What's missing?

[Cyrus Riddle]

Let's play television and marketing executive for a bit, seeing as how most of us are guilty of it at some point, it shouldn't be a problem, lol.

What elements are missing from the current independent wrestling companies that could give them the boost they need to be a player in the wrestling community against TNA and possibly WWE one day? I'm mainly thinking about ECW here, and wondering if there is anything that can be done on the indy circuit that can boost say ROH or PWG to that level. Sure, ROH has some television time, but I do not get it in my area. Is it a lack of presence beyond the die hard indy wrestling base? Or is it that the talent pool just isn't as good as it once was?

What can be done to change all of this, if anything at all?

 

[Postman Dave]

ECW was very lucky, it came along as something very different in a time of big men getting pushes and ageing talent refusing to stand aside.

It was an alternative when one was badly needed. That's what an Indy needs to be. WWE has become safe and complacent and bound by the masters of advertising & merchandising and TNA is a mess.

The gap is there, but no one is being smart enough to differentiate themselves and move into it.

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[Cyrus Riddle]

I like the way you put it. That being said, are there any indies that have the special factor that they can exploit to move into that position?

Honestly, I feel that if ROH isn't rivaling Impact or WWE by now, they never will. The plethora of talent they had in the form of Punk, Joe, Danielson, McGuinness, Aries, and others can never be attained again.

PWG seems exciting to me, but I haven't seen enough to make a judgement on how well they can grow. I do know that their crowds look relatively small, but their matches are exciting as hell.


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[Postman Dave]

PWG is the closest to ROH of 2005/6, but they only run 10ish shows per year due to the cost of flying in west coast talent. And due to using talent from both ROH & WWN, growing any further would be legal hell for them.

The American Legion in Resada isn't a huge venue, but PWG sell it out every show, and the fans are always into everything. I'd rather see a small venue packed out than a large venue half full (like TNA).

 

[Cyrus Riddle]

I definitely agree. It really is a shame that all of the legal BS will get in the way. That has to be one of the biggest roadblocks currently as well, because the bulk of guys traveling are in ROH.


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[Horrorfan_1986]

PWG will not grow any bigger nor do they want to do so. Both Excalibur and Super Dragon are practically running PWG as just a little side project when they have downtime from their real jobs. The last time they tried to truly grow (European Vacation in 2007), it was a bloody disaster for them. PWG has found it's niche and since 2009, they've just been trying to maintain it with minimal effort. Truthfully, that can be seen as a good thing considering how close they came to going out of business in 2008.

ROH is just screwed though. No one is making much money. Whenever they find a decent talent and push them to the moon, it's only a matter of time before WWE or TNA comes in and offers them more money. With that, their new top talents are gone before they can get anything worthwhile out of them. It'll always be that way as long as ROH can not offer WWE money. The fact that guys like Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins and CM Punk are doing so well in the WWE only makes ROH's job all the more tough due to the fact that they have the attention of the WWE. ROH managed to thrive for a bit in the mid 2000's because McMahon wasn't pushing their signed indy talent too hard. As a result, a lot of quality ROH guys could remain in the company for longer without that obvious WWE attention.

The other problem effecting every indy is that the talent pool of the early and mid 2000's was so much deeper than it is now. Adam Cole may be talented, but he can't compare to the likes of Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe and CM Punk.

Really though, 2014 is going to be the year where everyone is watching to see if TNA even manages to survive. So for these indy companies to try and figure out ways to make it to legit Big 3 status? Unrealistic dream.

 

[Hoss]

Really though, 2014 is going to be the year where everyone is watching to see if TNA even manages to survive. So for these indy companies to try and figure out ways to make it to legit Big 3 status? Unrealistic dream.

WWE has just progressively gained its monopoly on the industry, and is closing in on its plans for global domination. In the early 80s the playing field was wide open (or as wide open as could be in the modern era), and steadily narrowed to a big 3, now a big 2... soon to be a big 1.

 

[Postman Dave]

it's gonna be a sad day when TNA dies and WWE completes the monopoly.

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

it's gonna be a sad day when TNA dies and WWE completes the monopoly.

Oh, they already have the monopoly. TNA doesn't influence or impact WWE in the slightest. At this point, TNA is just an indy company with a pretty sweet TV deal.

 

[Postman Dave]

Oh, they already have the monopoly. TNA doesn't influence or impact WWE in the slightest. At this point, TNA is just an indy company with a pretty sweet TV deal.

it's still nice to have at least one other company out there that people like Kurt Angle & Jeff Hardy can look at and go "I can still make a load of money over there". Just a little temptation away from WWE.

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

it's still nice to have at least one other company out there that people like Kurt Angle & Jeff Hardy can look at and go "I can still make a load of money over there". Just a little temptation away from WWE.

The only problem is unlike WCW, it's only a very select few that's making any sort of decent money in TNA.