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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 19, 2020 9:25:35 GMT -5
It seems like when owners run out of money or don’t want to run shows any more companies often just end. But there are plenty of exceptions!
For indies that never really got too huge DJ Hyde buying CZW from John Zandig is a notable example.
Also, GCW has had quite an evolution. As far as I know the company can be traced back all the way to 1999 when it was called Jersey Championship Wresting. Back then it was owned by a game named Ricky O before being sold to Brett Lauderdale and Danny Demanto. Lauderdale runs it solo now as far as I know.
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Post by Viking Hall on Oct 19, 2020 9:30:25 GMT -5
ECW has to be one of the more famous examples. Started out as Tri-State Wrestling Alliance under Joel Goodhart, then went on to become Eastern Championship Wrestling (and subsquently NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling) under Tod Gordon's stewardship before being sold to Heyman in '95 and becoming Extreme.
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Hypnosis
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Post by Hypnosis on Oct 19, 2020 9:40:44 GMT -5
ROH?
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cjh
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Post by cjh on Oct 19, 2020 10:36:28 GMT -5
ECW has to be one of the more famous examples. Started out as Tri-State Wrestling Alliance under Joel Goodhart, then went on to become Eastern Championship Wrestling (and subsquently NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling) under Tod Gordon's stewardship before being sold to Heyman in '95 and becoming Extreme. I've heard that TWA and ECW were actually separate companies and that Gordon just created ECW to make up for the closing of TWA. At the very least, if Gordon did buy TWA, he didn't buy their footage while Heyman's purchase from Gordon did include the 1992-95 ECW footage. |
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Post by wrestlingrecap on Oct 19, 2020 10:50:30 GMT -5
ROH, PWG, 3PW, PWX, PWS/Wrestle Pro, MLW, ECWA, and AAW are ones that I'm aware of.
ROH: RF, Cary, Sinclair
PWG: Six guys, Excalibur & Super Dragon
3PW: St.Claire, then she bailed and it was Gordon/Meanie
PWX (NC): Kanabroski owned since around 2013, can't remember the original owner
PWS/Wrestle Pro: Pat Buck and another dude, but then there was drama about money so the other dude took PWS and Buck created Wrestle Pro. WP now owned by Kevin Matthews.
MLW: Bauer, to a Germany company, back to Bauer
ECWA: Ketner, a juice guy, and now Zanolle
AAW: Lyman & Daniels and now it's Daniels after Lyman's death.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 19, 2020 11:15:56 GMT -5
ROH, PWG, 3PW, PWX, PWS/Wrestle Pro, MLW, ECWA, and AAW are ones that I'm aware of. ROH: RF, Cary, Sinclair PWG: Six guys, Excalibur & Super Dragon 3PW: St.Claire, then she bailed and it was Gordon/Meanie PWX (NC): Kanabroski owned since around 2013, can't remember the original owner PWS/Wrestle Pro: Pat Buck and another dude, but then there was drama about money so the other dude took PWS and Buck created Wrestle Pro. WP now owned by Kevin Matthews. MLW: Bauer, to a Germany company, back to Bauer ECWA: Ketner, a juice guy, and now Zanolle AAW: Lyman & Daniels and now it's Daniels after Lyman's death. If we count part owners that either died or left as a change in ownership the list will be a lot longer. AIW would count then too. John Thorne has been there since the beginning but he started with two other people IIRC. Then Chandler Biggins came on as an owner too. The other two left to form another company and Biggins passed away. Unrelated but WSU has had a surprising amount of owners. 4 throughout the years. It started with Jac Sabboth. I’m not sure if he sold it or what since he was still promoting shows for another company as recently as 2018 (and may still be promoting). Sean Mccafferty took over though and got the company really going before suffering some health problems and selling it to Drew Coirdeiro from Beyond Wrestling in 2012. Drew ran both companies until 2014 when he sold WSU to DJ Hyde, who still runs that and CZW. I’m not sure how WSU will come out after Covid-19. Hyde might sell it off or just fully absorb the brand into CZW. They haven’t run that many standalone shows in recent years even before the pandemic. |
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Post by James Fabiano on Oct 19, 2020 11:20:46 GMT -5
ROH, PWG, 3PW, PWX, PWS/Wrestle Pro, MLW, ECWA, and AAW are ones that I'm aware of. ROH: RF, Cary, Sinclair PWG: Six guys, Excalibur & Super Dragon 3PW: St.Claire, then she bailed and it was Gordon/Meanie PWX (NC): Kanabroski owned since around 2013, can't remember the original owner PWS/Wrestle Pro: Pat Buck and another dude, but then there was drama about money so the other dude took PWS and Buck created Wrestle Pro. WP now owned by Kevin Matthews. MLW: Bauer, to a Germany company, back to Bauer ECWA: Ketner, a juice guy, and now Zanolle AAW: Lyman & Daniels and now it's Daniels after Lyman's death. The "other dude" was Eric Pleska. Was it just money? It's been years and I never heard the whole story. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2020 11:54:22 GMT -5
TNA/Impact
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Post by Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃 on Oct 19, 2020 13:17:44 GMT -5
NWA has changed ownership so many times prior to Corgan, that I lose count...
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Post by Natural Born Farmer on Oct 19, 2020 14:25:23 GMT -5
For indies that never really got too huge DJ Hyde buying CZW from John Zandig is a notable example. I guess it depends on how you define huge, but I distinctly remember CZW being THE premier indie company back before ROH started taking off. |
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 19, 2020 14:30:21 GMT -5
For indies that never really got too huge DJ Hyde buying CZW from John Zandig is a notable example. I guess it depends on how you define huge, but I distinctly remember CZW being THE premier indie company back before ROH started taking off. Yeah they were big for an indie. Like you said pretty much the premier company at one point. I just wanted to throw huge in there so folks wouldn’t mention places like ROH and the NWA. But then they did anyway *shrugs* |
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Ultimo Gallos
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Oct 19, 2020 14:45:57 GMT -5
It seems like when owners run out of money or don’t want to run shows any more companies often just end. But there are plenty of exceptions! For indies that never really got too huge DJ Hyde buying CZW from John Zandig is a notable example. Also, GCW has had quite an evolution. As far as I know the company can be traced back all the way to 1999 when it was called Jersey Championship Wresting. Back then it was owned by a game named Ricky O before being sold to Brett Lauderdale and Danny Demanto. Lauderdale runs it solo now as far as I know. Yea Danny Demanto now runs ICW No Holds Barred. NWA Battlezone aka Battlezone Championship Wrestling has been thru a few owners in it's 25 or so year history. Early 2000s Billy D McClain owned it. He sold it to the Williamson family. So at first Pops and Ms Dee ran it. Then Pops passed and it was MS Dee and Faroh of Phunk. Back earlier this year the company was "sold" to 4 people. One local ref,a guy that owns Pro Wrestling EGO,a lead singer of a pop punk band and the main host of King of Wrestling Podcast. Few weeks ago the local ref "sold" his shares to The House Show podcast guys. Someone might have owned Battlezone before Billy D McClain. |
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 19, 2020 14:57:21 GMT -5
Al Snow now owns and runs OVW. Pittsburgh indies have always been basically the same company, under different names, being sold to new owners every few years. Norm Connors ran Steel City Wrestling in the 90s. Bubba the Bulldog formed International Wrestling Cartel in 2001, and began co-promoting with Connors. They sold to Chuck Roberts in 2009, who ran it until 2014 when he sold it to Justin Plummer. I didn’t know Steel City Wrestling had a direct link to IWC. IWC I enjoyed a lot especially in the early days of YouTube because a bunch of their stuff got posted. Plus, the Super Indy tournament! On a related note it’s kind of weird how some real high level indie talent are still in IWC and never got signed anywhere. John McChesney, Super Hentai, Facade, Jason Gory, off the top of my head. These guys were all there around the same time indie darlings like CM Punk, Colt Cabana, Chris Hero, etc. were there and some great matches were had. Shiima Xion almost belonged to that first group too, but luckily TNA snatched him up which got some more eyes on him. |
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Post by James Fabiano on Oct 20, 2020 17:36:49 GMT -5
It seems like when owners run out of money or don’t want to run shows any more companies often just end. But there are plenty of exceptions! For indies that never really got too huge DJ Hyde buying CZW from John Zandig is a notable example. Also, GCW has had quite an evolution. As far as I know the company can be traced back all the way to 1999 when it was called Jersey Championship Wresting. Back then it was owned by a game named Ricky O before being sold to Brett Lauderdale and Danny Demanto. Lauderdale runs it solo now as far as I know. Am I remembering wrong, or did Gino Moore have something to do with it, in the Ricky Okazu era? I remember seeing him at shows, leading me to wonder if JCW was an offshoot of National Wrestling Superstars, which dissolved after PWS talent did a shoot promo on Joe Panzarino (the owner), at an NWS show no less. Then there's "What was Funkdafied Wrestling" in relation to NWS? |
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Post by Dragonfly on Oct 20, 2020 20:16:34 GMT -5
Al Snow now owns and runs OVW. Pittsburgh indies have always been basically the same company, under different names, being sold to new owners every few years. Norm Connors ran Steel City Wrestling in the 90s. Bubba the Bulldog formed International Wrestling Cartel in 2001, and began co-promoting with Connors. They sold to Chuck Roberts in 2009, who ran it until 2014 when he sold it to Justin Plummer. I didn’t know Steel City Wrestling had a direct link to IWC. IWC I enjoyed a lot especially in the early days of YouTube because a bunch of their stuff got posted. Plus, the Super Indy tournament! On a related note it’s kind of weird how some real high level indie talent are still in IWC and never got signed anywhere. John McChesney, Super Hentai, Facade, Jason Gory, off the top of my head. These guys were all there around the same time indie darlings like CM Punk, Colt Cabana, Chris Hero, etc. were there and some great matches were had. Shiima Xion almost belonged to that first group too, but luckily TNA snatched him up which got some more eyes on him. Fun Fact #1: One of the co-owners of Steel City was Andrew Lazarchik, the owner of Wildcat Belts. (He was also a manager - "Hot Shot" Drew Lazario.) Fun Fact #2: Colin Delaney's "ECW underdog" character was originally earmarked for John McChesney. Delaney was a last second replacement due to Michael Hayes being a jackass. Yeah... Jason Gory got screwed over hard. He was easily my favorite in-ring performer of the late '00s, thanks to fast pace and killer finisher (a running yoshi tonic called the QAS). Yet all of his tag team partners (Shiima, Facade, G-Raver) had at least some success outside of the Pittsburgh area. |
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Post by cassonova on Oct 20, 2020 21:06:03 GMT -5
Though I doubt some of the veracity of the initial sale, but in the early 2010's IWA-MS's lineage got convoluted.
Ian Rotten supposedly sold the company to Vince Jones, Mike Miller, and Kevin Adams. They brought Joey Grunge aboard. Then the company may or may not have become IWA-Midwest...which later merged with Sky Pro Wrestling. Somewhere in there, Ian popped his head up in Indiana with Mid South again.
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Post by wrestlingrecap on Oct 22, 2020 9:22:37 GMT -5
I didn’t know Steel City Wrestling had a direct link to IWC. IWC I enjoyed a lot especially in the early days of YouTube because a bunch of their stuff got posted. Plus, the Super Indy tournament! On a related note it’s kind of weird how some real high level indie talent are still in IWC and never got signed anywhere. John McChesney, Super Hentai, Facade, Jason Gory, off the top of my head. These guys were all there around the same time indie darlings like CM Punk, Colt Cabana, Chris Hero, etc. were there and some great matches were had. Shiima Xion almost belonged to that first group too, but luckily TNA snatched him up which got some more eyes on him. Fun Fact #1: One of the co-owners of Steel City was Andrew Lazarchik, the owner of Wildcat Belts. (He was also a manager - "Hot Shot" Drew Lazario.) Fun Fact #2: Colin Delaney's "ECW underdog" character was originally earmarked for John McChesney. Delaney was a last second replacement due to Michael Hayes being a jackass. Yeah... Jason Gory got screwed over hard. He was easily my favorite in-ring performer of the late '00s, thanks to fast pace and killer finisher (a running yoshi tonic called the QAS). Yet all of his tag team partners (Shiima, Facade, G-Raver) had at least some success outside of the Pittsburgh area. Colin has often said that Brodie was looking for Jimmy Olsen, but Jimmy didn't answer his phone and Colin left his warehouse job early to take the spot. I've never heard of McChesnesy being in that spot. |
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Dragonfly
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Post by Dragonfly on Oct 22, 2020 10:27:54 GMT -5
Fun Fact #1: One of the co-owners of Steel City was Andrew Lazarchik, the owner of Wildcat Belts. (He was also a manager - "Hot Shot" Drew Lazario.) Fun Fact #2: Colin Delaney's "ECW underdog" character was originally earmarked for John McChesney. Delaney was a last second replacement due to Michael Hayes being a jackass. Yeah... Jason Gory got screwed over hard. He was easily my favorite in-ring performer of the late '00s, thanks to fast pace and killer finisher (a running yoshi tonic called the QAS). Yet all of his tag team partners (Shiima, Facade, G-Raver) had at least some success outside of the Pittsburgh area. Colin has often said that Brodie was looking for Jimmy Olsen, but Jimmy didn't answer his phone and Colin left his warehouse job early to take the spot. I've never heard of McChesnesy being in that spot. There was also a small feud in IWC centered around it. |
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Post by wrestlingrecap on Oct 22, 2020 13:10:12 GMT -5
Thanks for the info! Never knew that. |
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Post by XaviersSS2015hair on Oct 24, 2020 7:06:13 GMT -5
APW. Almost sued into bankruptcy under previous owner Roland Alexander due to the wrongful death lawsuit involving Great Khali and Brian Ong. Just a few years ago was a distant 2nd to fellow Bay Area indy BTW. Under current owner Markus Mack, APW has completely turned around. Consistently booking big name talent and drawing good sized crowds (pre-Covid) for a part of the country that doesn't care too much about wrestling. I will say however that from my personal interactions with Mack he comes off as kind of a tool bag.
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