I can remember it like it was yesterday. I would visit Flipside and the message board would be choked with posts that can be summed up in four words; the game is dead. Every time I would see one of these posts, and especially if I would see that whoever posted it did not leave their name, I would become very angry and sometimes scream at the computer. "If the game is dead, what the hell am I playing!?"

And then came the news that the BWI was closing, and I thought the naysayers were right.

So friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come not to praise Battlefield Wrestling Industries, but to bury it. Actually, I plan to do both, but I felt Shakespearian there for a second and had to use the line.

First, allow myself to introduce... myself... to those that do not know who I am. My name is Jordan Robert Jewett, and have been a member of the wrestling community for about a year and a half. If you are familiar with BWI then you know the characters I ran: "Wildcard" Melvin Jackson, Leon Lorca who was formerly known as Dagger, Hans Konig, Cassidy, and Special ED. But really, if you're not familiar with BWI, you don't know any of these guys, or one girl. I didn't spend any time working for Scott Smith or Green, and didn't have a feud worthy of being at Flipped Out 3. So to most of the community, I'm a nobody, but in BWI, I was huge.

I got into the game for four reasons. First, I was bored. Second, I have enjoyed wrestling since I was a little guy. Third, I really needed a creative outlet, since my job coud be done by a monkey with very little training. And fourth, I needed friends, since all of mine had abandoned me after I got married and figured that I would be no fun anymore. All four of which were satisifed. I could look foreward to every show, got to enjoy wrestling on a much deeper level, was challanged every week to write an angle that everyone could enjoy, and used my e-wrestling as a platform to meet Glenn, Essex, Carmel, and others in the community. I became hooked.

And then came the news on the board that threw me off, the news of the death of BWI. I had known after talking to Glenn at WWE's New Year's Revolution that the future of SWA was in jeapordy, so when I read the news that BWI was closing I had to read it twice. Here, Essex and I had just been talking about expanding the PWF. I wanted to get a merchandise section going, and had even come up with a design idea for a Wildcard shirt. Essex was really talking the closing of SWA, how there could be a draft on BWI radio. We were really commited to the PWF and making it huge. So when I saw the message that it all was closing down, I was naturally very confused. And then I was sad. I was about to lose one of those constants in life. It would have been the same as telling me that I wouldn't be getting a cake for my birthday this year.

I wrote to Essex in a panic. I can't remember what I said, but it was something to the extent of "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He then said something that was slightly reassuring. I thought about it long and hard, and then did something drastic; I offered to take over the BWI. Several hours later, I could have sworn I heard a faint laugh. As is fairly well known, I'm twisted, but most don't understand how twisted I really am, so I'll give an example. The creation of Special ED came from a discussion I was having with somebody, I can't remember who, that we should name the fed WWF. The point was brought up that the name already belonged to the panda foundation. I got the idea of combining them, so we could have wrestling animals. "In this corner, a huge Chinese panda! In this corner, a silverback gorilla!" So, I created a wrestler whose goal in life was to wrestle a panda. I swear, it's like the cast of Rocky Horror Picture Show singing "It's A Small World" in my head most of the time. Hand over the reigns of a wrestling promotion to that? Yeah. "In this corner, Jason Steiner! In this corner, a black bear! OH, GOD! JASON STEINER IS EATING THE BEAR!"

So after I sent Essex the private message, I recieved one back from him. I remember the first line quite well. It wasn't "Hi" or "How you doing" or "I want to have your children", it was "Jordan, chill!" He then proceeded to tell me that he had, in fact, already recieved a few offers on people to take over the fed and it was really just a matter of choosing who. I took that as a really polite way of saying "take your offer and shove it", but maybe it wasn't. Anyway, I took the task of writing my angles for the final show, which I wanted to make sappy but not too much so. After all, Essex has said that the fed was going to continue, just with someone else at the helm. So I made it look like almost all of my characters were sad about the closing, got rid of Hans permanantly, and had Wildcard and Cass say that if there was no BWI, they would no longer wrestle. After all, there would be a BWI, but I felt that to go out there and announce that would cheapen the mood, so the Jacksons bluffed, and I looked at the end of the show waiting for the bluff to be confirmed. It didn't appear at the end of the show, and I waited for the news on the message board. It never came. And then, all the forums disappeared, except for one that was locked. Thus died BWI.

But as I am sitting here, I'm watching my wife play X-Men Mutant Academy for the origional PlayStation on our PS2. She's Pheonix, which I find slightly interresting, for that's what we're seeing in our Zeus-based community. With the news of a dying BWI, suddenly we had new fed owners crawling out of the woodwork. We're even seeing old managers coming back. And suddely, the game's not dead anymore. In fact, if NAWC's first show is any indication, I'd say it's back with a vengance.

But before I close this out, I have two things to say. First, I would like to air my one complaint with BWI. After it died, it really died and there are now no longer any traces of it. That sucks. I say they should at least archive the last pay-per-view and have it accessable to everyone. I think it would be really nice if they could do all the shows, but that might be a little much. The second thing I have to say is to the new fed owners. Guys, so far you have both proven to be good at what you do, so please continue to do it. This is more important to a lot of people than they would usually admit, myself included. I know there are going to be a lot of rough spots, but please endure it in any way that you possibly can. AND, if you're having trouble with your roster, hit me up. If you beg just a little, I might be willing to play for pain once again.

This is Jordan "the Joker" Jewett, and I'm out.

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