Primetime Championship Wrestling

Mr. Ed #3

Posted by Sandy Wong on 18 Jun 2003

Welcome to Mr Ed version three. Yes it’s been a while since I last graced you with a column, and that is due to one simple reason the huge roster turnover that occurred. It was this single event that halted my progress, as I had to wait to see how many new people would stick around, who would make an impact and who would just fizzle out and be stuck at the bottom of the card for an eternity. So I’ve been reading their rps, reading the cards and seeing who’s doing what. But a change of plan is in order for this column, instead of delving into the depths of the roster to see who has star potential and looking at the Title divisions I am going to do something different from my first two columns, I am going to look at PCW from outside in.

To do this I will be very blunt regarding the booking and many other things, such as the empty "Newswire" section on the site. So brace yourself for some brutal honesty, I am no Gaz Green and can tell the truth in what state PCW is currently in.

Booking

First things first, the booking in PCW has not been very good. Yes it has improved in recent weeks but overall it has not been great and that has been shown by some lacklustre cards as of late. I believe the main fault in the booking is that a lot of newbies have been Main Eventing. Now wait and listen, I said I was going to be writing this as a guy on the outside looking in, so let me explain. From the eyes of a fair-weather fan reading the PCW cards and bookings they really would not know who the upper card is judging from recent Main Event bookings. That really is a major problem, as the people that Main Event from show to show should define who is an upper card star and that simply cannot be established if fair-weather fans don’t know who the "players" are, and quite simply it cannot be established if the roster members don’t even know there own status.

Another big problem with this is that for the few established upper carders there are, they simply do not know where they stand when a two week PCW newbie is already Main Eventing a show where they are stuck in a second match booking. To be blunt, it makes them feel useless and unneeded, and newbies SHOULD NOT be Main Eventing it’s as simple as that.

One last factor that should be accounted for is that matches should have more relevance with people’s feuds. Now I’m not saying every match should be like that, as hell that would make PCW an angle fed, but it would be better than having two random wrestlers paired up in a match who aren’t involved in an angle, as a match with a guy who is in an angle would make for Television.

State Of The Roster

Lets be honest here guys, PCW is in a bit of a mess right now. There are not enough active upper carders around, and most lower cards aren’t taking advantage of the opportunity to move up the card. PCW is very thin in the upper card currently and an outsider looking in would not be interested in seeing the same two upper carders dominating cards, so people get off your asses and take advantage of this situation, make yourself a superstar.

More people need to get their stories (angles) told on TV. Right now it’s the same seven or so angles getting all the TV time, now I’m not saying that card editors are deliberately pushing some feuds and not others as I’m sure they’re not, it’s simply down to lazy workers who think they’ll be handed everything they want in PCW on a silver platter. WAKE UP! It’s not going to happen, you either work hard or get out, it’s that simple. PCW does not have room for slackers.

Speaking of angles, more people need to send in stories and rumors to the "Newswire" and "Rumour Mill" as they have hardly been updated in a month. Come on people, you should send in news as a catalyst to get your feud/angle seen and read by the average PCW fan. As right now, they’d look at the "Newswire" and think that PCW was a very inactive place, and lets be honest the "Newswire" and "Rumour Mill" parts of the site are inactive. Now get working to sort that out.

Effect Of Roster Turnover on PCW

The recent turnover of the roster has obviously had a large effect upon PCW. With it lots of big names have left and other big names have gone on breaks leaving a very thin roster of upper carders with not a lot of name appeal. Lets face it with Xavier Kannon, Rent-A-Hero and Duke Williams all gone from PCW, we have lost a lot of readers as those three had large fan bases, especially Kannon and RAH. The hiatuses of El Diablo, Snow, Clyde and Akiyama haven’t helped things either. I don’t know their situations, but my assumption would be that they’re all burnt out, however they need to help PCW and return to bring some name appeal back again and that in itself would bring back a lot of readers as Clyde and Snow do have a lot of fans.

I’m definitely not saying that these guys are at fault, as what they are doing is good for them to recharge their batteries and then return at a later date. But during their absence as stated above, the newbies need to grab the reader’s attention and make their name known! It truly is an ample time to be new in PCW as there are certainly high card spots to be filled.

Another effect of the roster turnover is that there is a new staff in place with VP-S and VP-W and basically time will be needed for all their ideas to pay off. Not everything will pay off for them, but people need to understand that PCW won’t be like the "old days" and should cut them some slack and let them get on with their job to make this new era in PCW something to remember.

Matchwriting

To me this appears to be a very big problem for PCW, as it is very clear that a lot of the writers do not even read the rps before writing their match. They’ll simply count the number of rps and give the win to the guy who rped the most. NO DON’T DO THAT! Quality over quantity remember. That is the PCW philosophy, so read ALL the rps and then judge, don’t just judge on numbers. So what if 1 great rp beats 4 mediocre rps? That is how it should be. But then again, one writer should not be the judge on what is considered a great rp or not.

These problems do need rectifying, and personally I feel that VP-S and VP-W should have the final say on who wins the match rather than leaving it up to writers whom are often unreliable on getting them in on time. That brings me to another point. Writers who are consistently late at getting their matches in should be jobbed until they can learn to meet a deadline; it’s really not that difficult.

On a plus, the quality of matches in PCW currently have been fine.

Miscellaneous

This part is just full of suggestions.

Now everyone in PCW should learn to really be a part of PCW. "What?" is what I assume you’re asking, well what I mean is that whenever you’re bored and have some free time you should really read your fellow fed members rps. That way you get to know their characters and if some really interest you then read more of their work. That is how you will truly feel a part of PCW. I only recommend this because this does not seem to be happening in PCW much at all.

Another thing I suggest is that PCW has meetings on say AIM. That way everyone can get to know each other and create a friendly environment surrounding PCW. I’m definitely not the only one who feels the atmosphere currently is at a low, but it is improving.

I may have been blunt and to the point, but I had to be. To an outsider looking in PCW isn’t looking all that great, just take a look at the non PCW members comments in "The Phantom Bookers PCW Thread" But it’s my job to be harsh yet honest and I think I’ve achieved it with this column.

This was Mr Ed bringing it to you Straight From The Horses Mouth.

Mr. Ed #3

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