Go Not Gently Into That Coastal Zone

infinitywpi · June 16, 2020

September 2024

Our WrestleWorld deal is expiring. We’re going to let it and see how much it brings down viewership figures; we suspect people who were watching on WW are going to switch to OnDem, but we don’t know how many we’ll lose in the process.

… oh… that’s why he hadn’t worked in a while… his stamina is shot. Well, we paid for him… hopefully nobody minds if he’s not turning out 25-minute classics. Or even 20-minute classics. 15 might even be pushing it…

And why is Jackpot Jordan still here? … what? NYCW didn’t give him an exclusive deal, while the other two they stole from us did? No? Handshake? Well… yeah, now I’m sorry I’ve been jobbing him out.

Reach For The Sky 2024

PreShow: Kid Fantastic def. Katie Brook, Gaston Bertrand, Jackpot Jordan, and Bowden Snoop (49)

AC Sapp & G-Force def. Pepper Pelton & Topher Smith (48)

Ricochet Ramone def. Taylor Norton (62)

Minnesota Awesome & The Hot Taggs def. Onslaught, Coco, Peter B, and Bullseye (39)

Angle: Long Grain Rice comes out and disses Cash & Sparrow for a bit before Sean comes out and tells him he’s early, there’s another match to go before theirs (57)

Xtreme Title: American Flash def. KPB, Bret Kyle, and Blood Raven (56)

Tag Titles: McFly’ed Rice def. Cash & Sparrow (58)

Meriel Mercado def Paradox and Max Mayhem (78)

CZCW Title: Remmy Skye LOSES to the debuting… the one… the only… TOMMY CORNELL (71)

Not the best show, which makes sense with a lot of unknowns on the card, but let’s face it… the Cornellverse is now the Zoneverse!

G-Force had debuted his new ‘Backyarder’ gimmick. Not only did the fans love it, it actually played into the psychology of his matches by explaining why he did things that had no psychology behind them. Which… I dunno, makes an odd sort of sense? Other gimmick changes: Long Grain Rice is now working a “Sean’s Sidekick” gimmick, and Sean himself is now doing a ‘Mid-Life Crisis’ gimmick (which isn’t much better than his ‘Dignified Veteran’ gimmick, but maybe it’ll grow on people?) We tried to give KPB a ‘Street Fighter’ gimmick, but the reaction to it has been horrible and he needs to drop it immediately, never to be mentioned again.

Kalder Tag broke a cheekbone during that big tag match; nobody was sure who caused it, but watching the show again later it looked like Peter B botched a move. So, we stopped doing business with him. We had had hopes when we brought him in, but the guy was just not safe and not learning.

Now remember: 420,000 viewers. If it goes down a lot next week, we’ll have to get WrestleWorld back on board with us.

On the next Coastal Zone: The Cornell Era begins!

TLLK · June 16, 2020

marking out

Editor6 · June 17, 2020

What. <img alt="

" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/eek.png.0e09df00fa222c85760b9bc1700b5405.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

infinitywpi · June 17, 2020

October 2024

So, let’s talk Figurehead. Tommy Cornell vs Remmy Skye. Tommy has more charisma, more popularity, and more star power. Remmy… is amazing at playing the babyface role. And he doesn’t suck at any of the first three things, Tommy just happens to have more than him. So Remmy is staying our figurehead for now.

Other than that? Really boring October.

… you know, we’ve been having Hardcore Halloween this whole time without hardcore matches…

Hardcore Halloween 2024

AC Sapp, G-Force & KPB def. Bowden Snoop, Gaston Bertrand & Pepper Pelton and Bullseye, Coco Malloy & Topher Smith (43)

Kid Fantastic def. Blood Raven (64)

Minnesota Awesome def. Onslaught & Katie Brook (49)

Young & Wasted def. Cash & Sparrow (60)

Tag Titles: McFly’ed Rice def. The Hot Taggs (56)

Remmy Skye def. Paradox in a short comedy match (70)

Xtreme Title: American Flash def. Ricochet Ramone in a hardcore match (68)

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Maribel Mercado & Max Mayhem (70)

The locker room was upset at KPB; apparently he botched a move that dislocated Topher Smith’s shoulder.

So… we weren’t quite getting the results out of an older, slower Tommy Cornell that we were expecting. But we’d let him run with the title a bit longer, just to see what he could do with it. We’d have to protect him, obviously, and have people stunt-bump their asses off for him… but unless something came up, we’d probably let him keep the title until at least the next Welcome.

And the viewing figure test: 414,000. Not enough of a difference to worry about; sorry, WrestleWorld, but the Zone was exclusive to OnDem for now.

November 2024

The Taggs ask for pay raises. They get them. We like the Taggs. We need to find a way to strap a rocket to them without ruining the rest of the new kids in the process. Long Grain Rice does too; he gets his as well. This team with Sean has been good for him, I think;

Sparrow offers to put one of the kids over; as it’s someone I wanted to push, we’ll do that tonight.

Showdown at Sundown 2024

The Hot Taggs & Bowden Snoop def. Pepper Pelton, Katie Brook & Coco Malloy (48)

Young & Wasted def. Malik Cash & AC Sapp (62)

American Flash & Blood Raven def. Minnesota Awesome (64)

Maribel Mercado def. KPB in a short squash (53)

Long Grain Rice does his thing again, but stammers and repeats himself at one point; Sean comes out and tells him to stop embarrassing himself (46)

Matt Sparrow def. G-Force (53)

Tag Titles: McFly’ed Rice def. The Remnants (Ricochet & Jackpot) (55)

Kid Fantastic def. Max Mayhem (76)

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Remmy Skye and Paradox (65)

… that main event was doing so good until Remmy blew out an eardrum somehow (Maybe we shouldn’t use pyro for ‘explosions’ during crazy bumps), and that pretty much made him crap for the rest of the match. As a result, the show became the first one in a long time to actually cost us some popularity at home. The rest of the country liked it, but the people who know what we’re capable of… well, they know we can do so much better.

Blood Raven’s stamina is also giving us second thoughts about him. We were picturing him as our next Xtreme Champion, but he can’t go more than ten minutes without blowing up. He wasn’t the only new signee with this problem, but some we figured could still work on training… he couldn’t.

Matt Sparrow walked out on GSW for some reason. I’m guessing they were doing the ‘job out the aging veteran’ thing. We… were considering the same thing, but we could probably still get another year out of him before he became too slow in the ring. Maybe? Maybe not?

We had a lot of pay raise requests; all of them deserved, so they were given. We just hoped people didn’t think that the Cornell contract meant that we were made of money… what’s that? The new merchandising is ready? And even with Cornell’s contract, we’re making more money than we were before?

… wonder how many other big names we can tempt to join us…

On the next Coastal Zone: We wrap up 2024 with another hail-mary signing attempt and another patented Infinity Oopsie.

tryker2710 · June 17, 2020

I'm imagining you signing somebody for double Cornell's money having forgotten about wage matching

FINisher · June 17, 2020

What.

mistaken · June 17, 2020

I'm imagining you signing somebody for double Cornell's money having forgotten about wage matching

I think your psychic

infinitywpi · June 17, 2020

I'm imagining you signing somebody for double Cornell's money having forgotten about wage matching

Sean would kill me if I offered someone that much money. I tried!

infinitywpi · June 18, 2020

December 2024

… I suddenly find us wondering if OnDem will throw as big a fit over a cage match as they did over a ladder match.

We try, with Tommy’s help, to make a play for Wolf Hawkins as his contract comes up for renewal. Sadly, we find out that Sean does have -some- limit on what he’ll let us offer people, and it’s not enough to compete with the six-figure offer from USPW. Pity; dreams of a Hawkins/Cornell tag team had flashed before our eyes.

Sean, for his part, gave us some new goals. We couldn’t fall into debt at any point. Not a problem, boss. If I can waste four million dollars… also, in addition to a Reputation of 60 or more, he would no longer accept anyone over the age of 38. Good thing we already locked up Cornell then…

Christmas Cage Chaos 2024

KPB def. Katie Brook (31)

Minnesota Awesome & The Hot Taggs def. Cash & Sparrow & The Remnants (54)

AC Sapp def. Gaston Bernard (35)

Blood Raven def. Bullseye (47)

Pro/Am Tag: Remmy/G-Force def. Paradox/Snoop, Mayhem/Topher, and Fantastic/Pepper (54)

Angle: Long Grain Rice complains about opponents, Sean pulls him backstage, yadda yadda (60)

Xtreme Title: Coco Malloy def. American Flash (68)

Tag Titles: McFly’ed Rice def. Young & Wasted (70)

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Maribel Mercado in an attempted (and apparently failed) cage match spectacle (63)

Y’know… I’m starting to think maybe Tommy isn’t worth the money we’re paying for him… AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN, IT WASN’T BROADCAST???? … dammit.

Remmy Skye and G-Force have excellent chemistry? Sorry, Remmy, you may not see the CZCW Title again for a while…

Year In Review 2024

Wrestler of the Year: Greg Gauge

Company of the Year: USPW

Team of the Year: Nicky Champion & Greg Gauge

Match of the Year: Roy Rahn over Buff Martinez, 21CW Halloween Horror SHow

Show of the Year: 5SSW Final Attack

Youngster of the Year: Roy Rahn

Veteran of the Year: Joss Thompson

Female of the Year: Alicia Strong

Most Improved Company: ZEN

Indy Wrestler of the Year: Our very own Paradox!

Staff of the Year: Frederique (Manager), Duane Fry (Announcer), Armando Caballero (Color), Okura Umeki (Ref)

Zoners on the Power 500: Kid Fantastic (403), American Flash (343), Remmy Skye (265), Maribel Mercado (260), Paradox (236), Max Mayhem (233)

State of the Zone: Just under five million in the bank. Profit of three hundred thousand a month, even considering Cornell’s contract -and- no broadcast revenue for December. Size-wize, we had hit a bit of a stalling point; we weren’t growing much in the SouthWest, but the rest of the country (and, slowly, the world) were starting to notice us. ‘Big’ was a long, long way away, but it was a marathon, not a pipe dream.

Oddly enough on the list of ‘popular promotions in the USA’, we listed right behind GSW and IPW. Worldwide, it got worse, as we dropped back to #21 insead of #13, while GSW and IPW stayed the same ranks (12 and 11). We weren’t sure quite how that happened, and we’re pretty sure television had something to do with it. They were going for quantity over quality. Shows in the 50s and low 60s, while we (usually?) turn out low 70s.

Our major stars: Tommy Cornell, Sean McFly, Remmy Skye, Paradox, Max Mayhem, and Kid Fantastic

Our stars: American Flash, Maribel Mercado, Long Grain Rice

Well-known: Blood Raven, KPB, Ricochet Ramone, Young & Wasted (Bret Kyle/Taylor Norton)

Recognizable: AC Sapp, Coco Malloy, G-Force, The Hot Taggs (Kalder & Wolfie), Minnesota Awesome (Clark Smalbone/Perry Longstaff), Malik Cash, Matt Sparrow, Topher Smith

Unimportant: Bowden Snoop, Bullseye, Gaston Bertrand, Jackpot Jordan, Katie Brook, Onslaught, Pepper Pelton

On the next Coastal Zone: 2025 already? Some old faces return, and are we having Cornell Remorse already?

infinitywpi · June 18, 2020

January 2025

We send out a few contract offers, planning to cut some chaff once they got signed up. With one exception, the idea behind these offers were to ‘raid’ IPW by bringing in two of their title holders.

The new recruit is Rod Remus, while the two IPW title-holders are the returning Zoners Chet Chavez and Jonnie Perez.

Revolution 2025

Preshow: Bowden Snoop & Pepper Pelton def. Katie Brook & Gaston Bertrand (43)

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Paradox in a short comedy match (71)

Rod Remus & Topher Smith def. AC Sapp & Blood Raven (46)

The Hot Taggs def. Bullseye & Onslaught (48)

Chet Chavez def. KPB (54)

Skye Force (Remmy Skye & G-Force) def. Cash & Sparrow (70)

Xtreme Title: Jonnie Perez def. Coco Malloy (61)

Tag Titles: McFly’ed Rice def Young&Wasted, The Remnants, and Minnesota Awesome (58)

Contendership Match: Max Mayhem def. Kid Fantastic, American Flash, and Maribel Mercado (81)

Okay, that’s much better, but still… -that- is the best Tommy’s done for us so far? A ten minute comedy match with Paradox? Okay… new plan. Cornell defends the title in every opening match, so the crowd doesn’t have huge expectations yet, and we finish things off with a high-flying contendership match. That’ll work well, I think.

And now, cuts. We decided on a level of stamina that we would require people to be over, and it looked like we were going to cut: Blood Raven, Katie Brook, KPB, and Matt Sparrow… and we were going to tactfully ignore the fact that the only two other people under the cutoff were Sean McFly and Tommy Cornell.

Of those cuts, losing KPB really hurt, because he was shaping up to be a good wrestler… just not for very long matches, which we needed. Losing Sparrow hurt for totally different reasons… we loved the guy, but he just wasn’t able to keep up anymore.

CWA made an offer to Coco Malloy. She’d be a fool not to take it; we weren’t using her for much right now. NYCW tried to poach Dwight Kumas for their referee corps; we countered. Staff was worth keeping around. And now we were in a bidding war for a referee.

MAW put the COTT Title on Kid Fantastic, which made perfect sense to us. Also gave us a reason to have him main event shows without taking the title off Cornell.

February 2025

Young Wrestler Of The Year Two Years Running, Roy Rahn, suffered a major concussion and would be out for a year. Looks like the title is up for grabs this year…

Masked Cougar II had started up a new company he was calling XWA. He made offers to two-thirds of our announce team, Lee Bambino and Grace Harper. Nothing serious, but it was nice to see someone else thinking we were making good choices.

Vendetta 2025

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Max Mayhem in a submission match (72)

Killer Bs (Bullseye & Bowden Snoop) def. Coco & Onslaught (52)

Chet Chavez, Jonnie Perez & Rod Remus def. Gaston, Cash & Pepper (60)

The Hot Taggs def. The Remnants (52)

Tag Titles: McFly’ed Rice def. Minnesota Awesome (65)

Paradox def. Topher Smith in a short comedy match (58)

Skye Force def. Young & Wasted (74)

COTT Title: Kid Fantastic def. American Flash and Maribel Mercado (82)

We -almost- got a show into the 80s! Our best show so far! And we’re at 477,000 viewers! Yes, American Flash, you can has pay raise!

NYCW put the COTT Tag Titles on The LA Stars. If we weren’t so heavy on tag teams we need to put over, we’d bring them in once and a while… hell, maybe we still will.

Coco finally left; which, good for her, hopefully things go well for her in CWA… what? QAW gave her a written contract? Huh. Well, good for them. Hopefully they didn’t start poaching our other women.

Next time, on the Coastal Zone: A couple rough months as people come in and lots of people leave.

infinitywpi · June 19, 2020

March 2025

With Coco gone and Jackpot probably going to walk any day now, we needed a couple more names on the roster. Kid San Juan (formerly Super Sonic) was unemployed and an easy choice. The other, following our ‘**** IPW’ strategy, was Zach Rudge, who would be returning to his Paranoia character.

And now PSW was trying to sign away Wolfie Tagg. Being so far behind in the rankings was beginning to cost us; people were willing to sign with bigger companies for less money. And while if we had to pick a Tagg we’d pick his brother, we kinda wanted the matched set. Sadly, Sean put some limits on what we could offer, and he chose to sign with PSW.

… this was going to be bad for us if it kept happening. Before we relied on being bigger than the competition, but now our competition is other companies the same size again…

Uprising 2025

PreShow Xtreme Title Jobber Battle Royal: Jonnie Perez retains (64)

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Sean McFly in a submission match (71)

Paratroopers (Paradox & Paranoia) def. The Remnants (56)

Minnesota Awesome def. Hot Taggs (57)

G-Force and Long Grain Rice get into a ****-talking contest, followed with a challenge for a match (63)

Long Grain Rice def. G-Force (43)

Young & Wasted def. Killer Bs (58)

#1 Contendership: Maribel Mercado def. Max Mayhem and American Flash (81)

COTT Title: Kid Fantastic def. Remmy Skye in a half-hour-long match (81)

Some great matches, and one stinker. Apparently all that time with Sean isn’t teaching Long Grain Rice any psychology… we had had plans, but now we were rethinking them…

User talent point granted! Oh yeah, that’s going into my weakest spot… Negotiation.

April 2025

Oh, hey, just in time for us to consider hiring more people, it’s the Coastal Resort Class of 2025! This year we have: Geraldine Big, a technical Puro-style wrestler who’s decent on the mic but not the best when it comes to flying around; Joseph Bender, who has amazing stamina (and oddly enough, booking skill) but is pretty run-of-the-mill otherwise; and Raul Thompson, a mountain of a man who is amazing on the mic but a pretty piss-poor and dangerous wrestler.

We take Geraldine and Joseph and team them as “Class of ‘25” and give them Grace as a manager. Raul… yikes. He’s a huge, powerful guy, but he’s gonna hurt someone in the Zone. He’d do better at a slower, less risky company.

Annnd here came PSW coming after Kalder Tagg. We really didn’t want that to happen; we had a good feeling about this guy. A bidding war broke out… and wouldn’t resolve itself until after the next show.

Spring Break Bash 2025

CZCW Title: Tommy COrnell def. Maribel Mercado (81)

Killer Bs & Kid San Juan def. Gaston, AC Sapp & Topher (55)

Young & Wasted def. The Remnants (54)

Xtreme 6-Pack Challenge: Jonnie Perez def. Chet Chavez, Rod Remus, Onslaught, Cash, and Pepper (66)

Minnesota Awesome def. Class of ‘25 (44)

Paratroopers def. Hot Taggs (52)

Tag Titles: Skye Force def. McFly’ed Rice (70)

COTT Title: Kid Fantastic def. Max Mayhem and American Flash (77)

… and of course, Class of ‘25 has absolutely zero chemistry together. And somehow, G-Force damn near broke the boss’s back. On top of that, Kid Fantastic strained his rotator cuff. Maaaaybe I should start cutting back on the crazy bumps?

As the Kalden Tagg bidding war continued, OLLIE made a move to sign both halves of Young & Wasted. They were our current pick to take over the tag titles once we get tired of using them to get “Main Eventers with a rookie partner” over, so we started the bidding war for them. As a side effect, this would mean ending their handshake deals with the likes of GSW and MAW and whatnot, which wasn’t going to win us any friends there.

Fun note: EILL has now overtaken TCW to be the #3 promotion in the USA. USPW has, in the meantime, hit Titanic size.

Speaking of MAW and GSW, both jumped into the bidding war over Young & Wasted. If we were going to keep these guys, we were going to pay out the nose. Not Cornell-level money, but still.

Success #1: Kalder Tagg would be staying with us, as we managed to offer him enough money to split from his brother Wolfie. Now to show we made the right choice…

Failures #1 and #2: Young & Wasted signed with MAW. Well… so much for that whole ‘bringing in new tag teams’ thing we tried to do…

And now the big one: OLLIE was after Kid Fantastic. We weren’t going to mess around: He got pretty much the best offer Sean would let us make him. OLLIE counter-offers. We go whole-hog, and it’s still not enough to catch his interest… until we tell him that if we ever start up more than one TV show, he’ll only be on the big ones. That gets us the advantage we needed, for some reason.

… then in comes PSW and MAW, with MAW taking the lead in the war. Our negotiating prowess (or lack thereof) was really starting to hurt us. Sean won’t let us throw money at him. Finally, we promise him 75% of his merchandise, a huge event bonus, and a promise he’d be booked as an icon -- something only Cornell had been promised before. That put things in our favor again… or did it?

On the next Coastal Zone: Do we retain the services of Kid Fantastic? Does anyone leave? Does anyone come in? Is this even the Coastal Zone anymore?

mistaken · June 19, 2020

Is this even the Coastal Zone anymore?

Nope, we have entered the Coastal Empire period!

infinitywpi · June 20, 2020

May 2025

DAMN YOU, MAW! Apparently we hadn’t gotten Kid Fantastic’s attention as much as we had hoped. I mean, sure, we could still borrow him through the Confederation of the Territories, but it wasn’t the same. And now, OLLIE was moving on American Flash. And we just weren’t able to compete with financepower of that magnitude. We tried. And we failed.

Well, at least we had plenty of people to job out at the next show. But this was going to drop us dangerously close to the ‘looks amateure’ roster level. Contract offers went out to Hellion, Jack Jackson, and the Heartbreak Express (Johnny Needham and Ralph Liotta).

With all these written contracts, we decided that after this month’s Welcome we’d begin setting up Coast To Coast as a weekly show again. It would have to be in OnDem, but at least it would be something.

… and now GSW was going after Rod Remus and Topher Smith. Thankfully, just handshake deals, but they’d probably be prioritized over us if it came down to it.

Welcome to the Coastal Zone 2025

Pre-Show: Topher Smith def .AC Sapp, Gaston, Onslaught, and Pepper (53)

Pre-Show: Ricochet def. Jackpot (50)

Xtreme Title: Jonnie Perez def. Rod Remus and Chet Chavez (75)

Minnesota Awesome & Heartbreak Express def. Young & Wasted, Geraldine Big & Jack Jackson (61)

Kalder Tagg def. Malik Cash (61)

American Flash, Hellion & Kid San Juan def. Joe Bender & The Killer Bs (61)

COTT Tag Titles: McFly’ed Rice def. The LA Stars (51)

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Kid Fantastic in a submission match (54)

Tag Titles: Skye Force def. Paratroopers (67)

Maribel Mercado def. Max Mayhem (81)

Where to start… the injuries to Fantastic and Sean really hurt a lot more than we were expecting. We also added some new ones as Ricochet broke his nose and Remmy botched the same move G-Force botched last month, only on Paranoia. And finally, we had hit the point where we needed a third road agent again… or would we, with the number of people we had leaving? And finally, Welcome to the Coastal Zone was now Above-Average Importance. So that was good.

Apparently, someone had a better Live Event Experience than us; time to up our game. And that someone was TCW. It was time to bring ourselves to the level of companies that had been major players. Granted, there’s a big ‘had been’ in there, but still…

… and now NYCW was going after Lee Bambino. Wrestlers I could find replacements for, easy. An announcer who does good work with Grace and Fox? Not so much. Hopefully this was a bidding war I wouldn’t lose… annnnd now OLLIE was after Rod Remus. So much for getting people on cheap handshake deals…

Huh. Kyle Rhodes fired as TCW CEO. Guess someone saw they were the same size as the Coastal Zone and got pissed. Runaway Train was taking over… and a booking position was available… I could apply for it. Then sign the people I most wanted to take with me.

Dammit. We lost Remus and Lee. Remus, no big deal. Lee… well, at least we had one more show with him. And we were just about to start up a weekly show, too… we make a ten-year offer to a new kid announcer, Christopher Curran. He seems like a decent announcer, although he’s barely done anything, so we’re taking a major risk. But the guy has Cliff’s image. That has to be a good sign.

Speaking of which… aw, crap, Lee is working for NYCW tonight… aw, hell. Time to break my cardinal rule of dynasties. I’m activating myself as an announcer for one show and one show only. I can’t possibly be horrible at it, can I?

Cliff Anderson Memorial Show 2025

PreShow: Minnesota Awesome, Heartbreak Express & AC Sapp def. Gaston, Hellion, Pepper, Geraldine & Bender (44)

--Announcer Change due to Infinite Avatar being horrible: Remmy S-- wait, I guess nobody, oops...

Triangle Tournament: Maribel Mercade def. Max Mayhem and Kalder Tagg (51)

--Announcer Change: For real this time, it’s Fabulous Frank!

Triangle Tournament: American Flash def. Long Grain Rice and Rod Remus (56)

--Announcer Change because Frank is a better color guy: Max Mayhem!

Triangle Tournament: Remmy Skye def. Paradox and G-Force (52)

Xtreme Title Battle Royal: Jonnie Perez def. Bowden Snoop, Bullseye, Jack Jackson, Jackpot Jordan, Kid San Juan, Malik Cash, Onslaught, Ricochet Ramone, and Topher Smith (48)

CZCW Title: Tommy Corndel def. Chet Chavez (53)

Triangle Finals: American Flash def. Remmy Skye and Maribel Mercado (62)

… we should have just cancelled as soon as we saw Lee wasn’t in the building… and Remmy broke a couple ribs, too. And to top it off… we forgot Flash was leaving us, and probably should have had someone else win the tournament. Um, I mean, we had a feel-good sendoff for Flash. Yeah.

On the next Coastal Zone: Do we get our new announcer? The Injury Bug bites! And it's the end of an era...

infinitywpi · June 20, 2020

June 2025

Okay, no shows until we get an announcer. Luckily, Chris jumps at the chance to make a six-figure annual salary for the next ten years, so we’re all good there.

We’re still making money hand-over-foot, so we sink some of it into the Coastal Resort. We don’t want to go too hog-wild because, like I said, we’re trying to get Coast To Coast started up again, and who knows what that’s going to do to our production costs.

We make written offers to Remmy, Maribel, Paradox, and Mayhem. We were going to need to make sure they stayed with us for the next few years. Losing any one of them, we might recover from. Losing two of them? We’d be really close to being screwed. Luckily, all of them accept with nobody trying to outbid us.

We also, for the heck of it, brought on two more workers, youngsters who hadn’t done a whole lot in the industry but had a great set of skills -- and we could lock them up for three years pretty damn cheaply. Welcome to the Zone, Acid III and War Piece!

Let’s see… Jackpot wasn’t here tonight, he was working for NYCW. Same with Johnny Needham, his 30-days wasn’t up yet. And of course, Lee was gone but had been replaced.

Surf Slam 2025

PreShow: Onslaught def. Joe Bender and Ralph Liotta (39)

Chet Chavez, Kalder Tagg & Ricochet Ramone def. Acid III, War Piece & Pepper Pelton (45)

Malik Cash & Topher Smith def. Bullseye & Jack Jackson (45)

Minnesota Awesome def. Masked Men (Hellion & Kid San Juan) (52)

Snapp & Snoop def. Gaston & Geraldine (40)

Tag Titles: Skye Force def. Paratroopers and McFly’ed Rice (62)

Xtreme Title: Jonnie Perez def. Rod Remus (59)

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Maribel Mercado and Max Mayhem (77)

Thank god for that main event, or that would have been a horrible show.

Rod Remus sprained his wrist… don’t care… Maribel broke a collarbone… Dammit, Max, be more careful… and Hellion tore his ACL. What -is- it with us and new tag teams? Either there’s no chemistry or someone gets hurt…

Hrm. Surf Slam was now Above Average Importance. Well, why not? If Welcome was our season-ender, Surf Slam was our season-opener.

For those keeping track, that’s now half of our major stars working injured (Remmy, Sean, and Maribel), although Remmy and Sean should be okay by next month. Hellion, however, was out for a year; we got him the best surgeon we could find, and the doc was amazing -- Hellion now just had to spend three months rehabbing.

But with so many injuries, we decided to wait another month before starting up a weekly show again. We’d rather have our big guns all ready to go for the first episode.

On the next Coastal Zone: The big guns are ready. Do they misfire?

Nightshadeex · June 21, 2020

Do they misfire? Do they ever!

infinitywpi · June 22, 2020

July 2025

Sometimes, slow weeks are nice for a change.

Surf Slam 2025

Preshow: Heartbreak Express def. Killer Bs (52)

Xtreme Title: Jonnie Perez def. Malik Cash and Ricochet Ramone (70)

Kalder Tagg def. Topher Smith (63)

Minnesota Awesome def. Jackpot & War Piece (55)

AC Sapp def. Chet Chavez (54)

Max Mayhem def. Acid III (52)

Angle: Maribel cuts a promo about her injury and about how when she comes back, she’s gunning for Tommy and the CZCW Title (71)

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Paradox (72)

Tag Title Cage Match: SkyeForce def. McFly’ed Rice (73)

That went well.

We finally bit the bullet, did some research, and talked with OnDemand. For the next year, Coast To Coast would be coming at you Mondays, alternating live and taped. 90 minutes of near-pure wrestling goodness. Let’s hope we don’t screw it up… oh, we had a taping tomorrow? Wow, that was fast…

Coast To Coast #1

Preshow: AC Sapp, Bowden Snoop & Malik Cash def. Jackpot, Pepper & Gaston (47)

Xtreme Title: Jonnie Perez def. Ricochet Ramone and Acid III (65)

Angle: Long Grain Rice comes out and rants about how being teamed up with an old man has been holding him back and talks smack for a few minutes before Sean comes out and tells him to back up his words in the ring (67)

Kalder Tagg def. Onslaught (44)

Angle: AC Sapp talks about being a big man in a world of small men, then calls out Pepper Pelton. “I’m sure you can relate. How about you and me go on a path of destruction these shorties have never seen before?” (56)

Minnesota Awesome def. Heartbreak Express (65)

Angle: Hype video for The Masked Men (35)

Sean McFly def. Long Grain Rice (56)

Angle: Next week’s main event: SkyeForce vs Paratroopers (55)

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Max Mayhem (73)

Coast to Coast #2 (Taped)

Preshow: Kid San Juan & Heartbreak Express def. Geraldine, Jackson and Bender (52)

Angle: Tommy Cornell offers the Wave Of Fury title shot to… Sean McFly (100)

Acid III def. Rod Remus (51)

Angle: Long Grain Rice is out to complain about last week, and eventually Jonnie comes out to tell him that, if it’ll shut him up, he’ll give him an Xtreme Title match at Wave of Fury (67)

Big Men (Sapp & Pepper) def. Killer Bs (51)

Angle: Malik Cash hype video (43)

Malik Cash def. War Piece (51)

Angle: History of SkyeForce vs Paratroopers (54)

Tag Titles: SkyeForce def. Paratroopers (74)

Angle: Big Men charge the ring after the match and take down Skye Force, yelling about the titles (59)

… great chemistry for the Big Men! Yes! I’d say these shows were a success. And man, I forgot how tough it was to a) book angles and b) write up TV shows. But how about the mic work from Tommy Cornell? That’s why we pay him the big bucks…

Nothing happens at all over the next two weeks, so… hrm. Let’s take a look at some other companies… CWA is six million in the hole? Man, if they go under, we need to grab Balconi, Queen, and Modesty back… well, the first two at least.

Coast To Coast #3

Preshow: Acid III & Bowden Snoop def. Jackpot Jordan & Jack Jackson (51)

Angle: Tommy comes out to talk about why he challenged Sean: Because Sean should retire and stick to owning, not wrestling. Sean comes out, cheap-shots him, and they brawl a bit before being pulled apart (78)

Angle: A hype video showcasing the four guys in the next match (44)

Ricochet Ramone def. Malik Cash, Topher Smith, and Kid San Juan (65)

Hype video for SkyeForce vs Big Men at Wave Of Fury (50)

Bullseye def. Chet Chavez (51)

Angle: Bullseye continues beating on Chet after the match (37)

Big Men def. Heartbreak Express (56)

Hype for the main event: Maribel vs Mayhem (67)

Maribel Mercado def Max Mayhem (72)

… she just got back from one injury, and now she’s got a broken jaw. Jeeze.

On the next Coastal Zone: With four shows and an event each month, do we start splitting months up into two posts? ... yes, that's the most exciting thing we have to deal with right now.

infinitywpi · June 22, 2020

August 2025 (part 1)

Coast To Coast #4 (taped)

PreShow: Bowden Snoop & Gaston Bertrand def. Joe Bender & War Piece (46)

Angle: The Paratroopers issue the Para-Open Challenge. Out come Acid III and Jack Jackson (47)

Paratroopers over Acid III & Jack Jackson (57)

Angle: Long Grain Rice comes out to badmouth Jonnie, then starts running down SkyeForce for taking ‘his’ tag titles. Tommy comes out and tells the kid “Since you seem to have a problem with everyone…” and sets up the main event (95)

Bullseye def Kid San Juan (63)

Angle: Post-match beatdown (29)

Angle: Hype video for Maribel Mercado, and how she wants to fight even with a broken jaw, but the docs won’t let her (71)

Kalder Tagg def. Topher Smith (63)

Hype for Tommy vs Sean at Wave Of Fury (65)

Tommy Cornell, SkyeForce & Jonnie Perez def. Sean McFly, Big Men & Long Grain Rice (68)

Sean cheap-shots Tommy afterwards and does the ‘title will be around my waist’ motion (69)

Well, when your worst TV show is only two points below your best TV show, you can’t complain too much, right?

The next taping would be tricky -- we had one more live show before Wave of Fury, and then the taped show would be afterwards.

Coast To Coast #5

PreShow: Jack Jackson, Bowden Snoop & Chet Chavez def. Joe Bender, Jackpot & War Piece (49)

Bullseye def. Perry Longstaff (44)

Angle: Bullseye beatdown of Perry (33)

Max Mayhem def. Acid III (47)

Angle: The Paratroopers issue the Para-Open Challenge (58)

Paratroopers def. Heartbreak Express (57)

Angle: Hype for the Xtreme Title match between Jonnie and Rice on Friday (54)

Big Men def. Minnesota Awesome (50)

Angle: Big Men bring out their new manager, Grace Harper, who hypes up the title match on Friday (48)

Sean McFly def. Malik Cash (62)

Tommy comes out for a promo on Sean to end the show (86)

Having our go-home show for Wave of Fury being our worst show so far, by several points? Not good. Booking TV is a whole different world...

Wave Of Fury 2025

Preshow: Jackpot Jordan def. Onslaught and War Piece (41)

Use The Roster (Except Maribel) Battle Royale: Malik Cash wins (61)

Tag Titles: Big Men def. SkyeForce (53)

Kalder Tagg & Minnesota Awesome def. Ricochet & Heartbreak Express (59)

Bullseye def. Paranoia (47)

Xtreme Title: Jonnie Perez def. Long Grain Rice (63)

Max Mayhem def. Paradox (68)

CZCW Title: Tommy Cornell def. Sean McFly (62)

Well, now… that was crap… Our first show to ever lose us popularity in two different regions. Why was it getting so hard to book decent stuff lately?

On the next Coastal Zone: Getting old sucks; a road agent makes a suggestion; and a new gimmick means one of the most loyal Zoners has had enough.

tryker2710 · June 22, 2020

Tommy and Sean seem well past it at this point. I hate to say it but the best course of action would probably to poach people from the COTT

infinitywpi · June 23, 2020

It's not just Tommy and Sean, a few others have just been hiding it better...

August 2025, Part 2

Coast To Coast #6 (Taped)

PreShow: Acid III & Chet Chavez def. Jackpot & Onslaught (48)

Angle: Maribel Mercado says she’ll be good to go for Reach For The Sky, and challenges for the CZCW Title (69)

Malik Cash def. Kalder Tagg (50)

Angle: We recap Wave of Fury’s Xtreme Title match (53)

Bullseye def. Jack Jackson (48)

Angle: Obligatory Bullseye beatdown (25)

Angle: Recap the tag title match (50)

Paratroopers def. Minnesota Awesome (64)

Angle: Recap of the main event (65)

Remmy Skye def. Max Mayhem (69)

Hrm. This was worrying… Remmy was declining. He was at the ‘Fifteen minutes? Well, if I have to” level. It wasn’t that long ago this man was arguably the man who saved this company, and now… getting old sucks.

We were starting to see a trend of what worked and didn’t work for Coast To Coast. But Wave Of Fury going down like that… we were starting to wonder.

Coast To Coast #7

Pre-show: Heartbreak Express def. Acid III & Bowden Snoop (51)

Jackpot Jordan def. Chet Chavez (50)

Angle: Long Grain Rice comes out and rants about hating Sean McFly, and challenges Sean to find a pair of friends “If you can” for the main event tonight… because he’s found two guys looking for a fight. Out come Big Men, looking angry and dangerous. (63)

Xtreme Title: Jonnie Perez def. Kid San Juan (63)

Angle: It’s Bullseye! He clobbers Jonnie with a chair, hits him a couple more times, then sets up the chair over Jonnie’s head and takes a seat. “What’s wrong, Bullseye, why are you angry lately, Bullseye… glad you asked! For those watching at home, years ago, before we had this show, Jonnie was the Xtreme Champion. And then, he left. Years later, he’s back. And he has the title again. I’VE BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME, JONNIE. Me, and Cash, and Onslaught, WE’RE ALL STILL HERE. WE NEVER LEFT. But you can give up on this company, and come right back, and get the title? Remmy Skye can get his ass fired, and years later, come back and win the Championship? I’ve been here TEN DAMN YEARS! I’ve always done what was asked of me! And you… nah, man, it’s not like this anymore. You don’t get to leave and come back like nothing happened. Everyone else leaves. You, your asshole brother, hell, American Flash left, even friggin’ Fox Mask left for a while. I DIDN’T. From now on, I AM THE ZONE, and I’m going to show you exactly how dangerous it can be around here for people who don’t give a damn about this company. Your title? It’s mine, whenever I want to take it. And that’s just the start.” (55)

Kalder Tagg def. Topher Smith (62)

Angle: Tommy Cornell and Maribel Mercado cut dueling promos on each other. (88)

Sean McFly & SkyeForce def. Long Grain Rice & Big Men (64)

Fabulous Frank is telling me to strap a rocket to Pepper Pelton. I thought that’s what I was doing, but maybe I’m wrong...

On the next Coastal Zone: Emergency Written Contracts, and plans are made for the return of a new Zone tradition.

infinitywpi · June 24, 2020

September 2025

PSW tried to sign G-Force. We had forgotten to offer him a written contract, possibly because he wasn’t a tag champion anymore. We quickly make written offers to him, a few other workers, and our referee and announce teams. Oh, and Fabulous Frank. Because we need our road agents. Frank, however, says he plans to retire soon. Well… crap.

Coast To Coast #8 (taped)

Pre-Show: Ricochet & Bowden def. Onslaught & Cash (52)

Angle: Long Grain Rice is out talking smack again, but this time it’s Remmy who comes out and suggests he shut his mouth at Reach For The Sky (67)

Battle Royal for the Xtreme Contendership: Bullseye dominates Acid III, Chet, Gaston, Geraldine, Jackson, Jackpot, Bender, Topher and War Piece (57)

Angle: It’s Jonnie with a chair, looking for payback! Bullseye goes down! (51)

Pepper Pelton def. Paranoia (45)

Angle: Paradox comes out, and the Paratroopers challenge Big Men to a title match. (50)

AC Sapp def. Paradox (68)

Angle: Backstage, Cash and Onslaught are talking about Bullseye when he walks by, angry. The other two say they’ve got his back. (39)

Sean McFly & Maribel Mercado def. Max Mayhem & Tommy Cornell (67)

Note to self: Bullseye, Malik and Onslaught need scripts to follow. But why the hell are all my main events a good ten points below where they should be?

Coast To Coast #9

Preshow: Acid III, Bowden Snoop & Gaston Bertrand def. Geraldine Big, Joe Bender & Kid San Juan (50)

Paratroopers def. Minnesota Awesome and Heartbreak Express (52)

Angle: Paratroopers hype their match with Big Men (51)

Angle: Bullseye hypes his Xtreme Title match (49)

Remmy Skye def. Sean McFly (51)

Angle: Remmy cuts a promo on Long Grain Rice (66)

Angle: Jonnie Perez response promo on Bullseye. “It’s not my fault nobody else ever wanted you.” (45)

Angle: Tommy Cornell mocks Maribel’s injury-prone-ness (85)

Maribel Mercado def. G-Force in a half-hour match (76)

Okay, now that’s the kind of main event I’m used to seeing. I hate to say it, but I think Sean and Remmy’s days of being singles acts are almost certainly over -- now that Long Grain Rice and G-Force are over, it’s time to give them both new partners and start over. Which means… The CZCW Pro-Am is back! We’ll kick it off after Reach For The Sky.

Reach For The Sky 2025

Remmy Skye def. Long Grain Rice (59)

G-Force def. Jackpot Jordan (50)

Minnesota Awesome def. Heartbreak Express (62)

Sean McFly def. War Piece (53)

Xtreme Title: Bullseye def. Jonnie Perez (58)

Tag Titles: Big Men def. Paratroopers (55)

Max Mayhem def. Kalder Tagg (64)

CZCW Title: Maribel Mercado def. Tommy Cornell (77)

As much as we loved (and had invested in) Tommy, he just wasn’t able to have long enough matches to have the title. For that matter, Remmy wasn’t either -- and was starting to crack under the pressure of being figurehead while declining so much. So, we stopped using him as a figurehead and resigned ourselves to being in a rebuilding period. Half of our main event couldn’t go more than fifteen minutes -- and sometimes, with help. Hopefully the Pro-Am would get us some new starts, and quickly.

Next time, on the Coastal Zone: The second ProAm begins, and we set up what would normally be a Zone dream match -- but will age get in the way of Cornell vs Skye?

TLLK · June 24, 2020

This is a fascinating roster dynamic.

tryker2710 · June 24, 2020

Age will absolutely get in the way. Itll be like watch Flair in bis TNA daya

mistaken · June 24, 2020

This is awesome.

even the C-Verse is getting old with me.

infinitywpi · June 25, 2020

Eight? Eight votes for Dynasty of the Month? ... you guys are actually reading some of the others, right? I should be getting, like, one vote from a really obsessed fan, and that's it...

September 2025 Part 2

Coast To Coast #10 (Taped before Reach For The Sky)

Pre-Show: Malik Cash def. Joe Bender (48)

Angle: Max Mayhem is backstage talking about how he deserves a title shot. G-Force walks in and says he’s had plenty of shots; time to let the new blood in. COntendership match, tonight. (74)

Kalder Tagg def. Chet Chavez and Kid San Juan (63)

Angle: Chet Chavez says it’s time to redeem himself, and he wants Bullseye at HArdcore Halloween (40)

Heartbreak Express def. Geraldine Big & War Piece (51)

Angle: Recap of the CZCW Title Match at Reach For The Sky (71)

ProAm: Sean McFly & Bowden Snoop def. Long Grain Rice & Jack Jackson (58)

Angle: Next week: Remmy Skye & Gaston Bertrand vs Tommy Cornell & Topher Smith (50)

Max Mayhem def. G-Force in 28 minutes (66)

Angle: Maribel appears on-screen, taped backstage at Reach For The Sky. She predicts Max wanting a title shot, and she’s sure he’ll have to beat someone tonight for it… and she’s sure he will. So she’ll see him Halloween night. (73)

Another disappointing main event. I’m starting to wonder if Max is losing a step, too. Let’s check and find out… nope, seems fine. Maybe we just don’t like TV.

Hellion is all healed up; Johnny Needham got hurt at NYCW’s last show. Total change in available tag teams +/- 0. Sigh.

Coast To Coast #11: TAG TEAM SPECTACULAR! (now on patch 1.12)

Preshow: Jackpot, Onslaught & Chet Chavez def. Jonnie Perez, Geraldine Big & War Piece (55)

ProAm: Long Grain Rice & Jack Jackson def. G-Force & Acid III (65)

Angle: Hype for Bullseye vs Chavez @ Hardcore Halloween (33)

Minnesota Awesome def. Masked Men (Hellion & Kid San Juan) (64)

Angle: Hype for Mercade vs Mayhem @ HH (73)

Tag Titles: Big Men def. Paratroopers (53)

Angle: Big Men make an open challenge for Hardcore Halloween (65)

ProAm: Remmy Skye & Gaston def. Tommy Cornell & Topher Smith (64)

Angle: Tommy asks Remmy to stick around after the match, and notes how they never had a singles match. And since they’ve gotten their ProAm match out of the way, why not meet at Hardcore Halloween? (75)

Annnnd Pepper went and strained his bicep. Hopefully that would get healed up by Halloween. But it was yet another show that went well everywhere but in the Southwest. We’re growing our fanbase at the expense of our existing fans… I believe they call that ‘selling out’.

Next time, on the Sellout Zone: Our first "Let me out of my contract" request! Who wants to leave? Who wants to not come back? Why the hell are we so toxic lately?

Remianen · June 25, 2020

Wow, this has been great! If I might make a suggestion, feature Tommy in angles on every show. He can't go in the ring much but he seems magic on the mic. Use that (and him) to get your money's worth. Whether it's an argument or just someone picking his brain/asking for advice. Maybe even use him in some preshow battle royals (as a 'late addition', ala Brock at Money in the Bank).

Sign In

Go Not Gently Into That Coastal Zone

Recommended Posts

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Join the conversation