Review of DN/GAN

A topic of great discussion now has greater fuel, and the move to a new beginning has taken its first step. Devil's Night/Great American Nightmare, the first interpromotional card of its kind, is on the air, and already it's causing some controversy.

You can read the controversy here.

Now again, I respect Pete and his opinion, but expect this post to be far less civil. Because I feel that a lot of the feedback coming from this event is wildly off base, because it's missing the point of what we were trying to accomplish with it. Did it have its shortcomings? Yes, and some were rather glaring. But in the end you can only gauge the success of a project based on your expectations going in, and from that perspective I view this event as a tremendous success.

As I posted the show late last night and have been in class since, I haven't had a chance to read through the entire show, so this won't be a segment by segment analysis. However, in assembling the show I did get a chance to look most of it over, and I've managed to get a good read on how it came out.

Now, a big criticism thus far (from multiple sources) is that the efforts of the two feds did not connect very well, making the whole event rather disjointed. My response is: what did you expect? Did you expect two feds of relative strangers, who have different styles and have never worked together before, to suddenly mesh together and create a totally fluid experience? I certainly did not, and I don't think the people involved did, either. The purpose of this event was A) to explore the logistics of creating such a show, and B) to bring people together for a fling at something totally new. This show was intended to blaze new ground and show the e-wrestling world that there's a reason to stay tuned, because the game is not sitting idle.

I was pleased with the five interfed matches that we booked and executed, but their true effect took place on a level an outside cannot fully appreciate. The purpose of this show, again, was to bring people together, and simply by virtue of having those matches we succeeded. I continued to work with Joe, Adam and Al got together, Andy and Kris worked a match, JJ and Darryl paired up, and John and Billy put on a great show. Granted, some of the actual matches didn't come out in perfect form. But how could they have? To expect greatness out of something that's never been done before is completely unfair.

Perfection and greatness is precisely what we're striving for. And I've got no doubt we'll get there eventually. But anyone who opened that show assuming that's what they were going to get, well, you deserve to be let down because you were fooling yourself.

I'm not writing this in defense of mediocrity, but rather in defense of the dozens of people who worked to make this show possible, and worked very hard. I agree that it was disjointed and did not have a great overall flow. But that is to be expected when throwing together two unique groups of people with minimal supervision and ask them to write a show. In that respect the people who should shoulder the blame most are myself and Lindz and Matt of PRIME for not fine-tuning things more. The honest truth is that, with another three days, we could have done a lot to tinker with the show and smooth out the wrinkles. But we have schedules to keep, and besides, the people involved had a good time doing it.

And in the end, isn't that the big picture truth? For the vast majority of people in GCW and PRIME, this show was downright fun, and I know that working with the PRIME roster was one of the most enjoyable and unique experiences of my career. You don't like our show? Well, that's fine, because we enjoyed making it.

But I digress.

Let's analyze the first goal, figuring out how to structurally create such a thing. This entails the very basics of the event, including how to get everything into two backstage scripts, how to sort everything out and combine two feds' shows into one. This is not something that has precedent, not something that we can turn to a wise old man and ask for guidance on. And frankly, the sheer chaos that emerges from having to concoct such a system on the fly caused some issues. In retrospect, we probably should have hammered out the details and gone over them with the rosters weeks in advance. But now we've learned.

The second goal was bringing people together, and in large part we did. There were some people on both sides who still disliked the very concept of working an interpromotional show, but the entire event was structured such that anyone who didn't want to participate in the interfed portion didn't have to. Some criticized the decision to only have a handful of interfed matches, but internally this allowed us to include everyone and leave the option there for people who wanted to cross borders. And quite a few people answered the call. What you can't tell judging from this show is that people who weren't necessarily in competition came out of their own little niches to speak to others, and we succeeded in building a bridge that did not exist before. The contrast in styles made things look ugly and there were a lot of glaring omissions, but now we know that we need at least a day after everything's in to read through and smooth it out and add the necessary content. But now we've learned.

To be quite honest, the actual, physical show itself is only a small portion of this entire project. There are so many more intangible aspects to this event that can't be seen from reading it, and only time will reveal them to the rest of the community.

Again, the criticisms of the show itself are well deserved. The confusion inherent to such a new venture caused two shows that likely would have been great independently to end up less than stellar. It was disjointed and much of what one would expect from such an event was missing, and in that respect the event itself certainly fails to live up to one's expectations.

But when you consider all the steps that went into making this show a reality, what happened at DN/GAN was really very impressive to me. You had two rosters of twenty-something people coming together, taking initiative and working together for the first time. Is that in itself not worthy of applause?

While I've lamented the fact that Lindz, Matt and myself perhaps weren't as hands-on as we should have been, this does exhibit perhaps the greatest triumph of the show. The fact that we didn't NEED to micromanage the whole event, the fact that we didn't NEED to spell things out to everyone is an amazing thing. The fact that both rosters were able to step up and open the lines of communication for themselves, to answer the call and throw themselves into such a project is a great sign for the future. And though there are still some valid criticisms coming from some people internally that wanted things done differently, that's the whole bloody point; we're learning, and GCW and PRIME were fully willing to take the extra time and effort to do something totally unique.

This show marks a great new moment in e-wrestling history, and I'm extremely pleased about that. With regards to our structural and interpromotional goals, Devil's Night/Great American Nightmare was a runaway success. Consider how bad it could have been: members of both feds could have argued their stylistic differences and driven the show into the ground; a majority of both rosters could have ignored the presence of the other altogether, refusing to bridge the gap; the show could have taken weeks to assemble with two feds trying to connect two sets of writers. There are a million ways in which this show could have utterly failed, but none of them happened. The rosters stepped up and have announced to the community that they believe in this project and are willing to do what it takes to make it work. I call that a success.

So yeah, I agree that the show fell far short of its full potential. With the sheer talent in both feds the potential for greatness is high, and I understand someone wanting that from such a show. But the PTC interfed is dead, leaving the feds to fend for themselves, and what this represents is a world in which an interfed is not needed to create unity between feds. GCW and PRIME, for one night, came together as one with hardly any pushing needed.

What's more, we've all learned some great lessons from this experience. We know now how to improve for next time, and the next show will be better. Will the next one be perfect? I certainly don't expect it to be. But it will be better, because we can take the wealth of knowledge earned from having blazed this trail and apply it to the future. The unknowns were many and the potential for failure was great, but everything came together and worked. What the show lacks in quality it more than makes up for in sheer gumption.

I understand that a good portion of the community at large might not be able to appreciate the event as it stands, because the true success of this show was on a very personal level. But I would like to personally thank each and every person that wrote even a single word for this event, that opened up their mind to a new experience and stood up and introduced themselves to a new group of people. I am so pleased to have had this experience with PRIME. I am looking forward to having the same experience with FUSE.

Frankly, had this show been perfect right off the bat, I'd have been disappointed, because nothing worth doing should be that easy. If we really want to innovate, if we truly want to push this game forward, that means taking on difficult challenges and taking our lumps as we go. The fact that there is so much more to do, that there is so much more to learn and so much potential for the future tells me that these interfed shows are worth doing, and will provide a great amount of excitement for the future.

So hate the show if you want to, I won't really blame you. But what you simply cannot hate is this show's contribution to the e-wrestling community, because this event was a very good thing.

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.