Last week B-Boy went on sort of a Twitter rant. I’m not sure what brought it on, but he brought up a lot of stuff that most, if not all indy wrestlers have to deal with. There are a lot of good promoters out there, in fact the majority of wrestling promoters are good people who want to put on good shows or use shows to help promote their schools or give their students a place to wrestle. Sometimes promoters take risks that don’t work out the way they like, and sometimes they just aren’t good businessmen. In most business natural selection would weed the bad ones out, but indy wrestling is a different animal. It evolved out of circus sideshows and carnivals, and still seems to attract carnies like moths to a flame, and some seem to stick around forever. Honestly though, for me its part of the fun of covering indy wrestling because you can’t run into this stuff anywhere else.
There was a PCW show (not the current PCW, another promotion that called themselves Pacific Coast Wrestling) that had an advertised main event of Messiah versus Super Dragon. That was a somewhat big match at the time as Messiah was a big name who had only worked limited indy matches outside XPW and Super Dragon was by far the biggest name in the area and a draw. You would think this match was easy money, you’d want to book it in a nice venue and draw a ton of fans. The match happened in a parking lot with cars circling the ring to use headlights to light the ring.
https://twitter.com/newagepunisher/status/789166984076283905
"I don't want to give you a number that disrespects you" is a line promoters use to basically say.. 25 bucks and some nachos good on pay?
— |O.G.| (@newagepunisher) October 20, 2016
In B-Boy’s rant he gave advice to promoters such as respond to e-mails and pay your wrestlers. Common sense stuff. The fact that it’s actually an issue is crazy. The reason I bring up B-Boy and his Twitter rant though, is I feel like B-Boy is a guy everyone getting into indy wrestling should be seeking out and asking advice and learning from. Chances are if you are a wrestler you aren’t going to the WWE. Just looking at the numbers the odds aren’t in your favor. Japanese promotions only have so many spots. If you get into indy wrestling you will likely stay in indy wrestling. B-Boy is a wrestler who has succeeded in this world and has dealt with crazy promoters, changing landscapes, shifting styles, and has remained successful.
He has never technically been a promoter, but I look at FCW as an example of a promotion that maybe wasn’t well respected a few years ago, and I think the promoter Gus Parsons would admit that there was issues, but he started going to B-Boy for advice and over the last year-plus it started to build a really good buzz (recent money issues aside). He’s been around 18 years, he has seen what works and what doesn’t work.
Of course B-Boy is the only guy in the area like this. He is just the one to put his thoughts out in the open. Obviously I don’t think promoters should be basically letting wrestlers run the show, but when you have a gut like B-Boy on your show and are drawing 30 paid, he might be a good person to hit up for advice.
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With NXT making its debut this weekend there is a few familiar faces making their return to SoCal such as Samoa Joe and Roderick Strong. One person that will be making their return that seems to be getting overlooked however is Drake Wuertz. Now a referee for NXT, Wuertz, who worked on the indies as Drake Younger was a big part of the Southern California wrestling scene from 2012 to 2014, he wrestled for promotions such as PWG, AWS, IWL, and Quintessential Pro among others. His match with Ray Rosas for IWL in 2012 was runner up for Southern California match of the year, and he was nominated for Southern California wrestler of the year for 2013. These will be his first SoCal appearances since he wrestled for AWS in April 2014.
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PCW is hyping Rob Van Dam versus Pentagon Jr. on their November 12th show as the biggest match on the indys, and while that is a bit of a stretch, it is a pretty big match. Pentagon Jr. has had a terrific year and has really become a star. I would expect him to be a strong contender for Southern California wrestler of the year as well. Rob Van Dam has had surprisingly few non-WWE matches in SoCal over the years, especially considering he lives in the area. The rarity of him wrestling in the area is part of what makes this a big match. While he made quite a few appearances in the area with WWE, the last in 2014, he has only had 6 non-WWE matches in his career in SoCal. The first was in 2000 for ECW’s only Southern California show, the Heatwave PPV. He then wrestled twice for UPW in 2001, against Christopher Daniels and Mikey Henderson. He didn’t appear again until 2010 when he wrestled for PWG. Then in 2012 he had 2 matches as part of TNA. The match has the added intrigue going for it that if Pentagon Jr. wins, it will be the first time Rob Van Dam lost a match in Southern California outside of WWE as well.
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This came out after our news update was posted a couple days ago, but PCW announced they signed Mr. 450 to a contract to wrestle exclusively for them in Southern California for 2017. I have no idea what the terms of the contract are, or why PCW would need a contract as Mr. 450 wasn’t working any other local promotions anyway, but if he’s getting extra money out of it, good for him.
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Kikutaro is moving to the United States in December and is available for bookings starting December 9th. He can be contacted at kikutaro.booking@gmail.com and is one of the funniest comedy wrestlers in the world.
