The Dragon's Eye

New Feds, Old Feuds

2008-09-05T15:44:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone for the comments on a couple of my "half in reviews" posts. Today's blog is actually based on the responses to my EPW in review. In particular, the following two comments:

" And, if someone doesn't take the time to read the entire backstory, or inquire about it? I don't feel bad about them not getting it." (Jamar)

"Karl, maybe you should have read the roleplays for those shows too. It was made very clear the history between the two as they built that story up, and roleplay is most definitely a part of fed continuity.

If you don't read the roleplay along with the whole show, you can hardly complain about presentation of a feud." (Dave)

OK, first things first - I did read the roleplays for the shows. Throughout my time as a member of the EPW roster, I read every RP posted in every match. Even today, since I left, I've read every RP - it's taken longer to read them all since I left, but I do still read them.

With the two cards that caused me the most distress, I re-read those RPs several times before making a decision I still maintain was the right one. I left Empire Pro Wrestling because of the Daymon/Stevens segments on the shows, because they were incredibly distressing to read.

Not that they weren't well written - I just didn't like a lot of what was in the segments across the two cards, and didn't see that they made sense.

WHICH is where this post comes in.

You're in a new fed for your character. There's some history between them and another character, but it goes into another fed, and you want to feud with them.

What do you do?

What I think happened with the Daymon/Stevens stuff, is it was assumed people understood the entire backstory. However, one thing I've maintained throughout my e-fed career, is that you shouldn't rely on that kind of thing. To take a real-life comparison - how much reference did WCW make to the "Mega-Powers Explode!" story the WWF ran between Hogan and Savage when the two feuded in WCW?

As I remember it, not much. The feud was one we'd seen before, but it was over something new - Hogan turning on Savage, then leadership of the nWo. I don't actually remember any mention of the "Mega-Powers" feud.

Which made sense - WCW and WWF were in competition. The two could've cut promos harking back to the WWF days, but I don't remember them doing it - they managed to, very quickly, established a reason that was real to the WCW crowd as to why they'd dislike each other so much.

To take an e-wrestling example - Karl "The Dragon" Brown and Adam Benjamin have had a history for a long time. When we first met in EPW, we'd already had a barnstormer in MCW, and I think it was about the same time that Benjamin cost Brown the NWL World Heavyweight Title. Yes, we mentioned the MCW and NWL bits when we met in EPW - but we kept the focus as being EPW; we allowed the story to grow in EPW to the point we wouldn't need to mention other feds, because the history was there in Empire Pro Wrestling.

Between Stevens and Daymon, I did not see the history. Why should Caitlyn, based on what was presented in EPW, decide to taser Stevens? Why would Rocko drug his own wife "for her own protection"? The only part that made EPW storyline sense, based on segments and Role-Plays, was after the tasering when Stevens confronted Caitlyn in the hotel (even though I found the writing there very disturbing, on a personal level for reasons I refuse to go into because I don't want to drag up some bad memories for myself).

The main difficulty, and I've seen this in a lot of feds, is that people assume that the backstory is known. Or, as Jamar states, that we can enquire about it.

I think that's, a) the wrong attitude, and b) very arrogant. I'll be honest. The TV audience isn't going to go digging round for old tapes from feds that've closed down so they're up to date with everything. You as the reader don't write to the author to know the complete backstory of a novel or play/film. You base your decision based on what you see. The wrestling audience would base their reactions on what they had seen/heard - and there was nothing in the Stevens/Daymon stuff which led me to believe that the segments were justified.

I'm not jumping on Jamar, Ryan or Dave here - they knew the backstory. Heck, I've seen feud after feud after feud in different feds start because of "wrongs done in past feds". It's something I've always disagreed with. When Dave and I wrote a couple of RPs against each other in A1E, and I was mentioning Blitz leaving EPW, I made sure to tie it into A1E and how Leonard felt that Dan Ryan didn't know how to run a wrestling company.

With the Stevens/Daymon stuff, the relevance for the EPW audience wasn't clear. As I've said, I'd've had no problem if it'd been a slower-burning feud in Empire Pro - which is why I'd've kept JA as number one contender. You could've built a hatred up between Rocko and Sean whilst running a Stevens/JA programme, and made it something unique - using a feud that's been done elsewhere, a hatred that starts elsewhere, but makes perfect sense to the new audience, with new reasons unique to the new fed/environment the two characters find themselves in.

Like I've also said - with the history in EPW, the feud could move on now at that kind of level, and I wouldn't have a problem. Personally I may dislike some of what's written, but it wouldn't jump out as being odd or uncalled for. But, as a reader, I did not know the backstory. The relevance wasn't explained in segments, or Role-Plays, adequately for me, part of the new audience, to understand it. Maybe it's the part of me that follows Barthe's "Death of the Author" theory, but the intentions of any author are irrelevant - it's what the reader takes from it that matters. So if the reader doesn't understand the author's intention, it's not the reader's fault - the author hasn't done a good enough job explaining. If the author is relying on a history that the reader may not have knowledge of, again, that's the author's responsibility.

By all means, have a feud between characters that've feuded before. I've really enjoyed a lot of them - the Dakota Smith/Maelstrom feud in NWL was excellent, as one example. HOWEVER - this hobby is based, not just in writing, but in PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING. And every feud I've seen in professional wrestling is built into the fed, as part of the fed; no knowledge of feuds between the two characters in other feds required. I honestly think that THAT is the way to go - maybe mention that there is some history. But don't have it as the primary reason for the feud, don't use it as the tinder for the fire. Have it fan the flames, but make sure the flames start, and end, totally in the fed the characters are in at that moment.

I hope that clarified a few things. Next time, I'll be posting a show-review - A1E's latest PPV cycle gets reviewed as Golden Dreams hits the airwaves.

And before I go - congrats to Holzerman on his upcoming wedding :) And the EPW title win. Congratulations, and may your married life be everything you wish it to be.

2008 - the half in review, part the third.

2008-07-27T08:25:00.001-07:00

Hello and welcome to the final part of my look at the first half of 2008! Today, I’m looking at one of the feds that everybody seems to talk about and I never used to read, New Frontier Wrestling.

And boy did I miss out.

Now, I’ll admit – I used to be put-off by some of what I read in NFW. I REALLY disliked a lot of the Troy Windham stuff I read a couple years back, like the teabagging of Joey Melton. I didn’t think it had any place on a wrestling card. But since I started reading the cards more regularly, there’s something I’ve noticed.

EVERYONE on the card has something to do!

It’s something that’s very rare in this hobby. Normally, you’ll only find one or two feuds of any merit, only a couple of interesting storylines, and those very often take up waaaay too much of a card. In NFW at the moment, though, you’ve so many storylines I can think of without looking back at the cards again – you’ve got Legion/Luci4 against James Varga, the HWC and Suicide Kings, Joe the Plumber against everybody, Lord Coyner Pollard’s diplomatic immunity, Lord Coyner Pollard vs. Legion, Nova vs. Kin Hiroshi, Teresa Q’s HUGE run with the gold, Rook Black and Uber Judge… it’s just amazing how much is on each card right now.

Add to that the Grand Prix (sorry M’lud) and you’ve got a very interesting time ahead.

Kudos, though, must go to Impulse. Never have I read a better straight babyface. I remember doing the rankings the other week, and there was a match where Impulse simply refused to take the win because of outside interference. He’s a really classy character with a lot of guts and a lot of determination, who hasn’t made a big name for himself. I really feel for the guy when, on a couple of Brawl cards, he’s had victory just snatched from his grasp – he’s the right sort of underdog.

Kudos also the two tag-teams – the Hollywood Wrecking Crew and Suicide Kings – for their INTENSE feud over the titles. It’s very rare that a tag team storyline is given such prominence on the card, but this has had me gripped since I started reading it. The HWC have really played the heels better than any other team currently out there, and the Suicide Kings… wow! I didn’t know it was possible to have two such evenly matched tag-teams. Along with Impulse, this feud’s really been a highlight of the cards.

Elsewhere on the card, you’ve got three characters that I think you should be keeping an eye on – Teresa Q (who’s one of the most interesting characters there is right now), Brock Alyas (who’s really got the makings of a legend), and Lord Coyner Pollard (insertrestofname). All three of these characters have a unique ability to move about the card almost at will, so seeing where they go from week to week’s going to be really interesting. The Diplomatic Immunity situation (which I had no hand in setting up but I’ll gladly run with) is going to be a huge boost to an already powerful undercard.

If it’s all sounding perfect at the moment, though, NFW’s not without its faults. When I’ve been doing the rankings, it’s sometimes been INCREDIBLY difficult to figure out what’s going on in some matches – especially on Brawl. I LOVE the idea of the Brawl cards, the same way I liked it when Dave was doing Onslaught in EPW, but boy does it become tough to figure out who won some of the matches! Sometimes I’m pretty sure I’ve given it the wrong way until the third or fourth time I’ve read the card. The PPVs and TV tapings are a lot easier to read, but even then, sometimes it seems I have to look reeeeeally close to find out the results. And that’s not good when I’m trying to put together the win/loss record!

But the highlight of the half-year so far? Definitely reading how well the characters are handled in the write-ups. The Dan Ryan/Nova match at Wrestlestock, together with the HWC/Suicide Kings series, have been some of the best matches I’ve ever read, with a lot of give and take. One thing NFW’s matchwriter’s know how to do is structure a match. The segments are always well spaced, and I’ve yet to see one which didn’t add something to the card. It’s really easy for a segment to become overlong and take away from the card, but I’m wondering if there’s some subtle editing going on to keep everything this tight.

2008 so far has been a great year to become a part of NFW. It’s a really strong fed which doesn’t really have any major weakness. Everyone is pretty much given a place on the card which puts them in the best light, and no one storyline is given such prominence that it feels like it’s taking away from the others.

Which, given the number of storylines there are going on at the moment, is a good thing. I don’t think we could take reading 1000 page write ups every week!

So that’s all for 2008 so far. I’m going to start reviewing individual shows a bit more often, and later in the year, look back and see how each of the three feds I’ve written about here has done closing the year. Until next time, stay safe, and remember…

If it’s green, get it amputated.

2008 - the half in review, part 2

2008-07-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome again to 2008 – the half year in review! Today, I’d like to take a look at a place I spent almost four years, and the second part of the major War Games at A1E’s Vengeance, Empire Pro Wrestling.

Firstly, I have to congratulate Rocko Daymon and Troy Douglas on winning the top two titles respectively. Troy Douglas had a very nice series with Sergeant before winning the title at Black Dawn. It made a lot of sense to put Troy into the IC title scene, as the main event scene was INCREDIBLY heavy – having him in the triple threat when Brown finally lost the title meant that the new champion (Sergeant) had a great feud to head into. Troy’s performances on the cards have really impressed me, especially after his last run in EPW ended kinda disappointingly after an inferno match against Issac Byrnes/John Doe.

But, as Empire Pro has often had, the mid-card is amazingly strong. You’ve got Larry Tact, Beast (I’d definitely pay to see him and Troy go at it for the IC title), Stalker, Ice Tre, Shawn Hart, and a lot of other people who’d make excellent challengers and possible champions at that level whilst the main event scene readjusts itself.

Break-out star of the half year though, without a doubt, is Nakita Dahaka. I’ve always been a fan of this character – she’s something different, something you don’t usually see; a well written, Gothic type. One of my major gripes for a long time has been how low down the card she’s been – her feud with Frankie Scott last year was spectacular and showed how a lower-card feud could be done without a title being around, and her alliance with Sean Stevens is going to be the push she needs to propel herself up the card. I’ve always felt she was just a little unfortunate – for a while, there were people no-showing fairly often, but never against her. I didn’t like her series with Olvir, but with this new direction, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.

The tag division’s at another cross-roads, with the Kings of the Cage tournament ongoing to name challengers to The Forsaken. I’m gonna reserve judgement, but once the tournament’s done, don’t be surprised if you get three or four teams stepping up in quick succession. Hopefully, most of the teams from the tournament will stick together once it’s done.

Storyline of the year, I’ve already touched on, is the Dahaka/Stalker/Stevens team. HUGE props go to this trio for coming together the way they did, and telling the story in RPs so effectively. I did not see these three getting together – especially with Dahaka in such a prime position. I don’t think they even need to add another member to The Fallen for a very long time, as each of these three can run great feuds up and down the card.

I must admit, I was disappointed by the Stalker/Daymon/Stevens saga. It seemed to really take over the cards, and a lot of the segments seemed overly nasty, especially the Stevens/Daymon ones. I’ve never been a fan of stories which get nasty quickly, and I think, honestly, it would’ve made more sense to hold back on it for a while. I wasn’t at all surprised, once Stevens and Daymon started interacting, that JA lost the number one contendership. It seemed really unfair to Holzerman IMO – he won the triple threat, then there was a storyline with the #1 contendership switching around, which made the PPV match seem irrelevant. I had been looking forward to seeing JA and Stevens go at it, with Rocko finishing with Stalker, but alas. Like I said a moment ago too, I think the Stevens/Daymon stuff was just too nasty. I can understand the idea – to show a deep hatred between the two, but I think that could’ve been built a lot slower, little interactions for the first PPV cycle, then this kind of nasty (especially the Stevens/Caitlyn bits) once things had been allowed to heat up. It’s pretty similar, actually, to the aforementioned Troy Douglas/Issac Byrnes storyline – that had a lot of potential but was rushed.

So, what can we look forward to? The Rocko Daymon/Sean Stevens saga finally seems to be getting interesting – the intensity is at a point I think it now deserves. The IC scene’s looking good, with Douglas and Tact the most obvious pairing. I’d like to see Beast and Craig Miles go at it on the mid-card, and the tag team division, once it’s settled down, should be interesting – The Forsaken look pretty unbeatable, but the Second Coming and The Fallen are both really strong. I think Kin Hiroshi and JA should definitely be staying around the main event, and, hopefully, the World Title scene can settle down a little and be about the title, rather than the soap-opera.

Then again, I really don’t like soap-opera, lol.

Well, that’s all for EPW for this half. Next time, I’ll be taking a look at New Frontier Wrestling. Until then, stay happy :)

2008 - the year so far, pt.1

2008-07-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

OK. So I kinda fell behind on updating this place. My bad. But here today is some more Dragonic goodness (and yes, Dragonic is a word).

Seems like a good time to do one of those "Half-year" review type things. But I'm gonna do it a bit differently. I'm gonna do three of these - one on NFW, one on A1E, and one on Empire Pro, which I do still read occasionally.

But today, I wanna talk about A1E.

Wow... where to start... the tag team division seems like the best place, as it's a very undervalued part of any promotion IMO. Over in A1E, this year we've seen two teams hold the titles - JA and Big Wreck held the titles til Vengeance, and Blitz finally took the gold in a three-team elimination match also featuring the Second Coming.

If anyone wants to see how to run a tag-team division, this is a good example. After losing at Bloody New Year, Blitz took a step back and got into a series with the Natural Disaster (a good little team with a lot of potential, whilst the Second Coming stepped up in a HUGE way into a feud with JA/Big Wreck which has JUST... after six months... finished. The best thing about that feud was the Second Coming really came on as a heel tag-team - they were sneaky, playing mind-games, and Big Wreck, especially, was a fantastic foil to them. After one PPV cycle, they carried on the "Ducky Kidnap" storyline, and just before the PPV, Blitz were added in to make the match at Vengeance a three-way.

Now, that made a lot of sense - even though Blitz had lost two matches back-to-back at that point, they'd been facing top-name stars at or near the top of the card, so having the tag-team specialists going for the tag team titles made sense. It also gave a nice dynamic, since it meant, whatever happened, the Big Wreck/Second Coming story could continue post-Vengeance - the titles could (and were) moved out of the frame, and everybody still looked good. Add to that the Chronic Crimson Collizion Calling, who were never far away, and you had a nice division.

With the CCCC now gone (not for long, Leonard's gut tells him they'll be back), the end of the big Wreck/SC story, and the new Mid-West Mafia, the tag division's looking really strong. They could do with another face team if I'm honest, since right now it's three heel teams, but all in all the coming few months should be big for the division.

Storyline of the half-year, though, has to go to... Cross/Duchess.

I know some people are gonna be going "What about the Dan Ryan/A1E storyline?", and I'll get onto that in a minute, but for me, this Cross/Duchess story has something about it... both characters are really fleshing out for me, and there are some REALLY nice twists and turns which I have a feeling will carry on for a very long time. Adding Wraith was a stroke of GENIUS, and the whole Apollyon bit was a total shock. Whenever Cross and Duchess are up, I'm interested, and I've not been able to guess a single thing about it so far, so it's definitely my story of the half.

But that's not to take away from the big one - the A1E vs Dan Ryan story. That was a truly great undertaking... but, like the Lindsay Troy/Dis thing, and something else I'll talk about when I do my EPW bit, it was really predictable for me. I wasn't surprised A1E lost War Games - I knew they wouldn't end that match happily, so I was more curious as to how they'd work their way around that. I was a bit surprised when Big Dog won the title, because I thought it'd be nice to carry it into a mini invasion of EPW, with Big Dog, Blitz, Duchess, Wraith, et al doing hit and runs against EPW's guys. But this was a nicely executed story that, despite being a little predictable, told a story you don't often see any more - good winning over "evil" with some redemption thrown in (though the redemption was predictable and too sappy for my tastes).

Now, if anyone thought the BC would take it easy after that, you've missed a lot. You've got a lot of great feuds building, most of which have the legs to carry on for two, possibly three PPV arcs (Big Dog vs. HSPC, Mid-West Mafia vs. A1E, Cross/Duchess vs. Wraith, and loads of others). Chip Friendly as World Champion opens a lot of doors if the MWM are kept away for the next cycle and a half (congrats to Dan by the way, that was a helluva match and a well deserved win). The Duchess/Wraith title situation is one to watch out for, and with Troy Douglas holding gold, it's gonna be tough to dislodge him. Tag team wise, look out for the Second Coming - they've been getting better and better, and it could be their time to shine (except for the two behemoths in the way :))

I'd say more, but there's been so much that it'd take me half a year to cover everything! Stay tuned for my next post, which'll be my review of EPW.

What I want to do in 2008

2008-01-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

OK, not exactly the best topic. Kinda self-indulgent, but hey, I'm allowed. I'm writing this blog :-p

In all seriousness, though, I think it's nice to take stock of what you've done in the previous 12 months, and try and set some goals for the coming year. Nothing major, just see where things are going so you don't lose sight. So that's what this post is. What I've done, and want to do, with each character.

BLITZ
First up, my tag team. 2007 was a pretty fun year for them. I took them out of Empire Pro Wrestling for reasons I don't want to get into, and had them focus on A1E. They've not done as badly as I'd thought they would, actually - of my 'big three' characters (Blitz, "The Dragon" and Mr Entertainment), they've always felt my weakest, so I was fully expecting to see them get buried. But surprisingly, they've got a positive win/loss record as far as I recall. My one gripe is probably how things turned out in EPW (I'll get into that another time, maybe), and given how they're doing right now, that can't really be seen as a big issue. What I want to do with them depends on how things go at Bloody New Year, and if anyone has an open/inter-promotional Tag Team tournament. I think if Blitz lose at BNY, I won't mind them taking a couple of steps down the card, I'm sure a storyline can be found for them, and it's always nice in a tag-team division to have more than one story fans can focus on. Something where not every team has as the end-goal of the feud being "tag team titles" or "tag team title oppertunity." Maybe something like "Beat crap out of these guys" or something. Something simple, basic, and fun. That in itself can be helped by a tournament appearance in a strong field.

Karl "The Dragon" Brown
Brown... he didn't really do much in 2007. He held the EPW Intercontinental Championship until the end of October, an almost 24 month reign, but I wasn't really happy with most of what I did with him. I felt he was getting tired and stagnant as a character - something Amy'll tell you about since I complained to her enough about it, lol. Even with him dropping the title, there was only one story that he could do that made any sense, and it's one I'd've loved to do (but, like Blitz, we saw how that went down, lol). Brown couldn't have moved into the World Title scene for several PPV cycles, realistically (if asked, I'd've always said give JA, then Kin Hiroshi, then Rocko Daymon, shots at the belt, in that order, then maybe look at Brown). He didn't do too badly in the Dupree cup, but I wasn't that pleased with my work in that tournament either. So, 2008, I'm probably not going to do a lot with him. As a character, he's tired. He's grown repetitive, and I've written him pretty much into a corner where the only way to progress is to give him a rest. So once the latest TEAM Supershow is published, you won't be seeing him around for a while. Larry Tact part 2 will be his last match for the time being, until I think he's rested good and proper. I've already got a few ideas in mind for when he gets used again though. They'll be fun to try and pull off.

Mr Entertainment
Ah, the New ERA WHADAHTT Champion. 2007 was a slow year match-wise for him, but life's like that sometimes :) So moving ahead, with him, I think he's found his level. I never meant for him to main-event regularly - maybe the very occasional TV show. So I think that really what I want to do with him, just keep him in the upper-mid card, using him perhaps to put over guys on their way to the top.

Otaku
The other man who left EPW in 2007, never really got off the ground as a result. He had a good showing in the Lethal Lottery Championship match in TEAM though. Two matches, one win, one loss. In 2008, I'm actually going to keep him around as a TEAM competitor, and if somewhere looks like it'll benefit from the depth he can give as an undercarder (lower to mid card), I'll make him a more regular character. He's a fun character who I can change as much as I want, since his entire gimmick is based around cosplay and being a bit of a geek, so it wouldn't look daft for him to be a heel one match, face the next, since he's just keeping in character. But he's one of those characters, I know, I have to be careful with - it's easy to play him too sillyly.

Lord Coyner Pollard (insertrestofnamehere)
Now, here's where things are going to get interesting. I've just debuted him in NFW, and he doesn't have a set direction right now, but over the course of the year, he's definitely going to mature and find his voice. I've seen a lot of people try this type of character, and to be honest, no-one has succeeded as far as I'm concerned. That's not me being mean, and some people have said they thought those characters were brilliant, but the thing that's always struck me as weak is these characters are meant to be stereotypes and parodies, but they're being done by people who don't really know how to play the character straight first. It's like Tom's Phantom Republican character - I couldn't do that type of thing, because I'm not American and don't encounter Republicans who're that extreme, ever. I doubt many people in the US have the same connection at a cultural level with Lords, earls, dukes, etc., that I do living in Britain - I can be a lot more subtle just because I'm more used to the pageantry associated with things like the opening of Parliament, or the Last Night of the Proms, or a coronation (though the way Elizabeth is going I'll never see one in my lifetime). That's what I'm going to be trying with Lord Coyner Pollard - to bring a bit of subtlty to a character-type which always seems to fall a bit flat when I read them.

So there you go. Nothing ground-breaking, nothing huge. I've actually found a level in this hobby I'm happy on - I don't want to go into big, main-event level things on a regular basis, I just fancy staying here and building more of a foundation, having fun at the same time.

2008 should be a fun year. Especially with the whole EPW/A1E angle that's on-going.

When is it the right time?

2007-12-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

Something that's not really been written about much, at least not that I've found, is "When is the right time to leave a fed?" I'm going to try and give at least a partial answer. Ignoring real-life time constraints (new job, new partner, kids, life in general), when is the best time to leave?

When the fed is no longer fun to read.

That's as far as I'm concerned, actually. Once something stops being fun, and if things in the fed are getting distressing for you, it's time to leave.

Which is what I did last night, actually. I told Dave (EPW) that, because the cards are getting distressing, I was going to have to leave. It was nothing that Dave or anyone else had done - I certainly wasn't forced out, and never felt like I was being forced to leave. But the last couple of cards have, for me, been the opposite of why I got into the hobby. I joined EPW because it looked fun. But the segments on the last couple of cards have been really distressing and upsetting to me, and I was actually starting to dread the next card.

Some would say in that case, I shouldn't read the segments, but I think that's unfair on the people and characters who take the time to write them. Some might say I should ask people to tone it down, but again, that's unfair. Some might even say I should try and put more segments in myself - but Brown's not really a segment character, and Otaku needed another couple of matches so I could find his voice in the company. Besides, I actually think the cards are getting segment heavy as is.

Yes, this is a bit of a "Goodbye EPW" post. It has, until the last couple of cards, been really fun.

But the fun started to stop around Wrestlestock, and I've enough stress in my life without reading something that I find distressing.

But when else is it a good time to leave a fed? I think there are some characters who just run out of things to do in a fed. They need to step back and take a bit of time to freshen up, and I think that's a good time to leave a fed, at least for a time. I'm not a fan of changing characters suddenly just to freshen things up - sometimes a brief lay-off, say six months or so, is enough to give the character a rest, give the handler time to do something else, and bring them back with a different outlook. The character then doesn't risk becoming stale.

When things stop being fun, or to freshen up a character. Two good reasons to leave a fed.

And...

Best of luck to Empire Pro Wrestling. Dave's got a great roster he can rely on, so it'll become even stronger as time passes :)

"Is that guy face or heel?"

2007-11-17T11:41:00.000-08:00

It's a question I ask myself a lot when reading cards, whether in EPW, New ERA, TEAM, A1E, or wherever. There are a lot of faces using heel tactics, and a lot of heels being cool. You get feuds where all the characters involved pass the advantage back and forth between them, setting up a climactic match at a PPV which, in theory, has the fans on the edge of their seat watching two equals.

It just tends to make me switch off though. I'll be honest. There are a lot of characters out there who need a bit of definition when it comes to their characters. Are they face, or heel?

I remember Holzerman once saying he liked Mr Entertainment because he was a nice "old-school" heel - loudmouth, brash, egotistical, cocky, etc. But the one thing I think seperates Mr Entertainment from someone like (to not name efed names) heel HHH is that Mr Entertainment doesn't come across as "cool". He's not likeable.

He's a heel.

Being a heel should be easy - you should be "a liar, cheat, or coward. You can be tough, yes, but primarily you're one of the other three. You have to rely on something from one of those categories to win because you're just not good enough." [Eric Bischoff, Controversy Creates Cash]. But you also must not come across as someone the guys want to be - and that's the failing with a lot of efed heels I've seen. More accurately they're tweeners; having the quick comebacks, the cool lines, the swagger, getting the chicks, etc. They win their matches decisively time after time after time. They're "good enough". They're seen as cool, and cool isn't a heel. Someone who can't back it up without cheating - THAT'S a heel. Someone who patently isn't a nice guy, who isn't 'cool', and is kinda scary - that's a heel.

But if heel is poorly defined in a lot of characters, what's happened to the face? You get babyfaces, who're supposed to be the guy people like, cheating to win matches. They're back-talking, being insulting, attacking people without provocation. They're being more smart-arse. I read a card recently and if I'd been asked to name a single babyface, I couldn't. They were pretty much identical to the heels - unless the matchwriter said "crowd cheer here" I wouldn't have the foggiest.

What should a face actually be? In my mind, a face is the "hero". A face in any match, unless it's a squash, should start out strong, then fall behind for a bit. The bad-guy should cheat to gain this advantage, but the face MUST look weak for part of the match. Then have a comeback, getting the crowd involved. The heel can then cheat to win.

But away from a match, I think where a lot of faces fall down is they try to be "cool". They try to not be overshadowed by anyone on the card - they go out drinking, sexing it up, whatever. But they're missing what being the face is - being the hero, the rolemodel. You don't need to be a cartoon character good-guy to be a face. "The Dragon" has often been called a really good babyface because he gets the crowd going, but you wouldn't call him cool. Bret Hart was another one - his work ethic got him over as a good guy. Being sporting got him over. Leaving it all in the ring got him over. I don't think as a face I ever saw Bret strike the first blow outside the ring, just retaliate.

Being the face is harder than being the heel. You need a good heel opposite you to be a good face, and there aren't that many good heels. If you look at some matches I've had, I've changed Brown to be a heel just for the RP session to give my opponent something to bounce off of, because otherwise it's going to be a dull match. I don't think it needs to be "Grr, I am big scary man, you puny man" from the heel. But something which doesn't end up as "Yo' mamma", which I see pretty much everywhere. I think Chip Friendly and Richard Farnswirth have the right idea with heels, actually - and JA and Big Dog are two of the best babyfaces around. But outside those four, the roles are so poorly defined in most characters it's hard to spot who's who.

So, is your character a heel? Have him cheat. Have him lie. Have him not able to win the big match without cheating! Have him look weak in the ring. It makes for a better match. And if your character's a face, try taking the "real-life" edge off a little. Don't have him drink a beer during his promo, or doing drugs - have him stop for a chat with a young fan. Show him as a role-model. Then find a good heel, and start a feud where the heel's stolen the kids glasses or something, and see what you can get out of it. If you can do it without being corny or slipping out from the face/heel dynamic, then I think your ability to write well defined faces or heels will be that much greater.

That, and I'll know who to root for.

Big and Tall or Skinny and Short?

2007-10-24T12:27:00.001-07:00

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.

SPOTLIGHT on...

2007-10-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

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

SPOTLIGHT ON...

2007-10-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

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

Angling, and not for trout

2007-10-10T09:05:00.000-07:00

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.

SPOTLIGHT on...

2007-09-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

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.

Introducing first...

2007-06-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hello! I'm Karl. You may know me as the handler of Karl "The Dragon" Brown in interfeds and EPW, Mr Entertainment in interfeds and New ERA of Wrestling, Blitz in A1E, and Otaku in the (sadly) now defunct jWo. Here, on this blogsite, you'll be find me periodically posting my thoughts on the hobby of efedding, ideas I've had, reviews of shows/feuds, or whatever else efed related I end up posting! But first, a brief summary of my career so people know where I'm coming from.

I started efedding back in October 2003, in Jeff Bolich's MCW. I actually found the link, I think, on lordsofpain.net, and just thought I'd give it a go since I've always enjoyed writing, and at the time had been watching wrestling for 10 years. I had a lot of fun there, working with Jeff and Jeff (Kane), before Jeff B sadly discontinued MCW because of lack of RP activity. I'd just started Blitz back then, to give the tag division some more depth away from being just the Crimson Calling and Monsta Boyz.

As luck would have it I'd also just joined Empire Pro Wrestling, and shortly after took Brown to Andrew Medina's NWL. This was back in '04, and although the NWL didn't last long because of Andrew's real life committments, it was a lot of fun, and I had a lot of success in a fed with a larger pool of talent than MCW had had (I'd placed second in the tournament to crown the MCW champ), losing only two matches (Maelstrom and Dakota Smith) in my time there, with one draw (against Maelstrom), beating some pretty tough opponents (Hacker, Lars Magellan, and The Watcher being three). I'd also had a great match against Christian Sands in EPW and narrowly came up short against Adam Benjamin (again!) for the Intercontinental Championship. Blitz were taking a lot of getting used to, but I was starting to feel more confident about them as time went on. I also managed to place third in a good interfed tournament, the HWF's Natural Selection.

Once NWL closed down, I had a pretty extended down-period for about six or seven months (except the Natural Selection), until January 2005, where I finally beat Adam Benjamin (at the third attempt!), then Eric "The (former) Dragon" Davis. I won the tag team titles with Blitz, and in January created a new character, Mr Entertainment (who took a bit of time getting used to, but I'm just about there I think...). 2005 was probably my strongest year - Blitz were undefeated, Brown won all except two matches (the Natural Selection Summer Solstice tournament final, where I placed fourth, and a draw against Lindsay Troy in December), and Mr Entertainment was going from strength to strength. Brown also won the Intercontinental Championship, although that was because my opponent, Sebastian Dodd, was unable to RP.

In 2006, TEAM finished its first Invitational Tournament, which I managed (somehow!) to win, with Mr Entertainment making the semi-finals to lose to... "The Dragon", in a match that made me feel like I had a split personality! Blitz continued much of the year as tag champs, losing them to the HSPC, before entering the MCW Tag Team tournament and ending up second (to the New and Improved DX). Mr Entertainment captured the TV Title, and helped New ERA win the Dupree Cup in TEAM. Brown continued pretty much where he left off in 2005 with mostly success - he's still the IC champion as of right now.

So far in 2007, it's been a bit of a mixed bag for me. Both Brown and Mr Entertainment were knocked out of the TiT sooner than I'd've liked (although I definitely deserved both losses), Blitz have left EPW for reasons I won't go into here, and my work in general has felt kinda... meh. I've not been happy with much of what I've written since an IC title defence against Steven Shane, where I wrote one of my favourite RPs (though one of mine against Chris Casino in TEAM was also one I was happy with). Because of the general "meh" I've created a new character, an anime fan called Otaku (translates roughly as "geek") to give me something sillier to go with whilst allowing me to keep my other characters in the direction they're going in. I'm thinking of taking him somewhere else since jWo's sadly gone, because I think the character definitely has legs, so we'll see.

But yeah - that's my career in a brief nuthshell. Currently I hold the New ERA TV title, the EPW IC title, and am in second place in my pool in the A1E Tag Team tournament to crown the new #1 contenders. Over the coming... however long I keep this running, I'll be posting thoughts on topics, things that irritate me, show reviews, or whatever else :) I hope you enjoy the journey, and let me know of anything you want me to write on.

Ciao!

-Karl