Q&A With Yaz

[Dagger Dias]

Making sure you are having fun is the most important thing. Do you remember Mikey's heel turn by chance? I admit it was really weird, and some people disliked it. Ty told me he liked it though, so I'd say it was middling. It didn't last long, but if you don't remember it the basic story is Strikeforce was splitting up and Howard and Mikey were set to fight. Everyone thought that Howard was going to be the heel, so Shotaro and I wanted to swerve people. For reasons I don't completely remember, White Knight Chris KO was added into the feud. KO was EA Champ, so there was a triple threat. Howard pinned Mikey to win the title and it set the heel turn up. Mikey wore a mask, was kind of creepy, sort of stalked the Howard family, before he turned back to face during an I Quit match.

I vaguely remember heel masked Mikey. Didn't he have the Boo Theresa Waltz from Mario Galaxy as his entrance theme during this? I remember the triple threat. It was when Kermit was going to time off the fed due to a family emergency, I think. I don't remember the I Quit match or much else about that run though. If I remember correct Theron was feuding with Fallout so it was ages ago.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Getting it out of the way, the story you have been telling has been going on for what feels like ages. That isn't necessarily a bad thing mind you. It's a bit of breath of fresh air to see such dedication to that kind of arc.

I think, for me anyway, the highlight was the library brawl. Doc took a risk but it paid off. It was such a unique feud, that it required a unique mind, and few are better than Doc in that regard. He took two interesting characters, mixed them with his unique view point, and worked in your RPs well. More of a compliment on Doc, but it was a memorable moment/match.

The low point for me, was the voice stealing/voice loss. It wasn't inherently bad, it just felt a bit weird even in the world of fake fake wrestling. There were a couple of times I did get confused when working on it. Most of it stemmed from trying to remember who was supposed to be saying what. It was a unique feud and it remains an interesting story.

The book having mystical powers, hit and miss. More often than not, I was willing to allow supernatural stuff. It was fun stuff. The problem I'm having right now though, is I'm honestly trying to remember how the whole story got started and I'm drawing a blank.

When you run a story that has ran as long as this one has, it can be difficult to keep it interesting. Remember the night after WM27 when Rock laid down the challenge to Cena? It was a cool moment, until you realized that WWE just booked the main event of a PPV that was a year away. Soooo many things could have gone wrong, and they had to keep Cena relevant for that year. You managed to not screw anything up and you kept Kagura as a solid midcard presence. You rarely write boring RPs, both Celeste and Kagura were usually interesting reads. Sometimes you had s lot of attention to detail and sometimes the story had little to do with the characters being wrestlers, but rarely have your RPs made me question your talent.

So ultimately I think there were more positives than negatives here. It will go down as a unique story. Will it be remembered in a couple years? I can't say, but the one thing I would have changed was having more consistent feuds. I'm not sure who the blame falls on, but outside of Ramparty I can't recall a single feud or big match Kagura had, not counting the recent title shot.

Overall it was a good but maybe not great story. I like that Kagura showed some growth and change. She gained an interesting personality at times that was screaming to come out. Smooth out the inconsistencies and I think the story would be more fondly remembered, but if you cap it off with a big victory it will make up for a lot.

You have a talent to make odd things interesting and make them work, so never change.

 

[Bernkastel]

Thanks man. The voice loss thing is inconsistent because I ended up changing my plans for the intended plot, because my then direction didn't match what I had originally planned story wise. Not my fault, as I penned the bullet points for the arc 2 years ago. I just kind of had to roll with the punches from the in-show kayfabe as they came. I've also tried to write the story from two perspectives: a supernatural one and a more skeptical one. Are the haunting's real, or is Kagura just seeing things? Is she really cursed, or is she just losing her mind? And then I tried to work in an injury angle to explain her dependence on prescription pain medication, and how her increased depression and paranoia could explain the haunting's in a more rational way, rather than just saying "a ghost did it."

The main reason why Kagura didn't have more feuds is that they would have required a ton of effort and trust on my opponents part. Spidey agreed to completely change his portrayal of Ramparte for the sake of the story, and I'm not sure how many fed members would have been willing to do that. It was a gamble, but I believe that we pulled off something special with that feud. The library brawl was great. I think Doc did a masterful job at adapting the story. And even though I came up short, I enjoyed the build up to the Eurasian title match. Titus was a great opponent for me, and the feud was timed really well with the direction that I wanted to take the story.

 

[K Web V3]

Thoughts, comments or concerns with Logan? Wouldn't mind hearing your opinion buddy.

Working with or against Mikey in the future would be fun I believe

 

[Da Prophet]

For reasons I don't completely remember, White Knight Chris KO was added into the feud. KO was EA Champ, so there was a triple threat. Howard pinned Mikey to win the title and it set the heel turn up.

I remember criticising that at the time since Howard (I think, might be the other way round with you instead) had not won a single match since the round before Kingdom Come. I'm pretty sure it was Howard.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Thoughts, comments or concerns with Logan? Wouldn't mind hearing your opinion buddy.

Working with or against Mikey in the future would be fun I believe

I think the obvious needs to be said, but your run recently has been about as bad as can be without you getting the boot. You have talent, but at this point it's hard to say where that could lead given what you are coming off of.

When you first started, your character was literally Kevin Owens. I'm very glad Logan has evolved. When you ran the storyline with Logan's fiancé, I think you blew it off way too soon, but it showed a slightly new side to Logan. The Son of Boston overhaul was very solid. The accent got old quick though. The heel turn had a lot of potential. It still does. Logan is a hoss and being a heel will truly allow him to be a hoss. It's why I love big guys in wrestling. Just go out and throw other guys around. It's never not fun....well except for when Scott Steiner threw eight belly to belly suplexes against Triple H.....or when Brock gets lazy. Speaking of Brock, I often have mixed feelings about his manager. Same with Logan's. I think one of two things need to happen. You either need to ditch the manager or allow him to do all of Logan's talking. Having Logan being a mostly or completely silent monster, could be very fun.

I remember criticising that at the time since Howard (I think, might be the other way round with you instead) had not won a single match since the round before Kingdom Come. I'm pretty sure it was Howard.

I know that the plan was for Howard and Mikey to go forward, and Mikey would turn heel. Then Kermit wanted a program with Howard to try to get White Knight KO over. I don't want to say I was pushed aside, but KO was EA Champ so they were going to go with that and I was kind of floating. Then it came to light that Kermit was going to drop out of the fed after the PPV, so Mikey was added as kind of a third wheel to use the triple threat at the PPV so kickstart the Strikeforce feud.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

What are your thoughts on V.I? Best stable ever?

 

[Hyorinmaru]

How's life treating Yaz today?

 

[Richard Blonoff]

What are your thoughts on V.I? Best stable ever?

Truth be told, I'm surprised that VI has lasted this long. There have been multiple times where it should have been dead, but it somehow survived.

I don't think VI is a bad stable by any means though. It just honestly baffles me how it has worked and lasted. Constantine was a guy who wasn't afraid to form strategic alliances, so he made sense. Abel and Holmes made sense because Consty and Holmes went way back. Reynolds wasn't much of a stretch to add either, so all those guys made sense.

The current lineup, isn't bad, it's just a bit odd and if I'm being honest nearly 100% of the weirdness is because of Keaton. Let's put aside the fact that it seems each time they are backstage they seem to have a disagreement and an implosion seems right around the corner. That seems kind of normal for heel stables. Keaton's presence is an outlier. Yes, Keaton does fit the group dynamic of being brash and cocky, but that's where the similarities end. He is so over the top and colorful that he doesn't fit the mold the rest of the guys do. While Cooper, Xander, and Adonis are all having super cereal talks about supremecy and taking over, Keaton is in a corner playing air guitar. When the rest of the guys are dressed in sharp Evolution style suits, Keaton looks like an 80s hair metal reject. Those qualities are what makes Keaton fun, but he doesn't fit the dynamic of the group. Now, I get that he and Cooper were a thing before VI, and despite that they were very much an oddball pairing, it was close enough to the cliche mentor/mentee wrestling story that it worked. Now it seems like despite Keaton being the odd man out, he is still rather submissive to the desires of the rest of the group.

That part kind of rubs me the wrong way. Now I don't know what the long term plan is. If I was put 100% in control of the story, I'd have Keaton be the one to destroy the group in a grand face turn. He just is so over the top and out of place that I feel like if and when he breaks free and becomes his own man, he would be very over. Despite him being a heel, he has a goofy side that can be endearing, and I think people want to cheer that. Especially when placed against the back drop of ruthless asshole heels like Cooper and Adonis and cocky superior heels like Xander.

All that aside, the group is good. They have some titles to their name, all the guys are good RPers, and from what I remember the behind the scenes communication was smooth. I think if you guys could hold onto the gold at the same time, it would drastically improve their standing on the all time list, but just the fact that it is a stable of guys who have all been champions, it should be placed in the fondly remembered catagory.

How's life treating Yaz today?

Not bad my friend. Had an appointment with my new therapist today. She is great. She actually offers me practical ideas and solutions instead of things that don't seem obtainable. It also helps that she isn't much older than I am, so she can relate to a fair number of my struggles.

That said, we just got back from Denny's, and it was a less than ideal trip. Aside from getting both orders wrong, the woman in the kitchen refused to fix them because "she was the only one on the grill." I mean, sure I can eat my burger without bacon and mayo, but when I order them I expect to get them. The girlfriend's sandwich didn't have the cheese on it she ordered, and they burnt the toasted bun. When I got the check, they charged me for the bacon that I didn't get. At least the server was nice enough to fix that and apologized for the grill cook "being a smelly bitch." She got a solid tip for that.

Oh and there was a screaming child. Who the hell takes their two year old child to a restaurant at midnight, and then chastises them for being tired?

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Speaking of stables, I'm curious to where Cerberus fits as a 3-person (not just a tag team) in the list of greatest of all time to you. I'd like to imagine we are way behind AoC but a tad above The Elite, going by stables I actually know. Top 5? Top 10?

And if it's no trouble, what stables did you like with the time you've been in the fed? Like if you could compose a list.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Speaking of stables, I'm curious to where Cerberus fits as a 3-person (not just a tag team) in the list of greatest of all time to you. I'd like to imagine we are way behind AoC but a tad above The Elite, going by stables I actually know. Top 5? Top 10?

And if it's no trouble, what stables did you like with the time you've been in the fed? Like if you could compose a list.

I know Dagger wants a list out of me as well, so I will work on that and this and hopefully have it by the weekend. I know that I've only been around for 1/2 of WZCW's run, so my lists will probably be biased toward guys I've rubbed shoulders with but I will do my best.

As far as Cerberus goes, I think they were a good stable, but also a good example of what if?

Flex, Ram, and Eve were all good characters. Dynamite, yourself, and Falk are all good RPers who have multiple characters who achieved varying levels of success and all three of you have made a mark on both sides of the curtain. That's why I'm not surprised that as a whole, you guys did well.

From the beginning the team of Flex and Ram was a bit odd. Flex was a fitness obsessed narcissist in the mold of a more entertaining Lex Luger. Seriously, credit to Dynamite he turned what could have been an absolute turd of a character and mixed just enough comedy and silliness to give him evolution. Dynamite showed back in the day with Kryptonthat he could be silly, but Flex is a total package and deserves his current standing. Ram was at first....okay Spidey confession time. I did not like Ram when he first showed up. I used to joke that he was going to turn out to be some sort of homosexual literary obsessed vampire. Now I've told you in the past that I believe you are smarter than me. At the very least you are better at using a thesaurus than me. Seriously though, I remember telling you flat out that sometimes reading a Ramparte RP was a challenge due to your diverse vocabulary. What I liked is that you seemed to take that to heart and you toned it down enough so that a simple guy like myself could understand the gist of what he was saying, while still having that air of intellectual superiority about him. The team was rough at first, but equal parts cocky and foreign heel play helped them bond.

Based on the name alone, we all knew a third member would be added eventually. Eve was a bit of a shock, but it made sense to want to ally yourself with a veteran of Falk's caliber. After a few transition RPs, Eve began to feel like a perfect final piece of the puzzle.

You guys all had success. You can and we have argued that the tag division was at a low point when Cerberus were on top, but gold is gold. The feud with Hard Metal Penetration showed just how diverse the three of you could be. That to me is important to your legacy. Eve occasionally running interference and providing distractions while still being an established singles wrestler was a good dynamic. It felt like despite Cerberus the tag team and Eve being in different divisions, they were a unit.

Eve also played the perfect catalyst to sew distrust between Flex and Ram. Like most stable and team breakups, the cracks were slowly but surely forming. I wish that Team Russia could have played a bigger role in that, because there was potential in having Cerberus vs Team Russia as a legit six man program with our manager getting involved. That's where part of the what if comes into play.

The other part of the what if, is what if the implosion would have gone on longer? The program and match at Kingdom Come was fine, and the title helped it feel bigger. I feel that it could have been so much more though. Just imagine a tag match between Flex and Eve taking on Ram and possibly Batti. That would have likely been fun.

As it went down though, it's hard to say Cerberus wasn't a success. All three members held gold at one point. They got a KC feud out of the implosion and all three members are still active in some capacity. So while it may not have had the high stakes or longerivity that AoC had, it was still good.

 

[Shotaro]

How awesome is GLOW?

 

[Richard Blonoff]

It was pretty good. The cameos were fun, it had some interesting characters, and I enjoyed the whole coming together theme in the last couple of episodes. The acting was solid throughout. Marc Marron was convincing as a sleazy director.

I had a few complaints though. The season was only ten episodes and the longest episode didn't even clock in at 40 minutes. I would have liked to see more of the training aspect. What we saw was good, but in the first couple of episodes they were having issues running the ropes and taking back bumps, and by the end they were doing fairly smooth chain wrestling. I also really really dislike that Allison Brie was topless a few times. How dare they sexualize Annie! Speaking of, the three main characters were Sam, Ruth, and Debbie. None of them were completely likeable, and that bugged me a bit.

I'm a little worried over the fact that they set up a few storylines for future seasons. Since it's the same people who do Orange is the New Black, there really is no telling how long they will take to wrap up.

 

[ShinChan]

Any particular character whom you initially didn't see much in but it turned out very well exceeding your expectations?

Titus Avison as EurAsian Champion, Eve Taylor as Elite Openweight Champion or Ty Burna as World Heavyweight Champion? Choose one. And maybe if you can, rank them?

Favorite character currently and past not taking in account your characters or legends. So no Titus, Constantine, Matt Tastic, Ty Burna, Steven Holmes, Steven Kurtesy, Showtime Cougar or any other legend.?

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Theron is the first one that comes to mind. When he first apped Theron was a lot closer to Mikey than what he ended up being. I just had almost no confidence that Theron would be successful, especially once he started RPing and was establishing the backstory. Once he hit his stride though, Dagger had a fair amount of success.

No offense to Falk, but Eve's Elite X Title reign doesn't compare to the other two. It was a very good reign, but when you try to put it alongside the other two, it's obvious which one doesn't belong. I'm torn between which of the other two is better though. Ty's reign was the World Title, so he was facing the best of the best of the best. He also managed to go an entire year without a single loss. Not just title matches, but all matches. Ty truly ran over the roster night in and night out in a display of pure dominance that will never be matched.

Titus has been an absolute breath of fresh air for a few reasons. For one, Titus was already a legend and Hall of Famer and one the greatest faces in history. So for him to come back as a heel and go on a reign of this caliber is amazing, but amazing doesn't even come close to being an appropriate word. Secondly, he made the EA Title feel important. There are a fair number of us here in the fed who are old enough to remember a time in WWE when Hogan was running wild all over the product and you just knew that no one had a real chance of knocking him off his perch, and those who did have a chance were all the most monstery of monsters who would eventually drop the title back when Hogan decided he wanted to go over again. Because of that, the IC Title became super important. It showcased a large number of guys who were essentially being held back by Hogan's glass ceiling. It also served as the main title a lot of the time because Hogan didn't show up on most shows. While in WZCW the World Title will always be the top prize, Titus has made the EA Title just as important as the IC Title used to.

So I think they are probably 1A and 1B.

As far as characters I've always had a soft spot for, here goes.
James Howard
Ace Stevens
Daddy Mack
El Califa Dragon
Max Steele
elegANT
Sam Smith
The Local Talent
Grizzly Bob
Alhazred
SHIT

 

[a0161613]

Talk about me and specifically Reynolds and GM.

And those KC matches

 

[ShinChan]

No present character?

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Talk about me and specifically Reynolds and GM.

And those KC matches

I think Reynolds has always been a bit underrated. It's easy to point at him and say, well he never won the big one so he must have not need good. That to me slights not only your ability, but the ability of the guys at the top when Reynolds was in that position. When people point to him and mention the lack of a World Title, they overlook what he did actually accomplish. His midcard singles runs were solid and he had a face and heel title run. Most guys can't say that. Sure, we can and have debated RRRs place in history, but I do believe they served a purpose. They were sort of the bridge between different eras of tag team RPing. A lot, if not all the teams before RRR were serious teams. The first few teams after RRR weren't afraid to take chances and not be serious all the time. Yes, Strikeforce were no where near the level of Saxoteur in terms of being goofy, but I'm not 100% convinced that you could have transitioned straight from RRR or the Sons of Destiny type teams to a Saxoteur type team.

I was not a fan of how his initial run ended though. It had been teased for weeks that he had serious neck issues and one wrong bump could not only end his career, but cause permanent damage to his long term health. Then in the TLC match, the bump did happen when Howard shoved him from the ladder to the floor outside and it essentially wrote him out of the match. On the next show he faced Howard, and spent 95% of the match kicking Howard's ass, until Howard got a fluke roll up for the win. Then at the next PPV Reynolds lost to Runn (on another fluke roll up) with little fanfare and just left. Yeah, you put a couple guys over on the way out, but aside from a lack of build to the RRR implosion, I felt like Reynolds got in way too much offense over his last few matches considering he was mostly a flashy wrestler who had a major neck issue. The return though was very well written. His attitude change made sense and his return to a fan favorite in the feud with Abel was nice and he got a big win and a proper sendoff. It was a true high point for me to get to write his final match, and the visual of Austin hitting Bloody Sunday off the top of a ladder is one of my favorite things I've ever written. Reynolds may only be a fringe Hall of Famer, but when you look at his career as a whole, it's better than most people give it credit for.

GM, now there is a guy I have opinions on. When you brought him in for our feud, I was unaware he had a short run back in the day. When the feud first started I think it was doing a good job building to something fairly big. There came a point though, where I got very frustrated with what was happening. The biggest issue stemmed from the major difference in opinion between creative and myself on Mikey. The team felt that after watching his friend and tag team partner get taken out, that Mikey should have been this serious vengeful character who was going to stop at nothing for revenge. The thing was, he very much wanted revenge, but he went about it in his own way. The team wanted me to write Mikey as a serious character, but that wasn't and never would be what he was all about. Yes, I wrote some very serious RPs over the course of my time, but most of them revolved around how fragile Mikey truly was inside. He has always been a guy who does not handle loss well. NSL once told me I made him cry with an RP because of the emotion it conveyed when Mikey ran into his ex gf who was now married. In his sadness he got well drunk, took home some random girl from the bar, did the deed, then felt extremely remorseful over what he did because he realized ever since Rose left his life he had basically just ran through random groupies in an attempt to fill that void. The RP ended with Mikey sending the bar girl away, typing out a heart felt text to Rose, but then deleting it all and deleting her number before he fell back in bed remarking "wish I didn't care about you anymore, but I do." That's who Mikey is, he was never really an angry vengeful guy and I could not get that across to creative. They wanted me to write him the complete opposite of what he had been written his entire career. I tried that and the results weren't good on my part. To your credit, you did not give up though and did your best to make the feud work. I think in a way that is why it ended up being so drawn out. How many PPVs did it last? I want to say three.

I think there came a point when we were all just waiting on Howard to return once it became evident that at the time I didn't have what it took to pull off an RP capable of giving Mikey a W. Neither Shotaro or myself were happy that we got stuck with Derek Jacobs though. He was easily one of the worst characters and RPers in the fed, and we wanted no part of him on Team Strikeforce. We wanted Ricky Runn. We had it all planned out how it was going to go down and how the three would band together to combat TSA. We begged and pleaded, but we still ended up with Jacobs who tanked us so hard. On top of him never addressing why he defected from TSA, he constantly felt like an odd man out. It was like Booker T in nWo or Heidenreich as a member of LOD, it never felt natural. Plus, after he spent weeks writing shitty RPs where he was just suddenly a face with no explanation as to why, and never trying to actually gain the trust of the guys he had just screwed over a few PPVs back, he pitched that during the match he sacrifice himself for the team. He literally pitched that his character die in the ring so he could get a heroes send off. By that point, Meeks has sucked all the fun out of RPing for me, and I was just ready to move on to anything else. Despite that, we had War Games....oh and a fucking tank. the War Games match at KC is arguably the best match in WZCW history. KB gave the thing an A+ so no one can ever take that away from us. Howard, Mikey, Jacobs, Westoff, GM, DC, Runn, and the other guy whose name escapes me off hand could all be written in a segment on the next show where an asteroid lands on them all while inside a fetish club for guys who like to be dressed as babies and tied down and spanked by old women in Big Bird cosmtumes and we would still have War Games....and that god damn net gun.

I'm a bit sad that after that, GM didn't really do anything of note. Ty Burna had been written off by this point, so having GM take over the job of supernatural heel seemed natural. I would have loved seeing more made about GM having those powers.

So with us being knotted up at one KC win each, it's only natural that one day down the line we have the rubber match and blow it off once and for all.

No present character?

There are characters on the current roster that I like. Truth be told, there are only a handful of characters in my time that I've truly disliked. Every character has the potential for fun moments, it's the beauty of what we do. You can literally spend months jobbing out opening matches, but get one solid idea and run with it and you can turn it into a good storyline. Outside of the most generic characters and a couple of handlers who flat out refused to progress their characters, there really isn't anyone I hate.

Of course on the current roster I'm partial to the established characters, especially now that I'm off creative. I don't need to read each Titus RP to get the gist of what Lee is doing. That's harder with unestablished guys, because they have to set up the backstory and if you don't read each RP, then you will probably miss an important detail.