The Holzerblog
Caldera Enterprises
PRIMEtime blog
All three over the past day or so have written something about longform vs. shortform. You've got Tom on one side suggesting that you should have shortform on the TV shows, Pete saying thou shalt NEVER shortform matches (basically, in a nutshell, read his post for more info!), and Steve giving a little bit of both. So why shouldn't I put my oar in and help move this boat?
To cut to the chase, I think it depends solely on one thing, and one thing alone, as to which is preferable, and it's based on individual circumstances.
How long do you want cards to take to write?
I'm in three feds, one of which full-forms everything, one has a short-formed show, and the third has started shortforming anything that's not got a matchwriter. A1E turns things around quickly, New ERA has problems with turnaround, and EPW has started shortforming some matches. EPW did have a group of people who would full-form matches in a play-by-play style, but even with that and the one week deadlines Dave would give us, it would sometimes take far longer to get something down.
Pete said that it was an insult to the handlers who put in effort if they're rewarded on a TV card with a short-form. To me, it is wrong to think of it that way, especially with a lot of people wanting to tell stories. I actually lean the other way, that it's an insult to the handlers to make them wait x weeks for the card to be published, making their stories wait, or worse, allowing them to get so bored that they leave with the story untold. I've seen it time and again that people don't have the patience with the schedules some feds keep, and leave because they weren't able to tell the story they wanted - and the simple reason is that the fed-head was waiting on matches to be written.
I'm like Tom in that I've no problem with shortforming if it speeds things up. If you've got some people who can quickly turn matches of a good quality round, then great. If you don't have enough to do the whole card, than think which matches deserve full-form treatment based on the RPs. Even if the 'main-event' ends up being shortform.
Say you've got an eight match card. The hottest RP'd for one was the scheduled opener, and the main-event was a double no-show, with the other six a mixture. I'd happily drop the main-event down the pecking order, or turn it into a brief segment, and bump the opening contest up the card. But the matches which I couldn't find a matchwriter for, I would shortform in such a way that at least people knew I appreciated their effort - it wouldn't be what you see in some feds:
[The two men entered the ring. After some to-ing and fro-ing, A hit a lariat on B, hit his finisher, and won]
It'd be a fuller short-form. Not necessarily play-by-play, but up to a page or so? Something to show the big spots, some standard stuff, and the ending. That's an acceptable short-form, kinda like New ERA does on RAPTURE.
Now. The other thing the trio talked about was segments, and without going into something I wanna write about seperately, I do think that you need to cap segments, even on TV. You have to remember that a standard TV wrestling show these days is one to two hours long. Giving maybe five to eight minutes a match with seven matches, and 15 minutes for the main event, that's possibly about an hour of action. When you look at some of the segments on cards these days, they're longer than the actual matches! At Wrestlestock between New ERA and EPW, you had the impromptu Daymon backstage fight, which was longer than most of the matches across BOTH nights! No disrespect to Ryan, but I switched off less than a quarter of the way through that, because it was too long. I've skimmed it and I think it should have been a lot shorter.
But that's often the case with segments on cards. They're getting too long. Again at Wrestlestock, you had Lindsay Troy come out on Night Two. That segment, I felt, was too long. Understandable and logical, but too long, especially since we'd already had two segments on that card (and the show literally just opened when Troy came out!). Segments should be capped - you don't need to tell all the stories at the same time.
For instance, you've got eight matches on a card. In that time, I'd guess you can excellently sell three feuds through one segment each. Maybe have a promo thrown in there to start the ball rolling on one, at a stretch two, more. Priority given to those that are on-going, of course. You can then hold onto anything else that's handed in, and use it on another card down the road. You can start a feud between Y and Z after the feud between B and D has finished, and have A against C and G against H and J at the same time. What you can't do, I think, is give all four feuds the same attention they deserve at a high level of intensity (if that's what people are going for) because, as I'll write next time, you just make things too intense, or too long.
So, what's the best option? If you can get a high quality full-form out promptly, go for it. If not, shortform, and let people know that's what you're doing and why. Be happy to move matches up and down the order based on the effort put into RPing. But segments? Cut down on them, or their length. Take a hatchet to a submitted segment if you feel it's too bulky for the card. Set a time-limit for your TV shows - one or two hours (which if you talk constantly is 21600 words at radio standard three-words-a-second, and is more than long enough to tell a lot of stories in matches and segments), and you'll find things can run a bit quicker, more smoothly, and, if you're holding off on pulling the trigger on something, you get more time to plan and make the story that much better.
Wednesday 24 October 2007
Tuesday 16 October 2007
SPOTLIGHT on...
I wasn't intending on getting to this one for a while longer, but now seems oddly appropriate. Tonight, on "SPOTLIGHT on..." we're looking at my longest running character, the man the Holzerblog seemingly jinxed (j/k), Karl "The Dragon" Brown.
For those who've never encountered the character, he was the first character I created, back in 2003. His first match was against Andrew Dalton in the MCW World Title tournament, where he won controversially when Dalton's foot was on the rope during the pin. Brown then went on to beat Christian Sands, before losing in Mayhem Mountain against Adam Benjamin. MCW closed about three cards later, but Brown had already agreed to work in Empire Pro Wrestling, and later joined the NWL. In EPW he lost in the quarter-finals of the World Title tournament to Christian Sands, whilst in NWL, he managed victories over Canada's Hero, Hacker, Lars Magellan, and The Watcher, with a loss to Dakota Smith, and a draw and loss against Maelstrom, to place second in the Wrestling League Series. NWL sadly closed shortly after :(
Brown continued to appear in EPW, losing the inaugural Intercontinental Championship match to Adam Benjamin, before meandering around for the rest of 2004. He came third in the Natural Selection tournament held at the end of the year in HWF, but 2004 was mostly a meh year in EPW for him. In 2005, he became number one contender to the IC title, retained the right to his moniker "The Dragon" against "The (now former) Dragon" Eric Davis, came fourth in the Natural Selection Summer Solstice tournament, and in November finally won gold when he beat Sebastian Dodd's replacement, JA, for the Intercontinental Championship. His success continued into 2006, where he won the first TEAM Invitational Tournament, and continued his singles unbeaten streak until a loss against D! in a Champion of Champions match. He flirted with the main event, getting a draw from Lindsay Troy in December '05, was part of the 6-way Title match at Unleashed, and got the pin in a six person tag team match when he teamed with Joey Melton and Lindsay Troy against Troy Windham and his Entourage. He then feuded with Stephen Shane, entered into a storyline with Foxx, and has just lost the Intercontinental Championship after 23 months.
That's his e-fedding history in a nutshell I guess, lol. Character wise, where do I start?
Well, as the name suggests, he's based primarily on me if I were to be a wrestler. He's two years older than me, but that was because I didn't fancy starting a 19 year old in a pro company when I started out. I felt having him as 21 would work better. He's incredibly well educated, but throughout his three years as an undergrad always found time to train, jet-setting back and forth from UEA in Norwich, England, to Japan, Canada, America, anywhere he could get something different. I modelled his wrestling style, as I have with Otaku and Mr Entertainment, on a combination of some of my favourite wrestlers - in this case, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Brian Pillman circa 1992, and Jushin Liger. I deliberately made him a lightweight at 211lbs, but have always suggested he's far stronger than he looks, which people used to say about me when I played rugby - I was about 130lbs and could easily tackle people a good fifty to eighty pounds heavier, without getting hurt.
He's also much more similar to me, in that he played rugby, and has a bad left knee from that career. In the spirit of competition, when he (I) got the injury, he (I) played the very next week, despite the knee swelling to over twice its normal size incredibly quickly - certainly less than 10 minutes, if not less than 5. Brown played on the injured knee for the rest of his rugby and athletics careers, injuring it to the point he had to give both up when he was about 16/17/18. I did, however, allow him to keep his Taekwondo going, so as of... next May he's going to hold a fifth dan (or the title of Master, whichever you prefer. In reality, my certificates stop at first poom, the under 16 equivalent of a dan grade), which helps explain his inordinate strength.
There's also a little known fact about Brown which I'll share with everyone here before I forget. The first is he's got an MA in Medieval Writing and Culture. I decided to give him that since it would explain any mentions I end up making on medieval culture, or use of medieval dragons, which is what my dissertation for my MA was on. So if you see him mentioning dragons and their cultural uses sometime, that's why - I've momentarily re-entered dissertation writing mode, lol.
What about his character...
I guess you could say his character is extremely similar to mine at the time I write his promos, more so than any other character I handle. He's not an entertainer in the same way as Mr Entertainment, nor is he worried about titles like Blitz. He also doesn't have something to latch on to, like Otaku does. He also quite some time back stopped worrying about his opponents - he'll wrestle anyone in any match he's given. This came back to haunt him a little once, when he faced X in what was turned into a chain match (Brown won). His biggest opponent isn't any of the people he's faced in the ring, but he sees it as himself - if he doesn't keep improving and pushing beyond his own limits, he fails. That's all that actually pushes him these days. Before, he actually revelled in who his opponents were, as it gave him a chance to test himself against other people, but somewhere along the line that kinda fell by the wayside for him. He's very much a loner, and doesn't make friends easily, but he's not all that concerned about it, as he lives by the teaching that "If there's a way to end the suffering, there is no need to worry, and if there is no way to end the suffering, then there is no use in worrying."
Now, here's the part where I talk about his strengths and weaknesses. His greatest strength, from what I can tell, is his mind. You're not going to get under his skin intellectually, because he can grasp seemingly complex arguments and simplify them to the point anyone can understand their basic logic. He can also make something very simple sound incredibly complex, and has a vast knowledge of philosophy and literature he can use.
His mind is also, I think, his biggest weakness as a character. I remember reading once on the NAPW forums after Chris Casino jokingly ranted about losing to me, that someone said that Brown's promos are difficult to understand because a) they're long winded, b) the point I'm making isn't always clear. Thinking back on that now, I admit it. With Brown, I have a tendancy to waffle, making arguments far longer-winded than needed. And recently, most of the arguments would've been better suited to Metzgermeister - they've been social observations, thoughts on God, good, evil - anything but wrestling. Compare that to one of my favourite matches, the TEAM Invitational final in 2006 against Viktor Molotov, where we argued the very nature of wrestling, and I honestly think Brown's gone too far in that direction. The problem now is, bringing him back to a suitable point.
Another weakness of Brown, which I only noticed this morning, is placing him on the card. A lot of people have said, and I appreciate it, that Brown could make it in the main event. But this morning, when I was waiting for the bus, I was thinking about it, and as he stands, I don't think Brown could make it at the top. Not just because he's way too long winded, but because of a collection of things, one of which I'd always known about but kept in anyways.
When I created him, I actually had in mind Sting in WCW in the early '90s. Brown was going to be one of those people you could have in the upper-mid card, pushing him to the top for a short while, and the fans wouldn't have a problem with it, but he'd be at his best slightly beneath it. I certainly never intended him to be a main eventer. Now, especially, I can't see him main-eventing, because of a few things. Firstly, he doesn't care about titles, and secondly, he doesn't care about most of his opponents. He's not one to seek revenge, he's not one to attack someone backstage (which as an aside, is why he didn't compete in the first Tournament of Champions - the third round that year was impossible for him to be involved in as it involved attacking someone back stage). He's also really long-winded, and whilst what he says is good (I would say that, wouldn't I?), it's not the most charismatic of stuff to read/listen to. You'd basically have someone who doesn't care about opponents or titles in main event matches, and the fans wouldn't really be able to get behind him as a result - why's he going for the big belt when he doesn't care about it? Why's he feuding with so-and-so when he's not showing any care about the feud?
There's also another factor that comes into play with Brown and whether he could work in the main event. I never saw him as making it to the main event in a top company. In MCW, and the NWL, they were feds that were starting out. Brown as world champion would work there, because it's not a HUGE MEGA MONSTER company. It's kinda like WCW pre-NWO, or ECW, compared to WWF/E. In an American style mega-fed like EPW's become, or A1E, or New ERA, or NFW, or whereever, Brown would I think be out of place at the top, or there for more than a short feud.
Finally on the main-event subject, I don't think Brown needs to go into the main event. Like I've said, titles aren't his concern. Neither is proving he's the best. If I'm honest, he's got nothing left to prove right now. He won the first TEAM Invitational, and has just ended an almost two year title reign, during which he recorded wins over JA, Adam Benjamin, Joey Melton, Troy Windham, Stephen Shane, and others. He pinned Beast, and has a one-on-one with then World Champion, Lindsay Troy - the list of names he's faced and/or beaten reads like a who's who of World Champs. He's done everything I ever envisaged him doing, and in only four years.
So, what does the future hold for "The Dragon"? I honestly don't know. In Empire Pro, I actually think the main event is strong enough without him, and I also think it'd be wrong to have him chase the IC title again so quickly given how insistent he was in his latest promo that he didn't care about the belt. Right now I think Brown needs to step back a little bit, do something lower down the card, and I need to figure out a way to freshen him up when I write him. He's grown kinda stale and too dark for me to write well, so hopefully losing the belt will give me a chance to experiment lower down the card, and in two or three PPV cycles, maybe push back up the card with a fresh and hungry Dragon. I do have something in mind for the interim though, so you'll just have to wait and see what happens, won't ya?
Well, that about wraps it up for this SPOTLIGHT on...
Before I go, congrats to Josh for winning the IC title. I'm glad the belt went to a face, and he definitely deserves it for all the hard work he's put in. Now, he just has 23 months to go to equal my reign :-p
Wow... my characters only have one title... this feels weird :-p
For those who've never encountered the character, he was the first character I created, back in 2003. His first match was against Andrew Dalton in the MCW World Title tournament, where he won controversially when Dalton's foot was on the rope during the pin. Brown then went on to beat Christian Sands, before losing in Mayhem Mountain against Adam Benjamin. MCW closed about three cards later, but Brown had already agreed to work in Empire Pro Wrestling, and later joined the NWL. In EPW he lost in the quarter-finals of the World Title tournament to Christian Sands, whilst in NWL, he managed victories over Canada's Hero, Hacker, Lars Magellan, and The Watcher, with a loss to Dakota Smith, and a draw and loss against Maelstrom, to place second in the Wrestling League Series. NWL sadly closed shortly after :(
Brown continued to appear in EPW, losing the inaugural Intercontinental Championship match to Adam Benjamin, before meandering around for the rest of 2004. He came third in the Natural Selection tournament held at the end of the year in HWF, but 2004 was mostly a meh year in EPW for him. In 2005, he became number one contender to the IC title, retained the right to his moniker "The Dragon" against "The (now former) Dragon" Eric Davis, came fourth in the Natural Selection Summer Solstice tournament, and in November finally won gold when he beat Sebastian Dodd's replacement, JA, for the Intercontinental Championship. His success continued into 2006, where he won the first TEAM Invitational Tournament, and continued his singles unbeaten streak until a loss against D! in a Champion of Champions match. He flirted with the main event, getting a draw from Lindsay Troy in December '05, was part of the 6-way Title match at Unleashed, and got the pin in a six person tag team match when he teamed with Joey Melton and Lindsay Troy against Troy Windham and his Entourage. He then feuded with Stephen Shane, entered into a storyline with Foxx, and has just lost the Intercontinental Championship after 23 months.
That's his e-fedding history in a nutshell I guess, lol. Character wise, where do I start?
Well, as the name suggests, he's based primarily on me if I were to be a wrestler. He's two years older than me, but that was because I didn't fancy starting a 19 year old in a pro company when I started out. I felt having him as 21 would work better. He's incredibly well educated, but throughout his three years as an undergrad always found time to train, jet-setting back and forth from UEA in Norwich, England, to Japan, Canada, America, anywhere he could get something different. I modelled his wrestling style, as I have with Otaku and Mr Entertainment, on a combination of some of my favourite wrestlers - in this case, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Brian Pillman circa 1992, and Jushin Liger. I deliberately made him a lightweight at 211lbs, but have always suggested he's far stronger than he looks, which people used to say about me when I played rugby - I was about 130lbs and could easily tackle people a good fifty to eighty pounds heavier, without getting hurt.
He's also much more similar to me, in that he played rugby, and has a bad left knee from that career. In the spirit of competition, when he (I) got the injury, he (I) played the very next week, despite the knee swelling to over twice its normal size incredibly quickly - certainly less than 10 minutes, if not less than 5. Brown played on the injured knee for the rest of his rugby and athletics careers, injuring it to the point he had to give both up when he was about 16/17/18. I did, however, allow him to keep his Taekwondo going, so as of... next May he's going to hold a fifth dan (or the title of Master, whichever you prefer. In reality, my certificates stop at first poom, the under 16 equivalent of a dan grade), which helps explain his inordinate strength.
There's also a little known fact about Brown which I'll share with everyone here before I forget. The first is he's got an MA in Medieval Writing and Culture. I decided to give him that since it would explain any mentions I end up making on medieval culture, or use of medieval dragons, which is what my dissertation for my MA was on. So if you see him mentioning dragons and their cultural uses sometime, that's why - I've momentarily re-entered dissertation writing mode, lol.
What about his character...
I guess you could say his character is extremely similar to mine at the time I write his promos, more so than any other character I handle. He's not an entertainer in the same way as Mr Entertainment, nor is he worried about titles like Blitz. He also doesn't have something to latch on to, like Otaku does. He also quite some time back stopped worrying about his opponents - he'll wrestle anyone in any match he's given. This came back to haunt him a little once, when he faced X in what was turned into a chain match (Brown won). His biggest opponent isn't any of the people he's faced in the ring, but he sees it as himself - if he doesn't keep improving and pushing beyond his own limits, he fails. That's all that actually pushes him these days. Before, he actually revelled in who his opponents were, as it gave him a chance to test himself against other people, but somewhere along the line that kinda fell by the wayside for him. He's very much a loner, and doesn't make friends easily, but he's not all that concerned about it, as he lives by the teaching that "If there's a way to end the suffering, there is no need to worry, and if there is no way to end the suffering, then there is no use in worrying."
Now, here's the part where I talk about his strengths and weaknesses. His greatest strength, from what I can tell, is his mind. You're not going to get under his skin intellectually, because he can grasp seemingly complex arguments and simplify them to the point anyone can understand their basic logic. He can also make something very simple sound incredibly complex, and has a vast knowledge of philosophy and literature he can use.
His mind is also, I think, his biggest weakness as a character. I remember reading once on the NAPW forums after Chris Casino jokingly ranted about losing to me, that someone said that Brown's promos are difficult to understand because a) they're long winded, b) the point I'm making isn't always clear. Thinking back on that now, I admit it. With Brown, I have a tendancy to waffle, making arguments far longer-winded than needed. And recently, most of the arguments would've been better suited to Metzgermeister - they've been social observations, thoughts on God, good, evil - anything but wrestling. Compare that to one of my favourite matches, the TEAM Invitational final in 2006 against Viktor Molotov, where we argued the very nature of wrestling, and I honestly think Brown's gone too far in that direction. The problem now is, bringing him back to a suitable point.
Another weakness of Brown, which I only noticed this morning, is placing him on the card. A lot of people have said, and I appreciate it, that Brown could make it in the main event. But this morning, when I was waiting for the bus, I was thinking about it, and as he stands, I don't think Brown could make it at the top. Not just because he's way too long winded, but because of a collection of things, one of which I'd always known about but kept in anyways.
When I created him, I actually had in mind Sting in WCW in the early '90s. Brown was going to be one of those people you could have in the upper-mid card, pushing him to the top for a short while, and the fans wouldn't have a problem with it, but he'd be at his best slightly beneath it. I certainly never intended him to be a main eventer. Now, especially, I can't see him main-eventing, because of a few things. Firstly, he doesn't care about titles, and secondly, he doesn't care about most of his opponents. He's not one to seek revenge, he's not one to attack someone backstage (which as an aside, is why he didn't compete in the first Tournament of Champions - the third round that year was impossible for him to be involved in as it involved attacking someone back stage). He's also really long-winded, and whilst what he says is good (I would say that, wouldn't I?), it's not the most charismatic of stuff to read/listen to. You'd basically have someone who doesn't care about opponents or titles in main event matches, and the fans wouldn't really be able to get behind him as a result - why's he going for the big belt when he doesn't care about it? Why's he feuding with so-and-so when he's not showing any care about the feud?
There's also another factor that comes into play with Brown and whether he could work in the main event. I never saw him as making it to the main event in a top company. In MCW, and the NWL, they were feds that were starting out. Brown as world champion would work there, because it's not a HUGE MEGA MONSTER company. It's kinda like WCW pre-NWO, or ECW, compared to WWF/E. In an American style mega-fed like EPW's become, or A1E, or New ERA, or NFW, or whereever, Brown would I think be out of place at the top, or there for more than a short feud.
Finally on the main-event subject, I don't think Brown needs to go into the main event. Like I've said, titles aren't his concern. Neither is proving he's the best. If I'm honest, he's got nothing left to prove right now. He won the first TEAM Invitational, and has just ended an almost two year title reign, during which he recorded wins over JA, Adam Benjamin, Joey Melton, Troy Windham, Stephen Shane, and others. He pinned Beast, and has a one-on-one with then World Champion, Lindsay Troy - the list of names he's faced and/or beaten reads like a who's who of World Champs. He's done everything I ever envisaged him doing, and in only four years.
So, what does the future hold for "The Dragon"? I honestly don't know. In Empire Pro, I actually think the main event is strong enough without him, and I also think it'd be wrong to have him chase the IC title again so quickly given how insistent he was in his latest promo that he didn't care about the belt. Right now I think Brown needs to step back a little bit, do something lower down the card, and I need to figure out a way to freshen him up when I write him. He's grown kinda stale and too dark for me to write well, so hopefully losing the belt will give me a chance to experiment lower down the card, and in two or three PPV cycles, maybe push back up the card with a fresh and hungry Dragon. I do have something in mind for the interim though, so you'll just have to wait and see what happens, won't ya?
Well, that about wraps it up for this SPOTLIGHT on...
Before I go, congrats to Josh for winning the IC title. I'm glad the belt went to a face, and he definitely deserves it for all the hard work he's put in. Now, he just has 23 months to go to equal my reign :-p
Wow... my characters only have one title... this feels weird :-p
Monday 15 October 2007
SPOTLIGHT ON...
Time for another "Spotlight on..." feature. I promised last time out either something on Otaku, or the character only one or two people so far know anything about at all. One I was going to take to UCW before it closed (and we'd started introing him in a roundabout way), and had thought once upon a time of taking him to A1E before things got a bit busy for me.
His name: Der Metzgermeister.
The Master Butcher.
I don't think you need much in the way of a physical description of him, since his character isn't based upon any distinguishing features. He is abnormally strong for his size, but he's not a particularly large man. In fact, looking back at most of his history, you wouldn't expect much of him - he wasn't in the army, he wasn't bullied, he wasn't even in a college American Football team. But, his history, or one part of it, is crucial in understanding him as a character, and it's also the reason I've tended to veer away from using him unless it was going to be in a place where it wouldn't be questioned as just a gimmick.
His early child-hood is pretty standard. His parents, both Americans, moved out to Germany with him when he was fairly young. He achieved high marks in his Abitur exams (equivalent I guess would be SATs or A-levels), and had a wrestling background, doing well at school. He entered the business world after school, where he rose at a decent pace.
Then, when he was 25, he posted a message onto an early internet board. It was in German, so not many members could read it, but someone did reply.
The message?
"Suche gut gebauten 18-30 jährigen zum Schlachten - Der Metzgermeister"
He found a willing victim, killed, and over the course of several months, ate him. His act was only discovered when someone accidentally opened the wrong freezer, and called the police. Der Metzgermeister was arrested and tried, but they couldn't get a murder charge to stick, as he had the victim's signed consent to the act, whilst the victim was perfectly normal. As such, all they could do was charge him with manslaughter, and imprisoned him for eight years. Upon release, since his case had been kept quiet in Germany, he was allowed to leave the country - going into exile. He returned to the US, where his story wasn't known too well, but his demeanor, which had always been described as socially atyptical, meant he didn't keep a job down for long. So, using the muscle-mass he'd gained in prison, he entered professional wrestling.
He was subsequently arrested and interviewed by American police, but, since he made it clear he would not be eating anyone else, nor would he be committing any crimes, he was allowed to live free, effectively 'on bail' - should he break a law, he will be kicked out of the country.
That's the basic history of the actual character. I got the idea for him actually from the real-life Metzgermeister, Armin Meiwes, the man who posted the advert and found a victim to eat. His entrance theme, "Mein Teil" by Rammstein, is based similarly around the events.
You can see why, in the current climate where so many people go on and on about gimmicks, I haven't used him. Above all others, he's the one character who needs to have kayfabe alive and well to work.
Stylistically, he's also currently got something against him. I created him with the intention of being a darker, much more philosophical character than what people are used to - I often imagine him sitting in a dark room, filled perhaps with Alchemy Gothic imagery, detailing his own philosophies on life and society. His mind is his greatest weapon - for instance, one of his most firmly held beliefs is that cannibalism is only wrong because society, the majority, deem it so, and that society is all too quick to remember that there have been times when almost all cultures have engaged in the act to survive through seemingly perpetual bad harvests.
The problem I have there, is one of my other characters, "The Dragon", has started down a similar path of late - whereas before, I'd intended Brown to stick more to competition and let Metzgermeister go down the darker path of humanity, Brown's talking about sociological perceptions vs. individual perceptions.
What does this all mean for the character, Der Metzgermeister?
I may still use him some day. He has a lot of potential quirks - one idea I've had was for him to detail what sauces or extras go with which parts of the human body. I actually think he's more of an angle-fed guy. Another mid-carder, as all my characters are, his place on the card would be coming into an established fed, and scaring people. I don't think he ever needs to go after a title in the same way Mr Entertainment or Blitz do, and I've had lots of ideas where he steps into a feud on behalf of one party, then turns on them after the end of the feud - stabbing them in the leg or something. I've also got the option with him of turning him completely psychotic.
Whatever I end up doing with him, I know he'll be a heel. He's too dark, his sense of humour too twisted, and he's too scary to make a decent face. You wouldn't exactly find the kiddies going to mum and dad "I wanna be like Metzgermeister when I grow up" in the same way they did for Hogan, would ya?
Well, that about wraps it up for this Spotlight. Next time, I'm thinking of going into another character I haven't used yet, but am working on if I can find somewhere to take him which has just the right combination of factors. What those are, you'll have to wait and see :-p
His name: Der Metzgermeister.
The Master Butcher.
I don't think you need much in the way of a physical description of him, since his character isn't based upon any distinguishing features. He is abnormally strong for his size, but he's not a particularly large man. In fact, looking back at most of his history, you wouldn't expect much of him - he wasn't in the army, he wasn't bullied, he wasn't even in a college American Football team. But, his history, or one part of it, is crucial in understanding him as a character, and it's also the reason I've tended to veer away from using him unless it was going to be in a place where it wouldn't be questioned as just a gimmick.
His early child-hood is pretty standard. His parents, both Americans, moved out to Germany with him when he was fairly young. He achieved high marks in his Abitur exams (equivalent I guess would be SATs or A-levels), and had a wrestling background, doing well at school. He entered the business world after school, where he rose at a decent pace.
Then, when he was 25, he posted a message onto an early internet board. It was in German, so not many members could read it, but someone did reply.
The message?
"Suche gut gebauten 18-30 jährigen zum Schlachten - Der Metzgermeister"
He found a willing victim, killed, and over the course of several months, ate him. His act was only discovered when someone accidentally opened the wrong freezer, and called the police. Der Metzgermeister was arrested and tried, but they couldn't get a murder charge to stick, as he had the victim's signed consent to the act, whilst the victim was perfectly normal. As such, all they could do was charge him with manslaughter, and imprisoned him for eight years. Upon release, since his case had been kept quiet in Germany, he was allowed to leave the country - going into exile. He returned to the US, where his story wasn't known too well, but his demeanor, which had always been described as socially atyptical, meant he didn't keep a job down for long. So, using the muscle-mass he'd gained in prison, he entered professional wrestling.
He was subsequently arrested and interviewed by American police, but, since he made it clear he would not be eating anyone else, nor would he be committing any crimes, he was allowed to live free, effectively 'on bail' - should he break a law, he will be kicked out of the country.
That's the basic history of the actual character. I got the idea for him actually from the real-life Metzgermeister, Armin Meiwes, the man who posted the advert and found a victim to eat. His entrance theme, "Mein Teil" by Rammstein, is based similarly around the events.
You can see why, in the current climate where so many people go on and on about gimmicks, I haven't used him. Above all others, he's the one character who needs to have kayfabe alive and well to work.
Stylistically, he's also currently got something against him. I created him with the intention of being a darker, much more philosophical character than what people are used to - I often imagine him sitting in a dark room, filled perhaps with Alchemy Gothic imagery, detailing his own philosophies on life and society. His mind is his greatest weapon - for instance, one of his most firmly held beliefs is that cannibalism is only wrong because society, the majority, deem it so, and that society is all too quick to remember that there have been times when almost all cultures have engaged in the act to survive through seemingly perpetual bad harvests.
The problem I have there, is one of my other characters, "The Dragon", has started down a similar path of late - whereas before, I'd intended Brown to stick more to competition and let Metzgermeister go down the darker path of humanity, Brown's talking about sociological perceptions vs. individual perceptions.
What does this all mean for the character, Der Metzgermeister?
I may still use him some day. He has a lot of potential quirks - one idea I've had was for him to detail what sauces or extras go with which parts of the human body. I actually think he's more of an angle-fed guy. Another mid-carder, as all my characters are, his place on the card would be coming into an established fed, and scaring people. I don't think he ever needs to go after a title in the same way Mr Entertainment or Blitz do, and I've had lots of ideas where he steps into a feud on behalf of one party, then turns on them after the end of the feud - stabbing them in the leg or something. I've also got the option with him of turning him completely psychotic.
Whatever I end up doing with him, I know he'll be a heel. He's too dark, his sense of humour too twisted, and he's too scary to make a decent face. You wouldn't exactly find the kiddies going to mum and dad "I wanna be like Metzgermeister when I grow up" in the same way they did for Hogan, would ya?
Well, that about wraps it up for this Spotlight. Next time, I'm thinking of going into another character I haven't used yet, but am working on if I can find somewhere to take him which has just the right combination of factors. What those are, you'll have to wait and see :-p
Wednesday 10 October 2007
Angling, and not for trout
Hello everybody! Just a quick mention to start off with that I've just started a new course, a radio journalism course, and so far I'm enjoying it - even if it's academically a little slow right now. I guess when you've got an MA in an academic field and just over a month ago handed in your dissertation, moving into a field like radio journalism can seem a little slow to start off with. We'll see how it all goes.
Life report over though. Today, I'm talking about angles; more specifically, how do you make a good one? It's something that's very subjective, so by no means will what I say be the be-all and end-all.
At least I hope not.
If you think back, as a fan either of the hobby or a fan of wrestling, to great angles, what's the unifying concept? In storylines, what makes you remember it, and what makes it successful?
The answer is pretty simple - a successful storyline elevates all the parties involved. The nWo creation storyline elevated Hall and Nash by having them shown as 'the bad guys', it elevated a stale Hulk Hogan, and it elevated the babyfaces by having them turned against suddenly, shockingly, and allowing them to chase for revenge whilst looking competative. The Rick Rude/Dustin Rhodes storyline over the US title in the early/mid 90s managed to elevate Rhodes by giving credability to his title reign, and didn't hurt Rude at all - it made him look competative coming off of injury. In the e/f-wrestling world, something like the Beast/Lindsay Troy/Dis bit (which I'll talk more on later) managed to elevate Lindsay and Beast, by having Beast, the face, wronged and cheated over again by his ex (who'd turned on him when he won the title), and showed Lindsay to be much more cunning than a lot of people would've thought in the new audience she had.
However, good angles like that, which elevate both parties, are very difficult to find sometimes. Quite often, a beatdown will introduce a character or characters to the audience, and from there, the wrestler who was beaten doesn't get anything. That's one example - there are literally loads of others, where the end result is one character gets elevated, and the other, or an entire championship division in some cases, gets damaged and lowered because the blow-off of the angle was such that they didn't look strong - this could be a beatdown, or the end of a match, or a segment, or whatever.
I think a large part of where this comes from is a lack of communication, either between the handler suggesting the angle and the person he wants to do it with, or the fedhead and the handlers who are going to be involved. I've been in four situations where I read a card, and my characters were involved in angles I'd had no idea about which elevated someone else at their expense (incidentally, all four cases were the same handlers' characters), and whilst those angles did elevate the one party, I think they could have been done a lot more smoothly if I'd simply been asked if I was OK to go ahead with them - at worst this common courtesy would've given me the opportunity to say "No, I do not agree to that," and at best a dialogue could've been opened up to have some really great ideas going back and forth, ending up with a better scenario for all concerned. By not communicating, you actually risk alienating one handler - in a worst case scenario you could drive that handler out of your fed, which throws a huge monkey-wrench in any plans you may have had involving them.
Woah, that sounded a little heavy.
Another thing that I sometimes see lacking is a sense of logic in the angle. How often have you seen someone return, beat someone up, and then get beaten down in the same segment? You've brought someone back, or in, and built them up by having a beat-down... and then you damage them by putting someone over them. It's kinda like on RAW recently, you had London and Kendrick come out to help HHH, only for HHH to attack them afterwards! It elevated HHH, but in that one segment (and not for the first time) he hurt an entire division. What made it worse was it made no logical sense for him to be superman attacking the #1 contenders to the tag team championships so soon after he won a handicap match against the champs!
"How can you ensure logic in an angle?" I hear you ask. If the angle is a part of a storyline, then it's actually very easy to do. You sit down and plan the storyline, week by week, from beginning to end - this could be one PPV cycle, three, fifteen, whatever. You basically plan out what's going to happen, why it's going to happen, and what each situation is going to add to the entire thing. Very often I see a storyline start and finish in a couple of weeks, and there's no time to really build any heat. That's something that planning a prolonged storyline does - allows you to build heat (it's coincidentally something I've seen done really well in A1E, so kudos there!).
What's the best way to plan the storyline? Well, you know the aim is to elevate all parties involved. If you want to god-book the ending, you know who's going to win. If you don't god-book, you have to hope the matchwriter can write a close-fought contest to lift both people. But away from those things, which you can or can't control depending, you can plan each event. The heel has to do something to anger the face, and has to have a reason - things done "because I can" rarely work. It's almost like writing a novel - you don't need both parties looking uber-strong throughout, but both need a moment to shine before the final confrontation, which should be close-fought to maintain or enhance the status of both parties.
So, communication and logic... anything else?
Well, yes. Are you going to go with a swerve? A swerve is where you totally twist the story round, either by introducing an unknown, or by flipping the relationship between the two parties on its head. It should preferably be unexpected, but, and I can't stress this enough, it must make sense!!!!!!
Here's where I talk about the famed Dis angle from a couple of years ago. What made it work, for me, wasn't the revelation that it was Lindsay Troy under the mask - that I had already worked out by that point (I'll say how in a minute). What made it work for me was that it was Lindsay Troy under the mask, and it made sense that she was Dis.
The Dis character was a masked character. As soon as it won the Russian Roulette tournament, there was a big clue as to who it was (at least to me - I was a naive rookie back then who didn't know anything outside MCW, EPW and NWL) in the writing style of the promos. The champ at the time was Beast, and Beast had a history in EPW with three people, two where the title was concerned - Dan Ryan (personally, not surrounding the title), Christian Sands, and Lindsay Troy. Beast had feuded with Sands and won the title, when Lindsay turned on him. The two most obvious candidates for Dis going into RR were Sands and Troy, because in storyline terms, it made sense, especially since Dan Ryan would want someone good enough to defeat Beast. Reading the promos at the time, the writing style pointed to one handler more than the other, so the "swerve" of Lindsay being unmasked wasn't that shocking for me - but it was a swerve because it could have easily been Christian Sands (if you were like me) or someone Beast had dealt with elsewhere (which I'd've frowned upon because it wouldn't have made as much sense to the EPW audience). Lindsay Troy unmasking made sense, it was logical, and it was extremely well written, since it gave Beast a boost, it gave Troy a boost, and it worked.
I think I'm starting to waffle here. I hope that clears up what I think an angle needs - it needs to be logical, even with a swerve partway through, and it needs to elevate both parties. Even if it's a one-off deal, I think it should be discussed with the handlers of every wrestler involved, because then you can get more ideas, which could lead to a better angle. This is a co-operative writing hobby, and I'm sure everyone has the same goals - to entertain and have fun. It's like co-operating on a novel - you'd consult each other and make sure it made sense.
That's the angle. Well, it is to me.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I've got a salmon on the line.
Life report over though. Today, I'm talking about angles; more specifically, how do you make a good one? It's something that's very subjective, so by no means will what I say be the be-all and end-all.
At least I hope not.
If you think back, as a fan either of the hobby or a fan of wrestling, to great angles, what's the unifying concept? In storylines, what makes you remember it, and what makes it successful?
The answer is pretty simple - a successful storyline elevates all the parties involved. The nWo creation storyline elevated Hall and Nash by having them shown as 'the bad guys', it elevated a stale Hulk Hogan, and it elevated the babyfaces by having them turned against suddenly, shockingly, and allowing them to chase for revenge whilst looking competative. The Rick Rude/Dustin Rhodes storyline over the US title in the early/mid 90s managed to elevate Rhodes by giving credability to his title reign, and didn't hurt Rude at all - it made him look competative coming off of injury. In the e/f-wrestling world, something like the Beast/Lindsay Troy/Dis bit (which I'll talk more on later) managed to elevate Lindsay and Beast, by having Beast, the face, wronged and cheated over again by his ex (who'd turned on him when he won the title), and showed Lindsay to be much more cunning than a lot of people would've thought in the new audience she had.
However, good angles like that, which elevate both parties, are very difficult to find sometimes. Quite often, a beatdown will introduce a character or characters to the audience, and from there, the wrestler who was beaten doesn't get anything. That's one example - there are literally loads of others, where the end result is one character gets elevated, and the other, or an entire championship division in some cases, gets damaged and lowered because the blow-off of the angle was such that they didn't look strong - this could be a beatdown, or the end of a match, or a segment, or whatever.
I think a large part of where this comes from is a lack of communication, either between the handler suggesting the angle and the person he wants to do it with, or the fedhead and the handlers who are going to be involved. I've been in four situations where I read a card, and my characters were involved in angles I'd had no idea about which elevated someone else at their expense (incidentally, all four cases were the same handlers' characters), and whilst those angles did elevate the one party, I think they could have been done a lot more smoothly if I'd simply been asked if I was OK to go ahead with them - at worst this common courtesy would've given me the opportunity to say "No, I do not agree to that," and at best a dialogue could've been opened up to have some really great ideas going back and forth, ending up with a better scenario for all concerned. By not communicating, you actually risk alienating one handler - in a worst case scenario you could drive that handler out of your fed, which throws a huge monkey-wrench in any plans you may have had involving them.
Woah, that sounded a little heavy.
Another thing that I sometimes see lacking is a sense of logic in the angle. How often have you seen someone return, beat someone up, and then get beaten down in the same segment? You've brought someone back, or in, and built them up by having a beat-down... and then you damage them by putting someone over them. It's kinda like on RAW recently, you had London and Kendrick come out to help HHH, only for HHH to attack them afterwards! It elevated HHH, but in that one segment (and not for the first time) he hurt an entire division. What made it worse was it made no logical sense for him to be superman attacking the #1 contenders to the tag team championships so soon after he won a handicap match against the champs!
"How can you ensure logic in an angle?" I hear you ask. If the angle is a part of a storyline, then it's actually very easy to do. You sit down and plan the storyline, week by week, from beginning to end - this could be one PPV cycle, three, fifteen, whatever. You basically plan out what's going to happen, why it's going to happen, and what each situation is going to add to the entire thing. Very often I see a storyline start and finish in a couple of weeks, and there's no time to really build any heat. That's something that planning a prolonged storyline does - allows you to build heat (it's coincidentally something I've seen done really well in A1E, so kudos there!).
What's the best way to plan the storyline? Well, you know the aim is to elevate all parties involved. If you want to god-book the ending, you know who's going to win. If you don't god-book, you have to hope the matchwriter can write a close-fought contest to lift both people. But away from those things, which you can or can't control depending, you can plan each event. The heel has to do something to anger the face, and has to have a reason - things done "because I can" rarely work. It's almost like writing a novel - you don't need both parties looking uber-strong throughout, but both need a moment to shine before the final confrontation, which should be close-fought to maintain or enhance the status of both parties.
So, communication and logic... anything else?
Well, yes. Are you going to go with a swerve? A swerve is where you totally twist the story round, either by introducing an unknown, or by flipping the relationship between the two parties on its head. It should preferably be unexpected, but, and I can't stress this enough, it must make sense!!!!!!
Here's where I talk about the famed Dis angle from a couple of years ago. What made it work, for me, wasn't the revelation that it was Lindsay Troy under the mask - that I had already worked out by that point (I'll say how in a minute). What made it work for me was that it was Lindsay Troy under the mask, and it made sense that she was Dis.
The Dis character was a masked character. As soon as it won the Russian Roulette tournament, there was a big clue as to who it was (at least to me - I was a naive rookie back then who didn't know anything outside MCW, EPW and NWL) in the writing style of the promos. The champ at the time was Beast, and Beast had a history in EPW with three people, two where the title was concerned - Dan Ryan (personally, not surrounding the title), Christian Sands, and Lindsay Troy. Beast had feuded with Sands and won the title, when Lindsay turned on him. The two most obvious candidates for Dis going into RR were Sands and Troy, because in storyline terms, it made sense, especially since Dan Ryan would want someone good enough to defeat Beast. Reading the promos at the time, the writing style pointed to one handler more than the other, so the "swerve" of Lindsay being unmasked wasn't that shocking for me - but it was a swerve because it could have easily been Christian Sands (if you were like me) or someone Beast had dealt with elsewhere (which I'd've frowned upon because it wouldn't have made as much sense to the EPW audience). Lindsay Troy unmasking made sense, it was logical, and it was extremely well written, since it gave Beast a boost, it gave Troy a boost, and it worked.
I think I'm starting to waffle here. I hope that clears up what I think an angle needs - it needs to be logical, even with a swerve partway through, and it needs to elevate both parties. Even if it's a one-off deal, I think it should be discussed with the handlers of every wrestler involved, because then you can get more ideas, which could lead to a better angle. This is a co-operative writing hobby, and I'm sure everyone has the same goals - to entertain and have fun. It's like co-operating on a novel - you'd consult each other and make sure it made sense.
That's the angle. Well, it is to me.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I've got a salmon on the line.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)