Fighting Spirit FAQ and application, (reposted from the Shill Room)

[The DeWolfe Pack]

I figure the first step in promoting a new fed is giving you far more information than you could ever possibly need, so with that in mind here's 2569 words about Fighting Spirit!


FIGHTING SPIRIT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

1) WHAT IS FIGHTING SPIRIT?

Fighting Spirit is a new e-wrestling promotion, run by John DeWolfe, which takes a comedic approach to simulating independent wrestling. Among real life promotions it is most similar to CHIKARA, and among e-wrestling promotions the best comparison is perhaps MBC.

Descriptions of who runs Fighting Spirit “in character” will follow later in the FAQ.

2) WHAT KIND OF SHOWS ARE YOU RUNNING? HOW OFTEN? WHAT WILL BE ON THEM?

The goal is to run a monthly FS show, with the conceit that it is released on DVD and perhaps also streamed live on the Fighting Spirit website. And by monthly, I mean monthly - once we get started, my aim is to send out a completed show once a month, give or take a day here and there. There will be 10 shows a year, which adds up to a single “season” of Fighting Spirit shows, and a two month “off-season” during which we can plan for the next season. And be we, I mean I as the fedhead and you as a prospective handler - all final decisions and approval on show content and booking will be made by me, but I very much want involved handlers who are running the kind of stories they want to run, so you WILL be involved and you WILL be asked for your input.

Leading up to each monthly show, I will also release a “podcast” updating everyone on the goings-on in Fighting Spirit and hyping upcoming matches and ongoing storylines. There is no set timeline for the release of this podcast, titled “Distilled Spirit”, so it’ll come out whenever it is ready.

2a) WAIT A MINUTE? I HAVEN’T HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT FLASHES? WHEN DO I GET TO FLASH?

Keep your clothes on, you nudist pervert!

Ah, but seriously… Fighting Spirit is not the type of promotion to have a TV contract, or the prospects of one, or (honestly) to be able to get its calls returned by anyone who has a job in television. Or most people who just plain have a job, for that matter. We’re a low budget, high entertainment indy and that’s how we expect our roster to roll as well. Fighting Spirit has a Yahoo Group (Fighting Spirit OG - when you apply to Fighting Spirit, you’ll be sent an invitation to the group) where all shows and information are posted. For promo purposes please consider this the official Fighting Spirit You Tube channel, to which all promos are uploaded. You may feel free to flash up to two times in advance of every show, so long as the promo is edited as if it is a YT video and features locations, effects, and so on that would be feasible for a small time indy promotion. That means no videos shot on location in exotic places, no expensive camera tricks, in all likelihood no expensive camera at all, just a cheap handheld. You can do whatever makes sense to you as long as you figure an indy worker with a budget would be able to do it. On-card promos will also be allowed, but you’ll have to clear them with the fedhead and any other handlers involved first, and they will only be approved if they fit the flow of the show and aren’t too numerous. I will note, however, that promos and flashes should NEVER occur on Distilled Spirit. This is purely a recap and hype show put together by the promotion itself, and I will choose what to highlight on that show.

3) OKAY, SO YOU’VE GOT SHOWS, MATCHES, PROMOS, ALL THAT GOOD STUFF. WHAT ABOUT TITLES? WHICH TITLE SHOULD I BE SCHEMING AND BRIBING YOU TO WIN?

First of all, I like the comment on bribes. I’ll happily take any bribes.

Fighting Spirit is going to have two titles, one singles and one tag team. The singles title will be an annual competition to win a tournament, rather than a belt, and will not generally be defended in between tournaments (though in special circumstances, perhaps it could be.) This is the CONTINENTAL CUP, a prestigious new trophy combining two previous titles honouring the best wrestlers in North and South America. Once per season, a tournament will be held in the traditional home of important title tournaments, Rio de Janeiro (actually, it’ll just be some normal city on the FS loop somewhere in America, but we will half-assedly pretend it’s Rio de Janeiro). The exact format of the tournament can vary from year to year depending on the number of interested entrants, but it will always be held in the middle of the season. This is the highest honour to which a singles wrestler can aspire in Fighting Spirit.

Tag Team wrestling will be a prominent part of Fighting Spirit - very prominent. The FIGHTING SPIRIT WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS OF THE WORLD are the most honourable, er, honours any FS wrestler can ever hold. The whole structure of the first season will be based around determining who will be the initial champions, which will be decided in the year’s final show with challengers based on points.

3b) POINTS, YOU SAY?

Yes. At the discretion of FS management, points will be on the line in various matches throughout the season. At the end of the first season, any tag team with 3 points (or combination of singles wrestlers whose points add up to 3, provided they agree on using the points) are eligible to compete in a match to determine the first ever FIGHTING SPIRIT WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD. After champions have been determined, a team (or combination of two singles wrestlers) may schedule a tag title match at any time by spending 3 points. The title will not change hands by disqualification or count-out, however points will be refunded to the challengers if the champions use this cheap way out. Points will never expire, but wrestlers can by forced to defend some or all of their points in a match, at the discretion of FS management. The hunt for an elusive 3 points, and the right time to cash in those points, will be a big part of the narrative of Fighting Spirit as we move forward.


4) THIS ALL SOUNDS GOOD. HOW DO I APPLY?

You can find an application form in the Fighting Spirit Yahoo group, on the JTF Squaretable forum, or by requesting one from the fedhead (John DeWolfe, email at fighting.spirit.wrestling@gmail.com). Just fill in the application, send it in, and I’ll let you know if your character fills a need on the Fighting Spirit roster, along with providing feedback if I see the need to make a few tweaks to fit in.

5) SO, WHAT TYPES OF CHARACTERS WILL FIT IN WITH FIGHTING SPIRIT’S ROSTER?

Fighting Spirit is a small-time indy and a mix of a comedy and workrate fed, with a high emphasis on tag team wrestling. This means:

- Most of the roster will be smaller and will be solid workers. Big muscle heads are possibly okay, I just don’t want more than one or two.

- Singles wrestlers are very much welcomed, but I want to be sure to have a solid tag division as well. Stables based around a theme or gimmick are encouraged.

- Goofy, over-the-top gimmicks are encouraged, though far from mandatory. If you want to run such a gimmick, like real life examples from CHIKARA (Osirian Portal, Order of the Neo-Solar Temple, The Colony, etc) that will work. If you want to bring in a more grounded indy-wrestler type (a la the typical guy you’d see in ROH, JAPW, or PWG) that is also cool.

- Fighting Spirit is intergender. We will not have a separate women’s division, but I am open to accepting apps from a small number of women who will compete alongside the men.

- Face/heel alignment is a big deal in Fighting Spirit, so think it through carefully.

5b) WAIT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “FACE/HEEL ALIGNMENT” IS A BIG DEAL?

Kayfabe is dead in pro wrestling, and cannot be brought back. However, one element of it can and should be hewed to as strongly as possible - heels and faces, rudos and tecnicos, are two separate groups. They don’t mix. They don’t like each other. They follow completely different paths in their profession. To this end, every competitor in Fighting Spirit signs on to one of two declarations (except in some rare cases, more on that in a moment) which guides their entire interaction with the company and the rest of the roster.

If you are a good guy/babyface/tecnico - You sign on to “The Spirit of Fairplay”. This declaration binds you to always respect the match official, honour the fans whose passion makes all of pro wrestling possible, forswear shortcuts to victory, avoid attacking a defenceless or unprepared rival, and to put doing the right thing above selfish desires. Publicly swearing this declaration is the price of admission into the babyface locker room - quite simply, if you have pledged to The Spirit of Fairplay, you will be a member of that locker room, welcomed by all as a member of their guild. If you have not so pledged, you won’t even be allowed in the room, none of the babyfaces will trust you, they will be extremely reluctant to travel/work/tag with you, and they may even shy away from being seen with you in public.

If you are a bad guy/heel/rudo - You sign on to “The Spirit of Aggression”. This declaration binds you to seek victory at all costs, to swear never to care what the fans want, to grasp with both hands any opportunity to gain an advantage on a rival - whether legal or not, to work with your fellow heels in any plots or plans they may have right up until the point when it no longer benefits you, and to never hold another heel’s cowardly or self-serving retreat from battle against him - you would have done the same, had you the chance. As above, publicly swearing this declaration is the only way to be welcomed in the heel locker room, and in the absence of it most heels will view you as (at best) a spy for the babyfaces. You will earn no trust, no help, and no friendship from your fellow heels unless you have pledged allegiance to The Spirit of Aggression.

At any time, the members of either locker room may vote (by 2/3rds majority) to expel a member they feel has not been living up to the Spirit he or she has chosen. Members may also vote by the same majority not to accept the pledge of a new member, or to only accept it provisionally.

Anyone who has been expelled from the Spirit they pledged, or who has voluntarily chosen not to pledge, is known as a Free Spirit (so, a tweener). Free Spirits are truly lone wolves in Fighting Spirit. They are not welcomed in either locker room, and will be forced to find their own place to change and prepare for matches. They are shunned by almost everyone, will find it extremely difficult to make friends, find and work well with tag partners, or appeal for help if being ganged up on. Crowds may react in strange ways to Free Spirits, depending on their actions and on the path they have followed to date.

I should point out - you don’t have to write a promo when your character debuts detailing which Spirit you’ve chosen - you can just list it on your app and have it implied. But your alignment is important and it sets some basic constraints on your characters. The faces are a fraternity, as are the heels, and they don’t mix.

Turns can and should happen in Fighting Spirit - but they will be a big deal. A heel newly turned babyface will be shunned by all his old friends, and will not initially be trusted by potential new friends. This changes whole lives, shatters relationships. Turns, when they happen, are a Big Deal.

What is the reasoning behind all this? I want faces to act like faces, and heels to act like heels, so that on the rare occasions a righteous white-meat babyface is driven to a furious run in or an attack with a foreign object, it is a huge event and has impact. When a heel quails at the level of villainy of a fellow heel and starts to have second thoughts, that is also huge and has real impact on the story. If I can shorten this whole section to one piece of advice to potential handlers, it’s this;

Faces should act like faces, and heels should act like heels.

6) MOVING ON, WHO’S WHO ON CAMERA IN FIGHTING SPIRIT?

The roster will initially include a number of jobbers and JTTS types, all handled by the fedhead. You can find a list of these on the Yahoo Group.

Fighting Spirit’s announce team is a two man booth. A former ESPN radio host with a velvet voice, Skip Sampson does play-by-play and represents The Spirit of Fairplay on announce. Also, within character he is Fighting Spirit’s part owner and resident money mark, and this can be implied within continuity but should never be out and out said. (Think of how Vince McMahon was treated in the period 1995-97 or so for what I mean by this.)

Veteran British e-wrestler Randolph Chalmers handles colour commentary and represents The Spirit of Aggression from the announce table. Chalmers disdains all faces, all fans, Americans, anything he deems low-class or vulgar… well, pretty much everything really. He’s a piece of work.

The backstage reporter (and host of Distilled Spirit) is Abigail Adams. No, she’s not the second First Lady of the United States - it’s just a coincidence. Yes, her husband is named John. No, she doesn’t want to talk about it. She’s a no-nonsense young reporter who refuses to be intimidated and demands answers from the wrestlers.

The ring announcer is Jennifer Trigby-Williams, a doctoral candidate in Sociology who only took the job to help fund and facilitate a doctoral dissertation in the role of post-modern, fourth-wall breaking booking in creating a new paradigm for pro wrestling as a modern morality play for the vanishing male working class in America. (Tentatively titled "Hulking Up in a Pan-Global Entertainment Universe : Some Perspectives".) Occasionally accompanied to live events by her ne'er-do-well pot dealer boyfriend, Chase.

Order is kept by the Interim Junior Vice-President Responsible for Live Events, Paul Esposito, a harried, pudgy man in a suit who is constantly being harassed by a referenced but never seen Executive Board.

The Senior Official is Leslie Ingraham (who bears a surprisingly resemblance to a long time UWF official), and his staff includes match officials JP Keller, Lorne Davis, and Suzanne Marchese.

A gruff old man with a bushy white mustache named simply “Lucky” provides janitorial services at all FS events. He is indifferent to the performance of his job and can often be found during shows sitting in a corner backstage, reading a dog-eared copy of Penthouse intently.

7) IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO KNOW?

Most certainly, but you’ll find out in due time…

MU HA HA HA!

Get those apps in if you’re interested, people!

[The DeWolfe Pack]

Here's the app, if you're interested copy, paste, fill-in, and e-mail to me!


FIGHTING SPIRIT APPLICATION

Thank you for you interest in applying to Fighting Spirit! Please fill out the application below as fully as possible, and send it to fighting.spirit.wrestling@gmail.com. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can with word on your application, either yay or nay, and if it is nay I promise to give you feedback so you will know what we’re looking for.

Please also include a sample promo with your application - this need not be for the character you are applying with, and it can be something you’ve already used elsewhere - I just want to know that you can write. This requirement can be waived on request for any handler whose work I’m familiar with and know to be good.

Yours,

John DeWolfe



(PART 1 - Fill out for each single wrestler, even if part of a team or group)

Handler name:
Handler e-mail:
Any other contact info you may wish to share:


Wrestler Name:
Height:
Weight:
Hometown:
Gender:
Alignment (Please choose either Fairplay [face], Aggression [heel], or Free Spirit [tweener]):
Ring Attire:


Primary Wrestling Style:
Secondary Wrestling Style:
Similar Real Life Wrestlers:
Finishing Move (list only one):
Other Signature Moves (list as many as you like, up to 5):
Commonly used Moves (list as many as you like, up to 30):


Entrance Music:
Entrance Description (note, Fighting Spirit is low budget so there will not tend to be pyro, big effects, etc. What I’m looking for is generally how your wrestler interacts with the fans while coming to the ring.):


Brief Character Bio (Give me an idea, in relatively few words, of your wrestler’s history, motivation, gimmick, and character):



(PART 2 - Fill out only if wrestler is part of a tag team or stable. Only needs to be filled out in full on one of the members applications - other members can just fill out the first two lines, as to team membership, and I will refer to the full information elsewhere. Singles wrestlers not part of a stable, team, or group may ignore this section entirely.)

Team Name:
Is the wrestler part of a tag team, stable, or both?:
Team Alignment:


Team Finishing Move (list only one):
Other Team Signature Moves (list as many as you like, up to 5):


Team Entrance Music (if different from singles):
Team Entrance Description (if different from singles):


Brief Team Bio (I want to know how the members of your team get along with each other, what motivates them as a group, and what their history is as a team.):