Let's brainstorm!

[Jon A]

Hi all. I’ve invited the Shootfire family to post here, since I’d like as much involvement as possible. We’re five weeks away from Cornerstone Revolution, which I’m hoping to set up as a monster Supercard with a few special guest and surprises, not to mention a few blowoff matches and storyline resolutions. After that, here comes the tricky part.

Some of you may know that in late April I will be moving to another town and there will be a disruption in the DCWL, owing to time needed to pack, unpack, search out living accommodations, new jobs, etc. All that boring stuff. I have every intention of continuing the fed after the layoff, and also keep it going in some manner during the layoff. It’s just that I won’t have the time to complete whole cards or big whacks of match videos.

As you may know, the DCWL and SPW are affiliated as sort of a farm league / major league set-up. Recently, AJ from SPW asked me if there was any talent from the DCWL to send up to the majors. What I’m going to suggest is that over the layoff, anyone from the DCWL who wants to go to Shootfire for a couple of months may do so. Sort of a DCWL Class of 2010. Then, when I get settled in and we start up operations again, you’ll all be welcome to come back here or stay in SPW. Whatever you’re more comfortable with.

Those are the hard facts of the case. Now here’s the fun brainstorming stuff:

We do have a strong roster, but we’re short on handlers. Not counting myself, we have Spooky, Andrew, Holski, Rob, Josh, Tim, Walter, and Derek. Joe has had to take a break, and whatever time off he needs he can have. Now that may seem like enough, but it’s spread throughout various divisions (Holski and Andrew are in the Trios only, Derek only handles Sierra Browne, etc.). This isn’t to say that I want you to start handling singles wrestlers too. What I do think is we need a greater diversity to keep things from getting stale and so we need some new people.

Another problem is the idea of running a farm league. It’s all well and good to associate with SPW but I want to feel like I’m giving something back to SPW for letting us join up with them and not being overly protective of the DCWL’s handlers. After all, some people signed up for SPW only, some people want the DCWL only.

We’re not going to make any major changes until the spring hiatus. When we come back, though, I want to come up with a new model for the DCWL that’ll be attractive to new handlers from SPW and elsewhere. Here’s some ideas I’ve been coming up with:

• The ECW Model: Basically like the WWE’s ECW. We keep our core group while the SPW people send us 6-8 wrestlers who would be lost in the shuffle of Shootfire (or are new to the fed) to hone their game and shine on a smaller platform. This would involve tossing the reserve roster and keeping a single roster of about 14-16 people. The shows would be better booked with less scrub matches, and there would be a better diversity of handlers. The downside is that this might mean the end of two, maybe three championships as they wouldn’t look right on a small roster.
  
  
• The ROH Model: What we’re going with now. The idea is to keep a core of people and keep bringing in outside workers and special guests to put on the best matches possible. The upside is a lot of flexibility. You get a lot of fresh matches this way, but there’s only so many times you can watch B.A. Jive or Alton West before you say “enough already, Jon.” It works well in real life, but when you don’t have a lot of handlers, I think it gets boring.
  
  
• The Tough Enough Model: Let’s say the DCWL Training School (remember that? Run by GRRRR Guy?) first graduating class gets sent to the DCWL roster. This is kind of like the old EWR games when your dojo would graduate a bunch of guys and you’d send them to your developmental league. Let’s say I write up a short scouting report on each graduate and send it to an SPW handler (who isn’t already involved with the DCWL). Basically, they play booker and create a persona or gimmick or narrative for the blank wrestler and viola! Instant roster! The potential downside is that it might be a form of “volunteering is mandatory,” but at the end of the day, we’d have a fresh new character. I’d just as soon take a Mad Cow or Max Turbo over a Kid Way Cool or Great Atma. And if the graduate character happens to tickle to new handler fancy, then hey, they can use them however they want.

Another thing I want to tackle is the notion of unhandled characters. I was thinking of instituting a new position of heel manager, not unlike Jim Cornette or Jimmy Hart or Bobby Heenan, where an unhandled character is given a mouthpiece tasked with getting the guy over on his or her behalf.

Anyway, all this is a long way off still and I figured it would be best to get the ball rolling and build some excitement and enthusiasm early. If anything is unclear, please please please let me know and I’ll try to clarify as best as possible.

[darkangel]

First off Jon let me go ahead and say that its a true honor to handle in this fed and its very quickly become a home for me unlike so many feds before it so for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

As for the options of how to handle the fed when we come back from break I'm thinking Option 2 works best. We have something awesome going in DCWL right now and I like what we are doing right now. I think honestly what needs to happen in the future, and this will be mentioned in a future column I do somewhere, is that DCWL starts establishing its own identity separate from SPW. Sure its nice to have the affiliation of that fed and all but to be real honest Jon let's ask this question:

When is the last time you looked at an SPW show and heard any kind of acknowledgment that we exist in their "Family?

I've been racking my brain trying to figure that out and honestly...it hasn't happened or if it has I must have missed it somewhere.

I am NOT saying that we cut ties with SPW because right now that's suicide as a lot of the handlers here might have handled in SPW such as myself. What we need to do though is get a stable roster of wrestlers/handlers for "us", the DCWL family and work from here. and maybe down the line we'll be BETTER than SPW because I checked the JTF top 10 fed and we were dead last and that's not cool.

2010 and beyond I want to see this fed grow into a power in the e-w game and I DON'T want to see any fed monopolize the game like the one we are currently affiliated with is trying to do.

Jon I apologize to you and the roster for the way this post turned out but I just had to get some stuff off my mind!

Later man!

[aphilfan]

To Josh's point first: Part of that is my fault, and I take responsibility for that.

One way we were going to facilitate the connection between SPW and DCWL was through two characters - Former SPW GM and Ambassador to the DCWL Henry Spikes and DCWL newcomer turned SPW competitor James O'Connor (which I'm sure most/all of you are aware both run through me).

For a while, though, I just tried to do too much given the time I had. I made promises I couldn't keep which led to, among other things, Spikes (my first, favorite, and probably best character when I can get him working properly) dropping off the face of the Earth for several months. Spikes was the one who would engender the relationship between SPW and DCWL and give reason for JOC to pop up upon occasion. Without them, there was little for SPW to comment on aside from the Ark match (and they did, by airing that bit you and I put together).

I do see where you're coming from, but I thought I'd give a bit of rationale behind part of it. Plus, from what AJ was saying, we may get that recognition sooner rather than later.

Jon - I'll echo Josh's point that this is a great fed to be a part of. I'll contact you about ideas for specific things I could do to address your points, but as for the general question at hand:

I think 2 would work well, but I think we should at least try to pull that off with a few SPWers who need more exposure (as in #1). If we can reduce the reserve roster (without eliminating it) and get a few SPW guys to come this way, we can use that as the basis for a group B (mixing with the core group A) to create the fresher matches we need while solidifying the SPW connection. We're already doing this to an extent with SOW (I'm sure thanks in part to Walter's involvement here), and I feel if we found a few willing people we could really make it work.

If this has been tried, of course, feel free to ignore me.

[leoncorella]

Well I have to agree with Josh here. The RoH model is working great for us, and I know at times I'm an ungrateful prick behind the scenes to poor ol' Jon, but I have to hand it to him, I share alot of Josh's sentiments about DCWL despite a few private arguments here and there.

Not only has Jon given me a place to flex my creativity, but through him, Walt, and Joe I've grown as a handler. Despite whatever horseshit pops out of my mouth from time to time, Jon, I do love this fed man.

[darkangel]

Feb 9, 2010 20:47:33 GMT -7 leoncorella said:

Well I have to agree with Josh here. The RoH model is working great for us, and I know at times I'm an ungrateful prick behind the scenes to poor ol' Jon, but I have to hand it to him, I share alot of Josh's sentiments about DCWL despite a few private arguments here and there.

Not only has Jon given me a place to flex my creativity, but through him, Walt, and Joe I've grown as a handler. Despite whatever horseshit pops out of my mouth from time to time, Jon, I do love this fed man.

Thank you Mr. Corella(or whom you are as a handler as I sincerely apologize also for not getting a lot of the handlers names for this place beforehand) for the compliment.

SPW is a great fed don't get me wrong and if we OCCASIONALLY allow for SPWers to come here and compete that's one thing and its a good thing. I'm just concerned that the man in charge there doesn't really see this great hobby as one. It turned into a business and that's what kind of disenchants me from there occasionally but I'm not going to sit here and rip that fed cos that's not what this thread is about.

I have stated pretty much to Jon in a PM and I'll say it here to each and every handler that walks in the door: This is home for me. I'm happy here and I will continue to do my best writing promos and oncards(granted I need to start doing that here) for my characters to help out this fed. We have an awesome show coming up in about a week's time and then the big show and I, as I am damn sure each and every one of you in this fed will do what they can to make their characters number one in their respective divisions and you know something? That's a good thing!

I remember when I first heard about this fed from AJ and I looked at it and saw that the card was on a blog but I didn't "get it"! Now I've been here for a few shows and I gotta tell ya that I honestly LOVE it here! SPW knows their identity because they've been around a hella long time. In my mind they are all about the "Entertainment" which can be good but we need to showcase the wrestlers that will be the lifeblood if any go to SPW.

So to Mr. Corella and Andy I understand where you both come from. SPW being affiliated with this place can be a good thing as long as we don't let them overrun it. Let's get DCWL's name out because we have the talent to carry the fed and not because we let some "big shot name fed" start to overpopulate us.

So here's to 2010 and beyond for DCWL and here's hoping we can show a lot of people what we can really do

[aphilfan]

@josh: Not to get too mushy on this, but that's why I signed up the second I found out Jon was bringing the DCWL back. I started with Demented Creations because some real life friends talked me into it, but I soon found they were just a part of an awesome tightly-knit group that came to the DCWL for just the reasons you stated - they genuinely enjoyed being there.

(That and to rip on Vindy I think.)

I'm just happy that spirit of fun carried over, even if everyone's still getting to know each other a bit.

[leoncorella]

Feb 9, 2010 22:22:05 GMT -7 darkangel said:

Thank you Mr. Corella(or whom you are as a handler as I sincerely apologize also for not getting a lot of the handlers names for this place beforehand) for the compliment.

The name's Rob ::Handshake n' stuff::

and I mean that compliment. I don't see any other fed claiming me as one of theirs, LoL.

Feb 9, 2010 23:38:15 GMT -7 aphilfan said:

@josh: Not to get too mushy on this, but that's why I signed up the second I found out Jon was bringing the DCWL back. I started with Demented Creations because some real life friends talked me into it, but I soon found they were just a part of an awesome tightly-knit group that came to the DCWL for just the reasons you stated - they genuinely enjoyed being there.

(That and to rip on Vindy I think.)

I'm just happy that spirit of fun carried over, even if everyone's still getting to know each other a bit.

Yeah, I'm hoping the Hiatus won't hurt DCWL's momentum. It takes a long period of time before you get a good size roster in any promotion. I think while Jon's out, we should all set up a recruitment drive and get people whom we know could handle a random atmosphere with no politicing and crap.

I also think that he should let somebody do small one-off written house shows every now and then to showcase we're still alive, but that's just my opinion. I've been wrong before.

[spookydoom]

Sorry for taking so long to answer, I'll try to offer what wisdom I can.

Right now the e-feds feel of being ECW style or ROH style is not as important to me as to where we're going in terms of handler participation. Right now it seems like we're solely dependent on SPW to boost handler participation, but between dwindling SPW activity and the fact that this group seems to be fairly tight knit, i'd think it'd be more sensible to reach out other e-wrestling circles, profess them the novelty of the FirePro system and reach to THEM so as to boost numbers. Accepting SPW stars is perfect, depending on them is foolish.

I do get the feeling that DCWL is a tight-knit family so I'm fully open to the idea that there could be no other handlers. Let me just say that I am fully open to the concept of character swapping, that I proposed such an e-fed concept in the JTF board, but since we are essentially appropriating a whole new character, a certain measure of retconning and a whole lotta liberty should be proffered. Remember that we are essentially spending time with alt-characters that could go elsewhere. The advantage is thatbthe original creator gains a whole new outlook on an old creation and this would encourage the handlers here to create.

I'll post some more when I get home.

[spookydoom]

Okay, so I'm home.

I guess the best solution for the current rut (I guess this is how best to call it) is to really diversify what can be done in this e-fed.

Concerning the influx of new handlers... Well it seems as if both SPW and DCWL are very close, so I don't think we'll have much regulars from their fed coming into our town. JOC is a near regular and I thank him for the effort, but like I said, reaching out will be a necessary?

Didn't Josh find another fringe e-fed ranking system that somehow got to rank Sierra Brown? That would be my first prospectus for advertising if increasing the number of handlers were our priority.

If it isn't, (and when you think about it, there really is no reason to concentrate on gaining new members), the the priority would be to find new shit that could be done within this fed, otherwise we'll quickly tire ourselves between jobber squashes and facing the same handlers over and over again. Otherwise DCWL just becomes like every other e-fed, but with it's handlers spread out doing different stuff.

We all need to adopt a jobber. It's something of a vague idea running through my head, but it still sounds like the best idea to liven things up.

[leoncorella]

I've been considering introducing a whole slew of jobber-low card characters from my collection for use in the DCWL.

The great thing is, I own a copy of FPWR and I can easily port these files to Jon so that he can tweak their attributes, skills, and AI's accordingly. All I'd have to do is give some guidelines for the characters and maybe do an RP or two for 'em here and there.

I'd say about 10 from my CAW roster ought to be good enough to add some variety to this current roster and it'd effectively double what Jon's got on hand to boot.

[spookydoom]

No, don't bring a new character, adopt an existing one. If we just add, then we eventually end up with orphan characters nobody cares about. I suggest taking a current wrestler, changing his gimmick as necessary (even allow transformations as drastic as Festus to fake Kane to Luke Gallows) and see if it gives any new twist to an old idea.

Imagine everyone in DCWL is presently an individual worker with his own gimmick. Now consider it your job to give these workers a new gimmick by which they'll rejuvinate their careers. If you just bring new workers in, the New Main Street Killas will just end up out of a job, and you wouldn't want that, right? So adopt a jobber. That's my idea to bring a new twist on things.

Rob, i recently bought a copy of FirePro wrestling? How do we transfer files from a normal PS2? What is required and where do you get it. (Also, i hate this game and cannot gain priority on any grapple.)

[leoncorella]

Feb 11, 2010 8:44:51 GMT -7 spookydoom said:

Rob, i recently bought a copy of FirePro wrestling? How do we transfer files from a normal PS2? What is required and where do you get it. (Also, i hate this game and cannot gain priority on any grapple.)

Well, I'm not all that great at the game either, but the amount of moves you have at your disposal and the insane amount of AI options make it pretty charming in it's own right.

As for transfering files, I use my PS3 to do it. I transfer the PS2 save file using a Memory card reader to the PS3 harddrive, then I look into the save file and copy individual saves to a USB Flash drive, which I then port over to the computer.

I'm sure there is a much simpler way using a PC based Memory Card reader, but last I ever checked, none of them were cheap.

[Holski]

If we're going to use an ECW model, I suggest the following gimmick changes:

Mark Henry Spikes ("Somebody's Gonna Get Their Ass Investigated By A Government-Appointed Panel!")
Khristian 187 ("Kaptain Kharisma, BIOTCH!")
CM Jive ("Buy, sell and trade means I'm betta than you, muthafuckaaaa!")

Also, Jax should be issued a midget sidekick named "Tomfoolery"