Your Blogger Answers, batch number one

Well, with the first two commenters, I got enough questions for a full post, so let's get started! Of course, you can still submit your questions for me to answer. In fact, I encourage it. I beg you to ask me questions, PLEEEEEASE~!

Anyway, our first commenter identified himself as "The Lurker Below" and submitted these queries:

1. Do you think any of the play-ins for the TIT stand a chance against their respective top seeds?

Well, the stock answer is that this is e-fedding, not college basketball. Upsets happen more often here mainly because the criteria for victory are so subjective and are dependant on the judge and, more importantly, how well one guy performs in a session. In basketball, if one guy has an off-night, the team can still win. In e-fedding, well, you are the team.

That being said, I can't say that I'm all that familiar with any of the work of the play-ins past their first round performances. However, among the guys who showed up, some impressed and some need work, and if you need work going up against Dan Ryan, well... you know.

2. Do you think PTC's GTT7 will be a success or not? Do you feel that changing the format of said tournament will do any good, when it's tradition has always been single eliminations.

I don't think that format will have anything to do with the success. Rather, it'll be the committment of the handlers involved. that being said, with the high number of no-shows that usually come with a GTT, it'll make it that much harder to pull off a round-robin the way it should be pulled off rather than with maybe one guy advancing because he's the only one that RPed for his region.

However, I think it was the right idea to change things up. They haven't held GTT for over a year, almost two. The landscape of the game has changed, in that I'm not sure how much "new blood" they'll get into the PTC community. We're talking about maybe having 32 or 64 as opposed to the 128+ they've gotten in the past. For the TiT, 32 and 64 works. For GTT... maybe trying something different is the order of the day.

3. Why do you think it's so hard to find an event where both promo style writers and narrative story wrters can compete and be judged fairly? It seems that in FW, promo styles are king, and in PTC it's storyline, and anyone who does differently, puts themselves at a disadvantage

Mainly because of stubbornness on both sides of the coin. Of course, the number of crossovers has been pretty good over the years, but you'll find that the mainstays on either side would rather keep to themselves and write in their style.

I'd like to think that with the ToC, I gave people the most all-encompassing tournament option around, and hopefully, Shinder keeps that going as part of the TEAM tradition. It's too bad there aren't other people as entrepreneureal (sic) as that in other communities.

4. Excluding the big brands, and always famous places like fWo and PRIME, what's a solid fed(s) with a good roster and atmosphere, but maybe not a lot of limelight, that you would like to see more people check out or apply to?

Big is a relative term, but I have three in mind that are off the beaten path, so to speak. And by off the beaten path, I mean they're not located on or affiliated with PTC or FW:

A1E - My home fed and one that's been open for about 10 years now. The roster is great, even without the recent addition of Troy Windham. The atmosphere is welcoming for the most part. It has a rich tradition and history that developed almost independant of the FW circuit until a few years ago, and the roster is smallish, so you can go in and make an impact right away.

NAPW and Rebel-Pro Wrestling - They're sister feds on the indie-scale. One is based out of Alberta and the other North Carolina. A lot of great and quirky talent resides here, and just because they're indie in scale doesn't mean they're small-time in talent. D! won the first ever Tournament of Champions, and Ravager currently holds the Challenge Championship. In fact, he's the only guy who's held it and his reign is approaching two years now. Also, the atmosphere is warm and it's probably the most grassroot duo of feds you'll find.

All three feds get press on the blog, but not a lot of people think to go there as their first choice. They should though.

5. Are tag teams in efedding a thing of the past, or a thing that can only work by creating outrageous angles? Do you feel as if people don't feel as proud to handle tag teams as they do singles? Or is it the lack of a community? or the perception that single(s) championships > team titles?

I don't think they're a thing of the past, but I think it's a lot harder to handle a tag team well than it is a single wrestler. Notice the people handling tag teams nowadays... they're usually older, more mature handlers who've done the singles thing and are looking for something else in wrestling. They're also handlers who remember when tag team wrestling wasn't treated as an afterthought or a joke by the WWE and TNA and are looking to recreate some of the classic tag divisions.

I will tell you this though, NFW has a bumpin' tag division right now, and EPW is looking for tag teams. I can tell you from experience following the latter fed that Brunk treats tag teams right. The people are out there. It's just a matter of folks dropping their preconceptions and going for it in the tag division.

6. In hindsight, when looking back at first opening TEAM, is there anything that you'd change? If so, what?

Well, when I first ideated TEAM, it was totally different from what it became. But assuming that you meant when I did the first TEAM Invitational Tournament... well, there's only one thing I'd change. I wouldn't have invited the malcontents from the WfWA into the ToC in 2007. They had a lot to do with my e-fed related malaise that followed in the wake.

Now, onto "The Rage" who asked the following queries:

1. Who do you think advanced to round 1 of TIT?

Well, certainly not Masked Violator 2, Josh Anderson or Brian Larsen *snicker*

Anyway, Shinder's going to have a tough time deciding who'll take the vacant Anderson/Larsen spot, or whether he's going to go for a bye in that situation. Although Lance Spencer went 3 to 1 on Nate Dakota, I thought Dakota was good enough to make the match close.

In the other contested play-in, I really wasn't feeling either guy... sorry "Rage" but in my honest opinion, I thought that you fell a little flat, but that the potential was there. Still, I wouldn't feel right advancing one loser and keeping the other one home without giving them a chance to do a one-RP shot for it.

2. PTC vs FW in a trash talking contest. (ICly of course) Yay? nay?

Yay if only because the guys who would come out would do it well. I'm not sure who'd do it though. Some of the PTC guys that we'd all want to see might stay home because they would feel it a waste of their time or that they'd get smoked. Some of the FW guys might stay home because they wouldn't take it seriously. But among those that I think might come out for it, it could be fun.

But then again, wouldn't the TiT count as a "trash talking contest"? ;)

3. A big, I mean big 256+ or 512 member roleplaying tournament from feds from every circle, even those email feds, and pay to play, because I hear writers from email feds > web feds. Think it could work?

Of course it could work, but it would take a dedicated group of people to run it and for all the competitors involved not to expect even short-form writeups until the later rounds. IE, it would be really, really fuckin' hard to do.

Alright, hope that answered all your questions... remember, KEEP 'EM COMIN! I'll keep answering these questions as long as you keep asking them!

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.

Friendly rivalry?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ACW and LoC... the feud?

Just when you thought it was safe to venture into the forums...

eWn nuckas

Here's the synopsis. Zezu posted a feedback thread for Courage 96. William Morgan said it sucked shit, which led to some postage (Which it always does... Morgan is the KING of cheap message board heat), and then after some legitimate feedback, Zezu posted again, this time saying his desire to take back the mantle of "best angle fed" from LoC for ACW. Then the dick-waving really starts, with sniping going back and forth on both sides.

Now, for my take. In bullet format.

- Firstly, no one should ever take what William Morgan has to say seriously. Ever. The only trolls that are more obvious are those ones with the freaky hair from the 90s. You know, the wishin' trolls? Seriously, he says stuff to get a rise out of people. It's not like when Bobby Nickens (Unoriginal Name) offers his criticisms, which are valid, in my opinion.

- Zezu has a definite right to feel what he's feeling, especially in the way he put it across. I thought he showed great tact towards LoC, and if you're a fedhead, you should want to be the best, and you should want to have a healthy, friendly competition with other feds like you. I mean, back in the day, when A1E and MBE were going full-swing, even though we shared a few handlers, there was still friendly competition. A1E and MBE were always trying to be the best fed on A1, and no one really harbored any enmity longterm. I think that's the case here. Zezu and Dan McDevitt (too many Dans in e-fedding!) seem to take these things in stride. The fact that guys like Cimon and Kyle escalated it so quickly just shows that we still have a long way to go before we can realize that it doesn't matter who puts out the "best" work, just as long as we all put out work that we're happy with.

Speaking of putting out...

- A lot of the criticisms that have been following around ACW have some weight. I mean, I know I gave them Fed of the Quarter Year, but since then, they (more like we since I am part of it and have been part of the problem) have had problems getting the last two Courages out. There's been a good bit of turmoil, and Mike Dupin, Mike Renner and Butch Rosser have all left the fed as a result. Now, we've gotten in some new guys who are promising, including Bryan, who handles Kyle Lamen in PRIME and is handling Kenichi Kazuyo, and Nikko, who's handling handling the Britton Brothers. It's all a matter of coordination and timing and letting things settle in.

Honestly, I think ACW has the potential to remain one of the top feds in all the e-fed universe. As long as we still have Devin Woods, Seth Silviera, Cimon and Roland as the backbone, we'll always have solid, interesting writing.

Championship Luster (and some pimpage)

Before we get to the meat of this post, first a few things.

First, congratulations to The Renegade Rich Rollins for winning GTT5. 128 guys, and Rollins pulled this one off. Big ups, and Rollins has pretty much planted himself as the new legend on the PTC Circuit, as he's also their current Global Champion.

Secondly, Russ is doing an interesting thing regarding fantasy booking of... our fantasy wrestling world ;). The VS. Tournament is in nomination phase right now, and basically, the rules are you can nominate up to three guys in each bracket. There are three brackets right now:

FW Bracket
EWN Bracket
PTC Bracket

Nominate in all three if you're familiar with each of the three circuits. OR just nominate in the circuits you're familiar with. I'm going to stress for our FW guys to get their votes out, because so far, we're pretty far behind the other two brackets. Let's go! Let's get that lead out!

Finally, to the meat of the post.

Among the smart fans of real-life professional wrestling, there is much ado about the prestige and worth of Championship belts. A lot of it nowadays centers on how worthless WWE titles seem to be as they get either thrown around like hot potatoes or they're placed on guys like Shelton Benjamin and forgotten for months on end.

I'd bet that most of this talk is justified, seeing that the main focus of any wrestling promotion should be to draw money. Even lower tiered titles can be used as draws if booked correctly, and even if they aren't the draws themselves, they can be used to make wrestlers into draws themselves. Even if the titles aren't the draws they were back in the day, they can surely be helped to make folks who don't have unreal charisma to help draw money.

Some people try to transplant that argument of the worth of titles from WWE-Land to the world of e-feds, claiming that hotshotting titles will cause the same drain of prestige from those belts. Hell, I was guilty of this in the past in my criticism of the A1E Title controversy in the summer of 2004, when Euclid no-showed and Torment won the title.

Looking back, I was off-base, and anyone who tries to make any argument that e-fed titles can lose luster is for the most part off-base, at least when it comes to any of the feds that I follow here on this blog.

You see, the main focus of this hobby is not to draw money. If that were the case, I'd be rich, Chad Merritt would be Vince McMahon, and all the FW feds wouldn't have problems with lag. We do this to have fun, and we do it at our own pace. If that pace is A1E's two-week cycle, so be it. If it's the breakneck, one-show-a-week rate AWC runs at, so be it. If it's more along the lines of a show a month like the pace EPW has settled at, so be it.

So because we do this for fun and as a way to blow off steam, titles really don't have the impact they would in the money-making environment. I mean, it would be nice if all our title lineages were intact and were full of guys who'd hold titles for good long times to make them valuable, but hey, there's not much you can do to control how titles are changed unless you're in an angle fed (which are really the facsimiles of real life feds in that their results are worked).

RP feds are more shoot than the real thing, and because of that, titles can change hands at every show and they'd still be every bit as valuable than if they changed hands once a year. In a way, the spirit of competition protects championship belts. Because we don't know the results of the matches before they're booked, the RP periods are really competitions, and every time a title changes hands, the person who won it has earned it. Even one week reigns are impressive seeing that they aren't just handed out to people like they would be in the WWE.

Plus, titles are a way of honoring people in the hobby who do a good job, and since it's a hobby and not a business, we're more liberal in the way we honor people for ding a good job.

So really, any argument about titles losing their luster because of being hot-potatoed or changing hands due to a loss of smile... it's all bunk. RP e-fed titles will always be protected as long as the spirit of competition lives.