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Indy promotions in the 1990s

4K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  ByTor 
#1 ·
I don't live in the usa, so I want to know if there were promotions like ring of honor back in the 1990s, was ecw the only one?
 
#2 ·
In the late 90s, Jersey All Pro Wrestling began. Pretty much gave Homicide & Low Ki their start. Also provided early exposure for Charlie Haas and his late brother, Russ.

You also had ECWA, who's annual Super 8 Tournament showcased future stars of the indie scene, such as Christopher Daniels. Was also a pre-big time stop for guys like Christian, Billy Kidman and Charlie Haas in the 90s, as well one Daniel Bryan in 2001, who first gained indie prominence due to his 2001 Super 8 Tournament showing, losing in the finals to Low Ki.

There's a lot more but those were the 2 most notable (in the northeast, at least), based on who they were able to groom for the future and being highly acclaimed, at the time.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I can remember OVW out of Louisville (which became a WWE developmental territory) run by Danny Davis (which is the topic of JR's latest podcast), Smokey Mountain in East Tennessee booked by Jim Cornette, there was Lawler's Memphis Power Pro, Texas All Star run by Bob Murphey, MCW run by Bert Prentice, National Championship run in Georgia, and the New England Wrestling Alliance only to name a handful. Some of those promotions were still even considered territories more so than indies because the territories were still fresh in everyone's mind and at least 5 or six of them got developmental deals with a larger body like OVW, Power Pro, and North Georgia.

There were very few that had as much exposure as ROH but some did have television, and some like Smokey Mountain, and Wildside even had some syndication. I would bet there were at least a half dozen operating on a similar although smaller scale as ROH. But there were probably 20 or more indy promotions operating across the United States during the 90's that could run weekly shows and ran more than one town.

There were also more than 50 small groups that were run by bookers across just about every small town I can remember. With the death of the territories and only two major promotions there were hundreds of guys put out of work, while there were an equal amount of guys trying to break in, so these small town bookers always had a list of guys they could call and book the local Veterans hall for a show. Heck I can remember even towns as small as Russellville, KY had regular cards because there was a guy willing to book and plenty of wrestlers looking for work.

On top of that most guys who trained wrestlers had their own shows, and venues to train talent.

Obviously there were some areas like Texas, the Southeast, Atlantic Coast and Northeast that had a much higher concentration. In these areas you could easily be within driving distance of two or three indy shows any given Friday or Saturday night.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Officially I think some (not me) would declare that a territory is a promotion that runs under the banner of a larger governing body. But there were independent territories before 1985 and these indy promotions were called "Outlaw Promotions" for the most part. Today there are still almost 30 promotions running under the NWA banner.

But I believe most people would consider even these NWA subordinates as indies.

I don't believe there is a real official line of divide. But when the USWA died in the mid 90's the last of what would considered an official old school territory died.

So when the smoke cleared and promotions, that would have been known as outlaws, were the only ones left not named WCW or WWF the rise of the term indy became even more prevalent. I am not sure exactly when the term indies became the official term. It was probably always used but never prevalent until the last territory died.

In my mind a territory was more of a term used to describe the loosely built "kingdoms" that protected borders, and when the WWF completed their desolation that no longer existed.

Today you could still use the word as promoters fight over certain areas, but the term territory itself had more to do with the system of the late 60-s-till the early 90's more than an actual territory of land.

Hope that made sense.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Wish I could be of more service, but pre-internet exploding, if you weren't a tape trader or magazine reader of say pwi which would place ads/names to watch for time to time, small promotions were pretty much grassroots around your area at that time. At regional mercy when syndication is out of the equation, which I think Indy with a widespread tv deal is a contradiction and invalid. Never been a tape trader myself, so all I can help ya with is Omega had a name circulating towards the 90s that launched alot of known "decent hands" if you will or circuit vets of today like Christian York. I can tell you being in the area that at least in the midwest, IWA-Mid south had big traction at least again in the Midwest region.

edit: I forget the name, but Mick Foley and Eddie Gilbert (boy I bet Greenlawler is in awe of Eddie Gilbert's originality and ingenuity *sarcasm) had a fun, solid string of matches in some indy territory in the early 90s pre-wcw Cactus.
 
#10 ·
APW in California, ECWA in Delaware, PCW(?) in Pennsylvania and OMEGA in North Carolina are the closest things the 90s had to an ROH style "workrate" indy but even then prime ROH never would have booked a Mr. Ooh La La (who ruled, by the way) or a Boom Boom Comini. 90s indies mostly consisted of out of shape weekend warrior types pretending to be their favorite WWF, WCW and ECW superstars. It was an entirely different world than today's indy scene.
 
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