Indies and Insanity: February 27, 2020

As I’ve mentioned in a few chat threads, I’M GOING TO WRESTLEMANIA (weekend)! CRAB Wrestling is part of a group of promotions running out of the American Legion Post 5 “USS Tampa” over the weekend. The fun begins Thursday afternoon with Prime Time Pro Wrestling and Fightful dot com teaming up for Sean Ross Sapp… Served Tall. Friday is a tripleheader with CRUX Wrestling, Classic Pro, and us at CRAB. Then Saturday Night in the After Dark slot, Faye Jackson is running a Gray Sweatpants Battle Royal show!

Hoops me! Your NBA/TNT doubleheader is Blazers/Pacers, then Lakers/Warriors. ESPN gives you Temple/Wichita State, then Arizona/USC. ESPN2 has Wisconsin/Michigan, Ohio State/Nebraska, and Oregon State/Oregon. ESPNU has Radford/Hampton (Big South), some E:60 documentaries, and UC Irvine/Cal Poly (Big West). CBSSN gives you Delaware/Charleston (Colonial), Louisiana Tech/Western Kentucky (Conference USA), and Saint Mary’s/Santa Clara (West Coast). FS1 has a big rivalry game with Indiana/Purdue.

My Friday Indie Spotlight Thing will go to Alton, Illinois, for a one-night tournament. Tournaments are awesome! Unless they’re held in Saudi Arabia.

Enough yakkin, let’s get to your Indie planner!

Your weekend outlook:

• First, let’s get this out of the way: nobody running a show on Saturday appears to have named their show Lethal Leap Year, which is a travesty.
• HOWEVER, Black Label Pro did name their show Quantum Leap, so partial credit to their event Saturday Night from Crown Point, IN (2PM ET, IWTV)! Erick Stevens defends his big gold against Josh Alexander! AJ Gray defends the Midwest title against Kylie Rae! Bear Country face Manders and Jake Garvin! And the WARHORSE defends the IWTV Title against EFFY in a match with just too much CAPSLOCK for you to handle!
• CHIKARA comes to you from their stomping grounds of the WrestleFactory for Stem the Hemorrhaging of Polka on Saturday (3PM ET, Chikaratopia)! Mike Quackenbush and Ophidian meet in the rubber match of their series! Bird and the Bee take on the Colony! Team FIST faces Boomer Hatfield and ZERO! Plus all the other usual CHIKARA stalwarts!
• Meanwhile in New York City, we are getting Shine 65 (3PM ET, WWN)! Ivelisse defends the big gold against Lindsay Snow! Natalia Markova puts the Nova title on the line against Brandi Lauren! Plus Marti Belle, Brittany Blake, Candy Cartwright, Double D’Rose, and more! And where there’s SHINE in New York…
• …there’s EVOLVE! Evolve 145 will take place Saturday night (6PM ET, Facebook Live — yes, it’s streaming for free)! Josh Briggs puts the big gold on the line in an Anything Goes match against former friend Anthony Greene! Mansoor returns from In Your Castle to go against Curt Stallion! Colby Corino battles Joe Gacy! Plus JD Drake, Harlem Bravado, and more! But that’s not all…
• …because it’s a doubleheader as Evolve 146 comes to you Sunday (7PM, Club WWN)! Greene battles Mansoor! Briggs takes on AR Fox! Stallion and Drake go one-on-one! Plus Leon Ruff, Harlem Bravado, Brandi Lauren, and more!
• BEYOND is… changing, apparently. Vin Gerard made a hostile takeover of the company and is putting on a Network Pilot for Sunday (2PM, FITE). It features a four-man tournament for the new Beyond Championship, plus a body slam challenge and lots of other things that Beyond isn’t really known for. But it could all be a gag, because former generalissimo of BEYOND, the wonderfully named Denver Colorado, wants his promotion back and will face Gerard in the ring for control of the company!
• My INDIE OF THE WEEK is Glory Pro, who will have their Three Year Anniversary show on Sunday (3PM ET, IWTV)! AJ Gray defends the big gold against Chris Dickinson! Kevin Lee Davidson brawls with Nick Gage! The GymNasty Boys face the Besties in the World (a bigger personality clash there could not be, I tell you)! Plus the Four Star Heroes, Hakim Zane, Ace Romero, Manders, Danhausen, and much more!

Your Indie Match of the Week goes back to 2018 in Beyond. In honor of Orange Cassidy making his AEW in-ring debut on Saturday, let’s see what happens when he’s put against a different hard-nosed fighter — David Starr!

Bring the insanity!