Friday Five: E-Fedding

All about pretending to be guys who pretend-fight in their underwear...

1. Have you ever participated in e-feds? If so what feds?

2. What is the best e-fed character you've ever seen?

3. What's the best example of a real life character that flopped in WWE/TNA/etc. that would have been awesome in an e-fed?

4. Buy or sell: The best e-feds are the ones that are most realistic compared to real life promotions.

5. What was your character's finishing move, and why?

The Rock Replies to Cena's Incendiary House Show Promo from Australia

So, if you haven't heard about or even seen the video of the promo John Cena cut at the house show in Australia running down The Rock, well, yeah, he cut a promo on The Rock at a house show in Australia. Apparently, Rock caught wind of it, and he was pissed. Here's his reply:



To me, all of this plays out as some high-budget e-fed match where one guy promos and the other guy replies. I mean, if you listen to Rocky's promo, he even has pertinent footage of Cena's rant spliced in. It's amazing. Any way, I thought Rocky's delivery here was spot on, but I thought he also came off as puerile and glib in some spots. It was mostly good though. Then again, I like most Rock promos.

The big news though is that he's returning in the fall, or at least he wants to. Maybe he wrestles at Survivor Series? Maybe he just comes back and cuts more promos? Maybe he just throws Rock Bottoms around? Who knows. But when he comes back, it'll be good.

From the E-Feds to Reality: The School Girl

Underestimate at your own risk, sexist pig!

For those who don't know, TH is an e-fed enthusiast. Even in years when he wasn't watching wrestling, he was still e-fedding. He ran several characters in several feds at a time at his peak, but now, he resides only in Empire Pro Wrestling with one character. Still, he's handled and seen a ton of characters. Some may work in the real world, some may not. This is one of those characters from the former.

Name: Inoue Doi, The School Girl (handled by the inimitable Michael K. Dupin)

What's Her Deal: It's exactly what the name says. She's a petite Japanese anime-fetish style woman wrestler, replete with a school girl outfit. Yep. She also was among the most feared threats on the roster, an example of not judging a book by its cover. Her strikes and knowledge of how to dismantle larger opponents, especially with her feared URAKEN~!, were among the best in her home fed. Think about her as one of the ninja-hookers from Sin City. Underestimate her at your own risk.

Was She Successful in E-Feds: I'd say that since she was the signature character in her main fed, the Squared Circle, she was pretty successful. I'm not sure how many titles she won, but she was definitely one of the most memorable characters there.

Could She Get Over in Reality: It depends on the setting. WWE is under intense public scrutiny. If she would dominate over the males, it might drive some of the more meatheaded fans away (not that I'd complain, but money's money). If she took too much of a beating, the PTC and other watchdog groups would be on their asses. ROH strikes me as kind of the place where they don't care too much about women at all. She'd have to be a full-time character in PWG (where Candice LaRae and Christina von Eerie have wrestled the men), Chikara (where Sara del Rey, Daizee Haze and Madison Eagles continue to wrestle against men) or Inter-Species Wrestling (where really, anything goes). I'd love to see a character like The School Girl doing battle full-time in Chikara. I think she'd get the best treatment there, and the matches would be out of sight. Plus, URAKEN~! battles with Eddie Kingston!

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

From the E-Feds to Reality: Team Tremendous

The Good Prof definitely was the best teacher

Note, this feature's too young to reboot. SORRY.

For those who don't know, TH is an e-fed enthusiast. Even in years when he wasn't watching wrestling, he was still e-fedding. He ran several characters in several feds at a time at his peak, but now, he resides only in Empire Pro Wrestling with one character. Still, he's handled and seen a ton of characters. Some may work in the real world, some may not. This is one of those characters from the former.

Names: Professor Tremendous and El Tremendo, Team Tremendous (handled by Dan West and Bill Dempsey, respectively, described by some as the Lennon and McCartney of e-fedding... funny, they're both still alive and neither have been rumored to have died either)

What's Their Deal: Well, I'll describe both of them in detail in a bit, but they're both crackpots. Like, major league, real deal, lying, cheating, stealing, disingenuous and yet preeminently hilarious shysters. Prof T was, as his name might suggest, a teacher, albeit in name only. He became more like a den father for a band of social rejects and the scum of the earth. EL Tremendo, meanwhile, was more like a crackpot luchador, like a fucked-up, comedic dynamo that found a lot of singles success after splitting from Team Tremendous and carrying on in a different fed.

Were They Successful in E-Feds: I'd say both their title résumés speak for themselves. They each won a bunch of titles, with the best of the bunch being Prof T's MBE World Championship.

Could They Get Over in Reality: It depends on where, actually. Both guys were known for raunchy humor at times and absurd humor at others. I'd imagine them as Santino if Santino weren't restrained by the WWE's usage for him. Of course, that begs the question, if Santino were turned up to 11 in terms of absurdity, would he still be over? Well, one thing's for certain... I'd probably still enjoy the hell out of him.

See, the Tremendous Ones were both guys I dug the hell out of. I'd go so far as to say Prof T may be my favorite or at least second favorite character of all-time, and El Tremendo is up there as well. I spent many a RP laughing my ass off at the scenarios painted out or the banter between Prof and his minions or the interviewer.

I guess that's where a lot of the charm with the Good Professor lay. He had minions, most of them being inept. With a personality as eccentric as Prof T's, the interplay between him and his minions was really the best. Tremendo didn't have minions though, but Bill was such a gifted writer at crafting really, really fucked-up situations and fleshing them out in the most humorous way possible. I really think they'd have cleaned up in a raunchier time in WWE. Then again, the key is raunchy. I'm not sure if either character would work in a neutered setting.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

From the E-Feds to Reality: Power Master

For those who don't know, TH is an e-fed enthusiast. Even in years when he wasn't watching wrestling, he was still e-fedding. He ran several characters in several feds at a time at his peak, but now, he resides only in Empire Pro Wrestling with one character. Still, he's handled and seen a ton of characters. Some may work in the real world, some may not. This is one of those characters from the former.

Imagine this, only sillier... I know, it's hard...
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Name: Power Master (handled by NBA podcaster/Philly comedy fixture Gregg Gethard)

What's His Deal: He's an over-the-top caricature of the Ultimate Warrior. How does one parody the Ultimate Warrior? Well, basically, he pretty much did all the crazy things Warrior did - coin words, harken to nature, type out grunts and spits - but did them with such comedic force and with slightly more frequency (remember, Warrior was kind of a caricature of a wrestler himself) that made it just a hoot every time he posted a promo.

Was He Successful in E-Feds: In terms of titles? I'm not sure, but I can tell you there was no comedic character more critically acclaimed than Power Master in the FWC circuit. NONE I SAY YOU.

Could He Get Over in Reality: Here's the thing, there have been a few Warrior knock-offs, but have there ever been any Warrior parodies? Not that I know of, not even anything in the vein of the Huckster and the Nacho Man, the mean-spirited caricatures trotted out in the mid-'90s to battle against the surging WCW at the time. So this might be something novel, well, it would have been in an earlier time, or now in a fed that caters to a slightly older crowd... like Chikara?

But for the right audience, and especially with Gregg writing or even portraying the character, I have no doubt that it'd get over huge. Some of the stuff that he wrote for PM was side-splittingly, gut-bustingly, "I need to take a drink of water before I die laughing like the weasels from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" funny. I think it might even work to an audience that didn't know who Warrior was, even if in either situation, it'd have a limited shelf life.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!