The shoot: wrestling's reality on the independent scene

The shoot: wrestling's reality on the independent scene Public Deposited

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Over the last ten years, professional wrestling has become more corporate and monopolized. World Wrestling Entertainment is the only major promotion with a few promotions, such as Total Nonstop Action, trying to compete. As a result, those major promotions have changed who they target from traditional wrestling fans to the mainstream population at large. Wrestling purists scoff at the programming they see those promotions produce on television. The alternative for the old-school, dedicated wrestling fan is the independent circuit. The three articles that follow work to illustrate the lives lived, the dreams fulfilled and the hopes broken on wrestling's indy scene. The first article serves as an overview by featuring both wrestlers and fans in a gimmick-based promotion in Raleigh, North Carolina. The second article profiles a wrestling promoter and discusses the financial burdens one undertakes to run a promotion full-time. The final article describes the role wrestling schools play in the independent world and features a former superstar who has turned teacher. These three articles show the cost one encounters when he or she holds steady to a dream.

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