FMLL

I may be retired, but that doesn't mean I can't shill for an awesome concept when I see one, and peeps, I certainly see one in Federación Mundial de Lucha Libre. FMLL is run by Ryan Aston, handler of Shawn Hart and his band of merry misfit friends and relatives. Aston is a nut for the art of lucha libre, so you know that this fed will be the real deal.

I know what the biggest reason for not joining will be. "I don't know enough about lucha libre to try it out." It's true, lucha isn't a fully understood wrestling form in America, but both Aston and the handlers in the fed who do know a thing or two about lucha will be more than happy to help along those looking to pop their Mexican wrestling cherry. And as with any new fed, you'll be getting in on the ground floor.

Please, give FMLL a look and a try. I love it when new ideas come along, and this is about as different as it's going to get.

Your Blogger Answers, Pt. 5

Yet another set of questions. First we start out with Ryan Aston, who asks:

I'm probably becoming a broken record in this community on this issue, but I'm curious - Do you think we'll ever have a Hall of Fame on FW Central?

Eventually, yes. All it really needs is for someone to spearhead it. It won't be me, mainly because FWC's history predates me by a large margin, so I'll let someone else handle it.

I will say that if it comes to fruition though, that I hope it's a handler Hall of Fame and not a character-based one. I'd rather honor both the person and the character rather than just the character.

Has the CSWA 'gotten its groove back?'

It's very hard to say, because every time you want to count Chad and Co. out, Chad comes back and posts an excellent read. The problem, as it has been the last five years or so, has been Chad's work schedule. I'm not sure how that affects his thought process, but it certainly blocks him from being able to write out most of the material.

Even if the rest of the handlers wrote large portions of the other material, the Hacker storyline is such that Chad and the erstwhile and AWOL Steve are the only ones who really know the flow and all the intricacies of it. The only way I can really think that the CSWA really has its groove back for good is if Chad just takes all his free time and writes out the segments that compose the backbone of the Hacker storyline and let the rest of the roster flesh out their own tales. That wouldn't be fair to Chad though to make himself a slave to e-wrestling when he's not a slave to his job.

That leaves the CSWA in a very interesting position: so close to the finish line yet so far away. Hopefully Chad finds a way to make it all work with less time between cards, as he told me, in his own words, that if there were two years between this most recent card and the next one, that the CSWA would pretty much be closed for good.

I've got that FMLL itch again, but is lucha libre something that will ever work on these boards? Do people have an aversion to lucha and, if so, why?

Lucha will be a very difficult proposition because people misunderstand the tradition so much. Most think of lucha and WCW/WWE Rey Mysterio comes to mind. It's all flippy shit and none of the story. Meanwhile, lucha is much more layered and complex than that American perception. Hell, I don't even have the best idea as to how it works. You'd have to have a bunch of dedicated lucha fanatics get together and run two or three test cards before people even knew what it was all about.

Another thing that probably keeps people away is the language barrier, as it's hard to understand tradition when you don't speak Spanish.

To close out this one, Barry Clark, Jr. asked this question about the forum activity:

According to FW.com under the......

What's Going On?
Currently Active Users: (members and guests)
Most users ever online was 544, 05-06-06 at 09:08 PM.

Q: Do you think 544 online at the same time will ever be broken?

Not unless there's a mass invasion of search bots or slurp spiders.

Thanks for the questions, and as always, KEEP ASKING!