Supreme Wrestling Federation: Dark Days

[Guest cmdrsam]

Oh man, just when I was digging the potty language and milk. Gosh darn it. See look at what you made me do. Darn it all to heck. What the H e double toothpicks am i gonna do now.

 

Seriously dude, its all good. I have always enjoyed your work. And if you need to step away for a bit just to find yourself, then go for it. The way you have posted in the past I am sure it all is a blurr now. The little project I talked to you about I have 4 shows wrote but just cant seem to find the words for the rest. So I put down TEW and started playing another game. If it seems like work, than it aint fun. Come back when your ready. You will always have a reader in me.

[Tigerkinney]

Just to follow up on what Cmdrsam said...

 

I too was really enjoying what you had going on right here and some really interesting takes on some of the SWF roster were starting to develop, especially amongst the undercard with BSS and the Bumfholes.

 

But if it's feeling like a chore right now for you, rather than fun to do a diary, then yeah step away if you need to and take as long as you feel you need.

 

Personally (for purely selfish reasons ) i'm hoping that when you do get in the mood again, that you step back into this, rather than start a new project. You had something really good going on here but as always don't feel the pressure to keep this going if you're no longer feeling it, because at the end of the day it's your decision.

[sebsplex]

Hopefully this is just a pause and not the end, although I can definitely understand wanting to step back if you're not enjoying and feeling as invested in your writing as you were initially. That often flucuates and it's no surprise given the amount of work and writing you've put into this thus far, but there's no point forcing it.

 

All I can say is recharge your batteries and I hope to see this back if you decide to pick it up again.

[Bigpapa42]

Thanks guy. The support is always appreciated. The plan is to sit on things for a few weeks, maybe a month, and then re-examine. At this point, I'm more comfortable with the idea continuing than ending things, but we'll have to see.

 

Over the past couple of weeks, I think I've spent more time wondering "what's wrong" than actually thinking about the project. When I originally started putting togther plans for this one, I was looking at the C-verse '97 mod and thinking it would an overview type project, similar in that approach to my WCW project. I ended up feeling more comfortable with the 2010 data and decided to go with a full show format. For the first while, I was able to stick to a schedule that I really liked - basically getting up a show every work or so. Unfortunately, I just don't seem to have the drive, intensity and dedication that it takes to keep up that kind of writing schedule. I want to, but its just not there. And trying to force it, as I said before, makes it feel work-like which would kill the fun. The obvious solution it to simply accept a more relaxed writing schedule. Easy to say, but not necessarily so easy to do. The continual, constant schedule is somehting I've used for every "full show" project I've done - even if I wasn't able to manage a show per week, it was still the approach I took. Changing up an approach that has worked for me for the past few projects isn't so easy to do. If I do decide to continue with it, that will be what I will try to do. And hopefully it solves the issue... unless I'm completely wrong on why I'm having issues getting myself to the writing process.

[Bigpapa42]

To quote Jim Morrison - "this is the end… my only friend, the end…"

 

I have come to the conclusion that ending this is probably the best move. I'm not happy with it, in some ways, but it still feels like the right choice. It also feels like something of a failure on my part, sinceI really did feel like this should be a lengthy project, but such is life. I wish I had some valid reason - too busy family/work/life - but really, its just being unmotivated. I've given it close to a month and I've played around a bit with the writing, but it just hasn't changed enough. I feel fickle - when I first put this on hiatus, I really wasn't sure. Shortly after, I was all but certain I would come back after a break. Then, before long, I took a complete 180. The time away has left me feeling completing ambivilent toward the project, which is pretty opposite of the intent.

 

In my typical fashion, I'll throw some of the "where things were going" stuff over the next week or so.

 

I would think it would be relatively apparent, but the intent for the project was to bring the Attitude Era to the CornellVerse. That's what the "Dark Days" were. It was not going to be a direct transplant, but rather adapting many of the elements that made up the Attitude Era. I wanted to do it in a relatively organic manner - so that the changes made sense on-screen, at least to an extent.

 

One thing that makes an idea like this tough is that my idea of what the SWF was chaning "from" might be very different from the next person. Someone could look at the SWF product and assume they have an Attitude Era style product already in full-swing. The next person looks at characters like Lobster Warrior and feels that 2010 SWF is using an approach similar to the late-80s WWE, with the cartoonishness.

 

The idea, as I've mentioned before, was that the pre-2010 SWF was a mix of everything. A true mixed bag that is trying to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible. There is some cartoonish stuff to appeal to kids. Some more developed characters with a bit of depth. Some sex appeal. Some good technical wrestling. Some relatively brutal matches. Some high-flying. So the "Dark Days" wasn't really a change to something completely new, but rather a shifting in focus from a very diverse approach to focusing on certain aspects moreso. A more brutal overall environemnt was something key - not just nastier matches even on TV, but where you suddenly seeing backstage attacks, interference in matches, refs getting beat up, etc.

 

I'll get into how the switch to edgier product was taking place and some booking plans on my next post. In the meantime, I will say that I'm not ending this for another idea or project. There are ideas stewing on the backburner, but nothing likely to see the light of day soon. I am really really questioning my ability to stick with a project that uses full show write-ups at this point. Anything I take on in the near future is likely to use an overview approach, or perhaps some hybrid. I just really don't trust myself to stick with the workload of a full-show approach anymore.

 

I do want to thank everyone who commented and read, and a special thanks to those few who helped me out with ideas for this one (I think you know who you are). As always, the support is much appreciated.

[Regis]

 

This was looking to be... well, pretty much the only SWF diary that I was interested in. Embracing the Attitude Era nature of things, not 'playing to win' by de-pushing the less talented ones, embracing the silly gimmicks... You played the SWF as it was given to you, rather than trying to change it into something it wasn't.

 

Still, it's your project and thusly ultimately your choice. I'm sad to see it go, but, well, so it goes.

[Bigpapa42]

 

This was looking to be... well, pretty much the only SWF diary that I was interested in. Embracing the Attitude Era nature of things, not 'playing to win' by de-pushing the less talented ones, embracing the silly gimmicks... You played the SWF as it was given to you, rather than trying to change it into something it wasn't.

 

Still, it's your project and thusly ultimately your choice. I'm sad to see it go, but, well, so it goes.

 

Sorry to disappoint, Regis. Glad you were enjoying.

 

There was definitely an intent to maintain certain elements that exist from the start. In the past, on both previous projects and private games, I've ended up changing too much and adding too much, so it loses some essence of what made that promotion intriguing to me in the first place. Such changes aren't wrong, and its part of "putting your stamp" on a promotion and running it the way you want, but the intent here was to put that stamp on things with the product and change in "attitude". So Lobster Warrior was going to stay in the stupid lobster costume. Angry Gilmore was going to remain the world's most talented jobber to the stars. Eric Eisen was going to remain on top and hated.

[Bigpapa42]

Feels a bit odd to ask a question on a dead project... but I've been trying to put together a "where things were going" post of adecent detail. I think I've just completely fallen out of the writing mode because its been a struggle, even though it really shouldn't be. Before I push to get through it, I guess I'm just curious if anyone is really that interested in the directions that thing were intended to go?

[20LEgend]

Feels a bit odd to ask a question on a dead project... but I've been trying to put together a "where things were going" post of adecent detail. I think I've just completely fallen out of the writing mode because its been a struggle, even though it really shouldn't be. Before I push to get through it, I guess I'm just curious if anyone is really that interested in the directions that thing were intended to go?

 

I was interested tbh, the Dark Days idea really intrigued me, but only if your 'feeling it' .

[LoNdOn]

Feels a bit odd to ask a question on a dead project... but I've been trying to put together a "where things were going" post of adecent detail. I think I've just completely fallen out of the writing mode because its been a struggle, even though it really shouldn't be. Before I push to get through it, I guess I'm just curious if anyone is really that interested in the directions that thing were intended to go?

 

I would certainly be interested to read where you were heading creativly but if it means you burn yourself out writing then I wouldn't stress about it. If it happens it happens, if it doesn't, it doesn't.

[ampulator]

Feels a bit odd to ask a question on a dead project... but I've been trying to put together a "where things were going" post of adecent detail. I think I've just completely fallen out of the writing mode because its been a struggle, even though it really shouldn't be. Before I push to get through it, I guess I'm just curious if anyone is really that interested in the directions that thing were intended to go?

It's okay. Do it if you feel like it. I don't think anyone's in a rush.

[Bigpapa42]

Thanks guys. That's enough to make it worth it. I just didn't want to bother if no one really cared at all. Its not like its a monster labor, but I've just found it something I have to push myself toward doing anything with. It actually makes me feel like I made the right call about ending things when I did here.

[Bigpapa42]

As previously mentioned, the idea was to take the SWF into a darker era, the rough equivilent to the WWE's Attitude Era. A key aspect was a more violent and brutal product - not that every match suddenly becomes a bloodbath, but things have an edge that was lacking previously. Sex appeal is used moreso blatantly, and language becomes a bit more adult. Characters get a bit deeper, with a few "tweeners" - not full ones, but workers who act like a heel while pushed as face, essentially. The lines between fantasty and reality are blurred just a bit, with feuds and storylines spilling over into "the real world" in some ways, and at least beyond the ring. Everything is more chaotic and fluid.

 

Now, a primary concern for me was transitioning to that more chaotic overall environemnt in a way that made sense. This primarily meant on-screen, but I wanted it to be justified in the backstage sense as well.

 

As I've mentioned (I think I have, anyway), some of the earliest concepts of this were for a C-verse '97 game that was never intended as anything more than a private game. The basic idea was that instead of Richard Eisen going conservative after the famous Nemesis-Cornell brawl, Jerry Eisen (a fan of the East Coast Wars) convinces his dad to build on it and try to appeal to the 12-35 male demographic. It was probably originally just a way to feel good about keeping Nemesis and Cornell in Supreme, but it lead to some thoughts of a diary project (which would have used the overview approach) and eventually lead to this project. The idea for the backstage change was that Jerry did try to convince Richard that going conservative was the wrong move back in 1997, but Eisen wasn't about to bet his empire on his kid. Fast forward twelve years and Jerry has his ear. The "heart attack" was a faked to have a way to bring Richard back suddenly if required. So Jerry was running the show, along with Peter Michaels.

 

One of the main on-screen catalysts, which went back into the pre-game 2009 stuff, was the face turn by Joe Sexy. The idea I was going to run with was that Sexy was turned babyface when Angry Gilmore and Squeeky McClean turned on him. Even as a "good guy", he still has many of the same mannerisms that made him hated as a heel, yet the now make him endearing rather than repulsive. So he's a bit of a tweener character, and he was basically a test to prove that some of Jerry's ideas could work.

 

Another catalyst - given to me by the game, so thank you Mr. Ryland - was Ana Garcia posing nude for a magazine. It was a great way to justify a push toward more sexy content on-screen, as one of the SWF's primary on-screen personalities had shown all she had. As I've previously mentioned, it also had me taking Garcia's intended role from small and insignificant to a main one.

 

Something I struggled with in the planning stages was how to change things on-screen so it made sense and felt natural rather than abrupt and stark. How do you go from a fairly ordered environment in Supreme, where things are mostly kept in the ring, to one where there is no respect or order? Where attacks could happen in the parking lot, or while someone is taping another non-wrestling show? I considered a few different options - a primary one being an "invasion" (likely TCW guys, though DAVE was an outside possibility) or a new GM making major changes (whether that was Jerry or maybe someone like Nemesis). I think both of those felt too similar to what I had already done in Generation Supreme. So I decided to go with the heel stable running amock.

 

When I first introduced that stable, the Supremacists Union, a few readers pointed out that dominant heels stables aren't always that exciting. I bit my tongue and tried not to say too much, because I actually agree with that. The intent was to keep the the Union short-lived, not that dominant, and really just a catalyst to why things change. The plan was to have the stable come together and assert themselves, looking dominant and kicking ass for a short time. As the on-screen authority figure, Jerry, does nothing, since he's basically intimidated by his brother (several planned segments would show this). The wrestlers themselves would quickly put together a resistance, lead by Faith and Frehley, that nullifies the Union pretty effectively. The bottom guys in the stable - Gilmore and McClean notably - are really just mercenaries and aren't so dedicated to the Union's "cause".

 

The stated on-screen justification for Eisen putting together the stable was, probably obviously, just a heel lying. His real motviation is the same that motivates most heel champions - keeping their belt. The stable is basically a layer of protection. But it comes apart before too long when folks like Emma Chase, Brandon James, Marat Khoklov, and even Remo (who is never a full member) have their own plans. The stable would come apart by the summer, though weaker variations might continue for awhile as I saw Eisen as the kind of character who could hire thugs to help him out.

 

The primary feud going forward was going to be Eisen versus Money. I tried to shy away from making Money too much like my Gen-S depication of him, and I think Eisen was closer to that character. Money was my "Stone Cold" in that he was intended to be a tweener - beloved by fans, yet he does things that a heel would be doing. I wanted to twist things a bit by making the source of their feud be their previous feud, dating back to 2007 and 2008, over the NA title. The idea being that Eisen suffered his severe knee injury in a match against Money. He blames Money and wants payback. So in a way, that should make him the good guy. Yet it doesn't here. Especially with how Eric tormented Bruce and won the title from him. That would continue, as he basically drives Bruce nutty. With Money, Eisen is basically avoids facing him in the ring. At Master of Puppets, he was going to face Christian Faith. At Times of Trouble, he would challenge NA champion Sean McFly (more on that in time) and win. Finally, he would face Money at The Supreme Challenge and lose the belt.

 

Money would only get a short reign, however. At Welcome to the Jungle, he would once again face Eisen, this time in a "Supreme Cell" match. In one of the most brutal SWF World Champoinship matches ever, Money successfully defends the belt. The following Supreme TV, he's still messed up. His former friend Remo interupts a Money promo to congradulate his friend... and instead challenges him for the belt, that night. The swerve is that Remo never actually used the world title shot he was granted for winning the King of the Square Circle tournament, as his tag team title match with Vengenace (I'll explain what was going to happen there in a bit) didn't count. So Remo gets a match against Money and wins the belt. Remo has nominally been a member of the Supremacists Union for a bit and makes like he is going to sell the belt to Eric Eisen... but then reneges on the deal in a "Remo does for Remo" moment.

 

The reign of Remo would be relatively short. Throughout the second half of 2010, the belt would move around more than normal, between Remo, Rich Money, Brandon James, and Marat Khoklov. The Russian monster would probably close out the year with the belt and get a decent reign, but I was hoping he would improve in the ring a bit by then. The idea behind moving the belt around would be to establish this group as the new "elite" of the SWF. Moving into 2011, things would settle down with the belt.

 

Some random stuff:

 

-there was a segment coming up fairly soon which would be a showdown between Eric Eisen and Jerry, who was the interim General Manager. Jerry is having problems with the referees, who are tried of getting abused in matches. So Eric strikes a deal - they will cease the ref abuse if they will be a bit more lenient. So there is an actually reason why the refs will suddenly let more go before calling a disqualification.

 

-regarding the Remo & Vengeance super-team, it was going to be short-lived. Eisen was going to try to recruit Remo to the Union, but since Vengeance had no interest in it, he convinces Remo to turn on Vengeance. So Remo walks out on his partner during a title defense and they lose the belts to the Bumfhole's (probably on TV). Thiis turns Vengeance face, as he battles valiantly, and it also re-affirms that the Bumfhole's will remain as a team for the near future. Vengeance becomes part of the babyface alliance against the Supremacist Union - tentatively named Badass Inc (based off a series of promos between Eisen and Faith). Remo never really commits to the Union, but his presense is part of what drives Brandon James away and he ends up betraying Eisen - the schemer eventually undone by his own schemes.

 

-I was actually struggling a bit with the intended direction for Jack Bruce. What I wanted to do is have the loss of the world title and his inability to get it back basically drive him insane. So he becomes a loose cannon with a bit of a Jesus complex. In a manner, its just an extension of the rock star gimmick. I liked the idea, but the fact that he was coming into 2010 as the top babyface on the American scene made me kinda hesitate on the idea.

 

-Sean McFly was going to defeat Brandon James at the Master of Puppets pay per view via disqualification, and defeat him again on TV the following week in a rematch to claim the North American championship. In part, this would get the belt off James so he can move into the world title scene. But it also establishes something about McFly. There were two key reasons I wanted to sign "The American Tiger". The first was to subvert what I felt was my best moment of the Generation Supreme project. The second was to subvert the "golden era" of SWF history. Here is a returning hero, a former multi-time world champion who is still a great wrestler... yet he can't really hang with the SWF main event scene anymore. Its not 1997 anymore and McFly would continue to struggle for a long time against the top level guys. Its not that he lacks the skill, but rather his pure skill is no longer enough given the size, skill, and tactics of many of his opponents - a decade of "pure wrestling" working against him. He would get a lengthy run with the NA title, with a long-running feud against Angry Gilmore which would light up the midcard. Eventually McFly would "find his feet" and move up into the main event scene again properly, but only after showing the fans how the SWF has come in terms of talent since he left.

 

-one idea I wanted to play but had not decided on specific storylines and angles for was to use other forms of media to further feuds. Not just using social networks - Twitter wars FTW! - but actually using other media. Stuff like having a champion be a guest on a late night talk show and have someone interupt the interview to challenge him for a title match, etc. The problem was having it come across as too fake and cheesy.

 

-Speaking of cheesy.... Big Smack Scott's "milk rage" was going to be a whole lengthy comedic storyline. Forced councelling, BSS doing public service announcements about the dangers of milk, then relapsing... The segments would pretty much write themselves. Not exactly the kind of storyline to move BSS into the main event scene but it should have been fun to write and to read.

 

-the out-of-control monster Khoklov was going to be a key storyline late in the year. The "who is in control of him" question was going to come to a head around the time when he won the world title. Stealing a suggestion from someone, I was going to have Queen Emily make her return to the SWF, with the Russian monster being her revenge for being fired years before.

 

-I'm sure I mentioned in the actual shows somewhere, but I was rolling with the idea that Khoklov was not undefeated, but had not yet been pinned or submitted in the SWF. So he has lost in multi-man matches and been disqualified. He would lose cleanly at Times of Trouble, when Rich Money would face him as Eisen's final layer of protection. The idea being that Money is the most cerebral wrestler in the SWF and he is able to out-think the monster Russian. Capitalism FTW! I actually found this rendition of Rich Money resembling "The Game" Triple H more than I figured on... While I could have had Money go over James there, I wanted to take away the "unbeatable monster" aspect from Khoklov and simply make him an "almost impossible to beat" monster. He wasn't going to be turned into a Russian jobbing machine, but I wanted to avoid recreating the Brock Lesnar arc from my WCW project.

 

-I was going to try do some cross-over stuff with characters from the WMMA series. Not as in-ring competitors, though. Think what the WWE did with Mike Tyson back in '97.

 

Those are the things that jump to mind immediately. There was a lot more, but no need to make this too long. It was honestly quite easy to come up with ideas for this one - as simple as looking at some aspect of the Attitude era (or even WCW from that period), breaking it down to its essense, and then adapting it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Thanks for reading and while this didn't last nearly as long as I hoped, I hope you all enjoyed.