The Long Con

The title is based off the phrase from movie con men. I'm a big fan of "The Sting" and those types of movies. It's always fun for me to watch the scheme unravel and to see just how much of what goes on was totally under the control of the con men.

The long con refers to one big con that takes a considerable amount of planning and effort and has a much larger payout. Small cons are shell games or quick hitters that hook a bunch of people for small amounts at one time. The long con, or big con, usually has one target ... the big fish.

Now, at this stage you're probably asking yourself, what does this have to do with efedding?

Well, I think it's a good analogy to use for the angles we come up with in our individual feds. Most of the time, we're planning from ppv to ppv. Those are "small cons". We're just getting through the cycles and keeping people busy most of the time.

Of course, these quick hit type angles can be a lot of fun. They certainly comprise the bulk of the angles that we produce, and it's what most everyone is familiar with. Examples of angles like this are: the Beast/James Irish angle going on now, the Farnswirth/Cross feud from a few months ago, or pretty much any title program from month to month.

However, every now and then, along comes the BIG ANGLE.

This type of angle usually involved multiple people in the fed, and it spans multiple pay-per-view cycles. When done right, a story like this can be one of the most rewarding things you can ever do in efedding. This entire game is about telling stories, right? So it stands to reason that telling the biggest stories gives us the most satisfaction.

I'm guessing pretty much anybody reading this is familiar with the takeover angle we've got going in A1E right now. I'm not giving anything away by saying this is going to be one of those angles. Jarret has been pimping this thing not only in our forums but also over on FW. Those reading along will have to satisfy themselves that the story is going to really explode soon.

The point of all this is to say that this whole storyline has really got my juices flowing again. I was working on some segment stuff the other night for the coming A1E results, and it was amazing. My adrenalin was pumping as I was writing it. I can only hope that kind of energy comes through as people read it.

Frankly, that is exactly what I'm in this hobby for. Telling stories like this that absolutely engross the participants, working with people like Jarret and others who are just as into it as I am. It's such fun.

So, let's hear from the readers (both of you!), what are some other examples of big angles that you've participated in that had you feeling this way?