Breaking in at EPW

As has been mentioned in a few of my earlier posts, I've made the leap this year into venturing into a new fed. Dave Brunk was looking to build up his tag team division over at Empire Pro, and so he talked to me about potentially participating.

Until then, I'd never really thought about branching out to any new fed. I go through my busy times at work and at home just like anybody else. Between running two characters in A1E and also participating on the booking committee there, I really didn't think I'd have time to do much else.

But, you all know Dave. He can be persuasive, hehe. Actually, what helped me make the choice was a couple things. First, the schedule is not nearly as hectic as A1E. Love it or hate it, A1E cranks out cards every two weeks. That's tough to keep up with sometimes. Fortunately, EPW doesn't have that problem. Others might not like it, but the fact that it's about one card a month actually helped me decide to join.

The second reason I did it was that he agreed to let me bring in an already established character, and Dan West agreed to come in as well. So, the Highland Park Social Club made the jump.

As I've said many times, Dan is a blast to tag with. We really work together well. And bringing Bill Dempsey along as Slambo really complements all of that. It's a great little faction in a fed that doesn't really have too much of that.

But most of that, you already knew.

So far in EPW, I'm having a good time. Right out of the gate, Dave decided to match us up with one of the few teams that we actually have some history with. Pitting us against Sensationally Perfect was very cool. Having Kenny as a former member made the dynamic very interesting, and both Chip and Farnsy have had numerous run-ins with Steven Shane.

Here's a little secret. We didn't do any planning before that match started. I just got the ball rolling with teasing Kenny still being welcome in the Club, and everybody else just rolled with it. We've ended up making an angle out of nothing. Who knows where it'll end up, but it'll be a fun ride along the way.

Next up, we got Priest and Eisenkreuz. Obviously, I've promoed against Tom more times than I'd could probably count. Don't recall offhand if I ever promoed against Priest as Farnswirth in A1E, but I know that I did as BigDog. That was a fun little match. Earned the HPSC a shot at the tag team titles at the next pay-per-view.

Fast forward to this week, Chip and I get the members of Blitz in singles matches. Unfortunately, it looks like they're not going to show this week, which is too bad. On the flip side, we both signed up for the battle royal to try and earn a spot in the World Title match at the pay-per-view.

Now this has been fun. Our first couple weeks, we were in there with people we'd seen before. Not this week. There's guys like Adam Benjamin and Cameron Cruise, who I've heard a lot about. Then there's other guys like "Triple X" Sean Stevens who is making his return to the hobby and seems like he hasn't lost a step.

Of course, there are also guys like JA and Red who Farnsy is intimately familiar with. It's kinda hard to just forget that we're all fighting hard over the World Title in A1E while simultaneously competing for a very similar shot in EPW. Makes it very difficult to just forget all that even though I know Dave would prefer we not constantly talk about another fed while promoing in his.

I'm hoping to get one more promo up for that thing before I have to head out of town. I don't really have any delusions of winning it, but I think it's good exposure for us to some of the other guys who really aren't too familiar with us yet.

I'm definitely looking forward to the weeks and months to come over there.