Giel M Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 I'm wondering what your dark matches looked like... From the excellent results you kept getting, I'm suspecting you did a lot of momentum management in them. Then again, huge roster, they should've been just full of "keep 'em happy" matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ampulator Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Wolf took the belt with 82, or a solid B. By the time he dropped it, he was a hair off 85. His matches as champ all feature folks with substantially higher Psychology or are oddball one-offs (Hawkins/Speed to main event Badge of Honor). Which is fine - I have plenty of them - but it makes structuring other feuds awkward. You need to keep in your mind at all times that you need a challenger with a high B+, A, or A* Psychology if your champion's going to deliver the main event your PPV wants - once you start delivering regular A*s, the goal has to be to make sure your champion does that. He didn't, always, but he was close - but that took work. I disagree that Psych is hard to raise. Psych is slow to raise, which is similar but different enough that I feel the need to stress it. You raise Psych the same way as everything else, but you bear in mind it's slow going. At the end of the diary, Walter Morgan had Psych 70. O'Curle was on 79. This was the Lions' sole remaining weakness in performance, and was something that massively increases the value of, say, the Elite Express. Well, it is definitely slow to raise, I agree with that, but in my experience, it's also the hardest of all Performance Stats to raise. I once managed to make a guy go from a D- in selling, to about a high B in selling, within a span of a year. Within the same time, his Psychology went from a low C+ to a low B-. It could be just that worker, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Casey Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Oddly enough, 82 is my minimum for a World champion as well. Admittedly my World champions so far average 91... but I would go down that low. Psychology is a hard stat to raise simply because so few workers have it in decent quantities. Using 82 again, the only male under-30s to start the game with that or higher are El Leon and Matthew Keith (allowing for stat variances). Almost half the active wrestlers with psychology that good are over 40, with many tied down to exclusive contracts. The rest are almost exclusively on written deals. You can use road agents and training and so on to improve psychology... but it's a hard one to raise. Fortunately, below global level it's not so important to get it that high, but if you're on the Road to Glory then you're going to be hard pushed to score the consistent high ratings you'll need at the higher levels once you get to the bigger sizes. But I digress. Your idea for Katie is an interesting one - the picture you used for her suggesting something different. I seem to recall you used the slightly blurry one throughout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Stranger Posted June 19, 2012 Author Share Posted June 19, 2012 I'm wondering what your dark matches looked like... From the excellent results you kept getting, I'm suspecting you did a lot of momentum management in them. Then again, huge roster, they should've been just full of "keep 'em happy" matches. No momentum management. My dark matches were all about building tag teams - both with experience and with skills. During the time GenOme were refusing to compete they defended the belts in the dark something like seven times. It should be noted that in my head, dark matches weren't being used as literal dark matches but as emblematic of the house show circuit - they were a way to say things like "Tyler & Huggins have been tearing it up on the house circuit" when what I meant was "Tyler & Huggins have notched up a couple of 8-minute pre-show A*s against the Kreed." GenOme's title defences, by contrast, were against dev talents called up for the week for just this reason to represent CZCW title defences such as they claimed in at least one promo to be making. So you'd see, say, Elimination Protocol face off with either an established tag team or two highly-skilled individuals, to tick them up a few notches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Stranger Posted June 19, 2012 Author Share Posted June 19, 2012 Plenty of people have discussed the fact that in long-term sims, Psych deteriorates around two decades in. I doubt that'll happen in this save - the people who don't make it through dev and get released are still getting significant Psych boosts. Let go again, they help raise Psych in whatever promotions they end up with... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ampulator Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Oddly enough, 82 is my minimum for a World champion as well. Admittedly my World champions so far average 91... but I would go down that low. Psychology is a hard stat to raise simply because so few workers have it in decent quantities. Using 82 again, the only male under-30s to start the game with that or higher are El Leon and Matthew Keith (allowing for stat variances). Almost half the active wrestlers with psychology that good are over 40, with many tied down to exclusive contracts. The rest are almost exclusively on written deals. You can use road agents and training and so on to improve psychology... but it's a hard one to raise. Fortunately, below global level it's not so important to get it that high, but if you're on the Road to Glory then you're going to be hard pushed to score the consistent high ratings you'll need at the higher levels once you get to the bigger sizes. I tend to prefer at least 83.1 (which is the lowest a B+ is). That being said, if you are playing an easier version of the SWF (heh), Psychology requirements a lot easier to compensate for. And like Phantom Stranger, if you focus on developing it, it's possible. But generally speaking, my focus is on raising Safety, Consistency, and Basics first, in that order. Then Psychology. I can't workers getting injured or performing under par just because they don't have the minimum to hold the match together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregano Jensen Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 I disagree that Psych is hard to raise. Psych is slow to raise, which is similar but different enough that I feel the need to stress it. You raise Psych the same way as everything else, but you bear in mind it's slow going. In my experience, the thing that exacerbates "it's slow to raise" is "it needs to be really high." There's no other stat where it's even reasonable to say "it needs to be 80+"... and looking at my 2010 CGC save, there are only about 30 workers who can work in Canada and have 80+ psych to begin with. (Needless to say, almost all are on written deals somewhere... only JD Morgan, Matt Keith, Larry Wood and Steve Flash are up for grabs.) And that's the story of why I'm booking CGC and only barely avoiding the urge to put Ed Monton on EVERY SHOW EVER. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ampulator Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 In my experience, the thing that exacerbates "it's slow to raise" is "it needs to be really high." There's no other stat where it's even reasonable to say "it needs to be 80+"... and looking at my 2010 CGC save, there are only about 30 workers who can work in Canada and have 80+ psych to begin with. (Needless to say, almost all are on written deals somewhere... only JD Morgan, Matt Keith, Larry Wood and Steve Flash are up for grabs.) And that's the story of why I'm booking CGC and only barely avoiding the urge to put Ed Monton on EVERY SHOW EVER. You can compensate somewhat without high Psychology, but you need to be darn sure that worker is pretty much great at everything else, especially in the other performance stats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Stranger Posted June 20, 2012 Author Share Posted June 20, 2012 Ed Monton totally deserves to be on more shows. And yeah - one of TCW's biggest assets, honestly, early on is the Tag Team Specialists, a pairing that can be sent to wrestle anybody, and which will help their performance skills considerably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallbanger Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 PS, would you list out your show theme/entrance music selections in one handy reference post? I'm sure I'll find a few things to add to my Spotify 'TEW music' playlist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Stranger Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 PS, would you list out your show theme/entrance music selections in one handy reference post? I'm sure I'll find a few things to add to my Spotify 'TEW music' playlist. Probably worth noting I've never claimed spectacular taste... Doesn't include each PPV's theme as by and large that would involve finding each PPV and hoping the link still works, but does include the ones I can recall: Total Wrestling – Body Count Theme Badge of Honor – Combichrist, Get Your Body Beat Saturday Night Showcase – Kid Rock ft Chad Kroeger, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting Psycho Circus - Skold vs. KMFDM, Bloodsport Malice in Wonderland 2010 - Halestorm, Tell Me Where It Hurts Other - 30 Seconds to Mars, This Is War Aaron Andrews – Garbage, Push It Acid – Prodigy, Serial Thrilla Alanis Springsteen – Disturbed, Mistress Alex DeColt – Metallica, Hero For A Day Amber Allen – Anastacia, Paid My Dues American Buffalo – Kiuas, Warrior Soul American Eagle – Chris Daughtry ft. Slash, What I Want American Elemental – Divine Comedy, Thrillseeker Art Reed – Compton's Most Wanted, Hood That Took Me Under Baroness Emily - Battle Without Honor or Humanity, Tomoyasu Hotei Barry Kingman – Ash, Renegade Cavalcade Billy Fonda – Turisas, The Messenger Billy Jack Shearer – Meat Loaf, If It Ain't Broke Break It Blonde Bombshell – Pink, Get The Party Started Bobby Thomas – Deftones, Elite Brent Hill – Iron Maiden, Two Minutes to Midnight Canadian Elemental – Divine Comedy, Thrillseeker Champagne Lover – Poe, Hey Pretty Chance Fortune – James, Destiny Calling Charlie Thatcher – Prodigy, Their Law Cherry Bomb – 19ninetynine, Vagabonds Chris Rockwell – Aerosmith/Run DMC, Walk This Way Clark Alexander – Joe Cocker, Summer in the City Dan DaLay – Guns 'n' Roses, Civil War Danny Fonzarelli – Crystal Method, The Name Of The Game Davis Wayne Newton – Lostprophets, To Hell We Ride Dean Waldorf – Rise Against, The Strength to Go On Donnie J – Meldrum, Hit the Lights Edd Stone – Genitorturers, I Touch Myself Eddie Chandler – Guns 'n' Roses, Civil War Eddie Peak – Machine Head, Crashing Around You El Leon – Kings of Leon, Be Somebody Eric Tyler – George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Bad to the Bone Floyd Goldworthy – Manic Street Preachers, Gold Against The Soul Fox Mask – Lostprophets, Burn Burn Frankie Dee – Ignite, Fear Is Our Tradition Frankie Perez – Sodom, the Crippler Freddy Huggins – Jamiroquai, Runaway Fumihiro Ota – Requiem for a Dream Giant Tana – Black Eyed Peas, I Got A Feeling Gorgon – Angel Witch, Gorgon Guide – Seek & Destroy, Metallica Harry Allen – Dead Kennedys, Rawhide Hidekazu – KODO, Lion Ian Harris - 19ninetynine, iThink Jack Bruce – 19ninetynine, iThink Jack DeColt – Deep Purple, Smoke On The Water Jack Marlowe – Drowning Pool, Soldiers Jacob Jett – Guns 'n' Roses, Civil War Jasmine Saunders – Jim Steinman, Surf's Up Jimmy P – Meldrum, Hit the Lights JD Morgan – Clash, London Calling Jeremy Stone – Big Sugar, The Scene Joe Money – Guns 'n' Roses, Civil War Joel Bryant – Tool, Sober Joey Minnesota – Marilyn Manson, The Fight Song John Anderson – Iron Maiden, Two Minutes to Midnight John Pathlow – Republica, Faster Faster Johnny Bloodstone – Limp Bizkit, Break Stuff Karen Killer – NIN, Dead Souls Kashmir Singh – George Michael, Flawless Kate Dangerous – Within Temptation, Stand My Ground Katie – Metric, Help I'm Alive Kazuma Narato – Republica, From Rush Hour With Love Keith Brothers – Mindless Self Indulgence, Shut Me Up Kirk Jameson – Muse, Assassin Koshiro Ino – Battle Without Honor or Humanity, Tomoyasu Hotei Laura Huggins – Jamiroquai, Runaway Lauren Easter – Garbage, 13X Forever Lobo Blanco – Los Lobos, La Pistola y El Corazon Marat Khoklov – Ministry, Psalm 69 Marc DuBois – Dimmu Borgir, Perfection or Vanity Marc Speed – Body Count, Surviving The Game Marv Statler – Rise Against, the Strength to Go On Masked Patriot – New York Philharmonic, Fanfare For The Common Man Maverick – Guns 'n' Roses, Civil War Melody – Paramore, Born For This Merle O'Curle – Self Preservation Society Michelle Cox – Garbage, Enough Is Never Enough Mayhem Midden – Motley Crue, Shout At The Devil Nate Johnson – Deftones, Elite Nathan Priest – Queen, Gimme The Prize Natural #1 – Reel Big Fish, Live the Dream Natural #2 – Reel Big Fish, Live the Dream Nichiren Amagawa – Yoshida Brothers, End of the World Peter Hopper – Turisas, The Messenger Phil Vibert – Leonard Cohen, First We Take Manhattan Remo Richardson – 2Pac, Only God Can Judge Me Raku Makuda – Rob Dougan, Speed Me Towards Death Randall Hopkirk – Meat Loaf, If It Ain't Broke Break It Raven – Black Veil Brides, We Stitch These Wounds Rick Law – Foo Fighters, My Hero RDJ – RATM, No Shelter Ricky DeColt – The Network, Teenagers From Mars Rhino Umaga – Kanye West, Power Robert Oxford – Tool, Sober Rocky Golden – Disturbed, The Game Ronnie V. Pain – SOAD, Toxicity Ryan Powell – Rise Against – Worth Dying For Sam Keith – Rolling Stones, Gimme Shelter Sammy Bach – Sisters of Mercy, This Corrosion Sayeed Ali – Ice Cube – Why We Thugs Scout – Seek & Destroy, Metallica Sean Deeley – Cold, End of the World Sean McFly – Vitamin String Quartet, Headstrong Serena Starr – Garbage, Enough is Never Enough Shingen Miyazaki – Republica, Kung Fu Movies Stephanie Wade – Pink, U + Ur Hand Steve DeColt – Queen, We Will Rock You Steve Gumble – Dead Kennedys, Rawhide Stevie Grayson - Nightwish, Wish I had an Angel Suzanne Brazzle – Anastacia, One Day In Your Life Tamara McFly – Beyonce & Shakira, Beautiful Liar Teddy Powell – Nightwish, Wish I Had An Angel Texas Pete – Cage the Elephant, Ain't No Rest For The Wicked The Cannonball Kid – Republica, From Rush Hour With Love Tommy Cornell – Judas Priest, Breakin The Law Troy Tornado – Dragonforce, Fury of the Storm Tyson Baine – Iron Maiden, Number of the Beast UK Dragon – Fat Boy Slim, Weapon Of Choice Ultimate Phoenix – Space, Voodoo Roller Walter Morgan – Self Preservation Society Warren Technique – Muse, Assassin Wolf Hawkins – Metallica, Of Wolf and Man Zeus – George Michael, Flawless Zimmy – 19ninetynine, iThink Zoe Ammis – RESIST, I Am Not The Enemy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regis Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 So, to celebrate the end of this diary, I've decided to produce some in-universe writing about TCW as it has emerged. I'd like to add a disclaimer now that not all of the opinions stated in the article that follow are mine; they're designed to provoke discussion, and hopefully provide some entertaining reading from an in-universe fan's-eye view. Enjoy! Think Again With Aurelian Smith Jr. Today marks the release of Horatio Dangerous’ wrestling memoir, ‘Take It Home, Boys’. In honour of a man who has attracted a great deal of comment from the wrestling fan base, I therefore present to you the Horatio Dangerous’ TCW edition of… Think Again! Traditional Booking saved TCW. Not really. When TCW appointed Horatio Dangerous it hardly needed ‘saving’, but the argument goes deeper than that. There were a great many fans who lauded the change of booking under Horatio Dangerous as a return to the days when wrestling was a serious sporting contest and was treated as such. These same fans bemoaned the change that came later with the reintroduction of more story-like storylines, fearing that we would see a return to Eisen-style ‘Sports Entertainment’, and be tuning in every week to watch a soap opera instead of a sporting show. They predicted dire consequences, but those consequences never emerged. Indeed, TCW made a huge leap forward in terms of quality at that time, and all because of a step away from ‘Traditional Booking’. Traditional Booking did not save TCW; talent saved TCW, and Traditional Booking did nothing to either help or hinder that. The Traditional Booker’s mantra is simple: find the best guys, give them an excuse to get in the ring, decide who wins and then get the hell out of the way. A noble sentiment, but entirely dependent on stage one. If you don’t have the best guys, Traditional Booking exposes and undermines them. Oh, and if you’re one of the top guys for reasons other than athleticism and an exciting moveset? God help you. Troy Tornado’s championship reign was a triumph in the ring, but a yawn-fest outside of it as his gimmick was brutally hacked off with a chainsaw. Edd Stone, the world’s most loved Heel, was a sideshow act instead of being the genuine draw that he is today. Freddy Huggins would never have had the chance to blossom that he’s since been given if he hadn’t been given the chance to punch above his weight through storylines. In short, Traditional Booking did not save TCW. Troy Tornado, Johnny Bloodstone, Tommy Cornell, Sam Keith and Jeremy Stone saved TCW. Traditional Booking just shrugged its shoulders and let them get on with it. TCW has intentionally mishandled SWF and DAVE talent. It don’t matter to Remo. But seriously; there’s a grain of truth in this statement. Marc DuBois has been ignored and devalued as a member of Generation Omega, a stable designed to elevate young talent. Christian Faith, participant in some of the greatest battles that Eisen ever booked, has been relegated to a midcard stable with a fun gimmick but no chance of making it to a Main Event slot. Eddie Peak has been an awesome character without a proper feud to his name, floating in limbo for a long time, and The New Wave, once hailed as the best and most exciting tag team in professional wrestling, haven’t had a serious storyline or a genuine chance at the belts in a long time. Darkwave’s status as a competitive mid-level stable is fine, until you realise that it contains some incredible talent from both DAVE and Supreme, in Sammy Bach, Jack Bruce and The Once And Future Bumfhole. Not exactly an encouraging picture so far. But seriously, they’re doing fine. The New Wave have been out of the limelight for a long time, but they’re not the only ones, and the revitalised Tag Team Division is one of the jewels in TCW’s crown, based around two Brits who no other promotion would have shown so much confidence in. Christian Faith is looking fondly back at 40, and his legendary presence gives the Texas Outlaws instant legitimacy, while protecting him from the stress and strain of trying to hang with much younger men at the top. Marc DuBois need some serious work done on his character – Edd Stone has mind games sewn up – and as for Darkwave, Bach and Bumfhole are being given a chance to shine in the ring, and JB has done well considering he’s failed to impress in the ring against anyone but the ultra-reliable Troy. Remo is the biggest argument against this claim, as his legend-killing streak and no-nonsense character have really struck a chord with fans, something the bookers have been quick to cash in on. Ultimately, even in a globally powerful company like TCW, there’s not always room at the top for everyone, and people have gravitated to those places that have suited them best. Except Eddie. I’ll never forgive them for Eddie. The Tag Team Division’s rise has been an unqualified success. Tell that to The Machines. John Anderson and Brent Hill came to TCW with the expectation that they would slowly but surely rise to the top, either by phasing out of the tag division and into singles competition, or else by elevating tag team wrestling to the heights it deserves. Well, we waited, and waited, and waited, and as we look now, the Machines are also-rans in a large division, perennial contenders whose pedigree actually counts against them for winning the belts – because they need no justification to challenge, they don’t get it, and because they don’t get it, there’s no percentage in them winning. It’s a similar story with the Easy Riders, established as serious contenders with a brutal, hard-hitting style, before being shuffled out of the way to make room for the next set of challengers. Art Reed and the Keith Brothers, for all that they were treated seriously in their different combinations, were always going to head inexorably for singles competition, no matter how well they performed in the division. And here’s the thing: no matter how much they’ve tried, Tag Team wrestling is still the secondary attraction, while singles wrestling is where big things happen. I know I’m being picky. I know I’m asking a lot – hey, TCW, revitalise a decaying division, bring in a new influx of talent and elevate your titles to the same level as your World Heavyweight Championship, all at the same time! Still, it’s a sore point. Wrestling has laboured for a long time under the notion that teamwork is the weak man’s way out. All the best Tag Team strategies are heel strategies, distracting the ref, using the five-count for double-teams, diving in to break up pinfalls and submission holds. But even then, that’s just a matter of perception, and it’s one which can be corrected. A couple of efforts have been made to create the perception that the Tag Belts are truly Main Event material, but realistically speaking, it’s always been tentative, and it’s never stuck. When neglected contenders get the time they deserve and when the belts get the respect that has been hinted at, then I’ll give you ‘unqualified’. Until then, I’ll stick with just a ‘success’. The Women’s Division is a step behind in terms of style. Yes, but so what? Traditional Booking didn’t save TCW, but it did make the Women’s Division into the biggest stage in the world for women’s wrestling. This is one time when the switch to storyline-oriented Sports Entertainment would have actually harmed the product. The perception by owners and bookers that women can’t go on the same level as men has led to a lot of attempts to cover for perceived weaknesses by pushing women based on look and narrative convenience, rather than allowing them the freedom to strut their stuff in the ring. By just giving them an excuse to get in the ring and go, TCW has shown that even the B-List of women’s talent can produce matches that people will happily pay to see. TCW is NOTBPW South. No, NOTBPW is TCW North. Which isn’t true, but it’s just as ridiculous as the other statement. So TCW has brought in a bunch of NOTPBW talent – so what? They bought out the entirety of CGC, and nobody’s going on about that. Johnny Bloodstone, Jezza, Sean McFly, Edd Stone, Duane Stone, it wasn’t them that defined NOTBPW in the first place. Duane is as much a Japanese guy as anything. Edd Stone’s wacky character was always too cartoonish for his father. Sean McFly rose to fame with the SWF, and as for Jezza and Johnny, do you think that Canada has the monopoly on badass technicians who shouldn’t be allowed near a microphone? To be fair, when TCW was going pure old-school, they came close on a couple of occasions. Still, their re-acceptance of Entertainment has moved them back onto their own path. The world has room for both companies, long may they remain. The All-Action Division is under-represented. The All-Action Division bloody well should be. Let’s face facts – the flippy-floppy belt is a warm-up act without anything like the prestige of the other titles TCW has to offer. It’s a relic, a legacy of a time when Heavyweights ruled the roost, and high-fliers were a sideshow that the bookers had no faith in. Well, Edd Stone has proved that crazy athletic action can draw, and even the most stoically grounded of the TCW Main Event will bust out a dropkick or a high cross-body when it fits the flow of the action. Sammy Bach is creeping closer and closer to Main Event status, and in time we’ll see full-on cruiserweight action headlining pay-per-views. The All-Action Division needs to be retired and replaced with something more indicative of the changing face of TCW, instead of continuing to be a somewhat embarrassing reminder of its segregated past. TCW has abandoned its own stars. No, no, no. This infuriates me so much every time I see it bandied around on the internet, or hear it brought up in conversation. Fans hark back to the glory days of the company, talk about HGC and the rise of DAVE, and complain that the guys who made TCW what it is today have been ignored and dismissed. Troy Tornado leads a midcard stable, RDJ has been out of the title picture for a long time, BLZ Bubb and Genghis Rahn have been and gone, and in their place we’re seeing DeColts fighting the ELITE, Remo crushing Tommy Cornell, and you can’t swing a chair without hitting a Stone. Home-grown TCW names brought the company to the top, but they’ve been sidelined in favour of outsiders. There is so much wrong with this that I almost can’t believe people still say it. Firstly, if you think TCW has sidelined home-grown talent, plucked out of the Indies and brought to the top, then let me run this list by you: John Pathlow, a minor player on the Japanese Indies, and Kashmir Singh, a man with no national pedigree, opening for Malice In Wonderland. Frankie Perez. Rhino Umaga. Canadian Elemental. Davis Wayne Newton. Rick Law. Merle O’Curle and Walter Morgan. Freddy Huggins. The entire Women’s Division. The Keith Brothers. Aaron Andrews. The former Fox Mask. Shingen Miyazaki. Kirk Jameson. UK Dragon. Wolf Hawkins. Tommy frickin’ Cornell. All of these people, TCW names more than they’re names anywhere else in the world, all playing major roles in the biggest and most important TCW show of all time. You’re welcome. On a serious note, RDJ has indeed been rotated out of focus. BLZ Bubb, one of the old reliable heels from the HGC days, is now working for the SWF. Genghis Rahn has been doing the same for a long time now. The original Painful Procedure work out their contracts down in the indies, and the Young Guns might as well be invisible. But let’s be fair, here – we’ve seen all of them before, haven’t we? RDJ vs. Tommy Cornell was the shizz five years ago, the hottest property in wrestling, but if they were still running that now, we’d be falling asleep in front of the TV. BLZ Bubb got a new lease of life in an SWF starved of top-level talent. Genghis Rahn has feuded with top-level names like Vengeance and Enygma. It’s a truth that bears repeating: nobody has come out of TCW worse than they went into it. Even Danny Jobberelli, without his hair, his gimmick or anything resembling a push, could walk out of TCW and main event any indie promotion in the country without a second thought. It’s a sad fact that they need to rotate talent, that sometimes people have to be sidelined so that better workers can come to the top, but working in TCW is never going to be bad for anyone. There’s one last thing that I want to say before I conclude this special edition of Think Again. TCW cannot abandon its own stars, as TCW has nothing but its own stars. It seems crazy to think of Christian Faith and Jeremy Stone as TCW guys, but seriously, it’s true. When people talk about the great matches that Jezza has had, they talk about his confrontations with his brothers in Canada, but they also talk about him wrestling Wolf Hawkins, or teaming with his daughter against Edd Stone and Gorgon. Christian Faith will always be a legend of the SWF, but when you look at the amount of Texas Outlaws merchandise that sells these days, it’s hard to argue that he isn’t entering a new chapter in his career. In contrast, guys who have tried to keep on with the same things that made them great in previous promotions have floundered in TCW. Joey Minnesota, the Man In Search Of A Gimmick, could easily reach the top in DAVE by playing a no-nonsense suplex machine, but in TCW he found himself lost as one of many talented guys who couldn’t distinguish themselves in the company’s competitive atmosphere. Marc DuBois’ mind games might have got him to the top in the SWF, but the different character assumptions in TCW meant that such a gimmick could not take him to the top. Guys who have embraced their new life in TCW have been rewarded for it with loyalty and screen time. Guys who have kept their status as throwbacks to other companies have not achieved as much as they might, no matter how much effort was put into them. TCW has been a very divisive company. Being the number one in the world, how could it be anything else? Still, for all the misconceptions and strange ideas people have had, there’s one question that I think we can all agree upon: TCW deserves its title of the best wrestling promotion in the world. You’ll get no arguments from me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Stranger Posted June 24, 2012 Author Share Posted June 24, 2012 Once I post the final piece of diary - it'll be the next Take It Home, Boys - someone remind me to talk about alternate followups, ones I spitballed along the way and finally decided not to do. Ideas, left in the dark, itch until they come out. Just realised I hadn't gotten around to doing this. Now, to be fair, I did earlier mention the Maggie-as-booker idea, which would've involved heavy watching of things like WWE Legends of Wrestling Roundtables and archive binges of territorial angles, both to get the programs right and the kind of issues that a female booker faced at that time. But there were a few others... My favourite of which lasted about three-quarters of an hour while I was out walking; the idea clicked, but not that long afterward, I dismissed it as unworkable. Before then it had got as far as a title; Wrestling in Danger. The idea was to advance the timeline a couple of years or so past whenever Horatio's diary ended. Horatio would have retired from the busy, hectic business of booking a company with weekly TV. He would be booking NYCW instead. But he wouldn't even be an avatar. AN avatar? Yeah... therein lies the problem. RDJ, as I hinted a few times, would be retired and booking full-time. I hadn't decided whether or not he'd be at USPW or he'd have taken a job at AAA, CZCW or FCW to train TCW's stars of the future, and would probably have coinflipped. It would likely have been AAA to build on his experience with the girls. But RDJ wouldn't have been turned into a player avatar either. That was only (only!) going to happen to the Dangerous kids; Adrian at CGC, Richard at a strong if youth-movement-oriented MAW, and Kate as owner-booker of a startup QAW, because Cat Quine, as AAA booker, couldn't sign a contract with TCW even to just stay working at AAA. This is a natural consequence of game mechanics but one which logically frustrates me; in game, placing your dev fed's booker on a bigger-pay contract and asking her to train the wrestlers, given that she runs the dev fed's dojo, should be a pretty simple phone call; we want you, with help, to keep doing what you're doing for more people, and we want to give you money for it. Mechanically, however, it's unworkable. And so I kind of explained it in my head as Cat Quine being suspicious as heck of us and not wanting to have to deal with TCW, which lead to mental characterisation getting odd... which lead to the idea of Kate Dangerous talking backstage with a couple of former Quine girls and eventually breaking off to spearhead a new 'serious' American Joshi format. The story was then to move between them, with CGC getting the most focus purely because of company size and regularity of shows, and the focus being on how the family dynamics would change business for the different companies; occasionally they'd do deals with one another. Occasionally they'd get into competition over one piece of talent or another. Adrian might have huge problems with a CGC employee and try to manipulate Richard into hiring him; the more old-school Richard would run into the same problems and shoot briefly to bring him under control, only for Adrian to then sign the talent away again. Families are huge, fascinating, and inconsistent things, and what eventually stopped me was that I realised that this one needed one player doing all of it to make it fully work, and there was no way in hell I could book three promotions at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReapeR Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 Much appreciated. Excessive Force ended up a lot more important in the grand scheme of things than I'd anticipated. (ReapeR, if you're reading, we're still a month or three off your awesome new belt debuting, my apologies for the delay). A limited field of winners for the PPV prediction contest; Regis, Tigerkinney, Sonfaro and Truth all get the RDJ shirt that recently debuted: http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm75/trenchcoatbrigand/TCW/Merchandise/rdjshirt1.jpg PS, just wanted you to know that I just started reading this a few days ago. And just now got to this post. As I'm typing this, I still can't remember what title render you are talking about. Guess I better get back to this so I can see what it is. Oh yeah, absolutely loving this diary. R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Stranger Posted July 5, 2012 Author Share Posted July 5, 2012 I'm guessing you probably know by now, Reap, and I hope I did you proud. ... As a side note, I need to once again trot out thanks, to those who nominated the finale for this month's Monthly Spotlight, and to everyone who's voted for it. As always, it means a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReapeR Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm75/trenchcoatbrigand/TCW/bookbanner.jpg http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm75/trenchcoatbrigand/TCW/book_open-2.jpg Monday 8th October 2008 In Florida a day early, alongside Tommy and the ever-present, on business trips, 'Lenny from Accounts'. This is chiefly to stop in at a particular shopfront, behind which is a very, very intricate metalsmith's. Reaper Productions, the sign says. They're close to unique, as far as the wrestling business goes – they do business with just about everyone. We went to them with Philly Pro to update the championships we used there, and to bring in the Maximum Championship. The XFW strap we briefly used as the unifications begun? Again, Reaper's work. TCW go to them. The SWF go to them – as does the SWF's antithesis, underground favourite PSW. NYCW. Our developmental fed FCW (though not, I believe, CZCW – may have to talk to Tommy about getting some commissioned). George DeColt comes here... The lobby, you could mistake for a wrestling memorabilia collection; there's photos of them all here, from America, Canada, Mexico, Europe, even Japan... Champions wearing them. Company owners and spokesmen posing with the main designer. TCW. SWF. TWL. CPW. APWF. CWB. CGC. SCCW. DaVE. MHW. The biggest, and the smallest. And today, we're here to pick up a special order before the show tomorrow. We take a couple more photos – it really is part of the deal – and I ask for a copy of one for myself. Tommy on one side with the PPPW championship, myself with a TCW strap, their designer in the middle. There's a spot in the den where it will fit just perfectly. This ^^^!!! Thank you. I know I'm way late in terms of reading this, but thank you. I've been mentioned in a few diaries, but this one was absolutely superb. The simple and heartfelt writing did not go unnoticed. Gave me goose bumps. Once again thank you for the mention. Looking forward as I continue reading this. R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Stranger Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 ...Well, I'll tell you, this was something I didn't see coming. In its last full month, Quiet Retirement picked up the Diary of the Month. Its aftermath, as I noted a couple of posts ago, got nominated for Monthly Spotlight... and as of an hour or so ago, alongside the Supreme Challenge in SWF: Supreme, picked up a joint win in the category. Thanks, everybody. There's a little bit more of a break due before I come back, but you can expect a new project in 2-3 weeks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregano Jensen Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Looking forward to it! (Well, I'm looking forward to my wedding, which is in roughly the same time frame. But when that's over, I'll make sure to catch up...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Stranger Posted October 18, 2012 Author Share Posted October 18, 2012 Hi, everyone. We're coming up on the end of TEW2010 now, and equally, we're coming up on the end of the End of TEW2010 Awards voting. So please, folks - whoever you vote for, go over to the thread and vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.