Any indy feds you don't get the hype about?

[Deleted]

May 7, 2013 14:21:37 GMT -5 SOR said:

Not saying everyone at a SHIMMER show is creepy some may just watch the card and go home it's the obsessive fans that are a worry and I guess I just don't understand that obsession past the whole "They're hot" thing.

Do you have a similar difficulty understanding why a wrestling fan would want their picture taken with a male wrestler? If someone is a fan of a particular wrestler, they typically would like to meet them, maybe get a picture taken with them, and maybe get an autograph. Male or female.

[SOR]

May 7, 2013 22:36:38 GMT -5 @kudohdriver said:

May 7, 2013 14:21:37 GMT -5 SOR said:

Not saying everyone at a SHIMMER show is creepy some may just watch the card and go home it's the obsessive fans that are a worry and I guess I just don't understand that obsession past the whole "They're hot" thing.

Do you have a similar difficulty understanding why a wrestling fan would want their picture taken with a male wrestler? If someone is a fan of a particular wrestler, they typically would like to meet them, maybe get a picture taken with them, and maybe get an autograph. Male or female.

I said pictures and autographs were fine. Would you go out and party/dance/eat/buy drinks for/with your favourite indy MALE wrestlers though?

[Deleted]

Yeah. There's a bar and pizza place down the street from where ROH holds their shows in Chicago Ridge which I've gone to often. It's usually full after every show, with people buying the Briscoes beers and whatnot.

[SOR]

May 7, 2013 22:50:39 GMT -5 @kudohdriver said:

Yeah. There's a bar and pizza place down the street from where ROH holds their shows in Chicago Ridge which I've gone to often. It's usually full after every show, with people buying the Briscoes beers and whatnot.

Then that's just as bad in my view.

Most of these people don't want fans bothering them. I know SHIMMER advertises it but sometimes people just want to be left alone and if any of these SHIMMER girls say no to a photo or autograph or drink fans take to the internet and are jerks about it. I remember a story where Portia Perez was feeling anti social one night and a fan wouldn't stop bothering her. When she was cold to the fan the fan talked badly about her online. And you know that at least some of the SHIMMER fans are going around hitting on their favourites or being so utterly creepy that it's ruining the girls night.

I'm sure some fans are innocent if they attend the after parties but to me a majority are probably going so they can hang around hot wrestling chicks.

[Emmet Russell]

Evolve and DG: USA for me. Both have a lot of amazing talents but I just can't get into the product at all and i'm not sure why. It's just lacking something to make me interested in the product.

[bytor]

I hate Chikara with a passion. Like if the Wrestling Gods gave me the power to eradicate one promotion on the planet I'd pick Chikara in a heartbeat.

IWA-MS was pretty overrated back in the day when Chris "I have to start every match with at least 15 minutes of yawn-inducing pointless mat wrestling" Hero was the top babyface. Then you had Ian and his talentless death match goon squad. The TPI shows were generally good, and sometimes they'd bring in some outsiders that would tear it up, but most of their shows were rubbish. Oh, and scumbag Ian giving those "Rah Rah Yay Indy Wrestling!" speeches in front of the same 20 bored fans at every show was the most pathetic thing I had seen in a wrestling ring until that time I stumbled upon a gang of Ants wrestling some Egyptians.

[SOR]

May 8, 2013 3:30:31 GMT -5 bytor said:

I hate Chikara with a passion. Like if the Wrestling Gods gave me the power to eradicate one promotion on the planet I'd pick Chikara in a heartbeat.

Why? I'm not their biggest fan but at least they use decent wrestlers.

If I was given the choice the NWA would be dead.

[bytor]

I hate their whole "ZOMG Aren't we so ironic and clever!?!?" vibe. I'm far from some stuffy purist and I've liked a whole lot of "wrestlecrap" gimmicks over the years. I think things would get boring in a hurry if everybody was a serious business Johnny Bootandtights type of wrestler but Chikara goes overboard with it. Like it's all some big stupid ironic hipster joke.

I went to two shows on a whim just because I liked going to see live wrestling whenever possible. The first was a Tag Tournament a long time ago where the Swiss Money Holding wrestled Quack/Hero and the second was that Trios tournament Team FIST won. Those two shows were enough for me.

[EyeofTyr]

Having been to SHIMMER shows repeatedly before I moved from Chicago, I can say that sor's assessment isn't entirely wrong. For every decent fan, there was a completely obsessive creeper that seemed pretty detached from reality. I loved the shows but it became really unsettling to go sometimes, seeing how some of the fans, usually male, reacted and conducted themselves.

Some of which even thought they were "friends" with some of the wrestlers because they bought them something off their wishlist or some similarly depressing action. Usually followed by them trying to talk to said wrestler and it being a little awkward.

The after parties can be equally creepy, I went on a whim once, and then a few times after when I brought friends along to the show that wanted to see if the after party was any good. We all noticed more than a few fans oogling and trying to hit on the wrestlers.

It's interesting though, as I think SHIMMER more than any other promotion in America has developed a fanbase similar to an otaku fanbase one might see in Japan for certain Joshi promotions.

Not saying SHIMMER's fanbase is entirely filled with them or that I don't get it, I like SHIMMER's matches overall, albeit wish they'd do more storylines. But to try to act as though it is the super minority when whenever I pop in a DVD of a recent show and it's still the same people, more or less, in the audience....yeah, I don't buy it. By all reports, the creepers are still there and as strong as ever.

Some promotions I don't get are EVOLVE, DG: USA and ROH. EVOLVE had a few decent matches but it was even drier than ROH in it's opening days. DG: USA had some potential and a few decent ideas, namely at the start, but the spotfests got tiring to sit through. ROH...I never really cared for too much, liked Samoa Joe and thought some of their storylines were decent. Other than that it was a pass and I didn't get the hype.

[1 Free Moon-Down with Burger]

Current Chikara is pretty tiring.

Before I kinda understood it because it had passable writing and a few standout talents. Nowadays the writing is bland, boring and often confusing. The roster is filled with sloppy rookies and cruise control vets there's just nothing there for me to really get excited about.

Then you have the 'ironic, hipster, wrestling is dumb but play along and maybe we can be comedians' fans. Its just tiring. I dunno.

[Deleted]

I want to know more about "Cheesecake Man" DAMMIT!

[SOR]

May 8, 2013 14:08:40 GMT -5 @spindoc said:

I want to know more about "Cheesecake Man" DAMMIT!

Yeah I'm definitely in for the story about that. Sounds like it could be hilarious.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

May 6, 2013 22:50:35 GMT -5 Can you afford to pay me, Gah said:

John Zadig's CZW was always this for me. Back in the tape trading and buying days this was one the one company people keep telling me. Get there events there so amazing. I did and most of them where just plan crap. No matches stood out it was mostly pointless blood baths. The only events I liked was the BOTB tournaments. Everything else I was like "This is cool because?"

The same goes for anybody trying to sell me on XPW. Which believe it or not there been people who tried.

Some XPW undercard workers were good, but yeah a lot of that promotion is just wall to wall shit.

[SOR]

I did a search for Cheesecake Man on the SHIMMER forums and here's a quote in regards to what he is all about

And Cheesecake dude is exactly what it says on the tin. He sells cheesecake and claims to have sold his wares to JWow and John Cena (he bragged to me about them last time, which I no-selled and told him bluntly that I didn't care), and Triple H was his latest customer this time apparently. His words were "Tell Steven and Athena I've arrived." Smh. He targets Athena mostly, her first time at SHIMMER after party, she was going outside to do a short interview and he GRABS her arm and asks aggressively, "Where you going??" Since it was her first time she wasn't sure how to react and told him what she was doing. He then caressed her arm saying, "Oh okay, okay."

[Deleted]

I want to see what this guy looks like now.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Is he the reason people were randomly yelling "Cheesecake!" on one of the DVDs, because holy hell did that get annoying.

[SOR]

May 8, 2013 15:55:22 GMT -5 "Playboy" Don Douglas said:

Is he the reason people were randomly yelling "Cheesecake!" on one of the DVDs, because holy hell did that get annoying.

According to some of the threads on there they chant "Cheesecake" during the matches. The SHIMMER fans find this annoying because it takes away from the match so you're definitely not alone in thinking it was annoying.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

May 8, 2013 3:43:39 GMT -5 bytor said:

I hate their whole "ZOMG Aren't we so ironic and clever!?!?" vibe. I'm far from some stuffy purist and I've liked a whole lot of "wrestlecrap" gimmicks over the years. I think things would get boring in a hurry if everybody was a serious business Johnny Bootandtights type of wrestler but Chikara goes overboard with it. Like it's all some big stupid ironic hipster joke.

It's funny, because that's exactly why I like it; It's a big, stupid, ironic, hipster joke. And that's AWESOME.

I'm not trying at all to tell you that you SHOULD like it... it certainly makes sense why someone wouldn't. But I love how this negative thread is basically pointing out something so optimistic: indy feds can specialize and find audiences by personality and taste, not by region.

One thing I do want to say: there's a slight implication in people's responses that the irony in something like Chikara comes out of a "too cool for school" motivation, or from a refusal to take things seriously, especially on the part of the audience. I don't think that's the case: Irony is an inherent part of pro wrestling, and appreciating and highlighting the dumbness and the performance and the silliness is just as valid a way to enjoy it as any other.

[Larryhausen]

May 8, 2013 14:35:32 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

May 6, 2013 22:50:35 GMT -5 Can you afford to pay me, Gah said:

John Zadig's CZW was always this for me. Back in the tape trading and buying days this was one the one company people keep telling me. Get there events there so amazing. I did and most of them where just plan crap. No matches stood out it was mostly pointless blood baths. The only events I liked was the BOTB tournaments. Everything else I was like "This is cool because?"

The same goes for anybody trying to sell me on XPW. Which believe it or not there been people who tried.

Some XPW undercard workers were good, but yeah a lot of that promotion is just wall to wall shit.

I was never a huge fan of XPW, but I must say that Messiah is a really cool dude, and Joey Kaos is one of the best wrestling trainers in the world.


Also, I don't get Shimmer. I just can't take an entire card of women's wrestling. I like a few matches here and there, I love intergender matches when done right, and I'm friends with a few women wrestlers, one or two who have worked for Shimmer. I wish them nothing but the best, but it's just not my cup of tea.

[comahan]

Not really. Most of what's hyped I generally enjoy if I get a chance to see it. I really like PWG, Chikara, Shimmer, DGUSA, and Shine, and try to keep up with them regularly. I can't say I've really tried much outside of those though. I'm not a fan of any sort of ultraviolent-based promotions, but I never really hear any hype for those.

I also still keep up with ROH and don't hate it, if you consider them an indy still.