[DeanToon]

This BTB is going to be based on a backyard fed that I am doing on EWR. That will be its only tie to EWR simply the wrestlers I have hired, It will also make it more of an intresting read foryou guys and write for myself as I will come up against financial issues, staff poaching and of course competition from rival promotions. I wont be including anything like match ratings or show ratings or anything along those lines, simply because I dont believe a BTB would need it. I hope you guys enjoy this.

~~~Backstory~~~

Hey, my names Dean Smith. I’m 25 and I have always had a passion for wrestling. I’m gonna take you back 2 years when I decided to do something about my passion for wrestling. I done what all hardcore wrestling fans have wanted to do....... I set off on my dream of starting up my own wrestling promotion. This story starts on Friday the 27th of March 1998, let me take you their.

I’m sitting in a bar with one of my closest buddies, a Mr. Jamie Coburn, we’ve had a few beers and were discussing what we always discuss on our weekly friday night catch-ups, Monday night’s wrestling.

[Jamie] - “I’m telling you man, WCW is about to get their shit together bro.”

[Dean] - “I dont doubt that man, They got themselves a stacked roster Jamie, they to me just dont seem to know how to use it man.”

I rubbed my chin, deep in thought, the same thing running through my mind that had been for the last, I dunno, year or so. I had, had this conversation with Jamie so many times that I could almost play it over in my head, I knew exactly what Jamie’s response would be, down to a tee.

[Dean] - “Yeah, wrestling sure is a lucrative business round about now.”

Jamie sighed, he may of been my best friend of nearly all my life and he knew what was coming.

[Jamie] - “You are getting worse bro, same time everyweek. Its like some clock work shit.”

[Dean] - “I dont see why you’re so against it man. Its our passion, say we never tried this, when we’re 80 years old we will look back and I can guarentee we will kick ourselves for having not tried Jamie. Why you so against this?”

[Jamie] - “There are 100 and 1 reasons why this would’nt work but let me just rattle off a few of the main ones for you. We dont know anything about running a business, sure you have your online business but thats hell’a different to what you’re wanting to do.”

[Dean] - “I knew jack about my internet business before I gave it a try man.”

[Jamie] - “Fair point. Their is also the financial aspect bro, you know I’m broke, hell you had to lend me $10 dollars just so I could have these here drinks tonight.”

The same arguements I had heard from Jamie everytime I brought this up, this time though I thought I would try a different direction. Try catch him a lil off guard.

[Dean] - “....... My inheritence....”

I could tell Jamie was’nt expecting that one. A good few months ago my grandfather passed away, god rest his soul. Now my grandfather was a extremely wealthy man and although his estate got passed out between me and my 2 brothers and then 3 grand kids also, we still all were left more than comfortable from his passing. Jamie was silenced so I thought now would be my time to lay it on him.

[Dean] - “Now what you think my grandfather would be happier with? Me lending you $10 dollars every friday night so you can get your broke ass out on a friday and have a few beers with me or....”

I paused and looked Jamie right in the eye.

[Dean] - “Me lending you half the money it would take to get a operation like this off the ground and making a success off it. You’ve always been the cool one Jamie, I dont know a single person in this town who has a bad word to say against you. You could use that quality a whole lot in the business. Now I ain’t no Bill Gates but you know I have abit savvy about me, I can run a business here and their. Together we would be a perfect team Jamie. Between us we have all the qualities desired to succeed and I know my Grandfather would be a whole lot happier me using the money on something like this, a passion of mine.....”

I could see that I had caught Jamie’s attention this time. Taking a different direction to the way my conversations had previously went with Jamie seemed to work. We talked long into the night, drank a few beers and by the end of the night we even allowed ourselves to partake in a glass champagne, why not huh? after all we we’re celebrating, celebrating a birth. The birth of our baby........


KINGDOM CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING





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[DeanToon]

~~~It Begins~~~
18th April 1998

Dear Diary,
The last few weeks have been extremely busy for me and my new business partner Mr. Coburn. When we told alot of our friends and family we got mixed messages from them all. My family more so as the risk represented from my side was a whole lot higher than the risk from Jamie’s side. What the hell though, this is the same guy who has been through everything with me. My first girlfriend, my first fight, my first smoke of a joint, the sickness that quickly followed the my first smoke of a joint, my first beer, hell even my first wrestling event. This guy was there through thick and thin and I dont mind saying I loved the guy for it. It only felt right that me and Jamie went through this together. We met up today, come to think of it we had a very productive day. We put the wheels in motion for a wrestling try-out in a few weeks, this was pretty much all me I mean after all I am the guy who runs an internet business. We sent out flyers to all the local wrestling halls, I spammed pretty much every forum on the google’s searches first 40 pages, except the ones I frequent, just popping it in my signature would suffice for that.

The key thing (no pun intended) that we done today though was we went championship shopping, that was a new experience let me tell you that. The price of these things is out of this world, especially if you are looking for a real gold championship and lets be honest you want to have yourself a real nice championship. Now I know grandad left me all that money but even I aint stupid enough to plow it all into this I mean what happens if it does go tits up? We went for a coffee almost defeated at our first hurdle. Every promotion needs a championship, its what the whole business is about fighting your way to the top and claiming the ultimate prize. Just as I was taking my last sip Jamie looked like a rocket had went off in his head. It was a real eureka moment. The name of our federation is Kingdom Championship wrestling so Jamie had the idea of what if for now we got ourselves made a large metal key and painted it gold, thus giving the illusion of it being gold. His whole idea was based on the fact that this would be our “Key to the kingdom” and you know what. I kind liked the idea, I mean eventually when we could afford it off course we would have, what wrestling promotion doesnt have a world championship? But Jamie today had struck on an idea that I thought was gold, no matter how far we go I could always see the key to the kingdom being apart of us, it could be what sets us off. So today we spent nearly the whole afternoon put into place and I am delighted to say here it is... I took a photo as today is a very proud day for ourselves..

I’m up early doors so I best be getting to bed.
An Excited Dean.
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~~~This Feels To Easy~~~
29th April 1998

Dear Diary,
Everything is running really smoothly at the moment. As I mentioned in my last writing we have what we will call our championship for KCW, I still cant get my head round KCW being mine... Well mine and Jamies. Over the last 9 days or so we have had quite a few bits of great news. My dad who is a great support and lover of myself, no shit hes my father he has to be, has got his company to sponsor our events. I didnt really have to twist his arm when I proposed that one, I think the day I told him about what we were doing he pretty much knew his company was going to sponsor it. The good news that comes with that though is that means we get free use of a local sports hall that my fathers company owns also. The Capital Centre, its a great size for ourselves and could easily hold up to 300 people at capacity. Now we dont expect to get anywhere near that, not straight from the bat anyways but that is a weight off our mind knowing we dont have to fork out for a venue, that is until we obviously expand . The hall, or the centre as we prefer it to be refered to has a great layout, infact me and jamie went down their the other day and actually layed out all the stuff have bought and acquired for our shows and layed it all out, I hafta saywe were pleasantly suprised. Like the key I took a photo.

I dont mind admitting I nearly shed a tear when I it was all put up and everything on, sent shivers down my shin. Naturally we both took a turn in the ring, looking around soaking it all up. Everybody who knows me knows that Jamie is a hell of alot cooler than me and whilst its always been a dream of mine to be part of a live wrestling show, seeing Jamie in that ring just proved what we already knew. He looked like a natural, as if he was born to be in there so we quickly decided that is we need an on air authority figure, Jamie would be it. Thats not me ruling out ever showing my face out their though, infact I would almost guarentee it at some point.

Well we have the wrestling tryouts in a couple of days, its open invitational and it will really give us a chance to have a look at some of the young and unsigned talent out their and we can pick a few guys with what to do our shows with. We decided a roster of around 10-12 would be about right on pay as you appear deals. We havent decided on our direction yet as being a new promotion we dont wanna rule out any demographic as of yet, I suppose we will know a heck of alot more after the tryouts​

 

[pryme tyme]

good read! I have to say I really like the concept for this BTB. You did a great job at getting the reader familiar with you and Jamie's history/individual traits. I also like how the project is being built directly from the ground up, so we get to see the foundation of what might one day become a lucrative Wrestling federation. I'm honestly excited to see what happens next and what kind of talent you guys can acquire. This BTB has many business elements integrated in it that don't get focused on in other BTB's, so I find that the most intriguing aspect so far.


Backstory: I found it very easy to visualize your conversation with Jamie and I also like all the personal touches you added, it really establishes the bond between you guys as best friends who just wanna chase your dreams.

It Begins (quick thoughts): I'm not 100% sold on the key as the interim championship yet, but I'll see where you go with it and I do like the thought of it possibly becoming the trademark symbol of KCW. The venue also is a cool set up considering how young the federation is, it has a strong ROH feel to it, which I really like.

I'll be following man, excited to see how the talent try out goes!

 

[DeanToon]

~~~Wrestling Tryouts~~~

So Jamie picked me up early this morning, and when I say early I mean damn early. Today was a huge day for us. We had roped a few of our wrestling friends in and even signed one or two up to staff contracts and they were all going to be their today helping out. Today was our wrestling tryouts. The drive was about 30 minutes or so to the Capital Centre and we were sipping coffee and deep in conversation....

[Dean] - “Today is the day man, I’m excited as hell. Hoping for a great turn out Jamie, 20-30 people would be amazing.”

[Jamie] - “Could not agree more bro, this early morning shit is killing me. We’re agreed though yeah? Technical and the ability to speak are gonna be top of our priority list.”

[Dean] - “Sure, although I wouldnt rule anything out. There could be that one guy who just stands out from the crowd and he may be a brawler but he may just have the IT factor. We will know alot more by the end of the day. Shaun, Mike and the boys should be their already.”

[Jamie] - “Yeah they will be their, no doubt about it those boys are just as excited as we are. Look man....”

Jamie’s voice turned more serious.

[Jamie] - “Whatever happens today I just wanna thank ya bro.

[Dean] - “Dude, stop being gay.”

[Jamie] - “Bro I’m serious. I know it took awhile to get me on board but I’m glad you did and I just want you to know I appreciate it and you can count on my backing 100% okay.”

We pulled into the the Capital Centre’s car park and the doors to the buildings were wide open, good news the boys had got here early and opened up just like we asked. Two guys clad out in Wrestling try out gear were standing near the entrance doors smoking. Stepping out the car me and Jamie began our walk to the building, looking back we call it the walk to our future now. Turning to Jamie I muttered...

[Dean] - “Safe to say those guys ain’t getting a roster spot.”

Jamie laughed and as we approached the two men one of them piped up and spoke to us with a smile on his face.

[Wrestler #1] - “You guys here for the tryouts to?”

[Dean] - - “Nah..... We’re the owners.”

The speed those cigarettes hit the floor was quite amusing and both men looked rather embarrsed, I just hoped they had’nt travelled far. You know what they say about first impressions and all that jazz. Walking into the Capital Centre we could not believe our eyes. 50, possibly even 60 people clad out in training gear, some even going that extra mile and wearing there actual wrestling gear. I liked that, showed they wanted to get their character across from the off. I elbowed Jamie in the side with a big grin on my face, safe to say the tryout attendance had been more than either of us could of dreamed off. Something happened in Jamie that I had never seen before, and to be fair it was rather impressive, he just took over the situation and started saying at the top of his voice.

[Jamie] - “Right, everyone who is here for the tryouts can you please gather yourselves around the ring.”

The wrestlers obliged and Jamie hopped him self into the ring so he was above everyone, snapping out of my daze and amazement at Jamie I quickly followed suit.

[Jamie] - “First of all let me introduce myself I am Jamie Coburn, co-founder of Kingdom Championship Wrestling, KCW for short and this here is my business partner and life long friend Dean Smith. For everyone who is succesful today we will effectively be your bosses from the minute you sign your pay per appearance deal until the minute you either leave of your own accord or are let go. We thank you all for your attendance, me and Dean can not stress how much we appreciate it. What we will be doing is splitting you into four groups. One of the groups goes with myself, one with Dean, one with Mike and the remaining with Shaun, I trust you all met Shaun and Mike on your arrival. So its 8am now, the first 30 minutes will be spent doing paperwork once thats filled in we will sort your groups out and we are gonna work up until about 11:30am because of the sheer amount of people having attended today at 11:30am me and the other 3 gentleman will take a short recess, 30 minutes or so, and when we come back unfortunately we will have to cut about 30 of you guys or so. For two reasons, selfishly, to make it alot easier on ourselves and not so selfishly also to not waste anymore of your time if we ain’t quite diggin ya okay? Great, if you could all grab a piece of paperwork and a pen off’a Shaun or Mike, lets get this day started and from myself people, good luck.”

I opened my eyes at Jamie as if to say what the fuck, he just laughed and shrugged his shoulders. To this day we still dont know where it came from but my hat went off to him, he should the very authority we knew he would when we made the decision that he would be the on screen authority figure if needed.

The morning flew by. I had a group of 14 people, all mixed races, styles and ability. One or two stood out from the minute I saw them, what can I say some people just have it and some dont. 11.30am came quickly and we all went off to discuss our notes, feelings and thoughts about our group. We all trusted each others wrestling knowledge but after we made the cuts it was going to be different the 4 of us would have all the remaining guys and girls and the ultimate decision was, naturally, up to me and Jamie.

Making the cuts was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, the look of disappointment and sometimes anger in peoples faces was hard to take but obviously something we would have to get use to on a regular basis. Not wanting to be out done by Jamie’s speech this morning I decided to just say a few words about the afternoon myself.

[Dean] - “Let me start by congratulating you all. I know its been a tiring morning but we have just had a nice houre long rest their and we urge you to put your all into everything this afternoon. This afternoon is gonna work abit differently.....”

I carried on explaining how this afternoon would work, everybody seemed fairly happy with the way it was going down which pleased us, it had been a fairly smooth ride so far. The afternoon went almost as quickly as the morning did and to be fair alot of people raised there game for it, me and Jamie had some tough decisions to make.

When the tryouts had finished we again thanked everyone for coming and promised them we would ring each and every one of the 30 back the following day regardless of wether they had been succesful or not, we felt we owed them that atleast after having gave up almost a day of there lives to try impress us. We were true to our word the following day we did ring all 30 back, that was’nt before me and Jamie talked long into the night about our decisions, we had some heated moments, some what the hell were we thinking moments and some moments where that one person just seemed to click and we were totally in agreeance. After those 30 phonecalls the following day though we had our Roster.
​

 

[DeanToon]

~~~Roster~~~
7th May 1998

Dear Diary,
The tryouts yesterday were a roaring success and after having rang all 30 of the people back today I am pleased to say me and Jamie now have our roster. Were extremely pleased with the deals we got these people on and more so the talent we managed to get. The hard part starts now though as if these guys are as good as we now they can be then we will have a fight on our hands keeping hold of them once word gets out. We took a polaroid of every guy who showed up yesterday and we also made notes on the majority of them, I’m gonna put them in here for future reference.

Ring name - EZ Money

Our thoughts - Our initial thoughts on this guy were he can half wrestle, the guy was just awesome technically not also that though his speed was lightning fast and if he had to the guy could get down and brawl it out aswell. I had a little word with him one to one and he told me wrestling is his life, the guy is 28 years old and would just about fall into the lightweight catergory. We see this dude as playing an evil heel as we think he could pull off that evil look his finisher is something he told us was called the Cha-Ching or the Bank roll essentially its a vertical suplex powerbomb and looked very impressive during the tryouts. Me and Jamie were unamious about this guy.

Ring Name - Mike Rapada

Our Thoughts - Mike was honest with us from the beginning he told us he also worked for a federation called F.E.W and we had no problems with that. He seemed like a happy go lucky kinda guy and we definetly saw him slotting into a higher card position in a face role with a gimmick of basically exactly how he came across to us, happy go lucky. He did mention something about a gimmick he had been trying to get across called The Colorado Kid, one of Jamie’s favourite books, so no doubt those two will have a little chat about that at some time down the line. Mike’s 31, American and uses the Rocky Mountain Flat Top as a finisher, basically a over the top reverse piledriver, looked edvestating at tryouts. He was again a unamious decision between me and Jamie.

Ring Name - Charlie Haas

Our Thoughts - At only 26 this guy had it all, he could wrestle, he could talk, he had the look, he was the all round package for me and Jamie, he was the first guy we called after the tryouts. He had been working the indy circuit for abit now aswell and we dont doubt we would be his only employers, once word got out about this kid people would be dying to take him off our hands so it was up to us to make the most of him while we had him, we had no doubt he would leave us eventually. The three of us agreed that he would potray a heel and a cocky one at that. He used the finisher of Haas of Pain but could also do an innovated cloverleaf just to mix things up.

Ring Name - Christian York

Our Thoughts - Christian York is a 21 year old technical wrestler who I instantly could see potential in. He has the moves, the looks and can talk. His only downfall is his brawling skills, being 21 though he has alot of time on his hands to improve that. He instantly struck me as a babyface and someone the crowd could really get behind but in a one to one chat he also told me he made his wrestling debut in a 30 minute hardcore match so the kid can switch it up if need be. Jamie saw some potential in the lad but not nearly as much as I can.

Ring Name - Joey Matthews

Our Thoughts - We didnt know at the time but Joey Matthews and Christian York have been touring the circuit as a tag team. A little bit of a reversal from my thoughts on York, Jamie loved this kid and at 19 he is a kid, I could see the potential but not as much as Jamie could. Joey had the slightly larger frame than York and me and Jamie quickly decided rather than pairing these two up we wanted to see them go at it. due to his larger physical size we thought Joey would be able to pull off the heel.

Ring Name - Jamie-San

Our Thoughts - In this guy we think we have found a real gem. He can wrestle anyway you want him to, cuts a mean promo and has a great look. We were unamious in our decision to call this guy back and both myself and jamie are looking forward to working with him. Jamie-San may only be 21 but we have big hopes of him portraying a major heel character within our company. Our only problem is keeping him under raps and hoping a bigger promotions does’nt come with a bigger and better offer.

Ring Name - Doug Williams

Our Thoughts - Doug was one of the guys who came dressed in his ring attire and it was clear to see that this guy was british from the word go, draped in union jack, it was also obvious that Doug was most certainly going to fit in best as a heel. At 26 year old Doug is what you would call a brawler type wrestler and also one of the older guys on the roster. We were both unamious in our decision to get this guy in

Ring Name - Shannon Moore

Our Thoughts - At 19 Shannon very much fell into the same catergory as Christian York as he had the moves, the speed and the ability to talk it up, unlike York though Moore was quite capable at brawling also. We had a feeling the crowd would love this guy so face is the only way to go. With him being so young we want to nuture him through and try convince him he can have a long future here at KCW rather than be wined and dined by the bigger promotions at such an early age.

Ring Name - Chris Hamrick

Our Thoughts - Chris is 31 and came with what we percieved as quite a edgy gimmick, despite that he still seemed to strike us as a face. Recieveing a wrestling ring on his 9th birthday he told us, its plain to see that wrestling is in this guys blood, hes technically very astute and will slot in with the other guys very well. Due to his age we also see him as being something of a locker room go to guy which we think is very important in our line of business.

Ring Name - Erin O’Grady

Our Thoughts - Erin was 27 year olds and quite small height wise for a wrestler but with a great physique. Due to his height but his mean look we thought we would test the waters and have him as a classic cheating heel but with a tint of the underdog feel, we dont believe its been done before but we may aswell give it a try. Erin has immense talent and like most of the guys me and Jamie were totally unamious on our decision to bring erin in.

Now those guys made up our roster and me and Jamie were extremely happy when we parted ways last night having decided such. Thats not to say our Rosyter may not get one or two more people on it as we are still unecided as for now. We move on and start making progress for our first event which, more details on that to follow. After yesterday and this mornings anticts though I’m beat. Me and Jamie decided today we would have a say of rest, it is a sunday after all.



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Thanks for the feedback pryme, appreciated. Anybody with any feedback would be appreciated, especially anything about the Roster.

 

[SouthernCross]

Roster is looking really tight & it'll be interesting to see how you use wrestlers who are typically underutilized in BTB's. I especially can't wait to see what seems to be the incoming York/Matthews feud & whether or not you push Williams to the moon as he is a very underated worker. All in all good work so far in building up anticipation.

Just a quick side note though, I would make sure you are proof reading your work as at times things are misspelled, used in the wrong context or are just clumsily written & takes away from the readers engagement. However, it doesn't occur enough to detract from the BTB at all just thought I'd give you a quick pointer to make your work better. Look forward to where you go from here.

 

[DeanToon]

Think im going to start this back up. When I orginally started it was a time my enthusiasm was swelling for westling, and in actual fact I ended up very rarely visitng this site. With my watching wrestling and visiting this forum certainly back up and running I think now is the time. Plus I put quite abit into the start and backstory of this so would be a shame to see it go nowhere.