OrochiGeese's OG-FPD: Of Lessons and Lutefisk (11/1)

I loved that tag match so much, especially the ending. It told the story I wanted the match to tell. Tetsu is so skilled but he's still naive when it comes to facing the type of heel that Kurt is. Kurt isn't done with Tetsu, he still wants to win (and not just possess) his Title, but this story has now further expanded to include Kazuo. Thing is, Kurt has been taken verbal jabs at Kazuo for the past year and it's possible that Kurt did what he did after the match to bait Kazuo. Kurt and Kazuo ran together for a bit which caused a bit of a rift between Kazuo and Matsuki Holdings. Eventually Kazuo had to decide what direction he wanted his life/career to go in and chose Matsuki. Kurt never forgave him for that but he hasn't engaged in all out warfare against Kazuo.
The question over the past year in the minds of Matsuki members were whether Kurt targeted Tetsu just for the Title or to attack him as an ally of Kazuo. Now we're going to have more 1 on 1 interaction with Kurt and Kazuo while Kurt is still dealing with Tetsu. Who knows, Kurt may even have others in mind for reprisal...

The first RP after the show will likely be from Kurt.

I largely agree with you and also understand the reader frustration of getting through a huge text match, only to not have a decisive finish. Having two falls of one big match end indecisively is kind of frustrating and I totally get that, especially since one of those falls didn't need to end that way.

I was torn on what to do for the second fall - the NEXUS Title one. The truth is that the first fall was planned to end the way that it did, in order to have Corey pivot back to the "who hurt Xander" story which is more personal to him. That count-out finish was a means to a definitive end. But pairing that with another non-decisive finish was a tough decision.

The Joachim/Matt match didn't necessarily have to end in a DQ. For a while I was considering a TLD. It's a little more decisive than a DQ or count-out but really, I just wasn't ready to have Matt or Joachim defeat each other. Since this show is still early in the tour (leading up to the big show in December), I wanted to keep the balance between them. This was actually their third match after splitting the first two. Even though Corey left them both laying, they were basically in equal position starting out. But I wasn't ready to take the title off Matt and I also wasn't ready to have Matt claim that "series" victory between the two. And since I already did the Matt/Geese TLD at "Lunar Eclipse" and wanted the Monroe Brother interference to be more frustrating, I leaned away from the TLD finish idea over the past few weeks. I thought Joachim and the audience would be angrier at the DQ interference finish than a TLD (which could always be extended).

The main objective with the Matt/Joachim fall was once again showing how evenly matched they were but getting Sirius Mask directly involved in the story with Destiny. Since I was keeping the title on Matt and adding a new person to the title mix (in Sirius), I didn't want to have Joachim outright lose but rather be aggrieved which would allow him to stay in the mix while Sirius gets a boost from helping. All the while, Ruby technically wins since Matt keeps the title and also wins cause Corey was distracted and didn't put Matt in a cheese grater.

But yeah, that was a long match to end with a "DAMN IT, KING, DAMN DESTINY TO HELL!" moment 😁

I think the show got me where I needed to go overall though and hopefully the rest of the tour, and the next tour, will reflect that. I really appreciate your honesty here and I definitely did have that "ugh, two falls that didn't actually put anyone decisively over" feel as I was writing it. I chose the route that I felt built better to the bigger objective but acknowledge that the means may have been a little frustrating as a result.

How did you feel about the show's overall length?

I've had this story in mind for a while but was waiting for a good time to do it. There was a discussion in this thread a few months back about the name of the arena and thought it would be cool to do the story now to address that confusion but also for another reason (related to the show itself) which will be revealed soon.

Most of all, I'm happy that the arena has been re-named and back in the fold for UBL. Not only do I like this from a story perspective (as I like UBL having a home base), but also from the perspective of reclaiming one more thing for my UBL writing experience. I basically gave away the arena to a story I never intended to follow up on (the Prestige promotion) as I put UBL on the shelf in late 2011. I had intended to be done with it so I thought "selling" the arena to a different promotion was a way to keep it alive but no longer in my control. However, ever since bringing UBL back in late 2012, I've slowly been reclaiming parts of the old UBL experience. This was one of the biggest re-acquisitions and I'm really glad I was able to work it in as a purchase from Luke Kisiera given his and Jean's history there. I'm very glad it's back!

Great, very glad that you liked the show length. I really feel like 3 matches are the "sweet spot" for these types of shows. I used to run my TV shows (once a week, no less) with 4 matches and full commentary, LOL. That isn't really possible anymore and i don't think the audience has the patience for it! The "three act" show has a nice natural split, especially with some commercials for palette cleansers. And when I mix things up in regards to match presentation, it further helps. If I do like one quick match, one video match, and then one longer text match, each segment has its own distinct identity. I don't see doing another long text match like the main event for a while though as that takes a lot out of me to write!

Rivers has been NEXUS Champion for so long but feels like a completely new character to me after his heel turn/Destiny recruitment. As a result, it feels like his NEXUS reign is entirely fresh and he has to prove himself all over again. He hasn't exactly done that though but has been largely bailed out by the TLD against Geese, the count-out with Corey, and the DQ with Joachim. He used to be a fighting champion as a face but right now he's basically just Moreno's tool for holding onto the Title through any means necessary. It's working...but you get the sense his hold is tenuous. The identity of the person who ends up beating him should hopefully be pretty satisfying for everyone 😎

(Fun match with one of those ohhhhh so close TLD moments!)