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IWF Prologue The story begins in February 2000. A young 14 year old boy is at his cousin's house when he is introduced to the Zeus 3.0 Wrestling Simulator and to the world of e-wrestling. This boy immediately "fell in love" with the concept and began to experiment with his Zeus Simulator. A few days later, the boy talks to his cousin and decides that he wants to attempt running an e-fed of his own. That 14 year old boy was me, John Lugo. My cousin, Mike introduced me to the game of e-wrestling showing me his e-fed's website hosted on Angelfire.com and introducing me to the Zeus 3.0. Wrestling Simulator. It wasn't long after using the wrestling simulator that I wanted to start up an e-fed of my own. To be honest with you, I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into at first and little did I know that it was going to take all of the dedication and hard-work that it took to keep it alive. With help from my cousin, Mike as the webmaster and assistance from my brother, Chris and my cousin, Rob, the "Iceman Wrestling Federation" was soon born. The IWF was a family-run business at first with me, John Lugo acting as the Owner/President, my cousin, Robert acting as the Vice President and my brother, Chris acting as the commissioner with my cousin, Mike as the webmaster. The Iceman Wrestling Federation was launched on March 18th, 2000 as an e-fed that allowed both real and original characters into the fed. Winners were decided at random at first by the Zeus 3.0 Wrestling Simulator. Two months passed by, I was starting to get used to my duties as the Owner of the fed and more members were coming in. I was being introduced into the concept of roleplaying. It was here that my webmaster, the man who held it together stepped down from his duties. At first, I didn't know what to do. It was my first experience of dissapointment in the game. But it was this moment that may have changed things forever for the better. I decided to continue on with my duties as the IWFs owner and with the help of my vice president, commissioner and my members, the Iceman Wrestling Federation ran under a new regime. We were now beginning to make the transititon from a simulation fed to a roleplaying fed and it was here that many of our members began to see a difference in our writing. As more people came in and roleplayed, and more shows were written, ideas were being exchanged and the IWF's members worked hard to improve their game. I had now assumed the role of being our website's webmaster as well as running the IWF e-fed itself. Before long, a year had passed......and throughout that year, I learned alot about the game of e-wrestling and about life as an e-fed owner but more importantly, I learned alot more about myself. It was March of 2001 and I was 15 years old now. I was maturing as a writer and so were the IWF's roleplayers. Soon afterward, the IWF's Vice President and Commissioner both made the decision to step down from their positions and allow other IWF members to fill the positions. It was here also that the IWF would make the FULL transition to becoming a 100 % roleplay-based e-fed. The wrestling simulator had been dropped as a whole. From there, many of the IWF's future stars developed and began to make a name for themselves. The IWF began to make a name for themselves as well. In December of 2001, the IWF front office made a decision to convert our style once again banning real wrestlers and characters from being used in the IWF. At this point, the IWF would only allow original characters into the fed. The IWF's results were evolving from being brief match summaries to being written out in full detail. Going into the year, 2002....the Iceman Wrestling Federation decided to start off fresh with a name change to the "Icon Wrestling Federation". Many of the show names and names of titles were changed. The IWF's writers were growing further as our old stars were working hard to imrpove their game and our new stars were coming in and making a name for themselves just as the members before them had. Before long, March of 2002 rolled around and the IWF's two year aniversery passed. Looking back, I saw that I had learned just as much in my second year of running the IWF as I had in the first year of IWF. I was learning how to deal with the stresses and hardships of being an e-fed owner, I was learning various different methods on how to improve the IWF as a whole. I was learning how to deal with certain situations and I was learning alot about the other e-feds around me and what they were doing to succeed. In early 2002, the IWF had joined the Sports Entertainment Incorporated Inter-Fed. It was here that the IWF would meet it's rival fed, the EWCL among several other feds involved in the inter-fed. The increased competition pushed us to really work hard and grow further as writers. I learned alot through this experience about competition and alot of the IWF members learned alot as well as new members were coming in from various different e-feds on the internet exchanging their ideas with the IWF's own. The IWF had a certain connection with one of the e-feds in SEi, the EWCL that it didn't have with any of the other feds involved. There was a huge rivalry growing along with an unspoken respect for one another. As the summer months ended in 2002, the SEi began to die and the IWF decided to work with the EWCL's elite to put on our own inter-fed pay per view event in September 2002. The Pay Per View event was properly titled "When Worlds Collide". Along with this, there were several talks about more inter-fed events between the IWF and the EWCL.....and a possible merger between the two feds. Unfortunately as the SEi inter-fed died out and closed, plans for future events did not fall through and the IWF and the EWCL began to drift apart. Or so we thought...... We had made so many friends in the business. There was a friendly OOC atmosphere unlike anything that the IWF had ever seen before. As the IWF moved into the year 2003, the IWF's writers still continued to grow and we began to see the match-writing and roleplaying develop into the masterpieces that they are today. The IWF celebrated it's three year aniversery in March of 2003 with it's annual show, IWF Cyberfest Three. With the performances put on by Cyberfest One in 2001 and Cyberfest Two in 2002, the Cyberfest Pay Per Views were beginning to be seen as the IWF's biggest pay per view of the year. As this passed and the third year passed, I remember feeling relieved. I was so happy that I had accomplished so much and learned so much in this game. I was thankful for the friends that I had made and the fans that the IWF had at this point. The IWF's popularity had reached an all-time high......and I felt no different then I had three years ago when I was starting out. I was still just as passionate about the game then I was when I first started out. I wasn't running my fed for the popularity, I loved the game, I enjoyed writing and I enjoyed watching the people participate in the IWF and enjoy my fed. I took more joy in watching the members have fun and make friends then anything else. I did not regret any of my hard work. A few months after that, we are brought to modern day. I've went through alot of good times with the IWF and I even went through some bad times. Everything that went on in the IWF, I felt was my responsibility. If something went wrong or if somebody started an OOC arguement with somebody, I immediately assumed responsibility in my mind and took fault for it. I put many years of my time into the IWF and I wanted to see it achieve more than anything. I wanted to see the members flourish into great writers and I wanted to see their work acknowledged and respected by the other e-wrestlers on the internet. At the end of 2003, the IWF saw it's end as they decided to enter a merger with their rival federation, the EWCL. The EWCL had many similarities with that of the IWF......and both feds had a common purpose. I call it fate that the two feds crossed paths and found each other as now a new project will begin. New goals are being set and new goals will be achieved. And in the end, I believe that the change and the sacrifices that are being made to continue on with this project are worth it all. I ran the IWF for nearly four years and I do not regret a second of it. I don't hold any kind of bitterness or hatred towards anybody that was involved. Each and every one of you contributed to the IWF's success.....and made it into the phenomonon that it was. I made so many friends through this experience, too much to name and all of you changed my life forever. The IWF was such a big part of my life that I didn't know what I would do without it. The IWF made e-wrestling more than just a hobby for me. And words cannot express how thankful I am of all who have contributed. The IWF has had alot of great moments but now it is time to put the legacy to rest. |
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