In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indie circuit is the collective name of independent professional wrestling promotions which are smaller than major televised promotions. It is roughly analogous to a minor league for pro wrestling, or community or regional theatre.
Professional wrestling is a form of performance art and entertainment that combines athletics with theatrical performance. It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, that mimic a title-match combat sport. The unique form of sport portrayed is fundamentally based on classical and "catch" wrestling, with modern additions of striking attacks, strength-based holds and throws and acrobatic maneuvers. Much of these derive from the influence of various international martial arts. An additional aspect of combat with improvised weaponry is sometimes included to varying degrees.
A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event. Within the convention of the show, the company is a sports governing body which sanctions wrestling matches and gives authority to the championships and is responsible for determining the divisions, rankings, etc. of wrestlers. In truth, the company serves as a touring theatre troupe, as well as event promotion body for its own events.
After the cancellation of ECW on TNN, a weekly prime-time cable TV program which ran from 1999 to 2000 on the network currently known as Spike, Joel Gertner became active on the independent circuit. After working with several promotions in the New York Tri-State and New England regions,[1] Gertner launched MXW Pro Wrestling in late 2004.[2] Their premiere event was held at Crystal's Night Club in Bristol, Connecticut on November 5, 2004, and featured an appearance by Matt Striker as Muscles Marinara[citation needed] and saw ECW Triple Crown winner Mikey Whipwreck defeat Maverick Wild and "Sudden Impact" Dylan Kage in the main event.[3]
ECW on TNN, also known as ECW Wrestling, is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and aired on The Nashville Network. Created by Paul Heyman, the owner of HHG Corporation, it presented original ECW matches on Friday nights and was the only national television program in ECW's history. It debuted on August 27, 1999 - five years to the date that Shane Douglas threw down the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and rechristened ECW as Extreme Championship Wrestling. The final episode aired on October 6, 2000. All episodes are available on WWE Network.
New England is a region composed of six states of the northeastern United States: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north, respectively. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Boston is New England's largest city as well as the capital of Massachusetts. The largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston with nearly a third of the entire region's population, which also includes Worcester, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island.
Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 60,477.
They returned to the same venue for their second show on January 30, 2005, at which Boogalou defeated Jay Lethal in the main event.[4] Following this event, the company went on hiatus for approximately one year.
Jamar Shipman, better known by the ring name Jay Lethal, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a former two-time ROH World Champion.
2006
MXW returned in early 2006 and announced that their third show would be held on April 1, 2006, at Crystal's Night Club. This event included the first match between Jason Blade and Xavier and the MXW debuts of Plazma (Trent Barretta) and Josh Daniels.[5]
John Jirus is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Xavier. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with Ring of Honor between 2002 and 2004, where he was the second ROH Champion.
MAYhem
They returned to the same venue for their fourth event and presented "MXW MAYhem" on May 27, 2006. Featuring a quadruple main event, this event saw Mercedes Martinez pin Cindy Rogers in the first MXWomen's Match,[6] Xavier pin the debuting "Hurricane" John Walters, and the first MXW appearance of Antonio "The Promise" Thomas. The Gaijin Battle Series, an original MXW concept which spotlights American combatants who wrestle for different Japanese wrestling organizations in competition against one another, was launched at this show. In the final match of the evening, Josh Daniels, who represented Pro Wrestling Zero-One,[7] defeated "Die Hard" Eddie Edwards, who represented Pro Wrestling NOAH,[8] to earn one point for his Japanese home promotion.
Mercedes Martinez is an American professional wrestler, currently performing for Shimmer Women Athletes, as well as numerous independent promotions including World Xtreme Wrestling, Full Impact Pro, Women Superstars Uncensored, and Rise Wrestling. She is a former three-time WSU Champion, two-time Shimmer Champion. She is also the current WXW Women's champion and the current Phoenix Of RISE Champion.
John Stagikas is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, RJ Brewer. Brewer is known for his appearances with Lucha Libre USA, where he portrayed a conservative supporter of Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer and Arizona SB 1070 opposed to illegal immigration to the United States. He is also known for his appearances elsewhere on the independent circuit as "Hurricane" John Walters, including with Ring of Honor, where he is a one time Pure Champion.
Gaijin is a Japanese word for foreigners and non-Japanese. The word is composed of two kanji: gai(外, "outside") and jin(人, "person"). Similarly composed words that refer to foreign things include gaikoku(外国, "foreign country") and gaisha(外車, "foreign car"). The word can refer to nationality, race or ethnicity, concepts generally conflated in Japan.
InterPromotional Incident
On July 8, 2006, they presented their fifth event, titled "InterPromotional Incident", at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. The main event was the Gaijin Battle X match, in which Low Ki,[9] who represented Pro Wrestling NOAH,[10] defeated "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels, who represented Pro Wrestling Zero-One,[11] which tied the Gaijin Battle Series at one point for each promotion. Prior to the start of the show, Daniels participated in the first "Heroes With Heroes" event where he had lunch with fans during an hour-long question and answer session.[12] Also featured on this show was the inception of the Lightning Match, a stipulation in which competitors must win within a ten-minute time limit. In the first such contest, J.D. Michaels and Kristian Frost battled to a time limit draw when neither was able to achieve victory within the ten-minute time frame.[13] This event also marked the beginning of working relationships with several other independent promotions, including Pro Wrestling WORLD-1 and CHIKARA.
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded by Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882, it was named in honor of the explorer Christopher Columbus. Originally serving as a mutual benefit society to working-class and immigrant Catholics in the United States, it developed into a fraternal benefit society dedicated to providing charitable services, including war and disaster relief, actively defending Catholicism in various nations, and promoting Catholic education. The Knights also support the Catholic Church's positions on public policy issues, including various political causes, and are participants in the new evangelization. The current Supreme Knight is Carl A. Anderson.
Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 45,135 at the 2010 census. The urban center of the town is the Wallingford Center census-designated place, with a population of 18,209 at the 2010 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in England.
The X Division is a high-flying, high-risk, fast-paced style of professional wrestling seen in Impact Wrestling and since then in various NWA member promotions. Its tagline is that "It's not about weight limits, it's about no limits!"
Following this event, MXW began producing a weekly 30-minute TV program known as "MXW Momentum," which was cablecast in the Waterbury, Connecticut[14] and Wallingford, Connecticut areas.
Golden Quest
In late July 2006, MXW announced a 32-athlete single elimination tournament, comprising the MXW top 20 and 12 at-large bids, to crown the first MXW Champion. The MXW top 20 was determined by win/loss records during the period from April 1, 2006, through July 8, 2006, and the results of fan voting (top 15 ballots) submitted to the company's website, known as the "MXW Fan 15". The at-large bids were the remaining candidates eligible for the top 20 that placed below the cutoff point, wrestlers that appeared prior to the April 1, 2006, event, and/or wrestlers that had not previously appeared in MXW.[15]
Their sixth live event, "Golden Quest", emanated once again from Wallingford's Knights of Columbus Hall on August 25, 2006, and focused on the primary stage (first round) of the tournament. Eight tournament matches were announced and Eddie Edwards, Archadia, Luis Ortiz, Bobby Fish, John Walters, Josh Daniels and Jason Blade (who defeated Billy Kidman) were victorious in their primary stage matches.[16] The eighth tournament match was to be Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal, however, as the curfew for the evening approached, the semi-main event was still ongoing between Frankie Kazarian, Sonjay Dutt and Azrieal. Lethal ran into the ring, followed soon after by Low Ki, turning the three-way match into an impromptu 5-way encounter. The match was stopped by MXW officials after approximately thirteen minutes and Low Ki and Dutt were declared co-winners by Gertner. Their position in the tournament was never resolved.
Prior to Golden Quest, MXW had announced the September Scramble Tour, which was to be a weekend of live events scheduled to take place in Springfield, Massachusetts and Albany, New York in late September.[17] However, due to Joel Gertner being hospitalized during this period, the shows were cancelled.
Capital Collision
The company returned on November 10, 2006, when they presented "Capital Collision" in Albany, New York[18][19] at the historic Washington Avenue Armory.[20] This event was headlined by the debut of The Kings of Wrestling in two singles matches, collectively known as The Royal Relay, as well as the continuation of the MXW Championship Tournament. Claudio Castagnoli[21] wrestled Antonio Thomas in a first round tournament match and, in the main event, Chris Hero[22] wrestled Josh Daniels. Also debuting on this show were several stars from Montreal's International Wrestling Syndicate, namely Beef Wellington, SeXXXy Eddy, and Player Uno. Additional contests saw Bobby Fish[23] pin the debuting "Fabulous" John McChesney[24] and Romeo Roselli pin the debuting Slyk Wagner Brown.[25]
Brass City Battle
Two days later, on November 12, 2006, MXW presented "Brass City Battle", its first live event in Waterbury, Connecticut at the Albanian-American Cultural Center.[26] This event was headlined by a Gaijin Tag Battle, the continuation of the Gaijin Battle Series, in which the wrestler that scored the pinfall would earn two points for their Japanese home promotion. It was announced as Team Zero-One (Steve Corino[27] and Josh Daniels) vs. Team NOAH (Low Ki & Eddie Edwards), however, when Corino was unable to attend, the match was changed to Low Ki and Daniels vs. Team Sabotage (Eddie Edwards and D.C. Dillenger). Josh Daniels pinned Dillenger for the win, bringing the Gaijin Battle Series tally to Zero-One (3 points) and NOAH (1 point). Three first round tournament matches were held at this show. Ricky Landell, Mercedes Martinez (who defeated Nikki Roxx),[28] and Ron Zombie (who defeated Homicide[29] in an "all-out war" match) were victorious.[30]
In October 2006, MXW announced a show entitled "Level Next" would take place on November 18, 2006, in New Haven, Connecticut. The company would later cancel this event, citing non-committal status of the building.[31] After these events, the company went on hiatus until early 2010.
2010
On February 22, 2010, MXW relaunched their website and announced their comeback event, entitled "Come What May", headlined by a one night, sixteen man, random draw single-elimination tournament.[32] It was scheduled for May 16, 2010, at Toad's Place[33] in New Haven, Connecticut.
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