with Deonna Purrazzo in September 2025, using the podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel to document personal challenges, promote their work and create space for conversations that extend beyond professional wrestling.
Maclin and Purrazzo’s project carries the same Boots To Boots name across its audio and video presence. While the pair are both recognizable figures within wrestling, Maclin emphasized that the channel is not designed only for that audience. He described it as an outlet built around honesty, recovery, transition and the experiences shared by people working through difficult points in their lives.
That approach is also central to the latest material being presented through the YouTube channel. Maclin has documented his path toward Maple Leaf Pro’s Northern Rising event in a two-part documentary, with the second installment scheduled to arrive the following Monday on the Boots To Boots YouTube page.
Making an injury part of the story
During a recent interview, Maclin discussed the decision to document the situation rather than simply allow it to remain a private interruption. He said the project began to take shape while he was in the middle of the experience and recognized that there was a meaningful story worth preserving.
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“We’re taking advantage of the situation,” Maclin said. “I’m glad, and it’s funny, texting with Adam the other day. He’s like, ‘I’m glad you documented this.’ Just midway through, I’m like, ‘Hey, we should really start to maybe put something together with this, because it’s a good story to tell.’”
Maclin said the documentary’s second part will further explore that journey. The central idea, he explained, has been to ensure an injury does not simply become lost time. Instead, Boots To Boots has allowed him to turn that period into content with a personal purpose and a more direct connection to viewers.
“It’s just taking advantage of an injury and making the most of it and not letting it go to waste,” Maclin said.
In wrestling, injuries often create a difficult separation between performers and the audience that follows them. Television appearances may stop, matches are postponed and the everyday work involved in returning to the ring can remain largely unseen. Maclin’s documentary approach offers a different route: bringing viewers closer to the process without attempting to manufacture a persona separate from his actual experience.
That distinction matters to Maclin. He said his goal is to present the most genuine version of himself possible, rather than treating the platform as a place to perform a character or force an image that does not fit.
“For me, it’s like, ‘How do we bring the most realism out of me to the audience?’” Maclin said. “That’s how I’ve always tried to be, is the most authentic that I can of me and not go out there and try to be something that I’m not.”
Boots To Boots as a shared platform
The channel and podcast are a joint venture between Maclin and Purrazzo, and Maclin said the format has also helped them support one another professionally. Both wrestlers can use the platform to promote their respective work while building an identity that is broader than a conventional wrestling interview show.
Maclin described the podcast experience as enjoyable, but he also stressed its practical value. The pair remain part of the wrestling community and want to reach that community, yet their ambitions for Boots To Boots go considerably further.
“It’s been fun, but at the same time, too, like we’re helping each other promote,” Maclin said. “Like, we’re in the wrestling community and that’s who we’re trying to also branch out to and get eyes on from an audience.”
For fans who know Maclin and Purrazzo through their in-ring careers, that wrestling connection provides a natural starting point. Their audience is already familiar with the demands of a career built around travel, physical wear, public performance and constant uncertainty. But Maclin identified additional communities that the pair hope to serve through discussion and shared stories.
Those groups include veterans, first responders and people confronting mental-health struggles or major changes in their professional and personal lives. The framing is important: Maclin is not presenting Boots To Boots as a place where every guest or listener needs to reach the same conclusion. Instead, he sees value in simply making room for perspectives and situations that are not always openly addressed.
Reaching veterans, first responders and people in transition
Maclin said Boots To Boots is intended to be a voice for listeners who may feel unheard during a crisis, a career change or a period of uncertainty. Questions about identity, direction and whether someone is choosing the right path can affect people in every field, and Maclin believes those conversations deserve more attention.
“But then also the veteran community, first responders community, and then just people that are dealing with those mental health struggles and going through a crisis in their life of a career change or a moment of like, ‘Am I doing the right thing? Is this the right way to go?’” Maclin said.
Professional wrestling can provide a powerful backdrop for that discussion because careers in the industry regularly demand adaptation. Wrestlers deal with changing opportunities, time away from competition, injuries, travel and the pressure of remaining visible to an audience. Still, Maclin’s stated objective is not to limit the subject matter to wrestling-specific issues. He wants the platform to connect with people who recognize the same pressures in different walks of life.
That wider focus separates the project from a standard promotional podcast. Promotion remains part of the equation, as Maclin openly acknowledged, but it is joined by an effort to talk about topics that can be uncomfortable or insufficiently discussed. The intended audience includes people looking for recognition, conversation and examples of others navigating similar circumstances.
“We’re just trying to be a voice for those that need to be heard at that time,” Maclin said. “Whether you agree with it, you don’t agree with it, it’s okay. That’s the whole point.”
Maclin added that the project allows its hosts to express their own experiences while also bringing in stories from others who have dealt with related challenges. He believes those shared experiences are often present but not spoken about enough.
“We’re voicing how we are and we’re getting stories from everybody else that’s going through very similar situations,” Maclin said. “That’s not very talked about much.”
The Northern Rising documentary continues
The next immediate focus for Boots To Boots is the second half of the documentary centered on Maclin’s journey to Maple Leaf Pro Northern Rising. Part one and the forthcoming continuation position the channel as more than a podcast archive, giving Maclin and Purrazzo a visual format through which to tell longer-form stories.
Maclin did not offer further specifics about what viewers will see in the second installment, but he made clear that the documentary will elaborate on the decision to turn a difficult situation into something constructive. For him, the project is rooted in refusing to let a setback define the entire period surrounding it.
That outlook also aligns with the broader Boots To Boots mission. The platform is built around directness rather than polish for its own sake, and its stated purpose leaves room for wrestling discussion alongside subjects involving recovery, mental health, career uncertainty and life transitions. Maclin and Purrazzo are using their existing visibility to invite viewers into those conversations, while also encouraging people outside wrestling to see that their experiences are not isolated.
With part two of the Northern Rising documentary set for release on the Boots To Boots YouTube channel, Maclin’s personal journey remains at the center of the project’s current output. At the same time, his comments make clear that he sees it as part of a larger ongoing effort: one that promotes the work of two wrestlers while trying to offer a candid, human space for anyone facing a difficult next step.
Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.