2019 INDIE WRESTLING THREAD

[AxB]

Defiant did something cunning. Since late last year, Walter lost the Internet title to Martin Kirby (wrapped in bubblewrap), and then Walter disappeared from the promotion. Then Jimmy Havoc lost the Hardcore title (technically he was stripped because he was injured and missed the match) to No Fun Dunne, and Havoc disappeared from the promotion. So when Rampage lost the World title to Rory Coyle, and then it was announced Justin Sysum would be getting the first shot at the new champ, everyone assumed Rampage was gone too. So Coyle had an in-ring funeral ceremony for Rampage's Defiant Wrestling career... which ended in a Rampage run-in, him beating Sysum for the title shot, and then regaining the belt in his home city of Leeds. It was pretty cool. Might go to the next PPV, it's in Manchester.

[clintthecrippler]

8 hours ago, RIPPA said:

AAW basically confirming they won't use guys who work other local feds

What's even shittier about this is at the center of the controversy is another promotion called Warrior Wrestling.

Which runs family-friendly fundraiser shows for a local Catholic school five times per year, 40 miles south from AAW's main venue.

 

[odessasteps]

On a certain level, competing in a crowded market like Chicago or Philly, I can see the logic of a promoter wanting to have his company be the only place locally to see a special talent, be that local star or fly-in attraction. 

It might also depend on how that talent was used in other places. I dont know if I would want one of my stars being booked poorly by another promotion in the same area. 

[mattdangerously]

7 hours ago, odessasteps said:

On a certain level, competing in a crowded market like Chicago or Philly, I can see the logic of a promoter wanting to have his company be the only place locally to see a special talent, be that local star or fly-in attraction. 

It might also depend on how that talent was used in other places. I dont know if I would want one of my stars being booked poorly by another promotion in the same area. 

Yeah, this doesn't seem as unreasonable as Page makes it sound. He's not trying to control where his talent works. On the other hand, I'm not sure it's very smart. Working in other local promotions can help talent get over and build a fanbase, which helps everyone.

[RIPPA]

Well again - the thing people pointed out (at least based on Page's initial tweet) was that Game Changer Wrestling (which is bigger and just as local as AAW) wasn't name so it came across as AAW punching down. (Basically knowing people will pick GCW over AAW)

[Marty Sugar]

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Well again - the thing people pointed out (at least based on Page's initial tweet) was that Game Changer Wrestling (which is bigger and just as local as AAW) wasn't name so it came across as AAW punching down. (Basically knowing people will pick GCW over AAW)

This is standard indie wrestling politics. We joke that wrestlers are belt marks but promoters are, too. If I put my belt on you and then you work for some rival promotion and get jobbed out, you've theoretically made my belt look like shit. It happened back in the territory days, too: when the AWA was expanding into Canada, there was a local indie hero in Quebec named Mad Dog Pelonquin: the AWA put him on TV and called him Puppy Dog Pelonquin to attempt to bury him...they had Mad Dog Vachon and clearly Vachon was the superior Quebecois named "Mad Dog," of course.

But if backfired, because Puppy Dog Pelonquin ran with that gimmick like a motherfucker and became an even bigger star on the Quebec non-territory scene.

We've got an issue in the Okanagan with the CWE coming from Manitoba and attempting this cross-Canada twice-yearly tour bullshit. Big controversy last fall because Brutus Beefcake abandoned the tour on Day 29 of 36 (or 37, I don't really care, TBH). Turned into a social media mess with the CWE promoter dissing both Beefcake and his wife, Beefcake and his wife dissing back, Kelly Klein getting involved (she was booked a year or two ago on this CWE tour and quit early because the boys were being pervy pigs to her and her husband, BJ Whitmer, was about to fly up and kill everyone), and everyone looked stupid. What makes it worse is that CWE has a great working relationship with Thrash Wrestling (who runs successfully all around the Okanagan but stays out of "my" town of Kelowna out of respect), but the CWE very blatantly disrespected and disregarded myself and the other promoters that run the highly successful twice-yearly charity shows in Kelowna.

I didn't tell anyone to  not work for the CWE, but I listened to the kids bitch about how they got underpaid and disrespected last fall...jobbed out and made to look like garbage in the ring...chopped to shit and stiffed both in the ring and in their PO envelopes. At first I was supportive, and even went to the Penticton show last fall because I was asked on the DL to come support the kids who were feeling a little overwhelmed that they were being treated so shitty....also I went to rub it in the promoter's face that I had to drive down to feed Beefcake because he'd been left to starve all day despite being given meal guarantees.  But then, after all the crying and whining about being talked to like shit and not being paid (one guy got paid $10 despite working with a torn bicep after being injured on the tour the night before), THEY ALL WENT CRAWLING THE FUCK BACK. So my sympathy went in the shitter real quick.

And again, the locals got routinely jobbed the fuck out. The ones that really bore the brunt this time were the Thrash Wrestling Tag Team Champions (despite the Thrash promoter being on tour and getting put over like a beast), who got beaten every night on tour and ended up taking the fall in every match...which was very blatantly put down in the results, every show. I would be annoyed but they drew less than a third of what I draw in Kelowna, so it's not like anyone really SAW my kids get jobbed out. My current champion was only used as the ring announcer, but if that was an attempt at an insult it also backfired as he just posted on social media that CWE wrestlers were too scared to fight the Big West Champion and we got the rub that way.

What's even funnier is that the CWE refused to acknowledge Big West and just kept saying "the local promotion," which actually made me laugh...and also backfired because the local media sought me out and gave me a big article the week after the tour limped through here. And I say "limped" quite literally, as their ring truck broke down and they almost didn't have a Kelowna show. They had to get the Thrash ring from Enderby despite mine being 20 minutes from the venue and loaded on my trailer and on the property of one of the local kids they were booking every night...

[Technico Support]

On 4/23/2019 at 8:10 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Jim Cornette's schtick detracted from the match. As to be expected with Callihan and Warner, it was a fun brawl. I like them joining forces to take out Promociones Dorado.

Back to Cornette, his commentary during Callihan/Warner is what I'm afraid Jim Ross is going to pull when calling matches not to his liking in AEW. 

 

On 4/24/2019 at 4:29 AM, Hail Sabin said:

Ross would do it but instead of screaming like Cornette he would be quiet and sound like he is bored out of his mind or with the same joy of getting a root canal. 

I'm dreading Ross calling Nyla Rose's matches.  How will he awkwardly shoehorn Jim Barnett "jokes" in?

[RIPPA]

I love @Marty Sugar's stories (even though he probably doesn't)

[RIPPA]

I finally went ahead and made a PROGRESS thread in the WWE Minor League Folder

 

[Marty Sugar]

44 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

I love @Marty Sugar's stories (even though he probably doesn't)

At this point I'll gladly just share them. I'm not too worried about the repercussions of speaking my mind after  doing my time for 17 years.

[Hail Sabin]

3 hours ago, Technico Support said:

 

I'm dreading Ross calling Nyla Rose's matches.  How will he awkwardly shoehorn Jim Barnett "jokes" in?

Watch him namedrop Miss Atlanta Lively and make the internet explode. 

[Dewar]

Marty's stories do rule. Sucks that the CWE touring show treats the locals like that.

[sabremike]

1 hour ago, Marty Sugar said:

At this point I'll gladly just share them. I'm not too worried about the repercussions of speaking my mind after  doing my time for 17 years.

Keep em coming, they're awesome!

[Marty Sugar]

4 hours ago, Dewar said:

Marty's stories do rule. Sucks that the CWE touring show treats the locals like that.

Here's the thing, I'm no peach, either. I blew a gasket at the last May long weekend for guys misbehaving at a county fair show THEY WERE WORKING FOR FREE. I yelled so much backstage I upset a church group. I've manhandled a rookie in training who was dicking around too much. I got stiffed by a female greenhorn and then turned around stiffed her so bad she had to roll out of the ring and she nearly quit. There's an "old school" of this and a "new school" of this and I came up straddling them both; I got the shit treatment and don't want to be like those guys but some fucking times these kids nowadays are ignorant shits and you think, "Hey, there was a reason guys treated rookies like shit."

I digress, but promoters are all assholes in some way or another. I see this Danny Daniels Von Danielson (or however many Danny's are in his name) in that he feels maybe he "made" some stars and then they walked across the street (quite literally) and worked somewhere else; it especially sucks if it feels these guys are more excited and appreciative of the company that books them once or twice than they are the guy who books  them every damn show.

ANNNNNND, for every guy or girl that whines about how some promoter is awful, there's probably 3-10 others saying how great that same promoter is. It's an industry full of fragile fucking people, some of whom will put up with damn near anything to enjoy being part of the club.

[hammerva]

In this weeks version of "yeah that sounds about right", at the GCW show in Philly called CRIME WAVE, a drunk driver (we believe) in a corvette just ran into the ring truck parked outside the building 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

2 hours ago, hammerva said:

In this weeks version of "yeah that sounds about right", at the GCW show in Philly called CRIME WAVE, a drunk driver (we believe) in a corvette just ran into the ring truck parked outside the building 

Pictures of the mangled corvette?

[hammerva]

Luckily the ring truck and nobody was seriously hurt (well except for the drunk driver).   Imagine the cops driving up and noticing Shlak vs Mance Warner going on as well.  Just another night in Philly 

 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

2 minutes ago, hammerva said:

Luckily the ring truck and nobody was seriously hurt (well except for the drunk driver).   Imagine the cops driving up and noticing Shlak vs Mance Warner going on as well.  Just another night in Philly 

 

The owner of that corvette is FUCKED.

[Neil1113]

23 hours ago, Marty Sugar said:

At this point I'll gladly just share them. I'm not too worried about the repercussions of speaking my mind after  doing my time for 17 years.

If I ever make it up to BC, we definitely need to connect! I bet it'd be a lot of fun working on one of your shows! You seem awesome from what I've seen haha. It's cool that you're featuring Silas Young too, he's definitely a great guy!

[Marty Sugar]

1 hour ago, Neil1113 said:

If I ever make it up to BC, we definitely need to connect! I bet it'd be a lot of fun working on one of your shows! You seem awesome from what I've seen haha. It's cool that you're featuring Silas Young too, he's definitely a great guy!

I wouldn't have booked Silas for those venues. He's talented and I'm sure it will be fun to share a locker room with him, but ROH isn't something the fans in the Okanagan really flock to see. Vancouver is a different story: the fans there are big into the "Theoretical No. 2" scene and will show  up to support a guy like Silas or Cabana or Flamita. Plus the two venues he's working this weekend fill up without names (and have strict capacity limits) so there's no room to spend that money and get a bigger audience and thusly, more profit from ticket sales. I've been the main in Vernon and Penticton and we've had capacity crowds and I'd make at least 20-30% more than the nights a guy like Chris Masters or Silas Young is booked, because my "extra" for busting my ass in the main is going to pay for these guys' flights and hotels. And lord knows I drew more on top than Beefcake or Psicosis did.

[Neil1113]

49 minutes ago, Marty Sugar said:

I wouldn't have booked Silas for those venues. He's talented and I'm sure it will be fun to share a locker room with him, but ROH isn't something the fans in the Okanagan really flock to see. Vancouver is a different story: the fans there are big into the "Theoretical No. 2" scene and will show  up to support a guy like Silas or Cabana or Flamita. Plus the two venues he's working this weekend fill up without names (and have strict capacity limits) so there's no room to spend that money and get a bigger audience and thusly, more profit from ticket sales. I've been the main in Vernon and Penticton and we've had capacity crowds and I'd make at least 20-30% more than the nights a guy like Chris Masters or Silas Young is booked, because my "extra" for busting my ass in the main is going to pay for these guys' flights and hotels. And lord knows I drew more on top than Beefcake or Psicosis did.

Definitely understandable haha. I was under the impression you were the booker for BigWestWrestling, that's why I said that. But you're absolutely correct, and that's actually a really smart way to look at it!

[Guest Edwin]

GCW is running 2 shows in August in Japan. They will more than likely be FREEDOMS shows at Shin-Kiba with Gage, Tremont and Janela and they'll be sold as GCW shows.

[matt925]

Went to my first apw show in 17 years. Fun show, I’ll be back for more. Loved seeing all the little kids there. 

[J.T.]

I'm getting caught up on MLW:  Fusion.

• HOLY FUCK~!  Lucha Bros vs. Air Wolf / Rey Horus may be the best curtain jerker I've seen in a long time, and those Lucha Bros entrance beatz 4 u are SO SEXY THO~!  Speaking of entrance music, extra love points for Air Wolf for actually using the theme of the television show, Airwolf, as his walking to the ring track..
• And, shit...  Ace Romero vs. Josef Samael can't possibly be a good match, can it?  Wait, for a big guy who shouldn't be bouncing like a pinball for a smaller man, Ace Romero sure has the look of a pretty good baby face in peril, but even so this match looks like shit on paper...hold on a sec is that a... BOOT LOADING SPOT~!  MILLION BILLION STARS~!  God, if this angle ends up with a Tom Lawler / Ace Romero / Barrington Hughes vs. CONTRA Unit, it could be the best comedy match of the year.  Lawlor / Hughes / Romero will have the weight advantage so certainly CONTA will counter the size factor by introducing a new member to help them cheat their way to victory, right?  I will love MLW forever if they take that opportunity to turn Lance Anoa'i heel and have him and Jacop Fatu form SST 2.0 inside the CONTRA Unit stable. 
• The Hart Foundation 420 theft of MJF's vehicle is number one and the best, but it is set up by MJF's brilliant sense of white boy entitlement.  "See, it's parked over there in the handicapped spot."  FUCK THE CRIPPLES~!
• The Gringo Loco push continues.  Can someone get this dude some drill rap so that he can properly rep the Chi?  If I ever need a fat Lucha guy to make me look like a million dollars, I'll hire Puma King so long as he doesn't get sloppy like he did in that corner spot where he made Gringo Loco bleed hardway..  Finish was a bit of a clusterfuck, but I've seen worse.  Props to Gringo Loco for keeping his cool and sticking to the booking rather than getting pissed off and trying to get even with Puma King via potato spots or a stiff finish.
• Dear Lord.  Sami Callahan vs. Mance Warner was the crazy ass garbage match that the Battle Bowl match between Jimmy Havoc and Tom Lawlor should've been.  Havoc / Lawlor was nice and bloody but the ultra violence seemed a bit too scripted for my liking.  This match was a much better exercise in organized chaos.  Both men are just leaning into shots and taking bumps that they probably shouldn't, but fuck it.  This is all about respect and by God, someone is going to get it beat out of them Texas Dog Whoppin style..  Warner and Sami are telling a far better story with one single fucking chair than Havoc and Lawler did with an arsenal of international objects, including a fucking staple gun.  If Sami and Warner was the main event every night for a couple of months, MLW would be better for it.  Sami is on the mat demanding that Mancer give him a warrior's death and send him out on his shield.  This is fucking awesome!  Balls out finish is spoiled by a run-in.  Goddammit...  I figured that this was just a glorified story building angle to partner up Callahan and Warner and sic 'em against Promociones Dorado, but I'd like to have at least gotten some sort of finish:  dirty or otherwise.  PARK Jr. and Martinez could've jumped in and beat down the winner of the match rather than attack two men who still had fight left in them.

Edited May 1, 2019 by J.T.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

This week's has The Dynasty vs. the Hart Foundation in a six man elimination tables match. I've got that and ROH on tap after Seinfeld.