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GO HOME SHOW FOR CHAOS IN THE CAGE! CGC TITLE BOUT WRESTLING FROM DECOLT COUNTRY, VANCOUVER! Thunder & Lightning vs Zeus and Stevie Clause Reed vs Nathan Black Curtis Mobstar and Skip Beau vs Intrepid Ian Identity and Jamie Atherton Ant-Man vs Tongan Death Machine Dan DaLay, Quibble The Clown and Whippy The Clown vs Joey Poison, Marc Dubois and Sterling Whitlock

I didn't mean last week to be a complete fake out, and was always planning on this being the turning point, but then I re-read what I wrote and it did come across as two faces having fun. I feel like other than this (which still aided the moment a bit as it helped me write this show's promo) Whippy's turn has been very logically-progressed week to week so I'm taking the mental W on this one, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Honestly, I wouldn't have turned Whippy until I saw them get a lower rating than they could have due to both being faces. Now that I turned Whippy, Joey hit physical decline and they might not have a match in the 60's anyway lol. Jamie just keeps becoming more and more over just from talking, at this rate he might just hold the world title before the year is through like he promised! The issue with Toph, who I think is great, is that Ant-Man can actually talk, and also he just has the simplest hook in the world, since he's a lightweight worker with 91 power. Topher will probably develop into a very good cruiserweight, but there's a clear star in the duo. Maybe though me building Ant-Man helps their team in the long run, who knows?

Vibert's Voice - Ep. 153, Tuesday, Week 2 of 2018 This is Sports Entertainment week on the pod again, as I just spent 30 minutes talking about USPW's last show being good due to KC Glenn having an awesome match, and now we're moving on to CGC, which keeps the strong month of shows going with yet another good one. Chaos In The Cage better be good, because I am sure some people will buy it. But let's get into it. SEGMENT 1: Joey Poison opens the show with an update on his health status. He says he's had a partially torn meniscus injury, and it would have very much healed by now if he was a bit younger. However, he has confirmed with several doctors that it can't get any worse and it's all about wrestling through the pain, so he will be fine for Chaos In The Cage, and also for next week to get back in rhythm for the biggest match of his career. And with that, he makes a bit of a show of getting seperated from his crutches, to the crowd's applause. Whippy The Clown's music hits, and he's staying on the ramp, saying he's glad Joey know how to have fun with what he views as bad news, as he would have no chance beating him even at 100%. In fact, after joking around last week after Whippy's great title defense, he knows just the way to cheer Joey up. "Knock knock" "Who's There?" "Clown" "Clown who?" "There's a clown behind you with a baseball bat, Joey!" And WHAM! Grimm Quibble, AKA Quibble the Clown*, is back in CGC, attacking Joey viciously, while Whippy laughs at his own joke for way too long. Heel turn! And a good segment accompanying it. Segment Rating: 60 MATCH 1: Clause Reed vs Dapper Danny Draper. Ok so, the undercard for this show is a bit of nothing matches, but I get it. They saw the landscape of the company being too stacked with heels and realized they need to start building up some of the young babyfaces they have. Enter "the Lumberhunk" Clause Reed beating Danny Draper, who even with his depush at the start of the year is a more recognizable figure for the fans. So Clause Reed picked up the win with a big lariat and will probably do something not unimportant in the next few weeks. Segment Rating: 31 MATCH 2: Alyx Winters vs Killer Karson. The Beat Up Battalion is accompanying him, and there's a bit of a story told in this match, which is essentially Karson stretching out the squash match this could have been to beat the younger competitor up in order to make his sadistic buddies cheer and encourage him to do more, even calling some moves. He didn't even beat him with his finisher, just pinning him after a Stalling Suplex. Segment Rating: 28 SEGMENT 2: Ant-Man comes out, and says that their bullying and villainry needs to be stopped, and as he has a match with Charlie Homicide next, he's the one to put an end to them. The crowd still hasn't realized he can talk, it'd be funny if it wasn't sad. Anyway, the fun part of the segment is the other two members of the battalion leaving Charlie alone for his match. Segment Rating: 39 MATCH 3: Ant-Man vs Charlie Homicide. This was solid action, with Charlie having the tact to play the classic heel rather than a big monster, and this being a showcase of Ant-Man being able to vanquish the heels. I don't have many notes on here other than this being a big step above the first two matches, and Ant-Man winning with a Doctor Bomb, which is fucking sick. Segment Rating: 44 SEGMENT 3: Tongan Death Machine enters the ring to attack Ant-Man after the match, Charlie joins in, but Topher Smith makes the save, because the booking team remembered he exists, I assume. Segment Rating: 35 SEGMENT 4: Before the 8 man tag match, the alliance of Drake Young, The Canadian Blondes and Philippe LeGrenier come out, with Drake saying this is the most ravishing, fabulous group in CGC history, and this is why he helped the Canadian Blondes get the W last week, because he believes that wrestling should be a meritocracy of the magnificent. Segment Rating: 45 MATCH 4: A bit all over the place, but the 8 man tag mostly worked as a match, with everyone getting a bit of shine, and Sterling Whitlock pinning Drake Young since, we've talked about this, he's a manager playing a wrestler in my mind. Have to think Montreal Mafia vs The Canadian Blondes will be a really good match honestly, they are wrestling at a high level right now. Segment Rating: 49 MATCH 5: The #1 Contender Ladder Match. Considering it had only one high flyer and he was a heel, this was incredibly fun. Everyone hit Brett Fraser with ladders on his head, Jamie hit a Thunderbolt off a ladder to the outside, Hugh Ancrie did some insanely athletic things and took a horrifying bump after Fraser slammed him from the apron to a ladder on the outside, and Zeus Maximillion summoned a thunderstrike to stop Brett from getting the win at one point. Just a great time was had all around. Jamie Atherton got the win and a much anticipated title shot, after springboarding to the ladder over a brawling Ancrie and Fraser to retrieve the item at lightning-speed. Segment Rating: 57 SEGMENT 5: Skip Beau immediately comes out after the match to congratulate his #1 contender, and tell him to be ready for a brutal cage match. Jamie looks him right in the eye and tells him the only joy he'll get at Chaos In The Cage is knowing he deprived Skip Beau of the feeling he's worth something for holding this second-rate championship, and making him look deep into himself only to realize he was just never anything special. He drops the mic and goes to exit the ring, but that means he's turned his back on the champion, who grabs him and hits a Spiking Backdrop on Jamie, before posing with his belt for the cheering fans. Segment Rating: 63 Not only was this show a huge win in terms of the best things on the show being on par with the best segments they've done this year (Alex DeColt promos don't count), the fact that they main evented with a storyline for the midcard title and they got something really good out of it is a testament of quality (and also follows up the Skip vs Curtis match that was good). This is just good work being rewarded, and if I have to sit through Clause Reed matches to get some compelling wrestling, I might just do it. Overall Rating: 56 *Quibble is only here on a 10 appearance deal. In fact, since I've made many moves I want to address something. I have a shortlist that I follow with extreme devotion, to the point another great NOTBPW prospect was released and I didn't give him a second look. I am saying this because the roster isn't so much "bloated" in any respect yet, but it would soon if I kept up in the same pace. Other than any one-off or two-off appearances, there's 7 people I have on my list that I might be interested in bringing this year, and 6 of them are on exclusive written deals with companies right now so I might not get a chance at bringing them in at all. So, if you're invested in this cast of characters or just can't follow with random people showing up, know not many might, but also if you want big debuts for big moments, there might be some in store!

The rest of the roster is getting more and more fleshed out, which is great. Fun main event, a distraction finish 👀, and the feud of the year finally will reach the culmination next month!

CGC Title Bout Wrestling, Back In Surrey! Ladder Match Chaos and an update from Joey Poison! The biggest news coming from this Sunday's Title Bout Wrestling will be Joey's update on his health status heading into the CGC World Championship match in less than two weeks! But this is not all we have in store. Three matches between some of the youngest and brightest of CGC have been arranged: Alyx Winters vs Killer Karson, Clause Reed vs Dapper Danny Draper, Ant-Man vs Charlie Homicide! After Drake Young helped The Canadian Blondes secure #1 contender status, a huge 8-man tag has been booked: Alexander Robinson, Sterling Whitlock and The Montreal Mafia vs Drake Young, Philippe LeGrenier and The Canadian Blondes! Brett Fraser vs Hugh Ancrie vs Jamie Atherton vs Zeus Maximillon! These four men collide in a ladder match with the winner going on to face Skip Beau at Chaos In The Cage! Get your tickets today, because we love you and cherish you!

Not to intervene, but there's definitely room for at least one more (even just male worker based!) company in Mexico, they have the strongest independent scene in the base game. This is just to say, excited what you come up with, these beefed up mods that build off of the default database are definitely my favorite.

Vibert's Voice - Ep. 152, Tuesday, Week 1, May 2018 CGC! Title Bout Wrestling! Gold...Rush! Let's see what the big deal was with this week of the show! SEGMENT 1: Skip Beau opens the show, and he says (among other things) that he won the Canadian belt almost a month ago, and yet this is the first time he is out here to address the fans in DeColt country. He understands that it's a period of excitement, but he is not going to be overshadowed by anyone, and he is relishing the opportunity to have a No Disqualification match with someone who was practically born hard to the core. This went over really well, both with the fans and with me, honestly. It's good to add a chip on the shoulder of a babyface champion, even if we've seen the "I will still do good matches" trope many times over the years, but this was vague enough that it could also be something different. Segment Rating: 54 MATCH 1: Curtis Mobstar vs Skip Beau (C) for the Canadian Championship. Barely, but this is the best match for this title they've had this year. And that says a lot because on TV they go extra PG on the violence, so it was mostly kendo sticks and tables being used, but this was just fun. It had its moments where you can see how with a few years of experience or if with one of the workers being better it could have gone over even better, but it was a fine match, main event level really in terms of what they put out on TV. Curtis went up to the top rope with a steel chair, aiming to weaponize it on Skip, but Skip managed to get him up on his shoulders from the jump, and hit the Flow Down through a conveniently placed table for the win! Segment Rating: 53 SEGMENT 2: Intrepid Ian Identity says that it's a slap to his face that he wasn't chosen for tonight's main event, so he will up the ante: His local opponent has now a *five* minute time limit to survive! Segment Rating: 45 MATCH 2: An 18 year old kid called Murray Firth came out to face Ian, and he had to go four minutes with him instead of the usual local worker squash. Not only was he not really ready for TV, this is the one that really made Ian look weak- but like, in terms of character work it's achieving its aim. Realistically, a heel can be the most incompetent wrestler and they're one win away from being hot, and at least he's winning all the time rather than being upset by lower carders. Segment Rating: 26 MATCH 3: Nathan Black vs Zeus Maximillion. This is actually a singles match we never got even if they both have been years in the company. Turns out, we were better off not getting it because they did not click! At least Zeus got the win, as he's the one in better shape physically and with probably more left in the tank. Segment Rating: 31 SEGMENT 3: Jamie echoes the complaint of Ian to the matchmaker extraordinaire, saying that he clearly still has unfinished business with Whippy and the world title, if he's going to hand out a shot it should have been him. Alex DeColt, tired of having to deal with Jamie's attitude, says he's now in a #1 contender's match for the Canadian championship, next week. A ladder match between himself, Brett Fraser, Hugh Ancrie, and the winner of the last match Zeus Maximillion. Jamie at this point tries really hard (and fails) to keep himself from arguing that he sees that title as beneath him, especially having to fight for a shot for it, but at least this feels more concrete than teaming up with a psychopath, so he thanks the boss through gritted teeth. And yeah, these two just speak the most naturally out of most wrestlers in the world so the pairing will always get a high rating from me. Segment Rating: 76 MATCH 4: Canadian Blondes vs Alexander Robinson and Sterling Whitlock. This was like a top 5 match in the company this year I am pretty sure. Absolutely killed it out there, stellar action for 21 minutes. The Canadian Blondes kept their isolation game on point, Robinson and Sterling would milk every tag practically edging the viewers, and there were a couple very inventive double team spots, especially one where Whitlock caught the Tornado DDT from Flash only for Golden to hurricanrana his partner into executing the rest of the move. Great stuff. The finish was a bit of a surprise, as Drake Young came out to help the Blondes pick up the win, with Flash hitting the Crucifix on Alexander Robinson after he was hit by a mic shot that the referee didn't see. Segment Rating: 57 SEGMENT 4: Backstage Interview, Jenny Playmate is there with the main event contestants, trying to get an interview from them, but Whippy is going on and on about how he should not have to defend his title while his opponent for Chaos In The Cage is just resting and studying the tapes, while Raisin just absolutely refuses to get a word in. As Whippy's tirade finishes by saying that he's at least going to pad his defense record, Jenny asks Marc what he thinks about his chances tonight, and Raisin responds! "The Montreal Mafia speaks with actions, not words, capiche?". We will totally ignore that he is not Italian. Segment Rating: 51 MATCH 5: Marc Raisin vs Whippy The Clown (C) for the World Championship. Ok so, this match was good, probably as good as the opener. But. Joey Poison was on commentary. Which is normally great, it advances their program, all that stuff. He absolutely had terrible timing with Adrian Garcia, they would speak over each other's sentences, they would have palpable awkwardness, it really ruined my experience. In the match itself though, Dermott Ayers was ringside to make sure this was going to be clean, and it was! Marc was doing great high flying action and Whippy tried to keep him grounded for 20 minutes. And then, it clicked. He let Marc hit his usual combo of two flying forearms and a swinging neckbreaker so that he gets on the top rope. And as Marc went for the Top Rope Lariat he hits before the Raisin D'Etre, Whippy got him with a vicious Single Leg Codebreaker, the Clowning Around. Both champs retain! Segment Rating: 47, sadly. SEGMENT 5: As Whippy gets his title belt and gives it a hug, Joey Poison gets his crutches and walks into the ring. He says congratulations to Whippy, but then he can't help but stare at the World title, and tells him to cherish the next few weeks. Whippy responds by reaching into his trunks' pockets (it's amazing what technology can achieve these days), and pulls out an endless motif of colored handkerchieves, which he gives Joey and motions to put them around his waist. Joey laughs, and waves at him with his crutch as the champion exits the ring. Segment Rating: 58 Overall Rating: 53, feel like I have to weight against the main event, especially as the segment after it was strong but I still was kind of annoyed from the sloppiness that ruined the match beforehand. Good show though. Again a case of you put them in a wrestling hotbed and with high budget production value and it's not TOO far from what we get from bigger companies. There's obviously many differences and exceptions but they're getting closer to what they want I think.

GOLDEN CANVAS GRAPPLING PRESS RELEASE GCG is pleased to announce the "Hunt For Gold" tour, leading up to the historic Parade Of Champions card! The details of the shows are as follows: GCG Hunt For Gold Tour Tag 1 in Nagahama Hall, Monday Week 1 of February 2022 GCG Hunt For Gold Tour Tag 2 in Nagahama Hall, Tuesday, Week 1 of February 2022 GCG Hunt For Gold Tour Tag 3 in Osaka, Sunday, Week 1 of February 2022 GCG Hunt For Gold Tour Tag 4 in Nagoya City, Wednesday Week 2 of February 2022 GCG Hunt For Gold Tour Tag 5 in Tokyo, Sunday Week 2 of February 2022 GCG Parade Of Champions in Osaka, Saturday Week 3 of February 2022 The Matches for the first two Cards has been revealed: GCG Hunt For Gold Tour Tag 1: Match 1/6: Yuji Inamoto vs Yutaka Ogata Match 2/6: Hirotsugu Satou and Sharaku Okimasa vs Tag Team Aces Match 3/6: Eikichi Itou vs Ikki Hosaka Match 4/6: Danjuro Kikuchi, Fire Fox II and Washichi Inao vs Tetsuji Nishimoto and The Island Boys Match 5/6: Hammer Hadley, Jack Marlow and Ryobe Uno vs Henry Black, Merle O'Curle and Lenny Mochin Match 6/6: Ichiro Mitsukuri, Koyo Kinoshita and Mabuchi Furusawa vs Isoruko Arakaki, Massacre and SUKI GCG Hunt For Gold Tour Tag 2: Match 1/6: Fire Fox II and Washichi Inao vs Yuji Inamoto and Yutaka Ogata Match 2/6: Danjuro Kikuchi vs Nobuyuki Kubo Match 3/6: Eikichi Itou, Hirotsugu Satou and Sharaku Okimasa vs Tetsuji Nishimoto and Tag Team Aces Match 4/6: Hammer Hadley and Jack Marlowe vs Isoruko Arakaki and Massacre Match 5/6: Merle O'Curle and Lenny Mochin vs Ryobe Uno and Walker Van Cleer Match 6/6: Ichiro Mitsukuri vs SUKI

OLLIE is such a blast to book, so many directions to take them, excited for this!

QUEBEC TOUR ENDS WITH A LOOP BACK TO MONTREAL! TITLE BOUT WRESTLING "GOLD RUSH" EDITION! DON'T MISS OUT! The most special Title Bout Wrestling Card of the year so far awaits, with 2 title matches and a general sense of excitement as Chaos In The Cage inches ever closer! Curtis Mobstar has been unleashing absolute chaos the past few weeks, and while we are sure he would have loved to test himself in an unforgiving Steel Cage match, he's still in his element as his Canadian Title shot against the Raging Bull Skip Beau is in No Disqualification rules. Anything goes! Intrepid Ian Identity continues his climb up the ladder, as he has seen the reaction to his easy matches and has issued an open challenge to the CGC locker room! Two veterans collide as Nathan Black faces off against Zeus Maximillion! Even title matches usually don't have this match star power, with the Canadian Blondes facing off the innate dynamism of Alexander Robinson and Sterling Whitlock, in a match that is sure to steal the show! And for our main event, The Montreal Mafia might be quiet on Sundays, but their PPV record speaks for itself. Marc Raisin has picked up the most PPV wins of anyone in the company in 2018, and he's rewarded with a World Championship match, against the dominant Whippy The Clown. Not only is it two contenders at the top of their game (with Joey Poison's shot looming!), it's also two honorable combatants which we rarely see in the post-DeColt era! Purchase a ticket, tell everyone you know this is happening, and google how you can watch Channel Six from YOUR cable provider!

That Chaos Engine stipulation is really fun, nice to have a feud that spans the whole year.

Vibert's Voice - Ep. 151, Tuesday Week 4 of April 2018 And, we get to the CGC part of the show, which will be a bit more abbreviated this time because to me it felt like a filler show from them. Which is crazy to say since it was still stronger than almost anything pre-April, but you'll see what I mean. SEGMENT 1: Marc Dubois opens the show, hyping up the fact that he's facing Nathan Black to open Title Bout Wrestling, and also vowing revenge from Dan DaLay for his attack after last week's main event. And this is "just" a good segment, but I have to rate it high because he's already the most over wrestler on the show! And also he's very charismatic, knows how to pace his promo etc. He's a pro wrestler. Long may his soberness continue. Segment Rating: 68 MATCH 1: So the issue with this match is that Marc Dubois had a 20 minute technical match against an aging midcarder. I mean, it was fine, but there was no reason for it. I guess it's to position Nathan as very dangerous given he's probably going to be the big heel midcard gatekeeper now that he is solo. Sure. I think this stretched the limit of what you can do by just having Marc wrestle to cover TV time, but again, it was fine. Segment Rating: 51 SEGMENT 2: Dan tries to attack Dubois again, but the babyface had expected his attack and gave him a taste of his own medicine, forcing him to back off. This is helping make DaLay feel important again, him being chosen to be Dubois' first program. Segment Rating: 59 MATCH 2: So, I have no idea why Chucky D vs Lewis Frey was booked, it was okay given they're both inexperienced jobbers, and I get that you can do this to build them up since they don't have any other show, but it came out of the blue. Seven minutes later, the Chuckmeister was tapping out to an ankle lock to give Frey his first CGC win. Segment Rating: 28 SEGMENT 3: Alex DeColt came out to announce that next week is a special card for Title Bout Wrestling, Gold Rush! And that there will be two title matches, and a #1 contender's match. He says Whippy The Clown got this week off, because next week he's facing CGC World Tag Team Champion Marc Raisin in the main event as a title defense. Curtis Mobstar vs Skip Beau is happening, and it's a no DQ match. And The Canadian Blondes are facing Alexander Robinson and Sterling Whitlock in the #1 contender's match. So, basically, we're getting compensated for Lewis Frey vs Chucky Dorrance, and I am all for it! This is also a surefire way to keep eyes on the product, I'm sure. Segment Rating: 81 SEGMENT 4: Ian Identity comes out for his match against Brady Prince, and says that clearly his wins haven't been appreciated by the boss, so he's adding a caveat: he will beat Brady Prince in under 10 minutes! Everyone is whelmed, which of course is the point. Segment Rating: 43 MATCH 3: So, this match wasn't good! To make Ian seem even more of a douche egomaniac, they had him look not-great here, and this went longer than it should have, 8 minutes in fact. Of course, the Identity Theft put Prince away eventually, but why did I not skip this? Segment Rating: 39 SEGMENT 5: A cute little breather of a segment, the Beat Up Battalion guys trying to recruit Blockbuster because he's a huge dude, and he's quizzing them on their metal knowledge to see if they're worthy, then gets frustrated and rejects them. Probably went a couple minutes too long to fill time but I can't be mad at the idea of these wrestlers acting at least slightly like people. Segment Rating: 43 MATCH 4: The Canadian Blondes vs Thunder and Lightning was the best match on the show, and it was still short of what it could be in a match with actual stakes. There wasn't a story told in a sense that something specific dictated the flow of the match, but it was a perfectly acceptable TV match. Put this in front of a hot TCW crowd and it gets like a 65. Flash keeps picking up pins, this time hitting a Corkscrew Splash for the clean win, probably signifying they're getting closer to their best post-injury. Segment Rating: 53 SEGMENT 6: Jenny Playmate interviews Hugh Ancrie ahead of the main event, and he says that his goal is to make the Canadian Champion tap out, because it would just be what makes the biggest statement. Not because of the title, which is beneath him since it's not the main. He also puts his partner down which is a bit annoying from a heel but I guess fits his character. Jenny is great trying to keep a line between thirsting over him and not being weird on "national" TV, and she succeeds. Segment Rating: 63 MATCH 5: Brett Fraser & Skip Beau vs Curtis Mobstar and Hugh Ancrie. Good action overall although nothing insanely good, they kept Skip and Hugh fairly seperate which is a choice given Curtis vs Skip didn't need to have a long preview, but they did a lot of Brett and Mobstar in the ring together. However, we have champion and challenger in the ring to end the match, and Brett and Hugh are brawling really hard at ringside, which distracts the referee and lets Mobstar pull out brass knuckles and hit Skip in the back of the head for the win. Brass Knuckles will be legal next week, which definitely makes this build more exciting, but I do not think they'll do anything special on TV. Segment Rating: 52 Overall Rating: I think they kind of treated this as a filler show themselves, but they have enough talent currently for the show to still be fine. 53

Predictions Contest 1. Siah 463 (21/27) 2. Kanegan (12/19) 3. Scottie (9/15) 4. Martel123 (4/7) Before the announcement for the next tour, I have to address the incomings and outgoings, especially due to the fact there was more change than I expected. Outgoings: Amane Shunshen: The only person I cut due to performance reasons, he really doesn't have anything left in the tank sadly. Kyuichi Matsumoto: He got poached by BHOTWG, I tried to keep him but I lost the bidding war for him. Naozane Goto: He beat up a young lion so I let him go even if he was in the best tag team in the company with Ararake. His "bully" personality is not what we need. Shuzo Utagawa: He was really mad when I let Kudo go because he was his mentor, and handed in his notice. Incomings: Eikichi Itou (27): The 300 lber has been a free agent ever since SAISHO got bought by INSPIRES. He's a solid hand, nothing special but he can at least go for 15 minutes without embarassing himself. Might get pushed. Hirotsugu Satou (26): The former PGHW prospect has taken an interesting path in this mod, staying in Europe post-tsunami and working for UEW. He returned part time to work for White Canvas Grappling but he left them, and I saw the chance to give him the better deal to work as a freelancer for us. He's not great, but he's genuinely good. Might be a main event threat in the future. Lenny Mochin (31): A coworker of Black and Merle O'Curle, he was available to start work in Japan and he's really an excellent technical wrestler with a great look and stamina for days. A bit of a no braiser acquisition, we'll see where he fits in the picture of the roster. Rob Reynolds (31): A hard-hitting junior from the United States, he begun working for BCG three years ago, and he's officially the first wrestler we poached for there, a statement of intent even if he was only a midcarder there. We just needed actually good workers who can beat the young guys without making them look bad. Sharaku Okimasa (35): His bio makes a joke that he's essentially so forgettable that BCG forgot he was employed there, which might explain why they let him go in January. But what I see there is a huge upgrade on my veteran technicians, a guy with incredible basics and consistency that will be a staple of the roster hopefully for however long this diary runs. He's not getting a real push though unless something weird happens. Tetsuji Nishimoto (29): A bland junior that BHOTWG let go due to their financial problems a few years ago. His stats that would make him a star are really poor, but once again this is a guy who has incredible fundamental skills which are really important. I don't know if any of these guys is an actual big player, which we honestly need, and I hoped I'd just bring in 2-3 guys instead of 6 but circumstances forced my hand. Our newest Dojo graduates are in June, so still 4 months away, and I don't know if I am signing anyone else who can't main event, maybe when I set up excursions in the next few months, we will see.

GCG DESPERATE AND DANGEROUS REVIEW - PUROFREAK.SUBSTACK.COM The first Supercard event of the year is here from GCG, airing on Shogun TV, and they sold 1000 tickets in Kyoto, which is not great but not terrible either for what could be the beginning of the bounceback period. Also, according to a twitter insider I follow, it did an 0.06 rating on Shogun TV, which is...people watched it. You guys know the card already, so let's get on with what matters: what did I think of the show? MATCH 1/8: Fire Fox II vs Yuji Inamoto Fire Fox II is so ahead of schedule for a wrestler with one year of experience that there's talks of establishing a junior division in the future just so he can be the ace of it- and with junior wrestling being arguably the most popular style in the country, I'd actually not be opposed to it. I understand why not, though. Anyway, he actually outshined Yuji here in my opinion, the crowd really needs quite a bit to warm up to him after his bad latest run. Yuji had another violent outburst after taking a superkick to the face, and he just slapped Fire Fox II to the point of almost ruining his mask on the dragginess of the contact. Hopefully his performances and fan response match up to the coolness of the slaps, because the company needs new people to step up in titles contention. PuroFreak's Rating: 36 MATCH 2/8: Barry Kingman and Dean Daniels vs The Island Boys Good chance I misspoke when I said Barry and Dean are officially jobbers, because they absolutely stiffed and dominated the Island Boys here. To be fair, even with a couple wins they have gotten lately, it's clear it's way too early for both of them to be featured on a higher level than they currently are. At one point Dean started biting Hora Chomei on the outside, which I found very funny. Barry absolutely brutalised KENJI in the ring with elbows and palm strikes, until he hid a Striding Knee (not really running, was it?) and submitted him with a bulldog choke. PuroFreak's Rating: 34 MATCH 3/8: Ryobe Uno vs Washichi Inao Ryobe Uno's push has officially begun, as this is his first win on a big card for the company! Despite it only being a ten minute showcase, they skipped the hold exchange these matches usually start with and initially started telling a story: Inao knows the clock is ticking for him in every match, so he went back to his junior heavyweight roots to hit high-impact offense and not let Uno go in with his usual style to methodically destroy him. It was working well for the early phases, but Uno managed to grab him mid-air during a Springboard Lariat and turn it into a Kneebreaker, and at that point it was only a matter of time for him to win. Chop Blocks, Dragon Screws, a lot of screaming in pain from the veteran, and then the fun part begun: Ryobe Uno hit two back to back backrdops on Inao that absolutely planted him on his head, and he didn't even go for a finisher to pin him. A statement of intent in terms of booking, and it really worked on me- and Uno was definitely the best part of the match overall. You can criticize that I guess working the leg didn't play into the finish, but I think it played enough into literally the whole flow of the match that it makes sense. PuroFreak's Rating: 39 MATCH 4/8: Danjuro Kikuchi, Shuzo Utagawa and Walker Van Cleer vs Ikki Hosaka, Nobuyuki Kubo and Yutaka Ogata This was a really cute match, I thought. Van Cleer and Kikuchi really helped guide it and looked good, but Hosaka actually stole the show, at least from the three young boys and Utagawa's lackluster performance. I think it's interesting that Ogata has completed the "mandatory" three years of young lion status but he's still not really winning, he has some good attributes in my opinion, but you put him in this kind of match, and he's not really ahead of Kubo who is his junior. Anyway, everyone got a few spots where they showed their striking powers, but Hosaka spend the most time in the ring, frustrating all three of his opponents with his evasion skills. Eventually, Kikuchi managed to ground him with submissions, and he gave the hot tag to Ogata, who after elbowing everyone on sight except the referee, got interrupted from a German Suplex by Van Cleer, and that was the beginning of the end, as Kikuchi made quick work of him before ending things with a Tights-Lifting Piledriver. PuroFreak's Rating: 40 MATCH 5/8: SUKI vs Henry Black An absolute masterclass in submission work, this was reminiscent of those really old Sadaharu Jimbo vs Rip Chord matches from the early 80's- of course, only in style, as those matches are all-time worthy spectacles. Sadly, Black gets winded easily, so SUKI had to carry the latest portion of the match and get him through to the finish line- other than that, if you're a big fan of takedown work and quick transitions between holds that HAVE to broken up via rope break, this is the match for you. SUKI showed his adaptability by countering a guillotine choke into a northern lights suplex, and right as Black kicked out, transitioning into the SUKI Special III (Cattle Mutilation) for the win. PuroFreak's Rating: 58 MATCH 6/8: GCG Openweight Title Match: Merle O'Curle vs Massacre (C) I think my praise of Merle O'Curle has been too light, honestly, as he cracked the code on the mystery that is "a good Massacre singles match", by just being an old man who doesn't give a fuck. As hard as he got hit by the Samoan, he responded by hitting jawbreakers and european uppercuts and just generally attacking him head-on. To the point that he tried to get in a headbutt exchange, and you can never win a headbutt exchange against a Samoan so it backfired gloriously. With Massacre matches, usually right when they pick up steam they start getting worse right after due to his conditioning, so they took care of that deficiency for the finish: Massacre hit his signature strike combo, and as he got Merle up for the Samoan Drop, the Irish legend transitioned into a Butterfly Headlock, making the champion tap out after 11 defences and 8 months of pure dominance! New Champion! PuroFreak's Rating: 45 MATCH 7/8: GCG World Heavyweight Tag Team Titles Match: Ichiro Mitsukuri & Koyo Kinoshita vs Hammer Hadley and Jack Marlowe (JackHammer) (C) Well, I was super against the idea of JackHammer dropping the titles to the young guys on their FIRST challenge for the title especially, but then I show Jack on a match that went over 10 minutes and didn't have at least 5 other wrestlers- the guy is sadly not well physically, which is a shame because in short burst his work is still good. And the other guys not being to rely on his experience to get through the match hurt their performances too. In retrospect, Kinoshita hitting the Belly To Belly Suplex on Marlowe for the win was really a merciful kill. PuroFreak's Rating: 38 MATCH 8/8: GCG World Heavyweight Championship Title Match: Isoruko Arakaki vs Mabuchi Furusawa (C) Arakaki is a physical monster who should not be moving this well at 6'10, nor be having 23 minute matches against world class talent. And yet he does, and this match was really really good. Furusawa excelled with his sympathetic selling, making his opponent look like an absolute megastar, and everything Furusawa did had weight and meaning behind it. Toppling Arakaki meant a lot because it was really fucking difficult to do. And this is the kind of title match you usually think has an obvious winner, especially with the other two titles switching hands- and there you are, watching Arakaki hit an absolutely earth-shattering Lariat and biting on the nearfall. Then he hits the Arakaki Spike and when Mabuchi kicks out at 2.9, you're almost mad he didn't win! But then of course Furusawa, had his comeback, and even that had a lot of input from Arakaki cutting it off, and when he locks in the Furusawa Armbar, only for Arakaki to lift him up BUT THEN the pressure point changes and he almost dislocates the giant's shoulder, forcing him to tap mid-air. That's the kind of puroresu match that has come straight out of an anime without bordering on ridicule. Greatly worked, of course carried by one of the best wrestlers in the world, and hopefully a sign of things to come. PuroFreak's Rating: 71 I was perhaps naive not to expect title changes in this show, I think both of these make sense as you watch the event happen, but I am excited to see where they go for the next few months- neither midcard champions feel like a long term thing and you have to wonder about Furusawa's "succession plan" at the top. It could be SUKI reign number four, and that would absolutely rock and I am here for it, but in ideal circumstances of a promotion with a more balanced roster, a fresh face would succeed Furusawa at the top, especially after Marlowe's apparent swift road to retirement. Still, a good show even if there's a clear dip in quality on anything SUKI and Mabuchi aren't involved in. Overall Rating: 64

TITLE BOUT WRESTLING BACK IN LAVAL! REMEMBER, WE CHANGED TIMESLOTS, PLEASE WATCH US! Match Card: Marc Dubois vs Nathan Black Chucky Dorrance vs Lewis Frey Brady Prince vs Intrepid Ian Identity Canadian Blondes vs Thunder & Lightning Brett Fraser and Skip Beau vs Curtis Mobstar and Hugh Ancrie

QPW aren't bigger, they've tried to sign a lot of my guys but most refuse because CGC is bigger. The two wrestlers they've gotten is because Donte Dunn starts with a lot of heat with Alex DeColt due to his push being ruined before the player takes over and Warren had actually handed in his notice before signing there but I had forgotten it because it was during the time of the forum change when I wasn't logging into the game to not play too far ahead in the save. I very much do not regret having the shows revolve around Dubois, he's giving me 10+ better in-ring performance grades than anyone else on the roster. I will very carefully consider when I put him in the title picture though, judging from the popularity differences in the roster I might actually be able to make him lose once in a while if I keep him strong. Whippy is so good to write for, I absolutely stumbled into some gold but I don't know if I have like 2-3 more great promos in me that aren't the exact same thing lol. When I booked the Ancrie promo I had no idea what it would be, thankfully it became something decent if cliche in the write up. And just, thanks for the constant feedback, people are always reading which is great but it's different to be able to communicate out of character observations about what is going on in the game!

Vibert's Voice - Ep. 150, Tuesday, Week 3 of April 2018 A big thank you to everyone for sending your questions for this 150th Episode milestone mailbag, a huge thank you of course to our sponsors at SeatGeek, you heard the ad already. Before we close, let's jump to the CGC segment! They moved to a new afternoon timeslot on Channel Six, presumeably because of the fact they signed someone recognizable. It resulted in an uptick in viewers, from 12K to 18K. Now, that is small considering they were literally at the graveyard slot, but we should remember: Channel Six is a british channel airing in Canada that exists only to be perceived in unspeakable hours airing some skit comedy show from the 80's while you're high on legal drugs. So, really, this 33% increase is encouraging and will hopefully continue as they keep on improving. On the show itself, this was the most consistently good card they've produced! MATCH 1: Sterling Whitlock vs Warren Technique. This is Warren's farewell match as he chose to sign a deal with Quebec Pro Wrestling and he's not allowed to work both companies due to their owners' contentious relationships. And he went out on his back, putting Sterling over in a 20 minute(!!!!) match where he got hit with some incredibly stiff strikes. This felt very 70's in the way Warren would lock him in holds for minutes at a time to get his comeuppance in spurts, and while this retro feel should be saved for once-in-a-while occasions, I really enjoyed it. Sterling picked up the W with a Whitlock's End, and Warren's good CGC career comes to an end with a banger. Segment Rating: 49 SEGMENT 1: Before their match, the Canadian Blondes come out in order to welcome Flash for making his return after that particularly nasty concussion he suffered in January. I'm honestly a big fan of Flash and Ozzie taking advantage of CGC's decline to become quasi-main event acts, and hopefully the promotion doing better doesn't mean they get buried down the card. Getting mic time though doesn't happen to anyone in the company, and Flash got 5 minutes to make fun of the Quebecians and put his own resilience over. Segment Rating: 51 MATCH 2: The Canadian Blondes vs Gopher & The Ant. I get that these guys are match more ready for meaningful TV time than Generation Z but I don't like them being position as the team that loses to whichever heel needs a win. Regardless, this was another good match, both teams know how to work, and they went all out here. Some incredible cruiserweight spots from all of them, especially with Flash countering an Alabama Slam from Ant-Man into a Code Red. Flash also got the win, which makes sense due to his return, pinning Smith with a Crucifix after Ozzie cheated on his behalf. Segment Rating: 48 SEGMENT 2: We move on to the sit-down interview between Whippy The Clown and Adrian Garcia. Garcia here essentially riles Whippy up to get him to talk shit about Joey. Whippy's promo is about how while he respects Joey Poison and all he's done in his 9 years in CGC, he doesn't feel the same respect. Getting to the top is much more difficult than Joey thinks, and doubly so doing it while also being a clown, a joker, a whippersnapper, a rapscallion etc. He had to get in top shape to even get a title shot, while Joey made it to the biggest match of his career injured. He reminds everyone how he wasn't out of commision even after Dan DaLay put him through the French-Canadian Announce table. But he ends his promo saying that he will not make the mistake of underestimating Joey, because he felt how good Joey is at his best at Luck Of The Draw, so his gameplan is simple: be better. You don't need me repeating his points in a much worse delivery to know this was a really good promo. Adrian was really good at his segways too but he's been cutting good promos for over a decade. Segment Rating: 64 SEGMENT 3: Ian Identity comes out with a mic before his match against Alan Parent, and makes a bold call: he's going 2-0 on his way to a World Title Shot! I would have given him a non-rating but it actually got the second loudest boos of the show, which gave me a chuckle. Segment Rating: 46 MATCH 3: Intrepid Ian Identity squashes Alan Parent, other than a part where Alan almost taps him out with a very believable Armbar-based comeback, and then Ian hits the Identity Theft. Not much else to say about this. Would have been good if it was 15+ minutes. Fine for what it was. Segment Rating: 44 SEGMENT 4: Joey Poison is in the locker room with Faith, and essentially apologizes to her. He knows he can win alone, he feels this, but he's right that he completely diminished her part in the journey, and the fact that part of his success is also her success. He wraps this up in a very "moral at the end of a cartoon" where he says he made the mistake of letting his obsession for the title getting in the way of their friendship, but Faith says she's still hurt, and especially after watching him lose because of no one being in his corner, he can't agree with the remorse he's saying he's showing. Good stuff! I did not expect this to be part of the core of the storyline, thought Faith was getting a new client since the older Joey gets, even if they're friends the age difference hits worse on screen. Segment Rating: 58 MATCH 4: Hugh Ancrie makes his debut against Zeus Maxmillion, and while this was just a fine match, Hugh bulked up for this debut and he was absolutely huge. Towering over the Suntan Superman, he showed his House Of Stone principles outwrestling him and suplexing him to death. Zeus took control back with his superhuman resiliance, but his Olympic Clutch didn't get the job done and he succumbed to Hugh and the Crying Game (Reverse DDT into Dragon Sleeper), tapping out. Solid debut although if Zeus was a couple years younger this match would have ruled. Segment Rating: 45 SEGMENT 5: Ancrie gets a mic, and he cuts a promo about how he's...angry. Angry at what CGC represents, as wrestling is a sport where the cream of the crop rises to the top (heh), and not about popularity and a can-do attitude. He says he's stronger, smarter, better than every CGC competitor, and he will prove this by methodically tapping out the roster. So I guess they brought him in to fill that Sean Deeley hole they had for about 4 years. Sure! The guy is like a Stone/DeColt hybrid in terms of having what they'd want in a wrestler, it'll be cool to see what they do with him. Also at least they didn't mention the "other place". Segment Rating: 59 MATCH 5: Dan DaLay and Marc Dubois showed great chemistry together! They brawled for 15 minutes, and Dan got boo'd louder than he has in YEARS, and he seemed to cherish that. This was actually a really nice match, and Marc was better than his last main event, but I'll have to rate it lower due to the fact it ended with Dan DaLay DQing himself so as to not lose clean. Not only will I always feel DQ finishes are bad, him doing the "I'm losing let's grab a foreign object" DQ is much worse for his chances if the feud continues long-term than a rage DQ. Regardless, it seems like...Dan DaLay could have the CGC match of the year? Which seems weird in any year, let alone 2018. Segment Rating: 50 SEGMENT 6: As Marc recovers and wants to cut a "send the crowd home happy" promo, Dan shows he's not done with him, doing a classic DaLay beatdown to send the crowd home seething. It didn't last too long before security came out and they did the "we're out of time" fade to black, but my favorite moment was Dan hitting Marc head first into the ring post, him not falling down because he has to be hit again for the spot, and Dan checking if the ring post is concave with his hands before hitting him again repreatedly. Just a bit of wrestlers having fun going through the motions, y'know? Strong ending too. Segment Rating: 63 So, top to bottom this WAS the best episode they've had due to the worst thing on it being at the level of usually the third best thing on the show, but the lack of an actually great main event means I have to rate it a bit lower. Still, a very strong 55 for Title Bout Wrestling, and yeah. I am certain the company will have a decent summer and this review series will not tire me as much as it did in March. Thank you all for listening, and here's to 150 more money-making episodes of Vibert's Voice!

Great culmination of this good run of shows! Loved the chokehold wager, Edwards vs Milton will be a very hot program, and even the idea of a show being headlined by both a Faction warfare multi-man tag match and a title match between two of the best three wrestlers in the company is very exciting! Also will be interesting to see what happens with the midcard title shot, as in the base game (which is easier, lol) you can have a robust midcard scene but in this mod it seems to be these two guys, maybe Wrecker.

Oh you're right I have to consider this. I used yellow a lot due to the color theme of the promotion but I will adapt for the next write ups for sure. Also thank you for the positive feedback, I am very excited to work into this longer term, getting to really like the young guys in the roster!

Predictions Contest 1. Siah 463 (14/19) 2. Kanegan (12/19) 3. Scottie (5/7) 4. Martel123 (4/7) Fights For GCG Desperate And Dangerous Match 1/8: Fire Fox II vs Yuji Inamoto Match 2/8: Barry Kingman and Dean Daniels vs The Island Boys Match 3/8: Ryube Uno vs Wachichi Inao Match 4/8: Danjuro Kikuchi, Shuzo Utagawa and Walker Van Cleeer vs Ikki Hosaka, Nobuyuki Kubo and Yutaka Ogata Match 5/8: Henry Black vs SUKI Match 6/8: GCG Openweight Championship 12th Defense: Massacre (C) vs Merle O'Curle Match 7/8: GCG World Heavyweight Tag Team Championships 16th Defense: Hammer Hadley and Jack Marlowe (C) vs Ichiro Mitsukuri and Koyo Kinoshita Match 8/8: GCG World Heavyweight Championship 16th Defense: Isoruko Akaraki vs Mabuchi Furusawa (C)

CGC TITLE BOUT WRESTLING! LIVE FROM QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC! GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY! NEW TIME SLOT! Dear CGC fans, we are absolutely ecstatic to announce that Title Bout Wrestling will be airing on a new timeslot on Channel Six. Gone are the days of Title Bout Wrestling being a midnight escapade for all our loyal fans! From now on, we will be airing on a comfortable 3 pm PST, a perfect time considering it's a Sunday afternoon, for the whole family. And we celebrate this with a special version of Title Bout Wrestling that features a lot of high stakes matches! Match Card For Predictions Dan DaLay vs Marc Dubois Hugh Ancrie vs Zeus Maximillion The Canadian Blondes vs The Gopher & The Ant Sterling Whitlock vs Warren Technique Alan Parent vs Intrepid Ian Identity Tune in for such a competitive match card, plus Whippy The Clown has a sit-down interview with Adrian Garcia, and a lot more!

PuroFreak Blog Update: Saturday, Week 2 of January, 2022 Hey folks! I've delayed this entry for a couple of days as finding these tour shows in great quality is not that easy! Fret not though, as I still have the results and a short summary of the two latest A New Breath tour shows from GCG! Desperate And Dangerous is just around the corner, so strap in! GCG A New Breath In Kobe: Match 1/6: Fire Fox II vs Ikki Hosaka Short and sweet, Ikki won with the Tornado DDT. When these guys are allowed to flourish they will have some actually good matches. PuroFreak Rating: 31 Match 2/6: Nobuyuki Kubo and Wachichi Inao vs Ryube Uno and Walker Van Cleer Having Uno team up with an established act feels like a message that he's actually a real part of the heavyweight division and it's nice to see. The match itself was nothing special, Van Cleer got some of his momentum back by pinning Inao. PuroFreak Rating: 35 Match 3/6: Henry Black and Yuji Inamoto vs The Island Boys A bit of a letdown performance by KENJI who still gets lost in some spots, and Yuji going into this flamboyant character did not mesh well with Henry's all-business nature. Black made Hora Chomei tap out to an armbar. PuroFreak Rating: 29 Match 4/6: Hammer Hadley, Kyuchi Matsumoto and Shuzo Otagawa vs Yutaka Ogata and Tag Team Aces An absolute murder fest of the young boys, Hadley got the win after a particularly nasty Death Valley Driver on Wakisaka Takuboku. Surprised not to see Matsumoto pick up the win in that one, but that's maybe my own bias. Ogata keeps improving, but it's clear they think he's not as ready as Ryube Uno. PuroFreak Rating: 36 Match 5/6: Barry Kingman & Dean Daniels vs Ichiro Mitsukuri & Koyo Kinoshita No surprises as to who gets the win here, since Mitsukuri and Kinoshita apparently got a tag team title shot at Desperate and Dangerous. Kinoshita hit Kingman with a really good looking powerbomb, before tagging in Mitsukuri who won with a top rope splash. It was fine as a showcase but not compelling, and overall I'd say a trend of this show being the weakest of the month. PuroFreak Rating: 37 Match 6/6: Isoruko Arakaki, Merle O'Curle and SUKI vs Jack Marlow, Mabuchi Furusawa and Massacre Finally a good match, with Merle O'Curle making Massacre tap out clean as a whistle in the middle of the ring, getting a title shot at Desperate and Dangerous. SUKI and Furusawa got some intense exchanges with each other that get me very excited, but Arakaki did get to shine by absolutely ragdolling everyone that got in his path. PuroFreak Rating: 56 Overall Rating: 49 (care the most about the main event in these tour shows especially) GCG A New Breath Tag 3: Match 1/6: Amane Shunsen and Hidekazu vs The Island Boys I'm sorry...Shunsen is past it. This match was really bad. Hora Chomei pinned him at least, so despite KENJI still being a young lion they seem to be settling down on their spot in the pecking order above the other youngsters. PuroFreak Rating: 22 Match 2/6: Danjuro Kikuchi and Yutaka Ogata vs Ikki Hosaka and Nobuyuki Kubo Quite an improvement on the first match, Kikuchi kind of carried the action but I think all the exchanges we got were fun and good. Kubo almost got the win with a lariat, but Ogata kicked out, got the hot tag to the (relative) veteran and Kikuchi hit a Bulldog Driver for the win. PuroFreak Rating: 38 Match 3/6: Hammer Hadley vs Koyo Kinoshita They got 10 minutes to just hit each other really hard. This match kind of had me do a 180 on Kinoshita as I didn't realize he can just effortlesly lift and throw a guy as big and jacked Hadley. At the end of the day though, Koyo got taken down by a Choke Sleeper and had to tap out. PuroFreak Rating: 46 Match 4/6: Barry Kingman and Dean Daniels vs Kyuchi Matsumoto and Walker Van Cleer "The Gaijin Pride" are officially jobbers I think after the sample size of this tour, and it's a shame because I think they're pretty fine at their job. A Matsumoto Murder Bomb took Barry Kingman down, and all is right in the world for PuroFreak. PuroFreak Rating: 40 Match 5/6: Ichiro Mitsukuri vs Jack Marlowe The one everyone is talking about on twitter. The match itself was fine if way too short, but the thing is...Marlowe lost???? He just took a bad fall face first on the barricade outside, and Ichiro kept hitting face buster after face buster on him, until he lariated him to death in like...7 minutes. Insane result, insane show on faith on Mitsukuri-but it was better than any other non-main event match they've had! PuroFreak Rating: 49 Match 6/6: Isoruko Arakaki and Merle O'Curle vs Mabuchi Furusawa and Massacre Probably slightly the weakest of the set-up main events, this was all about Massacre (so maybe that's why) getting his shine back. I get that he's a dominant champion, but a guy better suited to short sprints can't have a main event push in my opinion. Maybe I am too old-school in that regard. Anyway, his Samoan Drop on O'Curle did look actually murderous, and the match itself was still better than anything else on the card, courtesy of Furusawa and Arakaki actually having pretty hot exchanges- especially Arakaki chokeslamming him on the apron, something that feels like Furusawa picked up in California. PuroFreak Rating: 55 Overall Rating: 51

BLUE!

Three Weeks Ago... A cold night at the CGC office in Vancouver. Far beyond a reasonable working hour, I had stayed late for what had kind of become a part of the job, me and Alex 'hanging out' and sharing a bottle of whiskey. It would mostly be him ranting about which one of my booking choices he would have changed, but then adding "but of course I respect the work you're doing and I would never intervene", which probably means I was two strikes away. But this time there was a real argument happening. Alex: "Adrian this is fucking suicide! I mean...you can't be serious. That's literally half the remaining budget of the company, per year, and we are already losing money every month to the point where I don't know if we HAVE a year!" Adrian: "Alex. Alex. Let's talk about this. What is the first thing I told you on our booking meeting when I took charge? That the biggest problem in the company is that there are no DeColts-" Alex: "He's no DeColt! Not only does he not wrestle like one, not only does he have no connection with DeColt Country but also I would never think a druggie is DeColt material." Adrian: "You know, whispering doesn't mean you didn't say it." Alex goes for a refill, exasperated. Alex: "You practically HAD a DeColt. You turned Ian heel. That guy looks like a million bucks, is one of our best wrestlers, he's homegrown. And you turned him to have a two month run with the midcard belt before apparently dropping it at the festival to Skip, who's the one who should turn heel in the first place! You know the geek dancer gimmick is to make a bigger impression when he turns heel, and you trashed it first show you ran. I said nothing, because I think overall you're doing a fine job. But bringing Dubois in to be the top guy, and paying him 400 grand a year? That is way too steep for me, Adrian." Adrian: "How do you feel about a good redemption story? Guy is clean, doing the best work of his career down in Mexico. You watch Lucha Libre? These guys are awesome and they know how to pop a family crowd, our crowd. He's been doing inspiring interviews, having marks online root for him every step of the way to his return to relevance. And we are getting him, right before his prime, ,having TWO big angles to run as far as marketing, because not only is it a redemption story from the 'Can't Miss Prospect' or whatever the fuck he was in 2005...but also he has only wrestled in Canada in SWF House Shows! The fucking Stones would love to have him do jack-off matwork fests with Johnny Bloodstone until he's 50, but you can actually draw fucking money with him." Alex: "I know what Lucha is, thank you very much. But the thing is, I am not done. You want to give him creative control?" I swiftly interrupted him, and began pacing around the room. To me, it made all the sense in the world, he just had to see the vision. It's not complicated either. Adrian: "Of course I do. So that he signs here. Because simply, there's no guy on our roster he doesn't go over for like his first 18 months in the company. He's a bigger star than anyone we got, so you give him an extra perk on the booking he would already receive, and you convince him to come back to Canada instead of staying in Mexico city on a better company that is trying to become an international powerhouse. Alex, please focus and listen. We obviously CAN'T have a DeColt, unless we brought in some of the 20 best wrestlers in the world or something, guys that make millions. What we CAN have, is someone who is marketable and has built-in reasons for the crowd to root for him so that we can approximate what we have lost. And then, you elevate Gargantuan who is ready to be a mainstream star, you elevate Ian, you elevate all these guys from being in the ring with him. Because Dan is too old, Joey has hit physical decline, Whippy is in the form of his life but he's 42. In like a year, it's going to be Ian, Skip and Jamie carrying the weight. And they need one more guy to be the #1 dude, they can handle being 2 to 4 just fine, and those are important roles. But you don't want to cheapen out on your franchise player, or there might not be a 2019 for CGC." Alex: "Ι-" Adrian: "Also there's no just firing clause in his contract. If we see that we're running under the water, we fire him and it will not cost us the money we owe him for the rest of his contract, he just gets some damages paid. Due to his past. Fucked up, but good lawyer work." Alex smiles for the first time in a couple of weeks at the very least. Alex: "Well, then it's worth a shot. Call his guys and tell them we'll send the contract. He's gonna be CGC's Comeback Kid."

I'm a bit cornered with Jamie, as he's great and I have vaguely big plans for him, but I have too many heels, they will only become more (for instance, I am not making Hugh Ancrie a face exactly because he comes from NOTBPW and I am kayfabe petty), and none of them is over enough to go against Dubois other than Gargantuan at this stage, which is basically the biggest match I can run and I therefore want to save it for down the road ideally. He might take some time off, but also he was elevated a lot in the Joey Poison feud and he lost it so maybe feeding him to someone wouldn't be bad for him because he can actually talk. We will see how it goes! I really thought this was the TV show that worked the most so far, but also it was the easiest to write- setting things up is easy, going through with them is trickier!