5 Lessons for Indie Wrestling in 2013

I get bored easily. Hence why my trying to write weekly columns and manufacturing anger about wrestling is impossible for me to do. I was planning on doing company-by-company profiles as I did last year in which I would discuss some of the positives and negatives. I even considered writing them as an e-book to be purchased on an e-reader. However, the prospect of writing these profiles seemed pretty redundant. I feel like I would be saying the same things about Ring of Honor as I have been for the last four years. Ditto PWG. Ditto AAW. Even CZW. Every company has their positives and negatives, and I’ll discuss those briefly for eight independent companies this week and next. When it comes to independent wrestling in 2013, I’m not sure what to think. WWE seems more willing than ever to look at guys like El Generico, Sami Callihan, and even the American Wolves. There are a number of new stars (who I’ll discuss Wednesday of this week) who should be contracted somewhere within the next 365 days, yet there were a number of bone-headed booking decisions made by independent companies (which I’ll discuss Tuesday of this week) that damaged both the talent and promotion while also angering fans.

Before getting into my first list of the week, I want to briefly reflect on my predictions from last year. To summarize, I was wrong… a lot. Chikara died. MsChif wrestled Markus Crane and got pregnant instead of winning the AAW Heritage title. Adam Cole remained in independent wrestling. El Generico left independent wrestling. I will nonetheless go back and examine my predictions and briefly talk about eight major indie wrestling companies on Thursday and Friday of this week as well as Tuesday and Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. You can get a good laugh at how awful my predictions were and then laugh at how I wrong I will be about 2014. I’m going to reflect on the year 2013 and write about the lessons independent wrestling can learn. Will they? Probably not, but there are a number of things which can be taken away. Let’s start with the obvious.

iPPV is not the present… and it might not be the future

The entertainment industry loves to copycat. Once Ring of Honor opened the pandora’s box of presenting live wrestling to be streamed on the internet, it was only a matter of time before every single company wanted one of their own. Almost every major independent company in the United States has run some sort of iPPV since the concept’s inception back in 2009. Unfortunately, for the industry, there are still significant problems plaguing the streams. Ring of Honor even gave up on live iPPV only to go back to Go Fight Live of all places and experience one more failure before finally conceding defeat and moving forward with strictly VOD presentations. WWN is still fighting the good fight, but every show seems to produce a new hiccup, and even some of the shows which are available to be seen have such terrible streams that shows are unwatchable. Even Smart Mark Video experienced problems thanks to the weather in Cleveland for AIW’s Absolution iPPV. No company is immune, but there is at least one place that seems to be getting it right.

People can say whatever they want about DJ Hyde and Rob Feinstein, but RF Video has had the least amount of problems of any provider. Even the Dayton show was cancelled as an iPPV with refunds quickly offered. CZW’s biggest show of the year, maybe one of their biggest shows ever, came off without a hitch on the iPPV end and people experienced Chris Hero versus Drew Gulak live. And in one of the biggest shockers of the year, Nick Mondo made a surprise appearance to an instant reaction on social media. That’s the power of live iPPV when done correctly. Instant buzz and recognition (even shame) can be given to your company. I also have to give credit to 2CW for putting on two free shows and not having iPPV problems. The lighting on the second show would make Sin Cara blush, but the stream appeared relatively clean. Smart Mark Video managed to at least get Double Dare right back in November to redeem themselves.

Whatever RF Video and 2CW are doing should be a model for all companies. The reality of the industry right now is the technology and broadband access across the country aren’t where they should be in order to provide an optimal viewing experience. Some people are still uneasy about streaming live events or even sitting down at their homes to watch something on their computer screen. Others still like their physical media. To me, the most important thing is to get iPPV correct. If Ring of Honor can’t get it right, then they need to be offering replays on VOD. However, a broadcasting entity like Sinclair should absolutely be able to get this right. You’re telling me that companies who don’t have publicly traded entities behind them like CZW and 2CW can get this right, but ROH can’t? WWN is in an even worse position because they don’t have television, nor are they willing to produce DVDs at an expedient pace. This leads to the next lesson which can be learned.

Team DVD/MP4/Streaming

The bottom line for every company is to get iPPV right and create multiple ways to view shows. If you’re not offering the shows in these three ways: DVD, MP4, and VOD, you are failing. I can practically watch any film I want to in these ways. This is the standard for entertainment. Either meet it or prepare to go down in flames. Places like Highspots and Smart Mark Video have the capabilities to produce these options, so there’s no excuse for any promotion at this point not to be at this level.

Another way entertainment is changing? Streaming venues like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime charge 8-10 dollars a month to watch as much streaming content as one could want. I find the idea of charging 20 dollars for a house DVD (hello ROH) to be borderline outrageous given I can get an entire catalogue of movies and television shows for an entire month at that cost through both Netflix and Hulu. Similar to the options above, entertainment and the way we consume media has changed. I think WSU of all places has the right idea by streaming all of their shows in one place and charging the flat right. For better or worse, every company should consider this same idea. Particularly Ring of Honor which has such a vast library. And hey, maybe if you charge 15-20 dollars a month, you can go back to doing the live iPPVs and offer it as a “free bonus” with a subscription. This is an example of the many innovative ideas the industry should be thinking of in order to get their content out legally but still match up with what else is going on. The issue then becomes how does one support wrestling and how can companies maximize their ability to put on quality shows and not lose money?

Who would have thought t-shirts could be such a big deal?

I see some people complain about “every” wrestler having a store on ProWrestling Tees.com, but I’d almost be angrier if a wrestler didn’t have one at this point. This is one of the best deals going, and I’m so proud to know that One Hour Tees is based in Chicago. Wrestlers can give their designs to PWT, have them be realized as shirts, and they keep 100% of the profits. This is an incredible way to support your favorite wrestler. If you like Johnny Gargano, you can give him 20 dollars and get a shirt. Does it really matter what the designs are? If people want a Gargano Power Ranger shirt, go right ahead. I think it’s great that wrestlers have zero excuse not to have merch at this point. And companies fall in the same boat. Instead of spending an insane amount on shows, another great way to support them is with buying shirts. The key is to create options and try to allow for multiple avenues with which to support everyone involved with a given company. There’s a lesson which can be taken away in the amount of shows being run.

Less is More

From an artistic standpoint, I could argue the three best companies this year have been PWG, AIW, and AAW. I’m not saying they’re perfect, but these three companies kept me entertained consistently, and the amount of filler was almost non-existent since they only run 12-15 shows per year. When looking at successful television show models, it seems to me as though the more epic dramas keep their episode orders below 15, making for a more compact and efficient show. There doesn’t need to be “filler.” Companies like Ring of Honor run so many shows that there’s no possible way for all of them to matter. What that means is a show like A Golden Dream costs 20 dollars for DVD, just as much as Final Battle or Glory by Honor. There’s no possible way these two shows are equal, but probably because of budgetary reasons, both shows have to cost the same.

Another example is DG USA. The Japanese home promotion used to send 6-8 wrestlers per doubleshot weekend. Now we’re lucky if we see three. Wouldn’t DG USA be a better and more special event if we got two or three doubleshots per year and saw a greater number of Japanese wrestlers. Maybe it wouldn’t make a tangible difference, but in looking at 2009 DG USA shows versus 2013 DG USA shows, it doesn’t feel as significant.

There’s such a huge difference between entertainment back in the day and now. In the 1970s, running a wrestling show in a given market every week makes sense because there were four or five channels, no internet, no DVDs, no VCRs. Now, people have so much entertainment without having to leave their house. Not to mention WWE and TNA basically have television programs every night of the week at this point. When a company runs a given show, then it needs to be worth 15-20 dollars plus the cost of gas. The more a show feels like an event, the better off the business will be.

Women’s wrestling ain’t niche no more

Back in the early aughts, women’s wrestling was very much on the sidelines. WWE was actually doing much better with wrestlers such as Trish Stratus, Victoria, Lita, and Jazz, but within indie wrestling, it was all fetish type stuff. Shimmer really changed the game in 2005 by providing a platform for women to perform in a high pressure situation similar to Ring of Honor for male wrestlers. In recent years, promotions like WSU, Shine, and AIW have branched off and seek to present quality women’s wrestling. While I don’t think these companies provide near the same quality as Shimmer, women seem to have more chances to work than ever, and the idea of women’s wrestling is becoming more and more accepted among independent wrestling fans.

A promotion like WSU was a farce under previous management, and while the show quality isn’t exactly great, Drew Cordeiro has certainly improved the production and is allowing some of the younger women a chance to prove themselves. With a number of women training at the CZW school and DJ Hyde recently becoming a minority owner, a company like WSU will only see its stock rise and grow to being a worldwide force in the industry.

A strong argument can be made that women’s wrestling isn’t as good in the ring as male wrestling. Based on the fact there are less places to work and fewer quality women on the indies, I think this argument is valid. But having more places to work will only benefit the women. Just in 2013 alone, I saw people like Santana Garrett, Su Yung, and Kimber Lee grow exponentially from January to December because they received chances to work in almost every major independent. Shine in particular offers the greatest opportunity because it runs on live iPPV every single month. This means, the women who wrestle on those shows must be ready to perform in front of a bigger audience and understand time cues for the purposes of live iPPV.

The fact that AAW is attempting to create a stronger women’s division combined with Candice LaRae getting main event chances in PWG means that even the companies which don’t have all women’s shows are willing to have females either compete with each other or have intergender matches. I firmly believe that 2014 will only see more emphasis placed on strong women’s wrestling. It’s getting to the point where if a company can’t competently use women, they’re either stupid, sexist, or both.