Welcome. You Know The Drill.

[infinitywpi]

June 2011, Week 3

 

Bryan Holmes has decided to explore his other options.

 

Well. ****.

 

At least things can't get any worse, right?

 

RIPW has made an offer to Pee-Wee Germaine.

 

Well. Double ****.

 

Jeremiah Moose is not happy and refuses to begin negotiations.

 

… hell with him. I got 99 problems, and a Moose ain't a one.

 

… what do you mean, I forgot to reschedule for a day Natural and Love can actually make it???

 

… this week keeps getting better and better. What next, another broken neck in the ring?

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #71

 

Let's get this over with. Open with Rob Reynolds beating Nigel Svenson. Doesn't suck, that's the best thing I can say about it. I team up with Jonnie Perez to face Teddy Powell and Brendan Idol; Powell wins after Jonnie does something dangerously stupid (or stupidly dangerous) and eats the pinfall. Pretty average stuff, really. Marc Speed and Roger Montiero don't stink up the joint, Speedball wins. Jackpot Jordan reminds me why I hate him, he -does- stink up the joint while beating Jeremiah Moose. And finally, KC Glenn and Amazing Fire Fly put on waaaay too long of an Xtreme Ladder match, the crowd turns on them, and this match dies a horrible, horrible death once Glenn wins back his title.

 

Jake Idol manages to drag Bryan Holmes down into a below-average match. Wow. Our hopes rest on the main event of Dragon vs Phoenix... and they come through for us, putting on an amazing match and ending with Dragon retaining.

 

(Show rating: C-, 2,000 tickets. Match of the Night: Dragon/Phoenix. Trash of the Night: Glenn/Fire Fly.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: This... is gonna be a bad week.

[LucianCarter]

I'm surprised you stuck will Moose as long as you did.

 

I decided his soft drug habit was pills not weed so I didn't feel bad when I fired him.

[infinitywpi]

June 2011, Week 4

 

The good news is, we outbid RIPW for Pee-Wee's services. We moved our shows to Thursdays, so the Can-Am Blondes could take part.... wait... what?

 

Owen Love has now left CZCW?

 

… fricken' NOTBPW... how did I miss that signing?

 

Well, we still have The Natural. With Holmes and Moose on the way out... time to see who's available for signing. Billy Jack Shearer... no. Demon Anger... no. Man Mountain Cahill... no. Raul Hughes? Score! Wait... has left the business. No. Wow, slim pickings.

 

And Cliff doesn't want me to re-sign Jonnie, under the same rule that I couldn't resign Paranoia. Well... Jonnie's a bit on the cuff. Let's see if we can get him to learn fast...

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #72

 

We have some pre-show festivities as people are coming in; two short matches as Phoenix gets a quick workout-slash-teaching-session beating Jonnie Perez, and then Holmes does likewise. Hopefully, Perez is learning quickly – we can only do this one, maybe two more times before there's no more time to prove to Cliff that he's learned enough to be useful.

 

Our actual opening match pits Air Attack Weasel against Rob Reynolds in a decent enough opener. Weasel's been slowly getting better... we just haven't been putting him against better opponents. We may need to push him a bit. Next up, Nigel gets a win over Ant-Man and almost gets the crowd interested. Then... what is possibly the worst match we have ever put on as Roger Montiero gets a surprise win over Panda Mask, which the crowd just craps all over, to the point of a “Back To Train-Ing” chant starting up.

 

We make up for that with an Xtreme Title match between KC Glenn and Brendan Idol. Brendan somehow got a ton of momentum from his tag match last week, so we figured he was due a shot... we weren't expecting him to carry himself so well. If he keeps this up, we might give him the title when we move KC Glenn into the uppercard. We then drop back to average as Marc Speed gets a win over Fire Fly in an amazingly boring-for-them match.

 

For the main events, we start with a four-way Tag Title match between Team DAVE, Team Zone, The New Remnants, and Rich & Famous. Phoenix watches my back as I grab the belts, and Team Zone are your new tag team champions. Sadly, it's not the best match... just average. To save the show, we had The Natural getting the Zone Title shot against Dragon; the two put on a great match, hopefully good enough to save the show, but definitely one that belongs among the great main events we've been putting on this year. Oh, and Dragon still retains... I haven't quite decided who's going to take the title form him, now that Holmes is leaving in a month or two.

 

(Show rating: C-, 1,951 tickets. Match of the night: Natural/Dragon. Trash of the Night: Panda/Roger.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: We can't seem to get any traction... we're sure that one red-hot show will get us moving again, we just can't seem to pull it off...

[infinitywpi]

July 2011, Week 1

 

SWF let someone go that we a) could use and b) would be a good fit. We got him, along with another roster-filler.

 

Well, our newest signings would have to help us for a while. They won't replace Holmes... but hopefully they'll do okay. After all... one has big-time experience, and the other... the other knows the place.

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #73

 

Busy show tonight; don't remember the last time I booked this many matches. The lack of two long or one really long match is obvious... anyway, we do a pair of “C'mon, Jonnie.... LEARN!' matches before the show, with KC Glenn and The Natural trying to impart their wisdom to Jonnie. Glenn, of course, carries Jonnie to a pretty good match, and The Nature does almost as well. Hopefully, he's learned enough for Cliff to let me resign him.

 

Now, since everyone's sat down, the actual show. We open with Rob Reynolds taking on our new signing and the newest Zoner, Kashmir Singh. The crowd... isn't into it, and maybe because it's Rob, the match just isn't that good. We're going to need to give Singh a hard push to get over this debut. We follow up with Jackpot Jordan defeating Brendan Idol, and the match isn't any better... we were hoping they had improved to the point where they'd at least have a decent match. American Flash defeated Jeremiah Moose, the match sucked, the crowd is starting to turn on us. The Natural gets in the ring with Jonnie Perez for an actual, 'official' match. He gets the win again, but like before, it's a decent match; Jonnie Perez is definitely learning.

 

The improvements keep coming; Teddy Powell takes on Marc Speed and gets the victory in the match of the night so far. Amazing Fire Fly comes out, and his opponent is... the returning Donnie J, who defeats him handly in a pretty decent match. We then kick into high gear as Snap Dragon defends the Zone Title against Jake Idol... and Jake comes through, working with Dragon and turning out a much, much better match than we were expecting from him. He doesn't win... but if he can do this with someone other than Dragon, he's got a future. I'm actually kinda regretting not making this the main-main event... I put it on beforehand in case Idol stunk up the ring. In the main event, myself and Phoenix defend the Tag Titles against Future Shock, beating them fairly easily. For some reason, Glenn and Svenson work well as singles, but their tag matches just leave the crowd a bit... cold. In retrospect, I made a poor decision putting my match as the main event.

 

(Show rating: D+, 2,000 tickets. Match of the night: Dragon/Idol. Trash of the Night: Flash/Moose.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: The Jake Idol experiment begins in earnest.

[LucianCarter]

Donnie J!!!! Yaaaaayyyyyyy!

[Irish Wolf]

Donnie J Booooooooooooooo. Hope he's the next one to break his neck.

[infinitywpi]

Speaking from 2012 -- Donnie J gets his shot to justify his re-hiring. I won't tell if he succeeds or not... just that what happens is noteworthy...stay tuned...

[infinitywpi]

<p>July 2011, Week 2</p><p> </p><p>

After the show, Phoenix sat down with me and had a long chat. We talked about what he'd learned from his time being exclusive to Mexico; about booking styles; about needing to realize that he and I aren't going to draw as a main event without strong opponents. I agreed with him, but really... we had three choices for tag teams right now, we were trying singles pushes for one of them, and the other was made of a jobber and the Xtreme champion. There wasn't a lot of choice here.</p><p> </p><p>

And no way was I re-hiring the Gilberts. Nice guys, but they're getting too old.</p><p> </p><p>

The bad news was, Jonnie still wasn't quite at the level where Cliff was willing to let me keep him on. Between him and Paranoia... I was starting to feel like I'd been failing the younger generation. The Zone has always been a youth-oriented promotion... at 31, I was one of the oldest guys here until The Natural and Ultimate Phoenix came on board. I went to Jonnie, and I told him... I'd try to make him an offer for after the next show. But if Cliff said no... then Cliff said no. So he needed to study and cram as much as he could in the next week. I'd give him as much in-ring work as I could, but the results were up to him.</p><p> </p><p>

Annnnd to make things worse, The Natural was getting offers left and right. Well... the Can-Am Blondes had a really short Zone career... </p><p> </p><p>

The Gilberts aren't looking too bad suddenly.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

CZCW Onslaught #74</p><p> </p><p>

I get to the show, and the locker room is in chaos. I try to sort things out... Rita's challenging people to loser-goes games of Street Fighter 4, and I'm told she's been playing for over an hour with nobody beating her. The locker room erupts in laughter every few minutes as Pee-Wee is telling the youngsters stories of the olden days (hey, the man's been reffing us for a decade now, I think). And Weasel and Jordan are on opposite sides of the room, refusing to even look at each other; Weasel has a black eye forming, and Jackpot is icing a bruise on his shoulder. Nobody wants to come out and tell me what happened... I'm the boss now, telling me what happened is tattling. Eventually, I figure out that Weasel started it and deserved the black eye he got. </p><p> </p><p>

Weasel's decent. He's not great. But he's decent. I'd hate to lose him over this. So I sit down with him before the show, ask him what's going on... he's had an attitude lately. He tells me he feels like he's getting nowhere. He doesn't want to be thirty and still main-eventing the Zone. Ouch. So, I promise him I'll see what I can about getting him noticed. I'd hate to lose him... but I'd rather he leave happy than mad. </p><p> </p><p>

As usual for the last few weeks, I throw Jonnie out there for short training matches against Phoenix and Glenn; Glenn is going to be a beat when he gets to be well-known, the kid has it all. He even stays in the ring to do the opening match, defending the Xtreme Title against Kashmir Singh and providing a much better match than Singh's Zone debut. Glenn retains, but Singh finally looks like he belongs here. </p><p> </p><p>

After that, we tempt fate and put on a triple-threat match between Brendan Idol, Jackpot Jordan, and Air Attack Weasel. Jordan gets the win because a) the fight was Weasel's fault and b) Jordan complains a lot more, usually. Still, the match isn't the best; not horrible, but it could have been. After that, The Colony of Ant-Man and Antix return to take on the new Pro-Am: Donnie J and Rob Reynolds. Donnie and Rob work together much better than Marc and Reynolds did; but The Colony still isn't ready for prime time and the match suffers as a result.</p><p> </p><p>

Time to get the crowd awake. Amazing Fire Fly takes on Roger Montiero, and proof that Fire Fly can get a decent match out of anyone; this one's almost considered good. Roger eats the pin, of course, but if he can learn... we keep up the string of decent matches as Phoenix and myself defend the Tag Titles against The New Remnants; surprisingly, we get a better match than we did last week. We were honestly expecting Moose to be phoning it in, but he still tried. We then kick the quality up a notch as Speedball defeats Nigel Svenson, but Nigel made a fight of it. The crowd is ever-so-slightly let down by Jake Idol and The Natural, but they seemed to enjoy the ending with Idol getting a flash roll-up victory after taking a beating for the last few minutes of the match. Still... I think it was a good pick for our sub-main.</p><p> </p><p>

And in the main event, Snap Dragon defends the Zone title against Teddy Powell. As is typical of Dragon's matches lately, it's a great match, goes for a while, and Dragon retains. </p><p> </p><p>

(Show rating C-, 2,000 tickets. Match of the Night: Dragon/Powell. Trash of the Night: Pro-Am vs Colony)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

On the next Welcome: It's been over a month since our last good C-show. Will next week be the week we get back on track?</p>

[infinitywpi]

July 2011, Week 4

 

“So... SWF is calling me up.”

 

“You leaving? Do I need to find a new announcer?”

 

“No. Believe it or not... I talked them into letting me keep working here. Since it's my company and all.”

 

“Hrm. Too bad. If you were there and not here, I could get Moe to come back.”

 

“Don't start with me, Mark.”

 

Tonight, we were going to make a major title change. I wanted to put KC Glenn in position to be the one to defeat Snap Dragon. He'd need to lose his title tonight to do that. Personally, I think Glenn is going to be a great CZCW Cha...

 

KC Glenn has received an offer from GCG.

KC Glenn has received an offer from Hinote Dojo.

KC Glenn has received an offer from BHOTWG.

KC Glenn refuses to negotiate, as he feels he's better off elsewhere.

 

… well. ****. Looks like he won't be along much longer. Okay... new plan.

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #76

 

Tonight's show opens with a proven crowdpleaser; Jonnie Perez vs The Natural. Yeap, it's graduated from the pre-show to the show opener, and these two have learned to really work off each other, putting on a really good opening match. The winner is no surprise, but against The Natural... Jonnie looks like he belongs. Our next match is for the Tag Team Titles, as Phoenix and I face The Pro-Am; this time, however, Donnie and Rob prove too much for us an, in what some might call a fluke win, take our titles away in a somewhat blah match. We expect things to get worse with the next match, as it was American Flash in it... but El Mitico shows his good showing against Phoenix wasn't a fluke, as he not only defeats Flash, but looks good doing it. Great... now Flash can say he had a better match than I did...

 

We drop down to 'average' again as Kashmir Singh defeats Jackpot Jordan, and then start kicking things into high gear again as Speedball and Svenson put on a pretty good technical clinic to warm things up. Up next: The Xtreme Title, as KC Glenn takes on Jake Idol. It's one hell of a match from these two, and at the end of the contest, we have a new champion as the Jake Idol push shows it's not over, it's just... downsized. And this time, I've arranged things so that the main event don't be overshadowed by the sub-main: The Zone title is on the line as Snap dragon faces Teddy Powell. We get another long match, and the fans are wondering if we'll have three title changes on the show... and at the end of the night, we have a new champion, and a new 'Match of the Year' contender.

 

(Show rating: C, 1,996 tickets sold. Match of the Night: Dragon/Powell. Trash of the Night: Nothing sucked!)

 

 

On the next Welcome: What's that saying about mice and men?

[infinitywpi]

August 2011, Week 1

 

Phoenix and myself were going to be needed in the main event shortly due to a new champion needing challengers. I was also hoping Donnie could teach Rob some good habits. As for Powell winning... well, he'd had a title run clause in his last contract, and with Glenn leaving, I decided we wanted to keep him.

 

“Hey, Mark... remember how I said SWF had called me up?”

 

“Cliff... if you're gonna tell me I need a new announcer, just do it. I've had a rough day.”

 

“No, not that. They... don't want to renew my contract. They told me it was them, or the Zone.”

 

“And?”

 

“And I picked the Zone. I'll always pick the Zone. It's not just you young guys who call it him, you know.”

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #77

 

Tonight's show is sparse; six matches total. The opening match is a six-man between Weasel, Brendan, and Perez taking on Mitico, Svenson, and Jake. Yeah, you know which team is winning, but the surprise is Mitico getting the pinfall. Other than that, an average match. We drop down a bit as Pro-Am defends the Tag Team Titles against The Colony, an indication that we really need some new tag teams in the Zone. And then an improvement as KC Glenn does his first (and, if I messed up the timing, only) job-out-the-door, and it's to Kashmir Singh. Not a bad match, actually. Then, a four-way contendership match: Snap Dragon, American Flash, Jackpot Jordan, and The Natural. Dear god, I need to have Flash and Jackpot in uppercard matches now... anyway, it's still a decent match, and The Natural gets the win.

 

I slot myself into the sub-main, taking on Marc Speed... Speedball's been gaining a bit of momentum lately, and I'm not ashamed to admit I wanted to leech off of it. I was planning on presenting myself as a contender to whoever I had defeat Powell, hopefully for a long series of good matches. As is, Speedball and I put on a pretty good match, enough to set up the main event of Teddy Powell vs Ultimate Phoenix for the Zone title. This had the potential for trouble... we'd done it before a few times, but the one blew all the others away as they took last week's main event and tried to push past it. I don't know if they succeeded... we'll ask the fans at the end of the year which match they thought was best. But in the end, Powell keeps the title, and the fans are a-buzzing.

 

(Show rating: C, 1,990 tickets. Match of the Night: Powell/Phoenix. Trash of the Night: Pro-Am/Colony.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: Now this is more like it.

[infinitywpi]

August 2011, Week 2

 

Glenn still hasn't accepted any of the offers sent his way... he just refused ours. We weren't sure what was going on there. But, we had decided to do something really fun for our next show: An all-one-show Triangle Tournament. Six triple-threat matches, the winners meeting in two triple-threat ladder matches, and the winners of those two meeting Teddy Powell in a Zone title ladder match for the main event. This was gonna be great.

 

…. hey. Where's Cliff?

 

What do you mean, SWF is using him tonight? They're getting rid of him in a month – they must be doing this to spite us. So... no announcer. Maybe The Guru can handle this on his own...

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #78

 

As part of the pre-show, Jake Idol defeats Panda Mask in an Xtreme Ladder match... and the match sucks. That doesn't bode well.

 

So, we're going to recap this show quickie-style. It'll go faster.

 

Quarter-Finals:

Donnie J vs The Natural vs Nigel Svenson. Winner: The Natural. Good match.

Air Attack Weasel vs Jackpot Jordan vs Jonnie Perez. Winner: Jackpot Jordan. Sub-par match.

KC Glenn vs Rob Reynolds vs Brendan Idol. Winner: KC Glenn. Decent match.

El Mitico vs Amazing Fire Fly vs American Flash. Winner: El Mitico. Sub-par match.

Kashmir Singh vs Marc Speed vs Snap Dragon. Winner: Marc Speed. Average match.

Fox Mask vs Ultimate Phoenix vs Roger Montiero. Winner: Ultimate Phoenix. Sub-par match.

 

Semi-Finals:

El Mitico vs KC Glenn vs Jackpot Jordan. Winner: El Mitico. Average match.

The Natural vs Marc Speed vs Ultimate Phoenix. Winner: The Natural. Good match.

 

Finals:

El Mitico vs The Natural vs Teddy Powell©. Winner: Teddy Powell. Good match.

 

(Show rating: C-, 1,965 tickets sold. Match of the night: Powell/Natural/Mitico. Trash of the Night: Jordan/Weasel/Perez)

 

 

On the next Welcome: Well... we have a feeling that would have gone better with an announcer. We really should look into getting a manager who can also announce, as a backup... but then, Cliff will be leaving SWF shortly, so we won't need one soon.

[infinitywpi]

<p>August 2011, Week 3</p><p> </p><p>

Glenn finally got off his duff and decided who he'd be working for; GCG, on a written deal. We had one more show with him. Now... who needed a good match the most?</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

CZCW Onslaught #79</p><p> </p><p>

Something a little different tonight. We start with a six-man “Pay the guys so they're happy” match involving Weasel, Antix, Ant-Man, Brendan Idol, Kashmir Singh, and Nigel Svenson. Svenson wins, and it's a good, average match. </p><p> </p><p>

Tonight is going to be a night of nice, long matches... let's see if everyone can keep up. Our opening match shows us how it's done as The Natural gets a big victory over Ultimate Phoenix, and sets an extreme high bar for match quality for the rest of the night. Our next match is a Tag Title match between The Pro-Am taking on our newest thrown-together team: Los Luchas, El Mitico and Amazing Fire Fly. And holy freakin' crap if these two teams do their best to beat that opening match. They don't succeed... but they well put on a contest that's just as good. Pro-Am retains, but we have a new heavily-favored tag team in the ranks. Hoping to continue the streak, we pit Snap Dragon against Marc Speed. It's a match we've been overusing lately, but we're hoping with a hot crowd they can outperform themselves. Well... they don't, and the crowd tears into them for it. Dragon wins, but I think they're both just happy to be out of there. We follow that up with Jackpot Jordan defeating The American Flash in the one short match of the night, which sucks... but is still better than that last one.</p><p> </p><p>

Moving on to the main event festivities, KC Glenn does the job to little ol' me. It's simply an average match; what do you know, yet another talented performer that I simply don't have any chemistry with. I seem to be cursed that way. Finally, we have a non-title ladder match between Zone Champion Teddy Powell and Xtreme Champion Jake Idol. It's... not as good as expected. Only slightly better than average. Powell wins, Idol still looks good, and the crowd is saying they should've gone home after the first two matches.</p><p> </p><p>

(Show rating: D+, 2,000 tickets sold. Match of the night: Natural/Phoenix. Trash of the Night: Dragon/Speedball.)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

On the next Welcome: Well. That certainly lost me some respect in the booking circles.</p>

[infinitywpi]

August 2011, week 4

 

Dammit. We can't keep having shows like that if we want to get to the point where we can charge an arm and a leg for tickets.

 

… annnd we apparently forgot to start negotiations with someone after fulfilling their title-run clause. Not only did we just put on a sub-par show... our champion just left the company. Which means we're down KC Glenn and Teddy Powell. We need to do some damage control, and fast.

 

We did make one new signing to replace our two losses; the downside is, he won't be available for another two weeks. Oh, well; we weren't expecting him to make a huge splash, just shore up the Xtreme division.

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #80

 

Tonight's pre-show match is The American Flash over Roger Montiero. It sucks.

 

We open with a six-man Xtreme Title match between Jack Idol, Jackpot Jordan, Snap Dragon, Brendan Idol, Air Attack Weasel, and Jonnie Perez. It's a pretty decent match, and in the end it's Air Attack Weasel walking away with the Xtreme Title. We follow it up with Kashmir Singh getting a victory over one-half of the tag team champions, Rob Reynolds. It's... barely okay. Then, a tag match as the hot new team Los Luchas take on the newest thrown-together team of Marc Speed and Nigel Svenson: We Make You Tap. It's a pretty decent match, actually... far better than expected, and Nigel forces Fire Fly to tap for the victory.

 

And now, a one-night mini-tournament for the Coastal Zone Title. In the first semi-final, I defeat Donnie J in a decent little match. Can you predict the other half? That's right... Ultimate Phoenix vs The Natural. As usual, it's a great match, ending once again with The Natural with the upper hand. Which brings us to the final match, myself vs The Natural. It's... well, we do our best, despite our chemistry issues. It's a semi-decent match, and it ends with me claiming my first Zone Championship in over a year.

 

(Show rating: D+, 2,000 tickets sold. Match of the Night: Phoenix/Natural. Trash of the Night: Singh/Reynolds.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: Fox Mask has the title; all is right with the Zone. How long until they get screwed up? Place your bets...

[infinitywpi]

September 2011, week 1

 

It was a slow week. So, let's take a look at what some former Zoners are up to.

 

In GCG, American Elemental is feuding with Dark Eagle and not coming out of it well... yet. Bryan Holmes was GCG Tag Champion with Sotomura while he was still employed with us; he hasn't lost that belt yet. KC Glenn has yet to debut.

 

In TCW, Art Reed has had a good run of wins, despite two losses to then-TCW International Champion Benny Benson. Flying Jimmy Foxx is pretty much a jobber to the stars, as is Insane Machine – neither won has won a match yet this year. Frankie Perez had a nine-match winning streak brought to an end by Texas Pete, and since then has been losing about twice as much as he's been winning. Mikey James held the All Action Title for quite a while before losing it to Chance Fortune back in April; he's lost three rematches since then, and only has a few wins.

 

Over in SWF, California Love Machine hasn't been used much; three matches in two months, no wins. He hasn't had a win since a vicctory over Kashmir Singh in RIPW, back in February. Citizen X has lost a pair of North American Title matches, and a few small victories. James Prudence has five wins this year – and only nine matches. He's one of the people we wouldn't mind getting disillusioned with SWF and leaving... we'd snap him back up in a heartbeat. Likewise, Matt Sparrow, who has seen six matches in four months, with only one win. Remmy Skye seems to alternate between winning streaks and losing streaks; he just came off a five-match winning streak to job to Valiant in a North American Title match. Valiant, of course, a former Zoner from a few years ago; he won the North American Title form Joe Sexy in April and hasn't looked back since, putting on an impressive eighteen defenses and not slowing down yet. His only loss in that time has been in a 30-man battle royal, and he holds victories over suck names as Runaway Train, Fred Garcia, Zimmy Bumfhole, and Big Smack Scott. He is also half of the SWF Tag Team Champions, but has not had a tag team match since winning the North American Title.

 

In Japan, Black Eagle has recovered from his injuries with seemingly no long-term damage; he is 2-1 since his return and is still shaking off the ring rust.

 

In Canada, American Elemental is feuding with Dark Eagle in GCG and not coming out of it well... yet. Bryan Holmes was GCG Tag Champion with Sotomura while he was still employed with us; he hasn't lost that belt yet. KC Glenn has yet to debut for GCG. Oven Love is feuding with Jason O'Conner and getting the better of it; the Can-Am Blondes are still their tag champs.

 

The others: Rayne Man is in NYCW after a few months in the indies... after a debut win over Land Mass, he's settled into a pattern of jobbing. Teddy Powell has yet to have another match in PSW. Al Coleman, Jeremiah Moose, and Jebediah are still unemployed; Coleman is a regular on the indy circuit, split between wins and losses. Jebediah has jobbed on a few shows, but hasn't been working much.

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #81

 

Our opening match tonight is a Tag Team Title match between Pro-Am and Rich & Famous. It's nothing special, and once again Donnie J retrieves the titles to retain. We follow with a triple threat between Amazing Fire Fly, Panda Mask, and American Flash... hey, all masks... it's not as good as the opener, possibly due to American Fire Fly getting the victory even tho the fans still don't know him that well. Then, an Xtreme Ladder Match between Air Attack Weasel and Brendan Idol; another average match with the champ retaining.

 

Then, a very rare handicap match as Snap Dragon takes on Roger Montiero and The Colony; Dragon gets the win, the jobbers get paid, everyone's happy but the fans. To cheer them up, a tag match: We Make You Tap takes on Jonnie Perez and Kashmir Singh. The actual team wins over the thrown-together team, and it's a decent little match to put on – people are starting to buy into Svenson, I think.

 

For our main event festivities, we start with El Mitico taking the fight to The Natural and managing to look good for himself, despite losing. Then, I defend the Zone Title against Ultimate Phoenix in... well, I admit, it's not as good as previous title matches have been. But give it time... once I get some momentum going, and I get some opponents with momentum, I'll be reminding people why I'm the King of the Zone.

 

(Show rating: C-, 2,000 tickets sold. Match of the night: Natural/Mitico. Trash of the Night: None.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: When the booker holds the belt, everyone questions his motives – when the boys want to know the plan, what will Fox tell them?

[Nightshadeex]

Three weeks until things get ruffled around. And Fox will tell them to shut up because he IS the Zone.

[infinitywpi]

September 2011, week 2

 

Okay, that thing I said earlier about Holmes still being GCG Tag Champion? Forget it, he just lost it. Ah, well... he shoulda stayed with us.

 

Sam Strong has (finally?) retired. And a certain someone has just finished out their contract elsewhere and is now available for us to use... tomorrow. So next week, we'll see how he's been doing...

 

The boys in the back are upset with me... after that last match, there's a few who think that I'm indulging my ego. That I'm 'drunk with power'. And when I tell them I don't know who's going to defeat me yet... they get upset.

 

Hey, after how much I wrote last time, I'm allowed to do a short one this time.

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #82

 

Rich & Famous open the show again tonight, taking on Los Luchas and turnout a pretty good match with a winning effort. Not so good is the Xtreme Title match between Weasel and Rob Reynolds; Renyolds is just too spotty. When you're in the ring with Air Attack Weasel and -you- look like the spotty one, you know it's bad. And when The American Flash has a better match than you... although, granted Flash does -loose- the next match to Kashmir Singh, Flash doesn't suck. Marc Speed then dominates Brendan Idol, and still only gets an average match.

 

For the main events, we have The Natural defeating Nigel Svenson, altho Svenson holds his own for a while. We then rerun Snap Dragon vs Ultimate Phoenix, and Phoenix drops to 0-3 against Dragon in what will probably be the match of the night. Which is sobering, because I'm up next, taking on Donnie J in a Zone Title match. I go into it knowing that I've got a hell of a match to follow. There's no way I'm going to convince the boys in the back that I deserve this title run. I know I'm not going to beat that last match, I can probably only hope to tie it up. We get out there, and we go, and for the next ten minutes we put on a match that's the equal of Dragon/Phoenix. And then, with the crowd egging us on... Donnie catches my eye and nods. I nod. And we kick it into overdrive for another ten minutes. The roar of the crowd... my god, I've been in the Zone for most of my career, and I've never heard a crowd like that. A Fox Flipoff DDT off the top of the ladder lands both of us in a heap on the mat, and I recover first to retrieve my title... the crowd is amazing. And when I get to the back... the boys are giving me a standing ovation.

 

Nobody questions my title reign after that. Donnie... you and me, man. Match of the Year. Best Match in Zone History.

 

(Show rating: C+, 2,000 tickets sold. Match of the Night: Fox/Donnie. Trash of the Night: Nothing.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: There's no way we'll be able to recreate that match... no way in hell... we have trouble managing a C+ on purpose, nevermind a B-...

[LucianCarter]

Oh dude, that is poetry.

[mad5226]

Loved your main event man I found myself almost to happy when you pulled out the greatest main event ever in Zone history

[infinitywpi]

September 2011, week 3

 

USPW's new owner is.. Wanda Fish??? Well... this explains why she lost a match for the then-vacant USPW Women's Championship to Alicia Strong last week. Tribal Warrior was out as the head booker. No, I wasn't tempted to apply. It'll be interesting to see who they hire tho.

 

Speaking of hires, I know our 'new guy' is joining the show tonight... and maybe I'm being overly optimistic about our future... but I send out a half-dozen job offers to see who'll bite. Some nice talent has come available in the last month or so... and to be honest, some of our talent wasn't sitting well with me. American Flash had never really performed up to where I hoped he would; Ant-Man was barely at the mark I wanted him at, Antix was... well, useless... Panda Mask had been dissapointing. And Rob Reynolds wasn't doing as well as I'd hoped unless he was teamed with someone good. So... we'd see. If we got someone really good to join up, then we'd consider dropping someone.

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #83

 

Bit of a change-up this week. Only six matches. Guess the main event. Go on, guess.

 

As a sign of out packing in the star power this week, our opening match is Marc Speed vs Jake Idol. Yeap, I've got Speedball jerking the curtain. He and Idol give us a good back-and-forth match that could have gone either was up until the flash rollup got Idol the win. Up next is the one weak match of the card (I hope) as Los Luchas defeat The Colony pretty easily. As a testament to the skills of Los Luchas, they manage to drag The Colony to an average match. Up next, Ultimate Phoenix goes up against Jackpot Jordan... and Jordan does the impossible, he drags Ultimate Phoenix into a worse match than The Colony. Up next, Air Attack Weasel defends the Xtreme Title against the shocking return of California Love Machine. These two try to give us their best match, proving they can do just as well as the big boys... and manage to stink up the joint in a horrible match. Not the way CLM wanted to start his Xtreme Title reign... or the match I wanted leading in to our main events. This was horrible...

 

So, we try to recover with Snap Dragon getting a hard-fought victory over The Natural in a fairly good match; yeah, I'm trying to position Dragon for a run at me. Then, we try to capture lightning in a bottle again as I re-defend against Donnie J. Whatever we had last time just wasn't there, the crowd's not as into it... but it's still a really damn good match, if I say so myself. Donnie seems happy to lose if it's matches of this quality.

 

(Match rating: C, 1,989 tickets. Match of the Night: Fox/Donnie. Trash of the Night: CLM/AAW.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: Do we burn Fox/Donnie 3 now, or do we save it for a few months down the road? I guess that depends on how long I think I should hold the title, huh?

[infinitywpi]

September 2011, week 4

 

Naturally, PSW swooped in and made an offer to Donnie J to hang with them once in a while. Well, he had to get someone's attention after those two matches.

 

Buddy Garner had decided to come back to wrestling. We tried to make him an offer, but he didn't want to work in America. Sure. He just didn't want to insult us to our faces. Jerk.

 

But of the others offers we made, several were accepted. Cliff graciously allowed me to bring in another of the Paratroopers, Paradigm. Some of the others were unknowns in our part of the world; “A-Game” Alistair Shufflebottom from Canada (Yeah, we'd be calling him A-Game). Dutch Sims, aka Duberry Express, from Boston – we'd be using his 'Demon Seed' luchadore persona in the Zone. But the other two we brought on had some name value. Pat Cudelli, aka Happy Elwood, had spent six years in USPW but had spent the last two floundering in the indies and was considering a career change before we came by. The other was Leon 'Giant' Brody, who had a good nine inches and a hundred-fifty pounds on the entire rest of the roster. Just two months ago he, like California Love Machine, had been in SWF, where his record was 0 and 21.

 

So, after this huge influx of talent, I had to re-organize the roster. The main event picture now consisted of myself, Donnie, Phoenix, The Natural, and Speedball. Nipping at our heels were Dragon, Jordan & Idol, American Flash-in-the-pan, and a working his way up the card Kashmir Singh. Elwood slotted into the midcard with the usual suspects; the others joined in the jobber corps

 

Annnd right on time, NOTBPW signed up The Natural to a written contract on his re-negotiation this week. Whelp, I know who's jobbing this week...

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #84

 

Okay... this show is probably going to suck, but it's all in the name of getting some good momentum for the new guys. We'll open up with Kashmir Singh facing Air Attack Weasel... and, god dammit, who told them to rock the house like that??? That was easily a main event match! Singh goes over, and I find it hard to be mad with either of them after a match that good... more mad at myself for putting it on first.

 

Next up, we introduce Demon Seed by teaming him up with Panda Mask and pitting them against Los Luchas. Los Luchas get the win, but it turns out... Demon Seed and Panda Mask have some teamwork going on there. Demon Seed may have just saved Panda's job, because this is a decent match for having the undercarders in it. Up next, The Colony faces the team of A-Game and Paradigm. The resulting match stinks, and the new guys get the win in a sure sign that The Colony may not be hanging around much longer. Giant Brody spends a few minutes tossing Roger Montiero around before finishing him with a chokeslam. Roger apparently hasn't learned much in the way of bumping, as this is another in the line of 'not well received' matches. And to add to that list, Happy Elwood gets a win over The American Flash in an even -worse- match than the last two.

 

Time for some recovery. The Natural gets a shot at California Love Machine's Xtreme Title, loses, and sandbags his way through it, leading to a totally average match. Next, a Tag Title match between Pro-Am and We Make You Tap... but unlike the last one, this one sees new champions as Speedball and Svenson grab the belts. Gee, why in the world would I want Donnie available for more singles matches? It's not a great match, but it's decent enough. And for the minal match, Phoenix and I take on Rich & Famous. We win, but I'm dissapointed... we all are, as the match doesn't approach worthy of being a Zone main event. Singh and Weasel set the bar too high too early, and then everything else limbo'd under it easily.

 

(Show rating: D+, 2,000 tickets sold. Match of the Night: Singh/Weasel. Trash of the night: Elwood/Flash.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: Future Endeavors

[infinitywpi]

October 2011, week 1

 

CZCW would like to wish the following wrestlers well in their future endeavors: Greg “Antix” Boone and Roy “The American Flash” Mancione.

 

Former Zoner, Miss Mexico, has retired. Adios, chica. Joanne Rodriguez was still going strong, so I guess we know who won that rivalry in the end.

 

Realizing I hadn't looked at the finances lately, I did so; we were still making an average of twenty grand a month, on track to pass four-hundred-thousand sometime this month. Cliff should be happy; I quadrupled his money in under two years? But he's still upset I resigned Jonnie Perez without his permission. Jonnie, by the way, still hasn't learned enough psychology to appease Cliff; he's got another six months to get working on that. I guess I should put him in with some trainers...

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #85

 

Okay, time to recover from last night's minor blip. We open with California Love Machine defending the Xtreme Title against Jackpot Jordan; Jordan, who appears to be stuck as our eternal uppercard jobber (and he'll stay there until he can start performing better!) loses, and the result is an average match, as per most of our openers. We follow that up with Giant Brody squashing Rob Reynolds; it's moderately better than last week's squash. Next, Los Luchas take on the new P&P: Jonnie Perez and Paradigm. The result is a decent match, nothing special, but Los Luchas are showing they can take any team and make them look decent. We follow this with a Tag Title match as We Make You Tap defends against the newly-named Los Rudos: Demon Seed and Panda Mask. The match... doesn't suck, but threatens to, as the champs retain and nobody really doubted the outcome.

 

Next, Snap Dragon takes on Happy Elwood, and Happy turns out a much better performance than last week; Dragon gets the win, but Elwood shows he has a potential future here instead of just being a Flash-reincarnation. After that, I defend the Zone Title against Jake Idol; it's a nice match, the equal of Dragon/Elwood, and I think I made the right call in not being in the main event this week.

 

Who is? In the main event, I mean? Our first main event is Donnie J vs Ultimate Phoenix, and the two run nearly twenty minutes before Donnie gets the win. Someone has lit a fire under Donnie lately, as this is one of the best matches of his I've ever seen that I haven't been involved in. We take a risk with our final match; since Singh/Weasel did so well last week opening to a cold crowd, we're hoping a hot crowd will help them kick it to the next level. The resulting match is a bit of a letdown; it's a nice little match, but as a main event, I really should've made it the sub-main and not the main. Sorry, Donnie; I'll have more faith in you next time.

 

(Show rating: C-, 2,000 tickets. Match of the Night: Donnie/Phoenix. Trash of the Night: Brody/Reynolds.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: If we can find one more person he can have a great match with, I think we've found who's going to take the title off me. I just have to decide... when and where?

[LucianCarter]

My sincere condolences on not signing Buddy Garner. He made all the difference in my CZCW game. Held most of the top 10 matches and was my go to champion despite being autopushed to Upper midcard level throughout.

 

Told ya Donnie J was good

[infinitywpi]

October 2011, week 2

 

I've decided. I really, really need to stop trying to make lightning strike twice. If something good happens? Don't try to make it happen again... it's not gonna work out.

 

We made a play for the latest SWF castoff, Zimmy Bumfhole. He wasn't up for it. Ah, well. Was worth a shot.

 

Oh, ans USPW found their new head booker. Wanda Fish hired... herself. Yeesh. How neoptismic can you get?

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #86

 

Tonight, we gar-un-damn-tee an A match! How will we pull it off? Just watch us.

 

Our opening match pits Marc “Speedball” Speed, one-half of the Zone Tag Champions, against one half of Los Luchas, El Mitico. It's meant to be a nice, solid opening match.

 

What we get is a freakin' match of the year candidate. Holy freakin' heck. A handful of fans walk out after the match, saying there's no way we can top that. After that, we put on our A match: Amazing Fire Fly and Ant-Man vs Air Attack Weasel and A-Game. Yeah, it's a gimmick. But it still counts as an A match! Actually... it's not half bad, really. It's definitely above average. Below average, however, was our next match: CLM and Jonnie Perez vs Rob Reynolds and Roger Montiero. CLM gets the pinfall, but the match serves it's purpose: Giving the crowd a bathroom break.

 

We come back to Nigel Svenson forcing a submission from Jackpot Jordan. For once, Jordan doesn't complain about the loss. Either he's learning modesty, or he's letting it fester inside. At the very least, he's not sandbagging, and turned out a decent match. Up next, Happy Elwood continues his new steak of 'showing I can be carried to good matches' in a losing effort against Ultimate Phoenix. We kick things up another notch as Donnie J and Snap Dragon clash, and it's official... whatever Donnie J did while unemployed, it lit a fire under his ass and he's been performing ever since! He gets the win over Snap Dragon, and I need to make a decision fast... do I put the title on him while his matches are still fresh?

 

After that, the main event falls a bit flat, as Kashmir Singh and I go twenty-five minutes. It's not a bad match; it's pretty good. But it's third, maybe fourth on the card in terms of quality. So... what do I do now?

 

(Show rating: C-, 2,000 tickets sold. Match of the Night: Speedball/Mitico. Trash of the Night: CLM & Perez vs Reynolds & Montiero... barely.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: I hate to say it, but... I think I may have just watched the rest of the Zone pass me by in terms of ability.

[infinitywpi]

October 2011, week 3

 

Memo to Randy Bumfhole: You don't want to work with us, but you'll work in PSW? Oh, come on.

 

Rodger Montiero's contract came up, and Cliff decided his skills weren't up to snuff. Him, I didn't mind losing so much. He'd had potential at one time, but maybe I just didn't tap it right.

 

I pull Donnie aside before the next show. We have a quick conversation. I actually ask his advice on a few things. Together, we work something out for the next little while that should carry our main event scene through to the end of the year. But I make him keep part of it secret for the next couple weeks. We finish our little talk, only to find some of the guys holding Paradigm back from trying to tackle Weasel; based strictly on who's doing better right now, I tell Paradigm to back down, and tell Weasel that next time, I'll let Paradigm jump him. Perez then insists they fight it out anyway... and throws Street Fighter 4 into the backstage Xbox. Oy, these kids'll be the death of me...

 

 

CZCW Onslaught #87

 

Let's do this. Our opening match is Ultimate Phoenix vs Air Attack Weasel; as expected, it's better than expec... that makes no sense. Well, it's a good little match, but not the blow-away opener we've had for a few shows now. Phoenix gets the win, but Weasel is continuing to impress me lately. Happy Elwood gets a victory over Brendan Idol, and it's a fairly poor match... but Elwood gets a victory, for a change. We then get what looks like another Giant Brody squash, but his opponent is Kashmire Singh, who expertly takes the big man down and makes it look easy... and it's an above-average outing, giving Brody his best match yet in the Zone.

 

Snap Dragon's string of excellent matches is snapped as he tries to bring Ant-Man to a good match and fails. The Xtreme Title match is next, and CLM has elected to defend against Jonnie Perez; the resulting match is decent, and sees CLM retain... but Jonnie's looking better out there. Then we drop down a bit again as Rich & Famous defeat Lot Rudos.

 

For our main events, we have a Tag Title match between We Make You Tap and Los Luchas. Speedball and Svenson get the victory, but ye gods, this is going to be a hard match to follow. And following it is myself, Donnie J, the Zone title, and a set of ladders. Our last few matches have been long, slow builds... we decide to do something different tonight, cutting loose and just having fun with it. Annnnnd we fail, completely. Donnie gets the title, and I gladly take the blame for the poor match – we'll let Donnie run with it as long as he can.

 

(Show rating: E+, due to a horrid main event. Tickets sold: 2,000. Match of the night: WMYT/ Los Luchas. Trash of the Night: Donnie/Fox.)

 

 

On the next Welcome: There. I'm out of the title picture. And I accidentally burned it down on the way out. Let's see if Donnie can rebuild it in the next few weeks... before all hell breaks loose.

[John Lions]

Holy crap, E+??? Just curious, what grade did the tag match get, C+?