As in guys that never made it to national TV. Hard mode: Guys that didn't even get to the japanese big leagues (NJPW, Noah, Pre-split AJPW).Necro Butcher's an easy one to start with, although he did get a decent amount of screentime in an Academy Award nominated movie.
American Balloon with his "hit opponents with your deflated titties" gimmick
Cheeseburger was based
I always thought Ophidian was based.
>>20132034cheeseburger wrestled in NJPW
I always think about how Mike Modest must obsessively ruminate about the moment in Beyond the Mat where Vince was watching his try-out match, and says “SHIT…we gotta work on that” because he had never seen a fisherman’s buster before and thought it was a massive dangerous botch. Like his entirely life could have been different if Vince hadn’t mistaken a bad ass move for him being sloppy
>>20132069Or if he read the room and didn’t do Japanese moves trying to get signed with wwe.
>>20131995Dude looks like Fidel Castro
Out of all the big names in PWG and ROH I’m still kinda baffled Chris Hero never made it out of developmental. Yeah he struggled with his weight but when he was motivated he had a decent build, and was always comfortable on the microphone. Also went on to struggle with his weight, and was short, but there was a couple of years where Sami Callahan was out working all the ROH guys. I’m disappointed frightmare and Tim donst never got much going outside of CHIKARA. I’ll also say the briscoes, fuck the bucks for holding them down and keeping them out of aew. Jay should have been working dynamite that tragic night.
>>20131995for me its this guy. the fact that SHLAK has never got a spot in the big leagues is an indictment of the whole fucking business.
>>20132336I guess botching and being short and overall a terrible wrestler is no longer an excuse to keep people off tv cause they’re all like that now.
That dude that made pizza in the ring.
This dude is like chud supreme
>>20132034He still wrestles
The indies need more necro butchers, super dragons and low kis. guys who accidentally force structure into their matches cause they’re bullies.
>>20132047loved him, super committed to the gimmick. Shame he didn't break out due to the perv stuff
>>20132047>>20132324Chikara was full of talented wrestlers who could have broken out if they came up with a better gimmick for themselvesStill hilarious that Quackenbush tried to convince Orange Cassidy that Fire Ant was a much more marketable gimmick for him because "everyone knows what an ant is"
>>20132404He was on aew
>>20132495A guy who dresses as ants with his friends doesn’t break kayfabe like my little dog pockets does.
nobody in this thread deserved more than what they got and most of them didn’t deserve half that
>>20132663Why? Because they're not 6'7" and jacked?
12 large, brother.
>>20132714miss this lil nigga like you wouldn't believe
>>20132714one of the best managers ever, would probably be the single most over person in AEW if he was alive for it
>>20132534>He was on AEW>he made it
>>20132324Yeah that one never really made sense. If KO managed to keep a prominent spot with a cutoff shirt and a huge gut underneath it then I don't see why Chris Hero couldn't. Then again the latter is a bit more of a softie than the former, so he'd have more of a uphill battle to fight with both the office and the fans as a babyface.
>>20132034I'm pretty sure he was on national tv a couple times when aew bought roh
>>20132495Fire Ant > Orange CassidySame as Soldier Ant > Drew Gulak and Green Ant > Tracy Williams
>>20132324He explained that the first time he got let go from development was because a lot of the young non-indie guys came to him for advice and that pissed off the NXT trainers who felt like Hero was there to learn and shouldn't help train guys
>>20131995cowboy cool jayhttps://youtu.be/45mNrzUZ0II
>>20134786owens is most likely a brilliant backstage politician to get as far as he has with his look
>>20132336i don't think shlak wants to, he obviously makes decent enough money and he has his band too
>>20134786KO was instantly over with Vince because he's a mean bastard inring and IRL. Hero was just a fat dude who got the short end of the stick because Punk chose him along with roided out Dean and Seff as part of the Shield and he stuck out.
Grizzly Redwood deserved a six-month comedy midcarder run in the big leagues
Vin Gerard was a pretty good emo/bum character. I guess he somewhat made it with the streaming thing.
>>20132336Might see this dude on Friday. Shlak is the fucking man. I met him. He was super cool and hilarious.
>>20131995He never became a TV guy but he made it to ROH back when that meant something. It isn't like he's Mean Mitch Page or Corporal Robinson or any of the other deathmatch shitters who could only get booked in IWA:MS and IWA:DS.
>>20135370ive talked to him online and i like him because he doesnt try to act like a big deal. thats one thing i like about shlak, he'll just talk to you like a normal person.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qj3TpjgKDINecro is the man
>>20132034He was on TV, he and some other jobbers got squashed by Bobbo Lashley on his first match in AEW.
>>20131995Also Necro Butcher
>>20135230I still mark for that spot where Brody Lee missed the big boot and then grizzly caught the guy with one while he was still ducking.
I remember back in the mid 2000s that assumption was the only indie guys who’d ever make it in the wwe were hero and Claudio cause height. And that colt would do better than punk in wwe cause he has a broader build. So happy we were all wrong. I know they did some work with TNA but I’ll toss out the Jimmys. Not the dragon gate jimmys but Jimmy Jacobs and Jimmy rave. Rave I get, never really got good on the microphone and his gimmick was for the indies, basically a sports entertainment type worker on cards where everyone else was trying to be the next Liger. Joey Ryan and Mike Bennett would do a similar gimmick but Rave had the brains and talent to not just spell it out. His work with Punk and AJ are among the best things they ever did. And Jacobs while on the short side was always compelling when given something to work with. His age of the fall gimmick was better than any of the Wyatt slop you fags ate up.
>>20135055hi Quak
>>20135688Jimmy Jacobs could have gotten the Shannon Moore spot and went full ham with (a diet version of) his emo gimmick on WWE TV in retrospect. He was a decent looking guy. Don't know why it never panned out for him.
>>20135688jacobs & lacey was the best angle roh ever hadhttps://youtu.be/cul6TSWq4Gk
>>20135774That one's pretty good, although Colt Cabana having a near death experience through Draino torture is worth a mention as well. Anything but Clone Wars era RoH.
>>20136182I'll still take clone wars ROH over the Baltimore HQ ROH that was around just before Tony bought it.
>>20132495Some of them weren't really looking to be stars. I wonder if it makes a lot of the more mark type wrestles seethe that Hallowicked was one of the best indie guys and he was just someone doing wrestling on the side for fun.>>20132069He and Donovan Morgan had a long-ass run in NOAH. They probably should've been TNA guys if they worked in the States more during the 2000s but I assume they were fine where they were.
New era smarks just don't understand how hype indie wrestling was in the 2000s early 2010s. Chikara before streaming was just wait weeks for dvd to be available to purchase (months for it to be torrentable) and all you could do was read the blogs or watch their youtube stuff. I loved their "Previously...at CHIKARA" where they recapped 2-4 months of stuff if you weren't able to catch the showshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_neDhD5jq
>>20136747Same with BoLAs that were unavailable on DVD for up to a year. Super Dragon wasn't too great at distributing his shit desu.
>>20136875Not that you’re saying this but this is a good springboard for me to go on one of my epic but also educational rants the board loves and appreciates. You know why PWG never did iPPV or streaming? Because then it wouldn’t be PWG. The whole reason they were always able to book TNA guys, WSX and lucha underground guys, and ROH guys when they started signing contracts was because of they were still using the dvd model which televised companies did not consider competition
>Kings of Wrestling vs Briscoes>Kings of Wrestling vs Motor City Machine Guns>Kings of Wrestling vs American Wolves>Kings of Wrestling vs Hass & BenjaminWhat a kino title reign
>>20131995Reckless Youth never really worked anywhere with TV, did he? He had one unaired Dark match on Shotgun Saturday Night, the few things he did in ROH were before they ever got TV, I don't think he ever worked TNA or a Japan major.
>>20137212He had a try out match near the end of ECW and told Quack, cause they wanted to bring them in as a tag, that he didn't think they'd be happy there because of the drug culture. I think he also had a developmental stay somewhere for WWE.
>>20136875between 2009 and 2012 when I bought their DVDs they came out at a decent enough clip. Plus PWG at that time was just 'batshit exhibition matches' before every indie did that formula. Back in the day ROH, Chikara, IWA:MS, IWA:DS, IWA:EC, CZW, FIP, all had their unique vibe and presentation. Indies these days you could throw any 10 shindie shitter names on a card and slap any 3 letters on the top and I'd believe that's a real show.
>>20138767we were spoiled. I still have no idea when death match wrestling got normalized, a lot of smarks use to HATE them, and now they're all excited to see Gayman Fagam Gaype do spots I watched Thumbtack Jack do over a decade ago.And another big issue is that the fans are too nice now so guys don't even care how fake they look or how often they botch. a 5 star match in 2026 is indistingishable from a 2002 czw opener that got boo'd out of the building.
>>20138828Holy shit look how cool this guy is!
SUPER DRAGON *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*SUPER DRAGON *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*SUPER DRAGON *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*SUPER DRAGON *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*SUPER DRAGON *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*SUPER DRAGON *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*
>>20138886This is the correct answer
>>20132336Shlak just wants to have death matches and smoke crack. He's happy where he is.
>>20132404I thought he canceled for being anti-vax? Like not to Joey Ryan levels but down to lower level indies shows being the only ones that would book him.
>>20132404He had some AEW appearances, therefore he's disqualified from this thread.
>>20132441Perv stuff? Do tell....
>>20139063He sexually assaulted a female student and was fired from it. He was then blacklisted from the business. This assault allegation is one of the main reasons chikara shut down.
>>20136747Fags shit on Chikara now because some of those guys went to gAyEW but 2000s Chikara up until the shutdown is full of SOVL (Touchaz) because you'd have the goofy stuff and good matches with good wrestlers. Makes sense they worked with Osaka Pro a lot because I they were pretty similar promotions (and Osaka Pro when it was pushing guys like Harada, Kotoge, etc. ruled). It still had some enjoyable stuff after the shutdown but was never the same.Speaking of Osaka Pro, if we're counting indy guys from other countries then Black Buffalo ruled. He wasn't flashy but was just really, really sound and good with things like match structure and pacing. I have no idea how much older Osaka Pro stuff is still available but that early 2010s period usually had him doing good stuff. I remember some really good matches with Daisuke Harada in 2012 for the OPW Championship.
>>20138767SoCal indy guys PWG is so much bettet than super indy PWG honestly. Once Dragon goes out for a few years and the Cucks and other shitty wrestlers come in that's a good time to think about dipping. Once Steen is gone it's best to give up.
>>20139169>blacklisted from the businessDepends how you see blacklisted. Him and his wife regularly make gear and masks for wrestlers
>>20139221Black Buffalo vs Tigers Mask, mask vs mask, is goated, especially if you include the post match.
>>20131995Briscoes deserved way more. Those niggas were dimes, and I'm glad Mark is doing well. I was also a big fan of Truth Martini.
>>20132034Fun fact: he's wrestled at both the Tokyo Dome and MSG.
wow i had thought that the anons who had an actual clue and were involved in real fandoms had left this board entirely. glad to be wrong about that for once.also ruckus and trent acid were based
>>201400342003 backseat boys are fucking goated!Fat Ruckus was good enough to make me sit through Ric Blade matches lol. I’ll shout out the rest if blkout too. Sabian aka blk jeez motorboating fat white girls, money. And Joker should have broken out of CZW. Could have been a solid roh or pwg guy, great strikes and intense personality, fuck the military.
>>20132672no because they’re dimeless shitters
For me it's UltraMantis BLACK.
This will always be more dimes than anything Orange Cassidy has ever donehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz6rCAl_MK8
as comedy guys go, i was always a big fan of the niggataker. his gimmick of forcing white people to say the gamer word was pure kino.
>>20140199Og xpw had a tag team called the west side niggers. They were very bad.
>>20140208yeah i remember them, they did kinda suck
>>20140175He's retiring soon
