The Brawl - Part 2

OK, so I went off on a bit of a rant the other day about different styles for trying to win the Pier 6 Brawl. Quite frankly, the match itself (as mentioned in the comments) is a pain to RP for. There are so many people in it and so much to reply to that you almost can't help but either get caught up in it or to just ignore it entirely and do your own thing.

But, enough about what makes it a pain. This post is to talk about what's good ... no ... great about it.

A1E runs a year long season pretty similarly to how the WWE does it. Our biggest stories generally culminate at our biggest show of the year, Golden Dreams. Once that show passes, it's basically a clean slate to start figuring out the stories we're going to build to for the following year's show.

One of the tools we use to do that is the Pier 6 Brawl.

The most obvious way is by giving the winner a match of his choosing, generally a World Title match, somewhere down the line. In the past, that winner has used that opportunity to springboard himself into the main event scene. At the very first Brawl, I did exactly that with BigDog.

Since then, a number of people have used the Brawl to catapult themselves toward their first World Title runs. Gladiator and JA did it as well.

However, it's not just the winners that get elevated on the card. Invariably, there's another two or three guys who really step it up in the Brawl and earn an increased push coming out of Bloody New Year. Those guys take the opportunity that's handed to them, and they run with it.

Who is it going to be this year?

Already, guys like Cameron Cruise, Josh Novell, and Troy Douglas are making a splash in the match. Donovan Astros looks determined to make an impact in his A1E debut. And stalwarts like Beast and James Irish are showing that they aren't ready to give up their spots on the card quite yet.

All in all, the Brawl is regularly one of the highlights of the year for me, both from a participant standpoint as well as from a booking committee standpoint. It's a bitch to vote for, but so much fun to watch.

Join me, won't you?