E-mail any comments, questions, or random thoughts about this column or my random question to Trophar@Lycos.com and I will post some of your letters in the mailbag section of the next column. Don’t be shy. I appreciate any and all intelligent critiques whether positive or negative.
Read the archives of Beauty in Wrestling from 2003 - 2005 at LeonThomas.Net The website will be updated in full next week.
Random Question: How was your Wrestlemania experience?
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THE BUDGET INDY FAN
A few years ago, I was on a wrestling budget. Money wasn't growing on trees, and I needed to ration my love of grapplers a little. This meant no merchanise, no live shows and definately no ventures into wrestling outside of WWE. I wish I had found the extra pennies back then. I would have loved to have seen indy wrestling at the turn of the century. If only I had saved a little more or worked more hours....or someone online had a guide to following independent wrestling in a very inexpensive manner.
Well, here it is! I realized recently that there are a lot of free online wrestling shows that I had never given too much thought. They were only so-so and could not compare to my mounting ROH, PWG, etc. collection of wrestling tapes. Though, as I learned of them, something struck me. I wish I had all that a while ago when I did not have so much income. So, I decided to write a column. A brief guide to seeing free wrestling online (not pirated, illegitimate stuff) and maybe a word or two about finding deals on wrestling tapes. Nothing groundbreaking but enough to hook a new fan here and there.
So, here we go. You're taking notes, right? Good.
Memphis Wrestling: http://www.kinglawler.com/memphistv.html
Jerry "The King" Lawler's local promotion in Tennessee. The King isn't only on Raw, folks. Though it may be indy wrestling and feature indy stars, it has the luxury of being broadcasted locally on UPN 30 and another show on ABC. They love wrestling in Tennessee. It has a long regional territory tradition that has somehow survived the mainstream explosion of WWF/E over the years. Memphis Wrestling (the motto is "Home of Rhythm and Bruise") is an hour long show that can be seen online without commercials. Because it has that backing and need for strong visual presentation, the productions values in terms of lighting and music and graphics surpass some of the top independent promotions.
Considering Lawler has a hand in this show, you can bet on funny commentary from the color man. The overweight commentator bashes the very cut and in shape tag team by saying "I hate fat people." I love this man. The tag team champions, The Hot Boys, get in a good line too: "You were sweatin' like Michael Jackson in a playground." Memphis Wrestling official Corey Maclin is in a storyline in which he is trying to beat a paternity test. Great personalities from this show.
Memphis Wrestling books WWE stars like Simon Dean and Eugene to their shows but also developmental talent like Alexis Laree. It has been a long time since I have seen her in action in ROH. Looks like I will finally have a chance thanks to Memphis Wrestling. Of course, this promotion also features "Grandmaster Sexay" Brian Christopher. All things considered, he's pretty much a lock for every show. Some decent ring work from Memphis as well. I like one of their top boys, Cassidy Riley. Wouldn't mind seeing him again and in a longer match. Unfortunately, the action seems very brief from what I have seen so far. In general, Memphis Wrestling is not the greatest show on Earth but definately worth a look. Good (and totally free) fun.
New England Championship Wrestling: http://www.necw.tv
Massachusetts is a very good area for indy wrestling fans. It features Chaotic Wrestling, regular tours from Ring of Honor and more. Though, those promotions do not have online shows. NECW does. Compared to the previous online indy show, NECW has far less dazzle. See the picture below. Very bare bones wrestling with a minimum of flash and flare. However, what it does have in abundance is actual wrestling and a look into a small promotion that still does enough business to run an online production and showcase a few live shows a month.
The actual wrestling itself is reasonably good. "Revolution" Chris Venom vs. Tiger Fang wasn't half bad. With a little polish and a lot more experience, these two could go places. That is what is so fascinating to me about these smaller promotions. This is where the big names get their starts. You never know when you're going to see the next Christopher Daniels or even the next Chris Benoit.
Jersey All-Pro Wrestling: http://www.japw.net/eventcenter/worldwide.htm
JAPW's World Wide TV is a new invention of the Jersey-based indy promotion. Before this year, you had to be either in New Jersey, relatively close or willing to drive a long way to see any of JAPW's action. As someone who has been there, there is plenty of it. I can't voyage East as much as would like to these days, so I am plenty happy management decided to expand their promotion to into new territories and also produce a weekly internet show.
JAPW is a little more crude than Memphis Wrestling or New England Championship Wrestling. Not "crude" in that their online show is limited or low-budgeted. Not at all. "Crude" in that it is a little vulgar and disgusting. Sean Hansen promoted JAPW World Wide from the women's toilet, for example. That being said, it is still the best of the three. Strong promos and the best wrestling. This week's show features Arcadia vs. Grim Reefer in a nice light heavyweight match. Also featured is a clip show of Chris Candido vs. EC Negro.
A pretty good online show. Worth the time to take a peek. Of course, Jersey All-Pro Wrestling saves their best material for their live (and not so free) shows. Check that out as well if you can.
Click Wrestle: http://www.clickwrestle.com
This is a little different from the others and is more or less another category. Click Wrestle is a fantastic resource for the budget indy fan. It hosts matches from All Pro Wrestling, Heartland Wrestling Association, IWA Mid South, NWA Wildside, Revolution Pro and many more. It previously featured CZW but you would not want to see that anyway. Click Wrestle, it seems, has worked out deals with these independent promotions to showcase some of their matches online. Some for a small fee and some completely free of charge. Yes, ladies and gentleman. This is the big score. Matches from long-running top promotions like IWA-MS and APW totally free for your computer watching enjoyment.
One of the matches currently free is JJ Perez vs. PUMA from All Pro Wrestling. Great match. Top notch work from both wrestlers. Went a long time. You can watch it without paying a dime. So many more as well just ready for new indy fans to enjoy. Of all the ways to get into independent wrestling on a budget, I recommend this the most. Of course, like most free services, Click Wrestle tries to sell you more matches at a small and reasonable price. There is no obligation to do so, but it might be worth it if you have some spare cash.
Yes, at this point in this column, we are going past the free and promoting the smart, inexpensive deals. Smart Mark Video and High Spots feature most of the top indy promotions. I know High Spots has deals every so often. That is what the budget fan needs to notice. The deals. Ring of Honor has deals about twice a month. Great savings.
Now, let's say you only have the cash or interest to follow one independent promotion. Well, JAPW and PWG only have about one show a month (generally), so they might be your best bet if that is what you're willing to spend. However, if you're looking to follow a promotion that features two or three shows a month, you may want to consider Ring of Honor or IWA-Mid South. Like I said, be patient and wait for the sales.
Thank you for reading this column, wrestling fan. For those already familiar with indy wrestling, I hope you picked up a couple online shows you didn't know about. For the potential fan, I suggest starting with Click Wrestle and an ROH deal to see where it takes you. There is a whole world of new wrestling out there to enjoy.
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MAILBAG -- THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
You are absolutely right in your criticisms of Cena. I thought he was an outstanding heel, and now he makes me want to change the channel. What bothers me the most is that the crowd just adores him, if I was in live attendence at one of these shows I would be puking my guts out during pops for Cena.
-Ron Kasper
About John Cena--I think whether or not people like him seems to be a matter of taste. Either you like him or hate his guts; certainly anyone who had to grow up around poser white kids pretending to be black, and didn't much care for their company, is going to hate him. I doubt that's going to change even with Cena's gimmick shift from heel poser to the face "raised in the streets hardcore" Cena. There's just a certain level of annoyance that only the Vanilla Ices of our world can produce and bring out in the people who know them.
Others are going to find him more amusing, perhaps because they are more appreciative of the fact that at the very least his gimmick is out there and different from the rest of the Chris Masters and Hunter Hearst Helmsleys. Smackdown has always seemed more over the top, and Cena is in no way the exception to this rule.
I don't often get to watch Smackdown, but judging by last night's Wrestlemania event, John Cena is going to have to do a HELL of a lot better than that. Not even his fans were impressed with that match, and the lack of quality was sort of enigmatic--even the middling Raw main event outshined it and then some. WM21 really re-enforced the idea that Smackdown is the B-squad.
-Bryan Rantala
I think you're being a bit harsh on Cena in some areas. Sure, you have a lot of good points like that fact that he is only an average worker but then so was Hogan, even in his prime. It's particularly harsh to criticise his finisher by saying it's just a Death Valley Driver. True, it is, but then how many truly original finishing moves have we seen over the last few years? Here are some examples of "borrowed" finishers:
Walls of Jericho = Boston Crab. Rick Martel was doing this on WWF
years and years ago.
F5 = Modified TKO. Marc Mero's finisher nearly 10 years ago.
Clothesline From Hell = Stan Hansen Lariat. That's years old.
RKO = Diamond Cutter. Again, nearly 10 years old.
I kind of half like Cena but I really hope that his push to the top encourages him to improve his in ring skills. Trouble is, I've been hoping that Big Show would hit the gym and get back into shape for countless years now. Cena might not be much better than Bradshaw but I really hope he beats him for the title because I probably hate Bradshaw as much as you hate Cena.
-Peter Redding
I don't believe NWA-TNA will survive this year. It is possible but in order for it to happen several drastic changes need to happen and that is why I say no NWA-TNA won't survive the year.
The first change NWA-TNA needs to make is fire Dusty Rhodes as booker. Dusty has had a while with TNA to make it big and it ain't happening. Have you seen Impact or any TNA PPV? Dusty has two superb female wrestlers, Trinity and Traci as his personal secretaries (WTF?), both of whom are superior to 95 percent of the "Divas" WWE has except for Trish and I honestly think if Trinity went head to head with Trish in a straight up shoot match, not pre determined, Trinity would wipe the floor with Trish.
The second change TNA needs to change is its title/main event picture. Who is in the main event? Jarrett, DDP, Nash, Waltman, Gunn and Monty Brown. With the exception of Brown (who needs to get a credible moveset) these guys are over 40. Isn't having old guys dominating the main event and title picture what killed WCW and what is killing WWE? Jeff Jarrett is the son of Jerry Jarrett, the guy who deserves a lot of credit for NWA-TNA and is at least part if not majority owner. Isn't bad backstage politics what killed WCW and what is killing WWE?
The third change that needs to happen is marketing. If TNA doesn't think the above reasons are responsible for the below 40,000 PPV buys (they need at least 50,000 to start making profits) let's look at exposure. Vincent Kennedy Mcmahon Jr has spent a lot of time and money since 84 to push WWE into almost anything you can think of in any major market you can think of. TNA has something vastly superior to WWE and that is the X-division. TNA needs some innovative marketing ideas to combat the huge marketing machine that is the WWE.
The fourth and final change TNA needs to correct is their mismanagement of talent. I said before these old guys should not be dominating the main event/world title pictures. I think TNA is doing the smart thing by getting these guys to appear on the shows but they need to get these big names to use their names to get people drawn in, get them seeing the X-division and they need to help building new stars.
While I'm talking about the mismanagement of talent let's talk about AJ Styles. He is the poster child of the X-division although he is not the champ anymore. This guy could be the future of TNA and guys like him are going to be the future of the wrestling business.
As the lower ratings and lower PPV buys indicate from the WWE, Vinnie Mac's idea that you have to be a certain height and weight to get over is bogus.
If I was in charge of TNA I would tell Jeff Jarrett, Nash, DDP, etc you are using your remaining talent and you are putting over AJ Styles. He is like a younger version of Chris Benoit but he has mic skills which took Benoit a while to get.
I wish we could see a ROH-TNA partnership if TNA got serious about being a true alternative to WWE again but I don't see it happening.
-John Lay
