Student of the Game - Journey of Ryan Johnson

[RyanR93WKU]

This diary features a former middle school teacher, Ryan Johnson. He quit teaching to pursue his dream of becoming a professional wrestler. He went to his local wrestling school, Ohio Valley Wrestling. During his training he suffered a career ending shoulder injury. After his recovery he came back to Ohio Valley Wrestling and became a student of the game. He watched more film, studied local to global promotions worldwide, and decided to take a role behind the scenes. He worked his way up becoming a referee and even turned heel becoming a manager. The OVW owner, Al Snow wanted to keep me, but didn't value my creative ideas because he was more focused on getting guys ready mentally and mastering the basics inside the ring. He didn't want risky storylines and complex angles, just the old fashioned good guys versus bad guys worked. Johnson quit OVW and wanted to feel out offers from other promotions he felt like he could help. Al Snow was supportive and called an old friend of his, Ian Rotten. He still had a hand in running IWA: Mid-South and is looking for somebody to turn the ship around. Johnson talked with Rotten and the offer is on the table but he would have to pass everything by him and try to stay off the radar from the Athletic Commissioners and the law after past problems with their wrestling promotion.

 

 

Johnson liked the idea, but wondered if there were more options out there. Johnson had managed and worked with Jax Dane in OVW as he managed the Veterans of War. Dane also works dates with Innovate Pro Wrestling. He gave me the number to the owner and performer, Tony Givens. He liked my work as a manager and would let me help with creative. He said that they would be no pressure having the owner be a wrestler as he wants to help the younger guys get over. That is something I do want to accomplish if I do decide to go there.

 

I had two options when the phone rang and Chris Sharpe, a friend of mine who as refereed along with me at OVW. He had great news that Shine was looking for people to add to their inner circle to launch a more storyline driven company and build momentum off of the Women's Revolution happening everywhere. He said it would be tough and I would have to win over some people in the offices of the World Wide Network. It could lead to more chances with companies like Dragon Gate, Full Impact Pro, and Evolve Wrestling. I certainly like the idea of a women's revolution but not sure it would be a fit, but to get a chance to work with a higher known company down the line could be an offer too good to pass up.

 

Ryan Johnson had a choice to make does he go to Innovate Pro Wrestling, Shine Wrestling, or IWA: Mid-South. All three have their differences and difficulties. Which will he choose as he tries to become the best booker as possible over his career.

[RyanR93WKU]

July Week 2, 2018

 

Ryan Johnson took a few days to mull over the options and decided to try to get employed at Shine Wrestling. It had the most upside, but the most risk. I made the call to Chris Sharpe and they were excited to add someone that wants to make major changes in the wrestling world. I talked with Sal Hamaoui, the man behind the World Wrestling Network. I spoke a little about my plans and wanting to get Shine bigger, but he told me be patient. Shine has a home on the World Wrestling Network for the next 5 years. He wants to keep Shine and Shimmer on the network. That worked for me, but I did want to try to get Shine into other markets across the Globe. He liked the idea but not to worry about it now, but he wants me to meet Lexie Fyfe to have an official interview and see if I can get a contract.

[RyanR93WKU]

July Week 3, 2018

 

The big day had came and Lexie Fyfe meeting was here. I think it went great and it went smooth with me having an answer and willing to participant on-air as well. I had suggested being a referee if needed as I didn’t want to be a manager and take away from the females. She suggested with my heel character and performance in OVW she felt I would be better in the booth to expand it to a two man group. I suggested an all women booth, but she felt that I needed to join Lenny Leonard as the colour man. She said that I have the commentator job, but knew I wanted to do more behind the scenes. She wanted me to answer a few questions. Her first was who I would book in the main event of Shine 53. She handed me the roster and I scanned the list to make sure the people I had been planning in advance was indeed signed. I suggested LuFisto defending the Shine Championship against Madison Eagles. Fyfe liked the idea and would consider, but she was thinking about having the Tag Team title taking the top spot. I retorted with the fact that they don’t have many babyface teams on the roster and that is one thing I would want to accomplish is to balance the roster especially the tag team roster. I also mentioned that the roster was a little oversized, but I don’t want to cut anybody. Fyfe wondered why I would mention that without wanting to let people go, but I want to get more events and mentioned a possibility of a weekly show. She said a TV show is out of the question at the moment as the World Wrestling Network won’t carry anything but our monthly show. I mentioned that we could try to move to weekly events at the beginning of 2019. She said she liked it if the cost was the right price. She had one more question for me to determine if I’m thinking of the future of Shine. She told me to name one women’s wrestler that could come into Shine and make headlines or shake things up. I told her that we should keep an eye out on Noelle Foley. If NXT passes on her we could be the place to get her experience, make headlines, and really push her to the stars. Fyfe was shocked by my answer and started writing somethings down. She handed me the contract and said I would be the booker for 2 years. Everything would have to be run by April Hunter, Daffney, Leliani Kai, and herself. She handed me the schedule for Shine and Shimmer and said we can get most Shimmer talents if requested early to make the arrangements. She also had some goals. I think that most were doable, but one really concerned me. She said I can’t hire anybody over the age 45 for in ring, which made me happy because I can focus on bringing in young talent to learn from the veterans we have. I can’t hire anybody who has had trouble with the law which is another breath of fresh air. Then the next thing would be by challenge. She wants me to show $200,000 profit over the next two years. I told her I could do it and I sure hope I can. I’m going to have to be smart with my booking early on and not overdo it the budget. I signed the papers shook her hand and she lead me to my office. I left the building and headed home for the last time as I’m moving to Florida close to the base of Shine Wrestling.

[RyanR93WKU]

August Week 2, 2018

 

Well it seems like my staff of veterans is falling apart with Daffney and April Hunter taking on more bookings in other companies. Fyfe said it doesn’t change anything, but it’s concerning as more and more of our talents are getting more bookings in bigger companies. My calendar looks like it has been shot with all the red x’s and it looks like we will have to move forward without some of our girls for Shine 53. Due to this talent raid I asked permission to contact more women wrestlers and have them come in for tryout matches or for some appearances and I got it. I went through all my contacts and sent feelers out to help bolster our 40 women roster that has somedays up to 5 to 10 of our biggest stars elsewhere. After getting the names and numbers of 100+ women willing to work dates. Some are big names wanting to work against some of our top names. Some are young talent needing a break and I plan on getting them some experience here. Then a few women who have been without work needing an opportunity to get back in the ring. I still have been trying to persuade Hamaoui for more programming on WWN Live but he said only one monthly event. How can I make 200,000 grand in two years with one show a month. I have to try to get a weekly show or do some house shows in the area if they are profitable. I’ve also told the contacted women to start some buzz on social media about Shine and then when they get left off the card we can get some fan backing on more shows and a weekly show. I’ve done some leg work and Twitch said it would be no problem getting a weekly show put on their as long as don’t do anything too risqué. That shouldn’t be a problem as we are a focused Women’s wrestling promotion. Hoping I can start in October after Shine 54.

[RyanR93WKU]

August Week 3, 2018

 

Contacted all the members of the roster to go over their gimmick and their ideas. Heard several good ideas and wrote them all down for future reference. I have a really talented roster. It’s finally time to start putting a card down in writing for approval for Shine 53. It seems Impact, CWFH, DDT, DG, and AAA are all having shows taking 14 of my performers away from me that day. Shine 53 will be going 2 hours so I’m planning for about 8 matches on the card and 4 dark matches featuring some young talent. I’m going to shoot for having a 10K talent bill on this card. Hope that keeps me profitable going forward. The show will be headlined by LuFisto defending the Shine Championship against Madison Eagles. Candy Cartwright will be defending the Nova Championship against Kelly Klein. Klein is someone that got released by ROH earlier and I wanted her to get right back to work for Shine. Las Sicarias (Ivelisse Velez and Mercedes Martinez), the Shine Tag Team Champions, against The Punk Rockers. The Punk Rockers are a newly signed team of MsChif and Christina Von Eerie. The rest of the card is still up in the air but there are several people I want to try out and see if they can go and get over in Shine.

[RyanR93WKU]

August Week 4, 2018

 

Got the card finalized and approved by Fyfe. She says if the show is profitable she will approve a tour from October to December. Several Shine wrestlers got released by Impact but it was too late to change the card to include them. Those names were Rosemary, Alisha Edwards, Allie, and The Undead Maid of Honor.

 

Shine 53 Card

 

Shine Championship – LuFisto © vs. Madison Eagles

 

Shine Tag Team Championship – Las Sicarias © vs. Punk Rockers

 

Shine Nova Championship – Candy Cartwright © vs. Kelly Klein

 

Allysin Kay vs. Rain

 

Karlee Perez vs. Jessie Belle

 

Mia Yim vs. Santana Garrett

 

Sassy Stephie vs. Delilah Doom

 

Taylor Made vs. Stormie Lee

 

 

Dark Matches

 

“The Pink Flash” Kira vs. Scarlett Bordeaux

 

Shanna vs. Barbi Hayden

 

The Blue Nation vs. Spolit Brats

 

Kay Lee Ray vs. Saturyne

[RyanR93WKU]

Shine 53 Thoughts

 

• Scarlett Bordeaux defeated “The Pink Flash” Kira in 7:11 with the Bedazzler. (23) Both women have potential but are low on the card until they make some improvements.
   
   
  
• Barbi Hayden defeated Shanna in 5:44. (33) Barbi Hayden has a great comedy gimmick where she forgets the names of her moves and sometimes how to do them. Going to be great for TV in segments and is pretty good in the ring. Looking forward to booking her down the road.
   
   
  
• The Blue Nation (Jessica Troy and Charli Evans) defeated The Spoilt Brats (Aria Blake and Salina de La Renta) in 7:11 with the Fisherwomen’s Suplex. (35) Two new teams to the tag team division all have potential as the jockey for position. Both made a great first impression.
   
   
  
• Saturyne defeated Kay Lee Ray in 8:02 with the Springboard Plancha. (39) Saturyne is Hania under a mask so excited to get her a new babyface gimmick. Kay Lee Ray got great heat with her gimmick and is going to be a staple of our undercard as she improves.
   
   
  
• Had the guys in the truck put together a new opening piece featuring the women on Shine 53 and hyping the big matches. (56)
   
   
  
• Rain comes out to open the show issuing an open challenge which Allysin Kay comes out to a big pop to accept. The fans really hate Rain and Kay got a nice reaction to set up the next match. (65)
   
   
  
• Allysin Kay defeats Rain in 10:42 with the Cut-Throat. (42) The crowd was into this match and Rain really outperformed Kay in the ring but it was a great opening match.
   
   
  
• Candy Cartwright defeated Kelly Klein in 9:42 with a Candyland Kick. (31) Kelly Klein looked horrible in this match as she is probably still down from her ROH release. Candy Cartwright was also planned to go over as I wanted to see what she can do with the Shine Nova Title.
   
   
  
• Santana Garrett defeated Mia Yim in 14:30 with a Handspring Moonsault. (46) The crowd was divided and by the end Garrett was getting cheered and Mia Yim was getting booed as she used some heel tactics. Both women performed great and this was a match of the night candidate.
   
   
  
• Taylor Made defeated Stormie Lee in 8:48 with Sliced Bread. (31) Great cool down match to get the crowd a break with some good action in it. Stormie has potential and she will be working with some of the top women to help her improve.
   
   
  
• Taylor Made attacks Stormie Lee after the match. Allysin Kay comes down to the make the save. She stares down Taylor and then kicks Stormie Lee. They announce their partnership and will go by the name Made in Sin. (55) Allysin Kay is going to be a big heel for the foreseeable future.
   
   
  
• Karlee Perez defeated Jessie Belle in 7:35 with the L-Bomb. (32) Karlee Perez looked horrible but she plays a great heel. She cheated to win and it looks like she might go into the dark match scene to gain some experience. Jessie Belle did a great job getting her over though and had no issue putting over the younger women.
   
   
  
• The Punk Rockers make a big entrance with electric guitars and live music. The crowd popped for their big debut. (45)
   
   
  
• Las Sicarias (Mercedes Martinez and Ivelisse) defeated The Punk Rockers (Christiana Von Eerie and MsChif) in 13:07 when Martinez pinned Eerie with the Fisherman’s Buster to retain the Shine Tag Team Titles. (50) Our new tag team division is booming and I expect several more classics out of these women and this division.
   
   
  
• Sassy Stephie defeated Delilah Doom in 8:03 with Kiss my Sass. (32) Another cool down after a big match Stephie looked good. Doom underperformed and her gimmick did not go over well with our fans.
   
   
  
• Madison Eagles defeated LuFisto in 14:15 with Heaven Sent to win the Shine Championship. (60) This was the best match I’ve seen all night and this is what I envisioned for this event since I took this job. There will be a rematch down the road and I hope it surpasses this but it’s going to be hard to accomplish.
   
   
  
• To end the show Madison Eagles celebrates. LuFisto hands the title over and puts out her hand. Eagles grabs the belt and taunts her as she continues to celebrate. LuFisto leaves the ring upset over Eagles disrespecting her. (59)
   
   
  
• We sold out The Orpheum in Florida filling all 800 seats. The show was great and the fans showed their appreciation with great reactions and social media praise. (52) I look forward to Shine 54 and seeing if we can move to more shows in the year.
  

[sportsfanmas]

<p>Very nice opening show! It's good to know more about some of the women outside the WWE or Impact that people don't see.</p><p> </p><p>

I actually knew about Salina de La Renta as she performed at an Independent show in my hometown. She's a classic in the making IMO. Keep up the good work, and feel free to check out my dynasties.</p>