{"id":25489,"date":"2018-09-07T18:55:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T22:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=25489"},"modified":"2018-09-07T18:55:44","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T22:55:44","slug":"wwe-indie-wrestling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/09\/07\/wwe-indie-wrestling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Circle of Life: A Look at WWE’s Indie Signings and the Indie’s Replenishing (VIDEOS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years now, around the fall, indie wrestling fans go online to lament the amount of stars that the indie scene lost that year to the WWE Universe. And every year they complain that it’s WWE’s attempt to “kill off” the indie scene and that now there’s “no one left” on the indies. But this is not something knew. The WWE didn’t just start signing indie wrestlers this year, last year, or even 2012. They’ve been doing it since the fall of WCW and ECW in 2001 and the rise of the indie scene the following year, when promotions like Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), TNA\/IMPACT Wrestling, CHIKARA<\/strong>, and SHIMMER<\/strong> started popping up. During the Monday Night Wars, when WWF and WCW were feuding, while the feisty pup ECW was nipping at their heels, the major promotions just keep the roster fresh and refortified by signing away each other’s talent. While WCW would try and sign WWF’s bigger name guys, like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash<\/strong> and Scott Hall<\/strong>, the WWF signed WCW’s underappreciated midcard guys, like “Stunning” Steve Austin, Cactus Jack, Eddie Guerrero<\/strong> and Chris Jericho<\/strong> instead. ECW played both – being regularly mentioned on both RAW<\/strong><\/em> and Nitro<\/strong><\/em> – while creating the strongest independent promotion in the United States and the first true major indie promotion.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But with the fall of WCW and ECW, the talent pool at the top had few options to continue, and with WWE’s roster now full of the most talented known performers on the planet, it made it tougher for younger stars to get a glance. This conundrum led to the rise of the existing indies from the end of the 90s, like Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW)<\/strong> and Maryland Championship Wrestling <\/strong>(MCW<\/strong>, now MCW Pro Wrestling<\/strong>), and the emergence of the aforementioned promotions, as well as Major League Wrestling (MLW), EVOLVE, Shine<\/strong>, Ohio’s Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW)<\/strong>, and Chicago’s All American Wrestling (AAW)<\/strong> (to name a few). With a new higher standard indie promotion, the talent began to move beyond regional locals to working circuits, akin to the old NWA territorial days. Instead of joining the WWF machine as an early 20 green wrestler, performers could hone their craft, cement their athletic imprint, and truly find their potentials, by working in these rapidly gestating independent promotions and then heading to the WWE Universe in their late 20’s or even mid 30’s. This lead to a backlog of truly incredible talent that were competing on levels as good as – and in many cases better than – the ones in the WWE, that simply didn’t have the enormous platform that the WWE’s financial clout could provide. Matches like Bryan Danielson<\/strong> vs. Samoa Joe<\/strong> in early Ring of Honor were easily superior athletic contests and stories than John Cena<\/strong> vs. Randy Orton<\/strong>. But only a minute fraction of the WWE Universe was even aware of Ring of Honor’s existence.<\/p>\n