Konversations from the Klondike #4
Tuesday, 05-Dec-00

Hey all, this should be quite an interesting column, as I have quite a bit to say, being that is has been a month or so since my last edition. I’d apologize for the delay, but seeing as how no other columns have been updated as of late (ahem ahem), I won’t. :o)

To start things off, I want to get right down the nit and gritty of talking about a plethora of DWF news. I’ll get to the random thoughts after that.

For all of you who have noticed, the DWF has been on quite a hot streak lately, which actually is still rolling on since early this summer. We’ve been pulling off shows about every two weeks, and had two shows just this past week alone. Needless to say, I’m very impressed with the improvements we’ve made, and it’s upped the enjoyment factor of the fed for everyone about a million notches.

The first, and probably most noticeable, improvement we’ve been making is our increasing amount of talent. During this past summer we’ve gone from about 4 wrestlers to about 20, and we’ve got a couple of prospects that Louis (Pitfighter) and I are looking into. The latest additions of the XHWF guys are continuing to impress me, and they have positive futures. They’ve even managed to make it up to Oshkosh before me (!), which makes me a little jealous. Oh well, I guess that’s what having a job does to ya. I’m glad for them however, as working with the pF guys should up their enthusiasm quite a bit. There have been some small conflicts with several other of the newer guys when it comes to dedication or what have you, so time will tell how that plays out. Hopefully something will kick em in the ass and show them what they would be missing out on. Then again, the worst case is only that one guy has missed the last two shows, and if anyone knows about conflicting schedules, it’s me. Hopefully he will free up soon, especially if he wants to keep that belt he has yet to defend. (evil laugh)

But despite all of the talent additions, I still can’t be happier about the returns of Louis, and most recently Luke! (DWF early years vet Ultimo Movie Man). I still feel some trepidation talking so much on the subject, as not to offend or hurt the feelings of the Madman, whose departure coincided, but was only minimally affected by Louis’ return. However, Louis’ enthusiasm toward the promotion has been uncanny of late, and I hope he keeps the ideas coming, because they’re damn good ones. Having the Pitfighter back in the ring has opened up unlimited booking possibilities, and his ring/yard-work has been astounding. His latest submission match with Rich (another person who deserves to have praises sung to him) was very well executed by both competitors, and included several very impressive reversals and combinations that (I believe) were performed on the fly. That match has a very good chance of making a last minute addition to the upcoming Matches of the Year tape.

Along with Pitfighter, Louis’ return sparked the comeback of what is quite possible the best gimmick I’ve ever seen in wrestling…Drinky the Drunk Guy!!!!!! You may think I’m kidding, and in a slight way I am, but anyone who has seen Drinky’s antics would be hard pressed to argue with me when they’re rolling on the floor in laughter. Louis brings the character to life, and does it with an amazing amount of originality. With his return, Louis had the idea of bringing back a sober, educated Drinky, (thus the creation of "Captain Christian" Lord Farrington the 3rd of Welshire) and it has paid off brilliantly. I must admit I was originally hoping the gimmick wouldn’t run long, and that soon he would return to his drunken ways, but the Lord Farrington twist has got me sold, and may stick around a little longer than originally planned.

As far as Luke is concerned, the only thing I can really is that when a guy returns and puts on a show that just screams 150% effort, thus leaving everyone else with their jaws hanging open, you know you’ve done something right. Luke came back on kind of a spur of the moment thing, and was thrown into a three way with Louis and Rich. His contribution will be limited, as he is away at college and will only be in town so often, but he will be worked in whenever we can get him. And considering his what I guess you could call part-time status, I don’t think anybody’s expectations of him we’re all that high. But the match Luke put on was easily as impressive as Louis’ first match back, and that alone is very good news. I also like the angle we brought him in on, revealing him as not only Pitfighter Reborn (which personally for me does justice to an angle I never liked in the first place as it was used to poke fun at the Pitfighter character during his absence), but also "Pitfighter 2", an old unfinished angle from the DWF early days.

Now while I’ll try to keep this next part brief, I’d like to address my (Soilent Green’s) recent heel turn. In short, I love it!!!! At first I didn’t think it would be all that fun, but after just one promo as a heel, I now know why people like triple H say they love being booed. The angle with me being the person who attacked Papa Fly was the perfect way to instantly change me from mega-face to mega-heel, and will hopefully allow me and Tim to put on a match that outshines our first meeting. That match wasn’t bad, don’t get me wrong, but I think we’ll both readily admit it could have been better. Also this angle allowed Stardust to finally get a face run, as well as some other surprises that are yet to come, so I won’t spoil them here.

And now that I think of it…Ben, I hope you get back in the ring soon. We have some good opportunities coming up.

The last thing I want to mention concerning DWF news is the efforts I’m trying to make to help John not only with duties he normally undertakes all on his own, but to bring new ideas to the floor. The first project I’m trying to help out on is updating and adding on to the website, and so far it’s going pretty well. I’ve got about the first 3rd of the bio’s updated, and they should be posted shortly. I also will be taking over doing the news page, and I hope to get to that soon, as seeing that it hasn’t been updated since right before the Last Days of Summer tour (no offense John).

Some other additions I’m hoping to do my best to help John out with is getting some more pictures up on the page, other various updates, and making it a little more interactive. By that I’m thinking we should try putting up a guestbook or message board (something of that sort), and I’m gonna see what I can do about getting the page submitted to different search engines, etc., and over all get ourselves some more attention.

In other terms of marketing, we should be finally getting some tapes together to put up for sale. Along with the volumes (approx. 1-4) that will follow the DWF history show by show and angle by angle, we will also be putting together a greatest hits type tape, the 2000 Matches of the Year tapes, and maybe some other random sampler type things. Stay tuned to the page as that comes along. And one on last note on the subject, Louis and I have another form of marketing in mind that for the moment we are keeping a secret, as not even John or Ben know of it at this time, but as soon as we get off our asses and do something about it I’ll let everyone know.

Ok, that about wraps it up for DWF stuff. Ha, I told ya there was a lot going on, didn’t I?

In other random notes, I could go on for quite a while about the state of things in the big 3, and my opinions on the different angles. However, I will forego that this time as not to make this column unnecessarily long (I hope I haven’t exceeded that point already).

One thing I will mention is….. How freaking awesome is No Mercy??????!!!!!! Heh. In any case, despite the problems people have been having w/ the glitch, and the slowness of the tag matches, there are so many improvements over WM2K that I’m still finding new stuff. The most recently discovery, which I owe to Ben, is that in the backstage arena’s, you can pull weapons out of the lockers in the locker room, and after that I discovered that you can pull weapons out from over the counter of the APA bar. Hopefully by saying that I enlightened someone who didn’t know that. One thing I can’t stand is all the people who bitch and moan about all the work they have to go through to unlock all the wrestlers, money, and etc. I don’t know what they are complaining about… I mean, once they have everything then their gonna be wishing there was something more. As for myself, I’m taking my sweet ass time with the game, and getting all the enjoyment out of it that I can. That brings me to another idea for the DWF page: John, Ben, JJ, and I are all slowly working toward getting the entire DWF created as realistically as possible. Once complete, I’ll start using a template I’ve received from wrasslin.com/nomercy to copy the data, and hopefully in the future all of you will be able to recreate your favorite DWF star in your own game!!

Anyway, I think that is quite enough for this time. I’ll try not to delay as much before the next one. With the upcoming Xmas show, and all the other projects we’ll be working on, I should have plenty to discuss here soon enough.

In closing, I want to extend my wishes toward everyone over at pF, with the various setbacks and other happenings as of late. I wish everyone speedy recoveries and look forward to working with you all again very soon (the CHM show is my next goal). I'm glad to see the page wasn’t lost, however. Congrats to Rob and the recent press he’s had lately on 1wrestling.com and a respected net radio station, and the things he had to say in support of Backyard Wrestling. We’ll get our message across sooner or later! I think that if I should ever partake in one of those discussions, I’d spend some time mentioning the real raw talent that is prominent w/in many BYW feds, and discuss my own beliefs on using credible wrestling as opposed to hardcore, high risk spot-fest’s. Not to say I don’t get hardcore, or take unnecessarily stupid risks (although minimal), I’d instead talk about how I think that match quality and storylines far outweighs hardcore matches that don’t segue with each other. To me, creating storylines is the best part. I love nothing better than playing out angles that are unique, well planned, thorough, and dare I say, adds a great element of "sports entertainment" to our product. Things such as that are much more fulfilling to me, and makes the shows so much more entertaining and enjoyable for anyone who watches them. That’s where my pride for the DWF, and my respect for the pF, comes in most prominently.


I’ll catch ya’ll next time. Keep on grapplin’.

Ty