A *gasp* News Post?

Criminy!

- As what accounts to "old news", NEW and WFW have merged. I cryptically referred to the merger in a previous post, but now it's official. I think it's a good move. Paul Miller has always had loyal RPers for WFW, and now that he has help with Sean Edmunds (who has completed law school and should have more time), the fed can help with this mini-renaissance that FW.com's leagues are undergoing.

- In what is huge news, Pete Speer over at PTC has announced that GTT, PTC's premier tournament, will be coming back from hiatus this year. As a former participant, critic, fan and follower of past tourneys, I have to say that this is exciting news. Will it lure some former PTC fed RPers out of retirement and perhaps back into active competition? Maybe, maybe not, but even if it's just an outlet for currently active handlers to do something, it'll be a success.

- Another bit of PTC news, Pete has also posted the first bit of hype for PWN, which will presumably be his first foray into fedheading since stepping down from PRIME in 2006. This piece is actually portrayed as a news story from the '50s and it implies that PWN in character would have been around for at least 80 years or so. The idea is fantastic, but my fear is that much like Mat Waters' much hyped and promoted One World Wrestling, this fed will peter out after a few shows. Let's keep an eye on this, and hopefully, it will become the next PTC stalwart fed.

Quick Hits

Well, I have a new installment for Project Discovery Channel halfway finished. Let's just say it's the first in the Michael Morenstein series, so expect it to be... different. However, I need to get back on AIM and finish it up, which could prove tricky. The long abscence has been pretty bad on my part. Apologies, but this blog ain't going anywhere. Now, onto the quick hits...

- I heard from a little birdie that NEW is about to awaken from its long slumber and post the long-awaited Banned in the US PPV. Edmunds, having finished law school, will have a little more time to devote to fed-heading, and hopefully, this signifies a full-time comeback for NEW. It fills a niche that's been lacking on FW since its hiatus began

- I also heard from that same birdie that another long-dormant FW league is going to be making a comeback, and that NEW is going to merge with that league. My source told me to keep things hush-hush as for the identity of the other fed, but it's one that shares a lot of heritage with NEW.

- First round results for the East and West brackets in the TEAM Invitational Tournament were posted, and everything proceeded to seed. Shame that there were no upsets, but I have a feeling we'll get one in the next set of first round matches. Just in case you're wondering, I'm not feeling too good about my chances to advance, but that's okay. If I advance, I advance. If I don't, well, it's not the end of the world.

- One more thing, please check out Billy Ferraro's new blog, the FW Money Shot. It may seem a bit tl;dr on the surface, but trust me, it's got some good content. It's always good to have another member of the blogring.

In defense of the PRIME/GCW inter-card

Along with NFW's WrestleBowl 2 and the long-awaited CSWA Gold Rush, the most anticipated and lauded event on the FW calendar this year was the joint EPW/NEW PPV, WrestleStock. Both Brunk and Edmunds spent good time promoting it, despite the event coming up right before a regular PPV in each company. Not many feuds were blown off during the event, and actually, the only thing that I thought was resolved during the whole card was EPW's King of the Cage tournament. Looking at the card, there was reason to believe that the event could result in a disappointment, but it didn't. You know why? Because the RPers for the most part promoed their asses off for it, and the people writing the card on both sides put the time and effort into making it a special event despite the fact that it was coming right before major events on each fed's calendar. And do you want to know how many inter-fed matches there were on the total card? Zero.

Now, the PTC community has its own interfed event coming up on the calendar. PRIME and GCW are promoting their own supercard, the combined Devil's Night/Great American Nightmare. Like EPW and NEW, this event isn't taking place at a major PPV for either company. GCW has NC-17 coming up, and PRIME is about ready to segue into its Jewel in the Crown tournament. Unlike their FW counterpart though, there are going to be interpromotional matches on this card. Much like the FW show, there could be a chance that this event might disappoint, but once again, I feel that with the people involved in the proceedings, it won't.

There are those people who are clearly parked in the disappointment camp though. This thread is a clear example of that. Now, don't get me wrong. Some of these criticisms do have sound basis in them. Sure, some of the interfed matches don't seem like they have build behind them, and yeah, it would have been nicer if a GCW World Championship match was there to stand side by side with the PRIME Universal Title match already booked. Still though, I can definitely see what Ben and Matt were doing when they put this card together. So what if there weren't more interpromotional matches? Really, if one of the big criticisms was that some of the cross-fed matches didn't have build, shouldn't you hold off on the REALLY BIG matches like Lia Ambrosi vs. Lindsay Troy or Rich Rollins vs. Jason Snow until you've had a chance to build more heat in those categories? And outside of feds mutually invading each other, wouldn't the best way to build that heat be a slowburn across one or two interfed shows before the much larger one?

Besides, WrestleStock proved that you don't need interpromotional matches for a crossfed card to be successful. I applaud the folks involved for putting on these matches, but they didn't need to. The point of the whole thing, at least to me, was to take two "minor" PPV events, combine them, make them "major" by association, get people talking about both feds and give each fed's audience some exposure to the other's. For PRIME and GCW, the exposure part is bigger since PTC feds have more of their own "exclusive" readers than the FW feds seem to have.

Honestly, you can dwell on the hype, or lack thereof, all you want when it comes to Devil's Night/Great American Nightmare. Any event can fall flat on its face if the people involved in preparing it let it. However, interfed matches or no interfed matches, big name matches or no big name matches, the quality of any card is judged by how it's RPed for and how it's written. I have full faith that the combined crews for this card will deliver in a big way, and everyone will end up being pleasantly surprised when the show's over.

EPW/NEW WrestleSTOCK: Night Two

Here we go again! I know I'm late to the game, but hey, better late than never.

Clicky clicky

Beau Michaels and the Cleaning Lady

That was... bizarre. Which only means that it was par for the course for Beau Michaels. I'm wondering how Beau is going to fit into Melton's storyline and future, especially if he keeps the belt past Russian Roulette. It looks like the program after RR is going to be the winner of the contender's match against whomever is Champion, but then again, there's no guarantee Melton walks out of RR as the Champion. Good segment though.

Not So Tactful

Ooh, a mic spot! Larry Tact does the interviewage here with Sammy Baxter... I'm wondering here if Baxter is supposed to be such a dope. Aaaanyway, good spot, the kind of thing that definitely belongs on a PPV/supercard type setting.

The Queen Holds Court

From one mic spot backstage to another one in-ring, this time from Lindsay Troy, Dan Ryan, and later on, Beast. Usually, I don't like these kinds of things on PPV, but I think in this instance, it works seeing that this supercard is also building up towards an EPW PPV, and because if you got swerved out of your panties on night one of a two night event, wouldn't you want to react ASAP, i.e., on night two? Great mic spot as always from Lindz, and I like how they never really dropped the IrishRed/Beast in-charge angle either. Good tension there.

Dahaka/Scott

First match of the evening and it belongs to EPW. Frankie Scott and Nakita Dahaka, but before that match, another mic spot, once again, to explain what happened the night before. Excuse me for gushing, but between NEW and EPW, are you going to find a collective that's better at grasping the concept of a wrestling promo than these guys? You see folks who don't do promos all that often who think of the promo-style as nothing but "trash talk." They look down on it because of that, and then when they try to do it, they fall flat on their face because they only concentrate on insults and in some cases, their insults are worse than the kind you'd hear on the playground in kindergarten. Once again though, Scott delivers with the mic-work.

Onto the match, good, standard fare. The improvement in how the EPW announcers were handled from night one is noticeable and appreciated. Some clever spots in here too, my favorite of which being Scott giving Dahaka a low blow and her shrugging it off and waylaying him. Shocking finish, since I didn't think the Sarge was going to return in that capacity. Good feud setting up between Team PHENOM and James/Sarge, although the issue between Scott and Dakaha clearly isn't over, not especially after the happenings with Delilah. It'll be interesting to see where this all goes.

Payne/File

Wow, a lot of hardcore matches on the slate for NEW over this event. Not a bad thing though. I like how Chaos is the overlord of the whole P­­©X division. It gives it a good, primal feel. One thing I didn't like about this match was Julius' constant gay jokes on Jive. Not sure if I noticed this night one, but they really jumped out to me as being bad in this match. Not bad as in "omg homofobe" but bad as in... they were kinda lame. Solid match regardless though. Really looking forward to Payne and Chaos.

Making His Mark

Tact's planning something big... not sure how what he did here figures in, but I'm sure we'll find out later.

CHRONIC COLLIZION~!

Nice way to gloss over a no-show here. Knee-jerk is to squash the no-show, and yes, that's my preferred method, but this is a good way too, especially if you want the no-show to stick around. Good spot, good for reintroduction.

Truce of the Daymons

Wow, Strawsma was a freaking workhorse for this event, wasn't he? Not as much brawling as night one, but it gets the point across, much like his CC seg before.

Saviors/Jack 'n Hoff

Nice match, although I thought it was too heavy on the "wholesale naming of wrestling moves." Matches aren't called like that in real life, and it kinda trips me up. Still, not a bad match, and I liked the post-match announcement. Should be a bopper.

Tre Day + EPW Tag Titles

First up, it's ICE TRE~! Once again, another stellar mic spot, although having Stevens pull double duty at RR? I'm not totally in tune with the card lineup for the event, but I'm pretty sure he's only in one match. Anyhoo, onto the match...

It was a nice, solid affair. Once again, not a huge fan of the wholesale name-a-move style of calling the action, but the more important thing is they got the spirit of the announce team down. I have to say, the EPW team has been handled much better on night 2. Good set-up with CC~! coming out after the match. Dalekchev has money written all over him though, both with "VJORK" and saying "formerly Crimson Calling" after every time Black says CHRONIC COLLIZION~!

Mr. Entertainment/HAL

I really like how much of a prick Mr. E is. Great old-school heel on camera, although I do think Karl needs to post fewer song lyrics with his RPs :p As for the action, it's solid as usual. NEW seems to have the same problem with spelling out every move, but then again, it's still a minor problem. I really liked the finish, and I'm looking forward to the match at BitUS.

BEAU-tylicious

Once again, Edmunds does the perfect job of both getting the point across and disturbing nearly everyone who reads his Beau interviews. :p Good segment.

Anarky/Beast

This match was pretty short, a quick jaunting read, but I think it works here. Why? The brutality was turned all the way up to 11. The temptation would be to make this match über-brutal and über-long at the same time, but that would have to imply Supernatural Undertaker-like levels of stamina that wouldn't come off as believable. Having Ryan and 'Nark mug the hell out of Beast furthers the storyline AND it makes sense. There were some pretty sweet spots here too, like Beast sending 'Nark through the storefront window. Good match.

Just Checking Up

Serves its point. Good lead-up segment to the main.

Marx vs. GOP vs. Tact vs. Daymon vs. Hart vs. Rabesque

The big one for Night Two. Nice little intro to start things, and we're off. There's some pretty sick action in here. Whoever wrote this match deserves some props. The announce team is well-written, the action and spots make sense, and I love all the cracks at the state of New Jersey :) I liked the attention to detail, which is hard to do in a match with six competitors in it. My favorite spot by far was the ladders tipping over and everyone going KABOOM. The finish was pretty neat too. Good spot of cheating by Marx's camp, and I don't think I've ever seen the co-Champions bit done with the World title before. Great job, and a great way to close the night.

In Conclusion

Fantastic finish to a fantastic concept. Brunk and Edmunds should be lauded for putting this card together and getting it out in quick (for FW) fashion. Everyone who was involved in this card should get a hearty round of applause. So far, THE event of 2007 in eW.

Apologies and the state of eW from my eyes

No folks, I'm not dead. I'm really not. Just between work and everything else, I've kinda neglected the blog. I don't like doing that, but sometimes, that's how it goes I suppose. I am working on a review for WrestleSTOCK, night 2, and hopefully, I can get that done before NEW and EPW get their next PPVs posted. I do want to say though that both feds should be proud of how the joint card went down. Edmunds, Brunk, Steve, Strawsma and everyone who RPed, wrote matches or had anything to do with the card should be damn proud of it. I really feel it was a rousing success and something that will be remembered in the FW community for a long time.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say a few things, address the communities and such.

First thing's first, I want to make a few apologies. One, I'd like to apologize to Katz, ChrisNova, Jeff, McNic and really everyone in NFW. I've been slacking on the v. 3.0 stuff, and I know people have been counting on me to contribute. It's not for lack of desire to work on NFW stuff, it's just I've budgeted my time really poorly, and I haven't adapted to the new schedule and degrees of freedom Katz has been affording the handlers since the new format has started. Plus, I've totally welched on the WrestleBowl Night 2 review, and really, that's a huge injustice to everyone who contributed to it, especially the UT finalists.

I'd like to extend apologies to Matt Ward, Fergus and the crew at PRIME. I know I left you guys, especially Fergus, in a lurch when I left. It's funny that I always seem to pump up feds that have timely schedules, yet when it comes to competing in a fed that has the excellent combination of punctuality and quality, I came up far short of what I should have been producing as a roster member. I let people down, and I hate doing that. So I'd like to say I'm sorry for that. You guys are running a fine show, and I'm sure that will continue in the future, with or without me.

Finally, I'd like to apologize to all the feds out there that I seem to have given the short shrift on coverage, mainly feds like FUSE and A1E. Please don't think my lack of coverage for your events is an indicator of how your feds are doing.

And now, to part two of the post.

There has been a lot of bemoaning about the state of the hobby lately. I know I've been guilty of perpetuating that with the blog from time to time, but really, with all the doomsaying and such, I really like where eW is at right now. It may not be the "golden age" but if you only want something in its golden age, you're really not interested in that thing all that much anyway, are you? I really do feel like the people involved right now are really involved, and they're making this thing work with very high levels of quality. The feds that are around are producing great results, be they at the punctual rates of feds like A1E and PRIME, or feds going at their own rates, like EPW and NEW.

You can pretty much go to any active fed that's listed in my sidebar here and find good to great writing. In the end, isn't that all you need to ask of any fed you want to participate in or follow? People are interested, people are gung-ho for the projects they are in. There are folks who are dedicated to the feds they're in. There are folks who are spreading across borders and breaking down barriers, challenging themselves in circles where they're not familiar.

I mean, you have guys like ChrisNova who are generally on fire. Craig Maloof is blazing trails both in his PTC home and in FW. Lindz, what else needs to be said about her that hasn't been already? NFW, NEW and EPW are all hot right now. Josh Ray is back pushing the up-and-coming talent in his MWCW. MBE is gaining momentum. Jarret, Phil, Andy and everyone involved in A1E is putting out quality stuff. NAPW and REBEL are still churning out great shows on their indie schedules. Hell, even folks that I've been at odds with in the past, guys like Arrows and William Morgan, are trying out TEAM along with the standbys that I've been able to count on over the past 18 months.

Sure, the new blood is only trickling in, but I'd take what we have right now over floods of new people who come in and flake. We need to stop worrying about the new blood or where all the angle feds have gone or all the doomsaying and concentrate on the positive. We need to concentrate on taking the trickle of new blood and cultivating them into valuable members of our communities. We need to stay positive and keep writing what we're writing. Otherwise, we perpetuate self-fulfilling prophecies of doom, longing for the days of the fWo and CSWA being titans instead of making our own feds that are active now into the feds that we talk about in years future.

I really do think that eW is flourishing right now. I commend everyone who is making that possible, and I think that if we keep up the way we're going right now, this hobby will always be in good shape, no matter what happens with the sport we emulate in real life.

WrestleSTOCK: Night One

Yep, giving this the flagship treatment. Before you flay me, Katz, I will get to Night 2 of WrestleBowl. I'm still trying to get through the last match.

Anyway, flagship review means SEG BY SEG REVIEWAGE for the EPW/NEW Supershow, which should prove as one of the big moments of the year on the FW calendar.

Intro

Solid intro, can't complain about it. Gives the event its due gravity.

Stalker Gets an Appetizer

Good building segment for the match. Things like this may seem overdone, but I can't get enough of them. Interested to see why Stalker is after Daymon though.

Stalker/Hiroshi

BAH GAWD what an opener. I think the length and the intensity of the match fit the RP period very well here. I loved some of the spots, especially the chili to the face and of course, the flaming spin kick through the big screen TV. Absurd spot, but hey, it works. I had a few problems with the match though. One, the matchwriter has a touch of Milleritis... too much CAPSLOCK. Two, the CAPS sections tend to punctuate some pretty egregious spelling errors that might have been hidden better if they were in lowercase. Three, even though I appreciate the attempt at full PBP (my preferred style of reading), I thought that it read too much like a plain-prose transcript with Thomas' PBP. Also, when did Kin Hiroshi go heel? Four... you had Eli Manning make an appearance and NOT take a HLB or an Evenflow DDT? C'mon, the little punk deserves it! :p Despite the flaws though, it was a great opener, and I was thoroughly entertained.

Unlucky 13 Match

First off... that stipulation is ESS-EYE-SEE-KAY SICK! So you know I love it ;) This was a very fun match, very kitschy, and not a lot of actual wrestling, but who cares? It's garbage wrestling all the way, baby! I might have spaced this match out a little from the opener, because giving two hardcore-themed matches in a row might be overkill. Back to the positives though, I loved some of those one-liners from the NEW crew. Good match.

HPSC vs. Brown/Foxx

Wow, no intros? I know I've harped on overly long intros, but this is a bit much, I think. Big mistake right away in the early action with Neels calling Farnswirth cheap without condoning it. Methinks EPW matchwriters need a tutorial on Neels from these first two matches ;) At least it's rectified quite early. Dean's also not jiving with me in that he seems to be a second PBP announcer. It's a problem I see fairly often, actually. I've seen it in TEAM and NFW too. I wonder if it's because people don't really watch a whole lot of wrestling on TV anymore but still participate in eW (then again, sometimes, it feels like WWE broadcasts have two color commentators rather than a PBP and a color). The action was pretty good, and I really liked how the writer protected the Market Crash and still had Foxx logically be able to kick out of it (where Karl interrupts the count). It was quite a non-face thing for Karl to do, but it was smart, and I think that really brought out the cerebral and techincal nature of the Dragon. A lot of positives and negatives for this one, but it'll do for what it was.

Cat's Meow vs. Wells/Starr vs. Doe/Davis

Again, I'm a huge fan of the Doe/misogyny angle. When I saw Cat's Meow's combined weight, I laughed to myself seeing that probably half the eW characters out there are that weight or above. Actually, no, I mainly chuckled to myself imagining Lamont Hollywood saying "285 pounds? I have bowel movements that weigh more than that." Don't ask me why I thought of that, but hey, this is the same person that brought you Spoils vs. KVC vs. Ryan... VS. THE WORLD~! Aaaanyway, enough about that and onto the match. I thought the action was great and the commentary fit. The writer really played into the angle well, and it really made for an entertaining read filled with psychology. The run-in at the end was nice too. I really do expect big things for Doe now that he's found his way.

And a little something extra from Chaos' opponent tacked on at the end of the match

Nice promo, really gets the interest stoked for who this mystery guy is.

Dope

New guy in EPW. He sounds dark and brooding, but in a different way than your typical generic Goth guy, at least so far. He can write monologue, that's for sure. Interested to see who he is, since he's talking about revenge. I think it's probably a previous character looking to get back at one of the big guys. Either way, a welcome addition to the roster it seems.

James Irish vs. Shawn Hart

Wow. THAT's the EPW matchwriting I know and love. Great action all throughout, and Neels was heels all the way through. I liked how Neels kept harping on the bail-out aspect the whole match. It's definitely something he'd do. Some really cool spots in there too, like Hart with the Cloverleaf on James, and of course, I always mark for the Headbangers' Ball. Always appreciate nods to TEAM happenings too. The end was unexpected and a great way to protect Irish's heat without taking the strap off of Hart. Very interested in seeing where the Scott/Hart team is going to go.

A Woman's Ambition

Hm, a narrative segment. Kinda breaks up the flow of the card, but it's something Karl and Amy have been doing for the last couple of cards now. It does set up something big, a title match between Foxx and Karl Brown. I'm interested at the friendly rivalry aspect of things... wonder if anything huge is going to happen at the match, since this is the kind of misdirection that always results out of these things.

Chaos vs. Mystery Man

And the mystery man is... Trevor Cane. I'm a bit underwhelmed by the name, no offense to Trevor, but the angle was well-thought out, so maybe this will give him a rub. As for the match itself... man, this night is turning out to be CZW levels of gory, isn't it? Gotta hand it to everyone involved here, because tonight would make all the hardcore wrestling fans drool between this match and the opening two. I thought the finish might have killed Cane (literally) a bit, but still, Chaos earned this one.

War of the Daymons

Ummm... I have no idea what to make of that. I guess it's the blowoff to Daymon's angle in EPW over the last few months? Neat way to do things though, although I thought there were way too many wrestling moves in there for it to be an impromptu street fight. It was entertaining though.

JA vs. Stevens

I can in no way objectively look at this match. Once again, congrats to Jamar, you deserved this. I do have to admit seeing the loss deflated me a lot, moreso than usual. It was a kick in the gut after all that unpleasantness with the ToC. It's one thing to lose a match. That's acceptable, people HAVE to lose or else the hobby is really worthless. However... to lose that match AFTER having everything melt down from the ToC... I felt pretty bad as both a booker and a handler. It's not fun. But I'm over all that now. Looking forward to XXX and the Champion (not spoiled for the three of you who haven't read the show yet :p)

Bored of Edukashun vs. the Inner Circle

Well, at least the match was well-written, but then again, what can you do with a double no-show? Planning could have been better; maybe this match could have been night two, especially with Lindz having to worry about defending her EPW Championship on the same night. Ah well, at least they can drag the Tag Title stuff out until Banned in the USA.

Lindsay Troy vs. Joey Melton

If this were "real" wrestling, Troy would be getting super brownie points from the Internet smarks right now ;) Two matches in a row, and away we go. The match stared with Neels channeling Lamont Hollywood and Sammy Benson, which is a bad thing, seeing that Neels isn't supposed to be written with a tenth of the wit of the best color men in eW. That's his charm really, that Neels is a dim-witted heel shill who likes to harp on things repeatedly. We also got a recap of the divorce angle, which set things up nice for the match. I definitely LOLed at Melton coming out to "I Will Survive." Steve always has a way of representing Melton with such a paradoxical self-deprecating bravado... and I can't believe I just used that sentence describing an imaginary match that's the fantasy equivalent of the fakest sport this side of boxing :p The match itself had good action. Reading it more and more, it feels like I'm reading a booth with two Beanfries/Hollywood or Buckleys/Benson. The broadcast booth doesn't feel like an EPW team. Taking that for what it was though, the action was great and it totally felt like a World Championship match. The ladder was a good touch too. The end swerve though... I thought the masked man not being Beast was brilliant... and the twin brother thing was something Steve would only pull off and make work, but I'm still leery about it. I have the utmost faith that this will deliver, especially in angles and segments, where the Melton character excels. However, this angle does seem a bit more like "daytime soap opera" than "male soap opera" that wrestling has been described as over the years. I'm waiting for Donaven Winters to come back from the dead now and claim that Caitlyn Daymon is pregnant with his baby after reading that. Still though, it was entertaining, and the after promo was gold. I wish Steve wouldn't save those diatribes for on-cards and put them in his RPs :p

But in closing, let's give Lindz a big round of applause for her title reign. She pretty much proved everyone wrong, and while her biggest naysayers spend each week thinking of excuses why their big show still hasn't gone up and their forums should remain active, she's on top of the eW world.

In Conclusion

Very, very strong card. Some weaknesses, but a joint card of this magnitude is bound to have them, even with everyone getting up for it. Still, the matchwriting was silky-smooth and easy to follow, the finishes and angles hit on every cylinder and of course, the segments were entertaining and not superfluous. Can't wait to read Night 2.

More random notes

I was going to have this big long post about the happenings this weekend, but I figured that'd only unneccessarily raise my blood pressure and my urge to kill everyone who has pissed me off in the last 72 hours. It's healthier to let sleeping dogs lie anyway and not dwell on the past. Let's concentrate on the positive, like everyone who did well in the ToC. Congrats to ChrisNova for adding yet ANOTHER trophy to his mantel for this year. Big ups to everyone in the top 10, becuase it was a damn good crop this year. There have been some other pretty good developments too, like...

- WrestleStock, Night One posted! With everything that was on my plate today, I haven't gotten a chance to sink my teeth into it, but I did skim some results. Big ups to Jamar Short for winning the King of the Cage with "Triple X" Sean Stevens. You deserved it, and if I had to job to anyone, I'm glad it was you.

- If you haven't had the chance yet, go over to PTC and check out what Mat Waters has done with promoting his new angle fed, One World Wrestling. This very much reminds me of an idea I had back before I started brainstorming the original concept for TEAM: Nation-based wrestling. He's been busting his ass, hyping this thread with teaser matches and now, roster profiles. What's unique about the fed is that he's not starting it from the ground floor. He's putting in a backstory, giving the fed history. That's ballsy, very ballsy, but I'm very intrigued by the idea. Hopefully, he'll let his roster input some things about the history, make things as organic and spontaneous as you can with this kind of thing. Here are links to each of his hype pieces thus far. If you've got the stomach for narrative, check them out:

• The Maltese Falcon vs. Nadir


• Persia vs. Greece... aka the movie 300 in wrestling form!


• THE ROMAN SOCCER HOOLIGAN~! in action


• 40 Man Over the Top Battle Royale Spotlight on 100 Freaking Punches


• Our first taste of STOICA~!


• The first profile, naturally, it's STOICA~!


• Introducing the PRIME KILLER~!, Digital Mortality!

DigiMort is the first non-Waters created character featured so far. I'm very intrigued to see both the NPCs that Mat's keeping around like STOICA~! and the handlers who are going to be involved. My advice is to keep an eye on this fed. Hopefully, it can withstand the almost insurmountable entropy that seems to doom angle feds before they start nowadays.

- Another great idea from the PTC fold - PTC Wiki! Big ups to Craig for starting this, and hopefully people pick up on it. FW had one of these rumored too. I know Edmunds has or at least had one for NEW and I think he even proposed one for FW. Edmunds is always thinking a step ahead of the game; it's just too bad a lot of the doers at FW are few and busy with their own projects to be able to help out fully. Either way, Wikis are a great idea to help get outsiders better acclimated to the forums and feds with centralized information. Just another thing that would probably be a lot more fleshed out of we got paid to do this kind of thing :)

The Rundown: NEW

In light of WrestleStock 2007 and because something about this fed is long overdue, I present the home of the 2006 Dupree Cup Champions, New Era of Wrestling!

The Site:
Hey now!

The Champions
World: Jonathan Marx
Television: Mr. Entertainment
Prodigy Classic X-treme: Chaos
Tag: To be decided at WrestleStock

Latest Event: Raucous live from Trelawny, Jamaica (Mon!)

The Skinny on Recent Happenings:

NEW seemed to be on the path of conservative dominance when The Phantom Republican wrested the World Championship away from Jean Rabesque, sending the French-Canadian superstar seemingly out of the fed. However, there was a stumbling block along the way; Jonathan Marx. GOP, of course, was up for the fight, but he didn't count on having to team with Beau Michaels in a tag match where his Championship was on the line. His worst fears came true, and Marx won the title without ever scoring a fall on GOP; he made Michaels tap to the Marxism. Marx later legitimized the title victory by scoring a victory over GOP at BattleBRAWL. Just when you thought it was safe to mark things as "settled down," Jean Rabesque made his surprising return, waylaying GOP after the match was over.

At that same BattleBRAWL event, Shawn Hart, fresh off his return to NEW, entered at #1, and despite facing incredible odds and multiple near eliminations, the Phenom walked out of New York City the number one contender to the World Championship. That thrust him right into the sights of one Jonathan Marx. Their first title match was an impromptu affair, ending with John Doe inexplicably costing his former stablemate Marx the title. Marx won it back the next week, but there was no rubber match...

...mainly because the next Raucous, two matches muddled the title picture greatly. First, there was the Creme de la Creme battle royale, where The Phantom Republican, Jean Rabesque, Shawn Hart and Rocko Daymon all battled furiously. Then there was the Blast from the Past, where Jonathan Marx and Larry Tact crossed paths with two other guys who were there for nostalgia.

Tact also was planning a huge match for the Supershow, one that would feature himself and five hand-picked opponents.

Any coincidence that they were GOP, Rabesque, Hart, Daymon and Marx? And that's how we got to the Dueling Ladders match at WrestleStock, and they're going into it at full speed. At the last Raucous (the linked one in Trelawny), the main event lumberjack match between GOP and Marx ended with everyone brawling and Marx shockingly proving every Communist accusation that GOP levied against him and using the People's Liberation Army to plot his escape. Will he escape in Giants Stadium though?

Who to Watch For:

Larry Tact - He was the first NEW World Champion, and he could be the next. Since coming back, he's taken the bull by the horns and put himself in position to be the top dog in NEW for a long time to come. He's a team player, he writes segments, does angles and is a damn good RPer to boot. It's great to have him back in NEW, and he should provide some excitement at the top of the card for the forseeable future.

Rocko Daymon - Daymon is making a comeback in the FW arena. After a few years of relative obscurity, he's making waves in a few other feds, but his resurgence in NEW is what we're focusing on today. Daymon brought it in the Dueling Ladders match, and there's a good shot that he's going to come away with one of the briefcases. He's also the only guy in the fed who'll give that Phantom Republican guy a chance ;)

John Doe - I'm really impressed with Doe's character and angle since he came back. He's on this crusade to get women out of the wrestling ring and back into the kitchen, where they belong in his mind. This may seem like a clichéd angle, but you'd be surprised how little it comes up around eW, especially with the bounty of female characters. NEW is the FW fed with the most characters with no Y-chromosome, and if they're going to try and integrate the men with the women, this is the best avenue to do it.

Bored of Edukashun - I know that Canteloupe has had computer troubles lately, which may have figured into the BoEd's showing at WrestleStock, but this team will still make waves in the nascent tag division. Along with the Inner Circle, Jack 'n Hoff and the Saviors of Wrestling, the BoEd, who have a pretty neat gimmick, could make some waves in '07.

Write-up roundup

Yep, show reviews. I'm breaking protocol and throwing up some quickie reviews for non-PPV events because, hey, I haven't done any kind of review in awhile and, well, I damn well feel like it.

- I know I probably should have started with this yesterday, but NEW's latest edition of Raucous hit the e-airwaves. Along with the most recent edition of EPW Aggression, this is required reading before you dive headling into the WrestleStock proceedings. A lot of buildup here, and a pretty good writeup for the main event. Yeah, I don't like the fact that there was a no-decision in the title match, but it did inject even more heat than was already there for the Night Two main. Sometimes you have to work in no-decisions in RPed matches to angle things along.

- NAPW's Tagstravaganza II was probably the biggie event that happened in the last week or so. Love the concept behind this event, two gauntlets with the winners facing off. I have to admit that I'm out of the loop concerning NAPW and Rebel, but I don't think you need to know that much. The cardwriters do a good job of filling everybody in. I thought there were a lot of good subplots in each match, and it definitely makes you want to "tune in" so to speak to the next NAPW or Rebel show. The attention paid to non-contending teams like the Celtic Assassins, the Murder City Devils and the Bluegrass Mafia is a prime example of why NAPW is the leader for tag team wrestling, and that's saying something given that EPW, PRIME and A1E all have strong divisions or are in the process of building them.

- Speaking of PRIME, ReVolution 127, live, on the air. I do have to say I'm enjoying really everything surrounding the main event angle. Given the players involved, I'm not surprised. Paranoid Jason Snow is a great twist on the character as well, and it should provide for some sparks after this angle's over. Good to see Chainz get injected here, as he's long overdue for a main event push, AWC or PRIME. I kinda enjoyed the Shakur/Sun Tzu stuff too. The first segment was pretty good, but I thought the attack on Gamble was a bit too inside-jokey and ridiculous. I'm also still not a fan of reprinting song lyrics in toto for entrances. It's not a good match extender... it's just annoying. I like the idea of combining the titles, and the segments worked for me. What doesn't work for me though are these extreme injuries that should take people out for long amounts of time. I mean, Dusk gets shot and he still comes back to win the Intense Title? Pierce Lavelle gets thrown out of a second story window and isn't out for an extended period of time? I'm all for going above and beyond the boundaries of what you can do in "real" wrestling, but some of this is too ridiculous even for my tastes. I feel like PRIME is a mixed bag right now.

The EPW/NEW SuperCard: WrestleStock 2007

It's finally here, the EPW/NEW SuperCard, dubbed WrestleStock (more on the name later), two months later than expected, but in FW time, that's a matter of seconds ;). Besides, an event of this magnitude needed a good build, and with all the stuff on the card, the King of the Cage, the NEW Tag Team Tournament, Tact's Challenge Match, every single title in both companies on the line, you couldn't just rush into this thing. Let me also say personally that as a participant in two of the biggest matches on the card and also representing both feds (King of the Cage final and the NEW World Title cluster), I'm honored and humbled to be a part of FW, and maybe even e-fed, history. Now, I'm not so arrogant to think that my time in eW is a full representation of its history, but I also know that since I've broadened my scope in 2004, I've never seen something like this attempted let alone pulled off. Hell, even when I was just in the A1 feds, we never came close to getting the two home feds together. There was a lot of talk about having a supercard between A1E and MBE before MBE closed its doors, but the two BCs either had their own plans for their respective feds' direction or were too far apart on the terms. It's a big to-do.

Anyway, let's run down the matches, shall we? This card is so big, we have two nights of action, so let's break it down like dX:

Night One
Stalker's Open Challenge
EPW newcomer Stalker kicks the first night off with a challenge of anyone in the eW world. So far, the only one to answer the bell has been Kin Hiroshi, and they've been prolific so far. I mean, Mike Stanton prolific. Don't be daunted by their early flurry if you want in, but I won't be disappointed if these guys are the only two to show. Cluster matches are fun, but singles matches usually yield better heat in the long run.

Unlucky 13 Match - Rex Reynolds vs. MWG
I'm really not sure what an Unlucky 13 match is, but knowing Edmunds, it'll be something interesting. You have the relative newcomer taking on the old vet, a guy I've been pegging to be in the NEW World Championship scene for quite awhile now. Barry's got the talent, but does he have the time? That seems to be the only thing holding him back nowadays as nearly everything he touches turns to gold if he can show. This will be a good place for "The Future" to prove his mettle though.

Highland Park Social Club vs. Karl Brown and Foxx
This match was set up on the most recent Aggression. Good to see the Club back in EPW; I thought their last run was cut short, but with time at a premium for the parties involved, it wasn't surprising. Like the cross-promotional reinforcement of Adam Benjamin joining the fray as well. This should be a good match, and I like the heels here on a hunch. Nothing against Karl and Foxx though, but I feel Benji's improved enough lately, and Phil, of course, is Phil.

Cat's Meow vs. Jared Wells and Karla Starr vs. John Doe and Tina Davis
Interesting match, and I have to say that I dig John Doe's angle. Sure, the woman hater seems to be something that's done to death, but it's always a great source of cheap heat, and it almost always sets up any female character to hit big. Yeah, the guy in the angle would get his heat annihilated in real life, but everyone knows that heat is so much more elastic in eW than in real life. Kudos to Rivera for running it. I do have to say though, it's good to see the gender segregation in NEW come to an apparent end, at least for now. As for a pick... it's hard to bet against Jared Wells, but I do like what Rivera's been doing lately, as I just said.

EPW Television Championship Match - Shawn Hart (c) vs. James Irish
A rematch from the second round of the TEAM Invitational Tournament. Good to see there's some interfed history here. Before the TiT final, Hart was pretty much unstoppable, and James hit sort of a cold spell. Momentum has turned a bit for both guys, but I still think this is going to be a very competitve match and still Hart's match to lose here.

NEW P©X Championship Match - Chaos (c) vs. Mystery Man
You'd think I'd get tired of seeing mystery man angles, especially in NEW where Larry Tact just came back with much fanfare with one. Still though, I'm a sucker for them, and I kinda like where this was headed from the last Raucous. I think Chaos retains, but hopefully, the unmasking will yield something good for NEW.

King of the Cage Final - Jericoholic Anonymous vs. "Triple X" Sean Stevens
I can't really say a whole lot about this match except that I'm extremely honored to be here, and that I wish Jamar all the luck in the world. I know we can tear the roof off the joint, so I say let's do it.

NEW Tag Tournament Finals - Inner Circle vs. Bored of Edukashun
Lindsay Troy pulling double-duty on night one... this is huge for both the Canteloupe's foray into the FW world and for Melton in the night one main, but I think Lindz is resilient enough to put up more than a puncher's chance. Besides, she's got Ryan in her corner. That team would be favored against probably any other team in this environment. I wouldn't sleep on the Bored though. Good pedigree and a pretty sweet gimmick. This match is hard to call, but I'm flipping a coin and saying BoE with the upset.

EPW World Championship Cage Match - Lindsay Troy (c) vs. Joey Melton
The only thing I'd change about this match is the stipulation. The other really big EPW match of the night is a cage match, so why dilute the stip? I personally would have liked a strap match, but that's just me ;). This should be a super-fun match, and judging from Steve's first RP, my initial feelings are correct. Go read it now. In fact, I'll freaking link you to it. Even as that stands, I still feel like Lindz is going to retain here. Sorry Tard :p

Night Two
Nakita Dahaka vs. Frankie Scott
Whoa! Great to see Scott back RPing, and great to see him blow off his feud with Dahaka. One has to wonder what kind of rust he has, and I do think this will be a close match. I also think Scott will pull it out. I'm telling you, he has the talent to break off an amazing run and go right to the World Championship. I've seen the flashes... he just needs to get his real life affairs in order, get everything settled that he can, and then have some time to just go and make a run.

P©X Contenders Match - Jason Payne vs. Peter File
Why Jason Payne hasn't won anything in an FW fed outside of the TEAM FFA~! Title is beyond me. He's overdue. Of course, he could be NFW World Champion by the time this is posted, but hey, that isn't here yet ;). That's not to discount File, who plays the almost-too-creepy character very well. Still, I'm going with Payne here.

CHRONIC COLLIZION! vs. Class Act
I'm not going to lie to you. I have no idea who Class Act is, and therefore, I'm not predicting this match. However, I do like that EPW is rolling out tag matches for this. They have a great tag division and they should flaunt it.

Contenders Match for the NEW Tag Titles - Saviors of Wrestling vs. Jack 'n Hoff
Semifinalists from the tournament square off. Should be good fare if both teams show up, but I'll take the Saviors here. Good way for NEW to build the fledgling division though. Hopefully, more teams will come in and FW will have four feds with strong tag divisions (although by saying four, I may have let a cat out of the bag for NFW...)

EPW Tag Team Championships - Cameron Cruise Project (c) vs. The Proletariat
MORE TAG TEAMS! Yippee! I'm really up for this match. Two of the best teams in the game, period. One is a legendary team, and the other is an interesting gimmicked team of up and comers. Always a fan of Communists in wrestling, and I think I have to go with the challengers here. Sorry Tard :p

NEW Television Championship - Mr. Entertainment (c) vs. HAL
This should be a fun match. HAL made his bones in the Dupree Cup, but hasn't cashed in in the fed yet. That could be a function of NEW's relative inactivity, but I still see big things for the character. I love gimmicks, especially off-beat ones. Mr. E's a solid character who also has TEAM success under his belt, but I think it's HAL's time with the TV title.

Street Fight - Beast vs. Anarky
Levinson pulling double duty here! Another biggie, hell this is a dream match-up across the A1/FW circuit. This one isn't without history. Each man represents their ownership representative, and it's a pretty good main event in the progression of the top angle in EPW. As for a winner... I'll have to flip a coin here and say Beast comes out on top... for now.

NEW World Championship Dueling Ladders Match - Jonathan Marx (c) vs. Larry Tact vs. Jean Rabesque vs. Rocko Daymon vs. Shawn Hart vs. The Phantom Republican
Wow, what a match to finish things off. Seriously, I can't make any predictions here, but once again, good luck to everyone involved. To quote the Man in the Black Resistol Hat, this one oughtta be a slobberknocker!
-
As for the naming of the event, I honestly feel it's a faux pas on the part of both Brunk and Edmunds, especially since they're both in NFW and have been for a long time. Granted, NFW's WrestleStock was in the West, and I may have been the only person who was in the East for the entire season who followed the other conference. Still, when you share the same circuit as another fed who has an event of the same name, it'd be nice to be cognizant of that fed's event names.

The one saving grace is that the wrestling business is notorious for having several feds share the same event names, especially among the indies. While FW feds purport to be all national feds, the real structure of the site and the circuit is that of one big group of indies. I feel that lessens the blow, and in the long run, it's not going to be a big deal. Still though, in the future, you should really check around, at least the feds in your circle, y'know?

April's Wrestler of the Month

I had a very hard time trying to decide this month's honor, mostly because there wasn't a lot going on outside of interfed events. I had to look long and hard at two candidates, and I ultimately decided to award a previous winner, "The Ego Buster" Dan Ryan. He made it all the way to the TEAM Invitational Tournament Finals, and he's making headway, along with Lindsay Troy, in the NEW Tag Team Tournament. The biggie though, is his A1E World Championship win. I know that happened in March, but it happened after I announced the March WotM, and because of that, I'm counting Sudden Death in Blog-month April. So congratulations to Dan Ryan, keeping up the tradition Facey started last year of there being a two-time winner of this award each year.

The runner up goes to Jason Snow, who is a two time runner up. Who did he lose out to last time? Dan Ryan. When it rains, it pours, folks. Snow is here because he unified the PTC Global and Extreme Championships. His inactivity in any single fed costs him here, but folks, if he ever gets going in PRIME, he may take home a few of these honors.

Honorable Mentions
Clinton Sage (FUSE, PTC Events), Ulysis Solian (LoC, A1E, TEAM Events), Rex Caliber (Rebel-Pro), Jason Payne (TEAM Events), Lindsay Troy (PRIME, EPW, NEW, TEAM Events), "Triple X" Sean Stevens (EPW), Ravager (NAPW, TEAM Events), Shawn Hart (NEW, EPW, A1E, LoC, TEAM Events), Rocko Daymon (A1E, EPW, NEW, TEAM Events), Tchu (PRIME)

2007 Winners
January: Dan Ryan (NFW, A1E)
February: Clinton Sage (FUSE, PTC Events)
March: Nova (NFW, PRIME)

EPW and NEW Joint PPV

I can't believe I forgot to mention this in the previous entry, but this does deserve its own blog post. Recently, Brunk made a huge announcement on the FW boards concerning EPW and NEW, ie, that they're putting on a joint show in March. It won't be an interfed competition type; each fed will be putting on their own matches.

This is a great idea, I think. I know the tendency for interfed cards is to have matches between members of both feds, but they resist, and I think it makes for a good, old-school feel. I do hope they do one, big interpromotional match as sort of the sub-main event to each fed's respective title matches, but even if they don't, this should be an event to follow. Hopefully, it'll give people who just follow EPW a chance to check out NEW and vice-versa.

You want old school?

This message goes out to EVERYONE, but...

It seems that the buzz on both EWN and especially on PTC is that people wanna go back to the old school. Back when RPing meant trash talking and not writing page after page of storyline stuff. I keep trying to say that there's a whole world out there dedicated to old school, where in their minds, time has stood still, right here at FW Central.

Well, if you guys really want to hit up the old school, there isn't any better time to do it than now. Chad Merritt and Sean Edmunds are giving out the chances of a lifetime in their respective feds, the granddaddy of them all, the CSWA and the newer school NEW. They're holding ALL COMERS WELCOME events with gold and shots at gold on the line. I hate to sound like a used car salesman, but that's right, you can walk right off the proverbial street and come away with a piece of CSWA gold or a shot at the NEW World Heavyweight Championship.

On the CSWA front, it was announced that the fed's landmark event, Anniversary would have only two matches, but these two matches would comprise of an event called the Gold Rush. The in-character description of this is that there's going to be five rings, set up so that there are four outer rings and one inner ring. It's basically going to look like the five on a die. In the middle ring, UNIFIED Champion Troy Windham stands alone. On the four outer rings, any and all comers will compete. In three of the outer rings, there will be the three CSWA singles Champions below the UNIFIED holder (Jericoholic Anonymous, Greensboro; Jay Phoenix, Presidential; Kin Hiroshi, United States). In the fourth ring, there will be no Champion. Now the winners of each battle royale in each of the outer rings will advance to the midle ring. In each of the three rings that has one of the secondary Champions, the winner will also come away with that title belt. In the ring with no Champion in it, the winner will receive a sort of "Money in the Bank" that he can use as a shot to ANY CSWA Championship if he doesn't succeed in the second part of the match.

Now, in that aforementioned second part of the match, it's a five-way dance amongst Windham and the four winners for the biggest prize in all of e-wrestling, the UNIFIED Championship, which represents not only the CSWA but about 50 other leagues from the old-school Prodigy days.

Does that sound tempting enough for you? No? You want something a little mor straightforward? Well then, have I got the solution for you!

NEW's BattleBRAWL, which is like their Royal Rumble, has opened entries to all-comers as well. If you win, you get a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship, currently held by Jonathan Marx. It'll be you vs. 29 other competitors, some of the best the FW world has to offer. Add that to the fact that Edmunds is a terriffic fedhead who's gotten some pretty big name talent from across the spectrum to compete for him. Not only does he have the FW elite, he's also got Kyle handling Turk, the LoC Underground Champion, there in the short term as well as Sean Williams, who you may know better as Seymour Almasy, Thanatos, Kenjiro Ito or Logic, handling a sumo named Ozeki.

And on top of that, Edmunds will be doing something that I think takes a lot of patience and passion for the game to do. He's going to a "live broadcast" of the BattleBRAWL results via an AIM chat room. He's set up seperate screen names for all of his announcers and he's going to do it like it's a real live wrestling show in a chat room. I think this is woth joining and following just for that.

Seriously folks, you can't go wrong entering either event. I know I'm going to have a ball with the Gold Rush, and I would be having one with BattleBRAWL, but I'm not participating. Why? Because I'm going to be in the NEW World Title match at BattleBRAWL. So there's another added bonus. If you win BattleBRAWL, there's a good chance you might be facing ME for the NEW World Championship, and I know there's more than a few of you out there who'd like to take me down a peg or two ;)

So if you really want to go old school and you want a chance to win some gold, try Gold Rush, BattleBRAWL, or what I strongly recommend, both! Trust me, you'll have a blast.

Shelf Life, e-fed vs. real wrestling, plus shows, shows and more shows

Before I get to the meat of my blog today, some pimpage.

First in the queue, FUSE's latest show, KillZone 3 is up for your perusal. FUSE has become a fed to watch over at PTC. Jason's got a good thing going here, and hopefully, with the influx of some new guys, they'll climb up and join AWC and PRIME as the cream of the PTC crop.

Speaking of AWC... Divide and Conquer! Once again, AWC turns in a fine PPV effort, punctuated by a brief Unfuckable reunion, new Alliance and Frontier Champions, some big returns and a nice set of backstage brawling segments featuring Chainz and Aimz. Congrats to Mike Wade for making the AWC Legends Roll and farewell for now... please come back soon!

NEW finally came out with their anniversary RAUCOUS. A very solid show, and hopefully it marks a return to regularity for NEW, a fed that when it's running on all cylinders is one of the best around.

And now, the entry for today.

I was talking to Joe Schmidt (handler of Adam Dick) the other day and he told me he was leaving AWC. I was pretty taken aback by it, especially since AWC was losing Wade too. I asked him why, and he said he had done everything there was to do in AWC. That's a good enough reason to leave, I suppose.

But if you look at real wrestlers, guys like Hulk Hogan or Shawn Michaels or Steve Austin, they achieved it all in the real business, but they kept sticking around. In fact, it's the nature of professional wrestlers to keep holding onto their limelight, taking jobs in indie feds just so they can keep wrestling, hoping that people will plunk down money to see them.

In e-fedding, there are a lot of things we take from the real thing, but for the most part, this desperation to hold onto our spots isn't one of them. There have been several people who've walked away or tried to walk away, from just one fed or from the hobby itself. Some were successful, others weren't. However, unless you're The Rock or Brock Lesnar, it's almost unheard of in the real thing.

Why is that? Well, the obvious reason is they get paid, we often juggled this with doing things for which we get paid. Easy enough.

But there's still exploration into why some people can put such short shelf-lives on their characters. Why isn't there a desire to become multiple time Champions? Why don't people try to "do it all" again, using a different route? Perhaps there's life in AWC for Dick as a face, who knows.

Honestly, I think that people have an easier time walking away because most of us aren't ego-driven to the point of needing to prove things over and over again. Once again, we don't get paid for it. We're not slaves to ratings. Theoretically, we do this for fun. So proving that we can do things once is enough, at least with one character.

I think another huge reason is the timetables at which things happen. Normally, wrestler X enters the business and his first World Championship doesn't come for years after the fact. In e-feds, that timetable is shrunk considerably. If it took five years for people to become World Championship contenders in e-feds, then there probably wouldn't be as extensive an e-fed network as there is.

The point is, though, that people walk away. Do I think that guys may come back later in different feds or with different characters? Sure, it happens all the time.

However, one way that our world will never relate to the real wrestling world is that our characters do not have nearly the shelf-life as the real guys do for the most part.

There are exceptions to this though. A1E is the most like a real life fed in this regard. Beast, Big Dog, Fly and even to an extent my own JA have been around forever, through World Titles and without them.

A few of my favorite characters -- NEW

One of the two feds I've ever won the World Championship in... once again, in no particular order.

MWG One of the most insane characters I've ever read, but I think he's the sort of benchmark for the kind of attitude NEW wants to have. I'll never forget that RP he posted where his valet Krist Blue was doing something sexually explicit to Ashlee Simpson. It was a little over the top, but I enjoyed it. I think he's ripe to become the NEW Champion this year.

The Masked Man It kinda sucks that Steve A. had to be a bitch by taking his ball and running home with it after he dropped the World Title, because this angle he had with the Masked Man looked pretty interesting. Still though, this Masked Man has my attention, especially to see who he really is when he unmasks.

Jason Payne Jason's always a solid character wherever he goes, but he always seems to be overshadowed by some of the "bigger" names. Well, Mr. Payne has what it takes to be a big name, and I think the best place for him to show his stuff is in NEW, where he doesn't have a Manson or a Lindsay Troy or a Melton or a Beau Michaels/Kooter Cruise/Felix Red to take the spotlight away from him. If he sticks around, I think that he will use the NEW spotlight to vault himself in NFW and EPW and make more people take notice. I think this feud with Chris McMillan that seems to be brewing will do wonders for that.

Mr. Entertainment I think Karl still needs to work the kinks out of the character and make him a little less choppy in his delivery, but I like the concept and I like the things he's been doing with the character. This has great potential to be an anchor for the TV division for months to come.

Insurgent He could be a GREAT foil for The Phantom Republican. Stanton's the best handler to do a leftist conspiracy theorist character archetype, and I think he's a great fit for NEW, with or without my Republican maven.

THE E-FED BLOG 100TH POST EXTRAVAGANZA~!

Oh yeah, 100 posts. I didn't think I'd make it this far, but now that I have, let's hope that there are hundreds and hundreds more.

So what am I going to do for this monumental occasion? Well, first, let's link some shows! I haven't read them all fully yet, so no quickie reviews.

Holla, holla, Midnight Madness, week 6... NFW, down Mexico way... beware, thar's teabagging in them thar pages :p

NEW Era Raucous... first show of the new year for NEW... hopefully it's the first of many!

AWC Fresh! (Tilde omitted for fear of jobbing :p)... I got through less than half of this show last night before I realized I had an ACW deadline to meet. Amazingly long promo from the Unfuckables to start, which was Triple H-esque, but unlike a Levesque Borination Special, it had more than a few good moments.

ACW Courage 88... self-shill here, check out the Suleimon and GOP matches, and lemme know what you think about the angle I have between them. I love feedback, even if it's negative/constructive.

And now, to the meat of the post...

For my 100th entry, I thought that I would recount the most shocking, controversial, imoportant, best-written, etc. moments I've experienced in e-fedding history. The key part of that is moments I've experienced, firsthand. So sorry NFW fans, no Hurricane Eddy Love moments, cuz in fairness, I didn't realize that firsthand. I read it months later, so the importance wasn't as dramatic on me.

But anyway, this is in no order except for maybe chronological...

MBE Comes to A1 Before Message Board Entertainment came to A1Wrestling.com, the perception was that it was this foreign, elitist fed where only the friends of those in charge were the ones who'd get pushed. I heard this from a few people, like Janitor and Lady Rebellion. But I really didn't pay them that much mind. I mean, Janitor told me I'd never amount to anything in MBE unless I played politics.

Meanwhile, I was one of the longest reigning MBE Champions of all-time, and I don't think I had to do any backstage convincing to do it. But that's neither here nor there.

I was really one of the only ones who believed that MBE wasn't this fortress, this ivory tower. I wasn't deterred by going back to 1Wrestling.com, a site that everyone at A1 either left after being fed up with Ryder and his WCWocracy or were booted for speaking their minds. Others were though.

But then, MBE moved and came to A1. I don't know the exact reason; Dan West might be better to ask. However, what I do know is that when MBE came to A1, more A1E faithful tried it out, and the haters who thought it was this big, insular party found out that MBE was actually more egalitarian than A1E was. They found out that you didn't have to brownnose to certain folks to succeed.

And to think, all it took was a change of scenery to get that message across.

A1E's Tag Team Championship Match Usually, when a match nowadays goes 4 or 5 plus promos apiece, it's considered hyperactive. People wonder where folks get the free time to get up all those RPs.

Yet I remember a time when if you didn't put up at least five, you were slacking.

Well, Beast, Necromancer, Liquid Snake and Mikey F'n W certainly weren't slacking when they faced off to determine the first ever A1E Tag Team Champions. In fact, they kinda went insane to the tune of 58 (I think that was the final number) total promos.

Fifty-eight.

I'm sure Jarret, Mat, Ryan or Mike would pretty much look back at that match and wonder "How in the hell did we get all that activity?"

I mean, even for that time, when things were different, 58 was a big number.

God, I miss those days.

Amazing, Inc. Honestly, there aren't very many things in this hobby that absolutely floor me. When I found out that Bill Dempsey was also the handler for WhiteNoise and Mr. Amazing!, as well as Freakfish, well, I was floored. How he was able to keep that secret for as long as he did, well, in this day and age of everyone needing to know every little fact before it's dissemenated, it was shocking.

Snake's Amazing Run in the middle of 2001 Ryan Poole was one of my best friends in e-fedding in the beginning. Our characters (JA and Liquid Snake) were always linked in A1E since we debuted the same week and then faced off the week after Golden Dreams Zero in an epic match (we each posted like 9 promos apiece, building a history out of nothing.... the good ol' days of e-fed sponteneity), and then were involved in matches and angles. But Ryan had a tendency to flake out at times. In the summer of 2001, when A1E held its first ever title tournament, the odds-on favorite to win was Beast. I mean, he was riding the hot angle with his SIN feud, and really, it seemed like he was ready to take his run with the A1E Title.

Well, as is the case in any RP fed, the best laid plans of mice and men can be laid to waste by a really hot character. And there was no one hotter than Snake during that tournament. He was putting out stuff that was better than anything he had done previous or anything he would do again. I mean, this was something you had to be around for. He went into the tournament final against Beast, who'd barely survived his semifinal match with Mr. Hyde (my all-time favorite e-fed character), and just smacked him around.

Riding the wave of momentum into Golden Dreams I, Snake went in and just did the same thing to Fly that he did to Beast. I mean, I don't think it was all that close.

But then, after he won the title at GD, Ryan burnt out again. Mr. Hyde won the title easily at the next PPV, and Ryan just faded into the background, making spot returns here and there. That is not to discount Nick's efforts with Hyde, because he was a good Champion who I thought could have been one of the all-time greatest Champions had he more faith in his abilities and better computers at the time (one of his reasons for dropping out after he lost the strap to Big Dog was that his own computer was crapping out on him). But really, Snake could have been in that pantheon too.

It's a damn shame to see wasted potential like that, but that's life, y'know?

MBE closes :( All good things must come to an end. This is a truism. But still, it didn't ease the sting of MBE closing when it finally had to shut its doors.

But really, it was inevitable. The founding fathers (Dan West, Bill Dempsey, Jeff Paternostro, Bob Rodriguez) were all too busy to run the fed like it should have been run. I was burning out on e-fedding at the time. The other guys who were coming in and trying to run it weren't ready to run a big time fed yet, especially one with the tradition of MBE.

We got a good run out of the final card, a giant battle royale featuring a who's who of folks who had participated in MBE. But still, it was sad to see it go.

At the time, us folks at A1Wrestling didn't know of many other places outside of that realm to go. Or if we did, we didn't trust them at the time because of the Mike Stanton Experiment gone awry in A1E. It took me a good two years and a heart-to-heart talk with Dave Brunk before I could be ready to venture off A1.

And now I'm the e-fed maven.

But I'm off topic now.

Vote rigging and mistrust This was a very ugly period in A1E history. You basically had two sides: the A1E originals and Lindz and her FW folks who came over. Of course, not all of them were involved in the rigging. Paul Miller and Tom Siegel just came over and got lost in the shuffle, and Miller even complained about Jonathan Marx being fed to GUNS all the time.

But I think everything that went down could have been attributed to both our stubbornnness to adapt and their stubbornness to adapt as well.

I'm really glad things are better now, but you can't help but wonder if things might have been different had we all just tried to have gotten along...

Torment and the World Championship For the record, I don't blame Justin for everything that happened. In fact, I kinda feel bad for him, that his moment in the sun was tainted because Dave no-showed Euclid.

Personally, I don't think that any title should be changed on a no-show. I'd be much more comfortable holding the title up, but I wasn't in charge in A1E then.

At the time, I didn't think the A1E Title could return to its former prestige. But I was wrong. I think A1E has done an excellent job listening to its members and making changes for the better. But this was another ugly period.

Manson Wins! Manson Wins! I wasn't around much for Season 1 in NFW, but I think just from the reactions of everyone involved, hearing and seeing what everyone had to say, it was a watershed moment for NFW.

I mean, not many people thought that they would even finish Season 1, but they did, and it ended with Michael Manson taking on Shane Southern... the DREAM NFW match. Neither the RP nor the match as written disappointed, and this is from a person who really didn't have the grasp of the history. But I could sense it.

And that's what makes Jason's needing to leave e-fedding altogether that much more sucky. I mean, he was just involved in a huge match, and he finally made his big heel turn, and life just caught up to him.

I've worked with a bunch of folks on FW since I got here... but I don't think that my experience will be complete unless I get a chance to work with J-Mart. Hopefully he comes back.

Dis What else needs to be said about this that hasn't been said before? Seriously, this ranks up there with finding out that Bill was Mr. A! all along, and the subterfuge involved was the same level. Hell, I was fielding PMs from this Dis character and all along, I was talking to her in IM without knowing she was behind it all.

Honestly, as long as this corner of the e-fedding world exists, people will be talking about this angle. It was that impactful.

Your e-fed link of the week

This week's link comes from NEW's long-awaited International Intrigue PPV. We had to wait for Edmunds' move from New England down to San Diego for this one to get done, but I think it was worth the wait. The match of the night was the Prodigy Classic X-treme Championship between Chaos and Dallas Carter.

Take a look!