Blake Trask

Haha, thank you! Pacing played a part (four shows/month is quite a grind at this size, and I regret that I tried it that way to start), but also mental health, in honesty. But yeah, churning out shows is unfun and a drain on creativity in the long run. There's no need to apologise! I appreciate the comments you make.

I just worked Steph Blake. Holy f**king s**t I just worked Steph Blake. I’d had to sit down as soon as I went to the back, that’s how badly I was shaking. Steph was one of about five English wrestlers to ever see international success. She’d been on just about every AAA show I’d ever watched, and had won a triple crown. Me and Sally had dressed up as her and Zoe Ammis when we were kids and they were tag champions. And she was here, working for my daft, childish little company that couldn’t even afford enough wrestlers for a proper roster. And we just had a match in the main event. It was all so awesomely surreal that it was nearly enough to salve our shite timing. Not quite, but nearly. “Hi, Ellen.” I looked up. Steph was standing over me. I froze. “Good match.” She stuck out her hand. It took me a couple of seconds to destatue myself. I took her hand. “Thank you. It was all you.” She smiled politely and shook her head. “No, you held up your side too, trust me. That wasn’t a carry.” I managed to nod, a smile of my own flickering on and off my face. My heart was going a million miles an hour. Getting praise for the match was beyond a dream, especially when I knew that we hadn’t clicked great as opponents. “I’m looking forward to working here,” said Steph. “This is long overdue.” I tilted my head to the side. LoW had only been open for four months. She detected my confusion and clarified. “Women’s wrestling in England. When I moved back here, I was sort of telling myself that I was pretty much retiring.” Steph looked away for a long moment. When she looked back, her smile was still in place, but had changed into something more private and self-contained. “Looks like I’m sticking around a bit longer. Speak to you later, Ellen.” “You too,” I managed to get out of my starstruck head. I watched her go. I tried not to squeal like a fangirl. I’d do that later. Even if this whole thing fell to pieces, I was going to have that match forever.

QUICK RESULTS Svenja Schwartz def. Rhiannon Jones OM2 def. Elizabeth Cain Rajni Smith def. Crush Crush Clara Sakuyama & Abbi Archer def. Ophelia Oswell & Astrogirl Steph Blake (???) def. Ellen Ward -- Steph Blake is the signing that brought the diary back. I'd kind of hit a pause a few shows before this, and though I periodically looked at the save, I wasn't quite feeling it, sort of indecisive. I wanted to resume the story but didn't want to flake out again, as is my habit. I knew that Steph had moved back to Britain, but I didn't realise how inexpensive she would be. Once I saw that, the gears started turning and I was re-energised. Over time that built back up into the resurrection you now see. This show 'clicked' Ellen's character for me. The promo is one of my favourites of hers because of what it says about her and how she feels about wrestling. Naturally, however, you get a huge signing and then there is no chemistry. Ah well. Astrogirl is really fun to write. This show also revealed something very interesting about Rajni to me, which we shall see more of going forward. Yes and no - as mentioned, she relocated, so paying no travel makes her a cheap hire. In character, however, it's a pretty huge deal. -- Card for Lionesses of Wrestling XVIII: Live!

ugh but he's gross. like, harrassment gross.

In TEW2020, I find the titles page much harder to read. This mostly stems from how defences aren't their own separate cell any more, but on the same line as the timespan of the reign. I liked it much better when the duration was one section, and the defences were off to the right. It was way more uniform and easier to distinguish between the entires.

Bruce probably hit relevancy decline on his entertainment.

this is an enormous pet peeve of mine. it just seems to skew so hard away from the unique styles and towards generic, even when they are still mostly better at the original thing. I know style is just a descriptor but it makes the worker feel less special.

The Silencer is 'one to watch for the future' and 'closely monitored by USPW and SWF' while being 37 years old and never getting hired by them.

you know I actually thought that had been removed - I guess the frequency must have been toned way down!

Lionesses of Wrestling XVII: Live! Saturday, week 1 May 2020 Gloucester Street Youth Centre Attendance: 50 Not broadcast Commentary: None Rhiannon Jones knows she has a big task ahead of her against Svenja Schwartz, but she’s ready with a gameplan, coming in as hard and fast as she can. Rolling vertical suplexes! A roll of the dice—snake eyes! She thinks she’s softened Schwartz up, victory roll! Schwartz kicks out! Schwartz thinks that Jones should slow her damn roll! Thrown by the failure of her plan, Jones is easy prey for Schwartz’s machinations, and the Invasion (Curbstomp) stamps the victory with authority. — E Samba Barnes appears with a microphone, and is all business. Svenja cheated to get one over on her. Way Barnes sees it, that puts them at 1-1, and she wants the rubber match. Schwartz grabs a microphone of her own, and sneering, remarks that, im gegenteil, she is 1-0 against Samba, and sees no reason whatsoever to give Samba a shot at getting her win back. Barnes thinks Svenja’s chatting absolute jokes. What does she call the tag match the other week, then? Schwartz laughs: Irrelevant. — E+ OM2, recovered from ignobly inflicted injuries, is in action against the debutant ‘Callous’ Elizabeth Cain. The grisly geordie stalks to the ring clad in a black leather longcoat, hair menacingly arrayed in a mohawk. Fluorescent biker OM2 could hardly cut more of a contrast, and the two of them engage in a brawl that has the crowd’s attention: Cain does great work for a complete unknown (as opposed to the almost complete unknown that is OM2), clawing and biting and torturing OM2, and there could be something of note here. OM2 has to enter the Zone to fight back, transcending pain and adversity and unleashing a Death Kick Kombo that turns Cain’s lights out with a spinning back heel. — E It’s time for some good ol’ fashioned Rajni Smith on the stick! She gives the crowd all kinds of grief, breezily insulting everyone and anyone that catches her attention (sparing special focus for a hapless young man in the front row). It gets the fans real riled up and ready to see Raj get her comeuppance. — D The competitor that emerges is an absolute powerhouse, a heavily built black woman billed as Crush, Crush, Clara. They might be similar heights, but the gulf in physique surely makes this into a foregone conclusion, a joke of a contest? Well, sort of, but not the joke that anyone might be thinking, as Clara transforms in the ring into a perfect pantomime foil to Rajni. It’s almost infuriatingly funny as Rajni tricks Clara with classic ruses like ‘it’s behind you!’ and time outs, but when Rajni tries them twice, Clara roars back with an ‘oh no it isn’t!’—Rajni panics and is battered around the ring for a bit, sent flying through the air with huge power moves. But wait, dastardly inspiration! ‘Oh yes it is!’ Clara turns! Rajni cheap shots her! Air Force Raj! (Second Rope Leg Drop) to steal the match away! — E Sakuyama comes down to the ring and invites Abbi Archer to join her. Archer arrives with little hesitation. Sakuyama wastes no time in breaking down an apology to Archer. She was slow on the draw a few weeks back and put Abbi in harm’s way, and that isn’t cool at all. That’s not what friends do. She’s going to make it up to Abbi tonight by being a great partner to her in this upcoming match. Archer thanks Sakuyama for the apology and reassures her that she never had doubt that her heart was in the right place. Abbi offers a hug, and surprised, Sakuyama takes it. After they break away, Sakuyama assures Archer that she’s got her back 100% of the way, and won’t let anyone else harm her. Abbi pipes up; or her other friends, right? Sakuyama is thrown off, but then adds, reluctantly… yeah, not the pirates, either. Archer is delighted. — D- Archer and Sakuyama make for a good team against Oswell and the aggravating astronaut that is Astrogirl. Archer’s full of pep and enthusiasm now that she’s got Sakuyama backing her up, and takes the fight to the enemy! Oswell and Astrogirl have to rethink before they get run over. Astrogirl grabs Archer through the ropes and Oswell traps her in the corner with dirty boxing. Combinations from Oswell! Astrogirl sends Abbi soaring to the stars while gloating about how cool her spaceship is. Sakuyama rallies the crowd, gets them making noise. Archer shows signs of life, as Astrogirl tries to vent her oxygen with chokes. She feels confident in making a big move, charges—Archer dodges! Astrogirl rockets into the buckles! Hot tag! Sakuyama runs wild over the bad gals! A lariat sends Astrogirl into the atmosphere! Kagawa Driver 20 to Oswell! That’s all she wrote! — E+ An angry Ellen Ward claims the ring for the top of the show. She’s fuming that apparently the matchmaker didn’t see fit to book her this week. She wants competition and she wants victory—no, she wants glory, fame, and gold. She wants it all, and she can’t f**king do that when they don’t put her on the bloody show. Well, she’s here, and she isn’t budging an inch until someone comes out here to give her the fight she deserves. Three notes. And again. The crowd stirs. There’s a certain wrestler those notes are associated with, but surely… surely... If you could only see the beast you've made of me I held it in but now it seems you've set it running free Screaming in the dark, I howl when we're apart Drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart The fans erupt as England’s own Steph Blake comes out from backstage! Ward’s jaw drops! Blake grins from ear to ear, and those in attendance sing out a Hoooooooooooooooooooooowl alongside Florence and the Machine as Blake makes her way to the ring! — D+ It’s a heartbreaker; Ward and Blake cannot for the life of them get onto the same page and it drags what would undoubtedly have been a great contest into a merely decent one. Ward reaches into her bag of tricks but Blake’s a cut above any opponent she’s ever faced and she gets schooled by the woman who has been wrestling quite literally longer than Ward’s been alive. Blake looks full of joy to be here and beats Ward from pillar to post, but Ward’s determined not to let this all be one way traffic. She slides out of a razor’s edge, boot to the back! She grounds Blake, targeting the ankle, taking away the standing base from the veteran’s lethal striking. If Blake can’t put weight on her leg, then she can’t take Ellen to school. Great plan… and one that Blake’s fought against dozens, hundreds of times before! She powers out! She catches Ward flush with a rising kick! Ward tries to fight back, glittering magician—BLOCKED! Ward can’t believe it! Blake counters, Slingshot DDT! Blake is the winner! — E+ SHOW RATING: E+

Haha yeah, fair point. Fun fact - in the spiritual predecessor to LoW, a game in 2016 I was considering diarifying for a while, I had the same starting set up of four newbies. I booked nothing but them fighting each other for literally over an in game year, each with three different identities. That was charmingly hokey, since it allowed for stuff like a challenger claiming the champ (who was also her) was ducking her, but the gag wore thin after a while. ----------- Worker Profile - Lottie Lace Date of Birth: June 27th, 1998 Debut Date: February 2016 Hometown: London, England Height: 5'4 Size: Flabby Small Style: Regular Finish: Penalty Kick (Running Soccer Kick) Key Attributes: Driven, Amazing Babyface, Prodigy Lottie Lace is a youngster who joined the wrestling business in early 2016. Although not a naturally athletic performer, she has been a lifelong fan of the industry. Her hero is Tommy Cornell, and she has stated in a few interviews that it is her dream to team with him in a match. That will certainly be a challenge for her, but what can be said for her is that she works incredibly hard and leaves it all in the ring, and people with far worse attitudes have gone a long way. Her first break in the business came in 2019, when she started to attract the attention of 5SSW. Willingly taking the gamble, Lace has made appearances on several tours already. - I couldn’t sit still. Tonight was big. Huge. We had a shot at something real. I had a shot at—okay, okay, calm down. I was going to psych myself out at this rate, and then I’d definitely turn in a shite performance. Another circuit of the youth centre’s back room. Rajni was chatting to Little Jim (distinct from Big Jim, who’d been much taller than him in primary but was now the same height) about a promo spot later on, and I listened to them for a few before turning around. I almost bumped right into Nicky, who deftly stepped to one side. “Ah, sorry mate.” “All good,” he said, flashing me a smile. According to Raj he was ‘well fit’, but he didn’t really do anything for me. Probably something to do with him being a guy. Nice smile, though. He held up a small stack of papers. “I heard back from some of the locals.” A distraction was exactly what I needed, especially a productive one. “Already?” “I’m good at making phone calls.” An underrated skill. I gestured Nicky over to a free table and we pulled up a pew. “So, what’s the story?” “Mostly the silent treatment, but we got some offers.” Some was already more than I expected. “Yeah?” “Mmhm. Skinner’s Sarnies. Daljit and Daljit. The dodgy paint bloke. Mick’s car shop.” “We’re not advertising the dodgy paint bloke.” “You haven’t even seen his offer.” “Mate people will think we’re huffing it.” Nicky paused. “Yeah okay fair.” He handed me the first paper. “Skinny will do us a flat amount per show if we whack him onto the poster, and a bigger amount with a bit per head if we put him on the tickets and put sarnie vouchers on the back. The Daljits have an offer for the poster; we can probably do both. Mick will pay us a lot to have him on the apron.” I took a few to read over all the offers. I hadn’t really thought about how much business was involved with running a company. “Okay… um…” I glanced back and forth between the papers and Nicky. “...Need a second opinion?” “Please.” “Skinny’s deal is good. The vouchers don’t cost anything and people will hang onto them so they’ll think of us more than once. The Daljits have a good offer but I reckon we should wait and see if someone else has a better one and go back to them with that. We can only really do a couple on the poster before it gets tacky and crowds out the wrestlers. Mick… it’s a lot of money. I don’t know.” “We can’t do Mick. We’re not Mick Pro Wrestling. And everyone gets enough sponsor crap shoved down their throats on TV.” Nicky laughed. “And here comes Ellen Ward, sponsored by Reverie.” “Ugh. Don’t.” We talked over the offers on the table. The nerves began to slide away.

Ah come on, poor chemistry isn't the end of the world Right place at the right time and even workers with bad chem can put on great matches. It sounds like a difficult curveball the game threw you. For me those are some of the most exciting times in the game

I suppose the terrible ones make it all the better when you get legendary ones. In an effganic game, RNG produced Aayan Maiden.

I gave Kuniko Matsura a pyromaniac gimmick one time.

Sometimes it occurs to me how completely unfamiliar these names must be...

It's a little odd we have to use the birthdays tab in the office to see if it's a worker's birthday, and then only when it's the same month as in game. It'd be useful for the information on at least their birth month to be more readily accessible.

Hell yeah! good for her. I like Etsuko a lot too. Fs in the chat for that incredible romance just above...

jeez, hope that Grace wouldn't get involved with a guy who attempted to humiliate her in a pretty gross way.

you've heard of One Punch Man get ready for One Clap Fan. bet Mark's there to be a snitchy snitch

QUICK RESULTS The Sea Dogs def. Dionne Grimes and Rhiannon Jones Lottie Lace def. Ophelia Oswell Ellen Ward def. Aviator Agarwal (Rajni) Abbi Archer def. Fool’s Gold (Rhiannon) Sakuyama def. High Executioner Svenja Schwartz def. Samba Barnes -- Mostly straightforward here. Hierarchy is still shaking out, but honestly a lot of the girls are quite close in popularity. Noblesse Oblige finally get their official team name. I really enjoy these two and they get to be plenty dastardly here. Looking back at it, this is the first show where I started to channel Self's excellent The Show Must Go On in terms of match write-ups going a bit more towards signature spots and character moments than just ~moves~. Matches are tricky for me to not feel like I'm repeating myself just reciting moves, and I feel like leaning more on character helps bring to life workers nobody's going to know much about. Cause I made them up. Speaking of which, I'm going to continue with the worker profiles going forward. It was pretty fun to put together and helps introduce who these gals are. Let me know if you've got anyone you really want to learn more about.

Lionesses of Wrestling XVI: Live! Saturday, week 4 April 2020 Gloucester Street Youth Centre Attendance: 50 Not broadcast Commentary: None The Sea Dogs get us off to a hot start fighting the makeshift pairing of Dionne Grimes and Rhiannon Jones. It’s spirited and mostly clean (clean as a pair of salty pirates can be, anyway), up until Jones rolls her way out of the ring and all the way to the Dogs’ side… and abducts Polly the parrot! Swann is as furious as a swordfish, and takes it out on Grimes, and the remainder of the contest is occupied by attempts to rescue Polly. Jones tosses the parrot high in the air as a distraction, but Swann dives underneath and saves her! Jones is rolling with laughter, but Bakshi is uncharacteristically unamused. Plank Drop! Three count! — E+ Our piratical pair fuss over Polly, combing her feathers and ensuring that the bird is shipshape. Their distraction is more than enough of an opening for a much more dastardly duo: Countess and Executioner, dubbed now on posters as Noblesse Oblige, creep through the crowd and launch an assault on the scurvy sailors! Executioner holds their arms while Countess clocks them each in the jaw with her loaded glove, and then the villains make themselves scarce before any cavalry can come in to save the day. — E+ Ophelia Oswell clicks great with Lottie Lace, and that elevates this match. Oswell can lay her stuff in with confidence that Lace can handle it, Lace can uncork with greater impact and not worry that she’s going to get complaints over going too hard. Lace has got the experience, though, and she paces herself better, she covers up and defends better; Oswell is taking all the shots in full, and that leaves her unable to find an answer for the Penalty Kick (Running Soccer Kick). — E+ Agarwal is eager to shake Ward’s hand at the start of this one, but Ward angrily refuses, slapping the plucky flygirl’s outstretched palm away. That seems to light a fire in Agarwal, who soars and flies, unleashing a bombing run. Ward has to dig deep to fight back, putting a flight ban on Agarwal with some nice tight submission holds. Agarwal tries to rally, and the fans are on her side, she’s heading for the runway—Shinobi appears out of nowhere at ringside! Agarwal falters right as she’s looking for liftoff. Ward leaps up behind her, crucifying her arms—A&E (Crucifix Armbar)! Agarwal taps! Ward rises, shaking off the official’s attempt to raise her arm… and her expression dropping into a murderous glare when she spots the ninja at ringside who just got her a win. — E+ Unfortunately, Abbi continues to struggle to get out of her own head, and her contest against Fool’s Gold isn’t all that it could be were she switched on. Even so, it’s not completely awful, and Gold winds up looking the fool when she misses big on a charging elbow and eats the Bullseye (Cutter) on the turnaround. — E Archer has no chance to catch her breath. No sooner has the bell rung than Countess and Executioner are out for yet another vicious attack. Weakened and tired, Archer is no match for the two of them. It looks like Archer is about to go the way of the pirates when Sakuyama charges the ring like a house on fire! Shoulder block for Executioner! Suplex for Countess! Sakuyama checks on Archer, and then points right at Executioner: she wants a match, here and now! — D- Sakuyama is all over Executioner from the opening bell and for the first time, the noosewoman is looking imperilled. Sakuyama is fighting with fury, channelling the spirits of her favourites: Ogiwara chops! Hatoyama feint kick! Executioner doesn’t know where she is! Countess reminds her this is wrestling’s royal stage! Executioner snaps out of it and with a couple of timely distractions, fights back. Hangman’s neckbreaker! She ties Sakuyama in the tree of woe and chokes the life out of her with a boot, releasing her at the last breath of the official’s five count. Executioner takes control, but she can’t keep Sakuyama down. The champion fights out of a powerbomb, punching Executioner in the face until she drops—Executioner kicks out of the ensuing pin at the last second! Sakuyama has the momentum back, Kagawa Driver 20—Countess pulls Executioner free and punches Sakuyama square in the jaw, loaded glove and all! It’s an instant disqualification, but Noblesse Oblige don’t seem to care. They see Abbi Archer has recovered from the earlier beatdown and think twice about putting any boots to Sakuyama, but are distinctly self-satisfied as they slink away. — E+ Perhaps slightly weaker than the preceding contest, Samba Barnes finally gets her hands on Svenja Schwartz and wastes no time in showing exactly what she’s about, full of energy and hundred mile an hour moves. Schwartz has to powder out of the ring to wriggle out of Barnes’ clutches, and it’s a merry chase around ringside that leads to them both nearly getting counted out on multiple occasions. Barnes thinks she’s got Schwartz cornered in the ring, but it was a ruse! Schwartz slingshots her into the turnbuckle and wrests control. She insults the fans for having the guts to boo the finest wrestler in the company, but the longer she grinds Barnes down, the more preoccupied she gets with shouting at the fans; Barnes is still alive! Backslide! Kickout! Exploder! Schwartz is reeling! Barnes hoists Schwartz onto her shoulders, but she clings to the top rope, and then wraps herself around it entirely. The ref has to enforce a break, but as she’s separating them both, Schwartz lands a cheap shot! Barnes drops hard, and Schwartz immediately disposes of the evidence—brass knuckles! Rushing over, she pins Barnes for a dubious win. — E+ SHOW RATING: E+

"Luke... use the Froce."

honestly it feels to me like divorce happens really (too) frequently, whether or not due to cheating. Most of the preset cverse couples have usually broken up within a couple of years.

<p>Wow, this wins my approval for actually having Jersey mentioned.</p><p> </p><p> Lots of character to this expansion!</p><p> </p><p> Couple things -</p><p> </p><p> Billie is supposed to be a big hit oop north and in scotland, but has no pop.</p><p> </p><p> Everyone's got really high experience relative to their newbishness.</p><p> </p><p> Nobody's got any scouting levels.</p><p> </p><p> Slappy and Taboo's pictures aren't set properly, probably the quotation marks.</p><p> </p><p> WIL's company bio - "WIL looks tt make sure it's fans are thoroughly "sports entertained"" - "WIL looks <strong>to</strong> make sure <strong>its</strong> fans are thoroughly "sports entertained"</p>

It's kind of irritating that if a company doesn't have named TV shows, you can access their company screen just by clicking on their logo in the news article about their show happening, but if the show has its own logo, you can't do that. Making it so that any event/show logo in news is clickable through to the company would be better. It's clearly possible to have clicking on the article pull up the results, and clicking up the logo pull up the company within the same new item, so it'd be a nice thing if the TV shows did it too.