Tokyo Dojo Wrestling: Where Stars Are Born (C-Verse 2001)

[Oregano Jensen]

The year is 2001. Eisuke Yoshinobu, a former Golden Canvas Grappling star whose career was ended a few years back by a major knee injury, has finally had enough. He has been working as a road agent for the company since his retirement, but GCG's owner Hanshiro Furusawa keeps interfering with his job. Tensions are rising.

 

If Eisuke stays, his friendship with Furusawa (and GCG as a whole) will suffer. Despite the recent clashes, Eisuke loves GCG, and doesn't want his relationship with the company to sour. Anyway, if the tension continues, he could easily find himself out of a job, branded as a troublemaker and virtually blacklisted from the wrestling business. If he signs with a rival company, GCG loyalists will see him as a traitor, and that will not do either. Things look troublesome -- until an unexpected way out emerges.

 

Junichi Monou, the founder of the Tokyo Wrestling Dojo, is looking to retire. A legend in the Japanese wrestling business, Monou created GCG in 1960, and ran the company for more than 20 years. When he retired from active competition, he turned the company over to his friend Furusawa, believing that the promotion should be handed down to a new generation. He didn't want to leave wrestling, though, so he moved back to his native Tokyo and founded TWD as a sort of hobby. Never as big as the Golden Dojo or BHOTWG's Hinote Dojo, TWD was nonetheless an elite school, and its relatively few graduates have included legend-in-the-making Mito Miwa, among other top stars.

 

Monou is 75 years old, and the rigors of training are taking a toll on him. Moreover, PGHW has just opened Pro Wrestling SAISHO, making TDW only the fourth-largest wrestling school in the nation. Monou is revered, but the new generation of workers has never even seen him wrestle. Hinote Dojo is led by Motoichi Arakida, SAISHO by Danger Kumasaka, and the Golden Dojo by Yoshifusa Maeda -- the cachet of a worker who retired 20 years ago is not attracting students. If the dojo is going to carry on, it needs a new owner -- a man of the modern era, with the drive to expand and the fame to draw top talent. TDW needs Eisuke Yoshinobu, and Eisuke Yoshinubo needs TDW. And so a new era begins.

 

To rebuild the dojo, Eisuke needs to attract attention from aspiring wrestlers. His name carries a lot of weight in Japan, but the other dojos' head trainers are even more renowned. The one thing most likely to raise the dojo's stature, though, is a history of famous graduates. Mito Miwa's fame is an excellent advertisement for training in Tokyo, but beyond that, who has graduated from the Tokyo Wrestling Dojo? Natsu Miyamae is a great tag worker who has also found solo fame in BHOTWG. Koji Kojima and Koki Ishibashi are talented young lightweights, but neither is a household name yet. All four are known for their rock-solid fundamentals, which is good news for the dojo.

 

Some of TWD's most promising names are the members of Junichi Monou's final class. Shingen Miyazaki is now traveling the world, and has teamed up with Jeremy Stone in Canada: a fine thing for Miyazaki, but Eisuke knows he'll be of more use to TWD if they can get him back to Japan for some shows. Washi Heat is an enhancement worker for BHOTWG, which is impressive for a boy of 18, and shows that a TWD graduate can get work immediately... but does he need a better showcase to demonstrate his talents and move to the next level? Then there is Shiba Mizoguchi -- and "The Crab Master" is another story entirely.

 

So Eisuke comes up with a bold plan: he will start running shows in the Tokyo Wrestling Dojo gym, featuring dojo graduates and other rookies from around the Japanese wrestling scene. The point is not to create a profitable wrestling promotion or pursue popularity, but to hone the skills and raise the visibility of TWD's alumni, making them more likely to receive deals and pushes from the major promotions -- essentially creating an elite-level, ongoing independent wrestling show where talented young wrestlers can work on their skills and showcase their talent for scouts. Furthermore, if the most loyal wrestling fans drop in to check out a show featuring the stars of tomorrow, they may be inspired to take classes themselves, and TWD will flourish. So Tokyo Dojo Wrestling was born...

[Oregano Jensen]

THE GROUND RULES

 

So this promotion is a little different... as the previous post states, TDW is about training and employing prospects, not about succeeding as a promotion in its own right. Which leads to some slightly different rules.

 

- TDW starts with $250,000, 15% prestige, 10% importance in Kanto, and 5% importance elsewhere in Japan.

- We used $12,000 to build a 500-seat venue. All shows must be run there.

- TDW must run at least four shows and eight hours of wrestling every month.

- As a no-nonsense training camp-style promotion, TDW's key features are Traditional, Modern, Pure and Realism. There are a couple of other low/very low features, but nothing else medium or higher. Matches feature 80% intensity and 40% danger. There are no angles.

 

All right, so it looks like the promotion is likely to bleed money. No way can a small promotion run that much wrestling in a month, especially given the sponsor-unfriendly product. But wait... if TDW's alumni succeed, that's going to drive more traffic to the dojo.

 

- TDW gets $25,000 if one of their workers is hired by BHOTWG, PGHW or GCG. (This list is subject to change if new promotions become prominent.)

- TDW gets $25,000 if one of their dojo graduates is hired by BHOTWG, PGHW or GCG.

- TDW gets $25,000 if one of their workers or dojo graduates currently working part-time for BHOTWG, PGHW or GCG is hired with a written deal.

- TDW gets $25,000 if one of their ex-workers or dojo graduates wins a belt with BHOTWG, PGHW or GCG.

- Bonuses stack: a worker who is also a dojo graduate earns the promotion $50,000 when he's hired by a major promotion.

- The title bonus does not repeat itself: if a worker has a second title reign, or wins a different comparable title, it doesn't matter. The only exception: if a worker who won a lower-level title wins a main event title, the bonus is paid again.

- Bonuses take effect for Cult level or higher international companies as well. (At the moment: SWF, HGC, NOTBPW, CGC.) However, only half the money is awarded, because overseas promotions don't carry the same weight in the eyes of fans. Moreover, this applies only to Japanese workers -- if we employ a Canadian wrestler and NOTBPW then hires him, for example, we can't very well take credit for his advancement in his own country.

 

So, who does TDW employ?

- We must employ all TDW dojo graduates, even if they also work part-time elsewhere in Japan.

- All other employees must not be working for any other Japanese promotion.

- Almost all employees must be age 29 or younger. It is permissible to keep a couple veterans on staff as trainers, though.

- Nobody is loyal to TDW. That would defeat the purpose.

 

Finally:

- All these rules are subject to alteration at any time. I'm trying to find a balanced way of playing the game this way, and if the popularity/money/etc. get out of whack, I'll probably change it.

[pennyone]

this seems to be a nice concept, I will be reading

[Oregano Jensen]

Thanks! It should be a couple days before I start posting more -- I'm going to do a roster review and then start in on the shows. (I've written up five already.) Just need to figure out the images...

[Jack Hood]

Reading and completely intrigued. COMPLETELY.

[Unregistered]

This looks great. I look forward to seeing you creating the stars of the future! Let's hope you'll have enough workers avalable to you though. Also, if someone comes from any of the big three, and are then rehired, will you still take money from that? It seems a bit unfair if you do. They're already proven prospects.

[Boltinho]

<p>Will be paying attention but as someone not that familiar with Japan PLEASE make sure we get as much distinction as possible with singles and teams. </p><p> </p><p>

I really struggle with long lists of people I cant visualise whose names all end in -mizu, -amoto and -juku.</p><p> </p><p>

KUTGW after a nice start</p>

[smwilliams]

I plan on following every CVerse 2001 dynasty, and this is a really cool concept that goes against the traditional "book promotion X to increase importance". You've got a reader.

[Oregano Jensen]

Ugh... this is still happening, but I've been beset by chaos this week (wedding-related chaos... four months out, and our photographer flaked out on us) and haven't have the chance to set up images.

 

What do people use for that these days -- still Photobucket, mostly? And does anyone know where I can find additional generic worker images that I can use for this game? Given my emphasis on rookies, I fully intend to hire a bunch of computer-generated workers over the years...

 

Thanks!