XWL's Relaunch: It's a New Day, yes it is!

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R.I.P XWL:  2008 -  2015


Back in April, we decided that what once worked before, no longer did. So what do you do at a time like that? Do you say we had a good run, this is the end? Or do we go back to the drawing board, a place we rarely went to ever, and organize a complete overhaul? Do we strip the site of its familiar look, and don a new one? Do we bring up the issues with shows and the fact that most simply did not matter? Do we treat this as an entirely new league? Yes, yes we do. Because it's a new era, most of you will not remember Ruger Riicks becoming our league's first World Heavyweight Champion. Some of you will not remember that we were once entirely hosted in a single thread on the IGN Smackdown board. Those things will never be forgotten, but what will...is the stubbornness that ran this league.


For a bit of insight, when you run a league like this, for as long as I did, and others have...you adapt an attitude that says "we've done this for as long as we have, we know this will work, and this won't."  Yes, it's easy to justify that and say we've tried it, it's not happening, accept our ruling and shut up.  But there lies one the issues, it's not just our league, it's OUR league. Every single one of you, whether you're Shuggz the member that's been here since the very first month....or you're the guy that just signed up last week. We make this what it is, not just the admins, but it's members.


XWL as you know it, is dead. Yes, the people that thought this relaunch was the deathnail, are in fact right. The Old XWL is dead, but the new one is very much alive.


The Rebirth: November 16th, 2015 -  ???

On Monday November 16th, 2015, XWL returns. What does this return mean? The start of Anarchy, the new weekly show that will live up to it's name I promise you that. The start of shows like Anarchy, that will actually matter. How will it matter? Let's take a look at the problem, every four weeks, seven for Final Stand, or three occasionally...we would hold "Pay-Per-Views" around 10 a year because it's the way to blow off feuds, continue them, and also be complete and utter filler half the time. Would you excitedly look forward to your everyday Breakdown? No, because what was on it? A bunch of one on one matches with no story, an occasional storyline driven fake championship match, an "XWL Active" Poll to get you involved, with boring generic filler options for the sake of having it. Yes those shows did have great promos and moments but 50% of the time, the whole show aside from a few things, you didn't care about.  Hell, we once had a member complain that their title match was on Breakdown as opposed to a "PPV" because of the idea that PPVs were the "IT" thing. That every show leading up to it didn't matter, nor the ones after it until the next one. Which is a huge problem, one that we've taken very seriously.



So you have our promise from this day forward, every single show, will matter. What's gonna change? Everything. For starters, we're moving the shows to Monday so that we have the weekend to end another issue that's plagued those of you that have ever been an admin, and ourselves. Booking behind the scenes, sucks. You may not know it, but it's really been reflected on the quality of the shows we create. Anarchy is our blank slate, our chance to do it right this time, by putting real thought into the matches we book, by never having a late card ever again because nobody booked last night so we have thirty minutes to book a card before the "PPV" is over and you still have to put it together. Moving to Mondays is a decision that benefits us, and will in turn benefit you. So before you say you liked having the shows start on Friday so you had the next two days to get stuff done on the weekend, I can agree with that, but respect this decision for it truly is the best one if we want quality shows.


On Anarchy, you will see anything. Oh so and so just won The World Heavyweight title? Let's have a one night tournament to crown their first challenger, and have the winner of that challenge said champion in the Main-Event. Let's have a night in the cage where you've got Hell in a Cell, Steel Cage, and Elimination Chamber Matches. Let's see actual matches on the show that end rivalries. But wait? That's only something you see on a "PPV." On a "PPV" yes, but that's why we've gotten rid of them. Don't worry, we'll still have special events, but they won't be the only special events of the year. A normal episode of Anarchy could, and that's the possibility we've never truly given a weekly card. Anything can happen on Anarchy, ANYTHING. Don't worry, we won't go crazy for the sake of being crazy, there's a middle ground to our madness I assure you.


The Special Six


Special Events will be in a format much like NXT does. Do you see one every month? No, so you won't see one every month here either. We will have six Special Events a year. Here is our list, along with their dates.

Breakthrough  -   December 14th 2015  -  December 21st  2015
Cyber Slam  -    Feb 15th 2016  -    Feb 22nd 2016
Final Stand V IIII -  April 18th 2016 -   April 25th 2016
Downpour  -   June 20th 2016  -  June 27th 2016
Roulette  -  August  15th 2016 -  August 22nd 2016
Implosion  -   October 10th 2016   -  October 17th 2016


With the six events above, we will manage to create six truly big events a year, without having to rely on them being our only big shows in that calendar year. We've kept the gimmicks simple, because when you start having too many events gimmick oriented, that's when they become filler for the sake of being there. Digital Decision has been renamed Cyberslam, a name we like more. Dead Mans Hand has also seen a rename to Roulette. Ultimately we feel that this decision will be a good one, and we hope that you either agree, or are willing to have faith in us to not write it off.


WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS MY FRIEND



No, actually you're not. Another decision is to strip every champion of their title, and put the prize up for grabs at Breakthrough where literally ANYONE could have a chance at becoming this new era's champions. Rip the band-aid off, right? Sorry fellas but with this new fresh start we're shilling, it doesn't make sense to have anyone start off ahead of another person. Don't worry about what this means for your character, your friendly neighborhood admin team has you covered! We've got the explanation kayfabe wise taken care of, and especially don't worry about being excluded from the chance at winning said title back. Because when I say ANYONE could have a chance at taking the titles, we mean ANYONE. Your effort, your consistency, and your ability/behavior in matches will earn yourselves a title match, so be sure to start the first week off strong because we'll be watching.


This is also a good part to explain our new policy on champions and contenders. In the last year we had issues of champions who didn't promo, contenders who didn't promo, and that was either due to personal issues, or just simply not doing it. So that's why that's never happening again. This is public knowledge now so you can't say you didn't know, or it's unfair. If a champion or contender cannot promo for a period of two weeks or more, they will be stripped of their status. Their characters will be theirs providing they go on break, but we can't justify letting them keep a title or their contendership because it simply just isn't fair.



Commentary Shakeup You Say?


Just a little, by a request we've received a few times before, our official three man commentary team for Special Events and your weekly episode of Anarchy will be Michael Cole, Jerry "The King" Lawler, and JBL!



Who's The Boss?


Well bosses, Stephanie McMahon and Layla as you've probably noticed based on the graphic for Anarchy will be returning as General Manager and Head of The Divas Division. Stephanie is someone anyone can use to promo, but should those of you in the divas division want a run in with the lady who makes the matches just PM "P.R Son" and it's as simple as that. Vince McMahon is still the owner of XWL, but he's a special character. What I mean by that is you must request to use him, because we don't want the big bad boss to appear every week, or for a simple promo that Stephanie could easily be apart of instead. It goes back to the mindset of "making things matter."


Additional Info

We'll be determining if submission finishers will be allowed once the game is out, we'll also have overalls for those of you that are going to be CAWS sometime after the release as well. Lastly we're keeping the three finisher end condition, simply put it works so if it ain't broke don't fix it.



In Closing



Guys, we've been working our butts off to make this happen. We've given the site a much needed change look wise, we've addressed issues and found fixes for them, we've done a lot of things not even mentioned in this post. We want this "rebirth" to not just be a name, but the truth. We could have easily given up and called it a day when things got bad earlier this year, we could have, but we didn't. Because this place means something, it's an escape, it's an outlet to have fun, it's a way to let your creative juices flow, it's a community full of people from all walks of life. We've branded this as a fresh start, and it is in every sense of the word. To us, you're all the same. If you've been banned, it's lifted, if you've been a pain in the ass, you're forgiven. So we ask the same of you, we know it can be easy to buy into a notion of us through decisions you see us make, but we ask you to give us this same new leaf. Believe that we're doing the best things for all us, because I promise you we are. If you ever have any questions about anything, a booking decision, a choice of contender, we're but a PM away and we'll be fully transparent with you. We'd also love any suggestions you have to make this place the best it can be. To those of you who actually read all of this, I thank you <3




Now for you jerks that can't stand reading a couple....okay a little more than that....paragraphs...here's your TL;DR


XWL coulda died
It didn't
We're back officially November 16th
We're making every show matter now
We've got Six Special Events a year
Every champion has been stripped of their title
Champs and Contenders gotta be active it's the law, or else
Cole, King and JBL are our three man commentary team for every show
Stephanie McMahon and Layla will return as authority figures
Sub fins may be allowed, CAW overalls will be given shortly following the game's release
We're giving you a fresh start, return the favor pls
Contact us anytime, about anything and we'll be totally transparent to help you understand things