THE FIGHT TO BECOME THE NEW NUMBER TWO
It's been over a year since we saw ECW and WCW in their original forms. Ever since, there's a fight to become number two.
Every few months since, there have been talks of a brand new national-level promotion to take the place of WCW or ECW. There was MECW in Philadelphia which folded shortly after it started, according to rumor over control and financial issues.
Lash Lareoux sent an e-mail to sources several months ago looking for talent, stating he had a national television deal.
The XWF, who has not released an official word since January, now has rumors ranging from their television deal wanting them to hold off to completely being done (wrestler Josh Mathews in his latest commentary said he had still not heard anything from them).
The WWA has mixed reviews from their PPV outings. But their only outings are PPVs.
Now Ring Warriors has announced their rising, headed by "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, Former NWA President Howard Brody, NECW owner Sheldon Goldberg, and includes Fred Rubinstein and Joe Panzarino from Atlantic City, New Jersey, Ernie Todd from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and David "Slim" Baucom from Charlotte, North Carolina. Already, Dusty's Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling and NECW have announced their promotions are under the RW banner, with their first megacard to be held in Winnipeg, Canada.
Meanwhile, two promotions are trying their hand at becoming territorial. Impact Pro Wrestling carries their banner over three promotions in NY and Massachusetts (one of which, FSPW claims NMW and Penn York Wrestling as their own).
Premier Wrestling Federation, which began as a promotion in East Central Pennsylvania is now known as PWF-Universal, while PWF-Northeast became what was ICCW in New England, and PWF Mid-south in Kentucky and Tennessee. They also have an agreement with Japan�s Zero-One promotion, which has also been offered by Ring Warriors to become an official member, even though they are the SSCW and Phoenix Championship Wrestling in New Jersey. AAWF in Maryland and Pennsylvania and WSWF in Pennsylvania. IPW and NWA-Florida in Florida are also running inter-promotional shows.
Many more promotions are trying to simply increase their own exposure through regional television outlets. CZW has television outlets in DE, PA, NJ, and NY. While MANY promotions have shows on local/public access (WXW in PA claims to be the only independent with events aired live).
Others are simply trying to build on name recognition, either by their own promotion�s name or the quality of their talent. APW and UPW in California are famous by their various media exposures, while OVW in Kentucky and HWA in Ohio are known due to their WWF developmental status. Meanwhile, XPW in California, Ring of Honor in Philadelphia, and APW in West Virginia are building more off the names of their talent.
Who do I think could become number two? If the WWF floated more money to their developments, I would say OVW and HWA. Right now only CZW has the largest region of television exposure, but could be overtaken by XWF, if their national TV deal is true. In my opinion, number two would be the Premier Wrestling Federation, the only currently active promotion that has the talent from curtain to main event that could successfully hold a national television audience�s attention.
For exposure, the only effective media for that is television, and the money to carry it off. Anyone want to donate?
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If you have any news or comments, feel free to contact Nate Stein.