A Look At....Indie Titles

[Chris Casino]

Let's take a quick peek at the Top Independent Titles and see what each has to offer, if anything. Mind you this is simply my opinion and if you don't like it, hate it for ya baby!

Ring Of Honor Title - To me this is the most important indie title on the scene now. Some top names have held this title including Low-Ki, Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson. Unlike some other "world" titles this belt has actually been defended al over the world and in multiple promotions. Heck as I write this the title is about to be defended over on a bog Japan supershow. Despite no TV deal, ROH has the top title on the indie scene hands down.

Combat Zone Wrestling Title - What can I say? I'm a closet garbage fed fan. The things these guys do to entertain the fans is both amazing and a little scary. The CZW Title added even more prestige with it's war against ROH. Not many people know about CZW but in my mind this title means a lot to the indie scene.

Ohio Valley Wrestling Title - I have to admit, I've never seen one show from this promotion but seeing how some top names have held this strap it's hard to ignore it's value. Something tells me that if OVW had a national deal it would kill the pitiful ECW in the ratings department.

Pro Wrestling Guerilla Title - A promotion based out of California that attracts some of the top names on the indie scene. I've gotten a DVD or two of theirs and I'm always impressed with their talent and work rate. TNA often sends stars to PWG for shows and for some reason they seem to bust their asses juuuuust a little more than in TNA. Hmmmm.

NWA / TNA Title - This title tries to pass itself off as being just as prestigious as the WWE Heavyweight Title or even the WWE World Title. I'm afraid not. NWA has lost a lot of luster over the years and when a PPV is headlined by two former WWE guys you have to wonder. The recent hotshotting of the belt has really lowered it's value in my eyes also.

TNA X Division Title - Actually I think this belt has more value than the World title. AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Jerry Lynn, Samoa Joe, Chris Sabin all have held this championship. I have to say that the whole Kevin Nash thing though has kinda tarnished the title. Hopefully they can stop passing the title around like a hot potato and get rid of Nash before the belt becomes just a simple prop.

Full Impact Pro Title - The sister fed to ROH. Great talent and some fantastic matches. Homicide and Bryan Danielson are just two of the men to have held this belt.

NWA / TNA World Tag Team Titles - I'm a HUGE mark for tag wrestling. I grew up watching great teams like the midnight express, the road warriors, the four horsemen, the freebirds and others. Hell even as early as 2000 - 2001 the tag scene was hot with the great TLC matches with Edge & Christian / Dudleys / Hardys. But back to TNA, for years I've felt that the Tag scene in this promotion was heads and shoulders above WWE or any other promotion. Hell, if they put out a "greatest tag team matches DVD" I'd be the first to buy it. But as on March '07 tag wrestling in TNA has dropped like a brick. VKM? A joke. Team 3-D? TNA has misused them to the point that no one really cares about them. AMW? Broken up for no good reason. My favorite tag team LAX? Seriously missing something now that Konnan is basically out of the picture. However I still think they're the coolest looking Tag Belts anywhere.

okay that's just a brief look guys. Sadly there just isn't that many "name" indie promotions out there. I'd add the Wrestling Society X title but, well we all know that story.

["Sick" Billy Kryenik]

i second ROH has the biggest title on the indies and CZW as the second biggest.

CZW is more than just garbage wrestling these days, which i believe is way better for them. The death matches are cool and all, but let's face it - CZW fans are just like ECW fans... Just with a few more violent media years under their belts. They appeal to a huge market.

[Ryan Ro [NAPW]]

What I appreciate about Ring of Honor is, well, how much being the champion MEANS in that company.

I also like the way they made a World Title. ROH is a huge inspiration to me in general. The fact that their title became a "world" title only when it was defended on another continent was surprising and yet oh-so-logical.

The NAPW title (note: It is NOT a heavyweight title) will hopefully one day become the NAPW World Title. But not until we defend it somewhere else. Maybe, say... the UK. Seems we have a few wrestlers from there...

["Outlaw" Patrick Kidd]

Stolen from my recent OPW ring of honor thread post

RoH has made good connections with NOAH and Dragons Gate and RoH guys hold titles in those feds as well so its been a fair trade and you can see the respect those feds ahve for RoH and vice versa. RoH will be holding two shows in Japan in June they will be working hand in hand with those two feds and will feature their wrestlers but they will be marketed as RoH shows. Right now as it stands

in Dragons Gate Matt Sydal is the Open the Brave Gate champion (not sure what if any the stips to that title are maybe drew can tell us)

in NOAH the Briscoes are the tag champions. The Briscoes just recently won the RoH tag titles from Daniels and Sydal, this was probably done on purpose to set up a Brisoces vs. Shingo/Naruki international feud since the teams each hold the other feds tag titles.

Shingo/Naruki now hold the RoH tag titles

and Takeshi Morishima beat Homicide for the RoH title.

RoH will also being holding shows in Detriot on Friday and Saturday of Wrestlemania weekend and are bringing in at least 7 Dragon's gate guys for the show with a 6 man tag match scheduled for one of the nights since last years 6 man tag with the dragons gate guys was rated 5 stars by Metzler. This years all dragon's gate 6 man tag will be CIMA, Shingo & Susumu Yokosuka vs. Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito & Masaaki Mochizuki

Not to mention for the first time ever tonight the RoH World title will be defended outisde of the united states with both wrestlers invovled being NOAH regulars when Morishma defends the title against KENTA in Tokyo, Japan, i think at the Budakon.

I know quite a few RoH guys have done tours of NOAH and Dragon's gate including Brian Danielson, Christopher Daniels, and Nigel McGuiness who I beleive held a title in one of those feds as well. So Iglad they have a good working relationship and talent exchange. It allows fans from both countries to see people that otherwsie they'd only get to read about or see on DVD.

the question now is that if RoH showcases Mirishma as the RoH world title well enough would NOAH have the balls to put the GHC heavyweight title on a RoH guy, with as big as they were building the Samoa Joe/NOAH feud i think he had the biggest chance of having a run with NOAHs big title if TNA hadn't pulled him from RoH. Not sure if they would be willing to risk putting the NOAH title on any of the current RoH guys. Bryan Danielson is the only name I can think of after Joe and when he comes back from the injury in May/June he's going to need a little time to get back in the swing of things.

NOAH, 3/4/07 (NTV/G+)
Tokyo Nippon Budokan
13,500 Fans - No Vacancy

0. Mitsuo Momota & Taiji Ishimori vs. Tsutomu Hirayanagi & Ippei Ota went to a draw (10:00) when the time limit expired.
1. Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Junji Izumida & Makoto Hashi (14:30) when Shiga used a backslide on Hashi.
2. Tamon Honda, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Go Shiosaki beat Masao Inoue, Kishin Kawabata & Atsushi Aoki (16:51) when Shiosaki used a vertical suplex-style Final Cut on Kawabata.
3. Takeshi Rikio, Akitoshi Saito & Ricky Marvin beat Bison Smith, Chris Hero & Bobby Fish (15:23) when Marvin used the Santa Maria on Fish.
4. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano beat Akira Taue & Naomichi Marufuji (14:4 when Sano used a rolling savate kick to the face on Taue.
5. Mushiking Terry beat Rocky Romero (21:4 via pinfall.
6. Doug Williams beat Yoshinari Ogawa (17:19) with a crucifix hold.
7. Jun Akiyama beat Mohammed Yone () with the Wrist-Clutch Exploder.
8. Mitsuharu Misawa beat Takashi Sugiura () via referee stop.
9. ROH World Title: Takeshi Morishima (c) beat KENTA (9:44) with a backdrop (2nd defense).


It really has to say something for the relationship between these two companies that they let the RoH world title amtch be the Main Event.

Alos on a side note TNA's contract to use the NWA name runs out in a few months as it was only a five year deal, and they won't be re-newing a new contract. (similar to WCW losing the rights to the NWA title and then having the WCW world title) The world title held by Christian and the tag titles held BY LAX will become TNA world title and TNA tag title and the NWA will take the NWA World and NWA tag titles back. One scenario being tossed around that I read on some of the wrestling news sites would see Samoa Joe win the NWA title and then toss it down saying he's the TNA champion instead much like Shane Douglas did in ECW back in 1995. I don't see the rehash of the ECW/douglas thing being a good idea and I'm not sure if TNA really wants to cut ties and burn bridges with the NWA.

It is worth noting that at a recent NWA show in Canada, Bryan Danielson made a challenge saying he wants to be the NWA champion. It's being rumored that the NWA commitee has met and Danielson will be the frist NWa World champ after the title leaves TNA. I'm assuming they will have some sort of tournament for the vacant title. Bryan Dnielson seems like a good choice to me and he could raise the imag of the NWA again and we might even see NWA working together with RoH.

[Ryan Ro [NAPW]]

Speaking of Danielson, he did a double-shot guest referee appearance for NWA Canada/ECCW this past weekend, starting a feud with a former rival from back when he was still in Washington. Rumour has it that Danielson WILL be wrestling some matches for ECCW before going back to Ring Of Honor, once his shoulder is up to par.

omg