Why Did I Come Back?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holy Crap, I Read Three Shows Today!

Seriously, how the hell did that happen? Maybe I'm getting more attentive in my old age ;) But yeah, I guess a slow day at work will give you something to want to do to pass the time that isn't playing flash games on the Intarwebs or bait trolls on message boards. That being said, here are the shows:

NFW Brawl: Kansas City - I've been out of the loop for awhile, although I've heard about the Dorchester Stratton, Cuatro Equis and other stuff, so I was a little bit disoriented. However, I thought it was a fun read, as most NFW Brawl shows are.

PRIME Revolution 200 - If I was out of the loop on NFW, I was lost in deep space on PRIME. I recognized some of the names, but a lot of the backstory was lost on me. Tyler Rayne's gone? Jason Snow is not only in e-fedding, but is the PRIME Universal Champion (I thought he'd have abandoned eW for creative writing sans wrestling a long time ago :p)? Talk about a... culture shock (pun intended). Still, for me not knowing a whole lot of what was going on, I thought it was a good show. I loved the concept as well. I thought the Shakur-as-Rayne swerve was pretty neat too. Congrats to ShadowKat, who won the Power Play BR with Kazys Jankauskas, and now has a banked Uni Title shot. Whoda thunk it?

EPW Aggression 45 - Finally, a fed that I'm not totally lost in, seeing as how it was one of the last feds I handled in before my retirement/hiatus (?!?!). As usual, a good show from EPW, but this week, something was a bit off. For one, the beginning... where did the show intro go? We went right into a match coming back from commercial. And Sarge was on two matches on the card? Weird. Still, a good read and a good effort from all those involved. Congrats to WF for capturing the TV Title as well.

Quick Hits II: PRIME CS mini-review, HOW stuff, tourney shilling and MOAR!

- CultureShock, which is PRIME's answer to the Royal Rumble, was posted over the weekend. It was a two-night affair, but given that the second night was dedicated mostly to the 60-man battle royale known as the Dual Halo, well, it fits. The backdrop for the event was Russia, which I thought was a cool little spin. Maybe this will pave the way for someone to do a Communist Russian character? Maybe, maybe not.

Night One
Night Two

Congratulations go out to Jason Snow and to Garbage Bag Johnny for winning the PRIME Universal Championship and the Dual Halo respectively. All-in-all, I thought it was a solid event, with the matches written with PBP elements being easier to read and all, but that's always the case.

- Just another reminder, signups are open for the 2009 TEAM Invitational Tournament. They close March 31st, so you do have time to get in, but we've got a little more than 25% of the spots filled so far with some primo talent. I know there's a lot of noise about GTT being resurrected, but the TIT will get off the ground before GTT does, and it's a totally different-styled tournament, so if you're crafty, you can have room for both on your palate.

- Speaking of all that noise about GTT... I'm all for it. PTC has been lacking that tournament for awhile. Furthermore (to avoid making this item sound redundant from the last one!), the braintrust has floated out the idea of a round-robin styled tournament this year. Normally, being the e-fed conservative that I am, I might shirk at the reinvention of what had become a standard for the PTC community, but hey, it's been gone for more than 18 months now, and I think that if you can't get 64+ for the event, why not shake it up a bit so it can last a little longer and in turn, feel epic like it did before without having to inflate it with scouting for new talent that might not "get" the PTC style.

- High-Octane Wrestling made some waves last week debuting their HOTv subsite, which is dedicated to their weekly television program. It's drawn rave reviews for coding and I think the content on it is pretty swanky. Good job all around to everyone involved in the fed.

- Finally, this is a call to all you faithful blog readers out there. If you would like to participate in something new for the blog, please let me know. I want to keep the details hush-hush right now, but it involves reader participation and interactive perspectives on eW from the people who choose to participate.

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.

November's Wrestler of the Month

Just so you guys know, you'll probably get posting from me in spurts from here on in. Lots of stuff going on in real life, so I'll post like a few entries over three or four days and probably go a week without posting. I know that sucks, but thems be the breaks.

Aanyway, time to honor our Wrestler of the Month for November, and this month, we honor Sonny Silver. Silver won his first World Championship since dropping the tSC Strap by defeating Lindsay Troy for the PRIME's Great American Nightmare. Congratulations abound for Seth, who made good on my prediction for him all the way back in January ;)

This month's runner-up is Clinton Sage, who has continued his dominance in FUSE and added the PTC Unified Championship to his resume this month. Sage has made a strong case for Wrestler of the Year. Congrats!

Honorable Mentions
Tony Gamble (PRIME), Danny Ferguson (PRIME, TEAM Events), Beast (A1E, EPW, TEAM Events), Dan Ryan (NAPW, A1E, TEAM Events), David Danny Morrison (PTC 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: Dan Ryan (3) (CSWA, A1E)

In defense of the PRIME/GCW inter-card

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

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

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

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

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

The advantages of keeping it short

Firstly, as you can see, I made some template changes, separating the "active" bloggers from the people who haven't posted something in six months and such. I removed all the dead links too, and I pared the fed listing, since really, why lead people in the direction of feds that may or may not be open anymore? Exceptions are the FW feds that are sloooowwww rollers right now and LoC, which will remain there until I know they've closed for good.

Secondly, two new blogs have been added to the active section. First one is the Ice Tre blog, an in-character blog from the greatest character in the history of all e-wrestling, and possibly the world of entertainment. The second one is a new, official PTC blog, where Pete, Ross and whoever else wants to contribute will be able to post their ruminations. Go there now, especially if you've asked some questions to Pete in that thread on the forums. He's answered a bunch of them.

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

For what seems like eternity now, I've been using and advocating said usage of shortforming for weekly television shows. I know we're all in this hobby because at one time or another, we've been fans of wrestling, and the biggest part of that fandom is watching matches on television or pay-per-view. Because of that, there's been this feeling that the match should be the most important part of the cycle, and thus always should be written out. It's always been the unspoken rule until recently, when I started implementing the short-form highlight package style for TEAM writeups, and other FW feds decided they'd go the shortform route themselves. We all did it for differing reasons. I started mine because the interfed structure really needs to move at a rapid-fire pace, especially if you're not obliging people to stick around any longer then they absolutely have to. Brunk and Edmunds started using shortforms because the well of matchwriters had dried up and they didn't want their feds to lag.

Yet, it's always seemed that people would assume that if you could write out every match, you should, especially if you wanted to be considered a top-flight fed. This has been the case in PRIME for some time. Despite the focus of their shows changing over time from matches to segments, they've strived to have longform matches on every card, but according to a conversation I had with a roster member or two, there's a growing sentiment to drop the longforms on ReVolution and stick with shortforms. This group feels that it takes forever to read through shows, and the long matches are the reason.

On the surface, I can see where that comes into play. TO tell you the truth, I haven't fully read a PRIME show in a long time. To be fair, I haven't read a lot of feds' shows completely in a long time as well, and all that has more to do with my own ever-decreasing time rather than interest in eW or certain feds. Still though, when I was able to read PRIME fulltime, I did get the feeling that the shows could have been shorter.

However, I ask myself whether it was because of the number of matches or the fact that they were longformed, and I came to the conclusion that it wasn't. Very rarely when I read a show do I read the matches fully and completely as I would the segments on the first run, pay-per-views excepted since the matches are, or at least should be the show there. Therefore, I pay a lot closer attention to matches on those bigger cards. Still though, every regular TV show that I read, I skim the matches first and then reread if I feel I've missed something or if I feel that it's worth the time and effort to put in. Why should long matches make my PRIME reading experience any more difficult than something similar that I'd encounter in A1E or NFW? In fact, if my memory serves me well, PRIME's matches were shorter in comparison to other feds' shows.

This narrows the weight problem down to segments. I've always been somewhat critical of PRIME having a number of segs that'd be better suited being off-camera RPs rather than on-show pieces. In fact, when Pete instituted the seg limit and slots on the shows, I praised the move, even though it was never a hard seg limit and people went over all the time. Of course, many people don't see this as a problem, and admittedly, I don't think it's something all that critical to the health of the fed. I mean, I'd rather have that problem then people not giving a shit about the fed altogether. So really, how do you solve a problem of weightiness when the problem isn't really the matches? Force people not to write segs?

Sorry, I can't really advocate doing something like that. Everyone has a story they want to tell, and if they're in the fed, the should have the right to say it. It would be up to the fedhead to keep excess people out of the ranks if they didn't want a million segs on the show, and right now, with the slump that this side of the eW universe has been in, no fedhead should be turning away applicants unless that applicant's name happens to be Jeremy Jenkins or someone of that same dishonorable reputation.

So in the end, the answer has to be shortforming. Once again, TV matches should really only be used to further storylines anyway, thus making anything worth writing in the match bullet point-worthy. Of course, when the PPV rolls around, you better bet that I'd scream bloody murder if the matches were shortformed. If that part of matchwriting ever goes to the wayside, you might as well start calling this Competitive Creative Writing and not e-Wrestling. But for TV shows, pshaw, use the shortform.

Because really, I'd rather the time and effort going into making a huge show go into something you know people are going to read intently the first time around.

eW Six Pack: Best Secondary Title Runs

Before we get to the main entry, a correction and a plug. Firstly, as pointed out by Bobby Nickens and BenCaldera himself, Outlaw Pro will not be run by Ben, but it will be supported and hosted by Ben. Still though, I have to endorse it, seeing that his endorsement is good enough for me.

Second, speaking of CalderaBen, he's gone out and gotten himself a blog. For those of you looking at more of a PTC-centric view on things, there's your blog.

Thirdly, I'll have more on the GCW/PRIME supercard, but I will say that this is the event the PTC community has been waiting for for a long time. With GCW back strong, now's as good a time as any to do this. I'll be looking forward to it.

And now, for something completely different...

Jeff Paternostro has been doing "Six Packs" on his regular blog, and I ganked that from him. Now, I'm going to bring the idea here, mainly because it's a good content filler for when I'm busy or feeling somewhat removed from current events like I am now. Trust me, things are hectic for me right now, but maybe I'll get caught up on some feds while I'm in Virginia.

Anyhow, Six Packs are basically just lists of six for a given topic. They may be numbered, but assume that all of them are in no particular order. Tonight's Six Pack...

The Six Best Secondary Title Reigns I've Seen

1. Torment, A1E Cyber Championship

Back in the early days of A1E, the Cyber Championship was kinda passed around like a hot potato. At one point, I think it changed hands three straight cards. Then, this force burst onto the scene and just started mauling people. Torment, a guy who topped out as a tag guy in MBE, came over and he was this irresistible force, bursting his way into a Cyber Title shot within five matches. He summarily dispatched Xavier Storm and he brought an air of stability to the Cyber Championship that no one really could bring before. It was incredible. There was one angled title switch at the first Vengeance, but other than that, no one could beat the guy. For those who remember him in his later A1E times less than fondly, it might come as sort of a shock that he'd pull off something like that, but still, back then, it was a sight to behold.

2. Karl Brown, EPW Intercontinental Championship

This is a current reign, and what a reign it is. Say what you will about the frequency of EPW's cards, but to keep a title like that for two years is almost unheard of, no matter what. To think, you have to stay on your game and be sharp, even over long layoffs. That can be harder than defending in a "quick" fed, especially since you can build up some momentum and get into a real groove. Whoever defeats Karl will end up having a big rub and it'll free Karl to go up to the main event, where he can try to get to the next level.

3. Rat, MBE Extreme Championship

People think that Torment doing what he did with the Cyber Championship "came out of nowhere," but in retrospect, he did have a good run in MBE, and he showed some flashes there. Rat though... his handler, Mikey Nunes, made a career being the lovable jobber in A1E as Mikey F'n W. Sure he improved to the point where he was a vital part his team with Snake, but no one ever thought he could pull off dominant. And yet, there he was as Rat, just owning everyone with this superb gimmick, a mentally tortured decrepit young man with a bitch girlfriend who controlled him. He could have taken the character so much further, but as with many of us, his own ambition undid him. When he introduced Spyder, a very mediocre cocky character meant to be Rat's brother, it took some intensity and focus from Rat, and both characters suffered. Shame, but it was a really sweet run while it lasted.

4. Chip Friendly, A1E Cyber Championship

If Torment brought the Cyber Championship into the modern ages, then Chip Friendly could very well be its definitive holder. He held onto that title for over a year, I believe, and he took out everyone. He beat Big Dog in a program, and a few months later, Dog became World Champion. Even when Canuck FINALLY wrested the strap from him, it wasn't necessarily because he was better than Chip. It was the equivalent of a mercy killing, the voters taking the title from Chip to elevate him. Still, one thing that confounds me to this day is how Chip was never given the chance to follow up that career-making reign with a strong World Title program.

5. Vangelus Olsig, PRIME Intense Championship

I came into PRIME at the tail end of this run, but still, Tywon held onto the belt for over a year. PRIME's a pretty competitive fed, and PTC feds seem to put more focus on the competition than the angles. I don't know how much of this was due to Tywon's inactivity, but still, you'd think if he was really lagging, they'd have stripped him of the title. An impressive run no matter how you slice it.

6. Jared Wells, BAD Championship (WFW)

This was another starmaker run, and Wells went through a lot of challengers, both established and upstart, to keep this title and make it nearly as prestigious as the fed's World Title. His run with this belt has seemingly made Barry Clark into a main event-level talent without having won a World Championship. It's a shame that both the feds he's in are lagging right now, because there's no doubt in my mind that he'd have gotten there by now.

September's Wrestler of the Month

This month's winner is no stranger to this award. He won it twice last year, and now, he's set to take his unprecedented third WotM. He's been a force in PRIME and he's also been doing well for himself in the Dupree Cup, but he's winning this award mainly for taking home the first ever "e-fed indie" tournament held in the post-interfed era of PTC, the Chris Williams Memorial Cup. He is The Illustrious Face-Eater! Everyone give Facey a round of applause.

This month's runner-up is "Triple X" Sean Stevens, whose tear in EPW has finally netted him the World Championship. He's also been relatively active in NFW. Give Trip a round of applause as well!

Honorable Mentions
Ice Tre (EPW), Dan Ryan (EPW, A1E, NFW, TEAM Events), Stylin' Kyle Roberts (REBEL, TEAM Events), Jason Snow (PRIME, PTC Events, TEAM Events), James Irish (A1E, EPW)

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)

August's Wrestler of the Month

No, I'm not dead. Just been busy and a bit under the weather lately.

Anyway, August's Wrestler of the Month is none other than Lindsay Troy! For the second time this year, she takes home the honors due to her dominating performance in PRIME thus far. She successfully defended the Universal Championship at Colossus IV against Sonny Silver among her other accolades, plus she bested Dusk in the Dupree Cup first week. Congrats again, Lindsay!

This month's runner up is Ravager, for leading his team NAPW against the Crimes at Complete Control II. Ravager scored the pinfall against Rex Caliber, apparently ending the Nexus One's NAPW career.

Honorable Mentions - Lowell Dot Com (OWW), Tsunami Oni (OWW), Jeff Garvin (NAPW), Jason Payne (TEAM Events), Kin Hiroshi (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)

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.

July's Wrestler of the Month

This month, the honor goes to Nova. It is a bit of cheating, since a lot of his June accomplishments are fresh in my mind, but let's give it up for the man. He's the hottest thing on either circuit, tearing it up both in PRIME and in TEAM events, winning both the ToC and the CoC. Add all that to him being one of the crown jewels of NFW's version 3.0, and he's the clear-cut choice.

This month's runner-up is Ravager. Despite losing his NAPW World Championship on the last day of July, Ravager still had two title defenses, his 10th and 11th defenses. Plus he held onto the TEAM Challenge Championship in another heated defense. Congrats to both Nova and Ravager for the good month!

Honorable Mentions
Donovan Astros (NAPW), Larry Tact (NEW, TEAM Events), Rocko Daymon (NEW, A1E, EPW, TEAM Events), James Irish (A1E, TEAM Events, EPW), Joey Melton (EPW), Tchu (PRIME, PTC Events, TEAM Events), Stylin' Kyle Roberts (REBEL), Foster Nackedy (PTC Events), "Triple X" Sean Stevens (EPW, NFW), Kin Hiroshi (NFW, EPW, 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, TEAM Events)
May: Big Dog (A1E)
June: Lindsay Troy (PRIME, EPW, NFW, TEAM Events)

The Book On... Nova!

Note: I've been sitting on this for over a week. I'm just going to post it and edit in what I need later.

He's been tearing it up bigtime in the last couple of months, and odds are, if you're in PRIME or in a former PTC fed, you know who he is. But if you're from FW, A1 or somewhere else "over here," you may be wondering who this dynamo called Nova is coming in and winning everything he can get his funkadelic ass into. The ULTRATITLE and Tournament of Champions are two really big prizes, and he's netted them both. It's only fair that everyone, not just the PTC crowd, knows who this gifted and charismatic performer is.

Nova

Height: 6'3"
Weight: 256 lbs.
Hometown: "The very center of Earth's Core, in the heart of the Chronic! The P.Funk! The BOMB!" -- George Clinton... I think that's somewhere around New Orleans if you ask me :p
Nicknames and Aliases: The Rising Star, the Risen Star, The Star-Screaming Mushroom-Eating King of Hallucination Nation

Description: - A picture is worth 1000 words:

Poser by Mat Waters

Signature Moves:

Bourbon for Breakfast - Imagine a fisherman's buster, only inverted; a rear-mounted, Curtain Call-type move, only with Nova hooking your leg and dropping you straight down on your head. Absolutely sick sounding, and surprised that I haven't seen this one done in Japan yet. Then again, I don't think I've scoured the vid-clip puro sites 100% thoroughly yet.

Cosmic Teardrop - Classic WWE-styled crowd popper from the sounds of it, something a cruiser might do. The opponent is facedown on the mat, and Nova grabs his legs, whips him up like an inverted wheelbarrow, grabs onto the shoulders when the victim is upright and sends him back down in a sort of Edge-O-Matic dealie. Sounds like a momentum changer as a face and a "rub-it-in" move as a heel.

Dying Star Drop - Nova's original finisher, a simple Fame-Asser. Probably a product of the 90s, when all those dX finishers were the rage, but it's definitely one that fits in Nova's moveset.

Caesarian Section - Simple enough, a scissored Dragon sleeper. It's not listed in his PRIME bio, but it would have fit the heel Nova really well, especially since he had listed his other arm was free for pounding about the stomach and chest areas.

Fed History: PRIME, NFW, PTC and TEAM Events, Advantage Wrestling, New Era Wrestling (not Edmunds' current one!), Universal Wrestling Federation, First Blood Wrestling, Xtreme Wrestling Coalition, Empire Wrestling (not Brunk's one!), other minor stops here and there.

Title/Award History: UWF World Heavyweight Champion, AW North American Championship, AW World Champion, NEW National Champion, PTC Extreme Champion (2x), PRIME Five-Star Champion (2x), PRIME Intense Champion, PRIME Universal Champion, NFW ULTRATITLE Champion for Season 2, TEAM Tournament of Champions '07 winner, Blog Wrestler of the Month for 3/07, other titles from the minor stop feds

To get a better handle on the history of the Nova character from the handler's POV himself, click here and follow the "History" link on the right sidebar.

Greatest Feud: I really can't say anything with any great accuracy. I'll get the 411 from Josh K., Matt Ward or one of the other PRIMEates soon and edit it in.

Required Reading:

The Tournament of Champions provides the best starting point:

• Round 1


• Round 2


• Round 3

The ULTRATITLE Finals RPs against Yori:

• Warriors of the West


• Your mission...


• The Eagle has landed!

I hate the way the PRIME site is laid out so that you can't link to certain pages no matter how hard you try. Therefore, follow this link again. This time, click on "Promo Library" and scroll down for his list of PRIME RPs, including the one that won him the Universal Title at King of Kings.

Greatest Hits:

Nova, Tony Gamble, Jason Snow and Sonny Silver vs. Lindsay Troy, Danny Ferguson, Tchu and Killean Sirrajin - War Games Match, PRIME Overkill - Nova is the sole survivor and winner.... then gets laid out by Snow, Gamble and Chainz
Nova vs. Tchu (c) - PRIME Universal Championship Match, King of Kings - The Rising Star becomes Risen
Nova vs. Yori Yakamo Jr. - NFW WrestleBowl 2, Night 2, ULTRATITLE Finals - Nova comes of age "over here"
Nova vs. Vangelus Olsig (c) - PRIME ReVolution 101, Intense Championship Match - Nova ends the over-one-year-long reign of Olsig
Nova vs. JTF (c), Ozric Mortimer and Tyler Lopez - PRIME ReVolution 50, Five-Star Championship Match - Nova's first taste of PRIME gold
(Super)Nova vs. Big Poppa, Bronx and Rock Startling - AW Sole Survivor, AW World Championship match - Nova's first (?) World Championship

My Take on His Place in eW History: Nova, along with Lindsay Troy, is going to go down in history as the greatest cross-circuit character in these "early" days of interaction between PTC and FW. He's come "over here" and excelled at everything he's done thus far, and the thing is, it's not like he was King Shit over at PTC either. His rises here and there came at around the same time. To me, that's amazing. Most people take one area, dominate, and move on. I also think he does tons for comedy characters. Even though he's not totally a comedy character in and of himself, there are a lot of lighter-hearted elements in his RP and his demeanor. It goes to show that you don't have to write mafia epics, zomg so important pretentious texts or über-serious promos about the game or hurting your opponents to be accepted. It allows more people to go in and be themselves instead of forcing something they're not in order to succeed. It'll take something pretty heinous for him not to be remembered as one of the all-time greats.

June Wrestler of the Month

Yep, it's that time again. Yeah, the month still has about one-and-a-half days left on it, but the only other show that would have any major bearing would be WrestleStock, and that's still in delay. So without further ado, June's WOTM is...

"Queen of the Ring" Lindsay Troy

Lindz became the first character to hold a major World Championship for a PTC fed (PRIME) and an FW fed (EPW) ever. She also made her first successful defense of the TEAM Championship of Champions this month, and notched an entertaning win over Kodiak Vic Creed at NFW WrestleBowl 2. Congrats, Lindz!

This month's runner-up is the man Lindz beat for the Uni TItle in PRIME, Nova. He bounced back from that defeat to be the sole survivor for his team at PRIME's OverKill, where he pinned Lindsay Troy. Oh yeah, and he also won the ULTRATITLE. Any other month, and he'd be the WOTM, but he came close, and there's no shame being second to Troy, especially in a month where she made history.

Honorable Mentions: Kin Hiroshi (NFW), Shawn Hart (NFW), Joe the Plumber (NFW), Big Dog (A1E), Dan Ryan (A1E, EUWC, TEAM Events), Ravager (NAPW, TEAM Events), Jason Snow (PRIME, PTC Events), Eddie Mayfield (NFW), Craig Miles (NFW), Easton Hall (PRIME)

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, TEAM Events)
May: Big Dog (A1E)

OverKill!

Damn, I'm a dynamo today with the show reviews :)

PRIME presents OverKill!

Much like WrestleBowl, OverKill had a nice end swerve, with FUCK YOU! turning on Nova. It was implied that they were wailing on Nova because Tchu ransomed the Golden Ticket for the destruction of the stable, although it's interesting to see what the new, streamlined version of that group is going to say in reaction at ReV 131. It's a good end-swerve for different reasons than WBIIN1, but still, a jaw-dropper no less. I'm wondering though if the injury angle with Sonny means Seth is going on the DL. I hope not, because he's pretty much my favorite part of the fed right now. I'm also pretty interested to see what happens with Nova, seeing that he virtually burned his bridges with Troy and Tchu, and FU! doesn't want him anymore. Should be good times for the PRIME uppercard.

The other notable surprise was the return of the Illustrious Face-Eater and his reuniion with Mike Wade. The Unfuckables were pretty much the most dominant pairing in AWC history, and it'll be interesting to see what they can do in PRIME. I have to think something's going to happen between Tchu and Facey from that segment where Facey revealed his return, but I think the meat of matters is going to be between Facey and Jack Murphy. Hopefully I can get off my ass and make a nice tag match happen at Colossus IV between the Unfuckables and SullyMurph Enterprises. That would be very nice.

The rest of the show was decent. Matches were good, not spectacular, but not bad either. Could have done without some of the longish segments. It's a PPV folks, focus on payoffs and matches.

Also, Killean, you'll be missed. Sad to see the character ride off into the sunset, but I'm sure Darryl isn't through with eW just yet. Maybe he's got another character idea cooking, maybe he doesn't. Still though, Killean Sirrajin was one of the great eW characters of all-time, and I feel like he's underrated outside of PRIME.

Busy busy busy

Yeah, work hit me hard again this week, so I haven't been able to review all the shows I wanted to yet. I did try to get the scoop on the poop for WfWA's International Wars, PSSPW's School's Out, NAPW's Badder Blood and of course, the biggie, NFW's Night One of Wrestlebowl. I feel bad because I promised more show reviews, but I just got hit with another round of digs in Jersey, two hours commute easy and no wireless access.

Still, I'm not too busy to throw out some congratulations. First to Lindz, for capturing the PRIME Universal Championship, becoming the first handler to my knowledge to be able to pull of a World Championship in both PTC and FW. Secondly, I'd like to throw some props out there to Bobby Nickens (Chris Storm, Guy Boudreaux) and Samantha Spinks (Tessa Windsor), who turned an eW relationship into love. After four years of dating, they got engaged recently. Congrats guys, always good to see love wherever it springs up.

More shillage on my part, I'm taking apps for the Tournament of Champions, and if you're interested in seeing if you're eligible, check out the threads at the various eW hubs that I frequent. If you're not eligible and you want in, there's a prime opportunity to get a spot through the FREE FOR ALL~! Match in TEAM's SuperShow V. If you're not eligible and you'd rather not do the FFA~! route, then I need good judges.

Also, a note to all those who are RPing for SSV... You have a little more than 48 hours to RP. If you've got something, now's a pretty good time to put it up.

Write-up roundup

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

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

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

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

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)

Paranoia runs deep

Yeah, I haven't been too active in the last couple of weeks, but that's because I've been a mite busy lately. That also means that I'm probably not going to catch up back fed happenings enough to actually sit down and write reviews for shows, even if they're quickie reviews. It just wouldn't be timely for me to write a Cold Snap or Revolution or even a Culture Shock review in the middle to end of April. I still plan on reading everything, but just to make things clear, so that when you don't see your fed's show reviewed here, don't take it personally.

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, ze post!

By our own admissions, most of our main characters are extensions of ourselves. So many times I've heard in IMs or seen in profiles that so-and-so is an extension of the handler or is that handler's real-life personality "turned up to eleven." (Just one of Spinal Tap's many gifts to our fair society!) Because of that, it can sometimes be very, very hard to keep our OOC feelings from spilling over into promos. As natural as that is for characters who are extensions of ourselves, we should also keep in mind that there is a fine line between spillage and shootage. We don't want to get too chippy, or else things aren't fun anymore.

However, there are people out there who feel that the line isn't as fine as it really is. As much as you can have people who freely cross the line and shoot on folks as part of their promo style (put the gun down, Gerlach, I'm not ripping you :p), the opposite perspective is true, i.e., there are those out there who think that the slightest comment that could be taken as a shoot is a shoot. I'm talking about the paranoid, the hypersensitive, those who could literally take the teenage-FW "i r better than u lol" style in today's game and think that the kid is shooting on them.

Let's take the most recent example of this, which is in truth the impetus for this entry. On the latest FUSE card, Ryan and Craig thought it would be a larf to promote their PTC Global/Extreme Title Unification Match. In doing so, Craig's character Dusk, a member of PRIME, came onto the show and cut an in-ring promo. In that promo, he put down several members of FUSE, including the World Champion. To many people, to most sane people, this would be a non-issue. However, there was a vocal contingient on the FUSE roster who screamed bloody murder at the fact an outsider came onto the show and buried their Universal Champion. They complained that it made their fed look bushleague and said that things like this wouldn't happen between the WWE and TNA. Let me take this apart one by one.

First off, the whole basis of at least 75% of wrestling promos is to badmouth someone. A past opponent, present opponent, future opponent, someone who isn't you, I mean, watch any wrestling program in the last 20 years and you will see big, sweaty guys talking smack about people they're not supposed to like in character. It's a huge part of the game. So what if Dusk came in and ran down John Covel? He's a member of another promotion, trying to build heat for an upcoming match with a member of that promotion. What do you expect him to do, come in and give Covel an verbal blowjob, just so people's feelings won't get hurt? Christ, where have these people been for the last forever? Since when has a wrestling promo been the measure for OOC or off-camera respect? When Shawn Michaels feuded with Diesel and Razor Ramon, I can bet you any amount of money that at the end of the day, Michael Hickenbottom was going to be hanging out, probably throwing back brews or just relaxing with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, no matter what kind of words were being thrown around on-camera, and do you know why? Because they understood that everything on-camera was SCRIPTED!

Diverging off-track for a moment here, it's interesting to note that this happened on the PTC side of things, where some people admittedly don't RP about wrestling related things. I've never read a FUSE RP, and to be fair, I really don't read RPs in general, not for PRIME, the PTC interfed, even in FW feds most of the time unless it's TEAM. I can't tell you from firsthand experience whether this is true for FUSE or not, but the fact that people have admitted that they don't RP about wrestling and the fact that people who do read RPs complain about this points to a problem that could have lead to this blowup. People may have become so out of touch with how wrestling works (since there are many in this hobby who don't watch the real thing anymore... I was one of those people until WrestleMania and Raw the night after sucked me back in) that they don't know what a wrestling promo is anymore. They're more concerned with getting their writing out for feedback that anything negative is construed as an attack, even if the giver of that negativity clearly doesn't mean in out-of-character. (And isn't it funny that one guy who is the most blatant about not including wrestling in his RPs has the best grasp of this idea?)

Back on track now, for whatever reason, people couldn't grasp that. Their reasoning was "hey, it never happens in real life!" Well, it actually does. ROH, indie feds and puro feds often have talent going back and forth among each other. Of course, those are on a level here below consciousness (i.e., the national major promotions), so I have to agree, it doesn't happen up there. But let me ask you this question... where at in America can you find a construct such as PTC? Major, national promotions in cooperation with each other... that's unheard of, it's something we have unique to us, so who's to say we have to apply artificial rules that correspond to the real world for us? The facts are these; FUSE and PRIME are in a loose relationship where there are Championships and tournaments involved. To me, they'd be silly not to cooperate if it meant that both companies could benefit from this. I believe they'd benefit from it financially if they were both real companies, and there's no question that they're benefitting now. I mean, when you get activity like this, you get people who wouldn't normally read FUSE checking in to find out the latest dealings with the interfed or checking on one of their own from PRIME. Then you may have someone who reads the whole show and likes it. Then, people who were for, against or even unaware that something like that was going down benefitting from it because more people are paying attention to their writing. How is that a bad situation?

The answer is that it's only as bad as people let themselves make it out to be. This whole ordeal could have been avoided had the people crying about everything took a few steps back and realized that everything was in character. No one was shooting, and Criag has said on many occasions after that he's had nothing but respect for FUSE. Still, people want to be up in arms about it. Well, it's their loss for taking everything so damn seriously. If you keep a light air about you and you keep everything in perspective, then you'll do fine in this game. However, the moment you start thinking that everyone's out to get you, even if they're just playing the game themselves, you're going to cause a lot of problems for you and for everyone else.

March's Wrestler of the Month

No, I'm not dead. Just really busy, both with real-life and eW stuff. I can't forget the Wrestler of the Month, and this month, the award goes to Nova! Nova won the NFW Western Conference, and he retained his PRIME Universal Championship at Culture Shock. Congratulations are in order for the Rising/Risen Star!

The runner-up award goes to his opponent at WrestleBowl 2, Yori Yakamo, Jr.. He won the Eastern Conference and made it to the Sweet 16 of the TEAM Invitational Tournament.

Honorable Mention
Tchu (PRIME), Lindsay Troy (PRIME, EPW, NFW), Danny Ferguson (PRIME), Bruce Richards (NAPW), Simply Beautiful (NAPW, A1E, TEAM Events), Jason Payne (NFW, TEAM Events), Fusenshoff (MBE, TEAM Events), The Canadian Loonie (TEAM Events), Dan Ryan (A1E, EPW, TEAM Events), Ice Tre (EPW)

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