Ring of Fire: Fighting Every Step of the Way

[Phantom Stranger]

Friday Week 4 May Norman Blue Athletic Centre 142 in attendance In front of our largest crowd to date Tigre Salvaje Jr and Billy Robinson wrestled to the time limit. Billy kept on top of Tigre, with the luchador only breaking loose occasionally and for short bursts, but couldn't quite put the plucky youngster away; the crowd were left with the impression that another minute would've done it. Did what I needed it to; Tigre's getting better at taking, rather than applying, submission holds. He'll need that if he's to go far in the UK. RATING: D Sammy came down to ringside next and started chatting with me 'accidentally' in range of the mic. He wanted to know who he was facing in the main event. I told him I hadn't decided, that I'd expected Dragon to win his bout last week and make a case for the position, but Dragon- And then Merle showed up. Since that bout was apparently so precious to me, and since Dragon had tried and failed, he figured the shot was his right. I tried to explain that really Petey probably had the next shot, maybe Don Henderson – and then I got cut off by Merle. He said he was sick of this wrestling showcase stuff; he said he'd had the shot by my logic and should take it. He stepped close, and as my persona's easily terrified, I gave it to him. Sammy looked disgusted with me and stormed off. “What? I asked. “What'd I do, Sammy?” I knew I was gonna catch heat for that later. RATING: E Hmm. Maybe it's just Merle calling the shots. He's normally better than that. [B]Bulldozer Brandon Smith vs. Walter Morgan[/B] Good match, considering Brandon's youth. They put it together well, power versus skill, for a full ten minutes before the Northern Crossface forced Brandon down. He's learning well, though. RATING: D+ [B]Johnny Highspot vs. Petey Barnes for the #1 Contendership[/B] Petey doesn't play well under certain circumstances. This was far, far worse than it should have been. Petey did demonstrate why he has as high a ranking as he has, but eventually the frog splash put him away, and Petey didn't like it. Bah. RATING: D- [B]British Samurai vs. Merle O'Curle in a submission match for the ROF Championship[/B] This was very, very good and made up for the miscues along the way. However, we also learned that Justin Blackham doesn't just have problems with Merle and Don battling to the tap. This isn't good; time to look at tweaking that. They went twenty-eight and a half minutes, with the Celtic Wreath almost locked in several times before the Samurai Secret Stretch (horrible name) ended it. RATING: B- Heh. Better use of promos to build the show here, insofar as the overall product. Also laid a lot of groundwork I'm not planning to build on for a couple months yet. Just gonna have to remember who my prima donna is. OVERALL: C ...Holy crap. No wonder Petey was pissed. The UKW Public Enemies Pay-Per-View ran a couple days later and he was the challenger in their main event. OK, that makes sense... And congratulations to him. Congratulations also due to TCW, who finally hit the point people stopped calling them a US promotion – they've gotten too big for that.

[Phantom Stranger]

Next week: Sharp & Heath vs. The Tribe Davis Wayne Newton vs. Jonni Lowlife Don Henderson vs. El Critico in a Submission Match British Samurai vs. Petey Barnes in a 30-minute Iron Man match for the ROF Championship

[Marcel Fromage]

[B]Sharp & Heath [/B]vs. The Tribe [B]Davis Wayne Newton [/B]vs. Jonni Lowlife [B]Don Henderson [/B]vs. El Critico in a Submission Match [B]British Samurai [/B]vs. Petey Barnes in a 30-minute Iron Man match for the ROF Championship

[Phantom Stranger]

Friday Week 1 June Norman Blue Athletic Centre 140 in attendance Sharp & Heath kicked off in the dark dancing with the Tribe. I doubt anyone believes the Tribe will find a win. And even with a script these guys can't flow. Still, it was dark, so it could be worse. Jon Michael picked up the win over Rhys Vali with a flying cross body at 14:29. RATING: E [B]Davis Wayne Newton vs. Jonni Lowlife[/B] Weak segment; it worked, don't get me wrong, but these two have a lot to learn about the business yet. As I've said before, though, once I'd have accepted this as a main event. Jonni got the win with a Low Down in just under eight minutes. RATING: D+ We showed a quick video of Merle and Sammy's bout last week, focusing on the work Sammy did weakening him for his Samurai Secret Stretch, as I informed the fans that Merle had been injured and would not be appearing this week, and that we hoped to see him next week. Justin and Peaches took the opportunity to run a 'don't try this at home' spiel which appears to have gone down well. RATING: C- [B]Don Henderson vs. El Critico in a Submission Match[/B] Critico's a solid guy and I really wanted to see him out of his element, see how it'd work. It could've worked better, sadly, but it was as good as Davis and Jonni. Don picked it up with a Scottish Deathlock after thirteen minutes. Really need to talk to Sammy about hyping the fliers. Particularly given the main event tonight. RATING: D+ [B]British Samurai vs. Petey Barnes in a 30-minute Iron Man match for the ROF Championship[/B] Oh, great. I knew they didn't click, but I hoped this one would work at least reasonably well; I needed Petey to take a ludicrous bump at the end. Sammy went one down at twelve minutes in to a Future Shock and managed to pull it back with a heavy DDT out of nowhere at twenty minutes. With ten minutes and it all to play for Petey stepped up his game and began to dominate Sammy, who was down to slugging it out by the end. The finish came when Petey went for another Future Shock and was caught and posted over the top rope, where he wiped out on Justin Blackham, taking the announcer out and being counted out to lose two falls to one with three seconds on the clock – and the crowd exploded. They hated this. This is likely our worst show yet. RATING: E Hell yeah this was our worst. Well, my worst – the fans weren't actually slating it. It seemed to be about what they'd expected us to fall back to one day. When they pop better for a video package than anything else, you know it's bad. Hell, 21CW will beat us. I think i'll leave that chat with Sammy a while. OVERALL: E+ On the plus side, it's set up what I needed for my test. If this works, it'll be expensive but worth it.

[Phantom Stranger]

Coming up soon: Velocidad vs. Tigre Salvaje Jr in a Ladder Match Merle O'Curle vs. Don Henderson in a Submission Match Johnny Highspot vs. Walter Morgan for the #1 Contendership British Samurai vs. UK Dragon for the ROF Championship in a two out of three falls match

[Phantom Stranger]

Friday Week 2 June Norman Blue Athletic Centre 136 in attendance ...the green room has been renamed after Sammy at Norman Blue. You know you've been somewhere a while when, huh? The fans got their first shock as Peaches and I came down to the commentary table... followed immediately by Mitch Naess, an American announcer who, fortunately, a bunch of the smarks recognised. We kicked off with Velocidad facing Tigre Salvaje in a ladder match. It was a good dark-match idea; neither of them really know how to work one yet, so it didn't work too well. RATING: E+ [B]Merle O'Curle vs. Don Henderson in a Submission Match[/B] From experience I know Justin couldn't keep up with this match, so it was a good test for Mitch. He... was better, though not perfect. We'll see, over the course of the night, whether that was enough. But damn this was a good match! The chemistry and skill of these two kept people guessing despite Merle's dominance of all their battles thus far, and twelve and a half minutes went by before the Celtic Wreath won out... RATING: B- [B]Johnny Highspot vs. Walter Morgan for the #1 Contendership[/B] These two I know from experience have wonderful chemistry in the ring together, so again this was intended as a test of Mitch's abilities. But while that chemistry was there, their flow wasn't. I think Donny may've had too firm a hand in scripting this, and it didn't help that the crowd are getting sure Johnny would prevail. The Frog Splash hit at the thirteen minute mark. RATING: D+ [B] British Samurai vs. UK Dragon for the ROF Championship in a two out of three falls match[/B] Gaaaah... I had this wonderful plan. I'd build the best show I possibly could and test Mitch to his limit with four very, very different matches. That'd tell me what I needed to know while I still had a month of Justin's contract. And Johnny and Walt were held back or held themselves back, whichever, and then Dragon turned out to be off his game. It was still very solid; that killer DDT Sammy's been building was transformed into a Dragon Drop and Dragon went one-up, and continued to dominate the match no matter what. Even when Sammy equalised with a small package, Dragon was clearly in charge. Finally, though, he made a mistake and tried a katahajime; Sammy mimicked Merle's defensive strategy and won out with a scorpion deathlock after a deliberate low blow. The fans actually seem to be getting a chuckle out of that sequence still... RATING: C It's ludicrous to call this a weak show. It wasn't; it wasn't far off our best. But I stacked the odds for that, expensively, and it wasn't quite as good as it shoulda been. Mitch wasn't bad, though; the question is, is he worth the extra? I'm tentatively saying yes, but I need to decide next week. OVERALL: C Man, that's depressing. 21CW are putting out even worse shows than before...

[Phantom Stranger]

Next week: El Critico vs. Amo del Gato Don Henderson vs. UK Dragon in a submission match Johnny Highspot vs. Bulldozer Brandon Smith for the #1 Contendership British Samurai vs. Merle O'Curle vs. K'Lee Hawkins in an elimination match for the ROF Championship

[Marcel Fromage]

[B]El Critico[/B] vs. Amo del Gato Don Henderson vs. [B]UK Dragon [/B]in a submission match Johnny Highspot vs. Bulldozer Brandon Smith for the #1 Contendership [B]British Samurai [/B]vs. Merle O'Curle vs. K'Lee Hawkins in an elimination match for the ROF Championship You seem to want to change Highspot as champ, so I'll go with Bulldozer to take him to a time limit draw just to vary it a little. He may take the belt on a future show. I'll keep with Samurai to retain here, although I found in my own game that he just doesn't pick up the ratings in the main event each time unless O'Curle is in there as well. I'll go with Dragon to beat Henderson, although I do like Don and think he's under-rated. I think if I had one tip for you at this point, it would be to ensure your main event is your best match on the card. You're getting some really good matches, but not always at the right end of the show, so it's not reflecting as well in your overall rating.

[Phantom Stranger]

[QUOTE=Marcel Fromage;300214]I'll go with Dragon to beat Henderson, although I do like Don and think he's under-rated. I think if I had one tip for you at this point, it would be to ensure your main event is your best match on the card. You're getting some really good matches, but not always at the right end of the show, so it's not reflecting as well in your overall rating.[/QUOTE] Commenting specifically on these points: Yeah, I like Don. I have long-term plans to build the upper midcard around him, but that doesn't happen until I have more time to play with - just as the tag division is woefully underrepresented. And yeah - I'm trying to keep the main events solid, but sometimes I really do guess wrong, and I don't want to just repeat the same bouts every night...

[Marcel Fromage]

[QUOTE=Phantom Stranger;300215]And yeah - I'm trying to keep the main events solid, but sometimes I really do guess wrong, and I don't want to just repeat the same bouts every night...[/QUOTE] That's the difficulty in a small fed with only a few main eventers - it can get repetitive. My choice of O'Curle as a long-term champion (he held it 12 months, I think) early in my game was based on the fact that he could get a solid C rating at the very least with all the other plausible challengers without fail. If Merle is on the card, but not in the main event, he's likely to beat the main event match rating. That's the problem I found.

[Phantom Stranger]

[QUOTE=Marcel Fromage;300218]That's the difficulty in a small fed with only a few main eventers - it can get repetitive. My choice of O'Curle as a long-term champion (he held it 12 months, I think) early in my game was based on the fact that he could get a solid C rating at the very least with all the other plausible challengers without fail. If Merle is on the card, but not in the main event, he's likely to beat the main event match rating. That's the problem I found.[/QUOTE] True enough. I have a plan as regards plot threads to keep Merle in the main event whether he's champion or not but I need to resolve another angle first. Stay tuned, though...

[Phantom Stranger]

Friday Week 3 June Norman Blue Athletic Centre 148 in attendance We opened tonight with Critico doing battle with Amo del Gato. It ran about ten minutes before the Critical Mass put the Gato away. Nothing much needs saying about the bout; for a dark match it was a good opener. RATING: D [B]Don Henderson vs. UK Dragon in a submission match[/B] These two don't gel brilliantly, and I feel that really cut into the quality on show, but it was still OK. Dragon got the duke in thirteen minutes using a dragon sleeper. RATING: D+ [B]Johnny Highspot vs. Bulldozer Brandon Smith for the #1 Contendership[/B] And so it begins. These two put on another weak but acceptable bout, going all out and brawling at points to hammer home just how much the belt means to both men. Eventually, though, an attempt at a flying clothesline by Johnny was caught by Brandon and that led to the inverted piledriver to put Johnny away – and after thirteen successful defences, we have a new #1 Contender! RATING: D+ [B]British Samurai vs. Merle O'Curle vs. K'Lee Hawkins in an elimination match for the ROF Championship[/B] There we go; this was better. It's still a weak show, all told, and I really need to see about doing what's right with K'Lee – but this was a good match. All three of these guys worked tirelessly through a near half-hour bout, with Merle putting K'Lee away at twenty-two minutes in using a superplex before Sammy finished the match five minutes later hitting that devastating DDT of his. RATING: C Yeah, a weaker show, but it's still enough that the fans are pleased. We're performing above expectations, which once again suggests I need to talk to Sammy about changing our marketing. I personally reckon we can afford to drop a few audience members given we're getting as many people a week now as we were a month when I took over. OVERALL: C- Brandon's just received an offer from NYCW. So long as scheduling isn't an issue this is no problem for me; it's experience and no one watching NYCW will cross over here, so they can happily bury him for my money. And the kid's young, he should be able to stand the pace. Here comes the big shock: as ever, we beat out UCR and 21CW, including their monthly show, but came in behind UKW. Nothing unexpected there. I'd say we're easily Britain's second-ranked promotion in terms of entertainment. Unfortunately we haven't got the news out there that well yet.

[Phantom Stranger]

Up next! Future X vs. The Shooters Davis Wayne Newton vs. Tigre Salvaje Jr Uk Dragon vs. El Critico British Samurai vs. Walter Morgan for the ROF Championship in a 30-minute Iron Man Match

[theunholyicon]

[B]Future X[/B] vs. The Shooters [B] Davis Wayne Newton[/B] vs. Tigre Salvaje Jr [B]Uk Dragon[/B] vs. El Critico British Samurai vs. [B]Walter Morgan[/B] for the ROF Championship in a 30-minute Iron Man Match

[Marcel Fromage]

Future X vs. [B]The Shooters[/B] [B]Davis Wayne Newton [/B]vs. Tigre Salvaje Jr [B]Uk Dragon [/B]vs. El Critico [B]British Samurai [/B]vs. Walter Morgan for the ROF Championship in a 30-minute Iron Man Match Walter Morgan in a 30-minute iron man? Hope you don't regret that one.

[Phantom Stranger]

Friday Week 4 June Norman Blue Athletic Centre 156 in attendance Our best crowd yet watched Future X square off against The Shooters in the dark. Three of these men put in incredibly solid performances culminating in Don eating the third Future Shock of the match and finally staying down for three. Sadly, Eric Future underperformed horribly. RATING: D- [B]Davis Wayne Newton vs. Tigre Salvaje Jr[/B] Time to get these folks a wider audience, if only through the internet. A really good performance from the pair of them, showing the world what young grapplers can do when they're motivated. The end came when Davis countered a top rope cross body with a flapjack and immediately locked in the STF. RATING: C- Johnny Highspot came out to see me, and asked for a rematch against Brandon. I reminded him of the way things work here; the champion keeps going through his challengers until one stops him, just as Johnny had, but any rematch potential is in the future. In short, if Johnny wanted to prove his victory over Brandon was the fluke he claimed, he'd have to get in line. Johnny went berserk; he figured his record against everyone else in contention should punch him to the top of the card. I disagreed, and Johnny stormed off, muttering. RATING: E- I guess I'm not rubbing off on the guys so fast. Still, it set the wheels in motion and only cost us a couple of minutes. [B]UK Dragon vs. El Critico[/B] This was to prove something to the fans; El Critico made a real name for himself in Mexico, and there's a reason. I wanted to show that reason, and these two really did it. Another excellent match to show that even when nothing's on the line the Ring of Fire veterans still have the same need as the hungry young crowd. It ended with another dragon sleeper on Critico, but I honestly think his performance in this match leaves him a more credible competitor than he had been until now. RATING: C- [B]British Samurai vs. Walter Morgan for the ROF Championship[/B] I was curious as to how well these two would stack up together. Walter didn't score a single fall and, like clockwork, conceded one every ten minutes to lose three-nil. It was still a fantastic showing and the Wigan Wonder came close to upsetting Sammy on a number of occasions, even while fighting through his obvious tired condition by the end. RATING: C- So not a great week, again, but not a bad one at all. I'm happy having this series of bouts on our resume; two mismatched pushes and a pair of virtual unknowns getting this kind of reaction proves that ROF can grow and grow, to my mind. OVERALL: C- I don't think it hurt us that UCR's show this week had been recorded at the Norman Blue earlier in the week; they only got 97 fans in. Sure, UCR is tangential competition at best, but it still sends the right message. Our show got a better reaction, too.

[Phantom Stranger]

Next week: Velocidad vs. Martin Heath vs. Amo del Gato vs. Jonni Lowlife in an Overhead Wires match Johnny Highspot vs. Jon Michael Sharp Bulldozer Brandon Smith vs. Don Henderson for the #1 Contendership British Samurai vs. Merle O'Curle vs. Petey Barnes for the ROF Championship

[Phantom Stranger]

Friday Week 1 July Norman Blue Athletic Centre 138 in attendance We tried an Overhead Wires dark match tonight, with Velocidad, Amo del Gato, Martin Heath and Jonni Lowlife tying up. Jonni eventually got the nod, kicking the prize clear of the wires with a backflip kick off the top rope and catching it on its way down. Hell of a spot, but the audience wasn't as into it as we'd hoped. Gimmicks need more development... RATING: E+ [B]Johnny Highspot vs. Jon Michael Sharp[/B] Ugh. This just wasn't that good, and I'm suddenly reminded why Jon gets so little use. It's not just because too many Johns confuse things. Johnny put him mercifully away with a frog splash. RATING: D- As Johnny walked back up the ramp, the new #1 Contender came down for his own match. The two had a staredown, but the crowd didn't care as much as I aim for them too by the time this is done. RATING: D [B]Bulldozer Brandon Smith vs. Don Henderson for the #1 Contendership[/B] Better. Not much, but better. Don led Brandon through the match smoothly enough and bit an inverted piledriver for the ending. RATING: D+ [B]British Samurai vs. Merle O'Curle vs. Petey Barnes for the ROF Championship[/B] This was much better. We ran an early repeat of the sequence that injured Justin about a month ago, but Merle took Sammy out partway through with a chop block and Petey was able to land a Future Shock, only to be suplexed away from Sammy by an opportunistic Merle who went for the pin himself – and Sammy kicked out! The finish would eventually come when Merle huracanrana'd Petey off the top rope and Sammy caught him, powerbombed him, and then sank Merle with the fisherman's suplex for an uninterrupted three count. RATING: C+ Another good solid show. We're back to the rating we want; hopefully soon enough the undercard will be delivering on the level we need, too. OVERALL: C Davis Wayne Newton now has US commitments, too, having just inked a deal with CZCW. Just as with Brandon, I figure this is primarily a good thing. Landed a couple of other grapplers, too, in Arthur T. Turtle and the Black Eagle.

[Phantom Stranger]

Coming up: Black Eagle vs. Davis Wayne Newton vs. Tigre Salvaje Jr Bulldozer Brandon Smith & Velocidad vs. Johnny Highspot & K'Lee Hawkins Merle O'Curle vs. UK Dragon British Samurai vs. Arthur T. Turtle for the ROF Championship in a two out of three falls match

[Marcel Fromage]

Black Eagle vs. [B]Davis Wayne Newton [/B]vs. Tigre Salvaje Jr Bulldozer Brandon Smith & Velocidad vs. [B]Johnny Highspot & K'Lee Hawkins[/B] [B]Merle O'Curle [/B]vs. UK Dragon [B]British Samurai [/B]vs. Arthur T. Turtle for the ROF Championship in a two out of three falls match I don't see Turtle beating Samurai straight off. O'Curle to beat Dragon in a match which I'm pretty sure will be match of the night. I'll go with the ROF originals to beat Bulldozer and Velocidad. And although I like Black Eagle, I'll go with DWN to win that as he's got that bit more UK overness now.

[Phantom Stranger]

Friday Week 2 July Norman Blue Athletic Centre 140 in attendance A dark match for all three of our lowest workers on the totem pole; the debuting Black Eagle, the dazzling Davis Wayne Newton, and the dependable Tigre Salvaje Jr. The triple-threat element kept this rolling to the time limit, with all three men looking strong but cut off by their competitors. A good match, I thought. RATING: D+ [B]Bulldozer Brandon Smith & Velocidad vs. Johnny Highspot & K'Lee Hawkins[/B] I wanted to see how well Johnny and K'Lee's friendship translated to ringwork, while not having Bulldozer and his ally go over an established tag team. It didn't go too great – with our new signings, K'Lee can no longer be considered one of the top dogs of the promotion, and he's not liking that fact. Will have to see how that goes from here. Velocidad did a lot of the work, but a superkick knocked him down – and into his corner; Bulldozer got the blind tag, came in, and delivered the Backdrop Driver on Johnny for the pin. RATING: D- We returned to the interview series, this time touching on Petey Barnes' career to date. We dwelt mostly on his tag title wins, but also covered how close he's come on a couple of occasions to defeating active ROF Champions. He's one of the few to have landed his finisher cleanly on both, and he's improving on the stick... RATING: D [B]Merle O'Curle vs. UK Dragon[/B] And this was much more like it, showcasing why these two haven't lost their place, unlike K'Lee. It finished with only seconds before the time limit as an attempted Celtic Wreath was cut short by the Dragon Drop and the Dragon picked up a clean pin. RATING: C+ [B]British Samurai vs. Arthur T. Turtle for the ROF Championship in a two out of three falls match[/B] Unfortunately, the main event didn't go so well. Turtle isn't used to our match style, though he brings solid audience recognition with him and will hopefully settle into the main event well. If not, he can expect to run into some serious losing streaks. Still, he gave Sammy a real challenge, with Sammy eventually having to resort to a pinfall via the ropes to pick up his second fall of the night... RATING: D+ So there we go; an awkward show that was far from all I'd hoped. I'll have to do some work with Arthur. As always, though, we sent the fans home happy. The number of downloads of the show picks up every week. Hard as it is to believe, this approach is working. For now. OVERALL: D+ The scary thing is, we still outperformed UCR and 21CW. Brandon's already in title contention over in NYCW, though his current opponents look likely to teach him more brawling know-how than anything I'd expect him to be using here at the moment.

[Phantom Stranger]

[QUOTE=Marcel Fromage;300659] And although I like Black Eagle, I'll go with DWN to win that as he's got that bit more UK overness now.[/QUOTE] Poor old Black Eagle... at present (a month or so in the future) he's trapped at Enhancement Talent purely by weight of numbers. Damn good worker, though, and he will be pushed.

[Phantom Stranger]

Next: Sharp & Heath vs. Absolutely Flawless Black Eagle vs. Amo del Gato vs. El Critico Bulldozer Brandon Smith vs. Johnny Highspot vs. K'Lee Hawkins vs. Stardust Phil Cox in an elimination match for the #1 Contendership Arthur T. Turtle vs. Petey Barnes vs. Merle O'Curle British Samurai vs. UK Dragon in a two out of three falls match for the ROF Championship

[Phantom Stranger]

I'm dreading the mid-term future, I should note - there's a lot of really good chemistry between my workers and I'm waiting for karma to drop the other shoe.

[Marcel Fromage]

Sharp & Heath vs. [B]Absolutely Flawless[/B] Black Eagle vs. Amo del Gato vs. [B]El Critico[/B] [B]Bulldozer Brandon Smith [/B]vs. Johnny Highspot vs. K'Lee Hawkins vs. Stardust Phil Cox in an elimination match for the #1 Contendership Arthur T. Turtle vs. [B]Petey Barnes [/B]vs. Merle O'Curle British Samurai vs. [B]UK Dragon [/B]in a two out of three falls match for the ROF Championship Interesting show this one. I'm going with Absolutely Useless in the opener because I just had them lose to The Tribe in my diary, and I kind of feel a bit bad about it! I'll go with Critico as most over to win the first of your 3-ways (especially as you say Eagle is still enhancement talent a few weeks later). I think Bulldozer will retain. The last 2 are interesting matches. I'm going with Barnes, as you seem to be trying to push him. And almost as a result of that, I'm going with Dragon to beat Samurai so that it sets up Dragon vs Barnes, as (if I remember correctly) I think Barnes and Samurai don't click too well. Might be wrong on that though. My brain is pretty frazzled at this time of night.