>>13158682Only WWE and whatever the second most-popular North American company is at the time, counts as where a wrestler first 'establishes' himself to casual fans (ROH was never #2). For the sake of fairness I'll also include whatever the top 2 companies in Japland are since wrestling's big over there too, I guess New Japan and whatever else. There are rare exceptions to the "top 2" rule, like ECW
>>13158667It doesn't matter if the wrestler first gets shine as just a comedy act. If he first becomes well-known to casuals in one of the top two companies, then he's forever considered an original of that company even if the second company later pushes him further as a top guy. This was one of the biggest complaints that people had against TNA: taking guys that first got semi-popular as WWE midcarders, then suddenly pushing them as top guys that were supposed to be seen as "TNA guys"
On the other hand, someone like Samoa Joe will always be seen as a TNA original because TNA was seen as #2 during his run. All of that ROH/indy shit doesn't count, nobody but hardcore wrestling fans knew who was in those companies or what was going on there
