Speaking of HIAC, I know Barbosa and I finally had our big one on one match inside it, but I don't think we ever had a real true feud between us. It was more of a subtle rivalry that never really came to a full out war. Similar to how it was with Big Dave and myself until Phoenix retired the character.
Maybe because we speak about it so often that we are starting to think that a major feud actually happened...
The few weeks of mental sparring between Barbosa and Ty was probably the highest sustained individual quality I reached during my run, through Barbosa's trying to figure out what side he was on, to Ty and the Apostles seemingly appearing in the poker room and deploying his 'parlour tricks' in the corridors; all topped off with Barbosa singing Rains of Castamere...
Threads like this make me sad that I mesh with everybody and nobody at the same time, though a four way with Barbosa, S.H.I.T, Kravinoff and Toyota would've been awesome just because of the Saunter thread, nearly happened as well.
That really was a giant disappointment. Kravinoff/Barbosa/SHIT had such a great story to it - Barbosa spends months teaching SHIT how to "fit in" and then himself falls to pieces in the face of Kunter Havitoff and needing SHIT to help bring him back together. Sure, I ended up being promoted to the title picture in the face of that story falling through but I would really have forsaken that title run for a shot at Kravinoff/Barbosa/SHIT at Kingdom Come.
Barbosa vs Kravinoff
Barbosa vs Ty
Barbosa vs AoC - likely a prelude to Barbosa/Ty and lost in the scrambled disintegration of AoC
Barbosa/SHIT vs (original mental illness hating) Dr Zeus - this just had such a natural fit to it.
BarboSHIT vs Saxoteur as a full feud could have been the craziest thing to even happen in WZCW.
Kravinosa Barbinoff vs Saxoteur - Kravinoff/Barbosa are a forgotten duo, whether it be Hunter being the first to appear in the poker room, their shared love of Black Swan (leading to Barbosa flushing Johnny Klamor's head down the toilet) or the crowning ceremony at Burger King.
One that did happen but still had more legs...
Barbosa vs SHIT II - a literally earth-shattering crescendo was in the works. Not sure if if I actually told Miko the true extent of what I had planned (I think I did; I might even have approached Creative about it) but it would have explored the backstory to both SHIT and Barbosa, with it revealed that they had far more in common than it might seem. The basic premise would have been that Barbosa was in fact SHIT Mk II, with the multiple personalities being explained as an intentional development to give Barbosa the tools to succeed (I had pencilled in a Total Recall style RP, where Barbosa is confronted with a video made by himself to explain why he was joining the Scaled Humanoid Programme).
The feud would ave emerged from SHIT's jealousy of being an inferior model, with its increasingly prevalent "Primary Function" inner voice (which itself would be presented as a corrupt born of SHIT's interaction with Barbosa's multiple personalities) demanding that it destroy Barbosa once it finds out that it has been 'technologically' surpassed.
As I had even come up with a gimmick match to contain their final showdown - "M.A.D." match - Mutually Assured Destruction. Basically, our MOTM Texas Deathmatch turned up to 13.
