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Post by kingoftheindies on Jul 18, 2022 23:20:01 GMT -5
WrestleCircus when they first started they had a very PWG feel to them. Sadly things went downhill It’s one of those few short lived promotions that I think could make a great documentary, if it was done warts and all style. For how much they did wrong and ESPECIALLY how the company ended they started on such a positive note and produced some fun content. The owner originally was amazingly transparent too. I remember at their height they were planning to launch a wrestling school. They posted an ad on their website that gave an exact dollar amount of what the training would cost. I wish this was done more as some promoters/trainers are so shady. But alas that wrestling school never happened and the ad was pulled within days as things fell apart. I really wish I took a screenshot of it just to remember the finer details. It goes hand in hand with the unfortunate part of WrestleCircus’ legacy. It’s the same reason we’ll never get a warts and all documentary. The owner is done with it. Last time I checked he even scrubbed it from his LinkedIn profile. I didn't post it originally because I didn't want to get it wrong, but I remember it being weird. Like from what I recall they shut down due the owner having personal demons and everybody from wrestlers to business partners were supportive. They tried to bring the company back, and when they closed again many wrestlers were not as supportive even calling out the owner saying they told him it was a bad idea before he did it. But yeah I always wonder what could have been if they didn't close the first time. I am not even kidding when I say they likely would have become the number 2 or even number 1 indy promotion if they kept at that pace. They were great shows and they were starting to give a lot of local talent a spotlight
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jul 18, 2022 23:29:20 GMT -5
It’s one of those few short lived promotions that I think could make a great documentary, if it was done warts and all style. For how much they did wrong and ESPECIALLY how the company ended they started on such a positive note and produced some fun content. The owner originally was amazingly transparent too. I remember at their height they were planning to launch a wrestling school. They posted an ad on their website that gave an exact dollar amount of what the training would cost. I wish this was done more as some promoters/trainers are so shady. But alas that wrestling school never happened and the ad was pulled within days as things fell apart. I really wish I took a screenshot of it just to remember the finer details. It goes hand in hand with the unfortunate part of WrestleCircus’ legacy. It’s the same reason we’ll never get a warts and all documentary. The owner is done with it. Last time I checked he even scrubbed it from his LinkedIn profile. I didn't post it originally because I didn't want to get it wrong, but I remember it being weird. Like from what I recall they shut down due the owner having personal demons and everybody from wrestlers to business partners were supportive. They tried to bring the company back, and when they closed again many wrestlers were not as supportive even calling out the owner saying they told him it was a bad idea before he did it. But yeah I always wonder what could have been if they didn't close the first time. I am not even kidding when I say they likely would have become the number 2 or even number 1 indy promotion if they kept at that pace. They were great shows and they were starting to give a lot of local talent a spotlight Yeah, that was pretty much it. The second time they got big backlash because the owner just sent an email to all the talent telling them the show wasn’t happening shortly before it was scheduled then went radio silent. This put a lot of talent/fans who had travelled to the show in a tough spot. Fortunately some other indies stepped up to give some talent/fans last minute bookings/free tickets. It’s far from the worst thing an indie promoter has ever done. Still, just such a crappy to end, for as you said, what could have been THE indie promotion.
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Post by smokinvokoun86 on Jul 19, 2022 0:19:25 GMT -5
Smoky Mountain Wrestling. As much as I don’t like the tennis enthusiast anymore. Smokey Mountain was a very enjoyable product. It would never have gotten big even then, but there is still room in a wrestling world that needs variety for an old school style wrestling show. That’s why I’m glad the NWA and it’s retro style studio show is around.
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Post by Hit Girl on Jul 19, 2022 0:37:27 GMT -5
WCW
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fw91
Patti Mayonnaise
FAN Idol All-Star: FAN Idol Season X and *Gavel* 2x Judges' Throwdown winner
Tribe has spoken for 2024 Mets
Posts: 39,062
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Post by fw91 on Jul 19, 2022 8:18:02 GMT -5
Celebrity Deathmatch.
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Bo Rida
Fry's dog Seymour
Pulled one over on everyone. Got away with it, this time.
Posts: 23,580
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Post by Bo Rida on Jul 19, 2022 8:56:12 GMT -5
Southpaw regional wrestling
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Post by DeeBee on Jul 19, 2022 9:42:56 GMT -5
Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Yep. This and WCW are the two that immediately came to mind. I've been going through SMW again on YouTube and it's so damn good. Ron Wright in the wheelchair is one of the best things to happen to professional wrestling.
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Post by James Fabiano on Jul 19, 2022 12:41:40 GMT -5
GWF. But it had to pretty much be its 1991 form.
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on Jul 19, 2022 12:52:46 GMT -5
Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Yep. This and WCW are the two that immediately came to mind. I've been going through SMW again on YouTube and it's so damn good. Ron Wright in the wheelchair is one of the best things to happen to professional wrestling. My dad went to Southeastern shows in the ‘70s, and I grew up hearing so much about Ron Wright and how hated he usually was. There were stories about him getting sliced and shot at by fans, and his single engine plane being set on fire when fans in eastern Kentucky found out where he was landing and beat him back to the airstrip. So when we went back several years ago and started watching SMW from the beginning, it ended up being a highlight for both of us when Ron showed up, asking fans to send him money. It’s some of the most entertaining wrestling TV that I’ve ever seen.
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Post by Mike Bockwinkel on Jul 19, 2022 13:07:32 GMT -5
EVOLVE & Chikara
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
Better have my money when I come-a collect!
Posts: 27,986
Member is Online
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Post by chazraps on Jul 19, 2022 13:15:37 GMT -5
There was an indy in New York called FWE in the early-to-mid 2010s who not only had an amazing roster but tremendous production value and storylines that were just cohesive enough to remember show to show but not mandatory for enjoyment if it was your first or if you missed one It was also all ages family friendly without leaning too much into being overtly a show for kids - just a wrestling show that happened to be one you could watch with the whole family.
Look at this lineup from one of their last shows in 2015:
FWE Tri-Borough Championship Paul London (C) vs Matt Sydal
Drew Galloway vs Matt Hardy
FWE Women's Championship Candice LeRae (c) vs Veda Scott
Adrenaline Express vs The Addiction
Juicy Product vs Trent? & Bandido Jr.
Katarina Leigh vs Taeler Hendrix
Orange Cassidy vs Robbie E.
Johnny Gargano vs Brian Meyers
Tony Nese/Jigsaw vs The Colony (Fire Ant/Silver Ant)
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Post by James Fabiano on Jul 19, 2022 13:24:47 GMT -5
This will be a hot take for those who know, but....National Wrestling Superstars.
Yeah there's people who have a tale or two about Dapper Johnny Falco and Gino Moore, some more true than others, but they were fun little shows. Nice meet and greets with legends, and I rarely had to worry about what the wrestlers or agents thought and who'd get nasty and who wouldn't.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Jul 19, 2022 15:56:24 GMT -5
Riptide.
Super queer, cinematic direction, no commentary. Incredible stuff smd genuinely novel
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Post by Tea & Crumpets on Jul 19, 2022 16:02:05 GMT -5
FWA.
Alex Shane has more than his share of carny problems but for a hot minute FWA had a chance of being a major British promotion. 1PW, Rev-Pro, ICW, PCW, Defiant, none of them have ever for me quite captured the feeling of scale FWA had for a time and its demise led to a ton of talented early 00s British wrestlers being lost in the shuffle. Plus my two darkhorse picks for "most deserved a better career" Paul Burchill and Katie Lea got started there and were f***ing awesome.
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lucas_lee
Hank Scorpio
Heel turn is finished, now stripping away my personality
Posts: 6,726
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Post by lucas_lee on Jul 19, 2022 16:42:55 GMT -5
UWF-i, BML, and BattlArts I love the style of those matches and the rules and such. It made for really compelling worked shoot matches
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r.
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Bye
Posts: 16,478
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Post by r. on Jul 19, 2022 17:36:23 GMT -5
FMW If Hayabusa hadn't gotten injured they may very well have become a major promotion in Japan.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Jul 19, 2022 19:00:24 GMT -5
I'd have loved more WSX and Lucha Underground for wild bullshit. The latter, admittedly, I lament the loss of less given the people they f***ed over. Some people like Pentagon and Fenix benefited hugely from LU, but then you have people like Jeff Cobb and Fantasma who were given exposure, sure, but also were left frustrated professionally due to its production woes. I am not going to detail it all here....Geckos thread will get there eventually and I will then go into more. But I will just say this NO ONE on that show had an issue with anything like contracts while the show was running...it was the fact that the show got delayed for many months post season 2 or in the case of season 4 took nearly 2 f***ing years to happen and that wide a gap is then what snowballed into the contracts being an issue because the producers wanted to always keep the show going and were fighting to get it back as soon as possible and thus not wanting to let anyone go to WWE or the other companies. IF the show had remained air consistently like they intended...do a season and come back 3-4 months to film the next one like they did from season 1 to 2 then you would have never heard a peep about contract issues and this is not speculation or anything this is from listening to many many interviews with both show runner , producers and talent while the show was running and even shortly after season 4. People only bring up the contracts but never any of the context which IMO with that whole thing is a vital piece to understand properly what happened. The talent have themselves to blame for agreeing to the contracts, signing based on seasons not time is just stupid because you can basically be held hostage, but didn't LU pull some bullshit with Season 3 part 1 and Season 3 part 2 which kinda f***ed people over when it realistically should've counted as 2 seasons?
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ERON
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 6,785
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Post by ERON on Jul 19, 2022 19:30:46 GMT -5
1. WCW 2. Chikara 3. GLOW
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2022 20:46:44 GMT -5
I am not going to detail it all here....Geckos thread will get there eventually and I will then go into more. But I will just say this NO ONE on that show had an issue with anything like contracts while the show was running...it was the fact that the show got delayed for many months post season 2 or in the case of season 4 took nearly 2 f***ing years to happen and that wide a gap is then what snowballed into the contracts being an issue because the producers wanted to always keep the show going and were fighting to get it back as soon as possible and thus not wanting to let anyone go to WWE or the other companies. IF the show had remained air consistently like they intended...do a season and come back 3-4 months to film the next one like they did from season 1 to 2 then you would have never heard a peep about contract issues and this is not speculation or anything this is from listening to many many interviews with both show runner , producers and talent while the show was running and even shortly after season 4. People only bring up the contracts but never any of the context which IMO with that whole thing is a vital piece to understand properly what happened. The talent have themselves to blame for agreeing to the contracts, signing based on seasons not time is just stupid because you can basically be held hostage, but didn't LU pull some bullshit with Season 3 part 1 and Season 3 part 2 which kinda f***ed people over when it realistically should've counted as 2 seasons? LU had nothing to do with that , that was MGM/Univision because if you watch back the show and it also comes from all the execs and show runner the season was never taped with that midseason break in mind..notice no other season had a mid-season break , this was done because El Rey wanted to premier their shitty pseudo relaity show bushido battleground and just put that mid-season break on the show because they wanted Battleground to ape the viewership of LU...but the funny thing about that is when it debuted it literally got the same rating that the replay of LU did and the show was a laughing stock because El Rey did everything to hype to that show as their next big network original...yet its debut could not beat the replay of LU that was in like the 11pm timeslot. So no LU had nothing to do with that it was sprung on them as a complete shock as it was to the audience itself.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Jul 19, 2022 21:10:31 GMT -5
The talent have themselves to blame for agreeing to the contracts, signing based on seasons not time is just stupid because you can basically be held hostage, but didn't LU pull some bullshit with Season 3 part 1 and Season 3 part 2 which kinda f***ed people over when it realistically should've counted as 2 seasons? LU had nothing to do with that , that was MGM/Univision because if you watch back the show and it also comes from all the execs and show runner the season was never taped with that midseason break in mind..notice no other season had a mid-season break , this was done because El Rey wanted to premier their shitty pseudo relaity show bushido battleground and just put that mid-season break on the show because they wanted Battleground to ape the viewership of LU...but the funny thing about that is when it debuted it literally got the same rating that the replay of LU did and the show was a laughing stock because El Rey did everything to hype to that show as their next big network original...yet its debut could not beat the replay of LU that was in like the 11pm timeslot. So no LU had nothing to do with that it was sprung on them as a complete shock as it was to the audience itself. Gotcha. I couldn't remember the exact story, but I did recall some tom f***ery going on with the split season shit. Honestly didn't follow LU too closely, so wasn't sure on that one
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