Jun 2, 2021 21:17:43 GMT WMS said:

Jun 2, 2021 21:10:13 GMT jTjohncenaGOAT said:

We need to move near each other and start a backyard wrestling fed for 30 year olds. Give you $5 to move into the empty house next to me. I have a PS5 you can come over and play with also.

Jake remember our trampoline wrestling in your back yard? And when your brother hit you with an RKO. Wish I still had that on video. :lol:

Hahahaha oh man good times hahah 😂

The wrestling escapades post has to be my favorite Storytime With @ness yet. The following is soooo relatable...

Jun 2, 2021 21:01:23 GMT @ness said:

So to set the stage, there was me... my brother... the 2 kids that came over every day. Essentially we just hung out and occasionally did moves and matches. 

We tried our best to make it believable. I won't go as far as to say we put on shows with crowds, but it was still a ded srs endeavor. We had a title belt, ring music and everything. 

Ness was hanging out with middle schoolers and likely a 2nd grader so what) when he was likely a sophmore and started including him with our matches. 

Oh bring this old TV box in the ring and SLAM me on it. I'm sure my back won't hit the sharp corners by accident. It was this weird hybrid where we "allowed" moves to be performed, but also was a borderline shoot. I learned a lot about the wrestling business and can only imagine how lucky we were that we never got hurt.

Except that isn't 100% true. 

wrestling an invisible opponent via my pillow. 

So that was what I did as a backyarder. Not quite on the level all the indy guys claim they took it to, but a slight touch above anyone who simply suplexed someone onto their bed once time. 

I once did a long post, or series of posts, about my own glorious House Wrestling career, but I cannot find it. Must have been on the old PW.

"Only thing missing was our dignity."

Amazing line.

Also, you should've kept the powerbomb as your finisher and branded it as the Bonecrusher.

Gotta echo Baker-man. As much as I loved the work and romance and rollercoaster entries, I've been REALLY digging the wrestling content.

My backyard wrestling career started and ended with volunteering to take a Scorpion Death Drop at recess in middle school, and realizing how much it hurt to hit the back of your head on the ground.

But then we did have a basement fed after that for a bit. Think it peaked in the summer or 2001 because I remember RVD being really hot, and everyone wanting to portray him or Kurt. We had maybe a dozen or so guys max on our roster. We made a ring on the floor by arranging couch cushions. Then the arms and back of the couch were our turnbuckles to leap from. Problem though with basement wrestling is low clearance ceiling height. My basement wrestling career ended, perhaps along with our whole fed, when I tried jumping extra high for a Five Star Frog Splash... hit my head on the ceiling, leaving a hole in the drywall, and practically knocked myself out.

Looking back at my own experience and realizing how little I liked getting my bell rung, I have a feeling concussions would've chased me out of DIS BUSINESS even quicker than Christopher Nowinski.

Ya know as much as we all love AM's FFCW (read: well anything involved "us") I'm suddenly getting an itch to write a backyard fed based on us.

Young Sheldon.

Young Rock.

Young PW. Of course middle school us likely would get cancelled, or at least I would.

Wrestling Helped Me?

By 2002 it seemed like there was this shift to the general population moving on. Not exactly, but people were less in to wrestling in public than before. Of course middle schoolers are gonna be big on saying suck it and wearing shirts, but I swear when I moved to Florida I didn't feel as "open" about being a wrestling fan as I used to be. You know that moment when you reveal you watch it and people give you that look, yeah I was getting that a lot. Things changed a little in 2003, but a little less acceptance and more of your boy using wrestling as a means of getting over.

When I changed schools I had to pick some electives and honestly I just never cared about anything academically. I opted to take Drama and things started to change for me. This was a slacker course for sure, but it also allowed me to experiment and create this weird hybrid stand-up/wrestling promo persona for all my performances in the class. It was early on that I learned I was literally the only wrestling fan in the class. I don't recall the assignment, but somewhere I started bashing the "local sports team" and it had this weird awkwardness to it. Basically I called our team losers and nobody said anything. Then I said you guys are supposed to boo. The teacher chimed in and said something to the effect of they must not be wrestling fans.

I dunno if he was one, but he at least understood the logic to my speech. They were easily trained though because as I finished whatever I was doing in front of the class I turned it around and praised the team for a "cheap pop!" and they actually cheered that one. It was bizarre, but also showed I had potential here. I started getting over with these performances that for at least one class I wasn't a loser. Granted I was merely a circus seal in that Chris Farley way, but it was better than being completely invisible, yeah?

I think the class not being wise to DIS BUSINESS helped my confidence because if they were maybe I wouldn't be as open to trying all these tropes and lines from wrestling. I finally understood the appeal of being in the spotlight and there was also this weird respect from the teacher that he let me go far longer than most. My final performance was only supposed to go 5-10 minutes, but I think I was up there shooting the shit for a good 30 minutes after he gave me the green light with "what else ya got?" - like it was so weird, people legit started thinking I had "it" and sadly I never recreated that magic ever again.

Late 2003 I was starting to lose interest again. I started community college and though I started to dive deep into IWC culture, outside the internet I didn't really talk about wrestling. That and I finally had to give up on Chris Benoit when he lost to a kick to the back to Sean O'Haire, like dude it's never gonna happen. But then WM20 happened and the build-up felt magical. Dad actually offered to order it for us. He really wanted to see Brock/Goldberg and LOL. I wasn't convinced Benoit was gonna do it. The smark in me figured it was gonna be like Rock @ Backlash especially since it was in Canada. But he won and I marked out. I was back in it!

Started following the PPVs and I had a part-time job bagging groceries at the base commissary and that's where I met a wrestling fan! He was obsessed with Canadian wrestlers and loved Benoit. We started talking about wrestling and even started going to a local sports bar to see wrestling. He was so disappointed by Summerslam 2004. Like he legit thought there was no chance of a title change. To be honest I find the atmosphere hard to follow with all the loudness, but you can't deny if people are reacting in a bar it is so much more exciting than just being at home.

We went every month until Armageddon 2004 when I got turned away at the door because they stopped having wrestling PPVs on their feeds. Maybe not turned away, but I don't care enough about football to go inside. Dunno if the cable providers cut them off or perhaps the REAL SPORTS fans said no more, either way it was back to casually watching the weekly shows and torrenting PPVs. Except for two random Manias my Dad ordered us (21 and 22), I guess with the exception of 19 (and I downloaded those individual matches 100x off Limewire) we were almost one of those Mania Only families when you think about it. Though I don't think we ordered any after 22.

I was really starting to actively dislike wrestling around this time. I was a prime candidate for hating Cena. Oh man did I hate him. Everything about him irritated the fuck out of me. His uncoordinatedness, the superman thing (though he gave WAY more than Austin ever did) and it just felt like WWE was actively trolling me. Don't like it don't watch! I can't. I just fucking couldn't turn away. I hate watched for sure. It didn't help that I'd have to post alongside apologists that made it seem like I was "wrong" for not being a fan. Oh it was a great time to be a fan because of that feedback loop.

Not long after this they relaunched ECW and it sucked... at first. It wasn't ECW (not that I knew much) but overtime if you could get past the name it was good... like really good. Just an hour of awesomeness and if you ever wondered yes my last SSB fan fic was mostly modeled after WWECW. So much of it influenced me, along with the indies which I'll speak about in a separate post. I was going back and forth with wrestling ready to quit, but then stuff kept bringing me back. Random Mania... ECW and then I discovered the indies and that acted as the second "boom" for me as a fan. How did I finally get into the bingo hall shit? Believe it or not Lance Cade. We'll talk about that next.

"TNA Gifs" Are Borderline NSFW

Before I dive into my indy... deep dive, I feel I need to take a minute to address the elephant in the room and that's TNA. So far what we've learned is I was a loyal WWE fan, occasionally checked out ECDub and basically no sold WCW. TNA I can't say I was there from the start, but was at least somewhat aware of their existence as early as the Wednesday PPV days. Kinda hard not to being such a prominent consumer of IWC content. In fact, I often come to their defense whenever people like to bury their contributions like when they joke about Kurt "disappearing" for years. Because even casuals and people who aren't posting online knew of them. Not everyone obviously, but my work friend who I mentioned about the sports bar hyped them up a few times. Then again there's a difference between a casual and a regular wrestling fan, which he clearly was.

With TNA I was never a regular viewer. Not on the level I was with WWE. Outside of when I was co-host to a wrestling podcast (for the wreslting nerd) I didn't ever watch them consistently. Every so often. But like WWE when my family stopped ordering PPVs, I may not have watched every show but I was at least "in the know" about all the major stuff. I think once they went to Fox Sports I started following them a little more closely. And of course they lost that deal and that's when they finally gave the belt to Raven when I couldn't see it. Fuckers LOLTNA indeed.

I will say this, Christian Cage helped a lot to make me give them a real chance. In 2005 I was so into Christian and the idea they were finally gonna put him in the mix on Raw. Of course he was just midcard scum and I eventually gave up on him. Read about him leaving the WWE in some weird and vague as fuck "good-bye" blog on their website and then he showed up in TNA. I was all over it. And yeah his TNA theme is one of my favorites. TNA in general had a good deal of decent tracks. My World, various AJ ones... even Abyss!

The best time ever for me as a fan was that 2009 period that I have dubbed the Autumn of AJ (stylized from the Summer of Punk), which was this 4-6 month period where Vince Russo was basically giving me everything I wanted (AJ as champ and they even redid the Unbreakable 3-way). Conspiracy theory to me is he knew Hogan and Bisch were gonna fuck things up, so he threw us a bone hoping we power through it. Of course we all know the 1.1ers will suffer through anything.

So I wanted to set the stage to show that I gave them plenty of shots and was even a legit fan for a minute, but it was never like the WWE. I wasn't sure if I would ever completely cut ties with Double Double E and then something happened. As far as da indies go, outside of a randomly downloaded match (London vs. AJ) I never really gave them a shot. I began unknowingly reciting Anti-Smark talking points whenever they were brought up. I'd criticize them for not being legit stars... not on TV... bingos halls... the usual. But why though? Maybe I disliked the idea anything could be better and actively became angry that people not only weren't watching WWE, but were going underground to find an alternative. The audacity.

Even still I knew of the big names at the time. Punk was already signed and even if it was a glorified indy, Samoa Joa was basically a TNA guy who occasionally did random shows elsewhere. But there was one more Bryan Danielson. See in my view he never had that moment like the two above did. The Joe/Punk series put everyone on notice. And seemed like when he was on top the big story was the CZW feud, so he never got that buzz. If it didn't find it's way into my bubble I didn't consider it a big deal. For whatever reason Danielson maybe getting signed piqued my interest in hey there's other wrestling out there. Much like finding wrestling in the first place I feel like I was just in the right mood to accept the bait. Perhaps WWE was stale to me, but I still had a desire to watch wrestling.

Something was changing in me. Suddenly I started thinking about indy wrestling. I knew of ROH and knew the name of Chikara, but didn't know what it truly was. I assumed "fake" wrestling that's basically a glorified backyard fed. Outside of that I was clueless. Having never really seen Bryan Danielson I have no idea why he enticed me to look into other wrestling. I didn't even see the match since it was dark, but I didn't realize it at the time but this was gonna be my next "thing". When I get into something new, I get in hard. I obsess over it. I can't casually do anything when it's new. It almost borderline becomes my identity for a bit. This was special because it felt "new" while also being an official wrestling fan for 10 years. First time I realized that when I got into indies it was 2008... exactly a decade after first falling in love with it. Looked up the date and it was June of that year. Not exactly Summerslam time, but close enough that I'm gonna say they're related. Wonder if it was officially RIP in 2018? Would be amazing if it worked out like that. The actual date I don't know this time. I can only guess since I still see "news" via the forum sometimes.

So next entry (and maybe another depending on how much I end up writing) I'll talk about the deep dive. What I liked... who I became fans of... women's wrestling and why did I stop following it. Also a post or two about writing fan fic.

Hey... Nice Sandman Shirt, Asshole

I was definitely burned out on WWE at this point in time. A few years removed from my initial marking out I had gone through a handful of phases by now. 2002 I stopped watching, but kept tabs on it. Came back in 2003 and almost quit, but then Benoit/Eddy happened. Sadly they didn't really get behind them or at least seemingly. The Eddy one seemed more self-inflicted going by reports. And no I don't actually think he was gonna win the belt. Just a feel good story they like to tell. 2007 I was more or less had Cena Nuff. The biggest bullshit was I was digging Orton when he was set to supposedly win the belt... Cena conveniently gets hurt and they do that weird quasi-Raw on PPV with HHH and I was questioning why I still watch this shit. If not for PW I probably would've quit a while back for real.

So the dark match happens and suddenly I'm motivated to find more. I discover ROH through their website. Over the years I've actually taken on less of an IWC presence outside of PW. I just didn't and don't post on other wrestling boards. I've been on other non-wrestling boards, but it never felt "home", so I was going in blind because it didn't seem like there was many people into it. Two people helped me out in this endeavor. First, my brother from another mother, djm since we already had an online friendship going. All my active feedback was directed towards him. Second, I had some help with our current super computer, c, but only at first because either he didn't follow it as deeply or was "over" it. Maybe a Gabe disciple?

So I went to their messy website and ordered whatever the most current DVD out was. See there was no TV deal (yet) and this was a while before things like the Network and streaming were a thing (and we hadn't reached a point with Youtube just yet), so the only way to "see" ROH was either live or DVD. DVD and shirts was their bread and butter. Despite how much I had hyped it up to myself, it wasn't the amazing 10 star classic opener to main event I was expecting... but it was professional wrestling. I was in. So I fulfilled my OCD requirement by purchasing all the events from 2008 before said show. And I binged. Helps that the ROH calendar is basically the year itself rather than April to April like WWE does. Final Battle being their endgame, though much like Mania things start just as much as they end at these supposedly season finales.

I finally found a guy I liked. A guy that wasn't being pimped by the IWC proper like Joe and Danielson. Kevin Steen was my boy. I dunno if it was this initial show, but very early on I took a liking to him. He was a big guy (tubby) but still moved really quick. And this might be more important, but I really dug his entrance using Drowning Pool and jaw jacking with the crowd/camera. Unlike Austin's walk since it was a smaller arena and more intimate you could actually make out what he was saying! There were a few others I liked, but he was my favorite without a doubt. And no one really ever overtook him as the top guy amongst the boys. Ever once in a while he'd 1B to someone else's 1A, but he usually regained his definitive slot.

One thing I really liked about ROH and indies in general was these guys appeared elsewhere. They might be a main guy in ROH, but only a midcarder in CZW or what have you. It was kinda cool and jarring to see guys doing something else in another company, though being a jobber in 1 and a 25 minute main eventer in another never translated well. It also acted as subtle advertising that I feel they overlooked to cross promote for everyone's benefit. Too many big companies only see it in terms of lifting the little guy up and refuse it. For instance when Hero/Claudio were dual ROH/Chikara tag champs, that made them instantly a big deal to me. If I wasn't already following Chikara, I might now. But I get it from the business side. Not everyone welcomes all teams and might change sides!

Soon enough I learned about torrenting wrestling shows and then I stopped giving them my dimes because obviously I was a loser shut-in with no income. If the anime industry was okay with it (they weren't) why not wrestling? This is where I watched a ton of other wrestling for the next several years. I even went back and watched through 2006 and 2007 of ROH before moving onto others. I started with Chikara and then PWG and then CZW. Each one felt a *little* different so even if they used a mixture of the same guys... it was special. ROH was this weird hybrid of strong style and ded srsness, CZW had various styles and a more edgy product, Chikara was family friendly with goofy storytelling and of course PWG was just highspots balls to the wall matches. Basically PWG was what I envision indy wrestling to be. Just high energy crazy shit. Who needs psychology?!? Matches in PWG just felt more epic thanks to the Reseda crowd.

I started watching anything I could get my hands, even if it was some shitty SmartMarkVideo single cam recording. I couldn't get enough. If it featured a guy/girl I liked, I gave it a shot. Speaking of which, I don't think I've addressed the laydees too much here. I liked quite a few, but it wasn't until getting into indies that I saw Shimmer and took them "serious" as workers. There were a lot of influences from this and the newly launched WWECW that I tailored my SSB fed around. If you were able to go back and read my fed and look at the same big indies you will see the influence for sure. Points system, promos, match layout. I was literally feeding off it in enjoyment and trying to showcase how much I liked things by writing SSB at the same time. It was a great time to be a fan. So much so that Deej and I even did a wrestling podcast where we discussed it all.

Anyone remember Wrestling Society X, a short lived MTV wrestling fed? Think it only had about 10 shows, but I loved that too. Mostly just PWG guys, but it had everything and I think it's probably what got me into PWG. I loved Human Tornado. He's a guy I so wish had made it big. He was great and I think he may have been one of the first to use Benoit for heel heat by putting Candice Lerae in the crossface. Absolutely amazing to see that crowd reaction.

Things went through a few eras with ROH securing weird TV deals. HDNet, which literally nobody had and then eventually Sinclair. Even though the Sinclair deal happened around the time that I started growing bored of ROH, I found it difficult to follow. Sure I could just watch online, but the 1030pm timeslot with Jay Lethal plugging leg braces for retirees was hard to take seriously. And between you and me indies had a more "counter culture" vibe that drew me in vs. WWE. Seeing them being advertised after the late night news just felt cringe in comparison. It actually taught me a lot about conservative values and made perfect sense why they pushed Jay Briscoe so much. For the record I do like the guy and think his feud with Cole was as the the Godfather of the business says, good shit!

During this era of fandom I feel I was going from a knowledgeable casual to a full-on smark. You ever visit a Youtube comment section that talks about the good old days and the real wrestlers of today? Totally was Ness. I was snarky and trash talked everyone that didn't watch the REAL DEAL. Truthfully it wasn't necessarily better, it was just different. They did the same goofy shit too. How is the Chikarmy not lame but WWE Universe is? I was just on the team and talked down to all the casuals that liked Double Double E.

But all things eventually come to an end. Somewhere around 2011/12 I started watching things less and less. It went from indulging myself in shows to only viewing matches and segments of my boys. It got to a point during Steen's ROH title reign that I only ended up watching his shit period. A change of pace from my early indy love where I'd think someone was a braindead hard-r for wasting time watching wrestling for one person. You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.

Chikara "closed down" and there was a new crop of people in PWG. Most of the guys from "my era" of watching the indies had either signed to NXT or retired/perpetually in TNA. I wasn't motivated enough to get to know the new breed. I was going through the motions again. It wasn't exciting and it's sad to say that, but I needs that to really enjoy it. I can watch a random match just fine, but week in week out if I don't have the social aspect (even if only online) it just does nothing for me. I can watch a critically acclaimed show without feedback, but with wrestling... it's different. Perk of attending shows I suppose.

Between 2008 and 2012, give or take, I was obsessed with the indy scene. I truly bought into the hype and thought there were legit guys that were happy to be there rather than wanting to go to the WWE. Despite that very few ever turned down a contract, I was convinced some people would prefer to have CLASSICS~! in front of 100s rather than getting PAID~! in front of 1000s. I was truly delusional and drank every ounce of kool aid and licked out the container clean like a dog. But then it happened like always... it got stale. I got bored of it. I think it's part my fault since I can't just enjoy a show here or there. Nope it became mandatory and routine based. After following all the shows of a half dozen or more promotions, I just burnt myself out.

But then something else happened. All those guys I liked (Steen, Generico, KOW, Devitt, etc.) all started appearing in NXT. And then it was, ah shit here we go again.

One More Run As A Fan

What sucked about finally discovering something new and for once having an itch to talk about it is that... well, there was nobody to enjoy it with. At this point despite dipping my toes in a little bit of everything, indy talk on PW wasn't really a thing at this point in time. I made a few threads here and there, but other than some token ROH talk there wasn't much interest in talking about anything. Felt like 4-5 years too late to jump on everything. Not a lot of people were clamoring to discuss the latest Tyler Whack missed opportunity.

2012 I was starting to see the writing on the wall regarding indy wrestling as I was merely going through the motions. After the 12 Large tournament I was mostly done with Chikara. I'd watch a token PWG show, but mostly just fast forwarding to select matches. I've already commented on ROH was the Steen show. Slowly I just stopped caring about these promotions, though I did keep tabs on them. I had reached a point where I wasn't as into things as I once was. Clearly a theme in wrestling for me.

I actively didn't like the "good news" when anyone, especially one of the boys, signed with WWE. I still had the Kool Aid in my system so I saw them as the Evil Empire. Just between us, the whole idea about having more places to work and earn a living did nothing for me as a fan. I did not care about the financial side. And since I didn't really follow the 'E much anymore them signing just meant I wouldn't see much of them. And as more of my team left the indy scene and a growing fatigue about the business... yeah it seemed I was growing bored.

And then NXT happened.

I never paid too much attention to developmental and outside of the first season of NXT I didn't really follow it much either. By time it got to the never ending redemption wackiness with Trent? I had already checked out. I'd download the occasional FCW show back in the day (mostly to see what AJ Lee was up to) but I didn't really go out of my way for it. Developmental always felt cringe to me, especially with that crowd. I did start to hear some rumblings online about NXT. I wasn't really watching in any capacity and bought into the hype surrounding the upcoming big event, NXT Arrival.

Pac, Cesaro and even Paige from my Shimmer watching days were part of the big matches. And it delivered. It felt like a weird hybrid of everything I had seen up to that point. WWE produced, but with an almost indy vibe to it. And since it was featuring a lot of guys from my "generation" of indy... it was very inviting. I got the bug again. NXT was awesome and it seemed "in" with everyone. And once again I bought into everything. THIS is where the workers wanna be. They actually would rather be here than the main roster. I was convinced. Even the idea that this was Mr. H's way of atoning for being so hated by the IWC... didn't matter. Just gimme all the toys in the toy box.

The Four Horsewomen... Sami and Owens rekindling their rivalry... guys like Finn/Hideo... Takeovers being WWE's answer to PWG. It was everything I could ever want. Even went to my first solo wrestling show. The first non-Florida NXT houseshow was in Columbus and I had to go. I requested it off from work and while it was approved one of those "never mention you're a fan" moments came up. My supervisor asked me what I was doing and like a hard-r I told him the truth. He asked me if that was "like Smackdown or something". I told him more or less and he gave me a "really?" because wrestling was just lame no matter how good the product.

There was just an energy in line and during the show. For the first time in my life I understood the appeal of live wrestling. If I'm being honest I think I prefer to just watch on TV. But being there that night was something else. Having never attended an Attitude Era show I can't say if it was the same as playing sing-a-long with the Rock or the Outlaws, but reciting everything with a whole crowd as Enzo made his entrance is just an experience.

I was hooked. I likely even participated in the PW Party Threads. That's how you know. And then the inevitable happened. Call-ups. I followed Owens to the main roster. Checked out his stuff and was very excited, even if Cena having a feud with an indy darling was starting to become a little old hat at this point. So I started watching some other wrestling with NXT, mostly WWE. Over time my interest waned and then I tried only watching segments of people I liked. And that started not being worth it. There's something about wrestling where that just feels "off". It's like being a big fan of an actor, but seeing a movie and only checking out his scenes. You just miss something when you skip around.

NXT stopped doing it for me after a while. The Bobby Roode/Nakamura era of NXT was when I stopped seeing it as must see. By time the first Mae Young Classic I was almost about to call it quits with wrestling. By time they redid it I think I only checked out certain matches. I had tapped out a while before they ever came to Wednesdays for 2 hours. Something in general about wrestling just wasn't keeping me invested. I had other media hobbies that took up my time (vidya, anime, comics, movies/tv) and wrestling just has that vibe to it where it literally was a soap opera. And like soaps you can go years and come right back without missing anything. I can't do that with comics and tv shows. My OCD will not allow it. But wrestling didn't feel like that anymore.

I have a theory of why it stopped working. When I got into indies I was convinced that what I saw there was something WWE wouldn't or couldn't do. High spots, not being super sterile, etc. And that started to change. Maybe because those types of guys joined the roster or the remaining fanbase was just smarter fans so they demanded a more wrestling match product. That or people fail as personalities (on screen... seem okay in non wrestling videos) so the only thing they could bring was workrate.

Over time what made the indies and NXT special wasn't there. Oh sure on Mania weekend I'm sure whatever high profile Takeover match will outperform anything on the main roster, but was the rest of the weekend paling in comparison? Felt like they were doing the same high spot finisher kick out fests that NXT were. So in all honesty as impressive as these Takeovers were, it just didn't feel as special to me anymore. Maybe that's what I've always needed... for it to feel special. Wrestling is just the thing where if it's not good, it just becomes a chore to watch. And if it's not good, why am I continuing to watch it? I seriously think without my attachment to PW I probably would've stopped watching a long time ago. Even if I don't participate in the threads up north, I'm still vaguely aware of the "big stuff" even if I never go to an actual wrestling site or watch any shows. The info is always there for the taking. So I can never truly be "away" from DIS BUSINESS.

The wrestling talk might be the longest topic yet. Have a few more planned wrestling things. Clearly I'm heading towards the door but before I make a claim like I'm "done" with wrestling (especially as that Stardom match is sounding enticing) I wanna make a post or two about my fan fic and how it relates to me as a wrestling fan. Yep we're going there, a fan fic talking the fan fic only in fan fic.

The Greatest Non-Wrestling Or The Only?

So believe it or not my "SSB Universe" precedes my time on PW. I actually got an N64 late in the game. I didn't get one until the X-mas of 2000, basically once the system was dead and they had moved onto the Gamecube. After SNES I went to Playstation and had a brief phase with the Gameboy due to the Pokemon craze in 98. I eventually came back to N64 after my neighbor (the fantasy nerd that was convinced he was a jock) had one and I was obsessed with Super Smash Bros. That Christmas I requested an N64 and started playing catch-up, but the bulk of my playing went into SSB, No Mercy and other multiplayer games from the time.

I wanna say around 2001 was when I began the concept of SSB as this hybrid wrestling fed. I think the initial show was around Invasion as I mirrored my calendar around the actual WWE PPVs, only they took place the Saturdays before because Sundays were "gay". I'd book a total of 8 matches and then have the highest level computers fight each other and then I would write fan fic results based on the outcome. I published everything on my personal Geocities website, things like title history... bios and match results. I only had the 12 standard PPVs and I don't think I bothered with TV. It was enough to keep me busy and without a million shows it stayed fresh.

Did this for several years. I don't remember if I had a midcard belt, but I certainly had the main title and the "tag" belts which were under the name Team, which is basically Tornado Tag (very underrated concept from WWF War Zone). What I found convenient and later on borderline frustrating was that the titles didn't change hands every time. Somehow someway the computer essentially gave itself it's own push as guys were holding belts for a long time. Just seemed like once a powerhouse had the title (Luigi, Ganon, Dr. Mario) it took a lot to end their reigns.

I joined PW in 2005 and became online friends with a user named @cometcruiser and he found my website. Perhaps I gave him the link (I used to spam it on guestbooks to get eyes on it) or maybe it was part of a forum signature. He said it was really good and I should post it on the boards. Without him I may never have thought of doing it. Honestly I barely knew that "fan fic" was even a thing. Plus I never would've thought to do it on PW given what was being posted. But since it was wrestling... kind of... I figured what the hell.

Should also point out exactly how obsessed I was with SSB at the time. My go-to username online is radishman and I got banned within a month on PW. I signed back up under my current alias as Ness, and only did so in tribute to SSB.

Enter the first volume - Super Smash Bros. At first I just continued to do what I was already doing. Watched the matches play out and then write up stories based on the results. I decided to expanded it to a weekly show in addition to PPVs. This quickly caused me to change direction as my champion (Link at the time) immediately lost to Captain Falcon. I didn't see it coming because in my Geocities world Link had been crawling his way to to the top and that was it? A thank you run? The fuck? None of my previous champions ever lost in their first defense. It's like losing at Backlash after winning at Mania. Thanks for wasting our time, asshole!

From then on I embraced a true fan fic writing sense and just booked things completely on my own. During this initial run I booked things from the PPV. Basically I wrote what I wanted the PPV to book towards and then made shows up to get us to that point. And yes this was before I had uninterrupted access to a PC so I had a lot of paper notes for my shows. Like my PPV booking I had it go hand-in-hand with wrestling and posted shows on a weekly basis. For the first few months I had an actual audience of like 5 people that reviewed and commented on everything. It was peak activity in fan fic.

One guy in particular liked Jigglypuff I suppose because he was a beast in the game and wanted him to get a push. I dunno if I planned on doing it, but his enthusiasm had me thinking to make him my next champion. It's a booking gamble to give in to fan's demands as I later found out. Jigglypuff won the title at my Summerslam PPV and then the go home show before the next PPV had him with egg on his face. I thought a wrestling fan would understand that meant last laugh rules and he would retain at the PPV the following Saturday. Nope, guy was pissed Jigglypuff looked "weak" (he was knocked into the audience by his opponent for the title) and stopped reading and commenting. Lesson learned... fans are FICKLE!

So I dunno if my writing wasn't fun to read or if the concept of SSB Wrestling had simply reached it's 15 minutes but people weren't as interested in it. I believe I started the fed around April or May and had done weekly shows up until the No Way Out PPV, which included a Cage Match. I had big plans for a Smash-A-Mania supershow with Mario defending the title against Yoshi, who like Link had risen from resident jobber to people's champion. Sadly for whatever reason the PPV never went down for we had our famous board crash and everything was wiped.

At this point I'm not sure if my Geocities site still existed and if it did, I certainly wasn't updating it once I migrated to PW. In a lot of ways while I still consider my personal site to be canon, the fan fic posting almost felt like an alternate retelling so I probably didn't continue on my site. While I had all the major points still in my head, transferring it back (didn't save) wasn't worth it. But I was and still am obsessed with an ongoing arc. I always liked the idea behind backstory and history so rather than starting over (or doing something else) I did a soft reboot called SSB Brawl. Peach, a former midcard heel, used her kingdom funds to start her own fed after buying out the old SSB. And the title lineage was from the old SSB!

This was reflected with my taste in wrestling at the time. You could see that plainly when I made "Melee Rules" as my version of a hardcore match, clearly lifted from WWECW's Extreme Rules. I really liked the idea of Captain Falcon as a fighter and cocky heel character so I went with him as my guy. This created a problem for me. See the two main stories going in were Falcon as champion and Sonic and his buddies coming in to take over. You can't really do two top heels at the same time, so in hindsight I probably should have gone with a babyface as my initial champion. Oddly enough that's a booking trend I have used to this day. Give a babyface a token respect run and then move onto a heel.

SSB Brawl may have the record in Fan Fic History. I think the 1st PPV of the fed had a Mario Bros. vs. SWO tag match and then the 2nd PPV was gonna be headlined by a career vs. career match between Sonic and Mario. Before I ever got to the PPV I stopped posting. I don't know if I was bored or perhaps I wasn't motivated because it felt like no one was reading. In any event it went to a commercial break and I just stopped posting. And TWO GODDAMN YEARS LATER I resumed it like nothing had happened and finished the PPV. Sonic went over, Mario gave a good-bye speech and we continued. 2 years in between posts has gotta be a record, right?

I booked myself into a corner here. See with Sonic clearly as the top heel... where do I go from here with Falcon as my top heel champion? Sonic went into a feud with Luigi, which sorry to say even if it was revenge based felt like a step back for Sonic. The initial finals to the inaugural PPV had Falcon defeat DK. If I had gone with DK it would've made more sense for Sonic to dethrone him. Because of this misstep Falcon had no real challengers and Sonic was treading water. One good thing did come out of it my main event scene not being very strong is that I ended up putting a lot of focus and development to my midcard and tag division. In this second volume I actually changed things to a tag setting. So yeah I had only used SSB in name only at this point.

I think I grew bored of the fed after a few PPVs worth of shows and decided to end it on a high note with a big PPV called The Battle of New Pork City. Between you and me it's still one of my proudest achievements in fan fic. Pointlessly Captain Falcon had been the champ the whole time and I had him drop the belt to Donkey Kong (mirroring the original main event) at the final show and then Mario returned. He retired but since Brawl was closing he came back to give DK one defense (or go out as champ himself) so he isn't a total loser. And then it ended, though I did book Bowser to debut and said he's starting his own fed. No intention of actually doing it and I think I wanted to keep my universe open just in case. I was absolutely obsessed with having a universe. Nothing made me mark out more than reading a comic and having them acknowledge "more of the story" takes place in another book. Loved it.

Getting kinda long, but next I'll talk about what is probably my crowning achievement in Fan Fic with that Bowser Fed... kept it going for years and then what to do when PW was on it's last legs and even if I didn't update it much I didn't wanna lose it.

One More For the Road?

Not long after ending Brawl I went ahead and started the next fed. I dunno how soon after the final segment of my finale, but it couldn't have been more than a few days. This was SSB III in all but name since I went with a different take this time. Storyline was Bowser bought out the company and took possession of the belts and had all the contracts. I wanted to do something with an actual power figure as my other two feds were mostly the inmates running things. That I never got behind Bowser as a fighter so I figured it made sense as a GM type figure who just wanted the coins to flow as he tortured Mario.

I had plans to make Bowser a big part of the show and the first segment included him cutting a 20-minute promo. He tangled with Mario, but after a few shows I went to old habits and just had him as an onscreen authority figure who made matches. Very rarely did he get involved physically, although there was once or twice he did. I think with Koopa All-Stars I opted to just take it from a fan's perspective and didn't book super longterm and everything was show by show, which helped that I went for an hour adrenaline rush with no PPVs.

I wanted the shows to matter and I went for a more singles glory since I only had the main belt. I really enjoyed the idea of making a belt "mean something" so I always put a lot of effort into making title matches seem important. In a way it was too serious that way. There was goofy stuff and such, but for the SSB world it was way too ded srs... but that might also reflect my wrestling taste at the time. You could easily see my indy influence in Koopa All-Stars since it was focused on ring work and most of the promos took place post-show/match like you'd see in New Japan. I always loved that sports feel they use.

I had a lot of fun writing things, but I found I fell into some problems. Much like WWE these days, I put so much effort into protecting certain guys and my champion that it led to a lot of tiers that were hard to get around. And sometimes I'd start and stop pushes just to make a guy not a jobber to justify a title shot. Writing consistently like this, especially for as long as the fed lasted, is pretty difficult. Maybe that's why wrestling struggles... no off season, no breaks. Constant stream of content.

I probably put too much effort into making King Boo a heel commentator because sometimes I feel all I did with his dialogue was bury people and insist on getting one-liners in there. The breakout character and since he's not a competitor it was a waste. Good or bad it eventually became a formula. Even if interaction with other posters was kept to a minimum I updated it for years. I'm not sure how many episodes it lasted, but it must've been close to 100. I just loved my main page with results and title history. I took great pride in proclaiming the title the most coveted one in Fan Fic as the lineage went back through several "volumes" of Fan Fic. It was practically it's own character.

I even had a one-off crossover with System's Death Watch. One of my favorite matches I've ever written was Samus vs. Chun Li, just a nasty affair that I wish I had saved. Course all I remember spot wise was Chun Li swinging her around by her pony tail and her countering it by taking a knife out and cutting it off. Course she wasn't smart enough to just stab a bitch in the actual match, so...

Like all things I eventually grew bored of writing. It felt very samey after 80 some episodes. I had several tournaments, a formula for championship reigns, call backs to the original SSB (that only I probably would notice), various ranking/point systems, guest stars, blood and guts, nearly everything I had and then... my posting just got sporadic. I never ended it though. I like the idea that it was eternal. I could pick it up at anytime. So I always made sure to finish a show if nothing else. In that way things kinda felt very samey like a soap opera. New champion, but same general concept. You know what you're gonna get. Oh look new guy is winning matches, oh boy he'll challenge for the belt. Rinse and repeat.

It had probably been months since I last updated and PW was acting up... more so than usual. It was always in the back of my mind like the original that SSB could disappear at any time. PW's status was something I never took seriously. But things were looking bleak and it was recommended that I save my shit. One weekend I did meticulously save all my shows, just in case. Once the board was too far gone and we migrated, one of the first tasks I did was transfer it over. I got a few shows deep (I think) of reposting and just stopped. I decided to say fuck it and just do what I do best... soft reboot!

SSB Ultimate was the ticket. I wanted to start fresh and this time I wanted to make it more fun like actual SSB rather than the wrestling hybrid it had always been. I wanted to use the Smashball as a randomizer for title changes. I had two separate divisions planned with their own rules and wanted to try the 30 day rule. Basically one defense every 30 days or a challenger is found for you. Thought it could be fun, but obviously other than the main page hype and a few promos nothing happened. Seemed overly complicated and *ahem* someone made the concept seem ultra stale so I never came back to it.

The original show was gonna have Peach (current champion) defending against Bowser as a way of finalizing KAS and starting back fresh. Peach was gonna go over and toss Bowser's title on the ground, though I was gonna have King Boo snatch it for a future storyline whatever it would end up being. Alas neither came to be. Part of that is that Peach's title victory happened off screen in the "final KAS episode" before she jumped ship so I never truly felt behind her as a character in that way. I loved her in SSB as a midcard heel, but other than that I never could connect with her even though I really wanted a female champion. Original plans were for Samus to defeat DK, but she didn't feel "over" enough for that.

Kirby was my favorite character. I think if anyone read the show consistently that much is obvious. Despite being a coward/comedy character he was always booked strong and I thought he had the most fun reign of everyone. Truthfully if any of the champions were gonna get a 2nd, it would most likely be him. And yeah the whole idea that the former champion never reach that high again was stolen from ROH at the time. Course they eventually did repeat reigns so it was a lost cause. Also had teased a true Mario heel turn in the mix. He had been on a tweener kick trying to get back his belt. I considered him doing a Snake in the Grass style promo and talking smack about fans buying into anything he does. Lotta ideas that never went anywhere because there's only room for one guy.

I really miss viewing the fed honestly. I always loved going back and revisiting things. I never truly go back and reread matches, but promos and seeing match results was a regular habit of mine. Always loved admiring my old work. Almost gives me enough nostalgia and what if to give 'Ultimate a serious chance. Maybe just a show or two to see if I have the drive again. Never say never I suppose. Hell, I never even bothered to play Ultimate. Without friends or family to play with it just seemed like a waste. I think I just preferred SSB/Melee as far as characters went. Once it went to EVERYONE in the game it lost some of the appeal to me. The core Nintendo guys is what I'm about.

Was it the longest running fed in history? Even if you only count KAS it was a contender, so with the other feds it has to be. It may be quantity over quality because I'm not sure it was any good. It wasn't bad per se, but it felt more competent and consistent than anything that was truly great. SSB helped me stand out even if in a lot of ways it wasn't "true" Mario characters. I just kinda used their likeness as a workaround for booking wrestling. Even if I'm self conscious about it, over time whenever I've done my false modesty routine people are quick to set me straight. Was it a draw? No, but over time I realize that it was in fact a central part of Fan Fic and PW from that time frame so even if it didn't get a lot of feedback there were still eyes on the product. Can't complain about that.

Now it's time to finally wrap this (wrestling talk) up with one more post, maybe two, about where I am at in the current landscape. Is it truly over for me as a wrestling fan? Does the lack of interest go hand-in-hand with writing fan fic? Stay tuned as we wrap up this latest chapter about rasslin.

Jun 25, 2021 0:44:43 GMT jTjohncenaGOAT said:

Wait.. you have all of Koopa All-Stars saved? Post it. I want to read the whole thing over a weekend or something.

Seconded.

Am I that "*ahem* someone"? I hate myself if so...

😞

I did have it saved originally, but after deciding not to bother transferring it over I ended up deleting the file(s). Bit of a gut punch as I really want it now.

Jun 25, 2021 20:58:08 GMT @ness said:

I did have it saved originally, but after deciding not to bother transferring it over I ended up deleting the file(s). Bit of a gut punch as I really want it now.

What a fucking ballsy move. Like what was the upside to deleting it?

Jun 25, 2021 21:21:45 GMT 🤯 said:

Jun 25, 2021 20:58:08 GMT @ness said:

I did have it saved originally, but after deciding not to bother transferring it over I ended up deleting the file(s). Bit of a gut punch as I really want it now.

What a fucking ballsy move. Like what was the upside to deleting it?

I'm very anti-clutter, even on a desktop. After deciding against transferring it over for archive purposes (figured who else but me would care?) I decided I didn't need it anymore and gave it the boot. One very underrated thing about PW is that I didn't have to keep soft copies of my work since the server hosted everything. Or did.

I had a lot of my KWF saved too at my old computer, which is now somewhere in my parents house or attic. I used to write it in word and then copy/paste it into PW and add all the cool colors, bolds, italics and what not.

Man to be young again. Fucking depressing.

Wait; wrong thread.

A Storytime / LIFE crossover, whoa!

Like A Terry Funk Retirement

I can safely say that during it's heyday I could be classified as a "wrestling guy", ya know the guy that people use for question and news. While most turned away I clung to it, so whenever a wrestling thing popped into people's heads they came to me. I knew the deal so I was a trusted source. I was Meltzer for my local community. Usually it was condescending garbage like what happened to Tajiri. He went back to Japan. Wouldn't you? During this time I still wore wrestling shirts to school. That soon became a thing of the past as eventually I got into anime and so my wrestling obsession took a backseat and I refused to wear a wrestling shirt for fear of being seen as uncool. As if I was ever in danger of being cool.

Wrestling shirts are just this weird fashion no no that I refused to do after high school, which is weird since I've never had any negative feedback for it. If anything it could've served as an ice breaker to expand and find friends. I did make a friend at my last job (post-navy before going postal) and slowly over time learned he maybe liked wrestling? Don't make the same mistake I did. This job had us unload a meat/produce truck (we were the produce) and stock the daily stuff. So we did a lot of talking and he educated me on everything in the Dark Souls lore.

Over time we started talking wrestling. Not current product, but mostly reminisce about the good old days. He liked Brock and around this time he had just started his second run and I thought maybe he was a displaced former fan who would be interested again. I learned this the hard way when he was describing his moveset and he said he wanted to do an Octopus Hold. Oh, like AJ Lee? Who's AJ? Fuck. I let my guard down and admitted I still watch wrestling like a GEEK. Any time I see the tiniest of hope that someone is a fan I let my guard down and expose myself. It's hard to find friends IRL and ones that like wrestling is even harder. I really miss the openness of being a young fan. Just talking about it in general is very rewarding, but those days I was in the closet about it simply because at best you'll get "oh use to back in the day" all the way to the hostile "ya know it's fake, right?" - So I've taken the coward's approach and just never mention it again.

Soon enough wrestling became a chore for me. I was no longer keeping up with everything. Slowly over time I became an "x wrestler" guy. I'd check out their segments the next night using the various watch wrestling sites or just WWE's Youtube channel. After a while that got old too. I still checked out things like the Mae Young Classic and was in tune to who the current hotness was, but long gone was the days of watching full shows and all of them. There was a brief moment where I started getting into Progress, the UK indy fed that was essentially WWE UK in all but name. Yeah mostly just to check out Toni Storm matches. If she looked like Shayna I wouldn't have so clearly I am a pervert.

New Japan was really coming into it's own around this time with Bullet Club and the western expansion. To be honest other than a match here or there I never really got into Puro. I've always liked the idea and enjoyed when they'd appear as guests in ROH and such, but whenever I've checked out their actual shows it doesn't resonate as deeply with me as it does with some. There's stuff I like and stuff I don't, but I think the biggest hurdle to me was New Japan World. The google translate and messy layout always kept me from subscribing, even for a token month. So I may be alone, but the idea that the WWE would be their English distributor is something I wouldn't mind at all.

I don't venture into the AEW talks much and truthfully I never truly got into it or gave it a shot. Part of it is wrestling fatigue, but also a good chunk of their guys were people that came along after I had stopped following wrestling so there was a disconnect unlike the indy stars I liked from 08-12. There's a few that I do enjoy, like Orange Cassidy, but not enough to really get into it.

I could not tell you when it started, but over the past 5 years I have probably watched a total of 20 matches in full. My interest went elsewhere and with wrestling at an all time low in appeal with the general population, it just seemed inevitable. I may have given up wrestling a long time before I have, but being on PW for so long it was always in the back of my mind. Even just reading wrestling thread titles is enough to keep all the big news bullet points fresh in my head. So I can never truly escape it.

And honestly Youtube has kinda breathed some wrestling content into my life recently. I've been following Grilling with JR for a bit and thanks to algorithms no doubt, I click occasionally on the Bryan Alvarez news clips. And of course Botchamania, but that one is like saying your favorite seafood is shrimp. It doesn't even count. But yeah I think other than a few token matches seen throughout the year I am mostly done with wrestling. Started out as a mark, began following it solo through the IWC, reached my potential as an indy geek until eventually growing bored of it.

There's still interest though, just in bite sized pieces like on Youtube. Or say the occasional wrestling documentary that seem to be released regularly these days. It was a big part of my life once upon a time, but in a lot of ways that book is coming to an end. I never got the appeal of seeing it live and without fans to discuss it with (outside of PW of course) it just doesn't hold my attention. And maybe seeing the same faces every week for over 20 years does that to you. Unlike shows and movies there really is no break. Wrestling is just an ongoing onslaught of content and these days my hand is tapping the mat.

I'll discuss the past. Maybe consider rebooking. A match or two from people I'm fans of sure, but the days of caring enough to tell you who the champs and big players are or watching a 3 hour show is probably done. I am no longer the local wrestling guy.

That shit was DEEP @ness.

Excellent eulogy, @ness. I feel every word in my bones.

Is this why you PM'd me to ask if I was into any current era guys besides Brock?

With Great Power...

Growing up pre-internet was a different time and dare I say a different Ness. There was once a period where I enjoyed and preferred to be outside. So much so that I'm pretty sure I stopped doing homework in like 5th grade. I know this because after getting home from school I would immediately head outside to the playground and was basically alone. I had friends, but they were stuck inside doing homework. Despite being a little more outdoorsy I cannot say my interests ever veered too far away from video games. All my hobbies and things I was into as a child were the usual passive entertainment like cartoons and tv. I didn't care for sports and while I would participate in the neighborhood games (like kickball or whatever) my passions were never in being active. To quote GOT, I was very much interested in stories about "better men".

I was into dinosaurs big early on. I think this is a given with young boys. I used to carry around giant dino text books and claim to be an expert despite never truly reading it. Pictures was all that mattered. Eventually I moved on (but came back in a big way years later for Jurassic Park) and got into Ninja Turtles. I think super heroes is an easy sell to a kid, which is probably why nearly every kid gets into them. In fact my first "hero" was probably not even them, but Underdog. My parents often tease me about how much of a dumb mark I was because I would eat M&Ms and pretend they were "super energy pills" and I think at one time I was OBSESSED with Scrappy Doo despite having zero active memories of liking Scooby Doo in general.

Comic books are also an easy sell I think because it encompasses said hero worship along with reading, but not really. Reading a comic is obviously vastly different from picking up a light novel or whatever. Truthfully I could never really get into reading for recreation. In total I have probably read a non-school book cover to cover maybe a total of 50x in my life. Even if illustrations and other distractions are minor, it helps a lot. Just a book of words never did anything for me. I always feel like I'm in a weird middle ground where I'm considered a nerd, but not at the level most expect of me. As "nerd culture" has gone extremely mainstream in the last 10-20 years I have questioned if I truly was a geek, or just a loser who happened to be ahead of the curve.

I bring all that up to say that I'm sure my parents did the usual raising kids thing where they've give me picture books and eventually try and let me read comic books. It keeps a kid interested, but also you learn to read. Win win, right? I don't have any memories of actually reading comics as a hobby as a kid. I do remember back in the day grocery stores had them on shelves. It may be a Mandella Effect but I could've sworn during this time frame they featured them on turnstile types displays near the checkout lines with the candy and trashy mags. Comics are definitely trash mags for kids.

So I had a few comics, but still never making it a hobby. Instead I was more into video games and action figures. Boy did I love me some action figures. $5 allowance and at the time individual toys were around that so it was a pretty sweet gig. Only issue is I never had any playsets or vehicles. So neighborhood kids may have, but I generally had way more "dudes" in my army. Course having a few turtles and a blimp is way better than having a bunch of figures. Clearly. That all changed when I got into my first real hero show... the 90's Animated Spider-Man Series.

This series really opened my eyes to how awesome a show could be. Now watching it on Fox Kids meant I was seeing things randomly and even though it's a kids show so it's meant to be consumed in small pieces... it still felt like it told an overarching story, something that defines current TV. So much of my early knowledge is tied to this show. I nearly classified myself as some Spider-Man expert just because I had seen the series in some capacity dozens and dozens of times due to repeats. I didn't really get into other comic toons in this period, including the acclaimed Batman and X-Men series. My love and devotion was only for Spidey. I had a ton of the figures and was simply obsessed with this world. I was content putting my focus there rather than try other stuff. It's a trend that would follow me for a good many years. As soon as that theme song played... ass was planted.

I couldn't tell you why I was drawn in when other shows of similar quality failed to grab me. Perhaps if I had seen Batman first I would've ignored Spidey, but everything just clicked to me as a kid. The character, motivations, preference to the villains even though objectively you really can't top the Batman Rogues Gallery... and Venom was just cool as fuck. Despite all that and being completely engrossed in the series and lore surrounding Peter Parker it never led to comic books. And this is something I always feel they suffer with: advertising. Sure occasionally they'd have promotional stuff, but it felt like a self-contained thing. Did I know it was based on books? Yes, but I didn't feel the need to go beyond that. I'd ask Mom for this Hobgoblin figure, but never a new book to read. I blame that on books seemingly disappearing from the grocery shelves. And I didn't really have enough of a desire to go to a comic shop or even know what one was. Any friends I may have had weren't into that, so it never crossed my mind.

Until it did and that was when a comic shop became a need. When did that happen? Late 90s thanks to the Pokemon craze. And then needing to go to a specialty shop not only became necessary but mandatory. I was in middle school now, so savvy enough to go places on my own if they're close by. And it just so happened we had a comic shop nearby, though they were more centered around the card collecting aspect. And so next I'll discuss actually going to a comic shop and not know it's true name for years.

I Wanna Be The Very Best

Gonna say it was somewhere between 8th and 9th grade that the Pokemon bug bit me. It's possible that it reached me a year or two earlier, but I was fully engrossed in it no later than early high school. I know this because each year in middle school was highlighted by a different interest. It was really impossible for me to have not be all in seeing as I was attacked in multiple ways. It was a video game, it was a card game, it had a show. There was a craze around it and I think it changed my ways of life going forward. It was either right as I was getting into wrestling hardcore or a few years into it. It seemed up until recent memory when I found something new I didn't just passively enjoy it... I went all in. Go all in or get the fuck out the way. Didn't hurt that literally everyone I knew was into it. Should stress I didn't know any cool kids to be fair. Even the teen girl squad (tm) I sometimes hung out with at least had a deck of their own. Not sure if I mentioned them in the love chapter or not, but shows you there's plenty of content for future director's cuts/DVD commentary posts.

I could seriously go on for several posts about what Pokemon did to me, but I don't wanna derail where the comic talk is going. I simply want to stress the link between Pokemon and the comic shop. So we had a local comic shops called Vip's Cards and Comics. No clue if it still existed because I googled it and a different shop came up. No clue if it's just rebranded or what, but that's what it was called at the time. Funny thing is for years I thought it was pronounced Vips as in take a sip. Evidently it was called Vee Eye Pee's, which I learned much later when one of the workers answered the phone. It wasn't even capitalized though...

Either because of Pokemon or that was always the hook (despite being second billing in the store title)... this place was clearly centered on the card collecting aspect. When I started going in to get into the trading card game I wanna say 85% of the shop was dedicated to card collecting seeing as they only had a back corner with actual comic books. Very red headed step child of them. Clearly cards was the money maker at the time. Magic the Gathering and other collectibles were popular in the 90s I'm sure, but Pokemon gave them that mainstream exposure and that meant money.

There was clearly a fear of missing out and no doubt plenty of parents gave in to shut kids up. Mine were no different, although clearly I was old enough where they can channel it into an allowance and chores. I had it all man... cards, the gameboy hookups, binders to collect everything... even lifesized Pokeballs. Personally I don't even consider this my gateway into anime as that was more DBZ a few years later. Still a pretty penny was spent on cardboard cards. It almost felt like an investment because even spending $10 on a booster pack was more than worth it since they always came with a rare. You might not get your holographic Charizard, but it'll at least have been $10 worth... and then there's the other cards.

I did learn that despite being "older" than the usual demo, I was still naiive and far from street smart. Witnessed some kid getting said Charizard stolen immediately after opening his pack. Also got scammed by some kids in order to get their hands on my Dugtrio card. I have never been quite as bamboozled as I was when they traded me a stack of commons for a rare. I'm still ashamed to this day they tricked me. The comic shop was my pimp. I was addicted and it was everywhere.

And yet it wasn't my only reason to go to the shop. I was clearly focused on Pokemon, but in the back of my mind I was also interested in comics. Probably the only one in the whole region because I always got side-eyed whenever I'd buy books in addition to the cards. Almost like the shop owners forgot they even had them available. Legit they seemed focused on Pokemon and I think they thought the gravy train would never end. I didn't understand how comic releases worked (and never asked) but would pick up some occasionally. Thing about comics and early internet was there wasn't much solo research I could do. In the back of Marvel comics (and I'm sure DC) you could actually order books to be sent to your house, like a magazine subscription. At least they did in the 90s as I was always tempted. But also it seemed like a real gamble since they cancel books on whims due to low sales or whatever factors. Do you get a retroactive refund?

I may have mentioned him in my wrestling talk, but in 9th grade my neighbor was big into fantasy which greatly influenced me getting into Pokemon and by proxy Magic. He was obsessed with MTG. I mean, we're talking those big ass toolboxes of cards and custom decks and all that shit. He helped me get started, although my heart was always more into Pokemon as it was clearly the checkers to the Magic chess. Still only ever managed to beat him once and I'm told it didn't "count" because he was mana screwed. Basically he was defenseless because he had no magic to power up his creatures so I beat him by luck of the draw and it only ever happened since his deck never produced any "energy" cards. That's part of the game dude. And somehow being a seasoned pro beating a novice like me counts? Fuck outta here.

Eventually, like all collecting in my life, I got bored of it. People began to move on and it was no longer "cool". I admit I gave in to some peer pressure. I was never part of that scene, but I did sit with the types of kids who played the game at lunch. Once that stopped being a thing because we entered various stages of high school I developed less of a need to venture into the shop. Keep in mind that I was only getting a token book here and there and once neighbor guy moved I didn't really have someone to regularly play with. (Though even to this day I'll occasionally buy 2 premade decks and play myself for the hell of it. Pathetic, but not uncommon from what I hear.) I think I may have moved to a new area and no local shop anyways, so I kinda put it all behind me. But not before doing the right thing and bending all my old cards so nobody could benefit from them. I didn't feel like try to sell them, but also didn't want someone to have them for free. Because I'm a piece of shit... I guess getting scammed by those kids was what I deserved.

All in all the Pokemon craze got my foot into the door with regards to the comic shop culture. Truthfully it's something I wish I was more socially involved with. Supporting a hobby, lots of people just regularly hang out there, game nights and all that shit. It's one thing to complain about not having friends, but there are some to be made right there but I chose not to engage. So that's Pokemon and I don't care what they say... it's Vips (like nips) Cards and Comics. VIP? No that's lame and I refuse to acknowledge it as correct. Next post I might discuss a few topics (pending how much is dedicated to each)... talk about those early comic films, a take on newspaper syndication strips and the start of truly getting into reading books as a legit hobby.

Need more teen girl squad tales.

Mondays Are Fine When You Luke Harper Them

So I've had an on-again off-again relationship with syndicated comics... newspaper comics... the funny pages. Unless you're introduced to comics at an early age reading these are probably where a lot of people first read comics. We weren't a newspaper family, but we were a Sunday version. I think Mom liked coupons and I liked the color pages of comics. When I saw we had the paper it was my first goal in the morning to read the funnies. Sometimes I'd thumb through the weekly flyers, but mostly the comics.

So I had my favorites and once I had my regulars I rarely ventured out. Something I'm quite guilty of to this day with other things. I loved Garfield and I think a big reason for that is sometime when I was young said gift giving uncle (via donating his old shit) gave me stacks and stacks of collected editions of things like Garfield, Family Circus, etc. So there was an instant attachment to them appearing in the weekly paper. Easier to stick with a proven series than try something new. Calvin & Hobbes became a big favorite of mine and I gotta give some credit to an elementary school friend.

Ravioli Boy as he was nicknamed for always bringing it for lunch and I became friends one year, couldn't tell you which. I always had a habit of getting a new best friend each year until high school. Military and changing classes will do that. Anyways he was big into C&H and I'm not sure what else? In the same way he introduced me to comics in that way, I introduced him to action figures. He invited me over for his birthday and so Mom bought him the bull alien from Aliens. Ya know the the one with the extending neck? Amazing toyline and that was with me knowing nothing about Aliens. Just quality figures. I think seeing how excited he was to get a new collected edition was my first exposure to "fandom". Like I liked things... but when you're a fan it's a totally different deal.

Checking out the funnies was almost like early internet to me. A routine and something to discover. Once we did get the internet I gained a newfound interest in reading the funnies beyond a token glance if I found a newspaper freely. Wasn't worth the 50 cents (and somehow I was justifying real coin with Marvel lol) just for a few comics. One of the first things I discovered on the internet was comics. Early Internet we had AOL and I don't think anyone had a clue how to use the browser, so we mostly did things like chatrooms and using AOL keywords. Well there was an animated Spidey comic. Basically all the bubbles and dialogue moved a little and were in colors... like it was the only way to grab anyone's attention was if everything was a spotfest. It worked for a bit. I did that for a while and then when the internet became a little more mainstream and I could do things like store bookmarks I started reading comics weekly.

Various comic sites, usually affiliated with the companies themselves, uploading the dailies and kept an archive. It became an every day routine that once I got access to the computer (back when we shared) first thing is log in, email, im people and then read the latest books. Garfield, Foxtrot, Meg... and a dozen others I am sure. Cul de Sac I considered the sequel to Calvin may have been the greatest of them all. Comics that were never LOL funny and at best a pfft chuckle, but I looked forward to them. Until this moment I didn't realize that I am just a mindless consumer as far as hobbies go. What a dweeb. Yeah things have evolved a lot since the AOL days, but I think reading daily comics is the first "routine" I ever developed with Internet use. It slowly started going from an occasional thing to my way of life. Internet addiction and all.

Over time I focused my energy elsewhere and stopped caring enough to read newspaper stuff online. But if say I was in a waiting room and a paper was out... I'd casually look. But it wasn't a routine any longer. I'm sure it's correlated to when forums, video/music became more accessible. Ain't gonna take my attention with something boring like funny books. I had my own stack of those "uncle books", but since I wasn't a collector or took pride in like a shelf or whatever... I rarely went back to them. Having those books was mostly an early internet thing. Once it was readily readable online I didn't see the need to buy them anymore. I did mark out whenever we had those Scholastic Book Fairs at school. In fact if I happened to be in an actual bookstore or library my first instinct to kill time was always look at those comics. But I eventually threw out or got rid of all my books... sorry I can't pay it forward like it was done for me.

I have memories growing up of my parents not really liking us to see anything Rated R so I found myself more connected with 2d art like comics and cartoons. In fact the only "live action" interest obsession has been was wrestling, which is basically a comic in itself. And I guess the pictures didn't feel like reading and I didn't like doing it. Endless words is just too boring to me. I do wonder if this is why I've had troubled connecting with people after a time. Most of the shows and movies I was consuming was cartoon based. Getting more and more engrossed in internet usage I grew attached to light colored caricatures of people as I stopped interacting with them. I guess I lived through them in a way. I figured I watched or read comics because it filled time. So I guess if I'm being truthful if someone asked me why I watch something it's because "it's better than out here".

Once I got the internet I basically stopped following tv in general minus wrestling. Like my TV only turned on for video games or to watch wrestling. I think the only time I really cared enough to go to the movies was to see super hero stuff so for years I'd see like 5-10 movies a year at most. I was in a bubble. I just didn't care enough beyond those big blockbusters. And they were usually based on comic properties. Funny is I never cared enough to watch any Batman TAS. Loved Spidey but I never bothered to watch any of the other shows at the time. I was too young (or didn't care about heroes yet) for the first Batman and Returns (saw those much later than when they were out) but I saw Batman Forever in the theater. Say what you want about Jim Carrey as Riddler, but it was a draw to me. I might not've even cared enough to see it without him.

For a good many years the only time I went to the movies was for these types of properties. Over the last several years I've been slowly watching the stuff I missed and the good stuff. And as much as I loved Spider-Man I didn't even know a movie was coming out since I didn't follow actual comics just yet. I did eventually see it and I was hyped for Spidey 2, and man did it deliver. For the longest time this was a LOCK for my top 10 movies ever. Obviously over the years it's not even in the top 10 for best hero movies... though higher than most would expect. Over time I started paying more attention to hero movies. Then I started going to the theaters a little more. Once I stopped having friends to see movies with and people to talk to about, it just became more difficult to justify going. I've had no issue seeing a movie by myself, and I do enjoy the experience including concessions but they become less important in that way. I think on demand has ruined that aspect for me a little.

But yeah I loved those early movies... but I also had a very limited window. Like super hero shit and anime consisted of like 70% of my movie/tv diet. So whether or not that makes them quality is another story. Like a lot of people hate Batman Forever, but I love it. And I wanna say a lot of it is because I saw it live and had the VHS. When you have limited things to do you're gonna rewatch old stuff, whereas now there's too much available. So at the time I've seen it dozens of times so I have fond memories. It shows that I really did live in a limited bubble of interests and probably why it took me a while to branch out into other things. I guess I just couldn't relate to anything else.

Like if they didn't make those early super hero movies I don't think I'd have ever watched anything but anime in that time frame. So next I'll talk about getting a serious interest in reading Spider-Man comics thanks to Spidey 2 and how that eventually led to me turning into a comic guy.

From Poster to Mod Back to Poster

If I've established anything it's this... I loved Spider-Man. Not everything obviously but even the stuff I wasn't really into (fuck you Morbius) I could still see some merit to it. And yet I didn't really consider myself a comic or super hero fan. Just Spidey. I didn't branch off into Batman or X-Men and honestly thought Wolverine was annoying when he guest starred. I loved everything in his universe and enjoy comics to an extent, but I never really collected or read anything. I didn't understand it was a thing honestly. See it's very different than it was 20 some odd years ago... the internet really made everything easier in this way.

So sometime after Spidey 2 was out I managed to make the plunge. I don't even know if I was on PW then, a strange revelation for some. There was a time when I wasn't here. I didn't just randomly pick up a Spidey book, nah see the numbers for the issue was always a little intimidating. Yeah you can generally pick up anywhere. At worst a few back issues and I didn't wanna follow randomly... but then the comic gods were looking out for me. I can't tell you where I found it... was it a tv commercial? Some ad connected to the movie? But I discovered a CD Rom that contained all the Amazing Spider-Man issues at that point in time. Well up to that recent milestone (#500). I'm gonna just say they were officially at like 530 when I got my hands on it. So close enough.

This boxed set is why I'm a comic fan to this day. Today there's dozens of sites you can read comics, so there's no need for a set like this. But 2005 or 2006, whenever it was released, while you had piracy and all that... it wasn't readily available like it is today. So the CDs contained pdf files of all the comics. So I started from issue 1 (technically his debut in Amazing Fantasy) and began slowly reading the Amazing run in order with the idea that once I hit 500... I continued to follow it.

Those early issues were quite wordy, but over time it just became a routine to play catch up in between regular internet usage. There was a girl who lived next door and she talked to my brother and I. I dunno if she had a crush on me, but she'd knock occasionally and wanna talk outside. One of those times was when I was reading the books. She asked me what I was doing it and I told her. She asked me why I'm doing that when I can just watch the movies. Here's the thing... for a while I loved those movies. But seeing the same movie over and over gets old. I know what's going down, which is probably why I don't revisit much anymore. With the books it's all new. Even if the stories themselves have been consumed via watching cartoons and such... still, it's like seeing it for the first time. So to properly answer the question... why read them? To find out what happens next. I wasn't clever enough to answer via that at the time.

I've caught up, now what? Well, I was starting to notice PW and the Nerdery. I've been a member of dozens of forums, but as we all found out this place was special. They had a place to talk about comics and the big thing at the time was Civil War. Everyone had forum banners that said "I'm with X" and usually a comic person. Some early memes involved. I was finally interesting to Spider-Man as more than a casual mark and the discussion helped a ton. I started going to a comic shop (not Vip's as we had moved by now) but was still a little clueless. I'd go randomly and see if a new Spidey issue was out (I started collecting after 501) and week in and week out it was the same issue I had read. Was too proud to ask anyone for help.

And then I learned, via PW, about comic book day... Wednesday. And how schedules worked and that the reason I didn't see anything past the current issue is that is all there until they release the next one. Civil Was was an event, sort of a crossover of all the Marvel people. I only vaguely understood they all were in the same universe. I'm not sure if Marvel did these crossovers much, but after Civil War it seemed like one led to the next. And in doing so I started getting into other characters. Civil War exposed me to Iron Man and Cap, which led to World War Hulk and I got into him. And as an obvious money grab all these events had tie-ins because what would an event be without finding out what Kitty Pride was doing while Hulk is wrecking shit? Do you need to? No, but if you're like me... you did.

I had been posting almost exclusively in anime topics and I started branching out into comics more. Giving some opinions here and there and I dare say I almost had a high opinion of myself. Just because I had some anime knowledge I felt like I was amazing because I had intimate knowledge of each. There wasn't much, heh, crossover between the two so I thought I was a hybrid. Eventually my activity led to them wanting me to be a mod alongside spot in bob dole's absence. I guess they saw anime was becoming a big topic at hand (the anime thread) and for whatever reason they saw potential in me. I was obsessed with PW and was always wanting to make the forum proud. There was talk about a subforum, which I have been historically been against. Like it felt like the "anime kids" were seen as red headed step children. I tried to actually do things, but got yelled at because that's not what we do. I was mostly trying to clean up the clutter... get discussion done outside the general thread and maybe get some "events" going. I was told that's not what we do, basically letting me know it wasn't my show.

Fair enough, but I always felt my "promotion" was mostly done as I was a longtime poster who represented a new demo in the forum so I wanted them to be heard. Over time (maybe they exhausted themselves in the anime thread) discussion tapered off and they left. My efforts went nowhere and the "backstage" atmosphere just killed whatever motivation I had to continue so I just acted as a normal poster, barely caring about being a mod. Would go months without even visiting the mod room. I didn't care about that sorta thing, but I liked having a bold name and seeing Ness under forum leaders even if I didn't do anything. So rather than step down I just became a mod in name only.

I suppose some people just make better posters than mods and that was the case with me. A few years of inactivity (as a mod I was still a frequent contributor), then admin Stone Cold asked me if I wanted to stay on board. I mulled it over and said yeah go ahead and I'll just go back to being a normal poster again. No more bold name. No more access to the salad bar. Everything disappeared and I started having weird fever dreams... was that real or just an elaborate Fan Fic post? We'll never know.

Right before I was modded I did participate in my first PW Mania match teaming with spot against c and kotw to save the anime thread from being deleted. See c had claimed the anime thread was "clogging the tubes" and causing the board issues. I didn't know it was kayfabe and thought he literally hated me and wanted our discussion to end. So my promos were legit because I didn't know it was a work. Like all things there's elements of truth to it, but I went in thinking we were enemies. Maybe I'm not wrong? I had a few more matches and then I wasn't really over enough to get anymore bookings until it returned after a lengthy absence and I kinda started doing wrestling promos videos (early PW News stuff) that eventually led to me winning more popularity contests. Might touch up on "promo Ness" one day. Being butthurt over my failed run as mod certain helped with the passion though. Art imitating life and all that.

So yeah thanks to the Spidey set and the Nerdery I was starting to become a legit comic fan. Despite enjoying digital Spider-Man, I wasn't quite there yet as digital wasn't what it is today. So I was spending decent coin on books to read once and then bag/board. As a kid with no bills and nothing but fun money... okay sure. Can't imagine forking down that kinda cash as an adult. I was starting to collect, but not because I wanted them. I mostly just read em and then stored em. I think once the internet was a thing the days of revisiting things died for me. There's just too much available that I struggle to see everything new, let alone "waste" time watching a rerun. Cable tv is different, but on demand via the internet? No chance.

So I got a few other topics to discuss. Other cartoons besides 90's Spider-Man, making my own web comic and just discussing comic collecting as a newbie who was too proud to ask for advice from the Nerdery. Maybe I was a bit annoyed over being told not to mess with anything (killed my momentum, but I also have thin skin to be fair), but never felt comfortable making any serious topics like that with the comic readers. We'll get into it though. Slowly we're evolving and much like wrestling, is the passion still there?

Sounds like we need a c cameo to confirm once and for all whether or not the heat was real.

Loyal Like Fat Joey

When it came to cartoons I was pretty loyal to the boys. I liked my Nicktoons, I liked Spider-Man and well... that was it really. I didn't branch out too far which sadly included the critically acclaimed Batman TAS. Even to this day I have yet to watch the show. Now I've seen some of the specials tied into the "universe", but that was very recently. I suppose I just reached a point where I couldn't justify sinking my teeth into a new series that has a billion episodes. But I get it... the show is the definitive Batman experience and I certainly felt that when watching Mask of the Phantasm. Maybe one day, but it's gonna be difficult to justify it on the list when season 1 is a ridiculous 60 episodes with the following 2 seasons having less combined. Who decides that?!?

In all honesty I only somewhat enjoyed Batman when the show was on the air. Now if it was on Fox Kids maybe, but I don't think I watched much WB as a kid. Another classic that I missed "live" was X-Men. This one makes less sense seeing as they literally appeared on the Spider-Man cartoon. Possibly more than once. I did love that opening theme and always made it a point to stick around for the song, and then high tail it outta there. A lot of shows have great opening themes but that's about it. Looking at you Malcolm. Seriously this may be the greatest hype theme ever.

Now unlike Bats, I did eventually track down X-Men. At some point after reading comics as more than a token hobby I began watching new comic cartoons that were released. Spectacular Spider-Man... Wolverine the X-Men... Brave and the Bold... etc. And in doing so I decided to try out X-Men and downloaded a torrent of files and watched them over a period. Dunno if I binged it entirely or a season here and there... but to compare it to Batman: X-Men had a total of 76 episodes over 5 seasons. Serious Batman what were you doing? I liked everything but the final season. Couldn't tell you if they just lost track of what they were building or if I was just burnt out at that point. It's really the only thing I remember... everything was great until the ending.

Like I said I always had this weird connection to comics. I suppose it's simply the best of both worlds between tv and reading. I'm not against reading, but I never got into reading just words. I never a buffer and comics provided that since it has pics and dialogue. I dunno using your imagination always felt like unpaid labor, like when you're at a concert and they stop singing so the audience can participate. I get it, but still... I paid to hear you dude. As I've mentioned before prior to joining PW I had a Geocities page that sorta acted as a precursor to social media where I just posted random crap. This was during the more wild west era of internet browsing and it was... interesting. I learned basic html and just had a site to toss random crap to the world. And eventually that was my own comic.

Around 2001 I discovered the world of web comics. People had sites (either their own or affiliates) and would either draw them or use sprites from video games and made comic strips similar to what you'd see in the newspaper. Eventually I saw enough where I wanted to do my own and thus my first real dive into fan fic was born. I pulled up Paint and created a template (4 panels) and started doing a daily comic series based on a fictionalized version of my life with my "friends". It starred me as Chrono Trigger, my wrestling hating friend from middle school was Mega Man without the helmet, the other friend was basically Kirby (don't ask) and maybe 1 other "main" but I can't recall who I used for them. Doesn't matter as they were all just a means to an end to get my character's one-liners over. I think I did it daily (including weekends) for a year or two until eventually I stopped updating beyond a finale where everyone got SARS, so you know how relevant in time it was. And like clockwork someone signed my guest book after the finale saying they wished I still made it. Fuck dude if I had known someone was reading I never woulda stopped. That tiny feedback is what always kept me going. And they always wait until the bitter end to let me know they enjoyed it.

To this day I'm not sure if web comics are still a thing. I went back to see if the original comics that inspired me to do my own and one is still going strong. Did not see that coming and before I start hunting down my old stomping grounds it's time to end this. Right now I only follow a single active web comic and couldn't tell you the last time I read a Garfield minus a token check-in every few years. I suppose super heroes just took their place.

Was not expecting a Trogdor gif. Good god, the memories. Now time to go revisit ebaumsworld.

Foos, iron maiden—

ALL OF WESTERN CENTRAL CANADA

I dare you.

Oct 30, 2021 0:19:45 GMT 🤯 said:

Foos, iron maiden—

ALL OF WESTERN CENTRAL CANADA

I dare you.

@ness

I don't think foos wants to hear the details of when I got rid of my books. Least they got recycled though.