ACPW: The Smaller They Are, The Higher They Fly

[1PWfan]

“Tony, phone!!”

 

I’d been working at the Piledriver School for about six months. Sure, the pay wasn’t great (it sucked, actually), but it still payed better than the two bookings I managed to score in the last year or so. It also had the distinct advantage of allowing me to scope out the new talent, in the vain hope that sooner or later one of them might think to mention me to their employers. Like I said, a vain hope but when you’ve been working the business for years and can boast around four bookings a year then you’ll take whatever you can get.

 

“I got it Warlord. Hello, this is Tony Dinero, who wants me?”

 

“Tony? It’s Face Nelson, remember me?”

 

I’d first met Face back in 2008 when I was trying to break into Canada, the US not having worked out so good for me. I did a run of shows (by which I mean three in four months, the most work I’ve had before or since) around The Maritimes, and Face was on the desk with a guy named Tony Marsh. We’d bonded as only two guys working for a shoestring in a business that doesn’t need them can, and made a mutual promise to hook the other up with a job if we ever scored a regular deal. So far neither of us had had any luck, but from the sounds of it that was about to change.

 

“’Course I remember you Face. What’s up?”

 

“Nothing much, managed to score myself a regular deal at long last is all. Look, you ever heard of Daedalus Buchinsky?”

 

“The Canadian Lumber guy? Sure, what about him?”

 

“He’s got this outfit set up just round the corner from North of the Border in Halifax. Calls it All Canada Pro Wrestling-kind of a joke considering we haven’t left Nova Scotia yet but hey, what can you do? Point is, I’ve been running the show for a while now, but I need help.”

 

“And you want me? Face, I’ve never even held a regular booking, let alone something as big as running a company”

 

"Look, we need you up here. Sure, maybe you’ve never run a company, but dammit all, Tony, you know what I’m working with here? A bunch of kid barely old enough to even look at booze, let alone drink it, and all I’ve got to get them up to scratch is that old warhorse Sky King. Okay, so maybe you’re not the most experienced booker out there, but you’ve been working with kids like this for half a year now. Hell, the only difference between this and the Piledriver is that here you actually get a guaranteed spot on the show as well.”

 

“Okay okay, I get it, you need someone who can work with the kids. What’s Daedalus got to say about all this?”

 

“You kidding me? The key to dealing with Daedalus is to tell him as little as possible and make it all sound good. As far as he’s concerned I’m bringing you in to make use of you vast experience of working with young talent so that we can help our roster reach its full potential. Has the advantage of being true without ever once letting him know that you’re barely any more experienced at running the book than he is”

 

That’s Face for you- never uses one word where 12 will do, and literally does not think about what he’s saying ‘till he’s halfway through saying it. Makes for a great guy on the stick but not always the easiest man to have a conversation with.

 

“Well, when you put like that…ah hell, Face, what am I supposed to say? I’m in.”

[1PWfan]

All Canada Pro gets a Piledriver

 

Total Extreme Wrestling can exclusively reveal that All Canada Pro Wrestling, voted ‘Independent Promotion most likely to break out’ in our 2009 end-of-year polls, have appointed independent wrestler Tony ‘The Bravo’ Dinero as their new head booker. Dinero, best known as the assistant trainer at the Piledriver School of Wrestling, has apparently been hired in order to assist with the development of ACPW’s roster, many of whom are still very inexperienced.

 

So, what does Dinero’s arrival mean for the company? Well, for a start the company’s already increased its emphasis on traditional wrestling, which will now apparently be a medium part of the company’s product. When we asked him about this, Dinero stated ‘this doesn’t mean that there will be any change in the high-flying, death-defying action the company’s been known for- we’re not changing our fanbase so much as acknowledging the traditions of wrestling and trying to educate our fans and talent on what that means’. Speaking personally, I’m betting this is less about educating anyone and more about attracting more sponsorship money- rumour has it that the company’s been running at a loss ever since it opened, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Dinero has made redressing the balance a personal priority.

 

Also on the cards is apparently something of a talent overhaul. Reliably sources have said that Dinero has identified at least two members of the roster who he doesn’t feel are worth keeping around (my bet’s on Taylor Kidd and Kirk Drury, neither of whom have impressed on their previous appearances for the company), and has also made plans to bring in new talent. Apparently offers have been made to former 4C talent Air Attack Weasel and Canadian indy star Cal Sanders, as well as Roderick Remus (apparently an old friend of Dinero’s), CZCW mainstay Masked Cougar and, in an unusual move, Mexican Lucha star Mr. Lucha III, who Dinero apparently sees a potentially huge future star for the company. Whilst I don’t think anyone could complain about any of these stars, it remains to be seen just how much impact they get the chance to make, given the size of the company’s roster and the amount of time they have to showcase their workers.

 

The company’s first show of 2009, ACPW Canadian Stampede, is currently scheduled for the last Wednesday of January. More details, including the full card, as they become available.

 

‘Delirious’ Hunter Johnston

 

OOC Note: Predictions should be up later today, folks, depending on how much I can get done in-game

[1PWfan]

Predictions for Canadian Stampede:

 

FOR THE JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:

El Diablo vs. Tony 'The Bravo' Dinero

 

Jayson Van Pelt vs Masked Cougar

 

Sky King vs. Jamie Atherton

 

FOR THE TAG TEAM TITLES

The Inner City Express (Jay Becker & Malik Cash) vs. The Montreal Mafia (Marc Raisin & Dermott Ayres)

 

FOR THE CANADIAN REGIONAL TITLE

Mario da Silva vs. Dagger

 

Mr. Lucha III vs. Alistair Shuffle

[Timber]

Predictions for Canadian Stampede:

 

FOR THE JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:

El Diablo vs. Tony 'The Bravo' Dinero

 

Jayson Van Pelt vs Masked Cougar

Sky King vs. Jamie Atherton

 

FOR THE TAG TEAM TITLES

The Inner City Express (Jay Becker & Malik Cash) vs. The Montreal Mafia (Marc Raisin & Dermott Ayres)

 

FOR THE CANADIAN REGIONAL TITLE

Mario da Silva vs. Dagger

 

Mr. Lucha III vs. Alistair Shuffle

[TheKenwyne]

FOR THE JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:

El Diablo vs. Tony 'The Bravo' Dinero

 

Jayson Van Pelt vs Masked Cougar

 

Sky King vs. Jamie Atherton

 

FOR THE TAG TEAM TITLES

The Inner City Express (Jay Becker & Malik Cash) vs. The Montreal Mafia (Marc Raisin & Dermott Ayres)

 

FOR THE CANADIAN REGIONAL TITLE

Mario da Silva vs. Dagger

 

Mr. Lucha III vs. Alistair Shuffle(bottom?)

[Dragonmack]

Predictions for Canadian Stampede:

 

FOR THE JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:

El Diablo vs. Tony 'The Bravo' Dinero

 

Jayson Van Pelt vs Masked Cougar

 

Sky King vs. Jamie Atherton

 

FOR THE TAG TEAM TITLES

The Inner City Express (Jay Becker & Malik Cash) vs. The Montreal Mafia (Marc Raisin & Dermott Ayres)

 

FOR THE CANADIAN REGIONAL TITLE

Mario da Silva vs. Dagger

 

Mr. Lucha III vs. Alistair Shuffle

 

these are just random guesses as I don't really know the roster for ACPW.

[Regis]

Predictions for Canadian Stampede:

 

FOR THE JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:

El Diablo vs. Tony 'The Bravo' Dinero

Booker puts over the top guy on his first night.

 

Jayson Van Pelt vs Masked Cougar

CVougar's plain better - not sure if he might put over Van Pelt to keep people happy, though.

 

Sky King vs. Jamie Atherton

Sky King will job without complaint to teach Atherton a thing or two.

 

FOR THE TAG TEAM TITLES

The Inner City Express (Jay Becker & Malik Cash) vs. The Montreal Mafia (Marc Raisin & Dermott Ayres)

The Champs carry the gold home once again.

 

FOR THE CANADIAN REGIONAL TITLE

Mario da Silva vs. Dagger

And for a third time, champ goes home the winner.

 

Mr. Lucha III vs. Alistair Shuffle

Odd guy to see in the ring - let's hope that he doesn't break the bank!

[Jaded]

Awesome, I love ACPW!

 

FOR THE JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:

El Diablo vs. Tony 'The Bravo' Dinero

 

Jayson Van Pelt vs Masked Cougar

 

Sky King vs. Jamie Atherton

 

FOR THE TAG TEAM TITLES

The Inner City Express (Jay Becker & Malik Cash) vs. The Montreal Mafia (Marc Raisin & Dermott Ayres)

 

FOR THE CANADIAN REGIONAL TITLE

Mario da Silva vs. Dagger

 

Mr. Lucha III vs. Alistair Shuffle

[1PWfan]

Sorru this has been a while coming folks- took a while to get the dialogue segments done. As for my next post, that isn't actually written yet, but I'm hoping to have it up by Wednesday, all being well

 

ACPW Canadian Stampede

Live to DVD from the New Brunswick Hall

Audience: 12

 

The Show

 

Sky King vs. Jamie Atherton

In a lot of ways this embodied the problems ACPW have. These two had a pretty good match but thanks to the almost deserted venue they just couldn’t get any heat going. It didn’t help that Jamie was struggling to keep up by the end- at 15 minutes this was just at the outside edge of what he’s comfortable with, and it was starting to show by the end. Still, for a promotion our level this was a good match, as both guys did a pretty good job of working the dozen or so people in attendance before Atherton put the King down with a Lightning Strike (Snap DDT)

Winner: Jamie Atherton Match Rating: D

 

*

 

“What a way to kick off tonight’s show! Fans, I’m Tony Marsh and joining me as always is my broadcast partner Face Nelson.”

 

“Always a pleasure to be here Tony. Fans, we’ve got a fantastic card for you tonight, with all three titles on the line. In our main event El Diablo defends against Tony ‘The Bravo’ Dinero, whilst The Inner City Express take on The Montreal Mafia for the tag team titles and Mario De Silva takes on the deadly Dagger in defence of his Canadian Regional Title. First though, we’ve got some action all the way from Mexico as Mr. Lucha III faces off against a home-grown talent in the form of Alistair Shuffle”

 

“Mr. Lucha III is part of a long line of Lucha stars- it’ll be interesting to see how he fares against an American-style cruiserweight like Shuffle”

*

 

Mr. Lucha III vs. Alistair Shuffle

I had Alistair shorten his name from ‘Shufflebottom’ on the basis of the fact that nobody will ever get over with a name like that. On the basis of tonight’s performance, though, it’ll take more than changing his name to get Al over: he sucked big time, gasping for air after 10 minutes and completely failing to get anyone into this. Lucha did his best to hold his end up his end of the match, and Face was as good as ever, but there’s no denying the fact that if he continues to hand in performances like this then Alistair will be joining Taylor and Kirk on the unemployment line (only reason he hasn’t already is that he’s young enough to maybe improve). Lucha took the win here, since unlike Shuffle’s he actually quite good.

Winner: Mr. Lucha III Match Rating: D-

 

*

 

“Time for Tag Team Action now, as The Inner City Express defend their tag team titles against The Montreal Mafia”

 

“This could be a very interesting match- on their day the Inner City Express are a very dangerous team, but you can’t always be certain that they’re going to be on top form, whilst the Mafia aren’t as good, but tend to be more consistent. If the Express can find their top form then the Mafia are going to have a hard time, but if they’re not then it’s literally wide open”

 

*

 

The Inner City Express vs. The Montreal Mafia

Another four people on probation: this was a dreadful match, with four poor-at-best wrestlers apparently trying to out-botch each other for 8 minutes. Add into that the fact that Jay Becker was off form as usual and you’ve got a match that I‘m honestly ashamed to be associated with. The only real plus point to this one was the fact that at least Dermott and Raisin showed some improvement, but I’m honestly considering scrapping the tag division all together and replacing these guys with people that can actually, y’know, wrestle. The Mafia took this one, as whilst they suck on paper they’re slightly better than the express.

Winners: The Montreal Mafia Match Rating: E-

 

*

 

“Something a little different now, as Mario da Silva takes on Dagger in a Canadian Regional Title match”

 

“Like you say, Tony, both of these guys work an unusual style for ACPW- da Silva’s a submission-based worker, whilst Dagger makes a lot of use of his background in kickboxing to produce a style based very much on MMA-style striking. What that means in practical terms is that da Silva’s going to try to take this down to the mat and keep Dagger from getting back to his vertical base, whilst Dagger’s going to try and stay out of those submission holds and soften da Silva up with some striking before going for the Dagger Kick. Either way, this match promises to be something a little different than our usual high-flying fare”

 

*

 

Mario da Silva vs. Dagger

After two extremely disappointing matches, this got us back on track with an excellent display from these two. Granted, they had off-the-charts levels of chemistry, really great, but it also helped that unlike Shuffle or anyone from the tag match, these two actually have some talent, albeit not in the kind of crazy high-flying ACPW is meant to be known for. Instead what we had here was almost an MMA-style bout, with Dagger’s striking pitched rather well against Da Silva’s more grounded approach. In the end Mario got the win with the Kimura, quite possible the most confusing-looking submission I’ve ever seen.

Winner: Mario da Silva Match Rating: D+

 

*

 

“Time for our under-main event now, as Jayson ‘The Sensation’ Van Pelt takes on CZCW’s Masked Cougar”

 

“Cougar’s a recent signing for All Canada Pro, and it’ll be interesting to see how he matches up to Van Pelt in this match. They’re both classic cruiserweights with a level of technical ability, but Cougar has 6 years experience on Jayson, plus time in Japan, which always makes for a sharper athlete. On the other hand, there’s a reason Jayson’s called ‘The Sensation’: you literally cannot tell what he’s going to do in that ring, and that makes him a very difficult foe to face.”

 

*

 

Jayson van Pelt vs. Masked Cougar

I always knew this one was going to be good- Jayson’s one of our better workers and Cougar’s probably the best we’ve got- but after Alistair’s appalling display and the tag match it was reassuring to see that some of our guys can actually work. Jayson’s one of our better workers, although he’s also the least consistent member of the roster who’s not part of the Inner City Express, and against Cougar, who’s solid enough to cover whatever off moments there may be, he really came through for us. In the future I see Cougar as our top guy, but for now he’s too expensive to work here every month, so Jayson went over with an Axe Kick.

Winner: Jayson van Pelt Match Rating: D+

 

*

 

“Time for our main event now, as El Diablo defends the ACPW Junior Heavyweight Title against Tony ‘The Bravo’ Dinero”

 

“This is a classic case of the pure high-flier versus the all-round wrestler. Dinero doesn’t have a high-flying game anywhere near as good as Diablo’s, but if this match turns into a brawl or goes to the mat then Dinero has his opponent completely outmatched. The result of this match depends a lot on how the initial lock-up goes- if Diablo can get the advantage then he can take the match to the top rope and keep Dinero from slowing things down to his speed. If Dinero can take the early advantage, though, then he can really keep Diablo grounded and dictate the match’s tempo to his advantage”

 

*

 

El Diablo vs. Tony Dinero

Okay, I’ll admit it: I have no idea what went wrong here. The match shouldn’t have been too long for either of us, neither me nor Diablo are particularly inconsistent, and there was no bad chemistry, and yet this was one of the worst matches on the card, only marginally better than Mr. Lucha/Shuffle earlier. I think part of the problem may have been that we were going all out- it’s not always easy for people to handle that kind of pressure, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Diablo buckled under the pressure. Diablo took the win here, putting me down with the Diablo Driver (Angle Slam)

Winner: El Diablo Match Rating: D-

 

 

Overall Rating: D, which is actually very promising- we clearly didn’t do our best work here, but the rating is punching way above our level.

[1PWfan]

Big Changes in Little ACPW

 

He’s only been in charge for a month, but ACPW booker Tony Dinero is already making big changes to the company. Following on from last month’s dismissals, he’s also dismissed Ricochet Ramone, Topher Smith and both members of The Inner City Express. He’s also announced that the company’s tag team titles have been retired, although rumour has it that this last one is only a temporary measure.

 

The reasoning behind this decision is simple: whilst Canadian Stampede was by all accounts a pretty good show, especially for a company ACPW’s size, they lost nearly 4,000 dollars in January, a number that didn’t please either Dinero or owner Daedalus Buchinsky. It therefore seems pretty likely that the dismissals and retiring of the tag titles are part of a drive to improve the company’s efficiency, especially when you realise that Maple Leaf Mayhem, the company’s February show, is only scheduled for an hour, a major step-down from the 90-minute runtime of their first show.

 

Of course, rumour has it that there’s more going on here than you may think. Rumour has it that Dinero and Buchinsky are at odds over the direction of the company: apparently Dinero feels that Buchinsky is putting innovation over fundamental wrestling ability, whilst Daedalus has reportedly accused his booker of trying to impose an out-dated view of the business on his company. Apparently cooler heads have been able to prevent the situation out of hands, but it’s entirely likely that the departures are Dinero’s warning shot to Buchinsky. Let’s not forget that when the company opened The Inner City Express were one of the things Daedalus really talked up, and their dismissal this soon after Dinero took over could be interpreted as an attempt to isolate Buchinsky politically. Of course, it could simply be that they actually kinda sucked in the ring, but it’ll be interesting to see where things go from here for the company.

 

ACPW’s next show, ACPW Maple Leaf Mayhem, is once again scheduled for the last Wednesday of February. Currently scheduled for the show are:

 

FOR THE ACPW JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE

El Diablo vs. Mimic

 

Tony Dinero vs. Rod ‘The Reason’ Remus

 

FOR THE ACPW CANADIAN REGIONAL TITLE

Mario da Silva vs. Sky King

 

Dermott Ayres vs. Jayson Van Der Pelt

 

'Delirious' Hunter Johnston

 

Next show will hopefully be up in a few days- I'm trying to get this going more regularly but I'm hopelessly disorganised