Monday, January 30, 2006

THE E-FED BLOG 100TH POST EXTRAVAGANZA~!

Oh yeah, 100 posts. I didn't think I'd make it this far, but now that I have, let's hope that there are hundreds and hundreds more.

So what am I going to do for this monumental occasion? Well, first, let's link some shows! I haven't read them all fully yet, so no quickie reviews.

Holla, holla, Midnight Madness, week 6... NFW, down Mexico way... beware, thar's teabagging in them thar pages :p

NEW Era Raucous... first show of the new year for NEW... hopefully it's the first of many!

AWC Fresh! (Tilde omitted for fear of jobbing :p)... I got through less than half of this show last night before I realized I had an ACW deadline to meet. Amazingly long promo from the Unfuckables to start, which was Triple H-esque, but unlike a Levesque Borination Special, it had more than a few good moments.

ACW Courage 88... self-shill here, check out the Suleimon and GOP matches, and lemme know what you think about the angle I have between them. I love feedback, even if it's negative/constructive.

And now, to the meat of the post...

For my 100th entry, I thought that I would recount the most shocking, controversial, imoportant, best-written, etc. moments I've experienced in e-fedding history. The key part of that is moments I've experienced, firsthand. So sorry NFW fans, no Hurricane Eddy Love moments, cuz in fairness, I didn't realize that firsthand. I read it months later, so the importance wasn't as dramatic on me.

But anyway, this is in no order except for maybe chronological...

MBE Comes to A1 Before Message Board Entertainment came to A1Wrestling.com, the perception was that it was this foreign, elitist fed where only the friends of those in charge were the ones who'd get pushed. I heard this from a few people, like Janitor and Lady Rebellion. But I really didn't pay them that much mind. I mean, Janitor told me I'd never amount to anything in MBE unless I played politics.

Meanwhile, I was one of the longest reigning MBE Champions of all-time, and I don't think I had to do any backstage convincing to do it. But that's neither here nor there.

I was really one of the only ones who believed that MBE wasn't this fortress, this ivory tower. I wasn't deterred by going back to 1Wrestling.com, a site that everyone at A1 either left after being fed up with Ryder and his WCWocracy or were booted for speaking their minds. Others were though.

But then, MBE moved and came to A1. I don't know the exact reason; Dan West might be better to ask. However, what I do know is that when MBE came to A1, more A1E faithful tried it out, and the haters who thought it was this big, insular party found out that MBE was actually more egalitarian than A1E was. They found out that you didn't have to brownnose to certain folks to succeed.

And to think, all it took was a change of scenery to get that message across.

A1E's Tag Team Championship Match Usually, when a match nowadays goes 4 or 5 plus promos apiece, it's considered hyperactive. People wonder where folks get the free time to get up all those RPs.

Yet I remember a time when if you didn't put up at least five, you were slacking.

Well, Beast, Necromancer, Liquid Snake and Mikey F'n W certainly weren't slacking when they faced off to determine the first ever A1E Tag Team Champions. In fact, they kinda went insane to the tune of 58 (I think that was the final number) total promos.

Fifty-eight.

I'm sure Jarret, Mat, Ryan or Mike would pretty much look back at that match and wonder "How in the hell did we get all that activity?"

I mean, even for that time, when things were different, 58 was a big number.

God, I miss those days.

Amazing, Inc. Honestly, there aren't very many things in this hobby that absolutely floor me. When I found out that Bill Dempsey was also the handler for WhiteNoise and Mr. Amazing!, as well as Freakfish, well, I was floored. How he was able to keep that secret for as long as he did, well, in this day and age of everyone needing to know every little fact before it's dissemenated, it was shocking.

Snake's Amazing Run in the middle of 2001 Ryan Poole was one of my best friends in e-fedding in the beginning. Our characters (JA and Liquid Snake) were always linked in A1E since we debuted the same week and then faced off the week after Golden Dreams Zero in an epic match (we each posted like 9 promos apiece, building a history out of nothing.... the good ol' days of e-fed sponteneity), and then were involved in matches and angles. But Ryan had a tendency to flake out at times. In the summer of 2001, when A1E held its first ever title tournament, the odds-on favorite to win was Beast. I mean, he was riding the hot angle with his SIN feud, and really, it seemed like he was ready to take his run with the A1E Title.

Well, as is the case in any RP fed, the best laid plans of mice and men can be laid to waste by a really hot character. And there was no one hotter than Snake during that tournament. He was putting out stuff that was better than anything he had done previous or anything he would do again. I mean, this was something you had to be around for. He went into the tournament final against Beast, who'd barely survived his semifinal match with Mr. Hyde (my all-time favorite e-fed character), and just smacked him around.

Riding the wave of momentum into Golden Dreams I, Snake went in and just did the same thing to Fly that he did to Beast. I mean, I don't think it was all that close.

But then, after he won the title at GD, Ryan burnt out again. Mr. Hyde won the title easily at the next PPV, and Ryan just faded into the background, making spot returns here and there. That is not to discount Nick's efforts with Hyde, because he was a good Champion who I thought could have been one of the all-time greatest Champions had he more faith in his abilities and better computers at the time (one of his reasons for dropping out after he lost the strap to Big Dog was that his own computer was crapping out on him). But really, Snake could have been in that pantheon too.

It's a damn shame to see wasted potential like that, but that's life, y'know?

MBE closes :( All good things must come to an end. This is a truism. But still, it didn't ease the sting of MBE closing when it finally had to shut its doors.

But really, it was inevitable. The founding fathers (Dan West, Bill Dempsey, Jeff Paternostro, Bob Rodriguez) were all too busy to run the fed like it should have been run. I was burning out on e-fedding at the time. The other guys who were coming in and trying to run it weren't ready to run a big time fed yet, especially one with the tradition of MBE.

We got a good run out of the final card, a giant battle royale featuring a who's who of folks who had participated in MBE. But still, it was sad to see it go.

At the time, us folks at A1Wrestling didn't know of many other places outside of that realm to go. Or if we did, we didn't trust them at the time because of the Mike Stanton Experiment gone awry in A1E. It took me a good two years and a heart-to-heart talk with Dave Brunk before I could be ready to venture off A1.

And now I'm the e-fed maven.

But I'm off topic now.

Vote rigging and mistrust This was a very ugly period in A1E history. You basically had two sides: the A1E originals and Lindz and her FW folks who came over. Of course, not all of them were involved in the rigging. Paul Miller and Tom Siegel just came over and got lost in the shuffle, and Miller even complained about Jonathan Marx being fed to GUNS all the time.

But I think everything that went down could have been attributed to both our stubbornnness to adapt and their stubbornness to adapt as well.

I'm really glad things are better now, but you can't help but wonder if things might have been different had we all just tried to have gotten along...

Torment and the World Championship For the record, I don't blame Justin for everything that happened. In fact, I kinda feel bad for him, that his moment in the sun was tainted because Dave no-showed Euclid.

Personally, I don't think that any title should be changed on a no-show. I'd be much more comfortable holding the title up, but I wasn't in charge in A1E then.

At the time, I didn't think the A1E Title could return to its former prestige. But I was wrong. I think A1E has done an excellent job listening to its members and making changes for the better. But this was another ugly period.

Manson Wins! Manson Wins! I wasn't around much for Season 1 in NFW, but I think just from the reactions of everyone involved, hearing and seeing what everyone had to say, it was a watershed moment for NFW.

I mean, not many people thought that they would even finish Season 1, but they did, and it ended with Michael Manson taking on Shane Southern... the DREAM NFW match. Neither the RP nor the match as written disappointed, and this is from a person who really didn't have the grasp of the history. But I could sense it.

And that's what makes Jason's needing to leave e-fedding altogether that much more sucky. I mean, he was just involved in a huge match, and he finally made his big heel turn, and life just caught up to him.

I've worked with a bunch of folks on FW since I got here... but I don't think that my experience will be complete unless I get a chance to work with J-Mart. Hopefully he comes back.

Dis What else needs to be said about this that hasn't been said before? Seriously, this ranks up there with finding out that Bill was Mr. A! all along, and the subterfuge involved was the same level. Hell, I was fielding PMs from this Dis character and all along, I was talking to her in IM without knowing she was behind it all.

Honestly, as long as this corner of the e-fedding world exists, people will be talking about this angle. It was that impactful.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

((But really, it was inevitable. The founding fathers (Dan West, Bill Dempsey, Jeff Paternostro, Bob Rodriguez) were all too busy to run the fed like it should have been run. I was burning out on e-fedding at the time. The other guys who were coming in and trying to run it weren't ready to run a big time fed yet, especially one with the tradition of MBE.))

I know this is all your opinion and your entitled to it.

But there were some of us who were trying to do things in MBE, but we were constantly having to have ideas turned down by other members who weren't contributing. Josh & I had been doing this for much, much longer than most of the people in MBE already, so you can't say we weren't ready to handle it. I know you were burnt out, but you have to admit that there was some power struggle going on behind the scenes.

Anonymous said...

The vote rigging ordeal was my fault period. I was the person behind bringing in a bunch of people for the sole purpose of getting more Doc Silver votes into the vote.

Miller was in on it, he may have not liked his booking but he voted the way I wanted him to. I was told Gladiator beat Big Dog for the title due to 1 vote. Which it turns out was Miller's...He told me afterwards "Oh, I thought we were voting for Gladiator"...When I'd voted for Big Dog that week. Sorry Big Dog, I didn't get the memo for your match out in time.

But the truth of the matter is for me, at the time I was doing the vote rigging I felt I had no choice BUT to rig the votes to get any push. I Rp'ed my ass off in the Royal Rumble thing...And didn't even finish top 5, was generally hated for being 'too shootie' and all the rest of how I handled Doc...I got called into the Dean's office for my attitude.

And in the end, I feel my need to rig votes was proven valid when GUNS just shamelessly out Rp'ed Torment and lost...I talked to Dan (UCW co-Prez d00d) and Lindsay (You know her) they were not members of 'Team Corrupt Vote' as I called it, they voted honestly, and told me so. They both told me that they had really had a tough call on Doc/Skippy, but had in the end, voted Doc...But they both felt GUNS had beaten Torment hands down.

I could accept Doc losing to Skippy then, if it was close for them, it was close for everyone, so be it...

GUNS losing to Torment to me showed the nature of A1E was really that it was a group of insular, clannish folks who would in the end, vote for one of 'their own' over 'the new guy'. Given that my two honest friends in the voting process thought it was a pretty clear cut winner.

I knew how big 'Team corrupt vote' was...And I knew that GUNS/Doc had roughly 7-8 votes (I forget now, but I knew back then the count) so basically that meant that the almost the rest of the roster had to as one, vote for Skippy/Torment...

Which, basically proved my point. Schmid, before he vanished from FW, was one of the best Rp men around, and he'd turned in a great Rp showing against Torment, his reward was having almost the whole league say 'Screw you, Torment wins, and he wins clean finisher.'

So basically my only problem was I didn't make Team Corrupt Voting big enough...

That and I trusted Jenkins when he promised I wouldn't be ratted out for my comments that he posted on a message board.(Shakes fist at Jenkins) I woulda got away with it, if it wasn't for you meddling kids!

In the end I'm sorry I tried to exploit the system and all the ill will it caused.

Anonymous said...

LVW becoming the new, shiny light in your e-fed life didn't make the list?

Poor James Donovan...

Anonymous said...

((That and I trusted Jenkins when he promised I wouldn't be ratted out for my comments that he posted on a message board.(Shakes fist at Jenkins) I woulda got away with it, if it wasn't for you meddling kids!))

What did I do, exactly? I'm confused.

Unknown said...

((But the truth of the matter is for me, at the time I was doing the vote rigging I felt I had no choice BUT to rig the votes to get any push. I Rp'ed my ass off in the Royal Rumble thing...And didn't even finish top 5, was generally hated for being 'too shootie' and all the rest of how I handled Doc...

GUNS losing to Torment to me showed the nature of A1E was really that it was a group of insular, clannish folks who would in the end, vote for one of 'their own' over 'the new guy'. Given that my two honest friends in the voting process thought it was a pretty clear cut winner.))


Do you think that perhaps that although your two *friends* thought you won, that there might have been other people that didn't like your style? Just because you thought you were great, doesn't mean other people shared that opinion. You can work your ass off all you want, but in the end, if people don't like what you're doing, it doesn't matter how hard you rp.

And all the stuff about people 'not caring about the FW folk'... you don't think that happens on FW with outsiders as well? In my situation alone, I took a new character into one fed that refused to give me a win, even though it was agreed that I out-rp'ed the other guy, due to the owners 'not wanting the other guy to lose so soon.' And, even just very recently, I was basically told by a fed owner that no matter how hard I worked, or whatever quality of RP I put out, I wasn't going to get pushed regardless, because the owner didn't 'get my stuff' - I could out work Jesus himself, and I would never get a win.

So don't paint A1E as 'insular and clannish' when the exact same thing goes on in your own backyard.

If you want to use the Pier Six Brawl as an example, 3 out of the top 5 spots were taken by characters that made their mark outside of A1E - and, shocker - a FW guy made the top 5.

Anonymous said...

Brian: If I remember correctly, you made a post about it on the secret MBE Booking Board on A1. Mat came across it while looking at the board through his admin powers and told Dave (Euclid), who then told the rest of the A1E BC at the time.

What ended up happening was Mike and I (because I was the one who brought him into A1E) got pulled into a chatroom where Mike got lambasted and was then told to leave A1E.

To this day, I'll never understand why I needed to be in that chatroom, as I thought it was bad enough that I was getting all this OOC shit for it. Oh well.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I remember that now. Thanks for refreshing the old memory.

Brian

Anonymous said...

A man named Hobblepops should always destroy the master of the bionic knee.

Anonymous said...

Beast

My back yard? When did I job you in LVW because I wanted to keep somebody else oveR?

Look, the problem with A1E's vote system is simple on both ends.

A) The bookers can't book long term because at any moment the locker room can throw the booking in the toilet by picking Guy A over Guy B, and kill Guy B's mega push to the Main Event of the PPV.

B) As an Rp man you have to sell yourself to an entire locker room. Getting feedback from "The Prez" or "The 2 Prez d00ds" is not that hard to do, since you can most likely IM them and they'll talk to you about what they look for in Rp, how they want to fit you into the booking. Etc.

In A1E, I'd basically have had to have hunted down the whole rest of the roster and gotten their opinions on what do to, and what do I do if they all conflict about what direction I should take my character in? Too many cooks spoil the soup...

As for the one Prez who said he would never push you. He's an idiot for doing that, since clearly you are a good Rp'er and put in work, but at least he's being honest and letting you know up front what the deal is. I'd just quit the league and tell people not to join, since I got a raw deal there, were I in your shoes.

As for the other match where the fed head didn't want you to win because he didn't want your opponent to lose...That's Godbooking, that's a storyline taking precident over Rp. Again, if you want all your matches 100% decided on Rp, then join a league like that where the matches are all totally decided on the RP.

The point with my post and the whole "Team Corrupt Vote" thing is, that the WHOLE LOCKER ROOM voted against GUNS...Not "The Prez" voted against GUNS. The whole Roster of Rp men voted against him, and that was quite a few votes. Again, Team Corrupt Vote was about 8 deep or so. So that meant that 9+ A1E'ers looked at the GUNS/Torment Rp and in their minds, decided that Torment was the better man...Which, to me, makes them 'insular, clannish' folks...

Do I accept that people have a right to an opinion? Sure, but when I feel that all evidence points to that opinion being wrong, then I'll state that.

Anonymous said...

Lindsay

You were in some chat room when me and Ryan were yelled at for our bad attitudes...I never went to the chat room when Team Corrupt Vote was exposed...

Anonymous said...

I think that leagues should not let their members vote on matches.

-sean

Anonymous said...

In all seriousness, I've RP'd against both Torment and Guns.

I hate them both.

---Must Die