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Welcome... to the World Level.


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December, 2004. I awoke behind a bar, five crumpled poker cards in my hand. Two kings, two jacks, and a queen. I also had an ace up my sleeve and a jackhammer in my skull. Someone threw a piece of wadded-up paper at me, and I looked up to see a short Japanese man. I didn't recall knowing Japanese, so I read the subtitles to his angry rant. It seems I had just won a job as head booker of World Level Wrestling. But... I had a job booking, didn't I? And wasn't it 2009? I... I guess not. I guess the last few years was just a drunken hallucination. Oh, well. America, Japan, either side of the Pacific, drunk, sober, real, fictional... even World Level Wrestling would learn they were no longer without... Peers. Welcome to the World Level. ------------------------- WLW: World Level Wrestling, a regional Sports Entertainment fed in Japan. How the hell did I wind up working for them? Who knows. Anyway, we had a pretty good main event scene, consisting of Universal champion Awesome Thunder, Show Stealer champion Hell Monkey, Dark Eagle, The Great Hisato, and Burning Takableepa. Super Junior style was well-represented. The upper-midcard was heavy on Cruiserweights, with Silver Shark, Haru Kurofuji, Kazuma Narato, and Incredible Koyama (who, with non-Cruiser Koki Ishibashi, was tag champ), along with Koji Kojima and Emerald Angel to provide some Super Juniorness. For a midcard, we had our entertainment, The Tic, Booger Man, Masked Cougar, Kitahachi, Sonoda, and Deano Machino. A nice mixture there. The lower-midcard was Ninja Shunji, Firestarter EU, 2 Fly N'Hara, and Insane Machine, our Stretfighting Champ. Mainly cruisers looking to break into the upper card. Finally, our openers, Beetle Kimura and Magnum Kobe, the Tap-Out Champion. And of course, designated jobber Cyber Fighter 3000. We had two active stables: The Circle of Blood (Dark Eagle, Koki Ishibashi, Magnum Kobe, and Incredible Koyama... the tag champs, tap-out champ, and a main eventer) and The Power Players (Emerald Angel, Haru Kurofuji, and Koji Kojima). If this what what I had to work with, I'd say things were looking good. But I still put in a call to a young rookie who, for some reason, just felt right to be here. 2004, December, Week 1, Monday The name of the show: WLW 2k4 Wrap-Up. I'd decided not to do the customary 'strip all the titles and hold a tournament' schtick in favor of, well, holding a tournament for the #1 Contendership to Awesome Thunder's title, with the first round being tonight. Now... did I remember how to book? I set up a tournament and prepared everything... only to find one of my participants, Silver Shark, was working elsewhere tonight. Dammit. Last-Minute Rewrite!! WLW 2k4 Wrap-Up, from the Kyoto Arena We open the show with the first match in our #1 Contendership Tournament: Dark Eagle vs Emerald Angel. The crowd was restless, but we still got a good match with Dark Eagle getting the pinfall to advance (B). Awesome Thunder came out to make an open challenge (B, crowd still restless) which was answered by Haru Kurofuji. Thunder denied the challenge, as Haru was in the tournament, but a few insults by Haru convinced Thunder to give him the match tonight (C+). Next, Magnum Kobe defended his Tap-Out Title against Cyber Fighter 3000, winning with an illegal choke (F, they just didn't click). Insane Machine tried to cut a promo against his tournament opponent, Koji Kojima, but we forgot he doesn't speak Japanese (F). Backstage, Deano Machine attacked 2 Fly N'Hara, calling him a joke and a disgrace (D). Hell Monkey defended his Show Stealer title against Beetle Kimura with a clean pinfall (C, Hell Monkey stood out as very good). Booger Man came down to the ring, acting like he couldn't get the microphone to work and, following some bodily sound-effects, shrugged and left (C-). Koji Kojima defeated Insane Machine by disqualification when the Streetfighter Champion brought his title belt into play (C). A hype video for tag champions The Avalanche Effect played (C), followed by one hyping next week's main event: Kitahachi Sonoda vs Burning Taka****a, the final quarter-final round in the tournament (C-). Finally, our main event, as Awesome Thunder defended against Haru Kurofuji, retaining his title by count-out (B-). Afterwards, The Incredible Koyama ran in and began attacking Haru to end the show (C-, let-down). Final rating: C, 2000 people in attendance. It was suggested that we really needed more storylines going. Well, we could fix that. Deano/2 Fly was going to be a cheap excuse for a filler match, but we could make it a low-card feud. More importantly, however, was the fact that we had made eight thousand dollars on the show; We should be able to grow this company in no time!
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December, week 2. After a week of really good sushi, it was begining to lose it's appeal. That, and most ramen here seemed to be in a ham-based broth. Not chicken or beef or oriental like back home. better noodles, tho. I was getting to know my people better, both the natives and the imports. I was just going to have to keep them seperate so I knew who to book to talk or not. The only possible speedbump was that Takayuki Kajiwara, my color commentator, had just signed up with WEXXV. I wouldn't let it worry me too much tho. The nice part about this job was that I didn't have to worry about goings-on in the US that much. SWF made a ton of hires, and I didn't give a gosh-darn. Instead, I got to concentrate on booking my second portion of the tournament and my current champion's reign. So, let's set this u... huh? What do you mean, I BOOKED MY REF IN THE CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT????? ... and it's too late to re-write... ---------------------------------------- Kumamoto Athletic Center, Kyushu, Japan. We started with Insane Machine defending his Streetfighter Title in a hardcore match against Cyber Fighter 3000. It was meant to be a nice little squash, but Cyber got tired near the end (E). Next, Emeral dAngel came out and made his case for a title match (C), which brought out Awesome Thunder to verbally spar with him... and having beaten him on the mic, Thunder agreed to beat him in the ring as well (C+, Thunder way outclassed Angel). Our next match was 2 Fly N'Hara vs Beetle Kimura, a funky little match that saw Deano Machino run in and attack 2 Fly while the ref wasn't looking, but it would backfire on him, he'd hit Beetle, and 2 Fly would get the win... the problem is, we booked it to run a bit long, and 2 Fly was exhausted (E). Deano then spent some time insulting 2 Fly, telling him to stop acting American (C-). In an added-at-the-last-minute match, Hell Monkey squashed Ninja Shunji (C). Backstage, WLW Ref Kitahachi tracked down Burning Taka****a and told him that if he didn't throw the match, then Taka****a would never get another win as long as Kitahachi was reffing his matches (C-). The match was a total and complete squash, with the Taka****a Driver coming in under a minute (C, with Koji Kojima filling in for the ref). Backstage, Tic, Cougar, Karasu, and KOBE debated over who should get a title shot next week (E). Stemming from their encounter last week, we got our final quarter-final match as Haru Kurofuji defeated The Incredible KOYAMA by submission (C). WE announced the official semi-final rounds for next week: Burning Taka****a vs Haru Kurofuji (C) and Koji Kojima vs Dark Eagle (C+). Finally, we got our main event: Awesome THunder defending the Universal Title against Emerald Angel. We got a good, long match that actually managed to be better than our announce team coudl give it credit for, and ended with a Thunder Shock winning it clean for the champ (B). Final results: C+, 1000 people. We had a couple real stinkers of matches in the begining, and we'd have to work on that. But for an area where we could expect half our usual audience, we weren't going to put on a supercard. Everything was coming along fine, with a few speedbumps. Okay, the ref in a match wasn't expected... the man responsible for setting up the spreadsheet that cuased that choice has been sacked... and everythign was on track to finish the tournamnt on the last week of December, and start the new year with a really big match. ... what do you mean, we're a touring company and don't work again until April???
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We don't need no Rebel Uprisings -- Welcome to the World Level! ------------- *ring ring* Gah... izzat the phone? Seriously, two weeks in Japan and I'm still jet-lagged. Double-tee-eff, folks... "Peers, you're no longer without me. Start talking." "Hey, boss. Just wondering... we all figure we'll get the card when we get to the arena tonight, but can you at least tell us where we're having the show?" "... Taka, it's Saturday. We do shows on Monday." "Well, this show's been scheduled since before you got hired, and it's kinda important. In a cultural sense. We can't cancel now, we've got season-ticket-holders waiting to show up." "... So -that's- how we sell out before I even decide where we're having the shows. Wondered about that. Okay, get everyone to Tokushima." "The stadium?" "Nah, the arena next door. I'll work out a card on the way." "Crazy-*bleep* gaijin..." *click* Crap. Two hours of show to fill, and under an hour to write it in... -------------- December, Week 2. Saturday. WLW Japanese Wrestle Peace Festival. Sounds important. Hope I don't screw it up. Especially since it's a half-hour longer than I'm used to. We open with hype videos for our two tournament matches: Taka vs Haru (C+) and Eagle vs Koji (B-). We then go backstage as Masked Cougar tells Tic of his plans to challenge Awesome Thunder. Tic, regretfully, doesn't have any advice to give him, and leaves. As Cougar is leaving, the door bursts open and hits him full in the face. It's Tic! "Guess what! I thought of a great opening line for y... Cougar? Hey, man, you okay? Wake up, man." (F, major let-down). Our opening match is Karasu defeating Cyber Fighter 3k (D... I'm not off to a good start here). The Tic comes down in a cougar mask, trying to pretend to be Cougar and challenge Awesome THunder (F... dangit, forgot Tic doesn't speak the language!). Thunder came out and played along, accepting the challenge... until calling Tic by name and 'catching' him (C). Next was our first tournament semi-final match of the night: Dark Eagle vs Koji Kojima. We were trying to get the crowd back on our side, and despite Dark Eagle winning with his feet on the ropes, I think we did (B). Eagle then celebrated, cutting an impromptu promo on both Taka and Haru, whoever would win the other semi-final (B). Next up was a non-title match as Hell Monkey faced Beetle Kimura... and swaushed him in just a few minutes. As he was leaving the ring, Beetle demanged he get back in, that was a fluke! So Hell Monkey got back in the ring, and a minute later, Beetle hit thee low blows in a row, getting disqualified. He then shouted out, "This one counts! Ring the bell!" With the upper hand, Beetle proceeded to... still be beaten by a very, very angry Hell Monkey. (C, C, C). Next, Deano Machino was interviewed about his statements to 2 Fly earlier in the week. Deano stated he was enamoured with the Japanese culture, and wanted to prevent any hints of 'American Gangsta' from polluting that culture, even if it's what the Japanese wanted (C-). Next up, 2 Fly lost to Ninja Shunji when Deano ran down and blasted him with a chairshot when the ref wasn't looking (E). Backstage, Ref Sonoda finds Burning Taka, and tells him that tonight, he has no chance of winning. Sonoda remembers their match earlier this week... and revenge is something he's quite looking forward to (C-). Out next match sees Awesome Thunder retain the WLW Universal Title against The Cougar-Tic (C+). Back to backstage, Burning Taka was interviewed about his match. First, he hyped up his opponent, and then gave due recognition to the fact he was working against the ref on this one (C+, C+). Next up, Deano Machine defeated Booger Man when 2 Fly N'Hara came out and got Booger disqualified by returning the chairshot he received earlier (C-). Backstage, Taka and Haru took a moment to speak as equals, letting each other know that whatever the outcome of the match, they wouldn't let it affect the respect they have for each other (C+). They then made their entrances for the main event. Sure enough, Sonoda was taking every chance he could to cheat Taka. Fast counts, false warnings, everything that wouldn't be a blatent screwjob. His chance came when a bad bounce off the ropes caused Taka to collide with the evil ref, and Sonoda called for the DQ, giving the match to Haru (C+). Final Rating: C, 800 people. Only 800? Wow. I was told we'd sell the place out. In retrospect, there were a few places I Could have improved... but honestly? I loaded the card with as much known-C segments as I could to balance out the occasional Tic-don't-speak-Japanese segment. But people probably went to the other WrestleFest events that day. Wonder if anything notworthy happened? Well... In GCG, Yoshifusa Maeda retained the GCG Heavyweight Title over Jack Marlowe (B match, B- show). IN 5SSW, the main event was Destruction, Inc. defeating Sensational Thunder (B- match, C+ show). PGHW went on pay-per-view, with a main event of Mito Miwa defeating Dread to retain the PGHW Glory Clown Title (B match) and an excellent pre-main match of Yoshimi Mushashibo defeing Buddy Garner (A* match, B show). And big-daddy of them all, BHOTWG also went PPV, blew away the rest of our attendance records put together, and lead with an excellent main event of Raul Hughs retaining the Burning World Championship against Tadiyuki Kikkawa (A match, B+ show). We had a long way to go... even 5SSW was out-performing us. Next week, on the World Level: "You ever hear of a Dusty Finish?" "... a what?" "Dusty Rhodes?" "... who now?" "... nevermind. Forgot where I was."
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