Mr. S£im Citrus

.... There's not much that I would choose to say in response to that that's not going to lead to a flamewar the likes of which I have neither the time nor the disposition for, so I shall withdraw. Just let it stand that it is my opinion that the title situation should be resolved at Ground Zero.

These: ... do not sound like the words of someone who "knows" that the belt is more important that his angle. They sound more like the words of someone who thinks that it isn't fair that he may have to choose between one and the other. The way I see it, if you were planning to do something, then you're not being punished by not getting to do something else. That's a little like if you and your girl are about to go to supper, and about a half hour before you get ready to go, your friend calls you and tells you that he and the rest of your friends are going to go to the club, or wherever it is that you think is a cool place to go hang out at. And you don't want to blow off your girl, because you want a little action later, but you want to go to the wild out spot, too. You can't always have it both ways, and sometimes you just have to pick one, and live with your pick.

Well, seeing as how I declined to participate in this thing when Raynor asked me last week, I should hope that this indictment isn't directed at me. My objection is not based on anything that affects me personally. If you're willing to write two matches for PPV, then it's not really an issue. But when you want the whole thing to be pushed back past the PPV, and thereby hold up booking for the IN title, and make the other six guys in the invitational have to wait on you and Zyon to finish your storyline, then that is quite certainly greedy. Or selfish, if you prefer. You might have said that you'd write two matches, but Zyon indicated that he wants the whole thing pushed back, so you two can blow off your feud at GZ. And that's messed up.

But that's my whole point: if your angle is that important then, by all means, work the angle. If you want to be in the invitational, then be in the invitational, but why should the people who haven't had an angle worked out for months have to sit and wait just so that you two can work your angle and be in the invitational? And why should the title continue to be held up just so you can have both things? Like you said, you weren't anticipating the champion quitting when you decided to work this angle, so obviously the IN title being available wasn't considered important relative to the angle... so why is it important now? Since you've obviously put a lot of thought into your storyline, what's so terrible about seeing your angle through, and then challenging the new champion after Ground Zero? "I think that B should have to be postponed because I was already going to do A and I want to be able to do A and B" just doesn't seem like a good enough reason to me for a major title to be held up beyond a PPV.

I understand what you're doing; I'm just saying that anybody who says they want in the IN title situation, and then complains about it possibly affecting their PPV plans is being a trifle greedy... If your PPV plans are really that important to you, then hold off on your title shot, and if the title shot is really that important, then postpone your other plans. It was bad enough when Muzz quit as the WHC, but at least that situation was resolved on PPV. The bookers like to present the IN title as the #2 belt in the fed, and I don't think that there's a good reason to have it continue to be held up beyond Ground Zero, just because a couple of guys want to eat their cake and have the other guys', too.

Well, if their PPV plans are that important... nobody says that they have to win their qualifying match; it's not like, if they lose the qualifier, they'll never get another shot at the title...

Well, I didn't show, so I reckon that commenting on the show is the least I could do: You can barely make it out from reading the show, but I think that somebody may have had a birthday recently... If Matheson got a sheet cake for Flesher, I have to presume that Grappler is in on the plot. Tom plays mind games with Grendel, and mind games from Flesher are always good! JJ Johnson returns from watching cartoons with his nieces and nephews, and is uncharacteristically loquacious. Toxxic comes out to shut him up, and they start to reminisce about the good ol' days of R-0. I start to wonder whether they plan to rip off WWE and do a revival, until J³ gets to the point and demands a title shot. Toxxic starts to decline, and the commish is out to make the match. Stephens says that he thinks Va'aiga deserves a shot first, and the truth hurts... Toxxic, as J³ knocks him on his ass with an elbow. My gut says a triple threat is in the works, and I reckon I could live with that. Bruce and Wayne are late to the show, and had to hitch a ride with some Spaceballs at that. Bruce seems to be despondent, indignant, and generally pissed off at losing to Toxxic... (and if you think that he's bent out of shape now, just wait until *I* kick his ass... ) Bruce goes off to drown his sorrows with Larry the Cable Jedi, while it appears that Wayne is about to be eaten. And you hate to see that... The opening match hasn't been posted yet, so we're back to more of Bruce and Larry's Excellent Adventure! Anakin Skywalker makes a cameo appearance and pitches a fit when he can't get a ketchup bottle open; he decides to take his revenge with a lightsaber... hilarity ensues... Wayne, who is miraculously not eaten, returns and announces to Bruce that he's been booked to vie for the International Title. Bruce looks remarkably displeased. Back to the Tom Flesher show, and he gets a few laughs at Grendel's expense, doing his best PTI impersonation with a head on a stick. He's is rudely interrupted, however, by a delivery man who arrives with a cake; Tom, still paranoid about being suplex through said cake, kicks it into the delivery man's face, only to discover that it was sent by his oversexed moll. Next, we find Van Siclen in Joe Peters' office; Van Siclen seems a mite perturbed over having to fight Cardboard Cutout... He reminds Peters that he owns him, because apparently that's all he does these days... Then, just to upstage Peters, Van Siclen goes out and sells for the cardboard, before winning the grueling match with the Riot Act. Back to Bruce, who is apparently hanging out behind the building, smoking a square while he kicks the bobo with Chewbacca. I'm guessing that Bruce's mother's third husband (Wayne's daddy, perhaps?) may have been part-Wookie, since Bruce seems to be able to understand him pretty well. On second thought, Wayne apparently can't understand Wookie, so maybe it was Bruce's daddy... Chewbacca directs Bruce to a bar, and off he goes. Hot damn! We've got an actual match... and it only took thirteen posts... Austin appears to be holding his own against Manson... but I should have known better; all the Jedi shit their pants as Manson breaks out the Force Lightning toasts Sly for a few seconds before putting him out of his misery with MANSONOSITY! Bruce has made it to the bar, and it turns out that he's been scouted by Palpatine. The "Chancellor" offers him power and all that, if he'll just kill Anakin; Bruce appears set to ink the deal, but wants to know what Sidious can do to help him win the IN title... Sidious pulls out the Cliché playbook, and that doesn't sit well with Bruce; he leaves the bar, but not before sticking Palpatine with the check! WC and Rageheart are up next. Wildchild is off to a good start, until Scott turns the tables with a Greco-Roman thumb to the eye... Rageheart pounds WC's spine into jelly and then goes for... *dramatic pause* ... a resthold. But, at least it's not a bearhug, right? Rageheart finally lets up on the Camel Clutch to go for a stalling suplex instead. And, even after pretty much dominating the match, Scott still tries to CHEAT TO WIN~! WC starts to hulk up after kicking out of the rollup, before he remembers that he's supposed to sell the back. Rageheart counters Presumed Guilty with brute strength. WC with an innovative Superplex counter that I'll have to work into my repertoire. Tornado DDT on the outside leads to a near countout win for WC. Cutter only gets two. FSP misses, leading to a Tiger Driver for a clean Rageheart win. Hardly Dace's best work, but I don't really feel like I have the right to criticize when I didn't even show, so I'll shut up now. This show has gone too long without some Taamo, so thankfully he's back. He's still worried about getting suplexed into a sheet cake, but Matheson assures him that he's got nothing to worry about. He appears to be heading towards the ring, but he must have gotten lost on the way, as there's no match to report. Bruce continues to drown his sorrows in an adult beverage, when he gets a pep talk from Yoda of all people. There is what is essentially a soliloquy by Bruce, where he resolves that he will not allow himself to be defined by the Hardcore Title, or something to that effect. Michael Cross has interview time, and hot damn, have we become the WWE tonight? Is this Smarkdown or RAW? Anyway... Cross blames Kaibatsu for something vague, and pretty much accuses him of ruining their friendship. He declares himself the top Cruiserweight wrestler, which I suppose having the World Cruiserweight Championship means he is... Cross plays Jan Ken Po, and it turns out that Iron beats Wind. Cross appears to throw his hat in the IN Title mix as he heads out to his match... Cross slaps Zyon around like a little girl until the little boy with a girl's name comes in to make the save. The show's winding down, but we can't go out without some more Flesher, so Judge brings him by a birthday cupcake... only to be the one who finally gets him; it wasn't a suplex, but it was a sufficient payoff to a night-long running gag... Meanwhile, down the hall, Joe Peters has a BRILLIANT~! idea: since Toxxic and Landon refuse to fight each other again, he'll make them tag team partners! It'll be great! And, as we close the show, J³ rips off Scott Pretzler by beating up Yoda. Only, this time, "It was a screwjob!" has been replaced by "Fuckin' spot monkeys." Not enough wrestling for my taste, but it was good for what it was.

For having the nerve to make a thread here in Community/General saying that I thought that Max King (ChrisMWaters) is a cool guy because he likes Nora Greenwald (née Molly Holly) and Megaman, just like me. Apparently, Drea had a problem with it, for some reason, and decided to mock me. But everybody thought it was funny, including me, so everybody wins. EDIT - And here it is.

Wait... isn't J³ Kerry Staunton? Is he pulling double duty, or did he sell the rights to the character to Tom Brandi?

Sorry Dace, but I wasn't able to give you a run for your money. For some reason, I forgot that Smarkdown goes up on Mondays, and I had class tonight, so I couldn't get it done. Maybe next time.

Happy Birthday to Taamo!

I do, obviously. Drea was making fun of me.

Thoth never talks about the fed besides reminiscing. Apparently, ever since he retired, he's decided that he can't be bothered. Personally, I mostly listen to hear what the other writers sound like... CIA has definitely brought the quality of the show up, and I'm holding out hope that Thoth can get Flesher, Stevens and/or King on his show. I can definitely do without listening to Thoth and his fixation with anime and video games, but I suspect that, if he didn't get to talk about it, he'd probably quit doing the show, so I just sort of zone out during those parts and try to enjoy the rest of it.

Maybe when you're older? I'm thirty-one, and I still don't know what the hell that was... I've come to expect some degree of strangeness during the Thoth Report, but that was a little above and beyond.

Perhaps having CC solicit the writers every now and then to ask us where we'd like the shows to be held, as opposed to pulling stuff out of a hat and just assuming that we'll find as cool as they do, may alleviate some of this.

Hey man, don't feel like you have to change; just perfect what it is you do, and don't concern yourself with fitting a mold. We've had guys here who write script style... hell, we've had a guy write his matches in the first person. The best advice that I ever received after getting bumped from the JL is to stick with what makes you you; too many people try to change their style to fit other writers, or how they think they are expected to write, and they fail miserably. If your match on Lockdown is indicative on how you prefer to write, then focus on refining that, rather than homogenizing your style. Just try not to get discouraged if you come across a few tough losses; believe me, it happens to everybody. And welcome; we can always use some fresh meat around here.

Uhm, no. The fact that he chose not to settle for a title that would have been essentially "handed" to him. It's classy to decide you'd rather earn it.

Propers to Sly; that's class.

:: sighs :: I wasn't calling the former champions jobbers; it was a commentary on the fact that Jimmy spent most of the time in the ring, and the Doomstroyer pretty much just came in, got one or two licks in, and got pinned. Which is what happened all the time in those 80s squashes. And FWIW, like I said before, I'm in favor of more squashes. In fact, I think that it's a little bit of a stretch to believe that everybody in the fed is close enough in talent for all of the matches to be competitive. Some guys have to be better than the other guys, and the ability to successfully portray that is one of the things that makes Flesher stand out. A superbly written squash should beat an average "balanced" match, in my opinion. It's just a shame that Taamo might be the only guy in the fed who actually has any skill at writing those sort of matches.

Hey... it happens...

Well, I got out of class early, and the show is pretty short, so... what the hell, I'll comment: So, Van Siclen is coming back to "right the wrongs of the fed," and he figures the best way to start is to extort Joe Peters? A'ight then... Van Siclen goes on to wrestle what's essentially an old '80s squash match against Stryke, where the jobber face gets some offense in before making his One Big Mistake™ and jobbing clean to the heel's finisher. Not bad for a first match back; personally, I think we need to see some more squash matches in the SWF... I'm probably going to regret asking, but what the hell are crow jewels? Anyway, Blank seems almost unreasonably articulate for a redneck, but it's an e-fed, so what the hell, right? Overly eloquent or not, I'm glad you eventually got turned around to calling out Stephens, because I wasn't really buying the whole respect thing. Staunton and Rageheart no-show again, which makes me sad; why do the good ones always quit before they even get started? I mean, I they've got this whole Steiners throwback thing going, and they just can't seem to get it together. Interesting match between Blank and Grendel, and this comes from someone who generally detests "House Rules" matches... I loved the spot where you knocked Grendel off the top rope with the ladder. I think you went a little overboard with the phaser fire, but the spot where Blank beat up the guy who shot his beer was a nice touch... I'm guessing everybody who was flown out for the show is covered for MANSONOSITY, since the platform seems to be destroyed, or something, and yet there's still one more match... I don't do comedy matches, because I can't write comedy worth a damn, but I appreciate good comedy matches, and Flesher and Grappler have great chemistry for writing comedy; the best active writers at doing shtick by far, and probably the best since the heyday of J&R; I also like Flesher and Grappler's writing because they know when to put the shtick aside and get down to business... I have been perpetually distressed by the neutering of the DDT into a transition move, both in actual professional wrestling and in our e-fed; I may be quibbling, but an Evenflow should be good for more than a one-count. That's priceless. I also marked for the N64 wrestling reference... MatFlesh's characterization of Jimmy the Doom reminds me of a comic book character whose name I can't recall that would just spout off random shit for no particular reason. And, since that's how Drea herself comes across half the time, it seems apropos... I've got no beef with Blank personally, but I have to admit that I chuckled at that bit about the floating ribs... I also loved the faux-patriotism, but you'll pardon me if I say that Ejiro did it better with the US Title. Great match, though; based on the structure of the match, this also came across a little like the old '80s squashes, in that the more established jobber got in most of the token offense and did most of the selling before making the hot tag to the less established jobber, who comes in and takes the pin. And, like I said before, I'm all for that...

That doesn't match my memory of how he did it, nor does it match my memory of how Danny described it when he was using it as a finisher. My match is done, anyway. I'll try to proofread it before I send it in, but I'm through with it.

And, by the way, I thought that the Axe Bomber hit with the forearm? Isn't hitting with the bicep the same as a plain old clothesline?

I've seen the show... many years ago; one of my friends from high school was a big MST fan. I never really got into it.

You did really mean "optional," right? I'm not going to be penalized for not using them, am I?