Phoenix Wrestling : The Redemption

[MrOnu]

It was an idea of my therapist. I’ve been doing some really good progress in the last few years, but according to her, I needed to face my demons to finally vanquish them. I was skeptical at first, but she managed to convince me it’s the right to do.

 

It was a long downfall. At one point I was touted as the next big thing in pro wrestling then I drop like a rock to the bottom of the sea. I could blame the business, and I did it at first, but no, it’s my entire fault. No one ever forced me to drink down a bottle, no one ever forced to drink every night until I pass out; I did it all myself. I’m the one who hit his wife in the middle of the night after drinking too much. It’s the same very person who lost almost all he had in a lengthy divorce and can’t even see his own child.

 

Why did I accept this idea again ? I haven’t touch a bottle in the last two years, but it seems the drinking opportunities were too numerous for me. I lost all that was important to me and I’m going near that road again. Damn women ! They always had their way with me…

 

So here we are near the beginning of what is properly called a shock treatment. If I recalled exactly what my therapist said, I have to do this to learn to control my passions and the associated emotions. With this control, I would have no risk of drinking again. Risky business, but it’s not like I have much to lose these days.

 

Trying to get back in the business was not an easy affair, I rubbed a lot of people in the wrong way over the years. I knew Rip wouldn’t knock me down, but working with another alcoholic sounded like a really bad plan. I talked to Stomper about working in New York, but I walked out before a proper deal could be set. I couldn’t stand all this nostalgia, it was my rookie years all over again and I couldn’t see my staying sober for long. Calling Sam Strong was not even an option. I stepped over his foot once and I’m not sure he ever forgot me. My options were limited, the few friends I still have either wouldn’t want to risk their job for me or were either too old to care about anything but the money they could put away for their late years.

 

Fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it gave me another chance though. I’ve never met the guy before, but heard stories about him. Not only good ones, trust me ! Our paths crossed recently and we talked lengthily in front of a coffee. It began as a joke, but it became serious over the weeks. This man talks business like no other, his sheer determination convinced me it was the right project at the right time for me.

 

It’s going to be uphill battle everyday, but I think it will work. I want to redeem my name, I want to leave a better image of myself for the people in this business, but also to my child. I want him to be proud of his dad at some point. And if I can only save one rookie from doing the same mistakes I did, it will be all worth it.

 

My name is Dennis Buttler, I’m an alcoholic, but more importantly, wrestling runs into my veins and this is going to be my redemption.

 

Dennis Buttler is a character from the CVerse97 database named Mr Supreme and wrestling for SWF of course. Seeing that he was missing from the official database, this gave me an idea for my new diary. He's going to be my user character. In 97, he was one of the brightest prospect, but now, he's a 39 years old manthat could barely do better than most of the USPW roster in the ring. More infos to come later tonight, stay tuned!

[MrOnu]

One year ago I had to take the most difficult decision of my life as I had to shut down my business. Blame it on who you want : Richard, Tom, Sam, Dan, Johnny, Alex, myself or even God himself; it doesn’t really matter in the end, because we failed. I can take my fair share of the blame, but I couldn’t do much against betrayals, cheap shots and pouring money. We had a great run, I made friends, I made enemies, but more importantly, we entertained thousands of people. No one will ever be able to take that from us.

 

From the day I stopped being a simple mouthpiece to put my money, my blood, hell even my health in the balance, they were people trying to screw me officially and unofficially. They said I couldn’t survive the War, bottom line is I won it. We won it. They were people telling me I didn’t know **** about running a company and I proved them wrong for 10 years. They said I was promoting a bastard and repugnant product, but soon enough, they were imitating us on the simple fact that people loved what we were doing.

 

Then it started going downhill. I have perceived as a threat to the establish order of things. I was not one of them, they had to brake me since I didn’t want my money. They started taking cheap shot at us. I suspect some of them blackmailing us in front of network executives and sponsors. Even though they were claiming my employees were talentless or even worse, they started pouring money on them to lure them away. In the end, money prevailed.

 

Did all my decisions were perfectly good ? Absolutely not. I made some mistakes, I rubbed people in the wrong way, and I went in directions I shouldn’t have gone. I was a factor in our demise. There, I said it, I hope they are happy now.

 

I haven’t said my final word though. I’m not ready to go down without a last fight. I’m going to prove to them that I can still do it, that I can still be the innovative force in our business, and that I can still beat them at their own game. I’ve gathered the right tools, now is the right time and I’m ready to go to war once again. This is not going to be neither pretty, nor short nor easy, but one step at a time, I’m going to climb the mountain back. This time I know where the hits will come from and I’m going to strike back at each of them. I will redeem my name and my crew will be remembered for their legacy.

 

My name is Phil Vibert, I’m a wrestling promoter and this is going to be my redemption.

[MrOnu]

The Setting

 

This diary is set the Cornellverse with very few modifications to the database. I edited Phil Vibert to be active again and made him the owner of Phoenix Wrestling Company (PWC). Well, I took the name and the logo in the database, but I changed all the other infor. As I said earlier, Dennis Buttler aka Mr Supreme will be my user character. I toned him down a lot from this CV97 version, he could still do okay in the ring, but for the moment he's going to concentrate on backstage duties. As the diary starts in March 2008, I made MHW active and put Gino Montero as the owner as he always seems to debut in this fashion.

 

The Promotion

 

http://www.retrohockey.net/diary/PWC.jpg

Phoenix Wrestling Company (PWC)

 

Based in Great Lakes

Popularity : 36 % in Great Lakes (Regional level)

Prestige : 20 %

Money : 100 000$

 

The Product

 

Key Features : None

Heavy : Modern

Medium : Traditional, Mainstream, Hardcore

Low : Cult, Risque, Realism, Daredevil

Match Intensity : 55 %

Match Danger : 70 %

No women wrestling

T&A : Low

Face/Heel division : Medium

80 % match ratio for event, 70% for television (subject to change)

 

All this translates in :

• Wrestlers being rated equally on performance and popularity
  
• Fans who don't like highly risky gimmicks
  
• Can't get Afternoon TV time or Early Evening TV time on some networks
  
• Can't get a slot on Maintream TV
  
• We're favourable towards sponsors
  
• The promotion won't be rocked by wrestling industry changes
  
• The young lion system will not be taken in account.

 

Self-imposed limitations

 

I've imposed myself a few limitations while up setting the promotion and with my intial round of signatures :

• Mitch Naess is not involved in the project regardless of his friendship with Vibert
  
• Because of that friendship, PWC was not founded in the Tri-State area, but rather in Great Lakes. Also, I didn't send a single offer to the intial PSW workers, even if some are very tempting.
  
• I tried to get a few names that worked with Vibert at some point, mainly those unemployed as I think Vibert would have made a few phone calls to his friends. I backed up from signing some of them when they asked for way too much money. (I'm looking at you Vin Tanner!)
  
• The product is a mix of what I want to showcase and what Vibert could want to showcase.
  
• I thought 20% prestige was a good starting point. FCW has that level and it's mainly because of their owner, so I figured it was a good measuring stick.

 

The Initial Roster

 

This list is not final. Gimmicks aren't all set and I haven't yet decide who's going to be face or heel. Basically, it's just a teaser list

 

Black Eagle

Frankie Perez

Fuhimor Ota

The Vipers : Grease Hogg & Lead Belly

Maintream Hernadez

Jean Cattley

Julian Watson

Primus Allen

Shooter Sean Deeley

The Darkness Warrior

Thomas Morgan

Zeus Maximillion

[1PWfan]

One immediate thing-how can your product not have any key features? To me at least, that just doesn't make any sense.

 

The actual story isn't bad, though. I'm looking forward to eeing where this goes.

[Phantom Stranger]

One immediate thing-how can your product not have any key features? To me at least, that just doesn't make any sense.

 

The actual story isn't bad, though. I'm looking forward to eeing where this goes.

 

It's actually not the first time I've seen it. Look at it like this - if a Key Feature ranking means 'you will see this near-constantly' a lack of KF means 'you'll get a lot of all sorts'.

 

Thus far, I'm intrigued.

[MrOnu]

It's actually not the first time I've seen it. Look at it like this - if a Key Feature ranking means 'you will see this near-constantly' a lack of KF means 'you'll get a lot of all sorts'.

 

Thus far, I'm intrigued.

 

That's pretty much sums it well. The product is a mix bag of a lot of things and it probably lack some focus. I could say Vibert didn't learn from all his mistakes and that in only one year, he didn't really have enough time to come with the perfect setting or that he's blinded with vengeance. Truth is though I first tried to get a product I should be comfortable with, then put the Vibert effect in it.