Monday, June 05, 2006

Character rehabilitation

Jobbers.

In ACW, they're revered as minor deities. Other than that, they're the dregs of the e-fedding world. In some places, there are stock jobbers, used to get new talent over, give guys a week where they can hone their promo or matchwriting skills, or who are just there for shits and giggles. Other times, handlers handle the jobbers, most of the time to their chagrin.

Some of us may have handled jobbers. Others were lucky enough to have our characters rise above the curve and never have any of their characters suffer the JOB Squad label.

I wasn't so lucky.

At one point, Captain Suleimon, currently my flagship character in AWC and one of my characters in the aforementioned ACW, was a jobber.

I'm not ashamed of that fact. In fact, I wore it like a badge of pride for awhile. It's one of those silly things you wear as a badge of pride. Personally, if you can't make fun of yourself, you can't make fun of anyone, really. For awhile, I didn't ever think that I'd bring him fully out of mothballs. I used him sparingly, to put over ChessMaster, to feel nostalgia (and beat the watered down 187) and to provide a body for the MBE Cup. But I didn't think there'd be an opportunity to bring him back.

Then, I discovered the PTC and angle fed worlds. The communities were fresh enough that Sully wouldn't have the stigma attached to him. The result is that he's among the most over characters on the ACW roster. He's also pretty over in AWC, but his win-loss record won't show that. Honestly, you could say he's still a jobber there, but really, a jobber is only a jobber if you handle him as a jobber. Many people say that he's turning the corner anyway.

Regardless of all that, I rehabilitated Captain Suleimon, a jobber, and made him into a character that is an integral part of storylines, feuds... a character who is the antithesis of being a jobber.

So what's the message here? Well, patience is a virtue, that's one, but the big one is that nothing is unsalvageable. Many people complain about heat being lost. I've complained about that too from time to time. But really, in this hobby, it is what we make it. Unless you're in the wrong fed or play with the wrong people, no one is going to be out to sabotage you. We're all forgiving. We have short memories for the most part.

Time may need to be a factor. Patience definitely needs to be there. A flexibility to grow when people give you feedback is also crucial. Change... it's not just coins anymore.

But really, even the jobbiest of jobbers can make a comeback and become a viable member of a fed. Even Allen Thomas ;)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

NAPW has a couple jobber characters that started as one-off jokes in RPs. Then a couple of our regulars took them up and made board ids for them to do joke RPs.

Result? "Bad Boy" Joey Malone is one of the most over characters in NAPW, and awesomely awesome. Wayne Wright managed to get a fluke TV Title win and do a Mikey for a week. Plus half the wrestlers use them in their RPs.

This past week? Joey showed up in three different main-event guy RPs. It was fantastic.

Anonymous said...

"The Muffin Man" Kin Hiroshi started as a jobber character that I never expected to last more than two events...

...now look at him! He can pull the J-O-B anywhere!

Anonymous said...

So where's that proper review of Vengeance? HMMM??

BigDaddy said...

In A1E, Gladiator was just a character created to fill a noticeable hole on the face side of the card. He was meant to be a caricature, and I doubt Jarret ever really believed he'd amount to anything.

History shows that dreams do come true. ;)