Every wrestling fan knows about the three important wrestling federations in the world today, WWE, Impact Wrestling, and to a lesser extent Ring of Honor.

But what most fans don’t know is that there is plenty of great wrestling taking place outside of these companies. There are much smaller independent federations, also known as the independents, performing all over the United States and the world.

Up until recently, fans did not get many opportunities to watch the incredible shows that these federations put on unless they know where to purchase tickets to see the shows live. However, thanks to FloSlam, a new online streaming service, fans are able to experience these shows for themselves.

There are several differences between WWE programming and the programming that the fans will see on FloSlam, and we thought that we tell you some differences and similarities that you might see so that you can decide if you would like to purchase FloSlam for yourself.

The first thing that a fan would notice when watching independent matches is that most independent federations don’t have WWE’s discretionary funds to spend on extras such as pyrotechnics so there aren’t many fireworks in independent shows. Similarly, independent federations lack WWE’s costume budget and seamstresses, so most wrestlers are responsible for their own wardrobe.

Furthermore, the independent wrestling feds don’t have exclusive contracts with their talent, so you might see a  wrestler in a show for one federation one night and another federation the next night.

Furthermore, the indies themselves realize and acknowledge that their wrestling talent does not wrestle for them exclusively, and will frequently mention the wrestlers participation in events for other federations. All the independents have no problem promoting each other’s shows because they do not see other independents much as competition, but rather as different branches of one large federation.

For example, SHINE, an all-women’s wrestling federation is happy to promote a show that EVOLVE is having the next night because they know that their viewers might be interested in seeing the show. Also, independents do not have weekly televised shows, and often have large periods of time in-between shows, so the wrestlers have to wrestle on more than one show or different federations each month simply to make a living, and therefore are happy promote other shows as well.

Another marked difference between indies and larger federations such as WWE is that there is less focus on feuds between wrestlers and more focus on the wrestling that happens inside the ring. Wrestlers in the independents know that the that the fans have come here to see wrestling so they try to make wrestling the focus of their shows, unlike the bigger feds who tend to focus on developing storylines from week to week. There are storylines in independent wrestling, but they are minor in comparison to the wrestling itself.

However, there are also similarities between independents and larger ones. In both cases wrestlers try to develop a character that the fans will make a connection with, and one that they will either boo or cheer for depending on whether the wrestler is meant to be a heel or a face. The ultimate aim of both the independent and larger feds is to entertain fans and keep them coming back to enjoy the next show.

Also, both have tremendous athletes who put their heart and soul into performing and making sure that everyone who comes to their shows has a good time. Further, in both independent and WWE arenas there are extremely intense fans who devote all their energy to cheering on their favorite performers, although in independent wrestling the fans get to be a lot closer to the athletes and raucous cheering can be heard at both events.

Either way fans are guaranteed a good time when they attend a wrestling event, and you can learn more about the independent wrestling circuit when you catch our new column T & D’s Indie Top Five right here on Wrestling-Online.

Article written by Dorsey Schroeck and Tory Hotstream.