Fake Sports

As most of you know, when I get sick of real sports, I often fall back on an entertaining fake one, That being pro wrestling. But even that one has been difficult to watch for me and a lot of other WWE fans lately.

The WWE persists in pushing Roman Reigns as their new face of the WWE by giving him the chance to "win" the title at Wrestlemania this year from the beast known as Brock Lesnar. MOST fans think that Daniel Brian, who was derailed by injury shortly after last year's Wrestlemania, still deserved his baby-face run with the title before a much less interesting Reigns runs with it. As a result, the whole Wrestlemania season this year remains rather lackluster.

So what does a wrestling fan do when wrestling is as hard to watch as the Twins in August?

Find OTHER wrestling to watch of course. WWE has done a great job over the last year of building up it's "minor league" division NXT, which it treats as a different entity than its main shows Raw and Smackdown. Yes, you will find guys training there just getting their start, but you'll also find veteran indy wrestlers from around the world there as well, guys like Sammy Zayn, Adrian Neville, Finn Balor, and recent signee Kevin Owens, all established superstars who were never before in what is known as the "WWE Universe." They go there first to get indoctrinated to the WWE style before going to the major shows.

In comparison, it's kind of like you'll never hear of Batman or Superman in an Avengers movie because Marvel and DC characters are owned by different companies.

My point? NXT rocks! The promoted indy stars there are just as good, some would say better, than Vince's big contract guys, and they get to wrestle longer, more athletic matches on a regular basis. AND the story lines make SENSE. Despite what scoffers may think, great wrestling involves more than just guys fake hitting each other. It requires a logical plot line, with amazing scripted promos that tell you WHY they want to beat somebody up.

Its a lot like comic book superheroes that way.

But there are more great shows and larger independent federations to watch. I'd rather list them as shows, just to give you an idea right now. These are currently my favorites, in order. They shift from week to week based on what's going on. ALL are in English.

1) Lucha Underground- The most athletic wrestling on the planet right now. I'm amazed what they are allowed to do. Former WWE announcer, Matt Striker is fantastic on commentary.

2) NXT

3) New Japan on AXS. They take major Japanese pay-per-views from a couple of years back and convert the best matches and main events to weekly, hour long shows with great announcing.

4) ROH    Where WWE gets most of its great NXT guys from.

Smackdown, and Raw are in that mix every week but neither get much higher than third any more.

There is one more organization that people watch, TNA, but it's been bad for so long I barely watch it any more. I've grow weary of their "top" stars.