Maximum DEFIANCE Arc Discussion Thread: The Mormons are Coming!

[CrimsonScott]

HOUR ONE​

DEFTV91
Creepy Edward
This was a good Defiance team builder here, felt it was well done and gave a sign of hope for them, now if only a certain two hot heads could get on the same page as Eddie and Mushi. We might actually have a challenge here

Brawl for All (1)
Gage/Ross was something I can get behind with a typical heel/babyface combo, but this after last show it still paints me to thinking Gage is now the heel and facing a baby in Lisil. I just can not buy a good light hearted guy like Lisil in a role of antagonist. Ross and Gage was pure Mikey Money, but Lisil and Gage...not sold on. Brawling through the arena I can picture Ross/Gage doing something like this but Lisil/Gage ehhh

Butcher Victorious vs Christian Caballero
Nice match

HOUR TWO​

??? vs The Dibbins.
So the Dibbins get dealt a unfortunate opponent Team Hoss. Angus marks out, good match. The Hollywood Bruvs have even more competition now.

Done Deal
So Paz has her first clients, should be interesting to see where this goes

Chris Ross vs Elise Ares
Good match My only complaint and this could be cause I read the match from my phone. The action paragraphs need some breaking up. One big paragraph between ddk and Angus talking

Stealing the Spotlight
Good build for their upcoming match.

Brawl for All (2)
See above

KK vs Harry Rose
Another good write up

Interior Decorating.
Dan and Jesse just breed confidence

This Needs to Go.
Will did most of the heavy lifting, here I wanted to keep it short and sweet with CL here.

HOUR THREE​

Oscar Burns vs Jack Harmen
Harmen gets the win but it appears were not done.. Burns finally gets the advantage over Stevens, been a good story so far

Those Subtle Footsteps…
Mikey hyping David to the maximum, Hightower decimated Cayle two weeks ago and this was a good hype segment to build David as a man Cayle is going to have problems with. Really puts The Fist Championship in a very scary spot should Cayle drop it to David. Greats segment!

Quo…
Team Hoss mean business and make a point to call out the Hollywood Bruvs, but Theo and Brother Owens guys have other plans for them. What exactly did Mikey promise them?

Kendrix and Ryan vs Impulse and Douglas
UTA pulls out another one, nice touch on the ref not realizing who was legal for that tainted victory. Nice touch for a ending.

Brawl for All (3)
Finally Ross gets involved, with a bit of friction between Lisil and Ross. Chris wanting to stab Gage again but didn’t expect Mushi to join in. Well seems Defiance is finally getting their act together.

Dat 6 Man Tag:
Enjoyed the match, looks like Defiance might finally be on the same page, but using Ross in the beginning after Mushi/Ross just a few moments ago, kind of took from Mushi hitting Ross with the chair. Dane finally appears making War Games, but Ryan answers Dane proposal by laying him out, nice ending

Ill have both uncuts up tommorrow

 

[DBrunkGXW]

Results posted.

Feed em up.

 

[BWade]

RUNDOWN
Wrote it.

CRISTIANO CABALLERO VS. NICKY SYNZ
Opening mat - maybe not. Quick spot, something building here.

WAR WHAT?
“Lance Wanker… if that is your real name…”
Great segment from Mikey to build the War Game gimmick. It addresses some potential questions even if he refuses to answer any, directly. I like that Mikey no sells Dane’s return and even the knowledge of what War Games is until recently. The naming of the team works incredible here as well. We’re all here to tell a story but we are mimicking the real thing and in the real thing it’s all about those sweet sweet pay per view buyrates. This was perfect in that regard and it’s just a fun read.

ANGEL TRINIDAD VS. FELTON BIGSBY
Solid match although that does make for to no contests back to back - not the fault of the writer … there is just a lot of that here. The match plays well but the real story seems to be in the fall out and plays more into the infighting and tension between DEFiants. Big return(?) for Capital Punishment. I feel like this played way bigger than I read simply because I’m unfamiliar with the character. “FLY, FATASS, FLY!” For TV this was definitely long but for the go home show and as mentioned above building interest in the pay per view - I feel this did a great job and would have been a great watch.

GAME PLANNING
Gage Blackwood stays banged up. Solid segment to set up the tag’em ups later in the night. Mushi is well … Mushi, man of few words - none of them in English. And Blackwood plays off that well. Good read.

KERRY K. VS. REAPER PRIME
“The Pacific Disaster” Unfortunately we get another none match but I liked this segment in that Kerry is finally confronting Prime which of course all harkens back to a month or so prior Uncut segments where we see Kerry being at least tangentially involved with her training. “I’m here to wrestle not mind games” - Kerry has come (returned) to the wrong place at the wrong time. I dig he didn’t take the pin. I think this as well as everything the Reaper has done in DEF it raises curiosity. Which also sells ppvs.

BURRRNS
“Crikey dick!” sounds like a venereal issue. Burn’s rubbing elbows with the … FIST? Anywhere else but here that would be a strange sentence. Cayle’s line about scalps is dope. Burns last big statement read odd but completely inline with the character as I’ve come to know him. Love that he calls Cayle: GC. Reading this now I feel bad I didn’t sell the main event AT ALL in the Rundown, but there is a reason. On the doc the match was marked impromptu rather than booked - so I focused on the few matches that preceded it. But I dig the segment and it sells a opposing perception to that of Angel/Felton earlier. Which would certainly make the viewer wonder do these assholes have their shit together or nah?

BUILDING A FOUNDATION
Courtney Paz (which always makes me think of Vinnie Paz) back at it again - trying to recruit for her shadow organization. We know it isn’t the UTA, by her own admission but we don’t know who or what it is. Somewhere in this or maybe an Uncut it’s mentioned it is the same folks behind the laptop and auto play video that were delivered to Cayle an arc or two back … whatever this is, this shit runs deep.

MUSHIGIHARA/GAGE BLACKWOOD VS. CHRIS ROSS/LISIL JACKSON
For four people the entrances were held to a pretty good minimum for TV. A lot of action before the bell. I found some of it a little hard to follow but not terribly. Alot of DEF unity being sold here. This was kind of all over the place but I’ll except it - in that it’s the go home, tensions are high and all that. Overall I’m with it right up until the end … now the obvious we are 4 matches in with no finishes - more of an oversight/placement situation. So that is whatever - what really struck me as odd is that Ross isn’t shook by Mushi and is willing to attack the God Beast with a screwdriver but then runs from Dante and his cane. I’m not pulling up bios here or anything but I would imagine Dante isn’t nearly as opposing as Mushi. Also, I hate the screwdriver. It’s too Abdullah for me. Don’t remember if I’ve said that before.

STUDENTS OF THE GAME
Continuity! Here is said training dummy. Dags. Burns’ tutorial is great. Elise’s logic based concern is well placed too. The D pops in just where he is needed. “submission rainman”
Can’t believe The D had no comment on the Octopus Stretch. Not sure I like the selling line but it’s followed up quickly with the Entrance Practice bit which was fantastic. Oscar doesn’t know what he has gotten himself into.

MEDICAL ROOM MALADIES
Quick segment. Works well, because I never know what the hell Charlie Ace has up his sleeve next. But I am getting the feeling this must be a “it was right under your nose the whole time” situation as Ace scrambles for talent week after week.

OSCAR BURNS/ELISE ARES VS. JACK HARMEN/SCOTT STEVENS
Great intro banter from Keebs and Gussy. First two entrances were nice and short - second too a bit longer but Steven’s especially works given he is selling the injury gimmick. “Burns and Ares”? Harmen’s reaction to the fake injury is a nice touch. Burns reactions to Elise’s dyed in the wool heel tactics are great. This would have been great amidst PCP’s face turn. Short fall out talk but I think it does the job - and what do you know we have a match that finished tonight! Good read and the segments leading up to really tied in well and sold this one.


THAT MEANS NOTHING TO ME
Quick pre match promo. Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching 1997 WWF lately but I liked this alot. He wags the finger at Box for costing him a second appearance title win and then runs him down a bit. I would have liked to have seen some mention of the previous tag match but that's kind of splitting hairs in something this short and to the point. But while I’m splitting hairs, “Cuz” really took me out of it for a split second. Luckily - its just that quick. I still think this works well.

BRONSON BOX VS. THE JAY HARVEY
Quick entrances and we are into the match quick. Harvey bails out of the ring to regroup and/or run like a coward depending on which side you are on. Good stuff, classic heel shit. Works everytime. And even uses it to regain control. Solid match, Harvey kind of runs wild on Box (which is fine but I think it would have played better if the nagging injuries had been put over) and eventually tried and true, hope spot, comeback and Harvey heels it up with the low blow while his ol’ lady makes for the destraction. I dig it … but for the finish? I was expecting he would do something else… a flying elbow drop comes to mind. Nah, but overall solid match and pretty good post match selling from commentary.

TEAM BUILDING
“Wrote” with Pete and Justin. As in I slightly edited some of Douglas’ lines.

CRIMSON LORD VS. HOFFMAN
Breakneck speed here, we start with Quimbey making the announcement. Which coming out of a segment, on a segment heavy show - I don’t hate. Very interesting take on the match. I will say when I first got here I thought the hard lining on the all caps, DEFIANCE was maybe a little silly but after doing it and reading it so long it’s always off putting to see it not done that way. THAT being said … due to mitigating circumstances this was a bit of a rush job and Scott got it done in a hurry. Overall, it works. I think it might bury Hoffman a litttttle too much but thats kind of what this arc has been for all DEFies.

THE LAST OF US
Intriguing segment. Unfortunately I know who wrote it so it takes the mystery out of it. But solid stuff reminds me of the tone Paul Bris was doing when he was still around. The bus … the dead on arrival gimmick that won’t die. Fun read.

IMPULSE VS RYAN
This was surprising. Ryan crushes Impulse pretty easily. Insult to injury as well. Format was off here on the pinfall. The pairs history (which I’m unfamiliar with) clearly played heavily into this.

TURNING A NO INTO A YES
Helped with this one. Justin is always on some next shit.

DOUGLAS VS. KENDRIX
Stevie is great to write with.

WONT GET FOOLED AGAIN
PPV pushing promo. DDK/Angus reaction hint to this tieing into something else. It’s gotta be big for the show opener to have a promo this late on a card. I dig it.

MURRAY VS. LIKELY/OVERALL
Another non-match. Builds to the PPV. And don’t get me wrong of course it works great here but - we had 2 matches finish? The theme of this FB has kind of been harping on selling the PPV … so I must say if you are already invested in these story lines, or at least the big one - this show would frustrate the shit out of you but CERTAINLY leave you wanting more, so can’t hate that. Good job guys, if you reading this - feedback! Otherwise we are all writing in a vacuum and where is the fun in that.

As always I’m a drunk and don’t know a wrist-lock from a wristwatch so take it with a grain of salt. And don’t reply, I don’t care or want an explanation.

 

[Seth]

Feedback engage! Note: Won't comment on my own stuff aside from saying I had fun working on it and with my feud partner and hope you enjoyed the blow-off

RUNDOWN
UTA references were probably lost on me, but the rest of the rundown. did a good job as they always do setting the tone for the show. No complaints here.

TEAM HOSS VS NJNP
I wrote. Hope I have done NJNP justice.

THE BELT
Follow-up to recent events with Scott Douglas and Kendrix over the theft of the SoHer. Short and to the point. No complaints about this one other than helping to set the tone for Wargames later.

CABALLERO VS SYNZ
This has been a fun little angle with Charlie Ace's newest search for a client that now appears to have been found. I never bought into Synz being Ace's guy, but I also honestly thought that Williams was going to waste both guys and have Ace proclaim the big guy as his star. I liked how this turned out, though, as Caballero has a lot of potential and a group of he, Ace and Williams could be great for either singles or tag. Good stuff here.

KERRY KUROYAMA VS. MASS EFFECT BAD GUYS/THE KABAL
Lumping them together. More angle than match, of course, but Justin did a great job capturing what I thought would be the right crowd reactions of booing and WTF-ness. A complex angle with a lot of history for sure, but I am intrigued of where this is going. As usual, follow-up is key.

WAR
Another big storyline development here both for War Games and for whatever Courtney Paz has her hand in. Google Translate did an actually decent job with the Russian enough to get the message, haha.

BLACKWOOD VS JACKSON
The action was great in this the whole way through. I love Lisil still doing the babyface things while getting booed, whereas Gage was the aggressor in most of this feud, but still the face, as it were. I was surprised by the Chris Ross interference, but I hope there's more to the Jackson/Blackwood story to come. Didn't like the DQ finish at first (as a rule, I don't like these most times on a PPV) but they covered this very well later on.

GAMES
Follow-up to War from earlier. Well, ish. Team DEF may be down by one man. That's no bueno.

INSURANCE POLICY
Ahh, the attack makes sense now from earlier and Ross's reasoning was great.. Because stack bodies, that's why. Lisil being on the same "team" but not liking Chris's tactics was a good wrinkle. He could perhaps be the RVD of the UTA where he wins over the crowd regardless of alignment. Like to see how this plays out.

BURNS VS STEVENS
We wrote this one. Think this did a great job getting over both characters for the future and hope you all enjoy this one.

MUSHI VS ROSS
My favorite match of the night up to this point. On the shorter end, but they all don't nedd to be epics.Ross looks like a goddamn monster tonight between his attack on Gage earlier and his HUGE victory, beating one of DEF #TOPGUY. I liked the ending to this. Great back and forth scrap here.

GEARS OF WAR
I believe I know what this is, but will refrain from speculation.

HARMEN VS ARES
All right, new favorite match of the night! (Sorry, Chris and Rob). Harmen's Sports Entertainy intro was awesome. And this felt like a crazy mess of an Attitude Era match (that's a compliment). The story of Harmen knowing almost all of Elise's tricks was great and bias showing here, I laughed at "Burns It Down."

Great match altogether and I hope the controversial ending means this feud continues.

SOMETHING TO FEAR
Now the Reapers make a big mark immediately by attacking Impulse and perhaps messing with DEFIANCE's chances of victory in the War Games match. Even more intrigued where this is all going now. Consider me sucked in to this story.

FIST OF DEFIANCE MATCH
Holy shit, what a great match. Color me somewhat shocked that UTA didn't take the championship, but Cayle is a great workhorse character and champion in general. This was a GREAT David vs Goliath-type match with Cayle outlasting the badass challenger. Even though he didn't win, Hightower looks fucking great coming out the other side of this and totally sold his nigh-unstoppable character to the very end. Cayle will live to fight another day, but I'm interested to see what this setback means for UTA. Surely not the last time they try and take the title.

WAR GAMES MATCH
Hot Christ, this was a long read. I have written one War Games match in my eW tenure and that fucking thing took years off my life and probably sucked balls, too.

That said, not only did this NOT suck balls, but it did the complete opposite and rocked balls. Or something. And by the end of this, holy shit, the UTA came out of this looking like the killers that they should have. My general notes:

--Box as the first guy was the perfect person for that spot. That said, I really wish Evan could have been into this more towards the end of this arc.
--Crimson Lord is a goddamn monster.
--Harmen comes off a big night not only laying waste to his former proteges, but now having his hand in the main event via a car battery. Big night for him.
--Is Mark Shields on the take? That would be a great story in a "who can you trust?" type of scenario.
--I can only imagine how heart-breaking the ending was for Dane watching The DEFIANT Ones getting picked apart for the fans.

Holy shit, I will say top to bottom, this was a great card. Like Pete said in the chat, nobody phoned anything in and the synergy of everybody to help get this fedwide angle over has been great. Now I'm really amped for the next arc.

Kudos to this card, folks, everybody did a stellar job.

 

[CrimsonScott]

HOUR ONE​

Opening match pretty good match to start the show off between Team Hoss and No Justice No Peace. For a feud that started late in the arc it developed a good story behind it. Even perhaps a redemption for Team Hoss as the end result. Guess NJNP has some decisions to make after this loss. Who will accept them? Defiance? Or will Mikey give them another chance to be a part of the WrestleUTA?

Nicky finally is able to get his hands on Cristiano. I really wasn’t into this feud much. But the match was pretty good! It told a good story with Cristiano trying to wear Nicky’s down with various submission on Nicky’s back. Gotta say I was not expecting Ace coming out and answering the mystery of who his next client would be (Totally forgot about that segment) Now what is Nicky going to do? Cristiano again steals one from him.

The whole feud between Kerry and Reaper Prime again was not one I was really into much. As I read the match though the one thing I kept thinking about was Reaper Prime is kind of like Crow Sting. At least that's the vibe I am getting from her. Match wise this seemed like it probably should've been a segment because it pretty much was barely a match. After Red left it just seem to drag for me. I get where you guys were going with it but just didn’t feel like it should've been a PPV Match. The story has me hooked, and now has me really interested in the next story arc for the Reapers. So now what does Reaper Prime mean by The Chaos Protocol? What will friends of Kerry have to say with joining Reaper Prime?

HOUR TWO​

Jackson and Blackwood I was really enjoying this match. It told a great story with Gage’s battered body specifically his shoulder. However I would of loved to see this match to the end Ross interfering in it really bummed me out. The feud between these three men has me a bit baffled. It started with Ross and Blackwood then just switch to Lisil. Ross seemed forgotten after Lisil introduced himself. During the arc I was wondering just who exactly Gage was going to wrestling on this show. Has Ross rid Defiance of Gage? What is going to happen with the relationship with Lisil and Chris who clearly don’t see eye to eye?

The story between Burns and Stevens has kept me glued to these two men. Stevens has come a long way from his UTA persona. The match was a great grudge match and had a great story to go with it. Both men came off real strong in this one. My only issue with it was what exactly their moves were ex: I went to look up “Arachnophobia” but Stevens has no bio! So I still have no clue what exactly Stevens applied to Oscar. Aside from that nitpick I really enjoyed this one. How is Oscar going to deal with letting Defiance down? Where will Stevens go from here?

Mushi and Ross I was not real fond of. I felt Mushi being a monster, he came off really weak in this match. Ross for the most part seem to dominate him. I would of liked to see bit more offense from Mushi. Also where was the DQ when Ross used the screwdriver during it, or the low blow in front of Hector? Frankly given the blending of these four characters a Tag Match for this card I felt would of been a better route to go instead of individual singles matches. So now what is Ross going to do, seemingly taking out all his current rivals now? Can Mushi recover from this loss?

HOUR THREE​

PCP I really had a hard time getting into this arc, even the new persona of Jack took a bit of getting use to compared to his UTA version. The match was brutal and told great story of Teacher vs Student. Jack would lure Elisa in with his fake injury only to trick her, Elisa would put what Oscar taught her to good use surprising Jack. Harmen continued to show throughout the match that not only Elisa but Klien and The D he knew like the back of his hand. Elisa came out looking strong as well. I have not been a fan of PCP but this match made me want to give these characters a shot now. What is going to happen with that shady finish? Can the PCP bounce back from this?

Cayle and Hightower’s story has been brief, but their last encounter Hightower showed Cayle just who he is up against at MaxDef. Cayle had a pretty good hype segment before this brutal match! Cayle tried to wear down the monster in this match. Good story from Cayle of trying not to match power with the challenger. From the blood from the champ to Hightowers broken hand. Both men put on a hell of a show so many near falls I almost felt like Angus was going to have a heart attack in this match as he called it lol. Hightower now has to face Mikey failing to capture the championship, how will he be received by WrestleUTA? Cayle off an impressive defense, sure enough to raise the hopes of Defiance, but can Cayle continue this monteum much longer?

After Impulse brutal beatdown earlier in the show and by the Reapers just added a whole new dimension to the invasion story. Great story telling throughout the match! Blood, sweat, and even electricity. You guys pulled out all the stops on this one and really knocked this match out of the park. Hell of a write up fellas, and what an exciting climax of the invasion. Everyone came out strong with a great finish! I normally don’t hand the rings of Crimson to others but I knew he was in good hands with you guys and you guys did not disappoint me. Can the WrestleUTA even be stopped? Are the Reapers secretly working for Mikey? What can Dane do now to reinvigorate his talent? Or will his talent question his decision in the match? What plans does Mikey’s WrestleUTA have in store for Dane's Defiance next?

Great show guys!

 

[MikeyUnlikely]

Intro:
Nice Signs, A lot of UTA fans in attendance tonight. Good intro, hyped the big matches!

NJNP vs Team Hoss
This is awesome. Seth has a magic with words it’s pretty great. No one writes like this. The transitions from spot to spot are so smooth! Loved it! The Fat Ass Slam! Hahahaha. We should rename it that! Loved the Angus : Hoss or be Hossed stuff. He was 100% alive in this one. What a match! Legitimately didn’t know who was going over as I read this. Seth made the UTA guiz look GREAT! Not to mention a McConahaughey impression! Stellar!

The Belt:
Scott Douglas can’t find the SOHER after JFK took it! He’s Pissed! Angus plays up the Main Event! Nice.

Christian Caballero vs Nicki Synz
Good match, pretty interesting. I didn’t have a ton invested in it, as I didn’t know who was writing this small angle this whole time. Now it all comes together and done very well. Caballero joins Hoyt under the employ of Charlie Ace! I love it! Great work this arc pulling this off. Fun match, read as if the guys were evenly matched. Loving the Ace/Hoyt stuff, so this definitely just adds to it.

KK vs Reaper Prime (With 2 day free shipping) and Reaper Red.
I like Kerry and the character he’s become. Reapers have surpassed Mikey and his PPV entrances! You guys can have this one… but come Acts….This was a super weird match LOL.. Reaper Prime just plays dead until Kerry gets overly frustrated then reveals something to him in secret, before he lies down for the pin!? WHAT!? Where is this going lol!?

The Kabal
KK just joined the Reapers! Oh shit! This is pretty cool visual, I’ll be honest. Loved the way you wrote this one.

WAR (huh! Good God Yall...What is it good for!? Absolutely NOTHING!)
LOL laughed out loud at the worlds biggest burrito line. Sounds absolutely perfect for a cally project. Nice creepy way to do this. I know whats coming but this still gets me pumped.

Lisil Jackson vs Gage Blackwood
Good little match here. I thought it went a little longer than it should, but it’s a PPV so who cares. Liked the Lisil Jackson style, a big man, who also knows Martial Arts, but often times Blackwood uses his quickness to his advantage. Gage Blackwood has a ton of fight and often paints himself as an underdog, both are keys to being a good face. The false finishes were probably a few too many because it got to the point where the kickout wasn’t surprising. Nice finish though. Gage “wins the match” but gets beat down by Chris Ross which flings us right into another feud. Nicely done. UTA walks away the victorious bunch, even if not technically.

Games:
IMPULSE IS DEAD! No not really, but he’s badly hurt. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR WART GAEMZ? Nice quick story telling.

Insurance Policy
Infighting between MORMONS? I don’t even mind this. Nicely done between Ross and Jackson. Chris Ross has the right mindset…. Don’t win….eliminate! Great line about Mikey not caring about wins and losses, just results. Ross seems like a man who deserves a raise lol. Jackson playing face in the hardest spot possible. Nice touch.

Oscar Burns vs Scott Stevens
LOVED the open to this match. All the quick Roll ups and Stevens getting more and more flustered. Great story telling. Holy shit what a match. I ended up getting caught up in the read and didn’t type so much feedback but i think that's a testament to how good it was! This felt like it could have been a main event! MORMONS WIN!

Mushigara vs Chris Ross
I am happy to see Chris Ross has gotten the memo on the DEFIANCE entrances. Nicely done in both matches. Brief and to the point. Liked the Mushi intro from Quimbey too. Nice match, pretty quick for a PPV but the entirety of it makes sense. Like the new finish from Ross and what better way to put it over than have it put out a monster? MORMONS AGAIN!

Gears of War
Uh…. what!? Great writing, great visual, cool deal, but I’m clueless

Jack Harmen vs Elise Ares
HOLY FUCKING SHIT. This was much longer than anticipated, but hats off to Billy and Tom! Angus was in top form in this one. Loved him and his booing, the keying of the car etc. Great intro and great promo from Harmen who only wants to wrestle in the UTA ring. NICE TOUCH! Loved this little gimmick Tom came up with before the PPV. good schtuff. You did a great job explaining the heel and the face,the lines were not blurred throughout, and the fan reactions were great. Double Eye poke! Amazing. The countout because of the wrong ring, was great! Harmen loves to bend those rules! Haha! Awesome, and very exciting end of the match. Klein the referee makes his return to DEFIANCE! Love that gimmick. Nice way to bring in a UTA ref. This whole match screamed of Fuckery but holy shit did Elise put up a hell of a fight. Great stuff, Harmen is despicable. I like the uncertainty following the finish and whether it’s “an official result”

Something to Fear
Lance Warner getting an update on Impulse ahead of War Games, Well played! Loved the way everyone assumed it’s UTA people and Cally is the one who clarified. Like how Pete did this. It was those REAPERS!

PURGE
Nice fiery babyface promo from Cayle Murray, he paints Hightower to be HUGE, but tonight, he will be the better wrestler…

Fist of DEFIANCE Match:
Great match by Murrr, I’ll be completely honest, he wrote 100% of this, while I focused in on the War Games match. I was not disappointed in the least. He painted Hightower as one of the biggest and baddest dudes on the planet. Could not have been more excited about how this played out. The story is very simple, outsmart the big, slow and powerful Hightower. David wears him down as much as he can but Cayles stamina prevails. Holy fuck Murrrr turned me around and had me rooting for Cayle Murray in the end….AND I HANDLE HIGHTOWER! FUCK! So so so so good baby face story telling. Amazing my friend. This is why you are the champwon!

The Other Rundown:
Written by Brian 100%. Legit! Explanation of the rules for you fuckoos who never saw war games before this… (Also, I am a fuckoo who never saw war games before this….soooo…….)

The War Games:
I hope you enjoyed. This was a BEAST of a match to write. I had no idea what I was signing myself up for in this one, but I think it paid off. Brian and I did the vast majority of the match in a few day span. Stevie, Will, and Pete all kicked in and helped us quite a bit. Anything this large is group effort for sure. Hats off to Brian tho, who I believe was the MVP of this deal. He kept everyone together and ensured it got done, even if it meant writing huge sections alone. Thanks buddy! Hope you all enjoyed the story we’re telling. To all the wrestlers involved who did not write this, thank you for trusting your characters to us, and I hope we did you justice.

Arc Close:
HUGE THANKS to everyone for working together as a team this arc. I’ve seen many feds come and many feds go, I’ve seen invasions, I’ve seen mergers, and I’ve seen mass chaos. This went off about as well as you could possibly ask for when combining two feds and their rosters. DEFIANCE guys you were incredibly selfless, very accomadating, and willing to bend over backwards for the story to work. THANK YOU! UTA guys, you were drama free, and came in without having a big head and trying to “get a position” THANK YOU! To the staff that worked incredibly hard to make this transition swimingly smooth and quick and painless THANK YOU!

Guys… it’s time for DEF to get some shine back in arc 2! Let’s do this!

 

[Roland]

I'm picking up where I left off. I have a few shows to give feedback for.

DEFtv 91.

CREEPY EDWARD
Great opening, good speech. I can only assume this is near the end of Murr handling his self-titled character, although I hope that's not the case. I followed GCW a little bit and I look at the Andy Murray character as a star and certainly Cayle too. But it's something many of us will eventually come to terms with and move on from our main characters. I think of Tom and Jack Harmen as well, who's still going strong. Somewhere, I'll find a home for LLB and get a few more years of writing out of him before my own self-titled character moves on and retires. But this isn't about me, the segment was good and although I'm still only a few arcs in to The God-Beast and Eddie Dante, it's cool to see them as faces.

THE RUNDOWN
I will work for Mikey Money.

BRAWL FOR ALL (1)
Been a month and a half already, Jesus. Well I wrote this and it was super cool to get the opening after the rundown. I wasn't in the fired-up mindset I wanted to be while writing it, but after reading it over again I'm happy enough.

CRISTIANO CABALLERO VS. BUTCHER VICTORIOUS
Short and sweet. Some good use of commentary lines to keep it entertaining too. This is how matches should come across on TV.

SPONSORED IN PART BY
I laughed when I first saw this. Great ad.

TEAM HOSS VS. THE DIBBINS
Good debut return. Squash match done well and I liked how Team HOSS weren't "overly" faces and somewhat surprised by the reactions they got. It makes sense no matter what they did in the past, they would be welcome by the fans because they were DEFIANCE. Wrestling fans have short memories. Wrestling bookers even shorter.

DONE DEAL
Still don't know what's going on but it's fun not knowing.

CHRIS ROSS VS. ELISE ARES
Hahaha I loved the opening with Ross, "Make DEFIANCE Great Again" sign and Angus wondering how UTA guys have music. Good beat down and really selling Ross as a dangerous weapon, perhaps the most reckless guy in the UTA.

STEALING THE SPOTLIGHT
Good set up for next week. I really liked the end with Ace coming in and putting business cards in their faces lol.

BRAWL FOR ALL (2)
Just keeping continuity. Though how 2 guys can fight through the entire show... I'll never know lol.

KERRY KUROYAMA VS. HARRY ROSE
I like how Kerry addressed the crowd and The Reapers this time "costing" him the match against Rose. I haven't even skimmed DEFtv 92 or the PPV yet so I look forward to see what happens.

INTERIOR DECORATING
Great segment. I still like how Ryan simply answers "no" about joining the UTA. JFK kind of explains it anyway in his own words. Great heel segment. My favorite of the night so far.

THIS NEEDS TO GO
Would have worked better if Lance was standing in front of a UTA backdrop lol, but granted I'm sure neither guy writing knew of the other segment. So I just pretended it was a UTA backdrop. Otherwise, kind of a similar segment as the above one. Good to see more interaction. Could have used something in-between these segments though.

OSCAR BURNS VS. JACK HARMEN
Well-written. I love how Harmen comes across here. I like how Angus is conflicted as well, though ultimately siding with DEFIANCE. Scott Stevens wins again.

THREE-PEAT?
I like how Stevens is just pleading with Burns and then denying this was a "match". I think this segment could have worked either way, with Stevens coming out on top again or not. Burns giving the finger back was a nice touch.

THOSE SUBTLE FOOTSTEPS...
I assume Mikey wrote this (I didn't check back in this thread to see). Mikey's a super talented writing dbag (I mean this in an endearing way lol). Great heel writer. I like the image of Sawyers and Hightower just standing behind him. For this feud it absolutely makes sense for Mikey to be the one who's running his mouth, so Sawyers taking a back seat here is fine. But he's also an entertaining manager too and the anti-bullying aspect should be front and center again soon enough.

...QUO
I like the page break because I actually thought the segment was over after talking with Lance. Good attack to set up a feud right away with new "UTA" guys.

IMPULSE & SCOTT DOUGLAS VS. KENDRIX & DAN RYAN
Not too much to add here. Great tag match. Everything came out as expected. Impulse getting the hot tag was good, the ref bump and everything else.

BRAWL FOR ALL (3)
Enter Chris Ross. And Mushi for the save.

CAYLE MURRAY/BRONSON BOX/REINHARDT HOFFMAN VS. DAVID HIGHTOWER/JAY HARVEY/CRIMSON LORD
Lots going on here. Lots of multi-man tag matches across the entire arc and beyond, but they all flow differently in some ways and that's a good thing. The chemistry part between Box and Murray was awesome. David Hightower is a monster! Great stuff! Getting the win was huge for him! My only issue here would be the after-match stuff should be its own segment. I liked the small detail of caps-locking ERIC DANE's speech. However, I would of had the segment end there. I would have left the Dan Ryan attack for another time. Lots going on, too much for my little mind to think about ahah.

I'll get to DEFtv 92 on Tuesday and probably the PPV by the weekend since it will take a while to read.

 

[BWade]

RUNDOWN
Most of the signs were lost on me. But I see others dug it so clearly they hit their mark. Solid run down! Sold the high spots of the card and moved quick into the first match up.

TEAM HOSS VS. NJNP
Opening commentary was quite wordy but I dug it considering this was the pop up feud of the arc. Helped sell what's gotten us to this point. Well written match. Angus’s love for HOSSes played very well here. It looked like NJNP was gonna disappear not long ago and I’m glad Seth picked up the mantle and ran with them. It’s been good reading and this match caps all that off nicely. I wonder what this means for NJNP, seemingly they don’t get their spot with the “Joseph Smith-loving shitbags.” Placement wise and knowing full well how this card ends I really dig the DEF win at the top of the card. Great work.

THE BELT
Wrote it.

CRISTIANO CABALLERO VS. NICKY SYNZ
Well written match. Angus’ BRAZEN love shows through nicely here as well. I’ve had a tough time keeping up with the feud and understanding what is going on, which I chalk up mostly to my poor reading comprehension and underlying drinking problem. But this has been a long play for Charlie Ace and Hoyt so I’m really interested to see when this all pays off and Ace finally puts the stamp on a guy and makes a run with him.

KERRY KUROYAMA VS. REAPER PRIME & REAPER RED/THE KABAL
I’m a big fan of the Kerry Kuroyama character and I’m a little sad to see him fall in the with Reapers but at the same time it makes me wonder what Prime must have told him to convince him to go against his normal character. Clearly these two have history as we’ve seen via UNCUT’s but I have no clue as of what she could have said. Makes one wonder if Rocko Daymon might pop up at some point and save the Karate Kid to his Mister Miyagi.

WAR
Nice segment. Great build for War Games. We’ve been focusing on the mormons and all the while the Ruskie’s are invading!

BLACKWOOD vs. JACKSON
Solid match. To echo Mikey’s feedback it’s a little long - but to echo him again it’s a PPV. Fuck it. DEFIANCE’s glimpse of hope starting to fade early in the night as Blackwood wins, although not the way he would prefer and takes quite the beating to boot.

GAMES
Follow up to WAR, and it goes by quick but it says what it need too in: Will DEF be a man down the said GAMES?

INSURANCE
RassleUtah showing cracks in the armor already? Well written segment and though it’s a little infighty I think it sells UTA’s goals more and just simply uses a tiff between two of it’s stars to facilitate that.

BURNS vs STEVENS
“#BUGGEROFFUTA” good stuff. Pre-match stuff works well and Stevens has all the heats. Well written match, I love how quickly Angus turns on Burns in anger, “you rube.” Far as I know it to be that is Angus through and through. This match fits right in with the rest of the card in that it reminds me of the first NWO heavy PPVs if anyone gave a shit about WCW. This was another close one for DEF but doing the right thing shot Burns in the foot and he paid the price. Great work.

MUSHI v. ROSS
Granted I knew this was coming but reading this now - a week or so removed from the planning and such… this is a surprising loss for Mushi. Extremely short match for PPV and other than the main event maybe the upset of the night. The Boss toppled the God-Beast… I can’t say I would’ve booked it that way BUT being that it was - man you’ve got some great opportunities coming out of this one. DEF takes another L … and probably their hardest to swallow, so far tonight.

GEARS OF WAR
Well written and very intriguing! Some of the references are lost on me but I get the vast majority. Love the old school vignette style. Can’t wait to see this pay off.

HARMEN vs. ARES
Student verse teacher and all that. DDK’s opening line sums this one up perfectly. It reads fine but it reminded me I hate when people say “butt” in wrestling. You can’t sound aggressive saying butt. Whether kicking, whooping or directing someone to go sit on it. Harmen’s ring promo both sells the difference in ring set up for the night and also puts over the UTA super hard. Good stuff. This one descended into all types of a chaos. Made for a fun read. Carla ref, Klen ref, Levi ref … clearly this isn’t the blow off.

SOMETHING TO FEAR
Follow up to the WAR and the GAMES. Get it WAR GAMES! This was well written and played back into SOOOO much backstory with the Reaper Co. folks that have at this point become less a Co. and more a army. Cally makes it known it was the handy work of these people she recently borrowed inspiration from for her Halloween costume. She puts them over pretty hard and I think it sells. Even if DEF can beat UTA tonight - we’re not out of the woods yet.

PURGE/MURRAY v. HIGHTOWER
Pretty quick and to the point. Cayle is fired up and he doesn’t seem to be in the mood for UTA fuckery tonight. Great match. I read the majority of this before I remembered I need to comment on it as well. The build to the finish is crazy and probably the most acceptable use of that many capital letters on the internet in recent history. I think it bares mentioning that also in the hottest moment of the card thus far - War Games is still sold. Good stuff. “Aye, got a little bit carried away there… but FUCK WrestleUTA! Our boy did the thing!”


THE REST
I helped with all this and I think the result is pretty stellar although I’m definitely NOT reading it again. Maybe in a month or two I might get curious or need to remember something that happened and read through it with new eyes (and probably hate it) but right now … couldn’t pay me to read 50 some odd pages lol. That being said, I hope it plays well and everyone digs it! Mikey really came through in making this happen and getting it completed. As he mentioned Pete, Stevie and Will lent a hand and wrote some great spots. As I’m sure everyone can imagine it’s not a easy match to write! A boiling it down to four writers, and two main writers - really made it much more doable. So to echo Mikey once again, thanks to all those who had characters involved and let us run with it to get it done.

OVERALL
Solid show. Everyone went all in on the Invasion deal and UTA looks super crazy strong moving into the next ARC. So great job everyone and let’s keep it up. If youre reading this haven’t fed the backs yet … feed ‘em! Look what you just read … clearly you can drunk and clueless - AND still write some feedback!

Thanks everyone. As always, typed ... not read.

 

[Roland]

I am determined to keep my word and catch-up with feedback. Also because I really do want to read all the shows and know what's going on. Next is "WAR GAMES". The PPV is a crazy show but I will get it done this week, along with the other 3 DEFtv's.

DEFtv92

THE RUNDOWN
Typical recap-like stuff. Although I felt this one was more in-depth.

CRISTIANO CABALLERO VS. NICKY SYNZ
Quick beating, makes sense and sets up the PPV.

WAR WHAT!?
Mikey's great on the mic, good rundown of the guys on his team. Also cool to see, while the Mikey character is a "dbag", he's not a scared typical heel, so he puts himself in the match. It makes total sense with the storyline since UTA has been killing DEFIANCE so far. So why back down? Great stuff. I really like this direction.

ANGEL TRINIDAD VS. FELTON BIGSBY
Good match with the beatdown. I'm not as familiar with everyone since I haven't gone that far back in reading DEFIANCE shows, but it was a good set-up to the PPV. My only thing would be to eventually have NJNP get their heat back later on in the night.

GAME PLANNING
Wrote this with Rob. It was fun. I like Mushi's interaction.

KERRY KUROYAMA VS. REAPER PRIME
I like the reference to Uncut and reminding everyone that's important for storyline development too. I marked out seeing 3 Reapers. The writing for Angus was really great here I thought. Only thing was I wanted to know the other colors of the Power Reapers.

BURRRNS
Good interaction between mid-card and main event. More segments like this across all of DEFIANCE since it feels like UTA is ahead in this matter.

BUILDING A FOUNDATION
In general I have mixed feelings about when a character notices the camera. I always wonder wtf to do with my characters backstage. Many segments are written without a camera "there" but perhaps many of them should acknowledge the camera too lol. Anyway for this segment it works and I think it's cool to have a mix of suspension of disbelieve and reality in the same shows.

MUSHIGIHARA & GAGE BLACKWOOD VS. CHRIS ROSS & LISIL JACKSON
Wrote with Rob and Chris

STUDENTS OF THE GAME
Entertaining segment and makes sense for Elise to figure out new moves because Harmen trained her. Also good to see more DEFIANCE guys interacting.

MEDICAL ROOM MALADIES
Quick and to the point. Keeps everything going well.

OSCAR BURNS/ELISE ARES VS. JACK HARMEN/SCOTT STEVENS
Good match. Obvious misdirection with the injury but it was well played and a good tag match to keep both feuds going.

THAT MEANS NOTHING TO ME
Feels like a throwback to the WWF days when they would play promo videos as the guy comes down to the ring. Harvey wasn't out yet but I liked it a lot. Might have to do something like this one day.

BRONSON BOX VS. THE JAY HARVEY
Regardless of how, HUGE win for Harvey. Great to see Box put guys over on (probably) his way out.

TEAM BUILDING
I like the incorporation of Halloween and the interaction with Eric Dane, again getting everyone on the same page.

CRIMSON LORD VS. REINHARDT HOFFMAN
Good beating and pre-match wait. Just a few small issues with the formatting and calling it Defiance, not DEFIANCE. But all good.

THE LAST OF US
Well obviously it's all known now and I'm sure it wasn't too hard to figure out I was writing with The Fuse Bros. anyway. I know some of the video game stuff threw people off or maybe was a little "too out there", but I had fun with it. Do something totally different, that was my goal.

IMPULSE VS. DAN RYAN
Wow. Ryan crushed Impulse. I'm still "new" to DEFIANCE and going back to read old arcs, but Impulse is a star. Getting hammered like that sends a statement. Great job Pete. Really great job everyone for making UTAH look so good. My only issue here is I would have wanted to visualize the "ONE. TWO. THREE." just to drive the point home.

TURNING A NO INTO A YES
I look forward to the payoff of this, on both ends. I also liked Kerry's speech and saying he's trying to establish himself. I'm a fan of how he's been written. Not instantly over and gaining more and more support each week.

SCOTT DOUGLAS VS. KENDRIX
Another win for UTAH. Thumbs up from me.

WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN
Sets up the pay-per-view. Maybe could have been on Uncut to sell the injuries more or a news segment but still works.

CAYLE MURRAY VS. MIKEY UNLIKELY
Near perfect. Why get rid of a money match on free TV? Give us a money beating instead. DEFIANCE gets the upper hand for a change and even though it follows the typical WWE formula of the "go home winner" then losing at the PPV, it makes sense to give some hope to the fans. Seeing Mikey bleed is also awesome. He finally gets destroyed. My only key issue is having Mushi show up after what happened to him during the tag match. However, maybe he recovered in time. Better communication from mid-card dummies like me to the big boys can prevent this the next time.