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| Memorial Day Mayhem reaction thread | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 11 2012, 01:12 AM (1,107 Views) | |
| BigPoppaBuyrate | Jun 11 2012, 06:26 PM Post #16 |
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Poppin' Buyrates Since 1996
  ![]](http://z5.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)
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What Rob doesn't know until he reads this is that my singular goal in this tournament is to job him in every match he happens to be involved in to make my life easier. |
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| Robfathah | Jun 11 2012, 06:33 PM Post #17 |
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The Wisdom Cube
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The fix is in! I'm at least going to make sure everybody knows you're as crooked as the Pacquiao-Bradley judges!1 |
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| sychosys | Jun 11 2012, 06:36 PM Post #18 |
This Space For Rent
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That wasn't crooked! That was karma! |
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| Overly_Critical_Jue | Jun 11 2012, 06:38 PM Post #19 |
Amigo, I ain't anybody but Juan Vasquez!
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Karma would be giving Marquez a win...not Bob Arum even more money. |
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| StevieScott | Jun 11 2012, 07:18 PM Post #20 |
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...EVEN CHILDREN!
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No, I was serious too. Slightly hyperbolic, but serious. |
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"Destruction of Hell" start playing as Mason drop the mic and exit the ring as fans throw stuffs at him but he punch out most of the fans even children. | |
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| BigPoppaBuyrate | Jun 12 2012, 10:27 AM Post #21 |
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Poppin' Buyrates Since 1996
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MDM REVIEW IN PROGRESS! |
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| therpa | Jun 12 2012, 09:51 PM Post #22 |
Phil Ken Sebben
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Great show Chris. |
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| BigPoppaBuyrate | Jun 12 2012, 11:45 PM Post #23 |
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Poppin' Buyrates Since 1996
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MDM REVIEW --- Don’t call it a comeback but the ever-popular AWA Supercard self-review has returned! They made me do my self-review at work recently and I’m guessing while equally introspective, this one will turn out to be a lot more fun to write. MDM was solely written (matchwise) by yours truly. I asked for assistance early in the process and all of you were too selfish to help! Just kidding. Only one person offered and ultimately I ended up turning them down (thanks Bob!) because I got into a rhythm writing the show and didn’t have a match I was willing to give away. I prefer being able to write the whole show when I can because it gives a level of consistency and continuity to the show that sometimes isn’t quite there when other people get involved. That said, when I ask for help... HELP! This show was a beast to get done for reasons I’ve outlined before but I was quite proud that I didn’t give up and go hide in a corner somewhere. I just kept on writing here and there, bits and pieces, and finally stuck the landing. I’m pretty proud of putting out such a strong effort under less-than-ideal circumstances and since it sounds like most of you enjoyed the show, I’m even prouder. Alright... let’s get down to thumbtacks... We get the patriotic opening that we’ve used for at least three years now. I like it so I saw no reason to change it. From there, we dig into an opening talking about the World Title, the “controversy” from which it was born, and the tournament itself. I’m always torn on these openings since they’re far more effective (in my opinion) in visual form than in written form. I never can decide if they’re worth the time and effort or if we should just jump right into the action. What do you guys think? Do you like them? How many of you even READ them? We cut into the building with our setting description. When I picked the building, I really liked the layout of it. The interview stage made it possible to have “backstage” promos have interaction from the crowd. Setting up two big screen TVs as a “video wall” seemed to be a very “not quite a big money promotion” thing to do and again, allowed us to “play” backstage promos for the in-building crowd. The announcers immediately put over the tournament, the summer tour, and of course, the MAin Event. The Main Event was a tricky one leading up to the show. I knew that most people already knew the outcome of it since Andy had decided to make his “retirement” quite public. When something like that happens, you have two choices - throw up your hands and just write the character out of the picture as quickly as possible or dig in and at least try to tell the best story you can manage to tell. I decided to do the latter. We’d set up the Scott/Broussard feud and match for a while and I felt it was a story deserving of an end, even if I had to write the Marcus promos for a couple months to get us there. I wanted this match to have the big time feel. I wanted it to feel like one of the biggest matches in AWA history... “I Quit” is the mother of all feud enders coupled with the Loser Leave Town stip which I think we may have used a couple times but never to this degree to my recollection. These two (along with Vasquez) are probably the two names that most come to mind when you think of the AWA so I thought it was only fitting for this to be one of the biggest (and hopefully best) matches in AWA history. They also move on to put over the idea that the final ten tournament participants would be announced on the show. This also seemed to me to be a very NWAish thing to do - trying to achieve maximum hype for the event that will carry the promotion over the next several months. Plus, we had a handful of characters that I thought I wanted to drop as surprises that would be better on the show than in a “Oh, hey... this guy’s in too.” Stegglet being backstage at the “tourney” wall is a total throwback to Wrestlemania IV when Mean Gene stood in front of that big board and previewed/reviewed the matches. We introduce Watkins early because I know he’s got a big role to play in the show a couple of times. I toss in a line about the front office and the Committee being there because it only makes sense that they’d want to be in full effect to counter any possible chicanery like what went down in Westwego. Plus, I wanted a couple of those characters there for a couple of angles that I ended up not running. I didn’t know that they weren’t running at that point though. And enter the Hive. I was a little torn on this one because I thought people might complain that I took two spots in the tournament for what amounts to two JTTS characters fighting with each other. But I really wanted to start the tournament with a fast-paced matchup... I thought the idea of tag partners fighting each other would put over how important the World Title actually is... and I wanted another “buzzing bess” promo with Imbrogno interpreting. There’s also an ongoing theme of Watkins getting more and more frustrated at his job playing out and this plays into it. Putting tag partners against each other... especially when they’re faces... isn’t the nicest thing to do. But Watkins is having a pretty shitty year and he’s not exactly trying to make friends these days. We get a cameo from November during this match because Wallie wanted him on the show and it made sense to me that he’d be at ringside marking out for these two high flying guys who use a style similar to his. We get a time limit call early in the match to establish the ten minute time limit, get the reader thinking about draws, and to set up Watkins pulling the rug out from under that particular idea later in the show. Bumble Bee scores a win just cause. I could have gone either way with it but Bumble Bee always strikes me as the younger, fiesty member of the Hive even though I don’t think we’ve ever established that. We go backstage to the announcement of Colby Greene for the tournament. When I asked Steve Carmichael to send someone, I didn’t specify who. He surprised me with a character I wasn’t aware of but I couldn’t care less who he sends as long as he’s involved. I learned long ago that asking for specific characters can sometimes be a bad thing - sometimes going with a handler’s gut instinct can yield awesome results. I’m looking forward to seeing what Steve can do in this tournament especially since we haven’t had a chance to work together in a long, long time. After commercial, we get a Glenn Hudson/Stevie Scott promo. I’ll admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of this promo - not because I didn’t love it. I thought it was well-written, funny, and a lot of fun. My only issue with it was I didn’t particularly care for “fun loving” Stevie Scott a few hours before his AWA career was on the line. A small nitpick but a nitpick nonetheless. Then on to the Oliver Strickland promo. I had a lot of fun with this character with the couple promos I did for the tournament. As the tournament progresses and guys get eliminated, I’ll have to take long, hard looks at which characters can/will/should stay and which ones shouldn’t. Strickland strikes me as one of those who might be fun on a part-time, occasional appearance schedule. Anyone else care for MISTER Strickland? Back to the ring for another tournament match as BC Da Mastah MC takes on another character created for the tournament, “Teenage Dream” Dustin Dreamer. I enjoy the Dreamer character a bit but he came off better in my head than I think he did on paper. I had planned on putting Dreamer through to the second round but decided a “upset” was in order here because who doesn’t want to see BC one step closer to the World Title? Terry’s Supreme Wright promo was up next which I thought was friggin’ brilliant. Aping the Combat Center commercial into the promo was fantastic. Calling out Aaron Anderson was awesome. The vengeful former student is looking to prove the company who let him walk wrong. Can’t ask for better motivation than that. I wish we had Anderson or Preston in the tournament for him to face though. We come back from commercial to a Rex Summers promo. It rambled... didn’t care for it. I like the character a lot but I’m not sure there’s a long term future for him if I’m the one running him. It was supposed to be a temporary thing when Beeby dropped out handling him but no one has expressed any interest in taking him off my hands. Then to a Travis Lynch promo. I’m still not totally sold on Travis although he’s improved tremendously. It’s like... I want to give him a stronger push but I’m not convinced the quality of work merits it yet. Am I alone in this? Travis/Bruno was next. I had a hard time with this one because it needed to feel like a grudge match but it also needed to have some degree of control to it because we had at least two wild brawls still coming. I did the spot at the start to try and put over how pissed Lynch was before it got back under control in the ring. The booking on this one was difficult for me. I think both characters have strong potential that we haven’t really seen in full yet. So, I went with the one who I thought was a little further along. We also get Bruno saving face with the post-match attack... not so much to keep the feud going (although it would seem a little short to end it now) but to show that he plans on remaining a force to be reckoned with. We move to a Jaiden Andrews clip. I’ve always been a fan of Wnuk’s work with Andrews which you probably know if you followed PWR and I was always disappointed that he didn’t stick with the character. Jason doesn’t have the strongest reputation when it comes to consistency in this world anymore but I’m hopeful he sticks around and makes a good run at it. Speaking of people with spotty reputations, hey, it’s Ron Houston! I kid, I kid. My days of being super judgmental are over. I’ve been willing to give anyone that I’ve ever worked with at least one second chance... and many people have gotten waaaaay more than that (hey Rog!) So, I’m willing to give Houston another shot as well. He’d be a strong addition to the tournament and to the roster if Flo sticks with it so... fingers crossed. Percy and Nenshou promo. Awesome as always. Nenshou’s gonna be a tough one to beat in this tournament, I think. Monosso too. Should be a lot of fun to see how they progress. I liked the idea of Nenshou vs Strickland when Jer asked for one of the old guys in the tourney. Heel vs heel didn’t really matter to me - in fact, I think that was part of the appeal to it. A good way to show right off the bat that the tourney will have some matches you might not expect to see in it and things won’t always shake out to heel vs face. Jer stratted for the submission to show that Nenshou’s got some different plans of attack to use and I dug that idea so I went with it. Don wanted the Marley post-match attack which I turned into a save after Nenshou went after the valet. And then the arrival of the mysterious Gideon Hellbane who seems to have taken quite the interest in young Mr. Marley. Hrmm. Oh, hey, look! It’s The Robfathah and Dave Bryant. This is the reason I wanted to do this tournament. Really random cameos. I can’t even remember the last time we saw Dave Bryant on an extended basis. I’ve been semi-on Rob’s case about bringing in Bryant for a while now. Always thought he’d be a good fit in the AWA. Another fun Glenn Hudson promo is up next. Really made it easy to do what I was planning to do... ...which brings us to Summers/Hudson. I went back and forth a few times on this one too. I knew I wanted to do the time limit draw so that Watkins could make his announcement. But what I couldn’t decide is what would happen after they re-started the match. Part of me felt weird about knocking all of Waterson International out of the tournament on the first night but at the same time, it seemed kinda fitting. Same goes with the title switch. Changing the title to Hudson in his first match felt weird... but also felt right. So, as I’m prone to doing, I just went with it and figured “We’ll see what happens next!” And from the crowning of a new Longhorn Heritage Champion, we move on to the unveiling of a former LWC star as our next tournament participant - Blackwater Bart. Now... lemme explain something... Bart is one of my favorite characters ever. And Josh Sager is one of my favorite people I’ve ever encountered in my years in this game. But Sager in the AWA is a weird mix. He’s never dusted off Bishop after he promised Powell he wouldn’t. EVG doesn’t work in the AWA. That left Bart... which was good by me. Every once in a while over the years, I’d poke my head in and try to rile up Josh into a comeback and every time, he’d shoot me down. Don’t ask me how or why... but this time he agreed to do it. And damn it, I’m really happy about that. Coming back from commercial, we add Andrew Tucker to the mix. Tucker was one of the first characters offered but one of the last that I put in. To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to use him. He was just around for the Cup so part of me thought that his appearance wouldn’t really pack a punch since we’d seen him recently. But I liked the idea of giving Jase something else to do other than Jagger since Dufresne wasn’t going to be involved. And even though it didn’t occur to me until after the show, Bryant vs Tucker has some... unique... history which is why I made it a first round matchup. The Bishops’ promo was next. At this point, I hadn’t quite decided to put the tag straps back on them. More on that to come. This was another match that needed to have a lot of crazy brawling in it. In a kinda 90s throwback moment, these two had strats that probably might have cost someone a match back then. Terry stratted for all these counters to Duane Henry high flying moves and Dan stratted for Duane Henry to not attempt many of those same moves and to just fight instead. It was an interesting match to write because I’m writing a slugfest brawl between two characters quite different in size. So, Duane Henry needed to be a low-down, dirty, cheating brawler to make it work. Haynes gets a DQ win to set up the Morton return. I’m still enjoying this feud so I’m happy to see VU back. Vasquez promo to hype the showdown with Zaire followed by a Waterson promo to do the same. Ahhh, yes. Then comes the Cooper segment. I wanted this to have some fire to it. We’ve played this angle as unique from the beginning so I didn’t see any point in a Cooper promo leading to a Donovan brawl. It needed something more. Since I’ve been having everyone and their mother poke at Watkins with a stick as of late, I knew this was a good time for him to snap a bit. So when Cooper takes the verbal jab at Watkins’ wife, he goes after him. But his fire is too much for him and allows Cooper to easily put him down with the DDT... takes out security and is really about to finish off Watkins when Mark Stegglet decides to be a hero. And why not? Mark Stegglet was created as an uberfan who used his Uncle’s connections to get a job. With that in mind, of all people, he’s probably the most likely to try and save the day. The spinebuster on Stegglet was a big moment. I’m not big on announcer violence and rarely let it happen. This is probably the most overt moment of announcer violence (not counting Todd) in AWA history. The locker room (and Donovan) come charging out... Cooper wisely bails out... and the story continues. Bad. Eye. McBaine. Do I really need to say anything else? Watkins promo with the Bishops interrupting. Now, lemme explain the tag title situation... I think anyone with eyes knows that the tag division has hit a bit of a rough spot. I’ll take partial blame since our focus has been on the World Title tournament but I’m also going to slap blame on the majority of the handlers in that division. Honestly, there were really only two active teams in the division during the past couple months since the Anniversary Show. Whether that’s in promos or strats or just plotting stuff out with me. Everyone else fell off in a big way. So, I was already less than pleased going into the show by having to write Lynches/Aces when I felt neither team was really deserving of the titles at this point. As we got closer to me needing to write this part of the show, I realized that I hadn’t heard from Bell for a while. A quick check with Dave confirmed my fears and then popping into the PVW board just blew them all to hell. I sent Bell an e-mail myself and got no response. My next step was to e-mail Dan, Terry, and Roger and ask for suggestions. Taking their suggestions (and my own ideas) into account, I set a plan into motion to try and revive the struggling tag division. And this promo (which Dan didn’t get informed that I was writing) planted the seeds for that. The Bishops informing the world about the Aces being missing... and apparently making Watkins some kind of an offer to try and get the title shot. The plot thickens... We move into Zaire/Vasquez... which honestly, I couldn’t remember if I had billed as no DQ before the show or not. It seemed like it had to be a No DQ match so I just kinda sold it as an added stipulation but no one reacted too strongly to it in case it was known. Again, this one needed to be another wild brawl. Zaire is our Abby and I will fight to protect the gimmick by making him a bloodthirsty savage at all times. He’s fun to write because he doesn’t really do anything wrestling-wise but if you write him as unpredictable and out of control, you’re going to nail it. One of the goals in this one was to show that Zaire was more than enough for Vasquez to handle. Vasquez, at times, gets the reputation as the beater of worlds but I wanted to make sure we pointed out that Zaire just might be too much for him to handle. The booking on this one was determined months ago, I think. The segment with the doctor was done for three reasons - 1) to show that Vasquez was a bloody mess and in serious physical trouble, 2) to reveal that Zaire was immediately suspended, and 3) to announce Vasquez in the tournament. The Martinez segment was a lot of fun. I think that the Craven character has lost a ton of steam since being unveiled as the Dragon and unfortunately, Supernova kinda got dragged down with him. Those two (three if you count Dave) have had a lot of issues getting stuff done as a group and it’s hurt them all to a degree. When they do get something done though, they usually nail it. An Aces promo ran next. I think I got this after I had already made my decision about the tags. Not sure I would have changed my mind since Rog told me at some point during the writing process that he was going to take some time off with the Aces and the Skullcrushers. SPOILERS! The Bishops make their entrance for the tag title match. The goal in this one was clear. Make the title switch but leave the Lynches room to complain about it... not to mention the Aces. I think that goal was certainly accomplished. First two-time tag champs. Congrats, Dan. Stevie promo... his final sell of the I Quit match. And the announcement of the final man in the tourney. In true Ronnie fashion, he made me wait for that promo for hours after the rest of the show was done. I did the colors in the promo because I thought it seemed very Ronnie D. The ASCII was the original stuff pulled from an old EMWC show. Good times. And honestly, I thought the promo was pretty well done considering all the “ring rust” he should have. Then it’s time for Marcus to do his final sell job on the I Quit match. And then it’s Main Event time. I mentioned at the beginning how important this match was and how important I wanted it to feel. So, I guess the question is simple... Did it work? Where does this match rank alongside other historic AWA matches? In fact, what are the Top 5 AWA matches of all time? Does this one make the cut? I’m super proud of the match and the work I did with Marcus leading up to the show. I’m not the best promo writer... I’m well aware of that. That is not where my talents lie in this game. And I’m certainly no Andy Doran. But I do appreciate him allowing me to step into his shoes for a couple months to try and finish what he started. Oh, and Waterson’s turn at the end? Gary Hart on Terry Funk after I Quit. Duh. |
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| sychosys | Jun 13 2012, 05:46 AM Post #24 |
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This Space For Rent
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Travis Lynch is the son of a promoter. He's not supposed to be judged on the quality of his work! He's in wrestling as a result of who he knows, not what he knows. And fans love him for who his is, not what he can do. So long as he doesn't go out there completely coked out of his gourd, he's good to go. And to be honest, the first thing I thought of at the end was Sensational Sherri attacking Savage after losing his career ending match to Ultimate Warrior. But there was no Elizabeth coming to Marcus' aid (which is too bad, because it would have been nice to have a wedding for the Fourth of July show), so I guess it is closer to Funk/Flair. |
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| JeremySAtWork | Jun 13 2012, 08:45 AM Post #25 |
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Unregistered
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Unsung details like that are critical to the immersion into a card. I want it to feel like a wrestling card, not an e-wrestling card. So yes, exposition is important.
I loved Backlund's heel character, so yes, I liked Strickland.
I also think this was the right call as I didn't care for Dreamer.
Joe implied this, but Kerry Von Erich isn't a strong base for a homage character. He was bland as far as promos went and thrived on 'look' before anything else. He was good enough at playing a face in the ring to make it as far as he did... but in e-w terms, none of Kerry's strengths can really come into play.
But if you had just stopped there, you would have contructed a perfectly passable Doran Reverse Pyramid. As to the match, I don't think it was AWA Top 5, but it might be Top 10. Not that I want to make that list. It was a suitable supercard Main Event and in no way unsatisfying even to those who knew the result well in advance. |
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| ElSavaje | Jun 13 2012, 12:01 PM Post #26 |
R. Kelly
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Ditto.
On the other hand, this is the point in time, if the fedhead wants to give the character a stronger push, he should do so, after discussion with the handler, and see what the handler can do with it, see if he might even be able to go beyond a Kerry Von Erich homage.
I wouldn't put it on the AWA Top 5 either, but I would seriously consider putting it on my ballot for Match of the Mid-Year/Match of the Year... If awards were being run... And if I actually bothered to send in my ballot. |
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| Overly_Critical_Jue | Jun 13 2012, 12:10 PM Post #27 |
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Amigo, I ain't anybody but Juan Vasquez!
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I've never really given thought to the top matches in AWA history. If I had to guess, it'd have City Jack/Dufresne in the cage at the top, then the war games matches...and we go from there... |
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| Wug | Jun 15 2012, 08:42 AM Post #28 |
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Custom member title!
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Some thoughts: I liked the opening sequence/scene description and agree that anything that adds to immersion is a plus. The backstage tournament segments were a nice touch as well - very WM4.  Have to plead mostly innocent with the Stevie segment. My vision of this was for fun-loving Hudson to get the brush off from serious Stevie, but John wouldn't have it. Figured I'd be killing other handlers' heat soon enough, but didn't want to start right away. :/ Didn't actually know Andy/Broussard were on the way out, so the main event was still a question mark. Could've been the only chance for Hudson to mug with Stevie. Want to read some more of Supreme Wright, interesting angle coming into the tournament. Percy Childes unleashed some powerful and prophetic stuff. I think we're going to see some giant killers emerge from this, not that I know who all the recent giants are yet. Really didn't know what to think coming into the Longhorn Heritage Title match. Would have hoped to get past the first round versus a character handled by the fedhead, but.. debuting into a title match.. Best case scenario was a DQ win. When the ubiquitous ten minute time limit expired, I actually stopped reading, thought "Blue must have some other angle idea for Hudson. That'll be it." and made some dinner. You bastard! Thanks for writing such a cool comeback match. Out come more LWC alumni! Did it just get realer in here? A great Vasquez/Zaire brawl and great booking, everyone who counts came out a winner. We'll talk about the fork eventually. I need to brush up on history, as I felt like an intruder during the intense Craven/Martinez scuffle without having my head around the background. Or is this discomfort normal?Was never a fan and probably bitched my share behind his back, but had to laugh when D's intro popped up. Fuckin' Ronnie D. Good times. The main event was something else. Such an awesome match. Felt like I'd been following those two guys the whole time. It's going to be a lot of fun reading these old cards. |
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| sychosys | Jun 15 2012, 04:16 PM Post #29 |
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This Space For Rent
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Since Blue was writing all the promos for Marcus anyway, I paid no attention to the OOC matters, as John hadn't been terribly active in this current run, so I still considered it entirely possible that both characters were being written out...a kind of Brock/Goldberg where the characters weren't being shit on by the crowd.
That was quite a throwback. No one rocks the overblown entrance/underwhelming promo combination quite like Ronnie D! 
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| BigPoppaBuyrate | Jun 15 2012, 05:19 PM Post #30 |
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Poppin' Buyrates Since 1996
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But the real question is... How were my Marcus promos?! If you DIDN'T know I was writing them, would you have been able to tell? I'll go ahead and take credit/blame for the Ronnie entrance. His promo he sent me didn't have one and I just knew we had to have the ASCII and the "video wall" stuff. Oh, and it was my idea to make it in COLORS! We're just one step away from blinking promos, people. |
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11:34 AM Jul 13