Hi.

Okay if you're reading this its because you want to create an E-wrestler and you want some advice. That's good, you know when you need help, this page is here to help first timers, or anyone in need of some help. Its going to come in four main sections. First of all some general advice on E-Fedding for beginners only really, then a run through of the entry form, an important first step and the part I really suggest you read now, a couple of examples and finally some other general tips, and E-mails of people in the XWF who want to help you.

First piece of advice, ROLE-PLAY!!!

Go on every week at least once and do an interview, it doesn't have to be long and it doesn't have to be about a match. Even if your card is clear come on and RP, because otherwise people will forget about you and you won't get a match. You'll get your first few matches free, but after that you will need to get feuds and stuff going for them.

The RP board is for Role-plays, this is all written as your wrestler, not as yourself, this is the most important part of e-wrestling, its how you win matches. Your first few RPs should explain who your wrestler is, where he comes from and such. Then when you get matches you can do some in-ring or backstage interviews, as time goes on and more is expected from you you should get more inventive with settings and such. If you don't plan to, or can't RP at least once a week, don't bother joining the federation, you'll only get chucked out in a week or so, and you could save us some time.

Let me reiterate to make this clear XWF is an interactive fed, not like some feds out there, you win by writing better RPs and posting them on the board, that's it. To win the first belts you'll need to RP every week or so, but I'll look at that sort of thing in general tips.

OOC, out of character board, this is you, its what you say as the handler not as the wrestler. This is where to ask for E-mails, tell people plans and complain about other people. Ignore that last bit, just joking. The OOC board is important to read, along with the Challenge board its where most matches get booked and confirmed, you will be in trouble if you don't read it because you'll miss bookings and such.

E-fedding, E-wrestling etc, obvious, Electronic wrestling, Electronic federation, the basic terms of this hobby of ours. If you have any confusion about terms, Dark Matches, Jobbers, anything, just ask, nothing is too simple to be explained. That's the short line, I would advise you to read the other pages though in particular the general tips.

-- Entry Form --

Okay, first problem you will encounter, the entry form to XWF, this is one worth spending time over. If I were you and I hadn't already planned out my wrestler in my head (You'd be surprised how many people do this, I had my wrestler running around in there for years) I'd maybe take a day or so of casual pondering before filling this form out. Not sitting and thinking about it for a day, just leave it until next time you're on line, you'll be surprised how many really cool things occur to you once the idea is in your head. If you do have serious problems thinking up something for any of these categories E-mail me right now, I love to help, we can collaborate and write you a character that won't get bogged down and will be fun to play. Don't feel bad if you can't come up with a character, most people don't get it right the first time and have to re-jig their character with mood swings and such.

Remember that the first thing your opponents see is this form, and you'll be stuck with it for longer than any RP or lost fight, so its possibly the most important bit of E-fedding you'll do for a long time, and also the first. But for now, the entry form, step by step.

Your Name/Age. I can't help you with this one, if you don't know it yourself get an adult to help you. E-mail address. It might sound odd, but here and on the message boards, include your E-mail, it does help people to pull angles with you.

Wrestler Name. The name of your wrestler is important. First rules, try to avoid a name that starts 'The' because there are enough of these around, and it just gets shortened to without the 'The' anyway. Don't use wrestlers that already exist, people won't take you seriously if you're named either after a real wrestler, a movie or comic book character. Try to make the name snappy, or at least one that will be easily shortened, 'Hot Stuff' Johnny Cruse we like, 'Hot Stuff', Johnny or Cruse, all nice and snappy. Horatio Throatwobbler Mangrove I can do without. Obviously bear in mind here the character you want for your wrestler, calling a gothic wrestler Cyril will clearly do nothing to help your cause. Don't forget the possibility of initials or names in RPs. And give the roster there is a quick scan just incase you have someone else's name, or a close version, because it happens, and other than playing Name matches (Made famous by TCT) there is no real way to avoid that fact once its done.

Age. More important than it sounds. First of all it places your wrestler as fresh faced and ambitious or a world weary veteran, and also certain stables have a sort of age basis, don't just put in the age you are or want to be, put in an age that makes sense, also remember that Wrestlers do have a shelf life (Unless you're name is Hogan).

Height/Weight. Don't go mad on this one. Don't think 'I know, I'll make my wrestler eight feet tall and three tons in weight, I'll be invincible!' it doesn't work that way, first of all think how many seven footers are in real wrestling, second, being the smaller man can give a good angle for RPs and thirdly the WCWF had a stable of only seven footers, they sucked, they had no wins to their names and they got kicked out. A big man that does well in E-fedding is the exception, not the rule. See, the reason that Paul Wight (Big Show) isn't that popular is that he has one angle, that he's huge. One angle isn't a lot, it can be a good idea for versatility to make your wrestler an average sized guy (for a wrestler). Other than that one of the best E-fedders I've ever seen, T, was five foot eight, in E-fedding the fact is, size doesn't matter.

Hometown. To be honest unless you're going to go out of America, this one has little importance. If you want a cool home town like 'Battle Creek', 'Death Valley' or 'Ass kicking county' (I made the last one up) do remember that you're not the only one to think of it. If you have a character planned for your wrestler he might already have to come from somewhere, if not you could just put your own home town.

Face/Heel/Neutral/Tweener. Okay, for those that don't know, these are your wrestler's general character:

Face, good guy, Hulk Hogan.
Heel, bad guy, Hollywood Hogan.
Neutral, errrm, neutral, I dunno, I guess Barry Horowitz, no he's heel now.
Tweener, in between, DX are tweeners, as was Stone Cold, they act heel, but they're all face, hard to actually do, don't think it'll work just because it does for DX and Stone Cold.

Physical Appearance. Again, very important, don't instantly go for the obvious 'Handsome, well built etc. etc.' we've heard it before, put in something interesting, one of the most effective wrestlers I saw was a guy who's wrestler was ugly, old and overweight, he had an angle about being from the days of real wrestling, it worked. Think ahead, look at angles, think about what reaction you want him to produce. There are probably three schools of thought, one, I want one angle to work, so he has to look like this (Think Doink the CLown) two, I will create fear by appearance, he must look like this (Think Undertaker, though I have to say this one doesn't pull much weight in E-feds) and the I don't care how he looks, he's going to be flexible. This last part is where your Rocks, your Stone Colds, your Goldbergs come from, and this is where most of the successful E-fedders, over time and belts, stand.

Ring Attire: Again, important, remember character, remember that you can take stuff off that you wear to the ring, don't just go for black tights and shorts. All the above that goes for physical appearance goes here.

Entrance Theme. Right, there are a lot, a hell of a lot of songs out there, more than that. You don't need to nick other wrestler's tunes. But if you do, do it right, I have seen people put 'DDP's theme.'! 'Smells like Teen Spirit' By Nirvana anyone? Seriously, everyone has favorite songs, make sure no one else has your tune and pick it for one of three reasons

One: Its a theme. For instance, my wrestler come in to 'Wild Thing', every person on earth knows 'Wild Thing' it is a big theme, you know how it goes, you know how everyone will be head banging along to it.

Two: The lyrics work. My Tag-team theme used to be 'Princes of the Universe', the lyrics are perfect. If this is your reason, put the lyrics in your RPs, let people know them.

Three: You like it, no one else has ever heard of it, but you know it would be cool. Easily the best reason for an Entrance music. On entrances generally, don't over do it. The harder your entrance is for people to picture the worse it is. The first three seconds of an entrance are the bits that matter. Can I hum Stone Cold's entrance? nope, do I know what's coming when I hear the breaking glass? Hell yeah. Do I know X-pac's tune by heart? Can't say I do. Do I know what that 'This Sucks!' means, course I do. Having one dramatic memorable thing to your entrance beats the hell out of half an hour of mist, pyros and rock guitar, personally if I see an entrance that's ten lines of just functional description in and RP I skip it. If I see one high impact thing well described for ten lines, now that's something else.

Style. Hi-flyer, Technical, Brawler, Submissions, Mat-wrestler, Powerhouse, whatever. One, don't have a seven foot tall four hundred pound high flyer, nor a five ten power house, it doesn't wash. Also, a Hi-flying, technical mat-wrestling submissions expert isn't going to get you any respect, pick a style. Again, the style of the wrestler is going to change your RPs and where you go for belts, picking a submissions expert and expecting to fit in Hardcore is a little odd.

Finishing Move name. Very important, make this a name not only that's snappy, because when a commentator says: CRIMSON FLIPPING TILT-A-WHIRL KIDNEY RATCHET DROP!

It just sounds silly. Also try to make it sound nasty, and something that you can get into an RP, for instance, Raven's DDT is a DDT, very sucky finisher, but simply calling it an 'Evenflow' DDT, gives angle, hence: 'My life has been a flow of pain, at me, against me, but now I'm going to change that, I'm going to change the flow, I'm going to put everyone in the Evenflow.'

See?

Finisher Description. Right, listen here, because if I see one more finisher called something pants which is a bulldog I will scream, and then I will find you and kill you.

This matters, its where people first see your own knowledge of wrestling, your imagination, everything. Things to bear in mind:

One: Make it physically possible, Hard, but possible. Triple back flip off the top rope into splash, fine. Spinning Tombstone piledriver, how?

Two: Don't use other moves. Don't use a bulldog, at least have the other guy facing you and bulldog him, you could call it the Rottweiler and he would be the right way up for a pin, its a simple change, but its a new move. Don't use other people's trademark moves, that's even worse than using a basic move that no one else uses, it steals your originality, and originality is the lifeblood of a successful E-fedder.

Three: You can hurt people. WCW/WWF has to have moves that you can not hurt people with if you do it right. XWF does not have this problem. How about standing on the top rope then jumping on the guys chest with both feet? In the real world, no way, ER room, in E-fedding, its cool. If you really can't think of anything new, E-mail one of the older guys in the XWF, we have acres of moves in our fevered brains, I usually have at least three original moves that I keep imagining doing to passers by that I need someone to unleash from my fevered skull, or visit The big big book of wrestling moves for inspiration, this page is cool, visit it anyway.

Finisher setups. Just list some appropriate moves your wrestler likes to use. If your finisher takes a weird ring position then you can use this to explain how to get there.

Foreign Objects. Another one not to go wild on, if its not in your wrestler description already, don't bother. If you're going to put 'Steel chair, whatever it takes to win the fight.' don't bother, we already know. This is another angle thing, Jeff Jarrett would include his guitar, Sting his bat, Road Dawg would not include half the arena, you get the idea.

History/Background. If you have past E-fed experience include it here. If not don't worry. You want to you can include a little theoretical history for your wrestler, if you like, but don't go mad, fact is the past don't matter, not like the future does.

Manager Name/Description. Really only an option for heels this like the foreign objects thing, but again bear mind that this will have to be linked to the character history etc.

Tag-Team. You can have up to two wrestlers in WCWF, so you can form your own Tag-team in one fell swoop, however, remember that your two wrestlers can be opposing, and that you can form a tag-team with someone you never met before, the advantage to a tag-team of two wrestlers you control is total trust in what the people are going to do, the down side is twice the work to make them successful, a tag-team of two handlers can put out twice the RPs of one with a single handler with the same amount of effort.

Stable. A contentious issue here in the XWF. You don't need a stable to be successful, that's part of what the Wreckage card was put up to combat, and making you own stable of three wrestlers when you enter is a really bad idea, the longest running and only truely consistent Stable of the WCWF is the Knights of Anarchy, and take it from one who knows, a stable often means MORE work for you to win, not less, think about it before you form one. Sample RP. Simple enough, tell a little story about your wrestler, where he came from, who he is. If we know you you might not have to bother.

That's basically the entry form. Take your time over it, and if you want, walk away and fill it in tomorrow, it will be with you for a long long time.

-- Samples --

Okay. This is all totally off the top of my head as an example of wrestler creation.

Let's suppose I'm a big fan of the comic book/film 'Spawn' I'm not, but let's suppose. I've got two ways of getting a wrester from this. I let my mind wander. Spawn, word association is a good start, Dawn.

I have my wrestler's name, Dawn, and everything else starts to fall into position.

He has to be tall, blue eyed, blonde, pale. Entrance, the lights go black then slowly fade up, like the dawn, as 'Dawn Chorus' Plays. Style, high flyer, because anyone called Dawn would be a bright, light person. Finishing move, 'Sun down.'. Top rope, leap, ball up in a 'bomb' and simply drop full force into your opponent, not possible in the real world, but great for E-fedding.

Also, this guy is screaming for a tag-team partner, the dark and mysterious Dusk, a submissions wrestler, dark hair, brown eyes. His entrance, the lights fade the other way, 'I don't sleep I dream' by REM plays. His move could be the 'Darkest night' say, have the opponent face up, cross their legs, stand with one foot on their abdomen and one on the part where the legs cross, grab them by the pelvis and pull, shoving a boot into their diaphragm and crushing their legs. And you've got a Tag-team finisher, the 'Dusk 'til Dawn', when Dawn hits them with the 'Sun Down' while they're in the 'Darkest night'.

And as for a sample RP, how easy could it be:

The sun slowly drifts below the horizon as two figures stand on a solitary ridge staring out to sea, one born in the light, one created in the dark.

The time has come my brother.

The first figure to speak is tall and handsome, his smile lights up rooms with ease and his manner is warm and friendly.

As does the setting of the sun, and its rise again.

The other man's voice is cold and dark, as is he, his hard face crossed by a long scar.

Soon all will learn that our day, and night, is coming, that they will suffer in the darkest night and feel the sun go down on them.

Yes, brother, from dusk, and until dawn.

The two men grasp each other's wrists as the last fingers of light drag their way down the scene. After a few moments they too disappear.

Okay, its pretty stylized, but like I say its off my head, you could do better. By the way, if you want you can check the roster and use these two if they're not on it, I don't care.

Or, let's say you don't want to do the word association. Spawn is from hell right, he's been released. That's what you like about him. We can do that.

Obviously we can't be too simple. Make this guy hell's jester, no entertainer. Bang, its all in place again. Dress him like a harlequin, mask, checks, the whole lot. Style, submissions/technical. Trademark move, the 'Captive audience' he could put them in an Indian lock, step on their ankles, drop to his knee, then grab their arms, pull them back and lean forward to whisper jokes and stuff in their ears. Make him Neutral, unpredictable. Entrance, a high pitched insane laugh, followed by 'the entertainer', then he comes back flipping down to the ring. He can be fighting to entertain his demonic master or something, real mortal pain being the only thing that the devil still gets kicks out of or whatever.

And again the RP's a real gift, you can do anything with this guy, sick sketches, plays with dolls of your opponents in abandoned theatres, songs, stand-up, if you have the imagination he's perfect. You can play him as straight or as insane as you like. If no one takes this guy before I retire Duke and Ash, I'm gonna use him, but that said, seriously, if anyone out there likes him and he's not used, make him your own. Its that easy, don't get pulled into one idea, let your imagination run on this, don't do what other people have done. Don't think, for instance, Spawn, he will be like spawn, if an idea works, run with it. And don't be scared to ask for help.

-- General Tips --

The things I can think of further to help you fledgling talents. Okay when you've filled out your entry form and been included on the roster and you've done your first introduction Roleplay things to keep in mind. One, make your challenges specific, unless you are the heavyweight champion or something then open challenges hardly ever get responded to first. Two, don't get above your station, fight some other lesser lights, then work your way up to the TV title, then the US title and so on, don't expect to get a Heavyweight title shot in your first few fights.

A little something to think about, alliances work in more than one way. First of all there is the most obvious form of alliance, the people you fight beside, those in your stable, those you tag with. These people though can drag you up or down and will rarely win you a belt, in fact stabling with the heavyweight champion is often a good way to rule you out of actually ever winning the heavyweight belt. On the other hand there is a sort of negative alliance, a feud. This is not to be ignored, the people you fight against are at least as important as those you fight with, plus, if you have a long running feud with a guy and he wins the Heavyweight title, then this can only help you, if he RPs well, it should bring you to your best in response, if he is bad, you beat him and move on, if he is good, you can stick with him in a long running feud. The point is that you should keep you friends close and your enemies closer, and chose them well, really well.

Another thing on RPing, I know its a chore and everything, but read it over. There is no problem with the odd typo, everyone makes them, its natural, but try to make sure time restrictions don't mess up good RPs. If you only have thirty minutes on the computer a twenty minute RP with ten minutes correcting mistakes will look better than a thirty minute RP that you really have to scratch your head to read. The worst thing for me is when I see someone with real talent being bought down by an RP that makes it look like English is their second language. Also what this means is that if you don't check over your spelling / grammar / punctuation you have to RP twice as well as someone who does just to get on level ground. If it gets too bad with time and spelling it sounds odd but there's no rules against writing the body of your RP, the location and character description and the things you mean to say on a word processor or such, spell checking it and cut-pasting it into the RP board. This is an idea worth considering, since it will cut down on missing out things you meant to say, and with the extra time you can get out better atmosphere in RPs, this was something I was forced to do when all I had was E-mail for a while, and I found it improved my RPs, though I tend only to do it for very long RPs now.

A good idea to add a little edge to your RPs is to include HTML, the RP board allows you to put in little phrases that, to the uninitiated, allow you to change colors, fonts, sizes, even for the more capable put in music and pictures. There are many HTML guides available on the net and in real copies, but at first it may be good to start small. Try not to go mad with HTML, its like a box of chocolates, a little is good, eat the whole lot in one go and you'll throw up down your slacks. Until you get more comfortable with things stick to one color for the descriptions and one color for each speaker to help keep things clear.

Frankly this is about all I can think of off the top of my head, but it seems to cover most the first time mistakes people make. Right now stop, go away and come back to enter your first wrestler in a few days. If you were never going to come back in a few days then you should never have bothered joining. If you want help with anything at all, anything, E-mail me, Mike if its about character creation tell me anything, your favorite movie, your favorite period in time, your name and I'll work it through with you so that things can work out a little better. Okay, good luck, and see you in the ring!