Name your favorite Indy promotion or one you attended. I live in the Chicagoland area and for me it’s AAW. They bring in a big name or two usually. Naito is coming in February. I also attended a few Lucha shows in the area.
My local promotion is Kamikaze Pro but I’ve not gone to their shows in a long while as the product isn’t to my tastes. I try to go to every Fight Club:Pro show so I consider them my proper local. They put on consistently fantastic shows.
I’ll be at the Jan FCP show and I’m even considering the Feb Kamikaze show as they’re running Pete Dunne vs Sabre Jr. I’ll also try and be at PROGRESS in Brum at the end of the month if I can snag some tickets.
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I live in Milwaukee and the one or two indies I’ve been up here is a bit hairy. I usually just drive down to Chicago for AAW, though I haven’t gone in a long time as the two people I went with moved away from the area. Bummed I missed out on the tickets to see Naito.
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I live in Leicester and I know there is Leicester Championship Wrestling but have never been. I don’t go to many wrestling shows and the last one was Super Strong Style 16 2016 for Progress. I was tempted to go to ICW when they came to Leicester but timings didn’t work.
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LCW just got folded into HOPE, they just had a show in Leicester tonight with some big names on the show.
I’m spoiled for choice with locals in London, with PROGRESS, Rev Pro, EVE and a few others all here.
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Of the ones closest to me, my favorite is Chikara. They’ve kind of shrunken in scope the past few years, but they primarily use their own space now and continue to run very fun shows. They seem to have the majority of their shows scheduled for their homebase in Philadelphia, so I would like to make as most of them as possible. There was a time where they ran the old ECW Arena one Sunday every month, and I was able to make all of those.
Overall, my favorite indies were ROH and PWG, but ROH is less of an indie, more of a national TV-based company now, and PWG isn’t very frequent far from a traditional indie (though I love it and buy every DVD). PROGRESS has become one of my top favorites through how they put on shows, grow talent, etc.
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I used to go to old ecw shows at the old barn there in Philly. Working for the airlines used to catch a flight in the afternoon on Saturday for night show. Good times there. Never made it to a PWG show. Always wanted to but a hard ticket to get. Love ROH everytime they come here to Chicago I go.
There are a bunch of indy groups that run Toronto and the surrounding area but i say the best is SMASH Wrestling. I haven’t been to of their shows in a while but they are always good and fun to watch.
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Futureshock is probably the “local” promotion for the Great Manchester area and I do wanna start going to their shows now that I know I won’t be going alone. I’ve been to one PROGRESS show at the Ritz and my friend revealed to me last night that he’s only ever missed two shows in Manchester and he has priority booking so we’re gonna start going together.
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Toronto is crazy right now. Did you see all the shit happening on the 21st? How does one choose between seeing Matt Riddle or seeing Dunne vs Aries? There’s also a show in Hamilton with CODY, Janella, and a couple others.
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I am in the NY area so there are a few to choose from. Recently I went to House of Glory. It was my first time seeing a show from this promotion, but they had Ric Flair doing a special appearance so I felt the need to go. The show was fun although it wasn’t anything all that special. The main event featured ZSJ so that was cool. I should start checking out more events in the area.
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That’s how much out of the loop I am. Had no clue LCW is now HOPE.
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Yup it is, i believe Dunne vs. Aries is sold out.
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So did I but I will try to find a way to get in. Fan of Naito.
I love Rev Pro in England, they put on high quality shows with top Brit talent, standout American Indy talent, and because of relationships with ROH and New Japan… they get top stars from them as well.
Evolve as well, Always loved Gabe’s booking, still do. It’s the Paul Heyman enthusiast in me.
Would love to hear John and Wai review the Recent Rev Pro Cockpit shows or Evolve’s upcoming weekend shows.
Just to hear their thoughts on a regular product I enjoy that not many see.
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Rev-Pro is great. I haven’t been to one of their shows in a while but they’re always dead good with great connections, and the imports usually try really hard.
EVOLVE though, I can’t get into. I find the production stale and bland. It was a struggle to get through those 'Mania weekend shows. It’s all well and good having great wrestling, but if the commentary mix is too loud and you’ve put little effort into the set-up, I’m turning off. I also find their WWE-lite angles to be pretty cringe. I hope they improve this year.
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They get me with the roster, more than anything.
Keith Lee, Matt Riddle, Zack Sabre Jr, Timothy Thatcher, Chris Dickenson, Darby Allen, ECT.
In terms of Indy comedy matches… I loved Ethan Page and ACH but I’m sure Jim Cornette would think the Troll Boys killed the wrestling business and buried it in their backyard.
The thing is, there are other promotions who use almost the exact same roster and they have the simple stuff like audio-mixing down to a tee. Beyond Wrestling is a great example of this.
Jim Cornette’s opinions mean literally nothing, these days. Kayfabe died in the 80’s when Vince McMahon went public about the true nature of the sport in order to save some cash.
I know, I just like making Cornette jokes because his thoughts, ideas, and opinions are so antiquated in 2018.
Truth about the rosters.
I as well have had issues with Evolve’s audio. There was one promo when watching there was audio and one speaking but not the other and it was part of a pre tape on a preshow… you can’t fix that shit? Really.
Rev Pro all day. Looking forward to seeing Minoru Suzuki at York Hall next week.