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Episode 23: Queensland Calling May starts with some minor news from Felix Harding. His tailbone injury and his deflated status in company have really taken the motivation out of Harding. Formerly boasting a Ripped physique he has let himself go a bit. Body type changes can and will happen without player interaction all the time. His Star Quality and Sex Appeal both take a minor hit.  Also, it will take two years before he can even try to go for another body type change. You'll be you, Felix.  Sad day for wrestling, as another drug related death rises to the headlines. Jack Griffith was one of the hottest prospects in the USA in the early 2000s, but backstage, alcohol and drug issues quickly torpedoed his once promising career. Last fifteen years of his career were spent driving from town to town in dinky southern US independent promotions.  Our partners up north, WLW, sees two new wrestlers graduate from their Project Arkham School. They only hire one, Yuifum Makiguchi. He is quite bad coming out of the dojo, has the worst personality trait (Scumbag) but has better Star Quality than most of their rookies and Menace matching that. We'll see if he manages to become anything in the future as he will probably be shipped out to Australia in a couple of years.  Well this is a shocking development. EILL have been bleeding talent, but this is their first major coup from a US company, well, ever. One half of the Team of the Year 2020 heads to Mexico as the highest paid wrestler in EILL. I'm surprised by this turn of events. In my experience, EILL rarely scores a big hiring like this this early in a save. Lau has the popularity to slot nicely to the main event scene immediately.  In Europe, Hercules Johansson becomes the new Intercontinental champion in EWA. If you remember, he had a terrible win/loss record when we checked out Europe. Well, 2021 has seen him match his wins from the previous year with two. He is still the third most popular guy in EWA, despite losing some 90% of his matches in this save. Truly bulletproof.  Time for a show and a backstage interaction I'm very much happy with! Simonson starts teaching Jesse the tips of the trade and passing along his Psychology. Jesse will need all the help he can get with that stat.  My backstage meddling also bears fruit, as SubUrban Legend and Stephanie Drucker form a Strong Friendship. Hell yeah! I just hope Mills won't start anything...  The show looks a bit different this time. Triple A suggested a show in Queensland some months ago and I'm pulling the trigger on that. Super Surfer Slam hits the Sunshine Coast! The show is very much a "tour" show for me, providing a simple show for the local fans with a standalone story not really connecting to the greater APW mythos. I'm going for a Bash at the Beach vibe, with the show being set up at an actual beach. Pinn and the goon squad start the show by threatening to buy the entire drat beach. Gerard, Fox and Possum don't really like that plan and challenge the mafioso of questionable morals to our main event match. Most of the midcard stuff is pure filler here with some stuff of relevance. SHADOW LEGENDS and Samoan Demolition keep butting heads, Surfer Dudes just want to surf, dude, but D-Pod complains loudly that these drat kids don't respect him, I start a quick story with Macquarie and Maniac Monster (Beauty and the Beast is the team of Lorenzo Oliverio and Monster, you can decide which is which) and I test how if our new top level babyfaces Chuck and Mason have any chemistry notes together. Semi-main has a big-ish tag match with Apocalypse grabbing the win and the main event ends with the babyfaces ending the show in a feel good win.  Super Surfer Slam ends up being our worst show to date, but still gets us to grow in popularity in the region.: - Every segment is notably down from what is the norm. Scorpio is the only guy that has equivalent pop in Queensland so his performance was normal. Everyone else on the card more or less suffered. That is why only a few storylines were progressed in this show, so I don't tank all my storylines before some big blowoffs. - Chuck and Mason have excellent chemistry teaming together! I have had ridiculous luck with chemistry notes with upper card faces (Gerard with Devine and Mills) so I'm getting paranoid when the actually bad chemistry note strikes at an inopportune time. - White Wasp suffers a bruised pectoral muscle in his pre-show match. It won't keep him out of action, but will hinder his performances for the next three weeks. - We take quite a financial hit even running this show. A little over 100 people in the attendance is less than 10% of what we draw in New South Wales. I did the show because at this point I'm certain that I will clear the owner goal of making enough profit in two years. We'll return to Queensland next year for another Super Surfer Slam and see if we'll do any better.  DIW wrestler Blitz Simpson blasts his company in a scathing interview. The interview doesn't lead to a negative relationship with any DIW personnel, but I'm still interested to see if this will lead to his exit in the near future. Simpson is pretty close to Hamstead in terms of talent, just notably less popular. He'd be a decent addition to the monster of the month catalogue for our heroes.   In a fun coincidence, two masked wrestlers working in different Japanese companies bond over social media. Moroi even convinces Necro that he should try his luck in North America and a few days later Necro activates himself over there.  SWF plug the hole left behind by Lau by hiring Tommy Dreamer. I'm sorry, I meant Chris Caulfield. He is a DAVE legend way past his prime so a perfect for a few nostalgia pops and not much more. (A smaller company, say PSW, could use Caulfield's services a lot more). SWF has really been on a nostalgia binge in this save, hiring mostly faces from the past. That really reminds me of some real world company but I just can't place my finger on it...  I can't laugh at SWF for long, as the wrestling world is once again brought to a halt. Sam Keith has died.   Keith is a bona fide legend in the CVerse, a member of The Hall of Immortals, owner of Mid Atlantic Wrestling and the father of superstars Matthew Keith and Greg Gauge. Keith was a champion everywhere he went and one of the greatest in-ring wrestlers of his era. The death is felt around the world and MAW wastes no time to induct Keith to their Hall of Fame. It also leaves the ownership of MAW open...  So I throw in an application. It's unlikely I'll get the spot, after all Lanny is just a local Australian legend and my booking stint hasn't exactly lit the world on fire.  The show must go on. EILL realize that they need a guy like Axxis Jr. more than ever and rush him to a surgery. It's a complete success and his recovery time is reduced as well as any penalties his injury would cause.  Hey, it's SWF's gimmick to hire the nostalgia acts! USPW grabs Sean McFly from CWA to bolster their all-star team. McFly is unlikely to repeat his Canadian success due to his age, but he will be another stupidly good piece to the USPW arsenal. CWA will feel the sting but they have largely moved on to younger stars.  DIW is caught red-handed trying to spread some rumors about RAW wrestlers. I... really have nothing to say about this.  Okay, who's leaking my booking notes to the dirt sheets? Heads are going to roll! Seriously speaking, it doesn't take much of a genius to realize I've been pushing Mason pretty hard for the past eighteen months. The game gives news stories like these every once in a while and most of the time it's about a wrestler I'm not actually pushing or planning to push beyond the level they're at.  QAW joins CZCW and PSW and gets their own TV show on air with WrestleWorld, a wrestling focused streaming service. With their TV presence, these three companies are getting a good head start over the other small US based companies.  Caged Showdown arrives with some Wrestler's Court shenanigans. Tyrant has some attitude issues but Pinn just orders him to shut up. That helps. If I was cheeky, I'd book Tyrant to do a promo with sign language, but no.  We end up with a card like this, with the two top matches blowing off two of our big upper card storylines. Show opens with Mills' promo, promising to put an end to his rivalry with Boon tonight, inside the hellish (and recently overused) Steel Cage. Opening match sees the random babyface brigade fall to Pinn Enterprises. Afterwards, Pinn does the Harley Race promo and promises ten thousand dollars to any man or woman who can injure our champion as Scorpio smugly smiles on the background. Dudes/D-Pod feud keeps on rolling with another multiman tag with SubUrban Legend tagging along the surfers. Next Level try to jump Gerard with poor results, as Positive Energy play defense. Animal Kingdom take on two tag teams on the heel side, with the focus on War and Hate really targeting El Hijo for some reason. Gerard gets assaulted by the Samoans, but SHADOW LEGENDS make the save. This leads to an Australian title match between Nighthawk and Malietoa where the champ retains. Pieces of BEEF finally collide one on one as Hamstead and Mason use their combined half a brain to do battle. Mason's Full Nelson Lock once again proves to be an inescapable hold as Captain Caveman picks up the biggest win of his career. Main event sees The Duo explode once more as Mills and Boon fight it out. The violent affair ends with Mills finally overcoming his former friend, not really celebrating the bloody end of a long friendship.  The show is a success with a 56 rating but I can't help but feel a bit let down by the top two matches.: - I really wanted Mills and Boone to hit the magic 60. Turns out asking them to go All Out for 14 minutes was a bit too much to ask of them as both got minor penalties for stamina. Dammit. It's still a great main event and the ending point for our longest running storyline. - Some great angles all night! The Mills/Boone promo is actually our second best angle yet, only behind Pinn's promo from last month. Adding the Pinn bounty story to some of the lower card stories proved to be a success. - Mason/Hamstead was good, even with Mason not having his best performance. - The Dudes trios match had half of it's wrestlers off their game. Sweet.  What could have been with the Rock God? His career comes to an end after he decides that coming back from an extremely severe spinal injury isn't worth it. He'll slide to a managerial role in USPW, but it's not really what they wanted from him when he was signed.  The biggest wrestling star in Europe gets wrecked in an MMA ring, surely doing wonders to his career and the perception of pro wrestling in general.  Notable title changes to end the month. APW alumni Alexander Banks captures RAW's midcard belt, his first singles belt with the lords of Oceania. He's another guy who'd be an undoubted top star with us but lacking just a bit to be a true superstar in RAW.  USPW immediately gives new signee Jefferson Stardust a midcard belt. Poor Casey Valentine didn't have much of a reign with the belt. Fun fact, three of the four title changes have happened in four way matches.  TCW's World title finally changes hands. Sammy Bach hasn't been a strong champion, but he has had some excellent opponents in Andrews, Hawkins and Joshua Taylor. Taylor ends up being the one becoming the new champion, grabbing a world title for the first time in his career. And then I get an email.  Oh. Poll time~ So, I very much did not expect to hear back from MAW. But it is a possible career move. This decision will be in your hands. A) Stay. We have a good thing going and I've been enjoying our slow progress. Can we just abandon our endless quest to leave DIW in the dirt and one day catch up to RAW? B) Go. MAW is in a good place. They are under the thumb of TCW, so finances are not that big of a problem. Being a developmental territory I'll have the access to the more or less good rookies getting pumped out of the TCW School. They are a lot more match-heavy product than APW, so I would be focusing on very different things in building a roster and booking shows. Also, I still have some slots to fill in our calendar so feel free to toss out some more names for our events.
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Dec 1, 2021 17:34
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A, mainly because we've got our own thing trucking along quite well. Don't know why they'd choose an aussie over a yank to run their thing unless nobody else applied. As for an event name: Mates, Matches and Mayhem for an event with a lot of triples and doubles.
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Dec 1, 2021 19:11
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also A because I don't want to have to learn a whole new roster
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Dec 1, 2021 19:14
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It feels pretty bizarre that the game would let you take over that company. I really wish I didn't break my save. I want to play this again, but I don't want to start a new game.
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Dec 1, 2021 21:23
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B No lets do this, the WRASSLING GODS have spoken.
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Dec 1, 2021 21:34
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A. I’m not opposed to eventually making a move, but it feels like we’ve still got lots of unfinished business in our current company. Itwould be a shame to dip out now.
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Dec 2, 2021 05:46
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B. Take it and lead it to the top of the world brah.
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Dec 2, 2021 06:49
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Triple A posted:Don't know why they'd choose an aussie over a yank to run their thing unless nobody else applied. I'm not completely sure why I got the offer, but there are multiple factors that come into play when the game decides on a new owner. Every character in the game has Business skills (Business Reputation, Booking Reputation and Booking Skill) that are taken into factor when a company searches for a new owner/booker. In addition, every character has hidden business/booking preferences, that define how they would run a company (do they prefer a small or large roster, how much are they willing to spend money etc). Then there are the Respect and Reputation stats, that effect how the game world sees a worker. I think the game gives a slight preference to possible player applications when it comes to owner/booker searches. My user character Lanny Williams has high Respect (82) and Reputation (100) but subpar business reputation (32) and booking reputation (36). The game doesn't tell you who the other applicant's are so you can't really compare yourself to others. (I copied the save at the point I got that email: in the timeline where we end up staying in APW, the guy who becomes the MAW owner is better on every aspect mentioned that Larry, supporting the theory that the player gets somewhat preferential treatment.) Veryslightlymad posted:It feels pretty bizarre that the game would let you take over that company. It is a bit grim that I can sent an application to become the new owner the same day the previous one dies. In some of the previous editions MAW was still a family owned company. So when the owner (first Rip Chord, then Sam Keith) would die/leave the business, the company would be passed down to one of their sons (so Jay "Best Wrestler in the World" Chord, Matthew "Also The Best Wrestler in the World" Keith or Greg "Not quite the Best Wrestler in the World" Gauge). Retired Australian wrestler becoming the number one applicant for one of the more loved US companies is indeed bizarre. There are three types of owners in TEW 2020: Lifetime, Purchased and CEO. Lifetime owners can't resign, stay active for longer and can pass down the company to family members. Purchased owners are the same, with the exception that they can resign. CEOs answer to "the board of directors", so they can be fired, resign and can't pass down the company to family members.
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Dec 2, 2021 12:14
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A. You're right that it would feel bizarre and ghoulish to step into the dead man's shoes this quickly and from a much lower level. It also feels unearned. Let's stay.
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Dec 2, 2021 13:50
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A. Lanny is a legend in Australia but Sam Keith was the Ric Flair of the C-Verse. Would be weird sliding in there.
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Dec 2, 2021 14:08
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Happy holidays to everyone! My TEW time has once again been usurped by another save, this time with PGHW. Everyone is getting injured all the time, I'm bankrupting myself trying to protect my core from constant BHOTWG raids and TCW ended our agreement for excursions for no reason. It's been great! Episode 24: I'm not agreeing to put anyone over, brother  We decide to stay with APW. After a couple of days MAW finds a new owner in The Guru. He absolutely smokes Lanny in every business skill, has been in the SWF as a manager and an on-screen commissioner and most importantly has booked CZCW (de facto #4 in the US) for several years. Not a big splashy name but a solid man to run Mid Atlantic for the future.  Shortly afterwards he hires himself a new booker in Nathan Coleman. Coleman made his career as a tag team specialist in now defunct GCG in Japan. Having hanged his boots up, Coleman moves on to the back office. Guru/Coleman duo is... weird, but I'll try to keep an eye on MAW to see if things change at all.  Scorpio's six month deal is nearing it's end. He's been one of our better guys... but not by the margin I would have hoped. He absolutely needs a mic man (thanks Pinn) but he is still the pick to unseat Gerard in a show or two. I think this would be a good time to ask if he wants to lose to Mason, Mills or Gerard...  Oh. Ohhhhhhh. How about... anyone?  ... sigh This is a problem. I sign Scorp to a six month extension for now, so I have the time to do a poll on what exactly happens next.  Time for a show, Don't Sweat the Technique. And Simonson once again sits down with Jesse to talk about psychology. "So, kid... ever heard about Plato?" "Who?"  On the other side of the locker room, Dumfrey Pinn offers to put over... Leon Nameth? Dumfrey, do you watch the show? You're both heels. And I can't build ANYTHING between you two in two months. (I could do this in a three way match or something, but at the moment the loss would hurt Pinn more than it would help Nameth.)  The show! We start with the NXT classic of casual parking lot assault. Barney Mason gets jumped by Pinn Enterprises, clearly trying to prevent a big babyface from running interference from all the Gerard related battery attempts. Opening match brings a surprise to the babyface trio, as D-Pod has gotten the Goliath Goons to team up with him for the night. The brawn of Tate and Massacre helps them to get the W. Another trios match follows, as Team Forbes gets the win after Maniac Monster attacks Macquarie. Next Level arrange a party for the tag champions, insulting them a lot in the process. Apocalypse clearly has some problems with Animal Kingdom and batter White Wasp while yelling at El Hijo who follows the action from ringside. Fox & Possum fight the random team of Hamstead and Wilkes, where Hamstead is really not feeling it, practically abandoning his tag partner for the night. Rusty Mills gets an interview after his big cage match last time and promises to go after Commonwealth gold next. Semi-main has Samoan Demolition beat SHADOW LEGENDS as Brisbane Devil stakes his claim to a title shot against Nighthawk. The planned main event tag team match has a shocking development, as Tyrant smashes Gerard's knee during his entrance, leaving him unable to compete. Devine has to go at it alone, but falls in the end at the hands of Pinn and Scorpio. Taking a break for a few weeks from this save have once again muddled up some of my plans, so I end up with a weak-ish card in general. Gerard and Mason are not wrestling on the main card, which will hurt. I'm trusting Scorpio and Devine can pull something out of that main event and hoping Legend doesn't totally fall flat on that semi-main slot.  The show... well, it is what it is. A 49 rating is a bit of a letdown, mostly due to the main event being a bit of a bummer. That's on me, going for dramatic tension instead of just running the Tyrant angle after the match (also, guess who forgot to tie the main event to an on-going storyline... again). - Surfer Dude Lucas almost assumes "ring general" duties, as his performance was the best in that opener, alongside Massacre. Lucas' slow build in the midcard is still going strong. - Hamstead and Wilkes score good chemistry teaming together. Somehow, Hamstead has better chemistry with random midcarders than the guys in his own stable. - Everything except the main event once again delivers on the level I expected it to. Brisbane Devil is once again at the top of his game in our match of the night... but Nighthawk is also starting to pull his weight.  Title news from Europe. ELPF finally make Scott Van Den Berg drop their Global title to... Kruge The Executioner? Don't get me wrong, Kruge is a pretty decent brawler, but a masked gimmick guy called THE EXECUTIONER being the top guy in a MMA-inspired super serious shoot style promotion is pretty wacky. Thanks to Van Den Berg, the match is still the third worst in the card. I don't know why ELPF is dropping so many "notable" stories in this save but I'm glad there's SOMETHING worth keeping my eye on over on the old continent.  Twin Billing, future SWF world champions Spencer Spade and Mainstream Hernandez quickly regain their tag team titles in SWF. I immediately worry that SWF has been struck by the "let's flip the title between two teams for the next ten years" syndrome.  TCW relies on nostalgia and has monster heel Killer Shark drop the Television title to recent signee Harry Allen. Allen actually had a pretty good TCW run already, from 1998 to 2015, becoming a multiple time Cruiserweight and Cruiserweight Tag Team champion. The 44 year old is somehow not in time decline. Neat.   Adam Matravers has come back from his Hernia but he still drops the 21CW world title back to cousin Eddie... as the dirtsheets immediately leak that 21CW will be running this feud for up to NINE MORE MONTHS. I have nothing against long storylines, but 21CW has been running this pairing almost non-stop for eighteen bloody months. It's great stuff, but I'd personally get pretty tired of their constant singles encounters...  EILL have been through some hard times, daddy, but at least they are smart enough to put their World title back on second generation sensation Gino Montero, one of the best wrestlers in Mexico.  I rarely even notice the news stories about new stables or teams, but WQ2020 manage to get a giggle out of me. Filthy Scum, led by Fuyugo Higa? That's pottery right there.  A small shift happens in the West Coast Wars as GSW rises to Small before their rival IPW. It's not a major thing, but I'm assuming that GSW will be the first of the two to hit medium in the future. And that's when the aggressive raiding starts. In long term saves, the starting rosters of GSW and IPW get almost flipped with raids from both sides.  Beer Bash arrives and Rusty Mills decides to entertain the troops. I would like to imagine that his Scorpio impersonation includes rolling on the floor crying and complaining about losing.  The card ends up like this... even with a small snafu. There's actually three matches before the opening angle that are actually on the main card, that were supposed to be on the pre-show. I only noticed when I started writing and cropping my screenshots. That PGHW save has really done a number to my brain. Gerard arrives to the arena, claiming that he is "fine" and that is knee "doesn't hurt at, ow, all." Actual opener sees Scorpio dispatch Harry Simonson with relative ease, prepping him for a (potential) title shot. Boon gets interviewed by The Alex Arturro Experience but a question about his steel cage loss sends him off the edge. Boon attacks Experience and beats him up all over the set before security stops him. (Arturro is leaving to film a TV series, so I'm giving him a bit off a write-off.) Tyrant teams up with Maniac and Lothario in a winning effort against lower card faces and Chuck manages to defeat Koroki in a close singles encounter. Tensions in Team Forbes rise as Max Forbes reveals that Tyrant attacked Gerard on his own volition, despite orders to wait for his call. El Hijo manages to defeat The Apocalypse and Malietoa, even if Warmonger almost manages to rip his mask to shreds. Goliath Global meet with D-Pod to discuss terms. D-Pod gets to loan the goons "for a discount" and if he manages to sweep out the annoying surfers out of the company, he has a spot in the group. Hamstead doesn't look pleased with this deal, but Goliath's word is final. Brisbane Devil and Nighthawk face off for the Australian title. Nighthawk's year long reign ends in the hands of the big Samoan. A classic six man trios match follows, where the focus is squarely on the barely functioning Gerard. Mason is too angry to lose to Pinn and his goons and manages to carry his team to a very narrow victory pinning Christian Blithe.  Beer Bash is a much more positive event... even if the main event can't match the match that came right before it. - I should have trusted Devil to main event the show. Nighthawk has been hit and miss but he has succeeded in the same spot before. The main wasn't bad, Blithe had his best showing yet, but just didn't click the same way. - Scorpio pulls a great match out of Simonson. It was expected, but I just get annoyed looking at his face. - Tyrant is heading towards a minifeud with Gerard, so I'm glad to see he's doing pretty well. - Naoji Azumi continues to have serious issues with consistency, as he is off his game in the pre-show in both shows this month. - You might have noticed that our attendances have climbed up well over 1000 people. APW's normal residence Fuster Hall only holds 1000 people so what has happened. One of the better new additions from TEW 2016. We are getting autobooked (the game automatically books a venue, that you change before you run the show) in generic locations, or in this case, cities in New South Wales. Generic locations have only one maximum cap. Anything under that doesn't get limited by venue caps. The "downside" is the venue rent changing depending on the attendance.   The world keeps trucking along. Another social media storm, this time involving another Canadian hero, youngest of the four DeColt brothers. And another story about Mark Carnie. Never change... no wait, please do.  News also come from closer to home. Legend and a DIW guy called Demarcus Lee bond over shared love of pigeons.... wait, no, wrong edition of TEW. Friendship over social media, how cute. (And once again, doesn't actually create a Strong Friendship note between the two).  At this point I also realize something. We accept people over from WLW but the relationship also works the other way around. I quickly ask WLW if they would accept my wrestlers and that are fast to accept. I hadn't thought about this since in the real world only Japanese companies really do this sort of thing. I have a couple of guys in mind who could use a year long trip to Japan...  DIW try to offer a contract to Hamstead. Naturally, he doesn't bother to negotiate. Not even the pull of Gregory Grace is enough to tempt my loyal stars!  Law & Justice are the team of Rick Law and James Justice. I had hoped that this was a AI-named team (the generic option for every team is "lastname a & lastname b), but Law & Justice have tagged from late 2019 onwards. Just wanted to share this.  Six months have gone by in a flash (or in... three months) so TEW.com shares the frontrunners for the year end awards. TCW has had a great year thus far, with three of the big categories belonging to them: Wrestler (Wolf Hawkins), Company and Match (Hawkins vs "The Black Stone" Edd Stone, one of TCW's five 99 rated matches) of the Year. 21CW is going for a Event of the Year repeat, with War Drums (rated 92) holding the top spot. Young and Veteran Wrestler of the Year awards are predicted to stay with the previous winners Hurakan and Soul Taker respectively. The team of the Year frontrunners are an ACTUAL TEAM this time with the reunited The Amazing Bumfholes in SWF. Female frontrunners are surprise names Pariah and Celeste Moon (for Independent Wrestler).  Also, big news for us. WrestleWorld, the wrestling focused streaming service, has expanded to Europe and Oceania. WrestleWorld immediately becomes the easiest and cheapest way for Small companies to get their shows to a wider audience. We'll be jumping on this deal soon enough, but more about that next time. Poll Time~ Louie Scorpio has made his point clear. He's not going to lose to anyone without bitching up a storm. Unfortunately, the story we've been going with pretty much dictates a big match with Gerard. I asked about how should Gerard drop the belt a few updates ago. That ended with "Pinn costs Gerard the belt" with the implied option of the new champ being Scorpio. But I REALLY don't want to deal with a champion that complains furiously about losing. So... A) Just Do It. Give Scorpio the belt for a couple of months, what could possibly go wrong! Scorp will drop to Mason/Mills soon enough... and will complain loudly. And not re-sign when his deal is up. B) Maybe Not. Gerard will beat Scorpio and drop the belt to Pinn/option B (probably Boon). Scorp will complain but he'll deal with it. And not re-sign when his deal is up. C) Let's Be Petty About It. Oh Scorp will lose. To Gerard. To Mason. To Mills. To R & R if I so please! He'll lose until he gets so pissed that he simply walks out! So... after two or three matches.
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Dec 22, 2021 14:23
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Do we have anyone on the roster with very high menace? If so, simply contrive to get them involved in the match somehow on the booking sheet, when the time comes. Scorpio will think better of his decision.
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Dec 22, 2021 15:30
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So is the concern with putting the title on him that he will straight up walk out with the title rather than lose it to Gerard? My thought was you belt him up, give him a few month’s reign then have Gerard beat him. Best case scenario he changes his tune and is willing to do the job. If that doesn’t work you can just beat him once to get the title off, tank whatever effects his complaints have on the locker room and never book him again. Or if you want to be petty beat him as many times as you can after he loses the belt to wring whatever pops you can before his contract ends or he walks out. E: My vote is a conditional A which turns to a B if there’s a serious chance of him walking out with the belt Insertnamehere31 fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Dec 22, 2021 |
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Dec 22, 2021 16:11
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Also, if you don't HAVE someone with super high menace, look into hiring one for the express purpose of sticking into matches with assholes who think they can raise objections.
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Dec 22, 2021 20:46
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A Let him have it, maybe it will calm him down.
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Dec 22, 2021 23:30
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A; I've generally been able to have stars go over major stars by protecting them even when they lose.
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Dec 23, 2021 00:25
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B. He should be told to remember where the paychecks come from. And if Pinn thinks Nameth is someone to push in for the future, he is def worth pushing as the great heel in the future.
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Dec 24, 2021 20:41
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B He's out either way, so it probably isn't worth the headache of trying to book around his ego
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Dec 24, 2021 21:04
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Sorry for the long radio silence, this isn't dead... yet. The holidays, other writing projects, a brief scrap with covid and finally starting Lost Judgment (verdict: it's good after 3,5 chapters) have really bitten into LP time. Heroes and villains of APW will return... at some point!
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Jan 22, 2022 18:48
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Veryslightlymad posted:Do we have anyone on the roster with very high menace? Yes, the easy way to deal with these situations is to stick a guy with high menace in the match. The guy would try to complain, but a quick grunt from the big mean man would shut them up and it wouldn't even result in a morale hit. I have guys with high menace, all on the heel side, Mason is the scariest face with 60. Insertnamehere31 posted:So is the concern with putting the title on him that he will straight up walk out with the title rather than lose it to Gerard? Thankfully there isn't a mechanic where a worker LITERALLY walks out with the belt. If he leaves before his contract is out, the belt will simply be automatically made vacant. So in the scenario where he is losing the belt (unless using the aforementioned menace trick and/or heavy protection via booking notes) he will get a major hit in his morale. This might mean that he will mail in his performance, which would mean the title change match would be a stinker (not good). And as mentioned, any unhappy worker gets a sizable penalty in their performance. These are of course things the player can deal with, but it is a pain every time. Option A wins out, So Scorpio will get his (short) title run in... Episode 25: The revolution will be televised  TV deals used to be harder to get for smaller promotions. The jump to televising events would usually be too big of a money sink until Medium/Cult level. WrestleWorld changes all that. A streaming service for the grappling fan, it expands from the US throughout the whole world during the first few in-game years. Small companies rejoice as the only "big" expenditure for WrestleWorld is upgrading to In-House Music. It's 10 000 a month, not a small thing, but one we can afford after almost 18 months of steady profits. A quick word about broadcasters in general. They come in four types (Pay Per View, Commercial, Free to Air and Subscription) which each can be either Terrestrial, Cable or Internet. These effect how much revenue you can get, what the reach is, the cost, what the broadcaster expects from your events etc. Each broadcaster also has a preset stance of wrestling ("yeah, we'll air your show!" vs "get this trash out of my office") and a maximum risk level (your BBC style channel might not want to give airtime to a gory self mutilation show.)  Negotiation is quite easy. We pick what kind of a deal we want to negotiate (in this case, for our events) and sit to the table. There's no time slots to choose from (the other three broadcaster types have you negotiate for a time slot, for a small promotion we would be fighting to get out of the graveyard midnight slot) since WrestleWorld is a Subscription Broadcaster. They only expect a 20 rated show (a near impossibility to fall under that at this point) so there's no pressure to really shoot for a great rated show every month in fear of losing the deal. Two years and 60% of the revenue to us is best I can get, a great deal all things considered.  With our newfound reach across Australia (Very Small is better than nothing) our company and our wrestlers start gaining popularity in every area instead of just the place we're running the show in. This leads to increased attendance, which means more money. There's a few drawbacks. Wrestlers will start asking for raises after they start growing in popularity and attracting RAW's attention. We'll burn those bridges when we get to them. We are not the only ones to hop on the WrestleWorld train. DIW and ZEN quickly get deals as well to keep the three small Oceania players on even level. EWA, VWA and GSW follow suit in other parts of the world.   I negotiated a quick deal with WLW last time and it's time to use it. Brian Rampage and Paul Reinhold, R & R, have been slowly chugging along in our pre-shows and not really impressing. Surfer Dudes and Positive Energy both occupy a spot as "young promising babyface team" so they really don't have a slot to break through to the main shows. So maybe a year long trip to Japan might service them. With WLW running 6-7 shows a month, R & R should be getting a lot more ring time than with us. So I send them to Japan. Hopefully they'll come back as a bit more polished ring workers. I'm excited since this is my first time using the excursion mechanic as someone else than a Japanese promotion. ...What is LESS exciting is that after one month in Japan WLW hasn't booked R or R ONCE. I know they're not that good, but throw me a bone here! I'll keep an eye on things, hopefully R & R's trip won't be just a sight-seeing one.    We get some new faces to replace them in the pre-show rotation. Elvis Robinson has actually been working for us a couple of months already. He and Hack Greer fill the same slot as young, charismatic brawlers. They are definitely projects, but so are most of my young undercard guys. The third new face is Black Flash, one of the better bell-to-bell wrestlers available on the market. Excellent technical wrestler (for Oceania/our level), decent Psychology, rock solid fundamentals... you probably already know the catch. Really no charisma to speak of. He has previous RAW experience so he comes in with decent-ish starting pop. With a right tag partner, he should be a great tag division workhorse.  Back to your regularly scheduled world news. Sammy Bach's title loss a month back makes all the sense in the world as his contract comes to an end. SWF and USPW jump in for a bidding war with USPW coming out on top. Not long after they also lure in Des Davids from SWF. Davids, one of SWF's hottest acts, is actually a former USPW guy and returns there after a decent run in the land of Supreme. SWF fills the gap with... recent TCW departure Eddie Peak? I have to say, SWF's weird nostalgia binge has been a weird phenomenon. As usual, TCW get nothing but hurt feelings.  "PGHW Ace SHOOTS HARD on the wrestling business!" Probably not the comments you would want your company face to be making. Makioka is a burly former deathmatch brawler currently with SAISHO. Will this ever result in the two facing off? Probably not.   On women's wrestling front, 5SSW top star Shiori Jippensha wins her first J Grand Prix, their one night elimination tournament. A bit surprised it was her first, but I had forgotten the first of these tournaments happened in 2015. Meanwhile in Europe, EWA loses their best wrestler as "The Black Widow" decides to walk out. Rumors are saying it was over a booking decision, so I can only assume Byron wanted to get a win over her or something? Failure to Communicate gets the honor of being our first event being broadcasted on WrestleWorld. A minor annoyance (not the CVerse wrestler) is the fact, that you have to select the broadcaster for every event that you run. Anyways, to the card!  We open with a hot tag match as Surfer Dudes face off against the big menacing Goliath boys. D-Pod is the difference maker as his over eagerness to screw over the Dudes backfires. Lucas gets the quick pinfall over Tate, which pisses off the big men. In other big men related matters, Brisbane Devil asserts his dominance as a new champion and royally destroys poor White Wasp in an open challenge. Devil's tag partner doesn't fare as well, with SubUrban Legend grabbing the win and motioning that he'll be the next in line to challenge. Pinn Enterprises assert dominance by defeating the Mason led babyface brigade. The caveat is that Maniac Monster once again attacks Macquarie during the match. The dispute between Animal Kingdom and The Apocalypse continues with another multiman tag. Afterwards the incensed face painted warriors express their frustration that RICHIE Fox has danced his way back to APW and no one even bothers to notice that he has a mask. Warmonger growls something about cowardice as El Hijo Del Fox Mask shrugs and wonders "who this Richie is, mate." Semi-main sees Energy and Mills face off against Hamstead, D-Pod and Tyrant. Next Level interfere to cost Kasey the match against D-Pod who is quite elated. Main event is the big money match fitting a WrestleWorld debut. Gerard and Scorpio finally face off in a singles match. Gerard finally falls as his battered knee fails him after months of beatdowns and a copious amount of cheating by Scorpio. Pinn Enterprises celebrate with champagne as Mason helps Gerard out of the ring to end the show.  Failure to Communicate ends us as a great show. Almost 10 000 people tune in at home (a monstrous number for any real life independent company) making this the most watched APW show in history. - Once again, I wanted more of the main event. Scorpio vs Gerard was one of my surefire guaranteed great matches and even that couldn't break the mystical rated 60 glass ceiling. Both men did great, it was just missing a final bit of greatness. - Devil is once again great, getting that good of a match with pretty much a squash over a low card job guy. Matches like these is why he got the Australian title. He'll hold on to that until it's time to move on to bigger and better things... - Surfer Dude Lucas was the MVP of the opener but Reggie Tate was also really good! - Really just a good show from top to bottom! I'm in rhythm (despite lengthy breaks) with this roster so most stuff will be solid, if unspectacular. I want those 60 rated matches and even shows, but the talent is not quite there yet. But that's the fun with Oceania saves, you'll have to struggle to grow. I'm confident the WrestleWorld coverage will start speeding up the process.  Another one of these new flavor stories and actually one I don't remember spotting before! SWF midcarder Sammy Smoke (formerly Sammy The Shark of NYCW fame) is actually recovering from a broken neck, so I'm sure he's had the time to think about his image. It nets him a boost to his star quality and sex appeal.  European "mega"star Helmar Gustavsson has one match (losing against KRUGE THE EXECUTIONER) with ELPF and immediately nopes back to train for another MMA fight. I do love that such narratives pop up with guys I've chosen to spotlight.   NYCW grows to Small size and immediately revamps their product. Because that's what you do, change what is working for you. The following hiring spree sees PSW regulars Ernest Youngman, Ash Campbell and Nelson Callum join the ranks. The three are basically PSW's best workers and can be easily slotted to the main event scene. This leads me to check out PSW's roster and noticing that Kurt Laramee, best known as Big Smack Scott's partner in crime and tag action, has joined the company and become the PSW champion. He fits the company to a tee, but I thought that signing barely relevant nostalgia acts was NYCW's whole thing?  Mace Mueller's DIW championship rein ends up as a total dud as Milton Hittlespitz, a DIW fan favourite ends his reign after three defenses and almost a year. This is very much not Mueller's fault. He has three defenses at the end of 2020, which are quite good. He is then not booked to appear for four months. His first appearance in 2021 is a champion vs champion match against Shogo where a) neither title is on the line and b) it's not even the main event. He is also not booked the next month. Then he drops the title to Hittlespitz... who had just lost a title match to Shogo the previous month. This is WWE levels of dumb and bad. I feel ashamed that DIW is even competing with me.  In less stupid news, Emerald Angel, the best high flyer in the world and WLW alumni, captures his first accolade in BHOTWG as he wins the Best of the Super Juniors tournament. The show itself immediately becomes the lead candidate for show of the year with it's 93 rating.  Finest Hour is here as Kasey is once again scolded in Wrestler's Court. Using that championship money to benefit the boys, what a lad.  The first Scorpio-era card looks like this. Pinn hands over the 10 000 dollars to Tyrant for a job well done. Forbes is quick to point out that he still has Tyrant's managerial license and Pinn should probably worry about Gerard's return. Pinn laughs it off. Opening match is for the tag titles as Positive Energy overcome Next Level and wrap up that little feud. D-Pod apologizes profusely over his the error of the last show but informs them that he and Hamstead have been awarded a tag title match next month. The goons are displeased which plays into the following match. Dudes (feat Samurai Boy and Yozo Ishigami) can't defeat the well-oiled Global machine this time as Ishigami falls to D-Pod Moonsault. Team Forbes grabs a win as Maniac Monster rushes Macquarie from the crowd. Warmonger defeats Pookie Possum and taunts to "Richie" Fox at ringside. Macquarie recovers enough to cut a promo on the Monster plaguing his matches, wondering why such a big bad wolf only attacks him from the back. Pinn Enterprises suffers a minor setback as Vortex pins Blithe. The story is between Vortex and Boon, as Boon is repeatedly taken out by the unorthodox offense of the half-masked man. Brisbane Devil retains his title in the semi-main and the main sees the leading babyfaces take on the Enterprises. Nighthawk secures the victory but the post-match belongs to Mason. Captain Caveman thwarts the Enterprises full blown assault almost by himself, tossing fools around with relative ease.  It's solid! Worryingly the on-demand showing attracts 2000 less viewers than the previous show. - The opening tag title is a solid little surprise. It's mostly Chuck pulling the sled here, but the three others were not bad. - Fun little pre-show chemistry note, as Fox and Robinson have great chemistry as a team. Good to know for the future, as Robinson is pretty much a Fox-esque wrestler. - Semi-main is good even with Devil having a bit off an off day. Main has a solid crop of wrestlers, but missing that piece to put it over the top. Gerard is out of the main event slot for a minute ("healing his knee", then to a feud with Tyrant/Team Forbes) so Scorpio has every change to prove himself as a top guy. - I'm putting Vortex and Boone in a feud. I've criminally underused Vortex so it's high time to get him in bigger angles. Next time: Who gets the first shot at Scorpio? Will Gerard return to action? Will there be another three month break?
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Jan 31, 2022 16:42
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Will there be more... suplexes?
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Jan 31, 2022 23:38
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AtomikKrab posted:Will there be more... suplexes? Great Khali voice: maybe Suplex?
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Feb 1, 2022 01:33
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BTF posted:Yes, the easy way to deal with these situations is to stick a guy with high menace in the match. The guy would try to complain, but a quick grunt from the big mean man would shut them up and it wouldn't even result in a morale hit. I have guys with high menace, all on the heel side, Mason is the scariest face with 60. Wait, does the face/heel divide matter here? Will they not defend the booking if they're technically teamed up with the guy set to lose? In this case, I mean "just have them as a 'manager' or ringside presence. I think in your notes you can just.... have another wrestler listed as "at ringside" for the match. Not sure how viable it is, but it's a get out of jail free card if you accidentally book yourself into too much of an ego.
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Feb 1, 2022 05:28
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Perhaps a Skeptic Vs Mystic sort of a story would be great with Vortex. Vortex plays the mystical kung-fu master of wrastling and Boone plays the skeptical role of trying to figure out if it's real or not via attempts to defeat him.
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Feb 1, 2022 14:37
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You could have Nighthawk challenge first since he is a former secondary champion and did get the pin in that main event.
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Feb 1, 2022 16:17
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Veryslightlymad posted:Wait, does the face/heel divide matter here? Will they not defend the booking if they're technically teamed up with the guy set to lose? In this case, I mean "just have them as a 'manager' or ringside presence. I think in your notes you can just.... have another wrestler listed as "at ringside" for the match. No, the face/heel divide doesn't matter, just thought I'd mention it. The menacing person has to be in the match for the menace trick to work. Triple A posted:Perhaps a Skeptic Vs Mystic sort of a story would be great with Vortex. Vortex plays the mystical kung-fu master of wrastling and Boone plays the skeptical role of trying to figure out if it's real or not via attempts to defeat him. This is pretty much what I'm trying to go with, yeah. Insertnamehere31 posted:You could have Nighthawk challenge first since he is a former secondary champion and did get the pin in that main event. Read like an open book! Yes, this is the exact reason why Nighthawk was in the main event and getting the pin.
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Feb 1, 2022 17:39
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The menace thing is based on Shawn Michaels trying to weasel his way out of putting over Steve Austin and the Undertaker just glared at him and cracked his knuckles to get the message across.
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Feb 2, 2022 00:38
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Episode 26: Trucking along Another month, another unhappy DIW worker. Australian Devil (no relation to the Brisbane Devil) hasn't done much after suffering a spinal disalignment way back in... update one? Anywho, he hasn't gotten anything resembling a push, not that his skills would earn him one. He's flashy, he's a horrible backstage presence and DIW would really lose nothing if he walked out. Just a great guy all around. (I should do a DIW save... one day.)    Three major talent jumps occur in America during the month. Velocidad is one of the best high flyers in the world, but kind of stuck in a tag team specialist role down at EILL. SWF picks him up in their first non-nostalgia fueled hire of the save? USPW hires ANOTHER main event player from their competitors. The sixth best wrestler in the world in 2020, Mighty Mo has been spinning his wheels in TCW, mostly getting his rear end kicked by Wolf Hawkins or working with the PGHW excursion workers. TCW gets incredibly pissy about this and makes Mo lose to one of the PGHW rookies in his final match there. SWF gets one of the best high flyers in the world, USPW gets one of the best workers in the world with years of upside so you'd imagine TCW would get something good, right? No, they get USPW career midcarder Andre Jones! He's solid, but TCW is getting the short straws constantly in the fight for US.  R & R match watch! The duo get whopping three matches with WLW this month, including the best of their careers! Masao Tsubouchi carriers the three rookies on his back. More impressively, he wins his home promotion's yearly tournament for the third time in his career. (I won't be reporting on my boys EVERY match, I'm just incredibly relieved that they are actually getting booked.)     Speaking of "my boys", my 2020 favourites CWW grow in size! So they immediately hire four SNP dudes not fitting their company at all (including reigning SNP King of Scotland Jeffery McPeterson), have low card "prospect" Vernon George bury them to the papers and see main event mainstay Lenny Mochin walk out after pay disputes. Indie sleaze, you love to see it.  We get to Canberra Special and Naoji Azumi is starting to blend in with the crew! Lads, don't blow all of your pay in the poker game.  We end up with a card like this. We open with a Scorpio promo (heavily supported by Pinn), where he bitches and moans about some perceived lack of respect. He had made it. He was a "national superstar" with RAW and now a "rightful champion." Nighthawk isn't having any of this bollocks and wants the first shot at the title. A tag match between the parties follows, where some blatant interference by Mattell and Blithe cost SHADOW LEGENDS the victory. Maniac Monster fails to live up to the hype, as a revenge distraction by Macquarie allows Azumi to get the shock pinning combination for the win. Animal Kingdom has a trios match against Demolition and Dark Wing, where the focus is on Lone Shark getting set up as a future challenger for Devil. Goliath approached Legend in a backstage segment and expresses his "concern" with Legend getting his rear end kicked by the numbers game. Speaking of Goliath Global, D-Pod's attempts at costing the Dudes their match once again backfires. Massacre ends up suffering from an errant D-Pod shot as Black Flash scores the win over Oliverio. Rest of the Pinn Enterprises roll over the babyface trio, but Boon is constantly getting one upped by the weird ring style of Vortex. A video promo from Gerard follows, as the former champion promises to come back better and exact vengeance on those who have wronged him. Tyrant teams up with The Apocalypse against another top tier babyface trio, but the match ends up in a no contest with Apocalypse trying to remove El Hijo's mask by any means necessary. Tag title main event sees Positive Energy survive the surprisingly effective duo of Hamstead and D-Pod and send the fans home happy. The main event is a bit of a gamble. I can trust Hamstead, I can expect Chuck to hang, but Kasey and D-Pod are both in some big spots here.   The main event falls just a bit short, coming after a terrific clusterfuck of a semi-main. - The main event is a success, but I can't help but feel a small sting. Chuck and D-Pod were both off their game a bit, probably costing the match a few points. Semi main grabs the match of the night honors, thanks to hard work by Warmonger and Mills. - The opener ends up as a real banger, no small thanks to SubUrban Legend pulling off his best performance yet, quite out of nowhere! Lucas does the same a few matches later, except he's the ring general in his match, outperforming Massacre by quite a margin. Future on the babyface side is looking pretty drat good! - The worst match of the main card is naturally the quick Maniac/Azumi match. Neither is really over enough to carry a match by themselves, but even appearances on the main show do more for them than working exclusively pre-shows. - That opening segment is straight fire. It's mostly thanks to Pinn's entertainment skills and Nighthawk's tremendous star quality, but at least Scorpio provides his popularity along with his middling mic skills.  After the show a few things happen. Massacre moans on Twitter that he should be where Scorpio is now. He is number three guy in his own stable, Tate has passed him and he just slipped into time decline. So, no.  DIW has pretty actively bombed my guys with contract offers. Both of the Apocalypse have been approached multiple times. Guys like Nighthawk, Mills, Mason, Devil, Hamstead and Gerard have been getting offers on monthly basis. None of them have even started negotiating, so there's really no need to report EVERY time someone gets a call. When RAW starts doing the same... that's when I'm in trouble.  We finally get the first pay raise request! SubUrban Legend is the first guy to realize that maybe they should be working for more than 30 bucks a night. Workers on ongoing PPA deals start asking for raises when they grow in popularity. You get the choices shown here. You give nothing, give a percentage of what they asked or grant the full request. Anything under 75% nets a negative morale effect, giving 75% raise has no effect and a full raise nets a morale boost. I personally always just give the 75%.   Bad news from Puerto Rico. FCW is some 75 000 dollars on the red and vultures are circling the company. Young tag worker Taylor Norton sees the writing on the wall and books it out of town. A company can run on red for a limited amount of time depending on their size. If things won't get better, they will either close or be bought out. If the player chooses to buy a struggling company, they have three options. Takeover means that the company stays afloat, usually as a developmental for the owner. Pillage lets you pick and choose whatever workers, titles, events and training facilities they own before shutting things down. Disband is just hard shutdown, where everything ends. (CWA will be the next on the chopping block, amassing an impressive amount of debt in just over 18 months. Six and a half million is a hole they won't be climbing out of. If I was playing a personal save, I would save most failing companies with an editor assisted money boost to preserve the state of the world.)   A few notable tag changes from around the world. The COTT tag titles come back to The American Cobras after a remarkable 25 defense run by the MAW based Wolf Pack team. Cobras are one of the best teams in the independents, so it's a well earned victory. In BHOTWG the junior tag division is suddenly in shambles. NINJA SAMURAI (Team of Ninja Shunji and White Samurai) win the Junior Tag belts for the first time and in process become possibly the worst team to ever hold the gold. In a stacked division, they stand out with nothing but their team name.  Jesse continues to sit under the learning tree of Simonson, although I'm not sure what Harry can teach about mic work...  Championship Carnival comes around the corner and we end up with a card like this! If I had ANY forethought I would have build up all three title matches, but we end up with two and a half hastily put together ones! Underpaying talent, slapping together shows with minimal effort AND eyeing up on buying other companies? I've never felt more like Vince McMahon in my life. I probably have to undergo a purification rite or something. THE CARD. Azumi nets himself a title match after his shock win at the last show, but gets trucked by the dominant Devil. Surfer Dude Lucas finally gets D-Pod one on one, with Goliath Global following proceedings at ringside. Lucas gets a clean win and Global has had enough of D-Pod's antics and give him a beating after the match. Mills and Vortex get a statement win over L & L. Afterwards Boon receives a calling card from Vortex to join him in "The Vortex Dojo" and is suitably confused and paranoid how Vortex slipped a note in the Enterprises locker room. Macquarie builds up momentum by defeating Maniac's tag partner/handler Oliverio. A classic trios match follows, this time Lone Shark actually prevails over Malietoa. The focus is on Boon, who is clearly bothered by Vortex. Team Forbes gets promo time and Tyrant defiantly yells that Gerard will never, ever come back. A four way tag title affair sees Positive Energy squeak out the win with Apocalypse and Fox & Possum playing each other out, leaving Blithe for easy pickings. Main event has Nighthawk step up to the plate over a year after his last unsuccessful challenge. Dumfrey Pinn makes sure that Scorpio's reign continues as intended. Legend's attempts at helping his partner are thwarted by that damned numbers game. Mason and Mills run in after the match to save Nighthawk from a more serious beating.  Best show of the year! The 60 rating barrier finally gets pierced!: - Out of ALL the pairings this year... it's Scorpio and Nighthawk that get the 60 rating. All the credit to them, Scorpio was on a comfortable "Gerard-level" and Nighthawk had one his best performances to date. I have a few matches that should be able to do better than this... - Warmonger wrestlers out of his mind in that semi-main and is the clear man of the show. The Mills/Vortex tag is also notable, Mills really pulling his weight there. - Lucas and D-Pod have a great match in the undercard with especially D-Pod stepping up. Lucas IS ready for bigger angles, but I'm playing it slow and steady with him. Jesse needs all the help he can get and I don't want to leave him in the dust quite yet. - Macquarie and Oliverio shouldn't have been that bad, bad chemistry torpedoed that match.   Nighthawk and Hamstead have been really impressed with Azumi lately and suggest that I strap the rocket on his back. I won't be doing that (his performances aren't up to par, yet), but the Maniac/Macquarie feud is also designed to put him on the map as well.  Devine picks up a small injury but will be back on his feet in a week and won't miss a show. Thank god for a low danger product! While he hasn't been playing a big part in anything lately, he is still on of my more reliable in-ring guys.  It's a newsworthy month for a another top ten guy from 2020. British prodigy Leigh Burton goes for a politics related rant and swiftly deletes his Twitter account a few days later. All the great media buzz that 21CW needs trying to repeat their Company of the year award.   USPW celebrates their Mighty Mo coup by... putting their women's belt on career low card / former Babes of Sin City act Miss American Pie? A baffling move on all accounts. Their World title goes back around the waist of Steve Freshley, which makes more sense.  WLW gets one extra graduate this year and he is quite a character. Will we ever see President Takahashi in an APW ring? I hope so! (At this point, he is quite horrible in everything except entertainment skills.) Next time: Maybe... suplex?
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Feb 11, 2022 12:08
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Okay that's a phenomenal gimmick and I want to see someone do it in real life.
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Feb 11, 2022 12:30
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Testekill posted:Okay that's a phenomenal gimmick and I want to see someone do it in real life. I vote we snag him, we need this gimmick.
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Feb 11, 2022 14:34
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AtomikKrab posted:I vote we snag him, we need this gimmick. Thirded, but I'm willing to accept a mere one year incursion from someone like that. The guy really could use a test in an english-speaking market. But in regards to Azumi, how long until he has to board a plane back to Japan?
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Feb 11, 2022 17:44
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Triple A posted:But in regards to Azumi, how long until he has to board a plane back to Japan? Azumi and the Next Level guys have around seven months before they return to Japan. They will still be able to work in Oceania, but the WLW schedule is really tight and doesn't really have gaps for APW dates. If they end up washing out (not likely), I'd be happy to bring them back. It is ALSO possible that WLW sends them for another excursion, but that is pretty rare.
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Feb 11, 2022 18:20
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In that case, let's give him some time in the sun, until the inevitable "LOSER LEAVES COUNTRY" match for him to lose.
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Feb 11, 2022 18:30
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Oh no, I feel the claws of TEW flow digging in. Time to bang in another update. Episode 27: Waves of change   The big three-way over in America continues full force this month. SWF has really gone all out on the "gently caress EILL" mode. This month both Gino Montero and El Mitico Jr. sign up to join The Land of Supreme. Montero was probably the best worker in Mexico and the EILL Campeonato del Mundo, Mitico is not quite there... yet. Another duo of major blows to EILL, as their main event is starting to look pretty rough despite sniping Mikey Lau from SWF.  SWF does really need every bit of help they can get as another one of their icons joins USPW. Rogue was one of the last remaining superstars from the past decade and the reigning SWF World champion. Not so fun when it happens to you, huh.   And TCW? They make the genius move of hiring back Doc "Scout" Hammond, one half of the all timer tag team The New Wave. Hammond had been without a job for nineish months after his previous TCW run ended. In a move rivaling the creative genius of Vincent Kennedy McMahon, TCW let One Man Army's (aka Guide) contract to expire. You know, the OTHER half of The New Wave.  Meanwhile up north, ACPW has gone on a bit of a hiring spree. The gem of that crop is the next generation of greatness, Lucy Stone-McFly, daughter of Sean McFly and Victoria Stone. At 18 years old, she is ridiculously good and has a starting pop of 32 across Canada. She is one of the famous "living cheat codes" of the CVerse, yet to debut workers that are so good that it's almost impossible not to hire them immediately once they enter the game world.  Muscle Carnage is here and SubUrban Legend couldn't be more happy about it. He is just so drat happy all the time, that it can't help but effect the whole atmosphere of the locker room. I'm sure this has nothing to do with his recent pay raise.  And the card. Scorpio opens the show jaw jacking with Mason and Mills, feeling that both of them are very much beneath them. He doesn't plan on proving that in any sort of championship match situation though. Opening match sees Goliath Global get back on track by beating the tag champs and SubUrban Legend. Global goons especially focus on isolating Legend with Goliath providing the psychological assault from ringside. Macquarie takes his ally Azumi to tag battle against Oliverio and Monster and the two come out on top. Boon teams up with Wilkes & Lydecker to get another win and afterwards wanders into the Vortex Dojo (aka a fittingly disguised room backstage). Vortex laughs mysteriously as he unleashes a shadow clone technique, leaving Boon swinging at nothing. Meanwhile, the real Vortex teams with Black Flash to defeat Mattell and Blithe. Team Forbes flex their might defeating The Dudes and Dizzy, Next Level interference proving to be the difference maker. Gerard makes his grand return, bashing the heels with the assist of a steel pipe. Forbes orders his guys to retreat, even if Tyrant wants to rip Gerard to pieces right then and there. Semi main has "Samoan Apocalypse" defeat Animal Kingdom in a hard fought battle. The main event ends in another clusterfuck as the two teams brawl for a double count out. A classic recipe for success, that.  It's another good show, even without a true top level match. - Vortex is responding extremely well to his push. Not only is his angle with Boon really good (with no help from Pinn!), he also nets good chemistry tagging with Black Flash. His performances have quickly climbed up to the upper echelon of the roster. Why did wait so long to do something of relevance with you again? - Surfer Dude Lucas is once again really great in his match, clearly being the best of the bunch in his match. He's just so drat good. - Chuck has stalled a bit after growing leaps and bounds when he won the tag titles. Here's hoping a program with Goliath Global will give him (and Kasey) another boost.   Rusty Mills and Warmonger clearly notice that someone is getting a bigger payday so they are next on the line to demand raises. 75% it is, boys!  IPW is the next company to grow to Small. They celebrate in the usual way, hiring a bunch of GSW and CZCW talent.  Another one of these little flavor stories that can actually have an effect on the worker. I was kind of waiting that one of our workers would get this, but an alumni is good enough. A worker can "invent" a cool new wrestling move during a match. This will net them the attribute Hot New Move which will give a positive boost to their performance in every match. This will last from three months to two years. (Unfortunately the massive tag reign of Kuroda and his partner ended in May after whopping 26 defenses and 17 months. The current longest title reign belongs to CWW owner Curtis Jenkins, who has held the CWW Championship since January 2020, for a total of 593 days and 19 defenses. Second place belongs to MAW's Cheetah Boy, with a MAW Championship reign spanning 507 days and 10 defenses. The most ridiculous reign goes to Mr Lucha III, El Critico and Silver Tiger over at OLLIE. Their 478 day Trios title reign has had a whopping ONE defense.)  Surfer Dude Jesse is getting some buzz from the insiders. He is still really raw, but every knows the potential is there. He still tops my Next Big Things list and is third in the Hot Proscpects list. Only one other guy is on both lists, Vortex, occupying the number two spot on both.  We get an email confirming that FCW are truly hosed. I think this is the warning that they have under three months to live.    Remember when I decided to upgrade the merch department? That's finally done. We'll be getting a small boost to merchandise sales and can start upgrading for the next level. That will take another year.   RAW decides to drop a bit of a bombshell. Kerry Wayne has been one of the definitive faces of RAW for their entire existence. The first ever TV champion and a cornerstone of their TV show for over a decade sees his run end as RAW doesn't renew his contract. This is Big News and my "execute a hiring spree" itch shows serious signs of returning. We'll return to this at the end of the update.  No pain, no gain. Paul Reinhold takes an errant shot to the face, but his broken nose will only keep him out for a week. On a quick glance, Reinhold is definitely the one that is faring better of the two thus far.  It's not cool to punch down! Start mocking USPW or something!  EILL shrug off their major losses and bangs in the first 100 rated match of the year. El Heroe Mexicano is having another banner year and unless something catastrofic happens, he will once again be in the top ten of Power 500.   RAW does a thing and gives both of their singles belts to Melbourne Blondes. Once again, cool to see APW alumni ruling RAW.  I feel the need to laugh at DIW for a moment. The MOMENT they actually give Gregory Grace a title shot, it bombs due to bad chemistry. Horribly underused Mace Mueller and Shogo steal the show in the undercard. He's sure to have a great reign...  DIW then immediately goes forward with a champ vs champ storyline. Huh.  Another guy walks up to me before the show and promises to do Leon Nameth a solid. Unlike Pinn, Devine's offer is something I can use. Nameth might just be getting the biggest win of his career quite soon. It's a shame I only get few months to do this, so I can't really do a big build to it.  On the other side of the locker room, Kasey is once again in trouble. Don't leave your  Ah, wrestlers with egos, how I love you. Black Flash doesn't want to eat a pin from Donovan Boon. Flash is not as popular as Boon, but he is popular across Australia, while Boon's pop is focused on New South Wales. A planned tag match thus ends up as an trios match.  The card shapes up like so. Scorpio decides to grant "a meathead" a long awaited title match. It's not Mason, it's not Mills, but a left-field pick in Surfer Dude Lucas. Scorpio goes for the easy option, but he might just have bit off more than he could chew. Opener has Gerard start his warpath against Team Forbes by defeating Nameth in a close encounter, as Gerard is still quite clearly favoring his leg. Tag champs have Jesse tag along for the ride against the WLW team with Jesse getting the pin over Dark Wing. Animal Kingdom grab a statement victory over expendable heels and Apocalypse have just about had it afterwards. Warmonger wants to reveal El Hijo's true identity and wants a Luchas de Apuestas! The face-painted warriors follow up by mauling White Wasp for ten minutes while Lone Shark gets taken out by an attack from Brisbane Devil. Devil himself absolutely murders poor Samurai Boy in a open challenge. Macquarie cuts a promo wanting Maniac Monster mano i mano, and not just in any match but a Last Man Standing contest. Pinn Enterprises overcome Vortex, Flash and Simonson. Only thing saving Boon from a loss is Blithe pulling out the referee the last second while Vortex had him trapped in a complicated pinning combination. SHADOW LEGENDS fall to Goliath Global as SubUrban Legend is clearly not himself after a sudden string of losses. Afterwards Goliath informs Positive Energy that they might have defeated D-Pod, but have yet to face the full power of his group. Big boys do battle as Mason is the first one to conquer Pinn in APW. Main event is a close one with Lucas showing he can hang with the best but his inexperience ends up costing him the win. Scorpio escapes with the title, but only just.  And it's our best show yet! Look at that card, all killer, no filler! One match under 50, one segment under 50, our best segment to open and another 60 to end it! It feels good to be, uh, All Australian? - loving Lucas. First main event and he knocks it out of the park. Scorpio was the better man, but Lucas very much pulled his own weight there. I'd say were less than a year away from Lucas being a surefire main event act. THIS is why he's a no-brainer hire at the start. - Warmonger is on a bloody warpath. He had a few iffy months earlier this year, but I guess he remembered I was kind of promising him a bigger role this year? War is currently our best in-ring heel and is extremely valuable piece for us. - Brisbane Devil is once again excellent. He had great chemistry with Samurai Boy, but the match is still him kicking rear end for six minutes and getting a main event level match out of it. - I was a bit worried about putting Mason and Pinn second to last, but even that lived up to the hype. Mason is not quite where I would want him, but maybe this is another one of those wins that will boost up his performances. - Nameth had an off night in the opener. Still a great match, but could have been even better. Gerard immediately delivers coming back from a few months of inactivity.  Another piece of big Oceania news to end the month as a new Australian company opens it's doors! Youth Energy Professional Wrestling (YEPW) seeks to bring Australian wrestling to the 21st century. It's the only Aussie company to have a performance over popularity product, so the in-ring skills of their wrestlers are weighted more heavily than in other companies. High injury risk, very little storyline stuff and a strict focus on pure wrestling and youth. They have an AI hiring rule of not bringing in anyone over 30 years old.  Their owner comes totally out of left field. Ernest Lopez is a randomly generated character with under 10 matches under his belt and quite low ownership skill (32). Half of his matches have actually been with APW, as I sometimes bring in local guys to fill out pre-show matches or to just test them out for the future. So he pretty much founded his own wrestling company to get regular work, true entrepreneurship.  Oceania doesn't have the best talent pool for a YEPW style company but there are still some gems to pick. Guys like Blackwell Bush, Edwin Velasquez or Michel Bernard don't have the entertainment skills to succeed anywhere else, but should be right at home at YEPW. I'll be keeping a close eye on them, as they will be hiring a booker and their starting roster over the coming weeks. There's probably going to be a lot of undercard guys from us, RAW and ZEN. A guy like Dee Lucketti would benefit greatly from a double deal. A well run YEPW will kick both APW's and DIW's rear end. As some of you might remember, I started another Aussie save near the start of this LP. That was with YEPW, as I edited them to be operational at the start of the save and jumped in the helm. I had my first 60 rated show in May 2020, first 70 rated match in December 2020 and first 70 rated show in November 2021. I kind of stalled out after five and a half years, but it was a really fun ride. Sure, I had a few player related advantages over the AI (can lure talent from overseas, don't have to stick to the under 30 rule, have brains etc.) but it was still remarkably easy to start doing this with Aussie based talent. We'll see what the YEPW of this reality brings to the table... Poll time~ 1) Case Kerry Wayne. Wayne is the third and by far the biggest talent that has left RAW in this save. But there is, as always, a catch. RAW usually doesn't let guys the caliber of Wayne go. Looking at his skills, the reason quickly becomes apparent. At 36 years old, Wayne has gotten the worst possible decline roll. He's declining, fast. But he still has crazy entertainment stats, is loving over (20 points over Scorpio across Oceania) and is still a decent brawler with great psychology. What do we do with the Hottest Free Agent? a) Hire him. We have the money. Despite his decline, he would probably be our best guy right out of the gate. A natural babyface and a true sign that we can be a natural landing spot for some big stars. And at the end of the day, beating him would be a big boost for one of our younger heels. Also has the trait Passes on Knowledge, so he might take a protege along the way to pass along his skills. b) Leave him be. Do we really need another Scorpio/Flash in our roster. He's past his prime and we don't need some RAW dropouts (except, you know, the ones that we have) to excel! Let DIW have him, let's see what good that will do to them! 2. Case Commonwealth Championship. Scorpio has had his fun. I have always meant his title reign to be a transitory one, to get the belt from Gerard to one of our other big babyfaces. So, who is it gonna be?  a) Mason. The Beefiest of Boys. Mason might not have the in-ring skills, he might not be the best promo, but by god does he looks like million bucks. His performances have stalled a bit (Nighthawk, Legend and Lucas are starting to drive by, Chuck and Vortex are nibbling his heels), but Mason is solidly our number three babyface. But can he truly be our top champion?  b) Mills. All Around Excellence. You put Rusty Mills in any position in the card and he always delivers. He's everything that Gerard is but just a bit better. Mills has all the tools to carry the company.  c) Gerard. The Face of the Franchise. Why not go back to the proven option? Mills might be driving right beside him, but Gerard is still a pretty drat viable option. He has pretty much ran through most of our big heels, so a fresh run down the card would probably be the better choice.  d) run with Scorpio. I might not like it, but Scorpio has been good. The act of delusional champion with the power of Pinn behind him has legs, but what happens to his already massive ego if he goes through all the big babyface challengers... e) Other? Bankrupt the company with a White Wasp title run? Give Lucas the run of a lifetime? Have Harry Simonson defy father time for one last time? Hire Kerry Wayne and immediately crown him the champion? 3. I've set up a Black Flash and Vortex as a team, feel free to shout out suitable names for the duo!
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Feb 12, 2022 19:30
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1. B. We already have pretty much everyone we could possibly want and this guy might be worth having around for a year, max. 2. B. The man's been as reliable as it gets. If Scorpio complains, test it out with the other two but he complains with them, then Mills should be the one to get this title. 3. Fist of the Southern Cross.
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Feb 12, 2022 21:07
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1) A We don't really have to keep him around that long, just long enough to capitalize off his popularity 2)B Mills seems like the most solid choice of the bunch
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Feb 12, 2022 23:58
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1. A. Bring him in 2. E: Then give him the title if Scorpio will let HIM go over with the plot of him turning it over to another heel and then to MILLS. 3. Anti-Polar Vortex
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Feb 13, 2022 00:14
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An entertainment based company can work around a guy in decline if they're charismatic and over, however he's so over that he won't want to play ball if he doesn't get his way. Also 36 is really early for time decline to hit.
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Feb 13, 2022 00:57
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1. A. super popular baby faces are always worth grabbing. Worst case scenario you can dump him in a few months. 2. A. The people love them some big meaty men slapping meat. I think you can then have Mason lose to Boon, then finally have Mills win from his former partner. After that run you could potentially do a reunion angle between those two as well.
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Feb 13, 2022 05:52
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1A 2B
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Feb 14, 2022 01:11
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