Chronicles of a Fed-Head: UNSCRIPTED -- Volume 2: RELOADED - Re-imaging Old Characters

Let's talk about a change of gimmicks, not for professional wrestling, but for e-federations.

Just the humble reminder that I do occasionally talk about the world of e-fedding, or rather fantasy wrestling, on this blog so bear with me.

The common question I get after the Rise & Fall of ZXWWF narrative is what happened to some of the numerous characters that I played over the years and if I did revive those particular characters, how would I do so. So you guys asked for it, I'm happy to answer that question and give some answers to that off the top of my head.

Feel free to sound off in the comments if you like what you see here.

Current Active Characters:

Xion Zeros (ZX)

ZX back in WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2006

Xion Zeros, or rather "ZX", started off as Hardy Boyz (namely Jeff Hardy) and The Rock hybrid when I first created him. Over the last decade and a half, I've scrapped most of those obvious influences and I have him wrestling closer to my personal favorite black wrestler, Jay Lethal, more than any other black wrestler. There's still the influences from Jeff Hardy and The Rock, but they aren't as obvious as they were in the past. In my current e-federation, I have him as the company's principal owner since he has "retired" from in-ring competition.

In all honesty, I haven't seen a reason to have him step into the ring in a legitimate "physical" feud in years that interests me more than the stuff that I do with Mariah (see below), so I made Xion step back for Mariah could shine more. If I'm perfectly honest, I have more fun playing Mariah than Xion, especially as a fan of women's wrestling.

Xion's current iteration as the owner of Ground Zero Wrestling Association...

When I originally started playing Xion, I gave him a copy-and-paste Dwayne Johnson attitude, but nowadays, he's more like MVP (especially his current run in Impact Wrestling) - more than confident in his abilities and position of authority. I play him in a manner where he assumes that he's "untouchable" and always one step ahead of the opposition. I'm always looking to add more layers to his personality, but I'm sure that will come in due time. For those wondering, I have been using Nelly as Xion's picbase.

Mariah

Mariah is hands-down, my favorite character that I have had the pleasure of fleshing out over the years in e-federations. Before bringing her into e-feds, she was merely a boring Lita knock-off, but now she's a hybrid of everything I love about women's wrestling - past and present. I can't credit that to one person nor myself, but I owe her "evolution" to the numerous people I have had the pleasure of working with in e-federations over the years in feuds and storylines. I'm sure I already talked about that in-depth in the Rise & Fall of ZXWWF chapters, so I won't repeat myself here.

I stated it earlier that I enjoy playing Mariah more than Xion earlier and I suppose that I should state why. At the end of the day, I like women's wrestling MORE than seeing the guys slam each other around. Seeing two hot chicks go at it who are believably talented in-ring is amazing to watch. Besides, Mariah's personality is something I have taken great pride in crafting over the last decade and it's always a pleasure to see her interact with other ladies and gentlemen in the sport.

If I were to compare her to anyone in-ring, it would be close to Shawn Michaels' charisma, but I imagine her moving around the ring much like R-Truth (TNA-NWA years) while wrestling like Cheerleader Melissa and Low Ki in terms of ability. I'm currently using Justene Jaro as her picbase. I've had people describe Mariah to me as flawed, but lovable, so I'm glad that people enjoy her as a character. It makes me happy that they like what I'm doing with her.

Currently, she acts as the leader of all-female veteran stable, dubbed the Queen Bee Mafia, among the most unlikely of women becoming allies and best friends in the company.

The Enforcers (Dequan Wallace & G-Money Briggs)

Throughout the years that I have been playing the WWE games or just plain wrestling games in general, these guys have been pretty much my resident powerhouses to squash everything that come into their way. I know everyone has that one set of original characters on their game saves that have max stats just for fighting for fun, but never let anyone else play as them because they were just THAT damn good. The few times I have used these guys online in WWE games have ended with people ragequitting and sending me hate mail from the "pure domination" from these guys. I remember letting my college roomie fight these guys back in Here Comes The Pain and he almost tossed his controller through the wall out of frustration.

G-Money was influenced after all of the strong, big guys in wrestling in recent years, especially Brock Lesnar and Mark Henry. For laughs, I gave him the infamous Kung-Fu Straight Punch finisher in the older WWE games and it made me sad when THQ took that out of their recent entries. That forced me to rethink his moveset dramatically. His current iteration is more realistic than overpowered and comical, with influences still from Brock Lesnar and Mark Henry, as well as some obvious influences from D-Mob (Def Jam Vendetta and Def Jam: Fight for New York - namely because I love giving this dude an array of different powerbombs to use), Matt Morgan, and Ryback. I originally wanted Deebo from Friday to be G-Money's picbase, but Big Zeke (Ezekiel Jackson) looks like a really mean SOB, so I went with him for the long haul.

Dequan was a different entity altogether. I have to credit his creation to T-Bone as he saw it fit that G-Money have a partner in crime. Whereas G-Money was pure power, Dequan would bring that with hard-hitting speed. T-Bone's original concept meant that Dequan would have NOTHING but Spears and The Gore as moves, but that wasn't possible until Fire Pro Wrestling Returns came out in North America, so we settled for Dequan being Rhyno/Monty Brown hybrid. That's one of the main reasons why I decided to use Monty Brown as a picbase. The running gag between myself and T-Bone would be the rivalry that never ended between Dequan and T-Bone that originated after the fact that T-Bone would ALWAYS be knocked out in matches by Dequan with The Gore as his finisher.

For those wondering, I'm currently using The Enforcers as Xion Zeros' bodyguards/personal henchmen in my current federation, GZWA.

"They don't say much, but they fight like the dickens though..."

Kudos to anyone who knows where that quote is from...

Old Inactive Characters:

Matt | Psycho Sagus | "Lady D" Ashley

If The Enforcers were the Dudley Boys and the X-Terminators (ZX and T-Bone) were the Hardy Boyz, then Matt and Psycho Sagus were Edge and Christian in our heated feud across several WWE Games from 1999 to roughly 2011. In various e-federations, Matt and Psycho Sagus were resident jobbers that I used to put over other talent left and right. Eventually, I dropped them off rosters completely, but still used Psycho Sagus for comedy segments and Nemesis' "streak" (see below).

Ashley was created as a tribute to one of my close friends in college at the time and was ZX's kayfabe sister at a time where I put Mariah on the shelf while Ashley acted as the new blood in the X-Terminators (ZX & T-Bone in a mock version of the Hardy Boyz). In ZXWWF's early years, I booked her as a babyface rookie (who fought a lot like John Cena in his early WWE career on the Smackdown! brand) who slowly rose through the ranks who eventually feuded with some of the new incoming female talent that started joining shortly afterwards. In due time, I ended up dropping her completely in favor for playing Mariah and haven't gone back to her since roughly 2006. I didn't plan on bringing her back, namely for the fact that WWE signed Ashley Massaro at the roughly the same time and I didn't want to be accused of ripping her off, especially after she skyrocketed in popularity after winning the Diva Search that year.

Over the years, I have had a LOT of ideas on how to revamp these three characters.

With Psycho Sagus, I went through back and forth thinking about reviving him as a serious competitor in lieu of Chris Jericho or The Miz, or as comedy relief, like Eric Young. I ended up axing those ideas as there are FAR too many Miz clones in the world of e-fedding, then after that whole stunt I pulled where Sagus lost to a freakin' sandwich there was no way in hell no one was going to take him seriously unless I took him off the table for a few years. With Matt, I didn't have any ideas until I allowed my friend who I based Matt off of, customize the CAW himself on WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2010. He designed the character as a high-flyer, where I always made him a pure brawler in the style of Stone Cold Steve Austin or Road Dogg. This change REALLY got the gears going in my head.

Fate would have it that my idea to revamp these three characters would involve pairing them all up. The team of Paul London and Brian Kendrick (Spanky) rose to popularity in 2006, with Ashley Massaro acting as their valet.

When I saw this image, I knew if I were to revive these three characters, it would have to be as a single unit. The background story would have it that Ashley met up with Matt (London) and Sagus (Spanky) while they were touring the indies and the trio quickly became friends as they travelled the world to hone their wrestling craft. With their newly acquired experience from traveling the world, the trio would set any tag team division they are lucky to be a part of on fire. I'm 100% positive that I would axe that connection that Ashley was ZX's kayfabe sister too. I dunno what the hell I was thinking back then...

These three would also be prime candidates for a name change too if I were to use them in another e-fed.

Concubine

Concubine would obviously get a name change, as my old friend who she is based off of appearance-wise was the one who named this particular creation who made her first appearance on WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2006. Mio Shirai would be a perfect picbase for Concubine as she's a dead ringer for my friend I originally modeled her after. 

When I originally created Concubine, she had a moveset that was heavily-inspired by Tajiri at the time. If I were to revive this character, I'm positive I would research a lot of joshi wrestlers and give her a strong joshi moveset to work with to set her apart from the multiple Gail Kim rip-offs in e-feds.

Seriously, there's not enough Asian female nor joshi wrestlers in e-feds and it makes me sad. If I were to revive Concubine, I would like to change that.

Tiffany | Xander Ravage

Back in WWF Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain, just about ALL of my friends from my high school gang of gamers made themselves on my game save at some point. In that game, one particular friend made himself look like a goth version of He-Man and I shudder at the thought of trying to recreate that abomination in one of the newer WWE Games or within an e-federation. 

Tiffany started off as a former love interest for ZX at the time, but much like my early iterations of Mariah, turned into a Lita-clone. She had a short run in ZXWWF, appearing in a few backstage segments before I trashed the character completely, despite recreating her in WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2006 as a vampire.

That brings me back to the man that I dubbed Xander Ravage. So what I cooked up was a complete revision of his character to be coupled with my revamped Tiffany as two creatures of the night. So why better not use Kevin Thorn and Ariel (Shelly Martinez) as their picbases?

If I was to bring this duo back into an e-federation, I would surprise people and have them both as show-offs. Tiffany will be the eye-candy valet of course, while Xander would impress in the ring with a moveset heavily-influenced by Dolph Ziggler, Jimmy Jacobs, and Tyler Breeze.

Snow 

Funny story about this guy. My friend that I based this character off of has appeared on my game save for WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW for ONE match and I deleted him as he was merely a hybrid of Rhyno and Rob Van Dam. Fast forward to present day, where that same friend of mine has trained to be an independent wrestler, but has taken time off to focus on college and work. 

I won't disclose his real name for privacy reasons, but when I saw Bull Demphsey debut on NXT, I was thinking two things. 1) Somehow, this guy ripping off Michael Elgin AND Rhyno at the same time. 2) This dude looks like a dead ringer for my friend. 

If I were to bring him into an e-federation, I would probably give him a similar gimmick to Bull, but use the same hybrid of Rhyno and Rob Van Dam that my friend used on the indies for his in-ring arsenal. 

Amy Rose

When I originally created this character, she was meant to be a tag team partner with Ashley, much like the two girls I was friends with in college that I was basing them off of. Back at the time, I gave Amy Rose a moveset VERY similar to Chris Jericho, but I'm positive that I would give her an overhaul in this revival. 

You don't EVER see anyone play a female character anything close to ODB/Jessica Kresa, so I want to remedy that situation and use her as Amy Rose's picbase to enhance the tomboy/not-so-girly-girl/Southern Belle gimmick I would give her. As for Amy Rose's name, I would more likely change that to avoid any confusion with her being related to Adam Rose. 

Nemesis

The truth about Nemesis is that I originally found a CAW formula for Nemesis from Resident Evil 3 for WWF Smackdown! 2: Know Your Role and added him to my game save. My friends and I had such a blast with the character that he became an entity of his own that slowly gave his own identity in later WWE games over the years. 

Nemesis, back in WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2006

The sad part of this story is that I have NEVER found a good picbase to distinguish Nemesis away from his Resident Evil counterpart, nor one to connect to the horrifying figure I wish to portray him as now. 

Nathan Simmons

This character came about after I jokingly based a character off a football jock I knew back in high school as a Goldberg clone during his WWE run. T-Bone and I used him as a protege of sorts of Dequan, since I had arranged him to be T-Bone's new rival since we were both beginning to bore of fighting G-Money and Dequan religiously. 

After Goldberg's departure from WWE after WrestleMania XX, I quickly lost interest in this character. That is until I gave him an "All-American" gimmick and paired him with Emily (who abandoned T-Bone at the time) to get extra heel heat at the time. A few years later, the "All-American American" Jack Swagger debuts in WWE and I completely scrap this character as that guy is literally everything I wanted to do with this guy at this stage of my e-fedding career. 

I found myself recreating him back in WWE '13 as a favor for a friend in another e-federation who wanted a male companion for her female wrestler, but bailed on the concept at the last second. This time around, I went for a Captain America-themed ring attire and a moveset heavily-influenced by Nigel McGuinness (namely the Tower of London as a finisher that I dubbed the Statue of Liberty), Kurt Angle, Jack Swagger, and Roderick Strong. 

After Chris Evans' portrayal of Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I thought he would be a great fit for this new iteration of this patriotic character if I were to bring him into an e-federation.

Heather

One of my throwaway ideas for Matt when I was brainstorming on how to revamp him over the years was to reimagine him similar to Bully Ray's solo career in TNA. Enter Brooke Tessmacher as Bully Ray's sexy valet while he was the leader of the Aces and Eights stable. I quickly axed this idea as it wouldn't be right as the guy who was basing Matt off of in real life, had a sister who I was basing Heather off of, so it would be REALLY awkward to run with this idea. 

Instead, if I were to revamp Heather, who had a VERY brief appearance on my WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2010 game save, I would keep Brooke Tessmacher as Heather's picbase, but keep her in a manager/valet role for an up and coming Superstar for an e-federation, making sure that she distances herself from Matt and Psycho Sagus' blunders. 

Sensational Mary

Behind Mariah, Mary's my second favorite female character to play in e-federations. She was originally named Scary Mary, but I changed her name to "Sensational" Mary as a tribute to Sherri Martel when she passed away as I adopted similar tactics and antics from her for Mary, as most men were afraid to face her as women. 

Bianca Beauchamp is the current picbase that I have been bouncing around with for Mary, even though I have used Karen Angle Jarrett and Emily Deschanel in the past. There was even a point where I considered Joy Giovanni for the part as she wore a couple of attires that used for Mary in some of the older WWE games. GZWA (my current e-federation) suddenly has an influx of a LOT of red-heads signing up, so I want to change her up (again) if I were to bring her back into the mix of things there, whereas she acted as the federation's majority shareholder until she was dethroned in a power struggle.  

If I were to bring Mary back full-time and as an in-ring competitor, I would use Krissy Vaine as her picbase in a heartbeat. Krissy Vaine represents The Beautiful People gimmick (along with Amber O'Neal as Team Blondage) before Velvet Sky (Talia Madison) and Angelina Love (Angel Williams) made it a household name in the wrestling world after they brought that gimmick into TNA after Talia's short run with it on the indies with April Hunter (T & A... get it?), so naturally it would fit into the valley girl/spoiled rich brat archetype I have seasoned into this character over the years.

For those curious about Mary's moveset, she was originally inspired by Christian Cage from his NWA-TNA run, but over the years, I have managed to add noteworthy moves from Maryse Ouellet, The Miz, Randy Orton (namely the Punt Kick that she calls the Beauty Mark) and her staple finishers have remained The Beauty Mask (Shelton Benjamin's Jumping Complete Shot) and Christian's Unprettier (It Ain't Pretty!).

MissMurdaMo

Ever since the emergence of Awesome (Amazing) Kong/Kharma, everyone tends to have their big scary black chick in their e-federations with her as the picbase. Instead, I'm going with Trenesha Biggers, commonly known as Rhaka Khan or Tigressa Caliente. Sure, I bandwagoned along the hype train for "Lady Batista" (my nephew's adorable name for Kharma...) and cooked up my own equivalent that I have not used in an e-federation since roughly 2005. There were a few times that I was tempted to pull her off the shelf, but so far I haven't had the urge to use this Amazon of a lady. 

By the way, I didn't cook up the name. I can thank one of my old co-workers for that. 

** T-Bone (Trey)

The ongoing joke between myself and my veteran members of my current e-federation, GZWA, that were in ZXWWF as well is that one of the color commentators on the broadcasts is named Trey "The Carter" Carter. Many have assumed that this is T-Bone on commentary, but I will dispel that assumption now and say that The Carter and T-Bone are two SLIGHTLY different characters. It's just an inside joke between myself and my best friend, who T-Bone and The Carter are based off of, who just happens to make some of the same toilet-humor comments that Carter makes during wrestling at times.

As for T-Bone, I wouldn't change a thing. My best friend has noted since the end of ZXWWF, T-Bone and Emily are retired from in-ring competition, so I'm respectfully keeping him out of competition in e-federations, but I have used him in a few segments here and there on GZWA, alongside his long-time friend and former tag team partner, Xion Zeros (ZX). I have been using Tyrese Gibson as T-Bone picbase for a while now and I'm positive that won't be changing anytime soon.

** Emily

Emily's "Miss America" gimmick back SvR 2006...

Much like T-Bone, I'm NOT the original creator of this character, so I respectfully wouldn't change anything drastically here. Well, not anything more the Miss America gimmick I gave her when I paired her up with Nathan Simmons briefly when I had T-Bone feuding with him back in WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2006.

See the resemblance? Trust me, that was NOT intentional.

Kat Myers would be an excellent picbase for Emily, who T-Bone's creator has established to have a strong fitness and MMA background in her later years of WWE Games. Her last appearance was in WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2011, but I plan on using Emily for a few misc. appearances on GZWA's version of Total Divas, whenever we get around to starting that project.

Big J

Along with Matt and Psycho Sagus, Big J was part of the stable known as the Ultra Alliance back in the early days of my e-fedding career. Big J was essentially the "muscle" for their team to cover-up Psycho Sagus and Matt's failed attempts to succeed on their own. If I were to revive this character, I would have him unmask and use the late Bam Bam Bigelow as a picbase with a moveset similar to that wrestler, but with some influences from the late Test/Andrew Martin, Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Bucanero. I want him to be one of those big guys who shock people with some (limited) high flying ability while maintaining his power game. As for his personality, I don't know what attitude I would give him outside of the moveset.

** Gabriel Wingue

For those who were in ZXWWF, they should know Gabe here as one of the original pioneers of the XC (Xtreme Cruiserweights) Division, which was my cheap attempt at recreating TNA's success with their own X-Division, but within my own e-federation. Gabe was a huge asset in helping my original e-federation get off the ground, but by the time GZWA got going he was caught up in his own personal life to be much help.

He did trust me to do anything I wanted with Gabriel Wingue if I wanted to bring that character back for my own amusement in e-federations, so at least he gave me his blessing to revive this character if I wanted. Gabe always portrayed his character as an older wrestler, so I cannot see any other great picbase to use other than X-Division legend himself, Jerry Lynn, to represent him in an e-federation.