Where do you draw your inspiration from?

[The Legend]

Just curious as to where everyone draws their inspiration for their characters? I think it would be interesting to hear people's stories and see who people think of when they channel into their characters.

[HardcoreLegend]

I've always been quite obsessed with "reality TV" and Jersey Shore was quite a big thing between me and my friends during school. I then saw bits and pieces from other New Jersey related reality shows, combined with the fact that there's some Italian in the family, I always thought it'd be fun to go down that route.

[Daz]

Daz the character came from just me, what I want from pro wrestling as a fan. Everyone seemed to have these over done back stories and gimmicks about being abused by this person and that person and needing a place to vent their anger, even in a more realism based fed like SOS. So when I was signing up, I had that in mind, I just made Daz a wrestler who wanted to wrestle. Shocking I know. As far as in the ring stuff, I put more thought into that than is probably healthy. I wanted Daz to be a bit of a conundrum as far as style goes. He wore shorts when he started like a good indy wrestler, and a mask he wasn't a luchador. The idea was that he was so well traveled he'd cherry picked different bits and pieces from every style. So he did the stiff strikes and whatnot of Japan, he had the technique and ground game of Great Britain and would drop the occasional lucha move (which is why he did the Topé con hilo for so long). Also the Sean Knight feud in WCSF. That really helped but into words what Daz was and Knight was the perfect counterpoint. That's the feud I'll reference back to the most because it was the most important to me as a writer and helped me understand better where the character was coming from.

Team Catwalk, when I started, I think everyone assumed they were based of MNM which is why when others would writer their entrances, they were always be wearing fur coats. Originally, Darren Daniels was supposed to be revealed as Daz, just playing a polar opposite character. That's the reason the character was invented, just to have a more flamboyant off the wall sort of character I could have fun with. He was mostly based on Rick Martel, who I love for reasons unknown to me, hence why one of his finishers was a Boston Crab called Ode to Arrogance. There may have also been a little bit of Chuck & Billy thrown in. Dean Brody was a character I'd used for something else and I liked the name, so brought him into SOS to team with Daz. They broke up there and we planned to do this whole stablewar thing, and I pitched at idea to Buck about Daz and someone from his stable turning in the feud ending match and joining forces with Brody to form a third stable who'd take them both on. It never happened. When IOW started, I missed writing tag team wrestling. I had the Darren Daniels gimmick. I wasn't using Dean Brody in SOS all that much and I had the Melissa Chambers name at the back of my mind. She fitted in nicely and was based entirely on Sherri Martel. The introductions I used to do with her came from Joel Gertner of all people, which is why I tried to rhyme them. The marching band jackets and the boots and gear with the electrical wires and jacks in T.C's boots came from a Muse video. Undisclosed Desires I think. Their in ring style didn't have any basis really. Just the idea that I wanted Dean to be the high flying flashy one, whilst Darren Daniels was more simplistic and used a lot of wear down holds. Personality, it was flipped. Dean was the more toned down stoic one, while Darren Daniels was overly flamboyant and ambiguously homosexual.

[Everlong]

When I came up with Magnum Phillips I wanted, first and foremost, a character who wouldn't use a lot of technical moves for a couple different reasons. One, I hadn't been watching wrestling in quite some time so it'd simplify my transition back into writing matches, and two, it seems like everyone else in the feds has a limitless moveset so I wanted to throw in some realism . Even with Sinistra I'd always made the point in his matches that he was an underrated grappler and he had a pretty wide set of power moves. With Phillips it's just brawling, blue-collar fights. The character itself was meant to be kind of a combination of ABA Taker and Stone Cold. I wanted a different kind of heel. Not cocky per se, not even one who's going to cheat in matches, just a guy with a completely reckless disregard for the well-being of others. He doesn't have a mysterious evil persona... what you see is what you get. And that works well because down the road it could translate nicely into a face role, but I think there's a lot to be had out of him as a heel before it gets to that point.

In terms of older characters, in order of which I created them...

David Logan was a repackaging of a former character called Big D, but that was for storyline purposes only... really he was an entirely new character. I wanted a guy who'd spent his career as a lovable underdog that never won the big one. He'd be an All-American kind of guy, easily rallied behind, but ultimately always falling up short. Since my primary purpose for writing for this guy was to put other people over, it was the perfect character for him to maintain legitimacy as a big-time character while still losing in most of his important matches.

Sinistra was really unoriginal when first started. He was kind of a slightly more believable Undertaker/Kane character and I only created him because the Unleashed brand (during the WCSF brand split days) needed an instant big-time heel. So I did the steotypical creepy, dark character stuff with him. I was able to repackage the character a couple different times though, and he became better each time. One was after his return in 2009 when he wound up feuding with Johnny Briggs and Riko Suave, he was much more human. Still evil and creepy, but not relying on lighting/tricks/cheap shit like that. The other was his return when he feuded with guys like Foster, Daz and others, which I think was really his best time. It was cool to try a face turn with him and it really worked because we ran that angle where he was weighed down by the sins of his past and desperately was seeking redemption, only to find out that the people pulling his strings were using him in a grander scheme (the Logans). I think that was the best way I could have hoped to end his story arc.

Andrew Logan was created because I wanted an alternative to Sinistra that could be a fast-paced, high-flying face. The idea came in a talk with Brett about second generation characters, and we both at the same time came up with the idea to have a son of David Logan enter the fed. Logan would have the same sort of underdog story as David, and therefore a major motivation of his would be to shed the "loser" part of "lovable loser" from the Logan family name. He was very much to be defined by the character Taj created at the same time. We'd always had the idea to debut two new characters together and do a slow burn with them, and the Frazier/Logan feud wound up being my favorite ever.

Alexa Logan was basically just an accessory for the Logan/Frazier feud at first, giving that story a whole lot more heat in a big way. But she became a pretty important character because of it, and I'd also wanted to throw a new woman into the Starlets division as well. The inspiration with her character was that I wanted a girl who was less weighed down by her father's legacy than Andrew.

[Daz]

I see a lot of similarities between Magnum and Sinistra in that last run, in terms of in ring style. The whole period of WCSF with the Logan's turn and Daz's heel turn after finally snapping against Dynamite, Sinistra working face. It would have been interesting to see how all that panned out...

[Everlong]

I see a lot of similarities between Magnum and Sinistra in that last run, in terms of in ring style. The whole period of WCSF with the Logan's turn and Daz's heel turn after finally snapping against Dynamite, Sinistra working face. It would have been interesting to see how all that panned out...

Yeah, that's not by accident either. I kind of wanted to continue where I left off with Sinistra, but didn't want to bring him out of retirement. So Magnum does have some similarities in style, but as I said, Sinistra was still much more of a grappler than Magnum will be.

I wish we could have seen how it turned out, I had a lot of great stuff planned for the Logans running the company.

The plan was actually going to be to have Andrew as the champion for the entire year, from Revolution 6 to Revolution 7, with the heat just building and building. He would lose the title to a recently-turned-face Kaiser Cavanah in the main event at Rev 7, along the way having successful title defenses against Daz, Mark Thomas, Desmond Frazier and more.

[Daz]

I see a lot of similarities between Magnum and Sinistra in that last run, in terms of in ring style. The whole period of WCSF with the Logan's turn and Daz's heel turn after finally snapping against Dynamite, Sinistra working face. It would have been interesting to see how all that panned out...

Yeah, that's not by accident either. I kind of wanted to continue where I left off with Sinistra, but didn't want to bring him out of retirement. So Magnum does have some similarities in style, but as I said, Sinistra was still much more of a grappler than Magnum will be.

I wish we could have seen how it turned out, I had a lot of great stuff planned for the Logans running the company.

The plan was actually going to be to have Andrew as the champion for the entire year, from Revolution 6 to Revolution 7, with the heat just building and building. He would lose the title to a recently-turned-face Kaiser Cavanah in the main event at Rev 7, along the way having successful title defenses against Daz, Mark Thomas, Desmond Frazier and more.

I was hoping somewhere down the line, Daz would get his hands on David Logan. That old bastard was begging for a Dazaster Driver.

Looking back, that whole arc with Daz was my favourite thing I've ever done. Playing the face, being treated like the heel. The internal conflict, getting screwed by management until turning himself. The feud with Dynamite, those confrontations with Logan, the matches with Mark Thomas, the feud with Devine at Annihilation. That whole year you guys were giving me gold to write.

[Everlong]

^Yeah, I think my grand idea was that David Logan was going to screw Daz in his match with Andrew to keep the belt on his son, which would have set up the ultimate encounter with Daz/Logan.

Alas!

[The Legend]

Well since I started this thread, I might as well chime in with my influences. It's funny because neither of my first two characters really worked out how I wanted them to, but still wound up being enjoyable anyways.

First, The Superstar! Johnny, well OK here it is, I was in college studying to be a sports media professional, I named a character after myself and Johnny Unitas and gave him that same type of personality. As time went on he became more and more the person I wish I could be if we didn't have to worry about pesky things like decorum and being thoughtful. I imagined him to be almost reporter, almost wrestler, totally cocky heel. As far as in ring goes he was mostly derived from the HHH ring style with a little Ken Kennedy thrown in there (because well that was also a major influence on the character, it was kind of a whole what would happen if I took it this one next step sort of thing).

Max Gamble, well I enjoy indulging in the gambling vice from time to time and so I thought what better than a poker playing gambler type of character because to my knowledge that never really had been done before. I also looked forward to writing for a face character after writing for a heel so long previously. I have to say the mods threw me a major curveball when they approached me about teaming him up with Danny Vegas because I don't particularly enjoy tag team sim wrestling. It's harder to follow because you have characters drifting in and out of activity/inactivity and things just flow from out of nowhere. But being the consumate pro that I am (shameless plug) I agreed and the Sin City Saints were born. Well it pretty drastically changed how I envisioned Gamble developing as a character and part of the reason I was so done with everything was because I think it stunted his growth and all of my matches really started to follow the same tag team path.

Now onto the character that I hope will get hired here, Gabriel Reece, this character is pretty wrestling driven from where I draw my inspiration. It basically comes from watching Main Event, Superstars whatever and Justin Gabriel comes on. And during his matches the commentators would always talk about how he likes to shark dive or parachute or base jump or all these different things. And I'm kind of like, well that's cool, but it would be so much better if they would show him doing these things (even if they use trick photography) and incorporate that into the character. So that's where that comes from. As for wrestler style it's probably a Gabriel, John Morrison, CM Punk kind of mix with Jeff Hardy high spots thrown in.

[Daz]

I always enjoyed working with the Saints, if it's any consolation. Getting stuck writing with the likes of Nathan Hero and Sirius Danger, having the Saints as a foil for TC was a breath of fresh air.

[ShaneOfan]

Some of you may remember my first character was some dipshit redneck from Alabama called Billy Spade. He started simply as a CAW on one of my Smack Down games and I brought him into WCSF. He was a loser and I honestly just wanted him to be "cool." Uber fail. He sided with Buck as a group called the Mercs at first but creative differences pushed us apart. He really went know where until I picked up another already semi established character from (I don't even remember who) named "Talented" Tommy Davey. He and Spade basically became a jobber tag team and never really did much. I quit and eventually came back with...

...Amos Hess, how to explain that crazy psychopath? Amos is basically a religious zealot to the extreme. Which isn't even how I started him out. When I started him off he was more of a hypocrite with a donkey (I'll get to Jake later). I saw him as a guy who wanted to push his own agenda and used god as his excuse. I was not sure he believed what he said, he didn't really think he was acting as the sword of god. He was acting as the sword of Amos. Bus as he developed, I realized this crazy bastard truly believes that what he is saying is coming from god. Amos is the worst kind of evil, because Amos believes he is good. He believes that all others save for Brother Theodore are evil and need fixed. He managed to bring Sean Knight over to his side as well but if push comes to shove (which it literally could) I think Barry is more of a Hess man then Knight and I think Hess would take Barry's side.

Now here's the real fun story. Jake the Donkey. It was a little more complicated then just giving the Amish guy a farm animal. At the time I debuted Amos, one of my best friends and I(and the rest of our group) had a falling out. He was one of those dudes that always hung out but didn't really say much in the form of his own opinions. Sort of just went with it. But was still a nice guy. We worked together and all of that jazz. But he was lazy. Anyway our boss set him up with his wife's sister and he started porking this chick. After that he never wanted to go out with the group, or even just chill anywhere one on one with any of us. He just wanted to get his dick wet. We warned him, telling him to get his shit together. Well he never bothered to try to be round anyone and would lie to us. Basically he was a real jackass... and his name was Jake.

[ShaneOfan]

I also want to add I can't thank BSM enough. He has been a great partner both in the WCSF and PCW and I know Amos, nor I would not be nearly as good as with out you and Ted Barry!

[Ali]

I don't think anyone will be surprised to find out that Johnny Briggs was inspired by Jeff Hardy. Then I started to give him a personality, and he turned into Chris Jericho. But honestly, my biggest inspiration for Briggs was always Bugs Bunny, which might seem weird, but the vibe I was going for was always a Karmic Trickster. Bugs Bunny would never mess with you unless you messed with him first, and that's what I wanted to do with Briggs. He'd be a perfectly calm, rational, nice guy, until you screwed him over, at which point he would unleash Hell, but he would always do it with a smile and a wink. Like Bugs Bunny would let Yosemite Sam get so mad that he would end up ruining his own plan himself, that was Briggs' M.O. Laugh, joke, wisecrack, never take the opponent seriously, because that just frustrates and makes them unravel more, which will open the door for you to win. That was Johnny Briggs' strategy.

The Brothers Comeau are kind of funny. When I was starting in WCSF, there was a Tag Team called "The Gamers", and I loved that idea. So I ripped it off. I was going to sign them up to WCSF a while back, and I had a heavy Scott Pilgrim influence. They were gonna be Canadian and use one of the songs from the Scott Pilgrim game soundtrack as their theme, but when I decided to bring them in for PCW, I decided to base them more off of Rooster Teeth's spin-off Achievement Hunter, particularly Jack (Carter) and Geoff (Calvin). As for the wrestling style, I love pairing a small, quick wrestler with a big powerhouse. Cryme Tyme, The Hart Foundation, Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty, teams like that I find much more compelling than just two guys who are nearly identical in style.

Ryan Haynes, I gotta be honest, he just kind of appeared for me. All I had in mind was a young, black kid who wasn't a stereotype. Unfortunately, I never got to really think of his character much, and his own wrestling style ended up being Briggs again. So I wrote him off for a while. I'm really dedicated to finding his own niche and style. I can tell you that when he comes back, his wrestling style will be much more of a CM Punk based deal, and his character will be a lot darker, more rough-edged. So look forward to that.

[HFX]

I always enjoyed working with the Saints, if it's any consolation. Getting stuck writing with the likes of Nathan Hero and Sirius Danger, having the Saints as a foil for TC was a breath of fresh air.

I used to think WE had something special but I see how it is. GREATNESS PERSONIFIED WERE A BETTER FOIL FOR SUPREME THUNDER THAN TEAM FABIO EVER WAS!!!! Also the SaS was better than you as well.......

[Daz]

You'll always be my favourite.

[SKS]

My inspiration when I first created Spencer Miller was a mix of The Miz & Dolph Ziggler. And Miller WCSF version was basically my ego at the time, multiplied by 100. It was how I'd be if I was actually in the wrestling business, I think. Cocky, loud, slimy, but had enough to get the job done.

My inspiration for Miller PCW version is a mix of Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. Miller has the powerhouse strength of Reigns but also the instability/dastardly mind and cunning of Ambrose. I am really enjoying writing this version because although Miller's cockiness of old shows sometimes, he's mainly in a "just kick ass" type attitude, and everyone takes him seriously as a threat. I think the hardest thing with old Miller was getting him over as a threat while still portraying him as a slimy heel. Now, I don't have to worry much about Miller being considered a cheater or a short cut taker, because all he wants to do is get in people's heads and kick ass, and he won't back down from anyone like he used to.