Secrets of the Ring Volume Three : Jillefski Takes Manhattan (NYCW 2013)

falling_star · July 17, 2009

Glad to be in on the ground floor of this one, I'm LOVING it so far!

jesseewiak · July 17, 2009

Why am I getting the feeling that this is going not to go down so well and we're going to get a Shane Douglas-ish speech from somebody?

NoNeck · July 21, 2009

The First Three Months - C2 P2

-The First Three Months-

Chapter Two: Part Two

-XWA World Heavyweight Title Tournament Quarterfinals-

Alex DeColt over James Justice

Casey Valentine over Aaron Andrews

Jay Chord over Steve DeColt

JD Morgan over Shawn Gonzalez

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“So the tournament moved into the second round and….”

“Well…..”

“I’m a very positive person; the glass is always half full with me.”

Stallings removes his glasses and rubs his eyes, blinking them uncomfortably to refocus before looking dead into the camera.

“But trying to get those guys to decide on who moved on into the finals was an epic event. In fact, I have never personally been involved in a business meeting of any kind that lasted as long.”

“We already talked about politics before on a promotion by promotion basis. But I don’t think that you can actually understand the level of sh*t that was going on behind the scenes at and around the Smith Barney, which was the hotel we had set up shop in for our summit, to decide who the World Champion would be.”

“Five people, each representing one of the companies, vote on whatever the issue is and that is that.”

“Sounds simple enough, right? Five people; no ties.”

“But each promotion had a backstage group of their own that generally decides everything beforehand. Maybe it’s the owner and his booker. Maybe it’s the booker and a few of his agents, or maybe it’s the son of the owner and his cohorts pulling the strings behind the scenes. In any event, there were two distinctly different levels of politicking going on; it’s something that was unavoidable. One among the owners of the XWA’s promotions, and the other, the backstage goings on in each company.”

“I think everybody knew it was going on and was willing to play it that way, for better or for worse.”

He sighs.

“It’s still the wrestling business, you know.”

“But having to pacify whatever hierarchy you have at home and still be a part of the XWA’s forum…..or quorum….or…..”

“…..whatever it was, it had to be very difficult.”

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“I didn’t think it was a good sign for the Xtreme Wrestling Alliance to have been so divided among the group about who should be the first to carry the World Title. It was their first big decision and they were already teaming up and lying and scheming behind everyone else’s back?”

“Not good.”

“When I found out I wouldn’t have to be traveling around to all of the companies under the XWA’s umbrella like some of the boys, I was a very happy camper.”

“Not that I didn’t appreciate doing jobs for Rip’s crew in the Carolina’s. I did need the paycheck at the time and they wanted my face on their local commercials; it was a fair exchange. I was just very much looking forward to getting back to the SWF or TCW. One or the other, I didn’t care.”

“That was before Danny Jillefski swung some sort of deal to have me be exclusive to NYCW.”

“He called me before he finalized it to let me know and gave me a quick rundown of what was happening up there; what his plans were for me and my character. All of that stuff.”

“He sold me in about ten minutes.”

“I went back to the condo I was sharing with JD Morgan at the time and gave him my house keys and a few hundred bucks and told him to put all of my stuff in storage.”

“I drove up to the city that night and had a three am breakfast with Danny. I knew by three thirty that I had made the right decision.”

“I never did go back for any of my stuff.”

“Wonder what happened to it….”

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“Somehow, and I’m not sure how this happened……”

A wry smile.

“…..there was a lot of support for a Jay Chord vs. Casey Valentine final.”

Now he raises an eyebrow, really cementing his position on the use of the word ‘somehow’.

“But that meant that both JD Morgan and Alex DeColt would have to put someone over on pay-per-view, in what would end up being a fairly high profile matches for both the promotion and all the men involved.”

“JD was on board, as I remember it. I’ve heard him talking to some of the young guys backstage a number of different times, and one thing I’ve heard him repeat more than once is that wins and losses aren’t worth a damn in this business.

“They never have really mattered, have they? If you think about it?”

“This isn’t boxing or MMA; nobody’s win/loss record ever gets brought up when you talk about top contenders. We measure in momentum, crowd response or heat…..”

“…..things like that.”

“Anyway, JD would and did put Jay Chord over, and in tremendous fashion I must say.”

“I heard that it was actually JD’s idea to get a little bit of color when he took the DDT that ended the match, just to make it look that much better.”

“He’s a real pro.”

He sighs twice, taking a short breath and wiping his brow in between them.

“But Alex……”

Jillefski looks away from the camera.

“Alex is Alex.”

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“Were they out of their minds?”

He is serious and his feathers are a bit ruffled just talking about it.

“No disrespect to Casey, who is a nice kid and is still, to this day, getting better at the craft.”

“But having me put him over?”

“On pay-per-view?”

“The boys would sh*t all over it. The fans would sh*t all over it.”

“It was stupid idea.”

“But for some reason, the idea to have the two finalists come from Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was starting to gain some traction as the meeting wore on. They thought that having the two guys in the finals be known friends would give both MAW and XWA a way to go storywise.”

“You know the classic friend vs. friend feud, one slowly turning on the other one, the whole nine yards.”

“And obviously Rip was on board one hundred percent. And he had Steve’s support; Steve who put James Justice into the frigging tournament for no reason.”

“But Rip also had Gonzalez and FCW backing him, or at least they were right on the fringes of supporting him.”

“And when it came to pushing or protecting his boy Jay, Rip was a goddamned bulldog.”

“I think that intimidated Gonzalez a little bit.”

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“I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I was not just there to represent the interests of Freedom Caribbean Wrestling, but also to help support Mr. Chord.”

“Mr. Rainer made it very clear that we were involved in the XWA because of Mr. Chord, and that proper respect should be paid to he and his company.”

“I carry out the orders, I don’t make the decisions.”

He pauses to reflect for a second and brings his voice down noticeably before continuing.

“Mr. Chord must’ve made quite an impression on him when they met.”

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“I agreed with Alex in this case, and not just because I was personally going to be involved in said match, like he was.”

“It would be fair to say that MAW becoming hot as a direct result of this tournament featuring their two top stars and giving birth to an equally hot storyline coming out of the match would eventually benefit the entire XWA, ok.

“I get it.”

“But it would be also fair to say that nobody was willing to just surrender ‘flagship promotion’ status to Rip and the MAW in our second month of existence simply by dropping that entire scenario into his lap.”

“And that’s exactly what that storyline would’ve done.”

“Had it played out that way, that is.”

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“Everybody went to bed that night pretty well convinced that the Chord vs. Valentine match was set in stone and that the vote in the morning would be just a formality.”

“But when we came in that next morning, Shawn Gonzalez was singing a completely different tune.”

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“Mr. Jillefski called me right before I turned in for the night. We talked for quite some time about the ramifications of both title match scenarios.”

“He made a lot of good points.”

“When we hung up, I immediately dialed Mr. Rainer, but I only got his answering service.”

“I got it twice again in the morning too, so when I went into the vote, I did so on my own.”

-Semi Finals-

Alex DeColt over Casey Valentine

Jay Chord over JD Morgan

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Up Next: The Next Three Months-Part 2-Including the XWA World Title Tournament's Final Round Results

NoNeck · July 24, 2009

The First Three Months - C2 P3

(OOC: Credit and mad, mad respect to Reaper for the XWA World Title. :) )

-The First Three Months-

Chapter Two : Part Three : The XWA World Heavyweight Championship

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-XWA World Heavyweight Title Tournament Finals-

Alex DeColt over Jay Chord

“Look at it; it’s beautiful isn’t it?”

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He holds up the belt and then slides it onto his desk, letting it come to rest, folded perfectly.

“Why shouldn’t I have won it? Be real.”

“I mean, Jay was obviously right on the verge of becoming what he is today, which is one of the biggest stars in the wrestling universe.”

“But back then, there was no way that he should be going over me for a big title…”

“….. no way.”

“I get that he was the owner’s kid and all of that, and that was a fine reason to give him a big push in the MAW. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in in this business if it weren’t for my father and the opportunities he gave me……”

“I’m just saying that, at that time, I was much more of a known quantity in the business than Jay was, that’s all. I had a face people knew with a list of titles already won, not a picture of my legendary father and a copy of my birth certificate as my credentials, you know?”

“But, and this is going to be a candidate for ‘understatement of the year’……”

“…….Rip did not see it the same way.”

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“Sometimes Alex is so far ahead of the curve that he puts some of us in the business to shame. For real; and you can quote me on that.”

“He and he alone pulled CGC into the new millennium. Not Jack, not Stevie, and certainly not that idiot, Ricky.”

“But at other times, Alex can be one of the most shortsighted, self serving assh*les on the planet. He got that from his father……”

“…….and you can also quote me on that.”

“Jay might not have had the amount of matches under his belt that Alex had at the time of the tournament…..”

“…..but he had buzz. A real buzz.”

“People that weren’t even part of the industry were talking about that online video that he, Casey, Cam, and Aaron made……”

The shot of Rip fades and is replaced a second or two later by the footage in question. Casey Valentine and Jay Chord stand alongside Aaron Andrews as he slams a car door shut behind him. It is nighttime; so late that the streets are empty. And as he begins snickering along with the three young men in the view, Cameron Vessey, the camera’s operator, shakes the shot in rhythm with his snorts.

Suddenly the silence of the dimly lit parking lot is broken as the door of the pub across the street comes swinging open. Chord and the boys scatter and when the camera comes to a stop, they are around the corner, peeking out of a dark alleyway, looking back toward the parking lot.

The lens refocuses and the shot is of MAW head referee and associate booker Jay Fair as he walks across the street, fumbling in his pockets for his keys. Leaning noticeably on his ladyfriend and talking rather loudly as he does so, the woman takes the keys when he finally produces them and the two slowly get into the car, opening the driver’s door that Andrews just slammed shut.

She fires up the engine, but instead of hearing the roar of the metal monster’s engine, the horn starts blaring.

HONK!

The wipers come on and begin slapping against the dry windshield, breaking in a nice beat with the song blaring out of the radio, which has also come to life. Fair and the woman are wide eyed, watching the whole thing play out when the car’s airbags deploy, filling up the front of the car.

Chord and the boys can’t take it any more and begin laughing hysterically, staggering out of the alley, doubled over.

Jay Fair hears them and puts two and two together. Another rib by Jay and his cronies.

JF: “Jay? Jesus Christ, Jay, what the hell is your problem? This is…..”

He is cut off as the airbags suddenly inflate again, growing so tight so quicly that they pop, spraying the contents of the bag, a Chord specialty, all over the car’s occupants.

Fair wipes it out of his eyes and gets a look at what he is covered in, growing more enraged by the second as his mind processes the last ten seconds or so.

JF: “JAY, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU! THIS IS SH*T!”

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The footage fades and we return to Rip, who is still sitting in the balcony of the building, the young guys running the ropes and taking bumps behind him.

“They taped all sorts of that kind of stuff. Most of it just got played for the boys, either backstage or in hotels. Sure, it was childish, but it was done in good fun.”

“But, for whatever reason, this one got posted to one of those online computer web places……”

“…..you know what I mean….”

“…..and it caught fire.”

“It was all over the place, and not just in our business. Once it got to the mainstream media and some interview requests and the like started to filter into the office, I knew we had something that needed to be capitalized on.”

“Buzz like this comes out of the thin air, it’s not something you can manufacture, and we had it sitting in our laps.”

“Add to all of that, the fact that Jay was out hottest and most over wrestler and someone I had already discussed pushing on the XWA’s stage with some of the other owners.”

“Instead Alex DeColt decided he was going to succeed with the first power play among the XWA’s board of trustees.”

“But it was a reminder to me about what business I was in, feel good underdog promotion alliance or not.”

“I might be an old bull, but I can still turn my horns on you, you know what I’m saying?”

“I went backstage to his locker room right after the title match and told him so, personally.”

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“Alex was the right guy for the XWA at that point in time, I was sure.”

He shrugs.

“I didn’t have a vote, mind you, but it came back he way I would’ve liked.”

“Jay Chord was one of the biggest players on the Carolina’s scene but he was still growing into his britches in the business, so to speak. He could afford to wait.”

“What I didn’t know, and what I’m sure Jay and Rip didn’t know, was how long he would have to wait.”

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Up Next: The Next Three Months-Part 1-Including the Fallout from the XWA World Title Tournament's Final Round.

Bigpapa42 · July 24, 2009

Another awesome segment, NoNeck. Love the stuff about Jay. I'm hoping we get some interaction between Rip Chord and Alex DeColt, as the tension between them could be fun.

As for that belt... Love it. Reminds me so much of the old NWA World Championship, which I assume was intentionally...

NoNeck · July 27, 2009

Another awesome segment, NoNeck. Love the stuff about Jay. I'm hoping we get some interaction between Rip Chord and Alex DeColt, as the tension between them could be fun.

As for that belt... Love it. Reminds me so much of the old NWA World Championship, which I assume was intentionally...

Thanks Bigpapa.

Don't worry, there will be plenty of tension between Rip and Alex as we go on. In fact, I think this entire diary could be subtitled "Simmering Tension" due to the web of trust vs. distrust I hope to weave with everyone involved. I think I picked some good people to do it with, personality wise, and really have the perfect vehicle for breeding contempt and envy among business partners, a collaborative effort.

There are still two or three main characters that have yet to be introduced as well. I'm sure that they are going to add to the depth of the cast, in one way or another.

Concerning the XWA Championship render, Reaper is a genius, don't you think? And yes, the NWA title was indeed the idea behind it. I never thought it would come out like that, though. So very cool.

Another entry on the way, probably this afternoon or tonight.

NoNeck · July 29, 2009

The Next Three Months - C3 P1

(OOC: Thanks to Flamesnoopy for the DWN alt.)

-The Next Three Months-

Chapter Three : Part One

“Response from the Rest of the Industry”

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“They didn’t act like they even cared about us being any sort of threat to their status quo.”

“Outwardly, that is. And I when I say ‘they’, I’m referring of course to SWF and TCW.”

“A friend of mine actually told me that, as a backstage VIP at an SWF TV taping, he heard Eric Eisen laughing about how the existence of the XWA was going to allow them to rely less on SCCW for development.”

“He actually thought that they were going to just pick us over while we sat back and watched, without being to do anything about it.”

“Just like his old man did all those years ago. It almost killed the business then, too.”

“The truth was that we were able to keep our stars because we actually had the money to pay them….. on par with what SWF or TCW could offer them, too, in most cases.”

“That’s because of JK and only because of JK.”

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“Really it all depended on how much they were worth to us on the larger scale.”

“Basically, the more promotions in the XWA that you worked for, the more valuable you were to us. In fact there were only……what……six or seven guys that worked for more than three?”

“Alex and Jay, JD, Davis Wayne Newton…….”

“…James Justice, at least right at the beginning until Jillefski brought him up to New York to stay…..”

“….and of course, Steve Flash, once he returned full time.”

“Those guys were the backbone of the XWA.”

“In fact, one of the first ‘backbone’ guys to get the call from Cornell was Davis Wayne Newton.”

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“They laid it on pretty thick. It was the full court press if I’ve ever seen it.”

“Tommy, his wife, and Duane Fry, their new booker, showed up at my hotel room after I worked a show in Vancouver and took me and my wife Ashley out for the evening.”

“They stopped just shy of saying that I would be World Champion if I signed with them, but they put together a pretty impressive package even without the promise of one of the most prestigious titles in the business finding its way around my waist.”

“All sorts of incentives in the contract, too. It was backloaded with easily attainable ‘performance’ bonuses; Tommy’s lawyers went all out trying to bring me into the fold.”

“The problem was that I just didn’t feel like jumping to TCW was the right move for me at the time.”

“I made a damn good living on the independent circuit, working as much or as little as I want to. Nobody tells me I have to miss my niece’s graduation to do an appearance at some theme park or that I have to be a thousand miles away when my brother’s wife is giving birth, like they would if I worked the schedule that they boys in TCW work.”

He reflects. For a second he looks as serious as a heart attack, but then his face goes back to looking as it usually does, one of boyish good looks and near constant smirks.

“You remember that I had a cup of coffee in the SWF, right, in 2008?”

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“F*cking Doctor Davey?”

“Do you believe that?”

“I mean, I was nineteen, I didn’t know any better. I was living my dream.”

“Until they put me out there like that. In a white coat and scrubs; all that.”

“The response on the house shows should’ve been enough to convince them that it was a bad idea. The fans hated it.”

“They hated me.”

“But they went ahead and started shooting all of the vignettes that we were going to use to debut the character and all of that.”

He scratches his head.

“They had no idea they were sending me to my death.”

“Or maybe they did, I don’t know.”

“Anyway, you know the rest. I was gone in less than four months; terminated when I refused to go to RIPW. And let’s be honest, there was nothing for me to gain by going there.”

“When I got home, I took a long time to think about the experience in SWF.”

“If that’s how they treat you at the next level?”

“They can keep it.”

“I told Tommy that I’d consider his offer, but never really gave it a second thought once we parted ways. I called him about an hour later to let him know. It was very cordial.”

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“We knew what we had in Davey and weren’t planning on just letting him walk away.”

“But when he called me and told me to tell Danny and Rip, the other two owners he worked for, that he would be reporting to work as scheduled that weekend……”

“…..well, I think you can say that……”

“….we realized we actually had more than what we thought.”

“We had a loyal soldier.”

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Up Next: The Next Three Months-Part 2

NoNeck · August 12, 2009

The Next Three Months - C4 P1

(OOC: Took a short working vacation and left my laptop at home on purpose. The break from writing has me pretty recharged and raring to go. The next few entries are going to be promotion feature-ettes split into two parts. Basically, I'm going to try to flesh out each XWA promotion by talking about the roster, the booker, the backstage dynamics, and product oriented stuff. That should take us right up to the point of having an actual show. Accordingly, I'll have Show 52 up in SOTR V2 sometime this afternoon or evening. There's no reason that they should both be buried by dinnertime. )

-The Next Three Months-

Chapter Four : Part One

"CGC"

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“I never liked being on top and carrying the main title while I had the book working under my father because it really created a sense of distrust among the boys.”

“And you know why? Everyone thinks that you are just booking yourself on top because you’re in the power seat. Not because it might also be what is best for business.”

“But as the owner of CGC and a founding member of the Xtreme Wrestling Alliance, I had absolutely no problem with being the first to wear the XWA World Title.”

“If the boys have too much of a problem with me holding it, let them get their checks signed by someone else.”

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“Let’s be clear, Alex DeColt is CGC these days.”

“Not in the way that the Chord’s and their clique are MAW, more in the way that Alex needs to be involved in every single part of his business, on every level, in every situation. Writing, production, post production, legal, accounting, public relations, promotions…..”

“Everything.”

“That’s a risky proposition. Better men than him have tried to do something similar and found themselves burned out before they knew it.”

“Burned out or buried.”

“But there’s no one else that he thinks he can trust that is also willing to step up and handle some of the responsibility for him, which is too bad.”

“Jack? Steve? Both of them are great guys, but they both had their eye on the SWF and TCW, trying to figure out how they could get there. Even if they said and did all of the right things publicly, they weren’t really worrying about CGC and the XWA.”

“They were worried about themselves.”

“And Ricky?”

“Now look, I like Ricky personally, but he has a reputation in the business as being one of the most…..”

Jillefski looks like he is searching for just the right word until he blurts out the perfect one.

“…..idiotic……..yeah, idiotic men to ever lace up a pair of boots.”

“The stories are legendary.”

“I heard, one time, he called Jack the morning after a very late night and told him he was blind.”

“Turns out he was calling from the frat house lawn he had passed out on, face up, and hadn’t considered the effect that a morning frost might have on his eyelids.”

“How can you trust a guy like that with sequences and finishes and public appearances and everything? All of the stuff that an upper carder has to deal with.”

“The same goes for the backstage, board room type of stuff. How could Alex not run himself ragged?”

“Would you turn your family business’s future over to a guy like that, in any situation.”

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“My brothers all had their minds on different things when Pops decided he wanted to go home and get some rest.”

“No doubt that Jackie and Stevie were trying to figure a way to make more money for themselves instead of trying to help keep the business afloat.”

“I can’t really blame them. That’s where their careers were at that point. And I don’t think either of them thought much of the XWA concept, to be honest.”

“At least not at the start.”

“Ricky is a great little brother, and if I was in a fight, he’s the brother I’d want to have my back. Without question. But Pops told me expressly that he had been dropped on his head by our mother at least twice and that expecting him to handle the book or do anything important for CGC other than wrestle was an insane idea.”

“So the roster might’ve looked a lot like a CGC roster should’ve looked to an outsider, stacked heavy with DeColt’s at the top of the card.”

“But in reality, I had plans to push some different folks up toward the main event.”

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“Alex was really high on the return of the ELITE, who were one of the most successful heel factions that the DeColts ever went up against.”

“And why not?”

“Eddie Chandler could talk for days upon days and Dan DaLay was still an impressively sized man, regardless of the miles on his big body.”

“And DaLay never left. He got a lot of offers, but he never decided to walk out on the family and CGC. Alex never forgot that.”

“But the thing that made the updated version of ELITE special was the two men he book-ended into it: a new frontman and a young prospect to develop.”

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“I first met Trent Shaffer when he was still working part time as a teenager.”

“When he came to CGC as a development guy, my brother Steve said that he had a couple of students that were deserving of a look and Trent was one of them.”

“So we all worked with him, and through a lot of training and natural ability, he has become what he is today. Back then, in 2013, he was just coming into his own as a superstar.”

“He was also wrestling for Steve in RIPW under a hood, calling himself Insanity.”

“I loved it. He worked a completely different style. It was good for him.”

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“Primus Allen was a guy that worked for me for a few years in MAW.”

“He got over somewhat; a midcarder if I remember right. But for some reason he never caught the attention of either TCW or SWF. He never even got offered a development deal by either of them, and you know the types of turds that Peter Michaels was sending to RIPW before Steve Flash bought it…..”

“That should tell you something.”

“When Alex was looking for someone to develop in his heel faction, I suggested Primus.”

“Not because I liked his work so much as……”

He smiles.

“…..well, I guess you could say I wanted to see how he would do in the CGC with his contract with us set to expire.”

“And again, it’s not like there wasn’t anything there to work with. I told Alex straight out that we was a little rough around the edges but that underneath, he was a corvette.”

“I should have told him that he was more like one of those kit cars that hobbyists put together. I’m sure that the pieces were all there, but it’s the putting them together that was going to be the bitch for him.”

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Up Next: The Next Three Months-Chapter Four: Part Two "CGC Continued"

Eisen-verse · August 12, 2009

But Pops told me expressly that he had been dropped on his head by our mother at least twice and that expecting him to handle the book or do anything important for CGC other than wrestle was an insane idea.”

Haha. I couldn't stop laughing after I read this exert. Makes sense...

All in all, NoNeck. You have a very fluid writing style. Very realistic and that's why I love reading what you put forth. I know the feeling about seeing your diary get buried rather quickly as some of the quicker posting diaries may end up shoving it down it's way. I think once the backstory (which I love BTW) comes to a close and you start to see shows being posted... Your fan base will certainly come back to the fold. ya know?

Anyways, Just wanted to say that I loved your last post. Really good work man, As always.

Good to see you back and recharged!

foolinc · August 12, 2009

Oh thank Jebus. I thought you really burnt yourself out and this diary was going to die before it was even started.

And poor Ricky. It's bad enough he's not the stereotypical DeColt in terms of size and ability, but you made him into an idiot too? Though I'll let it pass because it was funny.

Bigpapa42 · August 12, 2009

Another good segment, NN. Glad to see your back.

Quite enjoy how you're slowly building things here... So gradual. And yeah, the Ricky DeColt stuff was pretty funny.

NoNeck · August 13, 2009

Glad you all enjoyed the Ricky DeColt stuff. He'll play a fairly prominent role in the proceedings, but Alex will still be one of our two main contacts with the CGC (the other being their booker, who will make their first appearance in the next segment).

I don't know what it is about Ricky though. The semi-cross-eyed smiley stare, the hair, or just the name "Ricky"; something makes me think he's a slow simple man. Not Sling Blade slow, but maybe Sling Blade with a GED.....

Part Two of the CGC profile should be up soon; I've still got to post the next Supreme TV in V2 as well.

NoNeck · August 24, 2009

The Next Three Months - C4 P2

(OOC: Still going through the individual company profiles; CGC's is pretty interesting. They all have the beginning of their stories stuck in there, however buried or seemingly obvious. Also, posted show 52 of Supreme TV in the other thread, SOTR V2. Give it a look if you're interested. )

-The Next Three Months-

Chapter Four : Part Two

"CGC 2"

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“Now, this story has been told a thousand times.”

“Farrah Hesketh did a lot of things for Alex DeColt.”

“She was his head referee, a road agent, and, as some say, the head booker for CGC, starting about two months before the whole XWA thing started to take shape.”

“But I’m going to tell you the gospel; the absolute truth, ok?”

“There’s no doubt in my mind that there was more to their relationship than what the public saw.”

“To that end, I believe all of the booking for CGC was a collaborative effort between them. Farrah might’ve had the actual title of ‘booker’ and the salary bump it came with, but when it came to actually putting the shows together, she and Alex worked hand in hand.”

“And yes, I meant to use that particular figure of speech.”

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Farrah Hesketh sighs, obviously tired of answering this question.

“In no way, shape, or form, were Alex DeColt and I ever together, romantically.”

“Sure we worked an ungodly amount of hours together, trying to grow CGC into the XWA’s flagship promotion and were seemingly joined at the hip ….”

“…..so I can see where one of the boys backstage might’ve seen that and started it as a rumor, probably just to amuse themselves. I’d guess that’s where it began.”

“Our roster was full of guys that loved to hear themselves talk. Not that they were all that way; some were better than others. But still, everyone knew who the ringleaders were.”

“Even though he wasn’t technically one of the veterans back there, Jake Idol had his own little following.”

“A bunch of real idiots, they were.”

“There was a reason he ran with Chord and Andrews when they started coming up here. They’re all cut from the same type of damp, stinking cloth.”

"That's all I have to say on that subject, ok?"

She sighs again and changes the subject, running her finger down the nearby computer screen that she is using, coasting through the CGC roster from when she started with the book.

“Among our younger wrestlers, I really liked Greg Rayne at the time. His toolbox was overflowing we he started making appearances for us. Sometime thereafter, Jack took a liking to him; invited him to start working out with he and Ricky.”

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“Rayne was a guy we had our eye on. So was Reggie Bishop, who had really elevated his game since realizing he was more naturally suited to being a heel. We also had Chris Flynn at the time, who after putting in so much time in 4C, was happy to be in a place that didn’t feel like a financially strapped indy."

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“All in all, I was satisfied with the group that I had to start with. Not that it wouldn’t change in the coming months; there were a few workers with contracts coming up that I was overjoyed to be about to dump.”

“And there were a couple that I knew we couldn’t afford to lose.”

“But what can you do?”

Partial CGC Roster

Main Event

Alex DeColt – F

Steve DeColt – F

Jack DeColt – F

Trent Shaffer - H

Upper Midcard / Midcard

Ricky DeColt – F

Davis Wayne Newton - F

Aaron Andrews -H

Eddie Chandler – H

Dan DaLay - H

Jake Idol –H w/ Jenny Playmate

Shawn Gonzalez -F

Shane Nelson – F

Lee Rivera - F

William Hayes - F

Lower Card

Primus Allen –H

Reggie Bishop -H

Greg Rayne - F

Chris Flynn-F

Robbie McNamara -H

Jason O’Connor –H

Managers/Staff/Non-Wrestlers

Eric Tyler (RA)

Ashley Grover (M)

Farrah Hesketh ®

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Up Next: The Next Three Months-Chapter Four: Part Three "MAW"

NoNeck · August 26, 2009

The Next Three Months - C4 P3

-The Next Three Months-

Chapter Four : Part Three

"MAW"

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Rip turns back from watching the goings on as the ring crew sets up the MAW’s ring a balcony level below.

“I like to think that we ran like a well oiled machine.”

“Our operation was to be envied by the other XWA promotions and most of the big label guys too.”

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“You know how I feel about Rip Chord.”

The camera closes in on Flash’s worn, over-tanned face.

“As much as I respect him….”

“….and he is a legend…..”

He swallows.

“….when it comes to business or shop talk, Rip is completely full of sh*t.”

Flash takes a second to clear his throat, maybe even a little bit amazed with himself for being so frank.

“They weren’t nearly as bullet proof as he might have you believe. Far from it actually.”

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“There were a lot of speed-bumps along the way for the XWA but the first shot that really stung us as an organization was the backlash from MAW elevating Jay Fair to take over for Rip on a day to day basis.”

“Or, more directly, the fallout from the story behind it.”

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“Apparently, Rip was pounding out some twenty year old intern, and I don’t mean in the wrestling ring……”

“….although I suppose that was entirely possible, too.”

“Anyway, a couple of the boys at the time, who will remain nameless, didn’t take too kindly to the boss having a relationship with a woman who they believed was their girlfriend.”

He chuckles to himself.

“Their words, not mine.”

“How they rationalized it, I don’t know. How many boyfriends did that broad have?”

“But they were really mad at Rip, and it got a whole bunch of them riled up at the company all at once.”

“From what I hear, the tension was unbelievable. Even with Jay’s gang running interference for the old man. ”

“After one particular backstage interlude with one of the boyfriends, Rip decided that it might be best for the promotion if he took a step back from the day to day, on site running of MAW for a little while and retire to his office.”

“But him hiding out upstairs and making Jay Fair his message boy changed that place for the worse.”

“Accordingly, the atmosphere backstage went from being a just a two and a half ring circus to being a full fledged asylum.”

“Jay Chord and his boys ran roughshod over anything and everything.”

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Up Next: The Next Three Months-Chapter Four: Part Four "MAW Continued"

NoNeck · September 2, 2009

The Next Three Months - C4 P4

-The Next Three Months-

Chapter Four : Part Four

"MAW"

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Jay Fair, one of the most respected officials in the history of the business is in his wrestling room, which sits like a museum above his finished garage office. The camera gets a look at some of the memorabilia as it focuses. It is clear that much of it is one of a kind, personalized in some way or another.

“I have had some really good times in this business and also some very bad, trying times.”

“The absolute worst time I’ve ever had in wrestling was the period that I worked for MAW. Bar none.”

“Actually the time when Rip, Jay and the rest of their clique thought I was a mole for Tommy Cornell and that I was trying to get some of their stars to jump ship to TCW, that was the absolute worst time I’ve ever had.”

“And just like I said when it happened, f*ck that and f*ck them; I was never a mole or a spy for Total Championship Wrestling. They had no idea what was really going on.”

"They still don't, for that matter."

“But we’ll get to that story a bit later on, I’d imagine.”

He pauses and the background music stops as well, really emphasising the look on Fair's face, which is serious as death, and teeming with unresolved anger. Then suddenly, it is gone, and the overview of MAW continues.

“Anyway, I can’t begin to tell you how much it infuriated me how some of those assh*les treated me. No respect.”

“I guess they don’t teach respect for the business at any of the wrestling schools anymore; you either have it in you or you don’t, and a lot of the younger guys, the ones that ran with Jay for starters, didn’t have a single iota of it.”

“Any of them.”

“Respect is something that is woven into the very fabric of this business.”

“And if you don’t have it you’re dead in the water.”

“Unless you’re related to the owner, that is.”

“When Rip moved upstairs, you'd better believe he left explicit orders about who was going to get pushed by the MAW.”

“Obviously the focus of all of our shows was the Second Sons, which, by 2013, had grown to be a faction of around five or six members.”

The shot switches to some footage; it’s a promo package, which starts with the Second Sons criss-crossed gold and black ‘S’ logo flashing across the screen before moving into a highlight package. Everybody is featured, Casey Valentine, Cameron Vessey, Aaron Andrews, KC Glenn, but the focus eventually becomes Jay Chord.

There is no doubt about it, he is a prodigy; a gift bestowed upon the business by the wrestling gods. And there is also no doubt that he is the crown prince of the Carolinas, with title reign after title reign, big win after big win, all of which are chronicled in the promo.

“Jay Chord had all of the talent in the world, he had an entire company behind him because of his father, and yet he was such an unyielding assh*le to everyone who crossed his path that I would give you one hundred dollars if you could find ten people in this business who count him as a friend.”

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Up Next: The Next Three Months-Chapter Four: Part Five "MAW Continued/Roster"

Bigpapa42 · September 2, 2009

I love the slow build, NoNeck. Gradually revealing just a bit more. Great work so far.

NoNeck · September 8, 2009

The Next Three Months - C4 P5

-The Next Three Months-

Chapter Four : Part Five

"MAW"

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Fair takes a second, running his hand over a framed picture of himself standing between Sam Strong and Bruce the Giant, two titans of the sport and both enormous men who dwarf the diminutive former referee.

“They just don’t make ‘em like they used to do they?”

Wistfully, he places the picture back where it was.

“We had some stars; some name guys, but no one really had the whole package…..”

“….except for Jay.”

“There were some upper midlevel guys; Erik Strong was a good example. He’d been around awhile and, when he started getting over, we decided to keep him strong and position him near the top of the card.”

“It made sense, business wise.”

“The guy was and is a hell of a worker…..regardless of his very average look.”

“And I don’t mean that to sound disrespectful to Erik, because that’s not how I meant it. He is always going to have work in this industry, but he has a ceiling, booking wise. Whatever the proverbial ‘it’ is, he doesn’t have ‘it’. But he can take a bump like nobodies business.”

“And, he’s a hell of nice kid.

He pauses for a quick second, taking a sip from a cup of coffee.

“But as far as old school guys on the roster to talk about? I don’t know what to tell you. JD was old school, but he was also out on his own planet most of the time……”

“……and Brent Hill was just biding his time in MAW at that point, just waiting for TCW to bring him back or SWF to sign him up.”

“We knew that him leaving was as sure as a sure thing can be and just wanted to get some good matches out of him before he left.”

“It was a shame what the pills had done to him by that point. He could still bring it in the ring like nobodies business, but outside the squared circle was where everything was getting out of hand.”

“Brent had gotten let go by TCW late in 2012 after they felt his performance was being affected by his toxicity.”

“He disagreed.”

“And yes, I know that he took them for the pain; I know how this business relies on them to keep itself going in a lot of cases.”

“But like a lot of the guys who took them to relieve their chronic nagging aches, he had a ‘if-one-is-good, four-is-better’ mentality. I’m sure that didn’t help.”

“And when his wife decided that enough was enough and packed up and left while he was gone one December morning, Brent turned into a certified wildman.”

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“For such a quiet guy, once his wife left, Hill became a party monster.”

“Ask anyone.”

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“Brent Hill was the craziest son of a……”

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“After his wife walked, it was like someone flipped a switch in him.”

“And he did it all; everything.”

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“Everything.”

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“He drank the most, talked the loudest, smoked the most, did the fattest rails; if you took two, he’d take three…..”

“That kind of guy. A great one.”

He smiles remembering, but soon shakes his head.

“I’m not saying it was smart or anything. We were all pretty reckless to some extent, but isn’t everyone?”

-MAW-

(Partial Roster)

Main Event

Aaron Andrews - H

Jay Chord - H

Casey Valentine – H

KC Glenn - H

Cameron Vessey -H

JD Morgan –F

Brent Hill –F

Erik Strong- F

Davis Wayne Newton- F

w/ Maryam Vega

Upper Midcard/Midcard

Peter Valentine –H

Donnie J –F

Antonio -H

Teddy Powell-F

McManus -F

O’Farraday -F

Shady K -F

Knickles -F

Lower Card

Mikey James- F

Jared Johnson-H

Mercutio Sleep -F

Manager’s/Announcers/Personalities

Kristen Pearce – (HM)

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Up Next: The Next Three Months-Chapter Four: Part Six "RIPW"

NoNeck · September 11, 2009

The Next Three Months - C4 P6

-The Next Three Months-

Chapter Four : Part Six

"RIPW"

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“I already had most of the guys I wanted on my roster; I wasn’t going to be doing a rebuild or anything like that. Most of the money that I got from Stallings right at the start went to things like barricades, an entrance ramp, new ring steps, a new ring…..”

“You get the picture, right?”

“Stuff.”

The shot changes from Flash to a panoramic of the old RIPW setup, a dingy old ring with a large piece of duct tape just off the center, beat up barricades, and a couple of curtains on a rigging for an entranceway. Suddenly everything morphs into what the RIPW is today. A sleek black and grey six-sided ring, sheet steel barricades with the RIPW logo emblazoned on each one, waiting to be beaten on by the ringside fans. A long, Japanese indy style entranceway with a short ramp with a multitude of lights built onto the rigging. It goes back to Flash.

“There was no need for me to have much turnover in my guys anyway. I purposely surrounded myself with men I could trust. An underrated trait in this business, I know, but it was important to me.”

“I was able to spend some of that coin securing some foreign talent for a few of our bigger shows.”

“I know that all the sheets said it was predictable, but beefing up certain shows with dream matches was, to me, always smart business.”

“Our most direct competition was CZCW, product-wise. And even though they ran clear on the other side of the country, they were the biggest obstacle in our…..or rather the XWA….selling a maximum amount of DVD’s and such, just based on the fact that our styles are so similar. ”

“But, make no mistake…..”

“My guys were the best wrestlers in the world.”

“And CZCW didn’t stand a chance.”

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“Steve told me to push whoever was having the best matches.”

“You’d think that would make it pretty easy to decide, but damned if it wasn’t the most difficult thing I’d ever done.”

“I come from the mid-atlantic area; I know what I like in my wrestling.”

“Up here, in Rhode Island, I was trying to bring a little bit of that to them, sort of moving that southern mentality into a workrate driven promotion.”

“The bottom line was that it was about matches, but it’s still pro wrestling right?”

He pulls out his book, which looks like a reporter’s ledger, and presumably flips back to the roster at that point.

“Anyway, right out of the gate, I was always seeing the same guys having the best matches. It was hard to look past Duane Stone as the guy who was having the very, very best bouts at the time.”

“Duane was having his last run through the business and had finally decided to don the Black Cobra mask in the United States.”

“We knew he wasn’t going to be hanging around Rhode Island for long, but he was the focus if our shows until he left.”

“Such a talent. Until his knees finally gave out, he was one of the best performers in the world.”

“I also thought quite highly of Davis Wayne Newton at that time, too. He and Elemental III had two of the wildest, fastest paced matches I have ever seen. Those bouts got them over with our crowd instantly; they went from lower carders to internet superstars in one weekend.”

“Frankie Perez, who was just figuring out how to work his ‘straight-edge’ gimmick, Whippy the Clown, turned demonic heel, Trent Shaffer working under a hood as ‘Insanity’, a host of luchas from Gino’s MHW…..”

He laughs to himself.

“We had quite the mix.”

Cattley snorts again and shakes his head.

“And how could I forget……Marc DuBois?”

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Marc Dubois sits up from a set on the bench in a very high end gym and towels off his brow. The mirrors behind him are close enough to see the definition in his tanned shoulders, which glisten under the lights.

“Yeah, I was working for ‘dem an CZCW at da’ same time, so what?”

He shakes his head.

“I was just ‘dere to shake off some of da’ rust. Whatever, right?”

“But dey were all pissed ‘bout it; me working for ‘dem an’ CZCW at da same time.”

“I wanted to tell ‘dem to shove it, but I only have a handful of appearances left, you know?”

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“Every promotion under the XWA umbrella frowned upon it. Anyone working somewhere else, not affiliated with one of the five, usually lost their push and didn’t have their contracts renewed when they came up.”

He shakes his head, almost looking amused but clearly just amazed.

“Dubois didn’t see the problem with working for us and CZCW……”

“….who were our direct competition at the time.”

Disbelief.

“He’s either a huge idiot or a raging assh*le; one or the other.”

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Up Next: The Next Three Months-Chapter Four: Part Seven "NYCW"

NoNeck · September 14, 2009

The Next Three Months - C4 P7

(OOC: We're rapidly approaching the first show, folks, as SOTR V2 has begun its countdown to the end. Is anyone still reading? The following entry contains a psudo spoiler for the other diary, as it discusses a person leaving the SWF. It doesn't ruin the other story, don't worry. But it really helps focus this one from the NYCW side.)

-The Next Three Months-

Chapter Four : Part Seven

"NYCW"

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“You know that I like a good card game, right? Doesn’t everybody in this business know that? In any case, to take a mainstreamed analogy from the world of poker, I decided that there was no other option with NYCW and the XWA other than going all in.”

He pauses, his eyes searching for the exact center of the camera’s lens.

“I handled the booking for the first couple of months without issue, but I had already decided that, once I got the roster mostly restocked, I was going to hire someone else to do it.”

“And I knew exactly what I was doing when I hired John Campbell to handle the booking duties.”

“I didn’t know, however, that hiring Nemesis was going to draw Phil Vibert out of the SWF and into NYCW.”

Jillefski frowns a bit and looks like he is struggling to figure out a way to re-phrase what he is trying to say. Instead, he just looks relieved and lets it go.

“For reasons too numerous to mention, I’ve never gotten along with Vibert. He was and continues to be the most divisive person I know.”

“Enigma is a word that gets gimmicked to death by all of the bullsh*tters in our industry.”

“Jon Campbell is an enigma, and he’s one that is all his own.”

“Vibert is much easier to read.”

“He’s an evil genius.”

“The scary kind, sure, but the predictable kind too.”

“But, that said….”

He smiles.

“…I’ve been in hundreds of towns; literally in thousands of jam-packed buildings. The most unpredictable place on this earth is New York City. And Phil Vibert and Jon Campbell ran this f**king town with DAVE; they were the kings of New York wrestling.”

“Actually, they were the kings of the whole Tri-State area.”

“Philly. Newark. Give it a name; they owned it.”

“So when Campbell told me he wanted to bring in his best friend…….”

He puts up both of his hands, playing the part of the scale, weighing his options, so to speak.

“Why would I let my personal feelings about Vibert interfere with the formation of what could be the best two headed creative monster in the history of the business?”

A shrug.

“Did I catch a lot of BS from longtime NYCW fans for what I was about to try, like many of the sheets have suggested over the years?”

“Sure.”

“I got a lot of hate mail. But who cares? It was all in the name of the revolution.”

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Up Next: NYCW Part Two

Bigpapa42 · September 14, 2009

Definitely still reading and definitely looking forward to that first show.

doctorjones · September 14, 2009

I am also reading, and waiting excitedly for the first show.

Definitely enjoying the looking back style for the diary.

NoNeck · September 21, 2009

The Next Three Months - C4 P8

(OOC: The NYCW Feature is going to take the longest, just based on the fact that it's going to be the promotion that this diary is focusing on. But once we're through these and the FCW one, it'll be time for the first show. Thanks for being patient. )

-The Next Three Months-

Chapter Four : Part Eight

"NYCW Part Two"

“Where should we start?”

Wearing a black ballcap pulled low and chewing his gum loudly, Phil Vibert smiles and leans back, throwing his hands behind his head and getting comfortable.

“New York City Wrestling was the place that got my creative juices flowing again, not in the least part because of the fact that I got to go to work, once again, for the fans of the Tri-State area.

He snaps his gum.

“But getting to work with John Campbell to guide an upstart promotion against the SWF’s of the world was exactly what I needed. I had had enough with the status-quo and standards and practices and all of that corporate nonsense that the big two are all about.”

His face, as always, is fixed in this condescending about-to-crack a joke position.

“I had to get back to my roots.”

“And my roots are in New York City, baby.”

The shot switches to a highlight package, hammering through the all-too-brief history of DAVE. It is set to their trademark filthy dirty 90’s metal theme song and it doesn’t miss a moment or a person. Eddie Peak, Eric Tyler, The New Wave, The Cult of the Grey Dragon; they are all represented with their hardcore brothers and sisters in the best possible light. Vibert begins talking over the montage as the music fades down a bit.

“Danger and Violence Extreme was my baby; my firstborn.”

“And when it was climbing and we were scratching and clawing and grabbing for a spot at the big boys table in the world of professional wrestling, I was climbing too.”

The montage music switches to a much more morose tune and the footage behind it changes along with it. This package shows the host of lowlights that the end of DAVE brought forth. Bad wrestling and blown spots from distracted or disinterested stars, disjointed booking by a creative mind clearly near its breaking point, and controversial angles galore.

“But when DAVE was sinking…….”

The shot goes back to Vibert. He has taken of his hat; a smallish bald spot showing as he hangs is head. The comfortable hands-behind-head pose gone.

“So was I.”

A short montage plays of Phil’s time in the Supreme Wrestling Federation, using his superagent gimmick and playing his role to much critical acclaim and fanfare. The somber music never stops playing, however.

“I didn’t enjoy my time in SWF so much.”

He looks back up at the camera.

“It didn’t have anything to do with any of the talent that I worked with; make no mistake. I love some of those guys like they’re my family.”

He shakes his head.

“But not having anything to do with the creative side of it, but for a few hours at the end of their failed ‘DAVE Invasion’ angle……”

His face returns to normal, twisting into a bit more of a scowl in the process.

“…..that really fried my ass. Especially with a good-for-nothing piece of monkey sh*t like Peter Michaels running the show.”

The other Vibert is coming out now, the maniacal four-thoughts-a-second Vibert who can barely move his mouth fast enough to get it all out.

“Peter Michaels couldn’t book his way out of a paper sack and the only reason he had his job was because he was a corporate lackey. End of story. His ideas at their worst were idiotic and at their best boring, stale, or overdone. But he had the backing of the entire Supreme Wrestling Federation family, and so on your TV it went.”

“Dredge like Jack of Love and the Bull Wrecker/Alicia Strong garbage; it made my stomach turn watching what he called pro wrestling programming. It was Sports Entertainment, nothing more and nothing less.

“It got squashed by the higher ups at the last minute, but did you know that he had planned at one point to have an on air three-way between Golden, Giant Tana, and Jenny Playmate?”

“Not in the ‘triple threat match’ sense either; in the ménage’ sense.”

“The guy had no idea what wrestling fans…”

He is getting even more charged up, pulling his hat back on, backward this time, and leaning in closer to the camera.

“…..what REAL wrestling fans wanted; or what they were even about.”

“And when he took one of my concepts, the Cult of the Grey Dragon, and turned them into a shabby horror movie with a joke storyline with this guy biting that guy and all that nonsense……”

He stands up, yelling to Peter Michaels wherever he is.

“THEY AREN’T VAMPIRES, IDIOT, AND THEY NEVER WERE!”

“It’s like he has the reverse Midas touch, that guy.”

He smirks.

“Because the COTGD were a piece of solid booking gold and it took him no time at all to turn them into a big piece of sh*t.”

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Up Next: NYCW Part Three

NoNeck · October 6, 2009

(OOC: In case you missed it, I annouced the end of Secrets of the Ring Volume Two earlier today. While I am a touch disappointed that I didn't finish the last fifteen shows as I planned to, the reason I did so was that this story had gotten so much traction in my wrestling mind that I couldn't focus on anything else. I hope that everyone who followed V2 will jump into this one and everyone that has already gotten onboard is ready to have some fun.)

<div style="text-align:center;"> -The Next Three Months-

Chapter Four : Part Nine

"NYCW Part Three"

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The camera pulls back and sitting beside Vibert is the legend himself, John “Nemesis” Campbell, sitting coolly with his arm slung over the back of his chair. The years have been kind to him, even with the notable damage he did to his body during his hardcore twilight; he still looks like he could kick your teeth down your throat.

“What my friend here is trying to say, in not so many words, is that the wrestling industry in 2013 was begging for something different.”

He grins and rolls a toothpick to the other side of his mouth.

“And Danny Jillefski gave us the opportunity to champion that cause. NYCW was going to a place that it had never been before: the present day.”

“The whole operation before the XWA and Jillefski’s buying out The Stomper was so late eighties it was probably wearing a Members Only jacket. The fans were long gone; it could’ve been a deathtrap for all of us. It could’ve been the place all of our reputations were ground into dirt.”

Campbell pulls the toothpick from his mouth and gives it a quick flick.

“And to be honest, I wasn’t a fan of the Xtreme Wrestling Alliance when I heard about it from Danny. Some of the people involved….and I’ll name names later….the superfluous level of political red tape, all of that stuff.”

He snorts.

“It seemed like a rehash of the way the business worked in the early days, only with a bigger budget and bigger assh*les in control.”

Vibert laughs out loud at Campbell’s proclamation, but the intense semi-scowl on the hardcore legend’s face never wavers.

“But having carte blanche to do whatever with whoever in the NYCW, in my adopted hometown of New York City, with Phil to bounce things off of, was too much to pass up, regardless of my opinion of the extended set-up with Rip and Alex and all of that.”

“Danny said that we were sitting on a goldmine and he was right.”

Time for another toothpick. They must be good.

“I don’t think he knew how right he was.”

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“I know it’s been done by other companies in the past, but I really enjoyed the countdown marker that we kept going both on our website and in person, at the live shows.”

“I purposely held off with any updating of the equipment, no new pyro poppers, no new ring apron with a new logo…..”

He smiles.

“Nothing.”

“I was saving it all up for the big day.”

“April 7th, 2013.”

<div style="text-align:center;"> <a href="<a href="http://s179.photobucket.com/albums/w286/NoNeck_photo/?action=view&current=XWA.jpg" rel="external nofollow">http://s179.photobucket.com/albums/w286/NoNeck_photo/?action=view&current=XWA.jpg"</a> target="_blank"><img src="<a href="http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w286/NoNeck_photo/XWA.jpg" rel="external nofollow">http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w286/NoNeck_photo/XWA.jpg"</a> border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

NoNeck · October 19, 2009

The Next Three Months - C4 P10

(OOC: Wanted to put this out there to get my backstory completely finished, and hopefully set the table for the first NYCW show of SOTR V3. I'm nearly done with my closing write up for V2, which has turned into a beast of a post, but when I put that up it will only be a matter of time until this rolls with some regularity. Thanks for hanging in )

-The Next Three Months-

Chapter Four : Part Ten

"FCW"

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“The booking in Freedom Caribbean Wrestling was, is, and shall always be centered around one man: Mr. Rainier, better known as Puerto Rican Power or Da’ Power.”

“One reason I’m sure I’ve been in this seat as long as I have is that I’ve come to understand the aforementioned rule as ‘The Golden Rule’; it’s the only one that matters.”

“But the trick of it is always building up a steady stream of potential challengers for him, whether he is working as a heel or as a babyface. They don’t need to be long term foils; the line is overcrowded as it is, but positioning two or three of them at a time into a spot where they’d be viewed as viable opponents for Da’ Power is key.”

“He likes to pick his opponents.”

“Actually, he’s taken the idea of creative control to an almost unheard of level.”

“But he is the boss. And what the boss wants, the boss gets, right?”

He sits there, staring at the camera for an uncomfortable few seconds. Someone off camera prompts him to let him know he can continue. He laughs.

“There is no more to tell, I’m afraid. The booking strategy for FCW is very simple…….”

He leans forward.

“Push Da’ Power…..”

“…..and everything else will take care of itself.”

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“We had a pretty good thing going with the folks down at Freedom Caribbean, in my opinion.”

He takes a swing of water from a label-less bottle he has sitting in his lap. You can tell by the face he makes as he swallows that he wishes it was something else.

“Mr. Power ran his operation like we did back in the old days. One show a month, a strong upper card that’s built around a couple of key guys who he knows aren’t going to look for work anywhere else….”

This draws a small grin from the usually slow to smile ring (bar) legend.

“….and he ran it with an iron fist.”

“I can’t say that I blame him in the least.”

A quick montage happens onto the screen, throwing together a ton of PRP clips, mixing in a look at some of their other stars, head booker Shawn Gonzalez and JD Morgan most prominently behind the boss.

“And, at least at the beginning, the other owners in the XWA were content to just let them be.”

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“Rip can re-imagine history however he wants, but he and Alex brought up their plans for FCW when we were working through the whole NYCW buy.”

He pats both of his suit jacket pockets before finding his pack of cigarettes, popping one to the top of his soft pack with a flick of his finger.

“If Da Power only knew then……”

Light. Inhale. Exhale.

“….well……what I knew then.”

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Up Next: A Show!!!

Dragonmack · October 19, 2009

Finally got a chance to look it over. I have to say it rivals Scapino in backstage shenanigans, and impact on the wrestling world. Definitely something I will be following.

P.S. Alex DeColt really is a selfish S.O.B. isn't he?

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Secrets of the Ring Volume Three : Jillefski Takes Manhattan (NYCW 2013)

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