This is the final entry, so make sure you’ve read the whole set! Part 1, 2, 3.
I’m once again in my hotel room, racking my brain for a final sample. The freedom of “write anything” can be suffocating in a sense. I first think about doing some kind of Jackass-style rib war between Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler, who were known to be buddies who seemed to exhibit more personality off-camera than on. But I couldn’t really make that work in a way that showed my ability.
So I instead took Brodus Clay, a large and talented newer Superstar, and tried to do a little character development. This isn’t as long a sample as the others, and maybe isn’t much of a grand finale, but I’m proud of how I took a noticeable shift – less big men in wrestling – and used it to build a bitter monster.
Now, I can wax poetic all day about why I wasn’t hired. Did I make a mistake focusing on talent WWE wasn’t interested in pushing, like Brodus and Ryder? Did I botch the “not as good as you think” test that Stephanie set up for me in our interview? Or was there just someone a little bit better who got the job? I’ll never know. I requested but didn’t receive feedback, and that was almost 10 years ago.
Thanks for everyone who joined me on this look back. Writing and wrestling have been 2 of my lifelong passions. I was blessed to get to not just write for 4 WWE games, but create a whole story-based mode for 3 of them. Hoping to have another chance to do something similar in the future!
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