Shelf Life of a Character

This is something of a follow-up to a column Dave Brunk wrote a month or so ago as well as a topic over at ENN regarding what keeps people going year after year. When is it time to hang it up for a particular character?

I'm not ready to retire either of my guys right now, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't at least considered that BigDog's days might be coming to an end. I have done nearly everything with him that I ever wanted to do. He's been at the top of the card in A1E for what, 4 years or so now? He's the longest reigning World Champ ever (with a respectful nod to Housefly's reign back when we did shows every week). At this point, what else is it that I want to accomplish with him?

At this point, what probably has kept BigDog around is that he's absolutely no effort to roleplay for. As I said in one of my earlier entries, BigDog is me. It's my personality completely. That's why he's the ultimate babyface. As Brunk will tell you, I'm the nicest guy you'll ever run into, and I'll defend anybody that needs defending.

Right now, BigDog essentially plays the veteran role on the card. He's the one putting other guys over. The tag team with Dan Ryan has been fun. I'm hoping that we can continue to evolve and get better as a team, and I'm definitely looking forward to a huge blowoff with Anarchy Inc. and then a new program with The Best Friends, Chip Friendly and Slambo the Clown. So, by no stretch is he absolutely done.

But, when is that right time?

I've seen guys retire from the hobby. Guys like Euclid who had real life get in the way, and they just weren't able to continue at all. That happens, and it's a shame to lose guys as talented as he was. But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about continuing to play the game, but deciding that one of your characters is ready to go on the shelf.

Jarret decided that Gladiator had run his course a few years ago. Actually, he thought that a couple years before that and nearly killed him off completely when we did the angle with the neck injury. I'm glad he ultimately decided to keep him around because the Empire angle was a lot of fun, and the BigDog/Gladiator feud was a hot one. On top of that, he made a damn good world champion.

But eventually, he did decide that enough was enough, and Gladiator was retired after a loser-leaves-town match with Housefly. How do other people make that call?

Dan West gave up playing Prisoner 187 and actually handed him off to somebody else to play. Roger has retired more characters than most people ever create. Many of those were shortlived, but one or two were fairly established.

Or maybe it's not retirement that BigDog needs, but just a change of scenery. Maybe he's the one I should have taken over to EPW instead of Farnswirth. Maybe playing off a new group of opponents would re-light that fire that I used to have for him.

Or maybe it's all just a big cyclical thing. Right now, Farnswirth is so much fun to play. Whether it's as a single in A1E looking to get the World Title back, or it's as a tag team with the Chipper over in EPW, he's just a blast to promo for week in and week out.

Basically, this was just one long ramble about some things that have been on my mind lately. I'd like to hear from some other people on the thought process they've gone through when they decided to retire a character.

Of course, retirements in efedding are no different than the WWE. Nothing is forever. Even if I did put BigDog on the shelf for a while, there's no telling if I could keep him there or not.