Roster History

[Deacon]

Below, I will be giving some information on the beginning roster. Some of it will be tidbits about the artwork. Others may be how their creation came about. The idea is to give you some background for the character, not as an "official" history prior to their beginning in the Circuit, since you already have that in the basic rules. This is the real story, with no "kayfabe" (if you will). Just how they came into being. I hope to work through the original 21 characters and then each of those added in the expansions.

 

[Deacon]

Deacon

Deacon - He's been my baby for longer than... well, a long time. I first created him after seeing Undertaker tear the cross necklace off of Hogan and then Taker threw it down, acting like it burned him. That spawned the idea of, in essence, an "anti-Undertaker" who could match him in size, ability, and mystical prowess. I was about 12-13 and Taker was the coolest thing I'd ever seen in a ring, so taking that coolness and giving him a "good guy" The idea of a manager named "The Shepherd" also seemed to fit. The name of the Mute Freak actually came about due to the CSWA, specifically "Hurricane" Eddy Love who entered the CSWA at the same time as I did and wasn't sure how to "get over." We started doing some verbal jabbing at one another and the name stuck. Much like insults tossed at people in the past, the Deacon owned the label and made it a part of who he was. I used the Deacon when needed in the MWC, though only in a supportive role, but he was one of the first characters made for the older version of MDG. The Deacon then moved to fWo where he blossomed, largely in part to efforts of those around me.

For the current incarnation of MDG, Deacon being a part of the game was a no-brainer. From the point that he was awarded fantasywrestling.com's "Most unique character" title in 1998, I knew Deacon was a keeper. Though he could easily be a polarizing character, he's been embraced by those who agree with his views, and many who don't. And he's allowed me to do something rarely tried in popular culture - taking a polarizing belief system and put it out there, showing the Deacon as many people I know. A flawed, yet devoted man to those around him. Someone possessing a strength of spirit in the midst of insanity (something I've been accused of having). A hard-working person willing to do whatever he can to help others, but in Deacon's case, frequently struggling with feelings of isolation. And of course, a man of faith believing in something greater than himself, a savior that Deacon believes he needs to have in order to have a reason for being. Maybe you agree. Maybe you disagree. That doesn't matter nearly as much as that you think about it. That brings him alive. What the players do with it, that's up to them.

 

[Deacon]

Re: Deacon

Steed -

Where Deacon was a character I knew prior to the game, Steed was one I adapted to fit it. Though many characters changed during the course of this endeavor, none touched the amount of adjustments for this character. When he was first created, he was to be a curtain jerker kid straight out of the indie scene. I'd completed his "promo," (a little piece I wrote as a blog of this young character amazed that he was moving to the big time). Steed's artwork was solid, but as it became closer to actual publication, the I realized the artwork for one of my top, main event characters didn't fit, no matter how I tried to make it. I needed to make an adjustment to put the strongest image (see art) and idea for a main event character. I considered bumping some others into that status (including Eli Flair), but in each case, it added to the problems instead of solving any.

Enter a heel Steed. As nice as the thought of having a kid out of the indies sounded, and the hopeful story that could be built around him, Steed had the least amount of baggage if I moved him around. Additionally, he fit what was lacking in the Main Event group - the athletic, strong type akin to the former football players who make the jump to wrestling. At the same time, the Rock had returned to wrestling after several years and had built up to his first Wrestlemania main event against John Cena. During that buildup, Cena had a list of grievances against the Rock, primarily that the Rock hadn't been there, had abandoned the fans. That gave me an idea - what if a wrestler really did abandon the "sport," going beyond the Rock's disappearing act and choosing to denigrate it after leaving, kind of Cena's accusations on steroids. With that, the new Steed was born.

 

[Deacon]

Tsunami Shiretsu -

Tsunami was the brainchild of Gregg Gethard (yep, the same one that writes JJ Deville, Troy Windham, and so many more characters that he should've made this game instead of me). When I was first creating the game at the turn of the Millennium, I wanted a wide range of cultures represented. Though wrestling has been dominated by caucasian wrestlers, I didn't want my game to be. I wanted it to reflect as many different wrestling styles as exists throughout the wrestling world. That's a great goal, but it wasn't a realistic one for me to do for one reason -

I don't watch wrestling from all over the world.

Of course, Japan is a major wrestling market, and I wanted to have a character to represent that, but the nearest I could come was the Great Kabuki or Muta. So, when Gregg brought Tsunami back into the CSWA, I think in a tag team, I dropped him a note asking if he'd be willing to help w/ the game, that even though the pay sucked (I didn't pay anything), I would offer him free character art he could use if he wanted and he would retain all rights to the character outside of allowing him to be a part of the MDG world. This offer was standard fare, and with only 2 exceptions, was agreed by each person I asked (such great people in this hobby!)

My ulterior motive, and I believe I even told Gregg so, was that I needed him to fully develop the character's moveset (because I knew I couldn't do so). Gregg did so, also writing the promo used in the game. As we went along, I believe the word Shiretsu was added to Tsunami due to another wrestler using the name Tsunami. Shiretsu means "Violent" which I think fit the character perfectly.

 

[Deacon]

Mark Maverick -

Mark is another of my characters created for FWC. I don't remember which feds he was in, but I believe it was a fed ran by Erik Zieba and I definitely remember a run with Cameron Cruise that had some pretty funny moments. The catalyst for the character was two things - the most obvious influence was the popularity of Steve Austin. But at the same time on television, a TV show was hitting its stride - Jerry Springer. I hated that show. HATED IT! Not because of the outlandish guests or overall insanity, though they were clearly a bit more than I could handle, but it was the language. I'd be flipping through channels, and where Springer was, I'd hear a BEEP BEEP to BEEP BEEP BEEP because BEEEEEEP, brah.

It was beyond frustrating, but the more I considered it, the funnier I thought it would be to have a wrestler who could easily be a guest on Springer. Additionally, with me known for writing Deacon, I wanted to go against type and write the polar opposite. All of it led to Mark Maverick, a foul mouthed, jerk, redneck, womanizer who forgot to grow up, but who the fans seemed to enjoy for his variety of catchphrases (another staple of the Attitude era) and overall zaniness. Add to that a pretty cool wrestling style, influenced by Brian Pillman, and you get a pretty fun character. Even today, and in spite of my limited usage of Mark, he is memorable to those who were around while I wrote the character and probably my 2nd most requested to see. And since he participated in 2012's Ultratitle on FWC, that brought him back into the public eye, at least for 1 round.

For MDG, I kept him pretty much the same, especially the movelist. He fit the anti-hero, which I thought would work nicely against Deacon's closer-to-classic babyface style.

 

[Deacon]

Jamiliah Creed

Jammy was one of the "trial" characters I attempted writing in about 1998 or '99. Given I was known for my serious characters, I tried to break as far away from it with this character. The idea came after hearing about Owen Hart's antics in (and out of) the ring, being the consummate practical joker. I thought having a similar character able to use it on screen as well as behind the scenes would make for a fun character to write. He was, except for one area - I'm not good at coming up with practical jokes. I can write humor decent enough, but for whatever reason, I couldn't come up w/ anything solid in that area and was always asking other people for ideas. So I canned him, but not before adding some classic stuff with supporting character Mama Bubblicious and the Van Chickenator (a dropkick to a bloody chicken corpse). You've seen the Van Chickenator already... Mama makes her debut in Blood, Sweat, & Tears, the game's 2nd expansion (though I give her a slight name change).

When it came time for the game roster, Jammy was a perfect fit. He supplied the high-flying good guy who smiled and tried to make everyone have a good time. And his practical jokes could easily lead to feuds with any character at any time, giving some easy fodder for the players. With an unusual repertoire of moves, and the reality that I wouldn't have to come up with a practical joke except with every game expansion, I thought he might be fun for some of the players who enjoy the humor aspect of wrestling.

One interesting note was how similar Kofi Kingston was upon entering the WWE. The artwork several years earlier, and I remember turning on the TV as Kofi was on and nearly jumping out of my seat - his wrestling style was similar, his look was uncanny, even the "smiling Kofi" image he wore on his attire would be something Jammy would've worn. And of course, the initial run trying to have him use a Jamaican accent didn't hurt either.

 

[Deacon]

BATT

BATT was my answer to the ECW craze. With a style reminiscent of Sabu, but with a good deal more illegal weapon usage (beyond a chair) that was more in line with Sabu's famous uncle (The Sheik), BATT was meant to hit that itch for the game's more violent-loving players. But how I came up with him?

I was writing a storyline and needed a throwaway character. My wife had volunteered to make one, being the wrestling fan that she is, and so we began brainstorming the character. We knew we wanted them violent, given the focus of the story. My wife is also a fan of the 80's hair bands (about to show our age, but even our 12 year old can sing "Living on a Prayer"). She had an idea, in regard to style, of connecting the character to Gene Simmons from KISS. We started riffing on the names, playing with Gene's "character name" of the Bat Demon (or Demon Bat depending on who you ask). I didn't want the Demon because, well... it just sounded lame (and I was proved correct when WCW labeled a wrestler with that snoozer). But bat, especially if we adjusted the spelling and did it in all caps, seemed to have a nice look to it.

The mask he was to wear was influenced largely from Phantom of the Opera, because not only does my wife love her hair bands, but she loves Broadway too - and the fact Paul Stanley from KISS played the phantom probably didn't hurt (though him doing so actually happened after the fact).

I used BATT in the storyline. Originally, he was the oversized, almost ape-like character, but as I watched Sabu, I began leaning more toward that look. The mask portion of his look continued to adapt, but I kept the idea that it shouldn't be a normal wrestling mask, but more of a thick mask that covers part of his face, akin to Kane's.

Gathering the artwork for BATT was challenging. Several people tried, and would get an aspect or two right, but never the whole thing. For this one, I had to go with Kneon Transitt, a commercial artist who did some work for Disney comics and was producing (and still does) a weekly online comic (Shadowbinders). Thom got it right, even adding another layer to the character with his SFII Sagat influence.

With MDG, BATT was another easy in. He met a specific style, had an interesting visual, and provided an outlet for a certain segment of those who enjoy that type of wrestling. In giving him a history though, I hit upon an idea that was unique - BATT had been wrestling for 40 years, but didn't look a day older. It opened a lot of options for the players to explore their own reasons for BATT's longevity, assuming I never get around to telling my version of it.

 

[Deacon]

Nigel Hawthorne -

If Deacon is my baby, then Nigel is my wife's. She's wrote him nearly as long as I have Deacon, starting him as a help to me when first running an e-fed, with the surprise being that she actually turned out to be pretty good at this little game. The original character was "The Maestro," and though some of that stayed as we adapted toward publishing the character, the name and concept adjusted for several reasons. The biggest - WCW put out a wrestler with that name and similar gimmick. So, we adjusted the name to be Pierce Hawthorne, and the name needed adjustment (again) for one reason - Tom Ford let me know that the name was being used on a major network comedy show. So we kept Hawthorne and dropped Pierce, adjusting to Nigel. This was a bit dangerous as well, because every time I type Nigel, I have to fight the urge to finish it with "McGuiness," a wrestler for Ring of Honor who, dependent on when you watched him, could easily fit Hawthorne.

So with the main wrestler's name set, we also had "Contessa," his manager that hides her face behind a Venetian mask. Fortunately, she never had to change.

Aside from the name, Hawthorne hasn't changed a great deal. He is a pompous, vile, hypocritical gentleman character used to great effect in pro wrestling over the years - everyone from Gorgeous George to Hunter Hearst Helmsley and today's Damien Sandow. Hawthorne fits that basic archetype in many ways, but he has a history, his arrogant attitude masking something else, and potentially darker. Again, the idea is to get the players thinking, to give them something to latch onto and develop in their own games, assuming I won't be revealing anything during the course of the game's expansions.

I put Hawthorne in the midcard for one reason - I do have a long story to tell with him, or maybe my wife does, and I want to make sure that if the opportunity presents itself, we'll be able to see the evolution of the character - and the first major change/revelation happens in the 2nd expansion, BST.

 

[Deacon]

Napoleon Drake

In creating MDG's game world, I wanted to have a range of wrestlers at different times in their career. Drake is the first veteran in the Circuit who is beginning to slide in ability. When creating him, I was clearly influenced by Terry Funk, even stealing the Moonsault to the outside Funk used while pushing his late 50's. I didn't make Drake quite that old, probably late 40's, but also influenced by Funk is the idea of a tough, old school guy who falls in the more extreme elements of the game.

In terms of Drake's look, I remembered some classic, bloody photos of Carlos Colon feuding with Abdullah the Butcher. I wanted an opposite of BATT, and though Butcher wasn't a direct influence on BATT, he was close. Carlos always looked older to me, so he clearly influenced Drake's appearance. Additionally, I thought it would be neat to tie Drake nearing the slowdown time in his career into someone who seemed eternally young - BATT. So, I connected the two and gave them both "extreme - out of the ring" charts to make it fit what could develop into a strong, enduring feud.

 

[Deacon]

Xerxes

This was one of the more interesting characters, if for no other reason, due to how it came into being. Simply put, Xerxes was a last minute character. When I say "last minute," I mean that in the most literal way. I was only supposed to have 20 wrestlers in the original set. Why in the world would I put 21? It's an odd, freaking number?!! Well, this is why.

The image used for Xerxes was actually meant to be a Main Eventer. I liked the image, but it wasn't the character I'd planned to have, which was an odd, loud, powerlifter type to be a counter to Deacon. What I got from the artist was a solid image, but not one that fit the mold I'd planned - he looked just like Deacon, size-wise, and I wanted to give some diversity in looks. So I pulled the image/character and put the (soon to be) Xerxes image aside, not planning on even using it. I had another artist try the powerlifter look, but he also missed what I wanted (more on that later). So I gave up. As you know from above, Steed took over that top spot.

So as it got close to launching the game, I was going through artwork to see what could be used and seen this image again. I disliked not using this solid piece of art and so decided to build a character around the image.

Influences on the character? I can't say I had any, really. I knew that I wanted the Circuit to occur in the very near future, but after the WWE had went belly up in the game world... wait, I should probably explain that a bit.

I gave a cryptic answer as to what happened to the WWE, tying it into politics, something which Linda McMahon attempted to become a player in 2012 by running for the Senate. In the game world, something happened that caused the FBI to get involved, open the proverbial closet and tear out all of wrestling's skeletons. That led to the collapse, and the shockwaves destroyed wrestling in any mainstream capacity for several years. My logic for getting rid of major players in US wrestling was to avoid explaining what this company was in comparison to the WWE. I didn't want to do that because, really, I think this sort of game can only build traction if you have full creative control of the environment. If the players want to add the WWE back in, they can do that, but I wanted a world of my own creation so I didn't have any weird loose ends.

So, in the Circuit, no one seemingly knew what happened. Except Xerxes. In some capacity, he knows more than he's telling. For me, the weirdest part is how a character not even in the game has become so integral in telling that particular story. For anyone who has followed the expansions, he has had more storyline motion than most any character, and it keeps building on itself. My hope is to do some revelation by the end of the first years expansions, maybe not a full revelation (because let's face it - questions give players better options than closed answers), but a revelation of sorts.

 

[Deacon]

XS

This was another character I used in e-feds, though he was actually made for the game prior to ever using him in any feds. In my initial incarnation, a major influence would've been the incomparable Shawn Michaels, at least early in his career. I also wanted a character that had, not only a manager or valet, but I wanted an entourage, and since I knew of someone with 2 valets, I had to one up them and go with 3. XS was to be a fresh recruit, and so as I began thinking about introducing him in the fWo (www.thefwo.com ), I likely started thinking of some of those young superstars that most impressed me (notice the word "likely"... honestly, this following note may be completely accidental on my part). Few did it better than Chris Jericho, the WCW version and not the WWE one (though that was good as well, it lost some of its charm as creative started giving him a direction instead of Chris just doing whatever the heck he wanted, already knowing that WCW creative didn't care enough to even watch his schtick & just viewed it as filler). I loved his self-deprecating humor and how he always found ways to one up while simultaneously being a total loser.

So, I wrote XS in the fWo to a decent amount of success, at least making myself and probably Pete Russo laugh a bit. As so often the case, switching to XS was a reaction to my usage of Deacon. I don't like to say I was getting burnt out with the Deac, but I clearly was running out of viable ideas and wanted to do something lighter.

Fast forward several years to the current incarnation in MDG and you have a largely comedic character who actually holds a solid amount of talent and the coolest finisher name ever - "One Hit Wonder". In my own games, he's surprised me how well he can hold his own, maybe not frequently winning, but at least staying in the match, largely due to interference from his entourage.

So let's talk the entourage.

The 3 ladies with XS were created at the same time as their wrestler (and never actually appeared in the fWo stuff since I needed a storyline to go along with them joining this rookie). I loved the name Primadonna, and divided those up. Prima sounded kind of Asian, so I had the stereotypical demure Asian lady wearing a Cheongsam dress. I hope to break out of the stereotype with her in time, but that'll depend on how things go. At first glance, you'd think she was influenced by Kimona from ECW, but honestly, I didn't know much at all about her and never got to watch ECW until late in its run. Donna sounded like a cheerleader, and I wanted to make her one of the irritating variety - loud, always airheaded, etc. Again, I stuck with stereotypes here. The final was initially named Diva, but after naming her that, the name took on a whole other level of meaning in the WWE so I dropped it, changing the name to Muse. She was a tough African American lady who was clearly influenced by Jackie, one of my favorite lady wrestlers at the time of XS' initial creation.

 

[Deacon]

"Professor" Peyton Lake

The Professor was another character still having an in-ring career, but with diminishing abilities (aka - getting older). This character I pictured in his 50's. The major person I had in mind when creating him was 2013 WWE Hall of Famer, Bob Backlund. In the 90's, Backlund made another career run, even becoming the WWF champion. I wasn't a fan of his, but I felt he embodied the old style wrestling I wanted to get across with Lake.

Character-wise, Lake's personality started as someone trying to protect his sport from the changes occurring at the time - namely the influx of lucha libre and hardcore wrestling. He was a purist. However, when a fan of the game began doing some writing with the characters, and sent it to me, he opened up another element of a tough as nails, no nonsense guy that is protective of his art form, seeing it as exactly that - HIS art form. (Thanks, Chris!) Peyton was a character meant to retire early in the game, but I have a storyline that will start, strangely enough, at the end of the initial series of expansions. We'll see where it goes from there...

 

[Deacon]

Tiburon

I wish I could tell you that I realized this lucha libre style wrestler could potentially be tied to Shark Boy, but I only thought the Tiburon name sounded cool and that I needed a Mexican wrestler. The character had no similarities to ole' Sharky, aside from a shared name in another language, but that's as much because he's a character still in development, even though I've had him since the first incarnation of the game. To this day, he's a character without much depth, and one I'll have to develop through the expansions. But, if you think of most wrestlers from Mexico, this is a norm. Rey Mysterio didn't really develop any sustainable characterization beyond being a human highlight reel, at least until some time in the WWE when he could handle the microphone. Sin Cara still lacks any discernible character.

But that's a sell-out on my part. If I am to claim failure with any character, it would be this one. It's also a challenge as I develop the storylines and give him some depth.

 

[Deacon]

Eldar Magnusson

Remember how I've talked about that character meant to be one of the Circuit's top stars? The powerlifter-type that was to be Deacon's foil. Eldar wasn't this guy either, but was the result of commissioning another artist to give that Main Eventer a look. And yet again, that character's artwork didn't fit the character. Much like Xerxes, the art was good, but it just didn't fit what I wanted so... what to do? Like Xerxes, I added a character to take the spot vacated by Steed when he was bumped up to Main Eventer. Given he was a powerlifter, I started looking at where most World Class powerlifters originate and found they were frequently northern European.

Enter Eldar Magnusson. Creating the character's personality was an exercise in writing. I sat down knowing his history would be a powerlifter who was late coming into pro wrestling, and that Eldar had been trained by Peyton Lake, but I wasn't sure where it would go. Where it took me was an intelligent, perceptive wrestler. And where I've taken it since that opening piece of writing? He's quickly becoming more than where he began.

 

[Deacon]

The LE

I love tag team wrestling. Not the current focus on putting two stars together to make a popular team, though that’s fine for short stints, but I love those who are actual TEAMS! Guys who’ve been together so long that they can do combination moves, quick tags, blind tags, get the ref’s attention to keep a tag from being seen, uber-double team moves… you get the picture. I think back to the Heavenly Bodies, Road Warriors, Steiners, those Express tag teams, Hardyz, Dudleyz, and Motor City Machineguns. The LE was nothing more than my homage to the “Express” teams of my youth and those who took what was started in that heyday and expounded on it. “The LE’s” original name was clearly a ripoff of the Midnight Express, and I didn’t even really hide it – The Lunar Express. I used them briefly in the CSWA and my own e-fed. When I created the game, I dropped the Lunar Express name because, honestly, it was a dated reference, and so I tried to keep the homage while still making it fresh. I did the same with each member’s name – changing one to Ethan Hale (originally Stellar Stan) and Grant Essex (originally Galactic Grant), but their personalities stayed pretty much the same.

Grant was the stud, ex-football super-athlete who all the girls fawned over. Built similar to Rick Rude, I even described to the artist that Grant should have the body of a Greek statue (hence the pose the artist rendered). He rarely talked, and when he did, it wasn’t exactly great mic work – a reaction to my courses with football jocks at Marshall University.

Ethan was the complete opposite. Where Grant was a stud w/ the ladies, Ethan THOUGHT he was a stud, but lacked the looks. In fact, describing him to the artist was – “he is ugly as sin, but he tries to do the best with what he has, making sure he has perfect hair.” Ethan was a quick talker who had a bit of a Napoleon Complex. At about 5’7” or so and weighing 130lbs., he’d talk smack all day long, but like that irritating Chihuahua’s bark, his bite wasn’t that bad. The difference between him and that tiny puppy? He had a load of heart. Ethan could take a beating and never go down, and the fact that he had a “Greek god” in his corner, and he knew how to work the team game, always kept him in it. He’d take a thumping and then Grant would come in for the save.

William H. Bradley the III was their “technically proficient account’s receivable wizard” (aka – manager). He’s normally the butt of their jokes, trying to be reasonable in the face of Ethan’s frequently absurd bravado. I gave no direction to the author, so he made a fatter version of current Paul Heyman, except Heyman would never wear one of those “#1 finger” big hand things that fans wear sometimes.

 

[Deacon]

Alpha Dawn

This tag team fell under the "put 2 new guys together and see what happens" variety. Both were young wrestlers, and I'd seen the exact same idea done so often, that I felt the need to do the same in the game. I also was missing two major types of wrestler, and thought putting them together would make sense.

Ayasha - One of my favorite wrestlers as a child was Chief Jay Strongbow and Wahoo McDaniel (one of which was Italian and the other Cherokee). Tatanka, another full blooded Cherokee, made strides in the 90's as well. At that time, wrestlers of Native lineage (or those who were played as such) had their own niche and frequently did well, at least in midcard status. Historically, we have some Native American wrestlers who didn't really acknowledge it (at least not to my memory), including World Champion Jack Briscoe and former Divas champion Mickie James. Regardless, Ayasha was my homage to the history, but I also wanted to update him a bit. He was proud of his heritage, but he didn't want to be typecast in the role, so he honored it while simultaneously being his own person.

Afano - I can't say I watched many matches with the Wild Samoans, but I remember them, and we cannot discuss wrestling without covering the impact the Samoan people had on the artform. The tough, strong Samoan culture gave us such greats as: High Chief Peter Miavia, Rikishi, former World champion in Yokozuna, Jimmy Snuka, Meng (or Haku), Samoa Joe, a new yet impressive wrestler named Roman Reigns, and of course the irreplaceable "The Rock". Their influence has grown mightily over the years. Like Ayasha, I played up the idea that people from this culture often get pegged into a role of the Wild man, and so Afano respects his culture without relegating himself into that role.

It's interesting to watch wrestling change. Alpha Dawn was created about 10 years ago, and when I watched the Uso's (Rikishi's children) start wrestling, in many ways they had the same attitude of Afano - honor our heritage without playing to it. It's refreshing to see. It would be interesting to see a similar situation develop for Native wrestlers.

 

[Deacon]

Sands of Pain

Way back when the game was first created, I asked the late Chad Dupree to create a tag team for me. For those of us who knew Chad, he was a great guy, known in our circles for writing the character "Main Event" Rob Sampson. I seem to recall asking him to create a team that fit another ethnic group and left the rest of it up to him. The Sands of Pain was his response. This was prior to Sept. 11th, 2001 and all that event brought into our consciousness.

It was also one of the first characters illustrated by the great DJ Coffman (who did any of the pencil illustrations you'll find in the game book). I cannot talk about the characters without discussing the artwork, a splendid depiction of the silent, brooding Yasir as he held his nation's flag. In looking at it, the character began to take better form.

Habib is a blowhard. Loud, obnoxious, bully who uses his nationalism as an excuse to berate others. Where Yasir is silent, Habib can't keep his mouth shut and constantly yells at those around him. If the Iron Sheik got a rise by spitting on the mat and calling Americans horrible names, Habib made it an artform. To me, he's a combination of the Iron Sheik and Larry Zbysko.

As mentioned above, Yasir is a mostly silent, brooding character who feels true pain over the cost of war in his country. These are his people and he wants to truly represent them. The catch is, due to his silence, this is MY view of him. It's not been made clear in the game, something I will need to fix in future expansion. What is obvious from the game? He is clearly arrogant. He believes he is better than those he faces and if it turns out they get the upper hand, he has a hard time dealing with it. This typically throws him into the "heel category," but I could easily see an adjustment in his "alignment."

 

[Deacon]

Ivy League

With this final listing from the basic set, I'm going by memory, but I'm willing to bet Pete, the team's creator, may be able to fill in any blanks. This team was one of the first I'd gotten permission to use. Obviously, my hope was to snag Eli Flair, but I had a slight dilemma. Those of us who have followed Eli love, or hate, the character based on the history he carries. Eli has been called the "most real character in all of fw" on more than one occasion. Why? He has true longevity and was written in a way that made him appear as someone you'd meet at the local watering hole, or backstage at the arena. This has made him a wonderfully strong character, but how do I translate that for the players of MDG?

My answer was to take Eli Flair back to the beginning.

I don't remember how we came to the idea of using him in a tag team except that I wanted him to be a bit better, stats-wise, than just a "Curtain Jerker" (how single wrestlers start out in the game). Just by putting him into a tag team, it gave me a bit more flex in his stats so he would be a stronger character, able to at least have a chance at secondary titles. When the game was first started, Eli was a strong mid-carder. I wanted to be able to slip him into that role as the storyline developed without recreating the wheel.

So what about "Mr. Self Destruct" Brian McGinnis?

That's an easy one - Pete told me to. I had little connection to Brian, aside from his last name being connected to another major character in the Eli Flair mythos. I can say that I have plans for McGinnis that don't immediately connect him with Eli. I see him as the consummate tag team wrestler, akin to Owen Hart, and plan to play that aspect of his career as I keep him in the mix.

And what about all the other character's connected with Eli?

What about the "best character in all of fw" - Poison Ivy? Given Eli & Brian chose the team name - Ivy League, she's been in the shadows from the beginning. Since the idea was to start Eli at the beginning, we'll have to bring in Ivy slowly. In fact, Ivy will make her first appearance in MDG with BST (the 2nd expansion that should release in a few weeks). No artwork, or game connection yet, but she's in there, along with the first major plot point in Eli's story.

If you want to know anymore about this group, Pete will have to chime in. I'm not sure any of us know what goes on in his mind today, let alone all the years ago when he first created Eli Flair & the McGinnis clan.

For me personally, this is the biggest challenge in adapting a character's rich history into MDG. I stress writing Pete's characters more than anyone else, mostly because their voice is so well established. I want the game's players to have a chance to know the character as I have. I'm hoping I can do it without screwing it up.

 

[Deacon]

Supportive Characters

As I worked through this, it donned on me that I left a few supporting characters out of the listing. I plan to fix that now.

Chris Shepherd
The mouthpiece for Deacon, the Shepherd was always a part of the Deacon's history. As I wrote him in various groups, I always started out with Chris doing the speaking so I didn't have to worry about t'at Deacon accent. Chris allowed me to be more "me" so I could focus on Deacon's storyline and not his mannerisms. As time passed, people often would use the "Deacon is Chris Shepherd's puppet" concept. Even from the beginning, this wasn't even close to their relationship.

Built from Moses & Aaron's relationship (from Exodus in the Bible or Torah), Shepherd was always nothing more than the speaker (Aaron), and Deacon was the one "who saw God" (Moses). In regard to Deacon, I tended to see him as a powerful man of faith. I saw Chris as a man conflicted. Where Deacon grew up in the protection of a communal group of believers, Chris grew up on the streets as a performer. To connect Chris to another biblical personality, the Apostle Paul seemed to fit - Chris isn't the saint the Deacon is. He lacks the power and ability to maintain focus. He wants to be all those things he finds in great personalities of the faith, but he stumbles as often as he runs the race. Yet, strangely enough, he keeps getting back up.

In a word, Chris Shepherd is a lot closer to me.

Quirky, into things that other people find geeky, he's sure of himself in some respects but not in others, with no real consistency between them. He has a genuine love for people, but he can get caught up in the "job" of what he's doing and forget what he's doing it for. And like me, he's glad he has the Deacon.

The other aspect of the Deacon, and Chris Shepherd, is the elaborate ring entrances. These are a hold-over from the Undertaker, but I always thought you could do so much more if you used illusions. Enter Chris Shepherd. I'd already thought of him as a former travelling street performer, so it seemed natural to give him that magician concept. It started in fWo and continues in MDG.

JW Locke
JW is one of the oldest names I have for any fictional character. Even as a child of, let's say, 14, I had characters in stories I wrote with this name. JW was also the in-game head of the RP fed I ran, but given the time where Eric Bischoff & Mr. McMahon were the evil boss, I followed suit. Of course, when I did the game, I moved JW as far from that as possible. He was built, somewhat, off of Maverick rich men (like the guy who owns the Dallas Mavericks or started Virgin Records/airlines/etc.), but he's not a douche. Now, when I write and think of him, he's a man who is honest in a frequently dishonest world. He's trying to do good by everyone, but as is so often the case, that is his strength and simultaneously his weakness. And again, this is something I can easily relate.

Mercedes Devon
Another old name that I moved over to the game. Originally used in that RP fed, she was meant to be a "stable manager" that people could sign with to use for the character and receive a bonus for doing so. I used to love the stable manager concept, and honestly still do, and so wanted to give a reason for people to use the character. Unfortunately, it led to more problems than anticipated because people don't easily work that way. So, she was used by some people in fwrestling.com but I don't know much about that incarnation of Mercedes. In the game, Mercedes is JW's assistant who is a good deal smarter, or at least more savvy, than he is. She has his best interest at heart, though things don't always work out the way we want.

 

[Deacon]

Expansion - ORIGINS


Vin Everest

Remember how I repeatedly mentioned a character meant to be in the initial game launch but the artwork never seemed to fit? The character that Xerxes and then Eldar Mangusson were meant to be? Yeah, that was Vin Everest.

Vin's main influence, at least in body style, was the larger, powerlifter types - Vader, Mark Henry. But aside from this initial look, that's where they parted. The rest of his look? I blame Pete (creator of Eli Flair). Years ago, I was sharing some of the names with Pete, and Everest was one of those characters. Initially in my mind (and in my first foray into writing the character), Everest had been a Vader clone, more or less, but Pete's immediate reaction was to make Vin this weird, out-there sorta guy. That idea struck a chord with me and a new idea began to germinate, but it would take years to get it right. The one part that was definite was that I wanted to give him the look of someone from the Islands (Samoa, Hawai'i or similar) and to have some tattoos, even on his face.

Since my main goal was to make an arch-nemesis (sounds so grandiose) for the Deacon, I went back into Deac's history. In my mind, Deacon's biggest, most natural foil in this writing game we've done for years was Mike Randalls. Mike was an odd character - dangerous, possibly insane, and so much fun to read. My favorite version of Mike was when he had this weird religion called - The Way. I'm pretty sure Katz, the guy who wrote Randalls, just made up crap daily to fit whatever he needed for Randalls to do or say, but it had this Southwest American mystical quality to it, like something a demented Shaman would teach their children to scare them. Now, I didn't give Vin Everest "The Way," but I did begin to give him this skewed view of reality that just seemed a bit off.

Take with this my final ingredient, and things seemed to really click. Someone on my Facebook account posted an infamous promo cut by the Ultimate Warrior prior to a match against Hulk Hogan where the painted one said, "Hoawguuun" more times than I care to remember. It cracked me up, and though Vin wasn't meant to be humorous, it gave me the idea to do a search for the Warrior, as I seemed to remember that he had garnered some notoriety for crazy ideas in real life. So, before writing my first promo with Vin Everest, I quite legitimately went to Warrior's site and read several of his blogs to get the overall vibe.

I took all those ingredients, stirred it all together in my head, turned the temperature up as high as I could, and let it bake. What came out was the next Headliner level wrestler. His in game storyline was also easy - JW had been planning to grab this guy since before the initial launch of the Circuit (which is true, I had been trying to get him into the main set). JW was now excited to have signed someone to help solidify the top bracket of his roster.