United States Independent promotions are usually local in focus and, lacking national
TV contracts, are much more dependent on revenue from
house show attendance. Due to their lower budgets, most independent promotions offer low salaries (it is not unusual for a wrestler to work for free due to the fact that most promoters can only afford to pay well-known talent). Most cannot afford to regularly rent large venues, and would not be able to attract a large enough crowd to fill such a venue were they able to do so. Instead, they make use of almost any open space (such as fields, ballrooms, or gymnasiums) to put on their performances. Some independent promotions are attached to
professional wrestling schools, serving as a venue for students to gain experience in front of an audience. As independent matches are seldom televised, indie wrestlers who have not already gained recognition in other promotions tend to remain in obscurity. However, scouts from major promotions attend indie shows, and an indie wrestler who makes a good impression may be offered a developmental or even a full professional contract. The advent of the
Internet has allowed independent wrestlers and promotions to reach a wider audience, and it is possible for wrestlers regularly working the indie circuit to gain some measure of fame among wrestling fans online. Additionally, some of the more successful indies have video distribution deals, giving them an additional source of income and allowing them to reach a larger audience outside of their local areas.
Canada Australia Unlike the
North American or
Japanese products which have large, globally renowned organisations such as
WWE and
New Japan Pro-Wrestling with several hundred smaller
promotions, Australia only has approximately 30 smaller independent circuit promotions which exist in all but one of the states and territories, that being the
Northern Territory. Tours from the North American product are regularly sold out in capital cities such as
Melbourne,
Sydney,
Perth and
Brisbane.
Mexico Mexican professional wrestling has many more independent wrestlers in proportion to the rest of North America, because of the weight classes prevalent in the Mexican league system as well as its emphasis on multiple person tag matches; just about anyone with ability can emerge from an independent
lucha libre promotion into either
AAA or
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and be a champion there. Independent Mexican wrestlers may use a lot of gimmicks, including some that may be based on
copyrighted characters from American television shows, such as
Thundercats and
X-Men. (These
gimmicks are often changed if the wrestler playing them makes it into AAA or CMLL; the most prominent example of non-compliance with this method is midget wrestler Chucky from AAA, whose gimmick is based on the ''
Child's Play'' movies.)
Japan Until 1984, no independent
puroresu promotion per se existed in Japan; potential talent went directly into the training dojos of either
New Japan Pro-Wrestling or
All Japan Pro Wrestling. (
International Wrestling Enterprise also was a third-party promotion until 1981.) The advent of the
Japanese Universal Wrestling Federation offered a long-sought third alternative. From 1986 to 1988 the Japanese system went back to the two-promotion system, but then the UWF was reformed and another promotion, Pioneer Senshi, was started. Because of Japanese societal
mores which implied that a wrestler was a lifelong employee of a company and thus identified with it wherever he went, neither AJPW nor NJPW made an effort to acquire wrestlers trained in other promotions; wrestlers from the major promotions who left, such as
Genichiro Tenryu,
Gran Hamada,
Yoshiaki Fujiwara,
Akira Maeda,
Atsushi Onita, and
Nobuhiko Takada had to start their own independent promotions in order to keep themselves in the limelight (
Wrestling Association "R",
Universal Lucha Libre,
Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi,
Fighting Network Rings,
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, and
Hustle respectively) . As the 1990s ended, though, things began to change. Independent promotions began gaining more prominence as they were featured in major specialized media such as
Shukan Puroresu and
Shukan Gong magazines. With the death of
Giant Baba and retirement of
Antonio Inoki, which effectively broke their control over the promotions they founded, the major promotions began looking to the smaller promotions for talent. In 2000, the first major signing from an independent,
Minoru Tanaka by NJPW from
BattlARTS, took place; soon after NJPW stocked the
junior heavyweight division with independent talent such as
Masayuki Naruse,
Tiger Mask,
Gedo, and
Jado. On the same year, following the
Pro Wrestling Noah split, AJPW was forced to fill its ranks with independent talent;
Nobutaka Araya,
Shigeo Okumura and
Mitsuya Nagai signed up (Araya is the only one who remains, but other signings since then have been
Kaz Hayashi,
Tomoaki Honma,
Hideki Hosaka, and
Ryuji Hijikata.) Noah admitted one wrestler from the independents,
Daisuke Ikeda, to its ranks as well (Ikeda has since left, but other wrestlers from the independents that were signed included
Akitoshi Saito,
Takahiro Suwa, and
Taiji Ishimori). Although AJPW, NJPW, and Noah remain committed to their dojos, the reliance on independents is growing as obscure talent is recognized for its ability.
United Kingdom For most of the years of
ITV's coverage of British Wrestling, the dominant promoter in the United Kingdom was the
Joint Promotions cartel, which was originally modelled on the NWA and later amalgamated into a single company. Nonetheless, throughout this period, untelevised alternative promotions flourished with at least one significant competitor to Joint for live shows. Initially the main rival was the former dominant promotion in the territory,
Atholl Oakley's BWA. By the time of its demise, wrestler/promoter Paul Lincoln had established himself as a major promoter with shows featuring himself as headline heel. In 1958, when
Bert Assirati was stripped of the
British Heavyweight Championship, Lincoln formed the BWF alliance of promoters to support Assirati's claim, later recognising
Shirley Crabtree as champion. Lincoln's BWF was eventually bought out into Joint in 1970. Welsh promoter
Orig Williams also used the BWF name, promoting from the late 1960s up until the early 2000s and then sporadically until his death in 2009. From 1982 to 1995, Williams had a Welsh language TV wrestling show "Reslo" on S4C. Brian Dixon, a referee for Williams, set up his own company Wrestling Enterprises of
Birkenhead later renamed
All Star Wrestling . An alliance with promoter and former top star
Jackie Pallo failed to prevent Joint gaining a five-year extension on its TV wrestling monopoly from January 1982 to December 1986. However, by the mid-1980s Dixon had won over many wrestlers and fans from Joint who were tired of the
Big Daddy-orientated direction of Joint. Eventually this culminated in All Star gaining a TV show on satellite channel
Screensport and later, a slice of ITV's coverage from 1987 until the end of ITV wrestling in 1988. By the end of this period, All Star had effectively replaced Joint (by now owned by
Max Crabtree, brother of Shirley) as the dominant promotion in the UK. Joint, renamed Ring Wrestling Stars in 1991, dwindled down before closing with Crabtree's retirement in 1995, All Star has continued to be the dominant non-import live promotion in the UK up to the present day. Its principal competitors since that time have been Scott Conway's TWA, John Freemantle's Premier Promotions, RBW and LDN Wrestling. Since the 1990s there have also been numerous American-style "New School" promotions. ==Attendance records==