BEST PART OF THE SHOW: Billy's feedback. Seriously, I'm trying to be quiet because one of my roommates is still asleep, and I can't because I'm laughing too hard. The feedback in general is f*cking great, I think it's much more the sign of a healthy fed than any show posting on time could be. The fact that people care enough about these characters to freak out over angles on a show...it just restores a little bit of the hope in my heart in these dark, uncertain times of political and economic upheaval.
I'll echo what was said about the open. Dating back to the March Madness format of ULTRATITLE Season Two, I've always loved the sports influence on NFW, so the show preview with talking heads doing predictions and break-downs was great. If anything, hopefully this is an area where I can contribute in the future.
I will give the very MADDEST of props to the matchwriters on this card. I typically don't read the matches, because I have to make it through the show in a timely fashion or I won't see the RP deadlines for the next show in time to get something up, but I actually was forced to stop scanning and start paying attention because of how entertaining the matches were.
Luci turns on Legion, whaaaaa? Good job to that messed-up crew on orchestrating another chapter in the Legion/Stalker saga. Them boys ain't right.
Austin/Dane was great...the in-match dialogue from Dane was hilarious. I didn't mind at all that the ref was hoodwinked by Dane. NFW refs are notoriously stupid and inept at their work. To retroactively prove my point I would like someone to write in notoriously stupid and inept referee on the upcoming Brawl show. Also, digging that spike into Austin's mouth was brutal, difficult to read in a good way.
The six-man tag was also really good. The opening bit with the disqualification was a cool swerve, but in this era of loopholes and technicalities winning the day, I couldn't help but wonder whether one can be disqualified for conduct that occurs before the opening bell in a match. Haven't wrestling matches relied on this time-honored rule forever? Attack someone before the bell and set up an advantage for when you get them in the ring? If so, Bobby Jack is out of luck with a broken nose. But then again, Troutman's calling the shots and he's firmly in JJ's pocket, so he may just DQ Impulse anyway. But then again, I don't give a sh*t because it was all good. And Bobby Jack begging for Troutman to submit him so Impulse would release his nose was hilarious.
I didn't understand what happened with the Dane/Harmen/Rook backstage thing, but I didn't need to. The Rook/Harmen match was great, another brutal encounter with the involvement of those spurs. Rook has really been the leader in the National Title scene for a long-ass time (like five years in real-life big-boy time), and I imagine he has a ton invested in the blockbuster announcement about the Triple Crown Championship. Which is really the National Championship on steroids? I don't have a problem with the change-up, but I wouldn't lump the National Championship in with the PURE Championship or dusted-off Elite Championship (defunct from PTC days, that Elite Championship?) in terms of relevance. The belt has a significant history and place in the fed, I see it's problem more that it kind of separated off from anything having to do with the rest of the fed and became an isolated object that wasn't necessarily seen as desirable in the way that the TV Title was (integrated into more storylines and seen as the World Championship's little brother). Hell, when the belts were resurrected after Season Two, I think in theory the National Championship was supposed to be above the TV Title, but by way of Devin stomping mudholes with JTP and holding the thing for a million years, it just came to occupy a more prominent spot. That and I think there's a sentimentality to the TV Title that is derived from the same kind of underdog energy that fueled WCW's TV Title being the most competitive and athletic belt chase there for a long time.
Main Event I did not read match-wise, but I ate around the edges. Congrats to Billy on retaining. I can see both sides as to the draw finish. On the one hand, it seemed like the kind of purely competitive match where a clean finish would be appropriate. On the other hand, this is NFW, curveballs are the norm around here, and it does provide the basis for an amazing Strife/Ryan III at some point in the future, belt or not, and maybe Billy and Brunk can get something in writing from Katz next time promising them a clean finish one way or the other. Neither character suffers from the result. Would Eddie coming out and declaring the match would go to a clean finish be all old-school, badass, and totally in the right vibe for the way that match went? Indeed it would have been. But we'll have to save that ending for another time, 'cuz we had this whole other incident that I think people may have heard about? Dane was there? Paperwork involved? I really enjoyed the whole thing. Some may question Dane's appearance at the end of show leaching heat off the Main Eventers, but that's been Dane's M.O. since he got here. Funny enough given Castor's theme song, Dane really IS a starf*cker. He sees the power players in the fed, and he's done nothing but try to rub elbows or trade fists with them since he got here, 'cuz he knows if he can somehow worm his way into the main event scene he has enough talent to potentially stay there. And at SUPERCRASH IV he found a way to make that happen. I totally buy Billy's logic behind Lana slipping in the papers for Strife to sign, and picked up on the dynamic as I read through, which is a testament to his writing because I haven't read all the Strife RPs and I don't know much about the other Guild characters.
Randalls' appearance at the end was only strange because it was written like "Who is it? OMG RANDALLS" when Randalls has been hanging around every week. It'd be like "MYSTERIOUS FIGURE HIDING IN THE DARKNESS...JACK BRYANT!" Well of course it's Jack Bryant, he works here. But it is what it is. Randalls has closed more shows than Springsteen, and that's not gonna change anytime soon.
All in all, GREAT show. The matches were well-done and really entertaining, and storyline developments were firing on all cylinders. I think the energy level is really high right given how invested everyone obviously is in what's happening with the characters, and I think it's really great that that energy extends up and down the card.