The Shoot #6

The Shoot #6
March 17, 2009
By: Joshua Piedra of WrestleView.com

Just like the triumphant return of Tom Brady after Matt Cassel gets traded to the Chiefs, or like the RIAA’s plan to make music illegal should the PirateBay trial fail? it is time for another edition of The Shoot. Today promises to be an interesting column, to say the least, but now that I?ve tempted you with that thought, I?m going to misdirect you to this week’s Quick Shots? because I can!

-Quick Shots-

There’s the obvious big piece of news this week with the death of Test. This came as a surprise to many, including myself. He wasn?t the best in the ring, but he wasn?t the worst either. Test was very agile for a big man and could have really made himself out to be a much bigger star. It’s a shame that he was taken from us so early. To you I say rest in peace, Mr. Martin, as you will be sorely missed.

In some lighter news, congratulations are in order for Yoshihiro Takayama who became the second man in Japanese wrestling history to capture all of Japan’s major championships. This means he has won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in New Japan, the GHC Heavyweight Championship in Pro Wrestling NOAH, and now, the Triple Crown Championship f rom All Japan Pro Wrestling. The only other man to do so is the man who just lost the GHC Heavyweight Title to Jun Akiyama, which was Kensuke Sasaki. While this is great news, I often wonder when Jushin ?Thunder? Liger will ever be IWGP Champion?

I didn?t get to comment on it last week, but the latest WWE Hall of Fame inductee was Koko B. Ware. Are you serious!? There are a dozen people I could have picked that should be in the Hall of Fame and yet, we get Koko B. Ware. Randy Savage? Bruno Sammartino? (Yes, I am aware of the relationship), Owen Hart? Ultimate Warrior? Ivan Koloff? The Iron Sheik? Maybe a bit too early, but Mick Foley? Hell? even Howard Finkle? Nope.. we get Koko B. Ware. You know this just has to be a filler name. The reality of it is that Vince probably couldn?t get anyone else? but still, I?d rather see Braden Walker than Koko B. Ware. Truth!

Onto the main course for this column! As I stated before, this was going to be an interesting column on two fronts. On the first front, maybe I can open the reader’s minds to an alternate universe for wrestling fans. On the other front, it will reveal how much of a wrestling nerd I was (or still am). So for this column, I have decided to talk about the world of e-Wrestling. It’s a very broad topic so I am going to announce that this is going to be the first of a three part miniseries of columns. Today will be part one in which I will explain exactly what e-Wrestling is and the different kinds of ?feds? that are out there. Next week and the week after, I will delve deeper and go into the mechanics of putting together a card, how storylines are fleshed out, and why this hobby is so addicting, but for now, we?ll start at the beginning.

When you hear e-Wrestling, you may think Fantasy Wrestling and then, by common knowledge, link it to Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Football, etc. This is not the case as e-Wrestling doesn?t have you choose your favorite wrestler, compile a roster, and then score points based on your picks like most traditional Fantasy leagues. E-Wrestling is much deeper and much more involved than a simple Fantasy League. There are handlers (people who control the characters), role plays, storylines, different federations, and championships to be won, but the essence of e-wrestling all boils down to one simple notion: creative writing.

In order to participate in e-Wrestling you need two things: a passion for pro-wrestling and a creative mind. There are two kinds of federations that a person can join to express their knowledge and creativity: Role Play Feds and Angle Feds.

Role Play Feds are just as they sound. They are a place where you have a character and you type out role plays as if you were that character. Each week, the federation’s owner makes a wrestling card which places one wrestler against another. The result of the match will be determined on who has had the better series of role plays. Sometimes limits will be placed on the number of role plays per person or it could just be a free-for-all battle to see who has the better role play. Even championships are decided on who has the best role play at the end of the deadline. This kind of federation keeps things interesting and fresh as well as highly unpredictable.

Card results were either typed out by hand, which means you would read results like you would for Raw or Smackdown! right here on WrestleView.com, or they would use a simulator program to produce the matches. To use a simulator, all one had to do was input the names of the people wrestling, their move sets (which would be set up when you create the name of the character in the program), select the match type, and press a button and the simulator wrote the entire card for you. Role Play feds were the most popular back when e-Wrestling was just starting out back in the mid to late-90s, but there was another kind of federation that took center stage and gained tremendous popularity and that was the angle fed.

Unlike the role play fed were role plays determine the winners, an angle fed is run much like a real wrestling company. You have a roster of handlers and each handler will usually ask another handler if they want to run a storyline. If they agree, then a storyline is fleshed out between them. Simulators will not work for match results here because the entire card is written by the handlers. They write their own matches, segments, outcomes, and promos. The federation owner’s job would usually consist of overseeing the storylines, make suggestions, and sift through each item and determine match order and segment/promo placement so the card flows fluidly. The downside is that there is no surprise unless you choose not to acquaint yourself with other handler’s stories, but you have complete creative control and instead of generic results, you can customize your feud and story the way you want it. When it is all said and done, the card is posted up on the fed’s website for the general public to read and enjoy.

Both an RP fed’s or an Angle Fed’s roster can be handled in two different ways. One could use real wrestlers and build a dream roster or you can have a roster full of completely original characters. The latter is the most popular as nearly 98% of angle and role play feds out there use unique and original characters. Yes, I have spent some time (f rom 1997 to 2003) handling in angle feds with a character named Derecho and I know first-hand how much fun and addicting the world of e-Wrestling can be. Many people preferred the original character because then you can build your character’s move set, their finisher, their look, their entrance, etc. Then you take that character and bring them to life through your creative writing. There are, literally, no limits with an original character and it was up to the handler to bring them to life and make the character believable. That has widely been described as the art or essence of e-Wrestling.

As technology has grown, one of the fads in e-Wrestling is to have a Poser for your character. The term Poser comes f rom the name of the program ?Poser?. Poser is a 3D modeling program that already gives you a base model of a body and using clothing options or textures, you can create characters to make them look like wrestlers. This will now give your original character their own identity to match the writing skills of the handler. Some companies have even gone as far as using their Posers in animations to create entrance videos or full length matches. In fact, there have been people who even got paid to do Poser work for different federations so, yes, you can even make money off of this hobby if you have the skills and talent in art programs. Not to mention that you can hire web designers to build websites for your fed. Some websites are very detailed and rival those of WWE.com or TNAWrestling.com. One of the biggest things about e-Wrestling is the illusion and it does a pretty nice job doing just that.

Now that I?ve given the base knowledge on e-Wrestling, next week I?ll move onto Part II where I will talk about angle feds in particular, give you a structure of a storyline, and even provide some samples of writing that I?ve done so you can get the feel of how creative writing plays a major role in any successful federation. With that being said, let’s move onto reader e-mail f rom last week.

-Reader E-Mail-

There is a correction I would like to make in last week’s column. I stated that Sting vs Kurt Angle would be a dream match for me, but thanks to reader Mickey Thompson, I completely forgot it had already happened. He wrote:

Has happened at a ppv before Bound For Glory 3 and it was actually a excellent match. If im correct they had a rematch 2 weeks later on Impact! even

My apologies for letting that one slip my mind.
Jason wrote:

Hello. my name is Jason and i read your Column on Wrestleview.com. Great Column man. i would like to get your opinion on something if you dont mind. it has nothing to do with your Column it has to do with Scott Steiner. back in WCW when Scott Steiner turned on his brother Rick and joined the NWO he then got the Gimmick Big Papa Pump. it wasnt long after that that Scotts Started to gain more Muscle mass mostly his Arms and Biceps. by late 99 early 2000 his Arms and Biceps were huge bigger thatn what they were before. some people have Specualted that Scott Steiner was on Steriods back in WCW. i know it cant be proven though. i know Scott has always been a big man and has had big Arms but when he turned heel and got the Papa Pump Gimmick his arms and Biceps got so much bigger and i just find it hard to Believe that it was Natural. Scott Steiner has said in interviews hes never used Steriods. but in your opinion given Scotts violent temper back in WCW and add the fact he got much bigger in the arms and Biceps do u think Scott Steiner did Steriods back in WCW?

To this I respond: Steroids are in everything. Baseball, Football, Pro-Wrestling, the list goes on. Scott Steiner does look like he could be the poster child for steroids, but he has denied it. He never got suspended by the WWE, even during the Wellness Policy testing. It doesn?t prove anything, but I am not a person that will just come out and point a finger and yell ?ROID RAGE? at someone just because it looks like they take them. There really isn?t concrete evidence so I can?t really offer an opinion on it.

No one sent any feedback on the dream card picks, but since I do like continuity, here’s a quick rundown of the results that I would have had for the card that I built:

Christopher Daniels over Chris Jericho via the Angel’s Wings in 17:06

Kenta Kobashi and Ric Flair go to a 30 minute time limit draw and end the match with a handshake

Yeah..call me a sap for having a time limit draw end a card, but I just couldn?t pick a winner in that last one! That is going to wrap it up for me this week. Of course, this week’s feedback question is: ?What do you think of the world of e-wrestling now that you have a base knowledge of it??

As always, if you would like to send me some feedback for the column or on any other topic of your choice relating to wrestling, what would happen if the Chuck Norris kick collided with the Falcon Punch, or why the New England Patriots will ALWAYS be better than the New York Jets (my friend Sean wanted a shout out.. well he got one). You can send your thoughts to syscrash2002@hotmail.com!

Until next time…

Because I can.