Confessions of an E-Fed Junkie

Random Thoughts

2009-03-25T15:23:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I know it's been a while - okay a long FREAKING while since I've updated this thing. Maybe I should just delete it. I dunno. I guess I think that everything I have to say about A1E I do on a daily basis with all of you that are involved, so there's nothing left to say here.

But I'm gonna try.

And hey... at least I'm updating more often than Brunk does! :)

Anywho, here's some random thoughts, and maybe some hints on A1E, with some TEAM sprinkled in...

- Thanks to everyone who pitched in and helped out with Sudden Death. It turned out to be a pretty good show (at least IMO... I'll give it an 8 out of 10).

- Congratulations to all the winners at the PPV, and especially to the new Champions. Torment and Luke Vaughn managed to knock off Blitz for the World Tag Team Championships, when Blitz held them for close to a year. Jeffery Roberts defeated an always tough Ken Cloverleaf for the Cyber Title, Big Wreck retained the Triple Star Championship (more on that in a moment), and huge kudos to Troy Douglas who FINALLY won the big one after nine years. Best of luck with the World Title, Troy. You definitely deserve it.

- We introduced a new title into A1E. The Triple Star Championship and Survivor Championship titles were unified into the A1E Challenge Championship. Hopefully this title will provide some interesting twists and different kinds of matches as we go along. Use your imaginations, folks!

- Congratulations to Fusenhoof, who got by me over in TEAM to win the Championship of Champions, and to Big Wreck who won the FFA~! Championship.

- Cameron Cruise has never main evented a PPV before in his entire career. I found that shocking. Well, now you've got your chance, man.

- I'm interested as to what's going to happen with Cross and Duchess, especially now that we've revealed that Cross *wasn't* Apollyon after all. How can Duchess hate him now?

- I'm really looking forward to what Wraith is going to come up with over the next several cycles. I've been working with him behind the scenes to try and help him grow a bit, and I can't wait to see where he takes some of the ideas we talked about. Given the way he's been writing, it should be a fun ride at the very least.

- Age of Chaos versus the HPSC. I know we all wondered how we were going to top Vengeance and the whole A1E/EPW angle from last year, and I think this might be the one. But I know I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to keep creating something great and huge, and I don't want to disappoint with this. This is a huge one, with the finale already crafted. Now, I just have to figure out the journey to get to the goal. Hopefully it's a fun trip.

- Speaking of what characters are doing, I'm also looking forward to what Fanatic's got going on. Expect some good story work to come from him.

- Rocko Daymon returned at Sudden Death and immediately made a HUGE impact. He's made no attempt to hide his title aspirations, so let's see how he gets there. Perhaps there's a Club waiting around the corner to assist him...

- I'm waiting for Mr. Entertainment and Eric Thompson to break out. Thompson's brand new, at least in these circles, but he's already giving us a good mix of story and promo. And Mr. E's got it. Now just to see how hard he brings it.

And yeah, almost forgot. Tag Teams. We need 'em. If you've wanted to try a tag team, or know someone that handles a tag team, now's the time to pull the trigger. Pretty please. ;)

That's about it for now. I'll keep trying to do this once in a while. Gotta get back in the swing of things.

- Jarret

Deconstructing the Pier Six Brawl

2008-01-22T09:15:00.000-06:00

Ingredients:

1 wrestling ring.
A whole lot of barbed wire surrounding the ring, nearly up to the ring apron high, and 15 feet deep.
23 wrestlers.
1 bridge, for said wrestlers to cross over said barbed wire and enter the ring.
1 Hell In The Cell.
1 Royal Rumble-styled match.

Preparation Instructions:

Throw it all together and mix it up like hell.

Serves: A lot of blood, injured bodies, tired roleplayers, and hopefully a lot of satisfied readers.

Some interesting results:

There have been 7 Pier Six Brawls.There have been 6 Pier Six Brawl Champions.

I was going to make a "Priceless" joke, here, but I just can't.

With the Pier Six Brawl, one of the most anticipated events on the A1E calendar, now done and over with for another year, I thought it might be cool to talk about it a bit. What goes into the Brawl?

What's it all about? What makes the Pier Six Brawl?

Well, you all saw the ingredients above. For those of you that didn't read it fully, or maybe just skimmed it over, here's the logistics:

You've got a wrestling ring surrounded by barbed wire, nearly ring-apron high and 15 feet deep (I'm sure that number grows like an urban legend every year). Two wrestlers enter the ring by crossing a specially made bridge so that they don't get caught in the barbed wire. Those two fight, and new wrestlers enter the match every two minutes until all the signed up competitors have entered the ring. Eliminations can happen at any time by throwing a person over the top rope and INTO the barbed wire. When everyone's been eliminated and we're down to the final 2, the Cell lowers over the ring AND encases the barbed wire.

The only way to win is to leave the ring, wade THROUGH the barbed wire, and exit the Cell.

That way, EVERYONE'S guaranteed a trip through the barbed wire.

Oh yeah, did I mention that whatever you can get to the ring to use as a weapon is legal?

When Roger (perhaps better known as Housefly, and the previous head booker in A1E) devised this match way back in 2002, I thought the sonfabitch had lost his mind. It was brutal. It was hardcore.

The potential was unlimited.

In short, it was awesome.

Everyone loved it, so we kept it around.

So why did we do this? The initial reward for winning the Pier Six Brawl was to become the #1 contender to the A1E World Heavyweight Championship. That's one hell of a reward. Anyone from anywhere could enter the ring and have an equal shot at becoming the next World Heavyweight Champion, from rookie to seasoned veteran. It didn't matter who you were or where you came from - everyone was on equal footing.

That's evolved over the years, though, to it's current incarnation in which the winner of the Brawl gets to choose the match of their choice, be it World Title match, any other title match, a dream match they've always wanted to work - whatever the case me be. That change has been required because we've had a few storylines we just couldn't interrupt, even though someone was scheduled a shot at "X" time of year.

So what makes the Brawl?

The Pier Six Brawl is perhaps the most grueling, intense, draining match I've ever been a part of. It's a Free For All style match, meaning everyone can respond to anyone at any time. If I put up a RP/"promo", anyone else can respond to it ASAP. And as soon as someone else has gone, then I'm free to go again. And the cycle continues for 8 days.

I don't have the numbers in front of me - I could go back through all the matches and count, but I don't have the energy or patience for that right now, but there's been a lot of varying numbers of people participating. The first year I think we had 19 people. Another year we had 14.

This year, we had 23 official entrants.

That's a LOT of roleplaying.

Add on the 5 EPW guys invading, Torment's surprise return, and Christian Sands entering at the last second, we had 30 people enter the ring in 2008.

That's a huge freaking match!

And the match wouldn't be anything without a pretty good writeup to back up all the work gone into the RP's.

When Roger designed this match, he took on the responsibility of writing it as well, since he didn't want to torture anyone else with his creation. And for 5 years, dozens of entrants, and hundreds of virtual pages of sacrificed 0's and 1's, Roger set the bar very high for delivering an action-packed, brutal, amazing match.

And when Roger had finally called it quits and handed over the reigns of A1E to me, guess who got the unenviable task of writing this monstrosity?

I've tried to pawn it off, unsuccessfully several times, but the rest of my Booking Committee are pansies, and don't want anything to do with it. :)

I'm just kidding. I wouldn't want to make anyone else write this unless they really wanted to. For all the pissing and moaning about how big this match is, and how draining it is to knock this thing out, it's actually quite fun. It really challenges you as a match writer to weave all the storylines involved with putting 30 people into a match, along with all their histories, and setting things up for the future that it's actually fun to write.

So what goes into writing the Brawl?

I thought it might be interesting if people knew what all needs to take place from a writer's perspective. And this isn't in any particular order, just what's come out of my head at the moment...

1. Further existing individual feuds.

a) In this case, there was Beast vs. James to consider, and James came up with the fantastic idea of putting us #1 and #2 to help that along.b) There was also the entire Beast/James/Big Dog dynamic during the RP session to build on.c) There's individuals who met in earlier matches who aren't necessarily believeably going to just drop that because they're in a different match. Example was Fanatic vs. Simply Beautiful. I know these guys didn't get a chance to go all out in their title match because they also had the Brawl to consider, so moving them along together was a necessity.

2. Further existing overall feuds.

The big one here is obviously the A1E vs. EPW feud that's going on right now, and that was the major overall focus. Various parts of that feud:

a) The "EPW five" invading the Brawl. This was kind of a last minute thing that I put together. Well, the idea was always there since I conceived this angle, but I didn't know exactly who it was until I started writing. Having them coming in and dominating the A1E guys I think put a nice touch on things, which led to:

b) Torment's return. Wow, we've been waiting to pull the trigger on this for so long, I think poor Justin was going to have a fit. I don't know how he held it in, but props to him.

c) A1E vs. Chronic Collizion. Those two were the number two defectors in this whole thing, and having them alternately dominate and then pay for it was a good story to be told.

3. Acknowledging history and not forgetting it.

There's several big feuds from the past that have kind of resurfaced throughout this whole interfed angle, and I think you have to touch on those whenever you can:

a) HPSC vs. TPSC. Andy, James, and Irishred, along with the invading Sargeant were involved in this major stable vs stable feud, and that's just history you can't forget.

b) Beast vs. Lindsay Troy. A historic feud that crossed over from A1E into EPW and now back again.

c) Beast vs. Christian Sands. We were the two that built that foundation of EPW with our early World Title feud, and JB had some great ideas on the Brawl - hence the darts and Sands' surprise entrance before the final 2.d) Christian Sands vs. Irishred. Sands views himself as EPW, and to have Red try and tear that down was blasphemy to Sands.

4. Creating new feuds.

Or at the very least dropping small nuggets suggesting they might happen. All building blocks for the future, and the Brawl is an excellent tool for that.

Duchess/Lindsay Troy, Lindsay Troy/Beast, Chronic Collizion vs. Everyone, Wraith/Apollyon, Apollyon vs Everyone he beat up in the barbed wire... all that and more. We can play off all these minor "moments" that happened in the Brawl and use those as stepping stones for future feuds.

5. Establishing/pushing new talent.

This is the second major point of the Pier Six Brawl. As I mentioned earlier, the Pier Six Brawl is a level battlefield for anyone to step up and grab hold of the reigns. A good finish at the Brawl will generally net you a push as a reward for topping everyone else in a huge field. This year, Simply Beautiful was the standout of the "new crop", finishing an outstanding fourth, especially after being in the fed for so short a time. We've always said the Brawl is a huge stepping stone in making it in A1E, and he did a great job. Other notables were Cameron Cruise, who despite the double elimination with Adam Benjamin to open the Brawl, actually finished 7th overall. Quite a respectable showing, but he was gracious enough to work an angle, and his finish in the writeup didn't reflect the spot he really earned, so he deserves mentioning. And just behind Cruise, were Fanatic and Josh Novell. I'm a big fan of those two so far, and with them, along with the debuting Donovan Astros, who, let's face it, never got a chance to show what he's capable of in a match like that - but I've got a feeling he's going to be awesome as well, and that makes for a fanatastic crop of future stars.

6. Working in surprises.

As I said before, we worked in a few extra people this time around in order to push the interfed war angle going on with EPW. Christian Sands, the "EPW five", and Torment were all additions to include and work around in the context of the Brawl.

So I've got to take all that into consideration when the Brawl's being written.

The other big point about the Brawl is elimination and exit order. The exit order's easy enough - the more points you have, the longer you last. This year, the opening was a mix and match due to several people earning the default points for sending their votes, so a lot of people had the same amount of points, and, not to speak down to anyone at all, but they had the least amount of points. Those people were eliminated in the best spots I could find for them based on what was happening, who else was in the ring, and also taking everything else I've written about into consideration. Then, starting with Troy Douglas, people were eliminated in the order they were voted, with the exception of the aforementioned Cameron Cruise and the surprises. While you're eliminating people, I'm taking into consideration everything else I've touched on - create some new feuds, make some people look strong for the future, acknowledge old feuds, and everything else - it's all there.

So that's how they're eliminated, but what about the entrance order?

I don't know if anyone knows this, but "on screen", it's announced - like at any WWE Royal Rumble - that the competitors all drew a random number and that's their entrance order. I think people may be surprised to know that I actually DO do a random drawing to establish entrance order, minus angled stuff like James and Beast appearing as numbers 1 and 2. I put everyone's name down, and cut them out, throw 'em into a hat, and make a draw. So that's something else I have to work around while keeping everything *else* in mind.

But I do play with it in order to make it the best possible. I moved a couple names last year, and this year, I moved around two names to make them fit in some of the earlier eliminations, but the rest was all pure random drawing. Even though you guys don't know about that until now, at least for me and in my mind it establishes some kind of authenticity and challenges me that much more as a writer to make it all work.

So, that's it. That's the Pier Six Brawl as it happens in my head. I hope it was at the least interesting to see how it's all put together. But remember, I can't make the Brawl as good as it is without the efforts of the roleplayers. As many people that have posted on the A1 boards, or caught me in chat or over PM and told me how much they loved the match - and believe me, I really appreciate it, I and I thank you all for that - that the Brawl wouldn't be nearly as good without all the hard work of the guys spending an entire week busting their ass to RP and try and win this thing and giving me a great foundation to build a match around.

So thank you all for that.

Till next time!

The Long Con, Part II

2007-12-15T15:36:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to do a post about this for some time, but as usual, life, work, and the sheer amount of time several people have been putting into A1E lately, I haven't gotten around to it. I was hoping to get this up before A1E's Warfare aired last night, but what the hey.

Over at Phil's Blog, he talked in pretty general terms about the usualy per-cycle storylines, and the much larger arcs, or the "Long Con", as he put it.

If it isn't painfully obvious, we're in the middle of one of those right now. This takeover of A1E angle has been building since the end of September, and we just got our first major payoff in the angle with last night's Warfare. But don't worry, we've got a couple more PPV's to get through before we see the end of this bad boy.

When this is over, we're going to see at least a six month arc through this angle.

That's some long-term planning right there, and we don't see it enough any more - although, it's hard to do consistently. In A1E in the past, we've had extra-long feuds with Prisoner 187 and Housefly, Beast and Co. vs. SIN, A1E vs. The Empire... and now A1E vs. Ryan and EPW.

It's an interesting balance you have to work when you do one of these things. Since it involves pretty much most of the fed, you have to manage individuals within the larger story, keep everyone involved, and keep things moving along while not forgetting the core of your fed - your titles and regular action.

So, it's a big juggling act, and frankly, I love it. It's stuff like this that really gets me fired up about e-fedding. You saw Phil's reaction when he was writing segments for the show. Seeing Brunk get all fired up about it, getting input from everyone - that's what this is all about.
I can tell you, I haven't been this fired up about a particular angle in a long time. I just hope now we can keep up the execution through to the resolution of this angle, and I really hope everyone enjoys it.

So I guess the point of this post is a part shill, part happiness to see everyone's reaction so far, and part thank you to everyone that's been involved in this thing so far. I came up with the original concept for this angle, but it's been shaped and guided in so many ways I hadn't considered by some of the best around in this game, and it's going to be a whole lot better as a result.

You can tell already... the amount of times I've been hit up in IM by people giving me their theories of who was behind it all. James Irish doing a huge conspiracy theory post running down the suspects. People doing out of match threads that we haven't seen in a while. And people giving out feedback where it's been pretty hard to come by lately. People staying up until 4 AM because they couldn't stop reading the show.

THAT'S what we're gunning for, and it's been a great first step.

Now, I hope we can do the same with the last half.

All I can say is keep reading.

Spreading Things Too Thin

2007-09-12T15:01:00.000-05:00

It's only been 7 months since my last post. I swear some day I'll get to being regular on this thing.

I think I've got it all figured out.

And it may not be what people want to hear.

I see posts on JA's blog about "The State of eW", I talk to people that talk about the downturn in eWrestling. I see posts on boards all over that participation in this hobby is down, that fed owners are complaining that no one shows up to RP for their matches.

Just recently, we've seen the closure of MWCW, and of jWo. MBE moved from it's longtime home on A1Wrestling.com to FWrestling.com in an effort to rejeuvenate the fed, but I think now it's been three cards in a row that the RP deadline has been extended due to people not showing up for their matches. Just this past week, TEAM had an extension, but still lots of no-shows. WFW taking nigh upon 2 years (ok, 21 months, but counting) to produce a card... I don't know what to say about that. I know it doesn't do much to spark interest.

But are any of these feds poor-quality feds? Of course not. MWCW and jWo were new feds that had problems getting off the ground, like ANY new fed does so you can't fault them for anything, and the other feds are all established feds that have proven they can deliver.

So what's the problem?

I don't think I have the whole solution, but I think I have a pretty massive chunk of it. Summer doesn't help, with people spending more time outdoors and participating in events after-hours that takes time away from eWrestling. No problem. We all grow up sometime, and other things take priority. Summer is being replaced by fall, and those same people are probably heading to school. But that alone can't be responsible for what we're seeing.

People will say that the current professional wrestling scene is shite, boring, and worthless, so people are disinterested in real wrestling, and by extension, eWrestling. I don't buy it. I haven't watched a minute of WWE programming in quite a few months. I watch the occasional iMPACT! and order the odd TNA PPV when it's interesting enough, but my lack of interest in professional wrestling hasn't curbed my passion for eWrestling in the slightest. I can't be the only one.

So get on with your point already.

I don't think this is rocket surgery, but I think people need to recognize that they are spreading themselves way too thin these days. Now, my numbers are probably 100% exaggerated, but I do so to make a point. And I say this not with malice towards anyone, but it's what I've observed.

Tom (JA) runs TEAM. He's also in A1E, EPW, MBE, and at least one other fed, and with multiple characters that I know of. Could be more. That's pretty involved. Same with Dan West. The guy works like 8 jobs, takes care of his family, and runs multiple characters in multiple feds. Guys like Daymon, Adam Benjamin, Troy Douglas, and Cameron Cruise are all in multiple feds. Daymon runs multiple characters in multiple feds, is a full-time member of the A1E booking committee, and I know he pitches in to write matches in EPW. Douglas also helps to write matches. I'm sure there are more people out there that are in the same boat.

There is nothing bad to be said about any of these people. They are all respected and deserving members of the eWrestling community. I mean to imply no blame for anything on any of their parts. I'm just using them as an example of what people do in this hobby of ours. And sometimes, I think it's too much.

I remember several years ago in A1E, matches would have at the minimum 6, and as many as 10, 12, 15, even 20 total RP's per match. These days, that's probably considered blasphemous and more likely unhealthy. I know I can't output like that anymore. I certainly couldn't do 10 RP's per match. I'm older, and have more outside responsibility now. Today, you're more likely to see anywhere from 2 to 6 total RP's in a match. And I'm talking singles here, for ease of communication.

But what I see is a lot of new feds trying to pop up, or outside feds always advertising on FW, saying "Come join our fed. You only need 1 RP minimum." That's enough for people to go "Hey, I only need to write 1 RP, sure, I'll give it a try." And soon enough, they're involved in 8 feds, and find out quickly that 1 RP isn't enough to win a match against someone who's willing to to write 3 and 4 really good RP's in a week. But they like the fed, they have friends there, they're friends with the owner, or whatever, and they stay.

So rather than be involved in 2, maybe 3 feds, and focusing on doing really well in those feds, people are spread all over the place, and not only the handler, but the fed starts to flounder because no one has time to participate.

This is the one downfall I see from being this huge community. With all the feds together on FW, and the continuing and slowly blossoming crossover between A1E and feds on FW, people are doing too much. Me, I run A1E, have two characters there, and have been with EPW since that fed opened. I also participate in TEAM when I have the time. That's about my limit, and I recognize that. Any more, and I'm doing myself, my characters, and the feds I participate in a disservice.

Two main things that I'd like to see:

1. TEAM needs to slow down. What once began as kind of a special event federation has turned into almost a full time fed. I know that it doesn't keep the schedule that A1E does, but TEAM used to run just a few cards a year, and that gave that special feeling about that fed, that when something happened there, it was a big deal, and people really wanted to be involved. Now, TEAM cards are running one card after the other (or as close to it as possible), and the whole interfed thing is a big deal, but now it's turning into pretty much a full time thing. Of course, we all have the option to opt out of the event, but with the interfed nature, most people that like to compete are going to jump in, and that adds to the load. Back TEAM off to four or five special events a year, and I think you'll find that more people are consistent in the fed, and those same people will be consistent in their home feds as well.

Now, certainly, TEAM is NOT the main issue behind this. Not at all. Tom runs a good fed, and it's fun to participate in. I mean no slight to TEAM at all, in any fashion. I hope that's clear.

2. Think about before starting your own fed. What's the real reason you want to start a new fed? Are you doing it because you've always wanted to run a fed of your own, and are definitely ready, willing, and able to pull it off? Did you get stiffed in another fed, and this is your way of striking back? If you want to get involved behind the scenes, perhaps think about asking an existing fed if you can help out. Feds are always looking for staff members and timely match writers. If that doesn't fulfull your needs, by all means, see what you can do with your own fed.

My next point is the main one, the big one.

3. Back off the number of feds you're in. As a fed owner, I would rather have 20-25 characters in my fed that work hard and write 2 or 3 good, solid RP's a week, compared to 40 people and have 15 of them no-show or put up one uninspired RP because they're busy elsewhere. Hey, if you've got the time to be in 5 feds and can write multiple RP's in each fed and do weel doing, all the more power to you. Good work. But if you're someone that's putting up 1 RP a week in multiple feds, or even no-showing on a semi-regular basis, maybe it's time you thought about what you're trying to do and slowed down a bit.

I think it would be better for you as a handler, better for the successes of your character, if that's your goal, and would be better for the feds you participate in.

Hopefully, some of this will help. I'd like to more feds prospering, not closing their doors.

Perceptions

2007-02-20T10:44:00.000-06:00

I've cross posted this on Tom's Blog, but I'm also putting it here...

Human perception is a pretty powerful thing. Especially when it's a negative experience. Whether you've been involved in something directly, or heard second-hand from someone else who has been, those experiences and that feedback play a pretty powerful role in shaping your perception about a particular subject.

So what brings this kind of a post on?

For those of you that don't know, I recently took over the reigns of A1E and am the head booker there. I have a booking committee of four others that work alongside me. A few nights ago, one of my staff members was approached by a major FW star about possibly joining A1E. Quite the conversation followed, and a number of points were raised as to why this person was hesitant about joining the federation. The following was brought up:

1. You have to be invited to join.
2. The voting system is screwy.
3. Only members of a certain "clique" gets pushed and put over.
4. New members are disregarded and screwed over in favor of established members.

In this post, I'd like to address each of these points, and hopefully put some minds at ease for those that have thought about joining A1E, but haven't for some reason or another. I'm not making anything up. I'm going to be brutally honest about both the good and the bad that have gone down in A1E. We've had challenges in the past, but I think that now, we've made a ton of improvements, and if you've ever wanted to be part of A1E, now is the time to join.

1. You have to be invited to join.

Simply not true. I don't know how this got started, but A1E is not a closed fed. Anyone can join at any time. Please read the F.A.Q. on the A1E web site. All you need to do is submit your profile, and post IN for a match in the provided In/Out thread that goes up before every card. That's it. We don't turn down anyone. All I suggest is contacting myself or a member of the BC to let us know you're coming, and we can cook something up to introduce you into the fed - if you like.

2. The voting system is screwy.

This has probably been one of the biggest "issues", for lack of a better word, that's been through A1E basically throughout it's history. The premise behind the voting system is that once the promo - RP - session ends, the federation membership sends in votes on who they thought had the better RPs, and that determines the winner of the match.

The knee-jerk reaction to this is that everyone thinks "Wow, there must be a lot of bloc-voting and everyone voting for their friends."

I'm not going to lie. Of course the potential is there. It's really easy to just write down your buddy's name, or if you've got a favorite character to consistently vote for them because you're a mark for them. People wonder why we even have a voting system in the first place.

Well, we do it for two reasons. One, to give each and every member that participates in A1E a voice in how the fed works. We never have been, and don't want to be, a fed that just dictates what happens and have everyone just play along. Voting is a feedback mechanism for everyone that participates to go "Hey, Wrestler A did a good job this week. I'd like him/her to win the match." And two, it's a mechanism for the voters to ensure that the Booking Committee (BC) simply isn't putting over their own buddies and characters that we're marks for.

We realize that there have been some discrepencies in voted results in the past - but firmly believe that these are no more common that the occasional "odd" result in owner or committee judged feds. Anyone with efedding experience will tell you that judges "taste" is a prevelant factor in any federation, and our voters are not immune from occasionally having different tastes that the players might have hoped.

Rest assured, we are constantly trying to refine and update our process to minimize "screwy" voting and it has been well over a year since we have recieved a formal complaint on the voted results.

So how does it all work? Everyone votes at the end of the promo period, and votes are tabulated. The BC members' votes are equal to the public votes. My vote as head booker is worth the same as anyone else's vote. But, after the votes are tabulated - including the BC votes, the BC talks about the match and how its result fits into the grand scheme of things as far as planned storylines and pushes go. If, for whatever reason, we think that a result should be different than what is voted, we approach BOTH competitors of a match (or however number of people are in the match for a three way dance, tag team, etc), tell them what the result is, and then ASK THEIR PERMISSION to change the result for storyline purposes. Everyone must agree before we change anything.

We will NEVER, EVER, EVER, change a match result without talking to all parties involved in the match.

I can imagine some people might think "Well, you can tell me all that, but how do I know that you're not changing results and just not telling anyone?" The honest truth is that when it all comes down to it, voting is subjective. There's no way to change that. Someone might vote differently today than they did yesterday.

That all being said, at the core of this, a two-way trust system must be built between the Booking Committe (which I represent, and I am really ultimately responsible for everything that goes on) and each individual handler.

Each individual handler must trust myself and the BC that we're not going to commit any improprieties on you. But before you say that we're just expecting you to blindly trust us and that's a crock, please remember that in exchange for that trust, I'm also basically blindly trusting you, as the handler, to show up and participate when you say you're going to. It's frustrating as a booker to build all these plans, and then have them fail because someone doesn't show. Also remember that I'm blindly trusting you, as a handler, that you're going to respect the system by voting honestly, and not participate in bloc-voting, or just voting for your friends.

The thing to keep in mind - and keep an open mind about - is that this whole thing works both ways.

You have to trust me, and I have to trust you. This is no different than myself participating in a non-voted fed like EPW, UCW, or TEAM, where Dave, Shane, and Tom are trusting me, as a handler, to show up and put an effort in to make their fed as great as possible, and as a handler, I'm trusting them as a booker to treat me with respect and not kill me in angles and results.

I don't want to make the mistake of saying that this trust should be there by default, however, I believe that this should be implied when someone joins a fed - any fed - until I, the fed owner, give you sound reason to distrust me. Remember, that as the fed owner, it does nothing to benefit me personally, nor does it do anything to benefit A1E by screwing anyone over. As the fed owner, I want the absolute best for my federation, and what good is it going to do me if people are leaving my federation because they're not being treated properly?

I hope that explains how the voting process works, and how we treat it. It's treated very seriously, and is not just there as a way to mess with anyone.

For those of you concerned with "bloc-voting" or "simply voting for our friends"... the honest truth is, in the entire six-and-a-half-year history of A1E, there has been ONLY ONE proven, documented case of outright block voting, which was years ago - and that person was summarily removed from A1E. I would say that given the circumstances and potential, that's a pretty decent track record. Please know that we treat this process VERY seriously and there is ZERO TOLERANCE if we were to discover these activities going on.

3. Only members of a certain "clique" gets pushed and put over.

I fully understand how this one came about. A1E's been around for six and a half years, and there are those that have been around for the entire lifetime of the fed. During the halfway point of A1E's life, we started an angle involving "The Empire", a heel super-faction. The angle was huge, and because most of the members of this angle were on the BC, a lot of attention was paid to it. There was tons of discussions around it. My character was World Champion. Roger - then head of the BC, known as Housefly - was the leader of the Empire. Another member of the Empire was on the BC. The two main faces in the feud were my other character, my main character Beast, and Big Dog, another member of the BC. Lindsay Troy was involved, and she was on the BC - although I can't remember how much time of her in the angle and her service on the BC overlapped. We worked super hard on this angle, and it did rise to prominence, mostly because Gladiator held the World Title, and the angle dominated the fed for a long time, so I can fully understand how people took that, and I can understand how that perception came to be. I'm not going to try and deny it or work it at all. It happened.

However, all that being said, things have changed greatly since that time. Yes, in hindsight, we allowed that to happen.

Was it a mistake? I'd like to say no, but in reality, we ended up turning people off because of it, so although I, and a lot of others, thought it was a fantastic story, we could have probably handled it differently.

But rather than focus on that, I'd like to ask people, while taking all that into consideration, think of what's gone down in the fed since that time. Even during that time, Cross won the A1E World Championship. Since then, I've won it, and people may take that any way you want to, but the reality is I went on a year long tear as Survivor Champion, and I like to think I earned that shot. It took me four years to earn a shot and get there. JA's won the Championship. Cross is the Cyber Champion, and has been put over as a machine in the last few months. Spoiler, a MBE legend, has been made to look superhuman in the past little while. Daymon has been Triple Star Champion, and is now in a feud with the Cyber Champion. He's been in A1E for a short time, but has already made waves, and he's being rewarded for it. Troy Douglas is another guy that's looked on favorably in A1E. Dan Ryan has been Tag Champion for a year, and is now poised as number one contender to the World Championship. James Irish has had a good run as World Champion, and who knows how long he can hold the title for? Duchess, a female character, has a World Title shot this week. That's an awful lot of people outside the "core" of A1E people that are getting all kinds of pushes and seeing all kinds of success.

You might point at me and say "Well, the fed owner is the Triple Star Champion." If so, you don't have all the facts. Daymon decided that storyline-wise, his character needed to drop the title, and in all honesty, that decision was made *before* I took over A1E - even before Roger approached me about it. Even with that, two brand new guys are getting a shot at it.

So yes, again, I'm not going to gloss over what's happened in the past. I'm just hoping that A1E's efforts over the past several months - and especially my most recent efforts, as well as my ongoing efforts - to get new people pushed will speak some volumes. We've learned from the past. We have a face/heel faction war going on right now - but it's not dominating the main event scene. We're trying to do things right, and will continue to do so.

Point is, ANYONE can get over. If you show up, work hard, and promo well, you WILL move up the card, and you WILL get your shots. No one is held back for who they are, the style they work in, or anything like that at all.

4. New members are disregarded and screwed over in favor of established members.

I don't really know how to describe this, other than it's all really a case-by-case basis. When someone - anyone - joins a new federation, it's a brand new environment. What works in one federation for one person may not work in another federation. But, A1E is unique in this instance, because we are, quite simply put, an old-school promo fed. When you join A1E, it's not quite the same as joining EPW (which I keep using as an example because that's where else I participate). In A1E, you're not trying to just win me over as head booker. You're not just trying to win over the BC. You're trying to win over 20 other people, because everyone votes. It's not like going to EPW, where you just have Dave to worry about. Now, Dave is a great guy, and he's very fair, but Dave is one person. In A1E, you've got to win over the majority.

First off, the rule is that I don't care who you are. Whether you're John Q. Public and this is your first fed, or your name is Dan Ryan and you've won a million world titles. Everyone - and I mean everyone - starts at the very bottom in A1E and then must work their way up. There are no pushes given to a "name" just because that's what your name is.

And because A1E tends to be a fed with an old-school feel, people who aren't part of the fed may have a hard time meshing into that feel. You may be the most fantastic narrative writer in the world, but honestly, I don't think that's going to go over in A1E. If you have a quirky style of any kind, or if you do something totally out of the norm, you can't expect to walk into the fed and tear it up right away. People have to be able to take some time to read you, to get to know you, and learn about you. I think that's the majority of what the problem is. People who do well elsewhere expect to be able to go anywhere and win the World Title right away, because either they think they're that good, or that their name deserves it.

So when these kinds of people come in to A1E, and they don't do as well as they thought they would, or as well as they'd EXPECTED to, they leave after two or three matches and tell the world that "I can't get over in A1E." I don't think it's fair to expect to get over in two or three matches ANYWHERE, let alone just A1E. People have taken this to mean that "In A1E, you've gotta pay your dues" before you get shots at titles, or can get a push. That's just simply not true. I'll use Daymon as a prime example. I think the guy's been in less than a dozen matches in A1E, and already he's held the Triple Star Championship, and is lining up to challenge for the federation's number two title at our next PPV.

When it all comes down to it, it's not about your "name" value. It's not about anyone holding you down. It's not about paying your dues. It's not about getting in close with the bookers. It doesn't matter who your friends are.

Because A1E is a voted fed, the ONLY thing that matters is connecting with the voters, and writing well enough to get them to vote for you.

If you think that people from outside can't have success in A1E, then again, let me point out to you some of the success stories...

*Cross - Triple Star Champion. One of only two men to hold the Cyber Title THREE times. Former World Heavyweight Champion.
*Daymon - Triple Star Champion and challenger for the Cyber title - all in under a dozen matches.
*Lindsay Troy - Triple Star Champion, Tag Team Champion, Cyber Champion.
*Dan Ryan - Tag Team Champion. Current Number One Contender for the World Title.

There's been a few cases where people came in and didn't connect with the voters. GUNS, Jared Justice, and Shawn Hart all came and left because they were names elsewhere, but weren't winning matches in A1E. Doc Silver, who, at the time he joined, was one of the more controversial characters A1E had ever seen, and it was that simply his shooty style didn't go over with the public. It's not a knock against him, or his writing, or anything, because the guy's obviously a talented writer, but felt so strongly about needing to do well that he felt the need to start rigging votes to get ahead, when in reality, it was just his style that wasn't connecting with the voters. Is it truly fair that when new people come in to A1E, that we expect them to conform to our "style"? Of course it's not fair, but with a voted fed, it's a reality. If you can't connect with the voters, then you're not going to have a ton of success.

But, I don't mean to say all this and place all the blame on others. People have their own style, and whether people take to it or not is their own personal preference. This is not to say that it is just the handlers that are the source of the issue. That's entirely not it at all. We in A1E have made mistakes with new people in the past as well. We're not perfect.

One particular character that stands out is Pharaoh. When he joined, he set A1E on fire, and was doing very well. In one match against Housefly, Pharoah won the votes. This was huge, and beating Housefly at that time was a monster acheivement. This match took place at the time that the Beast/Housefly monster feud was going on, and I wrote the match as Beast interfering and taking out Housefly, before placing Pharaoh on Fly for the pinfall. People didn't like that very much, and I took a lot of heat for that. People felt that I took away a huge win from Pharaoh, and once again, what seemed like a good idea in the context of the feud was proven as being a big mistake by hindsight. So, in that particular case, we made a mistake.

All that being said, that happened years ago, and that mistake has never been repeated since. It's all about learning and moving on. The whole point of this post is not to come out and shout to the world that "What's wrong with you people? A1E is perfect, and you should all be here!"

No, that's not the point at all. The point of this post is to reach out to everyone out there, and say that "Yes, because of some things that have happened in the past, we realize that in the e-Wrestling community, we have a bit of a reputation out there." We realize that in the past, some mistakes have been made, and that has caused a perception of us out in the greater community. We also want this post to educate people about how A1E truly operates, and we hope to provide some insight as to why things happened the way they did, and what we've done to correct those mistakes and learn from them. A1E has truly evolved, and we're truly not the fed we seemed to have been.

Quite frankly, that was the "old" A1E, and we are definitely in a new era.

A1E puts out a card regularly every two weeks. Like clockwork. We don't miss. Some people don't believe that, and if you don't, just go take a look at our results page on the web site, and look at the dates of the shows. Clockwork. If you like to be active in RP'ing, and don't want to wait a month or more for a card to come out, then A1E is the place for you.

Since I've taken over A1E, I've introduced a new method of planning for the fed. Gone is the week-to-week planning of everything else except for the major feuds. Now, feuds and PPV's are planned at the very least one month in advance, with every match on every show being planned to build towards that PPV. This guarantees that EVERYONE will be involved in a program. Also, I'm not the only one that handles all the details. Each feud is assigned a BC Staff Member who communicates directly with the participants, and they become your own personal booker for that feud, and the staff in turn reports to me. This ensures that every program is given the utmost attention, and nothing will fall through the cracks. We don't want you to be disappointed in A1E because we got details wrong or even missed something altogether.

The talent in A1E is unbelievable. Everyone in the fed is a quality writer and participant. Every fed has their superstars, but A1E is full of them. Coming to A1E will give you a chance to meet up and work with some of the very best in the e-Wrestling community, and at the very least, that can only serve to make you a better writer and give you an opportunity to tell stories with some of the best minds in the business.

We've just opened up our tag team tournament. You want a shot to come in and quickly win a title, while being able to establish yourself before diving into the singles ranks? It's perfect for you.

I don't want this to be a huge shill for A1E - I explained the point of this post earlier. I really want to open people's eyes, and try and inform people that have these perceptions of A1E that we're not this evil corporation that we're sometimes made out to be.

If at any time, you've ever thought of joining A1E, but didn't for any of the reasons talked about in this post... if you ever came to A1E and then left because things weren't as you expected... I invite you to please come talk to me. If not me, then talk to one of the members of the BC - Dan, Phil, Shane, or Andy. Tell us what you've been thinking, and why, and hopefully we can explain some things to you and put your mind at ease.

Quite simply, we believe that A1E is just as good as any other fed out there - timely cards with fantastic writers and roleplayers, solid storylines and a fun atmospehere. All we're trying to do is make the federation bigger and better, and we'd be honored if you'd think about making A1E one of your efed homes.

Thanks to Tom for giving me this platform, and thanks to everyone for taking the time to read it. I hope we can all look forward to working together in the future.

Peace,

Jarret

Life as a booker...

2007-01-31T15:00:00.000-06:00

Well, it's certainly been a busy couple of weeks since taking over the reigns of A1E, and it only looks to get busier. The first UCW show with my involvement should be up any day now. I'll be returning to EPW in short order.

And, there's always A1E.

I can see why Roger got burned out. Not that I'm complaining - I think I'm actually more motivated now than I've been in a long time, because now I actually have a much bigger stake in A1E, and directly control it's success and failure, along with the help of the Booking Committee, of course, but ultimately as head booker, I have the final say (tm Nathan Houston), and I'm ultimately responsible for what goes on in the fed. But I can see why Roger had to step down - running multiple characters, plus the day to day portion of running A1E can get hectic.

But, I'm ready to meet the challenge head on.

I've put out two cards so far. One was wrapping up a Warfare when Roger had to step down, and Steven Shane had to leave the BC, and the second card was my first PPV, Bloody New Year. It truly wasn't all my card, as the feuds were all set in motion well before the PPV, and the card was set, but I was still able to steer the course of the card and leave my stamp on the Pier Six Brawl. From the few comments I've had, people seemed to have really liked it, and for that, I'm truly grateful and relieved at the same time, as I've never tried writing a match like that before.

But now, as we blow off Bloody New Year and move on with this animal known as A1E, the Jarret-era of A1E truly begins. We're in the middle of our first Warfare that I've booked now, and we're heading for the Sudden Death PPV. I'm trying to plan a PPV ahead - the PPV is pretty much booked, and barring catastrophe and need for change, the card is pretty much set, and we can use all our Warfares now to build to that PPV. That's going to be my goal going foward - book what I want to see at the next PPV, and then build hard towards it.

There's also some other changes going on. A1E's dropped Lilian Garcia and we've got our own ring announcer now - Danni Collings. This was our last step to shedding any and all ties to real life feds, and I think this is a good thing. An even better thing is that Dan West (man of 1000 masks, but most notably Spoiler and Chip Friendly) has joined our booking committee, and he's going to be a huge, valuable asset to A1E.

The ideas have been flowing constantly, so taking that with the input of the other BC members, some impending returns, and some money matches on the horizon, I see nothing but good things in the future for A1E, and I couldn't be more happy.

Stay tuned to Warfare for a huge announcement from A1E Commissioner Nathan Houston!

Till next time...

Passing of the A1E Torch

2007-01-12T09:33:00.000-06:00

Something I never thought would happen... happened in a big way.

For those that don't know, I've been with A1E *almost* since it's inception back in 2000. It started in the summer - I joined in the fall at the recommendation of Nemesys, who at the time was my biggest partner in wrestling watching crime.

The head booker of A1E at that time was Roger, perhaps better known as his alter ego "Housefly"; A1E World Champion who eventually grew into a veritable legend in the federation. I joined the booking committee shortly after I joined A1E, and with the exception of one break to take care of some education, and another to get married and move, I've been on the BC almost since the start.

The one constant was Roger, constantly coming up with ideas, starting major feuds, and generally guiding A1E and taking it from this new idea and turning it into a juggernaut. The guys was truly the heart and soul of A1E. I thuoght he'd be running the place until either hell froze over, or he got sick of wrestling, something I didn't think was possible.

But, as time grew on, Roger began taking on more and more. Writing matches every week, the Pier Six Brawl once a year, and he had so many ideas going through his head that he kept introudcing more and more characters, bsically singlehandedly saving the A1E Tag Division a couple times pretty much by himself. He began branching out into different federations.
As you can expect, over time, it became too much. He began scaling back. Characters dropped here and there, he backed off of writing matches and became the "idea man" for A1E. He was getting burnt out, and fast.

And now yesterday, Roger took the step that we all didn't think was possible. He gave up this child that he nurtured for close to seven years, and stepped down as head booker for A1E.

His successor?

Yours truly.

Roger's going to be missed on the BC. Always full of great ideas, always willing to listen to others' ideas, and could take an idea presented to him and add/change things to make it better like no other could.

I've got big shoes to fill, but I've got my own ideas and I'm forming my own vision, so here's hoping that I can take this being that Roger has taken care of for so long and push it even farther, and make it even bigger and better.

As always, if anyone has any questions about A1E, ideas about angles, has any problems, or just want to shoot the shit about efedding, don't hestitate at all to get a hold of me.

Let's all work together to make this thing called A1E bigger and better than we ever thought it could be.

Thanks, all!

The Beasties

2007-01-04T11:48:00.000-06:00

Alright folks, I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and a very Happy New Year. As I mentioned last time, I was going to present "The Beasties", my own little A1E year-end awards. Well, wait no more, cause here they are.

I've cribbed all the categories from Tom's blog and the Efed News awards, and I won't include any of what I've been involved in, as this is feedback and recognition for you guys, not for me. I'll provide nominations and a winner for each category, so if you've been nominated, consider that a pat on the back and an honorable mention for that category.

So, without further adieu, I present "The Beasties"!

Rookie Of The Year

Nominees: Troy Douglas, Drunken Tiger, Daymon, The Sergeant

Douglas and Daymon have a bit of a leg up, as they're obviously not new to e-wrestling in general, but they are new to A1E, and it's just as hard to bring in a character from another circuit and have that character be accepted as it is to create a new character from scratch.
That being said, all four guys made waves in A1E this year. Douglas and Daymon brought some great intensity, and Josh took more of a character-development approach with DT and Sarge. BTW Josh, kudos to having both your characters nominated.

Winner: Daymon

I think that Daymon had the stronger outing, putting together a nice string of wins and capping off the year with a huge Triple Star Title win over a juggernaut in Hida.

Manager of the Year

A1E's a little thin on the valet/manager side, but we have a few.

Nominees: Mr. Fikes, Erin Flanagan, Kira Kai, Lollipop

All three characters provide a dynamic and foil for their wrestling counterparts.

Winner: Erin Flanagan

James handles Erin so well that she's more of an extension of James Irish than she is a seperate character. She's presented in such a way that she's always doing the right thing at the right time, saying the perfect line to compliment James, or providing a little comic relief as well.

Comeback of the Year

To the wrestler than missed part of the year and came back strong and reminded us why we missed them in the first place.

Nominees: Cross, Spoiler

Cross had a great end of the year run, becoming only the second person to win the Cyber Title for a third time. Spoiler tore through A1E and won the Best of A1E Tournament.

Winner: Spoiler

For not only winning the Best of A1E Tournament, but for a great feud with Housefly that saw Spoiler defeat the A1E legend.

Tag Team Of The Year

Nominees: Anarchy, Inc (Torment & Haven), Big Dog & Dan Ryan, Damon Blackburn & Drunken Tiger

Anarchy Inc set the standard at the start of the year, defeating anyone and everyone who came along. The titles then passed through Chip and Slambo, before Big Dog and Dan Ryan eventually came along and won the titles down the road. Since then, Dog & Ryan have dominated the A1E tag division, which admittedly, was a little lacking, but anyone that was thrown at them was defeated. Damon Blackburn and Drunken Tiger get a nod for taking the champs to a draw their first week together.

Winners: Big Dog and Dan Ryan

Mark Out Moment Of The Year

There were several moments in A1E that made me sit up and go HOLY SHIT! or make me cheer like a little mark. It was a pretty good year for angles and big moments.

Nominations: JA's World Title win, Slambo defecting from the HPSC, Steven Shane returning to the HPSC. Spoiler winning the Best Of A1E tournament.

Winner: Steven Shane makes his return to the HPSC.

The HPSC is always great when they're dealing with unknown identities, and this one kept me guessing right up until Shane was revealed.

Card of the Year

This award is kind of an all inclusive award for both handlers and the bookers. The handlers make a great card by coming out and promoing hard and creating and furthering storylines, and the bookers take those and do them justice in the writeups.

Nominees: Bloody New Year, Golden Dreams, Cyber Brutality

All three cards had some really big moments and culminations of storylines.

Winner: Golden Dreams.

It was just the mother of all cards this year, as it should be, with angles being blown off and big moments happening.

Feud Of The Year

There were a lot of great feuds this year, and larger angles built on successful smaller feuds.
Nominees: Big Dog & Dan Ryan vs Anarchy, Inc., Spoiler vs. Housefly, Andrew Gilkison vs. Richard Farnswirth, JA vs. Sanity (:p), Slambo vs. Chip Friendly

Winner: Big Dog & Dan Ryan vs. Anarchy Inc.

This was just a nasty brutal feud that became really personal. I loved every minute of it.

Angle Of The Year

Now, you may be thinking about some of the following in feud of the year, but I'll explain...

Nominees: TPSC vs. HPSC, Spoiler vs. Housefly.

Winner: TPSC vs. HPSC.

Now this is the definition of a great angle. The TPSC vs HPSC angle encapsualted James vs Farnswirth, Slambo vs "Slambo" and the real Slambo's face turn, Andrew Gilkison finally defecting from the HPSC, Duchess vs. Andy, Chip vs. Slambo... this entire angle was a fantastic culmination of several smaller feuds, that when all added together, made for a great overall storyline, and which is why I didn't mention any of these in the Feud of the Year.

Match Of The Year

What do you say about match of the year? You look for a match that was both written and promoed for well, and has that certain "vibe" to it, like it's a match you'd actually pay to see on PPV... that being said, here are the three nominations for Match Of The Year!

Nominees: Pier Six Brawl, Spoiler vs. Housefly, Best of A1E Tournament Finals.

The Brawl is always a contender, just for the great job Roger does writing it every year, plus all the hard work everyone puts into promoing for it. Spoiler vs. Housefly was like Frazier vs. Ali, two greats just waiting to explode and see just who was the best. The Best Of A1E final was a great match, and everyone in that match stepped up to try and show that they were indeed the best in A1E.

Winner: A1E's Pier Six Brawl.

The air around that match was incredible, the writeup was great, the promo work was great, and I'm mostly picking this because JA won the damned thing, which I know meant a lot to him, and set the stage for him winning his first A1E Championship.

Heel Of The Year

To the person who best exemplifies what it's like to be a classic heel. A bit of a jerk, performing acts and rattling off lines that make you want to jump through your screen and really choke the life out of him or her. All three of the nominees exuded these attributes in spades.

Nominees: Chp Friendly, Richard Farnswirth, Hida Yakamo

Winner: Richard Fanrswirth.

Dick's actions leading the HPSC, treating Slambo the way he did, hell, treating everyone around him the way he did, and being a real old-school type of heel earn Farnswirth this year's award.

Face Of The Year

Opposite of the Heel Of The Year, this person is the one that fights for the rights of others, is the classic hero, and challenged the top heels all year long.

Nominees: Irishred, Andrew Gilkison, James Irish

Winner: James Irish.

James successfully found ways to screw with the minds of the HPSC, and had a great feud with the top heel, Richard Farnswirth, culminating in James taking the World Heavyweight Championship from Richard.

Wrestler of the Year

The most visible, most successful, most wave-making wrestler in the fed.

Nominees: Spoiler, James Irish, Cross, Richard Farnswirth

Spoiler won the Best of A1E tournament, and defeated Housefly in a legends match. James Irish held the Triple Star and World Titles. Cross won the Cyber Title - twice. Farnswirth had a nice long World Title reign. I've gotta go with consistency in this. Spoiler was hot, but wasn't around all year. Same with Cross. I'm going to give this to James, who was solid all year long, especially holding two different titles.

Winner: James Irish

Handler of the Year

The person behind the characters, the one making all the magic happen. I don't think that the Handler Of The Year needs to have their characters win all kinds of titles. The HOTY needs to show consistency in their performance, create and participate in successful and interesting storylines, have some success, develop their character, and contribute to the fed as a whole.

Nominees: Phil Banet (Big Dog, Richard Farnswirth), Dan West (Chip Friendly, Spoiler, Dave Brunk (Dan Ryan), Shane G. (Irishred)

Winner: Dan West (Chip Friendly, Spoiler).

Dan, as everyone knows, is one of the e-legends around these parts, and you can't deny the success he's had with Spoiler this year (and Chip too). His characters are always well thought out and roleplayed as if he IS the character, and not someone just writing a part. Both Spoiler and Chip were involved in some heavy duty storylines Hats off to Dan for a great year.

And that wraps the Beasties for this year. Congratulations to everyone on putting A1E back on the map in 2006, and here's looking forward to an even better 2007.

Cheers!

A Quick Note

2006-12-20T13:37:00.000-06:00

Hey everybody, I just wanted to let everyone know what was coming down the pipe as far as this blog goes.

I expect it to pick up lots in the New Year. My posts have been kinda far between each, as I really only participate in and follow one fed right now - A1E, so I really only have that fed to draw from for material, along with any general topics I may come up with.

But, that's all going to change. I haven't forgotten EPW, and in fact, I will be returning there in short order. I've also just joined UCW, so now I'll have three feds to draw on for posts here in the Blog O' The Beast.

Also, in early 2007, keep your eye out for The Beasties, which will be my version of year end awards - yes, I'm jumping on that bandwagon, but for 2006, the Beasties will only cover A1E. Next year, they'll include any and all feds I'm participating in. Just my own little way of recognizing my peers and providing some feedback.

Also, free-time-permitting, I'm going to introduce my own fantasy e-fed right here on my blog, where I'll pick my own roster and book the fed as I would a real fed. I'll use - and abuse - characters the way I'd use them, so I may not stay true to all existing characters, but dammit, it's my show, and I'll book it how I want to book it. ;)

Anywho, those are just a couple of the things I'm working on here in the Beast Cave, and hopefully you'll all keep coming back to read. As always, I'd love any comments or suggestions on any of the material I have.

Cheers all,

Jarret

Characters vs. Gimmicks

2006-12-12T11:23:00.000-06:00

I was reading this blog entry over at JA's Blog, which was a guest entry by the handler of Jason Snow, a fellow by the name of David. David raised an interesting point - kind've in passing - and I'd like to explore that a little more.

Characters vs. Gimmicks.

These days, it seems that we as handlers are falling into the mainstream wrestling pitfall. No one really has a gimmick anymore. Look at WWE. Who really has a gimmick? There's Umaga, with his Ugandan tribal deal. There's the Dead Man, the Undertaker. Eugene's a retard. There's a few more, but going by the RAW roster page, there's 44 superstars listed there, and nine, maybe ten of them have what I'd classify as a real, solid, certifiable GIMMICK. That's less than 25%. Look at HHH and HBK. Sure, HHH does the water thing and carries a sledgehammer, and HBK has his funky outfits, but what really are their gimmicks? What really makes them that much different? Nothing, really. At their core, they're just a couple guys who want to be the best and go out and win matches.

Nowadays, everyone just seems to want to be a wrestler that is either a bad ass or a nice guy, but is in whatever fed they're in to be the best they can be and win the World Title. Sure, there are some slight nuances to each individual character, and some even have some cool names, like "Sensational" Steven Shane, or "Phenomenal" Frankie Scott (and nothing at all against these two fine handlers), but they're just nicknames. There's nothing really there that differentiates one wrestler from the other any more.

Here's what David said in part of his post on JA's blog:

“What’s your character?”

“Oh, I handle John Smith in GWF (Generic Wrestling Federation).”

“Oh yeah, what’s his gimmick?”

“He’s a guy that was born into a terrible family where his father abused his mother. Now he’s in the middle of a plot to blow up his city because an evil congressman is trying to divert attention away from his unnatural lust for young boys.”

You know who has the best “gimmick” in that? The congressman with the unnatural lust for young boys. What we call gimmicks today aren’t really gimmicks - they’re circumstances that surround the main character. A gimmick is who the character is, not what’s going on in his life."

I agree whole-heartedly. I think that part of the reason that eWrestling has been on a bit of a decline (although now it seems like we might be starting an upswing) is that things were too stagnant. Things are too "the same", with every wrestler being a generic cut, with a different name and different background and history, but that's about it.

I think back in A1E to a few years ago, when we had the biggest "boom", we had tons of gimmicks. We had guys like Cannibal, who was known for pulling out a fork in the middle of his matches. Captain Suleimon, who we all know as the Turkish nationalist with a deep hatred for everything from the West. Chamelon was a ninja. Gladiator was, well... a Gladiator. The Diva was a drag queen. The Collective. Mimic, who'd beat you with your own finisher. I could go on and on - there's lots more.

Now, we have an A1E roster of about 30 characters, and I see 10 or 11 real gimmicks. A better percentage than the WWE, but we're still a mass of "guys who want to kick ass and win titles", with nothing to really differentiate us between the others on the roster. I see the same things in EPW, where I've also been a part of, and other feds I've read as well.

Hell, I'm the one that's going on about this, and my own character, Beast, really doesn't have a gimmick. He's one of those generic big guys that believes he's the best and thinks the World Title is his personal property. When I think about it, I've been playing Beast for six years now (!), and for only about a year of that, did he have any real gimmick, when Beast was a Canadian nationalist, part of the Canadian Revolution. Before I took my break earlier this year to buy a house and move and get married, I was in the middle of developing a narcissist gimmick, but now I have to start that all over again.

I don't say this to take away anything at all from the handlers that run characters in A1E - or ANY fed, for that matter - but I personally believe it brings a higher element of fun when there's more diversity, rather than seeing "Generic Wrestler A vs. Generic Wrestler B" every week, and hearing the thousandth variation of "I'm going to kick your ass". The gimmick helps with the presentation, and makes everything more enjoyable. What makes Beast any different from Big Dog and Dan Ryan and Andrew Gilkison and Daymon and Jack Gilkison and Hida Yakamo and Irishred and Steven Shane and Troy Douglas and Housefly and Eddie Weston, other than our histories and attitudes? We're all guys that want to beat everybody and be the best.

We've got fantastic handlers in A1E - and across other feds - that do simply amazing jobs with developing histories and backstories for their characters and are truly gifted writers who come up with great feuds to participate in, but where are the new generations of the Chip Friendlies, the Slambo the Clowns, the Richard Farnswirths, the Spoilers, the Cross', teh Jericoholic Anonymouses, the Havens, and the James Irishes? We've got a few, with new guys like Drunken Tiger, The Sergeant, and the Canadian Luchador, but I think we still need some more diversity in characters to bring out an interest in the characters themselves, and not just those who write for them.

Writing and reading promos are so much more fun when the presentation and content of the character is so unique that it's vastly different from everyone else. I think people are scared to go that route because it's "too 80's WWF", but you can come up with an interesting gimmick without being the Red Rooster or the Gobbledygooker.

A Successful Return

2006-11-21T11:01:00.000-06:00

What a way to cap off a return story.

The past few PPV cycles have been a return to the basics of efedding for me. If you remember a post I made a while back about the state of A1E, I did quite a bit of preaching about a return to storytelling rather than a focus on competitiveness.

And that's what this story was with Cross.

Let's recap, for those those that may not be in the know.

After Bloody New Year, when Beast finally won the A1E World Heavyweight Championship, it couldn't have been at a worse time, as I found out I was going to need some time off. I just couldn't deal with the time committment to efedding and all the work required around buying and selling a house, moving, and planning and executing a wedding. So, I had Beast storm into Houston's office, demand a new contract, cause after all, Beast thought he WAS the company, to which Houston promptly said "thanks, but no thanks". Beast responded by driving Houston through his desk. Beast promptly went out and lost the title to JA, and was suspended indefinitely the week after by Houston.

When it was time to come back, I didn't want to "just come back" (TM Dave Brunk). So I worked up an angle, submitted it to Fly, and said "Gimme an opponent. I'll make this work with anyone." And in his infinite wisdom, Fly gave me one of the best in Cross.

We started the story with this over-zealous Cross fan in the stands, complete with a Cross lucha mask, cheering on Cross in every match. As the weeks went on, the fan's involvement escalated, to the point where the week before Mercury Rising, when the fan tried to get involved physically in Cross' match to help him from a beatdown. After, Cross went to thank the fan, but the fan planted Cross, setting up a match at Mercury Rising.

Cross won that match, but we'd planted some seeds. We'd established that Anti-Cross had plastic surgery to make himself look like Cross. AC was trying to get into Cross' life, stalking him, showing up to do promos in the same places Cross had just been, winning over his Aunt, living in his former home, stealing his former fiancee... it was all a masterpiece. This of course, led to a return match at Golden Dreams.

Time for more mind games, as AC shows up, once again with his lucha mask on, but there was not one, but TWO Anti-Cross'. They'd switch up several times during the match. Whever one got in trouble, he'd roll out of the ring and under it, and the other would come out from under the other side of the ring. They basically mind-fucked Cross in that match, and at the end, Thalia even helped out with a low blow, and AC nailed a gore and an Absolution 2K4 to win the match before peeling off his lucha mask to reveal... Anti-Cross. Who THEN peeled off his face a la Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible to reveal... Beast!

So Beast captures the Cyber Title for a third time and returns to A1E, but now it's time for the tables to turn. We're building to a rubber match at Cyber Brutality, and Cross is the one to start mind-fucking Beast. Terrorizing the women in the showers, mysterious messages written on mirrors and left in locker rooms. The arenas lights and sound malfunctioning whenever Beast is in the ring, followed by a message from Cross indicating impending Hell and doom to come.

All in the form of A1E's first ever Crucifixion match!

And what a match it was. Andrew Gilkison did a FANTASTIC job on the write up, and made both guys look like superstars in the ring. I asked Andy to make sure Cross got put over huge, since this was his blowoff match, and Andy did a great job. Not only did Cross win the match and reclaim his title, but we also got the reunification of Cross and Thalia, so it was a great night all around. I think Andy just wrote the newest most brutal match in A1E history.

And it doesn't even bother me that Cross got two of the three wins in this feud. He got that, and he was kind enough to give me my big return moment at Golden Dreams, A1E's version of Wrestlemania. We both gave and took in this feud, and I think ultimately we did a classic good vs. evil angle, with the good guy going over in the end. That's classic wrestling. It's Booking 101, and in the process we told an amazing story, and really, we BOTH looked great in doing so. Beast lost nothing by losing that match, and we gave everyone a feel good ending.

That right there... that's what efedding's all about. It's not about titles. It's not about wins and losses. It's about crafting a marvelous and enticing and intruiging story, and making things fun. And that's exactly what we did.

I guess it worked, as on A1, X called this the match of his career, and you don't know how proud I am to have been part of that. Andy should feel proud too, doing the whole thing more than justice with his great writeup.

That, my friends, is the essence of e-fedding. Working together as a team - handlers and BC - to craft a great story. That's the most fun I've had in a while.

Thanks, X.

Absense makes the heart grow fonder.

2006-10-16T16:28:00.000-05:00

You never really know how much you miss something until it's gone.

With that said, let me say... "IT'S GREAT TO BE BACK!"

I recently took six months off (wow, was it THAT long?) from efedding, as there was a lot on my plate. Most notably, planning a wedding social, buying a new house, planning a wedding, moving, selling a house, and getting married, all in that time frame.

But during that time... damn, it was rough. I was still there every week, reading promos and cards when I could for both my home fed - A1E, and my home away from home - EPW, and sending in votes when I remembered and had time.

During that time away, I missed a lot of things. I saw some great storylines go on in both feds. I read everyone's blogs. Man, I wanted to be there cutting promos. I wanted to be back on the A1E BC writing matches and contributing to the growth of the fed. I saw tournaments and super cards come along, and I wanted to participate SO bad, but I knew that if I did, it would likely be the worst turnouts I'd ever given. I wanted to be back working with both Dave and Roger, churning out top-notch feuds like we always do.

I never really realized how truly addicted I am to this little hobby of ours until I couldn't be a part of it.

And then it was time to come back. Cross and I fired off a fantastic angle to get me back into A1E. I'm working on a return to EPW with Dave, although I'm not sure when I'll fit back on the roster, given current angles, but don't worry, I'll be back there soon. Plus, I'm discussing angles to come into a third fed and hopefully find some success there and have a lot of fun while I'm doing it. It'll be a chance to work with some familiar faces, and a host of new people that I've never worked with before, so it should be great.

Bottom line is... the fire's still there. The fun is still there, and to paraphrase The Rock...

FINALLY... THE BEAST HAS COME BACK... TO E-FEDDING!

I'm looking forward to each and every second of it!

Looking beyond A1E and EPW (my first PRIME card)

2006-09-28T14:02:00.000-05:00

I've gotta admit, I've been pretty limited to my efedding experience. A1E's been my home fed since 2000, and I helped in the EPW start up, and have been pretty solid there. My ventures outside those feds have been few and far between. Partly because I've had some pretty bad experiences outside those feds, and partly because I don't have a ton of free time outside what I already do. I don't even read a lot of cards.

However, when JA posted a link to Prime's latest show, Revolution 105, and pimped a huge return, I thought "What the hell, I'll go check it out." I'll be honest here. I don't anything at all about Prime. I don't even know who's in the fed, let alone how it runs, or what the standards are like.

However, my initial reaction was YIKES!

First off, the CEO making a few announcements, including a new signing... not bad stuff. Pretty standard.

Then the first segment rolls around. Nova gets out of his vehicle, and the first thing that happens is that he gets this hologram transmission (complete with delayed audio)... from a... dead guy. Facey/Adam Dick (the dead guy) asks him to get to the bottom of his murder. At least that's what I think was asked - I could barely get through the segment without rolling my eyes.

We've then got a missing match, and then another segment where Eve dumps Pierce. She won't manage a loser anymore. Actually, not a bad segment. Sets up some possible later feuding, both between Eve and Pierce, and whomever Eve ends up managing.

Next up: The Return of Sonny Silver. If I knew who it was, I might be more excited, but damn, this is a fantastic segment. The promos from Ito and Sonny were funny and entertaining, and did a ton to tell me as a first time reader what these two are all about. Great work.

We get a teaser segment next. Some really famous guy's music plays, but no one comes out, and we move on.

Oxios and Sonny bump into each other backstage. I don't know what to think of this segment. Part of it was funny, but most of it was totally pointless. The whole SUPERSTAR wrestler thing in caps and strikeout text is useless in spoken work, but whatever works, I guess. This segment should have been a whole lot shorter.

Next up: Another missing segment, and then one called Perimeter. I'm hoping this is part of a bigger angle. Two "officials" are watching Winters, and trying to get at his Internet belt, but he's on to them. They corner him and want to "inspect" the title, but Winters will have nothing of it, and storms out of the room.

One more segment has Adam waiting for his match to start. Noble comes up, the two men have an uneasy conversation before Eve comes to suggest that she should be Adam's manager, but he refuses. Nice continuation from earlier on.

And finally we get a match. Adam vs. Winters for the Internet Championship. I rather liked the writeup style. A pretty decent writeup, and we've got a new Internet Champion. I don't know about the Danny/Chet stuff being worked in, but I guess it's alright. Nice first match writeup impression.

Next up a segment with Olsig and Danny Ferguson, which turns out to be a nice set up for a match next card. Nicely done.

We get another appearance teaser, and yet another no-show by whomever this is.

Another Ferg and Worth - and another missed segment. Apparently Pete's an asshole.

We're up to our second match of the night, Tony Gamble vs. Nova. I hope the match is better than the show's starting segment. And, after reading it, I don't know what the fuck happened, but it looks like either the result was switched, or something wasn't edited right, but first off, the winner is declared as Gamble, after a bridging suplex, then there's another paragraph where Nova wins with a superkick. There was supposed to be an interlude with Ferguson and Worth, but methinks the writer got confused between the three parts. Better clean that up for next show.

Next up, a segment where we see Damien puking his guts out. Ohhhkayyyy......

Now, we finally get the end of Ferguson and Worth. These guys have been brawling the ENTIRE show. A few pinfall attempts - with no referee - later, finally a ref comes to the ring. Moments later, the CEO calls for reinforcements, and a bunch of people run out to... SET UP A CELL? And Chet starts helping them? Uh-oh. Ferguson finally gets the win after a couple sick spots and a really tired finisher. I really liked the way the writer wrote in the fact that these two were exhausted from fighting all night long, and worked that in. I could have done without the cage part - I don't know how logistical that would be in a live match, but it was good in that they tried something different. Overall, a pretty good end to this "match".

The action continues with Tchu and Olsig. Nova coems out to do commentary and "scout the competition". I'm predicting screw job finish. This one's a pretty good back-and-forth, and the action finally spills out of the ring. Olsig goes after Nova, and Tchu actually helps pull the two men apart. Once we get back in the ring, there's a little more back and forth before Tchu sneezes (just kidding) and nails his finisher for the win. Nova didn't get involved (surprise!) but shows his respect for the champ after the match, before Olsig returns to wipe out both men. This was a real good match. I enjoyed it.

Just when you think the show's over, we get that music again, the one that's played twice before to indicate someone coming out, but no one was there. We must be getting the big pay off now. JASON SNOW comes to PRIME, and the arena pretty much falls apart with the pop he gets. Must be great for PRIME.

Overall, the show was pretty good, but I'd like to see better spacing of the matches and segments. Intersperse the segments amongst the matches - don't have like 6 segments in a row, then a couple matches. Let the action speak loudly, and the segments augment everything else. Just my opinion, but other than the opening segment, which there might be reasons for, but I just didn't get it, and didn't like it at all, oh, and the puking segment, I'd give this show a 7.5 out of 10. I'll probably come back and read the next card.

GOLDEN DREAMS~!

2006-09-12T14:52:00.000-05:00

Well, the biggest show of the A1E calendar is among us. The promo week is progressing well, and should be even better with the extension. A couple of people that have stood out for me so far are Hida and Cross. The last couple promos I read by these guys are pure gold. Keep it up!

But, this post is about me running down my Golden Dreams predictions. I of course could be wrong by the time the promos end, but here's my predictions for A1E's version of Wrestlemania:

Jericoholic Anonymous vs Hida Yakamo

I didn't get any real sense of closure out of the whole Lord of the Rings thing that JA was working on, but that doesn't make JA any less of a competitor. Hida's been spotty in his appearances - like he can't decide if he's going to stick around or not. However, when Hida's participating, he's one of the better guys to have on your roster.

Prediction: Hida. I'm hoping that Hida decides to stick around, and will use this match to get the momentum running.

Duchess vs Damon Blackburn

Duchess had an absolutely fantastic week against Promo last week, and I think that she's finally gotten into that groove she's been looking for, and when she's in a groove, she can be very dangerous. Damon Blackburn is always comedy gold, but I think he's been gone from A1E for too long to really make much of an impact.

Prediction: Duchess

Anarchy Inc. vs Troy Douglas & Daymon

I know Troy and Daymon from my time in EPW, and they're both as solid as they come. They're both excellent competitors. So are Jack Gilkison and Eddie Weston, but they're kinda spotty. Some weeks they throw out some brilliance, and others, they're just kinda there. Troy and Daymon have been turning heads since their arrival in A1E, and I think they need to make a mark at Golden Dreams to really catch that last bit of momentum and start getting some title shots.

Prediction: Troy Douglas and Daymon

James Irish vs Tha Eliminator

Elim's returned from a brief hiatus, and James... well, James is James, the Clown Prince of A1E. However, no one can mix up the comedy along with getting across a strong promo like James can. Elim always works hard, and at times has shown some really good stuff, but I don't think he has enough here to get by James.

Prediction: James Irish

A1E Tag Team Championship Match: Big Dog & Dan Ryan (Champions) vs Hell Incarnate

On paper, this match could be a co-main event. When all the guys in this match are ON, you've got the makings of a fantastic match. However, that's been the downfall of AJ Cirrus and Promo in recent times - their consistency. When they're on their game, they can hang with the very best, but they hurt themselves by missing weeks, or only putting up one promo a match. On the other hand, Big Dog and Dan Ryan are two of the elite in this little world of ours, and can be counted on to bring it each and every week. Their multitudes of titles speaks for themselves.

Prediction: Big Dog and Dan Ryan

Slambo the Clown vs Chip Friendly

Two of the best go at it in one of the better angles of the year. Slambo's realization that he's really been just the HPSC door mat, and his subsequent face turn and break away from the HPSC has been very well done. Chip Friendly is always one of the best guys on the roster. Should make for a five-star match.

Prediction: This is one match where I'm consulting Booking 101, and saying that Slambo HAS to go over Chip here as retribution for the way Chip has been treating Slambo over the years. That's the only way this can really end. I'm with Slambo.

A1E Triple Star Championship Match: Mr. Amazing (Champion) vs Irish Red

Red is one of the blue chippers of A1E, always busting his ass week in and week out, and is always solid, with flashes of top notch work. Sometimes, the way Amazing's ego is written gets in the way of me really enjoying his work, but that doesn't make me blind to how good he is. Promo-wise, I think Mr. A! is probably better than Red, but angle-wise, we can't forget the months of hell that A! has put Red through, and Booking 101 would kinda dictate a win by Red here to make up for that.

Prediction: My head says Mr. A! here, but my heart says it wants Red to win, so I'll take Red in this one.

A1E Cyber Championship Match: Cross (Champion) vs Anti-Cross

These two have really made their feud the #2 feud going into Golden Dreams. They really have. These guys have taken a topic that most people are scared of - religion - and used it to really get across their character's personas and really show us what makes them tick. At the same time, they've made their feud extremely personal and I think have really made all of us think about what our individual faith means to us. I think those are the best angles - those that take something real that we all care about and can identify with and battle over it, each one trying to convince us that they're right, staying within the context of character.

Prediction: I'm scared to make a prediction here. I think Cross is more of a natural at using religion and his faith and turning that into words and tying them to biblical aspects than Anti-Cross is, but the fact they're having a rematch from the last PPV makes me think there's something up - especially Anti-Cross hinting that something huge is going to happen to affect A1E. For now, I'm going to say Cross retains, but Anti-Cross is going to shake A1E to the core after the match.

Housefly vs The Spoiler

This match is every efedder's wet dream. The legend of A1E - Housefly, versus the legend of MBE - Spoiler. Each of these guys is synonymous with their home federations, and if you played word association with anyone, they'd have to link these two federations with these two superstars. This is how big this clash is.

Spoiler came to A1E with one mission, and that was meet Housefly in the ring and destroy him. Housefly is once again the underdog taking on the big bad villain, and while some say this might hamper him against Spoiler, this is the role that Housefly played in A1E to hold the World Heavyweight Championship for an entire year - and that's back when A1E was doing a show every week. You can't sneeze at that acheivement. Spoiler's one of those guys where you just need to look at his resume and see all those title wins to know that he's one of the best there ever was.

Prediction: How do you pick a winner in a match like this? These two could probably wrestle 100 matches, and each one win 50 times. The only way I can pick a winner here is to go with the fan-friendly atmosphere of the biggest show of the year, and give the fans a good result, which is to have the good guy win. In this case, it's Fly.

Main Event: A1E World Heavyweight Championship Match: Richard Farnswirth(Champion) vs Andrew Gilksion

A1E's other biggest feud, this has Andrew Gilkison challenging Farnswirth for the A1E Title after Farnswirth made Gilkison an unwilling participant of the HPSC for over a year. Andrew's finally broken free, and now he's out for revenge. Pretty straightforward, but makes for a fantastic revenge angle and great TV, especially when you have two guys the caliber of Farnswirth and Gilkison in the feud.

Prediction: This is another match that could really go either way, and split a hundred matches. These guys are at the top for a reason. Farnswirth is on a roll after winning back his title, but you gotta go with Booking 101 here, no matter HOW good Farnswirth promos this week. As a fan, I'd be wanting Gilkison to mop MSG with Farnswirth, take home the title, and cement his revenge. That's the only way I can decide this, because Farnswirth is just THAT good. You have to send your fans home happy at the biggest show of the year.

A1E's Mercury Rising PPV - Promo Week

2006-07-20T08:32:00.000-05:00

Time for the weekly installment of what's going on in A1E, while we're waiting anxiously for the results.

Before I get into specifics, though, I just wanted to say that it looks like A1E is turning a major corner. That "vibe" is coming through again. I get the sense that people are participating more than they are competing, and this can only be a great thing. I had a great time reading the threads this week, and seeing all the work going into the angles.

Outstanding work by everyone.

Thumbs Down:

The Tag Team Last Man Standing Match. I realize that real life got in the way for people this week, but when it happens to two guys out of four in a tag team match, it really sucks. And even the two guys that were left didn't do much (although I know that Andy was busy promoing his ass off for the Contract On A Pole match). I expected a lot more from this match.

Thumbs in the Middle: Nothing. There was nothing that left me really going "ehhh..." all week long. That's great.

Thumbs Up:

- MORE NEW BLOOD. That's awesome! First of all, thanks to Daymon and Troy Douglas for coming to give A1E a shot. You guys were impressive your first week in. I've seen both of these guys in EPW, and they're talented. You're going to do well in A1E. Excellent debuts by both guys. Also, nods go to their opponents, for giving them great debut matches to work with. Props to everyone.

- The aforementioned Contract On A Pole match. Wow. Andy was a frigging promo machine in this one. What, Andy, are you practicing for the Pier Six Brawl next year? Well done. Also, Duchess... she bloody well TURNED IT UP this week. I haven't seen her this intense for a while, and it really showed. Good work. And then Slambo comes and knocks one out with a POTY candiate. This was a great match all around.

- Cross vs. MonsterCrossFan. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm liking this feud. This whole feud has been purely cerebral, and A1E has missed that for a long time. I hope this one goes on for a while.

Oh yeah, and we got Drunken Tiger back this week.

And to anyone I didn't mention specifically, you all get an Honorable Mention. Good work.

Thumbs WAY THE FUCK UP:

The "Best Of A1E Finals". What can you say about this one? Four of truly the best there is in A1E, and they didn't disappoint. James was ultra-creative. Big Dog pulled out a fire that he hasn't had in some time - he's always passionate, but this was just on another level. Dan Ryan was his wisecracking best, and he had a POTY candidate as well with his attack on Spoiler, who in his own right had a fantastic week this week. What's not to like?

I don't know whether this was just because it was the build to a PPV event or what, but it was definitely an UP week in the fed, and I really hope this kind of work continues.

A1E Report

2006-06-28T13:18:00.000-05:00

Alright efed fans, time once again to look back on the week that was in A1E.

Thumbs Up:

Spoiler and Promo: A1E match of the week, hands down. Talk about intensity - these two turned it WAY up. I'm going to need to sit in front of the air conditioner to cool off after the heat generated in this match.

Big Dog and Dan Ryan: A close second to match of the week. How many times have we seen a poorly executed face vs face or partner vs partner match? Let's face it, they're really hard to pull off successfully. But kudos to Phil and Dave for giving us a different spin on this type of match. You almost got the idea that even though these two are partners, they're not going to hesitate to tear each other apart - and hey, it's just business. Kinda like Axe and Smash in the Royal Rumble all those years ago.

Thumbs In The Middle:

MonsterCrossFan: I don't know whether this is Cross building an angle for himself, or if we have a new person joining or a returning person to feud with Cross (or even to align with him), but whoever it is reads like a teenaged girl gushing about their favorite boy band, or that poor squealing bastard in the shopping commercials. I hope things change as this goes on, but like JA's LOTR piece, I'm willing to give this a chance to see how it plays out.

Thumbs Down:

No Drunken Tiger. :(

3 No Shows: I'll be the first one to say that real life gets in the way - and takes precendence - just take a look at my hiatus for evidence of that. I absolultey do not fault any of the individuals who just couldn't make it this week, but it just kinda deflates things when it all happens at once. It's just unfortunate timing, is all. Oh well, I guess the BC will have an easy time this week.

Next week brings us a PPV, so I can't wait to read the promos and watch everyone turn it up!

This Week In A1E

2006-06-14T14:15:00.000-05:00

It was fun to kick back and read the A1E threads this week. Here's some brief notes on what I see about the fed this week. I'm going to try and do one of these after every card. It might happen, it might not, but we'll see how it goes.

New blood:

- Cross has returned. The former Champion is back, and he's motivated. This is nothing but a great thing for A1E. Cross can bring it with the best of them, and that World Title is proof.

- Drunken Tiger. Right now I love the gimmick, even though he's really just getting started. There's nothing like a monster of a Korean with an even bigger chip on his shoulder. Says he's a tweener, but would be fantastic in a pure heel role, I think.

- Justin Evitable has come back. I don't know a heck of a lot about him, since most of his body of work was in MBE, but did a small stint in A1E that never really got off the ground. Loved his return out-of-match promo. Hopefully this means bigger things for him down the road.

A1E needs an infusion of different characters to help introduce some new feuds, and this is a good start.

HITS AND MISSES:

Hits:

Drunken Tiger: Like I said eariler, I like the gimmick, and he was a fun read this week. Keep it up.

Duchess: Someone drove a boot into Duchess' ass, and this week it showed. Some of the better stuff she's done lately.

IrishRed and Richard Farnswirth: Now THAT'S how you crank up the intensity. I love it when matches turn personal. This was a great thread.

Misses:

JA: I know that JA's dream was to capture the A1E World Title. He did it, but unfortunately, he lost it right away. I know that would be a huge blow to his character, but I'm not sure I'm liking the Hobbit retread. It'd be ok in small bits and pieces, but it did nothing to help his match this week. Sorry, pal.

Mr. Amazing vs. Housefly vs. Dan Ryan: I was hoping for more of an epic encounter this week given the sheer talent of all three people involved, but 5 promos between three guys doesn't really do it for me. I wanted to see this one lit up. Oh well, maybe next time. I realize life gets in the way, but this was one of those matches that "just could've been", you know?

Saving A1E

2006-05-25T14:26:00.000-05:00

What's wrong?

Why is everyone all up in arms about this little hobby of ours?

I've been doing lots of reading lately. I'm a big fan of JA's Blog, and also BigDaddy's Blog is quickly becoming a must-read. I think it's great that people are trying to churn up some discussion about our past time.

But as I read more and more, one or two subjects invariably and infrequently keep coming up. One, I keep seeing JA - and others - reference "the good old days" when efedding was "fun". The other I keep seeing is "A1E is bad, mmmkay?"

Although these are two very different subjects, the way I look at things - specifically A1E - the more I think they blend together, and they are mostly each a cause and effect of the other. This is going to be a long post - I'll talk about these subjects, as well as what I personally think should be done to get back to the true spirit of efedding - and taking A1E back to the heights it once enjoyed.

Alright. The first subject. Fun in efedding. More specifically, "When did A1E stop being fun?"

I, personally, never really stopped having fun in A1E. However, I'm not going to sugar-coat it. People wouldn't have mentioned it if it wasn't true for them. There has been - and is - a discernable, palpable sense to me that there was a defining moment (really TWO moments) when A1E kinda jumped the shark. I've done a lot of work to continue to have fun advancing angles and telling stories, but I think others have totally stopped. Here's what I mean about those two defining moments:

1. The death of MBE.
2. The FW "Invasion".

Now, before you jump out of your chairs and calling me an asshole, or worse, or whatever, hear me out. I am ABSOLUTELY NOT placing any blame, nor am I placing any success upon, the shoulders of those who joined A1E when MBE closed, or on those that came over from FW to give A1E a shot.

Here's my point.

Up until this point, I think A1E was the epitome of fun. EVERYONE had some kind of story going, and the promos were crazy.

You had Liquid Snake and Beast duking it out in the inaugaural Tag Team Tournament doing James Bond-esque promos, and rip-offs of Casino Royale. You had the adventures of JA down in Dudleyville. Guys were writing crazy promos from obscure settings. Big Dog and Gladiator were scarfing down arena dogs in an effort to educate the Roman about American culture. Jeffery Bellview was a psychotic little bastard. You had Fly vs Prisoner 187 in one of the most epic battles of all time.

The point is, everyone was doing their best to weave a story. It didn't matter who won or lost. Torment and I spent hours chatting and going over our two month feud. Sure it was for the Cyber Title, but I don't know if anyone outside the BC knows that the two of us decided to trade the Cyber Title back and forth to tell the story. It didn't matter who the Champ was, it just mattered that we told the story of Torment's stalking of Lilith and Beast's quest for revenge the best way we knew how. Was it perfect? Probably not, but hell, it was FUN.

There were even AIM chats after cards went up. People were TALKING all the time.

But then it all changed. The thing is, I don't even think people were realizing they were changing. MBE closed, and all of a sudden, a new influx of people were coming in. I don't believe it was a conscious thing, but I think there was definitely a sense amongst the A1E'ers that "we had to be better than them. This is our house, and we run it." I'm willing to bet that some, if not all the MBE crew felt the same way. "We're going to go in there and show them who the best really is."

The same thing happened when the initial group of FW guys came over. We (A1E) wanted to show them that they just couldn't walk into our house and take over, and the FW crew wanted to show us that they could come in and be as good or better.

Did A1E people vote for themselves "just because"? I'm willing to bet it happened. I'm also willing to bet it happened amongst the MBE people. We know for sure it happened with the FW people thanks to the big Stanton Scandal.

Like I said, I don't think it was really even a conscious decision to go out and bury anybody, and I'm certainly not here to point fingers or accuse anyone of anything. But what DID happen was with all these new people and all these new backgrounds, this environment fostered a wave of competition.

And that was something that A1E just hadn't seen before.

When you were in a match, and you got beat, guys were quick to credit the winner, and give them props for a witty response or good one-liner. It was all very much respectful. Suddenly having all this competition changed all that. If you lost a match then - and it's still very much happening now - it's more like "What the fuck? I LOST?!?" And it was - and is - happening regardless of where you first made your efed home.

Now, I don't place the blame fully on MBE and FW for this. That's just not true. Although you can't deny the effect that the closure of MBE and FW had on the atmosphere in A1E - and this is the most important part - it is still up to each and every individual handler to conduct themselves accordingly, and not get caught up in the whole competition thing.

With all that being said, I'm not trying to paint the picture that I'm some e-fedding guru, and I'm perfect, and I can do no wrong, cause it's simply not true. I've made mistakes along the way, and as hard as I try not to, I've gotten caught up in the wins and losses a few times. It happens to everyone. We're all only human. But even then, I've talked with people and time and time again, and I've always said I've always been about telling a good story first and foremost, no matter what amount of humanity managed to creep it's way in.

However, I think to truly enjoy this little hobby of ours, to make it FUN you have to be able to put all that aside. You have to be able to concentrate on the angle and the story, and not so much on the wins and losses. It's OK to be competitive and want to do well, but make that like 20% of your goal. I'm going to leave this section with Beast's Golden Rule:

Concentrate on telling a good story. Forget wins and losses. Leave the competition for the blow off match.

Let me switch gears for a moment.

I want to talk about this whole "stigma" that A1E has found itself attached to in recent times.

What's so bad about A1E?

A1E is the devil. Don't go to A1E, it sucks. Oh, I've been in A1E, and I wouldn't go back there. The system sucks.

There's all this negativity. The thing is, I don't really understand where it all comes from. All I hear are third-hand comments from outsiders, and even then, those are generally broad statements like in the paragraph above. I don't really know what people are saying, so I kinda feel a little helpless in being able to not explain things or understand why people think the way they do. I don't have the specifics on what people are feeling, so I don't really know how to make it better for each individual, or at the very least, explain why things are.

First of all, don't get me wrong. Even through my long-standing association with A1E, I'm not a big enough sheep, and I'm not blind enough to not see that A1E isn't the Holy Grail of efeds. I don't think any one place really is, but the point is, I understand that there are shortcomings, and I'm not going to blindly defend A1E "just because".

I think the #1 reason people leave A1E/get upset at A1E goes back to the whole competition thing. They want to win, and if they don't then automatically the voting system gets blamed. Now, I did a whole other post (that I can't believe no one commented on :-p ) about the voting system. I examined it from both sides. There are good points about the voting system, and there are bad points about the voting system.

The point I'm trying to make, here is good or bad, it's the same for everyone. Most recently, we dealt with the Sergeant quitting because he thought he wasn't getting a fair shake due to the voting system. Less recently, Dan Ryan had issues with the voting system, but it was changed for the better, and he came back.

Point is, IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO YOU ARE, if you come into a fed, you can't expect to set the world on fire, and just because you want to win matches, that doesn't mean you're going to win matches. I never expected when I started in EPW - even though it is a non-voted fed - that I was going to have the immediate success I did. The same goes for A1E. It goes for any fed - unless your fed-head friend is pushing you to the moon. When I first started in A1E as Beast, I won some, and I lost my share, too. It took me a little while to dig my feet in and gain some success. Look at a guy like Big Dog. Knew nothing about efedding, but got hooked on a few stories in A1E (see, there's that story thing again), and decided to join. He went on a ridiculous winning streak - and get this - he was NEW. Then you take a character like ChessMaster, or Spyder.... guys who I personally thought did a real good job, but ended up losing more than they won after they debuted. Remember, each of those people in A1E that have been to the top began as a newbie, just as everyone else before them.

If people are not coming to A1E just because of the vote, then you're being ignorant. There are those that say "it's the system" and you "have to pay your dues" or "wait until you're known, or popular", I'd have to disagree with that. When you join, either people are going to catch on with what you're doing, or they're not. It's a matter of personal opinion. This part I will defend.

Dan Ryan is now getting some success, like we all knew he would. Spoiler is a former MBE'er, who really hasn't been in A1E all that long (as Spoiler), and now has the company's #2 belt. Cross was a FW guy that won the A1E World Heavyweight Championship. Lindsay Troy won the Triple Star, Tag, and Cyber Titles, and was in line for a World Title shot. (And imagine - some feds won't even ALLOW women.)

Point is, outsiders can have - and have - success in A1E. I think this talk about "the system" is an excuse. Can the voting system be manipulated? Of course it can - it's happened. Once. IS it being manipulated? I don't think so. The people in A1E now are generally pretty good. I've had my reservations in the past about the voting system and friends voting for friends, but at this time I don't think there's any proof of that happening.

Just as you can lose matches in a vote-based fed for any number of reasons, you can still lose matches you thought you won in a non-voted fed as well. I've had it happen to me before, as have others, and I'm sure it will happen again. We're all biased towards ourselves in our own minds, and that's also just human. I've also had fed heads outright refuse to put me over in a match - having already made up their minds before I've typed a single word for their fed or competed in a single match.

How is THAT fair?

ANY system can be flawed. I just think the voting system is the easiest scapegoat.

If you're coming to A1E just to win matches and titles, then you're doing it (and most likely participating in this hobby) for all the wrong reasons. The thing to remember is in fact that - that this is just a hobby, and not something to spill milk over.

What else is there about A1E?

One problem that I know exists first hand is a big communication problem in the ranks of A1E. And it's not just the BC, and it's not just the handlers. It's a combined effort. I've spent most of my time in A1E on the BC. I've seen it. And again, I'm not an angel. I've made my own mistakes when it comes to communication. But here's an example of what generally happens:

Handler A sends in a angle/segment/spot/finish request. The BC receives it, posts it on the board, talks about it, and say, for this example, it's accepted. However, there's a change that needs to be made to accomodate votes, or a brewing angle. The BC (and whenever I mention the BC, I'm including myself here) haven't always been great about getting back to the handler and explaining why *before* the results get posted. It's usually a case of the card goes up, Handler A goes to check to see how his angle was run, and finds it different, and is understandably upset about it. Emails and PM's fly back and forth in a hurry, and finally Fly is able to give an explanation - which 99.9% of the time is the right call and the right explanation - but the damage is already done. There's two faults in this situation. The BC didn't get back to the handler to say why things were going to be changed, and perhaps a new compromise could have been come up with. And also, the handler could have connected with the BC one more time to make sure everything is ok. I'm not going to run defense here and say everything is fine - I'm putting the onus on the BC here to make sure everything is cool, but I guess this is more of a reminder/piece of advice to the handlers - if you submit an angle, and don't hear anything back about it in a timely fashion, check up on it to make sure everything is ok. Sometimes things need to change based on the votes, so try checking in after the voting period is over.

Now, I will say that in recent weeks, the BC seems to have gotten better with this - there hasn't been an OOC blow up on the board for a while, but I think there's still probably a gap here. It's getting smaller, but I think more work and fine tuning needs to be done before it's nailed down tight.

The next thing I've heard issues about is the schedule/booking. There's a perception out there that now that we've been in a two week schedule, and cut down to 6 PPV's per year, there's less chance to break into the upper card, and less of a chance to get a shot at the World Title. This is especially true if there's a long term angle surrounding the World Champion. The BC has acknowledged this, and even pointed this out in several conversations, so it's definitely no secret. Conversely, I think the
BC has done a good job in finding opportunities to elevate new people to getting a shot at the Big Fiery Belt. The Pier Six Brawl has become an efed institution, and the yearly #1 contender tournament almost always brings out a new face to challenge for the title.

But that's about where it ends. Once in a while, a guy goes on a hot streak, and you really have no choice but to give him a shot just for the hell of it, like in the case of Eddie Weston. But those opportunities are few and far between, and when those opportunites DO come around, I believe the perception is that that match is a throw-away match while we're gearing up for the World Championship match at the next PPV. Which leads me into this.

We need to get out of the rut of having the Champion only defend the title on PPV. This has been brought up before, and generally accepted as being a good idea, and even go as far as been attempted, but it usually fizzles out after a few attempts, and we go back to the same old tried-and-true concepts of building a World Title match into the PPV. But I think we have to change that. I firmly believe that the World Heavyweight Champion - of ANY fed - needs to be a fighting Champion, and should be putting the belt on the line at almost every opportunity. Get the belt on the line pretty much each week. Don't go more than two weeks without a title defense.

When Housefly went on his unbelievable run years ago and held the belt for pretty much a whole year, it was fantastical. Overcoming the odds each and every week. Everyone got shots. Who was going to be the one to beat Fly? It was great. And at the same time, the main-event caliber feud of Housefly/187 was being built right alongside it.

But, you can fall into a trap this way. If you have your Champion defend each and every week, you run the risk of spoiling your promoted PPV title match. This is the hindrance of the voting system - and this is why I believe there's a flaw with the voting system - NOT because someone can't get over, as I explained earlier, but because the vote can potentially ruin long-term planning.

But there's ways around that. Put your Champion up against someone a little lower than the next contender. Expect your Champion to win. This isn't as bad as it seems. Someone can still pull a week out of their ass and win the match. You're giving new people shots at the title, and you're promoting an atmosphere where everyone gets a shot and doesn't feel left out of the main event scene. All the while, your #1 contender is doing run ins, segments, and after match extra-cirricular activities to keep the feud alive while you're building to your PPV match. Your Champion can be doing the same. There's all kinds of ways to build a match up.

I'm a firm believer that ANY story can be properly told WITHOUT the need for a title to be involved, so there's always an avenue to not worry whether you or your opponent has a belt or not - and whether the Champion loses his belt this way in the middle of the feud shouldn't really affect the story as a whole. You can still have the big blowoff match at the PPV. I think we should be billing the match for example as "BEAST VS. HOUSEFLY" rather than "BEAST vs. HOUSEFLY for the A1E World Heavyweight Championship". That way the focus is on the competitors, rather than simply for the title, and you can tell the WHOLE story. Fly and I always hoped that one of us would have had the World Title during our feud, but we didn't - and you know, it didn't matter. The Beast vs. Empire story was still awesome nonetheless.

So, I guess the point is, is to build your Champion. Take the opportunity to give people a worthy title reign, and then pull the trigger on the big PPV match. I think we need to see more Beast vs. Eddie Weston type matches, while building the real feud on the side. Let's see a Farnswirth vs. Jack Gilkson match while we're building towards the next PPV match.

I have one last thing that I wanted to point out. However, this is the most important part of why we're involved in this hobby in the first place.

Telling a story.

All throughout this huge post I've talked about long term planning, and telling a story about being the most important aspects of efedding. Not dominating matches and winning titles. While it's fun to win all the time, doing it while wandering aimless in the grand scheme of things takes away from the experience.

This is what A1E was built on when I started. Fantastic angles. Compelling storylines that made the environment such that no one cared who won or lost a single match - it was about how the story was unfolding. Who can forget Nemesys vs. Housefly in the early days? When I joined, Beast vs. Nemesys, Beast vs SIN, Beast vs. The Empire... all amazing stories. JA vs. Canadian Hitman. JA and Liquid Snake and their fantastic backstory together. Absolutely no one forgets perhaps the best swerve in efedding history - the Slambo The Clown/Prisoner 187 turn as 187 faced Housefly. Big Dog/Euclid. Lindsay Troy and Cross. Necromancer and Mikey F'n W.

All those feuds - and many more that I didn't mention - were the rage. It was all about weaving a compelling story.

And now... where has it gone?

We've seen a couple attempts lately. IrishRed is going through his pill/drug addiction, which is coming off nicely. Big Dog and Dan Ryan vs. Anarchy has been interesting. But what else has there been? I think Andrew Gilkson vs. HPSC could have been something HUGE, but it hasn't quite lived up to it's potential. Same with Slambo the Clown and the HPSC. Everyone sees the writing on the wall there, but it's taking FOREVER to get there - it seems like there's no advancement there at all.

And I don't mention those two out of any malice or anything - they're just a couple pieces that I've picked up on. Nothing personal meant.

Here's what the problem is, imo.

Too much has been left up to inclusion in the matches. A real compelling story cannot be told simply within the ropes - and you can only do so many finishes to a match before it gets boring and cookie cutter. Simply forming a tag team or creating a stable does not an angle make.

Here's what needs to happen.

The membership of A1E AS A WHOLE has to get moving. When you get your match assignment, contact your opponent and see if there's anything you can work out as a backstory for the match that week. Every little piece adds up to a bigger part of the puzzle. Contact someone ELSE and see if you can work up an angle between your characters. If you're part of a tag team, TALK WITH YOUR PARTNER and see if you guys can come up with anything to tie you guys togther. Give us a reason why you're tagging together, or set a goal for the team and try to reach it - that DOESN'T involve a title. Add some dimension to your character.

When was the last time someone put up a real MEANINGFUL Out of Match thread?

Give us a reason to CARE about your character. There's only so many ways to say "I'm going to kick your ass!" or "I'm better than you!" or "We're going to shake A1E to the core!"

So?

HOW are you going to DO IT?

Here's some random ideas, just off the top of my head as I write this. I haven't put any thought into them, but even on the surface, they can present some avenues. And don't take this as being picked on. This is all random off the top of my head. It may sound stupid, but at the very LEAST adds SOME depth.

AJ Cirrus and Promo - you guys returned to A1E to bring it to it's knees. How are you going to do that? Get something going outside the ring. Make a plan to bring A1E down from the inside. Just beating people in the ring isn't going to accomplish anything. Try to get control of Houston. Do something!

Duchess: You're a woman, and you love Coke and shopping. You're a wealthy member of the HPSC. You're a heel. OK... then what? Add something to it. When you go shopping, take a "shopping assistant" with you and slap her around when she picks out the wrong color of shoes. Treat her like shit when she brings you a Pepsi instead of a Coke. Add another dimension.

Farnswirth: You're the richest man in the world. Do something about it. I loved the days where you used to bribe guys to take the fall so you didn't have to break a sweat. That's fantastic dick heel work.

Again, I'm not trying to single out anyone, but that's just what popped into my head as I write this.

The point is, people... I, as a reader, need to be able to invest myself in your character. I need a reason to keep reading what you're putting out there. And when you step into the ring, I need a reason to want one of you to win. I want to be a fan, cheering for my favorite character, and booing for the heels.

That's what a great angle will give you.

We need to get back to focusing on STORIES. Not winning matches or winning titles. If anyone thinks that I'm in it just for wins and losses, think again.

* I dropped one World Title for the sake of a story.
* I dropped another World Title because it was the right thing to do.
* I dropped the Canadian World Title a couple times to try and get over as a dick heel to get it back by nefarious means.
* I dropped the Survivor Title.
* I dropped the A1E Tag Team Titles on several occasions to get a story over.
* I traded the Cyber Title back and forth (more credit due to Torment than me for this) to tell a story.

Now, again, I'm not saying that I'm any better than any of you reading this because of this, but I just needed to emphasize the focus of doing what's right to tell a story. In the end, who really cares if you were given the World Title of an internet fantasy wrestling organization? It's not going on your resume.

The booking committee can book your matches, put in some cool spots and cool finishes to advance things along the best they can, but ultimately, this whole thing is up to the individual handler. I've always said that you get out of this what you put into this, and if you're not willing to put anything into it, then you're not getting any fun out of it.

Too many people are worried about their heat. "If I get beat down, I'm going to look like a little bitch! I won't be able to win any matches if you do that!" That's a horrible bloody attitude.

The way I like to see it, it's a give and take scenario. You get beat down or made to look weak one show, then you get to look like the king the next. It's all about trade offs and - again - telling the story.

This is the biggest problem with A1E - and in efedding in general. There aren't enough people willing to lay it all on the line for the sake of a great story.

And that's what needs to change.

And until it does, we're going to be stuck in the same rut.

It's going to have a residual effect, too. I mean really... the word gets out that folks in A1E are having a good time, and every match is built upon a great story, or characters so and so are involved in a fantastic/hilarious story, people are going to want to come check it out.

Who knows? Maybe they'll stay.

And the cycle starts all over again.

So, come on, folks. Let's all read the threads and vote properly. Let's make sure it's fair for everyone. Let's stop worrying and wins and losses. Let's Communicate clearly with the booking committee - and the booking committee clearly with the handlers. Communicate with your tag team partner, and communicate with your opponent. TELL A STORY.

And most importantly, relax and have fun.

If we can all do this, then A1E - and whatever fed you're in - is going to be a much, much, much better place.

Thanks everyone for reading. I wrote this so passionately, I'm sure I left out a lot of what I wanted to say, but I hope I got the points across. No malice is intended towards any individual. It's all opinion, and all I want to do is make A1E a better place.

I can't wait to read your comments.

Jarret

Finally... an update!

2006-05-23T15:56:00.000-05:00

It's been three long months since my last blog entry, but I hope to be making a lot more. Now that I've stepped away from A1E and EPW to move and get married, I've got a little extra time to read cards and make some comments.

Now, on to the entry...

Got me thinking...

There's a thread over at ENN that's a quick survey - what characters have you handled, what feds have you been in. That reminded me of something that I don't think ever came out in the open, and given my time constraints now, I don't mind getting out there, since I don't think the character will ever come back.

So I guess this is pretty much more of a shameless dig for feedback than anything else.

I think pretty much everyone remembers Hybrid - the A1E Tag Team of Damon Blackburn and Big Wreck. We all know that Roger (Housefly, Haven, among others) handles Damon, but who was the psycho behind Big Wreck?

It was me, Austin! It was me all along!

Thinking about past characters got me thinking about how much fun Big Wreck was to play. Constantly aided by Ducky in his exploits, and generally just having a vehicle to take things waaaaay over the top and be crazy was a good way to show that other side of me. One of the promos I remember was a paintball promo. I forget who it was - the Westons, perhaps? - and all I did was take the phrase "we got you in our sights, and turned that into a whole promo about shooting. And what would a funny Hybrid promo be without having Sal Scantlin getting shot in the nuts? That's the kind of stuff that was so much fun to do, to get away from the seriousness of Beast, and later on, Gladiator.

So, I guess, brings me to this: what did YOU think of the Big Wreck character? What was your favorite promo? Your favorite match?

This is, of course, assuming that you were in A1E long enough ago to remember. ;)

Oh, Commissioner!

2006-02-09T13:28:00.000-06:00

I used to think that the role of Commissioner was a good thing in wrestling. Back in the day when Tunney was reversing matches, and causing a stink, it was a good thing. It was good, because it was used sparingly, so when something DID happen, it was pretty big and substantial moment, and usually added a huge kick to storylines.

However, that went all downhill when WWE started using the role to further McMahon-Austin, and Austin started making everyone look like his bitch week in and week out. After that was played out, the Commissioner (or General Manager) role has become a revolving door position, and was basically reduced to a comedy act and a quick plot device to fall back on when the writers couldn't come up with something else.

In the E-efed world, I've seen a couple examples of using the Commissioner/Owner/General Manager.

In A1E, we've kind've done it both ways. The mainstay in the Commissioner role is Nathan Houston, the man that's been there from the beginning. We try to use him the way we believe a Commissioner SHOULD be used - staying in the background and not getting involved in every show. He sends out the booking assignments, and that's really all we see of him. However, he has a strong sense of ethical beliefs, and uses his authority to enforce those beliefs - ensuring the safety of the crowd, and making huge announcements regarding blow-off matches or titles - all the while quietly reinforcing the fact that no one should dare screw with him. His trademark phrase is "I have the final say!" He exudes authority - he doesn't have to show it off.

We also turned the tables for the Empire angle and had Houston injured, and his assistant Ted take over. Ted was a sympathizer with the Empire, and did his best to ensure the group could accomplish their goals. I think it was a plot device that worked fairly well without us going over the top with it. Roger took great pains to ensure that Ted wasn't dominating the show. When that was done with, Houston came back and re-took his position and got his own payoff angle-wise. Since then, Houston has faded back into anonymity save for card announcements and stopping a brutal PPV match. (Hope I didn't miss anything.)

In EPW - in my opinion anyway - it's been a mix as well. And when I mean mix, I mean mix of good and bad. When Ryan first took over as owner, we were treated to a healthy assortment of people being fired through humility bombs. I thought that was a bit over the top, and that possibly other alternatives could have been used to fire people angle wise, but I don't know the reasoning behind the firings, then I really can't comment on that, other than it really put Ryan over as the authority figure. That being said, the Ryan character as the Owner has really been dialed back quite a bit, and he's serving good storyline purposes, and has been doing so for some time, so I can't really complain about the use of the character now in EPW.

I was bored yesterday, so I read my first UCW card, to see how things were going over there. I've been hearing some good comments about the fed, and I finally had the time to check it out yesterday. The news post said that there would be a "GIGANTIC earth-shattering announcement that will turn the UCW on its end".... "An announcement that will shake the UCW to its very core".

And we got a commissioner angle. Now, not saying that's all bad, as I've explained already - if used properly and sparingly for dramatic effect, it can be a good thing. I am walking on egg shells with this though, since In Character, Ken Cloverleaf the wrestler had/has perhaps the biggest ego in the business - that's his character. And that's all fine. However, if this characterization spills over into a Commissioner role, then I'm going to be worried, and we're going to get everything WWE has already done with Commissioners and General Managers - but turned up to 11.

And this isn't an attack on Cloverleaf. Kenny's done very well, and I've had a lot of fun working with him. I can see making a big deal out of the initial announcement of instituting the Commissioner. It *is* a big deal. However, used in the context it was, the Commissioner introduction absolutely outshined the introduction of a brand new title into the fed. The Commissioner was put up on the pedestal, and the US Title seemed like an afterthought. I think it would have been better to make the title announcement a seperate announcement later in the show, make it mean something and give the title the respect it deserves, and not shoe-horn it in as a sidekick to something else.

So, UCW, some advice. Go ahead and run the Commissioner angle. That's cool. However, don't let it become the focus of the show, or we're going to have WWE 2K4/2K5 all over again, and that wasn't a good thing.

Dream Matches

2006-01-30T11:19:00.000-06:00

Every handler has that match that they want to have more than any other. The big kahuna. The motherlode. The creme de la creme of matches for their character. I've got a few of these matches, and I actually just had one last week.

Beast vs "Insert Champion Here" for the A1E World Heavyweight Championship.

I've had pretty good success with Beast outside of A1E, moving along well in the TEAM tournament, and most notably winning and defending the EPW World Heavyweight Championship for a good 9-10 month run (thanks Dave for believing in me).

But I've always been *this close* to the A1E Championship. As everyone probably knows, A1E has been my "home" fed since I started this little hobby in 2000. I've done well in A1E, having extended runs with the Tag Team titles and the Survivor Championship, and also holding the Cyber Championship, but the Big Fiery Belt had always eluded me. I had a couple shots early on in my A1E career, but was stopped both times by a fantastic Mr. Hyde (man, I wish he was still around, probably the best pure cerebral heel I've ever seen).

But this time, though, I guess the stars aligned, and Saturn passed through the seventh house of Aquarius, and I captured a dream. And, it was a fantastic promo session turned into a dream match against Richard Farnswirth, as I faced one of the best in Phil (handler of Big Dog and Richard Farnswirth), although I'm sure he'll tell you he was pissed, since both times his characters lost the World Title, it was to me, but, oh well. ;)

But back to dream matches. I've been thinking about this lately, since I actually have the A1E Championship now, and most of my dream matches center around that title.

In no particular order:

Beast vs. Dan Ryan for the A1E Title

- There's just something about Dave and I working together, that's been rarely matched in terms of fun for me. I can toss up ideas, and Dave somehow finds a way to turn them into these works of sheer brilliance. This feud would be fantastic, and I'm sure the match itself would be amazing as well.

Beast vs. Big Dog for the A1E Title

- We faced in a non-title match when Dog had the title and we went to a draw. I'd love to put it all on the line against him.

Beast vs. JA for the A1E Title

- This one's actually in the works, as the same night I won the title, JA won the Pier Six Brawl and earned his title shot at the next PPV. I know this is a dream match of his, too, and I've always wanted to have a bit of a "make up" match with Tom. Last time we met, Tom was going through his "mad at the efed world" stage, and I was frustrated with some things he said about A1E in particular, so I took it upon myself to get a match with him and did a series of shoot promos on him. It was nothing more than me blowing off some steam, and yes, it was totally uncalled for, but Tom and I have long since talked about it, and everything's ok between us. However, I've always wanted to have one more big match to set things right In Character.

This is going to be a great match, and I'm looking forward to it.

Beast vs. Housefly for the A1E Title

This is probably the number one dream match for me.

Roger and I have done a ton of matches together, most notably the Empire angle - which was really just a huge inter-faction angle with Beast vs. Housefly at the core of it. Everything in that angle was pre-booked between us, and even though the final blow-off at the last Golden Dreams was absolutely fantastically done, and the build to it was brilliant, I've always wanted to have one huge match against him that wasn't pre-determined, and we could just let loose and go for it.

I said in the Dan Ryan dream match that it's pretty rare to find that chemistry in working with people, well Roger's the one other guy that I've worked with where what we usually come up with together ends up being measured in carats. I've had a lot of great intense feuds in A1E (ones with Torment and Nemesys immediately come to mind), and I've done a lot of real fun stories, but Roger's that other guy that I can toss him a bone, and he goes "hey, that's cool, but what if we add this or that?", and it turns out to be a million times better than what I originally thought.

Those are the few that I've got on my mind right now, and if more pop into my head, I'll come back and post them. Feel free to comment with your own.

Mike Tyson's Punchout!

2006-01-19T23:28:00.000-06:00

I know, I know... this has nothing to do with e-fedding, but I couldn't resist.

How many of you remember the old NES, and Mike Tyson's Punchout? I spent HOURS playing that game, and now, it's been redone.

In real life.

This is perhaps the greatest thing to ever hit the internet. Have a look, and enjoy! Then, I promise I'll come back with an e-fed post after.

Mike Tyson's Punchout Recreation

An Idea For A New Fed

2006-01-14T15:12:00.000-06:00

Alright, now that the writing's all been done for A1E, and the site's updated, and I got a promo done (WHEW!), I have time to make another entry.

Today, I've been thinking about a new fed. Not just a regular RP or angle based fed, since those things still matter, and would be integrated, but I'm talking about a new structure to a fed. I'm not quite sure what I would call it, or even if I'd do it, but it's an idea, and perhaps if enough people thought it would be interesting, I'd do it.

I wouldn't handle a character in it. And due to my work in other feds (handling in EPW, TEAM, and A1E, and booking/writing in A1E), I obviously don't have a ton of time, but I think I could take on an admin structure like EPW, where I would be the head booker, judge the promos, and make the cards, but simply because of time, I'd have to delegate all the match writing to volunteers. Or, I could do it like TEAM and have a condensed result form, but do it for all matches.

The idea is this: bring back the competitive aspect - in the sense of making the titles seem as important as possible, and make them the focus of angles. If the titles are going to be the focus, how do you develop the characters and given them meaningful angles and storylines, while preserving the title legacy?

I'd do it with rankings, and open the fed up to challenges. Put 8 or 10 wrestlers in each division, so there'd be a limit to the roster size to hopefully keep things manageable. After the Champion(s) are established, institute rankings. In the lead up to the Championship matches, I would rank people based on their promo quality. Establish the Champion, and 10 ranked contenders per title, kind of like boxing, I guess. It would look something like this (made up names, obviously):

Fed Champion: Animal

1st Rank: Bob
2nd Rank: Steve
3rd Rank: Dave
4th Rank: Jeff
5th Rank: Scott
6th Rank: Ralph
7th Rank: Wayne
8th Rank: Darren
9th Rank: Jody
10th Rank: Blake

I haven't got all the logistics worked out yet, but I wouldn't have the World Champion wrestle every week. That would give the opportunity for the #1 contender to change from week to week. People would be able to challenge people up the ladder. When I announce a Title match in that division, the #1 contender is off limits, and gets their title match. Everyone else can challenge people ahead of them. If you are beaten by a lower ranked person, you move down, and that person takes their spot. If you challenge someone and lose, you drop in rank.

Say in a week that there is no title match, third ranked Jeff challenges 1st ranked Bob. Jeff wins the match and becomes the new #1 contender. Without taking other matches into consideration, Bob moves down into third. I'd have a limit that guys can only challenge so many positions up the card, and I'll have to figure out exactly what happens when multiple people win and lose.

Like I said, I haven't got everything figured out yet, but I think it would be an easy way to weave mini-feuds in and out, with people that have challenged others taking action against them on the card, or say Wayne has in mind that next week, he's going to challenge Scott, so in writeups the week before, I may have Wayne come out and interfere in Scott's match, or beat him down, or whatever to help build heat for the next week.

So, it would more be a series of mini-feuds rather than long drawn out angles, and I think would provide a strategic and competitive atmosphere.

If anyone has some comments on how they would like to see this work, or ideas, or whether you like it or not, please comment on the thread, and I can take everything into consideration and decide if I want to pursue this or not.

To Vote, Or Not To Vote

2006-01-09T15:11:00.000-06:00

That is what's on my mind today.

A1E is one of the last - or very well might be the last - e-fed I know of that uses an open vote system. Once all the matches are roleplayed for, handlers and general reading public alike send in votes to the Booking Committee based on who they thought roleplayed the best for that card.

There are both benefits and downfalls to using this system, perhaps all of which have been in heavy debate over in the message boards at A1 Wrestling, the home of A1E.

The main benefit of using the voting system - one that the A1E public has, for lack of a better word, demanded - is that matches are judged by a wider variety of an audience than just one or a few booking heads, and the people are represented and get to have a voice in the direction of the fed. I agree with this wholeheartedly. That way, I know that when I've won a match, that I was chosen by a larger number of my peers as the better roleplayer that week. Good for an ego-stroke, right?

However, I could spend much more time on the cons of voting. People voting for their buddies, or large amounts of people coming together and bloc voting, both of which would lead to obviously skewed results. People not actually reading the roleplay threads and voting based on name alone. And really, I'm not harping on this. There's only been one documented case in the 5+ year history of A1E where someone was actually "fired" from A1E for orchestrating bloc voting. That's not the reason I'm writing this.

The biggest problem I see with the voting system isn't even who votes what, or how they vote. I see it from a booker's standard. Three words.

Long. Term. Planning.

Having publicly determined voting, for all it's good intentions, is a major setback to long term booking and really properly executing a long term story. Unless you've got two (or more) handlers who are willing to sit down and truly *participate* in a feud, and book the wins and losses and tell a story, then your planning is at the mercy of the voters each and every time you put out a card.

This extends to long term booking fed-wide as well. Say for example, I'm soundly behind Chip Friendly as a character, and Dan as a handler - of which he's great, btw - and I want to push him as World Champion for an eight-or nine month run as Champ, I'm really taking a chance with my long term planning. No matter who you decide to push, it's the same. You just cannot plan on developing characters and stories around your Champion for that long. You just never know when you're going to give a guy a shot at the title and he's going to pull the world out of his ass and put out the best material of his life, and - according to the voting public - defeat the Champion.

And this is true for ANY character, not just your World Champion, either.

Now, according to the public, they don't want the Booking Committee over-ruling matches unless , as it cancels out their voice. That's perfectly fine, and I don't have a problem with that. Once in a while, it's ok, but start doing it often, and you risk alienating everyone. So, you're basically left with a framerwork of an angle, and then you have to work your voting results into that framework.

I'm not so sure that's the best way to do it. We've done it for so long that it just seems that that's the way we're SUPPOSED to do it, but I see other feds not even think about adopting voting, and they're fantastic, and I don't hear a lot of complaints, nor do I really have any of my own.

Not that I think A1E isn't fantastic, but more realistically, A1E is a very solid fed with the people we have working with what we have, with flashes of brilliance when people in a feud decide to get down and serious about telling a great story.

With all this being said, if people want the voting system, and they want it to WORK, then they must truly participate.

READ the threads. Don't be afraid to vote with your guts. Participate in angles, and come up with something fantastic for your character. And when the time comes, it's like excerising your vote on the national stage - *take the time to vote*.

It doesn't work unless you MAKE it work.

The Death (And Revival?) of E-fed Tag Teams

2006-01-04T13:41:00.000-06:00

A few people have touched on tag team wrestling in e-feds over the past few months, but I've been really thinking about this lately, and reflecting on the "glory days" of tag teams in efeds. I don't have a lot of experience or knowledge of tag teams outside of A1E, so this will be limited to that fed only.

I can remember the introduction of the Tag Team Championships in A1E years ago. It was a brand new title, and you couldn't keep guys from signing up fast enough to take part in the Inauguaral Tournament. Tag Team wrestling was hot in A1E, and it yielded some of the most fun times I've had in this little thing we call e-fedding. The tournament brought a lot of different people together, and yielded some pretty great - and unexpected - combinations. At the end, the tournament yielded a final between Necromancer and Beast versus Liquid Snake and Mikey F'n W, and not only made for a fantastic tournament final with James Bond-esque promo backdrops, but a great ongoing feud between the four as well.

Not all teams survived the tournament, but it certainly paved the way for some outstanding teams and ignited the division as a whole. Here's a rundown of some of my favorite teams in A1E Tag Team history, in no particular order:

Torgo & Leatherface
Liquid Snake & Mikey F'n W
Necromancer & Lady Rebellion
Big Dog & Gladiator
Chip Friendly & Jeffery Bellview
Damon Blackburn & Big Wreck
Ken Cloverleaf & Steven Shane
Housefly & Beast

That's a pretty formidable tag team division - although admittedly, not all the teams were in the division all at once - but at least 6 of the teams were.

Nowadays, it's hard to get 6 *people* involved in the tag team division, let alone 6 teams. With a combination of people leaving efedding, or just having enough of the tag scene and wanting to move on to other things, the tag ranks have been decimated. There's been more than one occassion where Housefly and Beast have rushed to the aid of the struggling tag team division, whether by being a forced tag team, or with Roger and I creating totally seperate characters.

For the past several months, the A1E Tag Team division has been all but dead, and I've seen it struggling in other efeds as well. In A1E, we've been basically relegated to a two-team feud with Anarchy, Inc, and the MidWest Mafia. Why don't people want to compete in tag teams? Do people just want to win the World Championship of their respective federations, the "lesser" titles be damned?

Is there a turnaround for the struggling tag team division? Anarchy remains, but the MWM has been dissolved. Big Dog and Dan Ryan have teamed up to make a run for the titles, but we can't survive on two teams alone. I see that this week, Chip Friendly is making a play for Slambo the Clown to come join him. Is this going to spell a third team in the division? We can only wait and see.

I feel like the announcer for the old Batman tv show.

Three teams is better than one - or none - but I think we need more.

Guys, if you think you're struggling a little bit on your own, find a tag team partner, take a bit of the load off, and work together to come up with some interesting team-building angles. If you want a title, joining the tag team division is going to be your fast track, and it would be a great opportunity to gain some credibility behind your character with a tag team title under your belt.

Let's not let tag teams become a lost breed.

The Definitive Beast

2005-12-31T02:59:00.000-06:00

Inspired by JA's post, I thought I'd whip out the Ultimate Beast profile.

Name: Beast
Nicknames: The Alpha Male, The Apex Predator

Height: 6 feet 6 inches
Weight: 285 pounds
Hails From: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Current Feds: A1E, EPW, TEAM
Past Feds: MBE, WFW
Titles Held: A1E Cyber Championship (2x), A1E Tag Team Championship (4x), A1E Survivor Championship, EPW World Heavyweight Championship, CWF World Heavyweight Championship

Disposition: Intensity cranked up to the max. All about being the absolute best he can be. Has a hot temper, but also likes to toss in the funny once in a while.

Image: Tall, and extremely muscular, with next to no body fat. Used to have long, flowing blond locks, but they fell victim to the Chip Friendly razor of doom. Now sports a close-cropped spiky do. Out of the ring, Beast can generally be found in one of his merchandised t-shirts from whichever fed he's appearing in at the time, jeans, and Doc Marten boots. In the ring, Beast does not wear a shirt. His wrists are taped for about 4 inches at the wrist, and wears black full-length leather pants a la Test or Kevin Nash, and black wrestling boots.

Entrance Music: "Humans Being" by Van Halen
Entrance Description: As the opening guitar chords of "Humans Being" begin to play, the arena lights dim down and fade out, save for a triad of blue spotlights that cover the entrance area. Fog slowly covers the stage, and Beast walks out onto the stage through the fog. As the entire band kicks in, a huge circular blue pyro explosion goes off all around Beast, and blue strobe lights pulsing in time with the guitar follows Beast to the ring.

Style: Beast is a big man, and as such uses mostly power moves, but also loves to use submission holds. He has an uncanny ability to slap a submission hold on an arm or leg from just about anywhere. Beast is also a striker, and one of his favorite things to do is trap an opponent in the corner and work them over with a series of strikes and kicks. Almost NEVER goes to the top rope, since he's bigger and a little slower than everyone else, except for ultra-uber-special occasions. Maybe once a year.

Set-up Moves:

1. Test of Faith (Test's Test Drive). Uses this usually when he has the upper hand in a match and wants to plant someone and stun them hard before ending the match with the Absolution 2K4, or tie the opponent up with a finishing submission.

2. The Gore - a Spear from hell. Uses the Gore in two situations: either a) Beast is on a roll in the match and the opponent is almost beaten - used like the Test Of Faith to prepare the opponent for the finishing move, or b) in desperation to stop the momentum of an opponent when Beast is down. Will usually take advantage of a whip to the ropes and deliver the Gore on the rebound, or in a situation where the opponent needs a couple seconds to recompose themselves after a missed offensive move. An example would be Beast ducking a clothesline, then crouching while the opponent stops, and then exploding for the Gore while the opponent turns around.

Impact Finishers:

Primary: Absolution 2K4:

This is Beast's primary finisher. Beast gets the opponent into a pumphandle position, and then hoists the opponent up to his shoulder, and using that momentum, swings the opponent around to spike them onto their head with a Rikishi Driver.

Secondary: Absolution

Beast gets the opponent into a standing head scissors, double underhooks the arms, then lifts the opponent up to about an 80 degree angle - almost vertical - and jumps to his knees hard, driving the opponent's top of head or face into the canvas. Basically a Tiger Driver '91 with attitude.

Submission Finisher: Judas' Cradle

With his opponent face down on the mat, Beast steps over his opponent, facing their feet. He then sets up like a reverse figure four, but then bridges over backwards - over top of the opponent to prevent escape. The move puts unbearable pressure on the shins, knees, and quadriceps.

Regular Moveset: (not restricted to only these moves)

Strikes: Punch, kick, knife edge chop, European uppercut. Bret Hart-elbows and fist drop on grounded opponents. Known for one of the hardest clotheslines in the business.

Slams: Body slam, power slam, gorilla press slam, spinebuster.

Grappling moves/Suplexes: headlock, front/rear chin lock, arm ringer, hammer lock, stalling vertical suplex, front suplex, overhead toss suplex, brainbuster suplex, German suplex

Favored Power Moves: Powerbomb, series of three backbreakers, sidewalk slam, full nelson slam

Favored Submissions: Ankle lock, arm bar, STF, ude-garami (Kimura), knee bar

Three Strengths:

1. Strength/Power: One of the best "big men" in the business, Beast is well able to use his size and strength to his advantage to physically dominate opponents and generally throw them around the ring until it's time to put them away.

2. Never Say Die Attitude: You pretty much have to run over Beast with a train to keep him down. Whether he's been beaten, bloodied, and generally abused, he'll keep kicking out until he's pretty much unconscious, or he's forced to tap before a limb snaps. This ability to keep going has won him many a match where he was able to keep taking punishment before getting in a desperation Gore or other move to take back the advantage and hold on for the win.

3. Well Prepared: A student of the game, it's pretty hard to pull the wool over on Beast's eyes within the rules. Spending countless hours in front of video allows
Beast to thoroughly scout his opponents and be ready for anything they try.

Three Weaknesses:

1. Superman complex: Never one to back down from anything, Beast doesn't always use his head when accepting challenges or running into situations he hasn't had time to prepare for, and that's a huge problem when dealing with multiple opponents or stables. Not one to take massive risks, but doesn't mind putting his body on the line to get the job done. He can take a great deal of punishment, but doesn't always think of the results of his actions, and that can make for disastrous results.

2. Speed in the ring: He's no slouch, but let's face it, he's a big man. He's quick for his size, but even that can't make up for smaller opponents who know how to use their speed to their advantage.

3. Jessica. The fact that these two are nutso for each other is a good thing, but can lead to bad things if Jessica is at ringside, and someone makes a move at her. Jessica is used as fodder lots by Beast's opponents, and he can be goaded into unfavorable situations easily when it comes to protecting her.

Matchwriting Aid:

Almost always starts off the match using strikes to gain the advantage over his opponent. If the opponent decides to get technical and really wrestle, Beast will be
able to do so as well and keep up for a short while, but since he's a big guy, he can't chain wrestle all night. As soon as he can grab an opening, he'll lay in with a strike and take control.

Once Beast has the advantage, he'll take over with power moves and just beat his opponent down. He'll use suplexes and his power arsenal to permanently ground his opponent, then switch and hit a series of head-centric moves that will soften the opponent up for the Absolution 2K4.

If the power route fails, and the opponent just won't stay down, Beast will switch up and start attacking the opponent's legs, either using kicks to knot the opponent's leg muscles up, or he'll whip out a knee breaker to make sure the opponent can't stand, at which point Beast will either start looking for a knee bar to end the match, or he will soften up the opponent's legs with stomps and knee drops before going for Judas' Cradle.

If none of that works, Beast may get frustrated and take the match outside, using ringside elements like the ring post, ring steps, guard rail, and announce table to
soften up his opponent before sending them back into the ring and employing his power strategy once he figures his opponent is beat up enough.

Time For A Restart

2005-12-30T09:10:00.000-06:00

Time to do some renovations around here.

I haven't had a lot to say recently, as I've been finding it hard to come up with things in character, other than reviewing shows and either bragging after a win, or bitching after a loss.

That got pretty boring.

So, what I'm going to do is change up the blog a bit. Gone is the In Character Beast, Here is the out of character Jarret to give my thoughts on e-fedding in general. I really enjoy reading other people's blogs on e-fedding with their own great insights, like JA's blog or Brunk's LiveJournal, so I thought it would be better if I gave my own thoughts on things.

I'll be back in a bit with my first new blog post.

Thanks for reading and caring.