50 things I hate in E-Fedding

Since Billy's blog is way to happy and cheerful I've decided I need a new running topic, today marks the debut of "50 things I hate in E-Fedding" I'll post to this list as events require it. The order will be random

#48: Having my matches compared to Rocky V

This doesn't happen a whole hell of a lot, but when it does, it's galling, more so when I lose those matches, who wants to be Tommy Gunn? Really, this is beyond degrading.

#8 Belt Stealing

I can't accept this gimmick ever. I hated it back when I was in A1E (A time that predates the discovery of gunpowder) it's in NFW now, and I'd never have a character of mine sell it. Cause I can't suspend disbelief for this. I mean you have the hard camera shot of the ring and the crowd behind the ring will almost always have 15-25 leather and metal belts they are holding up for the camera. I myself own a WWE World Championship spinner belt. Why does the wronged face not just go to his company's website and order up a new belt? I've never understood that. I can see how that angle worked back in the day, but now, the optics of it are just stupid.

WRONGED FACE: "You took my belt you scumbag and I'm gonna get it back!"

(Crowd pops, dozens of them holding up copies of the belt that was stolen)

WRONGED FACE: "Wait a second...There's like 40 people in the first few rows who have my belt also, I should just log on to EPW.com and buy myself a copy of my belt...Keep my belt evil heel, because I can have it replaced within 24 hours with next day shipping!"

(Crowd pops for insane shilling of on-line store of company)

Ask your Characters

We spent the better part of the last month or so having various folks who've been in this crazy hobby of ours talk about how they see things in E-Fedding. I have a slight spin to make on this. Let's ask our characters that question. In a sense of what they did in their careers. It can be a shoot or a work, or in the case of my two guy's answers, it's shoot, but it's not business exposing, just an honest statement.

Today's Question

What's your biggest regret in your career?

DOC: That I never had a run in CSWA or A1E...I really think that would have gotten a ton of heat. I mean, CSWA is more possible because of the booking system there compared to that of A1E's...But either would have been fun, just go in, win the World Title, lose it on the next PPV...Be the vanquished villian...For all the shit I'd pulled it would have gotten over huge and been a fun run.

BLOODHUNT: Never getting to work Dallas. The dream was me as NFW World Champion going into Dallas defending the title against Shane Southern. I mean, I think I have a small chance of being killed on my way to the ring in that situation, but fuck it...That's what you're in this business for...I'd have pulled no punches on that intro either...Emily would have worn the bloodsoaked Jackie outfit...I dunno what I'd be wearing...But I don't know that I really need much, since I was pretty much just this giant dick who kept picking at the scab on that city's greatest wound. I wouldn't have cared who won or lost that match, just having it happen would have been the biggest moment of my career.

What's your band o' characters biggest regret in their careers? Let's see if I can break my normally amazing 0 replies per post!

Doc shoot final part

Q- So how was NFW?

DOC: Good, I enjoyed my time there, Mike's [Manson] a good booker, good worker, I enjoyed my time there up until the whole incident with Ryoko...Which really sort of ruined everything.

Q- What happened there?

DOC: Well the whole idea was that Felix and Ryoko are screwing around behind my back and now Felix drugs her up and brings her out to the ring to marry her and I come out and make the big save...Now she's in a wheelchair and supposed to be drugged out...But Mike wants me to lay her out...Which I didn't want to do...But whatever...Ryoko wanted to take the spot...She took it wrong...It led to a lot of problems...Really ugly shit...She felt I took liberties with her, which I didn't...Just a shitty ordeal all around...One of those big 'if you could go back and change things' moments...I was pretty much done with the business after that.

Q- So what made you join MBE then?

DOC: Cause Lindsay Troy said I couldn't win a title if I wasn't blowing the owner of the league...(Laughs) well she didn't quite say that, but she told me I only won titles cause I was in good with the bookers...I did demand the NFW World Title for showing up...But it's not like I was some lazy prick when I got the belt...I mean honestly, you put a belt on me, I'm not going AWOL on you...I was talking about how I'd had a talk with the CSWA brass about me getting a CSWA Title run and Troy pretty much told me to drop dead and that I was a dick for thinking I should just walk in and headline the company...So I was like "OK, fuck this then" I wasn't going out with NFW being the final moment of my career...I called the MBE guys and said "Look I want no favors, I'll ask for nothing, if I'm told to job, I'm jobbing, push me only as far as you think I can carry this promotion." and I held the title wire to wire...I mean it wasn't a huge deep locker room...Some Justin Tolerable or whatever guy and Duchess were my big feuds...But hey, I fucking did it...So whatever...

Q- What made you come back to EPW?

DOC: Ryoko wanted to do it...She got the bug to be in front of crowds again, I know how it is...It's fun...It's addicting, and so I decided I'd do it...It would be nice to have an honest farewell match...I said to myself I wasn't going to wrestle past the age of 40, I'm 42 now, so I'm going to stick to retirement after this...I ain't dragging this shit out.

Q- Your stuff in TEAM has been kind of crazy.

DOC: Fuck man...Daniels was just nuts...Like honestly...You're a fucking killer...God I hate that shit...You're exposing the business so badly it's a joke...I can't tolerate it...I know there are companies that do shit like that, those companies suck...I mean honestly, I'm the most absurd wrestler alive, I've had people shot with blowdarts, I've won a ladder match by tricking a guy into taking a fake belt...I've done so much dumb shit...But when you get into killing people, time travel...Fucking all that bullshit...I hate it...I hate all of it so much...I'm an example of how stupid you can get with wrestling without fucking ruining things...And apparently that's just not good enough...

But anyhow...I've enjoyed the sillyness, I've enjoyed being cheesey...It's funny, you have to entertain people, you have to poke fun at yourself...Like what I said before where I was such a dick that I'd no sell any insults, now I'm doing my opponent's work for me, I'm having people call Greenie and I a gay couple...I'm burying people, and I always will, but I'm not going to act like there isn't a truckload of shit to say about me. and I want it said, I want people to get heat on me.

Q- Would you join another league or is this it?

DOC: This is it...I've had offers...But I'm done at this point...TEAM is just this tournament and maybe some super-fight if I won the thing...That's all I want...I have a good idea for my retirement match...That's about it...

Q- Let's finish this with the word association game

Michael Manson

DOC: Creative, inspired...He puts you in his world and you just gotta figure out your way around it.

Q- Tom Alder

DOC: selfish

Q- GUNS

DOC: Good mind for the business....Was edgy like me...Got along with him...

Q- Mike Randalls

DOC: Could take you to the dark places...Had a way to tell a story to get you where he wanted you.

Q- Felix Red

DOC: Crazy...I wish I could live inside his mind for a day..I wish I could cut a promo like him, but I'm not wired that way.

Q- Javid Dones

DOC: Troubled...Had his demons...Smart as whip when he's clean.

Q- Bloodhunt

DOC: Worked his gimmick, got over...Good guy

Q- Sean Stevens

DOC: Good champion for EPW, over, fits the part perfectly.

Q- That'll cover it

DOC: Yay I'm free.

Credibility

This has been a post I've been trying to write for a while, but just haven't found the right words for it, hell I might fail this time, but at the very least I'm going to publish it. To be honest I just started writing this and am re-working it even now

I think wrestlers and the interactions they have are impacted greatly by the credibility of each wrestler. This is both true in real wrestling and in E-Fedding. At Wrestlemania nobody expected Randy Orton to beat Triple H without cheating, as he had not been shown to be capable of such a feat. The same could be said of Edge Vs Big Show Vs John Cena...As John Cena is made of pure Credibilium and couldn't be defeated fairly even if he fought some mutant made out of Austin/Rock/Hogan at their respective primes.

Now there are also matches that establish credibility...Such as HHH/Cena from Mania a couple years ago where going into the fight HHH acted as if he'd just crush Cena like a bug and take his title, and he ended up getting tapped out clean...This truly gave Cena huge credibility since he took out the posterboy of the league.

In E-Fedding, I feel like credibility should effect how a match is written and how it's Rp'ed for. The Rp change mostly effects faces, because heels are full of shit assholes, I am after all the guy who ran Doc Silver who was completely and totally devoid of any credibility.

So let's look at the next EPW card and try to run it through the Credometer and see what we get

LANYE WINTERS VS SHAWN HART

Both guys won their last matches and thusly come into this match with reasonable credibility. I think both guys could win clean, with Hart being more comic/unserious I'd think he'd be the one to go with more high level cheating if it came to it. Winters might grab the tights but I wouldn't think he'd do more then that.

Defining cheating Vs bad cheating is cheating is basically anything that if the ref saw it, he'd say 'knock that off' or wave off the fall, bad cheating is something the ref would call for a DQ if he saw it happening.


WINTERS CLEAN WINS/CHEATING /BAD CHEATING WIN PERCENTAGE: 75%/25%/0%

HART CLEAN WINS/CHEATING/BAD CHEATING WIN PERCENTAGE: 70%/20%/10%

TAG SCRAMBLE MATCH

The Tag Scramble has a bunch of new teams and I have no idea what to say for credibility.

OMEGA VS FRANKIE SCOTT

Now is a stip match, with "Barb" being put on a pole and thusly will be used. So I have no real way to measure credibility. Both men are also coming off losses so this match will give the winner (Double so if they win in impressive fashion) some credibility.

CRIMSON CALLING VS ???

And I take a called 3rd strike and sit down as I can't review this match either...But I will guess that whoever wins this will win clean to estabish credibility.

CAMERON CRUISE (C) VS THE FIRST

Now this is a match with two guys who've got a bunch of credibility. First having come off his performance over Stevens where he had the World Champ beat, and Cruise with his clean win over Douglas that chased him from EPW. Either guy getting a clean win here could establish them as one of the most credible wrestlers in EPW. Of course First is amoral and Cruise is a heel with Anthology being around to back his play. But I'd still expect both to be likely to go for a clean finish

FIRST CLEAN WINS/CHEATING/BAD CHEATING WIN PERCENTAGE: 70%/20%/10%
CRUISE CLEAN WINS/CHEATING/BAD CHEATING WIN PERCENTAGE: 65%/20%/15%

ANARKY VS MARCUS WESTSCOTT

Another Stip match, and a match that'll most likely end with Craig Miles doing something to effect the outcome. The Credmeter is hurting

TACT/WELLS Vs FELIX RED/GOTHO

This is a clear credibility mismatch as Gotho has less then 0 cred, and Barry's Rp's reflect this. Gotho knows he's gonna get maimed here, he's the weak link. Wells and Tact don't need to cheat to win here. Barring a Felix superman session, he and Gotho will.

ANTHOLOGY CLEAN WINS/CHEATING/BAD CHEATING PERCENTAGE: 90%/10%/0%
FELIX/GOTHO CLEAN WINS/CHEATING/BAD CHEATING PERCENTAGE: 10%/20%/70%

"TRIPLE X" SEAN STEVENS (C) Vs ROCKO DAYMON VS JA

JA was coming off a string of losses but got a bunch of credibility back by beating Stevens into running from him on the last show. Rocko returns as a sort of ultra face who having been the champ that never lost the title has a bunch of credibility. Stevens is hurting, having his last two matches including spots where his opponent had him pinned with the ref down. I do enjoy Stevens Rp's as he cherry picks the results he needs to continue to act like he has credibility as any heel should, but unless this is the match where he suddenly gets a boost on the Credometer I'd expect him to cheat his way to retaining the big belt. I can see Rocko going overboard more then JA to get the final title winning fall, because he's come back with a more violent persona that seems to have a 'take no prisoners' feel to it. I can also see such a spot being a defining moment for him, when Rocko 'crosses the line' as it were.

JA CLEAN/CHEATING/BAD CHEATING WIN PERCENTAGES: 80%/15%/5%
ROCKO CLEAN/CHEATING/BAD CHEATING WIN PERCENTAGES: 70%/10%/20%
STEVENS CLEAN/CHEATING/BAD CHEATING WIN PERCENTAGES: 40%/30%/30%

This concludes what has been a horrible first run for the credometer. Once LVW gets a few more matches under it's belt (And people start Rp'ing!!!) I'll wave the credometer and those shows.

Doc Shoot Part 3

Q: So what was the idea for the jWo?

DOC: Well it was a league, I think FWC...Not the one I got screwed out of the title in, but a new one and they had this guy Beckowski running the place...And they shot an angle where this rival promoter Brian Jenkins came in and hijacked the company and put the belt on his favored wrestler, Lex Taylor. Now we were supposed to rally against Jenkins and his evil take over of the company...But GUNS and I were like 'why do that, the take over angle is over big in wrestling' so we decided we were going to side *with* Jenkins, and that only the minor detail that Jenkins was going to have to do what was best for business and have GUNS go over Talyor for the title.

It was a one shot angle for that show just to get the belt to GUNS, but then the bookers screwed with the match and made it a no-contest and then we kept it going, started doing the fake shows, people wanted to join...We ended up killing 2 or 3 leagues with the jWo because in the end the jWo faction in the league would be bigger then those still loyal to the league itself...It was crazy...I can't even remember all the people we had...

Q: Do you regret having those leagues get shut down by the jWo?

DOC: Yeah it's never good to run people out of business, but at the same time if they were on solid ground the jWo wouldn't have killed them...It sucks that it happened, but I don't know what really could be done about it, cause we were just so over, there needed to be an opponent that could step up to the jWo and I guess there wasn't.

Q: During the jWo you had the woman beater gimmick, what was that all about?

DOC: Well I guess I misread where wrestling was going, cause something happened and I had a female manager at the time and I either let her eat a chair shot or I was told to give her one, I don't know exactly what the deal was, but I thought hitting women was lame, so as a kind of 'fuck you' to management I did the gimmick were I was just beating up women for no good reason, of course, right around that time women started getting beaten up all over the place in wrestling, became the new hip thing to do.

Q: So after that you and Javid Dones got into running IWC, how that all go down?

DOC: Well we couldn't keep the World Title on anyone, we strapped Wildstar and then he quit...We moved the belt to Zane then he quit...Then finally we got it on Edmunds and he did the job for Southern that we wanted, cause Shane was the man, he needed to get put over by someone, so I'm pretty glad we got him the big belt.

Then Javid got a bit to into the nose candy which is something he's still fighting. Now around this time is when I dried out and got of the pain killers...So it was kinda shitty to see him go down that path, it also sucked cause I was gonna get a run with the strap and now I couldn't cause I wsa holding the bag on the company. I mean I could have given myself the belt, but I think you have to be a real dick to run a company and then put yourself over everyone, who wants to see you turn a company into a giant ego-dildo? I mean the shit I did to get over on Southern was bad enough...

So I did the 'heel owner' gimmick for a while, which was building heat between Shane Southern and JT Tyler...JT was good and I wanted to give him a main event push, but I don't know exactly what he was thinking, cause we get to the PPV and the big payoff and he's telling me "Doc I don't want to use the choke sleeper" in the match...And it's just crazy, cause the whole match is built on his 'illegal' hold he's been putting people down with left and right..And now he doesn't want to use it...Ugh...

So Shane goes over, and then the truth hits, that Dones had been cooking the books for ages and the company's shot...We drifted around, I think Anarky got the belt off Shane and then either Manson was gonna get it off him and did or it didn't get taped, I don't know...But it sucked, that was a good league, good talent, liked those guys.

Q: How was Shane Southern?

DOC: Dream to work with, do whatever you wanted, great guy, model employee...He'd lose every night for a year if you asked it of him, of course you would be a moron, but still, he was really cool.

Q: You said you got off the drugs and booze then, how has that all been since IWC?

DOC: I've been clean...It sucks man...In this business, people got pain pills, people are always getting drunk, and you're the odd man out, you're the fat kid picked last...It sucks, and I'm older then a lot of the locker room...I mostly hang out with Greenie or Ryoko and do my best to keep my will power up.

Q: What about your time in A1E?

DOC: Oh it was horrible...I hated how they ran the place, hated everything about it.

Q: What about your vote rigging?

DOC: Fuck 'em...Honestly, I wasn't gonna wait my turn in line, so yeah I got a bunch of mid-carders to come in and stack the vote for me...I'd do it again if I went back...I think it's a goofy system, how am I as a heel gonna get over unless I'm shitting on everyone, and I can't be pals with people, I come in, I shoot my mouth, I'm a dick...It would have taken me forever to get people to respect me in A1E and I don't have time for that shit, I'm not spending 2-3 years mid-carding, waiting for some curtain jerker to finally 'get' my gimmick...Fuck that...

Q: Well that's all for now, next time we'll get into your NFW run and your return in EPW to wrap stuff up.

Fixing TEAM

With all the no shows plaguing TEAM there seems to be a desire to fix the system or do something about it. Fact is now-a-days most of us are very busy, and do our best to get 1-2 promos up per cycle. Unless you're a nut like me or those two maniacs in the Winters/Hart thread in EPW's PPV that's all that's expected of you. Yet for some reason people love the idea of signing up for big tournaments, but Rp'ing for them...That's a bit of work.

So my big answer for TEAM is simple. Make it like a Magic: The Gathering tournament.

MTG tournaments were played at the start in the Swiss Format, with however many rounds needed (You need 5 for 32 people, 6 for 64, 7 for 128 etc.) and then a top 8. Two losses in the swiss effectively shuts you out from top 8.

Swiss format is simple, you play people with the same record as you. You win round 1, you play a winner in round 2, win again, you play somebody else who's 2-0. By the same token, you lose round 1, you're playing an opponent with a loss in round 2...

With this set up you could rig the pairings to give a tough break loss in round 1 to a no Rp'er in round 2 and just declare the match a forfeit...Make it clear that a no show in any round without a *big time* acceptable reason is grounds for your character to lose the next round of the tournament and then be dropped out. "0-2 drop" was a common expression in magic tournaments and a sign your day went really crummy.

The drawback to this is that the tournament goes on a bit longer, cause to win it you could have to Rp for 8 matches instead of 5 in a traditional 32 man knockout tournament, you could make it 5 rounds of swiss and then a top 4 and save a match that way.

I think that having a format like this would create a strong finals, since the people that made the top 8 would clearly deserve it, and the other fun thing it would do is allow for crazy drama.

In the MTG tournaments if you were 3-1 after 4 rounds and had good tiebreakers, you would draw somebody else who was 3-1 with good tiebreakers, the two of you could intentally draw and make top 8...In TEAM that would be an option also, but what if one character just refused to do it, felt it was dishonorable, the drama of risking a sure spot in the top 8 just to be true to himself, his opponent can write outraged promos about what an idiot he's fighting, and how it sucks that of all the people he had to get in the last round, his was the one idiot that wouldn't take a deal.

Just food for thought.

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...