DarK_RaideR Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 Life, much like wrestling, is full of swerves. I never thought some Brit would get me to run a promotion in Romania as a money laundering scheme. Somehow I always expected a Russian oligarch, or at least a mobster. I suppose Ken Flanagan is technically Welsh, but so far away from their little echo chamber of an island, they’re all “Englishmen” to us here. Anyway, he was on a ‘business trip’ in Bucharest and in his spare time, he decided to go to a wrestling show in town. I just happened to be part of it. At the time, I was taking any and all bookings I’d get. Things had gotten rough for me after the Koller incident, so I’d agree to wrestle for the kind of people who would let a man like Flanagan into the venue. The first time I became aware of him, he burst into the backstage area, furious, screaming something about no women being on the show. Takes a special kind of stupid to storm a locker room full of wrestlers with an attitude (and a physique) like his. I guess I was intrigued, but my head was also still ringing a bit from a nasty landing on the floor, so I couldn’t take the noise. For whatever reason, I stepped out of the shower and into the fray, trying to de-escalate the situation before any fists would fly. Takes a special kind of stupid to do that before you realize you forgot to grab a towel first. I guess as much as I hate to admit it, we did have some things in common after all, though whether that thing is massive balls or a glaring lack of self awareness is up to debate. Whatever it was, my interference stunned him just enough (because I doubt he was actually intimidated) to completely change the vibe of the scene. Matter of fact, he said I must get loads of chicks packing that thing, so he decided I was the most suited person to take him to the finest strip club of Bucharest. Not like I'd bother, but then he casually flashed like triple what I got paid that night just to be his guide. Figured I could easily make him pay for my drinks and dinner too. He was a mark throwing money around, maybe I could swindle him to hire me as his bodyguard or something. Instead, I got a very different kind of business proposal. Five vodkas and two lapdances in, he started talking to me about his trip and how easy he found it to do business in Romania. Had to scream so I could hear him over the blasting beats, but I’m pretty sure he’d do it even if the music was off. It wasn’t a lack of self preservation either, he was just so damn proud at himself for outsmarting the authorities. And to be fair, given the location, his illicit activities would barely make anyone around even remotely interested, there were much worse things discussed, or even perpetrated, in the vicinity. “So anyone looking, they’ll just think I set up an offshore company to take advantage of tax laws, yeah? But that’s a diversion, so they don’t see what it’s really s’pposed to do.” I pretended to listen, while trying not to be overly distracted by the girl doing her shift on the pole. Hopefully he was too drunk, or too self obsessed (or both) to notice. “...you just gotta put down the right numbers in the books, but pay the wrestlers cash-in-hand, so the difference between those two, the promotion returns to my investor company, all legal and untraceable. Think you can do that?” I nodded and said something along the lines of “mhm, sounds great”. The girl now had her tits out and the vodka was getting to me as well. Little did I know what I’d signed up for and Flanagan wasn’t the type of person to let someone back down from what he considered a done deal. That morning hangover would come with a big side of regrets over what I'd done the night prior. ...fuck! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK_RaideR Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 By the time I sobered up the next day, Ken had already filed papers to register “Balkan Wrestling Organization”. Hell, he’d even bought some old logo he found in the metaphorical discount bin. The following message has been paid for by the BWO… He had me wrapped up in red tape and he’d fled the country already, leaving an accountant behind to run his shell company as its strawman CEO. Also as his mouthpiece, judging by the email I got. “Dear Sir, Allow me first to congratulate you and wish you the best of luck on your business endeavors. As a prime investor in BalkWres Inc, our company would like to make sure its vision is well communicated and understood. You are, of course, expected to run the day to day creative and business operation side of things, however we would like to ensure that we set a certain framework within which you will be operating. - As a new company with little hype behind it, Balkan Wrestling Organization is ranked 36th in the world among 36 active promotions. It is understood that building up a company from scratch will incur some initial losses, yet you are expected to at least maintain this position after the first two years of operation. Growth is welcome, but not expected. Failure is unacceptable. - We believe the initial product needs to be believable to a significant extent, in order to face the usual criticism of wrestling as “fake” and draw in an initial core audience. As such, we would appreciate it if you refrained from employing competitors with a very high focus on technical wrestling to the exclusion of all other talents. Likewise, do avoid gymnasts who display a great reliance on aerial moves. This should not be a circus. - Finally, might I remind you that your funding is contractually tied to Balkan Wrestling Organization promoting women’s wrestling alongside men’s. Emphasis on alongside. Do not cross the streams. We here at BalkWres highly prize diversity and gender equality, so we expect our beneficiaries to share these values. Although not legally binding, we strongly suggest you invest in the future by using young and cosmetically pleasing females. For security reasons, I cannot enclose your online banking codes in this email. They will be handed to you in a sealed envelope by a liaison who shall be visiting you later in the day. We do believe our initial deposit of 500.000€ should be enough to get you started. Sincerely, Artur Dumitrescu” I caught myself thinking all sorts of sarcastic comments as I read this, but things got real when I got to the money part. That mad bastard, half a million! To “get me started”! I mean sure, his “liaison” handed me the envelope with one hand while pointing a gun at me with the other and telling me to not do anything funny, but the password did check out and the money was actually there. I was tempted to start hiring people left and right, but no one who was anyone would agree to come wrestle for a nobody indy show. Besides, I had to keep expenses reasonable in order to not draw attention. So I decided to put together a show and test the waters, see if there were any legs to this thing. The show would open with a pseudo-MMA shoot fight between Aleksandr Knyazev and Cub Balowitz. This would hopefully establish a suitably believable tone for the rest of the evening, plus both men already have some big time experience with UEW and VWA respectively, so I could trust them to keep it together when they’d come out to open a show in front of what I expected would be a crowd of three plus a stray dog, at best. Don’t get your hopes up though, after the strong start comes the stinker, an all Russian tag team clash as veterans Boris Kiriyakin and Jakub Krawczyk meet the young upstart pair of Sergei Litvinov and Pyotr Drachev. Best tag team match I could put together, hoping the old timers would pop the crowd instead of a knee. “Cheap heat squash” is the name of the game here. I got Notorious F.R.E.A.K. to show up, appeal to whatever audience we get and rile them up so that Abominable Snowman can then save the day by destroying him. Worst case scenario, we’d get some online heat blamed as queerphobic, at this early stage any exposure was welcome I suppose. Ken called me in person to demand I hire Gypsy Rose and build the women’s division around her. I was pretty sure a gypsy character wouldn’t go down the same way in Romania as it would in other places, but didn’t think that would convince him, so I had to argue people would see right through her not being a gypsy (she’s Canadian, for crying out loud). This kinda contradicted his “guidelines” to keep it believable, plus she did rely an awful lot on high flying. He agreed as long as I’d come back with a suitably young and attractive replacement he personally wanted to greenlight, so my plan B was Tereza Smirnov. Where every other wrestler got a one night deal on a handshake, no such time constraints were agreed upon with her. Once that was sealed, I got a suitable opponent for her in Etelka the Hun, which I renamed Etelka the Savage. She’s Hungarian and also she got a deal for two appearances, as I’d been setting up a rematch of sorts in this situation. Of course I’d be in the main event, because I’m booking the damn show and I’m giving myself a main event bonus for it. Also I’m Romanian, so that automatically makes me the hometown hero and a draw. After a lot of thinking and most candidates turning me down, I settled on Andriy Boronin. Solid hand, decent experience, mainly a grappler so I wasn’t in for a night of strikes or slams. Plus he’s Ukrainian and with an army background, maybe I could do something with that. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstephe4 Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 I like this a lot so far. Looking forward to the next installment 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herrbear Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 Good start. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK_RaideR Posted April 15 Author Share Posted April 15 Bwo Slamdown Held in Bucharest on Sunday, Week 4 of January 2020. Attendance: 33 Aleksander Knyazev vs Cub Balowicz Well this did start us off strong, but maybe a bit too strong for my liking. If the best match of the night is the opener, everything is downhill from there and it makes others look lesser in comparison, myself in the main event included. Still, people seemed to like it. Balowicz stuck to striking, looking for that killer left hook of his, while Knyazev held his own standing and mixed things up with the occasional takedown or submission. This went on back and forth for about 8 minutes, until Knyazev got too confident shooting for another takedown. Balowicz saw the opening and landed a left hook that flattened his opponent. I’m thinking if I can get other workers like these, maybe I could start a little unofficial division of MMA style workers. Winner: Cub Balowicz, via Knockout (34) Boris Kiriyakin and Jakub Krawczyk vs The New Age Russians Kiriyakin is old and beat up, but damn it he’s still doing his best, which is still terrible but commendable I suppose. I saw Krawczyk pop some painkillers before walking out, probably so they’d kick in by the time he was expected to start bumping. Pyotr and Sergey did their best to carry this match, but they’re pretty green. Good thing I never advertised great in-ring action, because the audience still seemed to like this somehow, even if they didn’t really have anyone to cheer for. Anyway, that Collapsing Piledriver looks brutal. Winners: The New Age Russians, via Pinfall (16) Probably my biggest gamble of the night. FREAK got sent out to rile up the crowd and… did his best, I guess. I don’t speak French and neither did the audience, so a good chunk got lost in translation. Still, his looks and body language did elicit some kind of negative reaction, so the Yeti did get a cheer when he came out to put an end to this. Oh yeah, I renamed him into Yeti, because Abominable Snowman sounds overly academic. (14) F.R.E.A.K. vs The Yeti This guy can’t sell, or wrestle for that matter, but his squeals while getting pounded made up for it. Yeti probably got carried away and started grunting. It was all weirdly sexual, you could tell some folks in the audience were starting to feel uncomfortable. Winner: The Yeti, by Pinfall (23) Etelka the Savage vs Tereza Smirnov Ken’s big on pushing the women’s division, so I took the opportunity to experiment and give this match twelve minutes, longest on the show. Didn’t seem to hurt things. I have no idea about women’s wrestling, so I hired Alpha Female to put this one together. Seems like she did a pretty good job. Lots of titty slapping and butt flashing snuck in to keep the audience hooked. Smirnov had to win this one so to make it believable against this opponent, we went with the flash roll up finish. Winner: Tereza Smirnov, by Pinfall (28) I’ve mentioned Etelka’s two-show deal, so this is how the rematch got set up;Tereza fled the ring after the three count and the smart choice would be to flee the berzerker’s wrath, but Smirnov just had to grab a mic and taunt her from a distance. Rushing from the backstage area, two women in appropriately apocalyptic outfits to match Etelka’s jumped Smirnov for a beatdown. Now she needs a tag team partner to face these two women in the next show, with Etelka in their corner. (25) Acheron vs Andriy Boronin With everything else in my mind putting the show together, I think it’s justified that I forgot how a spot or two were supposed to happen. That Boronin kid looked good though, he showed toughness taking my hits and brains trying to use technique in order to counter my power advantage. But of course, I won. Winner: Acheron, by Pinfall (26) Overall: 27 I… was actually shocked by how good this went down. Maybe there’s something to this project after all. I’d braced myself expecting the worst, yet nothing happened. Thought we’d maybe get a couple of curious people in the audience and instead thirty three paying customers showed up (still not enough to turn in a profit, but that’s to be expected this early). Thought we’d get a fistfight or nasty rib backstage, but everyone was calm and professional somehow. Even Ken, who flew in to witness this first show in person, caused zero trouble despite having a reputation as bad as the guy running that big indie company in Scotland. Maybe the only issue all night was finding out Pyotr Drachev is “straightedge”, as he called himself when he came to me complaining about his partner getting on the juice. Little snitch should be thankful instead. I’m reaching out to Dr. Filgudescu tomorrow, anyone who sampled his goods backstage is guaranteed to receive a call for another appearance next month… 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstephe4 Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 2 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said: F.R.E.A.K. vs The Yeti This guy can’t sell, or wrestle for that matter, but his squeals while getting pounded made up for it. Yeti probably got carried away and started grunting. It was all weirdly sexual, you could tell some folks in the audience were starting to feel uncomfortable. Winner: The Yeti. This made me laugh. Brought a real, proper smile to my face. More of this please! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK_RaideR Posted April 16 Author Share Posted April 16 Once the dust of the first show had settled down, I began preparing for the second. Consolidating before expanding, I reached out to Dr. Filgudescu and got a list of all the wrestlers who sampled his goods before Slamdown. Not a damn clue why someone like F.R.E.A.K. would get on the juice, but then again, I had no idea why he did anything in the first place. Ken had decided to throw his weight around before the first show and override me, offering an ongoing deal to F.R.E.A.K., so all I had to do was reach out to the weirdo and tell him that would indeed be the case. Next up was Andriy Boronin who also got an indefinite duration deal. Hopefully he'd put on some muscle so we'd tone down the technical aspects to emphasize his military background. According to Dr. Filgudescu's list, "one of the fur coat ladies" had also grabbed a 'snack' but I had no indication which of the two, so I decided to extend both their contracts anyway. They were recently married so consider this my wedding gift to them, breaking them up would be more trouble than I could be bothered with at this point. This wasn't the case with the Russians though; straightedge snitch Pyotr Drachev could suck it, Sergei Litvinov was my man and he was getting a deal as a singles guy. Only match I had down already was the Chernobyl Generation, Etelka's lackeys, against Tereza Smirnov and someone else. Originally thought of Karen Bilous, but her rates be damned. Also, she's from Ukraine, like the Chernobyls. Thus, I opted for the Belarusian "Black Widow" Zofia Jankovic instead. Russians like Belarusians more than they like Ukrainians, right? Second order of business was find another monster to squash F.R.E.A.K. again. I was stuck, but then it hit me: Menace. He's pretty well known from his work at UEW. Also, he's gay. Openly. I know, I'm terrible. Another guy I thought of bringing in was Kalu Owusu. He's got a past with INSPIRE, but then I realized I'm not bringing Knyazev or Balowicz back. Few days later, I had another idea, when I was looking for someone that'd do the job for me on show #2 and ran into Jay Heartbreak. This quickly started growing into a full-on owner vs owner storyline, but right now I doubt him or his daddy would run with it. We need to make some more noise first, become a thorn on their side. So for now, I just launched an online campaign trying to rile up Jay, as he's pretty active on social media. Fingers crossed he'll take the bait. Till then, I'm bringing Kalu in to put me over. He wasn't thrilled with the idea, but when I told him about my plan to stick it to Byron, it's like a switch flipped in his head. Last but not least, I hired Arlo Costa on a one off deal. He's the guy who used to portray Mr. Evilness, but what I'm more interested in is the fact he's legitimately blind in one eye, hence the character's eyepatch. Sergei Litvinov also lost one eye during a barfight in Germany years ago. Sounds like "magical gypsy glass eyeball on a pole match" or something. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrestling Machine Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 Hi DarK_RaideR, nice to see another diary of yours and this Romania madness seems fun for a European guy like me lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK_RaideR Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 3 hours ago, Wrestling Machine said: Hi DarK_RaideR, nice to see another diary of yours and this Romania madness seems fun for a European guy like me lol Hello fellow European! Stay tuned for more madness! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistertbones Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 Loving this save so far. Given me a good laugh. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK_RaideR Posted April 25 Author Share Posted April 25 Bwo The Return Held in Bucharest on Sunday, Week 4 of February 2020. Attendance: 34 Acheron vs Kalu Owusu For such a big boy, Kalu Owusu sure whines like a baby. I wanted to make this a time limit draw and set up the rematch, but he wouldn’t play ball unless he was going over, so I told him I’d get myself disqualified. Didn’t tell him how though, so I hope he enjoyed that unprotected chair shot out of nowhere. Not sure if I’m calling him back for the rematch though. One one hand he’s too big to lose inside a BWO ring, on the other he’s quite a draw. Much as I hate to admit it, he was having an off night and still outperformed me between the ropes. Fingers crossed Jay Heartbreak takes my bait quick. Winner: Kalu Owusu, by disqualification (23) Ice Cream Scoop on a pole match Mr. Costa vs Sergey Litvinov I’ve heard the term “indy insanity” thrown around and this was certainly a good example of it. Had no idea what object to make the focus of this clash of the one eyed men, so I went through the nearest supermarket and came out with an ice cream scoop. Presumably for whoever gets it to scoop out their opponent’s remaining eye or something, I don’t know. On top of that, Arlo Costa didn’t want to do the body paint thing and give me the full Mr. Evilness gimmick, but I wasn’t having him under his legal name either, so he wrestled with his eyepatch on and got announced as “Mr. Costa” which I guess is a middle ground solution. Best part is, we played this whole thing straight instead of making it a comedy match. Oh and Litvinov put Mr. Costa in the Iron Claw for the finish, he was about to scoop his eye out but he submitted and the locker room emptied to prevent a massacre. Bout as "hardcore" as I'm willing to get with this thing. Winner: Sergey Litvinov, by submission (20) Andriy Boronin vs Masaya Hara Hara is doing his young lion excursion from Burning Hammer, so I figured a Japanese guy would be just the thing for Boronin’s style. Plus it kinda re-legitimized the action after the previous match. Definitely bringing this kid back if I can, especially if the juice starts paying dividends fast. Winner: Andriy Boronin, by submission (25) So since F.R.E.A.K. will be around for a while, I had to find a way to use him long term and not just for shock value. My idea was to keep having people squash him and build up sympathy that’d turn him face. To do that, I needed him to be comically obnoxious, so we set up a little skit to establish that change in direction. Towards that goal, he brought some Spanish girl he knows; she’s a hairdresser by trade but she looks pretty good so besides wrestlers’ hairdos she’s done some ringside work once or twice. They did a brief segment, basically a hair salon vibe while overthinking F.R.E.A.K’s new hairstyle, then things got weird. I had no idea what I was in for, I’d given these guys free reign and they didn’t disappoint. Menace, that mountain of a man, came out to no music, basically picked the woman up, put her aside and took her place while F.R.E.A.K. had his back turned all the time and was totally oblivious. From there they did a Little Red Riding Hood kind of routine, the whole “you have such strong hands” gig, before F.R.E.A.K. realized what was going on and jumped out of his seat. Neither man spoke Romanian so a lot of this thing was down to physical comedy, but they sure gave me a chuckle. (14) F.R.E.A.K. vs Menace So if F.R.E.A.K.'s thing is going to be variations of the same match, him getting squashed by each episode’s monster heel, it has to be kept fresh. Again, I trusted the man to do his own thing since he knows his gimmick better than anyone and yet again, he came through. Last month there was the awkwardly sexual grunting from both competitors, this time he switched his act and tried to play “mind games” with the big man. It's good he takes the focus off the actual wrestling, because whatever I've seen of his wrestling -if you can even call it that- made me want to poke my eyes out. Either way, Menace carried this performance-wise and also provided a swerve with his “joke’s on you, I’m into this shit” spot when F.R.E.A.K. tried to… let’s call it “apply a lip-lock submission”. Winner: Menace, by pinfall (27) with Tereza Smirnov & Zofia Jankovic vs Chernobyl Generation (with Etelka the Savage) I’m glad I got Jankovic for this, because not only she’s got some exposure through EWA but she can also wrestle, so the main event didn’t just look like a steaming heap of crap. Me not being in it was bad enough already. Anyway, this was basically four bad bitches throwing hands, which I’m pretty sure the fans found rather hot. I mean, there was the occasional suplex or hold, but who cares. Etelka ended up getting involved and she provided a distraction for “Iron” Iryna to score the pin over Jankovic. Winners: Chernobyl Generation, by pinfall (36) Overall 28 Yet again, I was impressed. This actually felt like running a proper wrestling promotion. No backstage fights or incidents. No unwatchable matches. Everyone getting juiced backstage. And the main event was not outshined by anything else. Think I'm getting the hang of this booking thing. Might as well take Ken out to town for a celebration. Long as he's the one paying for it, that is... 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK_RaideR Posted May 6 Author Share Posted May 6 Bwo Third Time’s the Charm Held in Bucharest on Sunday, Week 4 of March 2020. Attendance: 35 Ken’s been getting on my nerves about wanting to make an announcement to the regular audience members. I fended him off as long as I could, but he’s still technically my boss and if I’m being fair, he hasn’t caused any problems at all so far, despite all expectations. He’s no public speaker though, so I had him go out before the official start of the show. His big announcement was that he’s now rented out a flat in Bucharest and any young women in the audience are welcome to find him backstage after the show. What could possibly go wrong? (0) Harmon Girard vs Sergey Litvinov Girard isn’t just French, he’s also an anarchist and he’ll make sure you know it, which makes him twice as annoying. He also wouldn’t juice, even after I explicitly told him he should, which makes me wonder why the hell Ken wants me to keep him around. At least he didn’t object to getting squashed by Litvinov, which is all I care about. Yeah he was clearly having a terrible night, but at least he was willing to take the Iron Claw chokeslam through a table for the finish and I hope that kinda washed away all the other crap that came before the finale. Winner: Sergey Litvinov, by pinfall (18) Andriy Boronin vs Finn McFlash Rumor has it this big guy is one of the many illegitimate children of US indy legend Steve Flash, but even if it’s just a gimmick, the man is massive and to his credit, was willing to get some, ahem, chemical assistance to get even bigger. Gotta respect that dedication to one’s craft. That first dab must have given him some weird side effects though, because he seemed to be someplace else in his head and blew a couple of spots. Boronin was supposed to win with a roll up though, so it all played into the finish. Winner: Andriy Boronin, by pinfall (32) F.R.E.A.K. vs Herschel the Hammer Imagine my surprise seeing F.R.E.A.K. be the better wrestler in a match, especially when he’s in there with a supposed veteran (who still hasn’t gone into decline, from what I could tell). I’d heard Herschel was plodding and all, so I decided to lean into that and make him be the heel by playing up how boring he was, as opposed to whatever exciting moves F.R.E.A.K. would (try to) hit to make him the babyface in comparison, but man was that painful to watch, he almost put me to sleep. Backstage he was just as annoying, correcting people and offering veteran advice no one asked for. I heard he used to also run an online fantasy wrestling league or something. Fucking nerd. Got me so furious I actually told him off after the show, called him a cancer that's turning people off instead of putting butts in seats. No wonder he’s never made anything out of himself. Loser. Winner: Herschel the Hammer, by pinfall (18) I’m pretty sure we got the materials for BWO’s first ever “cage match” from some scrap iron yard or something, but either way we needed to buy some time till the structure could get set up, so I gave Tereza Smirnov the mic with orders to keep talking. She made her entrance first and introduced her two teammates, the returning Zofia Jankovic and the debuting Klaudia Bartel. We’d barely pieced together one side of the cage by that point. She kept talking, cutting a promo on her opponents as she recapped her rivalry with Etelka the Savage and the Chernobyl Generation. I guess she got caught up in the moment, because this was supposed to be just a 3 vs 3 Elimination match, but she ended up promising she wasn’t just going to win it (as was the plan) but also challenged the finalist to meet her in a 1 on 1 match next show, no tricks or outside interference. I panicked and ushered the heels out to end this madness, but in all this mess, Rayisa ended up grabbing a mic and accepting. Assholes forced my hand and booked me into a corner now. (34) Etelka The Savage and Chernobyl Generation vs Tereza Smirnov, Zofia Jankovic and Klaudia Bartel This has to be the first ever cage match in pro wrestling history that began while the cage was still being set up. As if that wasn’t enough, Rayisa tossed Bartel onto a freshly set up side of the cave that hadn’t yet been securely connected to the rest of the structure, causing it to collapse. I wish it looked impressive, but I bet it looked comically amateurish. Long story short, Smirnov pinned Etelka for the finish, so I guess those two are revisiting their singles match next month. Or so I thought, until I learned how that absolute badass Etelka finished the match despite getting a rather serious concussion halfway through it. Now, do I postpone it, or do I replace her? Winners: Tereza Smirnov, Zofia Jankovic and Klaudia Bartel, by pinfall (25) Acheron vs Bret Heartbreak You read that right, I wrestled Bret Heartbreak on our third ever show. Turns out I didn't need to troll him online, kid's doing a vlog or stream or whatever it's called about his life as an indie wrestler and the scene in Europe, so he was thrilled to find out about BWO. To him we're just content, a rare, hipster kind of content I suppose. Either way, he's so naive he took the job (and agreed to do the job) as long as I'd give him free reign to shoot his online material. Excluding any Dr. Filgudescu related stuff of course, but oh boy was he all over that stuff when the camera wasn't rolling. So let me recap: I got Byron's kid to appear in a nothing wrestling promotion in Romania, on a nothing pay, jobbing to me and now he's also hooked on steroids. Life is crazy. All that stuff gave me a great idea, which Bret was all too happy to go with. We presented him as more or less his online self, an influencer gimmick, a babyface but kind of an obnoxious one, as I wasn't sure if the audience would ‘get it’ and cheer for him, if they even knew who he is, so this way he could switch to being the heel if necessary . He was all over that thing, although I could tell he was testing out spots in order to figure out the best angle to approach this gimmick;play it straight? Play it for laughs? Loveable underdog? Cocky heel? Legit with tie-ins to his online stuff? Can tell he wasn't 100% sure of it yet, but we integrated it into the finish of the match, where I threatened to stomp on his precious iPhone. This distracted him enough for me to line up a shot as he was cradling it back to safety. Winner: Acheron, by pinfall (23) Litvinov is a man of few words, so it's no surprise he can't cut a gripping promo. However, he's wise enough to keep it short and simple: him and me are the only two undefeated people on the roster, so next time we find out who's the better man. I was exhausted, but did my best to respond with a menacing glare. (25) Overall: 26 I feel like this is, very slowly, starting to go somewhere. With every show, I'm finding people to work with on a more permanent basis, to the point where I could say we've got a basic roster put together. The women have been an anchoring point of sorts, giving us different combinations of the same familiar faces and what you might consider our first somewhat consistent storyline. Me and Sergei being undefeated so far has given us a match with some sense of big fight feel, to the point where I'm considering if I should also introduce a title for us to fight over. Bret Heartbreak has been surprisingly easy to do business with and he could end up being a big money player for us in this early stage. Could even say I'm a bit excited to prepare for our next show... 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK_RaideR Posted May 7 Author Share Posted May 7 Bwo Rage in the Cage Held in Bucharest on Sunday, Week 4 of April 2020. Attendance: 48 For our April event, I decided to lower ticket prices as a test. Well, sell them cheaper but still log them at full price in the books so I can clean up some more of Ken’s money, but that’s not the issue here. Right now we need more exposure and can take the financial hit, we’re too small for it to make a difference and losing money anyway. This month’s show opened with a promo, newcomer Purple Haze basically berated the audience for not being as cool as she is, smoking pot and being such a rebel. Cheapest heat ever, but it worked. Also, the woman under the mask is like that backstage, either talking pot or smoking pot, so it must have come naturally to her. (31) Klaudia Bartel vs Purple Haze That said, I’m surprised Purple Haze wasn’t stoned out of her mind here, although you probably need to be high on something to pull off the stunts she did. Anyway, I wanted to highlight Klaudia here, she kinda got lost in the six woman shuffle last month and she’s gonna be a regular fixture now that she’s on the juice. Also, she’s as interesting as watching paint dry, so I’m hoping her technical prowess gets her over because her mic skills (her what?) never will. That aside, pretty basic “submission technician grounds high flyer” situation here, but in all fairness it was a quite serviceable 6 minute match to kick things off. Winner: Klaudie Bartel, by pinfall (24) Bret Heartbreak and F.R.E.A.K. vs Finn McFlash No surprise I brought back Bret and Finn after last month’s experience. I do not, however, have any recollection of how, when and why I booked this 2 on 1 situation. It kinda worked for everyone though: Finn seemed unstoppable and won against two opponents, F.R.E.A.K. was pinned to keep his gimmick going and protect Bret and although both babyfaces were a bit out of sync, the big man went above and beyond to hold everything together. Bonus points for the spot where Bret tried to take a selfie with F.R.E.A.K. only for Finn to first photobomb and then powerbomb them. Winner: Finn McFlash, by pinfall (30) Andriy Boronin vs Cub Balowicz Since we paid for the damn cage last month, I decided to make it the next show’s focus and do the last three matches inside it. This was the first of three, kinda evoking the feeling of an MMA fight, or so I hope. At least we do have some experience in putting up the damn cage now, we had the sides pre-assembled even, so it took way less time than last month. Again, fans seem to be into it and I’m guessing it turned out to be match of the night, so I might actually have to put some effort into this whole pseudo-MMA division project. Winner: Andriy Boronin, by submission (33) Acheron vs Sergey Litvinov Cage match number two and although the belt I’d commissioned wasn’t ready in time, I still meant to put myself over. Sergey was fine with that and we’d even planned to do it via a sneaky eye poke to somewhat protect him, but while the cage was being set up for the previous bout, I took the time to drop by the merch tables. There’s no denying his stuff is doing well, so I made an executive decision on the spot to turn things around. We still got to smack each other quite a bit and I can tell you some of his shots really made me feel his lack of depth perception. As for the finish, I had crooked ref (although we haven’t really played up that gimmick yet) Carola Bianchi come out and argue with head official Filippo DeToto, which distracted me enough for Sergey to slap the Iron Claw on my skull, bring me to my knees and force a ref stoppage. Winner: Sergey Litvinov, by submission (24) Had to somehow explain the switch in the women’s cage match, so Tereza came out first to cut a promo and up the stakes even further to make sure this match would truly be the end of her rivalry with Etelka and Chernobyl Generation. Thus, not only would the cage ensure a fair one on one fight, as she explained, but she also proposed to put each other’s careers on the line: loser leaves bWo. Instead of Etelka tho, it was Chernobyl Generation who came out to answer the challenge. “Radioactive” Rayisa announced that Etelka had suffered a serious head injury last month and now her allies were out for revenge against Smirnov. While “Iron” Iryna would stay outside the cage, Rayisa would step inside it to take Etelka’s place, with a little twist: she would not be wagering her career with the company, but if Smirnov managed to defeat her, she would never again do a singles match but stick to teaming with Iryna. (32) with Tereza Smirnov vs “Radioactive” Rayisa (with “Iron” Iryna) I was hoping for more than I got here, but I guess the sudden switch kinda took away from the build-up of the match. Didn’t help that Tereza was all over the place and it showed on more than once occasion where she mistimed something, missed her cue or forgot what was supposed to happen next. Winner: Tereza Smirnov, by pinfall (23) Overall 27 Genuinely surprised our backstage atmosphere is as good as it is. Might be due to the “anything goes” rules (or lack thereof) and on-tap mood boosters, courtesy of Dr. Filgudescu, but I won’t argue with results. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstephe4 Posted May 8 Share Posted May 8 I love the bit in show #3 where the cage collapses because the stagehands hadn't had time to finish putting it up. I wish I'd thought of that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK_RaideR Posted May 9 Author Share Posted May 9 19 hours ago, dstephe4 said: I love the bit in show #3 where the cage collapses because the stagehands hadn't had time to finish putting it up. I wish I'd thought of that. Thanks. Kinda came naturally, thinking of shoddy production values and a skeleton ring crew with no idea what they're doing. This gif was in my mind the whole time: 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK_RaideR Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 Bwo Golden Dreams Held in Bucharest on Sunday, Week 4 of May 2020. Attendance: 52 Ken complained about all the singles matches I'd booked being boring. I was hard pressed to agree, after using tag matches and the cage for the women's storyline I'd kinda ran out of inspiration and did exhibition singles matches here and there. He wanted to go out there before the show and announce a tag team tournament next month, but I wasn't having any of that. Of course, I didn't outright tell him to fuck off, I just said it might be better if he doesn't show his face that much given his other activities, plus he doesn't know the language yet so if he wants to go down that road, we might consider hiring someone to be the authority figure. Also, I did like his tag team tournament idea, but I'll be damned if we can pay enough teams to pull this off proper, plus everyone else who'll complain about missing a paycheck. Who knows, maybe I'll just randomly pair up people, see if anything sticks as a duo. Anyway, on with the show. Sergei Litvinov opened the show, bragging about his victory over me last month and pointing out he is now the only member on the BWO roster to be undefeated. He went on to say that BWO should create some kind of title belt for him to carry, as a reminder of this feat of his. This masturbatory speech got interrupted by his former teammate, Pyotr Drachev, who pointed out he has yet to beat him. Wham bam opening match set up ma'am. (19) Sergey Litvinov vs Pyotr Drachev I know I've said I wouldn't hire straightedge Drachev, but I meant on a more permanent basis. The whole ex-teammates clash made sense so I brought him back for one night and had these two beefy men beat each other's meat. Figuratively, of course. Thought I might be onto something and given Sergey's standing, I almost made this the main event. Glad I didn't, because these two just don't gel as opponents. Sloppy meat beating. Just the thing to get people going. Winner: Sergey Litvinov, by pinfall (20) Bret Heartbreak vs Toxic Speaking of straightedge, I'm pretty sure you could describe Toxic as anti-straitedge. Kid started pumping HGH like he's behind on schedule and trying to catch up to the rest of the roster. Of course, such, ahem, dedicatication to one's craft does not go unnoticed, or unrewarded. He's just left SNP but found a new home in BWO. For starters, he did his best to wreck the face of pretty boy Bret Heartbreak and given both guys' inexperience, I'm actually amazed at how passable the end result was. Winner: Bret Heartbreak, by pinfall (27) Brilliant White vs Finn McFlash Another guy who recently walked out of a major British promotion is Brilliant White. I have no idea about the guy, but his mask is kinda cool and he seems to know what he's doing, which is all I needed to fly him in and feed him to our resident monster. Ken tried to get on my ass (figuratively!) about hiring an aerial guy, but I insisted he's not like that. So, White had to do a bunch of high risk moves and also agree to be put through a table for the finish, which to his credit he was ok with. Winner: Finn McFlash, by pinfall (30) Acheron vs F.R.E.A.K. Not much to say here, I needed some heat back after I lost to Sergey last month and F.R.E.A.K. was just the man to take the fall. Despite his constant losses, people seem to slowly be warming up to him and I must say, to his credit, he's also getting a little better between the ropes. If only his selling wasn't so full of weirdly erotic moaning. Made my bear hug feel weird, before he passed out in my arms for the submission win. Winner: Acheron, by submission (20) with Klaudia Bartel vs "Iron" Iryna (with "Radioactive" Rayisa) Chernobyl Generation flipped roles for this match, with Iryna wrestling and Rayisa seconding her. Makes sure they each get a singles match to show what they can do, plus it fits with Rayisa's developments, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Bartel is slowly climbing the ranks and got tested against the big heels here, coming away with a solid performance but not the win. Took Rayisa's interference to get there though, so Klaudia had an excuse for losing and didn't completely lose her momentum. Winner: "Iron" Iryna, by pinfall (24) After the match, a furious Bartel attacked Rayisa for interfering, spearing her off the apron and onto a barricade. She got beat up for her efforts by a furious Iryna, but the spot gave me an excuse to write Rayisa off for a while before her pregnant belly shows too much. Don't ask me how a couple of lesbians managed to achieve this, we're in 2020. (22) Aleksander Knyazev vs Andriy Boronin Knyazev got a call to be our MMA expert this month, especially since I saw some pics on his social media the other night and somehow, without any chemical assistance (to my knowledge) is sporting a pretty shredded physique. Somehow he thought he was coming here to be rewarded for it, so when he found out he wasn't going over he decided to be a little bitch about losing to Andriy. Tough luck, I say. At least he was a pro and didn't decide to start shooting or crap all over the match, which is all I can hope for at this point. Winner: Andriy Boronin, by submission (34) I had to give Tereza some mic time, since she's the best talker on the roster, but couldn't find an excuse, so I just sent her out to do her thing. She decided to mirror Sergey and the opening segment, saying if there's a men's title belt, she should be getting one too for disposing of Etelka the Savage, Chernobyl Generation and being the best female wrestler in BWO. Much like the opening segment, her boasting was interrupted, this time by "The Pain from the Ukraine" Karen Bilous, truly an obstacle to be overcome if Smirnov wants to stake her claim as the best around. (34) Karen Bilous vs Tereza Smirnov I have absolutely no idea why Bilous won this one. Pretty sure I intended for her to pass the torch to Smirnov. Also, she's announced she'll be hanging up her boots in a few months and retire from in-ring competition, so she didn't need the win. Was it going out with one last hurrah? Did they decide between them to have Bilous win out of respect for the veteran? Was I drunk and/or distracted when I should have been booking this? Do I even care? Winner: Karen Bilous, by submission (35) Overall: 31 I was looking at the numbers after the show. Lowering ticket prices was a risk, but it's paying off as the hit is small and the gains in exposure outweigh the financial loss. We also landed a pretty sweet sponsorship deal with Roma Cola that put some more money in the coffer. This was the smallest loss since January a sign that things are indeed getting better. Wonder how Ken's scheme will be affected if this company does actually start generating money. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK_RaideR Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 Bwo Tag Team Turmoil Held in Bucharest on Sunday, Week 4 of June 2020. Attendance: 53 Bret Heartbreak and Byron vs Finn McFlash and Toxic So yeah, I guess we’re doing that tag team tournament after all. Toxic’s back on a permanent basis in order for us to reap the benefits of him being juiced to the gills, and as a Scotsman it somehow made sense for me to pair him up with Irishman Finn McFlash. The real mic drop here though was having Byron in a BWO ring to team with his son. Much like his kid, Byron surprised me by accepting the offer when I thought he wouldn’t, though I’m pretty sure there’s more to it I’m unaware of, like Bret asking him to do it ‘for the content’ or him wanting a chance to team with his offspring because the EWA storylines don’t allow for it right now. Whatever the case may be, I saw an opportunity to ramp up the expenses in the books in order to facilitate Ken’s laundering and took it, bringing in a pretty well known guy to appear in our show. Twice on the same night too, since his team won the qualifier, with Bret pinning Toxic yet again after their singles match last month. Might spin that into a story or something now that they’re both with us on a more permanent basis. Winners: Bret Heartbreak & Byron, by pinfall (27) Acheron and Sergey Litvinov vs Andriy Boronin and F.R.E.A.K. Harley Neil had a good idea when he was putting this match together: since F.R.E.A.K. would be in it and he’s BWO’s resident loser, how about we put a spin into the narrative to keep things interesting and unpredictable. Thus, we played up to me and Sergey being a somewhat dysfunctional team due to our clashes in the past, while also emphasizing Andriy’s prowess thanks to his recent undefeated hot streak. Which I guess was smart, but it didn’t change the final outcome of F.R.E.A.K. eating the pin after a Collapsing Piledriver from Sergey. Winners: Acheron and Sergey Litvinvov, by pinfall (28) After three promos last month, I stuck to one this time, for a change but also because there were a bunch of tag matches to fit in a single hour. Any spare time available, I gave it to Tereza on the mic. She was great, as always, introducing the BWO Women’s title, before, wait, the what?! I have no idea we had such a thing and the belt itself looked horrendous! Bet that’s Ken running things behind my back again, must have picked that one from a street vendor or something. Anyway, back to the show, Smirnov brought up her promo last month and said since she did suffer her first defeat, it’s only fair she does compete for this title tonight with anyone else willing to step inside the ring with her. (46) BWO Women’s title match “Iron” Iryna vs Klaudia Bartel vs Tereza Smirnov Genuinely pissed that the women stole the show again. I mean sure, they’re talented, and they got the only consistent storyline going on in the company, and got to be in that cage match with a reason to have a cage in the first place, and had surprises with injuries and returns, and now the first three way match in BWO, the first ever title match… But yeah, we’re a men’s wrestling promotion with a women’s division, not the other way round! In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have brought Etelka back for the finish? Winner: “Iron” Iryna, by pinfall after interference from Etelka the Savage. "Iron" Iryna wins the bWo Women's title. (34) BWO Tag Cup final Acheron and Sergey Litvinov vs Bret Heartbreak and Byron Like I said, double shift for Byron and his boy. What I didn’t mention was I also got a prize, a shitty little tin cup I found from some old man selling his Warsaw Pact era regalia. My favourite part of this match had to be Byron’s face backstage when I told him he wasn’t going over. It’s no secret the man’s full of himself, but having him job to me, a small time promotion booker pinning EWA’s main man, that was just perfect. He almost threw a fit, but Sergey just told him to calm down and be professional. While cracking his knuckles, of course. Bet it helped that Bret was also shooting the whole thing on video for his internet whatnots. Would have made a worse spectacle of himself if he kept on pushing. Ugh, I’m such a master of these things it makes me wonder why I never got away with that Koller incident. Winners: Acheron and Sergey Litvinov. Acheron and Sergey Litvinov win the bWo Tag Cup. (28) Overall: 31 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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