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Ring of Fire: Fighting Every Step of the Way

Phantom Stranger

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Tuesday Week 3 May Norman Blue Athletic Centre 267 in attendance Our dark match this week was really good; Young Blood took on Death From Above. It looked like Death from Above had it won when the New Jersey Turnpike hit the prone Davis, but Gino broke up the pin with a springboard dropkick and the bout continued, culminating when Davis rolled through the Velocidad Tornado and came to a halt with the STF cinched in. I'm beginning to believe he can hit that move from anything... And it's one of the things that had him looking like a star here. RATING: C- [B]Don Henderson vs. Steve Flash[/B] After Steve had come out to open the show and made himself comfortable Don emerged, walking down to the ring with Nadia, while Steve and I debated the point of interest – Don had a belt around his waist, and it wasn't one either of us recognised. “He's not working anywhere else,” I said, “and I don't recognise it from here. Or from his past...” They don't mesh well, Don and Steve, and Steve wasn't really putting his heart into it for whatever reason - but that didn't stop the transatlantic veterans from tearing the place up for eight minutes before the Scottish Deathlock claimed another victim. Nadia grabbed the mic and did the 'your winner' spiel, ending with “...and he is STILL the champion of Ring of Fire's heritage!” RATING: C- [B]Bulldozer Brandon Smith vs. Hidekazu[/B] Three-one four matches in and the Bulldozer has it all to do – which he definitely knew. Brandon and Hidekazu outdid the two excellent matches preceding them and told a wonderful story in only six minutes. This one ended, once again, with a Backdrop Driver – it's a lot easier for Brandon to use while his arm's injured, and Hidekazu won't let up on that arm. RATING: C [B]El Critico vs. Sergei Kalashnov for the #1 Contendership[/B] I have the horrible feeling we're going to peak too early. Critico and Sergei gel absolutely perfectly with each other, and they put together a hell of a show. Sergei is proving himself to these Midlands fans when he puts on bouts like this, especially getting this reaction in less than eight minutes. Eventually, though, the Critical Mass struck again and helped Critico retain once more. RATING: C+ [B]British Samurai vs. Billy Robinson vs. Johnny Highspot vs. Petey Barnes for the ROF Championship in an elimination match[/B] Yeah, we peaked early, but not by much. This was another really good contest, as you'd expect – two high fliers and two technical geniuses, and a major championship on the line. Earlyish on Johnny got the frog splash on Sammy, but he was cut off by Billy and the Capital City Crucifix before he could capitalise, and while Petey covered Sammy kicked out. Moments later, Johnny tapped to Billy's ministrations. Petey then played the smart game – keeping out of reach of two men who knew that, regardless, they'd have to go through each other sooner or later anyway. Maybe seven minutes on Billy had another Crucifix locked in, but Sammy managed to hit a DDT while locked in the hold, and three seconds later it was down to Sammy and Petey – who'd been waiting with the Future Shock to put his challenger away. RATING: C So it was one of our best shows, but we were warned that once again the audience saw too much of Steve Flash. Don't know how to persuade them that's not the case beyond using him, though, so we'll just have to carry on as ever. Simply put, he's too useful as a trainer not to use... OVERALL: C
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Tuesday Week 4 May Paddington Club 78 in attendance Slow going building our Southern audience, but it'll be worth it. The dark saw a tag title defence, this week; the Force defended their belts once more against Young Blood. A very good match, considering Davis wasn't his usual sparkling self; he and Bulldozer have been having tense words of late with Coyote Dynamite stateside, and maybe that's grating on him. Ever the professional, however, he ate a Star Destroyer as Toby covered to retain the belts. RATING: C- Just before the main show itself, Nadia came out with Don and got some mic time to explain Don's new belt. It's the Heritage Title, apparently; and Don calls it a far more important title than 'that pathetic Contendership'. Sadly, Nadia's promos are becoming less and less welcome. I don't know what's changed... RATING: F [B]Don Henderson vs. Black Eagle[/B] No word given on whether this was for the Heritage title. Not a great match, either, though they were having to pick the mood of the Paddington Club fans back up after that promo fell appallingly flat. Eagle set up for the Turnpike, but Don rolled clear, grabbed the leg, and set up the Scottish Deathlock to get the submission. RATING: D+ [B] Bulldozer Brandon Smith vs. Hidekazu[/B] And the sixth match evens the series out! Once again we don't seem able to get out of first gear; I can't explain it. Hidekazu switched away from his arm assault this time, matching Brandon slam for slam – almost slam for slam, anyway, as the Inverted Piledriver met no answer at 8:36. C'mon, guys – warm this crowd up before the finish! RATING: D+ [B] El Critico vs. Jonni Lowlife vs. Seiji Jimbo vs. Bairei Yasujiro for the #1 Contendership[/B] ...Or don't. Whatever. Bah. Given the calibre of competitor, this should've been far better. The only thing I can really say that's positive is I saw Jonni bust out some new holds and reversals I hadn't seen before, until the Critical Mass put him down while Seiji and Bairei were distracted. I need to put more trust in the tag division and book them out of the dark. RATING: D+ [B] Petey Barnes vs. Byron for the ROF Championship[/B] ...Oh thank God. They had twenty-four minutes, here, and they went for it. Match of the night, even counting the preshow. It's not that these two know each other particularly well so much as they both knew their part in a story like the one in this match and they played it to perfection. I – and Ota, actually, during UKW plotting sessions – have been on at Petey to develop something other than the Future Shock as a matchwinner technique; this time he caught the Upper Class and got a roll-up pin at 23:57. Nice. RATING: C Well. It took Petey and Byron to do it, but we pulled out a good enough show to get word circulating once again down south. Hopefully soon we'll pack the Paddington Club a bit fuller. OVERALL: C-
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Billy Robinson vs. [B]Gino Montero[/B] [B]The Force[/B] vs. The Shooters for the Tag Titles Steve Flash vs. [B]Davis Wayne Newton[/B] [B]Bulldozer Brandon Smith [/B]vs. Hidekazu in the final match of the Best of Seven Series [B]Petey Barnes[/B] vs. Joey Beauchamp in a two out of three falls match for the ROF Championship
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Tuesday Week 1 June Norman Blue Athletic Centre 273 in attendance Record attendance once again and hopefully this card will do what it needs to to boost that once again. Our dark match this week placed the veteran Billy Robinson against up and coming Gino Montero, and was a good dark match that went back and forth for ten minutes until inexperience on Gino's part allowed Billy to lock in the Capital City Crucifix, forcing the younger man to submit. RATING: C- [B]The Force vs. The Shooters for the Tag Titles[/B] Billy was a busy man tonight, but didn't run out of energy when his tag team partner and 'Heritage Champion' made his way to ringside, showing off the belt proudly, for their title challenge. All four men put together a great show, the highlight of which, stunningly, involved a spectacular brawl between Jed and Don before the Force hit the Star Destroyer to pin Billy. RATING: C- We ran a quick video package of El Critico's last title defence against Sergei Kalashnov. This didn't go down as well as I'd hoped. RATING: E- [B] Steve Flash vs. Davis Wayne Newton[/B] Yeah, no one's gonna call this one. Steve and Davis only had a little time but put on a stellar match regardless – which ended with a Flash Bang for Steve's first win! RATING: C We ran a highlight video of the past six bouts in the Bulldozer/Hidekazu war as they came out to the ring. Again, it didn't go down great. RATING: E- [B]Bulldozer Brandon Smith vs. Hidekazu[/B] And... yep, this is the way to end a series; another match on a par with their best. These two are dragging themselves to better and better heights, which is fantastic. Here's hoping that when storyline momentum dies off they can still deliver. In just under eight minutes of Hidekazu assaulting Brandon's arm the American battled back to deliver the Backdrop Driver and cover to win the match and the series. RATING: C [B]Petey Barnes vs. Joey Beauchamp in a two out of three falls match for the ROF Championship[/B] And once again Petey comes through with a match that deserves to be top of the card. This one seemed to be going to formula; Joey gets the first pin with a slick rollup, Petey goes to war and wins one back with a flying neckbreaker in this case, and then the Future Shock settles it. Except Joey threw the Future Shock off and hit the Breeze Block, flattening the champion and keeping him down for the three count – and just like that, in his first championship challenge, Joey Beauchamp picks up Ring of Fire's greatest title! RATING: C+ Beautiful show once again, and our fanbase continues to grow as a result... OVERALL: C
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[B]The Force [/B]vs. Young Blood El Bandito vs. [B]Bulldozer Brandon Smith[/B] Amo del Gato vs. Bairei Yasujiro vs. Steve Flash vs. [B]Don Henderson [/B]vs. El Critico vs. Johnny Highspot for the #1 Contendership [B]Joey Beauchamp [/B]vs. Fumihiro Ota for the ROF Championship Can't believe Beauchamp will lose the title first time out. I was quite surprised he won that so soon, I have to say. The Force to retain - I don't think Young Blood are ready for the belts yet. Bulldozer, having just won the best of 7, should continue his momentum. The other match is a real head-scratcher. Something is likely to go down here regarding this Heritage title. Makes me wonder if Henderson won't win this and try to replace the Contendership (I know you want to change its name) with his own Heritage belt. Might then cause him to go up against a lot of these newcomers in an old ROF vs new ROF feud type thing. That's what I imagine you might have planned, but then I'm probably way off! :D
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Tuesday Week 2 June The Paddington Club 187 in attendance Holy crap, I have no idea why attendance skyrocketed that damn hard. But I'm very, very glad of it. We began our dark time with Hidekazu and the Bulldozer reminding the fans of their series and showing their favourite moments on the video screen. Brandon, to his credit, is still selling the arm and the fans were behind this... more than most promos, anyroad. RATING: E- Still in the dark, the Force once again faced Young Blood for the tag titles. Davis looked really good as ever, and the titles looked like they might change hands on multiple occasions... but they didn't eventually the Star Destroyer hit home on Gino and Jed cut Davis off while Toby made the cover. RATING: C- [B]El Bandito vs. Bulldozer Brandon Smith[/B] Well! I left this match thinking 'one feud is over, and maybe another should begin'. Without storyline heat Bandito and Brandon got a reaction on a par with the end of their series from the crowd, particularly when Bandito took veteran advantage of Brandon's still-weakened arm to escape the inverted piledriver and hit a massive Hijack Suplex to cover for the win at 10:50. To make matters even better, I think Brandon picked a few things up. RATING: C [B]Amo del Gato vs. Bairei Yasujiro vs. Steve Flash vs. El Critico vs. Don Henderson vs. Johnny Highspot for the #1 Contendership[/B] Don brought his belt down as well. Still no word on whether he considers it contested. Six men, no elimination stip, a belt on the line and a fifteen minute time limit; I think part of the weakness was just that people could see this coming – but it got people exposure, and it kept the Critico/Don thing rolling, and continues to make a big deal of the Contendership. These six guys rolled to the time limit in what was essentially ten minutes of excellent wrestling in pretty much every non-hardcore style out there and five minutes of MASSIVE OVERBOOKED SPOTFEST – their decision, not mine, but I can't fault a group including Critico, Don and Steve for psychology. Good enough, y'know? RATING: C- [B]Joey Beauchamp vs. Fumihiro Ota for the ROF Championship[/B] This wasn't as good as last week, but it was good. With Joey's tenure at UCR ended we were able to sell this not only as a ROF-exclusive champion, but also a man who came to ROF to wrestle here – the direct opposite to Merle's assertions just before he left. The Breeze Block apparently is 'rock' to the Ninja Strike's 'scissors', if you were wondering, and Joey got the win with his third BB at 23:47. RATING: C Steve's time in the ring was still considered a major flaw. I thought it went pretty well, personally, but there ya go. I can't get over how much better the crowd was; we increased audience by over a hundred. What that translates to in terms of extra downloads I don't know, but I'm going with a basic assumption that it's 'good' – and we put out a great show for them again. We're still on the up. OVERALL: C Decided to actually do something about what Ota and I had talked about. We now have a working agreement in place with UKW.
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[QUOTE=Marcel Fromage;311398] Can't believe Beauchamp will lose the title first time out. I was quite surprised he won that so soon, I have to say. The Force to retain - I don't think Young Blood are ready for the belts yet. Bulldozer, having just won the best of 7, should continue his momentum. The other match is a real head-scratcher. Something is likely to go down here regarding this Heritage title. Makes me wonder if Henderson won't win this and try to replace the Contendership (I know you want to change its name) with his own Heritage belt. Might then cause him to go up against a lot of these newcomers in an old ROF vs new ROF feud type thing. That's what I imagine you might have planned, but then I'm probably way off! :D[/QUOTE] Young Blood are ridiculously skilled, but I wanted to make sure the Force had a solid reign before I gave the title to anyone else. The injection of the new teams from the Force onward into the picture seems to have really helped the tag division and I don't want to derail that too badly. (It has to be said, if you haven't already - go look at Gino's starting stats in the New Workers folder. Everyone knows about Brandon and Davis, but Gino may be the brightest shining jewel in there.) There is something shaping up between the Heritage title and the Contendership, but it wasn't due to happen tonight - tonight was to help set it up. To be honest, what's going on with that would be a lot clearer if promo ratings hadn't dropped from Es to Fs. As for Joey winning the belt - Joey was the man in the place at the right time. (I'm happy to report that he subsequently proved the right man.) Just as Petey claimed the belt in a multi-man match to establish that the title could change hands in multi-man matches, Joey claimed the belt to establish that it was possible for someone who'd paid dues elsewhere to come out of nowhere and get the belt. No specific plans to do that again, but with my contract luck I kind of want to get that precedent set up.
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El Critico vs. [B]Sergei Kalashnov[/B] vs. Davis Wayne Newton [B]Don Henderson [/B]vs. Seiji Jimbo [B]Byron[/B] vs. Arthur T. Turtle [B]The Force [/B]vs. Low Lives for the Tag Titles (Low Lives = El Bandito & Jonni Lowlife) [B]Joey Beauchamp [/B]vs. British Samurai for the ROF Championship I like Kalashnov - wish he was available in my game. Henderson to continue winning. Byron is probably more a player than Turtle in your promotion, especially with Turtle being 21CW. The Force, I don't think will lose their tag belts to a team on their first appearance. And Beauchamp I'm interested to see as champ. Like The Force, he's someone I've toyed with bringing in myself but left alone for whatever reason. Looking forward to his reign. [QUOTE]Young Blood are ridiculously skilled, but I wanted to make sure the Force had a solid reign before I gave the title to anyone else. The injection of the new teams from the Force onward into the picture seems to have really helped the tag division and I don't want to derail that too badly. (It has to be said, if you haven't already - go look at Gino's starting stats in the New Workers folder. Everyone knows about Brandon and Davis, but Gino may be the brightest shining jewel in there.)[/QUOTE] Yeah, I know Gino has awesome stats. And I know that the Young Blood team is very skilled. Just not well established yet, was all I meant. You're building some good teams - just a case of seeing who hits the forefront soonest.
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Tuesday Week 3 June Norman Blue Athletic Centre 262 in attendance Another dark title defence here; El Critico battled with Sergei Kalashnov and Davis Wayne Newton. It went thirteen minutes, developing into the best dark bout we've yet seen in Ring of Fire, before the Critical Mass carried the day on Sergei. If I could change anything about Critico, it'd be that dependence on one finisher. RATING: C [B]Don Henderson vs. Seiji Jimbo[/B] Again the flashy Heritage Belt, again no word given. This is starting to really bug the forum fans, and they're not missing a single download. In short, it's going great. Although this wasn't a great match; I think Seiji's trying something new with his character (involving having one, presumably) and the development didn't work too well. Mercifully this was short, as Don – shining throughout, got the Scottish Deathlock in. Should definitely have reversed the order on this, though. RATING: D+ [B]Byron vs. Arthur T. Turtle[/B] Remind me why I pay Arthur? This stank. Horribly. Byron got the win, though, so I'm not as bugged about Arthur as I might otherwise have been. RATING: D- [B]The Force vs. Low Lives for the Tag Titles[/B] Low Lives are El Bandito and Jonni Lowlife, evidently trying to make a new path for himself as Highspot continues with his singles career. This lifted the show again, make no mistake; Bandito and Jed ran a lovely brawl sequence partway through that showed how far both have come in that direction, and the rest of it worked very nicely, too, but neither side put it away. Yes, a tag bout actually ran to a time limit draw – and you could feel the fans being happy about it. RATING: C- [B] Joey Beauchamp vs. British Samurai for the ROF Championship[/B] ...Oh, yeah. Just what we needed to finish the show. I haven't seen a bout of that quality since Dragon left, I think. It's not so much that they mesh; it's that they're so damn good. And it's always pleasant to be able to tout a main event as an entirely ROF exclusive bout. It took 20:55 for either man to be worn down sufficiently to lose, but Sammy ate the Breeze Block in the end. RATING: B- Now just imagine if the Don and Byron matches had gone well. We pulled in a lot more fans again this week. I've gotta say I'm happy. OVERALL: C
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[QUOTE=Marcel Fromage;311426] I like Kalashnov - wish he was available in my game. Henderson to continue winning. Byron is probably more a player than Turtle in your promotion, especially with Turtle being 21CW. The Force, I don't think will lose their tag belts to a team on their first appearance. And Beauchamp I'm interested to see as champ. Like The Force, he's someone I've toyed with bringing in myself but left alone for whatever reason. Looking forward to his reign. [/QUOTE] I like Kalashnov, too, and he's endeared himself to me by having chemistry with a number of good workers. (Part of my interest in UCR has been that they were the promotion I played in the only game I played of TEW before this, part is that they... seem to be dying and I figure I may's well grab those who fit.) I also like Arthur, and really wanted him to become a major part of the main event scene. But for whatever reason he doesn't perform on par with his stats - and that's when chemistry issues don't arise. He has bad chemistry with Yasujiro and Petey, both wrestlers I've been glad to give championship runs to - though I had to be careful with Petey's opponents. That would put him as a tangential, irregular main event challenger, except that I get better results out of Don or Davis in that role - enough better and enough cheaper that it does actually make sense to use them, even though they're both clearly in other title pictures. Think of them as Benoit and Shelton, more or less, in terms of fitting wherever I need an excellent athlete that week. Soo... Arthur, by that analogy, is... I dunno. Elijah Burke, maybe - early indications have him sweeping the board, actual experience has him midcarding. But at the same time, I have a deep midcard roster. Ah, well.
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Next week: Death from Above vs. Low Lives Don Henderson vs. Bulldozer Brandon Smith El Critico vs. Hidekazu for the #1 Contendership The Force vs. Young Blood for the Tag Titles. Joey Beauchamp vs. Petey Barnes vs. Fumihiro Ota for the ROF Championship And that'll end June, leaving us three quarters of the way through the initial two years of Terry's contact.
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[B]Death from Above [/B]vs. Low Lives Don Henderson vs. Bulldozer Brandon Smith [B]El Critico [/B]vs. Hidekazu for the #1 Contendership [B]The Force [/B]vs. Young Blood for the Tag Titles. [B]Joey Beauchamp [/B]vs. Petey Barnes vs. Fumihiro Ota for the ROF Championship I'll go with a draw on Henderson vs Bulldozer
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Tuesday Week 4 June The Paddington Club 177 in attendance A tag bout in the dark this week; Low Lives took on Death from Above, with the Velocidad Tornado allowing Death from Above to pin El Bandito. His performance before eating the pinfall deserves celebration, by the way... RATING: D+ [B]Don Henderson vs. Bulldozer Brandon Smith[/B] Still carrying the belt, still not saying anything more than we know about it, Don comes down and has an excellent match with Brandon in which he also manages to teach the youngster some more tips on chain wrestling before, at 7:01, the Bulldozer taps to the Scottish Deathlock. RATING: C- [B]El Critico vs. Hidekazu in a submission match for the #1 Contendership[/B] And Critico and Hidekazu come down and run an almost identical match, culminating when Critico locks Hidekazu into something very like a Scottish Deathlock to force him to tap. The fans really seem to be getting into this tension... RATING: C- [B]The Force vs. Young Blood for the Tag Titles[/B] Davis continues to get better in the ring; some of his selling for Toby was out of this world. He recovered enough to fight back against Jed, however, finally hitting a scissors kick to stagger Jed for a springboard dropkick from Gino to flatten him before Davis hit a standing moonsault to cover. I'm told they're calling that combo the Flash and Flare, and it won them the match... and the titles. RATING: C [B]Joey Beauchamp vs. Petey Barnes vs. Fumihiro Ota for the ROF Championship[/B] Petey and Ota continue to feud in UKW and we used that to great effect, selling on commentary the virtues of focusing on one issue with one promotion as the two kept forgetting Joey's presence only to be forcibly reminded. Eventually the Ninja Strike was caught by Petey, who twisted and hit the Future Shock only to stand up into the Breeze Block, and the Breeze retains smoothly and efficiently. RATING: C+ Yeah, I'm happy with June. It's been a good month for us and with six to go before my contract re-evaluation I think I'm sitting pretty – I've achieved a lot more than Sammy asked of me. Hopefully I'll be able to do the same with whatever goals I get in 2009... OVERALL: C 21CW ran a TV show and subsequent supercard the night afterward. They filled the Norman Blue, but I think it's significant that they didn't go somewhere bigger. Somewhere along the way they became catchable. And that without TV coverage. I don't mean to claim that TV deals are the panacea that will solve our ills, but I think they'll bring us to a whole new level. It wasn't as well received a card as ours, but that shouldn't surprise you – the reason I've stopped commenting is that we're now comfortably ensconced as the promotion only beaten out in our area by UKW. In other news, Toby Juan Kenobi has reached a level where we should be looking at him as a main eventer. The Force may not be long for this world. Oh, and El Bandito is now also ROF exclusive, despite merely opening for us while main eventing larger shows at MPWF. Don't ask me.
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