If you’re lucky enough to be in Orlando next week, you’ll be spoiled rotten with wrestling – and for those staying at home, the choices are almost as good.
In the week around WrestleMania – from Tuesday March 28th to Wednesday April 6th – there are over EIGHTY wrestling related cards, Axxess events, seminars, signings podcast tapings and festivals taking place. As you’d expect, it’ll be impossible to attend every single one live, thanks to several shows going on at the same time (and that’s not even factoring in the joy that is travelling around Orlando).
We’ve been retweeting that chart by @scanElee of shows going on around WrestleMania week to try and give people a sense of just how much overlapping is going on, whilst Voices of Wrestling just posted this spreadsheet of every event going. Yep, there’s a LOT.
Well, the time’s come for us to plan… just what on earth are we going to try and watch? Remember, when it comes to watching and reviewing shows here, we’re a one-man-band, so there’ll be some tough calls to make… and a lot of praying that our home internet doesn’t go under! This list comes from the chart posted by @scanElee, so it’s not complete – look at the Voices of Wrestling spreadsheet for that insane list!
Thursday March 30:
EVOLVE 80 – 8pm ET
WrestlePro – 8.30pm ET
GCW presents Joey Janela’s Spring Break – midnight ET
Friday March 31:
PROGRESS – noon ET
EVOLVE 81 – 4pm ET
Rev Pro – 4pm ET
CHIKARA – 8pm ET
WrestleCon Supershow – 8pm ET
Kaiju Big Battel – midnight ET
Saturday April 1:
SHIMMER – noon ET
Pro Wrestling Revolver – noon ET
WCPW – 1.30pm ET
CHIKARA – 4pm ET
Women’s Supershow – 4pm ET
ROH – 6pm ET
Mercury Rising: PROGRESS vs. EVOLVE – 8pm ET
NXT TakeOver: Orlando – 8pm ET
CZW Best of the Best – 8.30pm ET
BEYOND Wrestling – midnight ET
Sunday April 2:
WWN’s #BROKEN Tailgate Party – featuring cards from ACW (11am ET) and FIP (2pm ET)
WrestleMania – 5.30pm ET
After WrestleMania, we’re left with just Raw, SmackDown and NXT tapings in successive days – which we don’t usually cover, so that’ll be when there’s a massive sigh of relief here.
I’ll be lying if I said there wasn’t a lot of trepidation in how the FloSlam live feed holds up, and indeed, the service in general. Prior weeks have seen FloSlam experience issues with their live feed (the most recent Style Battle in particular ended up starting late), whilst the service has been somewhat tardy in posting shows on-demand, particularly on their Roku app.
Fortunately, not all of these shows are going to be streaming live, with the WrestleCon series of shows (WrestlePro, Rev Pro, the WrestleCon supershow, PW Revolver, the Women’s Supershow and CZW) all being held off. Likewise, CHIKARA’s events aren’t going to be available until much later, going up on the promotion’s CHIKARAtopia service afterwards. FloSlam will be carrying everything you’d expect: the Joey Janela show, EVOLVE, BEYOND, Kaiju, the WWN Supershow, plus the tailgate shows from FIP and ACW… eight show in four days instantly makes this month’s $20 subscription worthwhile!
However, as in prior years, the SHIMMER show will only be available as an iPPV via WWN Live. Yes, that’s still a thing in the FloSlam era. PROGRESS will also be posted as an iPPV, since their show features a bunch of guys who have signed contracts that’d usually prohibit their appearance there. Also, on Thursday, ROH announced that their Supercard of Honor show will be available live on iPPV for $30, featuring the Hardys vs. Young Bucks.
So, WrestleMania weekend will be a little cheaper than usual thanks to FloSlam, and as a result, here’s what we’re planning on covering… internet and our own sanity willing!
EVOLVE 80
GCW Presents: Joey Janela’s Spring Break
PROGRESS
EVOLVE 81
SHIMMER
NXT TakeOver (albeit not live, unless FloSlam collapses)
Mercury Rising: PROGRESS vs. EVOLVE
FIP and ACW at the #BROKEN Tailgate Party
Plus delayed coverage of Kaiju, Beyond and whatever else is thrown up over that weekend too. Oh, and this marathon called WrestleMania… and we’ll probably watch the Hall of Fame too!
Needless to say, WrestleMania Weekend is going to be incredibly busy over here – so we may end up having a few days without afterwards to detox. Or regain our sanity, as wrestling sure as hell doesn’t slow down afterwards, with Rev Pro’s Epic Encounter, Southside’s Speed King and PROGRESS’ Super Strong Style 16 taking place in the months after… and that’s just in the UK. Add in things like the debut of Lucha Forever, WCPW’s World Cup, OTT’s ScrapperMania, WWE’s UK Championship Live shows, Pro Wrestling EVE’s next brace of shows… God, I need a lie down just thinking about it!
Guys. Stop doing good wrestling!