I’m not referring to the WWE-sponsored events, which are many; but the events by outside promoters, which (as always) are even more. For those of you reading who want to wrap themselves up of WWE for three days or more in New Orleans, to each their own…enjoy.

But since PWBTS promotes independent wrestling, I’ll share a few with you of the latter in this week’s column. You can also check out updates on all of these events every day on PWBTS.com.

As a side note for those of you attending Wrestlemania 31 next year, WWE appears to be trying to kill these events off for next year’s Wrestlemania 31 in Santa Clara CA; by making venues within a certain distance of Santa Clara, CA sign contracts that they can’t host “competing events”.

WWE must think that these independently promoted events take away from attendance at WWE Axxess, the WWE Hall of Fame, and related WWE events. News bulletin to WWE: Santa Clara is part of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area has the best interconnected mass transportation system in the United States, allowing people to travel between cities just fine; so fans will get to independent events anyway. If they wanted to come to all your events, they would. So stop trying to play 900 pound gorilla with indies, OK?

Moving on…here’s a list of these events:

In contrast to what I just mentioned about San Francisco, mass transit In New Orleans is far less extensive, particularly outside the city.

Fortunately, all but two of the events are in New Orleans itself; so with a little bit of planning, you can get to most events via the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority. A regional map can be found at this link (Adobe Acrobat required).

While the Mid-South Fanfest convention and its “Battle Lines” evening wrestling show are both located at the Sigur Center in Chalmette, LA, and actually take place only six miles outside the French Quarter, the venue has only ONE indirect mass transit connection from there with limited departure times to the venue. Worse, it requires travel through the Ninth Ward area which received considerable damage during Katrina; so prepare to carpool or take a cab (and find out how to contact them for the return trip).

As I said last year, bring your credit cards, and lots of money. The conventions are being put on by promoters and wrestlers to make a dollar, no different than WWE sponsored events. So expect to pay lots of money Wrestlemania 30 weekend, no matter where you go.

Thursday, April 3

8:00 pm – EVOLVE, McAlister Auditorium at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA – The show features Chris Hero, Open The Freedom Gate Champion Johnny Gargano, Rich Swann, and CZW World Heavyweight Champion Drew Gulak. For further details and ticket information, go to the Dragon Gate USA/EVOLVE website.

Friday, April 4

8:00 am – Mid-South Legends Fanfest, Frederick J Sigur Civic Center, 8245 West Judge Perez Drive, Chalmette, LA. The convention features guests including: Rock-n-Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) , Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey) and Jim Cornette, The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers), legendary Mid-South/UWF promoter and wrestler Cowboy Bill Watts, Kamala, Mr. Wrestling II , “Mr. Olympia” Jerry Stubbs, Sheepherder Luke, Dark Journey, and Porkchop Cash

For further details and ticket information, go to the Mid-South Fanfest website

3:00 pm – A Wrestling Odyssey, McAlister Auditorium at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA – The event will feature matches including a CZW World Heavyweight Title Match featuring Drew Gulak, two matches from SHINE Wrestling (a SHINE Title Match, and a SHINE Tag Team Title Match) , WILDKAT Wrestling, and a Heavyweight Title match with Trent Baretta.

7:30 pm – Mid-South Legends Fanfest “Battle Lines”, Frederick J Sigur Civic Center, 8245 West Judge Perez Drive, Chalmette, LA -This show features Tommy Dreamer, Dark Journey, Superstar Bill Dundee, King Shane Williams , the Rock N’ Roll Express, as well as stars from Traditional Championship Wrestling. For further details and ticket information, go to the Mid-South Fanfest website

8:00 pm – Dragon Gate USA, McAlister Auditorium at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

The show features Open The Freedom Gate Champion Johnny Gargano, Open The United Gate Champions The Bravado Brothers, EVOLVE Champion AR Fox, Chris Hero, Rich Swann, and Trent Baretta. For further details and ticket information, go to the Dragon Gate USA/EVOLVE website

April 5

10:00 am-5:00 pm – WrestleCon, The Sugar Mill, New Orleans, LA – Featured among the many guests over the two day convention will be: Sting, Adam Copeland, Goldberg, Roddy Piper, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Greg Valentine, Diamond Dallas Page, Jake Roberts, Mickie James, Bret Hart.

For further details and ticket information, go to the WrestleCon website

3:00 pm – SHIMMER – WOMEN ATHLETES, McAlister Auditorium at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

For further details and ticket information, go to the SHIMMER-WOMAN ATHLETES website

8:00 pm – Dragon Gate USA Mercury Rising, McAlister Auditorium at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.

The Mercury Rising show has been known over the years for featuring a Six Man Tag Team match on Wrestlemania weekend. This year DGUSA will feature a Mercury Rising Six Man Tag Team Tournament, with the following trios: Johnny Gargano/The Bravado Brothers; Ricochet, AR Fox/Rich Swann; Anthony Nese/Trent Baretta/Caleb Konley; and Fire Ant/ Green Ant/Lince Dorado. Also announced for the show: EVOLVE Champion AR Fox, Chris Hero, and Roderick Strong

For information and ticket information, go to Dragon Gate USA/EVOLVE

8:00 pm – Combat Zone Wrestling, Ring of Honor, WildKAT and $5 Wrestling joint show; The Sugar Mill, New Orleans, LA

This multi-promotion show may be the top show in terms of talent over the weekend; with Luke Hawx, Shane Helms, Steve Corino, Matt Striker, Adam Pearce, as well as the following matches:

Sid Vicious v. Doug Gilbert

Kevin Steen v. Masato Tanaka

Jeff Jarrett vs. Colt Cabana

Ultraviolent Rules
DJ Hyde vs. MASADA

Mixed Tag Team Match

Joey Ryan/Candice LeRae vs. Sojo Bolt/Jake Manning

Attending: Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, Terry Funk, Kurt Angle, Edge, Scott Hall, Bret Hart, Bobby Heenan, and more to be announced!

April 6

8:00 am-3:00 pm – WrestleCon, The Sugar Mill, New Orleans, LA

Until next time….

If you have comments or questions, or if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at the address above. If you’d like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), banner ads are available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.

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