Matt Griffin

As someone who has been to over 600 indie shows since 2015, spanning 18 states, I think I can speak intelligently on the "are the indies dead?" concept. And it's complicated. I started going to shows in what I consider the "prime" of big indies, which I feel was from like 2016 until COVID. COVID hit the indies HARD, more than can be even quantified, but what also hurt was the simultaneous rise of NXT and AEW, which picked clean both the ripe and the almost-ripe prospects. Wrestlers who would marinate and grow on the indies for 3-4 years were now gone in 1-2, and the industry didn't regenerate in ways I think that everyone hoped. A vicious cycle then perpetuated, with less certifiable draws = lower crowds = lower payouts = less motivation for wrestlers to lose money and travel (and gain valuable experience) for those payouts. A lot of indie promotions then pinned a lot of hope to streaming services/stream payouts, and that didn't nearly materialize for pretty much anyone in ways they hoped. With less income, it became harder to run a business (and indies are, even if rudimentary, small businesses), and one by one, the higher-risk indies faded or folded. Honestly the only surviving exceptions I can think of here are GCW and ICW/NHB, who built insanely loyal fanbases that were willing to travel cross-country to see their product, while also keeping talent costs low(er) than big-spending indies before them, relying less on expensive "names" and more on their homegrown rosters. Sounds doom and gloom right? Actually my larger point is that I'm here to tell you the indies aren't dead. They're alive in places like TWE or AIW or Action or New South (just naming the ones I'm familiar with but honestly there's probably dozens of these) who, and this is the key, *grow their own talent.* The "fly-in" big indies are dead. It's no longer financially feasible. But those places with their own schools and/or their own organic talent, filled with wrestlers who grow and develop in front of a crowd who can watch them blossom, *that* is the future of the indies. So how does an indie survive? Take it from someone who's been to 600+ shows: invest in young wrestlers. Let them make mistakes, learn, and grow. With the right formula of talent and cultivation, some of them will end up on TV some day, and the cycle will begin anew.