IFWA: The Legacy

THE BEGINNING

As mentioned in the introduction, I wrote a few shows during the early days of the IWA. I even found one archived on the Wayback Machine (no, I will not link to it). It may have its historical significance but damn can I tell I was a rookie writer. This is from some time in 2001, though I can't place a more accurate date. I feel like it's relatively early.

I bring it up mostly because some of the old guard of the IFWA made their debuts here, and some of them are pretty different from how I remember them.

Anyway, this particular show is a one-night tournament for the top belt because the current champion is leaving. Said champion is HHH. The backstory held that the WWF had previously folded(!), with the IWA taking on some of their former talent(!!), but I think that was mostly to excuse the inclusion of a few default wrestlers among my originals. I feel like I probably hadn't had the game for very long when I wrote this and may have only had a handful of CAWs ready at the time.

Anyway, HHH is leaving for - wait for it - the WWF.

Yes, Vince has resurrected his promotion and is naturally targeting the promotion that "stole" his stars. Stars like Steven Richards and X-Pac. Oh, and the aforementioned HHH, somehow. I should also note that this promotion is described within the show as a small indie fed running on cable access in Oklahoma City. Like I said, rookie writer.

But yeah, let's meet the roster.

PHREAK: Very loosely based on my best friend Jason. He's a big power dude with surprising agility and a sadistic streak, so he's a favorite to win the tournament. His main finisher is called the Bong, so that commentators might slip and say he "hit the Bong." Unfortunately he gets injured by HHH after the first round because, reasons? Guess he wanted to screw his now-former employer on the way out by shelving one of their big draws. Makes sense, since he also buried the promotion and its top belt in his opening promo.

LOKO: Very loosely based on myself. The story is that he's been under Phreak's wing until now, as part of a mentor program the IWA was doing (think NXT circa 2010). Naturally, he takes over for Phreak after his injury. So yes, this tournament is his debut. He doesn't win the belt, though. I may have been a rookie writer but I at least had THAT much sense. I mean, he does make it to the finals (which, to be fair, means he only wrestled twice) but still.

ROD THORNLEY: A character that actually predates No Mercy by a year or so, taking visual inspiration from Rodney of the Mean Street Posse. It turns out he's the one that bribed HHH into taking out Phreak in an attempt to avoid having to face him. Not that it helps since he gets wrecked by Loko instead. Rereading this show was weird because everyone keeps calling him a wimp and giving him zero credibility. I guess I had just gotten used to him being more of a threat than that.

SEAN WALTMAN: Yes, X-Pac. He's going by his real name here and has no plans to join the new WWF because everyone hated him there (since "X-Pac heat" was a thing by then in real life). As Rod's first round opponent, he's the first one to destroy him. Unfortunately he ends up having his victory reversed by a bribed referee, since Thornley is playing the "screw the rules, I have money" trope here. Oh well.

CHRIS HOUSTON: I remember an article at the time about trends in wrestler names. It talked about wrestlers with a Texas city in their name, and also guys named Chris. It then joked that the next big star would be named Chris Houston. So, I made one. He was a Jericho clone that wrestled in a vest and had a gimmick called the Three Strikes Challenge. If he couldn't bloody his opponent in three strikes, he'd give the vest to somebody in the audience. Naturally he always succeeded on the third strike. With a chair. His alignment is weird since I seem to be treating him like a heel but HHH attacks him as well during his first round match (again, he's JeriClone).

RICHARD STEVENS: This is Steven Richards in his Right To Censor gimmick. I thought I remembered him as a cheap knockoff but there's dialogue implying it's supposed to be the actual Steven Richards. I'm also wondering the point of the name change if the WWF wasn't around to claim a copyright on it before the show started. I guess teenage me didn't really think about these things. Regardless, he's entering the tournament because the champion apparently gets to set the rules and he wants to do away with the hardcore violence in the IWA, for the good of everyone in attendance and "the dozens watching at home."

YIFF DADDY: Not an actual competitor yet but he exists as a reference. As Richard Steven Richards is making his first round entrance, it's mentioned that he has no theme music after losing a previous match with "theme VS gimmick" as the stakes. It was basically an excuse to express how much I hated the RTC theme in real life, which should have been irrelevant in an independent promotion. Again, rookie writer. Anyway, I just threw Yiff Daddy out as a random name for a rival because it was a quick way to suggest why they feuded and I was going through a furry phase. It did eventually spin off into an actual character, though, and without the furry gimmick at that.

SPIKE THE SHARPMAN: Created by an internet friend I had at the time. He's the one to remind Stevens that, in order to abolish violence, one must first endure it. He also complains that getting rid of the hardcore style will kill the promotion, which has present-day me thinking this must be a garbage promotion if that's their biggest draw. I blame that on how late-era ECW influenced me as a teen. Oh and SPOILER but he ends up being the one to walk away with the belt. By the time I began the IFWA conversion I had more or less lost contact with his real life counterpart so the character was treated as a retired legend in the new canon.

PHOENIXX: Random mute goth guy. Follows the rare Wile E Coyote school of promos because he walks out with a sign saying "don't forget me" as the way he enters the tournament. Not that it matters because he loses in the first round. I don't really remember him, to be honest. He was around long enough to get a theme on one of the early IWA CDs, though. Oh, and the name did resurface during the IFWA conversion as a Cactus Jack replacement because of that "metamorphosis" cutscene in championship mode. Mankind's replacement was some random guy named Jon Grey. See what I did there?

KUNIO: From the Nekketsu games (e.g., River City Ransom). Only speaks Japanese but has a translator named Ryan. Bashes Thornley with a trash can during the opening promo but loses to Spike in his first round match. And that's pretty much everything there is to say about him. Oh, that and I feel like his presence is further proof that I hadn't had the game for very long when I wrote this.

Still, the final entrant could've been worse. I had also made a Jon Talbain CAW as one of my first originals after getting the game, for example. Now that I think about it, I also remember making a number of musician CAWs.

So, yeah. That was kind of embarrassing to read again but it still has its part in the history of the IFWA.

PART 2: THE CONVERTS

Like I said, the IFWA existed as a total conversion project, and No Mercy had quite a few spots to fill. I have a full list of which character(s) filled each spot over the course of this project but these are some of the more memorable ones, most of which came from Mike.

RUSS VALENTINE: Over HBK. He and his faction were inspired by the movie "Ocean's Eleven," though I don't remember what Mike had in mind with that exactly since I've never seen it myself. From the sound of it I'm guessing something like the "Leverage" team, since that's a more familiar reference to me. His entourage consisted of hired muscle Andrew Slade (Bossman) and valet Miss Julia Bale (Terri). They ended up running with Rod's System crew at some point for reasons I don't recall, which led to Rod stealing his theme.

JASON TRIUMPH: Over The Undertaker. A former tag partner of Mike Reese's from the independent circuit, he got injured before reaching the next level and he developed a (kayfabe) chip on his shoulder over it. Mike's version of him on the Smackdown games had him going from a high flyer to technician after the injury, and he was meant to have "some kind of wicked submission finisher." As I recall he also had a different last name originally but it was changed after a real world athlete with the same name got into some pretty serious trouble.

SEAN MADUREIRA: Over Bull Buchanan. A frequent tag partner of Reese's, also known as "Sean Mad" and "Madman." A heavy daredevil that takes some pretty wild bumps, since Mike was a big Mick Foley fan too. They also had a female teammate named Jenny Zero for the full Hardyz/Lita effect, with their group being dubbed Team Freestyle.

TREVOR RITCHIE: Over Christian. Hot Topic's best customer. I remember coining "Pass The Anarchy" as a band he likes, as the first thing that popped in my head when Mike prompted me for one once. Edge's replacement, a generic goth guy named Poe, was meant to be like a "true" goth that Trev was trying to copy. Which made seeing this stoic goth guy do a five second pose kinda funny. They also had a goth girl named Alyria hanging out with them, apparently. At one point their team's name was given as Vagrant Trust. I could see him listening to Vagrant Records bands and maybe Trustkill, but I don't know if that's where Mike got the name. Somehow I doubt it but I could be wrong.

RON MATTHEWS: Over Essa Rios. A luckless jobber, he had a more successful alter ego in the masked Dragon Taro. For reasons I don't recall, he had to hide the fact that he was Taro. I'm imagining a scenario where he got fired as Matthews and decided to seek a new contract in disguise. Except, after earning one as Taro, the company decided to rehire Matthews. Lucky for him that the bodysuit made him look bigger. Still, this led to humorous situations such as him having to compete in a battle royale twice, once as Matthews and once as Taro.

ED SHEARER: Over The British Bulldog. Not to be confused with Ed Sheeran. Basically he's a wrestling Ned Flanders. Overly nice but with a hidden temper that tends to manifest in rather... unique ways. Actual quote: "I WILL EAT YOUR UNHAPPINESS!" (I don't know about you but I like to imagine that in the Caboose voice from Red VS Blue.)

MATT HAYES: Over Mark Henry. The "Dark Angel," he's basically just some random guy I'd been making over that spot since before I even decided to begin a total conversion project. Kind of a generic power wrestler, so basically a smaller Mark Henry without the "Sexual Chocolate" gimmick. Once feuded with a mysterious character named Mr. Eious. Late in the project he also formed a tag team called the Love Machines, with a character that was replacing The Godfather. I guess that's like Supply & Demand II?

Wow, awesome and informative thread!! 👏

I've been enjoying hearing about your fed backstory in our PM's (which...once again, I apologize for taking so long in replying to 😥) and so this thread was a huge dose of awesomeness in the world you've created.


I'm still LOL'ing at "Moore-ons" 😁

And Moore's Complete Shot as a specific counter to Munoz' STO was a great idea 💡

Also love that you created a character named "Justin Bailey" and a character inspired by Maniac Mansion! 

Oh, I totally get it. Every now and then I read some of my earlier shows and my writing is really rough. I'm glad people were patient with me back then (and now too, LOL).  But I also know I had to start somewhere.

Thing is, I always have been better at booking and planning then actually executing.  I've long accepted that.  Part of that is because I book so long in advance. So the angles I get initially excited about can kind of fizzle in enthusiasm by the time I actually write them out like a year later 😁 But the other reason is that e-fedding through text always has certain limitations given that I think of the angles playing out in my head like they are on TV.  So it's always kind of a chore having to express those ideas through text when I think them up and experience them entirely differently.  And then when I look back at those shows, years later, I just see the finished product and don't always remember the concepts that were guiding it. Or, worse, I do remember how excited I got for the concept and see how much my writing fell short of the actual concept 😭

But I look at your posts and I see all of the great ideas you had for characters and story lines 💡

And I can see the pride and passion you had for these characters and that's what I walk away with 👍

Keep posting! 😁


Do you have any plans on bringing these characters back in a future project? 

Exactly, you had fun with it and it helped your growth. It was all worth it 😎



The NHL 94 project is a crossover with everything? Including the wrestling promotions?! Reminds me of how I played a lot of NES and SNES baseball game with customized teams. And I'd always make wrestlers on those teams 😁   Heck, I made Orochi Army as a team on a Super Dodge Ball port a few years ago.




Maybe you don't restart it as a full-time traditional e-fed but as a project that you set up and occasionally update about. Like a fed that kind of runs in the background which every now and then you report about. Just an idea to keep the characters "alive" to you without expending e-fed level energy.



It absolutely does and that really just makes me think there's gotta be some way to keep them around in the present, even if it's not in traditional e-fed form.

I think I made Orochi Army teams for Super Dodge Ball and a Nekketsu Track and Field game. It was especially fun using them in the "brawl" race where Geese just constantly cheated and bodied everyone 😁



That is really cool. Such an incredible game NHL 94 was, particularly on Genesis. I had the SNES version of '93 growing up but got to play the Genesis versions later on and realized how much better it was.



My feds originally started as exactly that - me writing reports of sims that I did. I never intended storylines early on, certainly nothing like what I do now. It was just a simple - "I simmed these matches and this is how they came out". Over time, I started to introduce the storylines that eventually started forming in my own head but even then there was no real booking plan. That all grew over time into something bigger and deeper but it doesn't have to. If you just want to basically digest everything, even multiple "shows" at a time, that is a way to keep something going. Or even just having a Title lineage list that gets updated can be useful.




NHL Fight League, huh? Does the "I" in IFWA stand for "Icing?" 😁




Yeah, I totally get that. And it's hard to have big scale ideas without enough time to execute on them. That can get frustrating and cause burn out. Sometimes I think I bit off more than I can chew with my booking ideas, knowing the actual product will never live up to my expectations due to a lack of time and energy. But its those ideas that guide me and as long as I'm having fun coming up with them, I'm okay with the actual product paling in comparison to how I originally envision it. There's just no other way since it's too hard for me to book "smaller" with the world, characters, and stories I've already developed.

You gotta do what works for you but I think there's room for a little initial reporting 😎

Yeah, it would take a while to rebuild the save but there's no rush.

It's really just a matter of taking them from the past and bringing them to the present with a comfortable pace. That doesn't mean they have to be the majority of your free time though once they are ready.

When I did bring UBL back after a 1-year retirement (LOL), I started really slow. And actually, it was the edit building "during the retirement" that led to me feeling like I could do a fed again with the new edits that I had created. I didn't realize I was going to go full bore into it again but that doesn't have to happen, LOL.





Ahhh, I've seen your work and anything that gets you drawing again is a very good thing!! 😀