Friday, October 13, 2006

Friendly rivalry?

In case you haven't noticed in the last few months, AWC and PRIME can't seem to stop mentioning each other in their shows. AWC's most egregious example of PRIME-dropping was when Ignatius Liseux came over for a sip out of a cup of coffee. Every other thing said about him, whether it was in segments written by Richard or in matches written by Jeremy J., had a mention of his former fed in it. PRIME's name-dropping of AWC is far less flattering. Most recently, on ReV 107, a segment featuring Jason Snow, Angelo Deville and Rich Rollins (oh my!) contained lengthy parts of mic spots where AWC was trashed. And then of course, there's the news article on the front page of PRIME's site decrying AWC's risque magazine cover of Teresa Tomas nude. Tomas' handler is planning on writing a counterpiece.

And honestly, I'm not a fan of either instance. I really never have been. It's always sort of grated at me to see mentions of other FW.com feds in various writeups and RPs, whether it was Cameron Cruise and Joey Melton taking their feuds, requisite with cross-referencing of happenings in several feds in one RP/segment, across every fed they were in, to even the most innocuous things, like Edmunds cutting to commercials for competitor feds on NEW shows. When it happens in passing, it's fine. It's when it becomes excessive or the crutch of a feud/segment/RP/whatever that I get a little dismayed by it.

Of course, my distaste for this kind of name-dropping and cross-referencing stems from real wrestling, where you really didn't mention the competition directly very often. The WWF and WCW took jabs at each other, even as far back as those Hogan/Savage/Billionaire Ted parodies in the WWF back in the mid-90s, back when WCW started to become a much bigger threat in the national market. Both companies went back and forth with subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle yet not explicitally referenced jabs. Once again, I realize that real wrestling sometimes isn't the best thing to emulate, even in this hobby where we make it a point to emulate them to a point. I mean, they've had transvestites giving wrestlers head or cybernetic movie characters doing run-ins. Still, I think general mentioning of the "competition" is a bad thing, even if it's innocuous.

However, this war of words seems to be one-sided and a bit more intense than everything that I've seen precede it. While the folks involved may think it's just some friendly ribbing among people who are buddies in the same community, I don't see it like that at all. On AWC's end, I see their referencing of PRIME as sign of an inferiority complex. It seems like we in AWC only want to do certain things to compete with PRIME, like 1) they're the only fed out there we have to compete with, and 2) like we're actually competiting with them as if this was our livelihood. It seems embarrassing when it's at its worst and just chinsey when it's at its least offensive.

When PRIME fires back, they're merciless. In character, they treat AWC as if it was a minor league, a place to send their superstars as a punishment. It's not seen as an equal fed at all, which makes the back and forth that much more confusing. I mean, WCW was at least seen as an equal to the WWF up until its final days. I really think that the PRIMEates only jab at AWC because they feel AWC is just hanging onto PRIME's coattails and they want them off. I really haven't noticed any other jabs at other PTC feds on PRIME shows, and I'm pretty sure that none of the other PTC feds make it a point to place themselves in direct competition with PRIME or mention them on their shows.

In the end, this only hurts AWC and it may turn people off to PRIME as well. I mean, AWC's unofficial PTC show ratings have been slipping over the last few weeks, whereas PRIME's the most highly rated show. While I feel that the lateness and quality of the last AWC show had the most to do with that, I'm pretty sure that the jabs at AWC aren't helping matters. Neither are the PRIME name-drops on AWC programming.

And I'm also pretty sure that if PRIME keeps putting those AWC jabs in their shows in lengthy promos, it might turn people off to their write-ups. That may seem a bit farfetched, but perceived arrogance can be a huge downfall. I'm not saying that PRIMEates are arrogant, not at all. Once again, I believe all this back and forth is good-natured for the most part. But what things are and how they're perceived can be two different things at times.

Besides, it may just be me, or it may not, but when I'm reading a show, I don't want to see jabs and name-drops of other feds littered around the show. I want to see what your fed has to offer. I want to see how your guys can write about what's happening in your fed. I want to see your stories told. That's what I want.

People say that being locked up in your own little world can be a bad thing. OOC, I agree. But in character... I prefer to see each fed as its own island. Besides, islands are nice. They're more enjoyable than most continental places.

And we're all in this hobby to make it as enjoyable as possible, aren't we?

5 comments:

Lindz said...

I don't really pay attention to the AWC vs. PRIME rivalry and I didn't even know it was as bad as this blog entry is saying it is. I don't read AWC shows, but I'll take your word for it that instances of name-dropping are taking place. But you know the Troy character pretty well, and she'd have something to say about the magazine covers whether it was AWC having a hand in it or NEW or wherever. I guess the article I wrote just makes everything else look worse because of what's been going on previously.

Anonymous said...

I read the PRIME show where I noticed all the AWC jabs (ironically, it was Dave of Jason Snow fame who showed it to me). To be honest, it didn't really make a difference to me one way or another. I think it's all in good fun, but I do think it's pretty unnecessary.

I helped run an interfed called Triad once, basically 3 feds that acknowledged each other and competed with each other for a set of interpromotional titles at PPVs which were combined. We had about 60+ members in all 3 feds with trades going on and lots of interaction. In that case it was really cool.

In terms of PRIME vs. AWC, in character its silly to stress over it- I think it's fun with the Snow ratings and all, unless things really get out of hand and bad blood comes into it. It'd be cool if there was more interfed cohesion between the two feds so that it was clear that none of the in show badmouthing was ill-intended.

Otherwise, we all know that the GBJ enterprise is a growing entity that will eventually monopolize all of e-fedding and PRIME is just getting scared of the shadow cast upon them by GBJ's inflating balloonism. Or something.

By the way, there's something wrong with the word verification on this..."mzpwgzs" isn't a word. It's a random jumble of letters.

Anonymous said...

I think the majority of the PRIME roster understands that this is all supposed to be in good taste. I have been tipped off regarding one instance of bad-taste elitism, but this is, at least the way I see it, the exception rather than the rule and I am sure the 'insults' aimed at AWC are fun jabs to try and get a response more than a genuine expression of hostility.

That said, I haven't read the show referred to by Tom, because I can't: PRIME forums don't work on my laptop and I can't work out the direct link (someone tell me?). Seeing who is involved, though, makes me confident that fun rather than hostility was the aim.

Personally, I enjoy the interfed banter and don't think it's a problem at all. I get on well with Pete and we frequently discuss the two feds. There is no OOC animosity at the top level, at least. And hopefully the handlers of both rosters will follow that example.

Anonymous said...

I don't think that's a big deal, in all honesty. I think the bigger problem is that AWC is being too nice. ;)

NFW and CSWA have gone down this road, hell every Melton promo written in NFW is a potshot at the fed in Melton's viewpoint of CSWA being greater than NFW, while Felix Red had the line of the week during Survivor Series with his "What's the CSWA?" remark that won him the match. lol

There would be an issue if AWC/PRIME's fedheads didn't get along, or something to that vein.

CSWA/NFW's rivalry/relationship has helped both feds, IMHO...I don't see why it couldn't be the same for these feds.

Without CSWA's Ultratitle, Hornet and Melton...NFW wouldn't have alot of great stories over the past 5 years. Not too mention Eddy Love showing up after the War Games cage exploded.

And Shane Southern, Eddie Mayfield, Craig Miles definitely helped CSWA have a long storyline that continued over many hiatus' and all handlers involved meant ALOT obviously to NFW at that point in time.

--Must Die

Anonymous said...

As a frequent (and named >=) offender I figure I should comment... I drop other fed names all the time, and sometimes I'll even reference characters from other promotions. I do it purely in fun, and I honestly tend to think of it as beneficial... When I mention AWC on a PRIME show, it makes the reader think of AWC, which strikes me as a good thing for AWC. I think it reflects well on them. If I didn't care about what you're doing, would I mention you?

Personally, I enjoy it when I read shows from other feds and see people talking shit about Deville, or PRIME; it fires me up a bit. Beyond that, PTC is an interfed, with directly "competing" entities... I'd be pissed off if we acted like the other promotions didn't exist.

So... Yeah. If you see me ripping on you or your fed, don't take it as elitism or anything like that, take it as a compliment, because it means you impacted me enough to elicit comment. >=)

In fact, if an idea strikes me for it, Deville's gonna rip this blog, Tom. >=)