Order of prestige

[Guest ShooterJay]

It's pretty much a given that while no indy compares to WWE, not all indys are created equal. Some are larger, pay better, bring better exposure, have better in-ring quality, and overall have more "prestige" than other indy promotions. What, in your opinion, is the overall ranking of indys when you combine these factors?

 

My list:

 

1. NWA: TNA (closest thing to a national TV deal any indy has, best indy talent brought in weekly)

2. Ring of Honor (will never go out of business involuntarily due to RFVideo, national exposure through tapes, arguably better indy talent than TNA)

3. CZW (Notoriety because of the gorefests and BOTB junior tourneys, cult following through tapes, springboard to better indys for many- SATs, Red, Divine Storm, Briscoes, Backseats eventually)

4. NWA Wildside (Great indy talent, usually ends up going to higher profile places, like TNA or RoH)

5. XPW (Notoriety, porn money means best compensation in the indys, cult following from tapes, only non-Big 3 tapes carried in major video chains)

6. ECWA- (home of the Super 8, incredible production quality for an indy)

7. 3PW (new, but brings in lots of big-name talent regularly)

 

Any disagreements?

[Guest Sandman9000]

I'd swap 2 and 3 for now. ROH is too new to the market to be ranked the #2 indy, especially when they are being outdrawn by CZW. I also have to question the idea of CZW being "a springboard to better indies" when the only better on your list would be TNA and ROH.

 

I'd also rank Wildside lower, and (unfortunately) rank XPW higher, simply because of the attention, positive and negative, they manage to attract.

 

So, my list would look like this:

 

#1: TNA

#2: CZW

#3: ROH

#4: XPW

#5: Wildside

#6: ECWA

#7: 3PW

 

Also, IWA-MidSouth is not ranked, neither is JAPW. I'd go IWA around the 5 or 6 slot, personally. There have also got to be some other indies that could be ranked eventually, such as EPIC.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

I'd actually rank Wildside a little higher, due to the heavy syndication they have across the country (though I'm not sure whether or not they're still the most syndicated promotion not named WWE due to losing America One as an affiliate), plus they got guys going to ROH and CZW every month and getting over with the Philly Mutants. Plus, if you're getting negative buzz like XPW, then is it really "prestige"?

[Guest Sandman9000]

Prestige-wise, your right Mr. Clash. I kinda forgot that part and ranked on amount of attention generated, of which XPW is higher then Wildside.

 

My list, the order of importance (not necessarily prestige, which is kinda the topic of the forum and something I forgot) is something I stand by.

 

Next time, maybe I should follow directions.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

1. NWA TNA...kind of a no brainer

 

2. CZW...they've been around for over 3 years now...and each year they get bigger and bigger.

 

3. NWA Wildside.

 

4. ECWA

 

5. JAPW

 

I'm not ready to list ROH yet...they've only been in business 7 months. Even though that's longer then TNA that's a different case really.

 

And IWA Midsouth has just reciently gotten good again...they went through a nasty funk for a couple of years.

[Guest EMAXSAUN]

1. TNA - Closest thing to WWE right now

2. CZW - Getting bigger and better

3. XPW - Finally having more postives than negatives, gaining more exposure by moving out of Cali, Videos are sold in stores

4. ROH - The best quality wrestling indy right now

5. Wildside - Good wrestling, getting bigger

6. ECWA - small but has top notch production values

7. 3PW - very small, the only reason im listing it here is because they have some old ecw guys and draw a little attention

[Guest DRAWMUH]

I'll make my list later...but we can definitely make a top ten list...I'll make a list and resons later...but here is 10 right here.

 

CZW

JAPW

NWA TNA

ROH

NWA Wildside

IWA Midsouth

ECWA

XPW

EPIC

3PW

[Guest J*ingus]

As far as I know, Wildside still has better syndication coverage than any other independent organization.

[Guest Rob Van Dam]

Afa's World Xtreme Wrestling is the only indy fed that has live tv, (nwa tna isn't an indy). Wrestling wise ROH beats everybody in north america including wwe.

[Guest Retro Rob]

Afa's World Xtreme Wrestling is the only indy fed that has live tv

Where are they based?

[Guest Kibagami]

As far as prestige in the abstract is concerned, RoH is the best right now. But if we're talking exposure, then NWA-TNA is the obvious pick. I'm really not in a position to judge between CZW and RoH in terms of popularity right now.

 

S.