World Wide Wrestling RPG: Character Concepts

Now to start with, I am not a fan of wrestling.  I grew up without cable or satellite as a kid (we watched movies on the VCR).  As a result I never saw wrestling on television.  I grew up to be a nerd in the years leading up to and including High School.  Sports of any kind were out, in terms of watching them, they just didn't interest me.  To this day I don't even get excited when the Olympics are being streamed on Youtube or the like.
So why am I interested in the WWW RPG if I have no interest in Wrestling itself.  It's because Wrestling isn't a sport, it's theatre.  I have a background in theatre and writing, so while I might not be interested in a particular medium.  I am always interested in a well executed story.  The World Wide Wrestling RPG by Nathan D. Paoletta is the the game that taught me that.  You can find the game's website here.  Reading the game as Nathan presents it really sets my blood to boiling.  The same way it boiled when I watched Fury Road or when I hold the wooden sword I have in my room.  It unleashes that wave of testosterone everybody gets when they do something, that's kind of ridiculous but at the same time so freaking cool!  So in honour of this wave of crazy testosterone I thought I'd write up some character concepts for the WWW RPG.  These are just some awesome Wrestlers that I thought up after taking a glance at the Gimmicks for WWW RPG.  Feel free to use them in your own game or just read for the entertainment value.

Black Knight (The Monster Gimmick)
This ain't your Monty Python's Black Knight.  This guy is one bad dude.  No one knows where he came from and he never talks about it, he's too busy bashing his opponents onto the canvas.  I imagine his entrance as overblown and kind of odd.  It involves him riding out on a gigantic Shire Horse in full jousting tack, while he sits atop in full armour.  (Sword, lance and all).  Meanwhile a medieval cover of War Pigs kind of like this plays, while the lights are dimmed and smoke machines bathe the stadium in mist.  He's meant to feel otherworldly, like he's stepped through the fabric of myth and time to do battle against the modern era's mightiest warriors.  His costume in the ring is made-up of a black tunic/surcoat and his head is covered by a Great Helm at all times (a great Prize for "for the Mask" match. For those of you concerned about safety the WWW-RPG rulebook does say that this is wrestling if it had an unlimited Special Effects Budget).  Black Knight is definitely a Heel, there is no question about it, his gimmick is based on one of the oldest villains in Western Storytelling.  I very much see him as having the Intimidating Move to start.  As well as the "Not of this World" move.  His signature match would be "The Battle of the Bridge" like the old stories.  If you want to cross the bridge you have to defeat the Black Knight that's guarding it.  I'm imagining they actually replace the ordinary mat with a replica of a stone bridge and put it over a pool filled with water.  Whoever gets dunked first, loses.

Demon King Nobunaga (The Ace Gimmick)
This previous winter I really got into the Sengoku era of Japanese History.  So that's what inspired this character, I decided to use to the Ace from the International Incident to represent the first Shogun since the Sengoku started.  Demon King Nobunaga is top of his division and Creative really plays this fact up.  They give him the biggest budget possible for his entrance.  Which is High-Concept and Production filled.  The entrance involves him being proceeded by an army of extras dressed in replica Sengoku-era foot-soldier armour.  Carried in on a portable shrine (like the kind you might see at a Japanese festival) surrounded by a harem of models dressed as (incredibly sexualized) Geishas.  All of this while a J-Rock song by the Japanese equivalent of Sabaton (about one of Oda Nobunaga's greatest victories) plays over the loud speakers.  I imagine Demon King Nobunaga as looking something like a beefed up version of Toshiro Mifune in Throne of Blood.  Dressed in a sleeveless kimono in the Oda colours of Black and Yellow.  I definitely believe that his starting move should be Amazing Entrance since it's meant to have the biggest budget of the division.  To overshadow any other player character's entrance, to give them something to aspire to pull the rug out from under.  It goes without saying that the Demon King is a Heel.

The Kid (The Technician Gimmick)
The Kid is a relative newcomer to the division.  He started out as an indie wrestler in his home city of Calgary.  Where he was discovered by one of the division's scouts.  They latched onto him and gave him his persona The Kid.  The Kid is a modern-day cowboy, creative wants to turn him into something of an American Icon.  (Again he's Canadian)  I personally wanted thought that a subplot about a minor scandal over his origins would be kind of interesting.  Speaking as someone who's been on the internet for a while, fans tend to latch onto the stupidest little details.  (Such as an American Icon actually being from Canada).  The Kid's entrance is Generic and kind of Easy.  He rides in on a Harley Davidson, while Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive plays.  The Kid's costume is made up of a Poncho (ala Clint Eastwood in the Dollars Trilogy), Boots and the ever-present Hat with stampede string.  In terms of moves I would give him Versatile (meant to reflect the Outlaw nature of his persona) and Excellence of Execution, to get the most out of his finishing move.  Speaking of his finishing move, The Kid is the only one these characters that I've given a named finishing move.  His finishing move is the Bronco Buster (it's really just a Camel Clutch, some announcer called the Bronco Buster and the name stuck, much to The Kid's Dismay).

So there you have it.  My attempt at creating a stable of Wrestlers for the Worldwide Wrestling RPG. Be sure to +1, share and comment if you liked this post.  Have a nice day and may the dice be ever in your favour.