Wrestling Reflections: May 2026

Professional Wrestling is an artform. I have believed that for many, many years and I will kill someone on that hill. (We're no longer dying on hills folks, that trend is out. Now, if we are firm in our belief on something, it's not a hill we're dying on anymore. We are now killing people on said hill.) I once wrote on this same blog that wrestling is a beautiful, brutal art, and since we are coming off the biggest week in professional wrestling, my love for that art has been renewed. Following a conversation with Pro Wrestling's BFF, Nick Maniwa (@Nickmaniwa on Twitter, go give him a follow!) as we traveled to Lafayette, Indiana for House of Heat's "Dame of Thrones" show on Saturday, 4/25, I felt the urge to put down some thoughts about World Wrestling Entertainment, WrestleMania, independent wrestling and the art I love.

I'll start with WWE since that is where my fandom began - specifically, my channel surfing stopped on the episode of RAW is WAR Monday March 29th, 1999, the day after WrestleMania 15. I remember what got me to stop - the Undertaker in his Ministry of Darkness era was terrorizing Sable. I have a soft spot for a damsel in distress, and the Undertaker at that time appealed to my love of goth men so I watched. After years of giving my cousin shit for being a wrestling fan... I finally got it. So much so that I begged my mother to order the replay of WrestleMania that used to be available to buy on the Tuesday after the PPV. (Yes kids, back in the day if you didn't order the PPV and watch it live, you had the option to wait two days and order the replay. Didn't catch it either time? Gotta wait until it was released on VHS tape. Simpler days.)

Anyways, I was hooked and off to the races. I dipped a toe into WCW but other than Daffney, it didn't have any appeal to my teenage self. ECW and WOW (Women of Wrestling) were the other companies I kept an eye on but after the short lived ECW on TNN era, for a long stretch of time, WWE was all there was on tv that I knew of. It wasn't until maybe 2007ish that I discovered TNA and the independents. A friend of mine, Sarah, introduced me to SHIMMER and after 2010 I got heavy into the indies. But I kept my love of WWE because it was my first love, the easiest to watch at that point, and despite the low points it held my interest.

I'm going to fast forward for the sake of brevity to recent years. In my estimation, the ability to get into the indies has never been easier or better. You have a plethora of streaming services to sign up for, a vast amount of promotions that offer free shows on YouTube, and odds are decent you have a promotion that's within driving distance in your area. For me, I still watch WWE, but now I make a distinction.

I love professional wrestling. But if I want to watch great professional wrestling, I realize that WWE isn't where I'm most likely going to find it. I'm going to find it on AEW or on the indies. And I believe that there is a difference between being a WWE fan and a pro wrestling fan.

Before anyone thinks I'm coming at them sideways, let me explain because, as I wrote above, WWE is how I got into wrestling. It's a gateway for a lot of us. But the way the company has grown and changed over the years, the focus has shifted from having great in-ring matches to putting on a spectacle. A show. That's not the wrestlers' fault. It's whoever is making the decisions now, be it Triple H or TKO. I'm not entirely sure, and I don't claim to know.

I think watching this year's WrestleMania really brought this home for me. Starting on Wednesday April 15th, what is known as WrestleMania Weekend began. A few days before WrestleMania weekend, a whole host of independent promotions began putting on shows every day starting early and going until the wee hours of the morning. This started to be a thing in 2013 where indie promotions began to conglomerate (shoutout to Willow Nightingale, Kyle O'Reilly, Orange Cassidy, Mark Briscoe, Tomohiro Ishii and, reluctantly, Roderick Strong - if you watch AEW, you'll get that) in the same city that WrestleMania was running and put on shows. To my memory (backed up by a Google search), there was the first WrestleCon and the following promotions ran shows: Shimmer Women Athletes, CHIKARA, Combat Zone Wrestling, DragonGate USA, EVOLVE and Kaiju Big Battle. This blogger went to the first WrestleCon and also bought tickets for all the shows but wound up only making it to SHIMMER and CHIKARA due to scheduling issues. It was a hell of an experience - it's not every day you get to meet Beth Phoenix, William Regal and Kyoko Inoue in the same day. Not to mention get to witness the legendary Jushin "Thunder" Liger wrestle in person.

Six promotions in 2013. I could not even begin to tell you how many promotions or shows ran in 2026. I know I watched 23 shows alone. Most of them fell under the Game Changer Wrestling umbrella but not all. My point is, this stretch of 5 days contained some of the best wrestling I will see all year and only one day consisted of matches I would recommend from WWE. However, I watched both nights of WrestleMania and I came to a conclusion.

If I want amazing professional wrestling matches, I'm going to watch the independents and know for a fact I will see just that. If I want a general show that may have some good wrestling on it, I'm going to watch WWE. Odds are high that I will be entertained, probably laugh a bit and get to see the people I'm a fan of. But I no longer watch it solely for the in-ring aspect. That isn't what WWE is now. I would argue that, after decades of Vince McMahon saying that he's in the entertainment business, that is truly the reality now. Can that entertainment include great wrestling? Absolutely. I would put CM Punk versus Roman Reigns in the main event at this year's WrestleMania Night 2 as a truly great match with all the elements needed to make it a classic.

However, after Night 1 of WrestleMania I saw a lot of people complaining about how it was the worst "wrestling" they've seen, one of the worst nights of WrestleMania period, and how disappointed they were. They have every right to feel that way, and I get it. I was entertained but again - I had just spent the last 3 days and a few hours up to Night 1 watching excellent wrestling. I was ready to take WrestleMania as what it was/is - a spectacle.

To be very honest, I keep watching WWE partly out of habit, but also because I have people I'm friends with or have been a fan of for a long time working there. If that wasn't the case, I wouldn't be watching. With AEW on Wednesdays and Saturdays and my subscriptions to TrillerTV+ and IWTV (Independent Wrestling TV), not to mention YouTube and the option to subscribe to others like NJPW, STARDOM, Wrestle Universe, etc. I don't have to watch WWE for purely in-ring.

Again, I want to be so clear - this isn't a shot at anyone who loves WWE and considers their program to have great wrestling. Wrestling is subjective. What's great to me might not be great to you and vice versa. I'm of the opinion that you need to find the joy in life, now more than ever, and if watching WWE brings that joy to you then I want that for you! But what I don't want is people to keep watching and complaining about the lack of wrestling when, if you are a WRESTLING fan, there are other options for you.

I want to switch now to the shows that I saw and offer my recommendations as to the promotions watched, and specific matches you should go out of your way to view if you're a wrestling fan. (Side tangent, this is what I do love about social media. If you are looking for recommendations on something different to watch, for instance, you can post on Twitter that you're a fan of <insert WWE person here> and ask who outside WWE you should check out for a similar style/character. Or, you can ask for recommendations for their stuff they did before signing with WWE. If you came to be a fan of CM Punk after he joined WWE, there is a plethora of stuff you can find from his independent run in IWA: Mid South or Ring of Honor, for instance. Overall point being, social media is fantastic for getting suggestions on who to check out if you're looking to expand your horizons. Just ignore the people who proceed to tell you you aren't a "real wrestling fan" because you don't know who was the NWA Champion in 1975. It was Jack Brisco, but I didn't tell you that.)

I'll be going in the order of the shows I watched starting on Thursday 4/16, and I'll include where you can find them at and my recommendations on what stood out from each show. (Bear in mind that wrestling is subjective - what I loved/enjoyed, you may not and that's perfectly fine!) Also, I wasn't able to watch some shows when they were live, and some were broadcast after Vegas week/weekend was over, hence me putting these in the order I watched them and not necessarily when they originally aired. Let's dive right in!

*Progress Wrestling (you can find this on TrillerTV+ and will need a subscription for anything under the Plus tag): Emersyn Jayne vs Mercedes Martinez vs Lena Kross vs Renee Michelle vs Shotzi Blackheart; Rhio vs Vert Vixen; Man Like DeReiss (with Brodie Lee Jr) defends the PROGRESS World Title against Michael Oku (with Amira).

*Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (on TrillerTV but you have to purchase it): Miyu Yamashita vs Mizuki vs Miu Watanabe; Suzume defends the International Princess Championship against Sakura Hattori; The IInspiration (Jessie McKay & Cassie Lee) defend the Princess Tag Team Championships against Hyper Misao and Shoko Nakajima.

*New Texas Pro Wrestling (on IWTV): 1 Called Manders vs Timur the Great; Charity King defends the New Texas Pro Women's Championship against Gabby Forza (Heavy recommend here, both of these women I discovered this year and both are women who pack a whallop. They threw bombs at each other and it was tremendous!); Danny Orion defends the New Texas Pro Championship against Bryan Keith.

*St. Louis Anarchy (on IWTV): Billie Starkz vs Davey Vega (with Nixi XS); Charli Evans vs Laynie Luck (Heavy recommend here, one of the best matches I saw all week/weekend. This is genuinely on the list of matches I would show someone looking to get into women's wrestling it was THAT good.); 1 Called Manders & Thomas Shire vs Gary Jay & Aaron Williams.

*WrestleCon Mark Hitchcock Memorial SuperShow (on TrillerTV+): Love & Peace (Ben-K & Hyo) vs CPF (Danny Black & Joe Lando) vs Mala Fama (Latigo & Toxin) vs The StarMen (Starboy Charlie & Starman); Subculture (Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews) vs The Swirl (Blake Christian & Lee Johnson) (Heavy recommend here, one of those matches you don't know you wanted until you see it!); The Demand (Ricochet, Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona) vs JetSpeed (Speedball Mike Bailey & Kevin Knight) & Michael Oku (Heavy recommend here - we got this instead of the originally booked Leon Slater vs Ricochet and honestly this was just as good as that would have been, if not better. Michael Oku fit perfectly with JetSpeed!)

*New Japan Death Vegas Invitational (on TrillerTV+): Zack Sabre Jr. vs Fuminori Abe; El Phantasmo & Maika vs Dragon Kid & Starlight Kid; Matt Tremont & Nick Fucking Gage vs Rina Yamashita & Masashi Takeda vs El Desperado & Jun Kasai in a Death Match.

*MDK Fight Club (on TrillerTV+): Vipress vs Charli Evans vs Rina Yamashita (Side note: Shoutout to GCW for giving Megumi Kudo her flowers and inducting her into their Death Match Hall of Fame. She was a real pioneer in Japan, an incredibly tough woman who more than deserved to be honored and recognized. Having Vipress, Evans & Yamashita present her with bouquets before their match was a wonderfully sentimental touch!); Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka vs Bear Bronson & Mr. Danger

*ACTION Wrestling (on IWTV): Darian Bengston defends the ACTION World Championship against Timothy Thatcher; Minoru Suzuki/Fuminori Abe/Adam Priest vs Zack Sabre Jr/Erick Stevens/Jonathan Gresham (Heavy recommend - this match broke Twitter when it was announced and good god it delivered. Comedy, chain wrestling, chops - it had everything!)

*Gringo Loco's The WRLD on Lucha (on TrillerTV+): Rafael Quintero vs Jimmy Lloyd vs Devon Monroe vs Dulce Tormenta vs KJ Orso vs Resplandor; Thunder Rosa vs Julissa Mexa; Vipress vs El Desperado.

*STARDOM American Dream (on TrillerTV, you'd have to purchase it): Maika/Mina Shirakawa/HANAKO vs Rina Yamashita/Hazuki/Suzu Suzuki; Athena vs Rina (Heavy recommend here - Athena is one of the absolute best today & this was the first time I had seen Rina - fantastic match!); Babes of Wrath (Willow Nightingale & Harley Cameron) & Kris Statlander vs Neo Genesis (Mei Seira/AZM/Starlight Kid.)

*Josh Barnett's Bloodsport XV (on TrillerTV+): Miyu Yamashita vs Janai Kai; Masashi Takeda vs Pete Dunne; Shayna Baszler vs Nattie Neidhart.

*Joey Janela's Spring Break X (on TrillerTV+): 1 Called Manders vs Bear Bronson vs Charles Mason vs Gringo Loco vs Man Like DeReiss vs Masato Tanaka vs Shotzi Blackheart vs Sidney Akeem vs Terry Yaki vs Vipress vs Vengador in a Grab the Brass Ring Ladder Match (winner gets a future GCW World title shot); Mance Warner & Steph DeLander vs Megan Bayne & Nick Fucking Gage; Joey Janela vs Brodie Lee Jr.

*Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling's Multiverse (on TrillerTV, you'd have to purchase it): The Demand vs Sidney Akeem/Rich Swann/Michael Oku; Hechicero defends the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship against Jonathan Gresham; Gisele Shaw defends the MLP Women's Championship against Killer Kelly, Shotzi Blackheart & Persephone.

*Effy's Big Gay Brunch (on TrillerTV+): Honestly, I recommend the whole show. I loved every match, thought they were all anywhere from great to fucking awesome, and this is one show I look forward to every year. Pro Wrestling is beautiful when it's diverse. This not only had amazing matches, it had moments, it had spectacle, gorgeous gear and a lot of laughter. And kissing. A lot of kissing. Which, wrestling needs more of quite frankly. Five stars, no notes.

*The Immortal Clusterfuck (on TrillerTV+): There were only two matches and this show started at 1:45am, 45 minutes after it was scheduled to start. Unless you enjoy silliness, insanity, high spots and general whackiness, you may not want to watch this. I would STILL recommend it but I think it's best watched live - after WrestleMania, into the wee hours of Sunday morning. This year it ended around 6am! I loved every minute of it!

*Ladies Night Out 16 (on Title Fight Network, you'll need a subscription): Ruthie Jay vs Jada Stone; Thunder Rosa vs Vert Vixen. I'm going to be honest, this show had 17 matches on it and out of those, 7 went over 5 minutes in length. There were people that stood out but a lot of them didn't have the chance for their matches to get out of first gear. I would say that it suffered from quantity over quality as very few people got to shine, and there were a lot of women who are only 1-4 years into wrestling that worked with each other instead of with veterans (of course, NONE of this is their fault, whoever booked the matches should have mixed up the talent better). I hope the more inexperienced women get out more and get time and opportunity to grow as there were quite a few that have potential - Rachel Ley, Sofia Sivan, Fallyn Grey, Corinne Joy, Alexis Littlefoot, Lili Ruiz among others.

*West Coast Wrestling Presents: West Coast vs The World (this is, as of the time this is published) offered FOR FREE on their YouTube page. See below for a link, or search YT for "West Coast Pro Wrestling"): Alpha Zo vs LaBron Kozone; Miko Alana vs Aja Kong; Senka vs CHRIS FUCKING HERO; Johnnie Robbie defends the WCWP Women's Title against Mio Momono (Heavy recommend - Johnnie is only 4 years in and already really damn good! Mio was trained by legendary Chigusa Nagayo with ten years under her belt and one of the best I've ever seen. Tremendous main event!)

With that, this is the full list of shows I watched that fell under the umbrella of WrestleWeek / Weekend from 4/16 - 4/19. I did not watch Ladies Night Out or West Coast live when they occurred due to when they originally aired (LNO) or because they filmed and aired at a later date (West Coast). I also want to include the fact that Pride Style Pro Wrestling had two shows that ran on Friday & Saturday with amazing cards, and it looks as if the matches from one show, "Out of This World" have been uploaded for free on their YouTube as of today (May 6th). I fully plan on checking those out!

However, I want to jot down a few thoughts before I wrap this up.

St. Louis Anarchy is a promotion I've been a fan and supporter of for a long time now. The owner/promoter, Matt Jackson (no relation to the Bucks!) is genuinely one of the best promoters I know. You always hear about the scummy promoters who cheat their fans & wrestlers but Jackson stands out with a good reputation. He doesn't lie to fans. If a change has to happen on a card, he announces it as soon as possible. Plus, he takes an extra step and explains various decisions he's made or things that changed and why either on their free podcast or their Patreon podcast (link to it below). He is willing to answer questions whenever he is able, and in the past if there was an issue with a wrestler they had been booking, he either would no longer book them until the issue was resolved or no longer book them period. Even if the issue wasn't one that happened at Anarchy. I've attended a handful of shows, and as a woman I have felt safe and I know that if an issue had ever come up, I could approach him or one of the folks who works with him (such as Evan Gelistico) and my concerns would be taken seriously and addressed. That type of safety is paramount for any fan in my opinion.

Anarchy ran a show the week after Vegas that is or will be available on IWTV. Jackson had, in the past, been very open about why he never ran a show during WrestleWeek, and in the leadup to Vegas he was open about why he took the risk. In a free Patreon podcast episode that he recorded after the Vegas show, he took the time to explain a tweet that had some (in my opinion unnecessary) drama behind it and stressed that even though the live attendance wasn't what he would have wanted it to be, he still believed it was a strong show and not a failure in that regard. Then, as I wrote, they ran the next week in their hometown of Alton, Illinois a show called "Canvas of Dreams" - and much like the Vegas show (which I DO recommend top to bottom) this show knocked it out of the park. Genuinely one of their best shows in all the years I've been watching.

(Photo credit to https://x.com/pynkglitt3r)

It had comedy, hard hitting matches, flippy shit and it all culminated in the main event featuring Charli Evans vs Eddie Kingston. This is a match that Charlie had been loud about wanting for years. She made it known she wanted to face a man that she considered a friend and mentor. Matt Jackson made this match happen. At the first Canvas of Dreams, the main event had Gary Jay vs Masato Tanaka - Gary Jay's very own dream match. This time, it was Charli's dream match taking place and it was magic. These two beat the shit out of each other in a brutal, beautiful way and it took everything Kingston had to keep Charli down. Everyone can have their opinion about intergender wrestling but to me, this wasn't about a woman versus a man, this was about a competitor who wanted to prove herself against someone she respected. This match was the cherry on top of a delicious sundae of a show and even though it didn't fall under the WrestleWeek / Weekend umbrella, I still HIGHLY recommend it if you are looking to get into Anarchy.

Game Changer Wrestling added a few more promotions / shows under the Collective umbrella and all were welcome additions. Effy's Big Gay Brunch continues to be a highlight with the representation and diversity it offers (representation that SHOULD be featured across the country all year instead of confined to one or two shows). There's a beauty and a joy to see so many wrestlers of different genders, races, sexualities, nationalities, etc. coming together to create magic. Alternatively, Josh Barnett announced that this would be the last show under his banner of the Bloodsport brand sadly. Hopefully the concept will continue in some form or fashion. Death matches have a bad reputation, and admittedly it's not something I watch on a regular basis. However, when you have people who know what they are doing (such as veterans like Nick Gage, Matt Tremont, Rina Yamashita among others), they are capable of putting on art that is uniquely their own. Spring Break remains a fun spectacle with plenty to offer, and the Clusterfuck hits the spot when you want to watch chaos into the small hours of the morning. I'm also glad that the WrestleCon Supershow decided to join up with them this year.

I was happy to see that across from The Collective there was a group of a few promotions that decided to form working relationships some months ago and then made the decision to offer their own selection of shows. "The New Initiative" consisted of St. Louis Anarchy, New Texas Pro Wrestling, West Coast Pro Wrestling, ACTION Wrestling & Pride Style Pro Wrestling. It had to be a tough decision if you were a fan in Vegas and trying to figure out what shows to attend, but as a fan watching from home with a television, a phone and an iPad I was spoiled for choice! Add in a Joshi flair with STARDOM & TJPW and there was literally something for everyone over the course of 5 days.

I do recommend all the shows I watched, some more strongly than others, but overall these five days really renewed my love of professional wrestling. If you feel yourself wanting to explore wrestling outside of WWE and even outside of AEW, it's now easier than ever and also cheaper than ever to get into it with a variety of places you can subscribe to that are readily available on your phone, tablet, television or what have you. I encourage you to look into the promotions I wrote about here, look up the various wrestlers, see what they have on YouTube for samples and then take a chance and sign up wherever they are available. Below are links to their social media pages and YouTube channels.

One of my dearest friends Tom, aka Christian Rose, likes to say "Find what you love and let it kill you." He's probably not the originator of this phrase but I use it frequently when it comes to this topic. Find what you love about professional wrestling and let it kill you. Find your joy and fall in love with this beautiful, brutal art.

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