Slaughterfest Grandeslamme I

The Slaughterfest Grandeslamme I was the innagural Grandeslamme for Slaughterfest, hosted upon DVNO's Network. As the world was still recovering from the shock and horror of various events that occured during the turn of the century, the hosts at DVNO had begun Slaughterfest as a way of hyper-violent entertainment in simulated enviroments that were created using early Cyberspace technology. It was seen by over a million viewers through early internet streaming, making it the largest pay-per-view event of it's time.

Before Slaughterfest

Earth was in a strange place after the turn of the century. With the beginning of it marred by terrorist attacks, with the Red Skies Incident already having subverted safety and brought about a sense of worry to the world, and with the public being uncertain about what The Unification Accords may bring to the table after it's ratification, people were worried. It was during this time that DVNO, then a upstart cable company with it gaining a fair amount of programs to show, began to seek interest in new forms of entertainment that made use of the upcoming flood of magical entities from other realms.

Enter Lucius Belfry. After leaving Littaeur Magitek Engineering's board of directors with a large sum of money on hand, Lucius had caught wind of DVNO's desire for new entertainment. Using his connections, Lucius would approach DVNO with an offer: using the recently unveiled Cyberspace technology, he would create a gladitorial entertainment program that would be open to not just Humans, but to individuals from other realms as well. It would be akin to wrestling, only with a lot more magic-- and violence-- on hand. Not only that, it'd be safe, as no one would die in the real world, only in the virtual world!¹ Multiple times, infact!

With Slaughterfest beginning it's airings on September 4th, 2004, one could tune in weekly to see a bunch of these competitors fighting to the death in the virtual realms, with the enviroments they would fight in being varied in form and appearance-- often taking on the fantastical in form, such as being atop of a space station, or in burning city streets. The violence on display, while brutal, was intentionally designed to appear much less graphic and brutal as it would be in real life. The effects, as a result, were said to be comparable to that of a M-rated Fighting Game, enough that you wouldn't see anything too horrific.

The Main Event

There were 9 eventss on the docket that resulted from the various scripted storylines that had evolved naturally from the start of Slaughterfest. Four belts were defended during the Grandeslamme: The SF Earth Champion Belt, The SF Inter-realm Belt, The SF Tagteam Belt, and The SF Women's Belt.

Of particular note in these storylines were of Naomi Dawson's rivalry with Cricket reaching it's high point. Playing up an angle between the two involving Cricket's history as a member of The Highwaymen, Naomi and Cricket's storyline involved Naomi claiming that Cricket had unfairly stolen her champion's belt from her during a previous Slaughterfest event. They both would get into kayfabe fights in behind-the-scene segments that were shown in the weeks up to the Grandeslamme, including an incident where Cricket decapitated Naomi with an axe.

Their fight was set into two parts: outer-space and on land. The first part had a lot of brutal moves being done between the two, with fireballs and sparks of lightning being thrown between the two, arms being torn off and then regenerated shortly afterward. This first part would end with the meteor making impact, which would give way to a ruined city-street whereupon the two would continue their duel. This would end after Naomi created a magical bomb that she destroyed Cricket with, winning her the belt.

All of the fights that played on Slaughterfest this night were of a similar nature: a constant shift in enviroment, from raging forest fires to desolate wastelands, from massive icebergs to the frozen depths of the sea, there was something new and different with each display that occured.

Historical Significance

Legacy

Slaughterfest's Grandeslamme was an immediate hit, with the ratings high as people all around Earth tuned in to watch the event. Word spread of the entertainment and violence that was on display, with those from other realms coming out to observe and watch replays and recordings of the event. Within the next month, more eyes were on DVNO than before, which paved the way for further shows to begin showing on the programming, and also guarenteed that Slaughterfest would continue on to this day, even afterThe Withering. People were given something exciting to take their minds off of the state of the world for the time being.

The event was not without it's controversy, however, as many were concerned of the mental health risks for the participants. VR Tech was still fairly new at the time, and because of this, there were a lot of unknowns about the mental scarrings and risks that were at play as a result of it. Post-show reports done by third-parties have shown that a few of the participants had some trauma in regards to the brutal experiences, though these reports would be downplayed for the longest time until the 2020s.²

^{1 - Mostly safe, at the time it had not been properly determined just how safe people's minds were in Cyberspace due to the technology still being in it's infancy.
2 - For more information on the risks that are posed in Virtual Reality, please see the page for Cyberspace.}

Conflict Type

Sports Event

Battlefield Type

Arena

Start Date

April 7th, 2005