Putting The WRESTLING In FW
By Chad Merritt
2:38 AM on 4/26/2002


I recently read a thread on a message board site (EWPlanet for those of you who haven’t visited yet) that asked if fantasy wrestling is even about wrestling anymore? Great question… and one I’ve wondered about for a while now.

In the same thread, the good old “roleplay versus angle” feds rears its head, with some suggesting that angle-based leagues are an ‘evolution’ to the ‘old school’ game. Other posters suggest that FWers have changed and lean more towards writing than roleplaying.

I’d like to offer my humble opinion. Before I say this next point, let me assure you that it’s not meant to put anyone down or to try and claim some sort of superiority… I just think it’s a simple fact. So here goes…

Yes, the game continues to evolve, it always has. But more importantly, the players continue to GROW UP.

Obvious, I know. But it’s an important point. A twelve-year old has a different approach to the game than a fifteen-year old does. A twenty-year old has an even more changed approach.

Look at it this way: I now consider us four ‘generations’ into fantasy wrestling. For those of you that have already heard me ramble about FW ‘history’, skip to the next paragraph. Play-by-mail wrestling games began, for the most part, in the mid-1980s, as wrestling was going through its original ‘Golden Age.’ “Home leagues,” the precursor to online leagues began just after. They generally served as an easy, free alternative to the pay-to-play leagues with one notable exception… you could trash talk with your friends, you could build a character and make him speak with his own voice, you could “roleplay.” It’s not as if it were a new concept, major RPG games already existed... but this was an extension of real wrestling. Fantasy wrestling went online in the early 1990s and grew on pre-WWW bulletin boards on providers like Prodigy and AOL. FW hit the Web starting around 1994, and hasn’t looked back since.

So look at it this way, if you were 12 in 1988 when ‘home leagues’ took precedence, you’re 26 now. If you were 12 in 1992 as FW hit online bulletin boards, you’re 22. If you were 12 in 1996 as FW was on the verge of taking the Web by storm, then you’re 18. And if you hit FW at age 12 in the year 2000 and the inception of resource sites, FW domains all over the place, etc., then you’re 14.

So what does it matter? Well, rather than the big debate between what type of characters you should use (real or generated) that raged in the 90s, the major debate becomes what type of roleplay you ought to do. Rather than ‘start-up’ feds that build history from their inception, you now have feds that create their own history to give backstory.

Is story more important these days? Absolutely. Is it NEW? Absolutely not.

I’ve talked about the roleplay/angle fed debate in another column. I suggested there that leagues like the fWo and CSWA who have been able to find some sort of hybrid are naturally more successful. Both parts are essential, they provide a necessary synergy that makes for an overall, well-rounded story.

It was suggested in the thread on EWPlanet that traditionally roleplay-based leagues like the CSWA are ‘old school.’ That’s probably true. But it doesn’t take long to go through the roleplay and cards of the CSWA before you start to see major storyline aspects that play a part. I have always told members that there are two major buckets that all roleplay falls in: the ‘promo’ bucket and the ‘storyline’ bucket. We all generally know what those are: promos are generally the on-air trash talking that we’re used to seeing on pro wrestling shows; storyline rps can be on- or off-camera, and deal with events in a character’s life.

Aidan Campbell pointed out that the key in character development is pacing. He also commented (and I’m paraphrasing massively) that with so many leagues folding because they can’t be ‘the new big thing,’ roleplayers tend to throw everything out at once. Again, to throw it back to the CSWA (since that’s what I know best), there are storylines that incorporate YEARS of material. And that means that diehard fans are going to know all the nuance from years of backstory, while casual league fans are going to pick up on exactly what you’re giving them NOW… just like fans of professional wrestling. It means that owners and handlers have to make sure that they play to both sides. A league like the fWo has to be masterful at this, making new fans understand WHY they should care about a character like Crusader returning, while making sure the return trumps what the character has done in the past.

One final series of points: some have suggested that we could take the ‘wrestling’ completely out of fantasy wrestling. Sure ya could, and hopefully you’d have a great collaborative writing experience, like many others on the Web. What makes this community different is that when it boils down to it… the characters are tied to wrestling. Whether they love it, hate it, or use it as a means to an end, they’re all grounded in the EVENT itself.

I notice so many new leagues provide great historical backstory when they start up, have great roleplayers, and together they provide great vignettes. That’s terrific, and it can make for a good read. UNTIL… the matches suck.

Some of you are saying out loud, “So what if the matches suck? That’s not what it’s all about. It’s about the STORY!” Some FWrestling.com readers are saying wait… you wrote a column called “It’s The Story, Stupid.” Here’s the kicker folks: the match IS the story. It should be the climax that everything else builds up to and stems from. Too many leagues use the match itself as a necessary evil, and then jump to the next eight-page vignette. Are there times that eight-page vignettes can be good? Absolutely. But an eight-page match can be just as important.

It’s time for matches to tell stories again. It’s important for commentators to lead the readers to the important action, to point out the backstory and the consequences. It’s essential for the in-ring action to be as consequential as what happens on the road, or in a darkened boiler room, or in a girlfriend’s apartment.

Yes, it’s the STORY, stupid. But remember to master ALL the tools you have to build that story. Otherwise you’re only the master of half your domain.