LoganRodzen Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 WCW | The Whole Truth The words of a booker… http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m521/Logan_Rodzen/wcw-1.jpg It was December of 2009 when I first met Jay Chord. My first impression of the future 12-time World Heavyweight champion was a good one. People can say what they want about Jay, but in the end there’s nobody who could take the shadow of Rip Chord and make it their own. Jay not only came out of his father’s shadow, but he surpassed it on so many levels. Rip originally wanted me to come in as a secondary referee to Jay Fair, but after refereeing one show it was clear that I had a knack for “the business”. Rip told Jean Cattley that he’d be losing his booking duties after the Rip Chord Invitational in January and handing it over to a young fresh mind starting February 1st. Cattley wasn’t happy about the decision due to the age difference between the two of us. He had 11-years on me (he was 32 and I was 21 at the time) and it was visibly obvious that he was unhappy with me, although I had no part in the decision. That was until he saw what I could do behind the scenes. Rip Chord’s vision of a small promotion that would help develop younger workers was something that I was excited of being a part of, but I needed him to understand that I had much bigger plans in mind. Jay and I hit it off instantly due to our similar mindsets. Jay wanted MAW to be the biggest thing ever and so did I. I don’t think I would have ever had the “grapefruits” to confront a legend like Rip Chord about tweaking the product or the overall mission statement of the company. Jay was a huge help when it came to that part of the job. I was behind the scenes at the Rip Chord Invitational 2010 (which Casey Valentine won) and helped Cattley come up with a few of the finishes in the tournament. Jean didn’t want Valentine and Vessey (the RCI 2009 winner) to fight in the finals because of their ongoing tag team (C-V-2). I completely agreed that the tag team was much more important than a one-off match, but at the same time they needed to do something the fans wouldn’t expect. Therefore the tournament final was changed from Casey Valentine vs. American Patriot to Valentine vs. Vessey. The crowd ate it up and I instantly gained some respect from Cattley for genuinely helping him with a big decision. Having a young tag team (who went on the win the MAW / WCW World Tag Team titles a record 17-times) face-off against each other could have ruined their partnership for years to come. But as history shows, C-V-2 went on to become one of the most dominant tag teams in the history of wrestling. The fact that they both won the tournament in consecutive years gave them a unique bond that not only brought them together, but made them very competitive. The journey of WCW is a long one. This is my journey within a promotion that controls more than 45% of wrestling worldwide. It’s more than a decade of information that I can’t wait to share with you. (Disclaimer: Credit to whomever made this banner, I simply found it months and months ago and I've used it ever since ) Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Part VIII Part IX
MrOnu Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 Oh finally a glimpse of your WCW game! I'm curious to see how things panned out over the years.
Hashasheen Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 WCW | The Whole Truth The words of a booker… http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m521/Logan_Rodzen/wcw-1.jpg (Disclaimer: Credit to whomever made this banner, I simply found it months and months ago and I've used it ever since ) ... Oh you son of a bitch. I can't wait. I've been hearing about this for weeks now, and I have to see what and how you pulled this off.
ewanite Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 WCW | The Whole Truth The words of a booker… http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m521/Logan_Rodzen/wcw-1.jpg (Disclaimer: Credit to whomever made this banner, I simply found it months and months ago and I've used it ever since ) I saw the title and thought "Oh its another 'rich guy buys WCW in 2001' diary. That guy who did the massive WCW C-Verse game should do a diary. Wait, wasn't he LoganRodzen? No way!"
KrisKatana Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 I'm not a big C-Verse guy but, I have to say I loved reading your posts in the "Whats going on in your game?" topic. Consider me a reader.
20LEgend Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 Thought this was real world but its not, so excited for this!
FlameSnoopy Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 I'd have to lie to say I'm not interested. Consider me a part-time lurker at least.
TDubRaiders Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 yeah I'm so going to be reading this. I love seeing what you post in the What's Going on in your game thread and cannot wait to see what comes out of this. You def got a reader in me
1234 Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 Checklist: Written by LoganRodzen : Check! Interesting Concept : Check! Based on one of the most legendary game on the board : Double Check!!! I think its safe to say I will be following. Can't wait to see the dynamic between Logan and some of the wrestlers. The development of the relationship between you and Jay in particular should be interesting.
LoganRodzen Posted March 23, 2011 Author Posted March 23, 2011 WCW | The Whole Truth The words of a booker… http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m521/Logan_Rodzen/wcw-1.jpg I met Rip Chord for the first time when I was only 8-years old. My oldest brother was 20-years old and training to become a wrestler. He paid top dollar to be trained by some of the best wrestlers in the world. No doubt by the time Rip trained my brother he had lost a few steps and was in bad shape, but it was around this time that he started to turn his life around. I truly believe Rip gave my brother the best possible training that he could and that he didn’t just take his money and run. Something he wouldn’t have thought twice about years prior. I don’t want you to think that meeting the legend of Rip Chord as a child is what helped me secure the position I’m in now. Its pure coincidence that my brother trained under him, but it’s a coincidence I couldn’t help but mention. My brother passed away at the age of 25 due to heart complications and wrestling is something we shared together. It didn’t take long for me to decide what I wanted to become. I wanted to be a wrestler. I didn’t have the natural athleticism that my brother had, but I had years to shape myself before even being old enough to train legitimately. I played sports like football and ice hockey – this is where I was able to be the most physical person out there. Those two sports helped me tremendously when it came to conditioning. When the time came to move on from high school to training professionally, my parents gladly helped me out like they did my brother. I began training under Rip Chord personally in the summer of 2007 when I was 18-years old. I injured myself in early 2009 while working some small shows in and around New England. It was a back problem that I ignored for too long. Training under a legend like Rip Chord isn’t cheap and paying my parents back for loaning me money to train was one of my main priorities. Making ends meet working those indy shows weren’t cutting it anymore. I was 20-years old and had nothing to show for it besides world class training by an Immortal. Everything I made left my pockets within seconds due to bills. I had to figure out how to be in the business without putting so much strain on my back, but also making enough of a paycheck to make a living. Backstage was the only way. Rip couldn’t do very much inside the ring when he was training me due to his age, but the things he was able to teach me through videos and chalkboards is amazing. Through him, I saw more of the backstage aspect than anything else. I learned wrestling psychology like the back of my hand because this man had done it all. He saw a natural charisma about me and took what he knew to try and help me. Rip Chord was more than just a trainer to me. He helped me get my life back on track when I hit bottom. He gave me the greatest opportunity anybody can give a person who’s down: a chance. And I ran with it. I ran as fast and as far as I could without ever looking back. (This is mostly the format I'm going to follow for the time being, so I apologize if people were looking for actual shows and match-ups)
1234 Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 I is excite. Your not the only one. The Logan character is already shaping up nicely, but like I said before there is going to be lots of developments based on what I know from your save, that will be very interesting.
LoganRodzen Posted March 23, 2011 Author Posted March 23, 2011 WCW | The Whole Truth The words of a booker… http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m521/Logan_Rodzen/wcw-1.jpg Jay Chord was excited to see me coming on board as head booker of Mid Atlantic Wrestling. I think it’s because of our friendship that had been built up since I had first met him. I was at the Chord residence for weeks and weeks every single month planning things for MAW. Jay stilled lived with his dad and I didn’t blame him – his house was massive. I’m sure it didn’t bother him considering the guest house was almost as big as the main house and located as far away from Rip’s bedroom as possible. I never asked him about his mother because it didn’t seem appropriate considering the timeframe in which I knew him. I always saw women coming and going from the main house, but didn’t think much of it. Rip may have been an older guy, but he could still hook ‘em. I usually went out to the guest house and worked closely with Jay in order to secure plans with him and make sure he would actually show up to the events on time. Building a relationship with one of the most talented and young workers in the world was essential to my job as booker. I never imagined he would bring our friendship into our business dealings. On more than one occasion did Rip have to handle contract negotiations with his own son because of the ludicrous demands that he tried to swindle out of me. He thought I’d bend because of the history we ended up having together throughout the years. When he became owner I knew things were going to change. What I didn’t know was whether or not I could ‘control’ the monster of Jay Chord. What I did know was that I had a vision for the roster of men I had in the MAW locker room. Rip spoke to me about my friendship with Jay on a couple of occasions and simply said a few words, “bookers and talent should never be friends.” It really hit me hard to hear that, but it finally made sense to me and I was a lot harder on Jay after that. Now that I knew that I had Rip’s full support, I was able to be more severe with punishments for the stunts he was pulling backstage. When Jay took over as owner when Rip left the business in February 2015 it was shaky ground backstage at MAW events. He was showing up sometimes 10-minutes before his main event matches we supposed to go on in front of a live crowd. I was honestly scared for the talent I had to send out to the ring with him throughout those dark years of MAW. Jay Chord could really come alive when his music hit and that crowd gave him the hottest heat possible. Some guys just can. But they can’t always deliver top performances if they abuse substances that impair their judgment. I’m not blasting Jay Chord here. If anything, I’m his biggest supporter to this day and anybody who refutes that can knock on my office door anytime for a debate on that subject. (I had to post a bunch in a short period of time to get it going smoothly. I'm planning to continue writing entries like this to give an in-depth look at the rise of WCW from behind the scenes. I have a few more entries already ready to post, but I'll hold off on them so that I don't overwhelm any readers )
LoganRodzen Posted March 24, 2011 Author Posted March 24, 2011 WCW | The Whole Truth The words of a booker… http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m521/Logan_Rodzen/wcw-1.jpg It was Jay Chord’s idea for me to begin training again in mid-2010. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea at all because of the legitimate pain I went through every day because of my back. I was diagnosed with spondylolisthesis when I originally injured my back and surgery was a suggested option by doctors that I went against. I decided instead to receive legal bi-weekly steroid injections to relieve the pain. Jay was in the ring with me 100% of the way and Rip contributed greatly once again as always. I wasn’t particularly excited to see what ‘the boys’ thought of me in the locker room if I was booking and working the shows. I truly didn’t want any animosity between any of the workers or towards me especially. The plan was to hot-shot him to the top of the card and put the belt on him. His antics would just about cripple MAW as a whole before Rip Chord would get himself involved. Jay would absolutely run wild on the entire promotion with his flock of men that included Hollywood Bret Starr, Casey Valentine, and Cameron Vessey. The Succession was the most dominant MAW stable in history and almost left American Patriot in early retirement due to severely injuring his already well-known football injury. I had always been a fairly big guy and could make just about anybody laugh. A lot of people told me I had a natural charisma, but hearing it from Rip Chord was huge. Jay taught me a lot as well when it came to talking back in forth in the ring with a live crowd. A lot of what you say in the ring is pre-scripted and planned, but there’s always room for ‘working the crowd’ as Rip and Jay liked to put it. You could always change things up depending on the crowd. The relationship Jay and I had built over the past two years had made it very easy for us to plan and change things on the fly. The MAW crowd had already gotten to know me very well due to my pre-event address. I liked welcoming the fans as if they were being treated to an exclusive thing that mattered. I didn’t feel our announcer at the time could present the seriousness that I wanted in that message. I purchased a used tuxedo and I ran with it. I didn’t overstep my boundaries by taking more than 3-minutes and it gave workers backstage one last chance to get ready for the show. Everyone in the crowd knew that I was working closely with Rip Chord, but none of them believed I was making final decisions backstage when in fact I was.
LoganRodzen Posted March 24, 2011 Author Posted March 24, 2011 WCW | The Whole Truth The words of a booker… http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m521/Logan_Rodzen/wcw-1.jpg The bad guy that Jay Chord became is almost unimaginable. He had crowds spitting at him and yelling some really vulgar sayings. It was nasty at times and I almost don’t blame him for doing the things he did. Maybe alcohol was the only way he could get the courage to get from the backstage area to the ring. He was legitimately hated through the Mid-Atlantic region in the early MAW days. It took years, but I had to eventually turn him into a good guy for a full year in order to get those people from wanting to tear him apart in the locker room. It was that bad. I knew that Jay wanted to do something big when he asked me to start training again. I didn’t take it seriously because I believed if anything; it would be a one-off match that didn’t last long. I didn’t believe that my back would hold up inside the ring for more than five minutes. I honestly thought I’d paralyze myself if I tried doing anything too strenuous with my back. I was scared for my life when Jay told me he wanted to have a series of matches. I thought he was insane. I’m not sure about doing one match let alone a series. Why would the fans even be interested in seeing me beat Jay Chord? It didn’t make sense why I would be in that position rather than somebody else. In my mind I knew it was because Jay felt absolutely comfortable with me and that in the end the double swerve was more important. After I finished training for months and months I was ready to truly introduce myself to the MAW crowd as the guy who they could count on to bring them the best wrestling possible. They knew me by my real name and I felt like I had nothing to hide from them. I wanted to throw myself into the character and the story to make it as real as possible. The heat that Jay was able to obtain by insulting my family and deceased brother is unimaginable. He was escorted to his vehicle by armed police after that segment. He couldn’t even wrestle the main event tag match that night because I was worried fans would jump the barricade. In any other situation I would have been opposed to allowing Jay to make comments like he did that night and Rip didn’t even know about it until it happened live. He began chewing Jay out from the second we hit the backstage area until I could calm him down and let him know that I had initiated it with Jay. It was something we kept to ourselves so that we could get the best real reaction possible. The story was that important to us. Nothing could get in the way of it.
The Celt Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 Can't frickin' wait til you get into the heart of this one Logan!
LoganRodzen Posted March 24, 2011 Author Posted March 24, 2011 Thanks for the kind words everybody. I'm really excited to bring you this side of my WCW game. Eventually you'll see some wrestling, I promise!
LoganRodzen Posted March 24, 2011 Author Posted March 24, 2011 The inspiration for my dynasty! I'm all over this! I'm actually checking out your dynasty as I type this message. I'm looking forward to see what you do with the little promotion that can.
TheOmniWarrior Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 Ill be reading this one for sure! your MAW/WCW game is the reason I made my C-verse OVW game.
LoganRodzen Posted March 24, 2011 Author Posted March 24, 2011 WCW | The Whole Truth The words of a booker… http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m521/Logan_Rodzen/wcw-1.jpg I was worried that the story between Jay and I was getting in the way of the other stories amongst the roster. It was important to me that all of the guys in the locker room felt they were being used properly and to their full potential. I put a lot of work into our events as a whole in the early days of MAW. It was essential to gaining a following. It was fairly easy to get a decent amount of fans to a show by promoting Rip Chord alone. But you couldn’t keep them coming back every time with that alone. I knew that every event had to have something big happen and that’s why I was very favorable to putting on traditional-style cage matches and ladder matches. MAW had a very strong tag team division in its early days as well. We had a limited budget and couldn’t afford everybody every week, but we had as many big names as we could when we could. We truly made it work with what we had. I became the equivalent of a main event jobber. I lost to The Mean Machine in the summer of 2011 making my in-ring debut after making many appearances. He was the Mid-Atlantic Champion at the time and he was working with Jay Chord. Well, as the story went Chord was actually using Cattley in order to get to the MAW title. By late 2011 American Patriot would make a surprise return in helping me during a handicap match in which I lost and was beaten badly. I didn’t make any appearances for months and it went back to Brandon (Patriot) receiving the beatings at the hands of The Succession and The Mean Machine. It wasn’t until mid-2012 that the MAW crowd would see the man behind the scenes. By this point James Hernandez and a few of the boot camp graduates (Syd Collier and Robbie Wright) had formed an alliance with American Patriot in order to fend off the dominant five-man team. All of this came to an end at MAW The Clash in September of 2012 when it was announced that I would join Patriot, Hernandez, Collier, and Wright in going against the most dominant men in MAW. The company wasn’t on the line because Jay hadn’t actually taken over yet. Within the story it was known that Jay had coerced Rip into giving him control over MAW for a period of time. Jay never relinquished his control and eventually beat his father down in the middle of the ring. It was at this time that I introduced myself to the MAW fans as Executive Operator of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. They needed to know that with Rip Chord gone there was still somebody who could stop the powerful youngster.
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