Canada 

OWE – Wednesday & Saturday – The Mid-Town Event Theatre, Toronto. 

I’m changing things up this week and starting in Canada instead of good old America, because what’s life without a little variety. The reason for this week’s little change is due to the shenanigans going on in Canada this week, where wXw, OWE and PROGRESS are all working with Smash Wrestling to put on a number of both solo and joint shows at the Mid-Town Event Theatre in Toronto. I’ve listed the shows below in the order they will be taking place, starting with Oriental Wrestling Entertainment, who will kick things off on Wednesday, before closing proceedings on Saturday. The Chinese promotion will be fielding a combination of their own roster, along with some AEW and local Canadian guys. Matches for both shows so far include the legendary pairing of CIMA & Christopher Daniels facing future AEW stars, The Private Party. Sammy Guevara takes on Gaia Hox, and T-Hawk takes on Daniel Garcia. I’ve seen quite a bit of Garcia lately and I’m expecting him to have a great match with T-Hawk. The shows will also see appearances from Brandon Cutler, Bolo Fung, Alexander James, El Lindaman, Sebastian Suave, Psycho Mike and Rekka. To find out more about the promotion visit their website.

wXw – Ambition 11 – Thursday – The Mid-Town Even Theatre, Toronto. 

wXw presents another of their always enjoyable shoot style tournaments, only this time in Canada. The German promotion along with the help of Smash Wrestling, have pulled together a great collection of grapplers to shoot it out in an elimination tournament. First-round matches include WALTER vs Mike Bailey, Daniel Makabe vs Bobby Gunns, Alexander James vs Timothy Thatcher and Daniel Garcia vs Marius Al-Ani. There will also be a special super fight, with Tyson Dux taking on Japanese legend Yuki Ishikawa. wXw will also be holding a normal live event on Friday at the same venue, with a line-up that so far includes Aussie Open defending the wXw tag titles in a three-way against both Strong Hearts and The Crown, Timothy Thatcher vs Yuki Ishikawa in a rematch of their incredible Ambition match earlier this year,  and Bobby Gunns defends his wXw Unified title against a man he has a long history with, Mike Bailey. Their match from last year’s 16 Carat was incredible, so visit their website to find out how you can watch.

Smash – Super Showdown VII – Friday – The Mid-Town Event Theatre, Toronto. 

The hosts will be having a pretty big show themselves, as Smash Wrestling host Super Showdown VII on Friday. The Super Showdown shows have always been pretty stacked, with Bobby Lashley, Johnny Gargano and Jeff Cobb all having appeared over the past few years. This year’s card also boasts some pretty big names with current NXT UK champion WALTER, teaming up with Japanese legend Daisuke Sekimoto to take on Brett Banks and Tarik. I’m all on board with seeing Tarik against WALTER and Sekimoto. Jordynne Grace (it’s still okay to call her that, right?) will also be in Toronto taking on Lufisto. In a big title match, Kevin Bennett defends the Smash championship against Mike Rollins. 

They will also be partaking in a Smash vs Progress event on Wednesday, which will include Kevin Bennett vs WALTER, Aussie Open vs Tyson Dux & Brett Banks and Jordynne Grace vs KC Spinelli. Progress will themselves be having a solo show of their own, but since they are as much an Indie promotion as I am a bodybuilder then I won’t including them. More info on the Smash shows is available here.

The Summit – Saturday – Mid-Town Event Theatre, Toronto. 

On the final day, Smash Wrestling will be coming together with RISE and SHIMMER for a Summit of women’s wrestling featuring the best female talent in Canada and beyond. KC Spinelli and Rosemary will battle it out for the vacant Smash Women’s title and Nicole Savoy defends the Shimmer championship against Nicole Matthews. Match of the night has to be between Mercedes Martinez and Jordynne Grace for the NCW Femmes Fatales International title. The show will also include appearances from Zoe Lucas, Cheerleader Melissa, Allysin Kay, Lufisto and Priscilla Kelly. You can find out more about here.

Greektown – Hotwired TV Taping – Thursday – Eastminster United Church, Toronto. 

Just in case you aren’t into the whole Smash collective of shows there will be some other action taking place in Canada this week. Starting with Greektown who will be hosting TV Tapings for their Hotwired Fight Network show. Matches for the tapings so far include RJ City vs Rhyno, and TDT & Kevin Blanchard vs Lil Bray, Franky & Kobe Durst. In the weirdest match of the night indie legend Necro Butcher will be coming out of retirement for the night to face Channing Decker. For more information on how you can watch the awesomeness of Necro, visit their website.

Destiny Wrestling – Icons 2 – Friday – Battle Arts Academy, Mississauga, Ontario. 

Next to Ontario for Destiny wrestling, whose next show Icons 2 takes place on Friday in Mississauga. The show will see a number of the major promotions do battle, with SCU taking on OVE in a six-man tag match, and Moustache Mountain facing Josh Alexander and Michael Elgin.  The show will also include Tennille Dashwood vs Seleziya Sparkx, and appearances from Trey Miguel, Kevin Blackwood, Aiden Prince and RJ City. A little bit of Impact vs. The World, sounds like fun. Tickets and all other info are available here.

United States

Game Changer Wrestling – Joey Janela’s Escape from L.A – Friday – Ukrainian Culture Centre, Los Angeles. 

What can you even say about GCW right now? I’ve mentioned in the past how I think they are the top indie in the United States, but it almost feels like they exist in a sperate universe to anything else happening at the moment. While I can’t say that their brand of weird deathmatch/nostalgia/DIY entertainment is my cup of tea personally there is absolutely no question that they’re having a tremendous 2019 so far. 

Their next show on Friday is Joey Janela’s Escape from L.A, one of the Bad Boy’s many farewells shows on the indies before he joins the corporate world and starts appearing on TV every week with AEW. No word on his opponent for this show yet, but another AEW brawler will be getting a title shot as Jimmy Havoc challenges Nick Gage for the GCW title. As you can probably guess that match may include a broken light tube or two. The ageless Masato Tanaka will also in L.A, taking on one of GCW’s breakout stars, Tony Deppen. Tanaka still seems to be as good as he was 20 years ago, and I’ll enjoy seeing him kick the shit out of Deppen here. Others who’ll be attempting to escape from L.A includes Jungle Boy, Kris Stadtlander, Chris Dickinson, Alex Zayne, Mance Warner and Jimmy Lloyd. So, get with the cool kids and watch them live on Fite TV.

House of Glory – High Intensity 8 – Friday – NYC Arena, New York. 

The Young Bucks are also on somewhat of a farewell from the indies this week as they appear for a promotion they have a lot of history with, House of Glory. The Bucks were the first-ever tag champs for the promotion back in 2013 and have some fond memories of their times in New York. On Friday at High Intensity 8, they will be facing a team seen by many as the future of tag team wrestling, Private Party. The youngsters got their start in House of Glory and it’s almost fitting that they are the final opponents for the Bucks. The match has even had a little bit of build on Being the Elite recently. That certainly isn’t the only thing happening on the show though, as the current HOG tag champs LAX, will be defending the titles against The NYWK team of Chris Seaton and Smooth Blackmon. Others appearing include Rich Swann, Matt Macintosh, Ken Broadway, Matt Travis and Mantequilla. If you fancy watching the Bucks say goodbye to the Indies in a spotfest extravaganza, then you can watch it here.

PCW Ultra – No Quarter – Friday – ILWU Memorial Hall, Wilmington, California. 

I recently stumbled upon a Reddit post asking about what the better promotion was between PCW Ultra or Game Changer Wrestling. While the general consensus was that GCW was a more enjoyable watch, I found myself edging towards PCW Ultra. Even though I earlier went on about how great GCW is right now, and there is no doubting that they are a bigger promotion than PCW, for me personally I’ve always enjoyed the simpler style of PCW than the deathmatch craziness of Game Changer. If you take a look at the line up for their next show No Quarter, then you’ll probably understand why. From top to bottom they offer a great line-up of both established and up and coming stars in the Indie world right now. One match in particular highlights this, with former WWE Cruiserweight champion TJ Perkins challenging one of this year’s true break out’s in Jake Atlas. Tessa Blanchard will also be at No Quarter defending her PCW women’s title against the first Woman of Honor champion, Sumie Sakai. The show will also include appearances from Daga, Puma King, Mil Muertes, Dan Maff, Eddie Kingston, Homicide, Matt Sydal and Brian Pillman Jr. Get in on some of this by visiting their website.

CZW vs wXw – Saturday – The Coliseum, New Jersey. 

Fresh from their shenanigans in Canada, wXw will be stopping by New Jersey on their way home for a joint show with CZW. The CZW championship will be getting an outing, with John Silver putting the title on the line against Marius Al-Ani in what should be a pretty good match. The Meat Nan against the Ninja is a match I didn’t know I needed until now. The Retrosexual Anthony Greene will also be at the Coliseum facing Emil Sitoci, and The Rep will defend the CZW tag team titles against Jurn Simmons and Alexander James. Not a bad little line-up. Find out more here.

United Kingdom

Battle Pro – Legit Heat – Friday – Sydenham, London. 

The UK part my ramblings this week begins in London for Battle Pro Wrestling’s ‘Legit Heat’ show, which takes place in Sydenham this Friday. The line-up includes some of the best talents currently plying their trade in the UK right now, with probably the true UK breakout of 2019, The OJMO, defending the BPW title against Josh Bodom in a battle of the Re Pro mid-card. Talking of the mid-card, Chuck Mambo and TK Cooper will be bringing their ‘Escaping the Midcard’ team to Sydenham, facing off against Johnny Storm & Josef Kafka. I’m not too familiar with Kafka but Storm is an absolute legend of the UK scene, so lovely jubbly on that one. My current favorite guy in the UK, Chris Ridgeway, is fresh from his stint in Japan kicking ass in NOAH and will be facing Connor Mills here. The young Mills hasn’t quite broken out like many thought he would but he and Ridgeway should have an absolute corker. Visit their Facebook page for more.

Eve – Fight & False Lashes – Saturday – Resistance Gallery, Bethnal Green. 

Fairplay to Eve, with the UK scene crumbling and more and more talent being stockpiled by the WWE, they continue to grow and put on unique shows while so many others struggle. On Saturday, they’ll be bringing the Fight & False Lashes to the Resistance Gallery. The show is being built around the number one contender match between Little Miss Roxxy and Millie McKenzie. The young McKenzie recently made a fan for life when she turned down WWE to stay on the Indies, so for that, I hope she wins before going on to become the Eve champion and ultimately take over the world. Go on Millie, you’ve got this. Go to their website to watch.

Southside Wrestling Entertainment – An Egotistical Day of Reckoning & Ill Manors – Saturday – The Corporation, Sheffield. 

Bloody hell, Southside really love their doubleheaders, don’t they? I’m a bit confused with this one though as they seemed to have changed the names of the show a number of times, throwing me off on what exactly is taking place and when.  As of writing the above show titles are correct, so if they are changed after this then it’s not my fault. The first show will see current Southside World champion Shigehiro Irie, team up with a mystery partner to take on Ethan Page and Brady Phillips, before Page challenges Irie for the title in the evening. Apparently, The Rascalz will also be on the show challenging Stixx and Chris Tyler for the Southside tag titles. More info is available on their website.

Australia

Australian Wrestling Alliance – Homecoming VI – Saturday – Kedron-Wavell Services Club, Queensland. 

I’ll be honest, if it wasn’t the help of a certain Kevin Chiat on Twitter then my Australian coverage would consist of a constant loop of MCW, and me trying to figure out whether Gino Gambino is actually a member of the Bulletclub or not. Luckily that isn’t the case, and my Aussie wrestling IQ is increasing by the week. The Australian Wrestling Alliance is first on my list this week, with the aforementioned Juicy Gambino taking on AJ Istria for the Wrestle Rampage National championship. Can somebody please tell if he is in the flipping Bullet Club or not? I wish Istria was, he’s bloody awesome. He doesn’t wrestle for MCW though. Shit, I’ve entered the cycle again. Anyway, Homecoming VI will also see the semi-final matches of the AWA Openweight tournament, with Mitch McCarthy taking on Zeke Andino and JL Gold, and Adam Brooks wrestling Sebastian Matters and Xander Sullivan, with the winners meeting later in the show. Should be fun. Join the Aussie revolution by visiting their website. Oh yeah, cheers again Kev.

Southern Hemisphere Wrestling Alliance – We’re All Mad Here – Saturday – Armadale Arena, Perth. 

Another promotion I’ve been introduced to this week is SWHA, the Perth based company who have apparently been running shows for over 10 years. Their next show, We’re All Mad Here, will be taking place at the Armdale Arena on Saturday, just two weeks on from their last live show. Nothing really announce of yet, although Ritchie Taylor will be making his return to the promotion. More about the show can be found here.

Warzone Wrestling Australia – Unleashed – Saturday – Mulgrave. 

We’re over in Mulgrave next (not a bloody clue where that is) for Warzone Wrestling’s ‘Unleashed’ on Saturday. The promotions new champion, Dowie James, will be making his first defense of the heavyweight title against Andy Phoenix. According to their Facebook page, the man Dowie James defeated for the title, Slade Mercer, isn’t too happy with Phoenix getting a title shot so I’d amazed if this isn’t a three-way. Now that’s storytelling, good job guys. Plus, Dowie James and Slade Mercer are pretty great. Other matches include the returning Kaz Jordan challenging DCT for the Heritage Championship. Visit their website to find out more.

Rest of the World

Federacion Nacional de Lucha Libre – Karma – Saturday – Santiago. 

One of my favorite things about doing this article is the fact that I get to write about Chilean wrestling every week, mainly because I know sod all about the scene and I have to wing it and make up some shit while trying to sound intelligent. Federacion Nacional de Lucha Libre has the honor being this week’s chosen Chilean promotion, and the Santiago based promotion host their next show, Karma, on Saturday, The show includes a women’s four-way between Tyra, Samantha, Red Quinzel and Lizz, as well as an intergender tag match with Nikki & Joestar facing Cami Love & Maurice. Think I did a pretty good job there, so get over to their website.

Bodyslam Pro – Live Show – Saturday – Absalom, Copenhagen. 

Only the one mainland Europe show this week, that being Denmark’s Bodyslam Pro, who hold another live show in Copenhagen on Saturday. The main event in Absalom will see Rick Dominick defend the Bodyslam championship against former champion Michael Fynne. Bodyslam have recently started streaming on IWTV and from what I’ve seen so far, they are doing some pretty good stuff in Copenhagen right now. Fynne in particular is one I’ve been impressed with. All info can be found here.