The Exciting Box Dynasty

[dormammu]

No, I couldn't think of a better topic. This dynasty is run off Miko's Joshi workers mod. It's a really great mod, and I hope you like what I do here. Of course, I'm open to any suggestions on how to make my shows better, workers to hire, etc. Also, just to let everyone know, I'm sor tof pretending the "Steven Reeves" (my real name) booking Exciting Box is the same guy who is running GCW in my DOTT game. This is why you see some mentions of GCW and running a promotion in Georgia. Anyway, the dynasty begins next post!

[dormammu]

~~ Introduction: ~~ I haven't promoted wrestling in years. The last time I did was with Georgia Championship Wrestling in the eighties. By 1988, after running it for five years and bringing it greater success than it has ever seen before, I was completely disillusioned with the business and left. I haven't been involved in the wrestling industry in almost 20 years. Then I got a call, from an old friend in Japan. You see, during my tenure as head booker of GCW, I used all the Japanese talent I could get my hands on. I still have a few connections in Japanese Puroresu. One of them was about to make a change to my life I would have never predicted. The phone rang at about 7am, and it was Masatoshi Yamamoto. I know him, but not personally. It seems he's friends with one of my old contacts from All Japan Pro Wrestling. He told me he was starting a new promotion in Japan, one called Exciting Box. An all-woman promotion. I've never booked a woman in my life. Back in GCW, I tried a few times to get a Women's Division going, but I could never find enough talent. When asked why he wants me to take the helm of this, he told me because I'm the best. Yeah, I was the best in 1988. It's 2006 now. He further explained to me that he wants it to reflect the traditonal style, the style of American wrestling in the sixties and seventies. The sort of wrestling that had Lou Thesz and Karl Gotch as stars... but with women. I suppose he isn't aware that Traditonal was never my first choice, I always preferred Cutting Edge. I just couldn't get Barnett to agree to change GCW over. I don't mention that, though. My jaw drops when he tells me how much he'll pay me. In a year, I'll make more than I did my entire stint in GCW. Despite the pay, I reluctantly agree to meet him in Tokyo with a few of his staff. I'm still not sure I want to be a booker again. Several days later, I'm on Tokyo. Sitting at a table in a sushi restaurant with Mr. Yamamoto, my contact from All Japan, and Megumi Kudo, the main Road Agent for Exciting Box. My contact is there more to serve as a translator for Megumi, since her English isn't too good. Yamamoto's isn't that great either. And, for that matter, my Japanese is awful. I can tell you what my name is in Japanese and that's about it. The fact he netted Megumi Kudo, definitely the biggest female star of the old FMW and possibly the third biggest star of the promotion overall behind Onita and Hayabusa, impresses me. She's apparently a fan of mine as well, having watched some old GCW tapes prior to this meeting. "Okay," I say to Mr. Yamamoto, "How do you intend to do this? Do I get full control over booking?" This may be egotistical, but I'm not doing this without full control. "Yes, of course," he replies, "You may do whatever you'd like. Think of me as just financial support." "I'll help you book, if you like," Megumi chimes in, via translator. Yes, I would, actually. At least she reached the pinnacle of Women's success. "Yes, I would appreciate that, Megumi." I listen as the translator tells her what I said. I suddenly start wondering if it was acceptable to refer to her by her first name? She doesn't seem to mind. I'm not too good with some Japanese customs. "I want," starts Mr. Yamamoto, "to build the biggest promotion in Japan. Bigger than any you've seen before, bigger than New Japan or NOAH." Whoah, whoah, whoah. Even with GCW, I didn't have the entire country covered. I was popular mainly in the South East, Mid Atlantic and New England areas. We were just breaking into the Mid South when I left. But an entire country? Of course, I think to myself, Japan is a lot smaller. Maybe it's easier. "Well, Yamamoto-san," I say, congratulating myself on remembering about using -san, "I will try. This will be harder than anything I've done before." "I know you can!" he says, nearly shouting it. He must have really liked what I did in GCW. And, with that, we moved into some technical stuff. contracts and such. But effectively from that day on, I was head booker of Exciting Box.

[dormammu]

~~ Month One: ~~ (Week 1, February 2006) I get to the offices and look over the roster. What the hell? Yamamoto did some talent scouting and got some really nice talent, but he managed to forget a Referee. Wonderful, just wonderful. We have no shows scheduled yet and, without a referee, that may be a good thing. I put in a call (via translator) to Bob Yazawa, one of the best refs in Japan. Several days later, he gets back to me, saying he'd be happy to ref for me. I'd like to sign him to a written contract, but I just can't. Not when you're brand new. Megumi and myself are the only people in all of EB that have written contracts. So, referee problem is solved. Now what? We need a show. I put out calls to several TV stations, hoping they'll agree to air our show. (A show I haven't even figured out yet.) Of course, I know from GCW experience, none of them will bite... but I have to try anyway. I got in contact with Sapporo TV, MX Tokyo, KTV, and Kansai Telecasting. It'll be a few days before I have an answer. I tried to sell it as well as I could, but I doubt much will come out of it. Also: We have no titles! I commissioned two title belts. The EB World championship and EB Japan Championship. I don't know if I need two champions yet, though. For now, I'm just going to book the Japan Championship, I think. I feel like we're too small to have a legitimate World title right now. (Week 2) No response yet... though the other federations are descending on my talent like sharks. Seeing as how small we are, most of them may give preference to the other promotions over mine. This may be a problem. Several days later, I hear from all the networks. (Odd it's on the same day.) All four of them rejected me. Well, I expected as much. Looks like we can't run a televised show. So, I plan my strategy for our smaller local shows. Every promotion, Exciting Box included, seems to be based out of Honshu. Maybe I should book shows in a different area. Less competition, at least from the smaller feds. I decide to make Hokkaido our home base, in terms of shows. I set up a show every Thursday called "EB Championship Wrestling." I know it's nearly as generic as you can get, but the second best choice was "J Star Wrestling Show." Not much else to do until the first show, I guess. ~~ Thursday, Week 2, February 2006 ~~ All right, let's go! Time for the first show. I've elected to hold it in Esashi Town Center Gymnasium in Hokkaido. It's bigger than I'd like, seeing as Megumi feels we'll only have 25-30 people attending, but there doesn't seem to be anywhere smaller. The venue itself is $1000, so there's no way I'm going to come out of this making money. In fact, I'm expecting to lose somewhere in the range of $35,000-$40,000. I've decided to only use a few wrestlers, with limited storylines. (Megumi herself is quite popular here, so I'm hoping she can do a few segments.) I really just want to see how fans react to the matches themselves. No dark segments either, I can't afford to pay a few wrestlers to do them, not at least until my shows start breaking even. Anyway, here goes... The Results: (EB Championship Wrestling) ATTENDENCE: 37 people Dark Match: MATCH 1: Mai Ichii vs. KAZUKI Rating: C- Result: KAZUKI wins by pinfall. Notes: Mai Ichii and KAZUKI have pretty good chemistry, and it lifted the match. The announcing quality lifted the match. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. This match brought the crowd's mood down. Mai Ichii is improving in Performance skills. I expected an F here, which is why I changed it to a Dark Match last second. (I know what I said, but I ran out of time for the matches I want.) Mai put up some good offense, but KAZUKI took her down. Mai is an Opener, KAZUKI is a lower midcarder, but I think a feud between the two may be a good idea. I'll run another match with them next week, and if they have the same sort of results, I'll book them in a feud of some kind. I'm also very happy with an initial increase in skills by Mai. C- is really great for a fed with 0 popularity and overness. In fact, I wish this match had been nearer the end of the card now. MAIN SHOW: Segment 1: Megumi Kudo comes out and thanks the crowd for coming. She switches in a Authority Figure gimmick, as I'd like her to do that as well. RATING: B You're kidding me?! a C+ then a B? This is phenominal! Segment 2: Kyoko Kimura vs. Bambi Rating: D Result: Kyoko Kimura wins by Pinfall. Notes: Kyoko Kimura has now switched to a Joshi Goofball gimmick. Bambi has now switched to a Joshi Goofball gimmick. The announcing quality lifted the match. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. This match suffered as it came across as a let-down after the previous segment. This match brought the crowd's mood down. Bambi is improving in Technical skills. Bambi is improving in Performance skills. I didn't mean to put two Goofball gimmicks together, whoops. D is still all right for a promotion like mine, but I wish this had been the Dark Match now. I'm happy to see Bambi improving off the bat as well. I still hope to give Kyoko a big push, though. Segment 3: Mayumi Ozaki hypes her upcoming match against Kumiko Maekawa Rating: C Notes: Mayumi Ozaki has now switched to a Egomaniac gimmick. The segment wasn't very good to begin with, and this crowd really turned against it. Oh, that isn't good. I wonder if it's the gimmick or the angle? Still, a C is a C. I'm happy to have gotten it. Segment 4: Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai Rating: C Result: Aja Kong wins. Notes: Aja Kong has now switched to a Joshi Monster Heel gimmick. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. Dynamite Kansai is improving in Rumble skills. More improvement! I love it! A C is really excellent as well. Overall, the match was great. This card is going the way I had hoped, and I couldn't be happier right now. Segment 5: Hikaru vs. Carlos Amano Rating: C+ Winner: Hikaru by submission at 10:52 Notes: Carlos Amano has now switched to a Joshi Hardcore Queen gimmick. Carlos Amano is improving in Performance skills. Another great match! This is wonderful, I didn't expect anything like this at all. Segment 5: A video plays, hyping tonight's final match: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Kumiko Mawekawa Rating: C- Notes: The segment wasn't very good to begin with, and this crowd really turned against it. This segment suffered as it came across as a let-down after the previous segment. This segment brought the crowd's mood down. What the? I don't understand why the fans are turning on my angles. Women's competitive relies on Traditonal fans, the same fans I catered to in GCW. What the heck is happening here? This would have killed in GCW. Segment 6: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Kumiko Mawekawa Rating: C+ Winner: Mayumi Ozaki defeated Kumiko Maekawa in 8:51 by pinfall with a Shining Yakuza Kick. Notes: Kumiko Maekawa has now switched to a Joshi Shooter gimmick. Mayumi Ozaki and Kumiko Maekawa don't seem to click, and it made for an awkward bout. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. Mayumi Ozaki is improving in Performance skills. Kumiko Maekawa is improving in Flying skills. Sweet! Another C+! This is fabulous. The fans may have turned on the angles leading up to this, but they sure loved the match. OVERALL RATING: C+ Notes: This show can be considered a success. It should have increased our popularity. Seeing as I had an F in popularity, I should hope a C+ increased it. Overall, an awesome show. I'm extremely pleased with the results. Money wise, though... Well, let's just say we got killed financially. But I bet we'll break even soon with shows like this! Although, I'm happy to say we fell VERY short of my prediction, losing only $8,000, instead of the $35,000 I predicted. I made a lousy $74 in ticket sales, and the workers cost a little over $8000 for this show. My main priority right now is to figure out why the fans are turning on my angles and correct it. As for the rest of the week, fans are complaining I should have 16 wrestlers, I only have 15. I wonder if LuFisto is available? She'd make a perfect addition to my roster. Sendai is also trying to steal my workers. I think I may want to try to work out a few non-aggression pacts. LuFisto accepted my offer. I was hoping to sign her to a written contract, because I know everyone will be after her after she works a few shows for me. Sadly, she rejected a written contract so I had to sign her to a PPA. Oh well, it's saving me over $100 per appearance, and that will definitely help. (more coming soon!)

[dormammu]

~ Week 3, February 2006 ~ Not much is going on. A few more offers to my people, that's about it. No big changes, though I set up gimmicks for several more wrestlers. I guess it's time for the show! The Results: (EB Championship Wrestling) Held at Aomori Movement Park Gymnasium in Hokkaido Attendence: 31 Segment 1: Lufisto vs. Hikaru Rating: C+ Winner: Dynamite Kansai defeated Lufisto in 7:40 by pinfall with a Splash Mountain. Notes: The announcing quality lifted the match. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. Lufisto is improving in Performance skills. An excellent debut! I gave Lufisto the gimmick of the chosen One, because, really... she's winning a title at some point. so really IS the Chosen One. C+ is awesome. Lufisto will be a main eventer in no time, I'm sure. Segment 2: Mai Ichii vs. KAZUKI Rating: C- Winner: Mai Ichii defeated KAZUKI in 7:36 by pinfall. Notes: Mai Ichii and KAZUKI have pretty good chemistry, and it lifted the match. The announcing quality lifted the match. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. This match brought the crowd's mood down. Very nice! This show is going as well as the last one, without a doubt. I'd like to put these two in a feud, but I'm quite worried that the fans will turn on any angles within the storyline. They consistently pull off matches as good as my Main Eventers. Segment 3: Aja Kong hypes her battle against Tojuki LEON Rating: C- Notes: The segment wasn't very good to begin with, and this crowd really turned against it. This segment brought the crowd's mood down. What the ****?! Why do they keep turning on my angles? I'm glad this is the only one I booked for tonight. I was worried about just such a reaction. Segment 4: Kyoko Kimura vs. Ayumi Kurihara Rating: D Winner: Kyoko Kimura defeated Ayumi Kurihara in 12:35 by pinfall with a Schoolboy Rollup. Notes: Kyoko Kimura and Ayumi Kurihara don't seem to click, and it made for an awkward bout. The announcing quality lifted the match. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. This match brought the crowd's mood down. All right then, I'd like to push Kyoko, but she just isn't getting the sort of matches I want. If everyone else can pull off a C- or better, she should too. Segment 5: Aja Kong vs. Tojuki LEON Rating: C Winner: Aja Kong defeated Tojuki LEON in 7:47 by pinfall, illegally using the ropes for leverage. Notes: The announcing quality lifted the match. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. Very good. I'm trying to push Aja as a monster heel, so I should probably start giving her squash matches. Maybe 2-3 minutes. I'm hoping to give her a run with the Japanese Championship. Segment 6: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Kumiko Maekawa Rating: C+ Winner: Kumiko Maekawa defeated Mayumi Ozaki in 9:38 by pinfall while using the ropes for leverage. Notes: Mayumi Ozaki and Kumiko Maekawa don't seem to click, and it made for an awkward bout. The announcing quality lifted the match. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. Unfortunately, this match had to contend with a restless crowd. What? First they turn on all my angles, then they get restless because there isn't enough of them. I have to figure this out. C+ is great, though. I just wish my third main eventer wasn't always busy somewhere else. OVERALL: C Notes: The crowd wasn't happy, as they expected more angles and interview segments. This show can be considered a success, as it should have increased our popularity. Overall, this was good. Definitely working my way up. ~ Week 3, Friday ~~ Nothing going on for another week, so let's take a look at the state of Exciting Box: Finances: Doing very well, for what they are. I'm down about $14,000 after two shows. Seeing as I have F popularity everywhere, this is quite acceptable. I have two years to recoup my losses, as one of my owner goals is to not be in debt and have more money than when we started. My third goal is to not lose popularity, but I hardly see how that'd be possible. Popularity report: Japan: F Hokkaido: 10,2% Honshu: 12.0% Kyushu: 8.0% Shikoku: 1.0% All other countries and regions are F at 0%. Perhaps it was a mistake to concentrate solely on Hokkaido. I'm more over in Honshu right now. But, I already started this, so I'm gonna see it through. Work Hokkaido up to an E, then maybe focus on Honshu. I haven't posted a full roster yet, so here we go: MAIN EVENTERS: Kumiko Maekawa Mariko Yoshida Mayumi Ozaki UPPER MIDCARDERS: Hikaru Dynamite Kansai Aja Kong Azumi Hyuga MIDCARDERS: Carlos Amano Tojuki LEON Tsubasa Kuragaki LOWER MIDCARDERS: KAZUKI Lufisto Kyoko Kimura Ayumi Kurihara OPENERS: Mai Ichii Bambi ENHANCEMENT TALENT: None OTHER: Nagaharu Imai (Announcer) Megumi Kudo (Color Commentator & on Booking Team and Road Agent Team) Bob Yazawa (Referee) Nasatoshi Yamamoto (Road Agent, also on Booking Team and Road Agent Team) Overall, it's a very decent roster. I made a few tiny changes. I set Megumi to a Semi-Active Wrestler (in case I get desperate and need to bring out an extra Main Eventer.) and gave Yamamoto a Psychology boost so he'd make a good Road Agent. Other than that, I haven't altered a thing. (See, the reason why I did that is because Megumi is under written contract and wanted to be a color commentator. I figured I could save myself some expense since I didn't have a color Commentator yet and change Yamamoto to fill her old Road agent role. Occasionally I will have Megumi act as a Road Agent for a match, though. In fact, she did for about half the matches on my first card.) You haven't seen a few of my girls in action yet. Namely Tsubasa Kuragaki, Azumi Hyuga and Mariko Yoshida. This is because they're always working somewhere else on Thursday night, essentially giving me a roster of 13 wrestlers instead of 16. Taking a look at the Free Agent market (unemployed), I see a few prospects I could hire if I wanted to replace my three missing girls. Sara Del Ray is looking good, as is Apple Miyuki. Nadia Hart (aka Nattie Neidhart) also looks good. But the vast majority of women who are unemployed are retired, and I don't need any more backstage staff right now. I think I should concentrate on becoming profitable before I go on a hiring spree, though. Sara Del Ray and Nadia Hart will be on top of my list once I am ready to hire again, though. Overall, I'd like to give the Japanese Title to either Aja Kong or Mayumi Ozaki. They're both pretty over, and either should be good. Maybe I'll set up a four person one night tournament soon. Those 3 matches will fill most of an hour (along with a few hype angles?) My World Champion title is staying vacant for the time being, though. And that's all. Onto the next show! ~~ Week 4, Thursday ~~ No, no, no! 5 Wrestlers are unavailable for today! Mayumi Ozaki and Carlos Amano are unavilable, in addition to the usual ones. Well, looks like Ozaki isn't winning any titles tonight. Once again, I'm thinking about maybe moving the show to a different day. I don't want to deal with this. But, I'll have ot make do without two of the wrestlers I planned on using tonight. (This is why I'm not advance booking.) The Results: EB Championship Wrestling (Held at Sarabetsu Hall in Hokkaido) Attendence: 74 (My best number ever!) Segment 1: Mai Ichii vs. Kyoko Kimura Rating: C- Winner: Kyoko Kimura defeated Mai Ichii in 8:44 by submission with a Kimura Armlock. Notes: The announcing quality lifted the match. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. This match brought the crowd's mood down. Not bad, not bad at all! This is the sort of thing I wanted to see out of Kyoko. Of course, it's possible Mai carried this match. I noticed Mai is an Upper Midcarder in Gato. I may have to reevaluate her position here as Opener. Maybe it's time to move her up, since she seems to get great matches with everyone. Segment 2: Post Match Handshake between Mai and Kyoko Rating: F Notes: Such a weak segment really bombed with the crowd. This segment brought the crowd's mood down. I give up. They get mad if I don't do angles, and they hate them when I do. I totally give up on this. I have another one coming up in a few segments, I hope it goes better. Segment 3: Bambi vs. Toujuki LEON Rating: C- Winner: Tojuki LEON defeated Bambi in 11:05 by pinfall with a Kiiba. Notes: The announcing quality lifted the match. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. This match brought the crowd's mood down. Great effort during this match, it really rebounded from that horrible angle. I'm trying to get LEON some heat, and Bambi has more heat than some of the Main Eventers. I'm hoping this win will help her out. Segment 4: Hikaru challenges Aja Kong to a Hardcore match. Rating: C- Notes: The segment wasn't very good to begin with, and this crowd really turned against it. This segment brought the crowd's mood down. Hikaru is developing better performance skills. More verbatim, Hikaru said, "Aja Kong! I'm sick of seeing you stomp all over everyone, and I'm here to put a stop to it! Why don't you come out and face me?" And come out Aja Kong did, thus setting up... Segment 5: Aja Kong vs. Hikaru in a Hardcore Match Rating: C+ Winner: Aja Kong defeated Hikaru in 18:55 by pinfall by using underhanded tactics. Notes: The announcing quality lifted the match. The colour commentary gave the match a boost. Hikaru is improving in Rumble skills. That's two boosts in one night for Hikaru. Not bad, not bad at all. The crowd are this match up, and Aja's undefeated streak continues. Segment 6: Aja Kong continues beating on Hikaru after the match, until Hikaru is a bloody mess. Rating: D Notes: The segment wasn't very good to begin with, and this crowd really turned against it. This segment suffered as it came across as a let-down after the previous segment. This segment brought the crowd's mood down. That's it, I give up. They hate any angles I run, except the single one where Megumi came out. (And got my best ever rating of a B.) Maybe I should try using Megumi some more in angles. OVERALL: C Notes: This show can be considered a success. It should have increased our popularity. Excellent, but maybe I could have gotten a C+ if I didn't have that F in there. And that about does it for February! (As a note, this is likely the last post you'll see from me until Sunday or Monday, as I'm leaving for Otakon tomorrow.)

[NickC13573]

Hey you should MAKE angles based on look or whatever the wrestler's highest attribute is. (they wont turn on angles as much.)