World Wide Wrestling at Nerd PGH: The Aqua Belt Title Episode!
So, there I am at Nerd PGH yesterday, and Brianna Sheldon asks if I could run a game. Not having any games of my own, I grabbed Stras Acimovic ‘s copy of WWW and starting pulling an episode out of aether. With Lauren Prewitt , Marc Gabriele, and Marybeth Griffin the Rumble on the Rig was conceived.
Lauren played Hans “The Closer” Kruesher. The newest golden boy to pushed forward by Creative, The Closer was previously Hans “The Hungarian Hammer”, and along with Arnold “The Austrian Annihilator” were the tag team Eastern Block. Creative tapped Hans to rise while Arnold fell by the wayside, much to his NTC disappointment.
Marybeth played The Flying Russian. As an anti-hero against the corrupt WWW president Vic “The Avalanche” Va Lanche, the Flying Russian refused to break character, but always wanted to break kayfabe. She had an uneasy alliance with the monstrous NTC The Living Skull, and just recently beat the ever-loving snot out of the Boulder, who was looking for some payback.
Marc played The Force Of Gravity. This technical wrestler vowed to bring any and all opponents to the ground. Mentor to, but slightly jealous of, the Closer, The Force Of Gravity is still a force of good.
Following Strasa’s elemental-belt theme, I came upon the idea of the Aqua Belt. We threw some ideas back and forth and started the episode. Matches for the evening are:
– El Toro, The Bull vs. The Rockstar
– The Force Of Gravity vs. The Living Skull
– The Flying Russian vs. The Boulder
– The Closer vs. Triton for the Aqua Belt
The Flying Russian starts the episode with a promo calling out The Boulder, though a bad roll causes the Boulder to interrupt her promo with a promo of his own. He calls the Russian out, decrying her and adding a stipulation to their match: A CAVERN MATCH!
The first match is NTC jobber versus NTC jobber as El Toro, The Bull against The Rockstar. It was cinematically hilarious, with The Rockstar slamming El Toro to the mat for the win.
Now, this being my first *World game that I’ve run, I admit I screwed the next part up. I rolled for the NTCs. The Talent still loved it though.
Second match of the night was The Force Of Gravity versus The Living Skull. Gravity’s intro was full bass and some stunt architecture fell for the “bring down the house” effect he was going for. I played the Skull up as more of a monster archetype without drawing up a full Talent sheet. The match went well. Marc, who didn’t really get into wrestling but who has been RP’ing for years, fell comfortably into the back and forth aspect of the game. I was hoping that The Flying Russian, who had the Skull as an unexpected ally, would try and disrupt the match, but no such luck. Creative tapped Gravity to win and after a successful Gravity Crush from the top rope, The Force Of Gravity walked out with a win.
Next, the Closer cut a promo calling out Triton and how he’s gonna “close the deal” on getting the Aqua Belt. A decent roll and some cheap heat nets momentum for later and the stipulation of a Courtroom Match for the title.
The Cavern Match between The Flying Russian and The Boulder was as crazy as you’d expect. The ring was filled with waist high, foam latex “cavern walls” and thirty pound “boulders” the wrestlers could bash each other with. The Russian comes in to a dubstep version of the Soviet March, hopping up into the ring and working the audience a bit. Next, however, came the Boulder’s intro. Hard rock music and him inside a boulder-like hamster ball running to the ring. The match is under way, and the Boulder starts with a terribly botched clothesline. The Russian immediately takes the match mean, pulling a chair from under the apron, and proceeds to bash the Boulder around the ring. The Boulder responds in kind, and both deal some REAL damage to one another, but the Russian in nowhere near concerned. Creative reveals the Boulder is supposed to win the match, but The Flying Russian says the hell with that, and with a roll the gives the audience exactly what they’re looking for, wins the match and hits her finisher.
Finally, the match that everyone was waiting to see. The new up and comer, The Closer versus the the reigning Aqua Belt champeen, Triton. A Courtroom Match, it was decided, is where two tables and four chairs are added into the ring. Basically an upgraded table match, but the gimmick matched the Closer’s. The lights go down, gavel knocks three times, fog, heavy metal orchestral music, and the Closer shows up in the middle of the ring. A brief audience work before Triton’s entrance. The ramp down to the ring was flooded, and to Dick Dale surf rock, Triton rides to the ring astride a surfboard. The match begins under the Closer’s control and he starts with a wicked series of cross chops to the chest. Control goes back and forth, in good title belt style, and Creative reveals that the Closer is scheduled to win the belt. However! Unbeknownst the either the Closer or Triton, Arnold “The Austrian Annihilator” jumps out of the crowd, determined to wreck the Closer’s chance for the win.
But! The Closer’s mentor, THE FORCE OF GRAVITY, wasn’t going to stand idly by and watch his protege’s future crash and burn. Rushing to ringside, Gravity and Arnold square off while Closer and Triton are confused as to what exactly is going on. At that moment, Vic Va Lanche grabbed the mic and announced that this is now a tag team title match, and the winning tag team will have to fight EACH OTHER for the Aqua Belt.
It was an amazing tag bout. Gravity and Arnold traded blows in the remains of the Courtroom Ring. Successful tags to respective partners got Closer and Triton back in the ring. Triton, knowing what Creative wants, signals he’s ready for the Closer’s finisher, but Arnold isn’t ready or willing to let that happen. Arnold runs, grabs the Aqua Belt itself, and goes to interfere with the Closer’s finisher. However Gravity sees what’s going on, cold cocks Arnold, and sets the Austrian up for Gravity’s other finisher: The Gravity Bomb. As that’s going on outside of the ring, Closer puts Triton’s head in his briefcase and executes CASE CLOSED, winning the match.
The match between Gravity and Closer was brief, as we were running kind of late, but it was flavorful, exciting, and ended with the student giving the win to his teacher, with The Force Of Gravity walking away with the Aqua Belt.
This was fantastic. Everyone had a blast. The only “nitpicks” were changing the order of the Basic Moves to be more in line with the stats as presented. There was a bit of confusion as to “Ok, where’s my Audience stat?” while looking through the moves. The other issues was a typo. On the Anti-Hero sheet, the “Rules? What Rules?” has a “then” that’s missing the N. I’m looking forward to running and playing this again at some point. Thank you Nathan Paoletta !