Greylocke

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Darin Walker" data-cite="Darin Walker" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44186" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Yeah, a no contest in a cell match. EAT IT RUSSO</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> WWE beat you to it by pulling that at last year's HIAC PPV, so it's not as revolutionary a move as it otherwise might have been. <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> I'll wait a bit before I cash in on my reward. Partly because I want to see what you intend to do with Cesaro first, since he's one of my potential target for gimmick ideas.</p>

<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>

<p><strong>W.CW Cells of Sheol</strong></p><p> All matches are cages matches unless otherwise noted</p><p> </p><p> W.cw World title</p><p> Jay Lethal vs MVP vs <strong>Jack Swagger</strong> vs Stu Bennett vs Perry Saturn</p><p> </p><p> I personally don't want Saturn to lose the belt, but he's not pulling the ratings, and you seem to be caring more about winning the war atm, and you also seem to be high on Swagger, so if anyone's going to dethrone Saturn it's probably him.</p><p> </p><p> W.cW Tag Team title</p><p> <strong>North Dakota Kraken and Sasha Banks</strong> vs Summer Brooke</p><p> </p><p> Your favourite female junkie and your best female performer on the same team....I don't think they're losing the titles anytime soon.</p><p> </p><p> W.CW Hardcore Invitational</p><p> Paige vs <strong>Anyone who shows up</strong></p><p> </p><p> Taking a gamble here since I don't know who's going to show up (hope it's Scott Hall just for the hilarity).</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Goldustin</strong> vs Matt Morgan</p><p> </p><p> This one is easy. Goldustin is awesome and Morgan's a major flop.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Tamina</strong> vs Chuck Taylor</p><p> </p><p> Probably the most predictable, since you pretty much said outright that you have no more plans for Chuck. But then again, I wouldn't really call anything in this diary predictable. Just relatively speaking.</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>

Is this C-rated show enough for you to win the Regional Wars this month? Or has any of the other feds already got a better grade?

<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>Perry Saturn is champ! All is right with the world again!</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Darin Walker" data-cite="Darin Walker" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44186" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Nash is also retiring from<strong> the in-ring action I had no intention of booking him in</strong>. </div></blockquote><p> </p><p> C'mon, at least give him a retirement match on the way out. At least book the match against his best buddy Scott Hall at your next big event, which Nash will of course win via forfeit after Hall fails to show up and thereby retire with his dignity and his quads intact!</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>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Darin Walker" data-cite="Darin Walker" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44186" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>P.S. For the record, Tommy Dreamer wouldn't return my phone calls.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Not sure if my memory of his whereabouts is up-to-date, but I think he runs a micro-indie fed of his own, and it's probably at war with your company, since everybody (below Cult level) seem to be.</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 hadn't done any prediction before because I felt that the possibility of Steiner and New Jack/NDK losing would be so inconceivable they're mostly foregone conclusions anyway. Of course, I guess with this diary one should never be too sure of anything.</p><p> </p><p> As for the gauntlet, that could go any way, but I'm with Bigelow Cartwheel that Perry Saturn would a sentimental favourite simply because he's Perry Saturn.</p><p> </p><p> And as to the Final 4....considering DW's usual style, I wouldn't put it past him to just set the winner and let the game determine the other finalists. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></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>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Darin Walker" data-cite="Darin Walker" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44186" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>NDK has also got an offer to work for IWA:Mid South. I'm pleased at this, unless she leaves of course, i<strong>n which case I'll burn this dynasty to the ground</strong>.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> No! Surely you mean burn IWA:MS to the ground?! They deserve it anyway, even before they signed NDK.</p>

Indeed, when your show revolves around God Steiner, you should be devoting your screen-time to the correct Son of God.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Darin Walker" data-cite="Darin Walker" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44186" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Couple more weeks. Maybe less, if this goat sacrifice works like the books says.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I think it works better if you book that Goat Sacrifice in your show for the world to see. With New Jack holding the sacrificial knife. And maybe with Goldustin dressed up as the goat, so that it can be skinned for its Golden Fleece.</p><p> </p><p> Oh wait, that's sheep. Oh well, they work as sacrifice too.</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>

How much longer is God Steiner out for?

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="smw88" data-cite="smw88" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="44186" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I could be wrong but I believe products settings in full apply to all brands of a company. The focus I.e. cruiserweight, young etc is just a tag for the ai to help them book it a certain way but it doesn't effect the product</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I was talking about the brand-split feature, which allows you to allocate one aspect of your product (Mainstream/Traditional/Hardcore/etc) to be the "focus". The crowd definitely reacts differently to your Intensity/Danger levels (I've tried). And content risk expectations are affected too, at least by certain types of focus (from experiment Risque and Modern focus both drive content risk expectations higher). But at the same time, your match aim requirements don't change at all from your default product. I've yet to find any complete reliable information on how a brand focus changes your show requirements.</p><p> </p><p> Either way, thanks for help.</p><p> </p><p> And my apologies to Darin Walker for derailing his awesome diary with my personal game questions/complaints. <img alt=":o" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/redface.png.900245280682ef18c5d82399a93c5827.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> I'll stop now.</p>