Greylocke

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Eidenhoek" data-cite="Eidenhoek" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="46586" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Grab Garry the Entertainer, btw.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Already done. I actually recommended him to another player in another topic (the one looking for Comedy workers) earlier today.</p>

<p>"First a bear, now a panda too? And you've got a guy running around carrying a snake! What is this, a zoo or a wrestling company?"</p><p> </p><p> "Come up with some original ideas of your own and stop ripping off Harry Potter and Jungle Book!"</p>

<p>Get Chess Maniac, he's awesome. One of my top guys and most reliable performers in both comedy and normal matches. I'm running a Local-to-Global game with Comedy as Key Feature, and Chess Maniac is a luchadore so he should work fine for you too. And he even starts with passable English.</p><p> </p><p> EDIT: And make sure you grab Panda Mask II if WLW ever let him go (they did in my game, luckily for me). And Garry the Entertainer, who's not there in the begnning but will debut in a couple of month. Not a luchadore, but has great Comedy skills, very high charisma, and pretty good overall skills for a rookie, and good personality to boot for your backstage! And starts off cheap since he's a rookie.</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Eidenhoek" data-cite="Eidenhoek" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="41174" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>So someone has a Legendary Simpleton gimmick.<p> </p><p> That's...</p><p> </p><p> You're...</p><p> </p><p> You're dumb. FAMOUSLY dumb.</p><p> </p><p> Edit: How is he getting <em>better at the gimmick?!</em></p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I have one of those in my current C-Verse game too - Penfold Perdition.</p><p> </p><p> It started off as Very Good and just kept getting better until it reached Legendary in a fairly short amount of time.</p><p> </p><p> If only he doesn't suck at everything else (his entertainment skills seem to have capped at the D-range, it keeps deteriorating whenever he's not in an angle).....</p>

<p>"Your first ever World Champion is a bear? What the **** did I just watch?"</p><p> </p><p> "It's January! Why do you still have someone dressed up as Santa Claus on your show?!"</p><p> </p><p> "You run a 45-minute show have less than 20 minutes-worth of wrestling!"</p><p> </p><p> "You need to pay that stripper girl more. Not only does she gets your highest segments of the night, she also does all the refereeing and interviewer jobs. That's exploitation!"</p><p> </p><p> "You're using this Heidenreich guy too much. And he can't even wrestle! He should just retire already and be a manager!"</p>

<p>Well, I kept away from wrestling-related forums/topics for close to 2 weeks so that I can watch WrestleMania on delayed schedule without accidentally reading spoilers....turns out it was a waste of time. They had ONE good storyline going into WM and they went and f**ked it up and gave f**king Shane McMahon the win. The Miz was in a different kind of success story going from a "reality TV reject" who toiled for years to earn the respect of those who were in the wrestling business their whole life. It was a refreshing change from the slew of Daniel Bryan/Johnny Gargano/Aj Styles working-their-way-up-from-the-independents tale, and they had to ruin it. To put over a non-wrestler, of all things. You can tell it really deflated the crowd. They were so quiet in the next match that they hardly even reacted to Nattie's double-Sharpshooter, which would have gained a big pop on any other night. Good thing Bryan vs Kofi was good enough to pull the crowd back.</p><p> </p><p> That's it, no more WWE programs for me until next year's WM. Sick of being let down by this company.</p><p> </p><p> Pretty much the only thing done right that night was Kofi vs Bryan. That was a pleasant surprise, the match was booked to perfection. Zero McMahon involvement (for once), unnecessary ringside interference/shenanigans was kept to a minimum (having 3 people at ringside worried me for a while, but they all play their little parts well, with no overbooking), intense back-and-forth action that keeps the crowd invested throughout the entire bout, and Kofi finally gets to walk out proudly with a clean-as-sheet win, unlike Becky. You can tell this was the peak of the event, since the crowd was pretty much dead for everything after that, even the main event. This would have been the perfect way to end the night, but of course, the WWE was obsessed with FIRST TIME EVER HISTORY MAKING WOMEN'S REVOLUTION which takes precedence irregardless of quality.</p><p> </p><p> For more than a decade we've had John Cena getting booed by majority of the crowd at WM, and for once almost everyone wants him to be involved in something: Kurt Angle's farewell match, and they gave it to Baron Corbin. But then, considering this match got like 5 minutes, I guess I'd have turned down the match if I were Cena. Feel bad for Angle that he had to go out this way. I bet no one even remembers anything about this match 3 months later.</p><p> </p><p> You know what match would have benefited from having less than 5 minutes? Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre. That was a 10-minute bore-fest that didn't do any favours to the already-dead crowd.</p><p> </p><p> Making Balor vs Lashley less than 5 minutes was a good decision, though. That short compact match was actually better than any of their previous encounters thus far. Not that it says a lot. Lashley actually looked scarier with his green contact-lenses compared to Finn's goofy cartoonish demon-paint.</p>

<p>Yeah, I'd hardly think she'll be moving her home to US if she weren't committed full-time.</p><p> </p><p> Other than flying back once a month to Japan for MAKAI shows she'll basically be finishing up with the rest of the Japanese feds she's working for within this year.</p><p> </p><p> EDIT: Okay, no, seems like I got my news backwards. She will still wrestle in Japan for other feds, but her commitments to MAKAI is the one that lasts till November. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/frown.png.e6b571745a30fe6a6f2e918994141a47.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> That sucks for them. The part about moving to US is legit though.</p>

<p>And apparently she is not just working for AEW, she's actually going to move to the US, so that's a major commitment for her.</p><p> </p><p> Even better news: she's still going to remain a part of MAKAI and it seems like there may be some working relation between the 2 in the future. Really hope she can also use AEW as a platform to help promote her current home promotion. MAKAI is a true artistic masterpiece that deserves to be spread to the rest of the world. It might still be somewhat ahead of its time, but it should be the next step up the evolutionary ladder for the sports entertainment business in the future.</p>

<p>NXT Takeovers are nice in that they're always a fun watch, even when I can't get invested enough in most of their characters and stories to follow their usual TV shows anymore. It's like going to the theatres to watch fast-paced superhero action movies. I don't have to think too much about whether the stories make sense or who I want to win or lose, I'm just there to watch sh1t blow up and have fun. Sadly, the same things can't be said for WWE's main PPVs.</p><p> </p><p> The opening match was an entertaining spotfest. Stuff like this is why I'd always watch pro wrestling over MMA and shoot fights. You just don't see stuff like that in "legit" fights, and that's something I won't ever want to change. And I'm happy that the legit tag team won over the random solo pairings. I guess I'm somewhat more tolerant of this pairing on this show, as the post-match bows indicate that this was mostly a way to get both guys on the show to give them a nice send-off before they depart for the main roster permanently. Still don't get why they're teaming up on the main shows, though. There's no rhyme or reason to it.</p><p> </p><p> Dream and Riddle seem to have great chemistry, their timing and spots are the most coordinated out of all the match-ups. This almost gave Dunn/Walter a run for its money as MOTN contender. And the right guy went over. They certainly don't need 2 transitional champions in a row. And good to see that they're still making some effort to at least keep up the illusion that NXT's purpose is to actually build their own stars like Velveteen Dream and not just a place to showcase established stars that they buy off other companies or other sports.</p><p> </p><p> UK title match was the only one I was really emotionally-invested in, since NXT UK was the one WWE show I still follow besides Smackdown. Pete Dunn delivers the goods, as usual. Perfect psychology beginning to end, although the ending was a little obvious once Dunn tried to lock that submission hold on the top rope. I don't care that he no longer has the belt, Dunn will remain the best champion in WWE in the past 5 years. Slight worry that it might be a while before they can build up another contender to be a convincing threat to Walter after his dominating performance.</p><p> </p><p> The women had a tough act to follow, as the crowd was clearly burnt out after the last 3 matches, but they did a great job getting them back into the action towards the later part. Good building of conflict and tension between the Sky Pirates. Not really a fan of Bianca tapping out, since I though a multi-person match would have provided a way for her to continue making her "undefeated" claim, but it's a minor quibble, not really enough to bring down my enjoyment.</p><p> </p><p> The main event....man, this was the exact same thing I was complaining about the building for the WM main event: their booking team's love of adding unnecessary convoluted twists and turns where they're not needed. Gargano's heel turn was stupid to begin with, so was the fake DIY reunion, and that short transitional reign as North American Champion raises the question of why the hell does he deserve another shot at the bigger title other then him having an existing rivalry with the champion (which became moot after Ciampa got injured and somehow Gargano still gets the match for free while his opponent had to earn his spot....how does that make him the face?). If they hadn't added all these convoluted twists, Gargano could have gotten his perfect Cinderella story of winning the title AND beating his rival and nemesis in the process to give the year-long feud the perfect blow-off it deserved. But noooooo, they had to go drag it out until Ciampa is now unable to finish the story. And apparently after everything he did to get revenge Gargano is somehow the upright babyface again. It's almost funny the way they still tried to establish him as an honourable guy who refused to take a countout win.....the same honourable guy who injured an innocent third party in order to get a 1-on-1 match with Ciampa. It wasn't even as if he needed Aleister to be out of the way to get at Ciampa, he was already in the title match. A guy who's THAT desperate to win the title should be happy to get a win any way he can and not worry about a minor detail like countouts. You can tell the crowd wasn't buying him as the face at first, Adam Cole was getting louder cheers despite being the blatant heel, and there was a pretty massive BOO when Gargano won the second fall. It took them giving him a John-Cena style superface push, overcoming 4-on-1 odds, to get the crowd back on his side again for the third fall. All these would have been unnecessary if they didn't try that stupid heel turn to begin with.</p><p> </p><p> This is so much similar to the WM main event situation. The crowd was cheering for Gargano at the end because they appreciate Gargano the person (much like they appreciate Rebecca Quin, the worker behind Becky Lynch's persona), not because the booking was doing him any favours. Same way Ciampa got an appreciative cheer when he showed up at the end despite him being the most dastardly villain character on NXT for the entire year.</p>

I can't wait for Vince's reaction to the announcement that Bryan and Kofi are both out of the WWE Title match for unknown reason and 2 D+ players from NXT will be competing for the vacant title instead.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="BHK1978" data-cite="BHK1978" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I have read, and I am not sure how much of it is true, that Vince at one time said he likes to recycle past angles and gimmicks every seven years or so. The thinking behind this is that, that is enough time for the average fan to forget about a gimmick or the average amount of time for the turnover of fans. The one that stood out to me was the whole Chris Masters/Hercules Hernandez & Billy Jack Haynes nobody can break out of a full nelson gimmick.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I don't mind gimmicks and storylines rehash in general. I should have put more emphasis on <em>unncessary</em> rehash. Kofi wasn't having any problem getting over as the next mega-face heading into the WM title match ever since his performance in the first gauntlet and the Elimination Chamber. There was NO REASON WHATSOEVER to get the McMahons involved in this. All these callbacks to Bryan's old feud with the B+ player references just feel so arbitrary and forced. It feels like a <em>manufactured</em> feud, which we know it is of course, but Bryan's rise to the main event in 2014 actually felt organic, Kofi's could have been, too, up till Elimination Chamber.</p><p> </p><p> And did we really have to see Becky to another Stone Cold-style entrance via a police car after being arrested? Again, Becky was over as Becky, not because she suddenly and inexplicably had to deal with oppressive authority figures and unfair rules.</p><p> </p><p> None of the callbacks added anything to the characters or stories. In this cases, not even nostalgia.</p>

<p>I'm not predicting that the mass interference at the WM main event will happen, or the HW feud kicking off right there, just that I wouldn't put it past them.</p><p> </p><p> I'm fairly positive about WM ending with all 4 NXT HW in the ring holding titles, though. It doesn't really contradict Steph's curtain call. She can still be right there in the ring with them taking the centre of the spotlight.</p><p> </p><p> WWE these days is just obsessed with re-creating "historical moments" these days. They book all kinds of unnecessary rehashed garbage with Kofi's storyline (getting the McMahons involved, calling him B+ player) just to turn him into Daniel Bryan 2014 V2 when the story would have been perfectly fine without those stuff. They did the same with Becky with all the unfair suspensions, illegal entries and getting arrested stuff to turn her into the next Stone Cold. Now I warrant they want to give the NXT HW the 2004 Benoit/Guerrero moment with "best friends achieving their dreams together on the big stage" highlight reel.</p>

<p>I'm personally still skeptical about Rousey leaving after Mania. I'm still of the opinion that they're going to at least run a "MMA 4 Horsewomen vs NXT 4 Horsewomen" feud before she leaves, and Charlotte winning the title now (and apparently not having to defend it at Mania) seems like a setup leading to all 4 NXT HW holding titles at the end of Mania and Rousey bringing in the other 3 MMA HW to feud against them post-Mania.</p><p> </p><p> In fact, I wouldn't put it past them to have all 8 of them being involved at the WM main event (with the non-competitors running interference) to kick-off the feud. Or even revealing that Charlotte and Becky's rivalry had been a farce all along and they were really getting both of them into the WM main event just so that Rousey can lose the title in a protected manner after getting double-teamed by both of them.</p>

<p>Something Finn Balor needs to do more often, and the most entertaining stuff he's ever done in WWE:</p><p> </p><p> </p><div class="ipsEmbeddedVideo"><div><iframe width="200" height="113" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hiXctZcTqKo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" title="Elias and Finn Balor sing Shallow by Bradley cooper and Lady Gaga"></iframe></div></div>

<p>Maybe it has to do with the fact that WWE stopped treating NXT like a developmental fed long ago. I mean currently there's grand total of one star on NXT TV that's actually a developed product of the Performance Center: Velveteen Dream.</p><p> </p><p> In TEW terms, NXT is really more of a minor third brand with a slightly different product focus. It's grown as big as 205 Live, if not bigger. That's why the indy/foreign stars aren't complaining about being on that brand, because they don't see it as a developmental fed.</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Adam Ryland" data-cite="Adam Ryland" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="46105" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>The parent can adjust some elements of their child company - such as editing titles, adding tag teams, changing worker names, etc - but they cannot actually book a child company's shows for them. You would need to add a player to do that.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Does "editing titles" include manually switching the title holders?</p><p> </p><p> If yes, and if both companies are played by humans, does the player of the parent still have that power over the other player's company?</p>

But it would be better if, rather than basing the restriction only on specific company or relationship, we can have the option of setting broader or more variable scopes in the restrictions, such as not allowing your worker to work for another company that is above a certain size, or for another company that has TV/broadcaster exposure, etc.

<p>There was literally only 1 match on the card with both good story and action: the opening match. And that was the one and only reason I'm still kinda watching Smackdown (already given up on RAW, 205, and NXT after Royal Rumble). Well, the main event was fine, I guess, and probably the only safe match to end the show with a happy crowd, but unless they can get Ambrose to stay after this, there's no long-term benefit out of that. Good nostalgia callback, I suppose. I guess I should call it a plus that for once WWE actually ended a PPV the right way.</p><p> </p><p> The Shane/Miz storyline has been refreshingly well-written throughout and Miz's face-turn has been really well-executed. The matches weren't brilliant but still sufficiently fun to keep the story strong. Never thought I'd ever want a Miz/Bryan match where the Miz topples Bryan's heel title reign as a babyface, but that's exactly what I wish for now. Would be a perfect way for that old feud to come full circle. But at best that won't come till after Mania (and might not happen at all), so there' isn't really a lot I'm looking forward to for the biggest wrestling event of this year.</p><p> </p><p> The rest of the show was messed up by either terrible/non-existent writing or inadequate performer. Asuka/Mandy was only other match that was actually logically booked. Unfortunately it involved Mandy Rose and Sonya, so the action was sloppy as hell. And while the booking of the match itself made sense, it still ended with the SD Women's title left in limbo with no clear challenger for WM. The RAW tag titles match ended with 2 popular new faces acting like sore losers and heels (and why the hell is Aleister Black in a tag team to begin with? His character should have been a loner). US Title match was the best match action-wise, but there isn't much of a story beyond the fact that Mysterio and Andrade didn't like each other and fought a bunch of time. The Women's tag champions, despite retaining, became a footnote the post-match segment and were nowhere to be seen. Having monster hosses in your women's division is useful, but they need to find better women for that role, because Nia and Tamina are just painful to watch. Tamina ought to be released by this point considering how long she's been in the business and hasn't improved an inch. Many of the Diva Search contenders made more progress in their ring work than her in shorter time.</p><p> </p><p> They're trying too hard to create another "Daniel Bryan" moment for Kofi, to the point that they've actually succeeded in replicating the Rey Mysterio effect in in the 2014 Royal Rumble, where a babyface like Mustafah Ali (and to a lesser extent Kevin Owens) who would otherwise have been well-received gets booed for his big return match. I'm not even a fan of Ali, and I feel bad for him. Thank god this wasn't the main event.....they had too many of those where ALL the contestants are booed by the crowd, which is a real pity considering how hard all 3 guys were working. The action was great, but it's only going to be overlooked because the crowd was just too busy rooting for a guy who's not in the match. This was the 2014 Rumble all over again.</p><p> </p><p> And meanwhile, that above-mentioned guy, Kofi Kingston, loses a meaningless handicap match. It's actually refreshing that for once a tag team actually wins a handicap match against a single guy, but Kofi pretty much just got destroyed without ever looking like he was putting up enough of a fight to possibly win. I understand them wanting to postpone the Bryan/Kofi encounter for Mania, but this match did Kofi no favours at all. He didn't come out looking like a star.</p><p> </p><p> And then you have Becky Lynch. By this point I'm no longer surprised by the booking simply because her story hasn't been coherent for months. If anything I'm surprised by how many people are still invested in Lynch despite the terrible booking. Having your arguably most popular babyface get beat up for most of the match only for her to win via DQ and literally "saved" by outside interference doesn't give me any reason to want to root for her more. The only interest I have in this storyline is my curiosity at how long Becky can possibly sustain interest in her WM match via the sheer force of her popularity against the odds of bad creative booking.</p>

<p>Apparently, Ric Flair was legit drunk and wasted on RAW during the segment.</p><p> </p><p> It'd be hilarious if they reveal next week on RAW that Batista didn't actually do any damage to Flair. He just broke into the locker room, found Flair already passed out on the floor and just dragged him out.</p>

<p>Apparently, the latest rumours regarding Ambrose is that he pitched the idea for WWE to announce his departure in advance with the potential for a swerve where he shows up after his current contract has expired. WWE lets him run with it to see if he can generate enough buzz, and will offer him a new contract with ‘right to refusal’ creative clause if he succeeds (if he doesn't then he leaves as planned).</p><p> </p><p> No legitimate source that i know of, so probably fake. But if it somehow comes to fruition it might just get me to start following their regular TV shows again.</p>

<p>PWInsider reported that they're having issues trademarking their company name, logo, and event name:</p><p> </p><p> <a href="https://wrestletalk.com/news/aew-having-trademark-issues/" rel="external nofollow">https://wrestletalk.com/news/aew-having-trademark-issues/</a></p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="milamber" data-cite="milamber" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><strong>Women's Tag Title Chamber</strong> - Good match even though it was sloppy at times. Everyone worked hard and the Tornado Tag rules made it more exciting. The modified finisher was a nice touch. <strong>I'm shocked Nia and Tamina didn't win. Vince probably doesn't want Sasha and Bayley to jump ship to AEW</strong>.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Seriously? I'm pretty sure Sasha and Bayley have been slated to be the first tag champions for nearly a year now even before the tag titles were officially announced. It was literally the only reason to keep this awful friendship storyline between them for so long when everyone was looking forward to Sasha turning heel on Bayley. I think they might even have debuted the titles earlier if it wasn't for Sasha's short injury break.</p><p> </p><p> And the fact that they were the only established face team all year long (Naomi and Carmella was a last-minute thrown-together filler) made it pretty obvious that they had to win here. Any heel team winning here would be terribly short of challengers. Meanwhile, we have at least 4-5 heel teams that can be rotated to challenge face champions long enough to last a year if booked well (which it probably won't be , but still).</p><p> </p><p> This match was the second-most predictable to me, other than Rousey beating Ruby (which I think everyone saw coming).</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Derek B" data-cite="Derek B" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="46105" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Fighting is literally just another category to rate a worker on.... like Entertainment or Overness.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I'm just wondering what stats make up the calculation, since I personally doubt that there will be a new "Fighting" stat implemented to the workers. Is it calculated from a combination of top-row + performance + Overness stats similar to how match ratings are calculated (since fighting angles share some similarity with actual in-ring action), or is it more slanted towards other stats like Acting, Stiffness, etc? Or a combination of ALL of those(which realistically it should, but it seems rather over-complicated for the purpose)?</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="milamber" data-cite="milamber" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="46243" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Good to see a fellow Joshi fan on the boards. Stardom and DDT (mostly for TJPW) are the only wrestling services I subscribe to.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Same here (well, DDT too, but it's the same service as TJPW so same difference), although I've only been following for little more than a year. I've fallen so much in love with the product of TJPW and DDT shows that TJP is the the one wrestling company that I stay completely up to date with every single event (Stardom and DDT have way more shows, too many for me to be able to spend the time watching everything especially since i also try my best to dig into old archived shows, so I do miss a number of events often).</p><p> </p><p> Anyway, my concern was more about the exposure putting Sakazaki (and TJPW) on WWE's scouting radar. Stardom is already subject to WWE raids, and I don't want that to happen to TJPW's already-small roster. Their current roster is perfect as it is. Like I said, it'll be good news for the wrestlers themselves to have their work seen by bigger crowds and more fans and I probably should be happy for them, but I'm just a little protective of my personal favourite promotion.</p>

I'd like to know if the expanded non-booking aspects of the game (Merchandising, ticketing, etc) will be set as optional aspect of the game (that can be turned off/on)? Thanks.