Sunday, December 27, 2009

EPW Awards Part 3: Biggest Impact

Who had a bigger impact on EPW?
Anthology
Sean Stevens
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As you can see from the above, it's only got 2 possible nominees, and that's because they are the only two possible winners. This one is very close in my eyes. So talk me out of this (but try to be nicer then Josh about the match of the year thing. That was just hostile.)

#2- Sean Stevens- Yeah he beat frigging everyone, retired JA and Westscott, sent Rocko Daymon into a career tailspin and made me just thrilled to even lose to the guy. He was in 3 of my 4 match of the year nominations and besides all that, held the EPW World Title the whole year. Heck writing all this makes me want to change my pick. Well too late now.

#1- Anthology- They dominated the main event of EPW...From Agg 44 to agg 49 every card has had Anthology in the main event. If you were not in Anthology, you were fighting Anthology. They held the IC Title for most of the year and same with the tag belts and had Copycat nearly win the TV Title...Anthology spawned HOPE as a force to fight against it. They crushed TEAM so the finals never came out...Oh wait they didn't do that? Oh well...In the end the Anthology engine of evil was to great for "Triple X" not to join it, so they get my vote, even if it might be the only one.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

EPW Break out star of the year

EPW breakout star of the year
Copycat
Fusenshoff
Layne Winters
Sean Edmunds
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For a 'break out' star, I mean somebody who's not in the main event currently who I can see being in the main event in 2010. They might have main evented a time or two already, but they have the ability to break out and really main event in 2010.

(Note: I feel Jared Wells and Anarky already main eventers due to what's happened in EPW in their time here, Don't hit me Barry and Josh!)

#4 Copycat- Garth's a great Rp'er and Copycat is a great character. With Anthology's backing I can see Copycat moving up the ranks. For me I wish he'd be a bit more of a monster heel then a ego heel, I know he's the Smartest Player In The Game, but the dude is 6'4" and 280. He's Sheamus sized, he should be kicking ass like Sheamus.

#3 Fusenshoff- I'd most likely move him up to #2 if it wasn't for the fact that he's caught in the crossfire of the HOPE/Anthology conflict...I enjoyed Rp'ing with him for our tag match and I like Fuse a lot, once this storyline blows off, Fuse is primed to pick up the pieces from the wreckage.

#2 Sean Edmunds- Edmunds the handler has really come on strong as of late, and he has Anthology's backing. If Sean keeps up the level of work he's had on the last two shows I can see him being a threat to contend for any belt he wants in 2010.

#1 Layne Winters- Billy's busted his ass with Layne and it shows. When I was reading all his backstory Rp's before our First/Stevens match, I was just blown away by how dark a character Winters is. He's really the horrible underbelly of wrestling given form in E-Fedding. I feel like 2010 will be a big year for Winters, between the HOPE angle and Winters own personal demons of having to 'beat the clock' before his body gives out, I expect big things from him.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

EPW awards: Match of the year

What was EPW's match of the year
Copycat Vs Winters
Stevens Vs Daymon Vs JA
Stevens Vs First
Stevens Vs Westscott
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With the year ending, I figured I'd give out my awards for EPW, starting with match of the year, I'll have a poll up for this, so ya'll can tell me how right/wrong I am about things.

So I put my 4 match of the year nominees up for your votes, and here's where I rank them.

#4 Sean Stevens Vs JA Vs Rocko Daymon: This is #4 for me because the build up for it was rushed, literally put together at the end of the last Aggression before Wrestleverse III, and the Rp was only 1 promo apiece from all three parties, and in the end, JA retired after the match and Rocko went on a downward spiral, so really only Stevens got a long term boost from the match. Still it was as good a match as I've written and did establish Stevens as the man in EPW, so it's on the list.


#3 Layne Winters Vs Copycat: Good Rp (For the time, which was during the horrible period when the forums kept crashing) built up by the match on the card before, and a great read from Straw, just a classic match, if this had been for the World Title instead of the TV Title, this would have been match of the year for me. Copycat didn't suffer for coming up short and Winters is positioned as a break out star in EPW.

#2 Sean Stevens Vs Marcus Westscott: Again great Rp while the forums were wacky, and a Straw epic that was on par with the ladder match at #3. This one truly cemented Stevens as a juggernaught, and was a fitting end to Westscott's run in EPW. This would be #1 if not for the fact that Westscott's build into this match got screwed up by Miles and Ice Tre vanishing and for the fact that Westscott retired.

#1 Sean Stevens Vs The First: "Oh You WHORE you!" was Billy's reply when I told him my rankings. And well, I did write this match, and my guy was in it, but it's my blog and I'll plead my case. I'm not going to say the match itself was in the ballpark of the two Strawian epics at 2 and 3, but the thing is, for EPW's history, this was the most important match of the year. Much as Forrest Griffin and Stephen Bonner wildly swinging at each other was UFC's most important fight (Or so Dana White's revisionist history tells us) this is the match that launched First's main event singles push and established him as a threat to win the World Title, and it had Stevens win and keep the belt, which was something a defending champion hadn't done in forever. Both guys got over from this match, and they are from the looks of things heading towards an even more epic re-match.

And if you don't buy my reasoning, well at the very least I'm not an awful person like Billy who makes people quit this hobby.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

What's my line

Lines mean different things in different situations. Lines in chess mean a certain opening, hell in chess lines are so well defined, many opens branch off from moves that are far down the line. The Roy Lopez opening is so well defined that the book on it lists 'with 3 ... a6' and 'without 3 ... a6' meaning black's third move is so likely to be a6 that they branch off ideas based off what that move, think of all the opening moves possible in chess and then the moves after those moves, and yet this opening is so well know black's third move is a large point of discussion.

A line in poker is a way you represent your hand. Let's say you have an Ace and a Ten of diamons, the flop is a King with 2 other cards, and there's 2 diamonds out there. You know in you heart of hearts your opponent has a King...Now let's assume there's 10 bucks in the pot, he bets 10 bucks, you call...The turn isn't a heart, he checks, and you check, the river is also not a heart, and he checks again, and now you bet 50 bucks in a bluff trying to steal the pot. Your opponent hems and haws but in the end he calls, because he thinks you had a busted flush draw, and he was right, he saw what your hand was by the line you played with it.

Now, let's say that same hand happens, but when he bets the 10, you decide to raise to 30, he calls with his King, but he's concerned, on the turn, he checks, you bet 45 bucks, a little less then two thirds the pot, and he hems and haws and calls. On the river he checks and you now bet 200 dollars, a huge bet, with nothing but a busted flush draw. The thing is, the whole way you've represented a big hand, your line is that you have a monster hand. Your opponent finally decides to cut his losses and folds.

Now I'm sure you want me to get to the point, and the point is, there are lines we take in Rp feds, and often the line is defined by who does the first promo, kind of making them "White" in chess, Here's some examples

Debut Match in a league

White is the Debuting guy

Humble- "It's an honor to be here, and I'm fighting big star guy, and well it's gonna be a hell of a show.'

Cocky- "I don't know why I was booked against this bum, I'm gonna crush him and start gunning for belts right quick, I'm running this league over."

Indifferent- "New company, another paycheck, I guess I'll kick your ass, and you are again?"

White is the guy fighting the debuting guy

Respectful- "Welcome to league X, and I we're gonna tear the house down man."

Disgusted- "Of course management tries to use me as a stepping stone for the new guy, to hell with them and you, I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Weary- "Welcome new guy, more meat for the machine, they'll screw you like they've screwed everyone else, you should almost be thankful I'm going to start you off with a loss, give you a chance to escape."

Guys who have had a match before with a result.

White is the winner from the first match

Round 2 will be exciting!- "We had a great match, and that night, it was my night, who knows what will happen this time."

Round 2 is a joke!- "I've already crushed this loser, why the hell am I fighting him again? Oh right, you're there, well screw you loser, you're losing, again."

Round 2 is where I finish the job!- "I beat you last time, this time I END you!"

White is the loser from the first match.

Round 2 will even the score!- "We had a good match you got me, this time I get you!"

Round 2 will be different because I say so!- "Excuse X is why I lost (X= whatever my excuse is, yeah that's right motherfuckers, Algebra in E-Fedding blogs!) and that won't happen this time!"

Round 1 was business...Round 2...IS PERSONAL!- "Yeah I lost the match last time, but this time you're gonna lose even more then a match!"

Now that's the opening and you have to follow it, your leading promo should define your line for the period. If you have no respect for the piece of garbage you're fighting when you start promoing, you shouldn't find respect for them mid-way through the thread...If you lied through your teeth to start, keep lying, deny reality...If you told the truth to start, keep with it. You want your story to be one that's solid all the way through, you might need new angles on it to keep it fresh, but you want the story to be coherent all the way through.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

How rich is your character?

All our characters are loaded with cash, or at least that's what we like to claim. Dan Ryan and Lindsay Troy are loaded enough to buy whole wrestling companies. Wrestling would have to be a major part of the US/World economy if the FWC-A-Verse was real. Health Care Reform would live or die in the Senate based on what the Wrestling lobby or "Big Wrestling" had to say about it...

So now I ask you, how rich is your character? I'll go down the list of my major characters first.

Doc Silver- Doc was born into money, that was always a part of the character, he's like BJ Penn in the sense that he never had to work a day in his life if he didn't have to, but he got into wrestling and made good money doing it anyhow. Doc's most likely worth about 4-5 million.

Bloodhunt- Bloodhunt might have made good coin in NFW, but he knew he'd have to work after the business was over. Currently has an ownership stake in a used car dealership somewhere in Maryland, wrestles in bingo halls/VFW Hall's for whatever money they pay him. He's middle class America, making 40K or so a year, maybe a little more. He has enough in the bank for a rainy day fund.

The First- He's new to the sport, we'll just assume UCW paid him OK with promises of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and then ran for the hills when the creditors came calling. He'd still be on a kind of low paying contract in EPW and A1E, his profit margin would really be how much of a cut does he get on his EPW merch. I'd assume he's making a little under 200K from all income sources combined, which seems great, but odds are with his size his career isn't going to last more then 15 years (If it even gets that far) so unless he knows he has to make a big score in wrestling or else his nightmare of being "Brian Nadalny" and working some shitty desk job to provide for his wife and kid will be one that comes true.

So how do you see your characters pay scale? Reply damn you!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Dealing with Stupidity

While the rest of the E-Fedding Blogosphere burns over Impulsegate (Oh Katz is lucky the E-Fedding Blogosphere didn't exist for the Zane Incident) I'll spend my time far more productively by going over slights from nameless people that were published 4 years ago...Well not really, more to the point, I am going to talk about stupidity in characters and what's right and wrong to deal with it.


I was talking to Josh (Anarky/HAL handler) and he said to me "Well to be fair you don't make it clear that people shouldn't believe The First has lived all these lives" or words to that effect. So I thought to myself that maybe that was the case. I mean, I'd had First's debut be him living in his parent's basement and lamenting having to take out the trash, I was trying to make him as big a schmuck as possible, but maybe it didn't translate, I don't know.


But the thing is to me, the past life stuff is such crap, it's so silly that your bullshit alarm should go off and you should say "To hell with this, this is a bunch of stupidity! I ain't selling your shit!"


About the most campy gimmick in real wrestling is Undertaker, and he gets no sold all the time, CM Punk called him "Smoke and Mirrors" and Shawn Michaels constantly one upped and harassed him during the build to Wrestlemania last year. Now admittedly a lot of the people who've said Undertaker is a joke were heels, and then they quickly cowered when the lights went out or when a casket showed up, but still, they talked a good game, they didn't buy into the hype of the Deadman.


Like when I saw my first round opponent's bio in TEAM listed him as a mass murderer leader of a biker gang I no-sold it...Because somethings are just to absurd to be accepted, if somebody is pushing a gimmick like that, make them explain it...Make them sell it, make them defend what is really undefendable.


Of course if you talked enough smack about Yori Yakamo Jr. odds are you would in fact be laid out by a foot long dildo and pinned, so yeah, you might have to sell that his dildos can kill you dead and also bend space and time...Still if you want to call 'bullshit' on the dildos, you're putting your character's life, and the time stream, at risk.


That's the draw back of the crazy character, that someone will just not sell your crazy, and you have to deal with it, maybe the storyline and way the league is written your crazy *is* reality and they'll have to accept it...Maybe you really will take a flamethrower to the cast of saved by the bell...


Now by the same token, there are those who do sell the stupidity of the opponent, Kane was the brother of the Undertaker...People went after the Urn which used to give Taker his power...Pete Russo said it in my last post's comments "I'd tell First that I killed him 2,500 years ago and I'll do it again!" exactly...You could sell the stupidity of The First...You could be some past life foe or friend, whatever you want...

Now of course at this point some smart-ass is saying "But Mike, you talk of no selling a person's stupid gimmick, yet you were the one flipping over tables during the whole First/Brian thing. Defend your clearly hypocritical stance!" and to you dear smart ass I say, I'm going back to Undertaker...

Nobody calls Undertaker "Mark"...No matter how they belittle the stuff he does as being a joke, they don't deny that he is "The Undertaker"...For whatever that's worth...So I'd expect people to react to The First about the same...

And lastly, if you don't 'get' a character...It's best to talk to that character's handler, try to see the vision they had for the gimmick...That way you're not causing them to write a series of blog posts far far in the future about wacky gimmicks and shit...You horrible pricks...

Oh and Fuck J-Cup!

The First really sucks

Billy was going through Holzerman's old blog and came across a gem of a reply to it...The writer was of course unnamed.

And Blogger won't let me C'n'P for some stupid reason so I get to type this sucker all the way out.

"I am facing The First in UCW. He doesn't do narrative but he "existed" in the civil war, the was a "Roman Gladiator"....no...no...no. That is just crap. That is not a character I am interested in or ever will be. It's silly. It's not real life. It doesn't even make sense. I have no interest in doing a program with someone like that. I would never vote for a character like that. It is a waste of my time. Yes E-Fedding is fantasy; (editor's note: Semi-Colon, elegant!) but there is a fine line that gets crossed to readily when the writer falls into narrative."

It's been a while since UCW...But I sadly never saw this blog posting before....And as Jules Winnfield said "Allow me to retort"

First is an idiot, that's the A-Number-1 thing you should take away from the character. You should call bullshit on all his past life stuff, you know why? Cause he's completely full of shit! It's all in his head...Yeah in UCW I did flashback Rp's to the time and place where First was supposedly living his lives, and I got feedback from the fed heads who said they liked it, so I kept doing it.

He never was in the civil war, he never was a roman gladiator, he thinks these things because he's a delusional moron.

Honestly, of my three 'big time' characters (Doc, Bloodhunt, First) I'd say First should be the easiest to Rp against of the three. When I was Rp'ing Doc I was a prick, I'd never sell weakness, never concede a point, argue everything into the ground. Bloodhunt would just get into JFK getting shot and be all conspiracy theory tastic, I mean you could call him paranoid, but he'd just blow right over that.

First I want people to insult. I had him having tea-parties and talking to stuffed animals just so people would cut promos on him saying "You're a fucking moron playing with stuffed animals!" I was and will be in the future handing my opponents the materials to hang my character, because he thinks and does stupid shit...People should call him on that...

So nameless slammer of First from years gone by, here's the backstory of the character in all it's glory (Note: This all could be Ret-Conned at a moment's notice)

Brian Nadanly was a goth loser in Salem High School and at the age of 16 he had a past life regression from one of the scam-artists who do that sort of foolishness...And for whatever reason, said past-life scam artist decided to tell Brian that he had 'the oldest soul he ever had seen' that he'd recounted just dozens and dozens of past lives...And from there Brian had the 'vision' that he was the oldest living soul on earth, The First soul...His gaggle of losers were quickly swayed by the past-life scam artist and Brian AKA First's story...So they fell in line with calling him First.

First was basically the leader of a cult of 5 morons...Which became 6 when in an effort to get laid, he decided to hit on a girl who was a social outcast...He told her that she was Muse, a soul almost as old as his. She fell under the spell of being 'Muse' and as a result, gained a new self confidence (Lost weight, learned to play guitar and drums) and became a free spirit, but her relationship with First never worked out romantically for whatever reasons that happen in teen drama, and anyhow First ran into Rozy a few months later, and well, she'd thought him being "The First" was cool, and she put out for him, so that took care of his girlfriend needs.

He hits a wrestling school, and next thing you know he's a big deal in UCW, pinning Dan Ryan (And thusly earning his right to be in the band) and winning it's world title...Stuff happens, he joins EPW...And we have HOPE and all that fun and frivolity...

Final note, if you think my character sucks, IM me and tell me so! Don't make me wait years for Billy to find your post in a Holzer-blog so I can reply to it years after you've quit Rp'ing, you hoodlum!