Bruce Blank

Not SUPER heavy on action today - although we can still pin our hopes on Flesher/Landon and the opening tag match Rageheart / Wildchild had potential but just felt a bit short I guess. And who here wishes they had written for Cardboard Comet now? (Raises hand) The Flesher promos were excellent and another JJJ return signals that we're apparently getting close to a PPV.

yeah JJ is splitting off from Johnson to form his own seperate entity Oh and I'm saddened and then saddened some more by the distinct lack of Hardcore matches on the Hardcore show or are all three shows now just generic shows with no themes? So sad (now if Mr. VS would like to add a stip I'm cool with that)

Well since you're not in it (whatever it'll be) you'll be spared

They'd be fired for telling the truth and not sticking to Vince's script

Why not, I'll bite Special Prediction: Crown the New International Champion I don't know but the winner will be crowned by fighting off 3 bears and then finding the salmon that swallowed the golden ring that signifies that you're a winner ~The Main Event~ Cruiserweight Championship Match Michael Cross © vs. Zyon Zyon has the goods definitly - then again Cross already beat Zyon once. I don't think he'll beat him twice though, threepeat Cruiserweight Contendership Order Match Tom Flesher vs. Landon Maddix Well with Landon waving the proverbian white flag I'm thinking either Flesher or a double no show. Wildchild vs. Scott Rageheart Dub-Cee Punishment Match Michael Van Siclen vs. Cardboard Comet Cardboard Comet after a Cardboard Clutch! Tag Team MAAAAADNESS Match The Axis (Trent Hawk and Ciro Vitale w/ Mr. Kobe) vs. The Bemani Cross Wizards (Thoth~! and Ced Ordonez~!) The Axis or I'll be very disappointed Bonus Hardcore Match Manson Vs Austin Sly 2/8th of the International Title match collide!! Sly wins, then runs off with some guys belt thinking it's the International title and then celebrates for 3 weeks straight

Is that the format used for the Santo tournament in CMLL? Or in other words what EXACTLY Torneo Cibernetica?

HMMMM who would you kill? (make it worth my while )

Oh wait - Matt Myers, there is 8. We can't forget him even though the poor guy can't speak up for himself

Overrated? I'm sorry but outside of his team with Dynamite who raves about how great Davey Boy was? He's not regarded as a legendary wrestler is he? I liked him, he was a good power guy with more mobility than most of the stiffs of that time - I always thought he was GOOD but not a great wrestler Solid midcard, occational world title challenger with the right story behind him.

8 people? I count only 7 from the Smarkdown card thread Bruce Blank Manson Zyon Landon Maddix Akira Kaibatsu Austin Sly Hollywood Spike Who did I miss?

Considering that the PPV is only 2 shows after Lockdown have qualifiers on Lockdown and then the actual title match at the PPV (could even involve some of the 6 that didn't qualify in a #1 contenders dealie) Either 2 4 Way matches or 4 regular matches would be a good way to go to qualify for the final, with stips from the old school (Bullrope, Chain match, Street Fight those kinds of matches) Although I am down with anything, including an 8 man Elimination Hell in a Cell match *thumbs up*

Just book a series of "Blindfold matches" and you'll have everyone clamoring for something with House Rules instead, E-feds don't hold the patent on odd matches after all

So your complaint isn't "it's just too odd" it's "I don't know them" - we could do shows from odd locations and imaginary places forver as long as you know them? Halo - clearly states it's a bunch of soldiers, so think of it as any tour of Iraq or Afganistan, it's not like you HAVE to sell intricate details of the Halo universe and they're still humans so I don't see the big problem MST3K - it said "crowd of 50 to 5000 fans" - if you chose not to use the MST3K commentary it's not that different than anywhere else really. Reboot? So they're bytes and sprites or whatever, just have them react like humans since that's how they act in the series basically and you're good to go. Star Wars - you have two crowds, the close up crowd of the council and then the fans outside the windows to provide you the majority of the reactions, it's not THAT big a deal and honestly it's the first show where the crowd can't just be sold as any generic crowd if you want to write it like that. People are making mountains out of mole hills here just cause we go away from the "safe" settings for a couple of shows - cause there seems to be an inordenate amount of complaining about what'll probably be like 1% of all SWF shows but is made out to be like a HUGE chunk of SWF history. Don't worry I'm sure we'll resume normal touring soon so you all can sell the crowd of Des Moins with all their differences compared to the crowd of St. Louis. And when have we been in a place where there haven't been fans? there is a ring, there are people around it - you decide how "into it" they are - the arena isn't your traditional arena, but that's IT, you got everything else if you chose to use it.

Hey that's never stopped me before - if it didn't win it's fair game

Shock, surprise, great matches & storylines can be built whether it's Alderaan or Alabama - the setting is just the windowdressing for the federation, the real meat of the federation are the matches and the storylines written. They shouldn't hamper you unless you let them by getting too hung up on WHERE we are instead of WHAT story you're trying to tell. Yeah I enjoy the fictional tour obviously but then again I enjoy every location where there is something to make it stand out - something that's more than just a generic "Somewhere nondescript, USA". But as much as I enjoy the tour what I enjoy the most is telling a story, building something with someone else - something I've been trying to do since I returned from my break but haven't quite gotten yet. But then again right now it doesn't look like there are THAT many stories being told in general, which is a shame. If you enjoy the twists and turns of a great story - then help make them happen, if you enjoy great wrestling matches, write them I mean have you all be saddled with house rules match after house rule match lately? or has it been the rare occurance except for those of us that like those types of matches?

That's why I threw in a "pre-match steel chair" On a slightly different note - was the main event the only match that was actually a competitive match?

"McPhisto it is, Edwin!!" *Yoda's chair bops up and down as he totally loses it* Before we go on - I do understand what both Manson & Mike are saying, to each his own and I would like to think that there is room for this in this federation. House Rules: Before the fictional world tour they weren't on EVERY show, they were used more sparringly (usually in my UV matches ) but you can't pass up the opportunity to do a house rules match in some of these locations. But I agree they have their place and shouldn't be worn out by over use. Those not booked in a house rules match on this tour, meh - a few comments here and then, nothing major and you're good to go if that's all you want to do. We've yet to have a show that didn't actually feature a ring I don't see the arenas as a huge deal, they just have to be sold a little less generically than usual. And maybe it's just me but there are only so many "regular standard matches" I can read in a row before my attention wanders.

Hey-Hey maybe they can suck less than Vince trying to remake ECW after his own ideas?

Alright you're not getting what I'm trying to say here, it's not about winning or losing but the matches he's been in with big guys - So let me counter with this questions. Since he hasn't had a hard time with big guys and all. Has all his wins over big guys been complete cake walks or have they challenged him, pushed him because of his relative small size, low strength and low stamina? You can have a hard time and win by overcoming it - or do you write most matches Vs Heavies as if it was no big deal to Toxxic? Consider also this from your profile: and also your reply to my question about Toxxic's moveset Writing Toxxic Vs a big guy and not having Toxxic have a hard time would go against the profile and your own words. You see what I'm saying?

Yeah that shark has been jumped already

Ya'll are a bunch of babies crying over House Rules is all I can say - ain't got no imagination or something? How about this one - a "Spin the Wheel" Gauntlet match no house rules stips, just a bunch of "Old School" match types (There was talk about making this belt an "old school" type of belt a while ago) *EDIT*I stand corrected: 6 names so far, Spike just bitched about House Rules but didn't specically state that he wanted in the match

that's amazing news, hopefully he won't have to endure any CHemo them - AWESOME news.

Erm but the character Bruce Blank is a 17 year veteran - and with the size advantage and the fact that Stephens has had a hard time with big guys makes it a little unbelievable to have Bruce as the underdog in the match. And I love comedy writing, I didn't know when I'd get a golden chance like that again, so I went for it - and it was fun to do. I wish Comedy matches had better odds here in the SWF or I would have gone with a comedy character and done that kind of stuff instead of the Hardcore nutjob character

10 years? Man I feel old the nWo thing got overdone when they let just about ANYONE join (Bryan Addams? hello?) instead of being an elite squad, it watered down the concept so bad and then it turned into a Red Vs White war that frankly should have been the death knell of the group.

6 people up for the title so far - this ain't going to be easy to win.