Blodyxe Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 <p><strong>Homicide</strong> vs. Low-Ki</p><p> Alex Shelley vs. <strong>Matt Sydal</strong> (Prince Nana on Commentary)</p><p> Non-Title: Anthony Henry vs. <strong>Jeff Cobb</strong></p><p> Submissions Only, Fight Without Honor: <strong>Fred Yehi</strong> vs. "Filthy" Tom Lawlor</p><p> ROH Television Title: <strong>Kenny King</strong> {C} vs. Dalton Castle vs. PJ Black</p><p> ROH Tag Titles: Jonathan Gresham and Jay Lethal {C} vs. <strong>The Top Guys</strong></p><p> ROH World: Jay Briscoe {C} vs. <strong>Nick Aldis</strong></p><p> </p><p> Unsigned Bout</p><p> Open Challenge: Mark Briscoe vs. ??? (Calling out the mysterious attacker, will the attacker reply?) Yes <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kijar Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 Homicide vs. Low-Ki I like both. Maybe not at this time, but I still do. Alex Shelley vs. Matt Sydal (Prince Nana on Commentary) Cute. Absolutely adore these guys. Met both Non-Title: Anthony Henry vs. Jeff Cobb Submissions Only, Fight Without Honor: Fred Yehi vs. "Filthy" Tom Lawlor ROH Television Title: Kenny King {C} vs. Dalton Castle vs. PJ Black ROH Tag Titles: Jonathan Gresham and Jay Lethal {C} vs. The Top Guys 'Cause they just got it. Prefer Re-Vi-Val though ROH World: Jay Briscoe {C} vs. Nick Aldis No to Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasrangers13 Posted April 16, 2020 Author Share Posted April 16, 2020 Honor Club Exclusives for April 2020 Honor Club Exclusives for April 2020 This month we released seven exclusive ROH matches filmed prior to our tapings, and new this month we also released three exclusive matches that featured our talents while they wrestled for our partners! Here is a full listing of the bouts listed with a brief description. Hammerstone defeated Evan Daniels The powerhouse Hammerstone takes on Future of Honor's Evan Daniels, a mysterious lightweight from Tombstone, Arizona. "The Black Rose" Leon St Giovanni defeated Adam Brooks Leon St. Giovanni's more, mafioso-esque persona, complete with mysterious valet and the kiss of death, Black Rose, faces off against Australian Adam Brooks in a fun bout! Post-Match, The Kingdom of Truth invites Leon St. Giovanni to come sample the product and be featured in the HonorClub Main Event. Eli Isom and Tracy Williams defeated Slex and Lochy Hendricks Eli Isom and Tracy Williams tag to take on the two men who are from our new partner Melbourne Championship Wrestling, "The Business" Slex and "Loverboy" Lochy Hendricks. Joe Keys and Rhett Titus defeated Joe Hendry and Matt Cross The 2020 Top Prospect and Rhett Titus do battle with Joe Hendry and Matt Cross in a fast-paced tag bout featuring four of our lower card wrestlers. Cornelius Crummels and Sonny Defarge defeated The Bouncers The Future of Honor Champion, Crummels, is in action with his partner Defarge as they face off against the fun-loving, beer-guzzling Bouncers. Can the Bouncers stop drinking for long enough to win this bout, or will the Future of Honor take home a victory? Dan Maff defeated Shaheem Ali Dan Maff looked great at Supercard of Honor, and here he has a chance to shine as a singles competitor against another man looking for direction as a singles wrestler, Shaheem Ali. Will Ospreay and MexaBlood defeated Leon St Giovanni and The Kingdom of Truth Two matches in one showing for Leon St Giovanni as he tests out a partnership with Matt Taven and Mike Bennett. They'll face Will Ospreay and the MexaBlood team of Bandido and Flamita in a bout that is so good you'll want to watch it again! This one was a *** bout worth seeing and sharing! Additionally, we have three exclusives from our partners! First from our partners up north, SMASH! Wrestling! From SMASH Any Given Sunday 2020: Mark Haskins and RJ City defeated The Fraternity "Overkill" Mark Haskins took his talents to Toronto to team with D-List Celebrity RJ City as they face-off against the frat bros known simply as "The Fraternity". From CMLL's April Event: Flyer defeated Odinson by DQ If your a fan of clashing styles and brutality this one is for you. Odinson may get DQ'd, but he'll showcase his raw strength and power and strike fear in your heart in this bout from Ciudad Juarez in Mexico! From NJPW's Invasion Attack 2020: The Briscoe Brothers defeated The Time Splitters Last but not least, and available for a short-time only, Mark and Jay Briscoe are in Japan for the main event of Invasion Attack as they face off against Alex Shelley and his departing partner KUSHIDA. This was one of KUSHIDA's final appearances in Japan as he signed with the WWE right after this show, so be sure to catch what might be the final appearance of the Time Splitters! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That is all we have for now, be sure to tune in this weekend for Ring of Honor Presents: Free Enterprise, live on Pay-Per-View! As a reminder, here is the card for that action-packed event! Ring of Honor Presents Free Enterprise Preview Confirmed Bouts Homicide vs. Low-Ki Alex Shelley vs. Matt Sydal (Prince Nana on Commentary) Non-Title: Anthony Henry vs. Jeff Cobb Submissions Only, Fight Without Honor: Fred Yehi vs. "Filthy" Tom Lawlor ROH Television Title: Kenny King {C} vs. Dalton Castle vs. PJ Black ROH Tag Titles: Jonathan Gresham and Jay Lethal {C} vs. The Top Guys ROH World: Jay Briscoe {C} vs. Nick Aldis Unsigned Bout Open Challenge: Mark Briscoe vs. ??? (Calling out the mysterious attacker, will the attacker reply?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasrangers13 Posted April 18, 2020 Author Share Posted April 18, 2020 ROH Presents Free Enterprise Ring of Honor Presents Free Enterprise Live from the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta, GA Announcers: AJ Kirsch, Rob Naylor and Ian Riccaboni ringside Homicide vs. Low-Ki Two Brooklyn brawlers with a long history step into the ring in our opening bout and deliver as we expected. This was a hard-hitting and physical bout that shook the crowd to the core as both men went at it with non-stop action that reminded many of the good ole brawls from 15 years ago. In the end it was Low-Ki who delivered the John Woo to send Homicide stumbling into the corner and immediately followed up sending him to the mat, hopping to the top and crushing the chest with the Warriors Way for the victory. Post-Match the two men shook hands and walked out... Low-Ki defeated Homicide via Warriors Way (***3/4) Backstage, Prince Nana is fluttering about. He has briefcase and delivers it to Matt Sydal backstage, telling him to "re-establish" himself in Ring of Honor and bring Prince Nana back to prominence! Prince Nana accompanies Sydal to the ring, but joins the commentary team for the bout itself.[/center] Alex Shelley vs. Matt Sydal These two were teammates at Supercard of Honor, putting aside the feud of the 2000's between The Embassy and GenerationNext. But now Prince Nana has bribed Sydal to take out Shelley after Nana felt like Shelley wasn't willing to re-launch The Embassy in modern Ring of Honor. Sydal had recently been appearing with IMPACT Wrestling, and recently signed with NJPW. Additionally, he is currently the Crash Heavyweight champion. Shelley on the other hand has recently just wrapped up his long-time NJPW, The Time Splitters with KUSHIDA as his partner signed with the WWE. Additionally, his team with Chris Sabin, The Motor City Machine Guns, also appear to have been put on the back-burner as Sabin is now training future ROH stars with Future of Honor. That means the 37-year old Shelley is out on his own and working to shine as a solo star... at least for now... rumors have it he's found another partner and will be challenging for the IWGP Tag Titles upon his return to Japan... All of that as an aside, this bout was fast-paced as expected but honestly disappointed a little. Alex Shelley hit the Sliced Bread #2 for the victory on Sydal and left taunting Nana as he left. Alex Shelley defeated Matt Sydal via Sliced Bread #2 (***1/4) Backstage, Bobby Cruise announces that the next #1 Contender for either the TV or Pure Title will be determined at our next TV Show as there will be another Proving Ground bout featuring: Cody Hall, JD Drake, Joe Hendry, Mark Haskins, Rhett Titus and Tracy Williams. This one has some intrigue as there is a chance that Anthony Henry's partner, JD Drake could win and challenge him, among other opportunities. Speaking of the Pure Champion, let's head to the ring for a non-title bout. Non-Title Anthony Henry vs. Jeff Cobb In this, non-title bout, both combatants agreed to follow Pure rules, and though Jeff Cobb couldn't challenge for the title, he proved to be a very legitimate contender with this bout. The champion brought the fight to the Hawaiian Hit-Man, but Cobb's strength and amateur wrestling background really wore Henry down... Ultimately Cobb caught Henry with the Tour of the Islands and pinned the champion successfully... Jeff Cobb defeated Anthony Henry via Tour of the Islands (***) Backstage Team Filthy (Josh Woods and Tom Lawlor) are ripping on Fred Yehi for turning his back on them, and promising to rip him limb from limb. From there we transition to Truth Martini standing a pulpit with Matt Taven and Mike Bennett flanking him... He tells us to stop sleeping on the Kingdom of Truth. He reminds us that he has led multiple men to multiple titles in Ring of Honor and the Day of Reckoning is coming for Ring of Honor. Submissions Only Fred Yehi vs. Tom Lawlor This one was a chance for the younger Yehi (he is only 28 years old) to get a chance to breakaway from "Filthy" Tom and begin to forge his own path in Ring of Honor. "Filthy" had other plans and with the help of Josh "The Goods" Woods controlled the first-half of this bout. Eventually Todd Sinclair, known rival of Tom Lawlor from their 2018 feud (Boom, long-term storytelling), ejected Woods leaving Lawlor to fend for himself. This event swung the bout in Yehi's favor and he locked a Koji Clutch on the former UFC fighter that forced Lawlor to tap out and gave Yehi a big victory. Fred Yehi defeated Tom Lawlor via Koji Clutch (**3/4) Backstage, Shane Taylor and Kenny King barge through a door looking for someone to complain to about the fact that King has to defend his TV Title tonight against not one, but two competitors, he said it is ridiculous that a challenger was allowed dictate the bout is a Triple Threat and continued to say that Ring of Honor has always tried to hold him back, but that he wasn't afraid of this challenge... The King of the Night will reign supreme in the Magic City. We see Mark and Jay Briscoe arrive to the venue, walking in with a bit of apprehension on their face, looking over their shoulder for the mysterious attacker who has been striking at random for the last few months. ROH Television Title Kenny King {C} vs. Dalton Castle vs. PJ Black PJ Black, three months later, is finally using his title shot he earned by winning a Proving Ground bout and in the build-up gained another challenger as Dalton Castle was added to the mix after he teamed with Black and defeated Shane Taylor and Kenny King. Kenny King's title reign was in serious doubt in this one, but one month in King wasn't about to lose his title, instead playing it smart and primarily letting Black and Castle fight eachother... In fact, Castle hit the Bang-A-Rang on PJ Black, only for King to rush in, hit the Coronation on Castle from behind and make the cover for the win and defense. Kenny King defeated Dalton Castle and PJ Black to retain the ROH Television Title (***). ROH Tag Titles Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham {C} vs. The Top Guys Over the last year, guys like Lethal and Gresham, the Top Guys and even Low-Ki, have brought the Tag Titles to new heights in Ring of Honor, consistently putting out great bouts and with the competition in the division bring a new level of competitiveness to the division. This rematch was no different, easily taking home the match of the night honors. Both teams were on their A-Game and this one went back and forth with great action... In the end, The Top Guys attempt to recapture the titles fell short as the champions caught KC McKnight with the Lethal Combination for the defense... Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham defeated The Top Guys to retain the ROH Tag Titles (****) It was post-bout though that things got interesting... The four men in the ring embraced and shook hands... when suddenly... A large, 6'2" 250 pound man slid into the ring... he clotheslined the champs from behind and began a two on one brawl with The Top Guys, as that happened... The behemoth Brody slid into the ring and delivered a big boot to McKnight and then he and the other man delivered a double chokeslam to Walters. Leaving carnage in the ring... Vincent appeared on the ramp with a microphone and cut a scathing promo, addressing his two men as Brody and Shinigami (which Riccaboni quickly pointed out is the God of Death in Japanese); Vincent spoke calmly, "Day in and day out man we've toiled in the shadows, we've brought Ring of Horror a new face of violence and still we were left behind... well... man... I have heard this complaints, I've lived in the shadows and I've freed the beasts that live within man... You dig?! Follow our path to Salvation. We are The Righteous and we are... here... now." Vincent, Brody, Shinigami are The Righteous Backstage we see Nick Aldis getting ready for the bout, we cut and see Mark Briscoe chatting with Jay Briscoe... Mark tells Jay to keep getting ready but Mark is going to call out this mysterious attacker. Mark makes his way out, cuts an impassioned promo about the selfishness of blind attacks. He demands that the attacker show his face but after a good 5-6 minutes, no one comes... Briscoe walks to the back and as the camera follows him he finds his brother in the back and tells him his going to keep searching for this attacker and ensure that nothing happens... The announcers speculate that maybe Mark Briscoe is behind this and this is all a ruse to trap his brother?!? We shall see... the Main Event is next... ROH World Title Jay Briscoe {C} vs. Nick Aldis The World Champion is out alone, as is "The National Treasure" Nick Aldis. The bout starts slowly with both men feeling out the pace for the bout. Briscoe makes the first big move, speeding things up and catching Aldis off guard... Aldis fights back and forces Jay Briscoe back to the ropes. This brief break allowed Aldis to deliver a knee firmly to the gut of Briscoe sending him reeling. Aldis quickly began to work over the back of Jay, clubbing him to the mat over and over again. He locked in a waist lock and shook Briscoe silly. Briscoe flailed around and eventually connected with Aldis' skull sending Aldis back to the ropes. Briscoe turned the fight back around and things spun back to the champions side. Around 20 minutes into the match there was a bit of a commotion up on the ramp, taking both mens attention briefly... Mark Briscoe came stumbling out, bloodied with his shirt torn... Aldis quickly rolled Jay Briscoe up but Jay kicked out at two. Mark made his way ringside, mumbling. Jay took a moment to check on his brother, but Mark brushed it off and told Jay to focus... Aldis tried to take advantage but the champion was wise to it and hit a spinning elbow. He turned a delivered a quick kick, Jay Driller and suddenly... covered Aldis for the 1-2-3 and the defense... Jay Briscoe defeated Nick Aldis via Jay Driller (***1/2) to retain the ROH World Championship As the bout ended, Mark Briscoe got in the ring, hugged his brother. Jay checked on him and the cameraman picked up Mark say, "Jay, I had him, I had him..." The lights suddenly cut... and a dim glow lit the ramp... fog began to pour into the arena... and the lights went out again... You could here something happening and the lights returned with fog covering the ring. Both Briscoes were out cold, Aldis was limping his way up the ramp and the screen slowly lit up with a plague mask as we went off the air, mystery still unsolved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overall Rating: ***3/4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasrangers13 Posted April 18, 2020 Author Share Posted April 18, 2020 <p>Eck's Files May 2020</p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align:center;"><p><span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>Eck's Files State of ROH, May 2020</strong></span></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> Ring of Honor has just wrapped up another successful pay-per-view event with Free Enterprise live in Atlanta and they are on the road to Best In The World 2020, but before they get there the second edition of the Ring of Honor/CMLL Co-Produced Calle Del Dorado will take place. The Calle Del Dorado is an eight-man tournament that first started in 2019 when Will Ospreay defeated RUSH in the finals. In that iteration we just had a standard 8-man tournament. Well this year folks, ROH and CMLL officials have agreed upon a new format that will be a gauntlet style with eight ranked competitors. Meaning the eight seed would need to win seven matches in the night to earn the ROH World Title shot that is given out to the winner. While we are three weeks away from the special event, which will be aired live on the Honor Club, we can confirm the participants from ROH and CMLL.</p><p> </p><p> Representing Ring of Honor will be <strong>Bandido, PJ Black, Flip Gordon and Will Ospreay</strong></p><p> Representing CMLL will be <strong>El Barbaro Cavernario, Caristico and RUSH</strong></p><p> </p><p> and lastly, our eighth representative is a Mexican luchador who has taken Japan by storm and has recently made some appearances with Ring of Honor, <strong>Flamita</strong>!</p><p> </p><p> While the official rankings haven't been announced the fact that both the winner and runner-up from last year are participating is a good sign that they will represent the top half of the bracket. </p><p> </p><p> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p> </p><p> At Free Enterprise, <strong>Vincent</strong> introduced his new stable, <strong>The Righteous</strong>, when his tag-team partner, <strong>Brody</strong> (FKA Brody King) and a mysterious figure attacked<strong> Lethal, Gresham and The Top Guys</strong> after their killer tag match. <strong>Vincent</strong> reminds me of a cult-figurehead somewhat in the style of the classic WCW, Flock led by Raven but with a more modern take, and certainly a new figurehead, with a different ability to command a crowd. By surrounding himself with the massive <strong>Brody</strong> and the newly debuted <strong>Shinigami</strong>, <strong>Vincent</strong> has given himself over 500 pounds of protection. And as he stated at Free Enterprise, they will welcome anyone who has been held back to come through their doors. </p><p> </p><p> Speaking of <strong>Shinigami</strong>, we did some research and can confirm that Shinigami was previously known as <strong><em>Tomoyuki Oka and The Great O'Kharn</em></strong>, he has spent the last year on excursion with RPW in the United Kingdom and is now moving over to Ring of Honor to continue his quest. <strong>Shinigami</strong> as hinted to on the broadcast is the Japanese God of Death. Don't expect to hear him speak much, but he is a menacing force. We've also heard that <strong>Vincent</strong> is actively recruiting, seeking forgotten souls to join his Righteous cause.</p><p> </p><p> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p> The partnership with Melbourne Championship Wrestling may be relatively fresh, but we've already seen three Australian stars debut on the Honor Club and early on ROH TV cards, <strong>Adam Brooks, Slex and Lochy Hendricks</strong> are all members of MCW and we expect them to continue to be featured on the lower half of the card. Rumors have it we may even see a trip to Australia in the future.</p><p> </p><p> Last but not least for this batch of rumors, it has been said that ROH has been in negotiations with a recently released former NXT champion, as well as negotiating with a couple luchadors who have appeared on Lucha Underground of late... Stay tuned.</p><p> </p><p> <em><span style="font-size:10px;">Kevin Eck is a veteran pro wrestling journalist who has worked for The Baltimore Sun, WWE and WCW before joining ROHWrestling.com.</span></em></p> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blodyxe Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 Great event, and my predictions were terrible <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasrangers13 Posted April 21, 2020 Author Share Posted April 21, 2020 News and Notes Ring of Honor Contract News and Notes At the Free Enterprise event, Ring of Honor officials announced two contract extensions. First, they agreed to an extension with Kenny King's private security guard, Shane Taylor. Terms were not disclosed, but King assures us his associate "got that cheddar". Secondly, Eli Isom, a product of ROH "Legend" Cheeseburger's training school and a frequent opener for Ring of Honor agreed to a three-year extension that will allow him to continue to work for his other dates as long as ROH is the priority. Additionally, Ring of Honor announced that Hammerstone, the current NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Champion in NJPW has signed an exclusive contract with NJPW that will see him feature prominently in the middle of their cards. Thanks to our relationship with NJPW we expect that you will still see Hammerstone pop-up here and there, but we have confirmed that his final current booking with ROH will be at the May Week 4 TV event as he and partner Odinson take on the former tag champions, The Top Guys! As for Odinson, rumor has it he has already found another partner to take Hammerstone's spot in the future... -------------------------------------------------------------------- A Glance at Future of Honor The Future of Honor promotion officially launched earlier this year as a stand-alone developmental group where the future stars of Ring of Honor will train and perform on two shows monthly (aired exclusively on the HonorClub). Chris Sabin and Bully Ray have been acting as the full-time trainers down there, and they've even had guest appearances by names such as Mike Quackenbush and Kenji Mutoh! The current champion down there is Cornelius Crummels, an undersized, plucky fighter with a penchant for picking fights and letting his partner "Sammy" clean up his mess. While the promotion has a number of workers, here are three you should keep an eye on. 1) Alex Zayne, though he started his career 15 years ago, the 34 year old daredevil recently returned to wrestling with vengeance, putting his aerial assault on full display! 2) Troy Hollywood, originally trained by Jay Lethal, the 25-year old Hollywood is a cocky/confident master of a variety of lethal strikes and kicks. His feet are a true weapon, and one wrong step and he'll knock you out. 3) Jaxson James, seven-year pro from South Carolina, Jaxson promises to beat the living tar out of you and seems to enjoy taking strikes as much as he likes giving them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasrangers13 Posted May 7, 2020 Author Share Posted May 7, 2020 The End of Honor (Diary Closing Commentary) The End of Honor All good things must come to an end, and after a nice lengthy run (December 2017-April 2020) and nearly 50,000 views, I've decided that it is time to close the book on this diary. This decision did not come easily, but as I've dove into the new game and spent the last two weeks creating my ideal DB, I've realized that I want to tell a story that starts in 2020 and moves forward rather than continue one that started in 2017 and has evolved into 2020. The wrestling world has changed dramatically and I want to play in that sandbox so to speak! When this started we set out to build some stars. Though no one was poached by the WWE (though I did step in to make them sign some of the guys they did in reality), we did lose some to NJPW! Beyond that, Jay Briscoe is one of the ten most popular stars in the world... and we launched some careers: Hammerstone was featured here well before he ever debuted in MLW in real life, and Austin Theory won our Top Prospect Tournament long before he made his NXT and subsequent WWE debut. We had won some awards for Diary of the Month (most have been a boring month) and Match of the month (Cody and Jeff Cobb can tear the house down... can't disagree there). We built a villainous faction, Royalty, that dominated the scene until October 2019 when they left to launch All Elite Wrestling. I had a ton of fun find new stories and wrestlers to tell their stories and not all of the stories were finished... so... I figure we should tell those stories! 1) The Ring of Honor World Title Jay Briscoe was the reigning and defending champion and honestly it was getting hard to find worthy opponents for him. His popularity exploded to B+/A- and was still going wild. We brought RUSH in (a C+) just so someone would be near him. RUSH was to win the Calle Del Dorado and get another shot at Briscoe. With the mysterious Plague masks and attacks still occurring, Jay Briscoe's brother Mark would set out to solve whom was behind them, with the reveal taking place in July 2020 when Marty Scurll would return to Ring of Honor as the leader of a new group, Pandemic (Originally was going to be Villain Enterprises , along with two Brits who had been floating about and were solid performers but needed a direction. Thom Latimer and Mark Haskins. Latimer would actually challenge for the title as Scurll was making only sporadic appearances before he was set to make his full-time return to the company late summer... Here's the catch though... His popularity wasn't where it should have been, so I was preparing to build him up and allow him a long runway to Death Before Dishonor in September where he would likely capture the title. I wanted to incorporate the winner of the G1 Climax (SANADA) into this somehow as he actually beat both Mark and Jay Briscoe on his way to capturing it, but I couldn't envision NJPW being to happy with their G1 winner losing to our champ... I digress, with Scurll as champion, his first challenger would then be at the RPW/ROH co-branded Honor United event in the UK. That challenger was going to likely be ZSJ or Ospreay for an all UK title defense. With Survival of the Fittest up next, one thought was Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe would go to a time-limit draw setting up a Triple Threat for Final Battle to end the year. Another was that Jay Lethal would win, finally putting his two year streak as a rockstar tag wrestler (with both Low-Ki and Gresham) behind him and challenging for the title once again. 2) The Television Title Kenny King was a nice champion to hold the TV division through the summer, he likely would have dropped the title early fall to a debuting character mentioned below. But that wasn't sorted out. I played the TV picture by ear. 3) The Pure Title This one I think was obvious when Jeff Cobb defeated the champ in a non-title. Cobb would continue to destroy worthy opponents, including Nick Aldis at Best in the World, until July 1 when his contract allowed him to challenge for a title again. He would defeat Anthony Henry and take control of the Pure division. I always loved the Pure Title and I am thrilled that ROH actually intends to bring it back (and will be bringing in Fred Yehi for it). 4) The Tag Titles A group of stories were in play here and you can read more about the plans below in the new debuts/stables section... Being that I know Alex Shelley had a big following... I'd be remiss to not mention that he and Will Ospreay teamed in NJPW and were the reigning IWGP Tag Champions. I planned to have a fun grouping of matches of them with Lethal and Gresham before the ultimate title change in the fall to The End (see below). 5) New debuts and stables Wesley Blake was let go by the WWE and was set to join ROH in a midcard/TV title type role as "The Outlaw" Cory Weston. Originally I was thinking about returning TK O'Ryan in that role, or as "The Man With No Country", but his "development" seemed stalled, and Blake has always been a solid worker without a real story. Parrow, when Hammerstone signed a full-time deal with NJPW I had two options, one was continually loan Hammerstone from NJPW and keep he and Odinson together. The other was sign Odinson's actual partner in the real tag team... So I went that route. They were due for a big summer push that would see them capture the Tag Titles (which I wanted Hammerstone and Odinson to do but... NJPW wanted Hammerstone too much, where he is now the NEVER Openweight Six-Man champion). I really like Odinson's look and skill... he'll likely be appearing in the next diary, just foreshadowing. Martin Casaus, better known by most as Marty The Moth, was set to join Vinny Marseglia's new twisted cult, The Righteous. The Righteous was a collective of like-minded twisted individuals. Brody King; Tomoyuki Oka, AKA The Great O'Kharn would join from NJPW as part of his excursion and be branded as Shinigami (Japanese Death God). The four of them would harass and harm the tag division. They had a number of routes but were primarily going to feud with The Top Guys whom I was planning a late summer departure for All Elite Wrestling. Fight Club: Brooklyn, I was tinkering in dark matches with a Brooklyn-based stable of Homicide, Low-Ki and Tracy Williams. Homicide was signed by the CEO and was on time decline but could still hang in matches. Low-Ki was a stud, but I need a summer storyline and Tracy Williams wasn't doing anything of value but was a solid worker. The likely would have started a feud with the newest rendition of Team Filthy, Tom Lawlor, Josh Woods and Silas Young. Luchas... the owner goal prevented me from signing workers classified as Luchadors so I was heavily leaning on my partnership with CMLL. That said, I planned to break the goal over the summer to bring some fresh blood in on full-time deals just like the actual ROH. Flamita, Ryu Lee, RUSH and Rey Horus all were due to join us at some point. Adding them to Bandido, Ospreay, Flip Gordon and PJ Black would have given us a banger division of high-fliers. Tag Team debut: I was seriously considering bringing in The Besties in the World (though the gimmick is dumb) Mat Fitchett is a great worker and Davey Vega works well with him... I also considered just Fitchett, and had him signed to a development (Future of Honor) contract. Andrew Everett, I signed with eyes on potentially pushing him in the lucha group... then I watched some footage of him from February in EVOLVE and ROH and I honestly think the Andre the Giant style singlet is a terrible look for him and frankly wasn't as excited... this might have been a quick release. Rest of the workers: Adam Brooks, continue to job, but would pick up a win when we held a special event with MCW in Australia (no clue when that was going to be though). Anthony Henry: The Pure Champion storyline is detailed, the next step was a falling out and feud with his Workhorseman partner and ally JD Drake. Based fully off the feud they had in late 2019 in Evolve and FIP in reality. Fun one. Bandido: Lucha stuff! Dalton Castle: Stuck in the weird spectrum of good enough to be upper midcard, but not good enough to capture the title again... Not sure what direction we were going other that allowing Kenny King to beat him and retain the TV Title. Debated bring "The Boys" back or teaming with Joe Hendry. Eli Isom: Jay Lethal took him on as a protege and he was making nice strides. Was probably a year or two away from being in the TV title picture. But was looking like one to watch (only 23). Flip Gordon: Skills in-game just didn't match my impression of him in reality. And frankly just couldn't get a consistent story with him. Was looking like a lucha midcarder. Fred Yehi: Was likely to be the next in line for a feud for the Pure title with new champion Jeff Cobb. Might have even captured it in the Winter. I dig Yehi. Jay Lethal: He and Gresham would continue to be a tag team but he'd begin to move back towards a big singles run and Gresham would transition to the Pure title chase in the winter. JD Drake: See Anthony Henry. Jeff Cobb: Pure and simple, the Pure champion, elevating the title. What held him back was that he just couldn't go in the ring for long bouts that guys like Lethal, Ospreay, Low-Ki could pull out of Briscoe. My best in-game bouts never included him and that was a limiting factor. Joe Hendry: Maybe a team with Castle? Jonathan Gresham: See Lethal Josh Woods: Had Silas Young as a new partner in Team Filthy, with Lawlor. In-Game tension with Tracy Williams was to lead into a feud, likely as a trio. KC McKnight/Steven Walters: The Top Guys served their purpose in ROH and did what I wanted. My in-game AEW was their next home and after being written off in the summer they were heading that way where they would quickly capture the AEW Tag titles from Jericho and Guevara. Kenny King: TV Champion, would hold it for a bit as the midcard would need a strong face. Great promos and solid bouts. I've kinda always liked King. LSG: I was trying something with him and wanting to push him as a semi-mob connected Italian-American, Leon St Giovanni. The Black Roses his valet was laying on fallen opponents were to signify the mob ties... He was eventually going to either join The Kingdom of Truth or attack them with some mob-type help... Not sure where this was going... but it was never great. Lochy Hendricks: See Adam Brooks. Low-Ki: One of my favorites. Absolute in-ring rockstar. Likely going to be used to boost Tracy Williams up over the summer. And continue to kick ass and take names. Mark Briscoe: I debated him turning on Jay... but ultimately he's the one who figures out it is Scurll behind it all and pays the price. Mark Haskins: Was going to join Pandemic, and represent them in the lower card, possibly with the high fliers. Marty Scurll: The future champ, this whole thing came about because in game I let him leave in January, thinking he was going to AEW in reality and I was going to let that happen... then he didn't... so I was waiting out the window before he'd resign with me full-time (thankfully NJPW was good with loaning him to me for sporadic appearances). I like to blend reality with the game and this time it worked out weirdly. Matt Taven: The Kingdom of Truth... Truthfully, I don't like Taven. Mike Bennett: Taven needed a partner, Bennett worked well. And I kinda liked Truth Martini's character, so it worked. But I like Bennett way more than Taven. Nick Aldis: Was hurt in June and was scheduled to miss 11 months. PJ Black: Lucha stuff. Rhett Titus: LOL. Rocky Romero: Continue as a liaison between NJPW and others. Royce Issacs: I like the stuff he's doing in the NWA... but solo, I had nothing for him. Ryan Nova: Good at eating pins, the new Cheeseburger! Shaheem Ali: Written off after the LSG loss. Had no plans. Shane Taylor: Kenny King's muscle. Was going to keep using him as that. Silas Young: I brought him back, had nothing for him to do, then decided to use him as the new member of Team Filthy. Slex: Business was not booming for Slex. The Bouncers: Were about to leave. Thom Latimer: Pandemic's muscle and a true threat in the Midcard scene. Can wrestle. Tom Lawlor: Had some fun stories in his time with us but never made the jump. Fans didn't love him. Tracy Williams: Legendary rated gimmick, and good in-ring skills, needed direction. Will Ferrara: Umm, fired? Will Ospreay: Continue to just be a showcase-type wrestler. Thank you all for the support and interest! This was the best diary I've ever done (by a long shot) and this style will continue with my next project... So with that, what is next?! Well... Stay tuned, I'll update that here. Have a couple thoughts and here is a preview of those thoughts... 1) Ring of Honor: The Villain Era (Starting January 2020, with Marty Scurll taking over the book, as happened in real life, sticking with ROH but starting with the actual Jan 2020 roster and having things booked through March when COVID shuts them down...). We'd relaunch in July 2020 with a new cast of characters and stories. Wrestling driven, all trying to recover from the long-term mistakes of the Delirious era of booking. I love the focus on wrestling, and they have a challenge ahead of them. The new mechanics in the 2020 game make this a good challenge. This would be a fun challenge and I may run them as a secondary company (as I've been doing with AEW in this game) so this may be tied into the diary if it isn't the actual diary. 2) Impact 2020: Hard to Kill (Impact has long been one of my favorite promotions. It has certainly had its ups and downs, but currently I think the product is very strong and they've made some fun decisions that play well into the hands of the 2020 mechanics. Bulk tv tapings (which fits my writing style, check out my ROH diary on 2016 board if you want an example) are now a feature, so that's ideal. Plus they have a national TV deal with AXS TV and Impact Plus is a great home for the fun one off events with smaller promotions. All wrapped together into some great story-telling and storylines. Plus... they have some absurd characters that would be fun to book. This one would start in January 2020 with the Hard to Kill PPV which was where Tessa Blanchard captured the Impact Title in reality... I have a different path in mind and I think this is the story I'm leaning towards at the moment. 3) The Untitled Pandemic Project (This one is the big wild card. And likely would be the first to fail. I don't tend to sit and watch shows in reality, I like characters, stories and entrances. I tend to jump through the match itself. With the current stay-at-home situation and the WWE's mass firings, I started thinking about a couple options, one is those names starting their own promotion, but more than likely I'd actually lean towards it being more of an Indy Wrestling showcase diary. I tend to run more than one promotion at a time so I can tell a story I want to tell and keep things playing out the way I want them to. So this diary would take frequent looks at a couple promotions and in particular workers as they climb their way up the ladder (PWG, EVOLVE, DEFY, BLP, GCW, etc). This would be a challenge, and frankly might be confusing, but it would be an interesting challenge and experience as a whole. I'd envision this being like, pick a star or a couple and follow him for 3-6 months. This would be more "indy-rific" and incorporate more story-telling through things like fake twitter posts, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGN91 Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 It was certainly an era, wow! Huge respect for your work during three years of real-life-time. We already had a short chat about converting the DB to TEW 20, i'm still editing stuff so White Canvas Grappling will be playable soon. I can see your though to have an freshly new start after three long years. If Impact is one of your favourite companies, you should go with them. I think they've got an amazing roster full of talented poeple, i'm not a fan and i don't watch it but on paper, man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasrangers13 Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 <p>And now formally, here is the link to the new TEW 2020 diary, IMPACT! Wrestling: Hard to Kill...</p><p> </p><p> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2423203#post2423203" rel="external nofollow">Impact! Wrestling: Hard to Kill</a></p><p> </p><p> ... With any luck we will be just as successful as we were with this one.</p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align:center;"><p><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">SINCERE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR FOLLOWING ALONG, LET'S DO IT AGAIN!</span></strong></p></div><p></p> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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