Turn your character

Your character is most likely either a face or a heel, now turn them, be consistent to the character, don't cheat, you hoodlums.

I'll start off by turning The First heel, twice!

HEEL TURN 1

Militant Gay Rights Activist- First becomes a jerk about things, calls crowds 'bigots'. Pretty much works the crowd to get to chant anti-gay things at him so he can turn around and show them that they are exactly what he says they are. CM Punk in a way where he has a point, but he goes about proving it by being a total scumbag. Would work as a face in states that have legalized gay marriage, unless he could find some other anti-gay event that's happened there so he can play that up for more heat.

HEEL TURN 2

"Soulless" Brian Nadalny- First does something horrible, like say, has an affair with Muse and ruins his marriage, and doing this causes him to believe that The Soul Of The First has left his body. He is now no longer The First. This creates an identity crisis in him that turns him into something of a lunatic. I'd try to stay away from nihilism as that's pretty played out...He could become obsessed with identity, since's lost his...Spending his time constantly asking people "Who are you?" (Which is also a cool Babylon 5 reference!) He seeks to force people to explain why they are they way they are, and it's up to him if he accepts their reasoning.

NOTE: If your character has been around for forever, it's no fair face turning them just because all know olde tymie heels just become faces from the legend/nostalgia pop, so giimme something to work with here. Hell, gimme replies for anything.

Concept Fed: Alternate Universe Wrestling

I saw Billy's dragon league and an EWTorch thread about concept leagues and thought about what would be a concept league I'd have an interest in. I'm pretty swamped in E-Fedding right now so I can't run this, but I'd most likely join it if somebody did.

Welcome to Alternate Universe Wrestling: AUW.

You join AUW by submitting a well known character you handle, as does everyone else, and once the league has about 12-15 people, we have a draft, and you end up getting somebody else's character to Rp. I don't want 'tribute' Rp's either where you try to copy the style of the other person, no I want a re-invention of the character, a new take on them.

The AUW Roster

NOTE: I haven't asked any of the handlers here about how they would handle any of these characters, these are just ideas I'm throwing out there. Feel free to be disgusted with how your characters are ruined, or tell me you would never have that idea for that character.

Joe The Plumber- Barry Clark takes JTP from his drug induced trash talking mania and turns him into a skirt chasing bad ass. JTP always seems to end up being the plumber on duty when Sorority houses plumbing has a problem. Same with wealthy women who's husbands are out of town, and also strip clubs always seem to get Joe to show up whenever they have a problem. Joe most likely has double digit kids and has been ducking DNA tests for years.

Castor Strife- Jon Katz knows Castor controls Hollywood, and he proves it. Castor is no longer directing fake snuff porn, but is rather a ubiquitous producer for some unknown film studio. He promises all the stars of AUW fame beyond that which wrestling can grand them, but sadly after the fools jump through the hoops, the projects never seem to get greenlit.

Anarky- Ryan Aston decides that Anarky needs to be a bit more...Chaotic...Anarky interferes in matches left and right, never having a reason or motive for his meddling in the affairs of others. He manages at one point to become Head Ref of AUW and his rulings effect the AUW World Title repeatedly. He is universally reviled by the locker room, but is also feared.

Sean Stevens- Tom Holzerman shows us the man that survived the gangs of Miami. Sean Stevens humble roots turned him into a man who rejects outward displays of wealth, knowing so many who got killed chasing that lifestyle. He has his money, but quietly donates it to charities for youth projects, and goes to high schools wherever AUW goes, telling kids to stay out of gangs and avoid gun violence.

The First- Barry Thompson brings us the shattered mind of The First, who fakes his way through the day as best he can, for in his own mind he's just endlessly reliving his past lives. Rozy is more caretaker then wife, who drives for him, medicates him to lucidity needed for his matches, and takes care of day to day affairs. Muse doesn't exist in modern times, but rather First pretends she does, speaking in a different voice for her when 'they' talk. So odds are he'll become skitzophrenic soon enough.

Impulse- Billy Ferraro has misfortune strike Impulse early in his career. In his second match under the mask, Impulse is unmasked as Randall Knox. The fans and locker room turn against him and his fears of believing people would think he's getting special treatment become reality as nobody accepts his victories as genuine. He finally breaks and sarcastically declares himself "The Chosen One" Randall Knox. He hooks people without mercy, the AUW locker room tells horror stories of the rehabs for shredded knees and broken arms that Knox inflicts upon his foes.

Shawn Hart- Josh Levinson reveals a Shawn Hart isn't all fun and games. Hart is a backstage manipulator, a former of alliances, he plots and schemes to keep AUW under his control. He always makes good on his deals, but the price is never truly what his partners think it will be.

Fusenshoff- I try my hand at Fuse, and the event that scarred his life, the car accident that killed his sister, becomes the turning point of his life. Fuse wears a black armband to the ring in memory of her and rails against the evils of alcohol, and how society accepts it as something to enjoy. He lashes at the 'drunk, stupid, and pathetic' in the crowds of AU. He cuts promos from roadsides where flowers and memorials have been laid out in memory of a person killed by a drunk driver.

Cameron Cruise- Gregg Gethard gives us a Cruise who's fresh into the sport and looking to make a name for himself. Cruise never becomes jaded with a harsh and cruel sport, always looking towards each challenge as just another chance to prove himself in the field of battle. Combat is all Cruise cares about, the struggle of fighting another man until one of you is the winner is his driving force.

Felix Red- Paul Miller shows us a Felix Red at the end of his rope. The drugs, the sex, the violence barely register a tickle to Felix at this point. Half the AUW roster thinks he's going to try to kill somebody and himself in the ring in one last blaze of glory. Felix fosters this belief in them as a way to keep everyone on guard, and there always does seem to be the possibility that maybe he's not as used up as he appears.

And the list goes on and on. I'm sure this would be a crazy as hell league, where half the people would love how the new spins on their characters and the other half would quit in disgust. I know I'd enjoy it, well as long as Doc didn't become a fan for some band like Creed or something.

A Reality Check

This isn't about Cameron Cruise and his finisher, but rather about people who decide to do just absurd things in their Rp's...

Brunk sent me a link to an Rp against an opponent he was fighting in some non-FWC league, and the guy had a promo where his character blew off Meagan Fox. Sorry baby, love you, not in love with you...I don't know if this was done to establish his character as being really amazingly 'big time' or something, but well...It's just absurd...

The biggest star in wrestling today is John Cena...And if he was lucky he'd be able to get on camera with Meagan Fox on his best day, much less be able to do a promo with her where she was willing to have him tell her 'thanks but no thanks'

So ease up on the insanity...You're not A-List in Hollywood...Hell I always feel lame if I have Doc Silver run into Shirley Manson...

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.

Heels

I've been reading the face/heel discussions on the forums of ewtorch.com and I was thinking about what everyone was saying. And while everyone had good points, I think one major thing has been overlooked. Today I'll talk about heels.

The key for a heel to be a heel is that the character has to have a reason to hate the crowd. It's one thing to hate a face and have a personal issue with them, and for you to be seen as being 'in the wrong' in the eyes of the masses, but that feud will end, and after it's all said and done, you need to have more then just that, you need to have a justification for why the crowd is beneath you, why you willingly embrace their scorn and hatred. You have to be able to answer the question "Why is this guy such a dick". A heel has to have a reason to think he's 'above' or 'better' then the crowd. Cause people on the whole, want to be cheered, why does your character not want that? Why does he embrace being hated?

You have the rich heel, who's a success, and he looks down on you cause you're not. He's better then you because he made it and you're just a peon. The crowd hates the guy because he is dismissive, aloof, insulting. Currently "Triple X" Sean Stevens is that kind of a heel, with his custom made suits, 5 figure sunglasses, and all the rest.

You have the scumbag heel who offends people because he has no morals, no sense of honor, and yet he flips that around, he credits his depraved outlook on life as being what makes him a winner, and the fans who are bound to their foolish idealism about good and evil, they are wrong, and the results of the heel prove he's right. The crowd hates them because they are cowards, who are not shamed by the levels they stoop to win. Doc Silver was this kind of heel.

Finally there are the moral scolds, who declare that their way of life is superior then the crowd's. The crowd hates these people because they talk down to them, insulting their lifestyle and degrading the choices they've made in life. Born Again in LVW is one of these heels. CM Punk replaces religion with the Straight Edge lifestyle on Smackdown for this gimmick.

Smarks tend to gravitate towards heels instead of faces, but don't let that natural bias cloud your mindset, as I said in my post before, most people treat the non-existent crowds in E-Fedding like an on/off switch and you just set your character to 'Heel' and he's boo'ed out of the arena every night. But why? What makes the crowd hate him so much? Justify your heat and it'll make your character easier to write and develop.

Now get out there and piss some people off.

Love for the little guy

A trend I've noticed in E-Fedding is that newest characters people make tend to be smaller. I think this is because as we've grown up around the business of wrestling, we made 'stat monster' characters in our mark days. We all got a kick out of the 7'4" guys hitting shooting star presses (and they did exist) but on the whole, a lot of old school guys are big.

I think the new crop of smaller guys has come along as we've moved from being marks who wee fans of monsters, and became smarks who are fans of workrate. Nobody's blown away by Mark Henry's workrate, so giant monsters like him aren't seen a lot on the forums.

Like Anthology is a bunch of old school characters...Cameron Cruise (6'4" 263 lbs.) Jared Wells (6'1" 254) Larry Tact (6'6" 260) Copycat (6'4" 280) their newest member, Sean Edmunds, is the runt of the litter (6' 228)

I never really thought of Cruise as a big guy till I read his stats, and I was like "Wow, he's a big guy". Reading the First/Cruise match over I never got the sense that The First was really facing a big guy, in the tag match with Copycat/Cruise...It was made clear that Copycat was ragdolling The First, and he should be, he's a big guy, nearly a monster heel, and The First is a tiny, high flying face.

Currently three of the most over guys I can think of on the forums (If I'm allowed to use one of my own characters in a gross showing of self promotion) are Impluse, The First, and Ice Tre, who are all listed at under 200 pounds on their bios, I really doubt this would have happened back in the old school P* days when people wanted to powerbomb you through the mat and didn't really care if being 250+ meant you shouldn't be hitting shooting star presses. Heck Shane Southern who was a HBK knock off was 6'4".

When you're writing a match it's important to look at the bios and see what the two guys measure up as, because you should play up a size mis-match between two people. Most of the boards know about MMA or Boxing and understand weight classes and two guys 30 pounds apart is a big deal. Of course by that same token you have to sell the little guy's comeback by talking up his speed advantage, the nature of his offense, etc. Bring up the fact that the big guy has to carry around all that weight so he could gas out later in the fight.

Odds are I'll be writing the Layne Winters/The First TV Title match in EPW...Besides just BURYING Winters and putting myself sick over (That's rule #1 when you write your own matches, never forget that.) and one of the things I'd bring up in that match is that Winters has fought Olvir (A absolute MONSTER at 6'7" 317) and Fusenhoff (checking in at a meager 6'3" 263) and has gone from being the smaller man in both matches (If only by 13 pounds Vs Fuse) to now being the much bigger man Vs The First, and how that'll change his tactics and game plan now that he finally enters into a battle as the larger fighter.

Billy talked a lot about this with his writing of the Castor/PC Vs Black/Impluse match, and how he wanted to get over that Castor is much bigger then Impulse, and he should, that's part of both characters. If you make up a character that's under 200 pounds, you have to expect him to get the shit beaten out of him. I'd be a moron if I thought The First was gonna steamroll people, and I'm sure Pete Russo knows the same thing with Impulse.

The move towards smaller guys, while people still have their older bigger characters is interesting, and if Ryan's lucha league ever has any of it's guys move to the "American" leagues, that influence would be even bigger. Not that all new characters are smaller, but I believe the trend is moving that way. So don't fear the 200 pound line, embrace it, enjoy watching your character being stuck like a tack...It's not so bad, really...

Winning a title: The Job Interview

Our forums are ever a source of drama. If E-Fedding drama could be turned into a form of energy, we would be free of the grip of foreign oil. One such bit of drama came from the handler of Frankie Scott, who has unfortunately left the game. On his way out he said he'd fought for the EPW World TV Title twice and felt like he'd done a good enough job in Rp to win the title. Rp is subjective, and it's really hard to judge one's own matches, unless your me, in which case I haven't been out Rp'ed in over a decade and every loss I've suffered is because the booker couldn't understand how brilliant I am. (Sarcasm alert)

So anyhow, let's say you're just about anyone at all in this game, and you're gunning for a title. What is the keys to winning a title?

1. Being Consistant

You get hired for a job because people expect you to show up and do the work. That's pretty straight forward, but it's still important, you have to have been on the last few shows, Rp'ing your matches, signing up for matches, and if you can write a match or two, all the better. Put in work.

2. Networking

It's really important to make friends and build relationships in this hobby. Everything here is political, everything here is based off trust. A fed-head who knows you only as "He's the handler of wrestler X" isn't as likely to put you over as one who hears from you, gets input on your ideas and thoughts. By that same token, it's hard to work a feud with somebody over a belt if the person you're feuding with doesn't know you except as "His opponent". It's hard to get yourself into those spots. You have to find people and talk to them, pitch ideas to them, discuss plans, work angles. Anthology didn't happen because Brunk said "You guys, you're now a stable". No Siegel, Clark, Pena et. all had an idea and made it happen.

3. Storylines

You want to be in the mix of a storyline, this may be more important then the other two, period. Double so if the title you are going for is a major one that's normally tied up to important storylines that are effecting the whole company. Let's take the First/Stevens match for an example. It's a crazy open challenge from a tag wrestler against the World Champ, my odds of winning the title there were very low, but what the match did do for The First's career is get him starting into a storyline with Stevens and has put him in the main event a time or two.

Losing to a champion can be the key to winning a title or getting a push, so if you do fail to win the title, try to figure out the reasons why. Get feedback from the fed-head about why he made the decision as he did. Learn from it and try to come back with better reasons for you to get the title next time.

Tag Teams and Stables

I've been reading the posts for the FW Gut Reactions thread and people want more updates. Well I'll give it a whirl.

There were 2 questions on the list about stables and tag teams, I gave a quick answer there and well, I want to try a bigger answer here.

You can have three kinds of stables, a stable that's put together around a gimmick (The Nation of Domination) you can have a mega stable that's going to try to take over (DX, nWo, Horsemen) or you can have one of many short lived counter stables that formed in reaction to those other stables.

I think all three stables are cool, the big difference between real wrestling and E-Fedding is that we're not all here for a paycheck, the reasoning for why your character is in the stable should be made clear. Sometimes the reason for being in a stable isn't really awesome for your character, in the sense that they are a flunkie/tag-a-long, but you might as well roll with it and explain why your guy is doing that.

My major issue with Anthology is that they aren't going after the World Title. I know Siegel had his reasons for not fighting Stevens at Agg 44, and that's cool, but I felt like Anthology was a big time player leading up to Wrestleverse. I wouldn't have been the least bit shocked if the main event of Wrestleverse had had Cruise in that three way instead of JA or Rocko. He'd just won the IC Title, he's now on a roll, I could have seen him being put in the main event.

I feel like if not Cruise, then somebody in Anthology should step up and let Stevens know his time with the belt is running out, he might not even make it to Westscott. Etc etc. Anthology's now been in back to back main events on Agg's and Stevens has been in both, there's no reason for them not to break out the knives for the champ.

(Note: All of the above was in no way, shape, or form designed to turn Anthology's baleful gaze from The First to Stevens, feel free to keep attacking The First!)

As for tag teams, I think the best thing is to do a joint tag team with somebody who you get along with. I love joint promos, I had tons of fun writing them with Felix Red (Barry T.) I mean he's a great handler and for whatever reason he was cool just being in the tag division for a year.

The thing with writing joint Rp's and working with other people is that it forces you to react while in character, really gets you into the mind-set of the gimmick you're Rp'ing, and for me with The First, it was interesting because Felix is so damn insane he makes The First look normal by comparison, I had to play straight man to Felix's madness a lot of the time and just react to what he was doing. It also leads to the two of you doing stuff that moves your character out of their comfort zone and gets you trying to figure out how to roleplay in those situations.

The year and change The First was with Felix Red really let me refine the character and work out whatever the hell it was in my mind that I was trying to do with him, and since I was a tag champ and winning matches, it was getting First over at least in the sense that he was a successful tag wrestler. I don't think I could have spent a year working on the character while he was going .500 or so on the mid-card as a solo act.

So while I think a fully made tag team Rp'ed by one person is good and there's no reason not to do them, I believe that the best way for somebody to build a character is with somebody else in their team.

I want to see Wells/Tact joint promos...My biggest dissapointment with Agg 44 was that I didn't get to write a joint promo with Jamar Short. I was thinking of having Stevens basically kidnap The First and drag him to some sort of high end clothing shop and explaining to him that if he was gonna tag with the champ he was gonna have to quit looking like an idiot, and The First screws it all up by still getting himself a stupid over the top outfit (something in a horrible color with a top hat most likely) and Stevens just giving up on him. Hopefully leaving The First to pay the bill for his suit ("Ummm...You kinda pulled me off the street, I don't have my credit cards handy...Trip...TRIP?)

So if you're trying to figure out what the hell to do with your character, write segments with people, interact with other characters, see what happens and learn from it.

Roleplaying is good

Having read Jon Katz's post on Billy's blog, and having already replied to it, I read it again and figured I needed to tackle the issue on my own blog, since I tend to have the view that roleplay is good and important in leagues, and it doesn't feel like Katz does.

His first point is that if a league is small then only 2-3 people dominate. I think that would happen anyhow if a league is small, and why wouldn't a small fed have 2-3 dominating characters and the rest are left to fend for themselves? I mean what gives the guys who aren't doing lots of Rp and working hard to advance their characters the right to be in the main event and hold the big title?

His other side of the issue is that if you got to much talent then you can't establish a dominating champion...Who says you can't? Sean Stevens is a dominating champion in my eyes, I'd say he's been well established...Beyond him I'd think Marcus Westscott has been put into a good position as the #1 contender, and I feel like The First, even with him being my own character, has been pretty well established as a solid face. Anthology always get raves from people after every card, I think EPW's whole upper-midcard teir has been well cemented.

I'm not saying I think EPW is 100% Rp based...I think angles and storylines outside Rp factor into matches, I think they have to in every league, if you just judge every match based on Rp then you lack any ability to build storylines or angles that lead to payoffs, there has to be some storyline arc that you're using as a justification for getting from point A to point B.

As for the '150 pound woman' and '75 pound midget' comments, I mean, shots at Lindsay Troy and Duchess are always good fun for the whole family, but honestly, who's Rp'ing these characters on FW.com currently? This is a strawman arguement against roleplaying. I'm a belt whore of the highest order and if somebody told me that The First was to small to be world champion because they never really bought Jeff Hardy as being a legit main eventer...Then odds are I'd work out a different gimmick for that league, because I myself want to win World Titles, and I'm not going to have my character hold me back from that. Now maybe the guy who Rp's the 75 pound midget doesn't want a World Title and would rather do all kinds of zany shit in the mid-card, to each their own.

The thing about this comment is, you would be upfront with the handler that you're never putting the World Title on that character because they don't fit your mold as a champion, and that's perfect with me, handlers and fed-heads should have open lines of communication where they express their opinons about characters and what they think they should be doing and where they are going with the character.

Rp has to matter because otherwise you are encouraging people to be lazy, you're fostering this mindset that it's OK to not do a bunch of Rp's because 'we're all adults now, we have jobs, families, lives' etc, when if people do give a damn about a league, we get 20+ posts in a tag title main event on EPW. I know that Siegel and I are nuts, but Garth stumbled off the street and in his first match put in his work to hang with everyone, and Jamar didn't slack either. It was the most fun I'd had in ages in a thread.

It was like the scene in "The Crow" where the main villian, the never named Top Dollar, declares he's done with Devil's Night because it's boring and cliche, and when finally asked if he doesn't want anyone to set a fire he says what he wants is a REALLY BIG FIRE, so that the Gods will notice us again...

It was to me, a stark contrast to the EPW World Title match at Wrestleverse. I know Straw only did one Rp because he was working out an angle for Rocko to lose first, and I know Holzerman had one foot out the door of E-Fedding at the time, and Jamar tends to Rp best when pushed by his opponents (see the tag thread and the thread for First/Stevens)...But that thread kind of hurt me, because Brunk had thought about putting The First in that match for a while before deciding against it, and then to see that lackluster level of Rp...It just killed me. People tend to poo-poo E-Fedding and give the whole 'It's just a game' or 'it's a silly hobby' mentality to things, but honestly, we do spend time at this, and we have goals to achieve in leagues, and when your goal is to be EPW Champion and you see a title match where there is merely 1 post from each guy and they call it a day...It's just like "AHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Basically I think Rp should matter a lot, because it shows your level of committment and caring to your league you're in, and if you put in work, it should be rewarded at some point. Angles and Storylines have to count also, because without a story to tell the Rp is just meaningless, but the Rp should effect who the stories are told about.

And as for TEAM...TEAM is to me a kind of 'one-off' event. Like a friendly between two nations in Soccer. It is it's own seperate thing and pretty much divorced from the other leagues, the bitching and yelling and crys of 'bullshit' about TEAM are based almost totally off the fact that we have no idea what the standards for judging Rp are, because we don't know who the judges are. That's about it. I think if Adam just handled all the matches or the judging panel was public it would be a lot better.

Now I'm gonna go do something productive with my time, such as farm herbs on my blood elf rogue.

Compete Vs cooperate and shooting

A lot of times in E-Fedding we come to a point where we really have to ask ourselves if this next match is really worth winning by going balls to the wall all out total Rp and angle war, or if it's a match that we would be better served by working out a deal with the opponent...

I think of Godbooks and storyline advancing matches as a sort of plea agreement between both sides..."The jury" is the fed head or bookers and in a bunch of matches you don't want your case going to them, cause you might just lose outright.

But the question is can you get something better out of working a deal. And can the deal help out both people in the match? This is really where E-Fedding is kind of weird, because a lot of times the opponent you're fighting to death today, is the guy you need to help you tomorrow.

I tend to think that if you're not in the World Title picture that odds are you should try to cut deals and work out storylines with as many people as you can to build yourself up to the point where you can fight for the World Title...And that on the whole, the World Title scene is going to be people competing against each other with no quarter given or asked, because this is what we're all trying to do, win the big belt.

I was reading Billy's blog and it talked about how I am both shot on, ("Brian") and am a shooter. My defense.

Mass murdering isn't generally a sold gimmick in any league I've been in, I can't imagine somebody trying to get over in EPW/NFW/LVW/WFW:NE/The Lucha Thing Ryan's Got Going/Etc. The Doc character could never accept this gimmick, because it's so stupid, and for as big of a business exposing jerk as he is, this is a bridge to far even for him.

A goth idiot...Is a goth idiot...First's first match had him refered to as a Michael Manson rip off...So I can't see how he's exposing the biz as it were. I know Billy covered all that, but I just wanted to say my own piece.

Also, as I've told anyone willing to listen to me for more then a minute about the gimmick, the person of Brian Nadalny is that of an idiot goth outcast who hung out with his gaggle of goth moron friends and around the age of 16, he had the epiphany that he had the soul of the first human being to get a soul put in them, and thusly in a night of weepie goth bullshit, got all his idiot friends to buy into his shit and call him First...

So he's really living the gimmick...There is a reason I call him a moron all the time. Hell I'd make fun of him if I was dealing with him.

judging Rp's

First of all everything said here about deadlines is spot fucking on...

I wanted to talk about judging Rp's and how I feel about Rp's in general. Rp'ing each character is different, they all have a different backstory and point of view.

So let's say we have a guy who's Rp's make me laugh while I'm reading them and are really witty and funny, and then I read the other guy's promo and it's just a solid read...I give it to the first guy right?

Well not so fast, because the first guy may be playing a sarcastic smart ass heel type, and the other guy might be playing an all-business kind of face...How can I be fair to the face when his character can't do what the heel does...He's not supposed to engage me and make me laugh, he's supposed to sell me on the fact that he's a legit wrestling talent and that once all this wise cracking and tomfoolery of promos is done, he's going to get to the business of working this punk ass bitch in the ring and giving him a lesson he won't forget.

I kind of view it as a dog show, a pug and a golden retriever are not compared to each other, they are compared to what the judge sees as being as the 'ideal' of that breed's standard. Think of all the 'breeds' we have in wrestling. All the different kinds of faces (Anti-Heros, White Knights, comic faces, bad ass 'cool' faces. etc) and heels (Monster heels, pyscho heels, chicken shit Doc-ian heels, ego heels, rich guy heels etc) It's really hard to compare one to another, but it's more of a question of 'how is this guy playing his role in this match'

Like Born Again is a chicken shit heel, 7-10 is a pyscho heel. Jimmy Donovan is a White Knight, J1D is a Cool Face...They have a 4 way match, how do I pick a winner? I can't just take J1D's wacky antics and give him the win cause he's entertaining. If Donovan's promo is really good at getting over his character and his motivations, it has to be taken from that frame of reference, I mean unless he's getting on a rant about banging hookers or something, I shouldn't expect anything more then a glib one-liner for Donovan, the meat of his message is that he's a double tough son of a bitch from Oklahoma who's gonna kick your ass.

And by the same token 7-10's promo should be about how he's fucking nuts...And still wants revenge on Walter Ray...Born again should be railing against vices and peddling his snake oil...The promo should just be a way of telling the story of your character, and how he sees things in this match.

Barring all this just write a dream sequence and throw shit at the wall...

Questions nobody's asked me

Everyone seems to be going about giving away their pearls of wisdom in FW land, so here are questions nobody's asked me, with answers. I'll stear away from 'who's Rp do you like' type questions, cause I hate picking favorites.

1- Idea for Doc Silver?

Doc was ripped off from a friend who literally wrote nearly 400 pages of wrestling matches for a league he made. He had a roster of like 50 guys and would do various things with them. Dr. Silver, Carlos Canyeta, Prism, Spectrum, were all names for guys he had. When I got into FW I just grabbed a few of the names and ran with them. Doc started as a rich kind of smug heel, I won a few titles and did whatever, but then I left E-fedding for a little while and then had a life altering moment.

I had been in a really crummy relationship with my girlfriend for over a year when I finally just got to the point where I understood that me and her really just were not working out and that it was time to call it a day, so we had a talk and we broke up, and then she quickly started dating my best friend 3 days later, that was awesome.

So having just lost my best friend and girlfriend...I'm now really bummed out, just miserable. I'm laying in bed watching MTV.

And then they played the video for "Only Happy When It Rains"...Shit just blew my mind...Song was literally my ex-girlfriend, everything about her...It could not have been more personal, so that about did me in, I was now a Garbage fan for life.

And then I said "fuck it" and just made Doc into me, or at least 'garbage me' as it were. The characters that are easiest to play is the ones most like yourself, and that's pretty much what Doc became after that. I moved to Vegas to deal poker, Doc moved to Vegas to play poker. About the only difference is that Doc's 10 years older then me, is a dry drunk, and a former pain killer addict. He's had a fast life and he's paying for it now.

Bloodhunt was kind of the same way, just me talking about the JFK assassination, something I know way to much about.

2- So you were Doc and Bloodhunt, what about The First, did you suffer a mid-life crisis and become a goth?

The First was supposed to be a comic kind of character in reaction to the narrative storylines that has been happening in leagues and changing the tone of FW. He's also based upon what I think a male version of my friend Rozy would be like, only I think Rozy doesn't have the self esteem to be bold enough to declare she's the oldest living soul in all humanity.

I try to play First such that he's nuts, but self aware that people would think he's nuts, but he knows he's really right and everyone else is wrong. He's also goofy enough to lose his shit and become Pharaoh of Egypt if events warrent it, but I doubt that'll happen for a while now that he's getting a singles push. He's more of a challenge to Rp because I have to figure out what he'd say.

3- So what's the difference with Rp'ing First compared to Doc?

I tend to read what my opponent posted in a match against First and then think things through for an hour or so, trying to find what he'd say or how he'd react to it. Like being called Brian would be a real insult, cause in his mind he isn't Brian...But trying to figure out how to express that is a bitch.

Doc I just read my what my opponent posted and hit reply and just start ripping apart their arguement, with Doc it's just treating the Rp's like a flame war. Only with Garbage lyrics!

4- What's the most important thing about a character?

Details, build the character, all that matters is defining and making a character, keep doing storyline Rp's, keep Rp'ing for matches, just always be putting yourself out there. Try to work out a moveset for your guy that's clearly defined, make it easy on people to write 'my character's match' and have it reflect what you see the character doing.

Right now I'm trying to build First's moveset up, The mist spray thing was a gag I wrote in for the Forsaken/Beast match because it was a reference to something in WoW and I was trying to get a reaction out of Anarky's handler, I don't think he laughed, the jerk, but now I'm keeping it in, cause I don't really see anyone else in EPW using a Muta spray attack, so it makes him unique for doing it.

5- What's the most important for being a good Rp man.

Rp'ing, that's about it, you show up and do the work sooner or later a door will open for you. Being consistant is really what's most important, there are tons of really excellent, most likely better then me Rp'ers out there that I'd never put a World Title on if I was running a league, just cause I can't trust they'll always Rp, and having a World Title defense no Rp'ed is just such a nightmare.

So don't join more leagues then you can Rp for.

6- Who are these handlers you would never strap?

I ain't start drama, you prying scumbags.

7- Tell us about the Zane Incident

I'm not going into it, leave me alone!

8- What about CSWA and --

This interview is over!!!! (Storms off)

(Leave any other questions if you want)