Friday, February 12, 2010

Aggression 50 Review

Fit hit the shan for me tonight. I was supposed to do an overnight drinking/rock wall climbing (Safe? Probably not. Entertaining? You bet your ass.) thing, but that fell through. It gives me time to review Agg 50 though. I think I'll also read and review Destrucity II too later tonight and hope someone from the WFW:NE crew rps so I can get one up tonight while I have time too.

Right away we get the extravagance of our World Champion. Jamar makes The Blue-Eyed Badass surprisingly endearing for the OOC handler and its impressive. If I was actually an EPW wrestler or a fan I'd hate Stevens, but as a handler sort of watching the puppet show from above, you can't help but like the character, particularly the way Short uses him. I'd like to see more interaction in general from Anthology, but especially between Stevens and the rest of Anthology. I know OOC Jamar stated publicly he'd like to collaborate more with the rest of the handlers in the stable. I hope it happens.

The Stevens and Stalker seg was a fantastic storyline transition and much needed. Too often feuds and alliances die with little explanation. I'm really glad this segment happened so we can follow what is happening between the two most evil heels in EPW for the last several years. Plus an Anthology/Stalker, Black and Omega alliance is just scary for the rest of us.

That said, Stevens talked about Stalker leading his own stable and I really liked that. What's surprising is that Stalker has a "Career vs Career" match coming up. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it would be a damn shame to see either Stalker OR Rocko leave EPW. Let's hope some extenuating circumstances come into play related to this and they both stay.

I like seeing Winters stirring the hornet's nest backstage. He's the perfect character for it. I know Layne talked about moving up fast because of injuries against my character in rp and its good to see him staying congruent. Obviously he was all over the place in this show and he picked a good time considering the stage. That said I'd absolutely LOVE a Winters/Brown feud.

Heirs of Wrestling had an impressive win. Forgive me, but I can't remember your first name, but if its Seth I'll feel really dumb. Anyway, I've PMed this guy back and forth a few times and anybody who comes recommended by Lindz is definitely talented. Heirs has been thrown into the fire a bit and this is a huge win. I think ?Seth? also writes Tony "The Grin" Gamble as well. I rped against Gamble in the TiT a few years back and there's no question Seth is very talented. He's a welcome addition to a stacked roster. Forgive me if any of the multiple assumptions in this paragraph are inaccurate. Ask Stanton how often I f*ck things up on this blog. He's my editor. ;)

Whoever wrote the Brown/Fuse match (I'll guess again and say Jay wrote it) I really enjoyed reading it and I'm glad he put such an emphasis on how big the match was to the two wrestlers. Having Karl back in EPW is a real blessing. Hypothetically speaking, you give me Karl on the topic of most talented writer in EPW, I'll give you anybody else and we'd have one hell of a debate, let's put it that way.

Big win for Basterd. Tom is so good at taking just about any imaginable character and making him good. I don't know how he writes such diverse styles and still makes it work.

I wrote the tag title match. I hope everybody involved enjoyed it. I tried to make Stalker and Omega look good because they rped really well and I thought it was fitting for the new Anthology tag team to mesh well, hence the way it ended.

The Black/Dishon match was very good. I'd like to see Dishon bounce right back from this loss. Everything I've read from him shows a lot of talent and I truly think he'll move up in EPW swiftly. The Black/Winters rp period will be a fun read. Pitting those two characters against each other should cause some fireworks.

I'd love to see a solid Hart/Edmunds feud leading up to the next PPV. Aston's segs are always absolutely awesome and what I've seen from Sean is all talent so I hope they jump at this chance and really shine the next few weeks. The potential is there ten-fold. Plus it would be nice to see another good HOPE vs Anthology feud besides the First/Stevens one.

High Flyer's a hell of a talent. I loved reading the character in PRIME and he's done well in TEAM's interfed tourneys. I hope he sticks around because I think he can compete with anybody. It's really nice seeing this influx of talent.

I know I sound like a broken record, but there's really no one like Strawsma and the way he writes matches. I think he went the extra mile this time because Agg 50 was such a big deal. I truly loved it. Stanton puts so much effort into everything related to EPW and he really pushed Jay like crazy during that rp period. I also like seeing Cruise bounce back from what happened with Anthology. Great main event.

One last thing, I really liked how many segs there were with HOPE. There's a lot of drama there and its a lot of fun to watch all of them collaborate and put out entertaining segs.

I'd say Agg 50 lived up to the hype.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Aggression 49 review

It's been a while since I went into more detail and did one of these reviews, but I feel like this show really deserved it. There were some huge additions and losses that were both stunning and exciting as far as roster changes.

Before I get started, I'd just like to say that for about six to nine months now I've been steadily impressed with the level of talent on this EPW roster. Just when you think it can't get much better, the talent level rises yet again. With Karl and the guy who handles Windham now, there's a plethora of great writers. Then there's guys like the Toms and Larry Tact's handler on the sidelines now, but who could always come back. We might even see Jarret or Katz back too. It's pretty exciting.

Just wanted to throw that out there. Time for the review.

I like the anticipation and build-up right away to start things off with Lindz. We all know how this ended and I'm hoping this is just the beginning of an angle. It would be sad to see Lindz gone, but I'm totally guessing this is just the beginning of something major.

I enjoyed the Rocko/Stalker match and looking forward to another build-up between these two. They were both part of the biggest feud in EPW a few years ago and its possible things could get just as messy in the near future.

The segment ripping on all the past EPW tag team champions was well written and something totally unique, to me at least. In the couple years I've been here I've never seen anything like it and really enjoyed it. Nice way to start.

I wrote the Dishon/Doe match and I hope both of them enjoyed the read. There were a couple stabs at humor and I read the rp battle, as I always do before writing a match. These two are solid additions to EPW and I expect big things.

I also wrote the Fusenshoff segment, which was hopefully a little funny and built some anticipation for what was coming later in the show.

The next segment was awesome. It's always a treat when Aston writes a segment with the Doctor and having Anarky in there to play straight man made it that much better.

I think the highlight of the show was the job Billy did on the IC Contenders match. I'm not 100% positive he wrote it, but it has his fingerprints all over it. It was hilarious and intense. This was edge-of-your-seat matchwriting and the comic relief just made it that much better. Truly amazing.

On a side note, if someone else wrote this, you did one hell of a job. And nice Fight Club reference.

And Karl, what can I say? I loved the seg you wrote and can't wait until our match. I tried to keep it as under-wraps as possible, telling only Mike I think. I'm glad there were people that were truly surprised. Welcome back!

Stalker, Omega and Erik Black in a stable is pretty damn cool. It's not clear yet what they'll do to stir things up, which makes it that much more fun. The possibilities are many for these three to wreak havoc on EPW.

The First/Winters seg was fun. Mike is a pleasure to work with and there's rarely a sentence that goes by where Billy doesn't impress.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Windham can do. Surprisingly I haven't read any of his work. It'll be a lot of fun seeing just how good he is. The match itself was well-written, as Mike has had plenty of practice (I'm pretty sure Stanton wrote it, but could be wrong). We all know how dedicated he is to EPW, particularly picking up any matchwriting slack.

Big win for a deserving Anarky and this will probably generate a huge push for a guy who was already a big part of the Miles/Westcott feud. Also, what more can you possibly say about Ryan's matchwriting?

There were some real shocks at the end of this show. No more Lindz or Tact and almost no more Anthology. Plus the leadership in EPW is up in the air. It really builds some excitement for Agg 50.

This was a very Mayberryesque blog review. I guess Agg 49 was just that good. It was a little seg happy, but didn't feel that way while reading it. I really couldn't find any gripes and loved almost all of it.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Not Another Halkum Hater!

I've been getting bugged about updating this thing, plus everyone else is doing it, plus I actually have something to talk about, so I'm updating the blog.

And yes, it's about the recent movement to unite all e-feds, and yes I also think it's a bad idea.

Call me elitist or whatever, but I'm not about to spend my time reading, and God forbid, participating in a conversation involving a group of prepubescent preteens calling each other douchenozzles and fucktards for the silliest reasons imaginable.

I'm not a babysitter.

There are a ton of handlers out there that just don't know how to act. FWC seems to have weeded damn near all of them out.

You can't unite all feds because a good portion of them are virus-laden plagues to humanity, let alone e-fedding; plain and simple.

That being said (who watches Curb Your Enthusiasm ;) ) I think what TEAM did for a couple years there was great and disagree that interfed tournaments are a waste if done correctly with select groups of handlers.

Tom did a great job with TEAM and it flourished for all but the last six months or so that he was fedhead. It slowed because Tom was tired of it, not because of people complaining.

A lot of people enjoyed it and a few got pissed. Frankly those people that got pissed were quickly forgotten. A lot of people respected Tom, which is why I think it worked, and he was good at handling the few whiners.

Sure, it was unfortunate that there were issues at times, but the good moments far outweighed the bad with TEAM.

I haven't even paid any attention to the J-date tournament or whatever the hell they call it over there. The only reason I even heard of it was because I like Billy and Dave and I read their blogs.

With EPW, NFW, A1E, WFW:NE, formerly TEAM and now NLW we have plenty of shit to choose from to waste our time in FWC and A1E alone. Hell, I'll go to PRIME, REBEL or NAPW before taking the chance of scoping out some fed I've never heard of that has a fedhead I've never chatted with.

The point is we have a hell of a lot of options.

I look at the Classifieds threads or anything resembling information from people I've never heard of as much as I look through my spam folder in my e-mail, which is never.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Aggression 44 Review

After reading Agression 44 the first time, I remember thinking that it was one of the most solid "TV" shows that I've read in quite a while. With the additions it may be the best one I've read in over a year.

I felt like I've been mentioning a lack of Anthology segs over the last couple reviews and chose to ignore that absence again after the first read when going over what to say in this blog post. The locker room seg was terrific and exactly what I was looking for as a fan/reader. It made things very clear that they're going after Stevens, First, Winters and Anarky while hintng at a possible Westcott feud too.

There were two other people I missed seeing in this show. I wanted more Westcott since he's number one contender and more LT, but then I considered that its better if her presence came only when truly necessary. I guess ts needless to say that I was very happy with Agg 44 2.0. The Westcott beatdown builds anticipation. I hope there's even more of him on the next Aggression.

I was very happy with the Scott/Fuse match. It was an entertaining read for me, with a fast pace. I also felt like Frankie did a great job during the promo period and I'm glad it shone through in the results.

I'm also very pleased with the progression of the Stalker/Fuse/Daymon angle. Ryan came to me with most of it, and I had a couple ideas, but certainly can't take more than a sliver of credit. A big reason I began working with Justin is because of the Stalker/Daymon feud and how impressed I was with it. I'm lucky to be a part of it now.

Writing the Winters/Tact match was a blessing. It was a great promo period. I've always enjoyed reading Tact's work and I continue to be impressed by Winters.

To cap things off, everyone knows how competitively rped the main event was this week. I really liked how the show ended with The First getting applause from the fans. While all four handlers put forth a fantastic showing, Mike and Tom took it to another level. These two put in a stellar effort.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Wrestleverse 3 review

Sorry I missed the review for the last Aggression....

First I'll give props to all the matchwriters on this one. Stanton put out four matches for this show. There's not much else to say about that; the guy's a workhorse, plain and simple. All four were quality matches too. Ryan put out his typical top-notch match. He's usually the main event matchwriter and it felt like we had two main event-caliber matches on this card. Will definitely kicked ass on his cherry-popping tag battle (I'm pretty sure that was him anyway). Not the gentlest way to lose your EPW matchwriting virginity, but he took it like a champ.

That was a little crude for my typical review, but I'm gonna blame it on reading Will's blog for the last twenty minutes, which you can find at http://fwmoneyshot.blogspot.com

Shawn Hart has put together a nice winning streak lately. I think EPW could use a few more feuds/storylines. Someone should get a hold of Aston and start brainstorming with him. Guaranteed it would be one of your most enjoyable angles ever. In and out of character, one of the best.

The Miles/Massey seg was short and sweet. Some nice foreshadowing for what's to come.

I'm glad Fuse/Stalker was put in this match because I got an opportunity to see the beginning of what's going to be an intense tag division in EPW. All these teams looked good in the rp period. Almost all gimmick tag teams, which is refreshing. All of them are entertaining. I especially liked Jungle Storm with the Brazilian gimmick. It reminded me of Paul's Ice Tre gimmick, which is good company to be in. It's good to see Sergeant back too. I'm hoping to work with him in the future.

Our seg was up next. It's been a pleasure working with Justin so far and I can't stress enough the importance of respect and compromise when working an angle with someone. We've been working this feud for about eight months now. He comes up with great ideas, usually him more than me, and basically nothing is ever shot down. I sought him out because he'd been doing such amazing things with Strawsma in the Stalker/Daymon feud and when Daymon went down I saw an opening. Obviously I got lucky and he was game too. Now with Ryan in the picture the possibilities have me really excited.

I don't know what happened to Omega during the rp period, but I like both these character and have enjoyed the feud. It's good to see Frankie Scott get another much-deserved win.

There's few things I enjoy more than the wackiness of Ryan's comedy characters. CC (I never know which name he's going with at any given time) is yet another strong tag team and Ryan's been working on the Fear angle for a while now. It's nice to get another look at Fear, as Ryan had him tripping on acid this time. I was worried the mystery opponent no-showed. Should've known to expect the unexpected...

Another win for Cam, this time legitimizing his IC title reign and status as a major EPW heel. Siegel made a genius move bringing all this talent together. He's reaping the benefits of it too. Tough loss for First on the screwjob, but just a few months ago we saw JA come back from the Omega loss with a huge win over Stevens in their non-title match. One big win for First soon can put him right back up in the main event spotlight.

It'll be fun to see what Wells and Copycat do with their history. Nice post-match dialogue.

On a side note, I'd like to see more collective seggage from Anthology. I feel like this is one of the strongest forces in EPW history with an opportunity just waiting to have a HUGE impact on the landscape of the fed. I don't want them to overshadow everything else or be the next nWo, but I feel like they could really put the pressure on LT and some of the characters backstage. So what I'm saying is more seggage, collective or otherwise, and cause a little more chaos- stir up the hornet's nest, so to speak, a little more.

That said, they control the majority of the gold in the federation right now. Tact and Wells are a very strong duo. They have a plethora of competition now, so it's a good time to be the tag champs.

The Anarky/Miles/Westcott and now Tre storyline is quickly becoming the best in the fed. Three big, mean dudes... and Ice Tre. Sounds like something I want to read about.

A big when for Stevens. He wasn't able to defend the title on the first run, but now he's beaten First, JA and Daymon. There's no question that he's a legitimate World Champion and the big name in EPW for the past year at least.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Aggression 42 Review and WOTM

Aggression 42 started off as one of the best shows I've read. I think with two or three more segs it would've been one of the best since I joined EPW. The matches were very well-written, the segs were extremely entertaining and the wrestlers are all exceptionally talented.

The show started with the best seg of the night in my opinion. Aston wrote a hilarious segment that also had a lot of strong content. I don't know how long Hart has been coming out to "Look At Me" by Geri Halliwell, but I had to youtube this video. It's pretty damn funny thinking about a premiere wrestler like Shawn hitting the Hart On, getting the 1, 2, 3 and having this pop rockette jam hitting over the PA.

Like I said, every match on this card was well-written and the opener was no exception. A big win for Wells over Olvir, who's potential knows no bounds. There's so much talent at the beginning of this EPW roster and a lot of opportunity for big wins. Wells got a well-deserved one here.

I'm very happy with the way things are going in the Fuse/Stalker feud. Will Fuse finally give in now that he's a member of The Fallen? Will Stalker once again ruin the career of another EPW wrestler, or will Fusenshoff be better for this and turn into an evil heel? How does JA and Lindsay Troy play into the equation? Will Fuse and Stevens get along? What are the terms and conditions of this mysterious new partnership? Time will tell.

Speaking of Troy, her role in this show was perfect. She popped in a few segs and laid down the law. I feel like every time she's in a couple of segments it boosts the show's excitement. The confrontation with The First was another good seg. We all know what her relationship is with the World Champion, but there's some irritation between her and The First and Forsaken too. This adds some intrigue if the Forsaken vs. Stevens/The Fallen feud continues.

The Miles vs Westcott feud has some added spice with the addition of Anarky and Felix. Things took a surprising turn when Anarky went after Miles. Is there a Felix/Westcott beef? I like the transition here as I have no idea where all this is going. Looking forward to all of it.

Big win here for Cam as he wins the Intercontinental title. The Anthology is obviously a major player now in EPW and their first gold is big gold. I don't know if Cruise is the leader of this group or if they even need one. I want to see more Anthology segs with some collaboration between all four members. Four top-notch guys are together now and I want to see the dynamics of keeping these egos in check as well as the havoc they'll cause on the other guys backstage.

Things ended well too. Mike wrote a great main event match and showed a great deal of humility in pushing Stevens so well. This is another tribute to the maturity of the entire EPW roster. There is no OOC issues ever here because everyone realizes that what's good for EPW is good for them, and put the fed first. It makes it a lot of fun to be a part of it all. Also, first title defense since LT, as Jamar pointed out, which leads me to my Wreslter of the Month.

February 2009 Wrestler of the Month: "Triple X" Sean Stevens.

I was going to make this a shared WOTM with Cruise and Stevens, but I felt like the rp period was much more competitive for the World Title match. I hope Shinder makes it back to EPW soon and apologizes on no-showing for a title match. I'm glad it wasn't a ppv. Jamar gets a big win in what could've been a coin flip as Mike showed up and proved himself with The First. There's a reason The Forsaken can't be beat and both Felix and First showed why in singles matches. Congrats, Jamar on a big win.

WOTM Runner-up: Cameron Cruise.

Congrats to Tom on winning the EPW IC Title again. Cruise has been as hot as anyone in EPW for a while now and he caps it off with this win. Anyone challenging for his title better bring their best.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Aggression 41 Review and WOTM

This show started off with a bang right away, as the Frankie Scott/Omega feud is one of the best in EPW now. Omega is winning me over each week with his nuttiness to go along with being one tough sob. Scott plays the heel to perfection and adding Lindsay Troy in this segment was a brilliant touch. I'm getting more and more excited for this feud each week.

Speaking of Omega and Scott, both pick up big wins this week. Omega gets a huge win over the biggest face in EPW right now and Scott takes care of business against Stone, who I'm looking forward to seeing more of.

The Anthology segment was just as entertaining, with a few spots that really made me laugh. Hart is his usual loony self, and the bit with Cameron Cruise had me chuckling. There's a reason this group is rising so fast through EPW, they're fun and talented.

I wrote the Cruise/Tact vs Crimson Calling match and I hope everyone involved enjoyed it. It took me longer than usual to write this one as I seemed to hit a snag at every turn, but I hope it had everyone involved enjoying it by the end. Someone needs to lure Nathan Fear into one of his million-dollar safes, lock him in there, and change the combination.

Justin did an excellent job with the Hart/Fusenshoff match. I really enjoyed reading through the whole thing and he always surprises me with the brilliant swerves he comes up with to keep our feud interesting. I'm really looking foward to our cage match and the magnitude of the stipulations it brings.

Also a big win for Anarky, who's destined for a huge feud with one of the best in EPW, Felix Red. These two have a deep-seeded dislike for each other. I hope they draw this feud out and give it the attention it deserves. I hope they make it ugly, brutal, and as exciting as it seems like it will be for us readers.

My happiest moment was seeing Beast and Miles back in the ring. These are two huge stars going at it. The swerve that Miles locked Beast in the locker room during Kings of the Cage was a nice touch. I liked the Fight Club reference. I look forward to seeing Miles back in the ring once Katz is able, sounds like the ppv.

I have no doubt Strawsma wrote the main event, and we should all be eternally grateful he shows up week after week putting these matches together. I don't follow NFW as much as I should, but from what I've read Ryan is the best matchwriter in FW. This match was another fantastic one. It even had a little chinese lady ready to kick some ass. In the end Forsaken proved they're the best duo in EPW and have been for one hell of a long time.

They're also my Wrestlers of the Month for January.