By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

Beyond Wrestling is an independent wrestling company that has gone against the grain when it comes to how they promote their product. This Sunday, the company is presenting “Americanrana” in Providence, Rhode Island, which is easily their biggest show to date with names like Colt Cabana, Kevin Steen, Masada, A.R. Fox, and Eddie Edwards. The company has worked with some big names in the past, but they have never put this many big names together on one show.

Beyond Wrestling started as a company only doing studio tapings. The wrestlers were the audience and the matches were taped and put on YouTube so that wrestlers had a handy portfolio to show promoters in order to get more bookings. Eventually they did some live event tapings in front of fans, but the shows didn’t draw well. The company ran their last live event late last year, but in the meantime they continued to run studio tapings until putting on a live show in June.

I spoke with Beyond Wrestling owner Drew Cordeiro at length about his company yesterday in an interview that was scheduled to be released for PWTorch VIP members, but a technical difficulty resulted in me losing the entire interview.

Cordeiro spoke at length about why the timing was right for Beyond Wrestling to take this step. One of the things Cordeiro mentioned was that Mike Quackenbush told him a couple of years ago that it was time to go for it. At the time, Cordeiro wasn’t sure what Quackenbush meant, so he took Beyond Wrestling on the road and ran live events in front of fans for the first time.

With “Americanrana,” Cordeiro thinks he is doing the right thing, but his strategy is different this time around. Cordeiro’s plan is for Beyond Wrestling to become the PWG of the northeast in terms of becoming the company in that part of the country that is known for great wrestling and generates a lot of fan interest. Cordeiro lives in Rhode Island, so it was an easy decision for him to try to establish Providence as a base for Beyond Wrestling.

Cordeiro told me he believes the days of independent companies touring the country are over. He noted that he doesn’t consider ROH an independent company and noted that there aren’t any companies having a lot of success touring in different markets, especially now that CHIKARA has ceased operating.

Companies like AAW and AIW would be examples of companies that have established themselves in one market, Chicago and Ohio respectively, and generated some buzz in 2013. Cordeiro believes Beyond Wrestling can find success running live events at Fete Music every other month in Providence, Rhode Island. He believes the future of independent wrestling lies in companies establishing themselves in one market and building an audience at a home base.

This is a big step for Beyond Wrestling and owner Drew Cordeiro. They’ve rented Fete Music, which is an expensive venue, for” Americanrana.” There was no guarantee in the show drawing a crowd given that Rhode Island isn’t known for being a hotbed for independent wrestling.

Cordeiro spoke to me at length about putting the card together for” Americanrana.” He admitted to me having to resist the urge to put together dream matches with wrestlers like Masada, Fox, Edwards, Gargano, Steen, and Cabana on the card.

Ultimately Cordeiro decided to match up his best talent from New England with three of the biggest names he signed from the independent scene. A.R. Fox vs. Anthony Stone, Biff Busick vs. Eddie Edwards, and Johnny Gargano vs. J.T. Dunn are all part of a “Best of New England Challenge” series of matches. Cordeiro is giving Stone, Dunn, and Busick a big opportunity to make a name for themselves with impressive performances against their more well-known opponents. Establishing the local talent and getting them over in front of the local fans is a big part of Cordeiro’s plan to make this a successful venture for the company.

The rest of the card features a grudge match between Drew Gulak and Chris Dickinson in a match where there must be a winner, Colt Cabana vs. Jaka, and the main event with Kevin Steen facing Masada. Cordeiro discussed all of these matches with me yesterday and mentioned the Gulak-Dickinson match should be a hard-hitting technical bout. He was also excited about the Cabana-Jaka match, which will see Cabana take on Jaka, who has a savage gimmick. Cordeiro told me he was excited for the Cabana-Jaka match because of the contrast in styles between the two.

I asked Cordeiro about the Masada vs. Steen match and he admitted that it was the one dream match he had to put on because Masada and Steen never cross paths on the independent circuit. Both men are known for their brawling and this should be a very good match that you won’t see anywhere else. I asked Cordeiro about Masada’s knee injury and he was confident that Steen and Masada would be able to work around it and put on a really good main event.

Americanrana has already sold more tickets than any other Beyond Wrestling live event and Cordeiro talked about how helpful the Fete Music promotional team had been in terms of helping him promote the show locally. Not only has the company sold more tickets than ever, but Cordeiro is expected a good walkup crowd as well this Sunday. The show has already sold enough tickets for Cordeiro to run another show at Fete Music in September and he has already locked up a few top independent names for that show.

I asked Cordeiro about running in-between a WWE Smackdown taping and an ROH TV taping in the same market this coming weekend. Cordeiro lives in Rhode Island and said it didn’t concern him and talked about using Smackdown as an opportunity to hand out flyers and spread the word about Americanrana. He noted that while he has been out passing out flyers around Rhode Island that he hasn’t seen any advertising around for ROH’s TV taping on July 27, so he doesn’t think the audiences are going to intersect.

Cordeiro also got a nice plug for the show when Cabana and comedian Marty DeRosa based their weekly “Worst Promo Ever” segment on “Americanrana” with Cabana hilariously promoting the show.

Beyond Wrestling is a company to keep an eye on for the rest of 2013. They have a good core roster of relatively unknown talent that is going to get a chance to wrestle in front of what should be a good crowd this weekend at “Americanrana.”

The company will also continue to have a strong online presence through their YouTube channel. Cordeiro mentioned in his interview that Beyond Wrestling had partnered with thepostgame.com to launch a YouTube network with other channels in a couple of months. The Post Game site is the official web magazine of yahoo sports and this should lead to an increase in Beyond Wrestling’s online presence. Cordeiro mentioned that Beyond Wrestling live events will be released on DVD, but mentioned that he hopes eventually to be able to put up all content online for free based off their partnership with Post Game.

It will be interesting to see if Cordeiro is ahead of the curve in terms of the independent wrestling model changing. He has put together a really good card mixed with established independent talent and local talent trying to make their own name at “Americanrana.” I know I’m excited to see Beyond Wrestling try to grow in Rhode Island.

You can purchase “Americanrana tickets HERE

You can visit Beyond Wrestling’s Facebook page HERE

You can visit Beyond Wrestling’s YouTube channel HERE

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Follow Sean on Twitter at Twitter.com/SeanRadican

Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@gmail.com

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