The wrestling/Indy Roundup!

Good morrow Smark Shooters, welcome back to the blog.

As by the title's name, this is essentially a summary of the other companies I've been trying to cover.

I would love to be able to have more detailed situations with the various companies other than the current big 2-WWE and New Japan Pro Wrestling, but busy times happen and you write what you can.

Some of this could be spoiler alerts and other parts are going to be just straight opinions on the companies covered. Thanks!


CHIKARA-So, I could start with any other company, but I would like to start off with CHIKARA. Coming off of their 15th and going into their 16th season, Chikara Pro has probably been the most consistent when it comes to their storylines. So....here's a cliff notes version of what I've thought from Season 15's finale event (TOP BANANA) to the latest: (EVIL WAYS)
1)I wish they had thought of a better degrading name for Kevin Condron's alter ego, Snowflake.
2)Silver Ant's journey throughout the Challenge of the Immortals(Chikara's season long team event, which resulted in Money in the Bank opportunities for the winning team) was one of the best written. Resistance of his team's obsession with Nazmaldoon (I know for a fact I spelled that one wrong).
3)KOBALD is ALIVE! :D
4) The Colony has been Chikara's greatest feel good story.
5)The ultimate underdogs beating the big bully NEVER gets old, especially when written correctly! ICE CREAMS RULE!
6)Chikara can lay claim to this first: first company to have a female as their Champion of the entire company. Princess Kimberlee is more than deserving.
7)Soldier Ant used to baffle me in terms of his usefulness. And then the last 3 seasons happened and ALL of my opinions on how good he is changed. One of the the top guys in CHikara for sure.
8)The owner of the company really likes his characters and his WWF 90s gimmicks: their current Campeones de Parejas are a throwback to Koko B Ware and Owen Hart.
9)I really dislike the encore match idea. The main event is the MAIN EVENT for a reason. Some shows, you have to have a bad ending. It makes the good endings better.
10)The creative way Chikara is able to bring back its characters in both convoluted and sensible ways is amazing. THUNDER FROG!!!!!!!!!!
11)Could someone who knows Chikara better than me explain the Chuck Taylor situation? Because Scoot Tatum and Rick Beanbag aren't going to cut it. Plus, Stokely Hathaway is Stokely Hathaway. NOT CHUCK TAYLOR.
12)The biggest heel in the company better end up being Mr. Touchdown. He's won everything else in Chikara that isn't a tournament, why not have him return as the bully that steps all over the Princess?

And that's Chikara

2)EVOLVE
It's tough to judge evolve for me personally, mostly because of the lack of access I have to them outside of their YouTube channel. Pure Wrestling comes to mind, with the emphasis on wins and losses being very prominent. For the MMA fan that on the inside wants to believe wrestling isn't entirely scripted, this is the promotion. They just recently crowned their Tag Team Champions, Drew Galloway and Johnny Gargano, they have one hell of a champion in Timothy Thatcher, and with their partnership with WWE becoming public before January, expect alot of EVOLVE guys to start rearing their heads in NxT, like Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa have. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this dude Matt Riddle. An MMA guy coming into pro wrestling with a wonderful douchy entitlement to his character. I like it.

3)Lucha Underground
I was really lost during the first season before picking it back up at the Season finale, Ultima Lucha. However, since catching both Matt Striker's YouTube summary of LU and keeping up with Season 2, Lucha Underground is TV's best kept wrestling secret. For non-Verizon guys (Which is sad for me), you can catch Lucha Underground on El Rey Network, and it is totally worth whatever you have to pay to upgrade. The Wrestling is top notch, the storylines are amazing, and the atmosphere is phenomenal to watch on tv. I can only imagine how great it would be to watch live.
As for the current storylines, The champion, Mil Muertes and his manager Catrina currently run the arena and the company after the original owner, Dario Cueto, disappeared. Amongst the enemies include The Gift of the God Champion, Fenix, The team of Ivellise, Son of Havoc, and Angelico, Prince Puma (the first champion and the man Murexes defeated at Ultima Lucha for the title), and PENTAGON JR. Pentagon and Puma had one hell of a match a few weeks ago, and Fenix has had amazing matches against King Cuerno, the hunter associated with Muertes.

There are so many stories to tell that fitting them in would be impossible without a separate article. I will cover Lucha Underground's Second Ultima Lucha when it aires.

Oh, and the whole thing is produced by Robert Rodriguez.

4)TNA

Wrestling's biggest embarrassment of a televised company is starting to really come back in 2016. Adding former ROH standout Mike Bennett, as well as turning top heel Ethan Carter III into the top face has really energized the company as a whole. While the X Division (Even with Trevor Lee as the champion) has been really stale as of late, the rest of the roster has been fantastic to watch. Eric Young and Bram, The return of Beer Money (Storm and Roode), The Wolves, The Knockouts (and I mean ALL of them....well except for maybe Rebel. She hasn't grown on me that well.), I could go on.

Matt Hardy has been sensational as the new Champion, complete with heel turn and wife around.

I expect big things from TNA once they start having more live events back in the states.

They're on POP TV if you're looking for the renaissance. They're not what they were back in 2005 or 2009 (before Hogan and Bischoff), but they're slowing bringing their quality back. Oh...and screw Destination America.)

5)ROH, NEW Japan, WWE, RPW, AAA, NoAH, CMLL, Dragon Gate

I'm grouping Ring of Honor with this section, because I have a few things to cover separate from this post for ROH. WWE is still top dog, followed by NJPW. I'd say Ring of Honor is the top indy, in terms of a consistent federation with a solid roster. I'll have the results and opinions of the 14th anniversary once I finish with Niigata and Honor Rises. Revolution Pro is a great promotion in England with Zack Sabre Jr as its champion, AAA is the feeder system for Lucha Underground. NoAH is the rival/partner of New Japan, with Marufuji as it's top guy, CMLL is the oldest wrestling promotion in at least Mexico, if not the World, and Dragon gate is Japan's true answer to Ring of Honor, the crazy flip dudes and speedsters of the Rising Sun, who've produced Ricochet (Prince Puma), Pac (Neville) and Uhaa Nation (Apollo Crews).  Obviously I'm going to do the WWE stuff separate, and the New Japan events are being finished after this post. Oh and NxT is going to have their piece around Wrestlemania time.

WWE is on USA Network, and their streaming service, the WWE Network.
RPW, AAA, NoAH, CMLL, and Dragon Gate, just find on the internet.
NxT is on the Network
New Japan is on their streaming service, New Japan World, and on AXS TV
and finally
ROH can be found wherever Sinclair Broadcasting does their thing. Here, it's on ABC at like 1 or 2 am in the morning (totally worth staying up for if you're on the east coast.)

Finally....

6)PWG

The best indy promotion in the world. Why? It's basically an all star card every event.

All Star Weekend 11-
Night 1:Chuck Taylor/MAndrews had a great match, Marty Scurll/Ricochet even better, the returns of Michael Elgin, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, and Sami Callahan. Omega and Bailey had a hell of a match.
Night 2:Chuck Taylor defeating Kikutaro (funniest Japanese Wrestler ever...well RG's pretty funny), Timothy Thatcher is a beast, Kenny omega and Will Osprey had a sensational match, and the PWG locker room FINALLY bested Mount Rushmore 2.0....with the return of Kyle O' Reilly and Excalibur finally fighting back after being abused behind the commentary booth shaped like a table.

LEMMY-Thatcher and Drew Gulak had a WRESTLING clinic. Closest thing to a straight real, non scripted match I've seen in ages. Drew Galloway finally wins....and he beat Jack Evans.
Zack Sabre Jr. and Akira Tozawa had a great match too. PWG Champ Roddy Strong had a marathon with Chris Hero and finished the Job.

BOWIE-Chuck Taylor beat Dalton Castle (two of my favorites), Evans beat Callahan, Sabre beat Lee, and Strong beat Galloway.

Most recent All Star Weekend....so ASW 12

Night 1-(note these results were from PW Ponderings) Taylor beat Lee (well damn, Chuck taylor's on a roll), O'Reilly and Scurll had apparently one of the greatest matches in PWG ever, Sabre and Cole never disappoint, and The Young Bucks Tore the house down with Ricochet/Matt Sydal in a PWG Tag Team Championship match.

NIght 2-Taylor beat Scurll (GIVE TAYLOR A CHANCE! YAY), Evil Uno comes back around, Sydal/Ricochet beat Death By Elbow (Chris Hero and a debuting J.T. Dunn), Trent Upset Cole, the Young Bucks beat ReDRAGON (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly).....AND NEW CHAMPION! SABER BEAT STRONG! YES!!!!!!!



So that's the roundup on the other promotions I intend on covering on a more consistent basis once my schedule gets back into gear.


WHEN IN DOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUBT, Pro Wrestling.