What Happens When Your History Has Been Nuked?

A1E was the first fed I came up in. I was hella rough around the edges when I started. My first bio, I remember writing under "entrance music" on the template "Anything by Fozzy." Me from 2004 would have looked at that app/bio/whatever and yelled at myself for not taking the time or care to put out something slick or "professional" looking. The me from 2004 was a gatekeeping dickweed though. I only knew this from doing web archive searches. If you wanted a glimpse into my early past in e-fedding, you're at the mercy of how much the archives have stored in their massive servers.

Why Did I Come Back?

I joined PRIME last month. It shouldn't be a big deal. It probably isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Personally, it felt huge. I'm not entirely sure when I decided e-fedding wasn't for me in the great aether before now, early 2022. I was burnt out after years of doing ALL THE E-FEDS because of some grand feeling of hubris, like I could spread my creativity to all feds and give them my magic touch like it was a prize to be given out. I'd like to think I've matured since then, but who knows, maybe I haven't. People change, but people also don't change. There are things that we improve upon and some things we don't. We cannot be the judges of ourselves because we're either too hard on ourselves or too full of ourselves to get an accurate picture. But I digress.

Truth be told, I had been looking for an e-fed to join for a little while. I'd been asking my Twitter mutual followers, or mufos for those who have been brain-poisoned long enough on that site to catch up on its lingo, about their memories of e-feds. A lot of them partook back in the day, the halcyon days of Angelfire sites and Pro Boards. It just so happened that a call for applications for a rebooted PRIME, the crown jewel (in my estimation) of Prime Time Central, floated across my timeline, be it by serendipity or by destiny. I had to apply, right? But why? What was the reason why I was compelled to apply?

Part of the reason was boredom, which in and of itself is a boring reason. The reason why most people start new hobbies, or rekindle old ones, is because they have time to kill. I can only play so many video games. I only write three newsletter issues a week, two if I'm recording a podcast. I could have taken up macrame. I could have tried baking like everyone else during the pandemic. Why e-fedding? Why come back now?

I have unfinished business. There's a void in my life, one that can only be filled by having another run here and now, with people I know. I haven't talked to people about what my reputation is, generally because most of the people with whom I have e-fed heat I have cut out of my life for reasons not pertaining to e-fedding. But I have something to prove to myself. I see people talking about their times in feds everywhere, and I get jealous. I was a malcontent in A1E. I don't shy away from that past, and there's no way I can really rectify it because A1 Wrestling is in my rearview for reasons that again do not pertain to e-fedding. When you take a hard left turn in your life and everyone in the place where you are stays camped on the right. 

What I can do, however, is forge a new path and prove myself, to me, to the people judging whatever RPs I write, to my peers. I can do something I'm proud of instead of starting an arc and burning out. Time and perspective mean a lot. In those days, especially towards the beginning of that run, I just wanted to win. Winning is nice. I'd like to win every match I get in. The difference from then and now was that back then, winning was the only thing. Now, it's a nice byproduct of telling a story I believe in, am proud of. IN the interim, if I can help facilitate some other stories and make the fed run smoothly, then I'm all for it.

Like I said before, PRIME coming along and restarting was serendipitous or predestined, but it was the place for me to do this damn thing. Back in the day, I put PRIME on a pedestal. It was where the best of the best handlers went and did their thing, and from afar, it looked like a veritable all-star promotion, one like a city on a hill behind a wall. I was wrong, obviously, but that allure made me float back like a cartoon wolf following the scent of a pie on the window. After being back for a few months, I can tell that it is in fact an all-star fed, but there's nothing standoffish about it. It's warm and welcoming, and it is the best possible place for me to do a comeback.

I'm not sure how this run will end. I hope it doesn't for a long time, to be honest. My aim is to tell stories that people remember, or more importantly, I remember and am proud of. If I don't, then maybe it wasn't meant to be to be an e-fedder. I hope that isn't the case.

Checking In!

Hey everyone, your friendly neighborhood Anglo Luchador is here again with an update. I have to say, I'm getting pretty amped for Aggression 53, mainly because of King of the Cage. I've been through that tournament once before, capped off with a killer final match against Trip, which I thought was one of the best matches of my career. I thought we really left it all in the cage, and Trip came out looking like a million bucks because of it. And here he is, Champ for what, three years with a couple week interruption? Haha, I don't want to say I made him, because he'll definitely come looking for me, but hey, put two and two together. lol, just kidding Sean, you know I think you would have made it if you had faced even that Damien Priest or whatever dude who carried the brain in the jar. Man, whatever happened to that guy? Whatever happened, I hope that whatever fed took him on doesn't care about ratings!

Anyway, I'm really excited because the guys left in this tournament have that same fire, the same drive as me and Trip did back then. Hell, Trip is still in the tournament himself. He's got a helluva challenge this week from The First. I'm not privvy to the booking for that match (and if I were, do you really think I'd spoil it?), but man, that feud has been ongoing for so long and there's so much heat, even though it's been fairly one-sided. It reminds me of back in the day in MBE, when BobbyR was ever able to beat The Spoiler, but every time the match happened, the crowds were really into it. Other than the winner of that match, the guy I'm watching is Layne Winters. The guy never goes into a match looking to skate. He's always intense, always serious about his craft. He's one of the rising stars in the company.

In other news, everyone still asks me whether I'm going back to A1E or whether I left on bad terms. Again, like last time, me and the guys over there are still on great terms. It's just between being an agent here in the Empire and rehabbing, I have very little time to follow other feds in depth anymore. However, all you A1E fans will get a taste as I recorded a little something for their historic 200th episode.

Finally, even though my return is a bit off, I've been toying with the idea of new theme music. Yeah, I know, Fozzy has provided a great track for me for the last decade, but I think after 10 years, especially in a corner of the world where some people have new theme songs every week, I think I'm entitled. I wanted to move away from the Chris Jericho-worship part of my character a bit. I found this really awesome band called The Black Mages, recommended to me by, who else?, Seymour Almasy. They're the brainchild of Nobuo Uematsu, who does all the music for Final Fantasy. They're rockified tracks from games themselves. I picked out this number. What do you guys think?



Pretty neat, right? That's it for now. I'll check in after Aggression with my thoughts!

A New Lease on Life

(Hey guys, I'm bringing the blog back in a very retooled way. This will now be Jericoholic Anonymous'/JA's in-character, out-of-kayfabe blog that details his backstage travails in EPW. If you're looking for a wide spectrum of feds, sorry to disappoint, but for those who are into EPW, hopefully, you'll enjoy this)

Just in case you don't know who I am, and judging by the amounts of fan e-mail and wall posts on my Facebook page, that's not the case at all, I'm Jericoholic Anonymous, or Tom B. for those who are into that sort of thing. The last time you guys saw me in a wrestling ring, I was working an EPW show, high on cortisone trying to keep the throbbing pain in my back from hampering my abilities in the ring. As it turned out, that throbbing pain was a torn latissiumus dorsi. That's a doozy of an injury for anyone, let alone a professional wrestler.

Now I know what you're thinking. JA's washed up, no one comes back from an injury of that magnitude. Well, that's where you're wrong. On December 1 of this year, I'm going to turn 33. Usually, guys in that age range are just beginning to win their share of World Titles, to carry promotions on their backs. Obviously, I've been there and done that. Two World Championships, several pay-per-view main events, iconic status in two different promotions, all before I got too far into my 30s. So yeah, it seems like I'm an old guy.

But that's the thing. I'm not an old guy at all. I still think I can go, and I still think I can go at a high level. Rehab's been a bitch, but it's still going, and I'm chugging along, making sure that I come back at 100 percent. So yeah, Jericoholic Anonymous will come back to a wrestling ring eventually. But fear not, I'm keeping myself busy.

Thanks to Dan Ryan and the other guys in EPW, who seem to think I'm a great guy for whatever misguided reason, I'm a road agent. That's right, I'm on the road, helping the guys put on a great show for every Aggression, PPV and house show. It's been a cool gig so far. I've worked with a lot of guys that I've both been in the ring with like Trip and Shawn Hart as well as new guys like Donnie Astros. Being on the coaching side has been a revelation, since I've never been the kind of guy who's been easy on road agents in the past. Hey, just ask Kayafaber from my A1E days. I thank my lucky stars that he was never in arm's reach of a blunt object for the amount of times I balked at a spot.

So think of this blog as sort of a journal of my time as I lay in wait for my back to fully heal up. Expect some stories, some insights, thoughts, reviews and even some juicy quotes from your favorite EPW wrestlers and Cameron Cruise too. LOL. Hopefully, you guys will get as much out of this reading it as I am writing it.

Reinvention, Complacency and Falling into Ruts

Of all the e-wrestling characters I've produced over the years, I've been prouder of none than I was of Roderick McRatrick. Sure, he didn't win me a World Championship, but he provided me hours of fun, a good creative outlet for me to be as silly as possible and yet still provide an outlet for satiring some of the things that I thought were stagnating the game from the inside out. For someone like myself who is his own toughest critic, I look back at the stuff with Roddy as fondly as anything I've ever done in eW. I also know that I can never go back to that well again, which is evident from how flat that Roddy's been with each reboot I've tried with him. The same goes for why I've never been able to produce another cracked-out fantasy booking posts like the one I did way back in December of Aught-Five. I was in a very certain frame of mind and in the middle of a very certain time-period that helped me produce such levels of insanity.

For the fantasy booking post, I was working retail during the holiday seasons, getting barely any sleep, working ridiculous hours for peanuts, so my mind was just in this fog, and the whole thing made sense to me. For Roderick, I had stepped out of the game and came back in to find that a lot of the characters were putting out what I thought was boring and formulaic. So I just set out to mercilessly make fun of them, and then I got into such a groove that I just kept going and evolved Roderick until I just couldn't evolve him anymore. The reason why I can't do him effectively anymore is because he was originally based on a transparent parody of a certain style. I can't do him in FW because most of the successful characters there are good characters, and I can't do him in PTC not because the material wouldn't be there, but because I can see people getting butthurt because they think I'm making fun of their writing, whether I am or not. Seeing as though I'm already public enemy #1 over there, I'll pass.

Okay, okay, so what's the point for bringing this up? Well, you know how people are always saying that x should bring y character back because it was the best character ever? If that character's run its course and is brought back out of nostalgia, it doesn't have the luster, it feels forced. In most cases, you can tell if the person has another story to tell or a new spin on the character or if they're just bringing it back just because, hey, it was popular and successful before, why not try it again?

I've fallen into that pit a few times, and I was never happy with the output. So, as a handler, I've learned that I always have to reinvent myself, reinvent my style or at the very least, what I did with Suleimon, reinvent my surroundings. I'm not saying that perpetual change is the route to take. What is true, though, is that there's a marked difference between comfort and complacency, between doing what works and getting into a rut. The worst feeling that I've ever had, outside of some dark episodes where I got into it OOC with other handlers, was the feeling that I *had* to RP. Not RPing because I wanted to, but because I had to, so to speak. As unsolicited advice, never get to that point. That's how you get burnt out and leave e-wrestling when in reality, you still have a lot to give.

It's all about RPing with a character that's comfortable for you to assume the role. It's all about telling a story that you want to tell. It's all about cutting the promos that feel right to you. If you're a talented handler, people will accept your changes even if they get disappointed with the departure of a character familiar to them.

The worst thing you can do is try to get back to a place in your mind where you were years ago and not have the road map. Sometimes, our best material is borne out of personal hardship. If you're happy where you are now, don't relive pain just so you can put out a good RP. The mind's journey is a complex one, and the best thing to do is to use your natural talents in context of the ride you're taking.

Isamu League: A Little More My Speed

I've pimped FMLL on here before when it was active, and really, I think it's a great concept. That being said, lucha libre really isn't my thing, so while I had interest in joining it for awhile, I really didn't think I'd do too well or fit in and help give it its own voice. I was always more a puroresu guy myself. Well, someone at FWC is finally trying something that's a little more up my alley.

Enter Isamu League. Headed up by relative FWC newcomers, it's a fed that best tries to recreate a puroresu atmosphere, which admittedly can be very hard. Japanese wrestling is more about the sporting aspect and about what happens in the ring. Angles and feuds are based around matches and rivalries, about respect and that sort of thing rather than outrageous storylines and out-of-ring stuff. Sure, there are more than one flavor of puroresu fed out there, but most of them stress in-ring stuff. Characters and fed atmosphere, though, can range from the most straitlaced of straitlaced (think AJPW in the '90s with Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada) to goofy as all hell (HUSTLE and such characters as Daneshoku Dino, Razor Ramon Hard Gay and Survival Tobita).

Judging from the mission statement, IL will be a sort of hybrid between the traditional Japanese workrate fed and the kind of garbage fed like FMW and Big Japan were/are. In terms of fed mechanics though, they've put forth a very lax RPing schedule, which they basically require one RP every two weeks. This seemingly leisurely pace seems like it's a great fit for the more mature FWC audience.

Where I think they might run into some problems is their RP set-up, where they explicitly say that you won't have to get into promo battles and can write RPs that don't have anything to do with wrestling at all. This might throw some people off, as FWC has always been a more "traditional" community, NFW's presence notwithstanding. Still, I think this mission statement is a positive; the philosophy will allow people to get acclimated and perhaps try something new. Yeah, NFW is another place with a freestyle attitude, but it's harder to work something different in an established fed, or let's put it this way, it might seem harder to the handler. I know Katz, and I know that he, like every other FWC fedhead, pushes on a merit basis. If you write well, you're going to get pushed.

That being said, in a fledgling fed, you might have less pressure to perform right away, and thus might be more prone to try something different. IL could provide the best sort of portal to the PTC/narrative out-of-arena RP style on FWC.

Either way, I'm very high on IL, and I hope people give it a fair shake. I've got something I'm going to try out there, and hopefully you all will like it. In the interim, I'd love some feedback for my character profile :p

Masaharu Keichigawa

Wanted: Someone to Run TEAM

In case you guys haven't noticed yet, it's been about three or four months since the last TEAM card. That would have been all well and good had the last TEAM card not been the semifinals to the TEAM Invitational Tournament.

Yeah.

RPing is finished for the grand total of two matches that were on the card for the finals. I have no idea about the judging, but that can be redone. The fact that this was left for three months without a peep from the guy I left to run the place while I stepped away is a little embarrassing. I got a promise from him that he'd take care of the place and run it the same way I did. I think I've been let down. It's one thing to have late cards. I mean, I was hardly ever on time, especially if I planned a long-form card where I was writing the biggest match on there.

However, I'd like to think that I was always communicative with the masses, that I kept people informed of progress and what was going on. The fact that three months have gone by without a peep from the new management is embarrassing. Therefore, I'm making an executive decision. I'm taking TEAM back for the interim until I can find someone who'll take care of it. But that's the rub.

I need someone who'll take care of TEAM.

What I need is someone to take care of the day-to-day operations. That person should be ready to:

- book
- coordinate judging
- coordinate writing
- recruit
- advertise
- BE ACCOUNTABLE

You'll have complete freedom to do what you want with it. I will stay on as an advisor, but rest assured that it'll be more of a "hey, what do you think about this?" or a question-answering guy rather than the kind of advisor Vickie Guerrero is to Teddy Long on Smackdown *groan*. If you're interested, please contact me in any way possible. If all else fails, just reply here.

If no one steps forward, then I'll produce the final card, and we'll lay TEAM to bed, Irish wake style. IF someone does volunteer, then we'll move forward. Please though, I think this is a great opportunity for someone who wants to try his/her hand at fedheading but doesn't really have the time or patience to do a full-time fed.