Kaiser: Hello again everybody. In a fitting choice for today's PCW interview, I will be sitting down with the man who was recently crowned the new PCW World Heavyweight Champion. One of Pubtalk's global mods. The man behind Nick Foster... Nick Foster! a.k.a (stoner) Prophet.
What was your immediate reaction when I told you that Foster would be winning the PCW World Heavyweight Championship at Resurgence?
Prophet: I don't really know how to describe it. It seems silly to say but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't emotional when I was first told. At the time I sort of had an inkling that one of me or SKS would be next to break into the main event due to how the card looked at that point but I never imagined I'd be made champion.
For someone with a history like mine doing this you can't imagine how it feels to finally be the top guy after 8 years - I was excited, delighted and relieved as you'd expect but I was also frustrated that I couldn't tell anyone about it, impatient because I wanted it to happen already but also it made me that much more motivated to step my game up and write matches and segments worthy of the championship. I don't like how cliched this probably comes across but it really was humbling - I don't think there's a bigger rags to riches story in e-fedding than myself haha.
Kaiser: When you first signed up to PCW, how far up the card did you think the Nick Foster character would really go?
Prophet: I thought the character couldo the very top, honestly. My writing had vastly improved and the character was rising nicely just as the WCSF shut down so my confidence in my ability was still there when PCW was first created plus it obviously helped that in a brand new promotion there was always going to be a lack of top-tier talent. Couple all that together and I didn't really see a reason why I couldn't become champion - you've just got to put in the work and eventually hope it happens.
Whether I thought my character would go as high as I felt it could was a little more debatable but that's all down to not knowing whether the new booking team would like my stuff or were competent enough to put together a good card
Thankfully for me they were and have been knocking it out of the park since Day 1 which again makes it all the more humbling to be chosen as the champion of such a badass show.Kaiser: On a related note, when you signed up you said you preferred that Foster was a babyface. As we now know, that turned out to be the right decision. But can you see Foster ever being a heel in the future?
Prophet: Absolutely. Turning heel eventually is something I think I need to at least try before I retire the character. I wasn't a good writer during the majority of my time in WCSF and as part of The Mafia I didn't exactly have to work hard or do anything substantial to be considered a heel because Goff pretty much did that for me. With how the character has been booked in PCW as such a fan-favourite I think it'd be an even bigger test of my ability seeing how I'd cope if he ever turned heel.
I wouldn't want to do it for the sake of it though and to be honest looking at it right now I don't really see a future in which Nick Foster could ever be heel again, the way he's been booked in PCW just leads me to believe he'll be a babyface until the end and I'd be totally fine with that. If Foster turned heel just because I wanted to try my hand at being a bad guy the character would suffer and it wouldn't be organic. There's literally only one scenario that I can envisage that would result in me being heel again but I'd rather not disclose it publicly.
Kaiser: In the build-up to Resurgence, the "8-year odyssey" was mentioned a lot. Foster came in to PCW as a veteran who had been in sim feds since 2006 but had never reached the main event. How closely did Foster's ups and downs during those 8 years mirror your own as a writer?
Prophet: Not a whole lot if I’m being perfectly honest, though not for the most obvious of reasons. I always felt like my character achieved more success than I ever deserved as a writer. It’s well documented that I wasn’t exactly a reliable member of the roster and so I really punched above my weight with how much I achieved.
Being apart of The Mafia really was the best thing that could have ever happened to me in my e-fed career – I was involved in a lot of the main storylines, I wrote with the better writers and my character competed against the best characters all while I was lazy with submitting things on time and had a horrible attitude.
I can’t really claim that Foster’s success mirrored my own as a writer though either. Any success the character got didn’t really feel like my success – the first time I won the tag titles was kind of bittersweet because I didn’t feel like I’d won them, I felt like The Mafia won them and I just happened to be luckily enough to have been put in the group years prior.
I only really began to have a mirrored experience between me as a writer and my character when I came back after my hiatus and had to work my way up from the bottom as a solo guy when very little was expected of me.
Kaiser: Tell us about your experience as a WCSF mod. Did you learn anything that changed your views on booking or writing for a sim fed? What was you proudest accomplishment? What stories/angles/etc do you regret not being able to see play out due to WCSF ending?
Prophet: Oh god, my time as a mod. Well I’ll tell you what I enjoyed about it first – the MSN conversations (fuck you, Skype!) we used to have were always a lot of fun and at the time they approached me to join the team the WCSF was the most active and popular as I’d ever seen it. It’s just a shame that we couldn’t sustain it and my role as a booker was over before it had even started.
It was a shame that Tim and Brett stepped down and I don’t quite think anyone ever thanked or appreciated all the hard work they put into the fed. Choosing to stay on was a stupid decision and one I regret. With less than a month kayfabe booking time under my belt I wasn’t anywhere near ready to make the step up from new boy to head booker.
I’ll tell you the thing that really fucking annoyed me most about the whole situation though (and still does). The WCSF was completely dead activity wise at the time but as soon as Tim and Brett stepped down suddenly every fucker popped out of the woodwork to have their say on proceedings and try weasel their way into the job. Suddenly everyone began sharing their thoughts on what we should have been doing and what went wrong but nobody said anything at the time did they?. I had my ego massaged by a few people who were desperate for me to pick them and it all really irritated me.
The amount of applications and messages sucking up was unreal, especially considering a lot of those people were part of the reason Tim and Brett stepped down. In the end I settled for a team of veteran writers that I felt were experienced enough to help me out though I wound up pretty much running the game on my own and it stopped becoming fun.
I’ve already mentioned the feud I was sad never materialized further that I’d booked. Evans/Andrews were supposed to have a badass feud that culminated in a ‘Loser Leaves’ Ladder match that’d signal Aky’s departure. The proudest I’d been regarding something I booked was the inaugural Battlefield tournament to determine a new World Champ. We had a bunch of intertwining storylines and a whole heap of amazing matches scattered through the card (Dynamite/Daz, Foster/Devine, Kaiser/Evans etc..)
I can’t really say I learned anything from the experience, I just have a larger appreciation for what the current team does.
Kaiser: Tell us your overall thoughts on PCW so far. Favorite moments? Matches? Characters? What do you think we need to do, or keep doing to be successful and hold people's interest in the fed?
Prophet: I think PCW is great and that everyone involved is doing a great job, the consistency of the shows has been so impressive. I’ll tell you what, my favourite moment in PCW might surprise you, because it wasn’t actually winning the title like you might assume. Don’t get me wrong obviously winning the title was the proudest moment in my e-fed career but I knew about it months in advance so when it finally happened I’d already had time to process it.
My favourite moment in the fed came at the Escalation PPV. I was assigned the penultimate section of the match so I knew I wasn’t winning but my character was still involved when I’d finished writing my part so I was really intrigued to see what was going to happen, it’s very rare that you’re in the dark regarding your own character.
The way Foster was booked in that match, getting beat down and bust open only to get off the stretcher and head on down to the ring to face Daz one-on-one. I honestly thought Foster was going to win at one point, the writing was that good. That segment was humbling to be honest, it’s the reason I think Foster ended up becoming such a massive fan favourite.
As for matches I can only name two, obviously. Resurgence vs Kaiser was amazing and I rank it among my highest work, the response to the match was really good and the praise from Hanley! in particular was humbling, for him to call it the best match he’s read in a long time was humbling as I respect his opinion highly. The Last Man Standing match with SKS is another I’m really proud of due to how hard I worked on it and how well it was received.
Kaiser: You are the one who pitched the idea of having Johnny Devine make a cameo appearance at Resurgence and give a pep talk to Foster before his big match. Are there any other old characters you'd like to see in PCW? And if so, what do you want to see them do?
Prophet: Yeah, that was the first thought to pop into my head when I found out I’d be winning the title. I’d just like to thank Tom again for coming back and writing on the show, it meant a lot that he did that and made the moment that much more special for me and I’m forever grateful for that.
Honestly I’d say the amount of old characters in the thread is probably about enough now. I think when an older, established character comes into the thread it’s tougher on those who write for PCW original characters to stand-out and make an impact on the show. That said I do have one or two former characters I’d love to see appear in PCW but if I’m being asked to name one character…Desmond Fraizer – awesome character with a fuck ton of unfulfilled potential, boom-lay.
Kaiser: You've now had two PCW Pay-Per-View patches in a row that have been highly praised. In your opinion, what is the art of a good sim fed match? What is the most important ingredient a sim fed match needs?
Prophet: Communication and commitment, simple as that. If you ask anyone who’s ever had a hand in writing a classic match they’ll probably tell you the same thing. Plan the match out beforehand and cover all the bases – story-telling, psychology, big spots, finish etc… and dedicate enough time to your writing and that’s really all there is too it in my book.
Kaiser: How did Foster's MMA gimmick start up? Was there a particular inspiration for it?
Prophet: The only inspiration I had for the MMA thing was the fact I’m a big fan of the sport. On my hiatus from the WCSF I was also pretty much on hiatus from WWE-Club and pro-wrestling in general and during that time I began watching MMA and developed a real passion for it.
That’s about it really. When I came back I began incorporating more submissions and striking into my arsenal and my writing developed technically so it felt natural to suggest Foster had been training and competing in MMA during his absence. I also get comparisons with Daz a lot (understandably) but when I returned that wasn’t the intention. Dale and I have pretty similar thoughts on what constitutes good wrestling and so it’s only natural that the two characters would grow similar when I came back. I’m not complaining though, Daz is the fucking man.
Kaiser: I like to save the best for last. So, without further ado: The Master. Hiroshi Sato. Who will win a match first?
Prophet: It better fucking be The Master or else I quit. He pretty much has his own cult following these days. Sato is clearly the shitter of the two.
Kaiser: Thanks for joining me. I hope everyone enjoyed this interview, and have a nice day.
