BRAWL in AUSTIN...posted!

[jediPREZ]

http://nfw.e-wrestling.org/

BOOMSHAKALAKA BOOM.

More twists, turns and rampaging violence towards the upcoming RELOADED!

 

[jediPREZ]

Oh yeah, if you have any thoughts/suggestions/feedback based off the show -- always willing to read it!

 

[User Poets]

Spoilers. If you get spoiled, it's your own fault for clicking on an info thread about a posted card without reading the card. Idiots.

I'm afraid I saw the Cameron Cruise turn coming from the first RP that Siegel posted in the thread. Far too much telegraph, and I'm afraid (constructive criticism) Cruise's reasons don't seem to be nearly as logical as Dan Ryan's (which were questionable at best) for hooking up with Troy.

Other than that - which was GOOD nonetheless - the show was solid top to bottom. Loving the Castor vs. Dorchester buildup. And I liked the use of Pee Wee Troutman as the Windham - centric ref. Glad Gregg didn't take the obvious route by using Manny "NO ENGLISH!" Juarez as the corrupt official.

Five minute time limit draw between JJ and Impulse, with the aftermath, was a great booked segment to show the lengths the Windhams are willing to go to, though I think it would've worked better with August De La Rossi since I know Gregg wants to use JJ as a breakout kind of star.

Overall it was a solid show and a logical 'day after' from Supercrash.

As an aside, I barely RP'd with Impulse through that thread, I decided to flesh out his girlfriend/valet Rose to do most of the talking and tried to give her a distinct voice. Feedback on those RPs would be appreciated - too much? not enough? not distinct enough from Impulse?

 

[GreggG]

Pete -- let the Christian Cruise stuff play out. That was telegraphed but it was supposed to be. Bobby Jack jumped on the chance to recruit a troubled Cruise suffering from concussion syndromes. It's less of a turn and more of a public seduction.

 

[User Poets]

Pete -- let the Christian Cruise stuff play out. That was telegraphed but it was supposed to be. Bobby Jack jumped on the chance to recruit a troubled Cruise suffering from concussion syndromes. It's less of a turn and more of a public seduction.

Oh, I always let things play out, sir - but I try to give my feedback based on the moment, not on an anticipated story down the road because I don't know the story down the road.

 

[jediPREZ]

Thanks for the feedback, Pete! Always appreciated!

I'm trying to play up Deville's slimeball status in lieu of GG's RP's and segment with Bryant, so while he's a breakout star -- I actually view him as a cheaper heel than Troy at the moment. He does go down in the record books with a draw against the current #2 listed wrestler in the World Title division, which could be used later to his benefit. Just wanted to provide some insight into my thinking on that one...for better or worse. hehe

And yeah, I would agree that the CCC/BJ angle was overtly telegraphed. Not a bad thing as sometimes in wrestling, we want to make things as transparent as possible especially coming off the shadowed secrecy of the past show. I would agree that the reasoning for Cruise is fairly illogical all things considered from the Windham Clan storyline's inception, but at the same time...I think Cruise had pretty much hit rock bottom with the NFW roster in terms of friendships, respect and admiration. If you look at his career -- the length of his tenure is quite remarkable considering all the hoops he's been forced to jump through. I enjoyed some of Cruise's RP's touching on that 'no respect/no friends' angle based off his tenure and heard similar things in IM's, but an anonymous tip given to me that I'll throw out to Tommy -- it may be time for Cruise to cut out the "REALITY CHECK" closing line he employs in RP. There were some real heartfelt/dramatic statements and going back to that line to end it didn't mesh with what the RP's were trying to accomplish in terms of the impending changes Cruise knew were lying ahead...and his anger that were driving the changes.

To answer Pete's last question, I liked the Rose RP's in this venue of BRAWL 'OPEN RP', especially as the reply train took off and it avoided the dilution of Impulse on the mic stick. I'm not so sure it would work as well in a 'big match' thread, but I got a feeling you wouldn't employ that unless something struck you on an inspirational level.

 

[LQJT86C]

I saw the Cruise turn coming, but I think it's something that has potential. Cameron Cruise needed to do something different, and this is a good way of keeping him relevant in NFW right now. There's a war going on, and people are choosing sides. Cruise has chosen his.

Small edit: at the beginning of the Cruise segment, you refer to Bret Kelly as "Bret Hart". I got excited because I thought maybe Bret joined the league or something.

Overall I liked the card. These Brawls are short but sweet. Now...ON TO THE FINAL FOUR!

 

[LQJT86C]

BTW, NFW site is down. Tried it on a random IP, different browsers, etc, so I think the problem should be there for everybody, right? Seems to be an e-wrestling.org problem because the same is happening on a few other related sites.

 

[jediPREZ]

BTW, NFW site is down. Tried it on a random IP, different browsers, etc, so I think the problem should be there for everybody, right? Seems to be an e-wrestling.org problem because the same is happening on a few other related sites.

Same for me...hopefully, it'll come back up soon.

 

[User Poets]

I saw the Cruise turn coming, but I think it's something that has potential. Cameron Cruise needed to do something different, and this is a good way of keeping him relevant in NFW right now. There's a war going on, and people are choosing sides. Cruise has chosen his.

Echoing this. Cruise has always been one of those "He's good, but......eh" characters to me. Not to disrespect Siegel because I only do that in jest, but in my personal experience of the character he has never done anything to stand out, so he's faded into perpetual upper - mid - cardness. I think a change was long overdue and I think it'll revitalize the character and give him a much needed jolt towards a central role.

And yes, the site is down.

 

[Frozen Atlantic]

I think Cruise works best when Siegel has something that really excites him or pushes him out of his comfort zone (we all know he's got the skills to be a "top guy" pretty much anywhere). Reading the point A to point B of the turn makes it very telegraphed but I think the payoff will be worth it in the coming weeks.

 

[jediPREZ]

Technical difficulties fixed!

PLEASE WELCOME BACK OUR LURKER IN THE NIGHT, BRRRRRRRRRRRANDYYYYYYYYYYYN!

Good to see you sir! If I knew you were reading, I really could've written a fun National Championship match at SC3.

 

[Biron]

Excellent show for its purpose.

- Everything involving DORCHESTER right now is good, lot of **** going on between the Dynasty, Strife, and, now, Rayne. I liked the HWC ignoring/chewing his ass throughout the six-man.
- Liked the JJ/JB fun. Gregg has a TON of great ideas.
- Impulse/JJ was also a nice touch, and the corruption isn't taking long to take effect.
- Stalker and Legion took a nice leap forward. Looking forward to the payback.

Pete, as I told you through IM, keep doing the Rosie bits. I dig 'em.

I agree with most said about Cruise, it's nice to see him have a direction now. But, TS needs to play that place now more than ever.

Good job, guys.

 

[GreggG]

Some thoughts:

1) I really liked the JJ/Impulse stuff a lot. It was pretty much exactly how to book that. When I wrote the SuperCrash match, my intent was to have Impulse and Castor come off super strong with Ryan and Dorchester shockingly chasing them a bit. Impulse and Castor have had their own epic feud for a while and they have to get moved up to the World Title picture -- they have to get moved up somehow. Dorchester's been in the hunt for the title for a few cards now and he's done enough dastardly **** that he's really believable as a champion. And Dan Ryan is one of the handful of guys in the history of fantasy wrestling you can just hand a title to w/o any reason and it will work.

JJ's my favorite of the new Windham Clan guys so far. I've really hit a good stride w/ his character -- I was having a hard time getting it down and the last two RPs I did with him before SuperCrash and now after have really nailed him down as a whiny crybaby who, now that he has an ounce of power, is just being a total douche by making people jump through these needless hoops just for the satisfaction of fulfilling some pathetic need for revenge.

The 50/50 booking -- Impulse looked like he was going to win but JJ found a way to worm out even with the advantage of a referee in his back pocket -- worked pretty great. Impulse needs the momentum headed into the semifinals; JJ needs to get over the top as the Windham Clan member you most want to punch in the face. Troy and Dan Ryan are completely respectable -- you might hate them, but they're legends. August and Peter are lackeys. Bandit's a mercenary. Bobby Jack's pretty contemtible but I don't have him clicking as well as I did in NLW. But JJ? He's talking SO much crap about how good he is and then doing everything he can to duck out of having to prove it. Is he as good as he says? That's one of the big narratives I'm going to do w/ JJ.

2) I really love Jack Bryant and think that, depending upon how fast we go and how things break, that character's going to be at a Joe the Plumber/Mikey Manson/Shane Southern level.

3) The Cruise stuff is difficult. The concept of the character and heel turn is all on me. Like I said before -- the angle was telegraphed but that's not a bad thing. Everyone knew CM Punk was going heel way before he became a heel. But since this is Fantasy Wrestling, it's really hard to book something over several cards since there are so many variables and things can just slow down for whatever reason. So I kind of used the timeframe of like when R-Truth turned -- he came in as a face, John Morrison screwed with his head, at the end of the match he was now heel.

Siegl had the idea of Cruise joining The Windham Clan. I said no at first because I didn't see how that could possibly work. But then I read his note about Cruise feeling by himself. That was the best RP Siegl's ever done, IMO, and was a great jumping off point to reinvent the character. He needed a huge jumpstart to get back going into the flow and I think the direction we have works out.

I just really hope Tom RUNS WITH THIS. This could be a very hot character change and direction.

 

[jediPREZ]

I think something that's interesting in this game in general in comparison to the 'sports entertainment' we're trying to emulate -- is how much deeper in the shadows we're willing to go to put over a face or heel turn.

If we think back to the 80's or look at wrestling today on television -- I'd say 90-95% of turns are transparently foreshadowed in your face that you roll your eyes about it, while in our game we really try to hide it 90-95% of the time over several to dozens of shows.

Cruise's turn on this show may be the first time in a long time in NFW that we just ripped off the band-aid in front of the cameras, so to speak...and it's made for some good discussion!

NWA/WCW had a few good ones that just came out of nowhere -- Nikita on Lex over the US Title, Barry Windham on Lex in the tag title match to join the Horsemen...now that I think about it...Lex Luger was one hell of a patsy!

 

[DBrunkGXW]

Well, I like the Cruise turn, and I'm also with Katz on the thought that the "Reality Check that you just won't like" catchphrase needs to fade away. It worked for the character for a while, but I think it really boxes Tom in where his writing is concerned. He's capable of doing very very well, and I think where he struggles is trying to work his way to a point to get that line in when it's not needed or natural. Also, Tom writes better when angry, so a heel turn is good for him in that respect. This is also why I make fun of him as often as possible.

 

[Stalker]

- Looking forward to where Cameron Cruise will go from here. I've enjoyed competing with him in EPW and think this will be a great adjustment for him in NFW.

- Jack Bryant and JJ Deville worked great together. As I am learning more and more about NFW, the JJ Deville character is really starting to stand out to me as someone I will enjoy following more closely as time goes on.

- I can't state enough how much I want to thank whoever wrote the Mr. Myers vs. Legion match. It's exactly what I want from my 'group' at this point. I feel like we are going in a great direction right now and will have a lot of fun at the next Brawl ( or maybe ReLOADED )

- All in all, great card and a fun read. I'm glad to be apart of NFW and am enjoying getting a sense of what's going on around here. Can't wait for Reloaded and hopefully another Brawl.