LAWLESS Title Plans

[winner3]

Hey guys. Apologies for the delay in trying to figure out how we're introducing out 24/7 AKA LAWLESS Championship Belt. As I've told many people who have inquired in the past, I think it's more important to establish an already-working/healthy championship scene than it is to introduce new belts. In light of the poll @Faeron conducted recently, as well as user interest in events as this belt, we'll be trying to figure this out at our upcoming PPV. Before we get into that, though, I think it's important to establish what the LAWLESS belt actually is and how it's meant to operate in reference to other belts.

So what is a 24/7 belt? How's it work?

So if you follow pro wrestling in real life, you might already have some idea of how these types of championships traditionally work. The idea is that there's a belt that can be defended literally anytime, anywhere, traditionally in hardcore matches where anything is legal, but they don't always have to be hardcore matches. You can decide the match type and it can happen anywhere as long as everyone in the thread is cool with it, and there's a referee present. This typically skews the tone/mood for LAWLESS championship matches towards comedy (matches taking place in silly places under silly circumstances like in the ocean, or in management's office, or in someone's dream) or under more serious circumstances (like in someone's house during an ambush, in a parking lot, an abandoned building, etc). Of course, it's possible for matches to be both silly and hardcore or any to fit any tone or mood for the match that you're going for. The basic idea is that the outlandish/extreme circumstances and the way the wrestlers adapt to them are what keeps it interesting. As long as wrestler brings a ref with them or there's a ref nearby, a match can happen. It's a belt that's meant to change hands often. And it's there to be taken as seriously as the champion takes it.

Starting with this belt, I'm going to be adding blurbs like this to explain each championship and to provide clarity like this to avoid situations where someone thinks a belt is meant to work in a way that it shouldn't.

How does it relate to the other belts?

As stated, the appeal of the LAWLESS Championship is that it can be defended anywhere. And there are many different story possibilities because of that. A jobber can win the belt if she's lucky and happens to find the champion impaired, asleep, or otherwise not 100 percent. A heel champion can defend it closely with help from friends/enforcers/fellow heels. A more cowardly champion can try and hide before a challenger stalks/finds them and somehow rolls them up to win it. These are all just examples but the point is that unlike the weight belts, tag belts, or world belt, winning the LAWLESS belt is not necessarily always a display of skill or a momentous occasion versus a formidable champion, but it is always a display of a wrestler's ability to take advantage of an opportunity or create one.

As such, in LAW canon, it's a lower-midcard singles belt whereas the weight belts are upper-midcard, possibly main event level singles belts. But it is a legitimate accolade nonetheless. Especially if the champion can prove themselves resource and credible in the way they win and defend the belt. Remember, no matter how WWE, NJPW, LAW, or any wrestling company values their belts, a belt's credibility and appeal are always influenced by the quality and star power of the champion and their challengers. Good stories and title matches are what give belts value.

Cool so now that we know what it is and how to be creative with it, how will we determine an inaugural champion?

As I expressed, I wanted to try and introduce/award the belt at our upcoming PPV, currently slated for mid to late December. Historically, we've usually done tournaments to introduce belts. The lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight championships were all introduced using tournaments comprised of wrestlers that won a qualifier match. I think a tournament is a viable idea for this, and it's been recommended to me a couple of times, but I'm going to try something that I feel is slightly more in the spirit of the LAWLESS championship, and will hopefully be less work. Please bear with me and hear me out. If you have any complaints, please feel free to voice them in this thread or to me directly via PM or discord.

LAWLESS Championship Title Hunt

Here's what I'd like to attempt. By now, most users know that our official PPV events are typically divided into a main card and an undercard (if you're unaware, please refer to the PPV explanation thread). Within the main card, I'll be adding another forum where users can post. Within it, I'd like to have every interested user post a thread.

The premise is this: (and I'll include the premise in the forum) in order to boost ratings and competition between wrestlers, LAW's CEO has taken it upon himself to hide the LAWLESS championship somewhere within LAW headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. The building is pretty big, your standard office building in a major city, about 50 floors or so above-ground, a few basement floors. Whichever wrestler finds the belt automatically becomes the inaugural champion.

Your job is to make a singular post highlighting one of your individual, eligible characters arriving at LAW HQ to search for it. You can describe their attitude/outlook on this contest. You can describe who they're hoping to come across and face. Which building entrance they're entering from. You can describe where it is or what floor it is in the building they'll be looking or searching for the belt in. This forum will be open to these types of posts for a month. Each person can post the efforts of one eligible (finished 3 matches) character they own.

Once a month has passed, each post made to this title hunt forum will be entered into a lottery, like a lottery ticket. I'll be using RNG to determine which character actually finds/wins the belt, they'll make a follow-up post in that forum indicating that their character has found and won the LAWLESS championship (the moment would be recorded on television in canon, assume that the production crew and referees are following each of these wrestlers). And from there, they can defend the title against other characters in threads in the special events section. And they'll have many contenders to choose from by checking the title hunt forum. The assumption being that the champion will obviously want to leave the building with their belt and that they'd likely meet the other contenders on their out to defend against. Maybe in the elevator, or on the stairs, in catering, etc.

It gives context to where the belt is run and who they can defend it against right away, which I feel makes it a good idea and easier to accomplish than a tournament. Again, please share your thoughts and let me know if you're excited about the idea or if you're skeptical.