Exciting Times for Indie Wrestlers

Is WWE about to let Kings reign supreme over them?

It almost looks like paying your dues in the indies for the better part of a decade is starting to pay off, doesn't it? I'm not just referring to Austin Aries' star turn last night on Impact, where he wrestled in a three way match, garnered the approval of the Impact Zone crowd₁ and trended on Twitter. That was huge, even if it's just Impact Wrestling, a company that I and many other people malign on a regular basis. The fact is that Aries was presumably seen by over a million people at one time... which is way more people than would have seen him even on the most widely-purchased ROH iPPV. That's huge, very huge, but it's not the only big news.

Scuttlebutt around Twitter, which has yet to be confirmed by either party publicly but hey, at least one of the people talking about it are close to them, had Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero working out for WWE before their TV tapings this week. Yes, the Kings of Wrestling have circumvented that mythical WWE age barrier enough to get a look by WWE scouts in a WWE ring before a televised WWE event. And regardless of the outcome, I am beyond excited for both of them. The fact that the WWE at least looked at them speaks volumes to how far they both have come in their careers, to the point where not even the WWE can deny them a look.

I honestly can't think of three more deserving wrestlers to make it to greener pastures than those three. Yes, Aries is only contracted through Destination X at this point, and we all know how rough it can be in Impact for a guy who doesn't have the WWE or a similar mainstream company on his resume (note, being in TNA before is NOT the same). And we don't know how the Kings' tryout went at all, and we probably won't until it's a month or so later and they're either on their way to Florida or are still working indie dates not under the guise of being a farewell tour. Still, there's hope, and where there's hope, well, it can't all be bad, right?

Hopefully, that hope is justified. Even if not, well, it's at least a start. If Impact and WWE recognize that it's not just the "younger" guys who deserve shots in the bigs, then maybe, just maybe, there's hope for the wrestling industry yet. Experience matters, and the sooner people realize that, the sooner the mainstream product will get better.

1 - I know it's not hard to do that, but hey, small victories.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

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