Now….the ugly.

IWA Deep South Wrestling, a hardcore-style independent in Alabama is closing its doors with some bitterness, claiming in an announcement post that “there is no money in the wrestling business anymore… MMA seems to be the wave of the future.” and “We have Vince McMahon to thank for that”. Partner promotion IWA Mid-South Wrestling is also on a winter hiatus from shows, although it has a March show scheduled.

Now, as I promised, the connection between all three of the “good, bad, and ugly”

Independent promoters are under pressure to survive from all sides, from MMA, other forms of entertainment, online and home videogaming, and State athletic regulating agencies. Independent wrestlers struggle to make a living from the craft they love. More than a few go home from a show after driving hundreds of miles with nothing more than a thank you and and empty pay envelope.

At the same time, many of you write to me and post hundreds of messages on message boards bitching about Vince McMahon and WWE or Dixie Carter and TNA.

Well, if you want an alternative to WWE or TNA, its time to put your time and your money where your mouth is. If you don’t, more independent promotions will go the way of IWA Deep South…even your favorite ones. Hell, even Ring of Honor has had to make cutbacks in talent fly-ins for the coming year. If that doesn’t drive the point home to you, I don’t know what will.

When a State Athletic Commission tries to implement regulations that will shut the doors of promotions, do something about it. E-mail, call, raise hell.

Think it doesn’t help? When enough people bitched to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission and the Pennsylvania Governor’s office two years ago about the blatant hypocrisy of allowing Vince McMahon to advertise a No Way Out barbed wire match (at that time illegal in Pennsylvania), but banning CZW and others from running the same matches, something was done about it.

When CHIKARA puts on a weekend in Philadelphia like King of Trios, get your ass in a car, your friend’s car, or carpool with someone you don’t know except for a mesasge board (CHIKARA’s message board to start asking around is at CHIKARAFans.com). Save a few bucks and fly in (Southwest Airlines and other low-cost airlines fly to Philadelphia), take a Greyhound bus, ride a bicycle, or use whatever means you have to, in order to get to the ECW/New Alhambra Arena on February 29.

Period.

Don’t tell me “you’re busy”. Don’t tell me it’s “not your type of promotion”. Save your money far enough in advance to get to at least one of the weekend’s shows. If you don’t come to one or more shows at a weekend like this and make this King of Trios tournament profitable for CHIKARA, such a weekend won’t happen again.

In the same way that Americans in 22 states will get a chance to nominate the major party candidates for President this Tuesday… but most will instead stay home, then bitch this summer and fall about the 2 nominated major party candidates being only a choice of “the lesser of two evils”; if you don’t want to be forced to choose between than the lesser of two evils in WWE and TNA, and nothing more…time to put your money where your mouth is.

Now.

Until next time…

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