Independent wrestling is enormous, gloriously messy, and not especially easy to navigate. There are promotions built around deathmatches and promotions that feel like a punk show. Others feel like hip-hop, fashion-forward VIP lounges. Some wrestling is deadly serious, and some will have wrestlers dressed like breakfast food. Many promotions will have a little bit of all of those. Where does one even get started if you're new to indies or even a new wrestling fan, in general?
Astrology, naturally. Whether you're an Aries who treats bad ideas as a challenge, a Virgo who just wants everyone to respect the rules, or a Pisces ready to become emotionally attached to 12 strangers in dreamy gear, I promise you there’s an indie promotion waiting for you.
To be clear, this is less an expert guide to astrology than another excuse to hype up independent wrestling and point you toward promotions you might not otherwise find. So consider this less a horoscope than a questionable viewing guide. The stars have spoken — fine, possibly incorrectly — but let's find you a wrestling promotion anyway.
Aries – Game Changer Wrestling (GCW)
People are wrong about you, Aries; you don’t always choose violence. But when violence shows up at your door, you know it would be rude not to answer. GCW is your promotion. Stubborn, a touch unpredictable, and forever unwilling to back down from a dare, GCW has gorgeous technical wrestling, but it’s not afraid of introducing a spool of barbed wire into the discussion either. You're impulsive, competitive, and loud. You’re extremely confident that consequences are a reward or, at worst, a problem for future Aries. GCW understands.
Matt Cordona after defeating Nick Gage to claim the GCW Deathmatch Championship
Taurus – Limitless Wrestling
Taurus, you care about quality, consistency, and most importantly, knowing there will be snacks. Welcome to Maine's self-described “Pine Tree State Pro Wrestling Party.” At Limitless, a stubborn regional identity alchemizes with first-rate indie wrestling. There are plenty of familiar faces worth getting attached to. You may claim to hate change, but really, you need a few months to decide the change was your idea in the first place. Pick a favorite wrestler here and become emotionally unreasonable about them.
Gabby Forza, now signed with TNA, with Limitless.
Gemini – Freelance Wrestling
Gemini, you need options. Freelance gives you exactly that: punk rock partying Chicago weirdos, rising indie talent, and enough stylistic whiplash to keep you from getting bored and opening another tab. One match may be a hard, technical fight between wrestlers trying to prove they belong on a bigger stage; the next may be loud, funny, deeply Chicago and built around a character the crowd already treats like family. Perfect. You're curious, social, and adaptable and, famously, you are full of duality, much like Freelance. You're also absolutely going to leave with four new favorite wrestlers and no memory of the one you came to see.
Cancer – Primos Premier Pro Wrestling
Cancer, you came here looking for community, and that's why you ended up in Denver indie wrestling. Primos has a training school, deep local roots, a proudly LGBTQ-supportive community, and enough deathmatch street cred in its DNA to remind you that family occasionally requires someone to respond to a challenge with a sharp object a fan found at the hardware store. You'll care deeply about everyone involved and then immediately deny it when asked.
Leo – 4th Rope
You wanted wrestling, Leo. You wanted an event. Can’t do anything without some flourish, can you? Westside Gunn’s 4th Rope mixes wrestling with hip hop fashion and enough cultural swagger to make just walking to the ring feel insufficiently ambitious. Naturally, you approve: the upside of Leo is charisma, confidence, and excellent taste. Extraordinary exhibition. By match three, you’ll have opinions about everyone’s entrance and a detailed plan for your own.
“4th Rope is a Lifestyle” - Westside Gunn
Virgo – Deadlock Pro-Wrestling
DPW has time limits, defined match formats, contender systems, and a website that will actually explain the rules to you. Virgo, try to contain yourself. There are so many rules. This is wrestling for people who enjoy chaos significantly more whenever the chaos is properly organized. DPW calls itself “all killer no filler,” which is essentially what Virgo has been trying to put into the group project guidelines for years.
** Technically, DEADLOCK Pro Wrestling (DPW) announced an indefinite hiatus following their final US show on December 12, 2025, in Cary, North Carolina, with one final show scheduled in Japan. But they really are Virgo’s soulmate.
Libra -- Pro-Wrestling: Eve
Of course, Libra found the wrestling promotion with punk rock, cabaret comedy, and extremely talented women beating the hell out of each other. Eve is glamorous, political, inclusive, and chaotic without ever losing the plot. Libra, you came for beauty, justice, and excellent outfits, but you stayed because apparently all three can include a pile driver. The only real problem is that eventually someone will expect you to choose a side.
RIOT GRRLS of Wrestling
Scorpio – Wrestling REVOLVER
Scorpio does not believe in letting things go. Wrestling REVOLVER is happy to indulge that instinct with blood feuds, bitter rivalries, and matches that feel personal long before the bell rings. You like intensity, loyalty, and the occasional spectacular overreaction. This is basically your emotional support promotion. Wrestling REVOLVER favors intense personalities, hard-hitting matches, and wrestlers like Mance Warner, Killer Kelly, Sammy Callahan, and John Moxley, who rarely suggest that everyone process their feelings safely. You wanted emotional risks, danger, and commitment. Congratulations, Scorpio, you have once again mistaken escalation for closure.
Wrestling REVOLVER World Champion - Mance Warner
Sagittarius – New Texas Pro Wrestling
Sagittarius needs room to roam, so we're giving you the big old state of Texas. New Texas Pro runs across Houston, Austin, and beyond with tournaments, a contender series, and wrestlers representing different corners of the state that treat nearby as a philosophical concept. It's a great promotion for discovering names before everybody else knows them. You'll love the exploration; you'll love the I was here 1st bragging rights. You'll also immediately begin explaining why everybody should take a wrestling road trip with you.
Capricorn – West Coast Pro Wrestling
Capricorn, we know you respect a five-year plan. West Coast Pro is all about building a new Bay Area wrestling legacy while developing the next generation through its Academy. The card brings top independent wrestlers together with new and developing talent. It tends to take the wrestling itself very seriously: competence, ambition, long-term development, stability. You're delighted; please resist the urge to ask the rest of where they see themselves professionally in 2031.
Aquarius – Hoodslam / Slamtown
Surprised Aquarius? You shouldn't be. Obviously, Aquarius gets Oakland’s glorious Hoodslam universe. Who else were we going to give the wrestling promotion in which conventional good taste has historically been treated more like a curse than a virtue? Now appearing under the Slamtown banner, it remains theatrical, irreverent, intense, and deeply committed to doing wrestling its own way. You'll call it visionary; your friends will call it the “wrestling thing you made us watch, which we sort of liked but was also confusing.” Both of those things will be true.
From the Bold Italic, “Oakland’s Hoodslam is Crazy; Go To It”
Pisces – Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling
You and your feelings, Pisces. You want feelings, friendship, and whimsy, preferably followed by Miyu Yamashita breaking into tears. TJPW gives you vivid characters, absurd comedy, and stories built around relationships and then casually reminds you that these women are exceptionally skilled athletes and wrestlers. It looks like the dreamiest assignment on this list until you realize you’ve developed sincere feelings about twelve different wrestlers and are now furious about something that happened three years ago. As usual, you came for whimsy and left with everyone else’s emotional baggage.
Does the time you were born on a Tuesday really affect whether you enjoy watching someone get hit with a door in GCW; if you’ll find yourself crying over a TJPW friendship; or if enlightenment comes with discovering that Oakland wrestling can involve a detective, a cereal-themed superhero, and sometimes maybe, a bear?
Who am I to say?
Independent wrestling is much easier to explore and appreciate once you stop thinking of it as a monolith. Every promotion has its own crowd rhythms, obsessions, and particular flavor of athletics. Maybe your sign will predict your favorite. Maybe it sends you way outside your comfort zone, and you love it. Maybe you hate it and watch the rest of the promotions on the list to spite me specifically.
Sometimes a questionable system is still a decent way to find something unexpected. Both indie pro wrestling and astrology have survived worse methodology.
Jenny Catlin is an award-winning writer and pop culture enthusiast based in the square states. She’s a contributing writer to The Athletic, a Lighthouse Writers Book Project Fellow, and the co-editor of the upcoming anthology Wrestling with Writing. She’s obsessed with obsession. You can find her on Instagram or Substack,
