WeWA: World e-Wrestling Association

by Michael Cavenaugh

Welcome to “Uncle Mike’s Ramblings.” The Powers that Be (more familiarly known as Rob) have been kind/foolish enough to grant me a weekly spot writing about all things e-wrestling, and this is the kick-off of that. Some of you know me, some of you may have heard of me, but I thought it might not be a bad idea to explain who I am and where I come from (e-wrestling wise).

I’ve been in this game for a decade now- starting just before my seventeenth birthday. It’s safe to say I’ve seen some changes. When I started, almost every federation had a Angelfire/Tripod/Geocities/HotYellow98 free web page. Animated GIFs were everywhere, as were banners/etcetera advertising the hosting site. The first fed I joined was an email fed- you sent the roleplays to the head guy by email, and once a day he’d compile a digest of all that days RP’s and mail them out. Shows were handled the same way. Forums/message boards were JUST starting to get going. The idea of an out of character area was pretty new and unique, and none of the federations that would accept my crappy writing had them.

It was a different environment.

The time commitment was also a little heavier- my first “serious” federation, the first place I spent more than a few weeks, ran a show every week, with roleplaying once a day the standard. It wasn’t just one or two people, either- this was a fed with twenty plus members, all posting every day. I’d like to say that the frequency diluted the quality- but I can’t. Maybe it’s the rose colored tint time gives things, but I remember the roleplays from that federation more fondly and more clearly than roleplays I read three days ago.

The writing style was also different- roleplays needed to be about the match. Sure, character development was important, but in the context of still advancing the angle or promoting the match. “Script style” roleplays were really all you saw. Were there federations that were doing “story style” roleplays that were all character development? I’m sure there were, but I wasn’t in them. In fact, I spent the first six years of my ewrestling career in one federation- sometimes I’d do a brief foray in another fed, or in an interfed angle, but I was a loyalist. So it’s safe to say my view was slightly myopic- and still is. Even now, I’ve only really been a part of two federations- one for six years, another for three, with a year off in between for a brief tryst with running a federation.

Am I saying things were better in the old days? Of course not. I couldn’t play that game today. I was in high school and college then, taking fifteen hours of classes a week. I had the free time to write daily, I stayed up until four in the morning regularly, and I lived on AIM. Now I’ve got a job. Social obligations. I go to bed by midnight and get up at five, spend ten hours confined in an office, another two or three planning things for the next day, and just don’t want to spend five hours a night staring at a computer to write a roleplay.

E-wrestling has matured- and so have I. I like three roleplays over two weeks. I like the way the game has evolved to more of a story about people who happen to be wrestlers rather than wrestlers that happen to be people. I like the slick, professional websites. I like that audio shows, whether as a way to do cards or as added features, have become common. I like where e-wrestling is today…

But I “came up” in a different time. I write differently now than I did, both in approach and style. I feel differently about what makes a good roleplay. I worry about different aspects of character development than I used to. That’s probably going to be a big focus of this space- character development. My thoughts on the little nuances of writing, the soft touches that might otherwise go ignored.

Since I’m fairly pedantic, you can expect a lot of discussion on words and their usage, as well. And yes, for those who know me and are wondering, there WILL be a lecture on spelling. And grammar. And the fact that, no matter how you feel, words do have meanings, and they’ll be taken at face value sometimes.

I don’t promise to stay on topic. I don’t promise every column will be specific to e-wrestling, or will be applicable to your particular federation/character. I do promise to do my best to keep things interesting.

Sit down, settle in, and let Uncle Mike ramble at ya…

Mike Cavenaugh is a former RPW World Champion, former NeWA World Tag Team Champion, and pays the bills for WeWA.org. You can reach him at mcc@wewa.org.