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Empire State Wrestling returned home to the St. Johnsburg Fire Hall in North Tonawanda, NY this past Saturday Night, and yours truly was in attendance.  As usual, those ESW guys put on one hell of a show.  Recap after the jump!

Yours truly went out to Empire State Wrestling’s “WrestleBash” event in Lockport, NY earlier tonight with one thing on my mind — I’m going to get Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake’s autograph.  That didn’t happen.

Greetings, everyone! This is a new one. Since I now get HDNet, thanks to my move, I am officially the only BWF staffer who can review Ring of Honor’s Monday night show. As they ARE the only hour of pro wrestling on Monday nights, I’m quite happy to do so. Our fearless leader, ThinkSoJoE, will continue to provide you with excellent coverage of “Smackdown” on Friday nights.

The alternate title for this article is “why independent wrestling is better than WWE and TNA.”  I just got back from Empire State Wrestling’s “Reckoning Day” event.  This is my fifth ESW event, and I’ve never been to a bad show.  This one featured a World Tag Team Championship match with the team of Famous – Will “Mastiff” Calrissian and Chris Cooper – defending against Brandon Thurston and Mike Radski, and a Casket Match for the ESW Championship as Kevin Grace defended against Ryot.

Photos, thoughts, and a half-assed results list, after the jump!

I love independent wrestling shows.  I know I’ve mentioned time and time again that the first time I went to a local show, it was headlined by current TNA International Champion “Showtime” Eric Young, who was feuding at the time with “Dangerboy” Derek Wylde over the affections of Angel Williams, who went on to greater fame as TNA Knockout Angelina Love.  Also on the card that night were The Original Sinn, who would later become Kizarny in WWE, and “Textbook” Tyson Dux, who represented Team International in TNA’s World X Cup a few years ago.  Saturday Night, I attended Empire State Wrestling’s “Unbreakable” event, the follow up to November’s “OverDrive,” which you can read about here.

Finally, a review of an indy show here on BWF.  Empire State Wrestling is a promotion local to Western New York that ran shows from August 2002 until November of 2006.  Other promotions formed in the meantime, including NWA: Empire and Next Era Wrestling Niagara.  Both of those promotions have since closed up shop, and from the ashes, Empire State Wrestling was reborn with their first show in nearly three years, ESW: Overdrive.

Overdrive featured the culmination of a tag team tournament that was originally supposed to be for the Next Era Wrestling Niagara Tag Team Championships, which were renamed and are now the ESW Tag Titles.  Yours truly was in attendance…