The First Era of SOS was a time period of the Pre-Booked Sim promotion that began on April 4th, 2005 and ended in October 2005 when SOS announced it was merging with NGSW. The final SOS-hosted show of the era was Proving Grounds #10 on October 4th, 2005.
Info[]
SOS began during this era. This was the only era in which SOS was televised, as episodes of the nationally and internationally syndicated show "Proving Grounds" were shown on many channels around North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, even though it was never officially picked up by a network.
History[]
The SOS website opened on April 4th, 2005. The first show took place on May 14th. Only four wrestlers were present for the show. The Buck, Mercenary, Derek Mayfield and Zach Zero. Still, the small roster showed promise, and over the next several shows, the roster slowly grew.
On the second show, SOS changed the name of its show to Proving Grounds. New wrestlers G-Unit and Meiko Marufuji made their debuts. For show #3, a logo was developed for Proving Grounds. Greatness Personified of Mike Kirkland and Josh Outland arrived on this show, and another top wrestler, Y72, made his debut. SOS had now organized its schedule, for two Proving Grounds shows a month.
But the real growth of SOS had to wait for the fourth show, where SOS had eight matches, a large number of new debuts, and several quality matches as part of SOS’s World Title tournament. From here on, SOS had its first complete roster, with its top stars being Mayfield, Zero, Buck, Mercenary, Y72, Greatness Personified, heavyweight T.H.G. User, and hot young competitor Twist. As well as SOS’s supporting players, newcomer Pete D’Ville, Oscuriad, G-Unit, Meiko Marufuji and others.
Show #5 saw what many consider to be SOS’s match of the year. The Buck vs. Zach Zero vs. T.H.G. User vs. Twist in SOS’s second Four Corner match. Also on this show, tag team CmTp debuted and began a historic feud with Greatness Personified.
On the sixth show, SOS finally crowned its first World Champion. The man who won SOS’s first main event, and was undefeated in SOS so far, Derek Mayfield. SOS as a whole celebrated the crowning of its first champion. Also, another great tag team, The Silver Bloods of Omega Silver and Quick Silver made their debuts. It was what many consider to be SOS’s most exciting time as a company.
This momentum continued on during SOS’s 7th and 8th shows. SOS announced its first Pay Per View, Save Our Souls, and had several feuds brewing leading up to that extravaganza including Silver Bloods vs. Greatness Personified, Twist vs. Y72, T.H.G User vs. G-Unit and Derek Mayfield vs. The Buck. The first SOS Tag Team Champions would be crowned at Save Our Souls.
But once the 9th show came around, the momentum had stopped, almost completely. Interest in SOS was beginning to wane. Only a few writers showed up for the 9th show. The “magic” SOS had, and the success it had enjoyed, seemed to be gone. The 9th show still happened, and Proving Grounds #10 was scheduled. It would only be two more shows until Save Our Souls. Once again, almost every writer no-showed. The quality of matches had slipped as well, even for people who had showed up. The show took nearly a month after the due date to be posted. SOS was in trouble.
Around that time, a few former SOS wrestlers were starting up a new Sim federation called New Generation Sim Wrestling or NGSW. Buck, the owner and booker of SOS, decided to close the SOS website and merge Society of Sim with New Generation Sim Wrestling. Buck would be a co-booker in this new federation, and it would feature several SOS talents as well as other top wrestlers from the Wrestling Sim scene.
The new promotion was a failure. Interest was practically non-existent. Disagreements with Buck and the other bookers over booking and product decisions hurt the new promotion as well, and egos prevented any compromise. Buck immediately knew co-booking with others would not work, and he soon resigned from the new company. Buck thought he, and SOS, were done for good.
Without Buck, NGSW could not survive. It was quickly forced to close down. The SOS era was now a thing of the past.
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