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Post by Prophet of Ash on May 10, 2014 18:57:17 GMT -5
But with that said, I'm not into what I consider "lazy booking". Stuff like Survival of the Fittest. It's tradition, but tradition stinks sometimes. Having the big battle royal once a year and the person winning pushed into the top slot just doesn't work. Because you kind of need a face versus a heel and with anyone winning it isn't a face/heel. There's no built in psychology to the feud. You look at Me vs. Hutton Brown, both times.. Our characters worked well together. Me and Kyzer, it worked. The Psycho Circus "Phillip Schneider has three opponents for this weapons filled cage match"? Didn't particularly work... But Phillip Schneider vs. Scarlett Quinn, probably would've worked. Word, and that someone agrees makes me feel validated about not doing Scars & Stripes before SuperBrawl V for the various reasons. Having both Scars and Stripes AND Survival of the Fittest is even harder off on the "this sucks, lazy booking" perspective. It ties up the World title with that sort of thing for like half the PPVs. and considering there's only 2 or 3 PPVs a year around here it's even worse. It'd be different if there weren't "top level" guys ready for a title shot without that sort of thing, but there are.
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Post by CM Poor on May 10, 2014 19:15:22 GMT -5
Word, and that someone agrees makes me feel validated about not doing Scars & Stripes before SuperBrawl V for the various reasons. Having both Scars and Stripes AND Survival of the Fittest is even harder off on the "this sucks, lazy booking" perspective. It ties up the World title with that sort of thing for like half the PPVs. and considering there's only 2 or 3 PPVs a year around here it's even worse. It'd be different if there weren't "top level" guys ready for a title shot without that sort of thing, but there are. You wanna start a band, bro? 'Cause you're singin' my song.
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Cameron Stone
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jan 16, 2013 18:16:15 GMT -5
Posts: 2,014
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Post by Cameron Stone on May 10, 2014 20:33:06 GMT -5
Honestly, rather than doing an obligatory elimination chamber for a contendership, I'd rather just see it pop in from time to time as the title match. Not really as an annual thing necessarily, but if there isn't as much going on for a particular time storyline wise around the world champion, or if there's kind of three concrete feuds going on and you think you can implement the match well, I think it could work. Adds some good unpredictability for a title match, and really gives some people something to work on and with. But just having it as a contenders match seems as a waste in a way
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Post by Prophet of Ash on May 10, 2014 20:55:57 GMT -5
Elimination Chamber, Hell in a Cell... if I was booking the fed they'd be gone entirely. I liked the Psycho Circus cage because it was so different. I had a different design for the cage and a little bit more elaborate rules for elimination that I still basically used. The Psycho Circus design that got used was basically my design with everything closed in, where as mine expanded outwards, with the scaffolds hanging above the floor instead of above the cage. But the WWE cages and gimmicks.. they'd go entirely.
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Deleted
Joined on: Apr 24, 2024 15:28:37 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2014 21:19:42 GMT -5
And this is yet another huge episode of Inside The Mind. This week we will feature a very special shoot with one great ing writer... DAVID BRENNAN!
Welcome to the show.Thanks for having me. Let's see if we can't have any friends after this, huh?Sounds like a plan. Now, let's start off with this whole Ace Bennett match debacle from the Reborn card? What happened here, that you didn't get your match?Ha ha, diving right into the deep end, then.
So, when Ace Bennett returned at the end of Superbrawl, a couple of things jumped into my head. First - yawn. The whole 'new champion's celebration gets cut short by a vengeful returning name' has been done to death in the WFWF. That's not an attack on any one individual - just one guy's opinion. It diminishes the match and the work the expected parties put in. Once that thought was cleared, the next was "Well, damn. I like working with Ace. That's a good thing!". That lead to me going to Shawn/Horror/whatever and suggesting, among other topics of conversation, that Ace and I would be a really smart booking move, as we have a bit of history dating back to our first runs, we have similar styles at times, and we generally work well together. At Shawn's suggestion, I pursued Ace with the matter. He had a couple things in the oven cooking, but agreed that a one off match, coupled with a segment that had Brennan sort of airing his laundry over asking for the match would be a decent card spot. I suggested he put the word to Shawn, as I know they're closer off screen than I am with, well, anyone, but just to be safe, I quoted Ace's response and sent it along to Shawn myself. CYA, you know?
I suppose in the long run, the fault is all mine. I know Trace and Shawn alternate 'running' shows, but as co-owners, I made a poor assumption that there was a line of communication between them that could be initiated at either end - a mistake I suppose I won't likely make again.Speaking of the current co-owners of the WFWF, what's your opinion on them running the place?I know, by and large, what the general concensus might expect to be my answer here, but overall, big picture, my issues are far and few between. I'm not about to add them to my Facebook circle anytime soon or anything, and the three of us have had words on separate occasions. Naturally, my inclination toward managing behind the scenes things going forward is going to be Trace, but Shawn has...well, Shawn's done his thing by me before. There are a number of things I'd put into play, but I'm not the owner, and parent board rules dictate that I never will be.If you were owner, what type of ideas would you put into place to make this fed more attractive to new signees? I don't know if 'attractive' would be the word to describe the outward changes I'd make, but maybe 'sensical'. 'Structural'. I dont' know.
At any rate, the place needs a good structural overhaul - there's that word, so I guess that's the one. One of the more seasoned, less inclined to jump when things piss him off guys could probably correct me on this, but I can't remember the last time a newcomer "climbed the ladder", so to speak. There's a whole can of worms that could be opened with this line of thought, and I've aired it to Shawn in the past, but the fed is in such a state right now that we seem so desparate to pull quality talent in that the minute someone comes along who shows an ounce of potential or improvement, booking pops an immense stiffy for them and catapaults them right to the very top of the card, and in some cases, it winds up being their very undoing. I'd love to see new talent come in, show some real raw potential, and climb their way through the ranks - hit that National level, then the International level, then get involved with some real high profile feuds on the road to eventually being placed into the World Title picture. That would mean an entire rehaul of the...searching for the word again...'significance', maybe, of the 2nd and 3rd tier titles, but it would make for a more structurally sound system through which guys could come in and become tenured, recognized, respected writers.You mentioned being catapulted to the top of the card, who, in your eyes, has been the latest person to have been brought up to that level so quickly? Will it evenutally hurt them?With all apologies to the unspoken man behind the curtain, but Progs/Solomon Crowe. I don't think there's anyone in the fed who's going to deny that a) the kid enjoys the hell out of being here, b) is willing to put in the extra mile, and c) has the talent to be one of the top guys, but overnight he re-popped onto the scene, showed signs of having woodshedded his style, and someone behind the scenes said to themselves "BOOK 'EM, DANNO!". The problem there is how quickly we forget that as as recently as I'd debuted (for the third time), he was writing Randel Benjamin comparing Philip Schneider's flaws to those of a mustard coated hotdog. Clearly improvement had happened, along with a screening session of Bray Wyatt and Raven promos, but there's only so much that you can borrow before you implode, and I feel like the road to Superbrawl kind of did him in. He lost sight of his character, went off in a million different directions, then recognized the need to reel it in and 'start over' - just in time to face 3 other writers who were unquestionably going to pose the biggest challenge to him yet.
Solomon's shown improvement though. He was down on his last effort as a sort of rushed effort, but it showed more cohesiveness than his work leading up to the title match, so with any luck, maybe he can put it in reverse a bit, wallow in the mid to upper card for a bit, and when the time is REALLY right, make that push again.Three WFWF characters in, no championship belts, but you've managed to make it in the Hall of Fame. Your thoughts on this?I was really hoping this one would come up, but maybe again not for the reason one might think.
Let's start by giving credit where credit is due. The New Epoch, at the height of its very best, was all Drakz and Mike Kyzer. Everyone who used the claim that David Brennan was riding their coat tails, in character, was spot on. Those guyse were the idea factory, time and time again, and I was there a good chunk of the time to fill in the details. Working with them was an absolute trip - Schneider has got his super-violent tendencies, but nobody is willing to push boundaries like those two, and having them around again, just to bounce potential ideas off of again, is probably 2/3 of the reason why I haven't already thrown in the towel. Yes, I wrote all my material, including many of the portions involving their characters, but those guys deserve the lion's share of the credit for that whole run, and I am not ashamed to admit it in the least.
As far as the three characters go, you have to give yourself a timeline of something like ten years to work with. I started writing Chris Avalon after taking the name off an old ticket stub while I was still living at home with my folks. I moved out when I was 19, so that would have put me at probably 18. I wrote Jason Vieira in the 2006-ish timeframe, so I was probably closer to 20-21 then. My last birthday ever will be this coming July, so I'll let you figure that one out in terms of David Brennan, but I'm proud to say that at 21, I wasn't the same writer I was at 18, and at...this age, which I'm not quite at terms with yet, I'm not the same writer I was at 21.
With Jason Vieira, I came dangerously close to Solomon-syndrome as described earlier, as then owners Michael Kyzer and Drakz saw something there, and were pushing me toward an eventual encounter with Revered Shadow, who would have steamrolled all over me. With Avalon, I had no business in the feuds I was getting - this was during a sort of surge in new writers at the, so much that a new 'Young Gun Championship' was created for us to tangle over, which I came dangerously close to winning maybe once. All the same, I got a good feud going with probably the top guy in that division at the time - Ganador. The guy was head and shoulders above my level, and the fact that he took the inaugural title over me was 100% the right thing to happen.
I've only just now sort of begun focusing on the fact that I've never had a title shot. I brought this up to Shawn, right before the whole Ace Bennett thing, and he fed me this malarkey about how he didn't want another Trace Demon holding the International Title forever before just dropping it, and he'd much rather see me in the world title picture and blah blah blah. Those are nice words and all, really pleasing to the ego, but they forsake, to me, two very important points, which are a) I should have probably been given a mid-tier shot in my original run as Brennan, as that was the level I was writing at, and the role I was playing in The New Epoch, and b) I AM NOT, AT THIS JUNCTURE IN MY 'CAREER', WORLD TITLE MATERIAL.
Point b is sort of a sore spot with me right now, because Shawn's kind kind words, coupled with the fact that in the same breath told me that I shouldn't get a shot at the {insert mid-tier title here} because I'd be much better suited for the World title, the picture of which holds no sensical booking room for me for the forseeable rest of eternity based on whispers I've heard, lead me to believe that a) I'm not getting any title shot any time soon, and more importantly b) that there's a f*ck ton on insincerity in the way people discuss the work of others, and I'm being fed a steaming pile of sh*t, which really grinds my gears more than anything.In your eyes, is there a political game around here? Not at all. I know Trace used the word "conspiracy" responding to a question I'd posed to Obo regarding the booking of his match on the most recent card, which was genuinely just something I was curious about. It's worth mentioning that I approached Trace via PM and personally apologized, not so much for my actions, but for the possibility of them being construed as an attack on his booking. I think the Reborn card is weird as hell, but I don't think ill of Trace as an individual, owner, or writer.
What I think is happening, truthfully, is that a ton of eggshells have been laid out, and a lot of people are content to just tip toe around them. This kind of goes back to the whole 'pushing people further than the're ready thing in an effort to retain any potential talent' There are so few people that will just lay the cards out on the table if somthing sucks, and then talent is pushed to levels they're not ready for, and so this sort of vicious cylce of mediocre contentment and discouragement happens.
Not to toot my own horn, but I know a thing or two about writing. I know that guys like Drakz, Schneider, Kyzer, and Trace are leaps and bounds out of my league - and that is okay. I'm scratching at their door, but I'm not in yet. At the same time, I feel like throughout the mid to lower card, there are guys that I AM better than, so I guess I just don't understand why, because someone sees something that isn't there YET, I can't, for the time being, strive for a little recognition at the level I'm at now. You go for a job at the local Wal-Mart as a stock boy and you show some real drive, they don't just put you in the store manager's chair. Maybe you become department lead first, then they send you to become an assistant manager at a store with a challenge, y'know? Progress, growth. Shooting someone to the moon with some bullsh*t adage that if they miss, they'll "land amongst the stars" doesn't do anyone any favors.Speed round time. Give us your opinions on Phillip Schneider.Early on, I didn't think I liked him. I might have actually used to pick on the guy in other areas of the board years ago, and here, I thought he was a little too set in his ways to be amicable to work with. From a distance, it seems like he may have mellowed out some - he did, after all, agree to a 'clean' match with Drakz just recently. Maybe we'll get the chance to work together, and he'll altogether prove me wrong. For an outspoken guy, he'll still manage to keep you guessing, which is f*ckin' weird.Drakz.Haha, really? I thought I'd covered it, but what's a few more strokes to get a guy off? The New Epoch was a trio, for certain, but I found a real niche in working with Drakz. The guy is both forthcoming and receptive when it comes to bouncing ideas. The two of us have stuff planned that could happen a year and a half from now, or not happen at all, but it's all good stuff, and it hasn't even been written yet. Further, he types like an absolute Brit, and was probably the first guy to "get" the David Brennan character, so to speak.Andrew Carter.Fun fact that some may have missed - I tried, man. I really tried. When I wanted to come back with Vieira, I worked a program between him, Devilkiller, and myself that involved a) a match that I cut a short little promo after between the two of them that made them both look fantastic, and b) would have achieved an end that elevated the National title like I'm always harping on, and given Carter in particular the chance to work a drawn out angle that would have done nothing but exponential favors to his work with the exposure to help he'd get, but he instead decided to jam some stick up his a**. I suppose he's "back" now, but it's 2 hours til deadline as of this very moment and *SURPRISE* he still hasn't shown. Not much more to be said - the kid is a pud.Jayson Garett.Jayson Garrett is an example of things being done right. He's got the keys to turn over an awesome run in this game, and remarkably, rather than throw him into some barbed wire electrified elimination chamber for the world title at the next show, he's been paired up, the efforts of who I'm not quite sure, with someone who is at his relative level, with a lot of talent and opportunity for improvement to eventually move up the ranks to become the next big thing and is this merry go round ever going to end 'cause at this point I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, and they've managed to snag the tag titles. The tag division is an excellent opportunity for guys like them to learn to work angles with other writers, hone their work, and eventually move on to bigger and brighter things.Dex.Dex worries me. He's an immensely, immensely talented writer who's managed to give himself a character made of Play-Doh with all the different things he could do with him...and then he creates Ryu. And then he drops Ryu. And then he creates whoever his new character is. And then I think he dropped him. If Dex takes all that energy and focuses it on Dex, the character, he will go places, bar none. Maybe too fast. Maybe he'll fall. The way things are done lately, probably. I think he can bounce back from it. His rp for Superbrawl was simultaneously one of my favorite pieces for that show, and the most frustrating, 'cause just when he really got going, it just ended.That just about does it, any last words for all of the up and coming writers on the board? As a means to improve and such.Some may not, but I'm going to tell you when you're faltering. I'm also going to try and give you some bricks to work with the build a better situation. I can't write rps for you, but I can point you down a certain road. I love that show The Office, front to back, and there's awesome quote from James Spader's character that goes "I've only just met you. Life is long. Opinions change. Winners - prove me right. Losers - prove me wrong". Take the advice the seasoned guys give you, even if it sounds harsh. If you won't read, you can't write. Done deal. We want guys to compete with - we'll eventually just bore each other, so why not absorb everything you can, face us, and be the one to shut us up?
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Post by Prophet of Ash on May 11, 2014 7:57:02 GMT -5
It's kind of the Schneider/Kyzer storyline in reverse though in hindsight, even there I think Schneider took the heel role from Kyzer. You and I have a different perception of our feud. You even told me when we were planning our feud you said you had to play the de facto face because of Kyzer's self consumed nature. But when you look at it, Schneider wasn't doing babyface things. Attacking Kyzer from behind and drugging him being the big one
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Post by sonstuds on May 11, 2014 14:29:11 GMT -5
As someone who is familiar with both the Kyzer and Schneider characters and read Kyzer's RPs because they involved me, at no point was Kyzer ever likable so I have to question whether anyone took the "heel" status from anyone in that feud. Both characters are just dicks. That should have been the match tag line. Not to toot my own horn, but I know a thing or two about writing. I know that guys like Drakz, Schneider, Kyzer, and Trace are leaps and bounds out of my league - and that is okay. I'm scratching at their door, but I'm not in yet. I dunno how many RPs of yours I've read (however many during the end of my ownership plus two or three from the New Epoch days) but I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit. I always thought your stuff really stood out and differed from everyone else. You wrote that one RP that was TNE in a car and that was it. You didn't fill it up with unnecessary relationship drama scenes that had nothing to do with anything else or what feels like the unspoken and mandatory "settingless monologue at the end of the RP just so they can talk about their opponent and match" so it can be about the WFWF in a roundabout way. It was just three and a half guys in a car and you tied in his relationship with the rest of the Epoch and how it relates to what's going on in the WFWF. I really admired that you went against norm and did it as well as you did, because frankly I don't think many people are willing to do that or as well as you can.
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Post by CM Poor on May 11, 2014 17:07:46 GMT -5
As someone who is familiar with both the Kyzer and Schneider characters and read Kyzer's RPs because they involved me, at no point was Kyzer ever likable so I have to question whether anyone took the "heel" status from anyone in that feud. Both characters are just dicks. That should have been the match tag line. Not to toot my own horn, but I know a thing or two about writing. I know that guys like Drakz, Schneider, Kyzer, and Trace are leaps and bounds out of my league - and that is okay. I'm scratching at their door, but I'm not in yet. I dunno how many RPs of yours I've read (however many during the end of my ownership plus two or three from the New Epoch days) but I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit. I always thought your stuff really stood out and differed from everyone else. You wrote that one RP that was TNE in a car and that was it. You didn't fill it up with unnecessary relationship drama scenes that had nothing to do with anything else or what feels like the unspoken and mandatory "settingless monologue at the end of the RP just so they can talk about their opponent and match" so it can be about the WFWF in a roundabout way. It was just three and a half guys in a car and you tied in his relationship with the rest of the Epoch and how it relates to what's going on in the WFWF. I really admired that you went against norm and did it as well as you did, because frankly I don't think many people are willing to do that or as well as you can. I really appreciate that, and there's a sort of genuinity to a comment like that, versus the sort of cut and paste "dude, this is so good. You should totally be world champ if we weren't pushing new guy x right now" that I've been getting lately, which leads me to believe that my pieces are getting skimmed, if at all. All the same, my opinion stands. On a good day, I'm certain that a guy like Bishop, Stone, Solomon, etc. could give me an easy run for my money, and until I'm regularly out writing those guys, that's the div I belong in, but there's no reason myself and that batch of guys shouldn't be fighting over a mid-upper tier title.
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