“My parents used to get mad at me when I was a kid,” recalled Travis Feist of Dakota Kustomz. “As soon as they gave me any new toy, especially a bicycle, the first thing I’d do was take it apart, figure out how it worked, and then put it back together again along with my own improvements.”

Although it had started out as a legitimate sport back in the 1930s, in the decades that followed roller derby gradually devolved into the female equivalent of the WWE. Scripted fights, fishnet stockings, and miniskirts which doubled as scientific studies into how many sequins a square inch of fabric could support before erupting under its own sparkliness took priority over athleticism, and the outcomes of the matches were often predetermined. Roller derby experienced something of a renaissance last decade, however. The showmanship angle with its stockings and sequins has endured, as have the athletes’ funny stage names like “Honey Basher” and “Princess Cut” — but the aggression, and the results of each bout for that matter, are very real indeed.