Rose Garden, Portland, OR
Sunday 16 July 2006, 5pm PST (8pm EST)

Catch the replay now!

RCW Championship:
Johnny Pleasence (c) vs. “Pistol” Paul Driscoll

Lights Out Match:
“Lone Wolf” Brody Thunder vs. Owen “Truth” Curtis

Three-Way No Escape Cage Match:
Orin “The Lynx” LeBlanc vs. Vinny Carmazzi vs. “Golden Boy” Nolan Dorado

Street Fight:
Lord Byron vs. “The Jersey Drifter” Liam Cassidy

Submission Match:
Mark Coleman vs. Akitoshi Ogawa

Falls Count Anywhere:
Madrock the Irrepressible vs. “Your Hero” Danny Daniels

Handicap Match:
Christian Right & Nathan Herod vs. “The Fallen Angel” David Cross

Derek Rage vs. Dave Bryant

“Showtime” Rick Marley vs. Ryan Faith

(Card subject to change.)

RCW RAMPAGE is RCW’s bi-weekly live event, emanating from the world-famous Rose Garden arena in downtown Portland, Oregon.

Broadcast on KPDX 49 at 10pm on alternate Thursday nights, RCW RAMPAGE is the hardest-hitting hour of wrestling action on television

The RCW roster is currently closed for new applications.

Who can join?

Whether you’re new to e-wrestling, or whether you’ve been around the block plenty of times but want to try out a new character or find a new home for a recent creation who’s not fared well in another fed, RCW may be the place for you.

RCW doesn’t want to tell the same stories with the same faces found in other feds. RCW is looking for fresh, new wrestlers ready to make some history, not trade on it.

If you’ve got a great new character, have the writing chops to bring that character to life, you’ve read all about RCW and like the sound of it, then perhaps you should apply.

Eligibility

Your wrestler must be:

• Original: No direct Undertaker rip-offs, Steve Austin clones or Batista knock-offs, please. Try to create a new identity.
• Realistic: No 8? luchadors who can pull off a Shooting Star Press from standing right on the mat, please. Make your wrestler believable.
• Interesting: Try to come up with a compelling back-story for your wrestler. Work out what motivates him to succeed, what he believes in: it’ll come in handy when creating angles and advancing storylines.

Your wrestler must not be:

• A woman: RCW currently has male competitors only.
• A tag team: RCW currently has singles competitors only; though there will undoubtedly be tag matches in RCW, there are no tag team specialists at the moment.

Also, please note that we will accept only one application per handler. It keeps things focused.

I’m ready to apply

To apply, click here.

You will need to create a username and password (make sure cookies are enabled in your web browser), then fill out our online application form for your wrestler (and manager, if applicable).

If the RCW front-office staff are interested in your wrestler, you’ll receive an invitation for a try-out: a sample of a roleplay, for example.

Do well in the try-out, and your wrestler could find himself on the roster of the most exciting up-and-coming new wrestling league around.

View the complete roster…

RCW is currently closed to new talent applications.

The front-office staff

Daniel Spreadbury, RCW President
Current figurehead of the organisation, Spreadbury has been brought in by the as-yet unnamed backers of RCW to be both the company President and also interim General Manager of Wrestling Operations. Spreadbury’s wrestling career stretches back to the mid-1990s, when he steered the IIWF from local Portland-based league to global phenomenon. Will lightning strike a second time with the RCW?

The announcers

“D.D.” Don Ditka
52-year-old Don Ditka is one of the most respected announcers of his generation. He’s worked in his native Chicago, Illinois, and in regional promotions all the way from the north-east to the Pacific north-west. Now with RCW, Ditka hopes that his voice will soon become known to a much wider wrestling audience.

“Spotlight” Billy Shakespeare
In a huge coup, the RCW President has secured the services of IIWF legend and former IIWF Intercontinental Champion, “Spotlight” Billy Shakespeare to be the primary colour commentator for RCW broadcasts. Shakespeare was one of the hottest young high-flyers of the latter half of the 1990s, and tangled with many of the greats. Never mind out-wrestling them — he could talk just about all of them in circles. Now he’ll be putting his legendary linguistic prowess to work on RCW broadcasts. The one who was “Born To Perform” performs again!

The referees

Juan Morales
One-time Mexican heavyweight luchador champion, 48-year-old Morales — whose high-flying career was cut short when he slipped on a burrito thrown into the ring by an over-wrought fan — isn’t above interjecting himself physically into a match if he feels it’s necessary. His English isn’t great, however.

Jim Bright
Bearded Jim Bright is a second-generation wrestling referee. His father, James Bright Senior, was one of the most respected referees in the Mid-South in the 70s and 80s. Bright, however, doesn’t always live up to his name, much to the eternal shame of his father. It’s perhaps too easy to pull the wool over our Jim’s eyes.

Pat Nickrick
New Yorker “Quick” Pat Nickrick is a take-no-prisoners referee. He’s earned his nickname by being so quick to call for the disqualification in the event of any interference or use of a foreign object. But what he doesn’t see can’t hurt him…

Bobby Belshee
Portland-born Belshee is the youngest of RCW’s referees, aged just 22 years old. He’s a little wet behind the ears, but what he lacks in experience he more than makes up for in eagerness.

The ring announcer

Sy Simmons
Former boxing ring announcer Sy Simmons has the ring-announcing duties at RCW events.

Rip City Wrestling is a new, regional wrestling league based out of Portland, Oregon. It runs regular shows in the world-famous Rose Garden arena, already the home of the Trailblazers and the Winter Hawks, and now home to the hottest new wrestling league in the US.

RCW is privately-held and backed by a mystery business consortium. The mouthpiece of the organisation is Daniel Spreadbury, former President of the notorious IIWF, which was also based in Portland, Oregon in the latter half of the 1990s.

RCW aims to showcase the finest rising talent in the wrestling world to a regional — and perhaps eventually national — audience. With regular cable TV broadcasts and deals being struck to hold regular pay-per-view events, the profile of RCW is sure to rise.

RCW: Breaking Kayfabe

Sure, you know the back-story. What about the real information?

So who’s this Daniel Spreadbury guy anyway?

First, a bit of history. I was the creator and President of the IIWF, one of the most famous e-wrestling feds in the “sport’s” heydey. The pioneering IIWF ran between May 1996 and August 1998, and was perhaps the greatest star-maker that e-wrestling has ever seen. Legends such as “Outlaw” J.W. Hardin, Brian Lau’s Syndicate, Steve “the Fury” Kowalski and many others all made their names in the Double Eye.

I’ve been away from e-wrestling for many years. But my love of telling the big stories and working with great handlers hasn’t dimmed.

Why does the world need RCW?

Short answer: it doesn’t, clearly.

Longer answer: e-wrestling is clearly a hobby in decline. The corners of the web in which evidence of a hobby enjoyed by thousands of grapple-fans around the world are increasingly dusty and deserted. Most feds are now run on message boards, and the art of writing a card that has the pacing, drama and excitement of an hour or more of real, episodic wrestling action is running out. Veteran feds like Mike Beeby’s UWF are the exception rather than the rule.

But I’m convinced there’s still fun to be had in e-wrestling. There are new legends to make, new stories to tell. And I hope that in RCW we’ll be able to tell some of them!

What kind of fed is RCW?

RCW is a booked fed. That means that the story drives the match results. Match outcomes are determined not only by the quality (though not necessarily the quantity of the handler’s roleplays leading up to matches, and by the quality of the strategies and angles (again, the quality is more important than the quantity), but also by the overall direction of the storyline involving the wrestlers in the league.

Handlers are invited to contribute to the story-telling, in two crucial ways:

• Devising angles: The best ideas for telling compelling stories normally come from the handlers of the wrestlers themselves. Not every story can be told, and not every story will have the outcome desired by the handler, but contribution to devising the angles is essential.
• Writing roleplays: RCW has weekly “update” shows, in which wrestlers can move their storylines forward by way of interviews (or soliloquys!).

In the end, it’s up to the booker to decide who wins and who loses. But don’t forget that, in fantasy wrestling as in professional wrestling, it’s not all about the win-loss record. Telling compelling stories has to involve somebody losing so that they can get heat with another wrestler, and it’ll all even out in the end. But if you’re the kind of guy who worries about winning every match and will complain if your wrestler does the J-O-B, RCW may not be the league for you.

Are there any rules?

Sure, every game worth playing has rules:

• One wrestler per handler: To keep the numbers down and the focus strong, only one wrestler can be signed up per handler, for now at least
• No tag teams: Though there will certainly be occasional tag team matches in RCW, there’s no tag team championship right now, so there’s no room for tag team specialists
• No women’s division: RCW believes that compelling women’s wrestling is possible, but for the moment the focus is on the men’s singles division
• No use of RCW front-room or back-room staff in roleplays or proposed angles without prior permission: If you need an interviewer or announcer to be involved in a roleplay or an angle, make sure you clear it with the front office staff first. This just helps to ensure no continuity or characterisation problems.
• If you can’t say it on cable TV (regular cable, not HBO) you can’t say it in RCW: RCW will never make it onto network TV if it gets a reputation for potty-mouthed talent
• No racism, sexism or other prejudice will be tolerated: There’s no room for it in real life, so there’s no room for it in RCW.

Apart from that, the only rule is to have fun! If you’re not having fun, let the front-office staff know.

In addition to that huge main event, no fewer than four wrestlers make their RCW debuts. “Global Superstar” Ron Paris squares off against a mystery opponent, Giuseppe Valentine goes up against the legendary Derek Rage, and Samuel Muster and Big Bad Wolff face each other.

So join the voice of RCW, Don Ditka, and “Spotlight” Billy Shakespeare, for this week’s blockbuster broadcast. What are you waiting for?

In a jam-packed hour, number one contender Mark Coleman and RCW World Heavyweight Champion Johnny Pleasence sign the contract for their forthcoming title match. Self-proclaimed RCW Supreme Champion Danny “Your Hero” Daniels takes on Alabama slammer Nathan Herod, Orin “The Lynx” LeBlanc battles Ryan Faith, and Owen “Truth” Curtis finally returns to the ring to face exciting high-flyer “Golden Boy” Nolan Dorado.

Find out all the latest information on the controversial suspension of Portland legend Lord Byron, and get the scoop on all the matches coming your way on RAMPAGE one week from tonight.