Burning War Wrestling (Cornelverse)

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[B]Burning War Wrestling: Conception[/B] Look,’ Ben said, ‘I’ll keep it simple. I’m not really in this for the money; I've got $2000 saved up and a couple of sponsors interested; as long as you can keep us in the black, I’m going to be happy. What I really want out of this is a little attention and a little respect.’ I’d seen Ben in the ring. He was solid on the mic and took bump’s like no-ones business, but there was a fairly low limit to his talents as a wrestler. Getting him respect as a wrestler could be an uphill battle, and I told him as much. Ben met the news with a cheeky grin. ‘Dude, that parts not a problem. I want some ring time, sure, but I was planning on sharing the commentary booth with you for the first couple of months. What I’m really looking for are some signs that the company is doing well – if BWW is getting a buzz on the net, then Ben William’s name is going to follow on behind. Consider that your mandate: get us noticed. No matter what.’ ‘No matter what? Seriously? I mean, BSC are doing well enough, if you’re sure that’s the direction you want to take.’ Ben laughed and beat a short rhythm on the table-top. ‘We’re small, we’re broke, and we’re hungry for attention. If you can find strippers that can make it in the ring, I’m happy enough to fight them.’ ‘Classy,’ I said. Ben shrugged. ‘I haven’t worked regularly in a while,’ he said. ‘A lot of people haven’t. I think there’s something to this idea – a company built for young wrestlers, by young wrestlers. If that means doing backyard stunts and bra-and-panty matches, that’s what it takes. Most of the guys I know will feel much the same; some of the women too. Get us noticed, make it stick. We’re the promotion with passion; we’re burning up and ready to go to war if that’s what it takes.’ ‘Hence the name,’ I said. ‘I was half afraid the BW stood for someone else.’ ‘Something else, you mean,’ Ben said. ‘Nope, someone. I never trust a wrestler who wants to start a promotion. It’s all about the ego.’ ‘And it is,’ Ben said. ‘But sometimes you need to put the ego aside and think about what’s best for your promotion.’ ‘Got it,’ I said. ‘You’re all about the integrity.’ Ben missed the irony in my voice. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Integrity and youth; I’d like to keep this young and hungry. Consider that a restriction: don’t bring in any over-the-hill has-beens just for a cheap pop.’ ‘How young are we talking then?’ ‘Nothing extreme. Forty, maybe? I’ve got no problem working with guys in their prime.’ ‘Got it,’ I said; it’d make things a little tricky. I was thinking I could call upon a couple of my the guys I’d met doing interviews if things got sticky. ‘Anything else I should know?’ Ben thought about that for a second. ‘No piggy-backing,’ he said. ‘Don’t bother signing anyone who works for someone else. Not even the little guys like MAW. If we’re doing this, we’re building our stars from the ground up.’ I nodded. There had been offers of work from smaller promotions on-and-off for the last couple of years, ever since people had clicked that the guy running that punk-rock and wrestling blog might have some clue about the way the business worked. I’d turned most of them down; I didn’t mind the idea of booking a promotion, but I didn’t want to ride on anyone’s coat-tails. DIY was the way to go, and Ben was offering me a chance to build a reputation from the ground up. Ben slid a contract in my direction and I signed on the dotted line. We were sitting in the local McDonalds, discussing business over cheeseburgers. It was hardly an auspicious beginning.

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[B]Burning War Wrestling: Preperation[/B] We had three weeks to put together our first show, so I hit the phones and started calling up a few contacts on the indie scene. We were small, we didn’t have a lot of money, but there were enough hungry rookies out there to put together a sizable stable of wrestlers to work with. Some of the negotiations went well. Ben was right; there were a lot of good wrestlers out there who were hungry for work. There were also some not-so-good workers that could become decent wrestlers if they were given the right opportunities and the chance to work with some quality in-ring talent. There were also some bad calls on my part. I’d done a couple of interviews with Frankie Dee and thought he’d be a shoe-in for the promotion, but he laughed me off when I called and joined North of the Border the day after I got in contact with him. The Big Problem hadn’t worked with a regular promotion in a donkey’s age, but he still wanted more money than I was willing to give him for a man of his talents. We were keeping things lean and fast in Burning War, and that meant we weren’t paying guys just because they were over six-foot and had the right look. We were going to be the faster, leaner, hungrier alternative to the sports entertainment crowd. After three days of furious negotiation, I locked in a solid roster: [QUOTE] [B]Main Event[/B] [B][I]‘Sex Bomb’ Zoe Ammis (Heel): [/I][/B]Zoe had worked a lot of shows under the Agent 69 moniker, but we talked her into dropping the bad Russian accent and goofy gimmick in order to work under her own name. The local buzz was that we’d hired her for her sex appeal, and they weren’t entirely wrong, but Zoe could go when she had to. She was trained by the DeColts and had the strongest grasp of wrestling basics out of almost everyone in our locker room. [B][I]‘Booyah’ Ben Williams (Face): [/I][/B]Ben insisted on working in the main event, at least as the company started, but the initial plan called for him to spend more time doing color commentary than he’d spend in the ring. Ben could take a bump, he did some good work on the mic, but his cardio left a lot to be desired. He’d spent six minutes going all out in a match before he was winded, and a decent main-event was going to leave him walking through his spots like a zombie. [B][I]Kashmir Singh (Face): [/I][/B]The pocket-rocket from Culcutta. Kashmir is a rock-solid lightweight whose been doing the rounds in Puerto Rico for the last couple of years. His short stature and slim build belie his strength and speed in ring. Comfortable brawling it out, going for a series of rolling suplexes and taking it to the top rope. While he isn’t likely to be holding the top-spot in a larger promotion, Kashmir is the wrestler I’m counting on to be the backbone of BWW for the first couple of years. [B][I]‘Cool’ Nadia Snow (Face):[/I][/B] Laid back, easy going, smoking hot. Nadia is a wrestler with a solid mastery of the basics, but she’s also five-foot nothing and completely lacking in menace. Ben convinced me to hire her, largely because I think he has something of a crush on young Miss Snow, but the fact that she’s got the basics down and a figure to match Zoe will hopefully become the basis of a good feud between BWW’s primary female wrestlers. [B]Upper Midcard[/B] [B][I]Dragon’s Daughter (Face):[/I][/B] Known as Ginko Karuda in Japan, Double-D is a judo competitor who specializes in throws and submission moves. Dragon’s Daughter is being billed as the last daughter of a ninja clan (her call), silently but deadly in her approach to combat. Ginko doesn’t speak particularly good English yet, so we’ll be keeping her off the microphone as much as possible until she gets the lingo down. [B][I]‘Straight Edge’ Nikki Power (Heel):[/I][/B] Drug free, alcohol free; she just kicks ass because she loves the violence. Nikki is a fitness freak and martial artists who’s done a brief tour of Japan on the back of her raw fighting ability. Tall, physically fit, possessing the kind of physical strength that’s uncommon in a female wrestler. I’m hoping that footage of Nikki’s stiff, straightforward style will be the best argument we can make for male and female wrestlers working together. [B][I]Stretch the Chicken Boy (Face):[/I][/B] Green goggles, yellow trunks, some kind of purple plumage tattooed onto his chest. No-one is going to take Stretch seriously. Not even us. He’s on the roster because Stretch and Ben have been friends for years, so they’re probably going to end up tagging together for most of their careers. Stretch can put together an almost-decent technical match with a little high-flying mixed in. Owner of the stupidest finishing moves in the entire promotion. [B][I]The Wizard (Heel): [/I][/B]Master of storms, magician of the dark arts, high-flying cruiserweight with a Dungeons and Dragons gimmick. The Wizard is formerly a native of Ottowa and comes to the ring with a suit of armor. Solid on the mic, he’ll also serve as our back-up color commentator while Ben’s in the ring. [B][I]‘Trademark’ Thomas Morgan (Heel):[/I][/B] Thomas isn’t the oldest person on our roster, but he doesn’t carry his years well. Ben and I butted heads when it came to hiring him, with Ben pointing out the various blown opportunities he’s been given in other promotions and me pointing out Morgan’s natural talent as a performer and technical wrestler. I won the fight, this time, but Thomas is stuck in the midcard rather than sitting in the main event where I think he belongs. I don’t expect to keep him long; someone will pick him up pretty quick of BWW gets any attention from the outside world. [B]Midcard[/B] [B][I]‘Geeky’ Becky Petty (Heel): [/I][/B]Rebecca has worked a few matches in North of the Border, but she’s spent the last two years touring the independent women’s circuit in America and Canada. She’s not an attractive girl, to say the least, but she’s planning on using that to her advantage in BWW – embracing her awkward features with a geeky persona. Becky can fly and has a decent mastery of the basics, but she’s little more than an average spot-monkey at the moment. [B][I]Tempest (Heel):[/I][/B] Formerly a goofy disco-dancer going by the name of Tempest Appleby; he wanted something a little more serious when he signed up, so he’s been repackaged as the Acolyte of the Storm and got together a series of lightening-themed outfits to push his new look. Tempest is a cruiserweight with great acrobatic potential and a developing awareness of psychology. [B]Lower Midcard[/B] [B][I]Cal Sanders (Face):[/I][/B] Better known as the leaping lumberjack in Canada. We’d imported Cal for his skills as a high-flyer and submission specialist, but we were pushing him as a working-class boy made good rather than going with his traditionally Canadian Lumberjack gimmick. [B] Managers[/B] [B][I]Osiris (Face):[/I][/B] Osiris is hot and tanned; that’s about the limit of her talent as a manager. We picked her up cheap after calling a local modeling agency and asking if there was anyone interested in working with a wrestling company. She’s just what you’d expect from a model: no good on the mic, no understanding of psychology, pretty good at filling out a bikini. We stuck her with a beach-babe gimmick to play to her strength. Ben practically demanded that she was in his corner, for the first show at least. [B]Referee[/B] [B][I]Xander Summer: [/I][/B]Xander’s operated in the local area for a few years now, working in indy shows where the matches aren’t too demanding. I kind of hope he’ll improve with us, but I’m expecting him to fall by the wayside in a year or two as our wrestlers improve. [B]Commentary[/B] None at the shows themselves, but most of the DVD footage will see a combination of me doing the announcing and Ben or The Wizard sitting in on color. Thomas would be the better choice than either of the other two, but I want to keep him focused and in the ring.[/QUOTE]

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[B][U]BWW: Hungry like the Wolf[/U][/B] Thursday, Week 3, January 2007 Location: Ohio Jewish Centre Attendance: 11 people [QUOTE][B]Hello. Welcome[/B] The show kicks off with Ben Williams standing in the middle of the ring, microphone in his hands. [I]Ben:[/I] Hi folks, welcome to Burning War Wrestling. This is a company put together by wrestlers, for wrestlers, and for the fans of wrestling of all kinds. We don’t care who a wrestler is or where they come from; if they can go, they’ve got a place on our roster. Man or woman; American, Canadian or Japanese; we’ll work with anyone whose young, hungry and looking for a chance to break into the business. Tonight we’ll be kicking things off with the opening rounds of the Burning War Championship tournament, a 7 match series that will see us crown the first ever Burning War champion. [I]Rating: E[/I] [CENTER][B]Cal Sanders/Dragon’s Daughter vs. Storm Lords (Tempest/The Wizard)[/B][/CENTER] The first match of the Burning War era, and it ended up being something of a disappointment. Not a bad match, as far as rookie wrestlers go, but the lack of chemistry between Cal and Dragon’s Daughter hurt things a lot. Despite looking great individually, they just couldn’t quite get on the same page as a tag team and blew a couple of easy spots. The Storm Lords did better, showing they had what it takes to be Burning War’s first official tag-team, but in the end their cohesion wasn’t enough. Cal Sanders landed a teeth-shuddering enzeguri on the Wizard near the nine minute mark, putting him down and rolling him up for the cover. [CENTER][I]Winner: [/I]Cal Sanders \ Dragon's Daughter defeated Tempest \ The Wizard in 8:55 when Cal Sanders defeated The Wizard by pinfall.[I] Rating: [/I]E [B]Thom Morgan; Next Burning War Champion[/B][/CENTER] Thomas Morgan takes centre stage with the microphone. He runs through a quick promo about his match, pointing out that he’s disappointed to be faced with some kid who thinks he’s a chicken rather than someone who may actually mount some kind of challenge to a man with Thom’s technical expertise and good looks. Bring on the jobber; that’s just one less fight between Thomas Morgan and the Burning War Title. [CENTER][I]Rating: E+[/I][/CENTER] [B][CENTER]Heat 1: BWW Championship Tournament Becky Petty vs. Ben Williams[/CENTER][/B] I work on the theory that every show has its unexpected train-wreck; this was ours and we rejoice in the fact that it was the only one on the night. Becky and Ben were both sloppy in the ring, drawing static from the crowd who clearly expected more from the new wave of Sports Entertainment. Neither of them could sell, neither had a great grasp of psychology, and both showed a complete inability to read what the other was doing. Eight minutes of hammed-up spots and awkward pin attempts followed by twenty-five seconds of excitement when Ben climbed to the second rope and launched into his Booyah Bomb (second-rope senton) finisher. To make matters worse, Xander Summer couldn’t even keep up with the awkward action of this match. I shudder to think of what would happen if they’d actually been capable of doing something fluid. [CENTER][I]Winner:[/I] Ben Williams defeated Rebecca Petty in 8:25 by pinfall with a Booyah Bomb. [I]Rating:[/I] F+ [B]Up Close With the Wizard[/B][/CENTER] The Wizard comes out with a pair of mics while some bar stools are dragged into the ring. He announces that this will be the first installment of Up Close With the Wizard, your chance to get up-close and personal with Burning War Wrestling’s wrestlers in a more intimate setting. His first guest, tonight, will be the Martial Arts sensation and all-round Bad Chick: Nikki Power. The interview itself is basically a fluff piece hyping her match with Kashmir, giving Nikki enough time to rant and rave while frothing at the mouth. Eventually she’s so mad that she stands up, towering over the Wizard, and shows off her power by smashing one of the wooden bar stools into splinters on the concrete floor next to the ring. [I][CENTER]Rating: [/I]E-[/CENTER] [B][CENTER]Heat 2: BWW Championship Tournament Thomas Morgan vs. Stretch the Chicken Boy[/CENTER][/B] Thomas Morgan came out firing in this match, throwing Stretch from pillar to post with a series of hard-hitting suplexes that left the Chicken Boy dazed and confused. The crowd cheered every time Stretch got hit, then cheered even harder after he mounted his first counter-attack and revealed how inadequate his wrestling skills actually were once he wasn’t acting as someone else’s punching bag. Again there were jeers from our small-but-vocal fan-base who demanded more from the next wave. Stretch would be spending some quality-time honing his skills after this was done. Thomas took this out clean and simple, throwing Stretch to the mat with a Belly-to-Back Suplex off the top rope. The tiny crowd popped, and Thomas cemented this as the match of the night in everyone’s eyes despite the lackluster talents of Stretch. [CENTER][I]Winner: [/I]Thomas Morgan defeated Stretch The Chicken Boy in 14:42 by pinfall. [I]Rating:[/I] D-[/CENTER] [B][CENTER]Heat 3: BWW Championship Tournament Nikki Power vs. Kashmir Singh[/CENTER][/B] Nikki has a good six inches on the diminutive Kashmir, but she was also strong enough to match him pound-for-pound as the pair traded chops and kicks for the first five minutes of the match. This was the stiffest action Burning War had seen so far, and things just got stiffer as the match went on. Kashmir went topside, only to have his axe-handle attempt met with a brutal kick from Nikki that left him groggy and unable to pick himself up from the mat. Nikki landed three swift kicks into Kashmir’s gut while he was on the ground, then covered him for the pin. [CENTER][I]Winner: [/I]Nikki Power defeated Kashmir Singh in 13:39 by pinfall. [I]Rating:[/I] E[/CENTER] [B][CENTER]Heat 4: BWW Championship Tournament Zoe Amiss vs. Nadia Snow[/CENTER][/B] Ben and I had argued about putting the women as the main event, but Zoe and Nadia showed that they could carry the match if that’s what was required. They put together a good match, although both are used to the psychology used in shorter matches rather than the twenty-minute struggle they were asked to put on here. While they showed enthusiasm, eventually they started falling back on the same spots the audience had seen at the beginning of the match and the shine started to wear off. Nadia won with a Snowballs Chance in Hell (Rolling Senton) [CENTER][I]Winner: [/I]Nadia Snow defeated Zoe Ammis in 20:11 by pinfall with a Snowball’s Chance in Hell. [I]Rating:[/I] E- [B]The Recap[/B] Cal Sanders and Dragon’s Daughter defeated the Storm Lords (E) Ben Williams defeated Becky Petty (F+) Thomas Morgan defeated Stretch the Chicken Boy (D-) Nikki Power defeated Kashmir Singh (E) Nadia Snow defeated Zoe Amiss (E-) Overall E[/CENTER][/QUOTE] Overall everyone was pleased, and the internet buzz suggested we may actually live up to our own hype. Most of the roster had gained a little momentum, enough to make the next couple of shows interesting, and everyone was buzzed to get out there and give it their all at the February show: All the Young Dudes. The bad news came in a few days later, when Ben and I did the accounting for the show. The cost of the momentum was a fair chunk of the cash he’d set aside to keep BWW running, certainly more than we’d expected the show to cost. We’d had our hour-and-a-half opening and gotten what we wanted, but we’d be running leaner shows for the next couple of months until the coffers were replenished. After that, things just got worse. Three days after the show I got a phone-call from the hospital - Tempest had slipped over while at his ballroom dancing class and tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder. The next twelve months would be spent in rehabilitiation while he was recovering from surgery, and BWW was down one wrestler. Fortunately I still had a few names left on my list of potential acquisitions...

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[I][/I][B][U]BWW: All the Young Dudes[/U][/B] Thursday, Week 3, February 2007 Location: Ohio Jewish Centre + Internet Download Attendance: 18 people [QUOTE][CENTER][B]Ben Williams Rocks the Kasbah[/B][/CENTER] Ben: Tonight it’s all about the dudes. And Ben Williams, the biggest dude of them all, will be taking on Thomas Morgan in a Burning War Championship semi-final match. Can I get a boo-yah! Yeah, well, sucks to be me. But I’ll show you, dudes and doodettes. I’ll show you are – Ben Williams is your first Burning War Champion in the making. [CENTER][I]Rating:[/I] E- ***[/CENTER] [B][CENTER]Kashmir Singh vs. Evil Spirit[/CENTER][/B] Kashmir hits the ring to a mild pop, and he’s immediately joined by a slim young guy wearing a grotesque wooden mask, loose black martial-arts pants and a red belt. I put him over as Evil Spirit, a psychotic high-flyer straight from the dark-side of the Japanese subconscious. The bell rang and these two went at it, hammer and tongs, working like they’d been fighting together for years rather than sketching things out earlier this morning when I sent Singh to pick Spirit up from the airport. Evil Spirit went to the top rope early and often, Kashmir gave a great display of raw power when he caught Spirit in mid-air during a crossbody attempt and fluidly dumped him into a Samoan drop. Eventually Kashmir put this away with the Serpent’s Dance (A delayed vertical suplex which he holds for a few seconds while the crowd sings a “na-na-Na-Na-Na, Do-De-Do-de, Na-na-na” in Indian snake-dance style. Spirit is so small, and has decent enough balance, that Kashmir even causes him to sway a little to the tune). The undercard puts on the match of the night, just to show up the company owner and the booker’s pet project, Thomas Morgan. [CENTER][I]Winner: [/I]Kashmir Singh defeated Evil Spirit in 8:11 by pinfall with a Serpent's Dance. [I]Rating:[/I] E+ ***[/CENTER] [B]Thom Morgan, Future Champion[/B] Thomas: Listen here, Ladies and Gentleman, my name is Thomas Morgan and I’m going to be your first Burning War champion. I mean, really; Ben Williams? Ben “I started a company just to get a wrestling gig” Williams? You think he’s going to stop me I’m going to tell you just how this thing is going to go: I hit Williams, he hits the floor, I hit the Trademark and Williams taps like a girl in tap-shoes. All done, I win. You know why? Because I’m talent, I’m all class, and the geeks in charge of this outfit realize it. [CENTER][I]Rating[/I]: E- ***[/CENTER] [B][CENTER]Burning War Champion Semi-Final Match Thomas Morgan vs. Ben Williams[/CENTER][/B] Ben came out playing the cheerful baby-face, and the parts of the crowd that remembered his match last week started booing almost immediately. Osiris came out in a brief bikini and they eased off a little. Thomas Morgan came out, a ****y smart-arse heel, and the cheers started. The match itself was a debacle. We all knew Ben couldn’t match Thomas as a technical worker, so he scurried out of the ring and grabbed a chair only a few minutes after the match started. He’d hit Thomas, Thomas would take the chair off him and retaliate, Ben would duck under the ropes and take a breather for a couple of seconds. When the crowd started giving him static, I had to agree with their assessment. But Ben’s the boss, he wanted a surprise finish, and he wanted to be in the finals. Morgan went down clean after Ben hit him with a standing Booyah Bomb and rolled him up for the pin. [CENTER][I]Winner: [/I]Ben Williams defeated Thomas Morgan in 11:40 by pinfall with a Booyah Bomb. [I]Rating: [/I]E The Recap Kashmir Sing beats Evil Spirit (E+) Ben Williams beats Thomas Morgan (E) Overal E[/QUOTE][/CENTER] Ben and I had a long talk at the post-match, mostly consisting of a very long argument about exactly how-long he could stay in the main event. He just doesn't have the skills or the stamina, and his charisma just isn't enough to carry him yet. Maybe in a year, when he's a little more over, but after the Tournament he'll be stepping aside for some of the other talent. Kashmir and Evil Spirit were something of a surprise, and probably a boon at this stage in the company's development. Spirit, in particular, is exciting to watch and still coming into his own as a wrestler. And we lost money, again, putting us about six-dollars into the red. It's not a huge deal, since March's [B]Girls on Film[/B] will be even cheaper than [B]All the Young Dudes[/B], but it's enough that we'll be skipping a show in April unless there's a major influx of cash.

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[B][U]BWW: Girls on Film[/U][/B] Thursday, Week 3, March 2007 Location: Ohio Jewish Centre (Also available on BWW DVD) Attendance: 14 people [QUOTE][B][CENTER]Nadia Snow…BWW Champion?[/CENTER][/B] Nadia Snow comes out and gets ready to hype up the crowd. She gets out a few words, putting over her opponent Nikki Power, before Zoe Amiss comes charging out of the back with a heavy sledgehammer in hand. Zoe lays Nadia out with a hell-raising scream, and then proceeds to beat Nadia’s face into the mat with a series of stiff hammer-blows. ‘No-one beats me,’ Zoe screams. ‘No-one takes away my opportunity. I’m Zoe Amiss, you bitch. There’s no way you’re better than me. Xander eventually charges into the ring and pulls Zoe away. The medics come out with a stretcher and take Nadia away. This didn't really do anything for hte crowd. No big surprise, but it was necessary for the Zoe/Nadia set-up I’ve got planned. [I]Rating:[/I] F- [B][CENTER]Bra-and-Panties Match Zoe Amiss vs. Dragon’s Daughter[/CENTER][/B] Two hot young wrestlers who can actually go start fighting in an effort to strip one-another down into their underwear. We’re pandering to our small audience, I admit it, but it works. You’ve never seen 14 guys make so much noise, and everyone popped when Zoe laid Dragon’s Daughter out with a Sex Bomb (Stinger Splash) and stripped her down to her black ninja underwear. [CENTER][I]Winner:[/I] Zoe Ammis defeated Dragon's Daughter in 6:54 when Dragon's Daughter was stripped. [I]Rating:[/I] D- (Note to self: Pander to the audiance more often) [B]Nikki Power wants a Match[/B][/CENTER] Zoe Amiss is still celebrating in the ring when Nikki Power emerges from backstage, the sledgehammer in hand. Nikki: You. You took down my opponent; beat her into a bloody pulp with this here hammer. Ordinarily I’d be down with that, but it’s left me something of a problem; I don’t have anyone to fight, and that makes me angry. You see, I’m drug free, I’m alcohol free, but I’m damned sure ready to fight. So I figure you’ve got two choices – either you take Nadia’s place as a proxy in my semi-finals match, or I just beat the holy hell out of you with your own hammer right now. Zoe stares at Nadia for a few minutes. Zoe: Bring it. [CENTER][I]Rating:[/I] E-[/CENTER] [B][CENTER]Burning War Champion Semi-Final Match Nikki Power vs. Zoe Amiss (fighting for Nadia Snow)[/CENTER][/B] Nikki Power was angry, and she came out with both guns blazing. The early stage saw Zoe take a few stiff elbow blows to the head, which left her backing off and screaming ‘Not the face, not the face.’ While Zoe managed a few counter-offensives, and even caught Nikki with the Sex Bomb at one point, Nikki never really looked like she was letting go of this one. It was all over when Power landed a stiff Nikk-Kick (super-kick) that knocked Zoe out cold and covered her for the pin. [CENTER][I]Winner:[/I] Nikki Power defeated Zoe Ammis in 13:18 by pinfall with a Nikk-Kick. [I]Rating: [/I]E[/CENTER] [center][B]Recap[/B] Zoe Amiss stripped Dragon’s Daughter (D-) Nikki Power beat Zoe Amiss (E) [I]Overall:[/I] E+[/CENTER][/QUOTE] The ladies deliver our strongest card yet, largely thanks to the combination of sex appeal and brutal violence. We still lost a boat-load of cash, even with the minimal number of wrestlers we used. Our sponsorship budget may cover a match between two people, if we're lucky, and that's probably not quite enough to justify charging people 2 bucks for their night out. That means we’ll be skipping an April show and bringing out the big guns for [B]We Could be Heroes [/B]in May. In other news, we noticed that folks on the internet had stopped referring to Cal Sanders as a flashy cruiserweight and started thinking of him as a super-junior. He e-mailed to let us know he was considering looking towards some overseas promotions and seeing if he could get some new offers.

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[B][U]April Update[/U][/B] April was a slow month for BWW. No show, no money, nothing but the DVD sales for our compilation of the first three shows to make us some money. That and the sponsors, and it’s safe to say the sponsors weren’t happy. Ben and I were slinging burgers at McDonalds to make ends meet. We spent most of our time off slinging ideas back and forth about matches for We Could be Heroes in May. I tried to ignore the niggling feeling in the back of my head that was pointing out everyone’s contracts would be up sometime in the very near future; that wasn’t going to be a pretty month. The rest of the roster was scrounging for work. Halfway through the month I got a very apologetic call from Kashmir Singh. ‘North of the Border,’ he said. ‘They’ve made an offer. I’ll probably take it, if it’s any good.’ It wasn’t, but he took it anyway. A written guarantee for $250 a month is better than the $100 we were paying him every time he was on the card. I couldn’t be too mad at him; this is what Burning War was all about. And, to be honest, I figured that NotBPW would take Morgan if they were going to take anyone on our roster. But it left a gap, and the gap needed to be filled. I went back to the phones, looking for a replacement. Then I got the phone call from the Ohio Jewish Centre, pointing out that I hadn’t cancelled my initial booking for April. I hadn’t remembered to take the blurb about the show off the website either. That meant there were ten people asking about their tickets, and no show for them to go too. I told them to send everyone home and spent the next three hours kicking myself for being an idiot. April saw a profit, but nothing like we would have seen if we hadn’t had to pay cancellation fees.

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[B][U]BWW: We Could Be Heroes[/U][/B] Thursday, Week 4, May 2007 Location: Ohio Jewish Centre + DVD sales Attendance: 14 people [QUOTE][CENTER][B]Revenge of the Nerds[/B][/CENTER] The house lights go dim, and when they come up there’s a seven-foot monster of a wrestler standing in the middle of the ring. He’s dressed in a tight Star Trek t-shirt, a super-hero mask, and has long dreadlocks with glitter rubbed into them. He pulls up a microphone. David: My name is David Goliath, and I am the Revenge of the Nerds. For years other people beat me up because I played Dungeons and Dragons and watched the Sci-Fi channel. Then I hit puberty and I got big. Real big. And I got a ton of aggression to take on everyone who thought they were cooler than me. [CENTER][I]Rating:[/I] E-[/CENTER] [B][CENTER]David Goliath vs. The Wizard[/CENTER][/B] One of them is a seven-foot face with sub-par brawling skills. The other is a weedy Canadian heel with high-flying gimmicks. If you’re expecting a squash, you’d almost be right. Goliath grounds and pounds the smaller man for a long while, but the Wizard proves himself to be the master of psychological warfare. The turning point comes half-way through the match, when he rolls out of the ring and grabs a microphone, spitting blood. Wizard: Go on, hit me. But it wont change anything. You may be big, but you’re still the same geek you were in high-school, and we’re still going to laugh at you once all this is over. Seriously, dude, Star Trek? Are you seriously trying to prove you’ll never have sex? Goliath charges, Wizard lowers the rope, Goliath takes a hard bump to the ground below. While the ref is helping Goliath get back in, Wizard pulls a pair of brass knuckles out of his tights and hits Goliath in the head. [CENTER][I]Winner: [/I]The Wizard defeated David Goliath in 7:33 by pinfall after using a foreign object. [I]Rating:[/I] F+[/CENTER] [B][CENTER]Nadia Wants Revenge[/CENTER][/B] Nadia snow comes into the ring with a microphone, a nice dress, and her head bandaged. Nadia: Zoe Ammis thinks she’s the sexiest woman in Burning War Wrestling. She’s also the kind of bitch that’ll beat her competitors down with a sledgehammer and blow their chance to win a Championship. Tonight I’m going to prove that I’m sexier and better in the ring. I’m challenging her to a Evening Gown match; the winner is the one who’s still wearing clothes by the time the match is over. [CENTER][I]Rating:[/I] E [B]Zoe Ammis vs. Nadia Snow (Evening Gown Match)[/B][/CENTER] Fortunately, Zoe just happens to have a little black dress handy backstage, so she comes out looking smoking. The two women lock up, putting together a pretty good technical match despite the eye-candy basis. Eventually Nadia hits the Snowball’s Chance in Hell and strips Zoe down to her underwear, winning the match. Unfortunately the expected embaressment doesn’t happen – Zoe poses for the crowd, blowing kisses, and the fans cheer the heel on her way out of the ring. [CENTER][I]Winner: [/I]Nadia Snow defeated Zoe Ammis in 8:12 when Zoe Ammis was stripped. [I]Rating: [/I]D[/CENTER] [B][CENTER]No Geeks For the Wizard[/CENTER][/B] The Wizard is back-stage in a promo recorded for the DVD crowd. Wizard: Once you’re a geek, you’re always a geek. It doesn’t matter how big a guy is, you can always take him down if you know his weakness. I guess David is just a little more Goliath than he’d like. Seven foot tall and desperate; do you really think he’s got any chance of making it in this business? [I][CENTER]Rating: E-[/CENTER][/I] [B][CENTER]Stretch the Chicken Boy/Cal Sanders vs. Thomas Morgan/Evil Spirit[/CENTER][/B] Stretch and Cal prove a bad combination, spending more time arguing with one another than focusing on the match. Thomas and Spirit doe a slightly better job, and could possible even develop into a sound team if they were given enough work together. This is basically a spot-fest without much psychology; even Thomas Morgan spent some time on the top rope. He put Stretch away with a Totally Trademarked (Exploder Suplex)) [CENTER][I]Winner: [/I]Thomas Morgan and Evil Spirit defeated Stretch The Chicken Boy and Cal Sanders in 17:45 when Thomas Morgan defeated Stretch The Chicken Boy by pinfall with a Totally Trademarked. [I]Rating:[/I] E [B]Lets Make this Interesting[/B][/CENTER] Nikki Power is in the ring, dressed up like a kick-boxer with her loose pants, singlet and fists taped up. She demands a microphone and addresses the backstage area. Nikki: I’m drug free, I’m alcohol free, and I’m ready for blood. Tonight I’ll be kicking the butt of Ben Williams in order to become the first Burning War champion. Ben Williams is a weak little puff-ball who can barely fight a main event. So I’m going to make it easy for him. Tonight’s final will be a first-blood brawl, and I’ll even let our esteemed owner take a free shot in order to get the ball rolling. [CENTER] [I]Rating:[/I] E- [B]Burning War Championship Final Nikki Power vs. Ben Williams[/B][/CENTER] Nikki lives up to her word, standing still in the ring and offering her face for a free punch. Ben Williams takes it, slapping her hard and following it up with a European uppercut to the caw. Nikki no-sells it, grins, and hammers Ben with a stiff forearm shot to the face. Ben goes down, blood gushing from his nose, and we have the shortest main event in Burning War history. Osiris stands at ringside, looking horrified. Nikki raises the title belt over her head and stalks out of the ring. [CENTER][I]Winner: [/I]Nikki Power defeated Ben Williams in 0:35 when Ben Williams was bust open. Nikki Power wins the BWW Champion title. [I]Rating: [/I]E- [B]Recap[/B] The Wizard beats David Golaith (F+) Nadia Snow beats Zoe Ammis (D) Thomas Morgan and Evil Spirit beat Cal Sanders and Stretch the Chicken Boy (E) Nikki Power embarresses Ben Williams, winning the Burning War Champion belt (E-) Final: E-[/CENTER][/QUOTE] We’re back in the red, so we’ll be skipping June and coming back with a vengeance in July. This time I’ve remembered to cancel our booking at the hall. We played with our merchandising options over the last two shows, dropping nearly everything we were producing in favor of bikini-clad posters of Nadia Snow, Dragons Daughter and Zoe Ammis. All three are selling like hot-cakes on the internet, earning more money than we’d get for a dozen shows. David Goliath is a created Canadian worker, a super-heavyweight with average brawling and performance skills. He’s an outstanding face (A*) with a real talent for Comedy gimmicks and his own website full of Star Trek trivia. He’s been brought in to serve as a middle finger held up to the various Sports Entertainment brands that assume serious Monster heels will crush smaller wrestlers over and over again.

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[B][U]June Notes[/U][/B] Ben and I are back at McDonalds, slinging burgers and dreaming of better days. The sole real blip of excitement over the course of the month is watching the sponsorship money trickle into the account and seeing the debut of Kashmir on North of the Border Pro Wrestling’s weekly TV show. They’re only pushing Kashmir as an Enhancement Talent at the moment, so he shows up working as Frankie Dee’s partner in a tag match against Frankie Perez and Craig Green in the third show of the month. Kash does the job to Perez in a relatively swift match, and he doesn’t even get a look in for the rest of the month. Hopefully he’ll get a better push soon, but I expect he’s going to get lost among the talent on the NotBPW’s roster. I e-mail Ben the line-up for the July show towards the end of the month, once we're sure the money is coming in and the finance is good. The rundown is pretty quick basic, in the hopes we can stop hemorrhaging money and skipping shows. [QUOTE][B][U]BWW: Eruption[/U][/B] Thursday, Week 4, July 2007 at the Ohio Jewish Center David Goliath vs. Becky Petty Dragon’s Daughter vs. The Wizard Nikki Power vs. Cal Sanders[/QUOTE]