Independent Wrestling Quotes

Back in the day, when I was getting into the business, you could watch Pro Wrestling Noah. You could watch Ring Of Honor Wrestling, and a lot of people would say, 'the best wrestling in the world is actually at Ring Of Honor.'

When I was a little kid, WWF was all I had access to. After a year or two when I found the indies and could watch wrestling live, it was just as big a deal to me as WWF.

Fortunately for me, I discovered Ring of Honor. And I saw guys who were much smaller in stature but were putting on these amazing matches that I had never seen in WWE before. So I thought, at the very least, I'd love the chance to be able to wrestle in a company like that someday.

Wrestling is pretty DIY. I've been doing it for 12 years, completely on my own. It's like being in a band or running a zine - except that I get to kick people in the face.

Hey, Colt Cabana, how you doing?

Hell, I would love to work with El Torito somewhere and somehow on the indies or down in Mexico. Something like that.

House Hardy - myself and Brother Nero - are pioneers. My style of booking during early independent bookings was very similar to what 'Ring of Honor' later became, which is what WWE later became.

I don't think I'd be in WWE, and I wouldn't be in NXT, if it wasn't for my time in EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA and things like that.

That's why I like the indies: because I like being who I am. I get to be who I am in the ring, on the microphone, everywhere. It's great. I never have to get out of character because I am Matthew Riddle.

When Jeff and I were first starting out and trying to make a name for ourselves, we were doing indy shows, and would take whatever we could get just to have as much in-ring time as we could.

I'm going to make an appearance in professional wrestling, but it won't be for the WWE. If I put wrestling boots and wrestling trunks on one last time - and I'm going to - it's going to be done by me and me only.

Back in 2004 I trained at an independent wrestling school and performed in front of crowds of around 200, then I got signed to a contract with the WWE to continue my development.

I came from the independent scene, and I've wrestled in front of a crowd of four people in a car lot in 104 degrees in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

To me, the best part of coming up in that, kind of the last era before it went that way with the FCWs or NXTs, kind of the farm system, is that, you know, wrestling Jimmy Valiant in front of 10 people in Cleveland. We didn't touch. I think we did two things, but we were out there for 20 minutes.

For a long time, we had Raw and SmackDown, and there wasn't really anything else. The NXT Universe kinda opened up channels for wrestlers to come in from the independent circuits, like myself.

Working with Lucha and Mexico and all the independent wrestling I've done has made me an exponentially better performer.

The fact is, there's a ton of opportunities out there now for professional wrestlers which, when I was coming through, weren't really there. The only game in town realistically was WWE, and it was very, very difficult to see yourself working anywhere outside of that.

When you think about a WWE Diva, you think of us girls in WWE, not, like, the girls that are in the indies, the girls in TNA or in other different companies. So yeah, the word 'Diva' means a lot to me.

Was I a fan of WWE? Yeah, of course, but I knew it was not going to be a thing for me, until NXT came to the foreground and a lot of my friends who I was competing against on the independent scene were getting signed.

I saw James Ellsworth at an independent wrestling show where I was signing autographs, so I took a photo with him and put up a post on Facebook called 'The night I met James Ellsworth.' Just by nature of how popular that post was, how many comments there were and likes and shares, I was like, 'people love this kid.'

Competition is always good, but I truly believe that 'Lucha Underground' has nothing to do with WWE or their programming. We are completely different, you know. And, in a way, we have more to offer.

My career path is the best I could have hoped for, and that's thanks to independent wrestling and territories across the world.

Promoters saw the potential in me and the value in me. It was because of companies like Evolve, PWG, Progress, and Beyond Wrestling. Those are the big ones that gave me a push and made my name worth something on the indies.

Every wrestling show is now designed to be the greatest show ever. In contrast, the NWA show is different. It didn't tire people out to watch, something was allowed to register. It is the exact antithesis of planned, big budget, choreographed, scripted sports entertainment, and that is what makes the show so different.

It started with Dragon Gate USA, where I started as a guy on the pre-show and wasn't promised anything. I kept coming and doing what I do and ended up on the main show and eventually won their championship.