Well, I’ll be honest. It hasn’t been a great week for independent wrestling. Our biggest star has done what many feared and signed with the big guys, while in the UK, the NXT UK guys are getting restricted more than ever. It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like the WWE are finally turning the screws on the indie.

I’m not happy about this but, what else can I say. Support indie wrestling.

US

Action Wrestling – Watch for monsters – Friday – Tyrone, Georgia.

I’ve been on somewhat of a quest this year. A quest to discover new wrestling and new talent and support Indie wrestling while it still exists. After signing up to powerbomb.tv, I checked out several promotions I was unfamiliar with. Only a few really stuck with me, one of them being Action Wrestling. Based in Tyrone, Georgia, they only came into existence this year. Holding their first show in April, their shows are an absolute pleasure to watch. Nothing too crazy, just good old wrestling with all of their shows being run in conjunction with a local charity. There I discovered some of the best talent on the South-eastern scene. Guys like Slim-J, Joey Lynch (why isn’t that guy more well-known?), Ike Cross, Cam Carter and many others. They have also used some bigger names like Fred Yehi, Dominic Garrini, Austin Theory and MJF. Next Friday, at Watch for Monsters, they bring in the undead monster of the Indie scene, PCO. The crazy old Canadian will be the veteran, Billy Buck. There will also be a four-way to crown the first Action Champion between Slim J, Cain Justice, AC Mack and Ike Cross, and a rematch between two of my favourite underutilised talents on the Indies, Fred Yehi and Arik Royal. Following in their charitable tradition, this will be a benefit show for Toys for Tots. I can’t recommend Action wrestling enough. So, sign up for a free trial with Powerbomb and check them out. More information is available on their Facebook page.

PCW Ultra – Believe – Friday – ILWU Memorial Hall, Wilmington, California.

Thought I’d start this week by proclaiming my hatred of the evil empire who are signing up all of my favourite wrestlers to a point where pretty soon, every promotion in the land is going to be headlined by Nick Gage and Marko Stunt. One name who is apparently joining the corporate world is Shane Strickland. Next Friday, he appears for another promotion who never disappoint, PCW Ultra. The California promotion have arguably one of the strongest promotions on the Indie scene right now. Their current Heavyweight champion is a man who has held the title for a year and one of the last big names on the Indies, Penta El Zero M. At their next show, Believe, Penta defends the title against Shane Strickland in a bit of dream match. This one will be all kinds of sexy. Sami Callihan will also be in SoCal facing his AAW rival, Brody King. The women’s title will be defended as well, with Tessa Blanchard challenging current champion, Delilah Doom for the Women’s championship. Visit their http://www.pwultra.com/ to find out more

AAW – Last Call – Saturday – Knights of Columbus Hall, LaSalle, Illinois.

Once more upon on the graceful land of LaSalle for AAW. Another wrestler about to join the ever-growing Lago loop roster is Trevor Lee. The AAW Heritage Champion may be making his final appearance for the company as he defends his title against DJZ. Others who will be appearing at the Knights of Columbus Hall include current AAW Heavyweight Champion Brody King, Jeff Cobb, ACH, Rey Fenix, Eddie Kingston and Jessicka Havok. Their website holds all the answers needed on how you can watch AAW.

Chikara – Let’s get Invisible – Saturday – The Wrestle Factory, Philadelphia.

Ahh Chikara. The weird little world of wrestling in Philadelphia, with Ants and Aliens and everything in-between. I’ll be honest, I have no interest in the promotion, but they have their own little fanbase who love their wacky brand of nonsense. Next Saturday, they host their Season 19 finale. Some guy called Juan Francisco de Coronado wrestles a Green Ant, and some snake dude, Ophidian goes up against Tony Deppen. One person on the card who does get my interest is Solo Darling. Having seen her wrestle in Women’s Wrestling Revolution and Beyond, I have always been impressed. Not impressed enough for me to ever have any interest in watching this show, but still. If you do have any interest in seeing Ants wrestling, visit their website.

CZW – Cage of Death 20 – Sunday – 2300 Arena, Philadelphia.

Bloody hell, have CZW really been going 19 years? I remember having a brief obsession with the promotion when first discovering them in the early 2000s. I was mesmerized by guys like Necro Butcher, JC Bailey, Nick Mondo and for some reason Spyder Nate Webb. Pretty soon the novelty of seeing chubby guys in back T-Shirts hit each other with light tubes wore off and I stopped watching. Their biggest show of the year, Cage of Death has attracted some huge Indie names over the years. Chris Hero, Matt Cross, Alex Shelley, Adam Cole, Dean Ambrose and many others have all bled in front of the CZW faithful. Next Sunday, they host their 20th installment over the event. Last year’s show was where Nick Aldis became NWA Champion after defeating Tim Storm. One of the last surviving Indie stars (pun intended) David Starr wrestles Mance Warner, and the legendary Atsushi Onita returns. Information on how watch is available here.

UK

Pro Wrestling: Eve – Shevivor Series – Saturday – Resistance Gallery, Bethnal Green.

Women’s wrestling really is kicking ass right now. Becky Lynch is taking over the world, Mrs Rousey is having a killer rookie year and the Joshi girls are as always on fire in Japan. The women’s scene in the Indies is also at an all-time high. More women are getting into the business at the grassroots level and there are more all-female promotions popping up constantly. The queens of the UK, Pro Wrestling: Eve presents their final show of the year, Shevivor Series at the Resistance Gallery next Saturday. There they will host a match between two of the best wrestlers in the world and probably two of my favourite wrestlers, Toni Storm vs Jordynne Grace. I will definitely be signing up to their on-demand to watch that bad boy. You can also see Charlie Morgan, Shotzi Blackheart, Kay Lee Ray and Kris Wolf. The show will be available watch here

NORTH Wrestling – NCL: I Smash Mirrors and F**k TV – Saturday – Riverside, Newcastle Upon Tyne.

My first-time covering North Wrestling. Another promotion who only debuted last year but have made tremendous strides in that time. Next Saturday will be the 14th show of their life and their final outing this year, I Smash Mirrors and F**k TV (fair enough). There will be plenty of new faces on the card, with the mysterious Cara Noir, NXT UK bad guy, Mark Coffey and fellow NXT UK and MYC Competitor Isla Dawn, all debuting.  The big main event will see the Team Shirt threesome of Spike Trivet, Chief Deputy Dunne and Los Federales Santos Jr wrestle the Too Hard team of TK Cooper, Adam Foster and Big Lou Nixon. Support British wrestling, oh and check out the NXT UK guy while you get the chance. Visit their website for more info.

Progress – Chapter 80: Gods and Monsters – Saturday – 02 Ritz, Manchester & Chapter 81: Pour Some Progress on me – Sunday – 02 Academy, Sheffield.

A busy couple of days for WWE UK, sorry, I mean PROGRESS, as they hold two shows in two days. Chapter 80 at the 02 in Manchester, before moving down to the 02 Academy in Sheffield the next day. Progress is banging through the chapters at an alarming rate, I’m assuming so they can get to Chapter 100 before they are swallowed up by the corporate monster. Can we even class them as an Indie anymore?  Chapter 80 will see a number one contender match for the tag titles, with CCK facing LAX, while the following day at Chapter 81, Ilja Dragunov wrestles Travis Banks. The chances of seeing the NXTUK guys on the Indies will be few and far between soon, so take your opportunities while you can. Both show will eventually be available to watch on Demand Progress.

Rev Pro – Live in Chelmsford 2 – 8 – Hamptons Sport & Leisure.

The British wrestling dream is dead. Pretty soon there will be nobody left but a select few talents who WWE have no interest in. That is unless we start supporting the companies that stand a chance of surviving the corporate onslaught. Rev Pro are one of those company. While I may joke about them being NJPW UK due to their overuse of New Japan talent and their commentary team being an absolute abomination, they are the biggest non-WWE affiliate in the UK. Obviously, the New Japan talent helps, but they have slowly building up their home-grown roster over the last few months. Next Saturday they are Live in Chelmsford. No matches announced yet, but Aussie Open are scheduled to appear, as well as MK McKinnon and Zoe Lucas. Get in on some of this and keep the UK scene alive by visiting their website.

Europe

White Wolf Wrestling – Thursday – La Hora de la Verdad – Sala Shoko, Madrid.

The new darlings of the Euro scene. I spoke a few weeks ago about their recent buzz due to the MOTY contender between A-kid and Zack Sabre Jr. The interest in them has continued to grow and their next show, La Hora de la Verdad takes place in Madrid on Thursday. A-Kid will be teaming with his Team White-Wolf partner, Carlos Romo, to take on Euro tag team of the year, Aussie Open for the Progress tag team titles. These two teams wrestled on Rev Pro TV a few weeks ago and it pretty damn good. Also, the new Triple W Champion, Pol Badia defends the title against Angelico, and Jordan Devlin continues to end-run as an indie wrestler against Jason Jupiter. If anybody would like to buy me a plane ticket to Madrid, then that would be great. Oh yeah, Session Moth Martina has apparently managed to get a babysitter for her 47 kids and will be all hopped up on Sangria. Their on-demand and all other info can be found here.

German Wrestling Federation – Showdown 2018 & GWF Women’s Wrestling Revolution 10– Saturday – Huxley’s Neue Welt, Berlin.

Double show from the German Wrestling Federation next Saturday at Huxley’s Neue Welt in Berlin. The day starts off with the GWF Women’s Wrestling Revolution, with GWF Women’s Champion Ayesha Raymond defending the title against Lady Valkyrie, as well as appearances from Killer Kelly, Wesna and Melanie Gray. That show will be followed up by GWF Showdown, where Tarkan Aslam defends the GWF World title against Bram. One of my new favourite teams in Europe, the Arrows of Hungary defend the tag titles against Oliver Carter & Senza Volto a match that should be an absolute corker. Johnny Storm, Chris Colen, Cash Money Erkan and Lucky Kid will also be on the show. Visit their website.

Dutch Pro Wrestling – Fight 2 Survive – Saturday – Hoek van Holland.

Now to the Netherlands. A country synonymous with the red-light district and weed cafes of Amsterdam. Over on the Southwestern side of the country lies the coastal town of Hoek Van Holland. A beautiful beach town which is the home of sandy beaches and Dutch Pro Wrestling. The promotion, which has been running since 2004, will be hosting their next show, Fight 2 Survive next Saturday. Holland has been churning out some great pro wrestlers over the last 10 years. The most obvious one being former NXT champion, Aleister Black. His former Sumerian Death Squad partner, Michael Dante will be on the show where he battles Max will for DPW Championship. The promotion will also be hosting the Leos Memorial Cup Battle Royal. Information is available here.

Rest of the World

Pro Wrestling Australia – Fridays are for the Babes – Friday – Sydney.

The Aussie scene seems to have become a regular feature in this list, such is the increase in promotions and talents down under. This week it’s the turn of Pro Wrestling Australia. The promotion that came to the attention of fans for last year’s match between Will Ospreay and Robbie Eagles at Call to Arms. The match was incredible and was the first time many fans feast their eyes on Robbie Eagles before his New Japan debut. Owned by the Eagles family of Ryan Eagles and his wife Madison, they are the closest promotion to MCW in terms of size and stature in the country. Next Friday, they close out their year with Friday are for Babes at the Max Watts venue in Sydney. The show will include the semi-finals of the Colosseum Tournament, with Mick Moretti vs Unsocial Jordan and Jack Bonza vs Paris De Silva. One of the best women’s wrestlers in the world, Madison Eagles will be facing Michael Spencer for a little inter-gender action, and Robbie Eagles be making his first appearance for the promotion since his exploits in Japan. Pro Wrestling Australia are great, and if you fancy checking out the show you can find out how on their website. You will not be disappointed.

Mexa Wrestling – Destruction City – Saturday – Arena San Juan Pantitlan.

A bit more Lucha action this week. Mexa Wrestling present Destruction City at the Arena San Juan Pantillian. A couple of big names will be appearing, including Rey Horus who faces Toxin and Arez in a Battle of Strong Style three-way, and a lucha extrema match between Fly Star and Demus. Other Lucha names at Destruction City will be Dragon Bane, Reina Dorado, Ultimo Maldito and more people I’ve never heard of. Those who speak Spanish, can find out more by visiting their website.

Malaysia Pro Wrestling – WrestleNation – Saturday – Kuash Theatre, Kuala Lumpur.

For the third week in a row I avert my gaze towards Asian wrestling outside of Japan. I’ve so far visited Thailand and Singapore, and this week it’s onto Malaysia. Located in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia Pro Wrestling market themselves as the first and only promotion in Malaysia. The company also operates as a training school, bringing through a lot of fresh young talent. One of their stand-outs is the 17-year old Emman. The young high flyer is quite the prospect for the promotion, and at WresleNation next Saturday he faces off against his trainer and mentor, Shaukat. There’s also a Mask vs Pride match between Nor ‘Phoenix’ Diana and Luna. Visit their Facebook page for more.

Campeonato Nacional de Lucha Libre – Jucio Final 2018 – Sunday – Santiago.

Back in Chile this week for Campeonato Nacional de Lucha Libre, who hold their Season finale next Sunday in Santiago. The main event sees the year long feud between Rocket and Pedro Pablo Luchador III (what a great name) continue in a steel cage match. The luchadoras are also getting in on the action, with Alexander Luchadora defending her women’s title against Roma Luchadora Chilena. I know little about these women, but I’d certainly give that one a watch. Information available here.