So, for a while now, ever since WWE '12 was announced, i've had some things to think about and some personal decisions to mull over.
Mostly, when it comes to the fact that WWE '12, like every other game before it, has a Character Creation mode and how that history of character creation has played the biggest part in every creative wrestling related thing in my life that i've ever done. Almost 2 decades worth of it.
Firstly, everything i've ever done, all the history and things that my entire cast of characters have grown from, as well as everything in the CWA that ever existed, whether it was a co-production of me and Derek's, and everything i've ever created (or at least featued as a co-invention from the past between me and Derek) in TXA oonwards as well, and everything i've ever done even for the CXA reunion all sprung from one prime source..... WRESTLING VIDEO GAMES.
Mike Rocket, Julie Yafuda, Maria Typhoon, Quadra, Rachel Starr, Karma, Trash, Fatass, Lockdown, HFC, David Erin, ect ect ect ect, plus all of Derek's things like Derek Verona/Vicious.... every bit of that came from video games as far back as WWF War Zone in 1997 and went on from there.
It was a legacy that kept repeating and growing year after year. I'd even go so far as to personally say that the existence and evolution of these characters and the CWA world they came from was more important and owned more of their existance to the video games I played, more than the e-feds that they were a part of. (Although that is where it's world connected to this world and universes that belong to all of you, and I will always be grateful for that major expansion from a self-contained planet of Me and Derek's CWA, from that, into a whole galaxy of canon of the E-Fed CWA, TXA and so on.)
even after Derek long since gave up e-fedding and even doing anything with wrestling as an interest, I kept going with a lot of those things we came up with, and I even invented a lot more since then, for the last bunch of years.
Mike Rocket has a huge history. Karma has a history. Trash has one. Even Rachel Star, Kenny K, and Maria Typhoon built up their own histories, fueds and storied careers, believe it or not. Even Maxine Mars and Vicki Madison for crying out loud, have some story to tell and they aren't even wrestlers.
But then there was CXA Reunion, and to a lot of us, it was an ending or a big chapter closing of sorts.
That has got me to thinking.
Mike Rocket was originally created for the first time, in WWF War Zone. Then created in WWF Attitude. He also appeared in my ECW Hardcore Revolution, Anarchy Rulz, WCW Mayhem, WWF Wrestlemania 2000, No Mercy, Smackdown, Smackdown 2, Smackdown Just Bring It, Smackdown Know Your Role, Here Comes The Pain, SvR, SvR 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.......
That's a lot.
When you look at how far that lasted, that's really kinda major that there was a Mike Rocket, plus a LOT of my characters recreated and evolving time and time and time and time again.
Anyway, blah blah blah... what's my point? Let me get to it.
I'm not sure that there's going to BE a Mike Rocket in WWE '12.
Or a Julie Yafuda. Or Rachel, or Maria, or Kenny K, or Drake Cairo, or Maxine Mars, or Karma, or Derek Vicious, or ANNY OF THAT.
In some ways, this is a difficult thing for me to do. At the very least, I wanted to keep that history and that legacy, those past generations continuing in every video game from now on, but... I'm not so sure anymore. I don't think that can happen. I think it's over for them.
I'm starting to think that a complete day one reboot for me is a possible idea in WWE '12.
But with the ONE character that has been my "main" character for all this time... wel, a part of me thinks of him as real. Not wrestling character real, but as a part of me, real.
However, I'm pretty sure the name is gone. "Mike Rocket" will cease to be. You'll never hear those things again. This history is gone. His personality as we know it, his gimmick, all of these things, I think I am retiring and will never revisit.
Mike Rocket, in a sense may be rebooted as a re-invention, but in a completely non-kayfabe way.
That name is done with, so it will be a different name. Nothing will carry over, not even his attitude. It may end up being the same "behind the kayfabe" person, although aside from basic physical appearance and my own feelings, no one might ever even be able to tell.
The last thing I ever wrote about "Rocket" was in this very forum, in the roleplay section where he walked off and said that there isn't a Mike Rocket anymore. He shed his bitterness after that last match with Steve.
So, in my mind, in WWE '12, I will create a character that looks familiar, but has no traces of that man's history.
A new name. Hell, it might not even be Mike or even Micheal anymore. Hey, he could be a WWE Suuperstar from now on. Maybe "they'll" name him. Maybe he'll start over from day one, fresh slate, due paying, becuase that's what the WWE is.
He might be just that kind of generic jobber to start with. The no-one whose fate is determined by his staying power and whether this "nobody" can cut it from day one as if he never existed to anyone else, before.
But "he" will be the only exception.
Sad as it is, everyone else I ever created is going bye bye. They all had their day and I think that I'm going to have to really stretch myself and start creating new people from the ground up.
This is particularly hard for me to do with my girls. ehe. Julie Yafuda, Rachel Starr, Maria Typhoon, Blackjack, ect.. it's going to be the most difficult for me to say goodbye to them, as they won't even return as reboots.
So, y'know what? WWE '12 came along, and said goodbye to Smackdown vs Raw and they used, at the very least, the derivative of a "Smackdown" name all the way back to 2000. They have the guts to say "It's just WWE now, we're starting over" so I think I might as well try to do that, too.
If you see the guy that used to be Mike Rocket this November when I create him and show him, you probably won't recognize him, it might as well not even BE him, when you see what I have planned. Probably only i'll ever really notice or care to say "yeah that was him in another place and another time"
But if you care and want to see what NEW things I come up with besides him, well, I guess that's something you'll have to see then, when even I work it out.
It's difficult to imagine after 2 decades, hitting the reset button, but after thinking about it, it's what I'm gonna do.
Subject: Regarding the future of all my characters from CWA/TXA/2ZW/Chaos/CXA.... 
Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:07 am
