SPOTLIGHT on...

OK. Let's start this again. This time, with a little, occaisional, look at the characters I use, or character ideas I have/have had. This week, we're looking at the one and only, self-professed most recognisable TEAM entrant, and the New ERA of Wrestling champion with his own unique belt...

Mister Entertainment!!

For those that don't know him, Mr Entertainment is my main singles-heel, and he's competed in New ERA and TEAM events over the past couple of years with some success. He's the reigning TV Champion (which he calls the ON TV Championship), was on the winning 2006 Chad Dupree team, made it to the semi finals of the first TEAM Invitational, and has his own championship, the World Heavyweight Actually Defended Actually Held TV Title (WHADAHTT). His real name is Stephen Forrester, and he hails from Ashland, Oregon.

I specially created him for New ERA when I decided to branch beyond Empire Pro Wrestling. I'd been in MCW and NWL before, but both had sadly closed. I wanted to go in with a completely new character, to let Brown stay in Empire Pro and continue to build there, and I also wanted to do a heel character in a different vein to Leonard Johnson and Blitz. I've never really been much of a "trash-talker", so I wanted to give it a go.

Cue Mister Entertainment.

The basic principle behind the character has changed a helluva lot since I started handling him. If you look really closely at his profile, you'll notice he's not your typical "Showstoppa" or "Most entertaining man on the PLANET!" character. His ring entrance is simple, a lone spotlight. He wears cut-off jeans and a white vest to the ring, and doesn't do flashy until he gets into the ring. Even his hometown isn't what you'd expect - he's not from a mega-city like Hollywood or New York, entertainment capitals, but from what one friend of mine described as the theatre capital of Oregon. His theme song, "That's Entertainment", is also hardly the most energetic and "ENTERTAINING!!!!" song around.

That's how I wanted him to be. Originally, he was designed to parody a lot of the glitz and glamour - he was this guy who'd sit in dingy, dirty bars, talking about being the best, and you never really would guess it to look at him. Obviously though, that's changed a lot, as he very quickly became my most free-roaming character to write for.

That's one thing I love about him - the creative freedom he gives me. It's only really in the past year that Brown's expanded his creative possibilities, and Blitz never really have them - they're wrestlers in a different vein. What makes Mister Entertainment tick, is being the showman - it's about being ENTERTAINING and belittling people, whilst telling a story.

It was with him that I've had a lot of praise as a prose writer, and wrote an RP which I was a little dubious about posting. The story Mister Entertainment was telling was the difference between NAPW and New ERA in the Chad Merritt cup first round. The story was going well, and I'd set a really nice scene - but then came one moment where the metaphor I wanted to use needed something I'm loath normally to write. The female character I was using to represent the wrestling industry needed to be raped, and in the first draft, just writing away, I managed a very graphic description. This concerned me a helluva lot - it wasn't explicit, and the rape scene needed to be in or a few thousand words weren't going to make any sense, but I needed to tone it down three times before I was happy to post it (the story was NAPW was raping the wrestling world, and only the four heroes that were going to forge the New ERA of Wrestling could save it - I like to think it built a lot of heat ;)). Yet, after posting that one, I felt so alive creatively, that I started to broaden the character even more, and he's become much more fleshed out.

One criticism... well, the common one seems to be that I use a lot of song lyrics with him. This one started in a match against MWG, where I used the lyrics to Van Der Graaf Generator's "Nutter Alert" interspersed with talking. Since then, I've used full lyrics and changed lyrics by Lordi, Sylvia Knight (Iceland's Eurovision 2006 entry), Apocalyptica, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Al Yankovic, and a lot of others, usually (but not always) on a special show Mr Entertainment does. I've even written a complete set of lyrics for a song I recorded (and linked to) for a match against Johnathan Marx. I can definitely see looking back how I should probably have cut some of the lyrics - but in a lot of cases, the lyrics contain a message I want to present. The two Motorhead songs, for example, told people a) the only chance they had is if God was on their side, which he wasn't ("God Was Never On Your Side"), and b) if you don't look back on history, you're doomed to repeat it ("Sword of Glory"). That's something I'll probably work on, but there are still some songs I might at least quote ;)

Another thing some people might criticise is how he puts himself over, as being the "company man" who "puts people over" to ENTERTAIN!!!, especially since that goes against my anti-breakingofkayfabe stance (which I'll discuss in another post). The difference I see is this - Mr Entertainment doesn't go the route Jason Payne did once and blame booking committees for losses, he claims more often he let the other guy win to build more drama. Mr Entertainment also doesn't use other people's real names, or belittle the character of the other guy by saying it's totally unbelievable; he says the character is tired, crass, old, and boring, and that no-one cares about the gimmick because you can't wrestle. He might go so far as to say promoters have paid people to lose to you, calling into question the sport aspect (see cricket and tennis' match-fixing scandals), but he tries always to keep it wrestling orientated, and focused on the match. This is something I think a lot of people who try to 'break kayfabe' do very badly - they go too far with it, and it always makes me sad when I see it, because when done well it can be brilliantly written. I hope I've never crossed the line yet with him doing that, as I'm trying to keep him in kayfabe whilst making him an arrogant prick who people will pay to see get the crap beaten out of him.

Where do I see him going, I wonder... well, right now, he's the New ERA TV champion (or WHADAHTT champion), so I hope to continue the TV Title run a bit longer. I don't see him as a long-term contender for the World Championship, but that's not how I made him - he's always been intended as an upper-mid card character. He, like some other ideas I've had, doesn't need the big belt to function well - I want to use him to elevate, and if needed to create some freshness in the main-event before moving back down to elevating other characters through association. Interfed wise it's a little different, as I think he could do with some more success to continue building the arrogant prick persona, but I don't think I'll be changing the core of the character just yet - the arrogant prick you want to see get beaten to a pulp, who talks about giving people the best matches of their life just because he can, and insults people for being boring and championships for not being held or defended (hence the ON TV Championship, and his old comments to the Never On TV Championship in New ERA) is going to stay for a very long time.

That's Mister Entertainment in a small nut-shell. Next time, I'm thinking of talking about Otaku, or a character I've been holding in reserve for a couple of years now. Until then, remember, it's all about ME.

Mister Entertainment.