Mark Cuban Does DaVE!

[d_w_w]

I also enjoyed the show, and well, catching up on your dynasty. I know Peak writes himself, to some degree, but your take on his current maddness is very entertaining to me. Something I could completely see happening in a real-world federation. Anyhow - nice job!

[Tigerkinney]

I feel your frustration on the outcome of the Cult of The Grey Dragon vs Adrenaline Rush, you'd think with all that talent in the ring, they'd be able to produce something half way decent. Anyway would just like to add... [I]Giedroyc ! Giedroyc ! Also... uhm... Art Reed ! And Guide! And Joey Minnesota ! And Hooded Kudo ! ;) [/I]

[eayragt]

Well, the show was great. Apart from it sucked. That's the Great Lakes for you. At least Eddie Peak was made to look a million bucks when people got to compare him to Hell's Bouncer. He's big! And? He's... er... broad too? And remind me again - why haven't you cut Bradley?

[Marcel Fromage]

Good to see the return of the Iceman. And Bradley get his from Giedroyc. The Giedroyc promos are golden. He's definitely my favourite part of the show.

[JPVargas]

Just wanted to say I've been following the dynasty since it began and must admit that it is one of my favorites to read. I finally got all signed up to the boards here, so I thought I'd let you know I've been watchin'. I've yet to play a game with DAVE but in my current CZCW game i just signed Guide and he is going to be one of my main focuses to get past cult to national. Keep up the good writing.

[Payne]

[CENTER][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/Payne666/logos/dfdc.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] Wow. What a week and a half!!! I will start at the end, and work backwards. Fear not, true believers, Cuban's little minions have not stolen away with me to do fearful things in a dark room. Knowing Cuban, I am too old of a male to do things in a dark room with. Anyway, sorry I haven't been around, but, it was my birthday not too long ago, and I had a week in Vegas, enjoying gambling, drinking, and general debauchery. Now, let's go back to the beginning. It seems like I have really set fire to someone's ass. APPARENTLY people didn't like me letting you know about the whole Acid business. APPARENTLY someone hired a P.I. to find out where I live. My guess is Cuban, as he probably knows a thing or two about paying for a dick. Anywho, there I was, celebrating my birthday with a few friends, and I get a knock at my door. I am kind of tipsy at this point in time, and I thought it might have been the stripper. Imagine my surprise when I opened the door and saw the "Mask" there. Who knew Acid lived in character so much? Anyway, he comes barrelling in, all hellfire and brimstone, and threatening to kick my ass from here to Idaho. WELL!!!! That was going all fine and dandy, until one of my guests showed his face. I will give this to you guys, and to Cuban, since I KNOW he reads this. 1) The person who scared the crap out of Acid, and sent him away....WAS MY CONTACT!!!!! 2) You will never get that out of Acid. Ever. Well, now that I got a good laugh, and Cuban is losing a good night's sleep, let's move on the the "Playoffs", shall we? Now that Eddie Peak has resigned, for the time being, things should be picking up. I like that the focus was on him for DangerZone. And what about that new logo they got? Very nice. So, let's see what the standing are, now. Now, here was the first round: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/Payne666/logos/DaveBracket1a.jpg[/IMG] I have already talked about that one. Here, however, is the second round. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/Payne666/logos/DaveBracket2a.jpg[/IMG] Now, let's chat about this. 1. Acid over Bach: Makes sense, since they are pushing Acid. I think he's good enough to get over in the first round. Don't get me wrong. I never said he wasn't talented, just that he doesn't belong in DaVE. And, he can't keep it in his pants. 2. Brandon over Morgan: This was a given. Big Cat is in major contention. Also, I happen to know a bit about him. More on that later. 3. Guide over Scout: That was a crap shoot. They are both awesome brawlers. I just hope this doesn't drive a wedge between them, as DaVE needs them in the tag Division. 4. Minnesota over Gonzales: This was hard to predict, as both men are going out of their way to show themselves as the future of DaVE, if not pro-wrestling as a whole. [B]NOW[/B] is where my infinite hatred of Mark Cuban comes into play. See, it would have made total sense to keep the brackets they way they were in those neat little graphics you saw above. Makes sense, no? Hell no! At least, not to Cuban. He goes and mixes up the order of the seeding in the Semi-Finals, so, now we have this: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/Payne666/logos/DaveBracket3.jpg[/IMG] Because traditional tournaments would make too much sense, let's see what we got now. 1. Acid vs Giedroyc: Should be a great match, but, as we already know (Because I TOLD you) Giedroyc is losing in the finals, so this is just a bye for him, really. I think that the seedings were messed up as a punishment for Acid, since he thinks he can do whatever he wants. Including Sexual Assault, and Crashing My Birthday!! 2. Big Cat Brandon v Brandon Smith: Wow, I hope this goes as good as planned. Mind you, with the rumours of James running off, who knows. But, as I said, more later. 3. Guide vs Peak: Yeah. Peak. Wins. 4. Minnesota vs Eric Tyler: Sorry, Joey, you are good, but Tyler is Main Event level, so he goes over, here. With all this updating, I thought I would give you a NEW news tidbit!! [B]Big Cat Brandon has resigned with DaVE![/B] Yes, folks, his is here. There is only one problem. His salary is going to be $2800 a month. Yes, you read that right. He now makes more than Eddie Peak. Overpaying that much for a mediocre wrestler is just a sign of how weak Mark Cuban has made DaVE. Well, that's all for now, sorry it's a long one. Until next time, Cuban, you know where I live, you son of a bitch. You sent over a whore, and you sent Acid. Next time you put my family in jeopardy.... [SIZE="4"][B][U]I WILL BE COMING FOR YOU!!![/U][/B][/SIZE] And, that's the View From Here.

[theoutlaw321]

I thoroughly enjoy your take on the goings on in this diary. I love the back and forth. It adds to the depth of one of the best diaries in this forum.

[Payne]

I love the fact that Pox thought I was cool enough to incorporate me into his diary as much as he has. AND IT AIN'T DONE YET!!!

[sebsplex]

Good show. The Cult Of The Grey Dragon and Adrenaline Rush feud continues to progress likely although as you covered in your notes for their poorly rated match, there's a obviously a little fine-tuning to do to ensure future matches deliver more than a D. I was starting to forget Tank Bradley even existed... that was a blissful state of mind. Many people have said it before, but the characterisation in your dynasty is one of it's most prominant strengths and that continued with your brief bit of background forming on Joey Minnesota, explaining the 'truth' beyond his bio notes. Finally making Peak seem vulnerable, although increasingly dangerous at the same time was well carried out. It gives you freedom to have him defeated and at least from a dynasty standpoint, make him look no weaker into the bargain.

[Monkeypox]

OoC: Those brackets... are... so... DaVE. Blood and barbed wire, nasty-ass slashes through everyone's names when they're out. DaVE, DaVE, DaVE. I'm glad you're around, Payne, you do a hell of a job. Now I'm off to write a report about how much we hate you.

[Payne]

Ooc: Glad you like it, Pox. I am anxiously awaiting the reprecussions of this one. This is about to explode, I feel.

[Gozer]

Okay, this was weird. So Mr. Pox, who is my good real-life friend and lawyer, asks me (in a bar, nonetheless) to log back into the GDS forum boards (which I haven't done since April, by the way), for the purpose of [i]criticizing him.[/i] He's strange sometimes, Mr. Monkeypox esq., but he's got a bee in his bonnet over this whole "Constructive Criticism" thing. I tried to explain it to him that it was REALLY lame, bringing up the meta-aspects of a fictional wrestling board, what when we were out on the town and with GIRLS, nonetheless, and it was probably only my crafty countermeasures that kept them from catching on. So dude, whatever you say. But don't ever do that to me again. So I stopped reading this dynasty when I stopped reading all of the others, and it's taken me a long time to read all of the way through. And now I've gotta criticize it. Okay. First of all, here's what's really GOOD about your dynasty. And this is easy, because everyone else (seemingly on the entire planet) as pointed it out already: [u]The Characters[/u] And I hope everyone will join me in saying "Duh". Eric Tyler, Eddie Peak, Acid and Jack Giedroyc represent the sort of quadrangle of your writing genius, and while none of the other characters are as clearly established, none of them get as much airtime. But there's a developing "second tier" of characters that are starting to get real personalities, including Joey Minnesota, Bulldozer Brandon Smith, Shawn Gonzales, Alex Braun, Scout and Guide, Nemesis, Emma Chase, Art Reed and Tank Bradley. Eventually, you might have everyone covered... and actually, I'm glad that you didn't try to do everyone at once, because it would've been much too much. And in fact, that gets us to the first point of criticism, or rather "praise masquerading as criticism because these are things I wouldn't want you to change but might irritate a lot of people": [b]#1. Complexity[/b]. This dynasty has a certain amount of late-season X-Files to it - it's a good product and for a certain niche market, it's great... but those are the people who have been following it since the beginning. If you're aware of the fact that Alex Braun was stuck with Tank Bradley, for example, his resurrection as the "Iceman" was really great to see. Or another example: The current disintegration and resulting vulnerability of Eddie Peak is an absolutely great plot twist for those of us who were around to see him headbutting the hell out of guys like Big Cat Brandon and Shawn Gonzales back when he was crazy but not "CRAZY!!!", but if you tried to start reading him now, he'd just seem really intense and weird. [b]#2. Length[/b]. If you aren't down to read this thing word for word, you're probably better off with another dynasty, and there are lots of good ones out there that aren't this demanding (though this is not the most demanding dynasty on the board). And I don't mean "length" just in terms of the overall length, but in terms of pacing. In the last DANGERZONE, you wrote like 9 lines about how Eddie Peak was crazy. He didn't even MOVE much. It was just 9 lines about his mind, his impressions of his insanity. And I thought it was brilliant. I thought that paragraph was one of the best things you've ever done on this dynasty. But you could've just as easily said "Eddie Peak is acting strange - Rating: B-." And that's what people need to realize. When you get a note that says "Joey Minnesota and Alex Braun have good chemistry" (which you told me that you did), you turn it into a huge backstory on Joey Minnesota. And that's AWESOME. But it's long. So don't change it. But I'm sure there are a whole bunch of people who have looked at this dynasty (it gets an awful lot of hype) and realized how long it is, rolled their eyes, and walked off to do something else. [b]But nothing is perfect.[/b] Especially not you, Pox. You don't have a Wii, for one thing. And your last girlfriend was Eddie Peak level crazy, for another. Anyhow. The REAL CRITICISM (also known as things I want to see more of): [b]#1: Humor.[/b] At the beginning, you said some really hilarious things. You had a line about Vin Tanner and soup only costing a nickel that I still remember actually making me spit up. And Jack Giedroyc is so awesome that I've seriously thought about starting the "Wrath of God in TEW 2008" petition - I really do think Ryland should just go ahead and change Jack Giedroyc to "The Wrath of God" in the game. I think you've created a character so iconic and well-established in the C-Verse that he should just GO AHEAD AND BE IN THE C-VERSE. But as the dynasty has continued and things have gotten more serious, you've moved away from humor. And it isn't that you're moving away from it for no reason - it's hard to do the Eddie Peak plotline as a joke, and there's really nothing funny about the Cult of the Gray Dragon, but I'd love to see a few more "comedy" characters like Giedroyc. [b]#2: The Meta.[/b] You used to (and totally stopped, really) incorporate aspects of the game as sort of "meta-posts". Most classically, when you had to explain the patching of the game as an in-game post. And those posts were awesome, and you totally stopped. I love the way you used to poke fun at the in-game eccentricities, and I don't know why you stopped. It isn't like you could've run out of material - I love TEW, but there's a lot about it that doesn't make complete sense from an in-ring perspective. I think you should do more of that. [b]#3: Trying to do everything.[/b] Okay, this is where complexity gets too big. You're trying to be a dynasty about DaVE's actual operation (financially and strategically), DaVE's backstage drama (the stuff with Cuban and Payne and Bach and "the leak" and everything else), AND DaVE's in-ring, kayfabe plotlines. And dude, that might just be too much. I'm not sure where it's all going. And honestly, there are times when I feel like I need a chart to keep track of it all. When I reread the comments, the sense I get is that people DO like being drawn behind the curtain a bit (the Power Rankings and the resignings have been awesomely managed), but you've assigned yourself so much crap to keep track of that I feel like this is why your dynasty just CRAWLS. You started the thing in what... January? You're not even through April yet! It takes you something like 12 posts to get through a month of your game time! At this rate, you'll finish in-game 2007 in real-life 2008. But I don't think you will. I think you're going to burn-out if you aren't VERY careful. I think you need to pick the parts that interest you most and pare it down. Because I know from talking to you that sometimes you're overloaded with everything you want to do. And that brings me to THE BIG ONE: [b]#4. THE WEIGHT OF THE C-VERSE.[/b] I don't mean that as a diss... but you're trying to bring EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER to life, and that's awesome. You've told me before that the whole reason you're doing this is as a big character study. But even if you can keep track of all of these backstories, I'm not sure the readers can. I know I have trouble sometimes. I mean, how many plotlines do you have? This is how they read, sometimes: Eddie Peak is going crazy and may have been jobbed to Big Cat Brandon who may or may not be tag partners with Bulldozer Brandon Smith who has a wife we haven't met yet and has a mean streak and is being pushed very aggressively which is irritating Cammy Vessey who thinks he's hot ***t in his off-screen persona which irritated Nemesis who thinks everyone should PUT IN THEIR TIME and may or may not be punishing Vessey by arranging for him to be pushed as an intern which speaks to the booking tension between Nemesis and Cuban, which is paradoxically manifested onscreen as Cuban versus Tyler, except Tyler is dealing with Rick Law while his School of Tradition buddies Scout and Guide seem to be scouting an ambush on Eddie Peak, who is going crazy and... etc. The plotlines are totally non-distinct. It's one big, organic WORLD where everyone is colliding off of everyone else. But f***, man! It's complicated! Just be careful. Don't end up like the X-Files. You don't need 1000 plotlines. Keep some balance. [b]AND HERE ARE THE THINGS YOU DON'T DO PARTICULARLY WELL:[/b] 1. Coding. It's different EVERY SINGLE TIME. 2. Wrestling. You don't even LIKE wrestling, do you? Your match descriptions are best when they're plot driven, and while your write-ups are good, they're usually good when they take the form of analysis rather than move-by-move descriptions. Your move-by-move stuff is adequate, but it's never the strongest part of your dynasty. Okay, so since I've just reread this WHOLE THING, here are my all-time [b]Top 5 "Mark Cuban Does DaVE Moments":[/b] 1. The Injury To Steve Flash, and subsequently visiting him in the hospital. That was awesome. 2. The Adam Ryland meta-posts - especially the line about Sara Michelle Gellar's distended anus. 3. The Emergence of Peak - the man who became a shark, and then went crazy. 4. The Eric Tyler/Mark Cuban rivalry - turning Tyler into a main eventing bad ass FACE while Cuban turned into a self-promoting heel. The Tyler Face Turn was utterly predictable, but it was really really believeable. 5. Resigning Eddie Peak - that was a wonderful description of a serious problem drinker, and it gave Peak a lot of instant character off-screen. Anyhow, I did what you asked. I'll see you again in another 3 months, maybe, and you can have your computer back now. Feel free to disagree, but since this whole thing is supposed to fit in with some sort of Monkeypox criticism kick, I might not be around to answer. Later.

[Jehovah]

How you're able to inject such a strong, believable and entertaining backstory into a vanilla C-Verser like Joey Minnesota just based off of some good chemistry is [I]awesome[/I]. Every time I've read his name I've just went "meh" and he's been chucked into the mental gloss-over file. But once again I'm piqued on someone I never gave a crap about before. I also like what's doin' with Chase and Adrenaline Rush, and it seems like it might even result in the team breaking up, which I doubt you would lose too much sleep over. And Acid has got to be the EVILEST face in history. Not that I'm complaining. Him and Emma would make one hot dark royalty couple. The imagery of Emma appearing there also matches Rick Law's entrance as one of the moments I was able to picture really well. Gozer made some interesting points which stand on their own but there was one about your C-Verse world that I'm at odds with. I love that you've created all these characters, and though they bounce off of each other, I don't feel like it's muddled. Rather, the time that's put into the creation of the characters gives them contrast; there isn't anyone who I mistake for someone one, nor have I personally forgotten what someone's been up to. There are some awesome possibilities that are going to be true mark-out moments when they come about - Peak/Acid? Peak/Giedroyc? I like that you've rolled them out gradually because like Gozer said, it would hell to try and take them all in at once, rather than a gradual build. If the recent comments are any indication, it seems like you're snowballing and picking up more readers rather than losing them as the diary grows in complexity. Great stuff. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check my thread. I asked my super to register and check it out.

[sebsplex]

[QUOTE=Gozer;269409]But I don't think you will. I think you're going to burn-out if you aren't VERY careful. I think you need to pick the parts that interest you most and pare it down. Because I know from talking to you that sometimes you're overloaded with everything you want to do. And that brings me to THE BIG ONE: [b]#4. THE WEIGHT OF THE C-VERSE.[/b] I don't mean that as a diss... but you're trying to bring EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER to life, and that's awesome. You've told me before that the whole reason you're doing this is as a big character study. But even if you can keep track of all of these backstories, I'm not sure the readers can. I know I have trouble sometimes.[/QUOTE] I think this is the biggest problem/obstacle for anyone wanting to do a really detailed dynasty on a C-Verse promotion. I know I find it to be the case with my HGC dynasty, the unrelenting desire to try and flesh out everyone on your books. Unlike in real world works, the characters aren't ready-built for the reader. I think Pox does a good job of ramming home the qualities about the main players in his Cuban-run DaVE, whilst gradually moving onto the lesser involved characters (at least in the behind the scenes aspect) like Art Reed. It can be a little muddled at times, but like with anything of this ilk, I suspect most readers are more tuned into the characters they're more interested in ahead of time or at least, the details about them stick more. Finding a balance between getting across the detailed dynasty you want, whilst avoiding burn out will always be the challenge.

[Payne]

No one is saying anything about me. Is that good or bad? I think we are the first dynasty to incorporate a fan THIS much into the mechanics of the dynasty.

[d_w_w]

It's good in my opinion, Payne. The back and forth between you and Monkeypox is both entertaining and allows for more to read. It's definitely something that sets this diary apart from the others that I read.

[Gozer]

Oh yeah, I actually wanted to mention something on you too, Mr. Payne, by way of the criticism or whatever. You and Monkeypox have a nice thing going, though it's actually you and Cuban, and your banners and such are awesome, and I think you really outdid yourself with the brackets. I agree with Pox that those things are VERY DaVE. And the idea of the "leak" is interesting, even though I think we've already totally figured out who it is. But here's what you aren't doing enough of, and it WAS your strongest point when you started: Smarking out on DaVE - the matches, what works, what doesn't make sense, which plotlines are popping, which ones aren't, which workers are up, which workers are down, etc. We know you've got a backstage leak and that's golden, but I want to hear more about the PUSHES. What do you think about the return of the Iceman? (You should be all over that!) What do you think about the increasing prominance of Eric Tyler? (See above) What about Peak going whacko? Cuban bringing in Law? I want some ANALYSIS from you on this stuff, man. Don't just mention it. The View From Here used to be all about... all about... (wipes tear)... [b][u]ALL ABOUT THE WRESTLING, MAN![/b][/u] (i feel like I don't even know you anymore...) :D

[Monkeypox]

[CENTER][FONT="Book Antiqua"][B][SIZE="5"]"The Overness Cap"[/SIZE][/B][/FONT][/CENTER] Absently, [b]Nemesis[/b] rubbed the smattering of red stubble dotting his massive chin, not originally cleft but convincingly "clefted" by a botched tablebreak 12 years ago. [center][IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/Nemisis-1.jpg[/IMG][/center] "No, you're right. Not good. Not good at all." Nemesis leaned over my shoulder as I looked at the in-house "overness tracker" I'd implemented for tracking the changes in popularity of our workers. It had become a crucial instrument in making booking decisions, and I couldn't imagine what I'd do without it. The mechanics were very esoteric but essentially, in my opinion, reliable, incorporating everything from blog coverage to frequency of forum posts to formal polling data to the volume of that wrester's pop at house shows. Though not an exact science, it did give me a fairly accurate sense of whether someone's overness was increasing, decreasing, or (the most feared of all) standing completely still. "Yup", I answered, "he's definitely a candidate. Too bad, but not totally unexpected." Cuban came in with a mouth full of croissant, the crust leaving scattered grease-spots down the front of his silk shirt. "What you guys doing?" [center][IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/MarkCuban-1.jpg[/IMG][/center] Nemesis rolled his eyes and grunted. Squeezing out a smile, I answered. "Hi Mark, we're doing some demographic work with worker overness, trying to figure out who's up and who's down." Cuban brightened and walked over to the edge of the table, squinting down at the mess of paperwork and spreadsheets. "How does it work?" He chirped as I lit a not-coincidental cigarette, knowing he'd shrink away from the smoke. Nemesis grunted again and I turned to the papers scattered across the table. "These are our regional estimates of each worker's popularity. It's a system we've been using for years and has always been sort of a pet project of mine. I keep tinkering with it... a few years ago, I totally overhauled it to account for blogs and google hits, but I'm pretty confident in it. Anyhow, we were looking at the information for [b]Acid[/b]. And it's not good." Cuban glanced down and then glanced back up. "B- Rated? That's the same as Eddie Peak! That's great!" I shook my head. "Yes, he's plenty over right now, but that's not the problem. Check out this graph." I rummaged around in the stack and pulled out the regional comparison data for Acid, which compared his popularity in the various parts of the country. Cuban examined the paper and frowned. "I don't understand. He's got the same popularity in almost every part of the country." Nemesis guffawed. "The EXACT same." Cuban glanced over at him and back at me. "The EXACT same? What does that mean?" Nemesis leaned back in his chair, smiling. "That means that our boy Acid is exactly as popular in Portland, Maine as he is in Portland, Oregon. It means that everywhere you go, people are having about the same feelings about him. And when I say "about the same feelings", I mean EXACTLY the same feelings. Acid would get the exact same reaction at a house show in Alaska as he would at a house show in Hawaii." "Or a rodeo in Boise." I added. "Or a porn convention in Bismarck." Nemesis conjectured. "And that makes me nervous." I continued. "And that makes him nervous." Nemesis echoed. Mark glanced over at Nemesis again. "That doesn't make YOU nervous?" Nemesis chuckled. "I ain't been nervous since junior prom." Mark was quiet for a moment. "Okay, so he's got the same popularity everywhere he goes. That's weird and doesn't make any sense, but I still don't see how it's a problem." Nemesis laughed again. "Oh, it's a problem." I nodded. "A big problem." Mark looked between the two of us. "It's a big problem because...?" Nemesis and I exchanged glances and answered simultaneously. [b]"THE OVERNESS CAP."[/b] Mark frowned again. "The overness cap?" I nodded. "Yes. The overness cap. It happens sometimes. And Acid looks like he's got it bad." Mark sat down, confused. I continued. "When you notice that one worker has the exact same popularity everywhere he goes and he can't seem to get above that popularity, no matter what he does, chances are good that he's hit his overness cap. See, we've never been to the West Coast, for example. So it doesn't make any sense that Acid's popularity on the West Coast would be as high as his overness in the Tri-Cities. You look at our other main eventers - [b]Big Cat Brandon, Giedroyc, Tyler, Peak[/b], whoever, they're all much more popular in the Tri-Cities than they are on the West Coast. And that's good news, even for guys like Tyler who aren't really as popular as they should be and seem to lose popularity a lot faster than they gain it." I shuffled and reshuffled the papers. "Okay, look here. Peak's popularity is the same in most of the country, set at B-. But he's way more popular in the Tri-Cities. He's almost to B. That's exactly what we'd expect. Ditto for Giedroyc. But this data on Acid... it almost certainly means that he's hit his overness cap, and he can't get any higher." Cuban looked up, suddenly worried. "What do you mean, he [b][i]can't get any higher?[/i][/b]" Nemesis laughed again. "What he means is that from this moment on, it doesn't matter what we do. We can push Acid to the moon, we can give him the Unified Title and let him go cleanly over [b]Eddie Peak[/b], we can let him [b]throw Emma Chase over a table and spank her bare booty on national TV[/b], and his overness won't move an inch from where it is now, except to go down. It means that what you see is what you get. It means that this is it for our buddy Acid. B-. Period. Full f***ing stop." Cuban exploded. "THAT'S RETARDED!" I shrugged. "I don't know that it's as retarded as the owner's blocks, which really don't make all that much sense as they're currently written, but that's on YOUR shoulders. The overness cap is just a way of expressing that not everyone is Tommy Cornell, and not everyone can ever [i]be[/i] [b]Tommy Cornell[/b], no matter how they're pushed or booked. Acid is cool, I certainly like him, but maybe this is as far as he can go. And he's a main eventer who puts on great matches, so it's okay. We just need to accept that Acid probably isn't ultimately the same level of superstar that Giedroyc or Peak could turn out to be someday. It's not the end of the world. Not everyone gets to be the best." Cuban shook his head. "That's unacceptable. With the right marketing, you should be able to push anyone. People aren't that absolute. This is totally arbitrary. We're not even a national level federation yet! How the hell could Acid have peaked already?" Nemesis smiled again, eyes sparkling from the corner. [b]"Everyone has an overness cap, Cuban. [i]Even you[/i]."[/b] I nodded as Cuban looked worried. "Even me? How can you tell?" Nemesis stood up and crossed the room as I struggled to suppress a grin. "Well here, let me see your hands." Cuban blanched. "My... hands?" The massive Nemesis stood towering over the still seated Cuban. "Yes. Let me have a look at your hands. I'm not gonna hurt you." Nervous, Cuban extended his hands and Nemesis took them in his far larger counterparts, peering down into Cuban's palms intently. "Hmmm. Right. Aha. No, this isn't good. This isn't good at all. You've got a low overness cap, Cuban. One of the lowest I've ever seen, and I've seen a LOT of overness caps." Cuban swallowed hard. "Really? I mean, you can tell that just by looking at my hands?" Nemesis stared at him severely for a long moment and shook his head, then dropped his hands and emitted a baritone laugh. "Of course I can't. But it was a hell of a lot easier to explain than 'Star Quality'!" Still laughing, Nemesis strode out of the office. [QUOTE][CENTER][FONT="Arial Black"][SIZE="4"]NEXT WEEK ON[/SIZE][/FONT] [IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/DangerZone.png[/IMG] [/CENTER] It's the last week before the PPV, and the tournament is set to heat up with some dream matches in the quarterfinals! Expect no quarter given from the warriors who have survived the first round of DaVE's own in-house version of the playoffs! This is what you've been waiting to see: [CENTER][IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/DaveBracket3.jpg[/IMG] [center][u]MATCHES BOOKED FOR DANGERZONE[/u][/CENTER] [IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/BigCatBrandon_alt.jpg[/IMG] -vs- [IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/BulldozerBrandonSmith.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] In our first match, it's brawny vs brawnier as [b]Big Cat Brandon[/b] faces off against friend and ally [b]"Bulldozer" Brandon Smith[/b]. These two men have squared off together against [b]Eddie Peak[/b] and [b]Nemesis[/b], now see what they can do squared off against each other! [CENTER][IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/EricTyler.jpg[/IMG] -vs- [IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/JoeyMinnesota.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] [b]Joey Minnesota[/b] has been on an absolute tear in the last month, scoring impressive pinfall victories over [b]Alex Braun, Art Reed[/b] and [b]Jack "The Wrath of God" Geidroyc[/b] en route to winning the [b]Brass Knuckles Championship[/b]. For all that, can he be considered anything but the underdog against The Man Who Won't Stay Down, [b]Eric Tyler[/b]? Look for [b]Mark Cuban[/b] and gun-for-hire [b]Rick Law[/b] to try and turn the tables on Tyler in this one! [CENTER][IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/EddiePeak.jpg[/IMG] -vs- [IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/Guide.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] Even wounded, the Great White Shark is dangerous - he'll go into a frenzy even when the blood in the water is his own. But for all [b]Eddie Peak's[/b] ferocity, he has seemed distinctly vulnerable lately, and the camera has caught the members of [b]New Wave[/b], tag-team champions [b]Scout[/b] and [b]Guide[/b], engaging in thorough reconnaissance of the former Unified Champion. As [b]Guide[/b] squares off alone against Peak, will his silent plan finally come to victorious fruition? [CENTER][IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/Acid.jpg[/IMG] -vs- [IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/JackGiedroyc.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] In our main event, and sure to be one for the ages, [b]The Wrath of God[/b] squares off against the most mysterious man in DaVE, [b]Acid[/b]. For all of their apparent clash in style, the two men appear quite evenly matched - Acid drawing on a supernatural precision in counterpoint to Giedroyc's divinely inspired lunacy. Both men are rolling strong, with Acid still fresh from his [b]recent kidnapping of Emma Chase[/b], and Giedroyc from his [b]epic battle with evil "Super Wrestler" Tank Bradley[/b]! Make sure you tape this one - you'll be wanting to watch it again! All of this and more on [COLOR="DarkRed"][FONT="Arial Black"]DANGERZONE TV[/FONT][/COLOR]! And in just one more week, live from the Tri-Cities, don't forget to order, live on PPV!!! [CENTER][IMG]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p44/monkeypocks/Davefs.jpg[/IMG] [i]Props to Payne for the banner!!![/i][/CENTER] [FONT="Impact"]SHORT FORM PREDICTION KEY FOR DANGERZONE:[/FONT] #2 Big Cat Brandon vs #10 Bulldozer Brandon Smith #3 Eric Tyler vs #6 Joey Minnesota #1 Eddie Peak vs #8 Guide #4 Acid vs #5 Jack "The Wrath of God" Giedroyc [/QUOTE] [i]Next up... the Big Cat Brandon signing and the fallout thereof...[/i]

[theoutlaw321]

Hehe, haha. Man you still crack me up. Overness cap and star quality? Like an internet nerd like Cuban would ever be able to comprehend those concepts. Hehe. [B]#2 Big Cat Brandon [/B]vs #10 Bulldozer Brandon Smith [B]#3 Eric Tyler [/B]vs #6 Joey Minnesota [B]#1 Eddie Peak [/B]vs #8 Guide #4 Acid vs [B]#5 Jack "The Wrath of God" Giedroyc[/B]

[d_w_w]

Reading your diary has resulted in my irrational fear of the overness cap and of having my anus distended. Yet, I keep coming back... [B] #2 Big Cat Brandon [/B]vs #10 Bulldozer Brandon Smith [B]#3 Eric Tyler[/B] vs #6 Joey Minnesota [B]#1 Eddie Peak[/B] vs #8 Guide #4 Acid vs [B]#5 Jack "The Wrath of God" Giedroyc[/B] -I think Acid is cool, but with the cap looming, it might be time for him to drop from the tourney?

[arwink]

#2 Big Cat Brandon vs #10 [B]Bulldozer Brandon Smith[/B] #3 [B]Eric Tyler [/B]vs #6 Joey Minnesota #1 [B]Eddie Peak[/B] vs #8 Guide #4 [B]Acid [/B]vs #5 Jack "The Wrath of God" Giedroyc Cap or no cap, I really want to see a Peak/Acid finale.

[Oregano Jensen]

#2 Big Cat Brandon vs [B]#10 Bulldozer Brandon Smith[/B] Every tournament needs one Cinderella, one guy who goes way further than anyone expects him to. As it stands now, we have two real candidates, as Minnesota and Giedroyc wouldn't be [I]huge[/I] upsets. It's hard to root for Guide as an underdog, because a) he doesn't really have a personality, and b) he's not going over Peak clean. Also, the Cat is the weakest of the top 4 seeds, both in terms of his character and (possibly) in terms of his fighting ability -- he's the most likely to [I]get[/I] upset. I could be wrong, but I say it happens here. [B]#3 Eric Tyler[/B] vs #6 Joey Minnesota Tyler is one of the top workers in the promotion -- if he beats Minnesota, that doesn't damage Minnesota's credibility as a legit main-eventer. At this point, I'm not predicting outright that Tyler will win, but with this Eddie Peak storyline seemingly leading up to [I]something[/I], and Brandon not really a legit #2, I have to call him the favorite. I say the only way he doesn't make the Finals is if the whole point is to set up a rematch of the Peak-Brandon brawl that started this whole mess. Which... would make sense now that I think about it. Well, except that Brandon would have to win, and I'm convinced that Peak is not losing this tournament cleanly, and isn't Brandon a face? I mean, I guess you could turn him heel, but one thing DAVE has no real need for is another heel -- especially because there's no real way for Peak to make a face turn, is there? God, face Peak -- that would just be [I]weird[/I]. [B]#1 Eddie Peak[/B] vs #8 Guide Here's the thing: I do expect some sort of Mark Cuban swerve to happen on Peak. Here's the other thing, though: I expect it to happen to the benefit of someone who can get something out of it. To this end, Guide is a much weaker candidate for the beneficiary than either of Peak's prospective semifinal opponents. I just don't think anyone's going to put Guide over a main eventer. #4 Acid vs[B] #5 Jack "The Wrath of God" Giedroyc[/B] I went back and forth over this one for [I]ages[/I]. They're both around equally legitimate as contenders, [I]except[/I]... Acid has a storyline going with Sammy Bach -- can the champion feud with Sammy Bach? Giedroyc has a killer character but no really pressing storyline -- maybe seeds of a feud with Art Reed, who I don't think is ready for the title, but unlike Sammy, I could see him getting a few shots at it. Kind of a safe early opponent for the champ, where Giedroyc gains legitimacy from winning some great matches, and Reed gains it from even being in the title picture. But not much of anything concrete -- the guy could feud with anyone, really. He's a heel at the moment (...I think), but I don't see him getting along with any of his fellow heels -- Acid, Peak, Joey Minnesota. He could fight any of those guys, no problem. He is a crazy loner who is not making friends. On the other hand, let's not talk title yet. Let's focus on the semifinal, which we have to assume will be against Eddie Peak, which may well involve someone making an... [I]unsportsmanlike move[/I] against the Shark, and that someone is probably Cuban. If there's a likelier candidate for teaming up with the boss against Peak than Acid, I can't think of one -- Acid has a long history of dirty tricks, and a long history of being on the side of Cuban. I have a little more trouble imagining Giedroyc being complicit in such a plot -- scheming doesn't seem like his way. On the other hand, there's a pretty strong chance that the semifinal winner will end up facing Eric Tyler in the final -- and I can't see all this build-up culminating in another Acid-Tyler match. We just got out of that, and it was great, but there's no way we're going back. But I'm not going to think ahead. I'm thinking now. And now says Acid kidnapped Emma. He needs to get out of this tournament, and he needs to get back to kidnapping Emma, and Giedroyc needs to move on.

[Tigerkinney]

It's hard to argue against Oregano Jensen's reasoning behind his predictions, they seem very well thought out, so yeah I'm going to be utterly lazy and go for the same picks as Mr Jensen above. #2 Big Cat Brandon vs [B]#10 Bulldozer Brandon Smith[/B] [B]#3 Eric Tyler [/B]vs #6 Joey Minnesota [B]#1 Eddie Peak [/B]vs #8 Guide #4 Acid vs #5 [B]Jack "The Wrath of God" Giedroyc[/B]

[chris caulfield]

[B]#2 Big Cat Brandon [/B]vs #10 Bulldozer Brandon Smith [B]#3 Eric Tyler[/B] vs #6 Joey Minnesota [B]#1 Eddie Peak[/B] vs #8 Guide #4 Acid vs [B]#5 Jack "The Wrath of God" Giedroyc[/B]

[Monkeypox]

[QUOTE=Oregano Jensen;270518] On the other hand, let's not talk title yet. Let's focus on the semifinal, which we have to assume will be against Eddie Peak, which may well involve someone making an... [I]unsportsmanlike move[/I] against the Shark, and that someone is probably Cuban. If there's a likelier candidate for teaming up with the boss against Peak than Acid, I can't think of one -- Acid has a long history of dirty tricks, and a long history of being on the side of Cuban.[/QUOTE] I don't usually comment on predictions, especially when it has the effect of dispelling the very mysteries I'm trying to cultivate, but I wanted to speak briefly on this one. No. I thought very hard about having Cuban do something to Peak, but the last thing I want (or I think DaVE needs) is to turn Cuban into something truly omnipresent. Whatever happens to Peak, I promise it won't involve a Cuban swerve. Cuban has his hands full with Tyler, and they'll be fuller by the time all is said and done. Peak, quite literally, has his own problems. Anyhow, thanks for the predictions and keep 'em coming. I've run the new show and we're looking at some solid ratings on this one. I can't wait for the PPV, especially since I happen to know that [i]two of the remaining wrestlers have incredible chemistry.[/i]