So after doing a rather comprehensive review on OvreDrive last week, I was keen to get a chance to sit down and do the same for Asylum.
The show starts off with a match. Strange that no one stepped up to take the opening of the show. Usually we find the new champion step out and lay down the general ‘philosophy’ for their reign. I would have liked to see that, especially with Atken - a very new, and ‘upset’ champion. Though we do get something later in the show. I don’t know, I just think it should have headed the show.
We start with the title match. Good, solid match. Good action, top to bottom. I’m glad that no ‘liberties’ were taken with Kash’s situation and, thus, the one-sided or some sort of overly-dusty finish. Interesting to see Borderland return in a very similar turn to last year. He’s really turning into the champion ruiner now. Anyway, I liked the wrestling aspect of this match. It seemed to taper away from the suicidal aspect; that’s my personal preference. I liked the commentary in this match too. Anyway, a lot of material here for Kash to use when he’s back, as well as Aubrey to really ‘own’ the championship from Day 1. I wonder if the rematch will be at Mania, or if the whole thing is angling towards Kash-Borderland?
Raab and Slade. Ok, teaming together for their match. Some words of advice for you, Raab: Work on your grammar. Break up some of those sentences into clauses with commas, semi-colons, colons, whatever you need. Otherwise, keep the sentences short. I think this segment ... I don’t know, it just didn’t seem right. It almost seemed like a roll-on of thoughts and ideas. Perhaps in the future, focus things on a much smaller idea: Rather than covering everything. And say it shorter, simpler. Finally, don’t rope in another storyline and tac it on the end; either write a stand-alone thing or throw something up on the House Show board.
Someone needs to change the colour of what I think is Slade’s lyrics. Im-poss-i-ble to read. Enjoyed the match. It was notably written in past-tense. Strange that I noticed this this time. It was good, but some areas for improvement. The action could be written quicker to really give the match the pace you (the writer?) was looking for. Close match. I was happy to see the Pillars get the win here.
Dying Breed do some restaffing here. A shame to see them drop Krunk (who I thought had as much potential as anyone in the stable), but getting WDW in is as good a replacement as anyone. Really, all the members of this group are exciting and standouts. This is the group to watch, on Asylum, for this year. There’s a good few months of storyline here, and some excellent avenues to explore. By the end of the year, there could be some awards in it for them all.
The AJP/Logan segment. Wonderful. Perfect. Exactly what a segment should be later in the show. It’s dependent on the result, which makes it relevant and interesting. It’s crossing brand lines, it’s continuing storylines in a more unique way that “Rah rah! I hate you!”. It’s just a more interesting segment, and the way it finishes is where it packs the punch. Well done.
Now we get the champion. Classic heel stuff: Slag off the audience. A different tone from the way Atken was coming in at the end of last year. I don’t know if I like the change, to be honest. Anyway, I still love the Atken championship, the reign, and that Atken is going to be telling us his story now on a bigger stage. He’s taking in an interesting angle, this science vs faith thing. Good luck with that - I want it to succeed, but I have a lingering doubt. If it was just something for this segment, fine and dandy (though I didn’t see Callahan carrying it through).
Completely agree with Jules’ comment about the “It’s true that Callahan...” stuff. Appropriate for a promo, probably best left as an exchange for the commentators, maybe not even said at all. A lot of reading to do with this segment; perhaps a bit wordy which loses some of the ‘tightness’. But effective, nonetheless, and sets up for the Atken-Callahan match at S&C that is invariably in the pipeline. Could be an interesting reign for Atken here.
Into a TJ segment. Excellent face segment here, and a great way to reinvigorate the ‘theme’ of the title. It’s almost like the Suicidal-into-Pro-Life run, just on a more ‘detail’ level. TJ admits he’s no submission expert, then evokes the ‘rules’ to say that it’s also knock out. Given the character and the build, it’s an excellent twist. ‘The KO Champion’ TJ has a ring to it, too. Good, short, to the point. Serves a purpose, and sets a tone. Interesting to see how this goes on next week.
WDW is back, and now fighting under the Dying Breed colours. Even though they are a group of faces, I think it would have been a nice touch to have another member with him, just to solidify that ‘joining’. Even if it was for the entrance. I don’t say it’s the writer’s fault, or WDW’s. Just, it’s a point to say that there should always be communication when a match could further a storyline. Anyway, the match: Good, quick paced. The ending left me a bit disappointed: I think (given that it’s Asylum) there’s some better ways to get a DQ finish. Nevertheless, both take a fair bit away from it.
Into Callahan taking on J-Hop. Interesting match-up. I feel that Hopkins is in a similar (not the same) position as Callahan: On the cusp of stepping out and being awesome. Good match, quick, solid. I didn’t like how J-Hop was quick to tap. I think he deserved a bit more of a struggle. Even if it means a loss. Also, the way that J-Hop left the ring to only a ‘couple’ of cheers. Unless Callahan has gone full face now, I would have thought that the whole crowd would have rallied behind the face tag team champ. It’s the details, you know, that help make things stand out to me. Taking the action out the ring - it’s good, but only once I feel. Unless we’re going for a count-out win or something. GI served no purpose in the match. He was referenced, what, once? Given that Biggs included him in the card, he should have had a bigger presence in the match. He doesn’t have to ‘do’ anything, just be there - at least psychologically.
Short segment from KNux and TJ. Not sure about this. What do TJ and Knuckles have to do with each other? I get that it’s supposed to further Knuckle’s lawsuit/gimmick theft storyline. But ... where does TJ come into this? I would think something between the GM and Knuckles would be more appropriate, given that the GM is Knuckles boss and all.
WDW getting a title shot at S&C. Smooth. Could it be that all of the Dying Breed will be wearing titles soon? Nah, TJ is too good for that to happen
Now, into the main event. And ... yeah. It’s not usually a problem when one person doesn’t post for the match: They get buried. But what happens when it’s the champ? You get this ... schmozzle. I don’t know. I think that the Bailey/Atken match could have been a real wowzer. Former champion (who never got his rematch) against the new champion (who would obviously not want Bailey to have the rematch). The match could have been something grand and beautiful and meaningful. And I can’t help agree with what Jules said: Bailey taking the win just doesn’t go with the Bailey character. If everything had stayed the same, but Bailey had watched it go down and then just walk out in disgust, giving a win to Atken or a ‘no contest’ then the whole thing would have been completely fine. But Bailey taking the win? I just don’t like it.
Atken, you said a ‘clear Bailey win’. I don’t think that would be the best way to go either. But I don’t like the ‘cheap’ takedown of the champion. Atken is the champion! If he gets taken out this ‘easily’, what’s it saying about his win? His reign? As with Jules, this ending was not as satisfying as it could/should have been. Given the situation perhaps Atken, you could have thrown together a different segment for earlier in the night, where Atken came out ... have him come out injured or feigning an injury (the fake injury would suit Atken so good!), and say “I know I’m scheduled to wrestle ... but in my hard fought battle for justice against Sally, I was injured so badly that I can’t compete.’ Then make up a facetious injury. Then say ‘But, in my place ...’ and throw in one of your NPCs. Heel champion now becomes super cowardly heel champion looking to preserve his reputation and title at all costs. Then, come the main event, Bailey vs NPC, Atken lurking ringside. Bailey gets the win (given the circumstances), Atken flips out at his NPC, reveals he has no injury (but then comedically covers). If you wanted to do the Callahan-Atken beat down, do it after this. Or not at all - I think you could end with a segment, Callahan challenge him, calling him out on the injury. Whatever. But you get through the murky waters and you are able to preserve all three.
Anyway, that’s just an idea that came to me when I read the other feedback. Big lot of help it is now haha!
Anyway, top to bottom: Solid Asylum show. But not the best, if I can be honest. As Biggs said: It did feel a bit disjointed. Not because of the double-segments or anything. There’s just ... there’s a missing ‘uniformity’ to them. It didn’t have the same cohesiveness as some of our previous shows. We weren’t all building towards S&C, nor were we wrapping up CC or establishing feuds like we should be at the start of the year. This show just seems to drift between the three and doesn’t really ‘commit’ to anything.
There’s a lot of newer talent on Asylum now, and given it’s the start of the year, I want to give people some friendly advice to continue to improve what we’re doing here on Asylum. We should compare ourselves to OverDrive because they are part of APW, and we’re all in this together. Their results were amazing, last show. The best. It’s not because of the GM (Biggs is the best GM I’ve ever worked with, and Rebel is downright amazing too). It’s because of what
we do and put into it that makes it better and better.
So, some advice to everyone on Asylum now:
Communicate with Biggs! Let’s be honest here: The two most valuable places to get a segment are the opening of the show and right before the main event. The opening of the show has gone wanting. If you want either one, but aren’t sure if they’ve been taken or not, PM him a week before and try and reserve it. If it’s taken, nothing lost. If it’s not, everything gained! People looking to stand out and get noticed ... they put segments in these spots.
Make sure that your character’s entrance is up to date. If you join or leave a stable, if you win or lose a belt, update your entrance. It’s the most fundamental thing.
Communicate with your match writer. There’s always a chance that the mater writer hasn’t/won’t read your promo. It’s helpful if they do, but sometimes they don’t. You should drop a line to whoever is writing your match to try and make the match mean something. Even a ‘random’ and meaningless match up can mean something if it’s actually playing off what you need it to. In my reviews, I say that people often have ‘something to work with’. What this means is that, next week, in your next promo you can say something like “Did you see me last week? I beat him down until he couldn’t move. I showed the aggression that a champion should show in the ring.” Dropping a PM to your writer can make a world of difference to furthering your character, your storyline, and the results themselves. Simply relying on the ‘Heel’ or ‘Face’ on your profile just isn’t enough, in my opinion.
Segments should be building to something, and 9 times out of 10 that something is the pay per view. That’s where storylines comes to a culmination. They end there. So any segment should be making reference to the coming pay per view. Ok, S&C is an exception: Most people are in the S&C match. But that doesn’t mean you don’t reference it. That match should be the focus, right now, for
every character. That’s pretty much all they should be thinking or saying. If you go look at OverDrive, there’s a lot of references to S&C and the next card is near dedicated to building to it. I’m sure someone is saying, reight now, “We’re Asylum: We’re not OverDrive and we’re different.” No, we aren’t OD, but we aren’t different either. We’re all APW, we’re all efedders, and we’re all doing the same thing. I’m getting away from my point, so I’ll bring it back: Build to the next PPV in your segments, not some unspecified time in the future.
Contribute! I bet Biggs hates it when he has so many segments that he has to really push the results to fit them all in. But I can guarantee you this: He hates it more when he doesn’t have enough segments. Everyone on Asylum (given the brevity of our results) should be contributing something (either short and sweet or a bit longer) to the results. Everyone is in a feud (or they should be), so further it beyond just the promos. lot of people won’t read your promo, and if you want them to be interested in your work (and then eventually read them), get some segments in the results, get attention, and get noticed.
Given that this is on the feedback board, and I felt like writing, I thought it would be beneficial for everyone to maybe read some of this. Maybe people don’t agree with all/any. But at least think about some of this. Maybe even discuss it so that we can get the right/better ideas out there that we can all work on. This way, we can all work to make Asylum just that bit better each and every week.
