Monday, September 17, 2007

We got the moves

There are many debates in eW right now, and most of them seem to be about writing styles and all that jazz. Of course, because everyone seems to be on the burnt out side of the hobby at this point, those debates have died down a bit, which is good, becasue I really, really, REALLY tire of people sniping back and forth about FW vs. PTC or script vs. narrative. That being said, there are a few minor debates contained in places other than writing style. One of the hotter ones, and one that's been discussed here before, has been whether we should allow mentioning "real" wrestlers in our eW writeups/RPs/hype pieces/whatever.

I'm not looking into exploring this debate. My thoughts are well-known (at least I think they are). I do think that real wrestlers do have a place being mentioned, although not as a crutch. They should be sparing if any. I mean, coming from a guy who handles the whole Anonymous family, that should be a no-brainer :p However, I do understand the need for our community to become self-contained really, to have a sense of history. For the three of us who actually read writeups (and that number is probably two now since I barely get any time to read them at the present moment), it's one thing to see a move referred to as an "Arn Anderson quality spinebuster," but it's a much different and more mark-out-worthy event when you see things like "Hornet splash." I know I'm still a big offender since I use the real wrestler references in nearly every edition of EPICENTER. The thing is though, how many of us have commonplace moves that we're well-known for?

By and large, we choose our movesets because we like the way certain guys do those moves, and every signature move that we have for the most part are finishers. Honestly, if you describe Dan Ryan doing a Spoiler-quality powerbomb, Brunk would flay you. Trust me, I know from experience not to compare the characters ;) Most people don't really signature-ize their common moves, and for the most part, the legendary characters that are in the forefront in peoples' minds right now are still active, a phenomenon that's totally opposite to what's going on in real wrestling, at least in this super-community.

So, how do we make our moves our own again? How can we start substituting our wrestlers for guys like Anderson or Rick Rude? Well, for one, we can start trying to read matches again. Stop laughing, it's true. Of course, this discussion's been had many times before, so then what? How about more feds employing shortforms, like TEAM or NFW, in highlight form? Have your wrestlers submit a sort of "five moves of doom" spot list for the main shortformer to highlight, so that the common moves, the strikes and the minor slams can become ingrained into folklore like the legendary finishers on the scale of the HIDADRIVER~! (oh the humanity).

I know that may be blasphemous, since 99% of us are workrate marks. Hell, I'm one myself. However, I also know that the nature of the beast is to captivate attention. Even in writing, if you can pick out spots that are common to your wrestler, it might help people read even longform matches better.

And maybe we can start to replace the real wrestlers with our own legends to associate with moves.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the only move that NFW continually references of the real world of wrestling is the Hulk Hogan Legdrop of Doom for obvious reasons...well, if you've ever followed NFW its obvious. :)

Otherwise, I *hate* seeing any fed references whether its CSWA, WWE or whatever being used in an NFW RP or telecast unless NFW commentators are making fun of the promotion for heat purposes.

That's why Nova's TEAM belt was blurred out with the little side commentary on Crash 40. And before anyone brings it up, UWA doesn't count as they were a ghost fed being used to develop important NFW storylines.

--MUSTdie

Anonymous said...

that promo way after the deadline move is pretty deadly

Anonymous said...

"that promo way after the deadline move is pretty deadly"

Daaaad! The baby is crying again.. come get it! *giggle*



I Love Cheese.

TH said...

Can we have a moratorium on that subject on the blog here?

Anonymous said...

"that promo way after the deadline move is pretty deadly"

Why don't you clean the sand out of your vagina and shut the fuck up already.

Unknown said...

The idea has merit, Tom, but the one real issue I see is that people across the board aren't that well-versed with all the other feds.

Dan Ryan is pretty much universally known, so he'd work. As legendary as Spoiler is in MBE and A1E, I don't think he's attained that status yet in the FW world. Hell, I don't know who Hornet is.

And who from FW, outside of a few old-school A1E'ers like Cross and Lindsay Troy are going to know what a "Nemesys-quality Curb Stomp" is going to be like?

I think there needs to be a balance between our feds existing in this microcosm where only we exist and everything else is blasphemy. Remember, this is all done in text - we're not watching shows - and it's real easy to get the point across to a reader when you say "Stinger Splash" as compared to a "Hornet Splash". Me, not knowing who Hornet is, doesn't know if Hornet's Splash was a regular splash, or if there was some quirk or modification to the move that I don't know about. Equating it to a real-life version makes it real easy to get the point across in text to allow the reader and allow them to visualize what's going on.

All that being said, a lot of common moves don't need a name attached to it for people to visualize properly. For example, do we really need to say "Arn Anderson spinebuster" when we all know what a spinebuster is? I'm thinking attaching a name to a maneuver might be better served when the move isn't very mainstream, or super-unique to one individual. Having the announce team say: "Man, he just absolutely PLANTED him with that spinebuster!" works just as well for me. You know the move was big. A lot can be conveyed through the announce team and ringside crowd reaction.

All that being said, sometimes it's necessary, but we as writers should be careful not to over do it. If I'm reading something and I don't know what a move is, I'll look it up so I know what's going on. I don't necessarily need "wrestler x" attached to the visage.

Any of that make sense?

Unknown said...

All you need to know is that HORNET WINS~!

Anonymous said...

Dan Ryan wishes he could do a Spoiler-quality Powerbomb.

Jamar said...

::Jamar approaches from the mist::

And shame for Katz calling UWA a ghost fed! Feh!

I still like the idea of keeping 'real' doods out of your mix. Really, when I wrote, the only people I cared about were my league, and it's history.

I agree with Holz about creating your own legacy, and for FW-guys, There's nothing else BUT a Hornet Splash. Not saying Sting doesn't exist, but I tried to not think about the outside 'real' world.

"Abdominal Stretch - NO! ADLERPLEX!" is a old call from Schmid when he wrote A/AWC, and it followed Tom Adler around with him, to where I would have the fans scream it out in the building as he hit it. The fans were excited, because they breath inside this fake-world we've created.

Well, at least in my fake-world!

JN

Jamar said...

ick. I meant 'breathe'. I hate when people fuck that up. I'm going to re-cloak now!

Anonymous said...

"Dan Ryan wishes he could do a Spoiler-quality Powerbomb."

When he's right he's right.

Because we do two distinct styles of powerbomb. :-) Not that anyone reads descriptions.

No one gets us, Dan. No one.

Anonymous said...

Ah...the days when Hornet handcuffed Adler to a limousine and sent him for a ride.

Anonymous said...

"Ah...the days when Hornet handcuffed Adler to a limousine and sent him for a ride."

He only got that idea after Randalls handcuffed Windham to a pickup truck. Of course, I only got that idea 'cause I had to go to summer camp again.

--MUSTdie

P.S. Was that really JN? I thought he was a ghost around here! ;)