The Interview Series: Mike Stanton

Welcome to Code Name: Project Discovery Channel, or what I'd like to call "The Interview Series". Like the name says, it'll be a series of interviews with the who's who of the e-fed world. There will be three different types of interviews:

1 - Handler Interviews - This is where I, Tom Holzerman, interview handlers completely out-of-character about their various projects in e-fedding.

2 - The Michael Morenstein Files - This will be akin to the Rob Feinstein shoots (only not by an alleged pedo!), where my fictional wrestling journalist, Michael Morenstein, will interview wrestlers/e-fed characters in an "out of character" setting.

3 - Squiggy Jackson Presents - This is a series of interviews that are totally in-character and will deal with in-character issues.

So, without further ado, here's the first in the Handler Interviews series, and it's with Mike Stanton. If you don't know Mike, he dilligently runs LVW and handles Doc Silver and The First in various feds around the FW circuit. I have to say, this was an excellent interview to start the series. Enjoy!

---

TH: First up, thanks for doing this!

MS: No problem at all, interview stuff is awesome.

TH: First question, you've come back with LVW after a considerable hiatus. What was the inspiration for bringing the fed back?

MS: I brought LVW back because I just have a lot of time on my hands and I'd read comments on your blog about it was fun cause it was kind of different and gimmicky, and that's what I'm trying to do with LVW, a really kind of low end indy fed, I don't write it as much like that cause I don't want people being offended that their guys gassed out after 5 minutes or having dropkicks with a ton of daylight. But I just felt like I had the time to do it and people seemed to want it back, so I got it back off the ground.

TH: Aside from the blog, did you get a lot of positive feedback for LVW's first run?

MS: People liked it from what I could tell, there was a lot of enjoyment out of it, the problem was that we had a screw up between Paul and myself where he got busy with a job and so did I, where I'd write the card and then he'd edit and post things, and we just got hung up on a card and then it got posted late, and next thing you now, next card comes out, and nobody Rp's for it. I think it was just the fact that LVW didn't have that base of support that it could handle a lull, like CSWA could be gone for 3 years and if they posted a thread for a card, it would get Rp. I think A1E, EPW and NFW are they same, they are franchises that have that kind of credibility with handlers, LVW wasn't at that point, so while people enjoyed it, they didn't bleed LVW as they would another league.

TH: Is that what prompted you to go with a shorter style of matchwriting?

MS: That's a part of it. I want quick turnaround in the cards to make sure there isn't a lull, but it's also the fact that I'm the only one writing for LVW, I'm not outsourcing these matches, I might do that in the future, but I'd expect a quick turnaround from those that were writing for me. The other side of it is, this is LVW, these guys are supposed to not be amazingly good wrestlers, like a Super Spade Vs J1D fight really shouldn't be a 30 minute classic, these guys should be green and working as good a 6 minute match as possible. I wouldn't go long with really anyone on the card right now except Olvir and Donovan cause they are more legit. In time the rest of the locker room will get that way to, but I want it to be a growing process for the new characters.

TH: Okay, going with the theme of characters, you got Donovan, Olvir and if Franklin can get some stability into his life, Broadway Johnny Doll back from the original run. In a two parter, which new characters are you most excited for, and which from the original run would you love to see back in LVW?

MS: I love 7-10, and Born Again, partly cause I was in on making those characters and Born Again is someone I felt the league kind of needed to have since our two main faces are a Viking Porn star and a Hooker loving Cowboy. I mean kind of need an anti-sex heel to deal with those two. I like J1D cause that gimmick is something he's clearly got working and building on.

As for who I'd want back. Well I'd want El-Magic-O back cause Mike's a great Rp man and the gimmick was camptastic. And I'd love somebody to take over the Ben Lerner gimmick, a scumbag lawyer is always a good thing. Paul and I had a few gimmicks for old LVW we never got off the ground that are still looking for homes now.

TH: That actually sounds interesting. Would you mind letting us in on a few of those gimmicks, or do you want to keep them a suprise?

MS: One gimmick is Chief Bigbet, he'd be from the tribe that owns Foxwoods, he'd be the Anti-Vegas heel with a bit of Million Dollar Man to him. We had him worked up to just be this totally scumbag who would talk about how the white people had hurt his tribe, but he himself would never use his money for native american causes, and he'd always date white women, just a complete jerk.

And for this time around, my two current gimmicks I have in my mind are a Glenn Beck rip off...I want somebody who loves LVW...And fears for it...He'd have a segment called the "Doom Room" or something and talk about how LVW is going to be a commie state or run by the One World Government or whatever the hobgoblin of the day is.

And I'd like somebody to play the son of the owner, Gary Goldale, and just get this totally undeserved push cause he's the son of the owner, like when Shane was fake punching Randy Orton to death, just doing that as a gimmick to drive people nuts.

TH: Keeping in the vein of being the owner of the fed, how much input is Paul Kobylarz having this time around?

MS: We talk now and then, cause he's in Vegas with me, but he's mostly just sticking to holding the reigns of the Bill Bellmoth character, when I get to much into FW stuff his eyes kind of glaze over at this point.

TH: Heh, well, good luck with LVW, but let's get into the handling side of things right now. You're one-half of the EPW Tag Team Champions as The First. You guys don't really have a lot of challengers right now to the point where fedhead Dave Brunk is actively recruiting teams. Has he sort of let on to you who's bitten so far?

MS: There has been no word on who if anyone has come in looking for a shot. I really don't know what I can and can't say here as far as spoilers go but basically Barry and I had one plan for the tag belts and that's fallen through, so at this point we're going with another idea, but all these plans were pretty much based upon getting The First out of the tag division and into a singles push.

TH: Interesting. I won't prod anymore. But back to another question, you've reintroduced the always-controversial Doc Silver back into FW, both in EPW and TEAM. What can we expect, and regarding TEAM, how do you feel about your chances in the upcoming Invitational Tournament?

MS: Well Doc's back cause of the whole angle with Ryoko and Felix, he's going to be the Mr. Perfect Felix's Ric Flair, except that at a certain point, once Ryoko's contract with Felix is up, he's going to try to kill Felix, before that happens, if anyone wants to start something with Doc, that's always cool.

As for TEAM, I put Doc in there instead of The First cause I really hate walking in blind to a match, cause it's just like, you're yelling your stuff, and they are yelling their stuff, and then somebody judges the winner. If I get past the first round, and so does Cameron Cruise, then that'll be a lot of fun, cause I know Cammy and he knows me and we can just rip each other apart. I like the concept of TEAM it's just that sometimes with my style of RPing I feel like I just can't find a groove against an opponent and that costs me. So my hope would be to win two matches with one of them being a war with Siegel, and anything beyond that would be gravy.

Oh, and to make sure everyone is up to date on the latest events in the NFL and the NFL draft with Doc and Greenie, I like RPing them as just talking about random shit and having them fighting over the Patriots and Dolphins.

TH: Everybody loves them some football. Anyway, final question. A lot of people know about your checkered past with A1E. I don't want to dig that up, but with a lot of FW stalwarts going there over the years like Brunk, Ryan Strawsma and now Gregg Gethard, is there any chance of that bridge being rebuilt and seeing Doc Silver or any other of your characters in an A1E ring?

MS: I dunno, Doc wouldn't do it, cause like that character he's a prick, and he'd only do something like a 'go to CSWA or go to A1E' in an angle where he won the World Title just as this big 'holy shit' shock to the system kind of deal. But CSWA hasn't been to keen on the Doc Silver World Title Run, and I doubt A1E would be rolling out the red carpet for such an event.

I could see The First in A1E. But at the same time, I kind of like having him only in EPW, trying to be like the big star of that company, I like that A1E has a quick turn around on its cards, I've been away for a long time so I don't know exactly how the voting goes there now, but I'm still leery of it, and I'd figure people there would be kind of leery of me, so I guess I'd just have to say that until you have The A1ETron suddenly show the words "Pax Vobiscum" on it, that I'd not there. But who knows.

TH: Alright, well, thanks for the time, and the best of luck with LVW and with The First and Doc Silver!

MS: Thanks man, glad to get air time on the blog.

TH: No problem.