IWF Conference Call - Post-Metamorphosis X
Feb 7, 2024 13:26:11 GMT
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Post by Roberto Verona on Feb 7, 2024 13:26:11 GMT
Welcome to the first ever Conference Call!
This isn’t Roberto Verona speaking – it’s Sam. For those who don’t know me, hello, for those that do, we meet again (hopefully this is a positive!). This is the very first of what I hope will become a regular feature where I can sit down and touch base with you all and just give you an overall view of matters relating to the fed on a more regular basis and at least after every PPV (if not also specials) to provide you with some generalised feedback of how I feel you’ve been doing.
I appreciate that after working so hard you really want a bit of transparency on what I think of your work – I really hope this goes someway towards that. I know feedback is the hardest thing to get sometimes, we will work on improving that, but I also know its really valuable to hear from the big boss of IWF himself how he feels you’ve been doing, especially given I make the ultimate decisions on who wins or loses.
Where to begin? The most appropriate place is probably the biggest change of all – Booking.
To cut a long story short, since just before the pandemic I was incredibly busy working on completing my PhD and after this was stuck in a very stressful job which left me very little time to truly devote to the fed outside of the large scale commitment of reading roleplays and picking winners. It has always been my intention that once I was settled into my new job, I would return in a much more active capacity and take over the reigns for booking.
This is very much something I’ve been very excited to do and looked forward to and so far I have personally enjoyed putting the cards together and planning the long term trajectory since my first week just after Diamonds Are Forever. This is the first time I’ve really been this deeply involved in booking the fed – previously I was very much a quality control who just kept an eye on the cards, angles and pushes to ensure they were fair. I hope that going forwards this will help to keep a more coherent long-term structure and vision that is reflected in the booking – and provide a focal point for you to direct queries or pitch ideas.
Think of me as your very own Triple H (not the other guy after… recent revelations!)
If you have any ideas to pitch or questions my inbox is always open – if it take some time to reply it is just because of timezone differences or a busy patch at work, but I will get back to you. Wherever possible I want to blend in things you’re excited about and your ideas so you can sell your characters, I may not always be able to say yes, but it’s good to give me ideas of where you’d like to see your characters go.
One thing you may have noticed is the more explicit use of segments – this absolutely will remain a prominent feature of how I construct cards. I have very purposely ensured that cards reflect the length of the shows (4-5 matches on average for two hour weeklies, 6-7 for specials and PPVs). I am very much of the opinion that a character doesn’t need to wrestle to advance their storylines or develop their gimmicks. They also absolutely do count towards your body of work upon which you are ultimately judged – just as much as a standard roleplay does.
Wherever possible I will try to keep these as vague as I can to provide you maximum leeway to be creative, after all seeing what you can create by adapting a scenario to the specifics of your character is what I want to see. Just remember that here in IWF, when you are judged cumulatively on your body of work so every roleplay, segment and extra bit of content you produce goes towards judging how you do.
All of it matters – no matter how long. I will always endeavour to ensure that you are provided with equal opportunities to provide content to be judged as your opponents are and on occasions you have had less it will not be held against you. So long as you fulfil your bookings, you’re providing yourself with the best opportunity to be successful – win or lose.
Because this is something I really want to re-iterate – I do not enjoy making any of you lose, but it is unfortunately the nature of the context of the game given it is professional wrestling. I promise that just because you may not win or you may miss out on a big opportunity it is not the end – just the beginning of a new chapter. I do not consider your characters finished, buried or unviable, I will always be willing to find ways for them to overcome obstacles and adversity.
There is always another chance to reach where you want to be. A defeat isn’t a reflection on you or your character, more often than not you both produced great work but the nature of the setting is one needed to lose. I am always happy to find ways for you to keep moving forward and developing, one door may have closed but I guarantee it isn’t because you did something badly – there’s always another journey I can set you on the path towards.
You can always climb the mountain again.
So congratulations to those of you who got the result you were looking for at Metamorphosis and commiserations to those of you who didn’t quite get what you were hoping for. It’s entirely natural to feel disappointed and even upset, we put a lot of ourselves into our work and I know a defeat can feel like a rejection or reflection that you did something wrong which isn’t the case. Take some time to let yourself feel how you need to feel, do something you enjoy, take your mind off it and come back when you feel better in a few hours or days. Try not to dwell on it – that is when we start to find enemies where there are none – this isn’t the end, there’s always a new story to tell.
I’m not perfect (and I will never claim to be) but I am always willing to see what we can do to give you a path forward and something to be excited about – it is after all a hobby we all play for fun. Nothing I may decide is done with malicious intentions, try to always keep that in mind when you’re disappointed about something – my door is always open to work things out.
One thing I will never do is blow smoke up your ass and lie to you. The truth is, you all produce really good work and it’s never fun having to select a really strong body of work to lose. No matter what anybody tells you, fedding is subjective not objective, it really is about nitpicking most of the time and the reality is all of you were good – but the context of pro wrestling means a character has to lose.
More often than not I am faced with a match where every participant produced quality work and inevitably I am going to have to tell at least one participant their work was great despite the fact they lost – it isn’t me just fobbing you off, it’s just a fact. In a match of close equals, one has to lose, even though their work was of quality that could easily have won them another match.
It doesn’t mean your work was bad and your efforts were meaningless – it all counts towards where your character goes on their journey, a loss isn’t the end and the beauty of pro wrestling is that you can always be rehabilitated and pushed again.
So, without further delay… let’s talk. I’d really appreciate it if you read the end of this post even if you only want to read the feedback directed at yourself.
Allen (Allen Chaney)
Although it has only been one roleplay so far I wanted to let you know how impressed I was with your work in that booking and I am certainly very excited to see what you produce going forward. I hope that you understand it was a little too soon to find you a match on the PPV at short notice, but over the coming weeks I absolutely want to see more of your work and find some programmes and storylines to feature you more prominently over the coming weeks.
Andre (Serenity Holmes)
I’ve really enjoyed your work this month and I’ve been pleased to see you interacting with your hype posts from the IWF Twitter account, it’s genuinely pleasing to have more positive interactions on that platform and it’s nice to see people excited to share what their characters are up to. The only critique I can really offer is that you’ve missed a couple of your weeks bookings which unfortunately doesn’t help when we judge both competitors on their recent body of work.
The result this week was certainly not because of your quality. Whenever you have provided content (roleplays or segments) it has always been of an impressive standard. I hope that you plan to keep on playing with us because I’d like to keep finding opportunities for Serenity and do have plans for her which I hope prove to be exciting. I know that it’s only natural to be disappointed sometimes when we just miss out, but if you keep up your good work and avoid missing bookings where possible I can only see a bright future for Serenity.
Atara (Atara Raven)
I appreciate that you’ve had to take a step away to focus your available energy somewhere else but I also very much appreciate that you gave us a heads up so we were able to accommodate that for you. I really look forward to when you’re able to make your return properly and we can see much more from your character – remember what I said over Discord, IWF is very much your home and you’re certainly welcome here. I know the early period of your joining was chaotic outside of IWF but the support we offered then is very much still there now.
Both yourself and James are very much welcome here and I’d really like to be able to see the best from both of you as I know you’re both very capable writers – as evidence by the work you did both produce. I will be reaching out to James myself privately but I hope you can let him know I apologise for any miscommunications and I would very much like to work with him – and you – to make you feel like a part of the IWF community.
Ben (Natasha Walker
First of all – welcome back! It is great to see you’ve returned and I am really enjoying your work so far with Natasha. She’s very much an interesting character I can’t wait to see more from and I hope you’ve recognised my desire to keep her featured each week to allow you to show us all more from her and begin to build some early momentum for herself. I very much have ideas for her going forward and really hope you keep developing her and improving.
Always remember, I’m only a message away, you’ve always been a really strong handler whose got a great capacity to create a true variety of characters and I’d really like for this run in IWF to be a more permanent one for you. We can always talk through any concerns you may have or ideas you’d like to take forward, the door is always open.
Bob (Brooklyn Madrox)
Your work with Brooklyn continues to be incredibly strong and is absolutely an indication of precisely why she is a member of our Hall of Fame and one of the most successful characters in the fed’s history. I want to see where you go with her and how she adapts to assuming a leadership role in the Murder – who I absolutely have every intention of featuring as a more prominent force going forwards. Answering “who took out the Murder?” over the next few months should make for some really engaging story telling.
Whilst I completely appreciate that it is always disappointing to lose a title when you had so much more you wanted to do with it and stories to tell, the decision was very difficult and your work was by no means bad in any way. I understand how it feels, I have been there myself, we all have, but you’re too good of a writer to judge your overall quality with the character based on one result and I would encourage you to look past that and remember why Brooklyn is a Hall of Famer with some of the strongest records in the history of the women’s world title scene.
One thing I would add is I really want you to focus your passions into continuing to make your characters stronger and you reach out to me if you have any ideas. You’re a good guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and pours a lot of himself into his work, your characters consistent success here over many years is I hope a reflection of my appreciation of your abilities as a writer. If you ever have anything you need to discuss I am only a message away.
Chris (Logan Sky)
I am really glad to see you stick around and although Logan Sky is more of an enhancement talent for you to have a bit of fun with, you still produced a really great effort this week. I find the character endearing and interesting and I look forward to seeing what you do with him. In fact, I hope you manage to inspire others to try out new ideas without the pressure of “full character” status, for both yourself and everybody else there is more to come for “NPCs” in the near future!
I did just want to add here that I think you should be proud of your work with Pax and Virginia too. Pax really developed in 2023 and Virginia is always on the cusp of joining the main event. I know you’re wanting to take a step back right now – but I hope you know that in the future I’d love to see you back with any of your characters and will endeavour to work with you so that you feel more involved in where they’re going – win or lose.
DJ (Dean Harper & Vivienne Rodgers)
Despite some difficulties recently you’ve continued to be an absolute rock and your commitment to IWF is to be commended, I truly appreciate the support you’ve provided lately and all the times previously. I know sometimes being in your position can be a thankless task but I want you to know and everybody else to see that you are valued. You’ve been a great comfort during the time that Ed has had to take away.
Your work with Dean has been really strong, the extra developmental roleplay included, and it has been as crucial to making your ongoing story with Warren engaging as Pav’s efforts. It has been nice to watch you work together to keep building up a programme with two massive characters whose relationship has provided an engaging dynamic that has kept the title match very interesting. Your victory and retention this week I hope is a reflection of how much I’ve enjoyed your work and your ongoing consistency in performing at the highest of levels – it is that which helps you pick up these narrow victories over strong handlers like Pav.
Whilst I appreciate it has been a comparatively light month for Vivienne in terms of matches, you’ve worked well with Bob to keep her relevant in her appearances in the ongoing mystery surrounding the Murder and I look forward to being able to use her more often and for the opportunity to keep reading your work with her. She has really developed nicely and you have planted some really interesting narrative seeds I want to see blossom.
Ed (Angel Blake)
Brother – I don’t know when you will read this but I just want you to know that I miss having you around and I appreciate everything you’ve done for IWF and me for eleven years. Hopefully after you’ve had a chance to recharge you feel more able to be involved with your characters again, but for now I hope the break is serving you well and we’re ready to talk for far too long about the nuances of some pop culture garbage again soon.
Gina (Charlotte Shimizu)
I’ve been really impressed by your commitment towards improving each week, the reason you’ve been put into matches with some of the bigger hitters reflects the confidence I have in you and your ability to keep improving. I hope being able to work with stronger handlers has been beneficial – win or lose – and that you’ve recognised I’ve tried to ensure that you’ve come across strongly in your matches.
I appreciate that there may be some disappointment in failing to earn the victory at Metamorphosis but I’d only suggest that you focus on why you were there – because you’ve been showing consistent improvements and have certainly caught the attention of myself and the other staff. As long as you continue along this path, I certainly plan to keep working on providing you opportunities – beginning with the road to High Stakes.
Graff (Jennie Fenix)
I just wanted to say thank you for everything you have done for IWF over the last few years both in and out of character, especially given some of the large degrees of stress that has involved for yourself. You have always been very happy to step up and help when we’ve really needed it and you’re always constantly sharing ideas and hyping us up to new handlers. Somehow you’ve even managed to make my limited Twitter experiences a little more positive, for that I am grateful, it is as I have said to others, nice to see people share the posts designed to hype up their work in the fed. Just know you continue to be valued and appreciated, even if I may get lost in other work and forget to properly say it.
I have always really enjoyed the energy and enthusiasm you bring to Jennie – I think you chaotic excitement and capacity for ideas with her really comes out well in the work and that is very much a compliment. I’ve been really impressed at the way in which you’ve taken my very deliberately vague outlines for segments and put a personalised spin on them which fits Jennie as a character, this is exactly why you are such a strong handler.
I look forward to seeing what you do with her going forward from here and seeing what twists you put on the assignments you’re given – I am sure that they will be very good. As always I am always happy to talk over any ideas you have and work with them wherever possible.
Guy (Itami, Nick Knight & Team MOD)
I just wanted to extend a further thank you for your work towards supporting the fed now and in the past, it is greatly appreciated.
I completely appreciate that it has been a lighter month for Nick, but I think you really were able to channel that into a way that felt true to the character and made for a strong effort. I want to assure you that I very much plan to utilise Knight more often following this week’s PPV and that any absence wasn’t a reflection on your work but rather a need to prioritise some of the other areas of the roster (women and tag divisions) for Meta. I hope that the result this week and the selection of an opponent who has been impressing in Charlotte reflects the appreciation I have for how well you’ve done with Knight. I am confident you’ll continue to demonstrate why he is such a strong character and a worthy champion.
The brief work you produced with Team MOD also continued to be interesting and I definitely want to see more of them going forward – I think they are going to be another very strong component of a growing tag team division which Kaster and Ryan have also really contributed towards meaning we have some very good potential candidates for the champions.
Itami also continues to be a really well written character who I’d very much like to have involved in the continuing growth of the Women’s division and do have ideas for her. Your work with her continues to be strong and you’ve really developed her lately, if you continue in a similar vein as you have with Knight she will undoubtedly be a prominent feature going forward.
JJ
I just wanted to say thank you for stepping back up to help with the matches on our support staff team, it is greatly appreciated. I am glad some of the issues you have had have been resolved and I am really happy to see you back. I know you sometimes let your passions get the better of you and make yourself feel down on your work but I want you to know that your constant enthusiasm and desire to be involved here doesn’t go unnoticed. I look forward to seeing what you do with the characters you choose to work with going forward – I will find something for them to do.
Kaster (Kings of Flight & La Bolsa)
First of all – I’d like to say welcome aboard the support staff team, I’ve been really appreciative of your consistent help with matches before you joined and you’re very much a valuable member of the gang.
I have really enjoyed reading your work and you feud with Ryan has been entertaining to book and I think you’ve both helped strengthen the challengers portion of the tag division. It can be hard to write a convincing tag team who come across as a believable unit but you’ve managed to make it come across as effortless. Von Ruth and Everest really gel well together and I find their motivations believable and I’ve been impressed with all of your work this month. Both you and Ryan made it incredibly difficult to separate you, but the quality of your work with KOF has really been very high and I hope how much I admire what you’ve been doing is reflected both in the result and my continued confidence in featuring them prominently in the rebuild of the tag division.
It is a shame that you weren’t able to get something up for La Bolsa because I do enjoy reading the character – although I do appreciate that it was only one week and he hasn’t been involved in a storyline currently, hopefully I’ll get to book him more often in the future if you want to use him and get to see what more you can do with him.
I will also be looking at plans for Caleb Cannin too – he most certainly hasn’t been forgotten!
Matt (TJ Alexander)
I appreciate that it has been a light month for yourself in terms of bookings, but I was really pleased to see that you posted some work when you were and I really do hope that you’re going to continue to stick around and we can work together more often going forward. Although you didn’t emerge victorious, I really enjoyed the roleplay and I would very much like to see you more often and to get to learn more about the character.
I you aren’t already I’d strongly recommend joining our Discord so we can interact more easily and we can get you more involved and integrated into the group – although there is no pressure to do so obviously!
Pav (Abigail, Eternity, Shea O’Hara & Warren Kane)
Firstly – welcome back to the support staff, it has been a pleasure working with you again and your constant stream of ideas is always a really appreciated facet of what you bring to IWF (yes even when I wake up to a thesis).
It has been good to see both Abigail and Eternity back – albeit only with one booking so far – especially given how much passion I know you have for them and the brainstorming you’ve engaged in for years. Hopefully now they’ve made their onscreen return we will get to see where your ideas take you with the pair. I certainly have plenty of potential ideas which I am sure you will talk my ear off over.
I’ve really enjoyed your work with Shea, it’s been interesting to see your twist on the character and she was truly unfortunate to be randomly selected to face an incredibly strong Jennie Fenix in the first round of the Heiress last month. You’ve really utilised the more regular bookings for Shea this month and I hope the result this week is a reflection of how well I believe you’ve done with the challenges I’ve provided for you and congratulations on the victory against a very tough opponent.
I appreciate that you can often be quite harsh on yourself and rush to negatively assess your work but the defeat at Metamorphosis for Warren was not a reflection on a lack of quality. You’ve done a good job at taking a character who has already had more than one interpretation and finding a way to make them your own whilst retain aspects of what made them work in the first place. The decision on both occasions has been by the narrowest of margins – I certainly don’t plan to stop using Warren in prominent storylines.
Ryan (Savage By Nature)
I have been really impressed by how much enthusiasm you have shown towards working to help strengthen the tag team division (including making it your main focus as a handler) and I have really valued your input with ideas and how well you’ve worked with Kaster. I am confident that the future of the division is looking really strong which is very much a worthy kudos for yourself and I look forward to brainstorming more ideas with you going forward. Your work with the segments has been really solid and your ideas for furthering the angle outside of your own matches has been commendable.
Additionally, you’ve always been an incredibly reliable member of the staff team whose been willing to step up when required and just offer a calm perspective on matters and take an active role in providing assistance in trickier moments – it is greatly appreciated.
Although the result didn’t perhaps go your way this time, I have been really impressed with how well you’ve invested into this storyline and found ways to adapt to the scenarios I’ve booked you in. I’ve already told you in private but I hate both you and Kaster for making the decision so difficult but it is a testament to how well you’ve done and the quality of your work.
Terrella is already a very compelling character and has been on the cusp of greatness for a while as a singles competitor, whilst I appreciate that is on hold for the time being it is still enjoyable to keep watching you maintain that standard with him. I have, however, especially enjoyed the work you’ve done with Brandy this week as a character I am less familiar with, it really helped flesh her out in my mind and the two work together seamlessly. I am excited to see more from them both – but watching Brandy develop in a similar fashion to Stephen has is definitely something I really look forward to.
Shaun (Nick Danger)
I really wanted to commend you for being so consistent and continuing to always show up, always show enthusiasm and continue to improve. I know that perhaps sometimes the results in the past haven’t always been as you may have wanted, but you’ve always really shown a great work ethic and a willingness to pitch ideas and work hard to keep improving Danger as a character. I know we spoke very briefly about one idea recently, but I wanted to make sure you also knew that I do have plans for Danger going forward and look forward to seeing you continue to grow as a handler.
It has also been refreshing to see you interact with the more positive hype posts of the feds on Twitter, once again it is always nice to see more enjoyable interactions on that platform and I hope it shows that we are happy to promote all of our handlers work.
Todd (Dawn Warren)
We’ve spoken in private, but just remember what I said. You’re welcome in IWF, but I need to see you show up for bookings and just keep me better informed for weeks when you simply are too busy if you want to get back to the sort of levels we both know you’re capable of. Consistency has always been your biggest obstacles here, if you can find that I have no issues with finding storylines and angles for you to work with.
Conclusion
I hope you found the above useful and valuable.
I would love to hear from yourselves as well: What have you enjoyed in IWF in 2024? Who would you like your characters to potentially work with? Do you have any ideas you’d like to share of what you’d like to see us do (It can be literally anything at all!)?
If you could post a reply here that would be great, but don’t feel any pressure!
This isn’t Roberto Verona speaking – it’s Sam. For those who don’t know me, hello, for those that do, we meet again (hopefully this is a positive!). This is the very first of what I hope will become a regular feature where I can sit down and touch base with you all and just give you an overall view of matters relating to the fed on a more regular basis and at least after every PPV (if not also specials) to provide you with some generalised feedback of how I feel you’ve been doing.
I appreciate that after working so hard you really want a bit of transparency on what I think of your work – I really hope this goes someway towards that. I know feedback is the hardest thing to get sometimes, we will work on improving that, but I also know its really valuable to hear from the big boss of IWF himself how he feels you’ve been doing, especially given I make the ultimate decisions on who wins or loses.
Where to begin? The most appropriate place is probably the biggest change of all – Booking.
To cut a long story short, since just before the pandemic I was incredibly busy working on completing my PhD and after this was stuck in a very stressful job which left me very little time to truly devote to the fed outside of the large scale commitment of reading roleplays and picking winners. It has always been my intention that once I was settled into my new job, I would return in a much more active capacity and take over the reigns for booking.
This is very much something I’ve been very excited to do and looked forward to and so far I have personally enjoyed putting the cards together and planning the long term trajectory since my first week just after Diamonds Are Forever. This is the first time I’ve really been this deeply involved in booking the fed – previously I was very much a quality control who just kept an eye on the cards, angles and pushes to ensure they were fair. I hope that going forwards this will help to keep a more coherent long-term structure and vision that is reflected in the booking – and provide a focal point for you to direct queries or pitch ideas.
Think of me as your very own Triple H (not the other guy after… recent revelations!)
If you have any ideas to pitch or questions my inbox is always open – if it take some time to reply it is just because of timezone differences or a busy patch at work, but I will get back to you. Wherever possible I want to blend in things you’re excited about and your ideas so you can sell your characters, I may not always be able to say yes, but it’s good to give me ideas of where you’d like to see your characters go.
One thing you may have noticed is the more explicit use of segments – this absolutely will remain a prominent feature of how I construct cards. I have very purposely ensured that cards reflect the length of the shows (4-5 matches on average for two hour weeklies, 6-7 for specials and PPVs). I am very much of the opinion that a character doesn’t need to wrestle to advance their storylines or develop their gimmicks. They also absolutely do count towards your body of work upon which you are ultimately judged – just as much as a standard roleplay does.
Wherever possible I will try to keep these as vague as I can to provide you maximum leeway to be creative, after all seeing what you can create by adapting a scenario to the specifics of your character is what I want to see. Just remember that here in IWF, when you are judged cumulatively on your body of work so every roleplay, segment and extra bit of content you produce goes towards judging how you do.
All of it matters – no matter how long. I will always endeavour to ensure that you are provided with equal opportunities to provide content to be judged as your opponents are and on occasions you have had less it will not be held against you. So long as you fulfil your bookings, you’re providing yourself with the best opportunity to be successful – win or lose.
Because this is something I really want to re-iterate – I do not enjoy making any of you lose, but it is unfortunately the nature of the context of the game given it is professional wrestling. I promise that just because you may not win or you may miss out on a big opportunity it is not the end – just the beginning of a new chapter. I do not consider your characters finished, buried or unviable, I will always be willing to find ways for them to overcome obstacles and adversity.
There is always another chance to reach where you want to be. A defeat isn’t a reflection on you or your character, more often than not you both produced great work but the nature of the setting is one needed to lose. I am always happy to find ways for you to keep moving forward and developing, one door may have closed but I guarantee it isn’t because you did something badly – there’s always another journey I can set you on the path towards.
You can always climb the mountain again.
So congratulations to those of you who got the result you were looking for at Metamorphosis and commiserations to those of you who didn’t quite get what you were hoping for. It’s entirely natural to feel disappointed and even upset, we put a lot of ourselves into our work and I know a defeat can feel like a rejection or reflection that you did something wrong which isn’t the case. Take some time to let yourself feel how you need to feel, do something you enjoy, take your mind off it and come back when you feel better in a few hours or days. Try not to dwell on it – that is when we start to find enemies where there are none – this isn’t the end, there’s always a new story to tell.
I’m not perfect (and I will never claim to be) but I am always willing to see what we can do to give you a path forward and something to be excited about – it is after all a hobby we all play for fun. Nothing I may decide is done with malicious intentions, try to always keep that in mind when you’re disappointed about something – my door is always open to work things out.
One thing I will never do is blow smoke up your ass and lie to you. The truth is, you all produce really good work and it’s never fun having to select a really strong body of work to lose. No matter what anybody tells you, fedding is subjective not objective, it really is about nitpicking most of the time and the reality is all of you were good – but the context of pro wrestling means a character has to lose.
More often than not I am faced with a match where every participant produced quality work and inevitably I am going to have to tell at least one participant their work was great despite the fact they lost – it isn’t me just fobbing you off, it’s just a fact. In a match of close equals, one has to lose, even though their work was of quality that could easily have won them another match.
It doesn’t mean your work was bad and your efforts were meaningless – it all counts towards where your character goes on their journey, a loss isn’t the end and the beauty of pro wrestling is that you can always be rehabilitated and pushed again.
So, without further delay… let’s talk. I’d really appreciate it if you read the end of this post even if you only want to read the feedback directed at yourself.
Allen (Allen Chaney)
Although it has only been one roleplay so far I wanted to let you know how impressed I was with your work in that booking and I am certainly very excited to see what you produce going forward. I hope that you understand it was a little too soon to find you a match on the PPV at short notice, but over the coming weeks I absolutely want to see more of your work and find some programmes and storylines to feature you more prominently over the coming weeks.
Andre (Serenity Holmes)
I’ve really enjoyed your work this month and I’ve been pleased to see you interacting with your hype posts from the IWF Twitter account, it’s genuinely pleasing to have more positive interactions on that platform and it’s nice to see people excited to share what their characters are up to. The only critique I can really offer is that you’ve missed a couple of your weeks bookings which unfortunately doesn’t help when we judge both competitors on their recent body of work.
The result this week was certainly not because of your quality. Whenever you have provided content (roleplays or segments) it has always been of an impressive standard. I hope that you plan to keep on playing with us because I’d like to keep finding opportunities for Serenity and do have plans for her which I hope prove to be exciting. I know that it’s only natural to be disappointed sometimes when we just miss out, but if you keep up your good work and avoid missing bookings where possible I can only see a bright future for Serenity.
Atara (Atara Raven)
I appreciate that you’ve had to take a step away to focus your available energy somewhere else but I also very much appreciate that you gave us a heads up so we were able to accommodate that for you. I really look forward to when you’re able to make your return properly and we can see much more from your character – remember what I said over Discord, IWF is very much your home and you’re certainly welcome here. I know the early period of your joining was chaotic outside of IWF but the support we offered then is very much still there now.
Both yourself and James are very much welcome here and I’d really like to be able to see the best from both of you as I know you’re both very capable writers – as evidence by the work you did both produce. I will be reaching out to James myself privately but I hope you can let him know I apologise for any miscommunications and I would very much like to work with him – and you – to make you feel like a part of the IWF community.
Ben (Natasha Walker
First of all – welcome back! It is great to see you’ve returned and I am really enjoying your work so far with Natasha. She’s very much an interesting character I can’t wait to see more from and I hope you’ve recognised my desire to keep her featured each week to allow you to show us all more from her and begin to build some early momentum for herself. I very much have ideas for her going forward and really hope you keep developing her and improving.
Always remember, I’m only a message away, you’ve always been a really strong handler whose got a great capacity to create a true variety of characters and I’d really like for this run in IWF to be a more permanent one for you. We can always talk through any concerns you may have or ideas you’d like to take forward, the door is always open.
Bob (Brooklyn Madrox)
Your work with Brooklyn continues to be incredibly strong and is absolutely an indication of precisely why she is a member of our Hall of Fame and one of the most successful characters in the fed’s history. I want to see where you go with her and how she adapts to assuming a leadership role in the Murder – who I absolutely have every intention of featuring as a more prominent force going forwards. Answering “who took out the Murder?” over the next few months should make for some really engaging story telling.
Whilst I completely appreciate that it is always disappointing to lose a title when you had so much more you wanted to do with it and stories to tell, the decision was very difficult and your work was by no means bad in any way. I understand how it feels, I have been there myself, we all have, but you’re too good of a writer to judge your overall quality with the character based on one result and I would encourage you to look past that and remember why Brooklyn is a Hall of Famer with some of the strongest records in the history of the women’s world title scene.
One thing I would add is I really want you to focus your passions into continuing to make your characters stronger and you reach out to me if you have any ideas. You’re a good guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and pours a lot of himself into his work, your characters consistent success here over many years is I hope a reflection of my appreciation of your abilities as a writer. If you ever have anything you need to discuss I am only a message away.
Chris (Logan Sky)
I am really glad to see you stick around and although Logan Sky is more of an enhancement talent for you to have a bit of fun with, you still produced a really great effort this week. I find the character endearing and interesting and I look forward to seeing what you do with him. In fact, I hope you manage to inspire others to try out new ideas without the pressure of “full character” status, for both yourself and everybody else there is more to come for “NPCs” in the near future!
I did just want to add here that I think you should be proud of your work with Pax and Virginia too. Pax really developed in 2023 and Virginia is always on the cusp of joining the main event. I know you’re wanting to take a step back right now – but I hope you know that in the future I’d love to see you back with any of your characters and will endeavour to work with you so that you feel more involved in where they’re going – win or lose.
DJ (Dean Harper & Vivienne Rodgers)
Despite some difficulties recently you’ve continued to be an absolute rock and your commitment to IWF is to be commended, I truly appreciate the support you’ve provided lately and all the times previously. I know sometimes being in your position can be a thankless task but I want you to know and everybody else to see that you are valued. You’ve been a great comfort during the time that Ed has had to take away.
Your work with Dean has been really strong, the extra developmental roleplay included, and it has been as crucial to making your ongoing story with Warren engaging as Pav’s efforts. It has been nice to watch you work together to keep building up a programme with two massive characters whose relationship has provided an engaging dynamic that has kept the title match very interesting. Your victory and retention this week I hope is a reflection of how much I’ve enjoyed your work and your ongoing consistency in performing at the highest of levels – it is that which helps you pick up these narrow victories over strong handlers like Pav.
Whilst I appreciate it has been a comparatively light month for Vivienne in terms of matches, you’ve worked well with Bob to keep her relevant in her appearances in the ongoing mystery surrounding the Murder and I look forward to being able to use her more often and for the opportunity to keep reading your work with her. She has really developed nicely and you have planted some really interesting narrative seeds I want to see blossom.
Ed (Angel Blake)
Brother – I don’t know when you will read this but I just want you to know that I miss having you around and I appreciate everything you’ve done for IWF and me for eleven years. Hopefully after you’ve had a chance to recharge you feel more able to be involved with your characters again, but for now I hope the break is serving you well and we’re ready to talk for far too long about the nuances of some pop culture garbage again soon.
Gina (Charlotte Shimizu)
I’ve been really impressed by your commitment towards improving each week, the reason you’ve been put into matches with some of the bigger hitters reflects the confidence I have in you and your ability to keep improving. I hope being able to work with stronger handlers has been beneficial – win or lose – and that you’ve recognised I’ve tried to ensure that you’ve come across strongly in your matches.
I appreciate that there may be some disappointment in failing to earn the victory at Metamorphosis but I’d only suggest that you focus on why you were there – because you’ve been showing consistent improvements and have certainly caught the attention of myself and the other staff. As long as you continue along this path, I certainly plan to keep working on providing you opportunities – beginning with the road to High Stakes.
Graff (Jennie Fenix)
I just wanted to say thank you for everything you have done for IWF over the last few years both in and out of character, especially given some of the large degrees of stress that has involved for yourself. You have always been very happy to step up and help when we’ve really needed it and you’re always constantly sharing ideas and hyping us up to new handlers. Somehow you’ve even managed to make my limited Twitter experiences a little more positive, for that I am grateful, it is as I have said to others, nice to see people share the posts designed to hype up their work in the fed. Just know you continue to be valued and appreciated, even if I may get lost in other work and forget to properly say it.
I have always really enjoyed the energy and enthusiasm you bring to Jennie – I think you chaotic excitement and capacity for ideas with her really comes out well in the work and that is very much a compliment. I’ve been really impressed at the way in which you’ve taken my very deliberately vague outlines for segments and put a personalised spin on them which fits Jennie as a character, this is exactly why you are such a strong handler.
I look forward to seeing what you do with her going forward from here and seeing what twists you put on the assignments you’re given – I am sure that they will be very good. As always I am always happy to talk over any ideas you have and work with them wherever possible.
Guy (Itami, Nick Knight & Team MOD)
I just wanted to extend a further thank you for your work towards supporting the fed now and in the past, it is greatly appreciated.
I completely appreciate that it has been a lighter month for Nick, but I think you really were able to channel that into a way that felt true to the character and made for a strong effort. I want to assure you that I very much plan to utilise Knight more often following this week’s PPV and that any absence wasn’t a reflection on your work but rather a need to prioritise some of the other areas of the roster (women and tag divisions) for Meta. I hope that the result this week and the selection of an opponent who has been impressing in Charlotte reflects the appreciation I have for how well you’ve done with Knight. I am confident you’ll continue to demonstrate why he is such a strong character and a worthy champion.
The brief work you produced with Team MOD also continued to be interesting and I definitely want to see more of them going forward – I think they are going to be another very strong component of a growing tag team division which Kaster and Ryan have also really contributed towards meaning we have some very good potential candidates for the champions.
Itami also continues to be a really well written character who I’d very much like to have involved in the continuing growth of the Women’s division and do have ideas for her. Your work with her continues to be strong and you’ve really developed her lately, if you continue in a similar vein as you have with Knight she will undoubtedly be a prominent feature going forward.
JJ
I just wanted to say thank you for stepping back up to help with the matches on our support staff team, it is greatly appreciated. I am glad some of the issues you have had have been resolved and I am really happy to see you back. I know you sometimes let your passions get the better of you and make yourself feel down on your work but I want you to know that your constant enthusiasm and desire to be involved here doesn’t go unnoticed. I look forward to seeing what you do with the characters you choose to work with going forward – I will find something for them to do.
Kaster (Kings of Flight & La Bolsa)
First of all – I’d like to say welcome aboard the support staff team, I’ve been really appreciative of your consistent help with matches before you joined and you’re very much a valuable member of the gang.
I have really enjoyed reading your work and you feud with Ryan has been entertaining to book and I think you’ve both helped strengthen the challengers portion of the tag division. It can be hard to write a convincing tag team who come across as a believable unit but you’ve managed to make it come across as effortless. Von Ruth and Everest really gel well together and I find their motivations believable and I’ve been impressed with all of your work this month. Both you and Ryan made it incredibly difficult to separate you, but the quality of your work with KOF has really been very high and I hope how much I admire what you’ve been doing is reflected both in the result and my continued confidence in featuring them prominently in the rebuild of the tag division.
It is a shame that you weren’t able to get something up for La Bolsa because I do enjoy reading the character – although I do appreciate that it was only one week and he hasn’t been involved in a storyline currently, hopefully I’ll get to book him more often in the future if you want to use him and get to see what more you can do with him.
I will also be looking at plans for Caleb Cannin too – he most certainly hasn’t been forgotten!
Matt (TJ Alexander)
I appreciate that it has been a light month for yourself in terms of bookings, but I was really pleased to see that you posted some work when you were and I really do hope that you’re going to continue to stick around and we can work together more often going forward. Although you didn’t emerge victorious, I really enjoyed the roleplay and I would very much like to see you more often and to get to learn more about the character.
I you aren’t already I’d strongly recommend joining our Discord so we can interact more easily and we can get you more involved and integrated into the group – although there is no pressure to do so obviously!
Pav (Abigail, Eternity, Shea O’Hara & Warren Kane)
Firstly – welcome back to the support staff, it has been a pleasure working with you again and your constant stream of ideas is always a really appreciated facet of what you bring to IWF (yes even when I wake up to a thesis).
It has been good to see both Abigail and Eternity back – albeit only with one booking so far – especially given how much passion I know you have for them and the brainstorming you’ve engaged in for years. Hopefully now they’ve made their onscreen return we will get to see where your ideas take you with the pair. I certainly have plenty of potential ideas which I am sure you will talk my ear off over.
I’ve really enjoyed your work with Shea, it’s been interesting to see your twist on the character and she was truly unfortunate to be randomly selected to face an incredibly strong Jennie Fenix in the first round of the Heiress last month. You’ve really utilised the more regular bookings for Shea this month and I hope the result this week is a reflection of how well I believe you’ve done with the challenges I’ve provided for you and congratulations on the victory against a very tough opponent.
I appreciate that you can often be quite harsh on yourself and rush to negatively assess your work but the defeat at Metamorphosis for Warren was not a reflection on a lack of quality. You’ve done a good job at taking a character who has already had more than one interpretation and finding a way to make them your own whilst retain aspects of what made them work in the first place. The decision on both occasions has been by the narrowest of margins – I certainly don’t plan to stop using Warren in prominent storylines.
Ryan (Savage By Nature)
I have been really impressed by how much enthusiasm you have shown towards working to help strengthen the tag team division (including making it your main focus as a handler) and I have really valued your input with ideas and how well you’ve worked with Kaster. I am confident that the future of the division is looking really strong which is very much a worthy kudos for yourself and I look forward to brainstorming more ideas with you going forward. Your work with the segments has been really solid and your ideas for furthering the angle outside of your own matches has been commendable.
Additionally, you’ve always been an incredibly reliable member of the staff team whose been willing to step up when required and just offer a calm perspective on matters and take an active role in providing assistance in trickier moments – it is greatly appreciated.
Although the result didn’t perhaps go your way this time, I have been really impressed with how well you’ve invested into this storyline and found ways to adapt to the scenarios I’ve booked you in. I’ve already told you in private but I hate both you and Kaster for making the decision so difficult but it is a testament to how well you’ve done and the quality of your work.
Terrella is already a very compelling character and has been on the cusp of greatness for a while as a singles competitor, whilst I appreciate that is on hold for the time being it is still enjoyable to keep watching you maintain that standard with him. I have, however, especially enjoyed the work you’ve done with Brandy this week as a character I am less familiar with, it really helped flesh her out in my mind and the two work together seamlessly. I am excited to see more from them both – but watching Brandy develop in a similar fashion to Stephen has is definitely something I really look forward to.
Shaun (Nick Danger)
I really wanted to commend you for being so consistent and continuing to always show up, always show enthusiasm and continue to improve. I know that perhaps sometimes the results in the past haven’t always been as you may have wanted, but you’ve always really shown a great work ethic and a willingness to pitch ideas and work hard to keep improving Danger as a character. I know we spoke very briefly about one idea recently, but I wanted to make sure you also knew that I do have plans for Danger going forward and look forward to seeing you continue to grow as a handler.
It has also been refreshing to see you interact with the more positive hype posts of the feds on Twitter, once again it is always nice to see more enjoyable interactions on that platform and I hope it shows that we are happy to promote all of our handlers work.
Todd (Dawn Warren)
We’ve spoken in private, but just remember what I said. You’re welcome in IWF, but I need to see you show up for bookings and just keep me better informed for weeks when you simply are too busy if you want to get back to the sort of levels we both know you’re capable of. Consistency has always been your biggest obstacles here, if you can find that I have no issues with finding storylines and angles for you to work with.
Conclusion
I hope you found the above useful and valuable.
I would love to hear from yourselves as well: What have you enjoyed in IWF in 2024? Who would you like your characters to potentially work with? Do you have any ideas you’d like to share of what you’d like to see us do (It can be literally anything at all!)?
If you could post a reply here that would be great, but don’t feel any pressure!
Maybe we can revive that now? 
)
Well howdy there pardner.