There are few names in the Indies that everyone will recognize. It’s understandable, as few have a way of broadcasting, or even bother to, outside of their immediate territories. This helps a few of the better-known names stand out and help bring fans to the venues. In a day when the WWE is the Disney of professional wrestling (something Jim Cornette said has always been Vince McMahon’s goal), this has helped keep a resemblance of the old territory system alive for the small promotions. Madison Rayne has walked into this mix and practically taken over as Queen of the Indies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3LeZol1DC0
Plenty of names
While there are plenty of familiar Indie names like Sami Calihan, Tessa Blanchard, and Taya Valkyrie, Madison Rayne has carved a niche out where she’s currently in a prominent role if two of the larger Indie promotions – Impact Wrestling and OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling)
While her ties to Impact are obvious due to her marriage to commentator Josh Mathews, the fact she’s always a threat to enter the ring and push the women’s division higher is a constant tease for us as fans. She’s awesome as a face, but so great at playing the heel that we want to see her strut her stuff and make us love to hate her.
She’s the Killer Queen and she makes it fun to watch as she spreads her talent around for us all to enjoy.
Different promotions, different challenges
Like many in the Indie community, she works for various promotions. It’s what makes it feel like the old territory system as she and others appear at different promotions on different nights. While it’s only the image of the territory system, it’s still pretty cool.
In this case, she’s not only prominent with Impact Wrestling, but she’s also listed as the current OVW Women’s Champion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPVLH0vfw1c&t=1084s
With Al Snow working to make OVW a national promotion instead of a developmental territory like it’s been for years, she helps give them credibility and lifts those around her to greater heights.
With the recent shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, OVW has been airing their weekly show highlighting OVW’s women or covering a storyline like Mr. Marvelous and Amon’s recent feud for Ms Marvelous’ soul.
She not only guest appeared alongside OVW’s commentators, but she more than held her own as her heelness shined bright.
It gave us a cool view into what used to be the norm in professional wrestling before kayfabe was broken and we thought they were true bad guys.
It should be interesting to see how Rayne’s career progresses from here, as well as the others that are as close to being household names as they can be. She’s wrestled in just about every promotion in the world, and has cemented her legacy as one of the great performers, but there’s always more to do.
With the trend being going Indie prior to the pandemic, and the WWE releasing so many mid-carders, this could present them and smaller promotions a major opportunity to shine when business returns to normal.
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