How a 2001 Indie Wrestling Tournament Changed Everything | APW King of the Indies

If it wasn't for APW's 2001 King of the Indies tournament, there probably wouldn't be a Ring of Honor, and guys like Bryan Danielson, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels and Low Ki wouldn't have had a big platform to shine on. Today we're covering this hugely important tournament, as well as the bits of drama surrounding it and the landscape of indie wrestling in 2001 following the end of WCW and ECW. Enjoy! Follow Kim Justice's Wrestling Road on Patreon for more documentaries: http://www.patreon.com/kimblejustice My Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kimjustice.bsky.social My Other Channel: http://www.youtube.com/kimblejustice Handy channels filled with 90's/00's indie wrestling goodness: @michaelhart6982 (watch APW King of the Indies 2001 here) @CactusBackWrestling (Bryan Danielson/Low Ki ECWA 2001 matches and so much more) @TheWPAN (New England Indies, mainly) @RoyLucierWrestlingTerritories (Roy f'n Lucier. Tons of old territories shows in and out of NWA) @chopsvideo8683 (UPW and plenty more) @nwawildside (NWA: Wildside mainly, plus some others) @bryanturnersvhsrehab (A whole ton of old wrestling VHS tapes from everywhere) @RetroWrestlingArchive (Exactly what it says on the tin. OVW, GWA, UWF and more) 0:00 Intro 1:47 Just What was Indie Wrestling Back Then? Background on APW 6:38 Building the Tournament 9:58 The First Round (inc. Dragon vs Spanky, Styles vs Frantz, Daniels vs Super Dragon, Joe vs Kazarian) 27:41 Quarter-Finals: Celebrating the Legends 34:41 Semi-Finals 38:27 The Final 44:41 Aftermath Part 1: The Rough Road for APW 51:57 Aftermath Part 2: Meltzer's Report and the Journey to ROH #kimjustice #wrestling #indiewrestling #ringofhonor #wrestlinghistory #usawrestling