"State of the Sport" Address By Chad Merritt 2:00 AM on 3/05/2002 (This article was originally posted on FW Central and other message boards in late September 2001.) In the time that FantasyWrestling.com was down due to a server crash, I’ve had a rare opportunity. Rather than just the usual customary glance, I’ve had actual time to surf other sites, read message boards and take a look at what goes on on the ‘other side’ of the FW world. I’ve seen claims that fantasy wrestling ‘didn’t exist’ until Flash and Poser. I’ve seen debates over who has the best fed or who runs the best ‘resource’ site. As always, the inevitable pimping of the latest fed with ‘never-before-seen’ gimmicks or graphics, along with the always-fun advertisement of the next big thing “coming in three months.” In other words, things haven’t changed much in the last few years. (Grin) The arguments just have many of the same and some slightly different topics. There have always been different ‘circles’ of fantasy wrestling. Just like professional wrestling, everyone in fantasy has their own ‘history.’ Whether it was the Sports/Wrestling BB on PRODIGY, AOL’s Grandstand, a local BBS, or paper-and-pen at a friend’s house, we all have our own story of how our time in FW began. Maybe it was picking up a wrestling mag and seeing an ad for play-by-mail wrestling, or seeing the Champions of the Galaxy Game, or going online and seeing your first e-fed. More recently maybe it was seeing WrestleCell or EWN, FWLNet/IWO, EWUncensored, FWO, FSW, EWZone, DDWWW, Kage, or one of the other great resource sites and leagues available. And isn’t that the way it should be? Where the professional scene has almost completely lost a true sense of regional wrestling except for a few hotspots, the fantasy scene continues to abound with hundreds of feds opening and closing each year. Cliques of wrestlers still bounce from fed-to-fed, while every once in a while a character like Zero transcends the boundaries and ‘goes national.’ For those of you who are old enough to remember wrestling in the 80s, you’re probably aware of the same phenomenon. Wrestlers worked different territories: in Mid-Atlantic a character might be a face, while down in Florida Championship Wrestling he’s a heel. Our sport has taken that to a whole new level. Characters like Eli Flair are able to retain the same ‘history’ while competing in different leagues, with different feuds, and still maintaining the integrity of the character, much unlike most of those who tried it in the real world. The sheer number of leagues out there run the gamut. In some, handlers of the same age and roleplay level age are able to form their own clique and successfully run a league not unlike the ‘home’ leagues run before the Internet. On the opposite end of the spectrum are ‘big name’ mega-leagues like FWO, IWO, FSW, etc… and dare I be so bold, the CSWA. These leagues are as different from others as day from night: many times they’re looking a specific level of talent or writing ability, and the ability to help mold angles and build other characters. There is room for all shapes, all sizes, all types of leagues. There are thousands of handlers who could care less about stepping into a ‘megaleague.’ There are hundreds more who feel cheated if they aren’t invited in one (and aren’t afraid to let an owner know it). Like everything else in life, it’s a matter of perspective. For some of us, it’s only a hobby. For others, it’s much more consuming. Most importantly, as so many people have pointed out over the years: it’s just a game. It’s all about having fun. Unfortunately, as one thorn in my side once reminded me, some people have a twisted sense of fun. Some handlers, completely self-absorbed and self-conscious in real life, decide to have their fun at the expense of others. When I’m asked, I urge league owners to do the same thing Steve and I did back in 1998: cut the politics out. Eliminate the members who do nothing but in-fight and gossip about others. The best move we ever made was getting away from the PRODIGY bulletin board and opening the CSWA on FantasyWrestling.com. We were able to integrate a whole new ‘generation’ into our history, without the politicking that was so prevalent elsewhere. One of the first questions I get asked when people e-mail me or IM me for the first time is: “Did the CSWA really start in 1988 or was it 1992 or was it 1998?” The second question is usually some variable of “How have you done it for so long?” I generally go on to explain that the CSWA started as a home league in 1988, then went online on PRODIGY in 1992. I then explain that the CSWA has had its share of ‘hiatuses’, the best example being in 1997 when we closed down for about eight months while Steve and I helped start 1wrestling.com (which I’m no longer involved with (thankfully!)). But there is a larger series of answers to “How have you done it for so long?” I think the real question people are asking is: “How have you done it for so long and not given up because of the crap that goes along with it?” So here are the answers, take ‘em or leave ‘em. First, I’ve stayed involved because I love doing it. The writing, the planning, the interaction, and every once in a while, even the surprises. They are all pieces of the whole that make it fun. And that’s always been the key. Second, I’ve done it on my terms. Fantasy Wrestling has never taken a front seat to school, work, family problems or other personal problems in my life. It’s just not important enough to overshadow those things. If I needed to take time off, I did it. And for the people that couldn’t seem to understand or deal with it… they had to learn to deal with it, or participate somewhere else. Third, the people. Guys in the CSWA like Jon Katz, Gregg Gethard and Pete Russo who held on from the old PRODIGY days, and who I consider friends even if we’ve never met face-to-face. (In Gethard’s case…let’s pray we never do…the boy scares me.) The friendships I’ve built with the ‘new breed’ of CSWA handlers who were a part of building a league on FantasyWrestling.com that surpassed the quality we had before. Then there are all the guys from other leagues, like Josh Weiner, Eddie McCann, Joe LeBron, Scott Malec, Amy Simons, Chad Dupree and so many others who have hosted leagues on FWrestling.com, as well all the guys that I’ve more recently had the chance to meet and chat with from other ‘circles.’ We live in a world that has grown a little less certain every day since a bright Tuesday morning in September. We follow a real sport that has changed drastically in the last few months. We have created our own on-line sport that reacts to both of those changes, as well as various other stimuli. I’ve read a lot about the ‘fall of e-wrestling,’ how the mighty have fallen and things will ‘never be the same.’ Guess what…they never were. This sport is one that changes daily. There are few ‘landmarks’ that have any permeability. The ‘latest’ and ‘greatest’ come and go in weeks, are eulogized and then forgotten. But that’s the nature of this beast we’ve created. It’s also the beauty of it. “Generations” of e-wrestlers come and go in months and years. In the last 10 years online, I’ve seen literally thousands of acquaintances stop by for a while and then disappear. But that doesn’t mean that the time we spend with friends and co-handlers doesn’t count. Almost every couple of months I get an e-mail from a member of the CSWA or PRODIGY I haven’t heard from in years, asking me how things are going and getting an update on my personal life. I guess this whole diatribe has been simply to say this: Anything worth doing is worth doing well. And anything worth doing well can make a difference, even something as seemingly meaningless as Fantasy Wrestling. This isn’t the place to create a character simply for the purpose of demeaning others. This isn’t the place to take out real-life frustrations by trying to ‘destroy’ other people, even people you may never see. We are judged by how we treat others in life, and that includes how we treat people in FW. Life is too short. It’s too short to do something you don’t love. It’s too short to put up with people who attempt to corrupt with the things we love for their own aggrandizement or sick sense of fame. It’s not time for Fantasy Wrestling to grow up; it’s not time for us to grow more cynical. It’s simply time for us to learn that online ‘wars’ don’t have to be fought in order to exorcise those who create problems. The Internet is a big place. There’s enough room even for those who need to have their own corner where they can feel like they’re in charge….where they can feel like their ‘online persona’ is working someone. And that means there’s even more room for the rest of us to stay away. If we as members of the free world have learned anything from the tragedies of September 11th, it should be that nothing on this earth is guaranteed. We’ve heard calls to spend more time with our families, to be less guarded and show our emotions more often to those we love. We’ve been asked to make sure that we take nothing for granted. On an admittedly lesser scale, but just as true, we need to do the same for our sport. We need to be appreciative of those who provide space for us to ‘play’, to congregate and to fellowship doing something we enjoy. We need to thank those who run the leagues we’re in and the resource sites that keep us informed. We need to let those who we’ve become friends with know that they are appreciated and needed. So to those of you who have made my online experience, and my life, more fun than it would have been otherwise, thank you. To those of you who I’ve known on PRODIGY from 1992, 1993, 1994, etc., thank you. To those of you I’ve met and have helped make FantasyWrestling.com such a joy to be a part of since April 1998, thank you. And for those of you who manage other sites and other leagues that I’ve had the opportunity to view, to discuss, and to participate in, thank you. You all are appreciated. You all are needed. |
Other Recent Columns tA's Joe Campbell: The Truth
|