[HYPE] EXWrestling (Original Mod for TEW20)

[falling_star]

 

 

Hello TEW fans! My name is Michael, aka falling_star here on the boards and in the unofficial GDS Discord server. I take it you're all here because you like playing Adam Ryland's Total Extreme Wrestling, but maybe you're looking for a little something new? Well, you've come to the right place!

 

Currently in the early stages of development, EXWrestling is an original database planned for Total Extreme Wrestling 2020. Professional wrestling is probably the first love of my life-- I've been hooked since the moment I saw Ted DiBiase cutting one of his Million Dollar Man promos while channel surfing at an early age. My love of Adam's wrestling simulators began with the release of Extreme Warfare Revenge, and I've purchased & played every iteration of TEW since the beginning. The EXWrestling data set will be my love letter to my first love, and I hope to bring something of quality to be mentioned in the same breath as the Cornellverse and the Thunderverse.

 

Planned to feature 30+ operating companies all across the TEW-playable world, myself and a small team are at work on all aspects of creating some original data (including original broadcasters and venues). As for a potential release date, I would love to release this as a Christmas present to the forums at the end of the year but we'll see if that's possible as development moves forward. Currently there are about 10 of us in a Discord server kicking around ideas and hammering out the world while I work on the data side of things. Hopefully soon, the team will expand and I'll have more people working on entering and balancing data with me.

 

We already have some amazing talent from the boards working on graphics and renders, the plan is to have all worker pictures on the traditional CVerse background so it is easy to integrate the wealth of work that is out there into your games once EXWrestling is playable. I don't want to name names as to who all is involved at this moment (they're welcome to introduce themselves in the thread), but I have been in contact with some amazing creators from the boards who have either given permission to use there already created content, agreed to create original content for EXWrestling, or both!

 

Now for the good part about announcing so early in development: community input! What do you want to see in an original data set? What TEW-related itches do you have that the CVerse/TVerse don't scratch? Are you interested in joining the development team perhaps? What do you not want to see?

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by falling_star

[falling_star]

SOME RANDOM INFORMATION

So, I enjoy writing a lot as well, and as I've tried to immerse myself in this world that's being crafted, I've typed up a lot of random historical information to make the world feel more alive-- I actually, almost based the mod in the 1990's because of some of the stuff I had written about happening at the time, but decided against it as everything took shape. Anyway, here is one of the things I've written up about the world of EXWrestling, if you are so inclined to read...

 

 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF AMERICAN WRESTLING (work in progress)

Professional wrestling’s roots go back to the days of traveling carnivals and circus sideshows; strongmen taking on local brawlers and technicians stretching the big men who thought they could take on the amateur wrestling wonders. It wasn’t until the 1940’s that standalone wrestling promotions became popularized, realizing they didn’t need all of the pomp and circumstance of a full carnival so long as they had compelling characters to draw in the crowds.

 

Territorial promotions ruled the day from the 1940’s through the 1970’s, eventually becoming governed by the North American Wrestling Alliance in the late 1960’s. NAWA sanctioned a North American World Champion recognized by all promotions under their banner. Promotions would function within the confines of their given territory and recognize regional champions, but all would be subservient to the North American Champion and NAWA charter rules.

 

In those days, some of the popular promotions included Charlie Ray’s Lone Star Wrestling in the Texas area, Hank Jameson’s Memphis Pro Wrestling, David Barker’s Heartland Pro Wrestling in the Great Lakes, the Clive Gordon-run Tri-State Wrestling Alliance out of New York, and Dean Sparks’ Southern Pro Wrestling out of Georgia. These companies would draw big business in the territory days, and the promoters of each area would go on to bigger things as the business grew.

 

Although the North American Wrestling Alliance had an umbrella that covered most of the major territorial federations, the flagship promotion was clearly Clive Gordon’s Tri-State Wrestling Alliance. Gordon’s colorful cast of characters like Randy Hurricane began to overshadow the more talented wrestlers in other territories, including NAWA Champion “The Gold Standard” David Gold. This eventually caused a rift that led to Gold refusing to appear for Gordon, and Clive Gordon responding by claiming Tri-State Champion Randy Hurricane was ‘the real World Champion’ because Gold refused to appear and defend the belt.

 

This, of course, did not sit well with the North American Wrestling Alliance’s board of directors (read: other territorial promoters). A now infamous meeting occurred on Thanksgiving night in 1978 where Charlie Ray, David Barker, Dean Sparks, and David Gold kicked Clive Gordon out of the North American Wrestling Alliance. Hank Jameson resigned in protest. The entire hassle left a bad taste in Gordon’s mouth, and he planned to leave the business before being talked into a new business venture by his young daughter, Samantha (commonly known as Sam).

 

Clive Gordon would go on to launch the Global Wrestling Alliance in July of 1982 after signing up a large portion of the most popular regional stars, along with former TSWA talent, to exclusive deals before launching the promotion with the then-largest show in professional wrestling history, The Wrestling Classic, on closed circuit television and launched their GWA Global Wrestling show on cable television the following evening. Broadcast live every week to more homes than any territory could hope to reach, the old system was quickly dying out.

 

The nail in the coffin for NAWA came when widespread corruption was uncovered by Memphis Pro Wrestling owner Hank Jameson. Other owners in the alliance were conspiring to withhold profits from what they saw as the “lesser” wrestling companies while keeping David Gold on top because they were paying him the lowest rate of any traveling champion for some time. NAWA collapsed, although the territories themselves survived with damaged reputations.

 

Spurned by the Clive Gordon’s attempt to nationalize, and with attendance at their own territory shows dwindling, some of the remaining territory owners banded together in 1983 to begin a launch of their own– David Barker and Hank Jameson declined to join the new venture, but Charlie Ray and Dean Sparks recruited others and in 1984, the Universal Wrestling Federation held the first show under their banner, headlined by “The Gold Standard” David Gold, Ace Thunder, and other GWA holdouts. The show was a success, and the UWF and GWA would spend much of the mid-80’s to late-90’s locked in war for American supremacy.

 

The only territory that still survives to this day is Memphis Pro Wrestling, Hank Jameson refusing to join on with the UWF group. Memphis Pro Wrestling did function as a development territory for UWF during the mid-90’s but the relationship did not last long. Hank rebranded the company Metro Pro Wrestling in 2019 in an attempt to sound less localized as pro wrestling continued to grow in national popularity; rumors of an expansion have popped up several times over the years, but they have never seemed to make any moves towards expanding.

 

During the late 1990’s, an upstart, anti-establishment, counterculture-to-the-extreme hardcore federation opened it’s doors to the masses and found itself an unlikely #3 in the battle for the national wrestling spotlight. Dark Side Wrestling was originally headlined by Chase Beckett, Ace Thunder’s first trainee who had had a falling out with UWF management amidst a big push and walked out on the company in early 1995. Beckett teamed up with mad genius promoter Paul Black to offer fans an alternative to what they were getting in GWA and UWF, and the younger fans ate it up.

 

GWA and UWF seemed to uneasily co-exist at the top for a number of years in the 1990’s until GWA clearly pulled ahead in 1996 by not only stealing a trio of UWF’s top stars but securing an exclusive deal with the biggest PPV company in North America, essentially locking their competition out of the market. With no PPV and relegated to late night television, UWF lasted only until early 1998 before closing the doors entirely. GWA would step in to buy the UWF assets out of bankruptcy, the biggest immediate result of which was “The Gold Standard” David Gold showing up in GWA for the first time in his career. Still active in the ring, Gold would go on to become a 3-time GWA World Champion as well as co-headline a Wrestling Classic in a once in a lifetime meeting against Randy Hurricane in Hurricane’s retirement match; many were shocked to see Hurricane do the job on his way out the door.

 

This left Paul Black and Dark Side Wrestling as the defacto #2 promotion in America, and they leaned heavily into their counterculture roots to present as an alternative to GWA rather than the second best promotion in the country. They signed a lucrative, primetime television deal in 1998, but failed to impress in the ratings and were gone from national television by the following year. This combined with young stars constantly leaving for the allure of GWA had knocked DSW down a peg and they never pulled themselves back up, settling into a comfortable niche market where they could always play on their days in the sun.

 

Global Wrestling Alliance shocked the world again in 2015 when they moved all of their programming to streaming giant Fantavision, offering Global Wrestling live every Monday and a new B-show called Global Wrestling Live! (ironically filmed on Mondays before Global Wrestling). Events moved from pay-per-view to Fantavision as well in an unprecedented exclusive rights deal still unheard of for other companies.

 

For 20 years, the Global Wrestling Alliance was the unchallenged king of professional wrestling in America, even growing their hold to the rest of North America and, indeed, out into the world at large. But their monopoly on American wrestling ended in 2018 when Dane Merchant, eccentric billionaire and professed wrestling fan, partnered with the media corporation Carver Media to launch Maximum Championship Wrestling. With a roster of recent GWA stars, led by international superstar JD Queen and “The Golden Boy” David Gold Jr., and a wealth of recent indie standouts like Cade Brewer and Lucha Poison, MCW offers wrestling with way less filler than GWA and they’ve made a loud statement in their brief genesis.

 

With a prime time spot on Carver Media’s flagship cable channel, CTV, and pay-per-view services provided by Carver’s giant PPV arm, Maximum Championship Wrestling finds itself in a position to be the first true #2 promotion in North America since the Universal Wrestling Federation left the landscape in 1998.

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by falling_star

[falling_star]

GLOBAL WRESTLING ALLIANCE

THE UNDISPUTED LEADER IN SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

Based In: Tri-State, USA

Size: Titanic

Core Product: Wrestling Soap Opera

Current Product: Three Ring Circus

 

Aptly named, the Global Wrestling Alliance is the largest wrestling company in all of the world. Presenting a sports entertainment product designed to draw fans from all over the world, the GWA are the most watched product in most parts of the world (save Mexico and Japan). Streaming on international media giant Fantavision, fans the world over have access to weekly shows and monthly events whenever they want, which has grown GWA into a massive success.

 

"The Dark Saviour" Judas King

Current GWA World Heavyweight Champion, Judas King rose to prominence in Dark Side Wrestling before crossing over to the mainstream as a rebellious fan favorite. He spent years fighting against the corrupt GWA Commissioner Lew Spectre, only to turn his back on the fans and join Spectre after he was ousted from power by GWA owner Sam Gordon. Forming The Sovereign, King and Spectre are constructing a reign of terror over GWA the likes of which have never been seen as the heelish villains sit atop the company even without Spectre in power.

Edited September 22, 2022 by falling_star

[falling_star]

EXWRESTLING IS RECRUITING!

• Render artists for masked luchadores
  
• Logo artists for wrestling company, stable, and broadcaster logos
  
• People familiar with the in-game editor to assist in data entry

 

Send me a PM or find me in the GDS Discord and message me there if you are interested!

[neslo024]

This sounds great will definitely be following along. Looking forward to watching this come together.

[feltzz]

Amazing project, good luck with that!

[falling_star]

This sounds great will definitely be following along. Looking forward to watching this come together.

 

Amazing project, good luck with that!

 

Thanks for the votes of confidence! I'll be posting more information tidbits as we go along, but I wanted to reveal the biggest company in the data from the beginning.

 

I have plans to release a venues mod before the full EXWrestling data set comes out that will contain the venues from EXWrestling so you can import them into other games where you need more venue immersion.

[falling_star]

MAXIMUM CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING

PRO WRESTLING TO THE MAX

Based In: Great Lakes, USA

Size: Big

Core/Current Product: Wrestling Nerd Nirvana

 

Capitalizing on both wrestling fans who think GWA has become too overblown, and wrestling fans who miss having it on Carver Media programming, Maximum Championship Wrestling has made loud statement in their short history. Shocking the wrestling world, they signed "The Golden Boy" David Gold Jr. out from under the Global Wrestling Alliance while actually managing to sign international superstar JD Queen away from them. Since then, they've built several new stars and an acclaimed Women's Division featuring Julie Queen and Máscara de Rayo. Maximum Championship Wrestling has truly become, just as the product notes, Wrestling Nerd Nirvana.

 

 

"The Golden Boy" David Gold Jr.

Originally the featured player in Dark Side Wrestling of all places, "The Golden Boy" David Gold Jr. has become a bona fide Major Star for the company in addition to being the current MCW World Champion. Just like his father, "The Gold Standard" David Gold, before him, David is surrounded by a stable of other heels-- while his father's stable was called The Gold Mine, David Jr's group is known as The Wild Stallions. Second generation star "Silent Fury" Simon Sparks serves as the group's enforcer, while Luke Diamond and Storm Sutherland function as a tag team. The group has had many memorable moments during MCW's rise towards the top.

Edited October 12, 2022 by falling_star

[Wrestling Machine]

I like this project! Good luck with that!

 

I may be back here posting some things that would be cool to add in the database.

[thiagofjv]

This is very promissing!

[falling_star]

I like this project! Good luck with that!

 

I may be back here posting some things that would be cool to add in the database.

 

This is very promissing!

 

Thanks for the interest! Hopefully you'll both end up enjoying this when the time comes.

 

Total number of active promotions is looking like it's going to be 28. We've made the decision not to do anything with Australia or India, and instead focus on the 28 promotions we have in the rest of the world-- we will, of course, be adding yet-to-open promotions closer to the end of the dev process. Australia and India may get DLC later on, but we feel like we have a really solid base of promotions that will have plenty of variety of products from which to pick.

[falling_star]

"THE GOLDEN BOY" DAVID GOLD JR | "SILENT FURY" SIMON SPARKS | LUKE DIAMOND | STORM SUTHERLAND

 

As mentioned in the Maximum Championship Wrestling reveal, The Wild Stallions have played a big part in the success of MCW. From the rise of David Gold Jr into a bona fide main event player to their memorable attack on JD Queen, The Wild Stallions have been there for lots of big moments in the company's short, five year history. He triumphed over JD Queen at the end of 2022 to begin the year, and the mod, as MCW World Champion, enjoying his greatest height yet atop MCW.

 

David Gold Jr is a second generation star, and the son of legendary wrestler "The Gold Standard" David Gold. His enforcer is third generation star, "Silent Fury" Simon Sparks-- like his father Shawn before him, Simon protects Gold at all costs. Along with them are the duo of Luke Diamond and Storm Sutherland, a pair of brash, talented young superstars looking to make names for themselves in the Maximum Championship Wrestling landscape. How long will their reign atop MCW last? Can David Jr surpass his father's legacy? How long can MCW fend off GWA's attempts to woo The Golden Boy?

 

We'll find out when you play EXWrestling.

Edited May 11, 2023 by falling_star

[falling_star]

Bumping the topic now that all the forum posts have been recovered to let people know it is still a work in progress.

[Pteroid]

Oh hey this looks neat, will follow with interest

[falling_star]

Work has been a bit delayed as of late with my work schedule, and just the usual ebb and flow of where my hobby time goes when I have it. Played a lot of Football Manager, but things are circling back to EXWrestling as I get immersed in TEW again. If you have any mod experience and are interested in joining the team, shoot me a PM and we'll see what clicks.

Edited September 27, 2022 by falling_star

[falling_star]

Just wanted to say thanks to @willr0ck for his work on the Maximum Championship Wrestling logo, banner, and title set. I'm not gonna post them in here yet because I want to direct you all to his Custom Graphics Work and Request Thread, so you can check them out along with all of his other fantastic work. Work has been continuing at a slower pace than I anticipated... I guess we're always ambitious when we talk about the things we enjoy. So, December for a full release is 100% off the table BUT there are plans to release something from EXWrestling to the community for Christmas. You can stay updated here, but there will be a separate release thread for that.

[falling_star]

Just wanted to drop a line and say that this is NOT a dead project, but progress has been very slow going for various reasons. A special release for Christmas (which was planned to be the locations used in the mod) never materialized, but I still intend to see this vision through to a release for the masses.

Here is a little "behind the scenes" shot of some roster planning-- there are currently 27 planned promotions that cover most of the game world (there are no promotions in India, Australia, or Europe currently). I have all owners and their personalities in place in the editor, to give me an idea of the roster size needed for each company. Without free agents, and with three game areas essentially untouched, the mod will need around 1200 workers (less workers who work for more than one promotion) just to run promotions-- there will need to be free agents as well, so around 2000 workers in total is an early guesstimate.

[DasherTM]

this looks great ! can't wait to try it out !

[falling_star]

THE LEGENDARY QUEEN FAMILY OF CANADA

 

The First Family of Canadian Wrestling, the Queen family, began with patriarch Jeremiah Queen during the territory days of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Jeremiah founded SUMMIT Wrestling during this time, and became the lead babyface and top champion (the SUMMIT Canadian National Champion). He also famously did a series of matches with David Gold in both SUMMIT Wrestling and the Universal Wrestling Federation before retiring from in-ring competition during the late 1980’s.

 

His oldest son, Brian, was born near the end of Jeremiah’s in-ring days and his youngest son, Jeremiah Jr. (known as JD in the ring), was born after Jeremiah had settled into running SUMMIT Wrestling; he also has a daughter, Julie, who is the middle child. Brian began his career in SUMMIT Wrestling, but he was considered a prodigy and picked up the in-ring work at a rapid pace. He didn’t stay in SUMMIT for long before GWA came calling, and he debuted for GWA just after The Wrestling Classic in 199X. It didn’t take long before Brian’s in-ring presence and natural charisma drove him up the card, and he now sits as a multi-time former World Champion and major player for the titanic Global Wrestling Alliance.

 

JD took a longer route to get the American scene, staying in SUMMIT Wrestling at the top of the card with rumors of nepotism rampant from the undercard. When America finally did come calling, it was to put Brian and JD together for a tag team run. Their time together wound up elevating the prestige of the GWA Tag Team titles and the workrate of the entire division at a time when it seemed like Sam Gordon couldn’t care less about teams.

 

Rumors of a tag team split and feud followed the family for years, but GWA never pulled the trigger on splitting the brothers up. They did have a short-lived heel run, but it only served to prove that Brian wasn’t suited to the role, but JD used his resentment at what he perceived as being the “overlooked” brother to do some of the best promo work of his life.

 

Once the team were babyfaces again, the duo went their separate ways back to the singles division where Brian won another GWA World title and JD continued putting on top notch performances in the undercard.

 

Julie was pulling double duty as Women’s champion in SUMMIT and World champion in Charisma Championship Wrestling when GWA’s massive buyout of CHARISMA happened, which resulted in her joining GWA as one of the top women’s wrestlers during the genesis of the division.

 

The three siblings worked together in GWA from 2012 until Dane Merchant began hiring talent to launch Maximum Championship Wrestling. While Brian decided to finish out his career with GWA, JD and Julie both felt underutilized by the massive wrestling company and decided to bet on themselves by joining MCW. GWA owner Sam Gordon tried her best to get them both to stay, but Julie felt that Heather Hurricane (daughter of GWA legend Randy Hurricane) would always hold her back in GWA, and JD had a chip on his shoulder about proving his worth as a member of the Queen family.

 

Both joined Maximum Championship Wrestling and have become pillars of their division, JD becoming the first MCW World Champion and Julie easily the star of the women’s division.

 

The next generation of the Queen family are currently competing in SUMMIT Wrestling for their grandfather. They include Brian’s twin sons, Michael and Daniel, and JD’s daughter, Beth.

[falling_star]

A little more fluff about the gameworld, this one about the First Family of Canadian Wrestling, the Queen family.

[falling_star]

GLOBAL WRESTLING ALLIANCE PLANNING SPREADSHEET

 

So, this is what the planning spreadsheets look like for each company, this one being for the #1 promotion in the database, the Global Wrestling Alliance. Blue means that the character has been entered into the database, white means they've yet to be added. My approach to leveling out overness in the database has been to make sure the top promotion in the world has everyone at the right level, and then to use that as a base for the rest of the world. There likely needs to be some individual tweaking still, but the base is there.

Edited April 25, 2023 by falling_star

[falling_star]

Seven of the fourteen American companies are now fully fleshed out and ready to be entered into the game database (with some of them already entered).

I'm looking for some lucha and puro fans who might be interested in giving some input to the EXWrestling universe in Mexico and Japan; I have a good chunk of planning work done there, but I'd really like to have an extra set of eyes who are more into the particular products than I am give it a look as well.

[King Bison]

Glad to see your project still going! And someone putting my free render work to good use! I’m following along and please help yourself to whatever renders and logos you want from my share drive for this! Good luck, I can’t wait to see the end result 

[AboardTheArk]

22 hours ago, falling_star said:

Seven of the fourteen American companies are now fully fleshed out and ready to be entered into the game database (with some of them already entered).

I'm looking for some lucha and puro fans who might be interested in giving some input to the EXWrestling universe in Mexico and Japan; I have a good chunk of planning work done there, but I'd really like to have an extra set of eyes who are more into the particular products than I am give it a look as well.

I can do some of that with Mexico and Japan for sure!

[falling_star]

20 hours ago, King Bison said:

Glad to see your project still going! And someone putting my free render work to good use! I’m following along and please help yourself to whatever renders and logos you want from my share drive for this! Good luck, I can’t wait to see the end result 

Highly appreciated, @King Bison! You do top notch work, and it'll help the mod look that much better when it finally launches.