Let’s be honest, independent wrestling right now is bloody awesome. Never mind how hard the big corporation tries to dismantle it by signing everyone with a pair of kneepads, the scene is still booming, and new promotions and talent is being discovered almost every weekend.
With great wrestling on a weekly basis on pretty much every continent—still waiting for the first Antarctica Wrestling show—it isn’t hard to get out there and find something to your liking. Whether you’re a spot monkey guy, strong style, deathmatch or everything in between, there really something for everybody in the world of professional wrestling.
So, let’s look at some of the independent shows taking place this week. Starting of course, in good old America.
USA
Northeast Wrestling – Live Show – Friday – Mid-Hudson Civic Centre, Poughkeepsie.
Northeast Wrestling is not really looked at as a major name in the world of independent wrestling, yet when you look at some of the names they regularly have on their shows it’s quite baffling why. They were one of the first promotions to snag Cody Rhodes after he left WWE and their list of recent champions have included Cody, Flip Gordon and Jack Swagger. Still a pretty regional promotion, it was mentioned in this week’s Wrestling Observer that they draw the biggest crowds for any indie promotion in the US. They are certainly are not shy in bringing out the big names and dream matches on occasion, and this is especially evident this Friday when Kenny Omega and Rey Fenix meet for the first time in a match that could literally be the only match on the show and it would still be bloody awesome. That isn’t the case though, as Jack Swagger, RVD, PCO, Pentagon and many others will be appearing at the Mid-Hudson Civic Centre. Seriously, this show looks outstanding. More information can be found here.
AAW – Legacy – Saturday – Knights of Columbus.
I bloody love Brody King. He’s a big lump of tattoo covered mass that moves around the ring like a cruiserweight and he screams in a heavy metal band, what’s not to love? In AAW, he’s the current heavyweight champion and along with the weird zombie guy Jimmy Jacobs, he’s been running rough shot over the promotion for the last few months. In that time, they’ve gone to war with Sami Callihan and his OI4K buddies in a series of battles and brawls that have turned a lot of eyes to the promotion and broken a lot of chairs. This Saturday they continue their feud with Callihan and his partner Jessicka Havok in a street fight. Let’s just hope they don’t let Sami near the chairs this time. If Mr King isn’t your cup of tea (looking at you Rich Kraetsch), then The Lucha Brothers and The Rascalz will be making every indie fan salivate as they bounce around the ring with ease and make me feel bad for taking 5 minutes to get off my couch. Check out their website to find out how to watch.
CZW – Night of Infamy – Saturday – The Coliseum, New Jersey.
I can’t say I’ve been keeping up to date with the goings on in the Combat Zone of late. They’ve lost a lot of their buzz and the rise of GCW has seen the original deathmatch boys fade away. They keep plodding along though, even if the buzz for them is almost non-existent. This Saturday they are at The Coliseum in New Jersey for Night of Infamy. Recent Impact debutant, Ethan Page will be around as he faces John Silver, and for your hardcore needs MASADA and Rickey Shane Page will be breaking furniture and bleeding all over New Jersey. Check out their website for more.
EVOLVE – EVOLVE 115 & 116 – Saturday & Sunday – Livonia, Michigan and Oak Lawn, Illinois.
I have no idea what’s going on with EVOLVE right now. With their roster gutted and their WWE alliance growing closer, a raft of NXT enhancement talent invaded their EVOLVE 114 show last week and Fabian Aichner and The Street Profits came out of the show holding the gold. I get that EVOLVE now seem to be the developmental to the developmental but seeing Fabian Aichner holding the title that Zack Sabre Jr held for so long just doesn’t seem right. This weekend EVOLVE (or should we start calling them NXT EVOLVE?) host their next weekend of shows, and both Aichner and The Street Profits will be defending their titles. Mustafa Ali will also be wrestling at both shows, facing DJZ and Darby Allin, the latter of which promises to be a hell of a match. The promotions new direction may turn away a lot of fans but regardless of what you think of it, these shows could be very interesting. I am kind of worried that Kona Reeves may end up winning the EVOLVE Championship one day though. If you fancy checking them out, visit WWNLive.
PWX Wrestling – Headlocks 4 Hospitals & Pure: Eight – Saturday & Sunday – Shelby City & Charlotte, North Carolina.
There a very few certainties in life. Death, Taxes, Zack Gibson getting booed, and Tommy Dreamer being involved in a random extreme rules match for no reason whatsoever. Well this weekend, Mr. Dreamer will be delivering another one of these masterpieces when he faces Jason Cade for PWX Wrestling as part of their Headlocks 4 Hospitals charity show. The show is part of a busy weekend for the promotion as the following day they present Pure: Eight. The stand-out match being the contest between Shane Strickland and the often-overlooked Georgia standout, Slim J. If you fancy seeing Tommy Dreamer bleed for no reason, then head on over to their website.
UK
IPW:UK – TV Taping – Wednesday – Unit Nine, Milton Keynes.
Now to my neck of the woods, sort of. The UK indie scene is red hot right now, but IPW:UK are the forgotten gem that pretty much started it all. A promotion who were among the best in the UK when it first started 14 years ago, they hosted some of the biggest international talents back when the indie scene was on its ass. Hell, I can remember going to their early shows and seeing Samoa Joe beat the vomit out of Spud in a packed-out Orpington Hall. After all those years and a new regime taking over, they have recently signed a Television deal with the Fight Network. This Wednesday they do their next a set of tapings in Milton Keynes, with the stand-out match being Timothy Thatcher vs. Jimmy Havoc. I think if you look up clash of styles in the dictionary then you’ll see a picture of these two guys, one snarling and the other covered in blood. It’ll be weird but in a totally awesome way. Visit their website to find how to watch.
Rev Pro – Uprising 2018 – Friday – York Hall, Bethnal Green.
Through their partnership with New Japan, Rev Pro have seen themselves climb up the ranks in the world of independent wrestling with their shows at York Hall. Combining the best UK based talent with the New Japan guys has really cemented them as one of the big boys of the indie scene. They may be a little over-reliant on the New Japan talent at times for my liking, but when you get to see Ishii and Suzuki beating the crap out of each other then it’s hard to care. This Friday, the Japanese boys are back in town for Uprising 2018. The best wrestler in the world, WALTER (I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise) takes on the leader of the bread club, Satoshi Kojima. Tomohiro Ishii defends the British Heavyweight Championship against David Starr and Suzuki Gun defend the British Tag Titles against Aussie Open. For more info on how to watch, visit their website.
Pro Wrestling: Eve – She-1: Ace of Eve 2018 – Saturday & Sunday – Resistance Gallery, Bethnal Green.
Since the success of the Netflix show, G.L.O.W and the recent rise of women’s wrestling, Pro Wrestling: Eve have grown at an incredible rate. Selling out their shows with ease, they are the new face of Women’s Wrestling in the UK right now. Their regular Resistance Gallery venue has as good an atmosphere as you’ll find in independent Wrestling and this weekend they host their She-1 (I see what you did there) tournament, with some of the world’s best women’s wrestlers taking part. Kris Wolf, Madison Eagles, Toni Storm, Millie McKenzie, Jinny, Charli Evans and the legendary Command Bolshoi will all be appearing, and the shows will be available to watch here.
Southside Wrestling – Queens of the Ring & A Sleazy Day of Reckoning & Ill Manors – Friday and Saturday – Corporation, Sheffield.
Southside Wrestling has a hell of a busy weekend coming up, with three shows in just two days at The Corporation in Sheffield. Friday will see the annual Queen of the Ring tournament with participants including Killer Kelly, Kay Lee Ray, Xia Brookside, Kris Wolf and Kimber Lee. The following day they start with A Sleazy Day of Reckoning in the afternoon, where Speedball Mike Bailey takes on French high flyer, Senza Volto in the stand-out match. The final show of the weekend will see Joseph Connors wrestle Adam Maxted, and Kimber Lee taking on Shanna. More information can be found here.
PROGRESS – Chapter 78: 24 Hour PROGRESS People – Sunday – 02 Ritz, Manchester.
PROGRESS are fresh from their biggest show in history. Over 4000 fans saw WALTER defeat Tyler Bate in a MOTY contender main event that is as good a match I’ve seen in a long time. Since then they have held one show back at their Electric Ballroom home in Camden and this Sunday they’re back on the road as they head to Manchester for Chapter 78. Things may not be what they once were at PROGRESS in terms of the direction they’ve taken since becoming WWE UK developmental, but as proven at Wembley, when they want to they can bang out some of the best matches on the independents. Not much confirmed yet but after making his debut at Wembley, Ilja Dragunov will be returning against David Starr, and WALTER defends the World Title against Mark Haskins. Visit their website for more.
Europe
Fight Club Finland – FCF Wrestling Sideshow: Halloween Edition – Saturday – Nightclub Press, Helsinki.
I’ll be completely honest, I know very little about Finland. I imagine it’s very cold, they eat a lot of food fermented in vinegar and Ludvig Borga is printed on their money. Of course, my uneducated ignorance is probably far off but Finland it seems are becoming a bit of a force in the wrestling world. European wrestling, in general, is really hitting off right now. Through the UK and German boom, the rest of Europe are taking advantage and constantly growing. This Saturday, Fight Club Finland host a special Halloween show at the Press Nightclub in Helsinki. Only one match announced so far, that being Patrik Mieto vs Viktor Tykki. I have no idea who either of those guys are, but they look pretty good. If you have google translator, then visit their website to find out how to watch.
Italian Championship Wrestling – Fight Forever – Saturday – Bergamo, Italy. Italy is awesome. It has Pizza, Wine, Art and apparently a little bit of wrestling. If you can look beyond the idea of Santino Marella being billed from Milan, then you should check out Italian Championship Wrestling. The biggest promotion in the country right now, they offer a pretty good blend of bigger International names and home-grown talent. NXT UK guys, Flash Morgan Webster & Wild Boar will be taking their 198 tag team to Bergamo this Saturday for a match against Tenacious Dalla & Miroslav Mijatovic. Current PROGRESS Women’s champion Jinny will also be scowling at Italians as only she can. For the home-grown talent, Gabriel Bach wrestles Dragon L’Angelo Caduto for the ICW Lightweight championship. European wrestling is awesome, so get in on some of this. Information available on their website.
New European Championship Wrestling – Only the Strongest – Saturday – Hebdorf, Germany.
German wrestling is so great right now. Even with WWE trying to lock up every country in the world to their ever-growing developmental system, there are still a lot of promotions doing good business thanks to the success of wXw. New European Championship Wrestling are one of those promotions, operating out of Hebdorf, they present their next show, Only the Strongest this Saturday. After looking at the line-up, I’m starting to worry that Vince Russo is booking for them, as there will be an ‘Axe on a Pole’ match between Scott Iron vs Jack Wilder. I have no idea how this will work. Do they simply have to get the axe to win? Or can they then use the axe to bludgeon their opponent to death? Either way, I’m kind of intrigued. If you are also then head on over to their website and see what’s what.
Rest of the World
Accion Sin Limites – Anniversario VIII – Saturday – Gimnasio Juan Martinez de Rozas, Concepcion. News came out a few years ago that William Regal was in Chile scouting several promotions and talents. Wrestling in Chile, this was complete news to me. Enough so that I decided to do a little research and discovered that the country has a pretty decent scene, which was obviously decent enough to attract the attention of the WWE in their goal to take over the world. One of the promotions I stumbled upon was Accion Sin Limites. The company, which is based in the city of Concepcion, hold their 8th Anniversary Show on Saturday. Their current Heavyweight Champion, Diego Garate, defends his title against the young prodigy Damian Blanco in the main event. Elsewhere two of Chilean wrestling’s most promising young stars battle it out as Pedro Pablo wrestles Reus. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see some of these guys in an NXT South America brand within the next few years, so get in on the ground floor and check out some Chilean wrestling. Visit their Facebook page to see what’s going on.
Lutte NSPW – Standing 8 Tournament – Sunday – Quebec. Our last stop this week is Canada. A scene which is steeped in wrestling history. Whether it be Stu Hart torturing people in his basement or that little misunderstanding between Bret and Vince in Montreal, Canada has produced so many moments and so much talent that it will forever go down as one of the most important pro wrestling countries of all time. The scene these days isn’t too shabby either. While it may not be what it once was, there is still a lot of damn good stuff going on every weekend. Quebec based promotion Lutte NSPW, will be holding their Standing 8 Tournament this Sunday. Participants include Markus Burke, Thomas Dubois, Matt Angel, Travis Toxic, Matthieu St-Jacques, Ivan Sullivan, Benjamin Tull and Kevin Blanchard. Outside of the tournament, the main event of the show will see Marko Estrada face indie legend, Matt Cross. More information can be found on their website.
