Merger - EVERYONE READ

Okay, so here is the situation. The other day, the owner of WKF Wrestling (another e-fed), commented our listing on RoughKut, which Shark had set up. The comment was as follows.

"Would you be interested in a joint company? I'm trying to find someone to merge with my fed, WKF. We have been around for four months and have about 30 characters. We also have a legit site we are on in Thewrestleclub.com. We have been wanting to merge with someone and maybe even an invasion type storyline."

So we talked about it, and decided that Chuck would talk to this owner about the terms of this merger. Here is what they came up with. I'm separating this into and IC and OOC section, to make it easier.

In Character

The IWF and the WKF begin to feud, with an invasion-type storyline. They war back and forth for a while. Eventually, they merge into one big company. All of the champions from IWF and WKF would carry over into the new company, at least at the start. We might and probably will merge titles as we get a little further into the company. And most likely create new ones. And another cool thing. A tag-team division would be formed. Something that we haven't had in IWF.

Out of Character

Okay, so here's where the main stuff comes in. We would run shows through our own site's at first. Until the invasion/takeover/merge storyline runs its course. At that point, a new site will be created, and everyone will sign up for that one, which will be our new base of operations. We leave both sites behind, but do not close them down. The rosters combine into one big roster. The new owners will be Chuck Matthews (IWF), Corey Casey (IWF), Brandon Macdonald (IWF) and Bully D (WKF). Together, the IWF show writers and the WKF show writers will work together for shows. The two respective GFX teams will work together.

We will have links to the old sites on the new site, so don't worry, we won't lose all this IWF history. It will all still be here in case of emergency. The new site will be affiliated with, but NOT owned by Wrestleclub.com, due to the WKF's close relationship with them.



So that's the situation. Now we are obviously not going to give this the go ahead without EVERYONE's opinion. Which is why I'm writing this here. So please respond to this thread with your opinions. Now I'm going to give you mine.

I'm open for this. Why? Because we don't really have anything to lose. Look at it this way. If we combine our rosters, we literally double in size (they have roughly the same amount of active users as we do). That means we'll have around 50 active wrestlers. Tag division, two shows, whatever we do, it becomes SO much easier with that many people.

One of the concerns was giving trust to a new owner. I mean, we've worked so well with the rule of 3 here (Me, Chuck, Corey). But the way I see it, we don't risk a whole lot with this. If we go, and the owner is a douche and no one likes him including all of us, it would be extremely easy to say "Fuck it" and come right back here. That's why we wouldn't close this site up, in case that ever happened. And on a side note, Chuck has talked with their owner, and as far as we can tell, he isn't a douche or an overcontrolling maniac.

I think that this is a good opportunity for our fed to really expand, and become even bigger. Thats why I personally am for it. However, my opinion is no better than any of yours. So please, post here if you agree with this or not. If you don't agree, please state your issues. I don't want to see anyone write "I don't agree" and that's it. We all want to know why you disagree. Maybe you have a really good point that we have overlooked. But again, please post your issues with this, and we will try our best to answer them, or solve them, or we will realize that it is too much risk. So please, let us know here.

And don't worry. The new site will still have the chatbox

Evening one and all! It's the one and only, the lovable IWF Champ and Admin extrondinare Corey Casey weighing in with my two fuckin' cents baby!

I think this is a very good thing! I think doubling our roster size is always a sweet idea and i think that joining up with a new crew is always a fun time. With that being said, let me assure each and every single IWF Roster member of one fucking thing


COREY CASEY WILL NOT LET IWF DIE!

For all of those who are worrying that we are all moving to a new site and are going to lose everyone in the shuffle and that the admins are going to turn our backs on you, i can promise you that NOONE will be left behind...NOONE will be pushed to the side. I give you my word as an admin and as a man. IWF is a family, and just because the family moves into a new neighborhood and just because IWF moves in across the street from a bunch of random dudes (AKA- the WFK crew) doesn't mean the family splits up.

I REPEAT...NO ONE IS GOING TO GET LEFT BEHIND!

I honestly think this is a good idea in the long haul too since it gives us a bigger base of characters to work with and (God willing) we can go back to two shows! I also support the idea of keeping IWF open as it's own entity, that way we can have a place to fall back on if we need to. I think this is going to be a good thing for each and every lady and gent on the roster.

As far as the WFK crew goes...

Ridicule until proven innocent

Being that I have been here since damn near the beginning and I have a decade, yes a decade, of experience effedding I have really just two thoughts on this merger idea.

The first being how awesome it would be to double in size and be able to functionally carry on two shows and the like is incredible. The more folks that are in a fed and actively participating make feuds and tourneys for belts and briefcases that much more in depth. It is easier to sustain a stable like Se7en and RHG in a bigger fed to because you constently have people coming and going kinda like NWO. In a smaller fed like ours, if one or two guys or gals drop the ball the whole thing implodes.

The bad side is losing our identity/the family aspect and not playing well with others. I think it is massively important that IWF not lose what makes this place great when th emerger happens. CEE CEE says he and the other admins will make sure our identity isn't lost in the merge and I will be right there backing them up. This place has been like a second family to me and I will not give it up with out a fight, even my illigitimate Mexican brother Dan!!! I am also worried abou the new place not taking a liking to some of the way we do things, like Shark's humor or Alison joking about being loose, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

So in summary, if you guys think it's cool your High Impact Champ is down for it!!!

Yo say word, when Gangsta Shark went out to the white boi world of efeddin, dem white boys ganged up on me like a bunch of mexican dan alexanders yo, if yall merge them WKF niggas gotta be cool with ma swagger yoooooo, DEY GOTTA BE COOL WITH IT YO!, or else this merger will turn Gangsta Sharky into Jimmy Shark yoooo, that aint cool yoo, yo yo, yoooo

First of all I would like to say that I really like these forums, however if majority feels that it's okay to start a new one with this who merger thing, while keeping this one on this, then I'm cool.

Over all I have mixed feelings with the merger, however i'm leaning towards slightly with the merger. I trust that IWF Admins will do a very good job. However here is my main problem and I did asked the question earlier in the Chatbox. What happens when people from the other fed we suppose to merger with have the same pic base as some one in the IWF. If that could be worked out with no problems or strain on people happiness what so ever, then go for it. I'll say "Yay!" - If a solution cannot be found, then I'll say "Nay!" (or whatever it is lol) Quite frankly my decision lays on that, I'm stuck in the middle right now.

2 cents from the week and one day old in IWF new guy.

Oh thank god there will be a chatbox. If there wasn't one we'd all die!

Dude, Aric, don't ever feel bad about giving you're opinions. Your thoughts mean as much to us as VVR's or Corey's or mine. Doesn't matter if you've been here a year or a day.

Anyway, I was actually extremely iffy about this. Mostly because I share a bit of Corey's paranoia about other owners, but I do my best to be realistic about it. Truth be told, I don't trust other fed heads. Not because Bully D seemed untrustworthy. On the contrary, he was very easy to talk to, and he was more than willing to hear me out with my issues with things. It's more because past experience has shown me that people tend to get big-headed when they're given power over people (thus the multiple admins in charge of IWF), and shit can turn ugly fast.

That being said, if I HAD to make the decision, I would say let's do it. Exactly what Brandon said. If it sucks, who cares? It's very easy to say "Alright, this isn't working out" and head back to IWF and continue where we left off. Worst case scenario, they get angry at us, and we have WKF hate us forever for bailing on them. Not like we've never had a fed or two hate us.

Honestly, though, I don't think it'd be too bad. I would like to reiterate what Corey said. We're still family. IWF is one of the few feds that is fortunate enough to have those simple values. We treat our members like blood. We're very tight knit, and we're very comfortable talking to each other, even about personal issues that have nothing to do with e-feds. I love that about IWF, I think it's one of the greatest things about IWF, and even if we were with another fed, I would keep that aspect the same. We'd still be family....but we'd have a much bigger family, as we'd be welcoming the WKF community with us.

The issue with the new board: I wasn't a big fan of it. I created this site. Seriously. That was one of the few things I did for IWF was doing the actual site setup that's (for the most part) been the same since then. The layout, the organization, the logo at the top of the site...that was my doing. If you think I'm totally okay with seeing that all go to waste, you're wrong. I'm not really okay with it. But a HUGE part of this merger idea was compromise. We realized we couldn't ask our members to move to the other guys site, that's not fair to the movers. But if we ask EVERYONE to move, it's not as bad, you know? One of the things I was really adamant about was dropping the close link to thewrestlingclub. I'm totally cool with an affiliation...my issue is that they currently RP as a sort of sub-board of this much bigger wrestling site. THe fed is attached to it. THAT'S what I'm not okay with. I don't particularly enjoy the isolationist attitude IWF had for it's first few months, and I do like how we've started breaking out of our shell and affiliating with other feds...but I draw the line at becoming some sort of footnote on a bigger site. I DO love that IWF is entirely self-sustaining, and has it's entire forum and site dedicated solely to it.

So anyway...that's basically the adventure of how this came about, and what I think of it.

Now, here's where we stand now:

Probably not going to happen ("Oh FUCK YOU CHUCK, why would you get our hopes up like that?").

Bully and I had an interesting discussion, went over the terms and such, agreed on things. He and I finally reached a system that he and I both agreed on. The next step was to see how the rosters took to the idea. Most of the IWF guys (not all) seemed okay with the idea, if not excited about it. Granted, there are a few of you I know aren't happy about this at all. And that's fine. Nothing is set in stone, and you should all know by now that Brandon, Corey and I would never make a huge decision like this without the general approval of the IWF as a whole. Bully D sees things the same way, and refused to make an executive decision unless he had the approval of his roster. He didn't get it. The idea was met with a lot of resistance it seems, from WKF. The dude running wrestleclub wasn't fired up about losing the fed attached to the site, either. So at the moment, it's looking like it's a no-go. I'll probably talk to him again when I get the chance, see if maybe it's something we can fix with some re-writing of terms and such...but if things stay as they are now, we have nothing to worry about: We're staying right here in IWF.

Roster has to meet with Roster. No offence but this merger cannot and will not happen just because two people sat down and thought it would be a good idea.

^ Dan, I only logged in and saw this thread just now, but I'm fairly sure that it's not just "Two people" who thought it was a good idea...from the sounds of things the majority of the IWF roster thinks it's a good idea

And anyway, FUCK YOU CHUCK, why would you get our hopes up like that?

LOL I kid I kid, anyway, I would probably be in the middle with this. I would hate IWF to lose its identity and culture, as many of you know I've been here since the start of NLWF and I always love how this place works and the family we have here. That being said, it would be awesome to have that many members. Not only would it help storylines, but it would also allow us to have a better mid-card (which has no doubt improved, but this would only make it on par with the main event), and have a tag team division in IWF. I know I'm just reiterating what others have said, but ITS STILL COOL

But yeah, if this doesn't work out, then I have no problem. If it does work out, no problem, probably slightly happier. I guess we'll just have to see what happens...

I know it appears that it's not going to happen anymore, but I might as well throw in my opinions in case the situation changes.

I think the merger is a good idea, for IWF anyway. I mean, it's the opportunity to almost double our roster size, and a great way of bringing more competition in, and I guess it's a proven fact that whenever more competition arrives, people step their game up, because if they don't, they get left behind. New competition can breathe life back into federations and competitors, and in my opinion, it should always be encouraged.

However, the face that this site, the IWF homestead will remain active is the big selling point for me. It means that if shit hits the fans, and the whole thing goes tits up, we have this place to return to, somewhere we know is good, works well, and is home to a lot of the guys competing here. It keeps the history of IWF too, which is an added bonus.

It'll be a shame if it doesn't go through, but I can understand why others aren't fussed by the idea. Either way, I don't see how IWF can come out of this situation badly. The worst case scenario is that we don't get along with the other federation, or it just doesn't work, and we all come back here and things go back to normal. Best case scenario is that we get a roster of over 50 guys, bring in more competition, and have a bloody awesome time.

I agree with Dan though, there can't be a decent consensus decision unless everyone meets. It happened in the NFL lockout for example.

I should probably mention that had this approved and been accepted, it's not some thing that would happen overnight. We'd have this storyline we planned to run for a couple months, to give the rosters a chance to sort of test the waters, get to know each other a bit on each other's turf, then we'd make the actual merge and combine everything into one. I mean, the original plan was that this wouldn't go down until like...October.

So that sort of addresses Dan's issue, because we had actually thought of the fact that the rosters might not click at all, and we were intending to give them this big inter-fed storyline to give them a chance to interact and get to know their future rostermates a bit. I'm not so big an asshole that I would throw 20 guys into the ocean like that and expect them to know how to swim

niggas need a lifejacket yo