Random notes

Posting may be sparse from here til the middle of June, seeing as I'm on a hectic work schedule. Back and forth between central New Jersey, right in the middle of the armpit of America. Still, I haven't forgotten the blog or all of you out there.

- First up, I'd like to give a shout-out to a new old fed on the block.

J-j-j-j-j-j-j-enkins World Order... 4 life!

An old fed from FW's history run by our own Brian Jenkins is back up, and they've already gotten one show under their belts. Totally check this out, as it features at least one old face (Hida Yakamo), some great standby handlers doing new stuff (Aston, Shinder) and some newer faces (Mr. XYZ and AC Blood... sorry, don't know your handlers' names!). If this gets to take off, I have faith that it'll be a great fed for FW, filling a void that MCW tried to do when Bolich restarted it.

- Talking about drafts, over at W3:16, a thread about said idea turned into another classic snipefest that we've all come to know and love from that group of posters. Honestly, that thread is a microcosm about what bothers me about them; for one, you have your group of posters who have skin thinner than rice paper, and they take everything to heart quicker than it takes Homer Simpson to inhale a strawberry frosted donut. Then you have your uptight dicks who are more concerned with laying down rules for threads or for proposed ideas than they are for actually running the idea through in the first place. And then to top it all off, you have guys who come up with every idea in the book and then don't have the werewithal to follow through with anything other than a "oh, the hobby is dying, woe is us" sort of malaise for everything. I mean, looking in that thread, you had people argue on whether it was going to take time away from fed duties, whether it was a waste of time or not, which way was the most effective of getting the draft going... I'm sorry, but I have to say "What the fuckity fuck are you on about?"

A draft is something that should be an outlet for blowing off some steam and a chance for everyone to play recruiter without the burden of having to convince everyone to come in and RP and booker without the task of actually writing full cards. It's fun, pure and simple. If you can't just queue up the drafters and let 'er rip, then what's the point? Seriously. I thought I was overcomplicating things when I came up with my draft order and means of turnaround.

It's just another day at Black Rock for some of the folks there though. It's a wonder there's any activity there at all, what with the constant spectre of William Morgan coming in and berating you for not having historical perspective or for making things too much about "e-life" (a bullshit term if I ever heard one... and I'm in the eW conservative camp, just ask anyone at PTC when the wrestling relevance debate comes up :p), or about Tom Mason pontificating about some shit or Cimon or whoever the fuck Ser Trent et al. are starting shit to provoke any of those aforementioned with the rice paper skin. It also doesn't help that the one admin who's there most of the time contradicts the "no-to-low moderation" policy. You know, there have been ten topics sent to their recycle bin since they've opened in February of this year. In contrast, the "fascists" over at PTC haven't thrown out a thread since mid-December of last year, and one that hasn't been moved to their bin for moderation reasons since the beginning of that month. Hmm, kinda makes you think doesn't it?

I had such high hopes for that community, but then the rabble from EWN/cIm came over and ruined the place. There, I said it. I mean, there are more than a few good eggs who frequent/have frequented/used to frequent that place, like Medina, Katz, Bobby/Jerrod, VossMan, Edgar and Hollan but for the most part, it's a barren wasteland because of the rabble, the vocal minority that has polluted the place. And it's a shame too. Something like a draft could have easily revitalized that community, at least from a discussion standpoint.

I'll still go there, I'll post whenever I fancy a topic, I'll keep the NFW boards going when Katz posts shows, and I'll shill my TEAM stuff there, but man, that doesn't mean I can't bemoan the premature death of a could-have-been great site.

- Speaking of PTC, kudos to them for appointing Dave Cook as the moderator of the eW forum. He's one of the last of a dying breed, people who are enthusiastic about discussion of the hobby. Here's to hoping he can spark some good talk about goings on and maybe get some people on the feedback train. I know this oversteps the bounds of eW, but kudos on appointing Jay (Phoenix) and Thommy (Tsunami Oni/Plucky the Cockfighting Duck/Sun Tzu) as mods of the pro wrestling forum and Phil (Tarrant) of the sports forums. And on the same note, congrats to Jay on the birth of his son. May he follow in his father's footsteps and be the next breed of eW handlers ;)

- Start thinking about the Tournament of Champions. It's coming up sooner than you think, June or July depending on how fast we can get SuperShow IV written. SuperShow V will most likely be a short-formed card just so we don't hold things up too long. But yeah, for those who don't remember, the ToC is a "one-night" tournament in character. Out of kayfabe and in the RP phase, it's a three-round event. One round is dedicated to wrestling promo RPs, the second to storyline/off-camera RPs and the third is a wild-card round. Last year, it was backstage attacks. This year? Well, I haven't decided yet :) However, I promise it'll be good. You get a berth by being a singles Champion in your fed, a winner of a major interfed tournament or wrestler of the year award, the last holder of your fed's World Championship before the current holder or by being a special legend. Once again, this year's Legends List is a secret until I unveil it... be on your toes :)