.::The XHF Network History and World::.
Nov 27, 2019 23:58:34 GMT -5
Rage (aka NoMercyMaster2001), Dave D-Flipz, and 8 more like this
Post by Mongo the Destroyer on Nov 27, 2019 23:58:34 GMT -5
A Short History of the XHF (Network)
Back in 2001, hotel magnate Mongo the Destroyer decided to try his hand at an interest of his: pro wrestling. He grabbed his best friend Bongo (the Destroyer) and the two joined a local wrestling company, the Xtreme Hardcore Federation. It uh....the XHF sucked and couldn't draw and shut down after like a month (I mean, did you see that name?). But Mongo was hooked and bought the rights to the company.
Later that year he entered into the BDDWF with a small group of mercenaries he picked up while touring smaller companies to peddle the XHF brand. The XHF lit the BDDWF on fire and it turned into a full-on civil war. Then at the PPV before Xtraction the owner of the BDDWF (Brain Doggy Dog- whom the fed was named after) turned on his own company, siding with Mongo, then at Xtraction the XHF became the dominant fed officially after winning the first ever Xtraction match.
Now with Mongo firmly at the helm, the XHF grew into a global powerhouse, easily beating out their rivals and crushing them mercilessly. There's a reason there's so many titles in the X*Crown, you know. But it wasn't to last forever because through guile, James Mueller convinced half the staff that he had a majority share of the company- this led him to be able to control large parts of the XHF behind Mongo's back. He...he didn't do a good job. In the end Fox (who was airing their shows) dropped them and the company wasn't able to properly recover and closed it's door.
After about a year (and a failed launch of a beta version of the Network) the XHF came back for one last shot at greatness. It was a good time but once everyone's contracts were up it was decided to put the XHF name back in mothballs. Mongo had years of paperwork and running now two brands (the leftovers of XHF and his still-going Xtreme Hotels)- but the Xtreme dream wasn't dead.
In December of 2016 during the office Christmas party Mongo announced his plans to launch a Network that would encompass independently run feds. And in 2017 he did just that and you're here today.
The XHF Network- As it Exists In-Character
So what is the XHF Network in our world? Obviously, there's the old-school NWA-esq aspect where a bunch of feds are flying under the same flag. But in terms of media, what are people getting?
The XHF Network's media set-up is three-fold:
1. A streaming service with all the media on the board on-demand. I think everyone assumed this part already
2. A website that connects users to promotional material and is the first stop of promos when they're recorded and uploaded. A superfan might sit at that site and just push the refresh button all day as new promos are uploaded
3. An actual cable channel that runs XHF Network-owned media 24/7. The way I envision it is that the feds all have time slots depending on their success/size/content but during other times the Network runs reruns of either former Network feds, feds that the XHF Network owns the archives to, or even classic XHF reruns (which is why the remastering of the XHF archives is a priority for Mongo). Promos are also aired during commercial clusters in order to keep people watching so they don't miss a thing.
There's been no in-character explanation for how the tv channel deals with most of the feds not being weekly. But uh, they probably just run the same episode two weeks in a row.
Exclusive Locations
As you wander around the XHF Network world there's a few places you probably should know about!
First off, the XHF Network headquarters is located in Minneapolis, MN. Mongo owns a rather sizable building there and has added an entire floor of glass onto the roof where his office is. Was this the wisest move considering MN winters and how sunny the top of a building gets? Probably not. But such is life. The headquarters also features a smaller, old-school gym, the video archives, and the X*Crown Vault- all of which are in the basement.
Attached to the XHF Network HQ via skyway is the massive XHF Network Arena. It's a building specifically designed to host wrestling shows featuring ridiculous matches (most notably the Tower Match). The seating is very substantial and obviously XHF Network-based events get first dibs on using it. Though when not in use by the Network it hosts various other entertainment options.
If MN isn't your bag then you're in luck! In early 2019 Mongo bought Isola delle Femmine, a small island off Italy. Currently under construction there (and facing some building/structural/zoning issues) is the XHF Network's European Headquarters and will also feature an arena when completed.
And for the more adventurous, there's the XHF Sail Barge! Mongo bought a huge boat specifically for the purpose of having shows on it. There's not a ton of seating, but if you're looking to have a show on the high seas, this is how you do it!
Notable XHF Network Staff (In-Character)
Mongo the Destroyer: The XHF Network Owner. He's super rich, used to wrestle for the XHF, and that's about it these days. Not super active on-screen anymore. Doesn't like AWF. Don't use him without getting permission from me
Joey Hawke: Mongo's right-hand man. Joey was BDDWF's lead announcer but has slowly worked his way up to a larger more nebulous executive role. He still does commentary on global shows and is surprisingly spry and active for a man in his 70's.
Randy Angel: He's XHF legend Nelly Angel's alcoholic hanger-on older brother. He wrestles too but he really doesn't know wrestling too much and is usually pretty drunk even mid-show. He likes being there though!
Bonnie Jenkins: Mongo's secretary and the Network's ring announcer for global events.
Nelly Angel: The XHF Network's head of production. Nelly is busy and bounces from location to location managing various production duties. He was the XHF's lead interviewer but has since relinquished that role. Having said that, if a wrestler sees Nelly and pulls him over for an interview, he's still more than happy to conduct it. Also wrestles for MCCW. Nelly can be used for your promos as the interviewer if you'd like, just give him the respect/experience a guy who's been doing this for nearly 20 years deserves and don't hit him.
Funaki: Wait, he's still here? No, really, why is Funaki still here? He came in during XHF's buy-out of ECF and was used as the back up interviewer but that was so long ago. Funaki can also be used in interviews, however his English has gotten better than you're probably used to seeing him. He has a fierce rivalry with Nelly (in his head) over who the "Number One Announcer" is.
Bongo: Head of Human Resources. Bongo is Mongo's best friend and has stuck by him. He's usually wandering around the XHF Network Headquarters being affable and jolly.
Congo: Mongo's illegitimate son. He works in accounting. Oh he tried to kill Mongo and take over the company once but we forgot about that years ago. Haha, what a kidder.
Bobby Barratt: XHF Commissioner. After winning the X*Crown, Bobby discovered an extra key along with the one to the X*Crown vault. As it turns out it lead to James Mueller's commissioner office. Mueller is dead so....
The XHF Network and the Real World
So how much of the XHF Network is based in reality? That's a rather loaded question that depends on your take on this article. I'd say that the XHF Network's world is a lot like our world- just more...uh....whimsical. But that means that most major world events that happen in our universe also happen in the XHF Network Universe. Having said that, we encourage members and feds to shy away from controversial areas- this is wrestling not a soapbox; and also there's folks from every walk of life here.
But let's get to what you really want to know: is the XHF Network the only source of wrestling? Haha, no. We'll talk about it later but the X*Crown makes that a literal impossibility but more to the point WWE exists. Yes, that WWE, with Vince McMahon at the helm.
"But why?" you might ask, confused because it seems sort of weird. The reason is that when the XHF (the fed) was still young Mongo was just getting into the fedding game and McMahon was already a fellow billionaire friend. So the upcoming XHF vs WWF/E was a (not exactly) friendly rivalry between the two. At one point when Vince was off the air in WWE, he showed up in XHF and had to hide so Mongo didn't know. WWE also stole wrestlers from XHF a couple times- and vice versa.
Wait, vice versa? Yeah. The XHF allowed both created and real wrestlers. Go check our title histories, there's some names you probably know. To that end it means that the XHF Network also allows real wrestlers, though most feds here do not (always check fed rules before signing up a character). If a "real only" fed wanted to open up, that'd be fine- I just ask it has an original name so that the current irl feds don't get messed with too much.
Pic Bases
HOW CAN YOU USE PIC BASES IF THE ACTUAL WRESTLER EXISTS!? Great question. The simplest answer is that some guys look very similar. We only use pic bases for graphics so it's not a huge deal and helps people get a better idea of what your character looks like, and makes slick graphics. Since the world is already broken by having doppelgangers walking around there's no real need for a central pic base database. I mean, what are the odds we're gonna have Seth Rollins vs "Seth Rollins" vs "Seth Rollins" on a global show? And even if we do we can just use different pics of the same guy for the graphic. Graphicslayer
Aliens, Time Travelers, and Humans turned into Bears? OH MY!
Some aspects of the XHF Network are....stranger. Due to our love of creativity and the direction storylines go sometimes, we've had to realize that this world contains things that aren't in our OOC world.
It started off innocently enough. One of the XHF's wrestlers was IC banned from wrestling for a week but also had a match scheduled. In came a masked traveler from "THE FUTURE" to fill in for him. He was the same size and wrestled pretty much the same as that guy- but they were totes different, right? Team Tron has always been played with this tongue-in-cheek, wink-wink, sort of style. A clever eye might be able to figure out analogous wrestlers who match up with them and their "technology' is often portrayed as cheap c-movie level (one of the time machines was a cardboard box with smoke coming out of it). They claim to come from a world in which the XHF is the government and have often seen or dealt with current talent in that future who've somehow become horrible villains. Is this a near future or a distant one with similar names? Who knows, the idea is that it's silly and so over-the-top it can't be real.
In contrast to them though are their rivals, the Borgs. The Borgs claim to be from an alternate future than Team Tron, a dark timeline called "THE AFTERWARD". But the biggest difference is that they're played completely straight. Their tech is what they can find here on earth combined with their future knowledge and some members (like Gold-Borg and Mecha Goldbear III) are clearly not even human. All of this is played as though it's real. Weird? Yes.
Then things got less innocent. One of the XHF's most famous "mascots" during it's heyday was Goldbear. Those of you who've read GUNS know that Goldbear II is a bear trained to wrestle like a human. Goldbear was the opposite. Goldberg was a strong XHF presence and heading towards the main event when he was kidnapped by his nephew James Mueller. Through brainwashing, prosthetic and hormones, Mueller turned his uncle into a bear-man. Goldbear. I can't remember how he got away with it legally but in the end it was accepted. This is the world you inhabit and all this is still pre-Network-era insanity.
In a world where we've seen time travelers, bear-men, and real robots- hey why not aliens? Enter Subject #42; who is not confirmed as an alien buuuuuuuuuut when DW did their show on the moon (oh yeah, we've been to the moon) Jeffery Viper found 42's mother so that lends heavy credence to him being an alien.
It all seems unbelievably unrealistic (especially the conflicting portrayals of the Trons and Borgs) but you have to recognize that it's not all that out there in terms of wrestling. Never forget that WWE sold us a zombie (Undertaker) and tried to sell us a giant sentient turkey. Wrestling is a wild world and sometimes you just accept it because it's in the interest of fun. Not everything has to be logical, not everything has to even fit perfectly, but we're a creative bunch and are trying to tell zany and fun stories. You can have a super down-to-earth character, but just know that the world around him or her is pretty nuts.
We Went to the Moon!?
Yes, specifically Destiny Wrestling went to the moon. I don't expect we'll go there again soon unless your fed can figure out the logistics. Somebody died out there when his suit got torn and the whole setup got pretty well messed up. Cool show though, Vince McMahon can suck on that one. Don't see Smackdown going to the moon do you? What a loser. *Mongo lights a cigar and forgets somebody died*
A Brief History of XHF Presidents
Yes, plural. Some of you will have hopefully noticed that the current US President in our world is not the same as in the real world. I'll explain that but before that let's look at the first time it happened!
During George W Bush's campaign for a second term, the Democrats took a risk and pushed a young senator who had recently retired from wrestling by the name of Punker. His style was.....different. But for some reason the American people were interested in his rap/rhetoric. In the shock of the century, Punker somehow beat the incumbent to become president. He was...uh....fine? Probably not great. Either way after that the United States swore, as a nation, they'd never allow another XHF Wrestler to become President.
Haha, oh the folly of youth. Anyway, flash forward to Trump's first year in office. He was doing...uh...fine? A little too early to call. But one of his close friends, the face of Tragic Gaijin Kingdom's ownership, invited him to a TGK show. As it turns out, that guy was totes trying to open a portal to hell and gain some sort of immorality. Don't worry, he was stopped- but not before killing several people (including Japanese Santa Clause and President Trump) as a blood sacrifice.
Through some weird twists and turns, active (at the time) XHF Network wrestler Curtis Kanyon found himself in the White House and is our current president. He's uh....uh...fine? Not great- and a lot of the decisions his government are putting out are analogous to our current world. Needless to say the American people will likely once again renew their vow of not voting for XHF Wrestlers ever ever again, for real this time. (That is to say, we'll go back to the winner of the 2020 election).
Oh and Trump isn't dead anymore. He got revived in Champoon Wrestling....somehow- so he's not dead, but not president anymore (what with being dead and all).
The general rule of thumb before making world altering decisions like say, killing and replacing a world leader or something is to ask the Network Admins first. We might be down, we might not. Worth asking I suppose.
The X*Crown and Inclusive History
Understandably, most non-Network feds consider themselves in a continuity bubble, their own universe. That makes sense because it allows more leeway on freedom and your fed can be the top fed, duh. Within the Network, all feds here are assumed to exist in the same universe unless specifically stated otherwise (like UOW). This helps create a tapestry of continuity, allows us to have global titles and shows in a logical setup, and lets wrestlers jump ship as needed.
As a generality, if you launch a new fed it is desired that you exist within the XHF Network's universe unless you want to make some major alteration to your world (like UOW has a whole country gone due to nuclear war). AIW was an anomaly because the authorial intent was for it to exist in it's own continuity bubble- but since they closed and really didn't have anything all that different from our own world (and shared a lot of characters) in the end we've soft retconned them as always have existing in the XHF Network universe.
Now that's pretty easy to understand- not always easy to keep up with due to the number of feds, but at least easy to wrap your head around. The X*Crown makes things a little more complicated.
For those of you who don't know, the X*Crown is the top of the XHF Network. It is not just a world title, it's (as of this writing) 20 world titles. For more info on the X*Crown there's a write-up here (and I strongly advise you read it). Since the X*Crown is made of dead fed world titles, they implicitly and retroactively make that fed part of the XHF Network canon. This is....tricky since up until it's world title was eaten by the X*Crown it operated in it's own bubble. So how do we get around it? We acknowledge the fed's history- but within the XHF Network's framework. Usually this isn't an issue since most feds are around national level at their peaks and don't really last a long time (honestly). If there are major historical differences happening in that world we just uh....conveniently forget them. Maybe the real version of the fed was an alternate universe and the character/title coming into the Network is a variant within our universe.
"But that defies logic and sense!" you scream into the darkness. Yes, it probably does. But there's a whole lot of crazy happening and this oddly seems like less of an issue. From an OOC perspective the Network is trying to preserve history through its archives and put fedding on a pedestal through the X*Crown keeping old world titles alive in a way. Therefore we acknowledge (and preserve) others' work and just fudge some stuff in-character as needed. This works as a benefit to the Network as it makes our world more expansive and rich and it works for the people coming in from out in the cold because their history doesn't just get tossed in the trash at the door.
UOW and Feds that are Out-of-Universe
For those who haven't read their shows, Ultimate Online Wrestling is very clearly not in our universe. They're pretty much in the darkest timeline and their history doesn't mesh with our rather whimsical world. HOWEVER, the XHF Network oddly enough does have a deal with them. It's not really been covered how much of their content makes it to the XHF Network media but it must be some since they're considered members in-character. "But wait, how can they be members but in another universe?" I'm glad you asked! The insane destruction wrought on their world has caused a rift, a portal, you could say between the two. This has allowed some travel between the two worlds but from how it's been handled so far the contact seems pretty limited. From an OOC standpoint this is a way to get the UOW reps into our global shows. How are our world governments handling the needs of the war-torn UOW world? Why do I care? I run a wrestling empire. As they get more involved though I'm presuming that more of this lore will get fleshed out.
IRW, the successor to CW, was an acknowledged other-world fed. It was clearly set up as occurring in an alternate universe that several superstars (and other universe citizens) were whisked away to. Since all that folded everyone's come back...somehow. But anyway the transport between here and there was provided by Big Drag Dark- a character who defies logic as is.
We're not opposed to insanity here. But obviously if it's too nuts you'll want to place yourself in your own continuity- which is fine. HOWEVER, we'll need to figure out how (assuming you want it) your fed will be able to interact with the Network during global events
If there's any more questions that you want answered, message me and I'll either answer it or add it to here!