There is an awakening. Can you feel it?
Last weekend, there were four independent wrestling promotions running within 45 minutes of each other in New York City - CHIKARA, SWA, House of Glory and NYWC. All four featured good live crowds and in the case of at least three of the events, they sold out. NYWC and House of Glory had so many fans, there weren't enough chairs with a number of fans choosing to pay to stand and watch the shows. In The Carolinas, there were multiple events with upwards of 1,700-2,000 fans showing up to see The Rock N' Roll Express battle the Powers of Pain in a Steel Cage for Big Time Wrestling while CWF Mid-Atlantic presented a 105 minute bout that everyone is raving about featuring Trevor Lee and Roy Wilkins. Multiple shows in California for promotions APW and Revolution Pro were sold out. Beyond Wrestling sold out two back to back shows in Rhode Island that received great reviews.
This weekend, Northeast Wrestling is expected to have close to 2,000 fans at their Wrestlefest event in Newburgh, NY. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla will present their latest big events, All Star Extravaganza in Reseda, CA that will undoubtedly draw raves and a sellout crowd. MCW in Baltimore will have another big house in Joppa, MD. There are countless other promotions running this weekend as well.
Wrestlemania weekend, there will be no less than TEN independent wrestling events with everyone from SHIMMER to EVOLVE to CZW to the NWA to VIP Wrestling to Queens of Combat to Kaiju Big Battel presenting shows. That number, by the way, does not include Ring of Honor. Most of these events, if not all, will be packed and will feature a lot of great in-ring wrestling. The biggest wrestling event of the year and ten events will be there as the alternative for the 100,000 fans in Dallas.
Mind you, none of what I wrote about mentions other promotions that are currently trying to build their foundation and brand name. AAW in Illinois. AIW in Cleveland. FIP in Florida. Tier 1 in NYC. WrestlePro in New Jersey. Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment in Georgia. Wildkat Sports in New Orleans. There are more quality independent wrestling promotions right now, at the same time, in the United States than at any point before this era.
Nor am I talking about promotions that can be seen in some vein, nationally, on cable. Championship Wrestling Hollywood. Paragon Pro Wrestling....or the countless ones that can be found on Youtube. Just this week, On Point Wrestling in New Jersey launched their own series online.
Now, let's open our scope to include Europe. WXW in Germany. OTT in Ireland. IPW-UK, Revolution Pro, PROGRESS in Great Britain. [Note from Mike: Or ICW, which many fans wrote me about after I neglected to list them here. Sorry!] The level of wrestling and the sheer amount of stuff out there is staggering, even for someone like me, who loves to follow as much as he can.
Holy sh**!
Don't say it's a revolution. Don't say it's aberration. There is no doubt about it. We are living in the golden age of independent professional wrestling, and it's pretty awesome.
So, why is it happening now? There's always been an independent, undercurrent to what mainstream professional wrestling is. Independent wrestling used to be a dirty word. Back in the territory era, anyone who didn't run without permission were considered "outlaw" shows and if those shows crossed the wrong promoter, The National Wrestling Alliance members would team up to trounce them.
When the WWF national expansion took place, suddenly the rules had changed. One, the territory rules no longer applied. Two, many of the smaller towns and venues that had previously been home to spot shows from the larger companies or now-defunct promoters were available. The era of the independents had begun.
Independents used to be, for the most part small, fly by night promotions. They ran shows that were pretty much the equivalent of the circus coming to town for a day. There would be a few names that fans recognized - The Jimmy Snukas, The Terry Funks, The Big Bossmans, The Abdullah The Butchers - either former nationally known names or renowned wild men who were their own men - responsible for drawing the house. Underneath would be a litany of locals, some talented, some not. Most of the locals never made it past that level. The promotions would come in, put on a show and be done. The shows might be good, they might be bad but most often, unless it was a specific promoters, it was likely a haphazard show. How haphazard? I once witnessed Terry Funk beat Abdullah the Butcher in a Texas Death Match...by DQ. These were shows designed to get money and get out. There was no foundation.
Now, following on the blueprint that promotions like ECW, IWA Mid-South and Ring of Honor created, we have independent promotions running regularly in the same venues, with the same talents, telling storylines that exist over multiple months. Some of them are still running and promoting the old grass-roots style and having great success with it. Big Time Wrestling and Wildkat Sports routinely draw good crowds without seeking online audiences. There are also companies building their momentum on DVD sales, digital downloads and streaming websites. We are seeing promotions making good money with multiple revenue streams. They aren't anywhere close to destroying WWE's place as the top wrestling company in the world, but they are making money for themselves and in many cases, thanks to t-shirt companies like ProWrestlingTees.com, the wrestlers have regular additional income coming in for themselves.
So, why are things so hot again? A cross-sectional check-in with independent promoters and personalities show that there's a number of different reasons that all seem to be hitting at just the right time.