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| Blue's SuperClash Review | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 15 2014, 05:14 PM (361 Views) | |
| BigPoppaBuyrate | Jan 15 2014, 05:14 PM Post #1 |
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Poppin' Buyrates Since 1996
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Surprise! I was hoping to get a chance to do this for you guys but didn't know if I'd have the time so I didn't mention it. With a day off with my daughter sick, this is my chance most likely. I know you guys like these because you like the insight into my booking and writing mind and processes... So, here we go... One of my favorite things about doing the show in a PDF format (remember when that was a controversial thing?) is the show header. I really enjoy doing them and this one is one of my favorites to date. The show opens with our tradition - November Rain and Gordon's voiceover. I like re-using this every year because it establishes a sense of continuity. Plus, the words still are as true now as the first year I wrote them. The "secondary" opening is built this year around "SuperClash moments." It's always a challenge for me to find a theme for the opening montages but this one seemed to click. And WE... ARE... LIVE! Yeah, we went with the sell-out... which may or may not be realistic, I really don't know. But I know that I stacked this card as high as I could with the kind of names that presumably would put asses in the seats if this was the real wrestling world. I really wanted to put over this show as the biggest of the year - if not the biggest in AWA history so it set the all-time attendance mark, the biggest gate, the first time on actual PPV. SuperClash was always intended to be the biggest show of the year but it often has felt secondary to something else in the past... typically due to timing. We seem to have a hard time getting everything clicking for the big show when a lot of our feuds cap off on the summer tour. I'm hopeful that moving the Rumble to the September show this year will give us a natural World Title match and make things easier. The tournament really made us hustle to get a lineup together at the end. After some run down the show hype, we go straight to our opening match. Alphonse Green vs Dave Cooper got the nod here although I was tempted to put in Air Strike/Riders. I ultimately picked the singles match because I didn't want to start the show with a foregone conclusion. I'm a big fan of both of these characters and really look forward to seeing what's next for both of them. With the TV Title situation cloudy at best, I wanted to make sure both of these characters were in position to step up to that spot if needed (at this point, I had no idea what I was doing with the World Title match.) Green has gradually turned face in all of this, I think. He may be playing a heel still technically but... who DOESN'T want to ride with Alphonse Green at this stage? This one was designed to be a pretty fast-paced affair to "get the crowd going" so to speak. Lots of high flying and dives from Green to really rally the fans behind him. Being able to write about Green's father, a mid-level talent in the Pacific Northwest, is the kind of detail that I love in an app. It just adds an extra level of realism to commentary. Cooper cheats to win... again. That sets him up in excellent position to challenge for the TV Title, no matter the result of the World Title match later on. We go to backstage promos. I LOVED the Air Strike promo. If I could have closed my eyes and had someone read that promo out loud, it totally would've sounded like an interview the Rockers would've delivered in the 80s or early 90s. The Stampede Cup qualifier stip is always a nice way to add a little extra "oomph" to a match. I slotted Air Strike/Longhorn Riders in this spot because it reminded me of one of my favorite PPVs ever - Wrestlemania 3 - where the opening match was the Can-Am Connection vs Muraco/Orton. It was fast-paced and obviously designed to get the Can-Ams over. That's what I was aiming for with this match, fast-paced and get Air Strike over. There's a whole lot of hype for the Cup in the mix here. Always gotta be looking ahead to the next show. There was a lot of discussion about the Cup in the Google Hangout during the writing of the show and there's been some great ideas in development for it. I know Jer gets some heat for the JTTS stuff he writes. A few people complaining about it taking up space that could've been used for handled characters and all that but... you'll never hear me make that complaint. I love seeing matches and promos come in for teams like the Riders and guys like Mr. Sadisuto. Plus, never once have I bumped a match for a handled character to make room for more JTTS stuff so that's a moot point. As I re-read the match, it's a pretty standard tag match. Solid but not spectacular. I got to slip in a Monsoon-esque "you're not going to beat Air Strike with a cover like that" line which makes me smile. Air Strike wins with a finish I modified from a move on the app. Apparently some people had some trouble determining what the move was but... well, that's just silly! It's as plain as the nose on your face, people! Air Strike earns the first slot in the Cup... which may be very important as spots could be quite limited this year. There's a post-match Cooper promo next, set up to talk about Royalty's dominance and what they planned on doing that night. I think it achieved that end. The Hyperstyle Wildbrawl was next. I struggled with the idea of putting a cage match so low on the card since it's traditionally treated as a big deal but there were so many big matches coming after it, this is where it ended up. Honestly, I struggled a bit with putting this into a cage to begin with but another straight up six man felt wrong and we never were able to come up with anything else. So, here we were... Before the match started though, we had the awkward Rage/Monet promo. The first bit of awkward comes when I insert Stegglet into the promo and then make him stand there for five minutes. Why? Because I despise the "hey, let's have a private conversation while the camera just happens to be here" promo. I don't like them and often as not, I refuse to use them. So, I inserted Stegglet to introduce it and then made him look like a voyeur. Other than the private conversation aspect, I didn't have any issue with the promo itself. I thought Monet's concern put over the danger that Rage was putting himself into by working hurt. Sure, it was a little sappy at points but... well, that's kinda what the promo needed, I think. I wouldn't want to see Rage deliver that promo every show but as a once in a while thing, it's alright. Then we get a Shane Gang (minus Shane) promo. It's your standard Shane Gang promo. Again, solid but not spectacular in this case. Honestly, I'd like to see less promos where Hayes does ALL of their talking and actually develop the Gang - especially Anderson and Strong - as their own characters. The match itself. I've never been a big fan of Escape The Cage matches. I was always an NWA cage match guy and not a WWF cage match guy for that reason. I never understood why, on the ultimate battlefield, you won by running away. But for these six guys, we wanted something different and somehow this made sense to me. I was looking less for cage violence... not a ton of smashing into the steel and grinding the flesh on the mesh... but more a launching pad for some spots. A running theme throughout the night for me was declaring 2014 the year of the Shane Gang. I knew that Blue's stable was imploding. I knew there was a decent chance that more than one stable was going to be falling apart but this one would be left so might as well put 'em over. The Shane Gang was likely to go over here anyways but the absence of a Rave promo kinda cemented the deal. The story of the match was Rage fighting on his injured ankle and trying to survive. Psychologywise, I liked the idea of the Shane Gang eventually trying to isolate Rage, tossing out Rave members without a care since they were keeping a numbers advantage... and then The Rave catching on and doing the same thing. One of my goals was to try and make the Shane Gang members stand out a little bit from one another. Donnie White's personality is starting to peek through so I wanted to continue that. There were a lot of fun spots in here... I really got into writing this one a lot more than I thought I would. When I had people offering to write at the start of the show, this was one I was going to hand off but never did. Kinda glad about that actually. Of course, we also wanted the Monet/Hayes showdown spot here which I think went well to boot. All in all, it was just a really fun match all around. I'm glad it worked well and it was good fit for the show. Then onto a Stevie Scott promo. I ended up having to write it for John who got too busy so if you didn't like it, you can blame me. The Dusscher/Stevie match. Sigh. The best laid plans and all that. We truly did have big ambitions for this angle but between John getting busy and from what I could tell, Joe losing interest, it just kinda sputtered. It didn't seem like people were buying into it anyways. So, it just kinda limped along. By the time we got to SuperClash, I just wanted it over. I consulted with a few people about how to handle this match. Some wanted it cancelled and replaced with Stevie versus someone else... like Detson perhaps since he wasn't on the show. I had a hard time with that. I try to operate the AWA with a certain level of realism... and I just couldn't see an actual "big promotion" pulling a bait and switch on a celebrity match like that. So, I did what I did... and tied it into the Wise Men angle. I think it worked fairly well but it's one of those "what might have been" angles. And into Steal The Spotlight we go. I can't tell you what I was thinking when I decided to go with a super-sized STS other than... well, I REALLY wanted to get as many of you guys on the show as possible. Now I know how Vince feels when they throw some big multi-man match or battle royal on the 'Mania lineup. Which is why I got really irritated at those who didn't promo for the match and elected to replace them with people who I thought had earned their spot. We had a barrage of promos for this. Some really great stuff all around. These matches are always built around "moments"... little things that can be turned into big things later. Kinda like the Rumble. This one was worse. It was a true challenge to make this match as good as it needed to be because of the length and the amount of people involved. Now, I know a lot of you won't believe it but I really didn't have a winner picked out going into the match and had several that I considered during the course of writing it. I do that a lot of the time... it's a very organic way of booking to me. Booking by "feel" is an interesting idea. I don't want to write a review of the match that's as long as the match itself so let's try to keep this short and direct. There are so many subplots to weave into a match like this. The bell hasn't even rung yet and there's discussion about Blue trying to talk to his team but being ignored by Lake. That's to tease dissension between Blue and Percy... which we know will pay off soon enough. With the Bishops leaving, I thought a Case double elimination worked well to put Case back on the map. Cletus Lee gets to save a little face by having to take the Right Cross and two of Case's signature moves to finish him off. Dan decided he had some outside of e-w interests he wanted to pursue for a while so I wrote the Bishops out in a way that would help us moving forward. Again, there's some chatter about what schools Lane and Lake went to... also that Lake was drafted by the Cowboys. Those are the little details I like to work into commentary. I put Willie Hammer in the match in hopes that someone would find him interesting enough to take him out of the I Make 'Em... so far, no luck though. Our next little subplot is Preston pulling the rope down on Craven which would later lead to Preston abandoning his team. Rey Estrellata tends to go after Rick Marley's enemies if you go back and re-read. His first time into the match, he dives out onto Craven... then hits Nenshou. But at the first sign of trouble, he tags out to SDW. I wanted another chance for a Wright/Maximus showdown so at the first opportunity, I took it. Some people have said I squashed Maximus but that wasn't my intention at all. Don't look at this match at being booked that way. I don't book eliminations in order of "rank." I book eliminations based on it being right for the story at that moment. Yes, I try to make the really strong RPs last a little longer but that doesn't always happen. I think Ridz has done a good job with Maximus in recent months so he (or anyone else) shouldn't take the early elimination as any kind of a message. We tease a Preston/Wright interaction, playing off the Rumble where Wright eliminated himself rather than fight Preston. Preston obviously is convinced that the same thing is about to happen until Wright shows him it's a whole new ballgame by headkicking him and dropping him on his head with a choke suplex. Cue the Team AWA conga line and Preston decides he's had enough, walking out on his team and the match. Immediately after the Preston elimination, we tease a Case/Vasquez showdown which obviously the fans want to see... ...but the booker doesn't. At least, not yet. Tony Sunn had a great showing, I think. I remember Sunn from PPW and enjoyed the character then. I think both character and handler will make a great addition to the AWA. Welcome aboard! Mahoney gets the tapout from Sudakov. I just liked that idea. I continue to want to put over Mahoney as a guy who can get a win at any time with that armbar and tapping out a former MMA guy and former National Champion... yup, that helps. Ricky Lane is another character who I feel has really come on strong as of late and is a perfect example of how to build a character with squash matches and promos... something that some of you still struggle with. Lane pins Hammer and SDW in short order to give him some bragging rights after the match. I'll pause for a moment to say that when I put this match together, I knew that there was going to be a change to the STS rules in that it would be a "anywhere, anytime" clause. I teased announcing it on the last SNW but had Vasquez cut off O'Connor before he could do it. At that point, I decided I'd tell the winner of STS and let them choose what to do with that information. Knowing that there was a chance that Wright might win STS, there were a few teases sprinkled in that he seemed... different. "GM: Nenshou's crawling away, sliding backwards as Wright stalks towards him. There's something different about Supreme Wright tonight, Bucky. BW: The gloves are off, Gordo. Look at the focus in his eyes! He realizes that most wrestlers will never get ONE shot at the World Title in their lives. He's gotten more than one and gotten so close he could taste it. He could very easily be in the World Title match tonight as well." Wright's in trouble though when Lane goes for the Black Crush again... and Watkins pulls the ropes down to save his partner. That leads to Lane getting the big man face-saving countout elimination. Mahoney nearly gets the armbar on Vasquez but gets a cradle for a quick elimination. At this point, you start to get down to the people who legitimately could win this thing. Craven, Lake, Marley, Hayes, Sunn, Case, Nenshou, Carver, Vasquez, Wright, and Watkins. With the exception of Watkins, I probably would've been okay with ANY of the others winning. Hayes and Sunn were longshots since they weren't even really on the roster yet. Case probably hadn't done enough yet to prove he's back at the level he once was. But the other seven? Could've been any one of them. We go next to a Carver/Vasquez showdown which was fun. I guess they've met somewhere before but it's new to me, damn it. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Some stiff strike exchanges. Juan going nutty with a dive... and then Marley tries to get 'em both counted out. They get back in, Carver's got the killshot in his sights... and Marley intervenes with a Limelight to KO Carver and make him easy prey for elimination. Again, Carver was one of my top choices to win the thing but Marley eliminating him to turn the heat up on their feud was too good of a moment to pass up. Sai Fong, who has been acting odd all match, blatantly attacks Vasquez from behind, earning some puzzlement from the crowd and the announcers. We'll see why later. Added in some tension here and there between Fong and Sunn who seems like the type who'd take offense to Fong's blatant rulebending. I wanted to give Sunn a face-saving elimination as well hence the Blue interference. Case comes right in after him, trying to finish off the last Blue client in the ring - Craven. But Marley's got the same idea. Marley attacks, Case goes after him, and unmasks him to the shock of no one at this point, I'm guessing. Carver comes back out to put a beatdown on Marley which ends up DQng Craven. I liked that spot. Not sure why actually. Just seemed like a clever way to get Craven out of there. I think Moze is coming on strong with Craven as of late, he just needs the right angle and to find some consistency. And right after that, Marley's gone too. Marley was a strong candidate to win but I think the Carver issue needs to be settled first. Sai Fong betrays his own teammate to eliminate Case. Down to seven guys, it makes sense to start taking out threats... even if they're on your own team. Watkins gets eliminated in short fashion leaving us with five - Lake, Fong Nenshou, Vasquez, and Wright. I really could see the benefit in any of them winning but I kept circling around the idea that Wright really did deserve it. As much of a pain in the ass as Terry can be at times, Wright really probably has been the best character in the game for at least a year now so... So, I kept writing... Nenshou went out next. I love the character but I'm taking a "wait and see" approach on this face turn. It was time to unmask Fong which, of course, revealed Gibson Hayes who I don't think many were expecting since Picky and I have only had a couple of interactions in the game and neither turned out well. Vasquez gets eliminated next. I gave Juan strong consideration to win but even Terry seemed like he'd prefer a Wright win to a Vasquez win. Fair enough. But I let Lake beat him because I like the idea of further tensions between Percy and Juan and I thought it gave Lake a nice win for his resume. I had decided I wanted Wright to win... and as I did, I started to ponder the Main Event because I knew Terry would want to cash it in... which of course, he did. How badly did Terry want to cash it in? He was willing to do it against either opponent and either stay face or go heel to do it. More on that later though. So, Wright becomes the first person to win both the Rumble AND STS which is a nice accomplishment. We spin out of STS into the family feud tag match. This one had a big buildup leading into it and had the additional pressure of being perhaps the final AWA match for Alex Martinez. This show seemed like it had a lot of tag matches on it so I found myself watching a bunch of tag matches on YouTube for inspiration as the show dragged on and my brain started to grow weary. Both promos were great. Really enjoyed them. Dave seems to have really enjoyed the match so that's awesome for me. I dug it a lot. I thought it was weird to have Alex playing Ricky Morton but it fit the theme of the match so well. I knew the Martinez clan was winning this even though it goes against common sense since Alex is leaving and the Gaines boys are still teaming. And ultimately, I knew Ryan should be the one to get the win. There was a brief discussion about making this a cage match but I'm really glad we didn't go that direction. I think it would've hindered the match rather than helping it. It was an awesome moment. If Alex never stepped foot into an AWA ring again, I think that was a damn fine way to go out. Preston leaving the building promo. He wished Blue the best in his future endeavors. Dick. That leads directly to the discovery that Stevie's been windshielded. I don't know when and/or if John will be able to come back but he should know that he's always welcome in a fed that I run. We've come a long way from trying to run a tag tournament together back in the early 00s and he's easily one of my favorite people in this game. John's offered to have Stevie sit in on commentary until such time he wants him back and that may be something that happens at some ppint but... well, for now, go back and read the Southern Syndicate/Juan Vasquez feud and see what really helped put the AWA on the map in the eyes of many. So, those Wise Men are fucking pricks. Spector/Shane was next. In all honesty, Steve Spector in this spot was a Plan C. The reason he was a Plan C is because I was highly doubtful he could be coaxed out of retirement for anything... let alone a hastily thrown together angle with a fairly new character. But we decided to bait the hook, toss it Joe's way, and see if he bit. And bit he did. The end result was a fun angle and if it truly is the final hurrah for Steve Spector, it's a great way to go out if you ask me. Good Spector promo, good Shane promo. Yup, I was ready for this one. The trick to writing an entire show yourself is finding ways to keep yourself interested by having different styles of matches. This had to be a fight. You take a broken down Spector in his first match back after a decade on the shelf and he's going to resort to the shit that got him to the dance years ago. For Spector, that's a fight. It's one of those things where you have an established guy in Shane who is a top contender to the World Title... and you can't make it look like a retired guy - even one who is a Hall of Famer - is QUITE on the same page with him. That is, until that HOFer throws him off a fucking wooden ramp. THAT evens the score. THAT turns the tide. And then you can write a straight up match. Joe and Guzz went back and forth on the booking for this one. At one point, Spector was slated to win the title shot and go on for a Rocky-esque title opportunity. At one point, Joe refused to win and wanted Shane to keep the title shot. We went around and around a bit on booking until I pitched what you saw. I liked the finish. I understand those who didn't but... well, it's my show! The Texas Brawl was next. I wanted this one done quick. Not because I didn't think they deserved a lengthy match... well, maybe in part. I don't think anyone envisioned this one working out quite like it did with Don and John bailing at the end... Bell bailing in the middle... it was a spit and tape job to hold this thing together for the payoff. But I thought this one should be violent, quick, and needed a decisive win. The promos for this one - especially the Lynch stuff - were FANTASTIC! The Lynches - and their handlers - have always been in a difficult spot. They had to come in with the big push and they had to find a way to live up to that. They had to deal with an established history and very little wiggle room out of the gates on how to change up their characters but Dave and Rob... and Bell when he was around... were doing that quite well. But Blackjack? That motherfucker's a beast. Dave took a character who was a legend only because I told everyone he was a legend and he made you believe in a way that I have never quite been able to pull off with Hamilton Graham. I believed he was the stuff of the dreams and nightmares of Texas wrestling fans. I believed he was the guy who busted skulls open with a loaded glove. And perhaps most of all, I believed he was a father who'd been through hell and was going through it again. Dave got me. He really, truly got me. He knocked it out of the park with the Martinez clan AND with the Lynches (with Rob's help) and really made two matches on this show something special. The match, quite honestly, probably wasn't as good as it should've been but the end was in sight for me and I was running a bit on fumes. But the piledriver finish was perfect. Spot on perfect. Afterwards, Dave joked about running Watkins and Blackjack in the Cup as the "Old Age Outlaws." Joke or not, I wouldn't want to be across the ring from those two. We went from there to a Wright promo that essentially was just a setup for O'Connor to tell him about the new stipulation and to set up the cash-in... which we weren't ENTIRELY sure we were going to run yet. More on that to come though. Tag Title match time. I firmly believe that if Andy hadn't had to take a couple of months or so away and left me covering for the Bombers that this would've been one of the all-time great tag team feuds. As it was, I believe it was very good but Andy would have made it great. And Andy and Terry together? Classic. Both teams cut killer go home promos and the match is set. I felt a lot of pressure in this match. The Cup match was good. Damn good. It even got praise out of a usually-sullen Terry. So, I knew I had a lot to live up to. I'm not sure if it did. I think it was a good match... not sure it was a great one. I'll leave that one for others to judge. I went back and forth a little on the booking for this one. I was starting to assume that whether it was Bryant or Wright, someone other than Dufresne was walking out with the World Title. With that in mind, I wasn't ENTIRELY sure I wanted both Royalty titles gone in the same night. Ultimately, I decided that in reality, I should've taken the belts off the Bombers when Andy asked for time off months ago and as good as SkyHerc has been since the Cup, it seemed like the perfect time to switch. The two matches are quite different. Whereas the first one was very spotty and indyriffic, I went with a more traditional structure for this one until it came time to turn up the heat. And that left one more match... But before we could get there, we had a fun pull-apart between Lake and Blackjack. Although I'm sure the goal was to make me want to see Jack get his hands on Lake for payback, I'm not sure I wouldn't rather see Blackjack kick the Black Tiger's ass. Then comes the Wise Men segment. In all honesty, this angle has gone all over the place since its inception. The return of Waterson was supposed to give it a direction but really just made things muddier. The addition of Blue to the angle playing Columbo just kinda made sense to me. He's a power-hungry prick with a Messiah complex... do you really think he'd allow someone else to be "the shadow power" in the company he works for? As I saw the Bishops leaving and Andy wanting a new direction with Preston, I saw Blue as expendable... and I knew that if nothing else, there was a moment there where the Wise Men kicking the shit out of him would raise some eyebrows. So, I ran it... and had them turf Waterson and Matsui to boot. Jer and I have had a difficult time mapping this thing out but as we turn the corner into 2014, we're going to put a focus on this angle and figuring out the rest of it. Final Main Event promos. Both good. Dufresne's was the best he's had in a long time actually. The match itself was... unique. I haven't written that mat-wrestly of a match in a while. I'm still not really sure how it turned out. But the booking... oh my stars, the booking. The sign of good handlers and great characters is the amount of anguish I go through in booking big matches... and you guys flat out torture me at times. So, like I said, Dufresne had a killer promo and had the Streak going for him. But he's been a little stale in recent months and I thought the title switch and some time off would do him a favor. He's out. The question became... does he retain and then lose to Wright? Or does he lose to Bryant who then loses to Wright? I went through scenarios in my head. I saw a Dufresne fireball victory over Bryant. A caring and thoughtful Wright comes to check on Bryant and Dufresne makes a challenge right there on the spot - Wrestlemania IX style. Didn't seem right. I went through countless other ideas. I talked to Terry about it. We agreed that a cash-in on Bryant meant a heel turn... either now or imminently. The cash-in on Dufresne kept him as a face. I didn't like the idea of turning Wright honestly. Part of me found it ridiculous that every top singles guy out of the Combat Corner would be a heel. After going on and on and on... I finished the match with Bryant winning the title as you saw. I believed after the run in the tournament, Rob had earned that win and I was going to deliver it. And then I told Terry, "I've decided against a cash-in." He was still talking about a cash-in as I was telling him why I didn't want to do it. I had a few things to do before finishing the show so I used the phrase that I've used to so many of you so many times before... "Sell me on it." I came back a bit later to the following... "How am I going to sell this? Hmmm... Well, cashing in on Dufresne pretty much explains itself, so I'll ignore that argument for now. Now, as far as cashing in on Bryant goes,Wright is a man who's suppose to be obsessed with the world title. He's suppose to be a man who's entire life revolves around winning the world title. He had a weak grip on his own sanity to begin with, but we saw what had to have been a psychotic break in the Chase for the Clash finals. As someone I've stressed is a socipath, these sort of people are always planning, scheming, playing around...and when they get their plans messed up, they do not respond to it well. So in my mind, Dave Bryant would not be spared. He is a target. He is someone that Supreme would RELISH the opportunity to steal a moment away from. He's sacrificed so many things to get to where he is today, that all he has left is his pride and his integrity. He is now at the point where is willing to even sacrifice THAT to win the title. He just HEARD Percy Childes admit that the championship committee is corrupt. THAT is the straw that broke the camel's back. When he sees his opportunity, he will take it. No more standing around, no more waiting...he will no longer stand to be labeled a "future" world champion. He will BE a world champion. He is a sociopath that has hunted and stalked that world title. That is the game he's been playing. He has built the facade of what he is up to this point, but he can't hold it any longer. The mask will drop. He reveals his true colors. He will take what rightfully belongs to him. Hahaha...I have no conclusion sentence to end this on." The next time I ask one of you to "sell me on it"... you now know what it takes to get me to change my booking plans of the Main Event of the biggest show of the year on a dime. And so I did. I told him to write it up. And Bryant's fairytale story came to a crashing nightmare of an ending. But at the end of it all, there's a whole lot of people looking at the fed and saying, "What's next?" And I suppose I cannot ask for more than that. You all did tremendous work all year long. You showed incredible patience with me and my ever-growing outside-of-ewrestling responsibilities. You stand there as a fed head's dream roster of talented individuals. I thank you all... and hope you found the show (and this review) all worth the wait. |
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| sychosys | Jan 15 2014, 06:15 PM Post #2 |
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This Space For Rent
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Thanks for doing what you could with the Dusscher angle, especially trusting me to "go there" with the quasi shoot stuff. I gave it a shot, but I was a bit out of my comfort zone with that, and I think it showed. By the end, I was all in favor of the mercy killing. |
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| JeremyS | Jan 15 2014, 06:15 PM Post #3 |
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MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
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Remember that, while we are derivative of real-world pro-wrestling, we also live in the e-wrestling canon 'universe'. A sell-out here is more than realistic.
He's definitely a face now. And awesome.
WHO'S GIVING ME HEAT?! *loads gun* I have more fun writing characters that I have no obligation to. I don't know why that is. Ironically, many of the JTTS and jobbers I've made have personality and characterization that come from people I know in my day-to-day life, and it has made me wonder why I don't do that with handled characters more often.
Me too. I'm leaving room to retract if need be, but we do need faces. And Nenshou needs a bit of refreshing. I've always dropped hints that he does understand English, but considers it unnecessary (and, as a heel, demeaning) to actually speak it.
I didn't see it coming, and in fact had to go check to see if Satan had invested in ice skates.
Everyone's as good as their writer. So yes. Yes, he is.
Lake assures me that he would slap Blackjack's face real good in the general public.
So maybe the evolution of this idea should be its own post. It is based on theBacklund-era WWWF managerial "bloc" of the Grand Wizard, Lou Albano, and Freddie Blassie. The "Three Wise Men Of The East". They'd collude and take turns going after Backlund. The whole point of the Wise men angle is this: in the 80s and before, heels in professional wrestling always acted all buddy-buddy. This was due to an unrealistic black/white schism where faces and heels were de facto 'teams'. There were always exceptions, but individual characters had limited depth because the whole show was about a sport, with personal issues having to fit into that. Having the heels be on the same page served this good vs bad narrative. Instances where that was subverted (Russians vs Horsemen, for instance) were rare and usually led to a turn. E-wrestling diverged hard from that from the very beginning. That's because it was every man for himself, with only a fedhead left to try and weave an overall narrative out of everyone's individual ambitions. Our characters were nuanced because characterization was in the hands of the individual, and screen time wasn't really an issue... you could make your RPs as long as you wanted, go into as much detail as you wanted. So heels didn't get along, because self-absorbed/evil people (most heels) generally do not get along. That's more realistic. But which of the two is more frightening? After everyone piled on Vasquez, I realized that the most terrifying thing you could have in e-wrestling is collusion between all of the heels. Nothing could really stop them if they were all in it together... nothing but a super babyface (Hogan, Sting, et al). The faces look stronger when they have to BE stronger to have any chance at all. Good vs evil still works as a narrative. And we've never had that in e-wrestling as far as I know. The Wise Men is an attempt to get that back, and to give it some structure so that you can buy into it. It is not meant to be the next super-stable. It is not the NWO. It is an attempt to create a paradigm where evil is oppressive and both good and evil can therefore really shine. Anyone can use this storyline in their own angles... or you can not reference it at all. It is meant to work with everyone without getting in the way. You can use it to justify plot twists, what have you.
You told me that you didn't want to use that cash-in thing ever when I needed it for my Sharif angle. >:-( I expect the next Wright match to include an inverted tiger suplex off of athe interview platform, just to complete the torment. (SADLY NECESSARY NOTE: The above outrage is not genuine; the difference between the two situations is clear.)
Geez, Percy should have talked to him a year ago. ![]()
Would it be too meta to have next show feature a lot of "DAN-IEL BRY-ANT!" chants? Oh, I mean "DAV-ID BRY-ANT!" These reviews are always extremely interesting and fun to read. Thank you for taking the time to do it. |
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| sychosys | Jan 15 2014, 07:56 PM Post #4 |
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This Space For Rent
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Personally, I would have preferred Juan Vasquez in the spot now occupied by Supreme Wright, so he could finally get an AWA "I'm a heel because I'm a badass" run, as opposed to an "I'm a heel because I'm butt-hurt" run. |
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| RedRajah | Jan 15 2014, 08:42 PM Post #5 |
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Shocked Woona is Shocked
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Thanks for the kind words about Sunn, Blue (and to Dave over in the other thread). Tony's been a guy I've never seemed to have much luck in getting him to stick around anywhere. Fortunately, that's now become part of his background. |
| And here's where I pretend to be a writer... | |
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| ProfessorDoran | Jan 15 2014, 09:44 PM Post #6 |
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The Learning Tree
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Tony Sunn is a fantastic character and I hope you break down the wall with him. |
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Cole Hamels Fact #1685: The Devil went down to Georgia because he knew if he went to Philadelphia, Cole would strike his ass out. http://mysite.verizon.net/heyjude421/chf/chf.html | |
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| TheWholeDrunkenShow | Jan 15 2014, 10:29 PM Post #7 |
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King of Beers
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Now I'm intrigued as to what plan A & B were for Shane/Spector. |
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| guzzdude | Jan 16 2014, 12:37 AM Post #8 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr
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Seeeeeeeeeecrets |
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| TheWholeDrunkenShow | Jan 16 2014, 01:09 AM Post #9 |
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King of Beers
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God dammit Guzz. |
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