Canadian Charisma Championship Combat: A Mouthful O'Wrestling

[1PWfan]

You know on big pay-per-views when they do the whole 'show the famous people in the audience' shot? (Eisen loves them, presumably since it helps conceal the fact that 90% of his shows suck). Well, if DaVE ever did them you'd probably see Freddie McPryde (you know, owner of of McPryde Motorbikes? The Tartan Star? MR400?). He's a huge wrestling fan, loves stuff like DaVE, CZCW, y'know, all that scene. There's even a story that he put back this huge buyout so he wasn't in meetings the weekend of The Extreme Double Header (it's probably B.S, but who cares?). So, I for one was not surprised when news got out that he'd bought Canadian Charisma Championship Combat (the dumbest name in wrestling history, since Burning Hammer of the Wrestling Gods actually sounds kinda cool). I mean, it's small, got a lot going for it, and the whole 'fast-paced, hard-hitting' thing is right up the street of the average DaVE fan. I'd been around 4C for a few months by that point. I'd started out covering the show for the Crazy Midget Clown Klan (yeah, they're *******s, but they love their wrestling), and somehow wound up sitting in as a colour commentator, seeing as how Terry was such a stick on the mic (I swear, he's the nicest guy in the world, and loves this business, but put him at the commentary desk and he makes Spock look highly emotional). I'd enjoyed it, sure, but I figured with Old Man Winner gone it would be time for me to move on, and find some other midget to employ me (it's not that I like it, necessarily, but that's the way that my career seems to go). Seems Freddie thought otherwise, though, and get me into his office First monday that year. [COLOR="Blue"]Hugh, good to see you, sit down. How'd you like to take over as booker?[/COLOR] [COLOR="Red"]Boy, you don't hang around, huh?[/COLOR] [COLOR="Blue"]I'm a busy man, Hugh. I don't have time for niceties. 4C needs a booker, and you're the best on offer[/COLOR] [COLOR="Red"]Wasn't Joey Poison booking the shows? What's wrong with him?[/COLOR] [COLOR="Blue"]Other than the fact he's our champion? Nothing much, he's just not that good. Now, are you gonna take the job, or do I get Marv Earnest in here to do it?[/COLOR] What could I do? It's this or back to dealing with Hustler D and Joker the Dick full time. [COLOR="Red"]You got yourself a booker, Mr. McPryde. Now, where's my office, and who around here do I have to yell at to get a secretary?[/COLOR]

[1PWfan]

My first day on the job started as all first days should: with me alone in my office with a pack of smokes and a copy of our roster, ready to figure out what we actually had to deal with, and it wasn't pretty. Our roster wasn't terrible, but it left a lot to be desired, and at only 3 teams our tag division was a joke. On the other hand, Jacob Jett and Darryl Devine had genuine star potential if we could keep him, and Air Attack Weasel, well...he was called Air Attack Weasel. How could you NOT dig that? After a couple of hours' consideration, I called Terry Smith into my office (Freddie had officially appointed Terry as my general dogsbody). [COLOR="DarkRed"]Yeah, Hugh?[/COLOR] [COLOR="Red"]We need more guys. Get me calls with Puerto Rican Power, Frankie Perez, Mainstream Hernandez and Kashmir Singh. Oh, and Dylan Sidle[/COLOR] [COLOR="DarkRed"]Ooookay...you do know Sidle's not wrestling anymore?[/COLOR] [COLOR="Red"]Duh. We need a road agent, and Sidle's talented and cheap. A perfect combination for us.[/COLOR] [COLOR="DarkRed"]Fair enough. Anything else.[/COLOR] [COLOR="Red"]Just one more thing. There's one other guy I want you to try and get a meeting with. Someone who can come in at the top and really turn Joey and Jacob into champs. The wrestler's wrestler. Terry?[/COLOR] [COLOR="DarkRed"]Yeah boss?[/COLOR] [COLOR="Red"]Get me Steve Flash.[/COLOR]

[Regis]

Steve Flash for 4C champion! Best of luck - I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

[1PWfan]

From there, things went pretty much downhill, starting from my second day when I found that the SWF had made an offer to Darryl Devine, one half of the only tag team in the company worth a damn. Plus, Jacob Jett, my most talented guy (except for his psychology: talented guy, but a god-damn spotmonkey if ever I saw one), was being headhunted by CGC. less of a disaster, I'll admit, since he was unlikely to get a written contract, but it didn't take a genius to figure out he'd go with them over us. Still, the added name value probably would probably benefit us in the short term, and by the time his contract ran out and he went over there full time I might have found a replacement. All this, plus the single dumbest thing in wrestling history-namely, the owner's 'goals', where Freddie sets me a bunch of unrealistic, annoying and occasionally downright retarded goals to achieve in order to keep my job. Much to my surprise, however, Freddie's handed-down objectives weren't actually as bad as I'd feared: no getting in debt (not hard, even if with the half-dozen signing I was poised to make), get us better known in our home base of Ontario (again, at our level any half-decent show would do that), and no wrestlers older than 35. This was more of a pain (no Razor Valentine, Grandmaster Phunk or Primal Rage, who would all have been useful signings), but I could at least see where he was coming from: 4C's meant to be an underground alternative, and a younger roster would definitely appeal to our fanbase more. I'd just have to avoid bringing up Steve Flash's age, is all. As for our schedule, our next big show was Cage Rage, which I promptly renamed Canadian Stampede and shortened to 90 minutes. Sure, a couple of workers would complain about not being used or whatever, but the shorter time run would help keep costs down, and DVD sales would probably be enough to offset any losses (I went with that over the internet: we weren't touring, and with Freddie wanting us bigger on our home ground before we went a-wandering I figured we could do with the name value a retail DVD would bring in). HAving finished signing guys up (of my initial approach only PRP turned us down, and three of my five guys cost less than 500 bucks combined) I advertised the following card: [COLOR="DarkRed"]Steve Flash[/COLOR] vs. [COLOR="Green"]Jacob Jett[/COLOR] vs. [COLOR="Purple"]Joey Poison[/COLOR] for the 4C Championship [COLOR="Sienna"]Brett Fraser[/COLOR] vs. [COLOR="DimGray"]Sayeed Ali[/COLOR] for the Hardcore Championship [COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]Thug Life (Hardcore Killah and Slim V)[/COLOR] vs. [COLOR="MediumTurquoise"]Phenomenal Excess (Duberry Excess and Phenomenal E)[/COLOR] for the 4C Tag Team Championship (I was really hoping for good chemistry here, as these boys would be wrestling a lot: they're my only tag teams, if Darryl leaves which he almost certainly will). [COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Frankie Perez[/COLOR] vs. [COLOR="DarkOrange"]Air Attack Weasel[/COLOR] [COLOR="Red"]Canadian Dragon[/COLOR] vs. [COLOR="Yellow"]Mainstream Hernandez[/COLOR] [I]OOC: Predictions very much welcome and encouraged (in fact, feedback of all kinds encouraged)[/I]

[mad5226]

I like this a lot man. I considered starting up a 4C diary mainly because they may be the only promotion in the C-Verse I haven't attempted lol. That being said I thinkg bringing in Steve Flash was brillant. Mainstream should fit in nicely as well. You're championship match looks great I say you use Flahs to push Poison up in terms of popularity, and now my predictions: Steve Flash vs. Jacob Jett vs. [B]Joey Poison[/B] for the 4C Championship Brett Fraser vs. [B]Sayeed Ali[/B] for the Hardcore Championship [B]Thug Life[/B] (Hardcore Killah and Slim V) vs. Phenomenal Excess (Duberry Excess and Phenomenal E) for the 4C Tag Team Championship (I was really hoping for good chemistry here, as these boys would be wrestling a lot: they're my only tag teams, if Darryl leaves which he almost certainly will). [B]Frankie Perez[/B] vs. Air Attack Weasel Canadian Dragon vs. [B]Mainstream Hernandez[/B]

[Midnightnick]

[B]Steve Flash[/B] vs. Jacob Jett vs. Joey Poison for the 4C Championship Brett Fraser vs.[B] Sayeed Ali[/B] for the Hardcore Championship [B]Thug Life (Hardcore Killah and Slim V)[/B] vs. Phenomenal Excess (Duberry Excess and Phenomenal E) for the 4C Tag Team Championship [B]Frankie Perez [/B]vs. Air Attack Weasel [B]Canadian Dragon[/B] vs. Mainstream Hernandez

[Regis]

Steve Flash vs. Jacob Jett vs. [B]Joey Poison[/B] for the 4C Championship [I]I doubt that Joey's going to drop the strap on his first defence - hot-shotting it straight onto another guy would look bad. However, I think that Steve's going to be the guy keeping this match together. jacob and Joey can't call a match to save their lives.[/I] Brett Fraser vs. [B]Sayeed Ali[/B] for the Hardcore Championship [I]Fraser is a friggin'[/I] menace [I]in the ring. He knows how to hit someone with a chair and can take a barbed-wire bump as well as the next man, but there's a decent chance that he'll just kill the other guy hitting one of his moves. Sayeed at least is slightly better.[/I] Thug Life vs. [B]Phenomenal Excess[/B] for the 4C Tag Team Championship [I]We've had one title change tonight, so I doubt we'll see a second.[/I] Frankie Perez vs. [B]Air Attack Weasel[/B] [I]Frankie's good, and has the skills to be the kind of guy that a promotion could build around. On the other hand, he's new, and the new guy pays his dues.[/I] [B]Canadian Dragon[/B] vs. Mainstream Hernandez [I]CanDrag for the win once again, with Hernandez putting over the home-grown talent.[/I] A solid sort of card, I must say - here's to a good first show of the new regime!

[eayragt]

Steve Flash vs. Jacob Jett vs. [B]Joey Poison[/B] for the 4C Championship I can see Flash staying in the title picture for a while, and maybe having a run, but Poison's the man here. Jett's not worth the risk at this moment, as he could also up and leave at any time. Brett Fraser vs. [B]Sayeed Ali [/B]for the Hardcore Championship I've heard the 4C crowd aren't too hot on Fraser... [B]Thug Life[/B] (Hardcore Killah and Slim V) vs. Phenomenal Excess (Duberry Excess and Phenomenal E) Well, as these are your only two teams, a title change will come after a long feud, nto at their first meeting for you. [B]Frankie Perez[/B] vs. Air Attack Weasel I actually wouldn't be surpised for Air Attack Weasel to win, but it's just personal - I don't like the guy. He's one of teh few guys I'm allowed to hire in my game due to my hiring restrictions, yet I never touch him with a bargepole. So, Perez. [B]Canadian Dragon[/B] vs. Mainstream Hernandez I hope that these two show sort of chemistry, as a decent feud could launch Hernandez up the card. Only one other comment - please don't use [COLOR="Yellow"]yellow[/COLOR] (unless you're quoting, in which case its pretty effective)!

[1PWfan]

[FONT="Times New Roman"][SIZE="6"]4C Presents...Canadian Stampede[/SIZE][/FONT] We broadcast this from the Windsor Arena Hall. I actually had to tell the production guys to dim the lights on the crowd, to conceal the fact that it was only just over half full. Still, the economy is going to s**t right now, so what can you expect? [B][U]Pre-Show/DVD Extras[/U][/B] I made the mistake of opening with a hype video for the main event. This wasn't a bad video, but the crowd hated it with a passion, and made it pretty clear they came to see action. [B]Rating:[/B] E- [B]Kashmir Singh vs. Too Hot[/B] This match was largely put out there to see what Too Hot could do, and if Kashmir could help him improve. Sure enough, Singh led Too Hot through a couple of good standoffs, and even helped him make a nicely dramatic comeback before Too Hot put him away with a missile dropkick he calls The Heat-Seeking Missile. Oh, and Sidle told me afterwards that me and Katie (who I'd put on colour commentary with me) really were on form, and helped the match a lot. [B]Winner:[/B] Too Hot [B]Rating:[/B] [I]E+[/I] [B][U]The Show[/U][/B] [B]Frankie Perez vs. Air Attack Weasel[/B] I agonised over whether to give this one to Perez or Weasel, but in the end I had to give it to the guy with the rodent name. I gave these guys the full 18 minutes to see what they could do, and whilst it wasn't bad it was no better than Singh and TH had managed. That said, both guys were clearly learning on the job: Perez's fake comeback almost got the crowd behind him (they clearly weren't into this at all), whilst Weasel's actual punches looked a lot better at the end than they did at the open. In the end, Weasel put Perez away with Plop Goes the Weasel, a Senton Bomb whose name is definitely gonne change. [B]Winner:[/B] Air Attack Weasel [B]Rating:[/B] [I]E+[/I] For some reason I'd decided to follow this up with a video montage of Steve training up for the main event. It tanked, rather predictably [B]Rating[/B] [I]E-[/I] [B]Canadian Dragon vs. Mainstream Hernandez[/B] Again, this match really wasn't an improvement on the first match, although Hernandez showed the upside of working with Rip Chord when he showed Canadian Dragon a few new holds, before putting him away with an Apparition #14 [B]Winner:[/B]Mainstream Hernandez [B]Rating:[/B] [I]E+[/I] An even worse segment followed, when I showed Thug Life beating the evel-loving hell out of Duberry Excess. Next time, I won't have these segment, they really bring the show down. [B]Rating:[/B] [I]F[/I] [B]Phenomenal Excess vs. Thug Life[/B] The crowd really don't like Duberry Excess, at one point chanting 'Please Tag Out!' at him, which was a little odd (perfectly fair though: mat wrestlers with s****y psychology are dull as h*ll). Oh, and Hardcore Killah was flagging by the end (fair enough, he's nearly as old as Stevie, and not half as talented). That said, everyone learnt something about performing here, and seemed to have improved. I had the match end with a DQ, when Killah hit E with a blackjack in front of the ref. [B]Winners and Still Champs:[/B] Phenomenal Excess [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]E-[/I] We then went to an interview with Joey Poison. [COLOR="Purple"]Steve Flash, Jacob Jett. You both want my title. You're both facing me tonight. Neither of you will win. And you know why? Because I am. You know how I'll win? Because of help. Help from my friend...MISTER FLIBBLE! He has trained me in the ancient art of Penguin-Fu, the better to stop you both. DO NOT MESS WITH THE PENGUIN MASTER![/COLOR] Joey's gimmick is that he's basically weird, and what better way to say weird than to have a stuffed penguin as a trainer? This was actually not bad for a out-of-ring segment: the crowd didn't go for it, but they didn't hate on it as much as the other angles I'd run tonight. [B]Rating:[/B] [I]E[/I] [B]Brett Fraser vs. Sayeed Ali[/B] Another match, another failed attempt to get out of first gear. Despite the blood and carnage (and I'd made sure to make it clear that it was to ladled on), these guys just didn't seem up to turning things around. That said, Fraser followed on the general pattern of the night by improving his in-ring performace neatly, tease a big comeback before Ali put him away with a big chair shot, followed by a G.B.H Driver through a table. [B]Winner and new Champ:[/B] Sayeed Ali [B]Rating:[/B] [I]E+[/I] We then did a quick cut-away to Barry Kingman sitting on the front row, watching the show, whilst we at the desk speculated as to what he was doing there. Once again, the crowd hated this segment. [B]Rating:[/B] [I]F+[/I] [B]Steve Flash vs. Jacob Jett vs. Joey Poison[/B] By this point I was really hoping for something special, and whilst this wasn't everything I'd hoped for, it was still match of the night. Flash played Ring General, and definitely taught the young guns a thing or two about psychology and the like. He also did a rather natty sequence with Joey, taking him through some nice holds and stuff to help him with his technical game. Poison then returned the favour, teaching Flash a thing or two about a brawl, before Jett hit his trademark crazy stunt to take them all out, leaving them down just as the bell rang, leaving the match a time limit draw. [B]Winner:[/B] None [B]Rating:[/B] [I]D[/I] [B][U]Overall Rating:[/U][/B] D-, largely thanks to the main event I suspect. Not a disastrous show. It should have helped our standing in the area, and even a few complaints about the length of the Perez-Weasel match couldn't bring me down. Sure, Canadian Stampede hadn't been everything I'd hoped for, but at least we weren't going backwards.

[juggaloninjalee]

Steve Flash vs. Jacob Jett vs. [B]Joey Poison[/B] for the 4C Championship I think Joey will hang on to the title for now. [B]Brett Fraser[/B] vs. Sayeed Ali for the Hardcore Championship Well honestly I dont know a lot about 4C. So Brett seems like a good bet for the win. Thug Life (Hardcore Killah and Slim V) vs. [B]Phenomenal Excess [/B](Duberry Excess and Phenomenal E) for the 4C Tag Team Championship Phenomenal E is awesome! I love using him. So Phenomenal Excess for the win here. [B]Frankie Perez[/B] vs. Air Attack Weasel With a name like Air Attack Weasel he should lose. Canadian Dragon vs. [B]Mainstream Hernandez[/B] You didn't bring Hernandez in for nothing. He gets the big win and begins his rise up the card.

[1PWfan]

[QUOTE=juggaloninjalee;359616] [B]Frankie Perez[/B] vs. Air Attack Weasel With a name like Air Attack Weasel he should lose.[/QUOTE] See, that was why I booked him in as the winner. I just dig a weird name like that.

[juggaloninjalee]

I love Air Attack Weasel I just think his name dooms him to the undercard in my games. Interesting first show though I have to admit.

[mad5226]

Not a bad first show at all. Looks like the tile situation should be a good one

[1PWfan]

Looking back on the first show, a couple of things were apparent: Firstly, we still needed to cut costs- Canadian Stampede had cosr 7,731 bucks, and that was more than I was happy with on a monthly basis. Sure, at the basis we wouldn't be in trouble for another couple of years, but I had the feeling that Freddie would probably want us to turn a profit at some point. So, with that in mind, I made the call to trim our next event (renamed Dance on A Volcano using my patented 'random song name' approach) to 60 minutes, and also trimmed my staff down a bit. I'd just signed a new, Jez McArthuer, to replace our original ref Gordy (who really wasn't good enough), but at 850 a show Jez cost as much as our main eventers, so he had to go. In his place, I bought in Dewey Libertine- at 575 a show he cost about the same as my mid-carders, which was still a lot, but within our costings just about. There was also a question mark over one of my new signings: I'd bought in William Hayes to bulk out our midcard (Freddie had been complaining that we didn't have the numbers there), but at 850 a show he was pulling in the same amounts as Joey and Jacob, and I didn't have much intention of doing anything with him. That said, Freddie would probably get very pissy indeed if I let him go, so I decided to keep him around until his contract ran out or I found someone cheaper. With all my money issues, it was pretty clear that my signing binge would have to wait, and that hurt: Carloz Gonzales and Cameron Vessey had just entered wrestling, and they both looked interesting. Carlos was a capable brawler, and a decent hardcore wrestler, whilst Vessey was damn promising. Still, there was always the future, and if DoaV went well I might look into it next month. With that in mind, I put out the following card: [COLOR="DarkOrange"]Too Hot[/COLOR] vs [COLOR="Sienna"]Air Attack Weasel[/COLOR] [COLOR="DarkSlateBlue"]Doug Peak[/COLOR] vs. [COLOR="SandyBrown"]Kashmir Singh[/COLOR] [COLOR="Orange"]Mainstream Hernandez[/COLOR] vs. [COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Phenomenal E[/COLOR] [COLOR="DimGray"]Sayeed Ali[/COLOR] vs. [COLOR="Olive"]Brett Fraser[/COLOR] [COLOR="Purple"]Joey Poison[/COLOR]vs. [COLOR="Blue"]Barry Kingman[/COLOR]

[Regis]

[B]Too Hot[/B] vs Air Attack Weasel [I]Too Hot takes one back in his and Weasel's ongoing series.[/I] Doug Peak vs. [B]Kashmir Singh[/B] [I]Doug just doesn't live up to his brother's standards. Kashmir to take it and build his momentum a bit.[/I] [B]Mainstream Hernandez[/B] vs. Phenomenal E [I]Tag guys win in tag bouts, and singles guys win in singles bouts. Nice and easy, especially since the crowd hates E.[/I] [B]Sayeed Ali[/B] vs. Brett Fraser [I]Ali keeps the title in his rematch - if this is a title match.[/I] [B]Joey Poison[/B] vs. Barry Kingman [I]Champion's advantage carries the day once again. Kingman will be unable to outsmart Mister Flibble's coaching![/I] Also, bear in mind that just because you've got someone on your roster, doesn't mean that you're going to pay for them at every show. Only if you use them do they take home a cheque, so keep hiring just to have the potential to use them.

[praguepride]

Too Hot vs [B]Air Attack Weasel[/B] [I]You love the weasel name and Too hot isn't important enough to steal that away.[/I] Doug Peak vs. [B]Kashmir Singh[/B] [I]Doug just doesn't hold a candle to Kashmir's potential.[/I] [B]Mainstream Hernandez[/B] vs. Phenomenal E [I]Manstream FTW[/I] [B]Sayeed Ali[/B] vs. Brett Fraser [I]Ali wins to further establish the title, like a best 2/3.[/I] [B]Joey Poison[/B] vs. Barry Kingman [I]Poison wins but come on, mister flibbles? Where's the Wrath of Canadian God?[/I] As for cheap signs I'm very surprised you didn't pick up Frankie Dee or Thomas Morgan. Both are small wrestlers who cost $150 a show and have tremendous potential (Dee more than Morgan)

[1PWfan]

I didn't actually know about Frankie Dee, so thanks for the heads-up. As for Morgan, I had a look at the start of the game but decided to hold off (he'd come in as a main eventer, judging by his popularity, and I didn't need another one). As for Mister Flibble, who's to say he ISN'T Canadian God?

[1PWfan]

Just to let my few readers know, I'm several months ahead now (just starting into April), so the next show will go up some time early next week.

[Guest The Aussie]

It's good to see a 4C dynasty going on, they are rarely used for dynasties. Too Hot vs [B]Air Attack Weasel[/B] Weasel is just better, plain and simple. You can even use him as a road agent at the start because of his excellent psychology stat. Doug Peak vs. [B]Kashmir Singh[/B] There's a bit of a conflict here, Kashmir is definetly more talented but he also has a tendency of never really getting over no matter what a person tries. I'm going iwth the guess that you are building him up to challenge for the title. [B]Mainstream Hernandez[/B] vs. Phenomenal E I heart Phenomenal E but you wouldn't job out a hot signing like Mainstream to him. [B] Sayeed Ali[/B] vs. Brett Fraser Ali wins because he is also a better worker, you need to keep him winning against a 'worker' like Brett Fraser. [B]Joey Poison[/B] vs. Barry Kingman I hearby support a Canadian Wrath of God gimmick for Joey.

[praguepride]

[QUOTE=The Aussie;361004] I hearby support a Canadian Wrath of God gimmick for Joey.[/QUOTE] Somebody get a helmet on that kid! He'll be a multi-colored wrath.

[Dragonmack]

[QUOTE]As for cheap signs I'm very surprised you didn't pick up Frankie Dee or Thomas Morgan. Both are small wrestlers who cost $150 a show and have tremendous potential (Dee more than Morgan)[/QUOTE] In pretty much any game I have played out for a while, Morgan usually does a lot better than Dee. Case in point, in my Diary game NOTBPW picked both of them up in 2007 Morgan is a current midcarder but has been a Canadian Champion, 2 time tag champion ,2 time unlimited action champion and was in the top 100 from 2008-2012 whereas Dee has never won a title, hasn't risen above opener and has a cumulative record of 17 wins 2 draws and 99 losses. In short he is NOTBPW's resident jobber.

[1PWfan]

Speaking as somebodywith Dee, he hasn't delivered much. In fact, he's pretty much bummed around without a direction for a while (forming team directionless with Air Attack Weasel, Masked Cougar, Bulldozer Brandon Smith and Cameron Vessey). Having played up to just pa my June show (I've had an extremely empty couple of days), I have to say that 4C's a real challenge to play. the crowd at the Windsor Hall hates angles, which makes it difficult to do much character-wise, although Steve Flash and Joey Poison have pretty much kept me from going totally spare by having great chemistry with each other. Oh, and Alicia Strong and Sayeed Ali are officially my undercard MVP's. Nothing less than a D- from either of them, despite no known chemistry with any of their opponents.

[D-Lyrium]

[QUOTE=praguepride;360488]As for cheap signs I'm very surprised you didn't pick up Frankie Dee or Thomas Morgan. Both are small wrestlers who cost $150 a show and have tremendous potential (Dee more than Morgan)[/QUOTE] He's in Canada. Morgan will cost nearly 10x more than that due to his E+ overness ;)

[1PWfan]

[I]This is going up earlier than I'd planned as...well, I wanted to get this diary further along.[/I] [FONT="Times New Roman"][SIZE="6"]4C Presents…Dance on a Volcano[/SIZE][/FONT] Once again, a lack of options forced us into using the Windsor Arena Hall, and this time we’d actually lost people, despite our rep going up at the end of last show- only 150 tonight. [B][U]Pre-Show/DVD Extras[/U][/B] I made the call to not start with any kind of mic segments, since the crowd hated them anyway. Instead, I went straight into a match [B]Duberry Excess vs. Warren Technique[/B] This match was no worse than the matches last week, but I still didn’t like it. The crowd hates both of these guys, and that seemed to throw Warren out of his game, thereby rendering the whole match a little pointless (I’d hoped Duberry would pick up some pointers from Technique, but Warren wasn’t up to it). On the other hand, me and Katie were on form again, which always helps. [B]Winner: [/B]Duberry Excess [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]E+[/I] [B][U]The Show[/U][/B] [B]Air Attack Weasel vs. Too Hot[/B] The crowd wasn’t into this (something of a pattern for my shows, I feel: every match seems to bring the crowd’s mood down), and the Weasel’s character seems a little stale. On the other hand, Too Hot improved again before putting the Weasel away with a Heat-Seeking Missile. [B]Winner: [/B]Too Hot [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]E+[/I] [B]Kashmir Singh vs. Doug Peak[/B] I made this a hardcore match, in the hope that Peak could maybe improve Singh’s hardcore abilities, but the lug was too blown up by the end to do anything, and the crowd once again seemed worse afterwards (thought that might be thanks to Singh making Peak tap out in a hardcore match: not what you do, at all). [B]Winner:[/B] Kashmir Singh [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]E-[/I] Afterwards, I ran an angle to get over Peak’s new gimmick as a pyromaniac. He attacked Singh, and set him on fire (a little-alright, technically it was his tights and it was all nice and safe), but the segment went down a bomb. Still, it’s taught me one thing-never ever use Peak again. Ever. [B]Rating:[/B] [I]F-[/I] [B]Mainstream Hernandez vs. Phenomenal E[/B] I’m beginning to think that the boys don’t have anything to do with the match success rate here-Mainstream and E didn’t click here, and yet it was no worse than the opener. Hernandez won, continuing his push, and I began to wonder how our ratings would be affected if me and Katie just shut up. [B]Winner:[/B] Mainstream Hernandez. [B]Match Rating:[/B] [I]E+[/I] [B]Sayeed Ali vs. Brett Fraser[/B] The crowd wasn’t into this one either, but these guys know their hardcore stuff and kicked things up a notch. A decent blood-and-guts match that saw Ali pick up another win after beating the ever-loving sh*t out of Fraser with baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. [B]Winner: [/B]Sayeed Ali [B]Rating:[/B] [I]D-[/I] [B]Barry Kingman vs. Joey Poison[/B] Once again, these guys were able to come out and give a decent match, but I preferred last week’s, if only for Flash’s ability to polish up the other guys (and Poison’s promo). A decent match for where we are at the moment, but no better. Poison puts Kingman away with the Antidote Web (a Gory Neckbreaker) [B]Winner:[/B] Joey Poison [B]Match Rating: [/B] [I]D-[/I] [B][U]Overall Rating:[/U][/B] D-, same as last month, with Ali and Fraser’s upped game compensating for Peak’s weaknesses. Again, it should have gained us a bit of popularity, but I doubt it will be enough for us to crack the TEW.com grades and get us any nearer to moving up the ladder. And we’ll make a loss again, I don’t doubt.

[1PWfan]

[I]Another update, to hurry it along. I'll probably be updating a lot at the mo, but it'll slow down in a couple of show's time[/I] Looking back on Dance on a Volcano, a couple of things became clear: Firstly, 60 minutes was too short a show for five matches: I’d had to trim three of the match down to as short as I could get away with to fit everything in, and I didn’t like doing that (how are our boy supposed to improve in 7 minutes?). Secondly, the crowd at the Windsor Hall don’t like anything that isn’t wrestling, so I should save segments for the top of the card, where the guys’ overness could offset the crowd’s animosity. Thirdly, Doug Peak sucked, and could sit out his contract without getting anywhere near my ring. Those lessons learnt, I went on a talent signing spree, bringing in Masked Cougar, Frankie Dee and Cameron Vessey, all of whom looked to be promising guys, Cougar, in particular, was immediately marked down as one half of a new tag team (cougar, weasel…see where I’m going with this?). I also re-signed CanDrag, as whilst he wasn’t a key worker he was a decent high flyer, and a few of the guys I had earmarked to bring along would probably work quite well with him. However, from there things went downhill: Kingman’s contract was expiring, and he wanted nearly a thousand bucks to re-sign with me. Had he been Poison or Jett, I would’ve given it to him no problem, but Kingman I was less sure about. Sure, he was good, but heel vs. heel at the top of the card was something I was a little unsure about. In the end I managed to keep the costs down to 1,025 per show for him, and resolved to simply not put him and Steve on the same show. Oh, and Too Hot and Warren sent me e-mails complaining about their pushes. Warren I didn’t give a toss about, frankly, but I was surprised by TH’s complaints: he’d won two matches on two shows, and that was hardly something to complain about, right? Tempting though it was to haul his ass in and give him the bitch-slapping of a lifetime, I decided to leave it, in case Freddie heard and I had to actually talk to my boss (honestly, where does Freddie get the idea that I’m meant to talk to him? His job is to give me money and to take the blame for my mistakes). Instead, I moved ‘em up to the lower mid-card and resolved to squash Warren as soon as possible, especially after he kept complaining right through the month (First lesson of dealing with Dansigny: say it once, then shut the f*ck up). On the more heartening side, losses were way down from last month, to an acceptable level of 4,229. Alright, that would probably climb back up again for the next show (Flashy would be back on it, for one thing), but still, I needed all the good news I could get. Which promptly arrived in the form of an urgent memo from Dylan, my ever-faithful road agent, lackey and talent scout, containing a picture of some guy named bulldozer Brandon Smith and a note saying ‘sign him now’. He didn’t look like much to me: just another big-ass bonehead that SWF would snap up, but what the hell, if Dylan thought there was something there he was worth a look, and if the worst came to the worst I’d just feed him to Hernandez or Singh. In the end he came in for 375 a show, which wasn’t bad considering he slotted right in to the midcard. Of course, the world didn’t just revolve around me giving out jobs to people: The Highland Warrior made the call to pass Men of Steel Combat over to his kid Jeffrey. I’d known the Warrior a bit when I was younger, and he’d seemed like a good guy. Jeffrey, on the other hand, I’d never met, and I didn’t really know what to make of him. Of course, the Warrior is still booking MOSC, so I doubt we’ll be seeing the end of Blood, Beer and Brawling (which is good: I for one like Beer and Brawling, though from experience I can recommend that you don’t do both at the same time whilst in downtown New York with a drunken Hustler D and a Swedish whore). Other big news had RIPW rising to Small, though that hardly surprised me: I’d done a few interviews with Prof Nero back when I was working for the CMCK, and he’d always had a hell of a mind for the business. Closer to home, Dylan passed me an e-mail saying that Fraser’s been sounding off about Joey’s deal with CGC, and Joey had a couple of digs back on some radio show. Nothing too serious, but there seemed to be a consensus that despite losing his last two matches Fraser deserved a main event push, and there was no way in hell he was getting a main event slot when he didn’t like the champ. Oh, and Jacob Jett’s managed to pick up a bad case of Delhi Belly, apparently. He’s willing to work through it, but he’s not pencilled in until next month at the earliest, which should give him time to recover (and me time to find out what the flying f*ck delhi belly is…) With all my contract signing firmly in place, I put out the following card for my next show, now named Close to the Edge (Terry was getting me into this whole prog-rock kick): The Thunder Express (Mainstream Hernandez and Too Hot) vs. The Flying Rodents (Air Attack Weasel and Masked Cougar) Bulldozer Brandon Smith vs. Frankie Perez (both of these guy favoured puroresu style fighting, and I had a good feeling about this match). Sayeed Ali vs. Nomad Joey Poison vs. Steve Flash I also tentatively pencilled in Vessey vs. Technique and Dee vs. Singh for the dark: I wanted to push Singh and Vessey, and there was no chance in hell that Technique was getting a push on my watch, especially after whinging about it.