Sunday, February 05, 2006

A huge post about AWC

Alright, I'll trust blogger not to eat this post like it did earlier when I tried to save it to draft.

Anyway, before I get to the meat, I might as well pimp some of the latest shows for you to read.

First in the queue, we got LVW's Championship Madness, which of course is an all-around good effort. Seriously, check this fed out. You will be hooked. Most character/gimmick driven feds rock, and LVW is no exception. The only qualm I had with the show was the DQ finish being used in two tournament matches. I prefer pin/submissions in those situations, be they clean or Dusty. But those qualms were outweighed by the appearance of the GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE~!~!~!

Next up, UCW hits with their latest edition of Revolution. Solid effort, a little shortish, but it had some good stuff going on. Just want to take some time out to give props to both Brunk and Siegel for the Ryan/Cruise feud. They're in just about every fed, yet I think they're both at their most intriguing here.

Finally, we get to AWC FRESH~!. This week's show, very segment heavy, but with a roster that size and with everyone with at least one story to tell, it's understandable and expected. Two major things going on here. One, Mike Wade becomes the Frontier Champion, his third concurrent title. Triple Champion... impressive.

Second was Chainz's controversial and graphic angle to end the show. On this blog, I predicted that Chainz would cause a mid-level riot, but I never thought it would be this soon into the new year. For those who don't know, Chainz, the character, is a degenerate mysogynist, a sexual predator and a part-time pedopile who's spent time in the can for rape (I think). The angle involves him showing graphic footage of him killing Ellis' Nash's sister, delivering their stillborn baby and committing necrophilia on her, all this after Chainz had found out she was cheating on him and was going to abort their baby, partial-birth style.

Now, I can almost see most of you recoiling in horror at the angle. I kinda did too, but I didn't think it was that bad at all, at least the idea behind it.

Chainz is a lowlife scumbag as a character, so we should expect him to do lowlife, scumbag things. And since wrestling is by nature a business that is over the top. What Chainz did was extremely over the top. But honestly, it might have been too much so, at least in the way that it was presented. It came off very Katie Vick-ish, at least with the admissions of murder and necrophilia being open and graphic.

What Mike Sloan (Chainz' handler) should have done was not written the part where he was describing what was on the tape he was showing Ellis. Maybe have it so that the "Technical difficulties" screen was showing to both the "TV audience" and to us, the reading public. Showing Ellis' horror after seeing the video would have conveyed the same effect as showing the video, and it would leave a lot of gray areas as to what happened.

Despite the criticism, I think Mike should be commended for pushing the envelope, but he pushed a little too hard this time. He shouldn't be flogged too hard at all. We all make mistakes, but they all turn into learning experiences. Honestly, Chainz is one of my favorite characters, period, and I hope he doesn't rein in too much with what he's doing with him.

The other AWC note I wanted to touch upon was a topic that came up on their OOC board: how to deal with a waiting list.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't even consider having a waiting list for any fed I ran. I guess I "grew up" around a culture in A1E and MBE where everyone was welcome, no matter how grammatically or aesthetically bad your writing was.

But then again, A1E at its height had 20 handlers doing 25-30 characters (and that might be generous). Perfect size for a fed. They didn't have the amount of people wanting to get in like AWC (and most PTC feds) do. I know that I wouldn't want to have 50 handlers making Fresh shows almost unbearable to read due to the sheer size of them, so I kinda understand where Hyde's coming from.

In a perfect situation, everyone on your waiting list would be of equal stature and talent and you could let them in on a first-come, first-serve basis. But as most of us in this hobby know, no situation is perfect.

Which is why a straight waiting list system will never work if you want to keep harmony and quality high.

You need to run a selective waiting list process. Go with guys you know will bring the goods, or guys that people you trust refer to you. When you want to give someone new/unknown a chance (and believe me, as a struggling recent grad trying to find work, I'm all about giving the unknown quantities a chance), make them prove their way into the fed. Have them do stuff to get in your good graces: writing matches, talking about wrestling theories and stuff like that, brainstorming angles, getting to know the person in an OOC light. Odds are, if they write a good match, or if they know a bunch about wrestling, or if they link you to stuff that is just fantastic storytelling or anything else positive, they'll be a positive impact on the fed.

But letting folks in blindly... that could lead to disaster in large feds where waiting lists are necessary.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The House DQ was basically because Paul is protecting House and doesn't want him losing via pinfall until the future, and there was no way House was winning that match, lest the corruptometer start flipping out and beeping.

The Lerner DQ is the start of an angle that will result in the end of all humanity...So maybe in hindsight we shoulda had a pin happen there...Sorry earth...

--Stanton

Anonymous said...

What Mike said - both DQ's were to facilitate angles/(possible) future storylines.

As I've told a person or two, Jack House is the "Undertaker circa mid-90s" of LVW, i.e. he's in his own little world, and thusly going nowhere near the World Title unless circumstances deem he need to enter the picture. He was losing via DQ in this spot no matter the opponent.

Jeffrey Paternostro said...

"The angle involves him showing graphic footage of him killing Ellis' Nash's sister, delivering their stillborn baby and committing necrophilia on her, all this after Chainz had found out she was cheating on him and was going to abort their baby, partial-birth style."

Yeah, I'd be lying if that wasn't among the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. If the handler isn't Andrew Vachss, I don't see how that angle is anything other than cringe-worthy.

Josh Ray said...

That whole angle with the stillborn baby murdering video viewing crap makes me wonder what the hell any of these people were thinking?

That is the exact type of thing I can't stand about pro wrestling.

Anonymous said...

Wow.

I'm pretty sure you can already guess what my comment would be on that, Tom.

Anonymous said...

Eh, yes, the whole thing was over the top...but that's the character. And that's why this is e-wrestling. While AWC isn't a UWF type fed (Imps, Apes, crazy shit happening), it's no super-real-life thing, either. Sure, it is...but it isn't. It's a story being told. I think two things about the whole situation:

-Why is everyone harping on Chainz? He has had this feud planned for a long time now...he'll have something to save this. I've talken to him on AIM, and he has reassured me that, yes, while maybe it was a lot, this was the climax of the feud...the rest is going to be resolved.

-If you don't like, don't read. There are parts of shows I don't read because either they bore me or they don't hold my interest (so they bore me).

I personally like the Chainz character. And I know other people don't like it...and I can see where they are coming from. But, Christ, people are getting their dicks shoved into asses over this one...just see where it plays out! If it turns out absurd, then complain...but there is OBVIOUSLY more shit planned.

Josh Ray said...

I won't read it, so that's no problem. But seriously, the whole murdering and stillborn babies and shit like that... isn't that already absurd?

I just think that if your into that kind of writing that wrestling probably isn't the outlet you should use.

Maybe one of those messed up snuff films are more up the person's alley.

Unknown said...

I don't read it, and now you can be pretty sure I won't ever... but if people can't come up with different angles than people being killed and stillborn babies... well, that's not ANYTHING to do with wrestling no matter *what* kind of story you're trying to tell.

Anonymous said...

I agree with everyone of these comments. I think the angle is dumb. and I'm in the damn fed.

this isn't tA or BR. It's a wrestling fed.