Hello and welcome to a very special edition of the Michael Morenstein Files. As many of you know from dirtsheet reports around the 'Net, Jericoholic Anonymous has been removed from all future bookings for both A1E and EPW following their most recent pay-per-view events. Rumors were swirling that the Anglo Luchador was retiring, but there has been no official word yet...
...until now.
I recently sat down with the former A1E and EPW World Champion and got answers to some burning questions, as well as some other things that the wrestling world has been dying to know about one Jericoholic Hulkamaniac Anonymous.
MM: Hello, and welcome.
JA: Hello to you, and thanks for having me, Mike.
MM: Pleasure's mine. First thing's first, and this is a question that's been on the minds of everyone since your last appearance at WrestleVerse III, are you retired?
JA: nervous laughter You don't pull punches, do you, Mike?
MM: Heh, well, you could say that. But there have been a number of rumors on the Web, and no one, not even Dave Meltzer or the folks over at FW Dirtsheet have been able to get a straight answer.
JA: Well, Mike, I can't say I've talked to anyone except for Nate [Nathan Houston] and Lindz [Lindsay Troy] about this.
MM: And what did you tell them?
JA: Well, that I was taking some time off and that I wouldn't be signing any new contracts. I was coming to the end of my original EPW deal that I signed way back in 2004 anyway, a plum deal for them since my downside guarantee wasn't all that high and I didn't ask for many incentives.
MM: Of course, because of your accumulated wealth outside of the business.
JA: Yep. Basically, after I came back from my last hiatus, I was a self-made millionaire and I didn't actually need wrestling for the money so much as I needed it for myself, if that makes sense. So, Troy and [Dan] Ryan both were trying to get extensions put together for me for the last few months. I was receptive, but in the back of my mind, I figured it would have been time for another extended period off.
MM: So you've been planning this for awhile?
JA: Well, yes and no. Yes in that my body hasn't been in peak condition since before I suffered that back injury in A1E in 2002, back before I was programmed against Big Dog for the World Championship. The aches and pains pile up, even after having rested for the time that I rested. While EPW's television schedule isn't exactly rigorous, their house show schedule, combined with A1E's much more regular TV schedule plus their house shows can make things add up. Still, I was ready to continue until I suffered The Big One.
MM: The Big One?
JA: Yeah. I tried not to let on to anyone except Tamara [Lollipop] and the training staffs from both companies, but I pulled a muscle in my back against Trip [Sean Stevens] at Aggression 43.
MM: That doesn't sound all that bad.
JA: No, but I kept working on it, and again, the house shows, plus the TV matches against Wraith and the PPV matches against Trip and [Rocko] Daymon and against Ken Cloverleaf. It got aggravated somehow, and I kept putting off getting it scoped further. I was subsiding on codeine and cortisone shots for the last two months, Mike. Then, as it turns out, after WrestleVerse, I got it scoped and it turns out I tore a muscle back there.
MM: Ouch!
JA: You can say that again. I had surgery on it last week, actually, and things are healing, albeit slowly. Before I went into surgery, I had told both Houston and Troy about what my plans were, and they were both agreeable to let me announce them on my own terms.
MM: You explained the terms of your EPW contract. What about A1E? It was reported that you signed a three-year extension last year.
JA: Well, me and Nate sat down and we came to an agreement that would let me out of my contract without any financial obligations on their end and without any penalty on my end. They were more than gracious.
MM: A 180 from the last time you left, eh?
JA: Heh, I guess you could say that, Mike. If I had to leave, I'm glad I'm not doing it crossing the bridge with a gascan in one hand and a flamethrower in the other. Seriously though, one of the biggest regrets that I had after leaving the first time was that I had left the only wrestling home that I had known for the three to four years prior on such bad terms. Now I feel like when I do heal and if I get the urge to wrestle again, I can go back to the locker room and not have to prove myself all over again.
MM: You said "if" you get the urge. Are you saying that injuries may not be the only factor on this?
JA: Well, not really. I mean, it's not entirely impossible for someone to love what they do and still get sick of it. Am I sick of wrestling? No, not in the least. Am I a bit tired of waking up in pain, living out of a rental car and not being able to settle down with my wife? Yeah, a little bit. Plus, there are a lot of other ways to be involved in wrestling without having to live the lifestyle.
MM: Thinking about stealing my gig?
JA: laughs Yeah, I could do that. Or I could announce, book, train... there are a ton of things to do. I was born to be in this business. If I come back in a year or so, and I think I'm ready to go again, I'll go. If not, then I'll find something else. I'll survive.
MM: So going back to the original question, I'd say that it's a "no"?
JA: Yeah, I'll be in this industry in some capacity. Now whether it's as an active competitor, we'll see.
MM: Until then, what are you planning on doing?
JA: Well, I'm gonna take some time off. Enjoy the finer things in life. I'll probably take in some games at Citizen's Bank Park, sleep in a bit, visit James [Irish] and Paul [Bennett - Big Dog] at the retirement home. laughs Who knows, maybe I'll try and start a family with Tam too.
MM: Hoping to get a fourth generation of Anonymous in wrestling, I take it?
JA: Haha, yeah, well, I'm not making any promises. I have taken more than a few nutshots in my day, and no matter how much you try to protect yourself down there, well, there's only a certain amount of trauma you can prevent. It's not the most "workable" move if you know what I mean.
MM: I think I do. I think I do. If or when you do come back, what do you think you have left to accomplish? You have won every singles Championship there is to win in A1E and EPW save the Challenge Championship in the former and Television in the latter. You've won a Pier Six and a Best of A1E. You've scored gold in the CSWA, and not many people can say that at all.
JA: Well, I would like to have more than one successful World Championship defense, Mike. I mean, not to knock Andy Gilkison, but I think he was the only guy I beat while I was World Champion. Winning the World Championship isn't enough, I'd like to be able to defend it a bit more.
I also don't think that winning something once really is accomplishing anything. I see guys quitting feds, retiring because they've done all they can do in their words. That's bullshit, Mike. Pure and utter bullshit. I mean take a look at Paul. He did what he did in his first run way back in 2002. He was dominant. But when he lost the World Championship, he didn't turn tail and run because he did it all. No, he kept going. When he did take breaks, it was because the aches and pains were getting to him. But he came back and years later, he won the World Championship again. He kept up excellence. You see Mike, it's one thing just to get to the top, but to stay there. Paul stayed there. Marcus [Westcott] stayed there in two companies. [Dan] Ryan did it in a million companies. They got over, they stayed over. They performed to a high level and when it came time to sustain it, to go out there and give a main event performance, to look good and put in an effort when putting the next guy over. So don't tell me there's nothing left to do. There's always something left to do, unless you're Ric Flair or Hornet or Joey Melton.
MM: Wow, tell me how you really feel.
JA: Oh man, you don't want me to get off on a real tangent. I mean one time, I chewed Wreck's ears off talking about taxes, and all he did was ask me who Ron Paul was.
MM: Wow, you're a Ron Paul supporter?
JA: Yeah, something about small government, lower taxes and having our boys at home safely instead of in Iraq appeals to me, but that's for a political blog, not a wrestling one.
MM: Alright, then, let's go back. Is there anything else you'd want to do if you came back full-time as a wrestler?
JA: Yeah, there's quite a bit. I think tops on the list would be to sort of finish off the longstanding feud with Marcus. There's a big story there that is okay right now if nothing else were to happen but would be fantastic if we had just one more six-to-twelve month run to work it.
MM: I'd assume then that the legit heat between you two has dissipated?
JA: Oh yeah, that went out the window a long time ago, Mike. I learned that grudges are never good to have, especially in this business, where there's only a limited amount of guys that you can work with, especially at the top. And me and Beast both are inalienable parts of both the A1E and EPW pantheons, so it's not like we'd be able to avoid each other unless I just up and started anew in another fed. But between you, me and all your readers, that wouldn't have a great chance of happening.
MM: So new territories would be out of the question if and when you came back?
JA: No, but if I went somewhere new, like NFW or somewhere in the PTC circuit, it would be in addition to A1E and/or EPW.
MM: A couple of months ago, you got married to your valet and longtime girlfriend Tamara "Lollipop" Boyd. Can you tell us about the ceremony?
JA: Well, the ceremony was at Mother of Divine Grace church in the Port Richmond section of Philly. A lot of people from the business there. Actually Lindz was in Tam's bridal party, and James was my best man. It caused some friction among my brothers, but they understood. And we honeymooned in Grand Cayman, which was sweet. All the Cuban cigars I could smoke, and just beautiful weather all around.
MM: How did you guys last this long when many wrestling relationships end badly?
JA: It's simple. We're really normal people. Neither one of us does hardcore drugs. We drink, but ask anyone, we're really mellow drunks. I don't beat her, she doesn't fuck behind my back. We have normal conversations, get into normal arguments - well as normal as you can get without having to live in a house for more than a week at a time. I've never done a steroid in my life, and she isn't into plastic surgery. We love each other for who we are, and yeah, they say you don't shit where you eat, but really, this isn't the kind of job where being together all the time is grating. Most of the time that I'm on the job, my focus is on the guy on the other side of the ring. She just has the best seat in the house.
MM: Okay, one last question. Say this is it and you don't ever wrestle a match ever again. Do you have any regrets?
JA: pause No Mike, I can't say I do. I had a good two-decade run from soup to nuts so far, with half of it being in the bigs. I've wrestled the best wrestlers in the world, performed in front of some of the greatest fans and I've turned in performances that I'm mostly satisfied with. Do I have a million World Championships? No, but I was respected enough by the companies that I worked for for them to toss me the ball and say, "Hey Tom, run with it", whether it was in the main event, the big tournament or even if it was just in a midcard match that they needed to fill out a card and make people remember the event. While in my heart I want to believe that this injury won't sap my spirit and that I will be back in a wrestling ring as a wrestler and not just a trainer, if I don't come back, well, que sera sera. I had a great run, and I'm out with a good portion of my life to enjoy in financial security.
MM: Alright, well, thank you very much, it was a pleasure.
JA: No prob, and thank you.
Showing posts with label A1E. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A1E. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Your Blogger Answers, Pt. 4
Yet another batch of questions to answer! The first couple from Josh Ray, FW's resident soldier overseas:
Will Sergeant ever find the time to step back into the ring, and if so, who the hell would care? :)
Just two people, me and Franklin, since you two still haven't finished that feud you started :p
What about that Drunken Tiger fellow
No one cares about Drunken Tiger :p
Actually, to answer both questions seriously, I think that if you had time to run both characters, that means you'd be home, safe and sound, and everyone in the extended FW/Blog-following community would love that.
And now, onto the main event. Jarret Aubry, of A1E and EPW fame, submitted these questions:
1) What's left for Tom Holzerman to accomplish in eWrestling?
Well, I think there's still a lot to do. I've said before that I hate it when someone ends a first-run with a character after they've captured their first World Championship, saying "there isn't anything left to do with the character". Biggest cop-out I can think of. But anyway...
First thing's first, remember the cups of coffee I had with the A1E and EPW World Championships, respectively as JA? Well, I do like me some coffee, but that usually means that there's something of more substance to go with it. I would love to get another shot at holding both belts (possibly at the same time?) and going more than just one PPV title defense with them. JA is my flagship character. Although Maggot was always 1a at the very least, it was a character concept my cousin actually came up with that I had just fleshed out. JA really is me and everything that I've done with him, from the gimmick infringement to the far-reaching family tree to the moveset has been driven by my ideas. I want to see that go as far as it can go and I want people to remember me not just for the blog or for TEAM, but for the stuff I did in RP and as an active e-wrestler, especially with JA.
As a handler, I'd also like to reach the top of the mountain in a non-NFW PTC fed and in an angle fed. Both are territories where I've dabbled in to various degrees, and I was probably on my way to reaching big heights in PTC as a member of AWC. Sadly, the fed closed just as I was hitting my stride. Both those kinds of feds present different challenges than in a FW-styled RP fed.
Another thing I'd like to do is spearhead a renaissance in tag team wrestling. I've signed up in NFW as Vive Le Quebec, and when I'm not trying to challenge for the World Championship as JA, I'd like for him to become someone people mention as a quintessential tag wrestler.
I'd also like to win a major tournament, be it the TiT, a GTT or something else that comes up. And of course, as a handler, I'd like to perform excellently in any fed that I join.
Outside handling, I still feel like I have to prove myself on the blog every time I post, be it in opinion pieces like this, show reviews or even breaking news.
2) If you were running A1E or EPW, who would be your Champions (or given the voting nature of A1E, who would you want to push towards being your Champions)?
A1E
World - Troy Douglas
I think the belt's on the right person now. The main focus in A1E right now is the gang war between the AoC and HPSC, but I don't think the World Championship should always be a prop in the main angle. Right now, it's good to have an outsider to the feud have it and then let the World Championship have its own story.
Cyber - Big Wreck
I really think it's time for him to move up the card.
Challenge - Angel of Death
He's a guy whom I think can shine with the different stipulations from week to week.
Tag Team - Various AoC and HPSC members
Right now, A1E really doesn't have a strong tag division, so the belts would be best served being a cog in the stable wars. Make them a central focus in the feud and you push not only the feud but the belts too.
EPW
World - Sean Stevens
Surprisingly, EPW really doesn't have a lot of guys who are bonafide main eventers right now. There's me, but I'm not Godbooking myself the title here :p. There's Westcott, but he's tied up in an angle with Miles, or at least he was. Stevens right now is the biggest main event name that EPW has, and I think if he were to drop it, it should be to the next big name, like say a Jared Wells or a The First or even a Fusenshoff.
Intercontinental - Fusenshoff
He just won the CoC in TEAM for crying out loud. The TV title's a nice belt to have, but I think he's gotta move up the card. The IC title is a good thing to have for an on-the-cusp star, and he could elevate the title in the process.
TV - Omega
Great new character from a seasoned angle fed character getting his feet wet in the FW world. I'm a big fan of Omega, and I think he should have some gold.
Tag - Larry Tact and Cameron Cruise
Again, the tag scene in EPW isn't that strong, but that's why Brunk put the call out. Tact and Cruise would be good anchors for the tag division while it enters a sort of rebirth/rebuilding.
3) What would your A1E and EPW dream matches/feuds be given the current rosters?
a) not involving your characters
b) involving your characters
A1E
a) Troy Windham vs. Marcus Westcott - It hasn't happened before, and it would pit two of the most legendary characters from the CSWA and A1E respectively.
b) Jericoholic Anonymous vs. Marcus Westcott - This feud needs a proper reflaring and blowing off
EPW
a) Shawn Hart vs. Felix Red - That would be the most surreal feud ever
b) Jericoholic Anonymous vs. Olvir Arsvinnar - I think I would have so much fun with this I would never want it to end!
4) Who's got the best theme music in relation to their character?
Nothing is ever going to beat Big Dog, "Bad to the Bone"
5) Predict the next move in the HPSC/AOC feud
Hmm, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Troy Windham isn't really a member of the HPSC and is probably going to reveal that he's either in business for himself or was aligned with Westcott and the AoC all along.
Again, KEEP THE QUESTIONS COMING! And thanks to everyone who's asked so far!
Will Sergeant ever find the time to step back into the ring, and if so, who the hell would care? :)
Just two people, me and Franklin, since you two still haven't finished that feud you started :p
What about that Drunken Tiger fellow
No one cares about Drunken Tiger :p
Actually, to answer both questions seriously, I think that if you had time to run both characters, that means you'd be home, safe and sound, and everyone in the extended FW/Blog-following community would love that.
And now, onto the main event. Jarret Aubry, of A1E and EPW fame, submitted these questions:
1) What's left for Tom Holzerman to accomplish in eWrestling?
Well, I think there's still a lot to do. I've said before that I hate it when someone ends a first-run with a character after they've captured their first World Championship, saying "there isn't anything left to do with the character". Biggest cop-out I can think of. But anyway...
First thing's first, remember the cups of coffee I had with the A1E and EPW World Championships, respectively as JA? Well, I do like me some coffee, but that usually means that there's something of more substance to go with it. I would love to get another shot at holding both belts (possibly at the same time?) and going more than just one PPV title defense with them. JA is my flagship character. Although Maggot was always 1a at the very least, it was a character concept my cousin actually came up with that I had just fleshed out. JA really is me and everything that I've done with him, from the gimmick infringement to the far-reaching family tree to the moveset has been driven by my ideas. I want to see that go as far as it can go and I want people to remember me not just for the blog or for TEAM, but for the stuff I did in RP and as an active e-wrestler, especially with JA.
As a handler, I'd also like to reach the top of the mountain in a non-NFW PTC fed and in an angle fed. Both are territories where I've dabbled in to various degrees, and I was probably on my way to reaching big heights in PTC as a member of AWC. Sadly, the fed closed just as I was hitting my stride. Both those kinds of feds present different challenges than in a FW-styled RP fed.
Another thing I'd like to do is spearhead a renaissance in tag team wrestling. I've signed up in NFW as Vive Le Quebec, and when I'm not trying to challenge for the World Championship as JA, I'd like for him to become someone people mention as a quintessential tag wrestler.
I'd also like to win a major tournament, be it the TiT, a GTT or something else that comes up. And of course, as a handler, I'd like to perform excellently in any fed that I join.
Outside handling, I still feel like I have to prove myself on the blog every time I post, be it in opinion pieces like this, show reviews or even breaking news.
2) If you were running A1E or EPW, who would be your Champions (or given the voting nature of A1E, who would you want to push towards being your Champions)?
A1E
World - Troy Douglas
I think the belt's on the right person now. The main focus in A1E right now is the gang war between the AoC and HPSC, but I don't think the World Championship should always be a prop in the main angle. Right now, it's good to have an outsider to the feud have it and then let the World Championship have its own story.
Cyber - Big Wreck
I really think it's time for him to move up the card.
Challenge - Angel of Death
He's a guy whom I think can shine with the different stipulations from week to week.
Tag Team - Various AoC and HPSC members
Right now, A1E really doesn't have a strong tag division, so the belts would be best served being a cog in the stable wars. Make them a central focus in the feud and you push not only the feud but the belts too.
EPW
World - Sean Stevens
Surprisingly, EPW really doesn't have a lot of guys who are bonafide main eventers right now. There's me, but I'm not Godbooking myself the title here :p. There's Westcott, but he's tied up in an angle with Miles, or at least he was. Stevens right now is the biggest main event name that EPW has, and I think if he were to drop it, it should be to the next big name, like say a Jared Wells or a The First or even a Fusenshoff.
Intercontinental - Fusenshoff
He just won the CoC in TEAM for crying out loud. The TV title's a nice belt to have, but I think he's gotta move up the card. The IC title is a good thing to have for an on-the-cusp star, and he could elevate the title in the process.
TV - Omega
Great new character from a seasoned angle fed character getting his feet wet in the FW world. I'm a big fan of Omega, and I think he should have some gold.
Tag - Larry Tact and Cameron Cruise
Again, the tag scene in EPW isn't that strong, but that's why Brunk put the call out. Tact and Cruise would be good anchors for the tag division while it enters a sort of rebirth/rebuilding.
3) What would your A1E and EPW dream matches/feuds be given the current rosters?
a) not involving your characters
b) involving your characters
A1E
a) Troy Windham vs. Marcus Westcott - It hasn't happened before, and it would pit two of the most legendary characters from the CSWA and A1E respectively.
b) Jericoholic Anonymous vs. Marcus Westcott - This feud needs a proper reflaring and blowing off
EPW
a) Shawn Hart vs. Felix Red - That would be the most surreal feud ever
b) Jericoholic Anonymous vs. Olvir Arsvinnar - I think I would have so much fun with this I would never want it to end!
4) Who's got the best theme music in relation to their character?
Nothing is ever going to beat Big Dog, "Bad to the Bone"
5) Predict the next move in the HPSC/AOC feud
Hmm, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Troy Windham isn't really a member of the HPSC and is probably going to reveal that he's either in business for himself or was aligned with Westcott and the AoC all along.
Again, KEEP THE QUESTIONS COMING! And thanks to everyone who's asked so far!
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
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!
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!
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
The Interview Series: Mike Stanton
Welcome to Code Name: Project Discovery Channel, or what I'd like to call "The Interview Series". Like the name says, it'll be a series of interviews with the who's who of the e-fed world. There will be three different types of interviews:
1 - Handler Interviews - This is where I, Tom Holzerman, interview handlers completely out-of-character about their various projects in e-fedding.
2 - The Michael Morenstein Files - This will be akin to the Rob Feinstein shoots (only not by an alleged pedo!), where my fictional wrestling journalist, Michael Morenstein, will interview wrestlers/e-fed characters in an "out of character" setting.
3 - Squiggy Jackson Presents - This is a series of interviews that are totally in-character and will deal with in-character issues.
So, without further ado, here's the first in the Handler Interviews series, and it's with Mike Stanton. If you don't know Mike, he dilligently runs LVW and handles Doc Silver and The First in various feds around the FW circuit. I have to say, this was an excellent interview to start the series. Enjoy!
TH: First up, thanks for doing this!
MS: No problem at all, interview stuff is awesome.
TH: First question, you've come back with LVW after a considerable hiatus. What was the inspiration for bringing the fed back?
MS: I brought LVW back because I just have a lot of time on my hands and I'd read comments on your blog about it was fun cause it was kind of different and gimmicky, and that's what I'm trying to do with LVW, a really kind of low end indy fed, I don't write it as much like that cause I don't want people being offended that their guys gassed out after 5 minutes or having dropkicks with a ton of daylight. But I just felt like I had the time to do it and people seemed to want it back, so I got it back off the ground.
TH: Aside from the blog, did you get a lot of positive feedback for LVW's first run?
MS: People liked it from what I could tell, there was a lot of enjoyment out of it, the problem was that we had a screw up between Paul and myself where he got busy with a job and so did I, where I'd write the card and then he'd edit and post things, and we just got hung up on a card and then it got posted late, and next thing you now, next card comes out, and nobody Rp's for it. I think it was just the fact that LVW didn't have that base of support that it could handle a lull, like CSWA could be gone for 3 years and if they posted a thread for a card, it would get Rp. I think A1E, EPW and NFW are they same, they are franchises that have that kind of credibility with handlers, LVW wasn't at that point, so while people enjoyed it, they didn't bleed LVW as they would another league.
TH: Is that what prompted you to go with a shorter style of matchwriting?
MS: That's a part of it. I want quick turnaround in the cards to make sure there isn't a lull, but it's also the fact that I'm the only one writing for LVW, I'm not outsourcing these matches, I might do that in the future, but I'd expect a quick turnaround from those that were writing for me. The other side of it is, this is LVW, these guys are supposed to not be amazingly good wrestlers, like a Super Spade Vs J1D fight really shouldn't be a 30 minute classic, these guys should be green and working as good a 6 minute match as possible. I wouldn't go long with really anyone on the card right now except Olvir and Donovan cause they are more legit. In time the rest of the locker room will get that way to, but I want it to be a growing process for the new characters.
TH: Okay, going with the theme of characters, you got Donovan, Olvir and if Franklin can get some stability into his life, Broadway Johnny Doll back from the original run. In a two parter, which new characters are you most excited for, and which from the original run would you love to see back in LVW?
MS: I love 7-10, and Born Again, partly cause I was in on making those characters and Born Again is someone I felt the league kind of needed to have since our two main faces are a Viking Porn star and a Hooker loving Cowboy. I mean kind of need an anti-sex heel to deal with those two. I like J1D cause that gimmick is something he's clearly got working and building on.
As for who I'd want back. Well I'd want El-Magic-O back cause Mike's a great Rp man and the gimmick was camptastic. And I'd love somebody to take over the Ben Lerner gimmick, a scumbag lawyer is always a good thing. Paul and I had a few gimmicks for old LVW we never got off the ground that are still looking for homes now.
TH: That actually sounds interesting. Would you mind letting us in on a few of those gimmicks, or do you want to keep them a suprise?
MS: One gimmick is Chief Bigbet, he'd be from the tribe that owns Foxwoods, he'd be the Anti-Vegas heel with a bit of Million Dollar Man to him. We had him worked up to just be this totally scumbag who would talk about how the white people had hurt his tribe, but he himself would never use his money for native american causes, and he'd always date white women, just a complete jerk.
And for this time around, my two current gimmicks I have in my mind are a Glenn Beck rip off...I want somebody who loves LVW...And fears for it...He'd have a segment called the "Doom Room" or something and talk about how LVW is going to be a commie state or run by the One World Government or whatever the hobgoblin of the day is.
And I'd like somebody to play the son of the owner, Gary Goldale, and just get this totally undeserved push cause he's the son of the owner, like when Shane was fake punching Randy Orton to death, just doing that as a gimmick to drive people nuts.
TH: Keeping in the vein of being the owner of the fed, how much input is Paul Kobylarz having this time around?
MS: We talk now and then, cause he's in Vegas with me, but he's mostly just sticking to holding the reigns of the Bill Bellmoth character, when I get to much into FW stuff his eyes kind of glaze over at this point.
TH: Heh, well, good luck with LVW, but let's get into the handling side of things right now. You're one-half of the EPW Tag Team Champions as The First. You guys don't really have a lot of challengers right now to the point where fedhead Dave Brunk is actively recruiting teams. Has he sort of let on to you who's bitten so far?
MS: There has been no word on who if anyone has come in looking for a shot. I really don't know what I can and can't say here as far as spoilers go but basically Barry and I had one plan for the tag belts and that's fallen through, so at this point we're going with another idea, but all these plans were pretty much based upon getting The First out of the tag division and into a singles push.
TH: Interesting. I won't prod anymore. But back to another question, you've reintroduced the always-controversial Doc Silver back into FW, both in EPW and TEAM. What can we expect, and regarding TEAM, how do you feel about your chances in the upcoming Invitational Tournament?
MS: Well Doc's back cause of the whole angle with Ryoko and Felix, he's going to be the Mr. Perfect Felix's Ric Flair, except that at a certain point, once Ryoko's contract with Felix is up, he's going to try to kill Felix, before that happens, if anyone wants to start something with Doc, that's always cool.
As for TEAM, I put Doc in there instead of The First cause I really hate walking in blind to a match, cause it's just like, you're yelling your stuff, and they are yelling their stuff, and then somebody judges the winner. If I get past the first round, and so does Cameron Cruise, then that'll be a lot of fun, cause I know Cammy and he knows me and we can just rip each other apart. I like the concept of TEAM it's just that sometimes with my style of RPing I feel like I just can't find a groove against an opponent and that costs me. So my hope would be to win two matches with one of them being a war with Siegel, and anything beyond that would be gravy.
Oh, and to make sure everyone is up to date on the latest events in the NFL and the NFL draft with Doc and Greenie, I like RPing them as just talking about random shit and having them fighting over the Patriots and Dolphins.
TH: Everybody loves them some football. Anyway, final question. A lot of people know about your checkered past with A1E. I don't want to dig that up, but with a lot of FW stalwarts going there over the years like Brunk, Ryan Strawsma and now Gregg Gethard, is there any chance of that bridge being rebuilt and seeing Doc Silver or any other of your characters in an A1E ring?
MS: I dunno, Doc wouldn't do it, cause like that character he's a prick, and he'd only do something like a 'go to CSWA or go to A1E' in an angle where he won the World Title just as this big 'holy shit' shock to the system kind of deal. But CSWA hasn't been to keen on the Doc Silver World Title Run, and I doubt A1E would be rolling out the red carpet for such an event.
I could see The First in A1E. But at the same time, I kind of like having him only in EPW, trying to be like the big star of that company, I like that A1E has a quick turn around on its cards, I've been away for a long time so I don't know exactly how the voting goes there now, but I'm still leery of it, and I'd figure people there would be kind of leery of me, so I guess I'd just have to say that until you have The A1ETron suddenly show the words "Pax Vobiscum" on it, that I'd not there. But who knows.
TH: Alright, well, thanks for the time, and the best of luck with LVW and with The First and Doc Silver!
MS: Thanks man, glad to get air time on the blog.
TH: No problem.
1 - Handler Interviews - This is where I, Tom Holzerman, interview handlers completely out-of-character about their various projects in e-fedding.
2 - The Michael Morenstein Files - This will be akin to the Rob Feinstein shoots (only not by an alleged pedo!), where my fictional wrestling journalist, Michael Morenstein, will interview wrestlers/e-fed characters in an "out of character" setting.
3 - Squiggy Jackson Presents - This is a series of interviews that are totally in-character and will deal with in-character issues.
So, without further ado, here's the first in the Handler Interviews series, and it's with Mike Stanton. If you don't know Mike, he dilligently runs LVW and handles Doc Silver and The First in various feds around the FW circuit. I have to say, this was an excellent interview to start the series. Enjoy!
TH: First up, thanks for doing this!
MS: No problem at all, interview stuff is awesome.
TH: First question, you've come back with LVW after a considerable hiatus. What was the inspiration for bringing the fed back?
MS: I brought LVW back because I just have a lot of time on my hands and I'd read comments on your blog about it was fun cause it was kind of different and gimmicky, and that's what I'm trying to do with LVW, a really kind of low end indy fed, I don't write it as much like that cause I don't want people being offended that their guys gassed out after 5 minutes or having dropkicks with a ton of daylight. But I just felt like I had the time to do it and people seemed to want it back, so I got it back off the ground.
TH: Aside from the blog, did you get a lot of positive feedback for LVW's first run?
MS: People liked it from what I could tell, there was a lot of enjoyment out of it, the problem was that we had a screw up between Paul and myself where he got busy with a job and so did I, where I'd write the card and then he'd edit and post things, and we just got hung up on a card and then it got posted late, and next thing you now, next card comes out, and nobody Rp's for it. I think it was just the fact that LVW didn't have that base of support that it could handle a lull, like CSWA could be gone for 3 years and if they posted a thread for a card, it would get Rp. I think A1E, EPW and NFW are they same, they are franchises that have that kind of credibility with handlers, LVW wasn't at that point, so while people enjoyed it, they didn't bleed LVW as they would another league.
TH: Is that what prompted you to go with a shorter style of matchwriting?
MS: That's a part of it. I want quick turnaround in the cards to make sure there isn't a lull, but it's also the fact that I'm the only one writing for LVW, I'm not outsourcing these matches, I might do that in the future, but I'd expect a quick turnaround from those that were writing for me. The other side of it is, this is LVW, these guys are supposed to not be amazingly good wrestlers, like a Super Spade Vs J1D fight really shouldn't be a 30 minute classic, these guys should be green and working as good a 6 minute match as possible. I wouldn't go long with really anyone on the card right now except Olvir and Donovan cause they are more legit. In time the rest of the locker room will get that way to, but I want it to be a growing process for the new characters.
TH: Okay, going with the theme of characters, you got Donovan, Olvir and if Franklin can get some stability into his life, Broadway Johnny Doll back from the original run. In a two parter, which new characters are you most excited for, and which from the original run would you love to see back in LVW?
MS: I love 7-10, and Born Again, partly cause I was in on making those characters and Born Again is someone I felt the league kind of needed to have since our two main faces are a Viking Porn star and a Hooker loving Cowboy. I mean kind of need an anti-sex heel to deal with those two. I like J1D cause that gimmick is something he's clearly got working and building on.
As for who I'd want back. Well I'd want El-Magic-O back cause Mike's a great Rp man and the gimmick was camptastic. And I'd love somebody to take over the Ben Lerner gimmick, a scumbag lawyer is always a good thing. Paul and I had a few gimmicks for old LVW we never got off the ground that are still looking for homes now.
TH: That actually sounds interesting. Would you mind letting us in on a few of those gimmicks, or do you want to keep them a suprise?
MS: One gimmick is Chief Bigbet, he'd be from the tribe that owns Foxwoods, he'd be the Anti-Vegas heel with a bit of Million Dollar Man to him. We had him worked up to just be this totally scumbag who would talk about how the white people had hurt his tribe, but he himself would never use his money for native american causes, and he'd always date white women, just a complete jerk.
And for this time around, my two current gimmicks I have in my mind are a Glenn Beck rip off...I want somebody who loves LVW...And fears for it...He'd have a segment called the "Doom Room" or something and talk about how LVW is going to be a commie state or run by the One World Government or whatever the hobgoblin of the day is.
And I'd like somebody to play the son of the owner, Gary Goldale, and just get this totally undeserved push cause he's the son of the owner, like when Shane was fake punching Randy Orton to death, just doing that as a gimmick to drive people nuts.
TH: Keeping in the vein of being the owner of the fed, how much input is Paul Kobylarz having this time around?
MS: We talk now and then, cause he's in Vegas with me, but he's mostly just sticking to holding the reigns of the Bill Bellmoth character, when I get to much into FW stuff his eyes kind of glaze over at this point.
TH: Heh, well, good luck with LVW, but let's get into the handling side of things right now. You're one-half of the EPW Tag Team Champions as The First. You guys don't really have a lot of challengers right now to the point where fedhead Dave Brunk is actively recruiting teams. Has he sort of let on to you who's bitten so far?
MS: There has been no word on who if anyone has come in looking for a shot. I really don't know what I can and can't say here as far as spoilers go but basically Barry and I had one plan for the tag belts and that's fallen through, so at this point we're going with another idea, but all these plans were pretty much based upon getting The First out of the tag division and into a singles push.
TH: Interesting. I won't prod anymore. But back to another question, you've reintroduced the always-controversial Doc Silver back into FW, both in EPW and TEAM. What can we expect, and regarding TEAM, how do you feel about your chances in the upcoming Invitational Tournament?
MS: Well Doc's back cause of the whole angle with Ryoko and Felix, he's going to be the Mr. Perfect Felix's Ric Flair, except that at a certain point, once Ryoko's contract with Felix is up, he's going to try to kill Felix, before that happens, if anyone wants to start something with Doc, that's always cool.
As for TEAM, I put Doc in there instead of The First cause I really hate walking in blind to a match, cause it's just like, you're yelling your stuff, and they are yelling their stuff, and then somebody judges the winner. If I get past the first round, and so does Cameron Cruise, then that'll be a lot of fun, cause I know Cammy and he knows me and we can just rip each other apart. I like the concept of TEAM it's just that sometimes with my style of RPing I feel like I just can't find a groove against an opponent and that costs me. So my hope would be to win two matches with one of them being a war with Siegel, and anything beyond that would be gravy.
Oh, and to make sure everyone is up to date on the latest events in the NFL and the NFL draft with Doc and Greenie, I like RPing them as just talking about random shit and having them fighting over the Patriots and Dolphins.
TH: Everybody loves them some football. Anyway, final question. A lot of people know about your checkered past with A1E. I don't want to dig that up, but with a lot of FW stalwarts going there over the years like Brunk, Ryan Strawsma and now Gregg Gethard, is there any chance of that bridge being rebuilt and seeing Doc Silver or any other of your characters in an A1E ring?
MS: I dunno, Doc wouldn't do it, cause like that character he's a prick, and he'd only do something like a 'go to CSWA or go to A1E' in an angle where he won the World Title just as this big 'holy shit' shock to the system kind of deal. But CSWA hasn't been to keen on the Doc Silver World Title Run, and I doubt A1E would be rolling out the red carpet for such an event.
I could see The First in A1E. But at the same time, I kind of like having him only in EPW, trying to be like the big star of that company, I like that A1E has a quick turn around on its cards, I've been away for a long time so I don't know exactly how the voting goes there now, but I'm still leery of it, and I'd figure people there would be kind of leery of me, so I guess I'd just have to say that until you have The A1ETron suddenly show the words "Pax Vobiscum" on it, that I'd not there. But who knows.
TH: Alright, well, thanks for the time, and the best of luck with LVW and with The First and Doc Silver!
MS: Thanks man, glad to get air time on the blog.
TH: No problem.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Hell Freezes Over
No, I didn't clone myself for e-fedding purposes :p
Did you read the latest A1E show? If not, you missed a hell of a debut. Troy Windham made his return to the e-ring and it was in A1E. Gregg PMed me on Facebook the other day telling me he was making a return in a place I didn't expect him to. I took it to mean that he was Captain CongaLine, who's handling the Spaniard and Capt. CongaLine in various feds, but he said that that wasn't him. I never thought in a million years that he was talking about A1E.
So what does this mean for A1E? Well, for one, it's an infusion of main event talent into the fed. Right away, Windham can step into any amount of dream feuds, including Marcus Westcott, Chip Friendly, Ken Cloverleaf, Cross, Troy Douglas or even with yours truly (and I don't mean Adam Benjamin, although that could be a fun feud too :p). Although A1E is heel-heavy already, Windham has come in as a sort of uber-heel that even top fed-baddies like Westcott and Friendly would have no problem working against as a temporary face.
I think it also means free pub for A1E and for a new rush of people who may not have wanted to try the fed out, or who were there before five or six years ago and left with a bitter taste in their mouth to come back and try it out. If the fed is good enough for a legendary CSWA character, why not them too?
I have very high hopes for the new partnership between Windham and A1E. It should be an interesting ride at the very least.
Did you read the latest A1E show? If not, you missed a hell of a debut. Troy Windham made his return to the e-ring and it was in A1E. Gregg PMed me on Facebook the other day telling me he was making a return in a place I didn't expect him to. I took it to mean that he was Captain CongaLine, who's handling the Spaniard and Capt. CongaLine in various feds, but he said that that wasn't him. I never thought in a million years that he was talking about A1E.
So what does this mean for A1E? Well, for one, it's an infusion of main event talent into the fed. Right away, Windham can step into any amount of dream feuds, including Marcus Westcott, Chip Friendly, Ken Cloverleaf, Cross, Troy Douglas or even with yours truly (and I don't mean Adam Benjamin, although that could be a fun feud too :p). Although A1E is heel-heavy already, Windham has come in as a sort of uber-heel that even top fed-baddies like Westcott and Friendly would have no problem working against as a temporary face.
I think it also means free pub for A1E and for a new rush of people who may not have wanted to try the fed out, or who were there before five or six years ago and left with a bitter taste in their mouth to come back and try it out. If the fed is good enough for a legendary CSWA character, why not them too?
I have very high hopes for the new partnership between Windham and A1E. It should be an interesting ride at the very least.
Friday, April 03, 2009
Wrestler of the Month: March 2009
You didn't think I wouldn't bring this back now, did you?
This month's wrestler of the month is none other than Troy Douglas. Despite losing the EPW Intercontinental Championship to Cameron Cruise, he rebounded at A1E's Sudden Death and took out Marcus Westcott for that fed's World Championship. Congrats!
Runners-Up
Garbage Bag Johnny (GCW, PRIME)
Jeffrey Roberts (A1E)
Cameron Cruise (A1E, EPW)
Jason Snow (PRIME)
Fusenshoff (EPW, TEAM)
This month's wrestler of the month is none other than Troy Douglas. Despite losing the EPW Intercontinental Championship to Cameron Cruise, he rebounded at A1E's Sudden Death and took out Marcus Westcott for that fed's World Championship. Congrats!
Runners-Up
Garbage Bag Johnny (GCW, PRIME)
Jeffrey Roberts (A1E)
Cameron Cruise (A1E, EPW)
Jason Snow (PRIME)
Fusenshoff (EPW, TEAM)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Writer vs. Wrestler vs. Wrestling Writer
Before we get to today's blog posting, a couple of quick hits.
- First, A1E has posted Sudden Death. It's actually been up for the better part of a week, but it's a good read. Three title switches, a rebranding of the one belt that didn't change hands and a shocking unmask. Go to the results section and read post haste!
- Second, some shilling. As you may or may not have figured out, I've created a second blog here on Blogspot. The Wrestling Blog will feature the same insight and wit (response from the peanut gallery on that comment: "lol") that you get here, only directed towards the WWE, TNA, puroresu, lucha libre, indies, WCW and other random wrestling-related things. Please check it out and bookmark it if you're a fan of the "real" thing.
Now, onto the post. Over at PTC, another discussion was started as to whether the handlers considered themselves as writers or wrestlers. This is an argument that seems like it's been beaten to death, and I know I've written about it here a lot, but some of the attitudes in that thread bear mentioning.
One of them is that eW is so different than wrestling, and if they were more of the same and the game wasn't so writing-oriented, then e-fedding would be "99% trash talk." My obvious predilection towards defending the art of the wrestling promo RP aside, it made me wonder whether this was actually true. Having watched wrestling for nearly my entire life and having seen the evolution and the OBVIOUS differences between the WWF in 1991 and the WWE in 2009, I can say beyond any shadow of a doubt that it's not.
If you discount the time on RAW, SmackDown and ECW dedicated to recapping what happened on the other shows, movie trailers or running down the card for the next PPV, here's the breakdown of what happens on a wrestling program: wrestling matches, promos, in-ring confrontation segments and segments where people are on camera but they act as if they're not on camera. Of these, there's probably a tie in time used between the confrontation segments and matches. Next is probably wrestling promos and after that are the backstage pseudo-shoot segments. Ever since the Monday Night Wars started, matches and multi-person in-rings have had the most time spent on them. There was a time during the late 90s when the pseudo-shoot segments were dominant over promos, thanks mainly to Vince Russo's "Crash-TV" style, but it seems equilibrium has been reached in that regard.
So what does all of that mean? Well, for one, it means that the "99% trash talk" number is way out of line. If you equate the number of RPs that happen per-week for the average FWC-styled fed to hours of camera time for cutting promos, you'd end up with HOURS of footage, more than what the "real" thing dedicates to single-entity unchallenged wrestling promos. In that regard, the FW/A1E-styled promo feds are wholly unrealistic to how a real wrestling fed works.
Secondly, all those "Crash-TV" style segments that were huge in the Attitude era and still pop up now albeit in more believable fashion to me equate more to PTC-styled RPs. The PTC RP is basically a writing exposition about the life outside of the ring for the character being portrayed. These things don't often times break character/kayfabe, but they're meant to show what the character is like when he/she is not in the ring or in front of a microphone. Isn't that exactly what a PTC RP is? It doesn't break character, but it's meant to get a glimpse into what that wrestler's life is when they're not at the arena? Sure, the "real" example hardly follows the person home or follows them around during their every day travails, but it's very similar in spirit.
Thirdly... whether a wrestling promo is meant to be written or spoken, for all intents and purposes of e-wrestling, it's written down. You still have to write it in order for you to imagine it being spoken. Matches still have to be written. Segments still have to be written. This game is 100% immersed in writing, so I fail to see how someone who is involved in a fed where very high percentages of content are wrestling promos is not a writer.
The fact is, everyone in the game is a writer, and I feel like everyone in the game should at least have some vestige of being a wrestling fan, whether you are one now or you used to be one and don't like the product anymore. In this game, you have to be both a writer and a wrestler. There's no way around it, and there's no real separation between the two. If there were, well, you'd be better off either trying to write short stories or essays for publication if you have no interest in the wrestling portion, or you'd be better off playing Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 over Wi-Fi if you have no interest in the writing portion.
- First, A1E has posted Sudden Death. It's actually been up for the better part of a week, but it's a good read. Three title switches, a rebranding of the one belt that didn't change hands and a shocking unmask. Go to the results section and read post haste!
- Second, some shilling. As you may or may not have figured out, I've created a second blog here on Blogspot. The Wrestling Blog will feature the same insight and wit (response from the peanut gallery on that comment: "lol") that you get here, only directed towards the WWE, TNA, puroresu, lucha libre, indies, WCW and other random wrestling-related things. Please check it out and bookmark it if you're a fan of the "real" thing.
Now, onto the post. Over at PTC, another discussion was started as to whether the handlers considered themselves as writers or wrestlers. This is an argument that seems like it's been beaten to death, and I know I've written about it here a lot, but some of the attitudes in that thread bear mentioning.
One of them is that eW is so different than wrestling, and if they were more of the same and the game wasn't so writing-oriented, then e-fedding would be "99% trash talk." My obvious predilection towards defending the art of the wrestling promo RP aside, it made me wonder whether this was actually true. Having watched wrestling for nearly my entire life and having seen the evolution and the OBVIOUS differences between the WWF in 1991 and the WWE in 2009, I can say beyond any shadow of a doubt that it's not.
If you discount the time on RAW, SmackDown and ECW dedicated to recapping what happened on the other shows, movie trailers or running down the card for the next PPV, here's the breakdown of what happens on a wrestling program: wrestling matches, promos, in-ring confrontation segments and segments where people are on camera but they act as if they're not on camera. Of these, there's probably a tie in time used between the confrontation segments and matches. Next is probably wrestling promos and after that are the backstage pseudo-shoot segments. Ever since the Monday Night Wars started, matches and multi-person in-rings have had the most time spent on them. There was a time during the late 90s when the pseudo-shoot segments were dominant over promos, thanks mainly to Vince Russo's "Crash-TV" style, but it seems equilibrium has been reached in that regard.
So what does all of that mean? Well, for one, it means that the "99% trash talk" number is way out of line. If you equate the number of RPs that happen per-week for the average FWC-styled fed to hours of camera time for cutting promos, you'd end up with HOURS of footage, more than what the "real" thing dedicates to single-entity unchallenged wrestling promos. In that regard, the FW/A1E-styled promo feds are wholly unrealistic to how a real wrestling fed works.
Secondly, all those "Crash-TV" style segments that were huge in the Attitude era and still pop up now albeit in more believable fashion to me equate more to PTC-styled RPs. The PTC RP is basically a writing exposition about the life outside of the ring for the character being portrayed. These things don't often times break character/kayfabe, but they're meant to show what the character is like when he/she is not in the ring or in front of a microphone. Isn't that exactly what a PTC RP is? It doesn't break character, but it's meant to get a glimpse into what that wrestler's life is when they're not at the arena? Sure, the "real" example hardly follows the person home or follows them around during their every day travails, but it's very similar in spirit.
Thirdly... whether a wrestling promo is meant to be written or spoken, for all intents and purposes of e-wrestling, it's written down. You still have to write it in order for you to imagine it being spoken. Matches still have to be written. Segments still have to be written. This game is 100% immersed in writing, so I fail to see how someone who is involved in a fed where very high percentages of content are wrestling promos is not a writer.
The fact is, everyone in the game is a writer, and I feel like everyone in the game should at least have some vestige of being a wrestling fan, whether you are one now or you used to be one and don't like the product anymore. In this game, you have to be both a writer and a wrestler. There's no way around it, and there's no real separation between the two. If there were, well, you'd be better off either trying to write short stories or essays for publication if you have no interest in the wrestling portion, or you'd be better off playing Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 over Wi-Fi if you have no interest in the writing portion.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Quick Hits: The Blogdome Grows Againe and Shows
Happy Monday everyone! Hope everyone's weekend was alright and that their favorite basketball teams made the NCAA tournament. I know I only seem to update on Mondays now, but hold tight, I still need to find my groove. For now, some quick hits:
- Unbeknownst to me, but Ross has taken the keys of the Official PTC Blog. Good to see it still around, and right now, the top post is about GTT making a comeback. I'm all about that. GTT is the premiere PTC-style RP tournament, and given the mini-resurgence e-fedding has experiencenced in the last year or so, I think the time is right for the tourney to come back.
- Just when you thought it was safe to discount the eW blog movement, another one has sprung up. Jared Wells Blog is the new edition, done by, of course, Barry Clark. It's an in-character blog, it seems, and he starts out by calling out NFW World Heavyweight Champion Joe the Plumber. Now that's a dream matchup!
- Keep your eyes peeled for A1E to post Sudden Death soon. It features my flagship character's return to an A1E ring as a guest referee in the Cyber Title match, Troy Douglas fighting for his career and for the A1E World Championship against Marcus Westcott, and I hear Nathan Houston's gonna have an announcement concerning a new title, which I'm sure will need people to fight for it (subliminal message... JOIN A1E!). As with all A1E PPVs, this will be a must-read.
- Speaking of tournaments, the TEAM Invitational Tournament is taking entrants for this year's shindig! This year's different because I'm competing in it, not running it. We've got some good names in tow this year so far, so put your name on the list if you want to join us.
- Unbeknownst to me, but Ross has taken the keys of the Official PTC Blog. Good to see it still around, and right now, the top post is about GTT making a comeback. I'm all about that. GTT is the premiere PTC-style RP tournament, and given the mini-resurgence e-fedding has experiencenced in the last year or so, I think the time is right for the tourney to come back.
- Just when you thought it was safe to discount the eW blog movement, another one has sprung up. Jared Wells Blog is the new edition, done by, of course, Barry Clark. It's an in-character blog, it seems, and he starts out by calling out NFW World Heavyweight Champion Joe the Plumber. Now that's a dream matchup!
- Keep your eyes peeled for A1E to post Sudden Death soon. It features my flagship character's return to an A1E ring as a guest referee in the Cyber Title match, Troy Douglas fighting for his career and for the A1E World Championship against Marcus Westcott, and I hear Nathan Houston's gonna have an announcement concerning a new title, which I'm sure will need people to fight for it (subliminal message... JOIN A1E!). As with all A1E PPVs, this will be a must-read.
- Speaking of tournaments, the TEAM Invitational Tournament is taking entrants for this year's shindig! This year's different because I'm competing in it, not running it. We've got some good names in tow this year so far, so put your name on the list if you want to join us.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
eW Six Pack: Best E-Fed Gimmicks Ever
Gimmick.
For some, it's a dirty word. Gimmick? I don't need a stinkin' gimmick to get over in eW. For others, like me, it's their bread and butter. I don't think I've had a character that didn't start out as a total gimmick that I've gotten over huge. Arguing the benefits of gimmicks vs. characters that are the handler turned up to 11 is a post for another day.
This post is for the best gimmicks in eW that I've at least seen, in Six Pack form. Now, a few disclaimers. One, best gimmick doesn't necessarily mean best quality. A handler could have a mediocre gimmick, but RP the hell out of it and be a top talent. Plus, most handlers run characters that are part "real" and part gimmick anyway. Two, well, there is no two, only Zuul. Now, without further ado...
The Six Best E-Fed Gimmicks Ever
1. Olivir Arsvinnar, Porn Star Viking - I want to know what was going through Strawsma's mind when he came up with this. Actually, scratch that. I'd probably be deathly afraid of what I'd find there. In all seriousness though, this is the kind of absurd gimmick that could only work in eW, which is usually populated by those smarky Internet fans whose quirky senses of humor give us characters like The Illustrious Face-Eater and Professor Tremendous. Just to give some background to the folks who don't know and are new to the blog (where I've raved before), Olvir is like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, only instead of a caveman, he's a Viking seafarer unthawed in the modern ages. Vikings are good at a few things, some of them being pillaging, drinking, screwing and fighting, all good qualities to have if you're a professional wrestler. Well, maybe not the screwing part, but it helps with the gimmick.
It doesn't hurt that Strawsma's warped mind is the perfect vehicle for this character to roar on all cylinders, or to get in the mood of the character more, to row with the might of a thousand rowers in a Viking longboat. When Olvir is on, there isn't really a character more entertaining to read.
2. Slambo the Clown, e-Wrestling's Answer to Pennywise - This is the Bill Dempsey edition that teamed with Prisoner 187 and the HPSC, not the one that was P-187 in what was the seminal swerve in the early history of A1E.
Anyway, the evil clown gimmick was done in the WWF back in the '90s with Doink. As an aside, I always thought Doink was underrated as a heel. It got a bit too kitschy when he became face, but that's neither here nor there. Now, if you think Slambo mk II was a play off that character, you'd be sorely mistaken. Slambo wasn't really an evil clown as much as he was psychotic, downtrodden, almost subhuman. He was really a clown who was everything that a clown wasn't for most kids (who weren't afraid of them growing up :p).
There was always an underlying innocence behind every Slambo RP, like there was a gentle child behind the savage exterior, and even though he never won a World Championship (while Bill achieved that with Freakfish), I always thought Slambo was his greatest success as a character.
3. Dr. Curiosity, Mad Scientist of the Squared Circle... Literally - This is the prime example of a gimmick that can only really work on eW. If it were tried in the "real" thing, it'd come off contrived and really fuckin' goofy. However, in the e-fed universe, where in-character writing isn't limited to on-camera stuff and is often times better-written than the more outlandish stuff you see on camera for one of the big promotions, it's gold in the right hands.
Andy Hewitt's hands were, and still are, more than capable of turning lead into gold, and I bet Doc C has tried that at one point. The Good Doctor got his start in XUW, which was PTC's resident nuthouse, but he parlayed that success into a crossover smash in the fWo and more recently, NFW.
4. The Codemaster, The Blackest Brother in the Kingdom of Hyrule - Now here's a gimmick that I thought would have worked huge in the WWE. A guy who's so delusional to think that he's a video game overlord... classic. Although Mike Renner will be known for a lot of things in our extended circle before his time's up, this bombastic, video-game trivia spouting villain will rank as his most colorful character (and for a guy who created the traveling geek squad known as Mega Job... that's something).
I think what helps is that Renner probably has an unhealthy addiction to video games and video game characters. I mean, this is the guy who penned (sprited?) the webcomic In Wily's Defense. All in all, whatever fed Codemaster lands in should be grateful to get him and will always get entertaining segments that are satisfying on every level to giant nerds such as myself.
5. El Magick-O (blogger's note: the "O" is for orgasm), The Sexual Wrestling Magician - LVW was such a great concept for a fed because the city itself lends itself to gimmicks. I mean, a crapload of casinos there have some kind of theme going for them, from the Pirates of the Caribbean to scaled-down models of European landmarks. The acts that populate the stages at the lounges there often times are laden with gimmicks. You could find anything to watch in Vegas if you really wanted to, and I truly believe that LVW was a microcosm for that, something that let people try things they'd never try in another FWC fed. This is the fed that gave us the aforementioned Olvir Arsvinnar, Eastern European strongman Hans Novak, a character that was a wrestling Elvis impersonator and in the later days, an actual "dog-boy".
Aside from Olvir, the standout gimmick to me was El Magick-O (the O being for orgasm). Not that there was anything really groundbreaking about it, but it was almost the perfect gimmick to be played in a fed based out of Las Vegas. Of course, the sexual aspect was just icing on the cake, but coming from the warped mind of Mike McNichols, well, that's to be expected.
6. Lowell Dot Com, The Shillin' Villain - A devious, constantly scheming manipulator who sells advertising space on his ring attire? Handled by Devin Woods, who probably huffs as much glue as Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia but writes wrestling RPs instead of rock operas about Dayman?
Sign.Me.Up.
For some, it's a dirty word. Gimmick? I don't need a stinkin' gimmick to get over in eW. For others, like me, it's their bread and butter. I don't think I've had a character that didn't start out as a total gimmick that I've gotten over huge. Arguing the benefits of gimmicks vs. characters that are the handler turned up to 11 is a post for another day.
This post is for the best gimmicks in eW that I've at least seen, in Six Pack form. Now, a few disclaimers. One, best gimmick doesn't necessarily mean best quality. A handler could have a mediocre gimmick, but RP the hell out of it and be a top talent. Plus, most handlers run characters that are part "real" and part gimmick anyway. Two, well, there is no two, only Zuul. Now, without further ado...
The Six Best E-Fed Gimmicks Ever
1. Olivir Arsvinnar, Porn Star Viking - I want to know what was going through Strawsma's mind when he came up with this. Actually, scratch that. I'd probably be deathly afraid of what I'd find there. In all seriousness though, this is the kind of absurd gimmick that could only work in eW, which is usually populated by those smarky Internet fans whose quirky senses of humor give us characters like The Illustrious Face-Eater and Professor Tremendous. Just to give some background to the folks who don't know and are new to the blog (where I've raved before), Olvir is like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, only instead of a caveman, he's a Viking seafarer unthawed in the modern ages. Vikings are good at a few things, some of them being pillaging, drinking, screwing and fighting, all good qualities to have if you're a professional wrestler. Well, maybe not the screwing part, but it helps with the gimmick.
It doesn't hurt that Strawsma's warped mind is the perfect vehicle for this character to roar on all cylinders, or to get in the mood of the character more, to row with the might of a thousand rowers in a Viking longboat. When Olvir is on, there isn't really a character more entertaining to read.
2. Slambo the Clown, e-Wrestling's Answer to Pennywise - This is the Bill Dempsey edition that teamed with Prisoner 187 and the HPSC, not the one that was P-187 in what was the seminal swerve in the early history of A1E.
Anyway, the evil clown gimmick was done in the WWF back in the '90s with Doink. As an aside, I always thought Doink was underrated as a heel. It got a bit too kitschy when he became face, but that's neither here nor there. Now, if you think Slambo mk II was a play off that character, you'd be sorely mistaken. Slambo wasn't really an evil clown as much as he was psychotic, downtrodden, almost subhuman. He was really a clown who was everything that a clown wasn't for most kids (who weren't afraid of them growing up :p).
There was always an underlying innocence behind every Slambo RP, like there was a gentle child behind the savage exterior, and even though he never won a World Championship (while Bill achieved that with Freakfish), I always thought Slambo was his greatest success as a character.
3. Dr. Curiosity, Mad Scientist of the Squared Circle... Literally - This is the prime example of a gimmick that can only really work on eW. If it were tried in the "real" thing, it'd come off contrived and really fuckin' goofy. However, in the e-fed universe, where in-character writing isn't limited to on-camera stuff and is often times better-written than the more outlandish stuff you see on camera for one of the big promotions, it's gold in the right hands.
Andy Hewitt's hands were, and still are, more than capable of turning lead into gold, and I bet Doc C has tried that at one point. The Good Doctor got his start in XUW, which was PTC's resident nuthouse, but he parlayed that success into a crossover smash in the fWo and more recently, NFW.
4. The Codemaster, The Blackest Brother in the Kingdom of Hyrule - Now here's a gimmick that I thought would have worked huge in the WWE. A guy who's so delusional to think that he's a video game overlord... classic. Although Mike Renner will be known for a lot of things in our extended circle before his time's up, this bombastic, video-game trivia spouting villain will rank as his most colorful character (and for a guy who created the traveling geek squad known as Mega Job... that's something).
I think what helps is that Renner probably has an unhealthy addiction to video games and video game characters. I mean, this is the guy who penned (sprited?) the webcomic In Wily's Defense. All in all, whatever fed Codemaster lands in should be grateful to get him and will always get entertaining segments that are satisfying on every level to giant nerds such as myself.
5. El Magick-O (blogger's note: the "O" is for orgasm), The Sexual Wrestling Magician - LVW was such a great concept for a fed because the city itself lends itself to gimmicks. I mean, a crapload of casinos there have some kind of theme going for them, from the Pirates of the Caribbean to scaled-down models of European landmarks. The acts that populate the stages at the lounges there often times are laden with gimmicks. You could find anything to watch in Vegas if you really wanted to, and I truly believe that LVW was a microcosm for that, something that let people try things they'd never try in another FWC fed. This is the fed that gave us the aforementioned Olvir Arsvinnar, Eastern European strongman Hans Novak, a character that was a wrestling Elvis impersonator and in the later days, an actual "dog-boy".
Aside from Olvir, the standout gimmick to me was El Magick-O (the O being for orgasm). Not that there was anything really groundbreaking about it, but it was almost the perfect gimmick to be played in a fed based out of Las Vegas. Of course, the sexual aspect was just icing on the cake, but coming from the warped mind of Mike McNichols, well, that's to be expected.
6. Lowell Dot Com, The Shillin' Villain - A devious, constantly scheming manipulator who sells advertising space on his ring attire? Handled by Devin Woods, who probably huffs as much glue as Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia but writes wrestling RPs instead of rock operas about Dayman?
Sign.Me.Up.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
December's Wrestler of the Month and a Temporary Farewell
This month's honor goes to Chandler Tsonda, winner of PRIME's Jewel in the Crown Tournament. He won two matches in one night at King of Kings, and took the month-long tournament in style, capping off his comeback with number one contendership to the Universal Championship. Congratulations!
This month's runner-up goes to Dan Ryan for retaining the A1E World Championship, dropping a huge bombshell by taking over said company and for his goings on in NAPW. Truly capping off a WotY worthy year.
2007's Wrestlers of the Month
January: Dan Ryan (A1E, NFW)
February: Clinton Sage (FUSE, PTC Events)
March: Nova (NFW, PRIME)
April: Dan Ryan (2) (A1E, NEW, TEAM Events)
May: Big Dog (A1E)
June: Lindsay Troy (PRIME, EPW, NFW, TEAM Events)
July: Nova (2) (PRIME, TEAM Events, NFW)
August: Lindsay Troy (2) (PRIME, EPW, TEAM Events)
September: The Illustrious Face-Eater (PTC Events, PRIME)
October: Dan Ryan (3) (CSWA, A1E)
November: Sonny Silver (PRIME)
December: Chandler Tsonda (PRIME)
And now, for something completely different...
In case you're wondering, I'm not doing my year end blowout, mainly because I've been so out of the loop when it comes to the feds and their workings. I don't think I can give advice or credibly dole out awards for anything other than Wrestler of the Year. I've just been so busy lately with wedding stuff and with work and with other distractions that I'm losing a lot of my attention span when it comes to feds that I'm not involved in. It sucks, since everyone seems to look to me as the great connector, but I don't think I can do that right now.
So, what does this mean? I'm closing up the blog for now. I don't want to keep people waiting for entries that are never going to come, and I don't want to keep giving people shittily-written entries of opinion thinly veiled as analysis. I don't know about you, but I haven't been happy with my writing on here for awhile. So, if you're not happy doing something, why keep doing it?
This isn't my retirement from the hobby, not by a longshot. I just want to refocus my energies into TEAM and into RPing in the feds that I'm already in. And this doesn't mean there's no chance the blog won't come back in the future. It's just an indefinitely temporary hiatus.
So, without further ado, I'd just like to say thank you for reading my insane ramblings and making me feel more imporatant in this hobby than I ever had any right to be. Hopefully, I'll be back on here in the future, but until then, I'll catch you in the feds and on the forums.
This month's runner-up goes to Dan Ryan for retaining the A1E World Championship, dropping a huge bombshell by taking over said company and for his goings on in NAPW. Truly capping off a WotY worthy year.
2007's Wrestlers of the Month
January: Dan Ryan (A1E, NFW)
February: Clinton Sage (FUSE, PTC Events)
March: Nova (NFW, PRIME)
April: Dan Ryan (2) (A1E, NEW, TEAM Events)
May: Big Dog (A1E)
June: Lindsay Troy (PRIME, EPW, NFW, TEAM Events)
July: Nova (2) (PRIME, TEAM Events, NFW)
August: Lindsay Troy (2) (PRIME, EPW, TEAM Events)
September: The Illustrious Face-Eater (PTC Events, PRIME)
October: Dan Ryan (3) (CSWA, A1E)
November: Sonny Silver (PRIME)
December: Chandler Tsonda (PRIME)
And now, for something completely different...
In case you're wondering, I'm not doing my year end blowout, mainly because I've been so out of the loop when it comes to the feds and their workings. I don't think I can give advice or credibly dole out awards for anything other than Wrestler of the Year. I've just been so busy lately with wedding stuff and with work and with other distractions that I'm losing a lot of my attention span when it comes to feds that I'm not involved in. It sucks, since everyone seems to look to me as the great connector, but I don't think I can do that right now.
So, what does this mean? I'm closing up the blog for now. I don't want to keep people waiting for entries that are never going to come, and I don't want to keep giving people shittily-written entries of opinion thinly veiled as analysis. I don't know about you, but I haven't been happy with my writing on here for awhile. So, if you're not happy doing something, why keep doing it?
This isn't my retirement from the hobby, not by a longshot. I just want to refocus my energies into TEAM and into RPing in the feds that I'm already in. And this doesn't mean there's no chance the blog won't come back in the future. It's just an indefinitely temporary hiatus.
So, without further ado, I'd just like to say thank you for reading my insane ramblings and making me feel more imporatant in this hobby than I ever had any right to be. Hopefully, I'll be back on here in the future, but until then, I'll catch you in the feds and on the forums.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
October's Wrestler of the Month
Yes, there's still one day left in the month, but other than the TEAM results, which have no bearing on the winner or runner-up for this month, I don't foresee any other results going up. So without further ado...
October's WotM takes this award for an unprecdented third time in a year, and it's mainly for an event that happened in the CSWA. Hell is freezing over as we speak, now that Gold Rush is finished, and at the end we saw an AMAZING swerve with Gold Rush winner Troy Windham being challenged to a match... and defeated by this month's winner, Dan Ryan. He's the new UNIFIED Champion, adding that to the A1E World Championship he won last month. Congrats, Brunk, and let's hope there isn't another 18 months between CSDub cards ;)
This month's runner-up is Vivica J. Valentine. Valentine capped off her month in GCW with winning the Dangerous Games battle royale to claim the number one contendership to Lia Ambrosi's World Championship. Job well done!
Honorable mentions - Fusenshoff (TEAM Events), The Sergeant (EPW), Jason Snow (PRIME, PTC Events), Eron the Relentless (CSWA), Bruce Richards (NAPW), Mike Randalls (TEAM Events)
Previous Winners
January: Dan Ryan (A1E, NFW)
February: Clinton Sage (FUSE, PTC Events)
March: Nova (NFW, PRIME)
April: Dan Ryan (2) (A1E, NEW, TEAM Events)
May: Big Dog (A1E)
June: Lindsay Troy (PRIME, EPW, NFW, TEAM Events)
July: Nova (2) (PRIME, TEAM Events, NFW)
August: Lindsay Troy (2) (PRIME, EPW, TEAM Events)
September: The Illustrious Face-Eater (PTC Events, PRIME)
October's WotM takes this award for an unprecdented third time in a year, and it's mainly for an event that happened in the CSWA. Hell is freezing over as we speak, now that Gold Rush is finished, and at the end we saw an AMAZING swerve with Gold Rush winner Troy Windham being challenged to a match... and defeated by this month's winner, Dan Ryan. He's the new UNIFIED Champion, adding that to the A1E World Championship he won last month. Congrats, Brunk, and let's hope there isn't another 18 months between CSDub cards ;)
This month's runner-up is Vivica J. Valentine. Valentine capped off her month in GCW with winning the Dangerous Games battle royale to claim the number one contendership to Lia Ambrosi's World Championship. Job well done!
Honorable mentions - Fusenshoff (TEAM Events), The Sergeant (EPW), Jason Snow (PRIME, PTC Events), Eron the Relentless (CSWA), Bruce Richards (NAPW), Mike Randalls (TEAM Events)
Previous Winners
January: Dan Ryan (A1E, NFW)
February: Clinton Sage (FUSE, PTC Events)
March: Nova (NFW, PRIME)
April: Dan Ryan (2) (A1E, NEW, TEAM Events)
May: Big Dog (A1E)
June: Lindsay Troy (PRIME, EPW, NFW, TEAM Events)
July: Nova (2) (PRIME, TEAM Events, NFW)
August: Lindsay Troy (2) (PRIME, EPW, TEAM Events)
September: The Illustrious Face-Eater (PTC Events, PRIME)
Saturday, October 06, 2007
News and Notes!
Been a long time since I've done one of these!
- First up, NAPW will be celebrating its second birthday on Halloween with Anniversary Assault II. Hard to believe that this fed is only two years old; it seems like it's been around forever. That's the mark of a great fed though. Time is exaggerated in e-fedding. What takes a "real" wrestler half a career to accomplish will take an e-wrestler half a year. Anyway, the card looks pretty good so far. The main event is going to be a Halloween House of Horrors match. The combatants haven't been announced for that, but I'm sure you can count on Ravager, current Champion Bruce Richards and former Champion Donovan Astros to be a part of those proceedings. Billy Kryenik and Tommy Deathrow will settle their feud in a TaiPei Deathmatch. All in all, it should be a decent card at the very least, and maybe I'll get up off my duff and review it ;)
- Intersting note posted over at PTC's advertisement forum. Ben (Steven Caldera) is going to be starting up a new fed, Outlaw Pro Wrestling. Here's the announcement, and it looks like this fed is going to be run on a smaller scale on the local level. It's also going to have a more of an underground feel. Hopefully, Ben either has someone else running this, or he's not spreading himself too thin, because I like the idea of this fed. It reminds me of me when I started up UXW all those years ago. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more information about OPW.
- Speaking of notes posted places, it seems that A1E is on the in-character selling block. Jarret posted notes both at A1 and FW noting this, and I think it's probably going to tie in with the ongoing storyline between Nathan Houston and the board of directors. I have to say, even though I've been enjoying Houston's current departure from character in his feud with Spoiler, I'm looking forward to the sale and the eventual replacement of Houston that almost seems imminent. Houston's been the figurehead for A1E for a long time, and I feel like that when Roger stepped down as the OOC head booker, he should have been replaced. I'm guessing Jarret had that plan all along, but he had a storyline for that, so kudos to him for going through with it, even if it's been a bit drawn out.
- One more thing before I sign off this time. The Dupree Cup playoffs will be starting soon, and that means we'll be heading into SuperShow VII. Start thinking about challenge matches or whether you want to participate in the Lethal Lottery Championship or FREE FOR ALL~! Championship matches.
- First up, NAPW will be celebrating its second birthday on Halloween with Anniversary Assault II. Hard to believe that this fed is only two years old; it seems like it's been around forever. That's the mark of a great fed though. Time is exaggerated in e-fedding. What takes a "real" wrestler half a career to accomplish will take an e-wrestler half a year. Anyway, the card looks pretty good so far. The main event is going to be a Halloween House of Horrors match. The combatants haven't been announced for that, but I'm sure you can count on Ravager, current Champion Bruce Richards and former Champion Donovan Astros to be a part of those proceedings. Billy Kryenik and Tommy Deathrow will settle their feud in a TaiPei Deathmatch. All in all, it should be a decent card at the very least, and maybe I'll get up off my duff and review it ;)
- Intersting note posted over at PTC's advertisement forum. Ben (Steven Caldera) is going to be starting up a new fed, Outlaw Pro Wrestling. Here's the announcement, and it looks like this fed is going to be run on a smaller scale on the local level. It's also going to have a more of an underground feel. Hopefully, Ben either has someone else running this, or he's not spreading himself too thin, because I like the idea of this fed. It reminds me of me when I started up UXW all those years ago. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more information about OPW.
- Speaking of notes posted places, it seems that A1E is on the in-character selling block. Jarret posted notes both at A1 and FW noting this, and I think it's probably going to tie in with the ongoing storyline between Nathan Houston and the board of directors. I have to say, even though I've been enjoying Houston's current departure from character in his feud with Spoiler, I'm looking forward to the sale and the eventual replacement of Houston that almost seems imminent. Houston's been the figurehead for A1E for a long time, and I feel like that when Roger stepped down as the OOC head booker, he should have been replaced. I'm guessing Jarret had that plan all along, but he had a storyline for that, so kudos to him for going through with it, even if it's been a bit drawn out.
- One more thing before I sign off this time. The Dupree Cup playoffs will be starting soon, and that means we'll be heading into SuperShow VII. Start thinking about challenge matches or whether you want to participate in the Lethal Lottery Championship or FREE FOR ALL~! Championship matches.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
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.
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.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
The Book On... The Spoiler!
Alright, in lieu of doing some show reviews right now (hopefully I can have them read and recapped soon... no promises though!), I thought I'd take this opportunity to enlighten folks about certain characters that I pump up or whose accolades I mention. A lot of times, you hear about how a character is legendary or about all the things he/she has done and yet you don't hear details. It's almost like you go on faith that this character is ZOMG~! important or good. I'm guilty of this more than anyone else since I really do throw out names and expect people to take notice.
So I'm going to start a new feature. The Book On... will be an occasional series running down characters and giving you a history so you know why they're revered in the circles they're revered in. I figured I'd start out in the arena I'm most familiar with, The A1 Feds, and give you some background on the circle's most legendary character...
The Spoiler
Height: 6'8"
Weight: 302 lbs.
From: Parts Unknown
Nicknames and Alias: The Force of Nature, Joe Retro (unmasked)
Description: (from his profile at A1E.ca)
Signature Moves
The Spoilerbomb - This is the second most over finisher in the history of the A1 feds (I'm sorry, but nothing beats the HIDADRIVER~! {oh the humanity} in my book) from where I sit. It's basically the Undertaker's Last Ride done about 100 times harder than Taker would ever be allowed to do it in the WWE. It's usually accompanied by a WHAM!, which amps up the coolness factor by 100 as well. The Spoilerbomb is actually the one move that gave birth to MBE. Dan or someone else may correct me on this, but I believe MBE was born out of a thread at 1Bob talking about how great an edition of Monday Nitro was. Dan came in and started Spoilerbombing people in the way that Sid would use to powerbomb random people, and out of that, a new e-fed was born. This is one of a very select few of finishers that I feel should be overprotected and should only be kicked out of in blowoff matches for huge feuds.
Spoiler Press Driver - Gorilla press to a Rikishi Driver. This is the DEATH move, and a move that I'd be interested to see if it could be pulled off in real life. Probably not, but it at least sounds cool.
Spoilerhold Omega - It's basically a Dragon Sleeper/Camel Clutch hybrid. Pretty nasty submission hold if you ask me, especially done by a 300+ lb. guy.
Spoiler-[insert move here] - All of Spoils' moves can be personalized to him by putting the word Spoiler- in the move somehow. Shooting Spoiler Press, Sweet Spoiler Music, Super Spoilerman Buster, Spoilerline... you get the idea.
Fed History - MBE, A1E, TEAM Events
Title/Award History - MBE World Champion (x6), MBE Tag Team Champion (w/ Andrew Gilkison), MBE Unified Champion, A1E Cyber Champion, A1E Tag Team Champion (w/ Freakfish), 2006 Best of A1E Tournament Champion, 2006 TEAM Dupree Cup Co-Most Valuable Wrestler
Greatest Feud - Freakfish
You can make the argument for BobbyR here, but really, a feud that one-sided isn't a feud as much as it is a bloodbath (Sorry Bob!). With Freakfish though, Spoils had a rival that had a similar aura around him. Not the same in-character, but out-of-character. They were the Lennon and McCartney of MBE, as Bobby Rodriguez once put it. They started out as stablemates in the MBElite, Spoiler as the World Champion and Freakfish as the Unified. After the group splintered, I'm not sure what happened. Dan or Bill could tell you better, but that was before I got to MBE. By the time I had gotten there though, Spoils was out for a bit and Freakfish started his rapid ascent to the top, one that culminated with his World Championship win over Professor Tremendous. For awhile, FF was playing the role of the tweener, lean towards face Champion, taking on challenges from the new Midwest Mafia and such. Then came High Stakes '01, when a resurgent Spoiler earned his way back up to the top. It was a clash of titans, two of the greats in MBE history, battling it out for the Big Gold Belt. It had heat, no question, but it felt more like a dream match main for the biggest event on the calendar, not a blood feud.
And then the finish of that match happened. Freakfish screwjobbed Spoiler and in the process revealed that he was part of an evil syndicate that would put MBE in a stranglehold for the next six months with owner Mr. Amazing! and hired muscle WhiteNoise. Spoiler's rage could not be contained, and he made it his mission to not only take the title from FF, but to break him in the process. The next PPV, Spoiler took the title from FF. Over the next year, they'd go on to feud off and on, culminating in a seminal cage match where FF was injured at Spoils' hand. The Force of Nature had won in the end... or did he? At his HoF induction in MBE v. 2.0, his video feed was interrupted and desecrated by the PbPro contingient led by... you guessed it, Freakfish.
With Bill in retirement, it's not likely that this feud will be rekindled anytime soon. However, the first rule of e-fedding is never say never.
Required Reading - A smattering of Spoils' RP work, just to get a taste of what he's about:
Spoiler vs. Housefly: Icon vs. Icon at Golden Dreams VI
2006 Best of A1E Finals vs. James Irish, Dan Ryan and Big Dog
TEAM Championship of Champions Match vs. Lindsay Troy (c)
Greatest Hits
Spoiler vs. PILE (c - World) vs. BobbyR (c - North American), MBE World and North American Championships on the line (I believe this was at the original High Stakes, and it was the match where the MBElite was born)
Spoiler vs. Freakfish (c), MBE World Championship on the line at High Stakes '01
Spoiler vs. Housefly, Icon vs. Icon at Golden Dreams VI
Spoiler vs. Jason Payne, TEAM Dupree Cup semifinals (MBE vs. NFW)
Plus, pick any of his matches against BobbyR, Hida Yakamo, Andy Gilkison or James Irish
My Take on His Place in eW History
For most people around right now, the lore of Spoiler will always be larger than what they've seen him do, and for good reason. The original MBE was for the most part sheltered from the greater eW world that most of us knew about. Sure, Chad and Steve helped set up the forums on the original 1Bob sites, but outside of those two hooligans :p and the MBE originals, who really took notice? However, the impact of the character in the A1 world cannot be ignored, and even if the rest of the eW world never sees Spoiler march into a fed and dominate it like he did in MBE, his legacy will live on in the influence of that seminal character. As the A1 world becomes fully integrated with FW and as FW serves as a port for people from PTC, WfWA, the angle fed world or wherever, they'll know the influence of the Spoiler. For that reason alone, he deserves to be mentioned in any conversation about great e-fed characters.
So I'm going to start a new feature. The Book On... will be an occasional series running down characters and giving you a history so you know why they're revered in the circles they're revered in. I figured I'd start out in the arena I'm most familiar with, The A1 Feds, and give you some background on the circle's most legendary character...
The Spoiler
Height: 6'8"
Weight: 302 lbs.
From: Parts Unknown
Nicknames and Alias: The Force of Nature, Joe Retro (unmasked)
Description: (from his profile at A1E.ca)
A Mountain of Muscle and Sinew. Wears a red mask with a black "face" with matching red and black tights/singlet combo and black boots that rise up to just past his knees.
Signature Moves
The Spoilerbomb - This is the second most over finisher in the history of the A1 feds (I'm sorry, but nothing beats the HIDADRIVER~! {oh the humanity} in my book) from where I sit. It's basically the Undertaker's Last Ride done about 100 times harder than Taker would ever be allowed to do it in the WWE. It's usually accompanied by a WHAM!, which amps up the coolness factor by 100 as well. The Spoilerbomb is actually the one move that gave birth to MBE. Dan or someone else may correct me on this, but I believe MBE was born out of a thread at 1Bob talking about how great an edition of Monday Nitro was. Dan came in and started Spoilerbombing people in the way that Sid would use to powerbomb random people, and out of that, a new e-fed was born. This is one of a very select few of finishers that I feel should be overprotected and should only be kicked out of in blowoff matches for huge feuds.
Spoiler Press Driver - Gorilla press to a Rikishi Driver. This is the DEATH move, and a move that I'd be interested to see if it could be pulled off in real life. Probably not, but it at least sounds cool.
Spoilerhold Omega - It's basically a Dragon Sleeper/Camel Clutch hybrid. Pretty nasty submission hold if you ask me, especially done by a 300+ lb. guy.
Spoiler-[insert move here] - All of Spoils' moves can be personalized to him by putting the word Spoiler- in the move somehow. Shooting Spoiler Press, Sweet Spoiler Music, Super Spoilerman Buster, Spoilerline... you get the idea.
Fed History - MBE, A1E, TEAM Events
Title/Award History - MBE World Champion (x6), MBE Tag Team Champion (w/ Andrew Gilkison), MBE Unified Champion, A1E Cyber Champion, A1E Tag Team Champion (w/ Freakfish), 2006 Best of A1E Tournament Champion, 2006 TEAM Dupree Cup Co-Most Valuable Wrestler
Greatest Feud - Freakfish
You can make the argument for BobbyR here, but really, a feud that one-sided isn't a feud as much as it is a bloodbath (Sorry Bob!). With Freakfish though, Spoils had a rival that had a similar aura around him. Not the same in-character, but out-of-character. They were the Lennon and McCartney of MBE, as Bobby Rodriguez once put it. They started out as stablemates in the MBElite, Spoiler as the World Champion and Freakfish as the Unified. After the group splintered, I'm not sure what happened. Dan or Bill could tell you better, but that was before I got to MBE. By the time I had gotten there though, Spoils was out for a bit and Freakfish started his rapid ascent to the top, one that culminated with his World Championship win over Professor Tremendous. For awhile, FF was playing the role of the tweener, lean towards face Champion, taking on challenges from the new Midwest Mafia and such. Then came High Stakes '01, when a resurgent Spoiler earned his way back up to the top. It was a clash of titans, two of the greats in MBE history, battling it out for the Big Gold Belt. It had heat, no question, but it felt more like a dream match main for the biggest event on the calendar, not a blood feud.
And then the finish of that match happened. Freakfish screwjobbed Spoiler and in the process revealed that he was part of an evil syndicate that would put MBE in a stranglehold for the next six months with owner Mr. Amazing! and hired muscle WhiteNoise. Spoiler's rage could not be contained, and he made it his mission to not only take the title from FF, but to break him in the process. The next PPV, Spoiler took the title from FF. Over the next year, they'd go on to feud off and on, culminating in a seminal cage match where FF was injured at Spoils' hand. The Force of Nature had won in the end... or did he? At his HoF induction in MBE v. 2.0, his video feed was interrupted and desecrated by the PbPro contingient led by... you guessed it, Freakfish.
With Bill in retirement, it's not likely that this feud will be rekindled anytime soon. However, the first rule of e-fedding is never say never.
Required Reading - A smattering of Spoils' RP work, just to get a taste of what he's about:
Spoiler vs. Housefly: Icon vs. Icon at Golden Dreams VI
2006 Best of A1E Finals vs. James Irish, Dan Ryan and Big Dog
TEAM Championship of Champions Match vs. Lindsay Troy (c)
Greatest Hits
Spoiler vs. PILE (c - World) vs. BobbyR (c - North American), MBE World and North American Championships on the line (I believe this was at the original High Stakes, and it was the match where the MBElite was born)
Spoiler vs. Freakfish (c), MBE World Championship on the line at High Stakes '01
Spoiler vs. Housefly, Icon vs. Icon at Golden Dreams VI
Spoiler vs. Jason Payne, TEAM Dupree Cup semifinals (MBE vs. NFW)
Plus, pick any of his matches against BobbyR, Hida Yakamo, Andy Gilkison or James Irish
My Take on His Place in eW History
For most people around right now, the lore of Spoiler will always be larger than what they've seen him do, and for good reason. The original MBE was for the most part sheltered from the greater eW world that most of us knew about. Sure, Chad and Steve helped set up the forums on the original 1Bob sites, but outside of those two hooligans :p and the MBE originals, who really took notice? However, the impact of the character in the A1 world cannot be ignored, and even if the rest of the eW world never sees Spoiler march into a fed and dominate it like he did in MBE, his legacy will live on in the influence of that seminal character. As the A1 world becomes fully integrated with FW and as FW serves as a port for people from PTC, WfWA, the angle fed world or wherever, they'll know the influence of the Spoiler. For that reason alone, he deserves to be mentioned in any conversation about great e-fed characters.
Friday, June 01, 2007
May's Wrestler of the Month
This month was a really, really hard choice. A lot of deserving folks, and I really couldn't give this one out without giving a lot of pause. Still, this month's winner is very deserving. He knocked off a guy who won two of these awards this year to win the A1E World Championship, a title that Dan Ryan was projected to hold for a good long time. He's also a Tag Team Champion, and he's proving that old dogs can learn new tricks. Just in case you haven't discerned yet, May's Wrestler of the Month is none other than Big Dog. Congrats Phil, you deserved this.
This month, we have three runners-up, if only because I can't just give this to one person from the fed I'm going to honor here. Jacob McKail, John Covel and Clinton Sage share runner-up honors this month for trading the FUSE Universal Championship in a very hot three way feud. Congrats, guys.
Honorable Mentions
Dan Ryan (A1E, NEW, WFW, EUWC, TEAM Events), Ulysis Solian (LoC, TEAM Events), Ravager (NAPW, TEAM Events), Rocko Daymon (A1E, NEW, EUWC), Nova (PRIME, TEAM Events), Jason Snow (PRIME, PTC Events), Killean Sirrajin (PRIME), Beast (A1E, EPW, TEAM Events), Harley Douglas (TEAM Events), Jason Payne (NEW, TEAM Events)
Previous Wrestlers of the Month
January: Dan Ryan (A1E, NFW)
February: CLinton Sage (FUSE, PTC Events)
March: Nova (NFW, PRIME)
April: Dan Ryan (2) (A1E, NEW)
This month, we have three runners-up, if only because I can't just give this to one person from the fed I'm going to honor here. Jacob McKail, John Covel and Clinton Sage share runner-up honors this month for trading the FUSE Universal Championship in a very hot three way feud. Congrats, guys.
Honorable Mentions
Dan Ryan (A1E, NEW, WFW, EUWC, TEAM Events), Ulysis Solian (LoC, TEAM Events), Ravager (NAPW, TEAM Events), Rocko Daymon (A1E, NEW, EUWC), Nova (PRIME, TEAM Events), Jason Snow (PRIME, PTC Events), Killean Sirrajin (PRIME), Beast (A1E, EPW, TEAM Events), Harley Douglas (TEAM Events), Jason Payne (NEW, TEAM Events)
Previous Wrestlers of the Month
January: Dan Ryan (A1E, NFW)
February: CLinton Sage (FUSE, PTC Events)
March: Nova (NFW, PRIME)
April: Dan Ryan (2) (A1E, NEW)
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
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)
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)
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The Tag Rope Repaired
Just when you think you have a trend down cold, it has to go and reverse itself. In some cases, this is a bad thing, like growth on the stock market that suddenly makes a u-turn and crashes. In other cases, you're left pleasantly surprised. The apparent resurgence of tag wrestling in eW is one of these cases.
About a year-and-a-half ago, I bemoaned the dwindlage of tag team divisions. (To show how dated that post is, WFW still had pretensions of being an active fed then :p) Up until even a few months ago, that post rang true. The only fed that I knew of that had anything resembling a healthy, thriving tag team division was NAPW. Mind you, NAPW's division could stack up with any great tag division in the history of eW, but the truth was that even feds that did have a tag division ran it on life-support.
Then, something happened. People started giving a shit about tag teams again and made efforts to handle them as one handler or, the best part, palled together with other handlers to form tag teams. As a result, you had a great turnout for the MCW Tag Team Tournament, a concerted effort from Jarret and A1E to re-establish the tag division and the overflow in PRIME's newest roster expansion to enthusiastically enter the division and make it viable once more.
Does this mean there's been a sea change in the way people feel about tag teams? I would say no, because I feel that deep down inside, everyone wants to have a tag division. I would say that there's a sea change in the effort put forth to have a tag division, at least initially. It's very, very important to note that with PRIME and A1E, this re-expansion of the tag divisions is still in the infant stages. Who knows if and when people will get bored of it and go back to their selfish singles division exploits. For now though, things are looking up, and I feel that's a good thing.
When you have an active tag team division, you have a battleground for people to enter and do battle with other characters regardless of standing on the card. It's the only true place on the card where position really doesn't matter all that much. It's also the best avenue to show the collaborative side of eW, which is what I feel makes eW so great and sets it apart from other forms of writing.
Hopefully, the interest in tag teams stays up. I have a good feeling that it will though.
About a year-and-a-half ago, I bemoaned the dwindlage of tag team divisions. (To show how dated that post is, WFW still had pretensions of being an active fed then :p) Up until even a few months ago, that post rang true. The only fed that I knew of that had anything resembling a healthy, thriving tag team division was NAPW. Mind you, NAPW's division could stack up with any great tag division in the history of eW, but the truth was that even feds that did have a tag division ran it on life-support.
Then, something happened. People started giving a shit about tag teams again and made efforts to handle them as one handler or, the best part, palled together with other handlers to form tag teams. As a result, you had a great turnout for the MCW Tag Team Tournament, a concerted effort from Jarret and A1E to re-establish the tag division and the overflow in PRIME's newest roster expansion to enthusiastically enter the division and make it viable once more.
Does this mean there's been a sea change in the way people feel about tag teams? I would say no, because I feel that deep down inside, everyone wants to have a tag division. I would say that there's a sea change in the effort put forth to have a tag division, at least initially. It's very, very important to note that with PRIME and A1E, this re-expansion of the tag divisions is still in the infant stages. Who knows if and when people will get bored of it and go back to their selfish singles division exploits. For now though, things are looking up, and I feel that's a good thing.
When you have an active tag team division, you have a battleground for people to enter and do battle with other characters regardless of standing on the card. It's the only true place on the card where position really doesn't matter all that much. It's also the best avenue to show the collaborative side of eW, which is what I feel makes eW so great and sets it apart from other forms of writing.
Hopefully, the interest in tag teams stays up. I have a good feeling that it will though.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Guest Bloggings: Beast on A1E
Iiiit's Beast! Yep, even though he does have his own blog (Blog of the Beast!), I'm giving Jarret some space today for a defense of the home fed, A1E. Sit back, relax and enjoy. And yes, I will have some more goodness later today. I'm actually working on a huge entry about submission moves, but that's a long-term thing. Today... I don't like to do the preview thing because if I don't get around to doing it, I get Edmunds and Mat Waters leading the angry pitchfork mob looking to burn me at the stake for not blogging ;) But today, I'm gonna try to get some quickie reviews out of the way and pimp some new blogs and eW hubs.
But now, without further ado... The Blog of the Beast on RRoaEL!
Perceptions
By Jarret Aubry, Special Guest to RRoaEL
First off, I just wanted to thank Tom for giving me the space to post this. (Note to self: remind self to later sabotage Tom for having a more popular blog than everyone else. Wait, did I just say that out loud?)
But in reality, I wanted to post this here, because Tom is such an ambassador to the e-Wrestling community, and this message would reach the most people because of him and this blog.
Human perception is a pretty powerful thing. Especially when it's a negative experience. Whether you've been involved in something directly, or heard second-hand from someone else who has been, those experiences and that feedback play a pretty powerful role in shaping your perception about a particular subject.
So what brings this kind of a post on?
For those of you that don't know, I recently took over the reigns of A1E and am the head booker there. I have a booking committee of four others that work alongside me. A few nights ago, one of my staff members was approached by a major FW star about possibly joining A1E. Quite the conversation followed, and a number of points were raised as to why this person was hesitant about joining the federation. The following was brought up:
1. You have to be invited to join.
2. The voting system is screwy.
3. Only members of a certain "clique" gets pushed and put over.
4. New members are disregarded and screwed over in favor of established members.
In this post, I'd like to address each of these points, and hopefully put some minds at ease for those that have thought about joining A1E, but haven't for some reason or another. I'm not making anything up. I'm going to be brutally honest about both the good and the bad that have gone down in A1E. We've had challenges in the past, but I think that now, we've made a ton of improvements, and if you've ever wanted to be part of A1E, now is the time to join.
1. You have to be invited to join.
Simply not true. I don't know how this got started, but A1E is not a closed fed. Anyone can join at any time. Please read the F.A.Q. on the A1E web site. All you need to do is submit your profile, and post IN for a match in the provided In/Out thread that goes up before every card. That's it. We don't turn down anyone. All I suggest is contacting myself or a member of the BC to let us know you're coming, and we can cook something up to introduce you into the fed - if you like.
2. The voting system is screwy.
This has probably been one of the biggest "issues", for lack of a better word, that's been through A1E basically throughout it's history. The premise behind the voting system is that once the promo - RP - session ends, the federation membership sends in votes on who they thought had the better RPs, and that determines the winner of the match.
The knee-jerk reaction to this is that everyone thinks "Wow, there must be a lot of bloc-voting and everyone voting for their friends."
I'm not going to lie. Of course the potential is there. It's really easy to just write down your buddy's name, or if you've got a favorite character to consistently vote for them because you're a mark for them. People wonder why we even have a voting system in the first place.
Well, we do it for two reasons. One, to give each and every member that participates in A1E a voice in how the fed works. We never have been, and don't want to be, a fed that just dictates what happens and have everyone just play along. Voting is a feedback mechanism for everyone that participates to go "Hey, Wrestler A did a good job this week. I'd like him/her to win the match." And two, it's a mechanism for the voters to ensure that the Booking Committee (BC) simply isn't putting over their own buddies and characters that we're marks for.
We realize that there have been some discrepencies in voted results in the past - but firmly believe that these are no more common that the occasional "odd" result in owner or committee judged feds. Anyone with efedding experience will tell you that judges "taste" is a prevelant factor in any federation, and our voters are not immune from occasionally having different tastes that the players might have hoped.
Rest assured, we are constantly trying to refine and update our process to minimize "screwy" voting and it has been well over a year since we have recieved a formal complaint on the voted results.
So how does it all work? Everyone votes at the end of the promo period, and votes are tabulated. The BC members' votes are equal to the public votes. My vote as head booker is worth the same as anyone else's vote. But, after the votes are tabulated - including the BC votes, the BC talks about the match and how its result fits into the grand scheme of things as far as planned storylines and pushes go. If, for whatever reason, we think that a result should be different than what is voted, we approach BOTH competitors of a match (or however number of people are in the match for a three way dance, tag team, etc), tell them what the result is, and then ASK THEIR PERMISSION to change the result for storyline purposes. Everyone must agree before we change anything.
We will NEVER, EVER, EVER, change a match result without talking to all parties involved in the match.
I can imagine some people might think "Well, you can tell me all that, but how do I know that you're not changing results and just not telling anyone?" The honest truth is that when it all comes down to it, voting is subjective. There's no way to change that. Someone might vote differently today than they did yesterday.
That all being said, at the core of this, a two-way trust system must be built between the Booking Committe (which I represent, and I am really ultimately responsible for everything that goes on) and each individual handler.
Each individual handler must trust myself and the BC that we're not going to commit any improprieties on you. But before you say that we're just expecting you to blindly trust us and that's a crock, please remember that in exchange for that trust, I'm also basically blindly trusting you, as the handler, to show up and participate when you say you're going to. It's frustrating as a booker to build all these plans, and then have them fail because someone doesn't show. Also remember that I'm blindly trusting you, as a handler, that you're going to respect the system by voting honestly, and not participate in bloc-voting, or just voting for your friends.
The thing to keep in mind - and keep an open mind about - is that this whole thing works both ways.
You have to trust me, and I have to trust you. This is no different than myself participating in a non-voted fed like EPW, UCW, or TEAM, where Dave, Shane, and Tom are trusting me, as a handler, to show up and put an effort in to make their fed as great as possible, and as a handler, I'm trusting them as a booker to treat me with respect and not kill me in angles and results.
I don't want to make the mistake of saying that this trust should be there by default, however, I believe that this should be implied when someone joins a fed - any fed - until I, the fed owner, give you sound reason to distrust me. Remember, that as the fed owner, it does nothing to benefit me personally, nor does it do anything to benefit A1E by screwing anyone over. As the fed owner, I want the absolute best for my federation, and what good is it going to do me if people are leaving my federation because they're not being treated properly?
I hope that explains how the voting process works, and how we treat it. It's treated very seriously, and is not just there as a way to mess with anyone.
For those of you concerned with "bloc-voting" or "simply voting for our friends"... the honest truth is, in the entire six-and-a-half-year history of A1E, there has been ONLY ONE proven, documented case of outright block voting, which was years ago - and that person was summarily removed from A1E. I would say that given the circumstances and potential, that's a pretty decent track record. Please know that we treat this process VERY seriously and there is ZERO TOLERANCE if we were to discover these activities going on.
3. Only members of a certain "clique" gets pushed and put over.
I fully understand how this one came about. A1E's been around for six and a half years, and there are those that have been around for the entire lifetime of the fed. During the halfway point of A1E's life, we started an angle involving "The Empire", a heel super-faction. The angle was huge, and because most of the members of this angle were on the BC, a lot of attention was paid to it. There was tons of discussions around it. My character was World Champion. Roger - then head of the BC, known as Housefly - was the leader of the Empire. Another member of the Empire was on the BC. The two main faces in the feud were my other character, my main character Beast, and Big Dog, another member of the BC. Lindsay Troy was involved, and she was on the BC - although I can't remember how much time of her in the angle and her service on the BC overlapped. We worked super hard on this angle, and it did rise to prominence, mostly because Gladiator held the World Title, and the angle dominated the fed for a long time, so I can fully understand how people took that, and I can understand how that perception came to be. I'm not going to try and deny it or work it at all. It happened.
However, all that being said, things have changed greatly since that time. Yes, in hindsight, we allowed that to happen.
Was it a mistake? I'd like to say no, but in reality, we ended up turning people off because of it, so although I, and a lot of others, thought it was a fantastic story, we could have probably handled it differently.
But rather than focus on that, I'd like to ask people, while taking all that into consideration, think of what's gone down in the fed since that time. Even during that time, Cross won the A1E World Championship. Since then, I've won it, and people may take that any way you want to, but the reality is I went on a year long tear as Survivor Champion, and I like to think I earned that shot. It took me four years to earn a shot and get there. JA's won the Championship. Cross is the Cyber Champion, and has been put over as a machine in the last few months. Spoiler, a MBE legend, has been made to look superhuman in the past little while. Daymon has been Triple Star Champion, and is now in a feud with the Cyber Champion. He's been in A1E for a short time, but has already made waves, and he's being rewarded for it. Troy Douglas is another guy that's looked on favorably in A1E. Dan Ryan has been Tag Champion for a year, and is now poised as number one contender to the World Championship. James Irish has had a good run as World Champion, and who knows how long he can hold the title for? Duchess, a female character, has a World Title shot this week. That's an awful lot of people outside the "core" of A1E people that are getting all kinds of pushes and seeing all kinds of success.
You might point at me and say "Well, the fed owner is the Triple Star Champion." If so, you don't have all the facts. Daymon decided that storyline-wise, his character needed to drop the title, and in all honesty, that decision was made *before* I took over A1E - even before Roger approached me about it. Even with that, two brand new guys are getting a shot at it.
So yes, again, I'm not going to gloss over what's happened in the past. I'm just hoping that A1E's efforts over the past several months - and especially my most recent efforts, as well as my ongoing efforts - to get new people pushed will speak some volumes. We've learned from the past. We have a face/heel faction war going on right now - but it's not dominating the main event scene. We're trying to do things right, and will continue to do so.
Point is, ANYONE can get over. If you show up, work hard, and promo well, you WILL move up the card, and you WILL get your shots. No one is held back for who they are, the style they work in, or anything like that at all.
4. New members are disregarded and screwed over in favor of established members.
I don't really know how to describe this, other than it's all really a case-by-case basis. When someone - anyone - joins a new federation, it's a brand new environment. What works in one federation for one person may not work in another federation. But, A1E is unique in this instance, because we are, quite simply put, an old-school promo fed. When you join A1E, it's not quite the same as joining EPW (which I keep using as an example because that's where else I participate). In A1E, you're not trying to just win me over as head booker. You're not just trying to win over the BC. You're trying to win over 20 other people, because everyone votes. It's not like going to EPW, where you just have Dave to worry about. Now, Dave is a great guy, and he's very fair, but Dave is one person. In A1E, you've got to win over the majority.
First off, the rule is that I don't care who you are. Whether you're John Q. Public and this is your first fed, or your name is Dan Ryan and you've won a million world titles. Everyone - and I mean everyone - starts at the very bottom in A1E and then must work their way up. There are no pushes given to a "name" just because that's what your name is.
And because A1E tends to be a fed with an old-school feel, people who aren't part of the fed may have a hard time meshing into that feel. You may be the most fantastic narrative writer in the world, but honestly, I don't think that's going to go over in A1E. If you have a quirky style of any kind, or if you do something totally out of the norm, you can't expect to walk into the fed and tear it up right away. People have to be able to take some time to read you, to get to know you, and learn about you. I think that's the majority of what the problem is. People who do well elsewhere expect to be able to go anywhere and win the World Title right away, because either they think they're that good, or that their name deserves it.
So when these kinds of people come in to A1E, and they don't do as well as they thought they would, or as well as they'd EXPECTED to, they leave after two or three matches and tell the world that "I can't get over in A1E." I don't think it's fair to expect to get over in two or three matches ANYWHERE, let alone just A1E. People have taken this to mean that "In A1E, you've gotta pay your dues" before you get shots at titles, or can get a push. That's just simply not true. I'll use Daymon as a prime example. I think the guy's been in less than a dozen matches in A1E, and already he's held the Triple Star Championship, and is lining up to challenge for the federation's number two title at our next PPV.
When it all comes down to it, it's not about your "name" value. It's not about anyone holding you down. It's not about paying your dues. It's not about getting in close with the bookers. It doesn't matter who your friends are.
Because A1E is a voted fed, the ONLY thing that matters is connecting with the voters, and writing well enough to get them to vote for you.
If you think that people from outside can't have success in A1E, then again, let me point out to you some of the success stories...
*Cross - Triple Star Champion. One of only two men to hold the Cyber Title THREE times. Former World Heavyweight Champion.
*Daymon - Triple Star Champion and challenger for the Cyber title - all in under a dozen matches.
*Lindsay Troy - Triple Star Champion, Tag Team Champion, Cyber Champion.
*Dan Ryan - Tag Team Champion. Current Number One Contender for the World Title.
There's been a few cases where people came in and didn't connect with the voters. GUNS, Jared Justice, and Shawn Hart all came and left because they were names elsewhere, but weren't winning matches in A1E. Doc Silver, who, at the time he joined, was one of the more controversial characters A1E had ever seen, and it was that simply his shooty style didn't go over with the public. It's not a knock against him, or his writing, or anything, because the guy's obviously a talented writer, but felt so strongly about needing to do well that he felt the need to start rigging votes to get ahead, when in reality, it was just his style that wasn't connecting with the voters. Is it truly fair that when new people come in to A1E, that we expect them to conform to our "style"? Of course it's not fair, but with a voted fed, it's a reality. If you can't connect with the voters, then you're not going to have a ton of success.
But, I don't mean to say all this and place all the blame on others. People have their own style, and whether people take to it or not is their own personal preference. This is not to say that it is just the handlers that are the source of the issue. That's entirely not it at all. We in A1E have made mistakes with new people in the past as well. We're not perfect.
One particular character that stands out is Pharaoh. When he joined, he set A1E on fire, and was doing very well. In one match against Housefly, Pharoah won the votes. This was huge, and beating Housefly at that time was a monster acheivement. This match took place at the time that the Beast/Housefly monster feud was going on, and I wrote the match as Beast interfering and taking out Housefly, before placing Pharaoh on Fly for the pinfall. People didn't like that very much, and I took a lot of heat for that. People felt that I took away a huge win from Pharaoh, and once again, what seemed like a good idea in the context of the feud was proven as being a big mistake by hindsight. So, in that particular case, we made a mistake.
All that being said, that happened years ago, and that mistake has never been repeated since. It's all about learning and moving on. The whole point of this post is not to come out and shout to the world that "What's wrong with you people? A1E is perfect, and you should all be here!"
No, that's not the point at all. The point of this post is to reach out to everyone out there, and say that "Yes, because of some things that have happened in the past, we realize that in the e-Wrestling community, we have a bit of a reputation out there." We realize that in the past, some mistakes have been made, and that has caused a perception of us out in the greater community. We also want this post to educate people about how A1E truly operates, and we hope to provide some insight as to why things happened the way they did, and what we've done to correct those mistakes and learn from them. A1E has truly evolved, and we're truly not the fed we seemed to have been.
Quite frankly, that was the "old" A1E, and we are definitely in a new era.
A1E puts out a card regularly every two weeks. Like clockwork. We don't miss. Some people don't believe that, and if you don't, just go take a look at our results page on the web site, and look at the dates of the shows. Clockwork. If you like to be active in RP'ing, and don't want to wait a month or more for a card to come out, then A1E is the place for you.
Since I've taken over A1E, I've introduced a new method of planning for the fed. Gone is the week-to-week planning of everything else except for the major feuds. Now, feuds and PPV's are planned at the very least one month in advance, with every match on every show being planned to build towards that PPV. This guarantees that EVERYONE will be involved in a program. Also, I'm not the only one that handles all the details. Each feud is assigned a BC Staff Member who communicates directly with the participants, and they become your own personal booker for that feud, and the staff in turn reports to me. This ensures that every program is given the utmost attention, and nothing will fall through the cracks. We don't want you to be disappointed in A1E because we got details wrong or even missed something altogether.
The talent in A1E is unbelievable. Everyone in the fed is a quality writer and participant. Every fed has their superstars, but A1E is full of them. Coming to A1E will give you a chance to meet up and work with some of the very best in the e-Wrestling community, and at the very least, that can only serve to make you a better writer and give you an opportunity to tell stories with some of the best minds in the business.
We've just opened up our tag team tournament. You want a shot to come in and quickly win a title, while being able to establish yourself before diving into the singles ranks? It's perfect for you.
I don't want this to be a huge shill for A1E - I explained the point of this post earlier. I really want to open people's eyes, and try and inform people that have these perceptions of A1E that we're not this evil corporation that we're sometimes made out to be.
If at any time, you've ever thought of joining A1E, but didn't for any of the reasons talked about in this post... if you ever came to A1E and then left because things weren't as you expected... I invite you to please come talk to me. If not me, then talk to one of the members of the BC - Dan, Phil, Shane, or Andy. Tell us what you've been thinking, and why, and hopefully we can explain some things to you and put your mind at ease.
Quite simply, we believe that A1E is just as good as any other fed out there - timely cards with fantastic writers and roleplayers, solid storylines and a fun atmospehere. All we're trying to do is make the federation bigger and better, and we'd be honored if you'd think about making A1E one of your efed homes.
Thanks again to Tom for giving me this platform, and thanks to everyone for taking the time to read it. I hope we can all look forward to working together in the future.
But now, without further ado... The Blog of the Beast on RRoaEL!
Perceptions
By Jarret Aubry, Special Guest to RRoaEL
First off, I just wanted to thank Tom for giving me the space to post this. (Note to self: remind self to later sabotage Tom for having a more popular blog than everyone else. Wait, did I just say that out loud?)
But in reality, I wanted to post this here, because Tom is such an ambassador to the e-Wrestling community, and this message would reach the most people because of him and this blog.
Human perception is a pretty powerful thing. Especially when it's a negative experience. Whether you've been involved in something directly, or heard second-hand from someone else who has been, those experiences and that feedback play a pretty powerful role in shaping your perception about a particular subject.
So what brings this kind of a post on?
For those of you that don't know, I recently took over the reigns of A1E and am the head booker there. I have a booking committee of four others that work alongside me. A few nights ago, one of my staff members was approached by a major FW star about possibly joining A1E. Quite the conversation followed, and a number of points were raised as to why this person was hesitant about joining the federation. The following was brought up:
1. You have to be invited to join.
2. The voting system is screwy.
3. Only members of a certain "clique" gets pushed and put over.
4. New members are disregarded and screwed over in favor of established members.
In this post, I'd like to address each of these points, and hopefully put some minds at ease for those that have thought about joining A1E, but haven't for some reason or another. I'm not making anything up. I'm going to be brutally honest about both the good and the bad that have gone down in A1E. We've had challenges in the past, but I think that now, we've made a ton of improvements, and if you've ever wanted to be part of A1E, now is the time to join.
1. You have to be invited to join.
Simply not true. I don't know how this got started, but A1E is not a closed fed. Anyone can join at any time. Please read the F.A.Q. on the A1E web site. All you need to do is submit your profile, and post IN for a match in the provided In/Out thread that goes up before every card. That's it. We don't turn down anyone. All I suggest is contacting myself or a member of the BC to let us know you're coming, and we can cook something up to introduce you into the fed - if you like.
2. The voting system is screwy.
This has probably been one of the biggest "issues", for lack of a better word, that's been through A1E basically throughout it's history. The premise behind the voting system is that once the promo - RP - session ends, the federation membership sends in votes on who they thought had the better RPs, and that determines the winner of the match.
The knee-jerk reaction to this is that everyone thinks "Wow, there must be a lot of bloc-voting and everyone voting for their friends."
I'm not going to lie. Of course the potential is there. It's really easy to just write down your buddy's name, or if you've got a favorite character to consistently vote for them because you're a mark for them. People wonder why we even have a voting system in the first place.
Well, we do it for two reasons. One, to give each and every member that participates in A1E a voice in how the fed works. We never have been, and don't want to be, a fed that just dictates what happens and have everyone just play along. Voting is a feedback mechanism for everyone that participates to go "Hey, Wrestler A did a good job this week. I'd like him/her to win the match." And two, it's a mechanism for the voters to ensure that the Booking Committee (BC) simply isn't putting over their own buddies and characters that we're marks for.
We realize that there have been some discrepencies in voted results in the past - but firmly believe that these are no more common that the occasional "odd" result in owner or committee judged feds. Anyone with efedding experience will tell you that judges "taste" is a prevelant factor in any federation, and our voters are not immune from occasionally having different tastes that the players might have hoped.
Rest assured, we are constantly trying to refine and update our process to minimize "screwy" voting and it has been well over a year since we have recieved a formal complaint on the voted results.
So how does it all work? Everyone votes at the end of the promo period, and votes are tabulated. The BC members' votes are equal to the public votes. My vote as head booker is worth the same as anyone else's vote. But, after the votes are tabulated - including the BC votes, the BC talks about the match and how its result fits into the grand scheme of things as far as planned storylines and pushes go. If, for whatever reason, we think that a result should be different than what is voted, we approach BOTH competitors of a match (or however number of people are in the match for a three way dance, tag team, etc), tell them what the result is, and then ASK THEIR PERMISSION to change the result for storyline purposes. Everyone must agree before we change anything.
We will NEVER, EVER, EVER, change a match result without talking to all parties involved in the match.
I can imagine some people might think "Well, you can tell me all that, but how do I know that you're not changing results and just not telling anyone?" The honest truth is that when it all comes down to it, voting is subjective. There's no way to change that. Someone might vote differently today than they did yesterday.
That all being said, at the core of this, a two-way trust system must be built between the Booking Committe (which I represent, and I am really ultimately responsible for everything that goes on) and each individual handler.
Each individual handler must trust myself and the BC that we're not going to commit any improprieties on you. But before you say that we're just expecting you to blindly trust us and that's a crock, please remember that in exchange for that trust, I'm also basically blindly trusting you, as the handler, to show up and participate when you say you're going to. It's frustrating as a booker to build all these plans, and then have them fail because someone doesn't show. Also remember that I'm blindly trusting you, as a handler, that you're going to respect the system by voting honestly, and not participate in bloc-voting, or just voting for your friends.
The thing to keep in mind - and keep an open mind about - is that this whole thing works both ways.
You have to trust me, and I have to trust you. This is no different than myself participating in a non-voted fed like EPW, UCW, or TEAM, where Dave, Shane, and Tom are trusting me, as a handler, to show up and put an effort in to make their fed as great as possible, and as a handler, I'm trusting them as a booker to treat me with respect and not kill me in angles and results.
I don't want to make the mistake of saying that this trust should be there by default, however, I believe that this should be implied when someone joins a fed - any fed - until I, the fed owner, give you sound reason to distrust me. Remember, that as the fed owner, it does nothing to benefit me personally, nor does it do anything to benefit A1E by screwing anyone over. As the fed owner, I want the absolute best for my federation, and what good is it going to do me if people are leaving my federation because they're not being treated properly?
I hope that explains how the voting process works, and how we treat it. It's treated very seriously, and is not just there as a way to mess with anyone.
For those of you concerned with "bloc-voting" or "simply voting for our friends"... the honest truth is, in the entire six-and-a-half-year history of A1E, there has been ONLY ONE proven, documented case of outright block voting, which was years ago - and that person was summarily removed from A1E. I would say that given the circumstances and potential, that's a pretty decent track record. Please know that we treat this process VERY seriously and there is ZERO TOLERANCE if we were to discover these activities going on.
3. Only members of a certain "clique" gets pushed and put over.
I fully understand how this one came about. A1E's been around for six and a half years, and there are those that have been around for the entire lifetime of the fed. During the halfway point of A1E's life, we started an angle involving "The Empire", a heel super-faction. The angle was huge, and because most of the members of this angle were on the BC, a lot of attention was paid to it. There was tons of discussions around it. My character was World Champion. Roger - then head of the BC, known as Housefly - was the leader of the Empire. Another member of the Empire was on the BC. The two main faces in the feud were my other character, my main character Beast, and Big Dog, another member of the BC. Lindsay Troy was involved, and she was on the BC - although I can't remember how much time of her in the angle and her service on the BC overlapped. We worked super hard on this angle, and it did rise to prominence, mostly because Gladiator held the World Title, and the angle dominated the fed for a long time, so I can fully understand how people took that, and I can understand how that perception came to be. I'm not going to try and deny it or work it at all. It happened.
However, all that being said, things have changed greatly since that time. Yes, in hindsight, we allowed that to happen.
Was it a mistake? I'd like to say no, but in reality, we ended up turning people off because of it, so although I, and a lot of others, thought it was a fantastic story, we could have probably handled it differently.
But rather than focus on that, I'd like to ask people, while taking all that into consideration, think of what's gone down in the fed since that time. Even during that time, Cross won the A1E World Championship. Since then, I've won it, and people may take that any way you want to, but the reality is I went on a year long tear as Survivor Champion, and I like to think I earned that shot. It took me four years to earn a shot and get there. JA's won the Championship. Cross is the Cyber Champion, and has been put over as a machine in the last few months. Spoiler, a MBE legend, has been made to look superhuman in the past little while. Daymon has been Triple Star Champion, and is now in a feud with the Cyber Champion. He's been in A1E for a short time, but has already made waves, and he's being rewarded for it. Troy Douglas is another guy that's looked on favorably in A1E. Dan Ryan has been Tag Champion for a year, and is now poised as number one contender to the World Championship. James Irish has had a good run as World Champion, and who knows how long he can hold the title for? Duchess, a female character, has a World Title shot this week. That's an awful lot of people outside the "core" of A1E people that are getting all kinds of pushes and seeing all kinds of success.
You might point at me and say "Well, the fed owner is the Triple Star Champion." If so, you don't have all the facts. Daymon decided that storyline-wise, his character needed to drop the title, and in all honesty, that decision was made *before* I took over A1E - even before Roger approached me about it. Even with that, two brand new guys are getting a shot at it.
So yes, again, I'm not going to gloss over what's happened in the past. I'm just hoping that A1E's efforts over the past several months - and especially my most recent efforts, as well as my ongoing efforts - to get new people pushed will speak some volumes. We've learned from the past. We have a face/heel faction war going on right now - but it's not dominating the main event scene. We're trying to do things right, and will continue to do so.
Point is, ANYONE can get over. If you show up, work hard, and promo well, you WILL move up the card, and you WILL get your shots. No one is held back for who they are, the style they work in, or anything like that at all.
4. New members are disregarded and screwed over in favor of established members.
I don't really know how to describe this, other than it's all really a case-by-case basis. When someone - anyone - joins a new federation, it's a brand new environment. What works in one federation for one person may not work in another federation. But, A1E is unique in this instance, because we are, quite simply put, an old-school promo fed. When you join A1E, it's not quite the same as joining EPW (which I keep using as an example because that's where else I participate). In A1E, you're not trying to just win me over as head booker. You're not just trying to win over the BC. You're trying to win over 20 other people, because everyone votes. It's not like going to EPW, where you just have Dave to worry about. Now, Dave is a great guy, and he's very fair, but Dave is one person. In A1E, you've got to win over the majority.
First off, the rule is that I don't care who you are. Whether you're John Q. Public and this is your first fed, or your name is Dan Ryan and you've won a million world titles. Everyone - and I mean everyone - starts at the very bottom in A1E and then must work their way up. There are no pushes given to a "name" just because that's what your name is.
And because A1E tends to be a fed with an old-school feel, people who aren't part of the fed may have a hard time meshing into that feel. You may be the most fantastic narrative writer in the world, but honestly, I don't think that's going to go over in A1E. If you have a quirky style of any kind, or if you do something totally out of the norm, you can't expect to walk into the fed and tear it up right away. People have to be able to take some time to read you, to get to know you, and learn about you. I think that's the majority of what the problem is. People who do well elsewhere expect to be able to go anywhere and win the World Title right away, because either they think they're that good, or that their name deserves it.
So when these kinds of people come in to A1E, and they don't do as well as they thought they would, or as well as they'd EXPECTED to, they leave after two or three matches and tell the world that "I can't get over in A1E." I don't think it's fair to expect to get over in two or three matches ANYWHERE, let alone just A1E. People have taken this to mean that "In A1E, you've gotta pay your dues" before you get shots at titles, or can get a push. That's just simply not true. I'll use Daymon as a prime example. I think the guy's been in less than a dozen matches in A1E, and already he's held the Triple Star Championship, and is lining up to challenge for the federation's number two title at our next PPV.
When it all comes down to it, it's not about your "name" value. It's not about anyone holding you down. It's not about paying your dues. It's not about getting in close with the bookers. It doesn't matter who your friends are.
Because A1E is a voted fed, the ONLY thing that matters is connecting with the voters, and writing well enough to get them to vote for you.
If you think that people from outside can't have success in A1E, then again, let me point out to you some of the success stories...
*Cross - Triple Star Champion. One of only two men to hold the Cyber Title THREE times. Former World Heavyweight Champion.
*Daymon - Triple Star Champion and challenger for the Cyber title - all in under a dozen matches.
*Lindsay Troy - Triple Star Champion, Tag Team Champion, Cyber Champion.
*Dan Ryan - Tag Team Champion. Current Number One Contender for the World Title.
There's been a few cases where people came in and didn't connect with the voters. GUNS, Jared Justice, and Shawn Hart all came and left because they were names elsewhere, but weren't winning matches in A1E. Doc Silver, who, at the time he joined, was one of the more controversial characters A1E had ever seen, and it was that simply his shooty style didn't go over with the public. It's not a knock against him, or his writing, or anything, because the guy's obviously a talented writer, but felt so strongly about needing to do well that he felt the need to start rigging votes to get ahead, when in reality, it was just his style that wasn't connecting with the voters. Is it truly fair that when new people come in to A1E, that we expect them to conform to our "style"? Of course it's not fair, but with a voted fed, it's a reality. If you can't connect with the voters, then you're not going to have a ton of success.
But, I don't mean to say all this and place all the blame on others. People have their own style, and whether people take to it or not is their own personal preference. This is not to say that it is just the handlers that are the source of the issue. That's entirely not it at all. We in A1E have made mistakes with new people in the past as well. We're not perfect.
One particular character that stands out is Pharaoh. When he joined, he set A1E on fire, and was doing very well. In one match against Housefly, Pharoah won the votes. This was huge, and beating Housefly at that time was a monster acheivement. This match took place at the time that the Beast/Housefly monster feud was going on, and I wrote the match as Beast interfering and taking out Housefly, before placing Pharaoh on Fly for the pinfall. People didn't like that very much, and I took a lot of heat for that. People felt that I took away a huge win from Pharaoh, and once again, what seemed like a good idea in the context of the feud was proven as being a big mistake by hindsight. So, in that particular case, we made a mistake.
All that being said, that happened years ago, and that mistake has never been repeated since. It's all about learning and moving on. The whole point of this post is not to come out and shout to the world that "What's wrong with you people? A1E is perfect, and you should all be here!"
No, that's not the point at all. The point of this post is to reach out to everyone out there, and say that "Yes, because of some things that have happened in the past, we realize that in the e-Wrestling community, we have a bit of a reputation out there." We realize that in the past, some mistakes have been made, and that has caused a perception of us out in the greater community. We also want this post to educate people about how A1E truly operates, and we hope to provide some insight as to why things happened the way they did, and what we've done to correct those mistakes and learn from them. A1E has truly evolved, and we're truly not the fed we seemed to have been.
Quite frankly, that was the "old" A1E, and we are definitely in a new era.
A1E puts out a card regularly every two weeks. Like clockwork. We don't miss. Some people don't believe that, and if you don't, just go take a look at our results page on the web site, and look at the dates of the shows. Clockwork. If you like to be active in RP'ing, and don't want to wait a month or more for a card to come out, then A1E is the place for you.
Since I've taken over A1E, I've introduced a new method of planning for the fed. Gone is the week-to-week planning of everything else except for the major feuds. Now, feuds and PPV's are planned at the very least one month in advance, with every match on every show being planned to build towards that PPV. This guarantees that EVERYONE will be involved in a program. Also, I'm not the only one that handles all the details. Each feud is assigned a BC Staff Member who communicates directly with the participants, and they become your own personal booker for that feud, and the staff in turn reports to me. This ensures that every program is given the utmost attention, and nothing will fall through the cracks. We don't want you to be disappointed in A1E because we got details wrong or even missed something altogether.
The talent in A1E is unbelievable. Everyone in the fed is a quality writer and participant. Every fed has their superstars, but A1E is full of them. Coming to A1E will give you a chance to meet up and work with some of the very best in the e-Wrestling community, and at the very least, that can only serve to make you a better writer and give you an opportunity to tell stories with some of the best minds in the business.
We've just opened up our tag team tournament. You want a shot to come in and quickly win a title, while being able to establish yourself before diving into the singles ranks? It's perfect for you.
I don't want this to be a huge shill for A1E - I explained the point of this post earlier. I really want to open people's eyes, and try and inform people that have these perceptions of A1E that we're not this evil corporation that we're sometimes made out to be.
If at any time, you've ever thought of joining A1E, but didn't for any of the reasons talked about in this post... if you ever came to A1E and then left because things weren't as you expected... I invite you to please come talk to me. If not me, then talk to one of the members of the BC - Dan, Phil, Shane, or Andy. Tell us what you've been thinking, and why, and hopefully we can explain some things to you and put your mind at ease.
Quite simply, we believe that A1E is just as good as any other fed out there - timely cards with fantastic writers and roleplayers, solid storylines and a fun atmospehere. All we're trying to do is make the federation bigger and better, and we'd be honored if you'd think about making A1E one of your efed homes.
Thanks again to Tom for giving me this platform, and thanks to everyone for taking the time to read it. I hope we can all look forward to working together in the future.
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