Independent Wrestling Is on the Verge of Being Cool

Last weekend, I made what is now becoming an annual trip across the country, from Tampa to Seattle, to watch independent wrestling (and see my brother). This trip was pretty incredible as I was able to see two top notch shows with Progress traveling in from the United Kingdom for their first ever US tour, and Defy putting on another incredible local show where they continue to gain buzz. These shows were so good that I realized that it went beyond great pro wrestling shows; they were simply incredible shows, and I truly believe that pro wrestling is on the verge of being considered the best live entertainment option for regular folks. That's right; pro wrestling might actually become...cool?

I know you are laughing at me right now, and I'm not even mad about that. It's totally understandable, and I was hesitant to write this post, because I knew how outlandish the idea was at first glance, but I also 100% believe that going to pro wrestling will not only be acceptable, but a desirable weekend night out.

When I talk about pro wrestling, let me make it clear that I am not referring to the WWE. The WWE has, by far, the most talent in the world, and I would be fine if I never saw another WWE arena show again in my life. They are the ketchup of the pro wrestling world; popular mostly because availability and reliability, but you're rarely wowed by ketchup. WWE is fine, but WWE is not nearly as fun.

Instead, I am talking about independent wrestling. Many independent wrestling shows are 21+ which means there are no children there, and drinking is not only allowed but encouraged. The value of the former is that independent wrestling is allowed to put on a show for adults. They will cuss, be sexually provocative, and occasionally fly into the crowd. The value of the latter is that everything is better when you can have a beer of seven.

I have been fortunate to see some really awesome events. I love sporting events, but they all have their issues. Baseball can be slow, football is always slow, basketball and hockey are great, but they have their fair share of blowouts, soccer ain't too bad, but it ain't too great either, and golf is nice because you get to be outside and walk around, but it isn't that much better than just a day at a park.

On the cultural side, I have seen great bands, entertaining plays, and even a few musicals, but even at their best, they can't compare to pro wrestling (although Steel Panther does come close).

Here's the thing: Pro wrestling is the best of both worlds. First off, it involves insane athleticism. I know they are not necessarily competing against each other, but instead with each other, but you get the same high of watching people compete. Also, with them competing together, they can do far more to put on a better show. When going to a sports contest, you are lucky to see a handful of memorable athletic feats, but you will likely see at least that many in most live wrestling matches. And if your only argument is, "Durr, it's fake," all I can say is that it may be predetermined, but there are certain things that you simply cannot fake, and you and I would both likely vomit from pain and exhaustion if we were put through a five minute wrestling match.

Oh yeah, it also adds the characters and built-in drama that you would see on stage. Are some of the characters over-the-top and cheesy? Of course they are, but let's take a step back and recognize that rapping Alexander Hamilton and singing cats are as stupid as anything pro wrestling has done, and people seem to be just fine with that. Oh yeah, and every single performance is unique. I haven't seen Hamilton, but I can tell you how it ends. In wrestling, the script changes, and even though it is predetermined, you WILL pick a wrestler to cheer for. It's logically stupid, but it's just like a TV show or movie, where you find characters you pull for, and characters you want to see horrible things happen to, and doing it live adds so much fun.

And although I mentioned it being scripted, it's much more of an outline, and the outline is basically, start off like this, do a bunch of cool shit in the middle, finish with this. That do a bunch of cool shit in the middle is not only awesome, but you can help influence it. If you see two brutal chops to a man's chest that are so loud and hard that it sounds like a shotgun blast, you can start a "One more time" chant to get that poor wrestler even more abused. When you see something great, you can repeatedly yell "This is awesome." And if you see something disturbing, it is more than acceptable to chant, "You sick fuck" at the wrestler. Let's face it, we'd all be happier if we got to call people sick fucks more often.

Now, I must admit that Defy and Progess put on INCREDIBLE shows. They had it all; action, drama, comedy, and over the two nights, I probably saw two matches that I would consider average, where everything else was good to "OH MY GOD, I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT IS HAPPENING." I'm a fan of brutality, so seeing a guy from Austria named WALTER (it's in all caps so you know he's awesome) brutalize opponents will always appeal to me. There were also genetic freaks like Brian Cage, possibly the next big thing in all of wrestling with Shane "Swerve" Strickland, incredibly crazy luchadors like Bandido, and even some comedy with Trent Seven. Shit, man, this show even bucked the stereotype that wrestling is only for backwoods rednecks by having well-respected women wrestlers like Toni Storm and, GASP, positive representations of homosexuals with the tag team of Sexy Starr. When I type all of that out, I refuse to believe there is a person out there that wouldn't want to see an independent wrestling show.

Not all independent shows are going to be at that level so you may not see that great of variety of amazing wrestling, but you would be surprised at how many places have incredibly good shows. You can find a great show in any major city, and even if you live in a smaller city, there is always independent wrestling. Sure, you might not be watching future superstars, but the beer is probably cheaper, and that's tough to beat.

Considering the cost of live entertainment, you can definitely find an affordable show, and there is no such thing as a bad seat, because they are always in very small buildings. The shows I went to were about as expensive as it gets, but there are very few shows that you can't get into for $20 or less. I went to a show in Tampa where I was in the third row, and if I did a 180 in my seat, I was bellied up to the bar - best of both worlds.

Will you watch some things and think, "Oh, that is so stupid?" Yeah, of course you will. Even I think some things are stupid, and there are pro wrestlers that I simply don't care for. But on the whole, you are going to find way more things to like than not. At its best, you're giggling with excitement at what you are seeing, and at worst, you are giggling at the performers, but either way you're smiling and having a good time. All I'm saying is to give it a chance, because I would hate to see you realizing five years down the line that you could have seen the most incredible combination of athleticism and drama, but you were too much of a nerd to realize how cool it was to go to a wrestling show.

The 41 Best Matches of WrestleMania 33 Weekend - 20-11

I am about five months younger than WrestleMania. After 30 years of being a wrestling fan, I made my first trip to WrestleMania out in San Jose/San Francisco for WrestleMania 31. It was pretty damn incredible. I know that makes me a giant nerd, and I am totally cool with that. Wrestling doesn't need to be cool, because it is hilarious and occasionally awesome. Two years later, it came to Orlando, and since that is less than two hours away, I knew that I would be making my second WrestleMania trip. Starting on Thursday, I saw WrestlePro, the WrestleCon Supershow, NXT Takeover, and of course, WrestleMania 33. Although I may be a nerd about wrestling, even I have to tap out after four nights of events, so I chose not to go to Raw or Smackdown. But I still saw a hell of a lot of wrestling, and we have now made it to the top half of the rankings, with 20-11, featuring a whole lot of hot ladies action and a battle royal.

20. NXT - Aleister Black def. Andrade “Cien” Almas
My biggest issue with this match is that I was way too hyped for it. I had heard great things about the man formerly known as Tommy End, and Andrade Almas is my jam. It was still a good match, but since I know these guys can do more, it was still disappointing. But special shoutout to adjusting the chin before the execution kick by Black. That is sweet.

19. Wrestlecon Supershow - Angelico and Jack Evans def Sammy Guevara and Flip Gordon
It was when Angelico came out that I realized that I think I have seen every major male character from Lucha Underground wrestle outside of Mil Muertes and Drago. So that’s nice. Honestly, Flip Gordon was the only guy I hadn’t heard of, and he was super impressive, so good for you, Flip Gordon. The match was a lot of fun, followed the basic tropes of tag team wrestling, and the good guys (although I’m not sure if you can ever call Jack Evans a good guy) prevailed.

18. NXT - Women’s Championship -- Asuka (c) def. Ember Moon
This match was a total come-down match after the amazing tag match at the NXT show, but it still told a solid story, and both wrestlers got their offense in. They had me believing that a new champion would be crowned, only to take that moment away. That’s frustrating in a good way.

17. Wrestlecon Supershow - Bobby Lashley def Jeff Cobb
Hoss fight. I will always support a good hoss fight.

16. Wrestlecon Supershow - Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy def Rey Fenix and Pentagon Jr
I honestly don’t think this match was much more than five minutes, but it was nonstop action. They didn’t really take any breaks, and they didn’t waste any time with any tags, as all four guys just kind of battled it out. It wasn’t anything super special, but it was a fast-paced, fun match, and sometimes that’s all you need.

15. WrestleMania - Raw Women's Championship Fatal 4-Way Elimination Match: Bayley (c) def. Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax
This match probably deserves to be higher, but the endings were incredibly goofy in person. Since they didn’t get the turnbuckle all the way off, it looked like basic moves turning into pins. But outside of that, it was pretty great. Nia Jax got to be a total hoss, and Charlotte showed why she is the most physically gifted woman on the roster. WWE, especially at Mania, understands how to pace an exciting match with lots of people in it, and this was no different, and it could have been ten spots higher if the turnbuckle had come off and I understood what was going on during the match.

14. Wrestlecon Supershow - TLC match: Brian Cage def Johnny Mundo
I will always fully support Johnny Mundo, even if he is repeatedly giving the crowd the finger. I guess I also realized that I will also always support Cage who is a physical freak who seems to always put on good matches. This was a good match that bumped up to very good due to the fact that Brian Cage powerbombed Taya off the top rope through a table, and then Johnny Mundo speared Melissa Santos through a table. Also, there was a damn Steiner Driver, the most brutal/totally awesome move in wrestling.

13. WrestleMania - WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match: Neville (c) def. Austin Aries
This was a great way to start off the matches at WrestleMania. Aries has been great since coming back from injury, and good for him for being the first guy ever to benefit from being injured as it gave him an avenue to show his personality before showing off his wrestling skills. That’s super complimentary, but still, Aries can’t hold a candle to Neville who is doing his damnedest to drum up interest in the Cruiserweight division. Still, Neville’s so good that he can transition back out of the Cruiserweight division back into the Heavyweight division with little trouble. I mean, don’t sell him beating Brock Lesnar, but it’s pretty easy imagining Neville beating guys like Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, or Kevin Owens to become a champion.

12. Wrestlecon Supershow - 20 man DDT Ironman Title Battle Royal
This thing was just loaded with a ton of talent, and a ton of hilariousness, and Battle Royals are always awesome, and since this was done as Royal Rumble style with guys entering every minute, it was even better. This one didn’t disappoint. It started off with Joey Ryan taking on Colt Cabana, and that got followed with the slow-motion tactics of Kikutaro, which did not work as well as he would have liked. Matt Striker lasted about 30 seconds, so about twice as long as his wrestling career in WWE. Then you had the legends come out with 2 Cold Scorpio legitimately hurting himself, Billy Gunn taking a ton of steroids, but god bless him, he looks great. Shane Douglas is most definitely not on steroids. Kevin Thorne is still vampirey, but not nearly as awesome at it as Gangrel who just seemed really happy to be there. Hurricane Helms was handing out chokeslams like they were candy until he ran into Abyss. Oh yeah, and Mr. Hughes was there, and he still sucks, but his sunglasses stayed on the entire time. Somehow all of these paled in comparison to #20, one half of The Rockers, Marty Jannetty, who could barely make it to the ring because he was so hammered. The crowd got a “Marty’s Wasted” chant, and Jannetty couldn’t stop giggling. Gangrel had to gently drop him out of the ring just so he wouldn’t hurt himself. It looked like Joey Ryan would find a way to retain after he flipped Moose out of the ring using nothing but the strength of his penis, but he got surprised by Swoggle who threw him out to become the HeavyMetalweight champion.

11. NXT - NXT Championship -- Bobby Roode (c) def. Shinsuke Nakamura
So this match wasn’t destined to be some life-altering classic match. Bobby Roode is a good wrestler, but he’s a much better performer than actual wrestler. Shinsuke can tear it up with the right opponent, but he’s another guy that’s more of a performer than a wrestler. Still, this match was as good as it was going to get with these two. They had me legitimately believing the nearfalls and surprised/disappointed (just because I knew that Shisnuke was leaving) at the ending. Shinsuke’s gone, and Roode reigns supreme on NXT.

You Need to Go to an Independent Wrestling Show

Guys (and gals), you need to go to an independent wrestling show. That is the only point that I really want to make in this post, because independent wrestling is so totally awesome that anyone can enjoy it. That's right; it's not just for wrestling fans. You can think wrestling is fake or stupid or only for children, and even I'll admit, those arguments do hold varying degrees of legitimacy (the latter two more than the first), but even you, naysayer, will love independent wrestling.

Now, I'll admit, I'm spoiled. I live in Florida, and despite all of its issues with racists, scumbags, and bath salt users, it is also probably the greatest place to live for professional wrestling. Yes, we've got NXT shows galore, but on top of that, there is a really strong independent wrestling presence due to the fact that a lot of professional wrestlers live in the state. The only thing I'm missing is a wrestling buddy, but that may have changed this past weekend when I finally convinced my wife to go to a Full Impact Pro show with me in Tampa.

The show was held at The Orpheum, a small music venue with a stage, and the ring was set up right in the middle of where people would watch a concert, limiting the actual space for seats around ringside. This was luckily not an issue as there were maybe 75-100 people there for the show. We found some stools at the bar which put us in the second row as there were a row of about 8 folding chairs between us and the ring.

It took approximately two minutes before I realized that going to this independent show was not a good idea, it was a great idea. During the welcome by the announcer, two jobbers get thrown into the ring and physically dominated by a couple other dudes. It took them about a minute before they launched one of the jobbers into the crowd. Were the people in the crowd in on it? I mean, almost definitely, but either way, it was great and established what was to come the rest of the night.

After that, in a weird coincidence, there was a five way match from the Black and Brave Wrestling Academy, which is actually the wrestling school that is located in my hometown. I'll admit that I thought it was going to be the shits, just because the school has only been open for a few years, so none of the guys could have that much experience, but it was actually pretty fun. There was a good mix of high impact moves and comedy as one guy used a hoverboard in one of his big spots. It's one of the nice things about independent wrestling, because it doesn't need to take itself seriously.

A couple matches later, things jumped to another level when Caleb Konley took on Jason Cade. They kept flying out of the ring at each other. When they weren't doing that, they were dropping each other on the bar floor or hitting a brainbuster on a steel chair about five feet away from my seat. And even if they didn't do any of that, the in ring action was enough for it to be an awesome match. I don't know what pay scale these independent wrestlers earn, but I have trouble believing it's more than a couple hundred bucks for mid card guys. The effort and bodily harm they put out there for that money is absolutely incredible, and the crowd couldn't help but cheer both guys by the end of the match.

On top of unknown guys killing each other for a relatively small amount of money, they also had some legitimate names. The most well known were three guys from Lucha Underground, AR Fox (Dante Fox), Sami Callihan (Jeremiah Crane on LU and formerly Solomon Crowe in NXT), and Brian Cage, who I was most excited to see. That is another thing about professional wrestling; some of these dudes are big as hell, and Brian Cage is massive in person. And to see a massive guy do flips and throw people around like nothing is super damn entertaining. The great thing about the professional wrestling is it's not just entertaining for pro wrestling fans; it's just entertaining, and these guys know how to put on a show.

And most importantly, they know their audience, and most independent wrestling shows strongly gear towards entertaining adults. They dropped just about every cuss word imaginable, and since it was at a bar, the beer was flowing like...uh, beer. And when the beer turns the crowd into idiots, the wrestlers will address it. Some guys wanted to heckle Sami Callihan so after the match Callihan went nose to nose with the heckler and told him to take a shot. When the guy didn't do anything (outside of maybe pissing himself), Sami kissed him on the cheek and walked away. It was pretty hilarious.

It's insane that people will spend $15 to go to a movie where they sit quietly and watch a screen when, for five dollars more, they could see independent wrestling. You can't go see a quality live performance for anywhere near that money, especially for seats that are only a few feet away. On top of that, they will literally throw a wrestler into your lap. Heck, you might even get a kiss.

Independent wrestling is awesome. You need to see it for yourself.