Return of ocw underground???

I’m basically asking if people would be interested in the return of OCW Underground, but if you want to know where I’m coming from, feel free to read the following… or just skip to the last two paragraphs.

For years, I’ve been trying different things in OCW -- trying to bridge the gap between role playing and competition -- as we are, essentially a fed, which attempts to cater to both: competitors and entertainers.

Some of you may remember that I created a “points system” (Lord of the Ring), during a time when matches were very repetitive and everyone was very “thirsty”. The system rewarded those who put the extra effort in entertaining the fans and showcasing their in-ring ability: reversals, grapples, dives and so on. It was successful, but keeping track of all the matches and posting the results, grew to be difficult and time consuming.

There was also my attempt to give the “competitors” a place to quench their thirst: I called it OCW Underground (OCWU). I believe that OCWU, at one point, had a very complicated set of rules, in order to re-create the feel of an actual Pro-Wrestling match. Eventually, it was decided to limit the amount of rules and simply let people wrastle. There was no need to record, or post matches, it was just pure competition.

The concept for OCWU was to have a Round-Robin style tournament, where everyone faced one another in a BEST-OUT-OF-THREE scenario (think Street Fighter, where you have two rounds, and a tie breaking 3rd round if needed). After all the matches were done, the person with the most overall wins, would be the Champion.

In an effort to pull people in, I was going to reward the winner of the first tournament with a custom ring. The tournament never panned out, as not all the matches were completed -- partly due to an event in OCW which caused quite a few dramatic changes at the time -- and because -- as I believe -- Mayhem pretty much crushed everyone.

There have been other things that I’ve tried to implement as well, but those two were my biggest efforts for both “competitors” and “entertainers”.

From experience, I’ve learned a few things:

KEEP IT SIMPLE

1. People hate rules -- learning new ones, trying to remember all of them and so on. When you try to incorporate too many rules, it takes the fun away.

2. Give people too many options and it can be worse than giving them no options. It can also open the gate for “he only won the match because he’s a Super Heavy” or “his arms are longer”, it just goes on.

3. Whatever you do, remember that it has to be sustainable (easy enough to do repetitively without losing track or burning out every month)

NEVER THE TWO SHALL MEET

1. Entertainers: enjoy storyline, writing, utilizing videos, and they don’t mind changing the ending of a match (or the entire match at times) in order to make it more entertaining. They love the glitz and glamour of Superstar Entrances, a well designed attire and well thought out move-sets. Bottom line, they want to create a better WWE… the way Pro-Wrestling should be, if you will.

2. Competitors: Although they may enjoy many of the things that the Entertainer enjoys, when push comes to shove, they want to prove that they’re the best by competing against the best.

3. Although there are special individuals who happen to be good at both: entertaining and competing, it’s clear to me that most people tend to lean towards one or the other. They enjoy a hint of the other side of the spectrum, but deep down they either want to be best on the sticks, or best on the mic.

Having said all that, it appears that currently, OCW is leaning more towards the entertainment side, so I was wondering if people would be interested in the return of OCWU, to have an outlet for their “thirst”?

If it goes well, my goal would be to have several tournaments a year… maybe even changing the match-types: One-On-One, Tag, No Holds Barred, Purist (no strikes, only grapples). Obviously, I can’t afford to have a custom ring created each time, but I believe I found good replacement.

Count me in. Sounds like fun.

Go away, I want to win something.