Riot 582: Red & Black Is Back!

Sort of a 3 2 1 with some bonuses thrown in. It’s sort of a critical look for what was a show I enjoyed.

Strap in Cause I got A LOT to say about The Wrestling Club

This Wrestling Club(John-Marcus) promo was very disappointing to see, and not in the usual TWC way. First off, John started by welcoming back Marcus who has been gone for a month but John acts like he has been gone forever even though Marcus says that they have been training in that timespan. Now when I read it, it definitely did make me laugh but it also didn’t make too much sense that John is publicly inquiring Marcus about what he’s been up to after…a few missed texts and calls.

However, that’s not my main gripe with this promo, it really was just a weird interaction I wanted to point out. My main gripe is this:

Marcus: I don’t know about you, but I’ve done enough cardio to last the rest of my career here this past month. Let’s say you and I stop running and just get those illustrious tag titles?

John: I’m all for it!

This sorta just summed up all the bad parts about TWC. It’s just a very linear approach to a character and a linear approach to OCW as a whole. Just go for title because title, and if fail, try again. Obviously, this doesn’t mean they’re gonna go directly into another feud with Sanctum but that’s not the point. From a character perspective, this is just boring.

Marcus and John already lost to Sanctum, so why them again. Why not Marcus and Elliott, while John takes care of Mac and Marisa. Hell, why not address the recent loss at Certified Greatness for those very same tag titles that John was literally crying over. This promo seems like it was written during the beginning of S17 after the S-Cup not after a failed attempt at the tag titles.

What happened to Original Club M.O. of trying to “Spread Wrestling Throughout OCW” and dominate, cause you can do that without being tag champs. Even if they were like “We’re gonna crush anyone who gets in our way back to those titles” that at least opens the door to other challengers instead of acting like they’re next in line as if they didn’t just lose.

Because of this, this promo just felt very bland. Even if you wanted to portray John as someone obsessed and infatuated with the tag titles as I think is the goal, then you could have Marcus be not so on board with him. Have Marcus interested in other things, and John weirdly stuck on the titles so Marcus hesitantly goes along with it while subtly noticing how strange John is acting. Just SOMETHING that’s there to differentiate it from literally any other generic tag team promo.

On the topic of the Wrestling Club, I really like the Parker(s)-Marissa promo. Short, fun, and sweet and I think it did a lot for all characters involved. Maybe this means that Elliot is replacing John in his feud with Marissa-Mac which wouldn’t be terrible if not for above. Especially, since you could still have that Mixed Tag Match be the payoff as you can Control Both Tag Partners Online in 2k22(at least the option is there, haven’t tried it). But yeah, really like this promo.

Cardio Crazy

The Terramisue promo was a real good change of pace and change of style from your traditional wrestling promo. I don’t think it’s a hot take to say that these two handlers working together has caused them to push each other and more importantly, just push the boundary for OCW content and storytelling. Don’t have much to say about the specifics of the promo, other than that I hope no one reads the promo thinking Terra and Sue just chose a gym with really rude people there cause I’m 99.9% sure, that’s not at all what happened.

Hon Appetit!

This Rust promo was the Chef’s kiss. Again, not much to be said. It lays it all out there and explains it perfectly and sets up the rest of the story. Another key part is Rust isn’t “suddenly” acting heelish. He’s acting the same way he has been for a while now except his views just don’t align with Everrett and because of that, they clash.

Now instead of talking about how and why the promo is good can we talk about how Rust said he gonna destroy the CCW title. WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!? Is he going to retire the belt? Can he do that? Is he going to rename the belt? Can he do that? Is he going to take a hammer and break that damn belt? Can he do that? Regardless, I DON’T want to find out so I hope Tony Twinkle Toes sends the Rotten Rapier Rust packing. Marvelous showing and probably my promo of the night and a great promo to end the show with writing wise.

Need More Moore!

I’m not sure if it was a mixup and miscommunication or just some total oversight, but this Harri and Ashley promo made no sense at all. From last week, we seen Harri cost Moore the match which should make Moore be the one that’s trying to get Harri, but that’s not at all what happened this week. First we get a reference to the previous segment, with Ashley not falling for the same prank. Fine. It sets up the second gag. Funny and unexpected, fine. Then, we get Ashley chasing Harri, who then turns on her with a shovel, who then turns back to hide under a box. We’re starting to lose it. How Harri lost her shovel, and how Moore managed to turn the chase was never made clear. The whole segment, sort of made Moore look a bit week cause she was basically toyed with but you know what, that’s fine.

How did they end it? They had Harri escaping and presumably walking towards her car. When first watching this, I was like this is fine, that is fun. Until we get to Harri’s match, which means she’s still in the building. Harri goes on to win that match no problems and just celebrates. During all this time, WHERE IS ASHLEY MOORE? How are you gone have Harri escape then she goes to a spot where Moore knows she’s gonna be at and Moore doesn’t come out at any point during the match or after. Especially, after Moore’s match got interrupted by Harri literally last week. This makes Moore look weaker than the actual segment itself did cause now I’m conditioned to think that Moore just doesn’t care about following up on Harri at all, and if Moore, the character, doesn’t care, then why should I?

Who Goes There, Matey?

From an initial viewpoint, both Viktor Karmine and Terra’s video promos seem like they were both just simple text promos that were turned into video for the sake of visibility where they make their way to thering and talk to the camera about the person they’re feuding with. But upon the closer inspection (and watching the videos all the way through) that’s not the case.

Karmine comes out sporting a new more branded gear and refined gear than when we last saw him. A small bonus. Then he goes sort of through the motions (key thing is it only lasts for 30 seconds), talks about and calls out Mantis who he’s feuding with. Lights go out and it’s not Mantis. It’s Deadzone who is also sporting a whole new look. Cobra decided to put the controller down, leave his mom’s basement, and for lack of a better term, get some bitches on his dick. They beat up Viktor ahead of their showdown next week and who comes out to save him, Chris Baxter! Who is also involved in that sort of triangle storyline with Mantis and it’s also the first time we’re seeing Baxter on 2k22.

This promo ticked a lot of boxes, didn’t drag on, showcased some people (which is acceptable for this point of the game), built for a match next week, and still continued the Baxter-Karmine-HMR storyline. Not much you can complain about.

On the Terra promo, it was alright. Showcased Terra having a sort of return to her old self, but like her old old self not her old self, you know. She talked directly to Kasstianity, threatening them however, I wish there was a little tiny bit more to sort of take advantage of the video aspect. Perhaps, Terra could have been rotated slightly when talking about returning to her old self which would act as a visual nod to that one shot of her from her feud with Valkyrie and would be a strictly video reference that says that Kasstianity might make Terra act out of pocket and that it ain’t all sunshine and daisies. This would have better showcased how Sue is now the most important thing to Terra and that Kasstianity might not want to mess with that. Most Importantly, this video was not as long as the Karmine one.

Triple Threat

This match on paper, was a tossup to me on if it was gonna deliver and I think overall it did. John Carter was by far the standout of the match which was a shame as the other two seem in position to make some run at some titles in their near future.

I think what most people will take away from this is “John is a Dirty Dodge Cheeser” and that’s a completely fair assessment. If John wants to be a “Dodge Demon” and in general for dodges in this game, for it not to look like shit I think it’s only reasonable that you make sure about 3 things.

1. You dodge when an opponent attacks
   
2. You dodge if that attack would actually hit you(and not out of range)
   
3. You dodge away from the attack
   

John failed each of these 3 things multiple times during the match and when you do that, visually it seems like you’re playing a game and just dodging to be invulnerable rather than a wrestler dodging as a defensive reaction to an oncoming attack which is what a good dodge looks like.

That being said, I don’t think it ruined the match and don’t even think it ruined John for me in the match as that very same dodging made what I think was spot of the night. The suplex onto the outside was nice but the spot happened earlier in the match. John was taunting a downed Danny with a “Come get it” taunt then Danny gets up and instantly charges at John to which John dodges like a goddamn matador. I even clipped it here https://clips.twitch.tv/ImpossibleEmpathicGnatSMOrc-3A2kcmD7CSXEmWzd.

Not only was this just a good heel spot, but it also made sense that John would use his speed and intellect to get one over on the two muscle heads he was in the match with. That was beautiful and led to that nasty like STO on the apron from Danny.

On the topic of Danny, in the beginning of the match he straight up left the ring. I don’t know why this has to be said, but leaving the ring immediately as a heel, especially a heavyweight strong heel as opposed to a cowardly one, doesn’t build any heat it just makes me not want to watch cause you’re a roided out baby wrestling instead of a real man. Luckily, both John and Derek didn’t let that happen for too long and honed in on Danny. Imagine, the rookies are the ones that have to teach the wrestler how to work.

To be fair to Danny, he did taunt after he left the ring which would have allowed for follow up, and he ran directly at John as soon as he left the ring so it’s clear he wasn’t JUST trying to avoid confrontation and damage and was just doing it for a spot. Still stupid, but atleast it’s from a character and wrestling standpoint and not one of getting a competitive advantage.

Now going back to John AND Danny, was the finish of the match. Danny goes for a somewhat surprise Act Of Violence which is a slower move which John wasn’t expecting so when he immediately dodged, not only did he dodge in the wrong direction but Danny was still doing the move when the invulnerability from the dodge ended so he got clipped. It’s the perfect ending as the biggest gripe from the match ended up costing John instead of getting him the win. You couldn’t have written it any better.

Final Thoughts

There were more RPs than last show and there were some better ones on this show like the ones from Rust, Kasstianity, Terramisue, Cort and a few others that had some good form but also felt like some were a bit lost. I think the ones on Turmoil were more focused which some lacked as I would guess people sort of went “well what now?” after doing their welcome back promo. Might be tripping on that one but who knows.

There were some “murder” matches but that’s ok as that means that the game doesn’t hold someone’s hand to the point where it looks “competitive”. Plus, early on in the game, there’s gonna be the biggest gap between those who practice and those who don’t where last year, everybody had played the game so much that it didn’t matter if you were actively DMing as it was basically diminishing returns since everyone was basically as good as they were gonna be.

I know this was sort of critical look at the show but I really enjoyed it. I think every part of the show took a solid step up from last week, from the segments, to the written rps, to most importantly the matches. Good to see that we are all heading in the right direction and that we weren’t a good bunch last couple of years because we understood the game, but we were a good bunch because we were putting in the effort to understand the game which is way more important and it shows here and makes me happier for the rest of the season.

Speaking of the rest of the season, I can’t wait for the Walk Through The Fire tournament. We’ve had tournaments recently but this is pretty different. 16 Heads Walk In. 13 Matches. Every Match is Win or Go Home. A good switch up from recent tournaments.

Can’t wait to see what many of you have next, even those I didn’t mention here, and I look forward to the rest of the season.

Not done one of these in a while, let's go!

Storylines

Rust and Tony have absolutely got me with this storyline. I've said in the past that Dominion as a thing kind of go in and out with me, sometimes I'm all aboard, sometimes I don't want it there and would prefer to see all the people individually do stuff, but this has paid off my attention whether I was high on it or not. Great, great roleplayers, Rust's promo took the cake for me tonight, I think he's playing this perfectly, and Tony is great to read, I'm really getting into his stuff.

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Terra and Sue! This is one of the few storylines that has ever made me legitimately nervous. It was really nice being a small part of this story, with the Harri/Ashley vs Sue/Terra match, and I love that this is doing something real. Sue's going mad on a body image issue, Terra's trying to hold things together, or so it seems, and while I know this stuff usually has a wholesome feel to it, these two do a great job at making me believe that this time it might not. Excellent story, one of the main ones I'm following.

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Kasstianity. Now, I've never been 100% sold on them, Kasstianity was before my time here, and their promo last week was a bit bare, but this one has more meat on the bone, and I now get how Furiosa works, I was slow, but finally I see what's going on. I will admit, I don't yet see how Kassidy is worth worshipping, and I am considering some weird fridge logic moments at the idea of their being a stable of women dedicated to worshipping a guy, but I wanna see where this goes, I think there's good potential with the handlers involved. It's definitely moving in more of a direction that I'm enjoying.

Video Segments

Jesus christ, the Colby/Maxx segment. Maxx is absolutely top tier on this game, and of the squashes tonight, I enjoyed his more, and it paired perfectly with this segment. Nothing more to say about it, I just wanna blow more smoke up its arse, it was really good, insane detail on the urine, absolutely the segment on the night.

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Now, I try to hide this, but I love metagame stuff, analysis, figuring out strategies and whatnot in any game, it's a fun passtime, so GOAT academy is right up my street with the replays. This, for me, serves two purposes, in character it sets up everything that goes into an OCW Match and an OCW wrestler, and on a meta level, it shows us how good an eye these handlers have for the game, that they can make a good segment out of a bad dodge that happened a week ago. I think there are some great rookies (alts or legitimate) that can be really made by this storyline if that's the way it's going, and regardless, I'm along for the ride, and I hope there's more content like this coming, I like seeing matches re-considered, even if a throwaway match might not have huge consequences in the moment.

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John, Marisa, Mac. Honestly, I think in this segment (and potentially in this story overall), I saw characters really find themselves. I love Nate and Marisa as this kind of biker gang couple, and while I think John can still definitely develop in terms of writing skills and storytelling (Maxx went into this better than I could have), nowadays I'm starting to feel a kind of self-awareness in his presentation that I hadn't over the course of last season. He's an absolute shitter, he is the in all but name leader of The Wrestling Club, but his style's looking more like an indie guy with a matador gimmick, he's desperate for titles and I think when it comes down to it, he wants to win, even if that means it's not 'wrestling'. This needs self awareness to pull off, John has it, and he clearly doesn't mind being smacked around and getting his comeuppance for the story. This segment gave every character more identity, and I'm all for it.

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Matches!

THE MURDERS

These are strange matches to rate. I enjoyed the Maxx match more than the Parca one, as Maxx honestly might be one of the most over people here, if not the absolute most over. If this season is about Maxx making everyone eat his shit until he is world champion, I don't care if Colin's gotta stay in a dungeon for the whole thing, it'll be a great time. I felt that Parca's squash might have been a styles clash, Cort is a brilliant roleplayer and 'character player', as is Parca, but the character of Parca is desperate to dominate, to keep the title at any cost, and it feels very much powered by insecurity, to an extent, which really contradicts Cort's more generous and slower pace as a character.

A match like this could've been a great establishing moment for Parca, however, I feel that this match would've suited a PPV midcard, ending what could be an excellent story between the two of them, rather than main eventing a show. I think with that in mind, it adds to why I was a bit 'whelmed' by it, in comparison to the Maxx hype, I think Parca/Cort could've been a great call for a first defense with the work they both can put in, but it was what it was, and both guys can put on match of the night any other day in other circumstances.

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Triple Threat.

John's dodging took me on a journey, it's like the Sideshow Bob rake scene. First it was 'oh fuck, John's found an OP thing again', then it was hilarious, then it was 'oh fuck, can someone smack everyone who dodges all the time', and then it was great again. I think Maxx is right that it looks 'gamey', but I also think he's right that John was the standout player here regardless. I'm gonna be blunt, I don't know how Danny competes for the world title off of this. Him leaving the ring is a meme, I don't think it's good character playing, and while I disagree with Maxx and think that 'Big dude who is actually a coward' can be a really subversive and nuanced character, and that Danny doesn't have to be a generic powerhouse, this would require writing to do. Any kind of semi-substantial writing at all, and I haven't seen that from him in a very long time, quite frankly.

There were some fun spots in this match, I enjoyed it despite my critique, however, I can't shake the feeling that the match will border on being non-canon in the coming weeks. I do hope that John can do something with this, but I feel for him that 'I lost off a whiffed move' is a tough match finish to write around, I hope his ideas are better than mine.

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Final thoughts

I'm really enjoying seeing people feel this game out. I do hope that the number of murders decreases with time, as I'm sure it will, and overall, I think we all did a great job doing more writing, adapting our segment work for the game, progressing stories, great stuff. I hope that this season lets more new characters emerge. I already really enjoy Viktor, Deaver's got that Myrath track that could win 'entrance theme of the year' with stronger audio mixing with time, Bishop's gonna have a bonkers rise with Maxx at the helm, and I hope they can really grab some opportunities, I wanna see titles flying all over the place this season, because I love the unpredictability and the kind of near-insanity that OCW delivers on, whether that's me committing war crimes on your brain cells for some of my less serious videos, watching bizarre glitches and whiffs on twitch with you all, or seeing a story unfold, told by some excellent, hard working handlers.

Match Ratings:

Joe Deaver vs. Joshua Tucker

2.8

John Carter vs. Big Daddy D vs. Danny Watts

2.8

Maxx Edwards vs. Sheldon Tremblay

2.8

Harri Etiquette vs. La Mujera Obscura

3.4

The Uncrowned vs. Q.C. Connect

3.3

Cort Marshall vs. El Parca

2.8

Segment of the night (Video)

Colby is going to hell

Segment of the night (Written)

Rust explains himself