Dear Medieval Martial Arts Community;
I am interested in resurrecting the ashes (or the spirit, if you will) of
the World Championship Jousting Association, the recently deceased
tournament group that brought heavy jousters together from all over the
world in Ontario, CA to duke it out in honorable combat with mount and lance
and bolt-on armour augmentations.
Ideally, these new tournaments will be of a somewhat more accurate
historical presentation than was interpreted by the several Dragon's Lair
World Championship Jousting Tournaments, yet still preserve the simple yet
powerful spirit of fun and excitement as portrayed in the movie "A Knight's
Tale" and at past Dragon's Lairs.
Scoring will be period, as per the 1520's Field of the Cloth of Gold Tournament, as on page 192 of Barber/Barker
'Tournaments' and page 54 (and 55!) of Osprey Elite #17 'Knights at
Tournament'.
Arguably, jousts and tilts reached their nadir, zenith or high-water-mark in
popularity in England under the feisty HRM Henry VIII, who regularly and
zealously took part in both mounted and ground combats. This time period also allows us many armor safety advancements.
For the advanced readers, for the look and feel of what I have in mind,
please inspect the plates on pps 170-171, 174-175 and 178-179 of
Barber/Barker 'Tournaments', and plates H,I,J,K in Osprey Elite #17 'Knights
at Tournament'.
Stainless Steel Expressly Allowed. Mild steel gets easily destroyed, so
leave it at home or on the show-and-tell tables. Or if you insist, you can
sign a waiver.
My vision also includes a simultaneous ground-fighting tournament, fought
cap-a-pie with live steel, where the rounds alternate between mounted and
unmounted rounds of combat in the main arena, and pick-ups and unscheduled
matches and other sideshow stuff in sideline lists and areas.
Yes this is like what Jeremy O'Neill and Fred Piraux produce already, no
reason to reinvent the wheel. With rebated steel or aluminum, I am happy to
allow no-holds-barred, with full grappling and submissions. I am happy to
allow to-first-blood also. I asked Jeremy ONeill if he wanted to run this
segment and he grinningly declined and said he would much rather fight in it
than administrate it. I totally understand that!!!
System-wise, I would have a regional tournament for points every ninety days
and one grand event once a year for all participants, to decide an annual
Grand Champion. This is not unlike what we see in the PBR or the UFC, both
of which are groundbreaking sports that have paved the way for this sport to
be brought to the mainstream audience it so richly deserves. Anyone
'Murrican who watches PBR on OLN or UFC on Spike or X-gamez on ESPN2 or The
Contender on ESPN knows the basic idea that I'm on about here. If it looks
like a trend then well duh
- I guess this may be an idea who's time
is nigh? Especially with A Knight's Tale II rumoured to be in production.
Money can't buy better marketing than that.
With 3 regions, if we stagger the regionals, that becomes a tourney a month,
with one central all-hands event then one month off per year. Not at all
impossible from a production company standpoint. This would also generate
enough content for a regular television show based around these combat
sports. With a reality TV show to for fun like the UFC. If Roy Cox will
agree to star in it, it would be like a collision between The Real World,
Survivor, Surviving Nugent and Cowboy U. Only in armor on mighty steeds.
This could also boost North American interest in traditional WMA, helping
local pro studios reach a larger market segment by giving them something to
aspire to - hopefully, large paychecks for pro combatants!!! Note I said
pay not necessarily purses. That is still TBD IMHO.
To this end I have set up a fledgling production company and bought the
domain name www.combatjoust.com.
I feel that similar past and present endeavors have been strangled,
primarily by lack of funding. Like anywhere else, money talks and
bullshit walks. To address that, I am now currently collating material for
presentations and business plans for sponsors, tv execs and investors. I
plan to secure funding first, then go to production, in that order, to
better avoid tragedy and heartache. Save that for that lists.
I want to market the Holy Knights in Shining Armor aspect. Kids and chix
dig that. G-rated at all times. It markets itself to males - no worries
there. So to that affect, combatants will sign a public behavior clause in
their contracts. Act your ass in public and you're fired. Period. Its a
powerful PR thang, so no remorse.
Who wants to play?
Who wants to help in the lists?
Who wants to help in the back office?
Who wants to watch and be rabid fans?
Who can get me 15 minutes in a suitable network executive's office? Sci-Fi,
History, OLN, Spike, ESPN2, ESPN, ESPN8 the Ocho etc...
I tried to add a poll but those only seem to work on OT but I was going to
ask if:
1) This could Work
or
2)This is a Bigger Crack Dream than Pro Dodgeball
Any and all advice at this point is utterly welcome, both positive and
negative. You are the most overall-well-informed single group I could ever
hope to present this to.
Your feedback will be invaluable (even the
stoopid stuff
).
any heretofore unpublished original content or concepts herein
©2006 Knight's Tale Productions USA, aka World Combat Jousting League,
if utilized by same
