State of the SWF

[Chuck Woolery 0]

So yeah, it's officially been one pay-per-view cycle since the Van Siclen administration (myself, Tom, and Thoth) officially was put into the CC position, and I'd like to think that thus far we've done a pretty good job. Card quality has stayed the same, and we've taken these months to try and implement at least one new idea... and even though it faltered, we're still hoping to find ways to improve the overall atmosphere of the SWF. And as such..

 

The State of the SWF

 

i. Participation

 

I think that thus far, participation has remained about the same, perhaps a little bit lower. November and December have a history of being very rough, but we managed to escape those months with almost no double no-shows and a lower rate of no-shows than in past years. We didn't cancel any shows either, which shows that we still have enough people around to book cards, always a good thing in my book. January and February have historically brought people back to the fed, and with Mak Francis' return, it looks as though that trend won't change.

 

However, there are areas that are still lacking. One of them in particular is the chat room. The chat thread has seen a surprising amount of activity the last couple of weeks, but as someone who's been in and out of chat, the only people who are ever around are retirees and people like Toxxic. A healthy chat room usually leads to a strong community atmosphere, more comments on matches, etc., and it serves as a great place to talk about angles that you may want to do. In short, it's a way for people to talk about the fed, and overall lends to a healthier community atmosphere. I would like to see some of the newer guys (Maddix, King and Cortez in particular) in chat, as well as anyone else who doesn't frequent the room. It really is a good time, and there's usually someone to talk to.

 

Another big issue is a lack of competitive matches. As sad as it may seem, I had two competitive matches over the last cycle. That's two out of six or seven, and that's an awful ratio no matter how you look at it. I'm willing to attribute part of that to the end-of-the-year bug that bites all of us, but part of it could (and should) be avoided. I don't want to get too hostile here, but a lot of people have fallen into a trap where they feel it's better to no-show than write a thousand-word match. If the opponent writes, he's going to win, and the loser as a general rule will claim that it's not a legitimate victory, in the process devaluing the work that the winning writer put into the match. And then if the opponent no-shows, then there's a glaring hole in the show that could've been avoided if someone had bitten the bullet and written a 1000 word rushjob instead of trying to save their pride by no-showing. It's a losing situation all the way around. My point is this: It is better for the fed as a whole for you, as a writer, to write a 1000-word rushjob than just no-showing.

 

ii. Angles

 

There's a lack of good angles these days that's frightening. I actually think this is looking up, as the impending angles involving Revolution Zero and Martial Law all look very good, but before this CC had to hold people's hands and guide them into a PPV match. Why was Edwin/Raynor the best match in SWF history? Because it was a well-written 12000 word affair with backstory. It didn't have a title on the line, but it had a storyline, and that's a big part of where we've been lacking recently. I will give credit to Toxxic for trying to do stuff like this, and it's good to see members of the fed respond as they have, but there needs to be more angles across the board. Lower-card guys should be dying to put together an angle, because CC does take notice, and we will reward people who write good angles. At the beginning of this year, Va'aiga pushed himself to the top of the card almost solely on his angle-writing ability. As the head of CC, I'll tell you right now -- anybody in the fed right now can do that.

 

iii. Recruiting

 

We need to get a website up and stat. This is mainly directed at Johnny, but I'm putting it in here so that the rest of you guys can browbeat him into doing it when he gets a chance. If we can get a website up soon, it'll go a long way into giving us a stable base where we can recruit new people. Right now there's nowhere for us to point banner ads to, which takes away just about any outside advertising we could get. Any posting you guys could do on boards you might frequent would be amazingly helpful, but we need somewhere for you guys to link back to... Johnny, man, this one's all on you.

 

iv. Changes

 

Alas, this year also ushered out two of the most influential people in the fed's history. "Grand Slam" Mark Stevens and the Suicide King, both incredible writers in their own rights, have parted company, and I know that after all the great things they're contributed to our fed they're going to be sorely missed. As a result of their leaving, we've decided to change up the commentary team a bit. The new announcers will be Longdogger Pete (face, play-by-play) and the Suicide King (heel, color). King's been around the fed forever, and if you saw his angle with Landon, you'll get a good idea of his character. Pete is a serious face, knows his shit about wrestling, and says "bid'ness" instead of "business". As for Mark... well, there's not much we could do for him, as my idea of renaming the fed the "Slam Wrestling Federation" was shot down pretty quickly. So we'll just thank him, and King, and everyone else who left this year, for their years of dedication to the fed. You'll all be missed.

 

v. Future

 

Honestly, for all the trouble we've had this year (the ever-changing main event picture, the seven- and eight-man rosters we've booked with), we've hit the end of the year on a high note. Slay Ride was an excellent show that should build a lot of momentum for the new year. Toxxic was an excellent champion, and Landon should be just as good in that role. There's several undercarders stepping it up lately as well; Sean Davis, Todd Cortez, and Max King in particular have done well. Add in the returns of Wildchild, Johnny Dangerous, and apparently Mak Francis, and the new year is shaping up to be incredible.

 

However, there's still some work to be done. As I've said, a website needs to go up soon. After this happens we'll have a stable base to draw new people from, because in all honesty, we've pretty much sucked TSM dry as far as match writers go. You guys are all incredible, but new blood would be incredibly helpful, and while we're appreciative of The Smart Marks for hosting us for so long, a change might be in order.

 

I know I've tried to be fair in everything I've done, and I know that Tom and Thoth can say the same. Also, I'd like to give props to the new markers; Dace and Judge have stepped in magnificently, and Supes has been clutch when it comes to second opinions. Finally, props to Chris Raynor and TNT, who've been on CC for damn near forever and still do all they can to mark for us. As always, we're open to comments and criticisms of the job we've done so far. Thank you for reading.

 

Mike Van Siclen

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Well, I'm not sure whether or not you were actually looking for feedback, but the thread isn't locked, so here goes:

 

However, there are areas that are still lacking.  One of them in particular is the chat room.  The chat thread has seen a surprising amount of activity the last couple of weeks, but as someone who's been in and out of chat, the only people who are ever around are retirees and people like Toxxic.  A healthy chat room usually leads to a strong community atmosphere, more comments on matches, etc., and it serves as a great place to talk about angles that you may want to do.  In short, it's a way for people to talk about the fed, and overall lends to a healthier community atmosphere.  I would like to see some of the newer guys (Maddix, King and Cortez in particular) in chat, as well as anyone else who doesn't frequent the room.  It really is a good time, and there's usually someone to talk to.

Speaking as someone who doesn't go into chat much, on the rare occasions that I have ventured to log in, I've found it to be entirely too cliquish for my tastes. I mean, you pretty much have the Austrailian Mafia™, Zed, Thoth, Kibs and Drea, and just about anybody else foolish enough to wander in tends to get "tooled," as you guys put it. That might be funny or cool for a few minutes, but to me, it gets really old, really fast.

 

There's also the issue of a lack of common ground. I've found that, outside of this fed, I'm simply not interested in the same stuff as a lot of the rest of you, so whenever discussion gets "off topic," so to speak, I tend to end up figuratively twiddling my thumbs while I wait for you guys to bring the conversation back around to something I've heard of and/or am interested in.

 

ii. Angles

 

There's a lack of good angles these days that's frightening.  I actually think this is looking up, as the impending angles involving Revolution Zero and Martial Law all look very good, but before this CC had to hold people's hands and guide them into a PPV match.  Why was Edwin/Raynor the best match in SWF history?  Because it was a well-written 12000 word affair with backstory.  It didn't have a title on the line, but it had a storyline, and that's a big part of where we've been lacking recently.  I will give credit to Toxxic for trying to do stuff like this, and it's good to see members of the fed respond as they have, but there needs to be more angles across the board.  Lower-card guys should be dying to put together an angle, because CC does take notice, and we will reward people who write good angles.  At the beginning of this year, Va'aiga pushed himself to the top of the card almost solely on his angle-writing ability.  As the head of CC, I'll tell you right now -- anybody in the fed right now can do that.

To be perfectly honest, after the last abortion of an angle I tried to run, I'm a little reluctant to run an angle with anybody. The next significant thing that I do, storyline-wise, will probably be to put somebody over on my way out, and since I haven't exactly decided when that's going to be, my only plan for the immediate future is to win matches and/or titles.

 

iii. Recruiting

 

We need to get a website up and stat.  This is mainly directed at Johnny, but I'm putting it in here so that the rest of you guys can browbeat him into doing it when he gets a chance.  If we can get a website up soon, it'll go a long way into giving us a stable base where we can recruit new people.  Right now there's nowhere for us to point banner ads to, which takes away just about any outside advertising we could get.  Any posting you guys could do on boards you might frequent would be amazingly helpful, but we need somewhere for you guys to link back to... Johnny, man, this one's all on you.

What happened to that e-fed directory that we were supposed to subscribe to?

 

iv. Changes

 

Alas, this year also ushered out two of the most influential people in the fed's history.  "Grand Slam" Mark Stevens and the Suicide King, both incredible writers in their own rights, have parted company, and I know that after all the great things they're contributed to our fed they're going to be sorely missed.  As a result of their leaving, we've decided to change up the commentary team a bit.  The new announcers will be Longdogger Pete (face, play-by-play) and the Suicide King (heel, color)...

Kick ass; I loved writing King in the JL... Plus, I finally get to pull "Clown boy" out of the mothballs!

 

... As for Mark... well, there's not much we could do for him, as my idea of renaming the fed the "Slam Wrestling Federation" was shot down pretty quickly...

Why don't we name one of the lesser PPV's after him? I don't know how anyone else feels about it, but I happen to think "SWF Grand Slam" sounds better than "From the Fire," anyway.

[Ced 0]

Why don't we name one of the lesser PPV's after him? I don't know how anyone else feels about it, but I happen to think "SWF Grand Slam" sounds better than "From the Fire," anyway.

I second that notion.

 

The entrance can be made to resemble a ballpark dugout. The rafter banners can be giant baseball jerseys emblazoned with a "Grand Slam" logo. And everybody's entrance theme can be played via Baseball Organ!

[the.weej 0]

To be fair, 90% of the guttings that happened of chat were Kibagami's babies, and his appearances in #SWF are getting rarer and rarer. So are mine, for that matter. I think it's just a principle of the thing -- if it weren't for chat, I personally never would have stuck around the fed as long as I did. It's one of the things that kept me interested in the whole community.

 

I love the idea of renaming one of our PPVs to honour GSMS, and the fact that King's finally getting on the announcer's team, a year after I first suggested it. Riley and Comet were so stale and moldy you could've cured STDs with them.

 

And since I have nothing else to add, I'd just like to point out that I love Ced for having Sakura as his avatar. There's not enough Sakura in the world. At all. Anywhere. Ever.

 

-Z

[muzz 0]

However, there are areas that are still lacking.  One of them in particular is the chat room.  The chat thread has seen a surprising amount of activity the last couple of weeks, but as someone who's been in and out of chat, the only people who are ever around are retirees and people like Toxxic.  A healthy chat room usually leads to a strong community atmosphere, more comments on matches, etc., and it serves as a great place to talk about angles that you may want to do.  In short, it's a way for people to talk about the fed, and overall lends to a healthier community atmosphere.  I would like to see some of the newer guys (Maddix, King and Cortez in particular) in chat, as well as anyone else who doesn't frequent the room.  It really is a good time, and there's usually someone to talk to.

Speaking as someone who doesn't go into chat much, on the rare occasions that I have ventured to log in, I've found it to be entirely too cliquish for my tastes. I mean, you pretty much have the Austrailian Mafia™, Zed, Thoth, Kibs and Drea, and just about anybody else foolish enough to wander in tends to get "tooled," as you guys put it. That might be funny or cool for a few minutes, but to me, it gets really old, really fast.

Get your facts straight, chat is hardly like that anymore. Australian mafia? That's cute.

[A Happy Medium 0]

Bleh..chat never had cliques..not even when he had three different sets of people...WF, JL, and ML...

 

Come on in, it's safe.

[HVilleThugg 0]

I agree with WC...chat has always been very clique-ey, and you guys hardly ever talk about the fed, which is basically the only thing we have in common. It's cool for like 5 minutes to catch up with people you haven't talked to in a while, but after that...it's rather boring.

[Guest Fire and Knives]

The State of the SWF: "People were MEAN to us last time we went into chat!"

 

Fan-tastic.

[Ace309 0]

Can we try not to turn this thread into a pissing contest, please?

 

Under which I include responding to this post if you think you've been wronged by being accused of partaking in a pissing contest. If you think it applies to you, then there's no use arguing about it. If you don't think it applies to you, then it probably wasn't intended for you.

[Toxxic 0]

The State of the SWF: "People were MEAN to us last time we went into chat!"

 

Fan-tastic.

So we won't mention those of us who decide to return, agree an angle which involves quite a bit of build-up and writing and is planned to end in a match for the World Title at a PPV, then disappear without trace and neglect to communicate with anyone?

 

Twice?

 

Just saying Kibs, those in glass houses etc etc...

 

*gets slapped by Tom*

 

I know, I know.

 

OK - with regard to Mike's comments: As for the participation element may I just put this in here. Ahem.

 

I HAVE MADE A CAREER OUT OF BEATING NO-SHOWS

 

First ICTV win over a no-show. Beat Danny Williams and Flesher in singles matches by no-show. Won the World Title the second time via no-show. Those are all BIG things, especially for someone as new as I was at the time I did them. And although i pumped out matches right on the word limit for all of them, I could have had the same result by cut-and-pasting entrances and writing a one-move squash. Or a fucking haiku, come to that. I remember early this year when Dace and Johnny in particular would write VERY brief squash matches... but they were at least squash MATCHES. Johnny won with the MI Slam - no other moves - against Eddy J. Dace went through Annie and IL with probably about 3k words over the two matches, if that. But they won, and they made sure there wasn't a gaping hole for Zed to fill with Ebony (DON'T imagine it... too late).

 

Angles - I look back over the last few months, and what do i see? Not a whole bleeding lot, if I'm honest. The aborted Birdman angle would have been good if it had been hurried along a bit, but for some reason Mike chose me to retire him and I'm not one to pass down an opportuity to build up my rep a bit more. Then there was the whole King/Stevens payoff, which looked good and was well-written plus created a new main-eventer out of Landon (bastards), and after that... not a lot. I had a programme with Silent lined up, but that obviously fell through. Annie disappeared as Annie is wont to do shortly before the payoff of our little encounter, which ensured yet another no-show win for me and a complete no-no on that continuing. All there really was was the whole 'Ghost' malarky, and that was strictly a midcard angle. Everyone seems content to just turn up and write for their matches (and sometimes not that), and since we have a bunch of OATTOASTers here who's entire other fed is BUILT on angles, that seems a little odd. Then again all three of the ones I know of are now in a stable together, so maybe they're all using their energy on Martial Law.

 

After that, it's basically Mike telling us how it will be. Big props to everyone who's been with us, I will shed a tear for Comet and Riley because they were easy to write and I have little-to-no idea how to write King and LDP, and I will look forward to the New Year with the firm aim of getting my hands back on the title currently around Landon's waist.

[Zack Malibu 0]

The thing with me as far as not pulling out as many promo's or ideas as I'd have liked is more due to my work schedule than lack of interest. Working two jobs straight through the week with really only the weekend or downtime at my office job for free time/net time takes it's toll. Hopefully I can find a good balance, because Landon, Rando and myself are all pretty excited about the chance to work together.

[Ace309 0]

I HAVE MADE A CAREER OUT OF BEATING NO-SHOWS

 

First ICTV win over a no-show. Beat Danny Williams and Flesher in singles matches by no-show. Won the World Title the second time via no-show. Those are all BIG things, especially for someone as new as I was at the time I did them. And although i pumped out matches right on the word limit for all of them, I could have had the same result by cut-and-pasting entrances and writing a one-move squash. Or a fucking haiku, come to that. I remember early this year when Dace and Johnny in particular would write VERY brief squash matches... but they were at least squash MATCHES. Johnny won with the MI Slam - no other moves - against Eddy J. Dace went through Annie and IL with probably about 3k words over the two matches, if that. But they won, and they made sure there wasn't a gaping hole for Zed to fill with Ebony (DON'T imagine it... too late).

And it's good that you did. The problem is that for a variety of reasons, many of them good, a lot of people aren't as reliable as you are. The appeal to show isn't for people who are reliable, or for people who no-show once every month or two, or even for the people who no-show constantly [as they're mostly beyond help]. It's for the people who are on the fence. We need to encourage the people who aren't showing but could really shoot up the card to start showing, both for the good of competition and for the sake of having a solid card. I mean, I'm reluctant to put Sean Davis and Manson in a singles match, despite the fact that they're both very good writers and of roughly equal ability, because there's a good chance neither of them will show. That affects the way I can book the wrestlers and the way writers develop.

[Toxxic 0]

Sorry, maybe I didn't make my point clear. I wasn't trying to blow my own trumpet, I was trying to make it clear that it's always better to write SOMETHING because that at least gives you a chance to win. I could have won all those matches by writing 'Toxxic wins', which wouldn't have taken much creative input. If we can get no-showers to do that when they normally would have not submitted anything we can at least avoid DNSs.

[muzz 0]

I agree with WC...chat has always been very clique-ey, and you guys hardly ever talk about the fed, which is basically the only thing we have in common.  It's cool for like 5 minutes to catch up with people you haven't talked to in a while, but after that...it's rather boring.

Oh just go away.

 

The SWF Kliq owns you!!

{Holding down midcarders since October 2001}

HVille Thugg, Mark Stevens, Suicide King, Edwin MacPhisto, Xstasy...

 

Hi

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

Angles - I look back over the last few months, and what do i see? Not a whole bleeding lot, if I'm honest. The aborted Birdman angle would have been good if it had been hurried along a bit, but for some reason Mike chose me to retire him and I'm not one to pass down an opportuity to build up my rep a bit more. Then there was the whole King/Stevens payoff, which looked good and was well-written plus created a new main-eventer out of Landon (bastards), and after that... not a lot. I had a programme with Silent lined up, but that obviously fell through. Annie disappeared as Annie is wont to do shortly before the payoff of our little encounter, which ensured yet another no-show win for me and a complete no-no on that continuing. All there really was was the whole 'Ghost' malarky, and that was strictly a midcard angle. Everyone seems content to just turn up and write for their matches (and sometimes not that), and since we have a bunch of OATTOASTers here who's entire other fed is BUILT on angles, that seems a little odd. Then again all three of the ones I know of are now in a stable together, so maybe they're all using their energy on Martial Law.

Did you forget about everything Rev-0 did on purpose?

[King Cucaracha 0]

On the angles front, you forgot everything involving Clark/Maddix, plus the entire deal with Card/Maddix.

 

So count yourself lucky, cause lord knows these things will haunt me for a good few more years.

 

 

HI-YO!

[Toxxic 0]

A little explanation - the 'last few months' thing negates Maddix/Clark. I was treating Landon's face turn as part of the 'bigger whole' of King/Stevens, so that covers Maddix/Card too. As for Rev-0... what DID we do, anglewise? We had a series of matches with various people but not much in the way of storyline development. i recruited Spike, we both recruited Davis and then Toxxic invited Sacred in without telling anyone. We had several matches against the Urban Empire, but the only 'angle' as such was the stealing of Masked Man's briefcase. There was very little in what we did that couldn't be explained by just reading the matches - this group are trying to take over, and THAT group are always against them. There weren't many promos that actively furthered something (although not every promo has to). I mean, you couldn't really get a grip on what was going on with Edwin/Raynor or Edwin/Silent without reading promos.

[Kaertos 0]

Just allow me to say one thing:

 

Long, involved promos do not angles make.

 

There were plenty of angles I worked almost entirely through matches and matches only. Heck, my Last Run only saw one or two promos, both of which were important, but not essential to the story (King's final promo being the exception).

[Toxxic 0]

I'd disagree there. Without King's promo on the fact that you were being forced to compete against your will, without the Stevens/Landon meeting backstage, and without your declaration of the final Hell In A Cell the angle wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as it was, or indeed as clear. Some of those things you just couldn't get over in matches. Besides, you guys already had a MASSIVE backstory to work with. Developing things more or less from scratch requires a slightly (and I do mean slightly) less match-orientated perspective, I think.

[Secret Agent 0]

However, in those matches he did get over the fact that Grand Slam just wasn't able to compete at his one time high level anymore. I kind of looked at it like he was making Stevens a hell of a underdog.

[Toxxic 0]

Granted, and he did a good job of it. But for all the commentator work, he wouldn't have been able to get over exactly why this was happening without the King promo damning Grand Slam to a return to the active roster.

[Dace59 0]

I can't do a good looking website for shit, but if someone wants to make some sort of base, I can at least put it up on my site as some sort of start.

 

And I also have boards as well.

[the.weej 0]

Johnny HAS the website design. Merc completed it and gave it to him MONTHS ago. And according to Johnny, MONTHS before Merc completed it, he was ready to put the website together. I have no idea what the hold-up's been.

 

The only site I ever want to see is the one Johnny promised two years ago.

 

-Z

[A Happy Medium 0]

You know...I sorely miss having a website. The last time I remember the entire fed united in a wesbite (Junior League included) was back when I was a newbie. That was about four months shy of four years ago...Spike's old website. It was simple...had a few photoshopped graphics..and stats and information.

 

I tire of the talk of needing this really complex website that never is completed. Why can't someone slap a few pages together on Dreamweaver, (luckilly someone has that program) give everyone their own wrestler's page with a graphic or picture on it, and then just have people email in stat updates?

 

Shit, I'd do it all myself if I had the few hundred dollars lying around to buy a program.

[Secret Agent 0]

Eh, I already have Dreamweaver and several other programs. Laziness has been the key on it not getting done, plain and simple. Me and MVS had a recent chat about it though, so I guess I'll get on it.

 

 

Munich, the only reason I had desgined it complex was to avoid the "Webmaster has to constantly update stats" situation, and to make it the best looking e-fed site around.

 

Also, as far as angles go, I'd love to have some going. I really couldn't get much going last year aside from my short feud with Landon and Toxxic, and those are just feuds. So if anybody is intrested feel free to let me know. I know I breifly talked to a few people about doing some kind of one match deals, but I have nothing set in stone at all.

[Dace59 0]

Johnny, ignore the complex no update shit for the time. I can slug through all that if I'm gonna host a temp site. Just make a site.

[Golgo 13 0]

I mean, I'm reluctant to put Sean Davis and Manson in a singles match, despite the fact that they're both very good writers and of roughly equal ability, because there's a good chance neither of them will show.

 

Me no-show? Nonsense.

 

I had a programme with Silent lined up, but that obviously fell through.

 

Yeah. I tend to think I'm partially responsible for that fiasco. A good, potentially great idea for an angle, and the opening step involves pairing the one notorious no-shower with another. Probably for the best that the original plan didn't go through, as around that time is when I really started stumbling again.

 

Anyway, see Dace, back when the discussions of a new site began, I'm certain it was brought up that we just make a basic site, if only to have it in place as Johnny or whoever got everything together for the updated version.

 

That fell on deaf ears, naturally, so while we could have had one with basic functionality that got the job done, we've had nothing except for an outdated page hosted by TSM.

 

I was thinking we should just send in an update for that, fixed up with current information, but who knows which of the TSM heirarchy we have to go through to get that done. Either that or we just grab the pages, source, etc., update everything, and put them up on Dace's site.

[Dace59 0]

I'll have a look at trying to shift the old site across then. HAve a look at least.

 

EDIT: Site has been ripped and uploaded. All seems to work. Now if someone with a little better HTML than me wants to update the info (I can just find/replace link info) I can upload the new page then sort out some sort of FTP access to my site so anyoned deemed fit can upload the data.

 

EDIT2: FTP access sorted. So anyone with a simple ftp prog and a brain can now update the site. Which will take about 30 seconds tops to connect and upload. However, this is where I check and find I've given FTP access to my whole site.

[Secret Agent 0]

*Raises hand* I can help with the HTML.

 

Dace, what kind of a server is this on?

[Dace59 0]

Same one as the rest of my site. IE a LINUX one, so the coding is case sensertive.

 

Got the site swf.robbo.oeck.net set up and uploaded with the old site.