SWF Did You Know?

[the.weej 0]

Thinking about what Duran's said reminds me of some stuff. From the moment I became JL head booker I desired to take a very "proactive" approach to everything and attempted to personally stimulate dozens of angles, 'cause I love angles and oftentimes prefered them to matches outright.

 

This, in turn, led to the fact that I basically had no reservations about booking anything for the sake of someone getting an angle off of the groud. Basically, if someone talked to me about a storyline idea that I liked, I would immediately attempt to accomidate it as best I could. Since I have very few pretentions about the SWF, this is why stuff like Double Jeopardy and Ebony getting booked in real matches happened.

 

- To touch on Duran's comments, probably the biggest involvement I ever had in an angle as a booker that I wasn't involved in was the entire Urban Decay storyline at the end of my JLCC run. Duran wanted advice on how to structure a feud with Grappler and I basically invented the entire thing, right down to giving Duran his stable name. The problem is that I actually began to micromanage the little twists and turns and how things should be promoed and etc in the angle, which led to inevitable problems. Duran and Grap basically had to come to me for directions on what to do next, since it had basically evoled into my angle. Upon realizing that, I tried my best to disengage from it, but that didn't work out so well; if I remember correctly, Duran never got his proper blowoff against Grappler because I chose to bump him early, and the angle ended up in a real mess. I feel fortunate that neither guy ended up resenting me for it.

 

- Everything Duran said about me trying to entice him to get his spark back is pretty much true. I liked him very much - truthfully, I didn't think he was expressely talented as a writer, but he always worked very hard and I respected that. Of course, it didn't work out despite all my efforts, but this is not an exclusive phenomenon.

 

I never claimed to be unbaised when it came to my writers. I always tried to mark as fairly as I could, but when opportunities to move people up on the card arose, I had my favourites. Two people in particular come to mind...

 

Annie - I was probably Annie's biggest fan, truthfully for more than just her SWF writing. Anyway, even with each one of her comebacks, each one of her new gimmicks, I was willing to gamble on her improving and making a serious run at the main event. I always placed her at ICTV level or just above, I always encouraged her storylines, whether they be with Tom, Kibagami or someone else, and I was always left with her either collapsing at the pivitol moment or disappearing into noshowing oblivion. The biggest and best example is probably the storyline where Tom stole away her sister and it culimainted on PPV in a ladder match (a kind of match that Tom always loses), to give her the most absolute benefit of the doubt. When her inevitable no-show happened, I could hardly bring myself to be surprised. Annie was always frustrating, but she wasn't half as painful as the next guy...

 

Janus - I marked Janus' first match and I loved him to pieces pretty much immediately. His writing sparkled with the polish that only someone with genuine skill could have. Of course, his match was 2000 words short and I just couldn't find it in myself to give it the win. This is a scenario that would repeat itself ad infinium for the next two and a half years.

 

Janus was, of course, basically the opposite of Annie: he always wrote and consistency was never going to be a problem. I held a genuine belief that he could become an absolutely dominant writer given the proper motivation, so every possible chance I could get I slipped him into title and contendership matches. Actually, the first such time this happened wasn't even MY doing! Strangler decided to cancel the JL title tournament because of pathetic effort and threw MVS and Janus into the title match, leaving me to mark it. Despite the fact that the match took place in Australia against a perennial JL doormat in Van Siclen, I just couldn't give Janus' in-joke laden match the victory DESPITE the fact it was mostly better written. When Janus wrote the best first-half of any match in the 2004 Clusterfuck and then bombed with his ending, I wanted to punch him in the face. It actually got to the point where I stopped actively marking his matches, hoping that somebody else could see something that I wasn't.

 

Eventually, after countless attempts to move him up the card by force, I finally managed to push him into the world title picture by virtue of half-working an angle with him. Now, I had made a promise that I wasn't going to allow my neo-nepotism to interfere in the world title picture, but this came at a time where the past four or five SWF champions had retired and I desperately wanted some kind of stability for the world title. Janus had it in the bag as world champ. The ensuing three-way angle between Tom Flesher, Toxxic and himself basically wrote itself, the next PPV main event was set, and with all my dreams realized, the impossible happened. Janus flaked.

 

The fact my constant meddling brought nothing but ruin onto the fed was probably the biggest reason I decided to retire, myself. On top of that, I think Janus really resented my "expectations" for him and never really forgave me for throwing him at the world title; our relationship has kind of deteriorated since then. But the road to hell is paved in good intentions, ain't it?

 

-Z

[Golgo 13 0]

Come back and go after the World Title, Ash.

[janusd 0]

On top of that, I think Janus really resented my "expectations" for him and never really forgave me for throwing him at the world title; our relationship has kind of deteriorated since then. But the road to hell is paved in good intentions, ain't it?

 

-Z

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, it'd help if I'd seen you online in the past few weeks or months... I spotted you online once or twice recently, but before that I swear you'd just -dropped- off the face of the earth. Our conversations tend to be pretty limited at best anyway, but sometimes evolve (or devolve) into interesting things, and there's no hate for the Z.

 

Besides, you drop such gemstone comments like "cocks on a hotplate" that one just can't hate ya.

 

And anyone who has 'great expectations' of mediocre me deserves to be slapped don't ya know. </artist-angst>

 

PS: ZED WAS DANTE CRANE ZOMGORZ (man, is THAT old news). Except for the American Gladiators match.

[Guest Evolution]

In response to Z acknowledging my average talents as a writer, knowing what I know now about the structure of good wrestling matches, I could probably come back with a new character and kick a fair amount of ass, but there'd be too many no-shows for it to be worthwhile.

 

Just wanted to add that another one of my favorite moments was busting Annie's face against the grill of the Escalade in the Stocking Stuffers match at the Christmas PPV with a running knee. I think we were supposed to do some kind of extension from that, like actually have a feud, but I'm not positive and it obviously didn't pan out.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Duran will always have a place in my heart for actually knowing who I was when we all got bumped from the SJL and asking me and Todd R. to join The Unnamed, even though that didn't last all that long (or, that incarnation anyway)

[Toxxic 0]

Duran should come back on a three-show rotation like Danny. Not too much work, but enough to do stuff. Come on, we have a decent crop of writers right now but not all that many. Everybody's welcome.

[Chuck Woolery 0]

Mike wasn't my first choice to succeed me as head booker. As a matter of fact, everyone who is currently a ranking member of CC I thought of before him, but I felt they either wouldn't have the time (Tom) or desire (Judge, Raynor) to do it. Before I went ahead and handed over the reins, I tentatively decided to let Chris Card take over the fed based on his past experience. I probably made the right in retrospect.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Z's hyperbole is awesome.

 

Anyway... I figure I'll share with you all, because the story of how I came to be head booker of the SWF is actually pretty random.

 

I was sitting in chat one night shortly before Genesis V, bitching to Z about how shitty the fed was. Somehow the conversation turned to Z's desire to step down as head booker, but how he had no one to replace him. Off-the-cuff and completely sarcastic, he remarked, "Why don't you retire and I'll make you head booker." Naive youth that I am, I took him up on it, hotshotting both a Tag title change and a retirement angle. Not two months after that conversation, I was in control of the fed.

 

Upon assuming control, the question became, who would book Smarkdown and Lockdown? The first thing I did was speak with Tom -- dude's got a lot of pull in the fed and loves running things, so I figured that he, if nobody else, would be an excellent booker. More importantly, he would lend some clout, as the new WFCC being led by perennial jobber Mike Van Siclen would be kind of weak -- but the new WFCC with perennial jobber Mike Van Siclen and his good friend and SWF legend Tom Flesher would get a wee bit more respect. Tom quickly agreed, and for the first month or so I booked both Lockdown and Storm while we searched for a replacement.

 

The list was long. Crowe was the first person we tested out, and while both Tom and I thought he put together an excellent card, reliability issues became a factor. The same problem arose with Judge. Finally, we let Raynor book one card... then another... and then he became the official third booker. Not a bad decision at all, if you ask me.

 

I've often wondered if people think that I'm actually in charge of the fed. I sometimes wonder myself if I'm actually in charge of the fed. It's not really a big secret that I often go to Tom for advice, and it would be fairly easy to make the assumption that Tom's really the guy doing all the work, and I'm just getting credit for it. How do you guys feel about this?

[muzz 0]

I feel you need a new sig, personally.

[Toxxic 0]

As long as Tom's happy with you hogging his credit (if that's indeed what you're doing) then I'd say it's all fine. Certainly, as a writer I never cared who on CC was doing what, as long as what they were doing made sense.

 

Raynor pwns j00, btw.