Manifest Destiny (Or Something Like That)

I was most pleased to once again find the familiar pink slip taped to the door in Denney Hall, indicating that film class had once again been canceled. So I've returned home early to find a post by Pete at the official PTC blog, and I now have the time to respond to it.

I really hope you'll all read Pete's blog to get an idea of where this is coming from, as it is once again a direct response.

I should preface this by killing any notion that there might be even the slightest bit of animosity involved here. Pete and I have known each other for a very long time and we've worked closely together for a number of years. What that has bred is, at least from my perspective, a relationship in which we can vehemently challenge one another, and that is borne out of respect.

I should also say that I agree with every single word Pete wrote. This is not going to turn into a point-counterpoint discussion, because Pete was right about it all.

However, Pete's post was written based on a few misconceptions and snap judgments. So this post is less about trying to prove Pete wrong and more about trying to elaborate on our plans for a new "interfed" to help people better understand the difference between this plan and the former PTC.

I put quotes around "interfed" because what we're discussing is not going to be a reinvention of PTC. Most of what we're planning is an extension of what Dean and I had in mind for PTC, should we have been given the reigns, but the PTC interfed is gone and we're moving in a slightly different direction.

First comes the biggest misconception of them all: I am not, contrary to how it may seem, offering myself up as the "head" or "leader" of the new entity. There will be no single person in charge, and my opinion will carry no more weight than anyone else's. I am not trying to fill Ross's role, and nobody else will. Frankly, I don't feel anyone can replace the role Ross has filled for our entire community, because as Pete pointed out, he's the only truly neutral person we have, and that is irreplaceable. Am I biased towards GCW? Of course! I'd be doing a disservice to my fed if I were anything but. However, I admit to that fact in nearly every blog post I make, and am in no way suggesting that I become some sort of new Ron-like overlord.

Nor are we intending to merely recreate PTC under a different name. PTC did eventually flounder for the very reasons Pete mentioned, and there's no sense in beating a dead horse. However, there is a void in the game right now that needs to be filled. While I hate to continue to be critical of Ross and Pete, because I understand the situation they were in when they made the decision, closing the PTC interfed was bad for the game. With the game in a recession and professional wrestling at large giving no indication of a looming comeback, e-wrestling is in trouble. There is still a great deal of passion in the game, but the people need to see progress being made. Without a wealth of new blood flowing into the community we need something to continue to make it fresh, and that means innovation and progression rather than reduction. So don't consider that a knock on Ross and Pete, but more of a statement about the dire status of our game, something I know Pete agrees with me on.

The entity we have envisioned-- Wait, let me stop there and qualify the "we." When I say we, I mean that there are a number of people out there who I speak to regularly about this. And also, I mean to drive home the point that I am not in any way in charge of this; I'm merely attempting to publicize something that hasn't been well documented and spur some conversation in the community.

Anyway. The entity we have envisioned is more of a confederation of federations, rather than an interfed. What PTC supplied as an interfed it continues to supply as a non-interfed; basically, extra-curricular activities that provide great pure competition to the community. PTC is still serving the same basic function it always did, and so in that way PTC will, we hope, continue to be a major focal point of this community. We're not proposing to replace it, but merely to supplement it.

If you want an easy way of looking at it, consider this: In all its years, PTC created some wildly memorable and enjoyable events, but never once did it spawn a pure interfed event like Devil's Night/Great American Nightmare. All we're proposing to do is formalize that a bit, and promote further interaction between the feds directly. No intermediary, just fed-to-fed contact.

So in that way, we're not actually creating an "interfed" at all. The term "interfed" itself suggests that there is some entity playing middleman and providing some sort of neutral territory; that's not what this is. Granted, it's a subtle distinction to make, but I think it's an important one. We're just stimulating increased cooperation between feds, and providing a website to cover it all.

So there's no interfed, nobody in charge pulling strings. It's an extension of what we're doing with the GCW/PRIME show, which incidentally has shaped up wonderfully. In conceiving this show not only have we gained better cross-fed exposure, but as fedhead I've developed closer working relationships with Matt and Lindz (and many others) in PRIME, connections I wouldn't have had otherwise. And not once have we needed a neutral party to somehow guide it all; the entire process has been conducted in perfect unity, with compromises happily made in the spirit of cooperation.

With regards to the website, Pete makes a valid point that user-driven sites are doomed to failure, as evidenced by each individual website's inactivity. To that I have no precedent to cite, no evidence to present to expect anything different. But my rebuttal to that comes in a different form: e-wrestling needs this. Maybe not this specific project, but something. Some attempt to innovate and move forward, some attempt to rejuvenate, some evidence to the community that there is still tremendous passion despite our thinning numbers. I'm certainly not sitting here claiming to have all the answers, nor am I profession to be the game's sole savior. My goal is merely to bring three feds closer together so that we might feed off each other's energy.

And why shouldn't we? Many of us have made individual connections through PTC events over the years. The Kimbusa/Illustrious Face Eater feud between GCW and PRIME got its start in the Chris Williams tournament, and without that experience I might not have started talking to Joe. But why not take all those connections and use them? Why not bring the feds a little closer together in a show of solidarity to the game? I as much as anyone am fiercely protective of GCW's independence and am by no means suggesting we start merging feds, but we're all friends working in three different places to accomplish the same goal. Why not use that?

This project that I've been writing about isn't meant to reinvent the wheel. It's simply meant to construct a modest table around which each fed can sit. What this creates is an unprecedented environment of cooperation, where you literally never know who from FUSE might show up on a PRIME event, or where Steven Caldera, lord and master of GCW, has to keep looking over his shoulder because he never knows when PRIME's Lindsay Troy might show up again. Those connections make for a fresh product, a really exciting and new environment, and most importantly, plant seeds for a brighter future, rather than one in which we all work in isolation until we slowly fade away.

I certainly hope this clarifies some things. This blog simply hasn't been around long enough for me to explain it all yet, and frankly this whole thing is still merely in the "let's bounce ideas around" phase. There's much to be done yet, so my goal for this blog is fairly modest: to spark debate and conversation, and to signal that progress is being made and the game is not going to remain stagnant. In that way, I think we've already been successful.

A Whole New World

Just call Dean and I Lewis and Clark.

And I guess that would make Ryan our Sacajawea.

I've been talking to a lot of people from around this hobby for the last several months about what they want to get out of this game. We're in a transitional period, without a doubt. PTC is still alive and well but in a different form, and there's a void left in the game. There isn't a whole lot of new blood flowing in, and though the remaining feds are still doing very well, on some level the game has stagnated.

So we want to blaze a new trail, create a whole new world. What follows is a list of plans for the future of this community. A lot of these are my ideas, many were thought up by Ryan, Dean and others. So while it may appear that I'm trying to take credit for all this, bear in mind that's I've prefaced it all by giving credit where credit is due.

I am not posting this is, so much, in hopes of garnering support just yet (though I do hope this gets people excited). Really, the main purpose is to start a wider dialogue and find out what people want to see out of such a project, so that when we finally get this thing rolling we can meet everyone's expectations. This is a rather bold and ambitious plan, but this game needs something bold and ambitious.

THE WEBSITE
-Obviously, something that was missing from PTC for quite some time was a website. Sure, PTC had a website, but it sat unused for a very long time, and most of us never bothered to stop by. But rather than just aiming to build a website, one first has to understand why the previous one failed, and what needs to be done to ensure the new one is worth visiting.

Basically, the site lacked features. Structurally our game has advanced with our growing knowledge of how to make full use of the power of the internet, but the old PTC website didn't tout any of those features. If you wanted to post your fed's news you had to manually drop in and make a new post, which, simple as it sounds, wasn't worth the effort. Any information you could get on that website was more easily found on the forums. Overall, the website simply didn't offer anything new.

What we want to do is create a central hub where content from FUSE, GCW and PRIME will be readily available. The goal for this blog, and this project as a whole, is to spawn a greater sense of community between those three feds, and create a new world where those three are in direct competition. But to create such an environment, it becomes important to give members of the community a place where they can readily view and absorb a wealth of information about all three feds with a minimum of effort.

Want to know what's going on in PRIME right now? Tough to do unless you dive in and read an entire show, something that isn't necessarily appealing to the casual eye. Heard about that Jay Terror guy in GCW but can't really find anything about him? Tough to track it down unless you're familiar with how GCW works. What the new website for the three feds would allow for is the merging of all that information in one streamlined website, so that if you wanted to know what's going on in PRIME, all you'd have to do is go to that site and it would be right there in front of you.

Now, obviously, this is all fairly vague and not necessarily revolutionary. But with the powerful new scripts we have running behind the scenes of our feds (except FUSE, which is in the dark ages!), we can eliminate a lot of the effort needed to maintain and operate such a site. What Ross's orgasm-inspiring backstage script allows one to do on the fed level is eliminate the time it takes to perform menial tasks like assembling shows, editing rosters and other such jobs, freeing up that time to simply create content. Now it's time to take that same principle to the interfed level.

By taking full advantage of that script and others we can and will develop, we can integrate information from all three feds with a minimum of effort. Post a news story on GCW, and it'll automatically be posted at the interfed site. Post a column at PRIME and it'll appear on the interfed. Knowing this, it is our hope that people will be inspired to write for a larger audience and help explain the goings-on of their fed when posting news, because they will know their post will be seen by a much wider part of the community.

Also, by integrating our individual fed-level backstage capabilities into this website, a member will have ready access to submit content to the interfed site. By eliminating the extra steps it takes to contribute, people will find it much easier to keep the site flowing with content.

Obviously, any website of this sort will rely on user participation to thrive. But our plans go beyond merely posting news and columns.

To get that participation, a website must inspire the traffic needed. That's where the innovative new features are coming along. Obviously these plans are far from final (and if you want to make a suggestion, this is the place to do it!), but some of the things we're coming up with are pretty exciting.

My own personal vision for this new interfed website relates to what you might find at ESPN.com. Pete recently wrote a good blog about how wrestler rankings don't work, because there's simply no objective, universal formula for fairly calculating such a thing. But people love rankings and stats, so what to do? Well, alter your approach. This website would feature no "official" rankings, no "official" standings, no "official" show ratings. They will be presented for what they are: the sole opinion of the person providing them. ESPN.com does NFL Power Rankings every week, and they're very popular (it's the highlight of my Tuesday afternoons). But just because they rate the Cowboys above the Packers doesn't necessarily make them the better team (even though they are). It's simply the opinion of the so-called "experts" who make the things up. They're fun, but in the end they're meaningless.

So the new interfed site will present to you, the visitor, a wealth of opinion. In all likelihood I would, at that point, abandon this blog and instead contribute regular columns to an interfed site. And there's no doubt I'll have a GCW bias, and I won't apologize for it. Sure, I'm likely to rank Lia Ambrosi above Jason Snow. But my opinion won't be the official interfed rankings, it'll merely be my opinion.

Now, while opinion in and of itself might not sound all that great, it's actually what everyone is looking for. In other words, it's feedback. A big reason I think PTC events are so popular is because people love being judged and having their work reviewed, something you don't often get from your home fed. Well, this new interfed site would not only boast a wealth of opinion and feedback, but we propose to offer more direct and simple ways of getting feedback on your work.

The interfed site would feature the writing and the storylines of each fed. Ideally, in addition to consolidating the news and columns of each fed, the roleplays would be featured as well. If a PRIME member roleplays, it'll appear on the interfed site, but it will do so in a new form.

A roleplay appearing on the interfed site will also present a number of new features; the option to leave a comment, and the option to rate the roleplay on a ten-star basis. This is a very quick and easy way to leave a person feedback; when the new Wade Elliot roleplay gets posted at PRIME, you'll be able to see it at the one-stop interfed site. Then you can quickly look it over and, if you think it was good but not great, drop him a rating of seven stars. This presents a unique opportunity to get feedback not only from the members of your own fed, but from the members of the entire community. Roleplaying for all three feds suddenly becomes less a thankless task, as every post becomes a chance to find out that people are, in fact, reading your work. Even if the feedback isn't altogether positive, it confirms that people saw it, and in the end isn't that worth it?

Ryan also has some unique ideas for rating shows in a similar manner. While I'm against ever trying to produce a head to head ratings score to rank the feds, the ability to read each fed's shows and provide similar feedback presents a great opportunity to, once again, find out that your hard work has an audience.

Clearly these ideas are still in the early speculation stage, and development has not yet begun. There is still much to accomplish. But I hope this gives everyone a little preview into what is being contemplated right now. Exciting new things are on the horizon, so please continue to return to this blog. Pete's PTC Blog will be your place for PTC news, but there is a new entity being conceived, and this will be the place to learn about it.

Taxicab Confessions, Sans Taxi

I would argue that I've always been one of the most ambitious people in this game. Not just because I've always wanted to get GCW to the point of being universally heralded at the best fed there is (still my primary goal), but I'll readily admit to wanting to retire knowing that I've left a legacy behind.

My retirement is on the horizon. I've got no good read on how fast that horizon is approaching, but there is definitely a correlation between retirement and college graduation. When I first started this game I had a major advantage over the rest of the e-fedding world because not only was I a high school kid with nothing better to do, I never went to school, meaning I had an extra eight hours a day to work on the game.

Consequently, GCW grew really quickly because I was probably the most vigilant fedhead around. Literally from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep I was working on GCW, better than fourteen hours a day. Sad and pathetic, sure, but it certainly accelerated my progress as an e-fedder.

But it did more than just that. It honed my writing skills better than any day in school could have. Though the story obviously goes much deeper, it suffices to say that I learned more about writing from e-wrestling than I ever did from school. Having to set an example for a 30-wrestler roster, competing against the best and my unquestionable drive to be tops at everything I do has certainly contributed to my current academic success. Without modesty I can say that I've received several college papers back exalting my work as the best in the class.

And I owe it all to you people.

My ambition in my early years allowed me to develop into a very good writer, and I suspect you could find many people in this game who would share a similar sentiment. And this is not merely an individual growth, but growth as a group as well. Compared to when GCW first started to rise and I was exposed to the full scope of the game, the overall talent in this game has vastly expanded. There were very good writers back then, too, but the last six or seven years of competition has really expanded the skill set of our community.

My ambition in my later years is now aimed in an entirely different direction. Granted, this blog is and will continue to be directed largely at creating a tighter community among the former PTC feds, but there's a larger purpose in all of this.

As I've had sustained success as an English major at Ohio State, routinely beating the competition in the classroom like I used to do in GTT, I realized just how much of this game translates to the real world. Now, I'm fiercely protective of the barrier between my e-life and my real life. My girlfriend knows nothing of my involvement in this game, and in fact the only friend of mine that does know was once involved in it himself. I'm certainly not taking a dig at anyone that openly brags about the game, just commenting that I choose to keep my participation in e-wrestling a quiet secret.

However, the skills I've picked up along the way, skills obtained from observing and competing against my fellow e-fedders, have absolutely paid dividends in my life. Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't have turned out to be a pretty good writer, because natural talent certainly has something to do with it (stop me if I'm boasting). However, throughout the course of GCW's lifetime I've seen bad writers turn into passable writers (Mike Hardy), average writers turn into good writers (Octavian), and good writers turn into phenomenal writers (Rich Rollins). Competition hones your skills in a way that regular writing simply can't. Writing a short story on your computer and then leaving it is certainly good practice (and is something I do a lot of), but there's no substitute for being thrown into a high-profile match against amazing writers like Jeff, Andy and, to a lesser extent, Ryan and knowing you have to perform in front of a big audience that will all be reading and scrutinizing your work.

And in that way, e-wrestling gives us skills to use later in life. Because now, in the classroom, I'm constantly in competition with my peers for recognition, and I'm able to stand out above the rest because I know how to compete. When I graduate and seek a writing job, I'll know how to zone in and do my best when the pressure is on, because I've already had to meet deadlines, consider my audience, craft cohesive stories and work with others.

So that's my new ambition. I want to help this community continue to grow as writers, just as I hope to continue to grow myself. As long as I'm still in school, still learning, this game will continue to be the greatest resource for learning I have. I can say from experience that our generation is fairly mediocre at writing. I'm in a 500-level (highest for undergrad) course on the Victorian novel, and we had to spend half the day yesterday discussing the basic concepts of how to write a paper. You'd think people would know how to organize their thoughts and create well-crafted text, but they don't. A large portion of them don't even know the full basics of sentence structure and punctuation.

And in this community we can leap above all that. We e-wrestlers have aged and we have real-world considerations, but that makes this game more important, not less. Eventually we'll all outgrow this silliness of pretending to be wrestlers (or, in my case, billionaire megalomaniacs). But when we do, we'll go out into the real world with real skills that our generation desperately lacks.

E-wrestlers are going to take over the world, I tell you. When I run for President in 2028, I'll be calling all of you to fill out my cabinet.

Don't Forget About Me!

Holzerman recently posted a very good note on shortforming, and Pete responded on the PTC blog. Hey, I'm not about to be outdone when this is clearly the superior blog, so I'll post my thoughts. I'd encourage everyone to read the other two posts first, as this is a direct response.

Holzerman's post: Here
Pete's post: Here

If you're too damn lazy to read the others, here are the main points: There's always been some controversy surrounding whether or not to fully write out your matches or just "shortform" them. Holzerman used PRIME as an example and discussed how best to form a show.

PRIME is a great example because their shows are of a very high quality, but at the same time has some weaknesses inherent to their style. Now, I've never written for PRIME and I've never really been intimately tied to their community, so I can't say this for sure, but the impression I've been getting is that they very much pride themselves on quantity as much as quality. That isn't to suggest that PRIME members think length is somehow vital to success, but simply that they view their long, detailed results as a symbol of the great effort they go through to produce high quality stuff.

But there are two problems here. One, in a lot of feds these days, the number of matchwriters is shriveling. The other is that in feds like PRIME, they tend to go overboard and end up with shows so long that they cease to become manageable. While I absolutely intend to get up to speed on all current storylines in PRIME, I must confess that looking at a PRIME show is very intimidating based on the sheer volume it presents.

So do you summarize or shortform your matches to cut down on length, do you somehow cut down on segments, or is there another solution? Holzerman insisted that everyone should be able to do the segs they want, whereas Pete suggested some sort of seg management. But Holzerman brought up a good point about PRIME, that some of their segs would work just as well as roleplays.

And there's the point I made in GCW a few months ago. We had this debate in GCW and we resolved it, and I feel we've struck a great balance.

We don't shortform our matches, we write them out. We're fortunate enough to have a good supply of great, hard working matchwriters that turn up every week to contribute. But what every matchwriter needs to realize is that they aren't writing a roleplay or a segment. Granted, they're still telling a story, but it's not about the matchwriter. The matchwriter should be invisible. Instead, the match itself should be written according to the people involved in it. If it's an opening match featuring two new wrestlers, you can afford to keep it short and sweet. If it's a weekly main event, a few extra pages are good. But the point is this: for weekly events, matches serve the same purpose that segments do, they progress a story or a character. A weekly match should be there to tell that story and then end, no frills required. By just focusing on telling the story and omitting all the usual filler, you end up with a much more manageable match both for the writers and the readers, and the show shortens.

How about segments, then? Well, first of all, GCW doesn't have a solid seg cap, but I do have a policy. Nobody should really be in more than three segs per show, unless it's part of a great storyline. It is possible to end up writing too much, thereby wearing out your welcome and making your final segs tedious. So while I prefer to take it on a case-by-case basis, nobody should saturate the show with their character.

Furthermore, there's also a policy on content. I have a definite aversion to segs that end up being little more than two characters standing motionless in a room and having a conversation. Obviously these segs have their place, but they should serve a clear purpose. Though it met with some resistance, I think GCW has successfully cut down on the "character development" seg. These segs typically only pushed one or two characters and did not involve a larger storyline. And that is precisely what roleplays are for, to progress the character. When writing anything for a show you should consider your audience, and remember that a wrestler's first goal is to ENTERTAIN the crowd. If your seg is boring or simply not relevant to the pace of the show, make it a roleplay.

Every member of every fed has the right to tell the story they want, but that's why I run a roleplay fed. That gives everyone the opportunity to tell their individual story. But shows are about seeing those individual characters, taking those individual stories, and watching them interact. Any seg that doesn't entertain, serve a purpose, or otherwise contribute to the group effort isn't necessary. Now, I don't want to give the impression that I cut any seg I don't immediately get, because I don't. But I have made it clear that people should consider their audience and be completely focused on furthering some storyline with every card appearance, and they have responded.

The result of all this has been very positive. I feel GCW shows are a good length, feature a large variety of characters in entertaining and engaging situations, and it's not hard to follow the whole event and read through it. Our matches may not be epically long, but they don't need to be. The focus should not be on length or size, but on density. How much information and entertainment can you cram into the smallest possible space? Determine what you need to accomplish for an event, and then calculate the smallest size that can accommodate it. Anything more than that makes it hard to read.

Lowering expectations on match writing may sound pretty lame, but it's not. We haven't lowered our expectations in terms of quality. But the sense that every match should include the basics (introductory moves, rest holds, big momentum shifts, etc) is wrong. A weekly match just needs to do its job and move on, because even if you do take the time to write that filler people will just skim it anyway. Write the essential parts in the best way you can and be done. That makes life so much easier on the writers and makes your show a much denser and more enjoyable read.

So in that way I agree with Pete; don't shortform your matches, because the people involved deserve to have their story told and their part in the show fulfilled. But you don't need to show Wrestler X displaying his knowledge of wrestling's most basic moves and holds. I don't need to see Vivica J. Valentine perform a belly to back suplex just to remind me she knows how to do it. Tell the story, but save the detailed, thorough and realistic wrestling matches for the major events where the wrestling is all that matters.

Devil's Night/Great American Nightmare Preview

You've all heard about it by now. On November 4th, Global Championship Wrestling and PRIME will be co-hosting, for the first time ever, two Pay-Per-View events under one roof. This year, GCW's Devil's Night and PRIME's Great American Nightmare will be held on the same night in the same building, and at times, in the same ring.

But so far very few details have been released. Well, that changes now. Here is some vital information on both the kayfabe events lined up, as well as some of the behind-the-scenes, making-of goodies.

Will there be interfed matchups?
-Of course! However, this is not a purely interfed event, like you might find at PTC. PTC remains our central hub for purely interfed competition, but this show is meant to not only breed hostilities between the feds, but also to display what each fed is doing. Therefore, you'll be getting a few interpromotional bouts in addition to each fed's regularly scheduled lineup. This means you can see the storylines of GCW and PRIME, and also get some never-before-seen matchups, all in one neat and tidy PPV package.

Where will the show be posted?
-On November 4th, you'll be able to find the show on both the GCW and PRIME websites. Just view the one you think is prettier (not that that's a tough decision...).

Who is organizing the thing?
-This event is being run in complete cooperation between GCW and PRIME. I'll greedily take credit for the initial idea, but so far everything's been done together between myself and Matt and Lindz over at PRIME.

All right, then, what interfed matches are we getting?
-Rumored matches include Vivica J. Valentine vs. Tony "The Grin" Gamble, Peter Vetra vs. Hoyt Williams, Kimbusa vs. The Illustrious Face Eater, and more. Watch GCW's WorldWide this weekend and PRIME's Revolution next week to see all the buildup and find out what matches get confirmed.

What does the future hold for these types of events?
-I'm hoping that CEi here becomes a hub for these events. With the launching of the Official PTC Blog, there's now a great stop, hosted by Pete, to get information on PTC Interfed events. CEi will therefore seek its niche in organizing and examining events held directly between the conglomerate of GCW, FUSE and PRIME. Eventually the hope will be to host three-way events in a gathering of all three feds, but it's best to start small and figure out how these things should function. So far work between GCW and PRIME has been a wild success, and I have reason to believe that this show will live up to the hype. We've spawned new relationships across fed boundaries because of this event, and it's time to incorporate FUSE. A GCW/FUSE or PRIME/FUSE event should be forthcoming, perhaps before the end of the year. Right now we've got our first triple-hosted event in discussion, but we're still a little ways away from making that a reality. Look for another cross-promotional event coming up in the next couple months, and a GCW/FUSE/PRIME event coming to you in the first quarter of '08.

Why not go all-out and host a fed vs. fed supercard?
-For a number of reasons. Firstly, PTC is still the place to see members of each fed in direct competition and CEi supports that. Secondly, the concept for this show isn't centered around seeing those fed vs. fed matches, though that's certainly a big part. The concept is to create the opportunity for otherwise impossible rivalries, yes, but at the same time breed familiarity between the members of each fed. Before last month I can honestly say I'd only spoken to one or two PRIME members, and I almost never read their shows. Now I'm talking to a large portion of their roster on a regular basis and I've got a good grip on what storylines they are running. Having two shows combined into one and posting PRIME material on the GCW site (and vice versa) will provide everyone with a quick way to get familiar with their rivals. The result will be a better, closer working environment for, eventually, all three feds. With the e-wrestling community as a whole in decline, creating a tightly knit community amongst ourselves provides us with insurance for the future, expands our individual horizons and, hopefully, will strengthen the community as a whole to lengthen its life expectancy, which is rapidly waning.

I'll be happy to answer more questions is anyone has them. Just leave them in the comment box. I'm very, very excited for this event. I can't reveal more about the individual cards for a few more days, as there is still a lot to do. But I can say that I am optimistic for the success of this event and those to come, and I'm also optimistic about GCW's chances of beating the high holy hell out of every PRIME wrestler that dares to step into the ring with us.

A Brief Review

Recently I was surprised to find that Ben Halkum (I assume) had registered an account on the GCW forums to inform us that he'd reviewed GCW over at EWzine.com. I'd glanced at the site before, but this was the first time I'd ever actually looked into it deeply.

Now, I know there's some controversy surrounding the site, and I'll readily confess that I don't know the whole story... and what I do know isn't really relevant. But the site looks like a good concept; the e-wrestling world could use a few more resource sites.

I'd like to express my thanks to Halkum for the great review (I'd link you to it, but... I can't) and for taking the time to check us out. I think EWzine is a good concept. But, in light of GCW being reviewed by EWzine, I had to do a little review of EWzine myself.

Really, my problem is this: while I was very flattered by the comments, the review itself was so riddled with writing mistakes as to make it difficult to read. Not only was is tough to decipher at times, it really made the whole effort seem amateur. Nothing kills my interest in a site, any site, more than seeing bad writing. There was obviously zero time given to proofreading each entry (the other fed reviews are equally bad), and the vast majority of the errors seemed to be mere typos that could be fixed with a quick readthrough.

This isn't intended to burn Halkum, because I do appreciate the perfect score, and it isn't intended to dissuade anyone from visiting EWzine. But really, I hope those guys will take things a bit more seriously, proofread every word they publish, and make the whole effort look more professional. E-wrestling needs more resource sites, but we have no use for bad ones.

This Means War

Everyone in PRIME and FUSE can fornicate themselves with a rusty piece of metal.

Now, before you get all up in arms, allow me to explain what I mean by that.

What I mean is that you should all find a piece of rusty metal, turn that sumbitch sideways, and--

No, not that.

Let's take a little trip down memory lane. While a portion of the people in the PTC community have been late to the scene, I'd wager that the vast majority of us have been around since wrestling's glory days. That's both "real" wrestling and e-wrestling; the glory days of both coincide, and it's no coincidence.

We can all go back and look at old wrestling clips from the mid to late nineties with fondness, and even the early part of this century didn't totally suck. But I don't think it's much of a stretch to assume that the PTC community, and wrestling fans in general, almost universally hate the current wrestling product on television. WWE's talent is weak and their storylines either bad or a rehash of something bad they did ten years ago. TNA is run by WCW washouts who clearly have no idea what they're doing, and aside from a few pretty bright spots their talent is a lot of WWE retirees.

But it wasn't always this dire. And if you're looking for one moment when the transition began, when wrestling's decline was in full force, it was the day Vince McMahon was seen on WCW television on the last broadcast of Nitro, telling the wrestling fans he'd bought his competition and now intended to bring an unceremonious end to wrestling's glory years with the biggest botched opportunity since Tara Reid's boob job.

So what changed? In a word, competition. What made WCW and WWF so great back in the day was that competition, that ferocious war for ratings that drove both companies to excellence. Most of us that were watching back then can claim allegiance to one company or the other; myself, I considered myself a WWF fan first and was happy to see them win the wars. Despite that, I still watched Nitro every Monday night, too, and I loved the NWO storyline, I loved heel Chris Jericho, stealer of gimmicks, and I loved their ridiculously populated main event scene. Every week the writing wasn't just meant to give you a decent show, it was intended to beat the pants off that other show. When the WWF finally pulled ahead in the ratings, WCW fired back by giving away Goldberg vs. Hogan on free television, which was a dumb business move but was a giant gift for wrestling fans.

The point is, the heavyweight battle of WCW vs. WWF was good for us. There may have been a lot of genuine animosity there, but it was good for us. Knowing that on any given week both shows would be top notch because even the slightest slipup would mean giving away ratings points was what made it the golden age of wrestling. In modern times, WWE writers can throw random crap at the wall no matter how stupid or ridiculous, because fans have no choice but to watch it. If you turned on the WWF back in 1997 and saw Jonathan Coachman chasing around a midget dressed up like a leprachaun who was also Vince McMahon's illegitimate child, would you have tolerated it? No way, you'd click right over to Nitro and watch Chris Jericho read off his list of reasons why he's better than Dean Malenko.

So, how does this explain why I want everyone in FUSE and PRIME to suffer horrible, horrible pain? I think you see where this is heading.

Part of the reason GCW vs. PRIME stands to make PTC a better place is because of the animosity it will breed. Not genuine, "I really hate that Lindz chick" sorts of animosity, but "I really hate that Lindsay Troy and I want to make her suffer" animosity. For the last couple of weeks, the PRIME logo has adorned GCW's banner, and the GCW logo complete with Caldera's handsome face has been atop PRIME's website. Why? To make the other team hate us.

And this is good. Behind the scenes it has allowed us to get to know the other side a bit better; I know that I've never spoken to a larger number of people in the game before. I've been in close contact now with a good portion of the PRIME roster, and even those I don't talk to I know how to get hold of. But I hope to breed a competitive edge, something that makes every member of every fed remember as they write for their show each week that they need to make it the best they possibly can, because you're competing with other feds that are damn sure going to be doing the same.

That competitive edge is what made wrestling so great in the late 90s, and it's what will make e-wrestling so great now in the mid 00s. But in that respect, we have one major bonus. We know each other and we can work together to take advantage of that competition and give the people what the want to see.

If someone had offered you the chance to see a WCW vs. WWF card back in 1997, wouldn't you have paid any amount of money to see that show? I sure as hell would have. But it couldn't happen, it was impossible (well, it could have happened when Vince bought the place, but I won't delve into that quagmire).

But nothing is impossible for us. At the same time that we're breeding this kayfabe contempt, we're breeding new connections with the handlers and leaders of each fed. I'd never spoken to Mattchu before the idea of this event came about, and because of it I now have a working relationship with the fedhead of PRIME. I talked to Lindz fairly often before, but now (in part, too, due to PTC competition) I speak to Joe, Nate, Al, Matt, Craig and others. The result? You're going to see matches like Tony Gamble vs. Vivica J. Valentine at Devil's Night/Great American Nightmare, and that's like getting to see The Rock vs. Goldberg when they were both still on their way up.

With respect to PTC, there isn't a lot the community can do to aid this. This is a task best left to the individuals participating in the "Big Three" of FUSE, GCW and PRIME. PTC, as presently constituted, is the perfect environment for interfed competition of a different color; Death Row Incorporated, GTT and such. But to create the sort of competition that we can feed off of directly, it should remain exclusive to the feds themselves.

Therefore, in an effort to differentiate this blog from the PTC community, I hope to shift focus a bit and dedicate my coverage to creating, maintaining and broadcasting that competition. I'll certainly continue to cover PTC events and the community itself, but my main objective will be to help forge and maintain the connections that will be vital to creating an environment like the one wrestling enjoyed in the 90s.

GCW vs. PRIME is just the first step. It will blaze a trail, and in doing so the leadership on both sides will be able to find out what works, what doesn't, and what to look for in future interfed events. From there we can get far more aggressive with our pursuit of competitional-excellence, and it is my hope to be a leader in that quest.

What we are entering is an era in which the "interfed" is obsolete. And yet we must pause to appreciate the long history of PTC and the role it played in getting us to this point. But consider for a moment the history of e-wrestling and the interfed. Back when the entire literate wrestling fanbase (at best only a third of the whole) was engaged in wrestling, the interfed was the best way to keep it all straight, and feds had to try their hardest every week because, for a member, the alternatives were plentiful. You had to go to PTC or WO to even find great feds, and even then there were great feds outside the community.

But now e-wrestling is reduced and operating on a much smaller scale. That larger structure is no longer necessary. If e-wrestling was a sprawling metropolis at the start of this century, needing one governor to stand up and lead the way through the masses, the game now is a small town where everyone knows everyone's name.

PTC ceasing operations as an interfed allows this new sort of connection to be made. PTC remains a crucial element to the equation because it allows for interaction on the forums and competition in other forms to break up the monotony (see: DRI). And I think this will become more important, because more and more often I am encountering people who don't even like wrestling any more, but stay in the game because they are writers. And the writing in this condensed version of the game is far and away the best it's ever been, meaning we've got people who can actually consider taking the skills they learned from this game and turning it into an actual career. PTC will be the place where the pure writing can be explored and exalted.

But the actual interfed is now an unspoken, unseen bond formed directly between the Big Three. And as we strengthen this bond and begin to use it, I think you'll see e-wrestling's lifespan extended quite a bit. If PTC allows the community to explore and exhibit its amazing writing skills, this new invisible interfed will allow the community to exhibit their fedding skills.

The result is an environment that promotes excellence at the absolute highest level. PTC will sharpen our writing skills while interfed competition will sharpen our commitment to our feds and our friends within them. So we're about to create for ourselves a world just like the one that made WCW vs. WWF so amazing, only we get to be friends with the members of the other companies... at least, when we're not trying to destroy them.

You love me! You really love me!

This blog has been getting a very positive response, so expect a new entry soon.

But right now all my writing prowess is being poured into GCW's Dangerous Games.

Be sure to head to GCW tomorrow when the show goes up. It'll be a good one with a lot of familiar faces.

The Future of Primetime Central

The following post stands to be a bit touchy, so I feel the need to preface it with a few words about my intent.

This is NOT intended as a slight to the people mentioned below. This is NOT intended to incite, enrage or aggravate. I like PTC, I have great respect for its history, and I have great respect for everyone involved in its operation over the years, from the big guy in charge down to the people who dedicated their time to judging PTC events.

I worry now that there will be no way to artfully avoid the potential pitfalls of writing this criticism. I do not wish to be seen as a malcontent, because I am quite pleased with the status of our game and the things we're able to accomplish in it. So please understand that this is not borne out of anger or resentment. This is merely a plead to all relevant parties to give all of us the chance to maximize our potential for fun.

That said, here comes the criticism:

PTC is not dead.

In fact, PTC is more alive than ever. We have a big interfed event coming up, IG is arguably more active than ever, we have a unified title division that is attracting great talent and interest, we have a concept competition that looks phenomenal, and GTT is going to run as usual. What, precisely, is "dead" about it?

Consider the actual physical and functional changes that have occurred since PTC "closed:"

-The Trash Talk board is now unmoderated.
-The stagnant PTC website is gone.
-Anyone may now recruit from the Free Agent board.

...And that's it. Only superficial changes were made. Now, before I continue on I think you can see the source of my concern. I won't dance around the issue: Ross (Argyle) and Pete (Pete) have been the guys in charge of PTC for some time and therefore this criticism of PTC will largely be viewed as a criticism of them.

Pete and I have worked closely together before. Pete was in GCW and that's how he got involved in PTC in the first place. He was my right-hand-man for some of our best times in 2002, and he actually ran GCW for me in the summer of 2006. I know Pete fairly well.

Ross is not a guy I know as well, though in what comparatively little interaction we've had I've been able to learn enough to know I like the guy. In fact, I like both guys. I'm excited to see Pete back out and handling again, even if Jason O'Neil has turned tail and run to FUSE.

While my criticisms of the decisions made regarding PTC's future may appear to be targeted at these guys, that's not the case. Because I feel that PTC should not be identified by its leaders alone, but by everyone active in the community. So in that respect, this criticism is aimed at myself every bit as much as it is at Ross and Pete.

Now that I've hedged a bit I can return to the point. And the point is this: PTC as it exists today is a fraud. Because it's not dead, it's absolutely thriving. The only change is that it is no longer a members-only club, and in that respect the decision to "kill" PTC was the best decision possible. The e-wrestling community at large is simply not big enough to exclude anyone. Back in 2002-3 when the game was thriving, e-wrestling had to organize itself into this sort of hierarchical structure to sort it all out. There were thousands of people in the game and visiting the communities, and the only way to make sense of it all was to put everyone in their place.

But that's not the case any more. For the most part the casual obnoxious teenage fanboy is gone, or at least stashed away quietly in the wealth of Geocities feds still running. The remaining members of the e-wrestling community are largely holdovers from the past era, and therefore there's no reason to turn anyone away.

I think the current status of PTC is a good thing, I just think it's got an unfortunate label. PTC should not be called "dead." The PTC splash page is a bit more diplomatic: PTC has "ceased trading." But why even go that far? PTC hasn't ceased trading anything. PTC is just trading on a broader scale.

The doors are open and that's a good thing. Now that the community has been restructured the way it has the rest of us have a chance to make things happen. It's happened already: Andy is very capably running the Infinite Gauntlet, my namesake is running the Unified Title division, and this allows Pete and Ross to run spot events when they have the time (see: Death Row Inc., GTT).

But what this really allows us to do is create a new reality for ourselves. The attitude that PTC is "dead" is dead wrong. PTC is dead in the same way Brittany Spears is dead. Sure, she may have lost her mind and put on some weight, but if she could just tighten up that flabby ass and find the energy again, we'd all be right back to lusting over her.

So here's the self-serving part of the column: I feel we're on the right track with this GCW vs. PRIME event. There are no hangups, no reasons why we can't just decide for ourselves to do this and do it. We decided to unite for one evening to see what happens, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Furthermore, the interest garnered from the event has led a large number of PRIME and even FUSE people to request to show up at Dangerous Games this weekend (you'll have to visit GCW on Saturday to see who). I really hope this leads to greater interaction among the PTC feds.

What needs to change is our own view of what PTC is. PTC is what we choose to make it now. My criticism of Ross and Pete here is that they chose to word the future of PTC poorly, but in reality what they've done is given us the chance to, as a community, create something altogether new. What I hope occurs here is to see PTC become a world very much like the one in which WWF and WCW operated in the late nineties. We're in competition with one another, we're the big promotions of the world, but from time to time we mix things up for the sake of seeing the matches we've always dreamed of seeing.

With PTC more a loose confederation of feds it's my hope that we use PTC itself to host events like Death Row and GTT, but that we use the feds themselves to host interfed events. GCW and PRIME are meeting under the same roof, each hosting its own event, but allowing the rosters to interact. If this is successful, and I feel it will be, I hope it provides the blueprint for the future of PTC. This will allow us to interact like never before as a community, get to know each others' feds much more intimately, and furthermore the increased cooperation stimulates the health of the feds; what's good for PRIME is good for GCW, because the better off both feds are, the bigger and better our joint show becomes.

So I hope this alters the perceptions of what PTC is right now. PTC should be the hub at which the PTC feds meet, but it's the PTC feds themselves that become the major players. We can accomplish whatever we want. PTC is NOT dead. Long live PTC.

Fair and Balanced

Most people don't remember this, but for a time in 2003 I was an avid blogger. I'd taken some menial job as a contributor to an e-fedding blog; I had nothing better to do at the time, as GCW was gone and I could never muster the energy for a real solid run in someone else's fed.

I made a few posts that were promptly forgotten and I retired from blogging for quite some time.

For a while now I've been meaning to craft a website for Caldera Enterprises, Incorporated. But it was Tom Holzerman whose blog inspired me to simply bring CEi here and provide myself an outlet for my many rantings and ravings. Anyone who tuned in to PTC Radio last week was treated to an hour-long GCW history lesson courtesy of yours truly, and those lucky few are now aware of just how much I have to say.

That said, I promise never to be so long-winded again.

One might ask why the world needs another e-fed blog, and in truth it doesn't. Holzerman does an excellent job with his blog and, even more impressively, spans the gap between communities in an act of open mindedness that I'm not currently capable of. One could argue that PTC could use some more coverage, but frankly I think Holzerman does just fine in giving it its due.

Caldera Enterprises, therefore, stands to be far more self-serving. Obviously my loyalties, first and foremost and before all others, lie with Global Championship Wrestling. CEi, in truth, started as a way to merely boost the status of the Steven Caldera character. But CEi stands to expand a bit (Outlaw Pro is opening soon under the CEi banner), and as my little empire grows, so then should my voice.

I cannot say with any certainty how much interest there will be in my little soapbox. I will say that, with the GCW vs. PRIME event now fast rising on the horizon, one of my personal goals is to help bring the PTC feds closer together and get to know one another a bit better. So this won't just be a GCW blog (though you won't be able to visit here without getting a faceful of GCW news). I hope this will cover all of PTC.

I'll readily admit that I'll be just as fair and balanced as Fox News-- that is to say, not at all. Obviously I think GCW is the end-all-be-all of e-wrestling. This site will not necessarily adhere to our world's kayfabe, but there is going to be a bit of the Steven Caldera character in these posts. If you need an easier way of understanding, just consider this to be Steven Caldera, out of character.

However, I don't feel that this makes my points any less valid. Once you cut through the waves of GCW propaganda, I think you'll find that I know what I'm talking about. I've been in this game for seven years and have served every role imaginable. I have been a handler, a fedhead, a staff member, a contributing editor, and even the head of Primetime Central (for about two weeks).

I hope this site will help to serve as a place where I can help garner interest in our rising interfed activities and create a new world for this game. I feel that e-wrestling as a whole has grown too small for the feds to remain fractured and separate. In order to maximize our potential during wrestling's lean years it becomes important for us to do our best to interact like never before. By allowing the remaining feds to compete directly with one another we open up new interactions that would not otherwise have been possible, and we extend the shelf-life of this game even in its latter years.

There's much more to come from Caldera Enterprises, Incorporated. I hope you'll all stick around to watch.