APW - Australian Pro Wrestling

[HiPlus]

Talking about the most under appreciated Australian company. Let's have a little break down. 

 

The Company:

The company has had a stroke of good fortune as they have been able to broadcast on WrestleWorld. They still comfortable hold second place in the Oceanic region beating out niche companies like ZEN and DIW. They have yet to make any notable strides against RAW. Still looking at their loses over the past few years, and their gains. Only one name stands out and that is Echo, which has been a major signing for the company and helped elevate Christopher Gerard in a major way.  

 

The losses:

Dingo Devine - A big loss as he always seemed destined to be one of those guys never to make it to RAW but be a valuable asset to the APW brand and could have been seen a lifer for the company. Walking out because of money, and him being unemployed is a sad end to his APW career.

Harry Simonsen - An APW lifer, whose career is what Dingo's could have been. Eventually retiring certainly the good call at the end of the day, as he had started that slow decent down the card. 

Lone Shark - Another guy who could have gone to other places, or back home to ZEN but eventually just left the company, more so due to booking and not having much else to do, rather than money. Still he is young at 36 and could have value returning to the company. 

Richie Fox - A surprising wrestler poached by RAW. Not really a big name guy in the company as he was adding to the tag-team ranks more than anything during his stint in APW. Doubt any APW fans will miss him. 

 

The Gains:

Echo - The biggest signing, a scalp from RAW. Someone who can help carry the entire company. A signing of circumstances after not recovering his momentum from an injury, being a rare boon when APW is compared to RAW. A surprising one as the family friendly wrestling style of APW probably doesn't hide his ring limitations as much as the soap opera that is RAW. 

Big Rig + Diesel Dan - The tag-team duo come across in the twillight of their careers from APW. While Diesel Dan has more in the tank from this trucking duo, both are likely not to make a massive impact outside of perhaps a token tag-team championship run.

Blaze Maximum + The Dazzler - Another duo signed to help bolster the tag-team ranks. This time with a lot more name value as both previously worked in RAW before having several years unemployed. The Dazzler still very young could eventually break into a solo act as Blaze hits the end of his career. The Dazzler likely being the second biggest signing for APW 

Christian Blithe - A strong signing from the independents Blithe has the potential to be a star. While involved with Wilkes & Lydecker (attorneys at law) aren't going to help him catapult up the rankings in APW they can provide a nice starting pad. 

Vertigo - Vertigo comes with perhaps the most pedigree of anyone not named Echo from the new signings. The almost triple crown winner from ZEN has come to make a name for himself in Australia. That hasn't happened in his first year in APW, he still has a decent amount of time on his side to change things. 

 

The Rest:

Christopher Gerard - The biggest gainer out of the Echo signing, he has been able to become a heel and elevate himself to being on equal footing as his main counterpart in the company. Gerard always destined for the top of the card, has finally completed his goal, and will set his sights on being a 3 time Commonwealth Champion

Donovan Boon/Nighthawk/Reggie Tate - The babyface side of the locker room is in its own boom period. With all three of these men continuing to rise up the card. All three being seen as future main eventers in the company, they can easily slot into those high profile feuds and wouldn't look out of place holding the Australian Title or challenging for the Commonwealth Title. 

Rusty Mills - Rusty Mills is weirdly positioned as the third most over heel behind Christopher Gerard & Scottie Hamstead. While it is easy to see why Rusty the current Australian champion was the one to turn in his tag-team. He looks primed to ascend the card as a featuring heel with the other closest heels being tag-team workers in Samoan Demolition (Brisbane Devil + King Malietoa) and The Apocolypse (Warmonger + Hatemonger)

Kasey + Chuck - These guys aren't only the APW Tag-Team champions. They are two time tag team champions holding the titles initially for 238 days. When your tag-team division has Samoan Demolition and The Apocolypse, how are they the champions. Better question, they have a 238 day reign as champions, and the team that dethrones them is..... Wilkes & Lydecker (attorneys at law). This upsets me, that those two teams make up the last 469 (nice) days as tag-team champions.  The tag-team division in APW lacks a lot depth in terms of babyfaces as they have the champions.. Samoan Demolition (They're still heels to me damn it!), then Dazzler & Blaze Maximum, R & R, and the pair of Barney Mason & Felix Harding. 

 

 

 

[619]

Wow, no more Dingo Devine and Harry Simonson after the loss of Boo Smithson and The Masters in 2020 really does feel like a changing of the guard. I like that the Power Structure feature means we can see SQ, DDP and Lanny Williams are still working together as the Booking Team though.

Love your write-up. You've really hit on everything: not just the ins and outs but the challenges that exist in the tag division and heel upper midcard. The Duo splitting is interesting. I always saw Rusty Mills as the babyface and the one with more upside so it will be fun playing it out the other way round. As you say, a pleasant twist to see APW gaining momentum with WrestleWorld just when it looked like they could be the odd ones out in Oceania.

[AboardTheArk]

I am really interested in APW now that they've got a bit more juice and they feel less like a failure. Still, there's A LOT to change and it's not ideal that RAW's trash is a big part of what propped them up. I think they have a chance to produce their own weird "unique" version of Sports Entertainment. Don't even need to get edgy, PG works.

[alpha2117]

APW gets raided in every sim i have done.  SubUrban Legend and Dazzler are going to almost certainly join RAW within a week as do one or two others fairly quickly although the names vary. .anyone playing as them needs to prepare themselves for that eventuality