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The Final Countdown

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  1. So this work is continuing (I just posted Wrestlemarinepiad, in fact), but not here. I'm not going to go into a long thing about it, but basically I feel that this forum is no longer a good fit for me. My previous dynasties (aside from my original ROH one) have been deleted. I don't think it was malicious or anything; I'm assuming it was done to free up storage, and it's not like mine were the only ones removed. But if some dynasties from earlier games are being removed, it's probably time for me to bow out. For those of you who won't be reading any of my stuff when I move away from this forum, thanks for reading, commenting and supporting for the last 11 (!) years. If you want to continue following, you can do so at Be the Booker. Here's a direct link (I'm assuming that's okay; if it's not, a mod can feel free to remove it): https://bethebooker.net/thread/263/wcw-heart-soul
  2. No. There will be future updates to this diary (though I'm undecided on whether or not I'll continue to post them to this particular forum.)
  3. <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Oldschool" data-cite="Oldschool" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>4 years running and 197 pages! I have some catching up to do <img alt=":)" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></div></blockquote><p> You're probably better off using the index in the first post if you want to try that; it'll be a lot easier than trying to sift through all of the comments! <img alt=":cool:" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/cool.png.f00d2562b2c1d873a09323753efdb041.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>
  4. <p>Holy flashback! I didn't see this until now because I rarely look into the 2020 subforum, but I had to see what was going on when I saw your name. Welcome back!</p><p> </p><p> This is a really interesting twist. It really does feel like a completely old school product set in the modern day.</p>
  5. July 2004, Week 1 July 5th, 2004 Worldwide taping: Prince Devitt over Rampage Brown, Konnan over Matt Winchester and Mortis over Jaison Moore. Attendance: 12,000 Show Notes: -Sting did more babyface work with Johnny Parisi, and he also gave Rellik some advice on telling better in-ring stories. -Kendrick and Aguila didn’t click at all as opponents. -Paul Heyman came up with a new catch phrase during his backstage segment in Dusty’s office, where he warned TAKA not to get in the way of Samoa Joe “or Joe is going to kill you.” This should help his promos out even more. -This was Nakamura’s tenth successful title defense, meaning he now has the option of vacating the TV title and challenging for the US title, or he can try to make it to fifteen and earn a World title match. -All four guys in the main event did an awesome job, but if I had to pick an MVP of the match it would be Yang. Really says a lot about how far the Dragons have come when they can stand out even when in the ring with Chris Jericho and Lance Storm. “I think you should get rid of Jackie and just focus on me and Trish.” –Amy Dumas “I like Aguila; he’s a solid wrestler.” –Yang “I can’t wait to hear Nakamura get on the mic and sell the beatdown he took tonight.” –CM Punk July 10th, 2004 Show Notes: -Trish Stratus pulled off an impression of former Renaissance road agent Dusty Rhodes that apparently transcended language barriers and entertained the locker room. -Nixxi Roxx and Tanny Mouse seemed to work pretty well as a team. Maybe we should bring in Tanny on a semi-regular basis and use them as an enhancement-level team? “Aja Kong either can’t or won’t sell for anybody anymore. I think her time is over.” –Meiko Satomura Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s): News Updates: Chigusa Nagayo isn’t the only one of our women WWE set their sights on. I was surprised when Kyoko Inoue called me to tell me she was going to take their offer and make the jump without even given me a chance to counter. It’s not a huge loss since she was pretty far down the totem pole, though I was considering turning her heel and reforming her old tag team with Takako Inoue for some depth in our tag division. I guess I should just be happy it wasn’t someone more critical to my plans who blindsided me like this. Unlike guys like Nakamura, Shibata and Wataru Inoue, who found work elsewhere after Antonio Inoki’s short-sighted round of layoffs last year, some of their young dojo graduates have struggled to get regular bookings. Simon Inoki has asked us to take a couple of them in, so we’re signing Hirooki Goto and Naofumi Yamamoto under a sort of makeshift learning excursion. They’ll start off in developmental and then have a stint on our main roster until New Japan decides it’s ready to bring them back and reintroduce them to their fanbase. Chris Jericho recently told me he saw something in fellow Canadian Kevin Steen, and he’s backed it up by taking on both Steen and his partner El Genericho as protégés. Mariko Yoshida signed a 1 year contract extension. Elsewhere in the wrestling world: I’m hearing that the Boy Toy has succeeded in turning a large chunk of the locker room against The Rock. Is Vince really going to sit back and allow HBK to drive off his biggest attraction? Chyna has now left WWE, thinning out their women’s division even more. It’s ironic that she stayed around for all those years after Hunter cheated on her with Stephanie only to leave after they split up. WWE continued to sign up some new (old) talent, bringing in Vader and Fit Finlay. NJPW’s PPVs air via PPV in Australia via the Main Event service, and now their weekly World Pro Wrestling show will be made available to Australians via the same service. I’m not sure how many buys they’re going to get for a weekly TV show in Australia, but it’s better than nothing. New Japan brought in recent dojo graduate Yujiro Takahashi as a young lion, and Masahiro Chono immediately took him on as a protégé. <hr noshade size=3> Hall of Champions: <hr noshade size=3> This is the beginning of what is normally the six month long prediction contest to decide the eight people who get to do the UFS draft. I'll need to figure out an alternative format to run the draft this year though, both because the Special Dynasty section is gone and because this thing is now being crossposted to BTB as well. Maybe Discord is the answer? Open to ideas on how to handle this. No; he's just in terminal decline so I want to keep him out of the ring as much as possible. He might have an occasional match when the story calls for it though. Welcome back! All about star quality. Mortis: 84 Dustin: 76 Eddie: 73 Mortis and Unnatural are at about the same level pop wise now; Dustin was ahead after beating Austin and Goldberg in back to back months but now he’s pretty much right at the same level as Mortis. Eddie is behind them both, but obviously the star quality of Eddie and Dustin will keep them from ever factoring into national battles.
  6. Normally I'd say Hiromu would have no chance here, but I actually think he'll take this. My reasoning for that is: -I think Jay White was the original planned winner, and obviously he's unavailable. -I think they'll use this as a way to get back to the Naito/Hiromu match we were supposed to see at the Anniversary show.
  7. <p><span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>June 2004, Week 4</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="5syC0e6.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/5syC0e6.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>June 21st, 2004</strong></p><p> <em>Worldwide taping: Three Wise Men over The Young Bucks, Volador Jr. over TJ Perkins in a Cruiserweight Shootout qualifying match and Shane Helms over Rampage Brown.</em></p><p><em> Attendance: 15,000</em></p><p> <img alt="Wjt6wqT.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/Wjt6wqT.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -In his first night back from rehab and then a brief vacation, Sting worked on babyface fire with his protégé Johnny Parisi in case the latter ever turns, and also gave Rellik some promo tips (though the former Johnny the Bull will have Father Isaac doing his talking for him right now.) I also worked with TJ on promos alongside Regal doing the same with Rampage Brown, and then he and Danielson went over heel tactics.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Sting’s new gimmick of a wholesome, fan favorite authority figure got a great response.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -El Generico broke a few ribs during his match with Eric Young. He should be good to go by Bash at the Beach but we’ll probably hold him out of action until then.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Johnny the Bull’s heel turn upon his reintroduction was a complete success, and his switch to the mysterious brute character of Rellik got an above average reaction from the fans.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> “I think Kevin Steen’s going to be a really great talker eventually.” –Chris Jericho</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="JJBwRaP.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/JJBwRaP.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>June 26th, 2004</strong></p><p> <img alt="5s2iDUK.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/5s2iDUK.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -Daffney brought in some cards for the girls to play before the show.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Aja Kong apparently didn’t clean up a mess she made backstage, and Charles Robinson took it upon himself to bring her before the court. He told her to clean up the mess and buy drinks for everyone after the show, which I hear Aja took gracefully.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Takako Inoue hurt her knee during the match. It doesn’t seem too serious but we might need to think about pulling her from her PPV match.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s):</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="KyOxMWn.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/KyOxMWn.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>July 11th, 2004<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Madison Eagles vs. Takako Inoue</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Alexis Laree and Allison Corino vs. Wesna Busic and The Beautiful Nightmare</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chigusa Nagayo and Momoe Nakanishi vs. The Darkess (Daffney and LuFisto)</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>The Women’s Revolution (Amy and Jacqueline) vs. Our Generation (©) for the Women’s World Tag Team Championship</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Manami Toyota vs. Trish Stratus</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Meiko Satomura vs. Akira Hokuto (©) for the Women’s World Championship</strong></p><p> </p><p> Card subject to change. Please do not submit your predictions at this time.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> <img alt="AX4zxHK.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/AX4zxHK.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>July 25th, 2004<p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Steven Regal vs. Bryan Danielson (©) in a No Time Limit match for the United States Championship</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Goldberg vs. The Unnatural in a Steel Cage match</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Eddie Guerrero vs. CM Punk (©) for the World Championship</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> Card subject to change. Please do not submit your predictions at this time.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>News Updates:</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>”Bret, I’ve been thinking about what we need to do about Jeff Hardy after he gets out of rehab.”<p> </p><p> “Oh?” The straight edge CM Punk had been thinking about ‘what to do’ when Jeff Hardy returned from his drug rehab? That didn’t sound good.</p><p> </p><p> “Yeah,” he went on, oblivious to my concern. “Now that I’ve re-signed and I’m here for the long haul, I’m thinking a lot about WCW’s future. Jeff should be a big part of that, but if he lets drugs get in the way it might hold him back from being what he should be, and what we need him to be.”</p><p> </p><p> “So what do you think we should do?” I asked. This conversation wasn’t going the way I feared it might, which was a relief.</p><p> </p><p> “I think you’ve done what you can for now,” Punk said. “Sending him to rehab was the right move, for him and for the company in the long run, even if it hurt us in the moment. Now I’m going to try and help too. I’d like to think that there’s already a mutual respect there from the great rivalry he and Matt had with me and Lance, but when he gets back I’m going to take it a step further. I’m going to be there as a friend, somebody to keep him on the straight and narrow, you know?”</p><p> </p><p> “Sounds good to me,” I said, shaking Punk’s hand. These two might be the two most important pieces of the puzzle for the next decade, so if Punk could help Jeff keep his head on straight that would be for everyone’s benefit. “Do your best.” </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Dusty Rhodes signed a 2 year extension with us. Whether as a road agent or now as an onscreen authority figure, The Dream still has a lot to give.</p><p> </p><p> Gail Kim seemed to think she’d learned as much as she was going to in developmental and requested a call-up.</p><p> </p><p> Dawn Marie announced her engagement to boyfriend Simon Diamond, a recent WWE developmental signing. For some reason I thought they got engaged a long time ago.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Elsewhere in the wrestling world:</span></p><p> </p><p> WWE ran their inaugural Money in the Bank PPV in Milwaukee. RVD beat Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, Edge, Christian and Chris Benoit in a ladder match to grab the briefcase and earn a shot at either the WWE or ECW world title whenever he wants it over the next year. That was an 86 rated main event, narrowly below the 87 rated semi main where Kane retained the ECW title over Kurt Angle. Triple H beat Hogan to retain the WWE title just before that in an 82 rated match, but the bigger story there was Rock beating Hunter down after the match, maybe to set up the title feud for Summerslam? Other notables from the show were WWE giving big wins to a couple of big muscular dudes. Leviathan beat Raven to win the ECW TV title, his first championship in the business. Brock Lesnar came up with an even bigger win, knocking off The Undertaker in a 92 rated match, the best of the night. That could signal the elevation of him into a legitimate main event guy. The show got an 88 score overall, an improvement on last month’s Hardcore Heaven.</p><p> </p><p> WWE has risen back up to International status according to the Observer, which I’m sure Vince is crowing about even if he pretends not to read it. This puts us both beyond a national level at the same time for the first time since I took over WCW.</p><p> </p><p> Maybe in response to their bump in size, WWE brought back Hardcore Holly.</p><p> </p><p> ECW Hardcore TV got bumped down to a later time slot on Nippon TV in Japan, I guess because they weren’t pleased with the ratings or the show quality. Ouch.</p><p> </p><p> All Japan ran their Super Power Series PPV. Toshiaki Kawada retained the Triple Crown over Keiji Mutoh in a great 95 rated main event, but that match was so far above anything else all night that the show overall only got an 82 score. Even so, this was still their best PPV of 2004 so far, and in fact their best since April of last year.</p><p> </p><p> Zero One had a PPV called Strength Fire 10 (huh?) Shinya Hashimoto and Otani wrestled to a time limit draw with Brian Adams and Funaki in an odd main event that pulled an 86 rating. That was definitely poor card management though because the semi main event and match of the night, Ken Shamrock’s submission victory over Katsuyori Shibata (94) blew it out of the water. The show overall pulled off an 84.</p><p> </p><p> Pro Wrestling Unplugged will no longer be running shows. They were a promotion who operated out of the Tri State and ran an indy high spot style. They never drew 300 fans to any show, so I guess they just weren’t selling enough tickets to offset operating costs.</p><p> </p><p> Rocco Rock officially retired. I had approached him with the idea of doing a little farewell run for Public Enemy but he flatly refused to work on any B-level TV shows, so I decided against it.</p><p> </p><p> Dustin’s ex wife Terri split up with the guy she’d been dating from outside the business.</p><p> </p><p> Randy Orton won a recent online poll as the best young prospect in wrestling. To WWE’s credit they’ve gotten behind him quite a bit faster than they did with Brock Lesnar upon call-up. He’s lost more than he’s won, but he’s been rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest stars they’ve got. He’s being presented as an upper midcarder with plenty of upside.</p><p> </p><p> The Observer put out their current front-runners for their year-end awards now that we’re at the halfway point, and if the list holds up we won’t be coming away with as many accolades as in 2003. They’ve got Rock as Wrestler of the Year, NOAH as best company, Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa as tag team, Ricky Marvin for young wrestler and Akira Taue for veteran. They do have us in the lead for best match (The Dangerous Alliance against Austin and Mysterio on Nitro), show (Great American Bash) and female wrestler (Meiko Satomura), so we wouldn’t be getting shut out completely if the awards were handed out now.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <hr noshade size=3></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="font-size:24px;"><span style="color:#0000FF;">National Battle Report: July 2004</span></span></strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><img alt="ebDwXEW.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/ebDwXEW.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><p> <span style="color:#FF0000;"><span style="font-size:18px;">USA</span></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>#1:</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="7AiYO6E.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/7AiYO6E.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>World Wrestling Entertainment</strong></p><p> </p><p> <em>Top 5 Stars:</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> 1) The Rock (1000 points)</em></p><p><em> 2) Rob Van Dam (844)</em></p><p><em> 3) Triple H (818)</em></p><p><em> 4) Hollywood Hogan (806)</em></p><p><em> 5) The Undertaker (799) </em></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Total Points: 4,267</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>#2:</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="FlfrjkH.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/FlfrjkH.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>World Championship Wrestling</strong></p><p> </p><p> <em>Top 5 Stars:</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> 1) Bill Goldberg (990)</em></p><p><em> 2) CM Punk (827)</em></p><p><em> 3) Mortis (756)</em></p><p><em> 4) Rey Mysterio Jr. (735)</em></p><p><em> 5) Trish Stratus (698)</em></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Total Points: 4,006</strong></p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><img alt="ieBLbQ1.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/ieBLbQ1.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><p> <span style="color:#FF0000;"><span style="font-size:18px;">British Isles</span></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>#1:</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="7AiYO6E.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/7AiYO6E.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>World Wrestling Entertainment</strong></p><p> </p><p> <em>Top 5 Stars:</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> 1) The Rock (1000 points)</em></p><p><em> 2) Rob Van Dam (842)</em></p><p><em> 3) Hollywood Hogan (833)</em></p><p><em> 4) Triple H (810)</em></p><p><em> 5) The Undertaker (801) </em></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Total Points: 4,286</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>#2:</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="FlfrjkH.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/FlfrjkH.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>World Championship Wrestling</strong></p><p> </p><p> <em>Top 5 Stars:</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> 1) Bill Goldberg (990)</em></p><p><em> 2) CM Punk (824)</em></p><p><em> 3) Mortis (758)</em></p><p><em> 4) Rey Mysterio Jr. (734)</em></p><p><em> 5) Trish Stratus (698) </em></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Total Points: 4,004</strong></p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><img alt="1eeVS9d.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/1eeVS9d.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><p> <span style="color:#FF0000;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Japan</span></span></p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>#1:</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="7AiYO6E.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/7AiYO6E.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>World Wrestling Entertainment</strong></p><p> </p><p> <em>Top 5 Stars:</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> 1) The Rock (1000 points)</em></p><p><em> 2) Rob Van Dam (844)</em></p><p><em> 3) Triple H (829)</em></p><p><em> 4) The Undertaker (790)</em></p><p><em> 5) Hollywood Hogan (785)</em></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Total Points: 4,248</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>#2:</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="FlfrjkH.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/FlfrjkH.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>World Championship Wrestling</strong></p><p> </p><p> <em>Top 5 Stars:</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> 1) Bill Goldberg (977)</em></p><p><em> 2) CM Punk (849)</em></p><p><em> 3) Mortis (754)</em></p><p><em> 4) Chigusa Nagayo (741)</em></p><p><em> 5) Rey Mysterio Jr. (737)</em></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Total Points: 4,058</strong></p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><img alt="mUExTtD.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/mUExTtD.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><p> <span style="color:#FF0000;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Europe</span></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>#1:</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="7AiYO6E.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/7AiYO6E.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>World Wrestling Entertainment</strong></p><p> </p><p> <em>Top 5 Stars:</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> 1) The Rock (1000 points)</em></p><p><em> 2) Rob Van Dam (842)</em></p><p><em> 3) Triple H (816)</em></p><p><em> 4) Hollywood Hogan (814)</em></p><p><em> 5) The Undertaker (801)</em></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Total Points: 4,273</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>#2:</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="FlfrjkH.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/FlfrjkH.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>World Championship Wrestling</strong></p><p> </p><p> <em>Top 5 Stars:</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> 1) Bill Goldberg (952)</em></p><p><em> 2) CM Punk (826)</em></p><p><em> 3) Mortis (748)</em></p><p><em> 4) Rey Mysterio Jr. (735)</em></p><p><em> 5) Trish Stratus (697) </em></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Total Points: 3,958</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> <hr noshade size=3></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> Thanks to K-Nection for whipping up a brand new, far cleaner-looking logo for Wrestlemarinepiad to replace the one AJW used!</p><p> </p><p> The CM Punk-Jeff Hardy strong friendship, as well as the reasoning behind it, are courtesy of Ian Carlisle. Happy0wns booked MITB, and Brock Lesnar and Batista got nice little bumps in popularity out of it.</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="DHK1989" data-cite="DHK1989" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Has anyone shown interest in Scott Steiner yet?</div></blockquote><p> Not yet, but he's still in rehab so I'm assuming no one would sign him until after that.</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="smartman" data-cite="smartman" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I'd doubt it. This is 2016, and the AI ditched anyone that would be on the time decline list, which should be him.</div></blockquote><p> Flair was in horrible time decline and the WWE AI still scooped him up and is booking him like a main eventer, though maybe he's an exception? But I don't think Scott ever showed up on the time decline list anyway, at least not yet. Rick Steiner definitely did, but not Scott as far as I remember.</p>
  8. <p><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Hall of Champions:</span></span></strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><img alt="5syC0e6.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/5syC0e6.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">World Heavyweight Champion:</span></strong></p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/haJKoFv.jpg</span></p><p> <strong>CM Punk</strong></p><p> <img alt="IyPxuzp.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/IyPxuzp.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>Won:</strong> April 11th, 2004 from The Unnatural at Clash of the Champions in Melbourne, Australia</p><p> </p><p> <em>Previous Champions (since March 2001):</em></p><p> The Unnatural: June 15th, 2003-April 11th, 2004 (301 days)</p><p> Rey Mysterio Jr.: December 29th, 2002-June 15th, 2003 (168 days)</p><p> Booker T (#5): May 19th, 2002-December 29th, 2002 (224 days)</p><p> Rob Van Dam: December 30th, 2001-May 19th, 2002 (140 days)</p><p> Scott Steiner (#2): July 15th, 2001-December 30th, 2001 (168 days)</p><p> Booker T (#4): March 26th, 2001-July 15th, 2001 (111 days)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">United States Heavyweight Champion:</span></strong></p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/mitTbCm.jpg</span></p><p> <strong>Bryan Danielson</strong></p><p> <img alt="lAlFtSW.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/lAlFtSW.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>Won:</strong> April 11th, 2004 from Rob Van Dam at Clash of the Champions in Melbourne, Australia</p><p> </p><p> <em>Previous Champions (since March 2001):</em></p><p> Rob Van Dam: September 21st, 2003-April 11th, 2004 (203 days)</p><p> AJ Styles: December 29th, 2002-September 21st, 2003 (266 days)</p><p> Shane Douglas (#2): April 1st, 2002-December 29th, 2002 (272 days)</p><p> Rey Misterio Jr (#2): October 14th, 2001-April 1st, 2002 (169 days)</p><p> Kanyon: August 5th, 2001-October 14th, 2001 (70 days)</p><p> Rey Misterio Jr: May 13th, 2001-August 5th, 2001 (85 days)</p><p> Booker T: March 18th, 2001-April 30th, 2001 (44 days)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">World Television Champion:</span></strong></p><p> <img alt="rrRBDgP.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/rrRBDgP.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>Shinsuke Nakamura</strong></p><p> <img alt="k8UIH2T.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/k8UIH2T.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>Won:</strong> April 11th, 2004 from Hayabusa at Clash of the Champions in Melbourne, Australia</p><p> </p><p> <em>Previous Champions (since July 2002):</em></p><p> Hayabusa: April 5th, 2004-April 11th,2004 (6 days)</p><p> Brian Kendrick: January 19th, 2004-April 5th, 2004 (77 days)</p><p> ((Hardy reached the maximum fifteen title defenses, thus vacating the title on 1/19/04 and earning a World Heavyweight Championship match))</p><p> Matt Hardy: October 19th, 2003-January 19th, 2004 (92 days)</p><p> Bobby Roode: August 24th, 2003-October 19th, 2003 (56 days)</p><p> ((O'Haire reached the maximum fifteen title defenses, thus vacating the title on 7/21/03 and earning a World Heavyweight Championship match))</p><p> Sean O'Haire: January 26th, 2003-July 21st, 2003 (176 days)</p><p> Fit Finlay (#2): July 29th, 2002-January 26th, 2003 (181 days)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">World Tag Team Champions:</span></strong></p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/S0cu0uO.jpg</span></p><p> <strong>The Dangerous Alliance (Sean O’Haire and Shane Douglas, #4 for O’Haire, #3 for Douglas)</strong></p><p> <img alt="c5XJDHD.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/c5XJDHD.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><img alt="eTShQmA.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/eTShQmA.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>Won:</strong> June 14th, 2004 from Lance Storm in a handicap match on Monday Nitro in New York City, New York</p><p> </p><p> <em>Previous Champions (since March 2001):</em></p><p> True Heroes (Lance Storm and CM Punk) (#3): December 28th, 2003-June 14th, 2004 (169 days)</p><p> Salvation (Mortis, Alexander and The Destroyer): August 24th, 2003-December 28th, 2003 (126 days)</p><p> Christopher Daniels and Brian Adams (#3 for Adams): June 15th, 2003-August 24th, 2003 (70 days)</p><p> The Hardys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) (#2): December 29th, 2002-June 15th, 2003 (168 days)</p><p> True Heroes (Lance Storm and CM Punk) (#2): October 27th, 2002-December 29th, 2002 (63 days)</p><p> The Hardys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy): July 14th, 2002-October 27th, 2002 (105 days)</p><p> True Heroes (Lance Storm and CM Punk): December 30th, 2001-July 14th, 2002 (196 days)</p><p> The Natural Born Thrillers (Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire): January 14th, 2001-December 30th, 2001 (351 days)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Unified Junior Heavyweight Champion:</span></strong></p><p> <img alt="bNOS1V5.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/bNOS1V5.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><span>http://i.imgur.com/u0cJ04Z.jpg</span><img alt="g2XT5xO.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/g2XT5xO.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <em>((This is a championship jointly sanctioned by and defended in New Japan Pro Wrestling and WCW, comprised of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight, WCW Cruiserweight and UWA Welterweight titles.))</em></p><p> <strong>Koji Kanemoto</strong></p><p> <img alt="hRx2BNM.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/hRx2BNM.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>Won:</strong> June 4th, 2004 in a title unification match against TAKA at NJPW Best of the Super Juniors in Toda,Japan</p><p> </p><p> <em>Previous Champions (since June 2004):</em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><span style="color:#FF0000;">ANNUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:</span></span></strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Mayhem Battle Royal (held every May):</span></strong></p><p> <img alt="i915ufn.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/i915ufn.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>2004:</strong> King Corino</p><p> <strong>2003:</strong> Eddie Guerrero</p><p> <strong>2002:</strong> Diamond Dallas Page</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Stu Hart Classic Tournament (held every November):</span></strong></p><p> <img alt="305ySKD.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/305ySKD.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>2003:</strong> Jeff Hardy</p><p> <strong>2002:</strong> Rey Mysterio Jr.</p><p> <strong>2001:</strong> Rob Van Dam</p><p> </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><strong><span style="font-size:14px;">The Ultimate Fan Series</span></strong><p> </p><p> <strong>2004:</strong> The Dead Jesters, managed by Marshal Van Black (The Enigma (replacing Steve Austin), Eddie Guerrero, Akira Hokuto, Shane Douglas and Christopher Daniels)</p><p> </p><p> <strong>2003:</strong> Satyr's Hopeful Few, managed by Satyr24 (Mortis, The Unnatural, Alexander, Christopher Daniels and Melissa Anderson)</p><p> </p><p> <strong>2002:</strong> The Agents of Chaos, managed by Beejus Pilgrim (Scott Steiner, Rick Steiner, Mark Jindrak and Dustin Rhodes)</p><p> </p><p> <strong>2001:</strong> The K-Nections, managed by Kevin Gaines (Booker T, Sting, AJ Styles and Alex Wright)</p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#808080;"><strong><em>1989?</em></strong></span><span style="color:#808080;"><em> Championship Pedigree, managed by Bernie Klein (Hulk Hogan, Ted DiBiase, Tito Santana, Robert Gibson and The Rougeau Brothers)</em></span> </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <hr noshade size=3></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="joshspicer" data-cite="joshspicer" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>With the way their conversations are going I could eventually see these "Vince Calls Bret" segments turning into two old men just doing it for the show but losing all sense of competition and just having conversations about business and maybe even more.<p> </p><p> If things with Stephanie end up working out, who knows?</p></div></blockquote><p> Bret marrying Stephanie and forming a true wrestling dynasty would be quite an interesting epilogue to this story! <img alt=":eek:" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/eek.png.0e09df00fa222c85760b9bc1700b5405.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="GingeyOne" data-cite="GingeyOne" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Eugh! I wrote down my predictions and must have timed out and not posted them!<p> </p><p> Really good show, would have absolutely watched that one start to finish!</p><p> </p><p> Love that Regal has shown up to work and help and be a positive force for your locker room.</p><p> </p><p> Great storytelling with Jericho trying to interject with the True Heroes story, could lead to many options!</p></div></blockquote><p> I love that Regal is giving Danielson little stat boots; as if he needs them! But by all means, turn this already awesome worker into an even better one! <img alt=":D" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="olivertaylor276" data-cite="olivertaylor276" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><p> </p><p> I got a kick out of this lol</p></div></blockquote><p> Goldberg teaching anyone psychology is interesting.</p>
  9. <p><span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>June 2004, Week 3</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="5syC0e6.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/5syC0e6.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>June 14th, 2004</strong></p><p> <em>Worldwide taping: Hayabusa over Mark Copani, Great Sasuke over Shad Gaspard and Three Wise Men over Johnny Kashmere and Eddie Kingston.</em></p><p><em> Attendance: 20,000</em></p><p> <img alt="fxR49Fx.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/fxR49Fx.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -Johnny Parisi set up a poker tournament for the boys before the show.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Before the show, Goldberg worked on psychology with Dan Maff, while Regal had Danielson cut a practice promo before having Rampage Brown do some bumping drills.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Nakamura and Steve Blackman worked pretty well together as opponents.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Chavo’s heel turn was a complete success. He should slot in well with Uncle Eddie.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Petey Williams re-debuted as a heel with a prima donna gimmick, and I think it did okay with the fans.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -The lack of selling and psychology really hurt the Goldberg/Mortis main event.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -NBC and Televisa were once again unhappy with the fan response to this show, largely thanks to the main event. We’re going to have to put more thought into the caliber of talent we put in the main event spot, or more specifically their ability to tell in-ring stories.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="JJBwRaP.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/JJBwRaP.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>June 19th, 2004</strong></p><p> <img alt="3EIb3V1.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/3EIb3V1.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -The wholesome underdog character of Nikki Roxx apparently got an average response from the fans during her dark match debut.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> “I just don’t see it with Madison Eagles.” –Amy Dumas</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> “I know she just started with us, but I’m not sure that Nikki Roxx gets it.” –Nattie Neidhart</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s):</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="klaxpOp.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/klaxpOp.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>July 11th, 2004<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chigusa Nagayo and Momoe Nakanishi vs. The Darkess (Daffney and LuFisto)</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>The Women’s Revolution (Amy and Jacqueline) vs. Our Generation (©) for the Women’s World Tag Team Championship</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Manami Toyota vs. Trish Stratus</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Meiko Satomura vs. Akira Hokuto (©) for the Women’s World Championship</strong></p><p> </p><p> Card subject to change. Please do not submit your predictions at this time.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> <img alt="AX4zxHK.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/AX4zxHK.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>July 25th, 2004<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Goldberg vs. The Unnatural in a Steel Cage match</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> Card subject to change. Please do not submit your predictions at this time.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>News Updates:</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>”You know Bret, I’m really thinking I could use someone new to bolster my Divas division.”<p> </p><p> “What, not even a hello, Vince?” I said into the phone. “And maybe you wouldn’t need to go hire anybody if you’d bothered to try and re-sign Trish, Lita or Jackie.”</p><p> </p><p> “Be that as it may, I think we’re in the market for a new Diva,” he said. “And since signing Rob Van Dam has worked out so well for us, I figure we might as well take the best that you can offer once again.”</p><p> </p><p> “What’re you getting at?” I asked. We’d only recently fended off an attempt to steal Manami Toyota, who is locked into WCW for the next three and a half years, Akira Hokuto still has almost two years left on her deal and Meiko Satomura isn’t due for a renegotiation just yet. That was our new big three as far as I was concerned.</p><p> </p><p> “I understand this Chig—Chis—“ he cleared his throat, and I could picture him looking down at the paper in front of him. “This Ms. Nagayo of yours has been a real household name in Japan for years. Real star. But I’m betting she could be an even bigger one if she came to work for me. Wouldn’t that be interesting, huh?”</p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Elsewhere in the wrestling world:</span></p><p> </p><p> NOAH held their next PPV, For the Warriors Fell, in front of over 30 thousand fans in the Seibu Dome. Jun Akiyama retained the GHC Heavyweight title over Gran Naniwa in a 93 rated semi main event which took MOTN honors. The main event slot went to Chris Candido and Akira Taue winning a tag bout against Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa, which got a 91 score. A good main event, but the peculiar match placement didn’t exactly work out. The show got an 89 grade overall, which ranks pretty much in the middle of their big shows so far this year. The show also featured a Junior Heavyweight tag title change, with the team of Dissident Movement winning the vacant belts against Yoshinobu Kanemaru and W*ING Kanemura.</p><p> </p><p> “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton announced his retirement from the ring.</p><p> </p><p> <hr noshade size=3></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div> Great American Bash 04 Tallies<p> </p><p> PhenomenalV1: 11</p><p> Ian carlisle: 11</p><p> </p><p> DGenerationMC: 10</p><p> Satyr24: 10</p><p> Asaemon: 10</p><p> Bockwinkel: 10</p><p> </p><p> Happy0wns: 9</p><p> rateddc: 9</p><p> SkipMartin: 9</p><p> crackerjack: 9</p><p> cmhunk: 9</p><p> </p><p> Dead_Jester: 8</p><p> JMike: 8</p><p> olivertaylor276: 8</p><p> Danny_H22: 8</p><p> Beejus: 8</p><p> </p><p> joshspicer: 7</p><p> Ry guy 64: 7</p><p> Kijar: 7</p><p> DHK1989: 7</p><p> franticloser: 7</p><p> odan: 7</p><p> SagaJoestar: 7</p><p> Nobby_McDonald: 7</p><p> K-Nection: 7</p><p> whodatnation12: 7</p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Final Standings in prediction contest after 4 shows:<p> </p><p> Happy0wns: 30</p><p> </p><p> Ian carlisle: 29</p><p> </p><p> Satyr24: 28 (26:00)</p><p> cmhunk: 28 (28:44)</p><p> </p><p> Dead_Jester: 27</p><p> </p><p> crackerjack: 26</p><p> </p><p> DGenerationMC: 25</p><p> JMike: 25</p><p> Danny H22: 25</p><p> </p><p> DHK1989: 24</p><p> franticloser: 24</p><p> Asaemon: 24</p><p> </p><p> rateddc: 23</p><p> odan: 23</p><p> </p><p> Kijar: 22</p><p> </p><p> Beejus: 21</p><p> </p><p> SagaJoestar: 20</p><p> </p><p> joshspicer: 19</p><p> </p><p> GingeyOne: 16</p><p> </p><p> olivertaylor276: 15</p><p> K-Nection: 15</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> The Lariat: 13</p><p> SkipMartin: 13</p><p> </p><p> Nobby_McDonald: 12</p><p> </p><p> PhenomenalV1: 11</p><p> </p><p> Bockwinkel: 10</p><p> </p><p> Ry guy 64: 7</p><p> whodatnation12: 7</p><p> </p><p> Bagins: 5</p><p> </p><p> smw88: 4</p><p> ComicFighter: 4</p><p> </p><p> cbacon87: 1</p><p> Chaossy: 1</p><p> Wolfman84: 1</p><p> deanohbk: 1</p><p> sportsfanmas: 1</p><p> BHK6: 1</p><p> ElectricX: 1</p><p> WilburTrey: 1</p><p> Forrest01: 1</p><p> </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> <hr noshade size=3></p><p> </p><p> Thanks once again to DHK1989 for tallying the GDS portion of these predictions, and also to K-Nection for the Great American Bash poster.</p>
  10. June 13th, 2004 From Yankee Stadium in New York City Attendance: 50,665 Announce Team: "The Professor" Mike Tenay and Bret "The Hitman" Hart Joining Tony Schiavone, Don Callis and Maria Kanellis on tonight’s panel are special guests Matt Hardy and Tammy Sytch http://i.imgur.com/S0cu0uO.jpg Steenerico vs. True Heroes (©) for the World Tag Team Championship We started off with this match to give Punk as much of a rest as possible in between this and his main event (both in kayfabe and in reality.) The Heroes turned in another excellent outing here, but Steen and Generico aren’t really at that level yet and it showed. Steen in particular struggled to hold up his end of the performance. The match was a decent way to begin the show, but nowhere near the caliber of title match we’re used to seeing from the Heroes. The story that unfolded in this match was Punk coming up limping after a leap frog, which Steen and Generico exploited throughout the rest of the match. Lance took the bulk of the work from there and forced Generico to tap out to the Calgary Clutch, but the story after the match was Punk needing to be helped to the back. AJ Styles vs. Prince Devitt This was a big opportunity for Devitt, but results were mixed. The match was good enough to keep building the crowd up, but came in far below expectations. Part of the problem was that AJ and Fergal didn’t seem to work too well together, mistiming some things and not communicating very well. AJ won a so-so match after 9 and a half minutes with the Styles Clash. AJ kept beating on him after the match until Randy Savage came out, talked to him and led him to the back. The Shooting Stars vs. Jung Dragons vs. Made in Italy This was an exciting, fast-paced match, with all three teams shining and getting some great moments throughout. If there was a ‘weak link’ it was Teddy Hart, but he was fine honestly; it was just that everyone else did such a great job. While all three valets bickered at ringside, the Dragons picked up the win by double teaming Tony Mamaluke and hitting him with the Objection. But while the Dragons won, Dawn Marie got a bit of revenge on Stacy after the match by revealing that SHE was going to be on the poster for next month’s Bash at the Beach PPV, which Stacy did not react well to. Shane Helms vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (©) for the World Television Championship The attempt to build Nakamura into a sensation continues. This was a decent enough match that did what it was supposed to do, which was give Shinsuke another notable win when he forced Helms to tap out to the cross armbreaker. This was Nakamura’s 7th title defense, meaning he could potentially vacate the title and go for the US belt if he makes three more. We cut to Dusty Rhodes dropping by the trainer’s room to check on CM Punk. The trainer seemed concerned about his knee, but Punk insisted that he was going to defend his title tonight. Considering the alternative was forfeiting the match and vacating the title, Punk said he wasn’t going to walk away from this if he could help it. The trainer had his concerns but said he could compete if he was willing to risk it. Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Eddie Guerrero This was a match here largely to set things up for later, but the Guerreros produced a sneaky great match together. It was nearly fifteen minutes of great action that the crowd gave a decent reaction to, with Chavo trying to shake off his recent struggles and get a huge win over his uncle. Ultimately he came up short though, and took a clean loss after a frog splash. Afterwards Eddie helped his nephew up off of the mat and walked to the back with him, which had Mike and I speculating on commentary. We finally visited our panel, and after recapping the Unified Junior Heavyweight title that will be featured less often in WCW due to its demand all over the world, Tammy vowed that TAKA would take all three belts back, whether in the US, Japan or wherever he needed to go to get them. Rey Mysterio Jr. and Konnan vs. The Dangerous Alliance (O’Haire and Douglas) Continuing the trend that the last match started, this was far better than I expected it to be. Konnan wasn’t quite on the level of the other three, but Rey and the Dangerous Alliance did well enough to make this match a great one. The wrestling was good, and the fans were into it. The buildup to the match was all about whether Rey could trust Konnan, but ironically it was an errant springboard dropkick from Rey which accidentally hit Konnan and set him up for O’Haire’s Cyclone. Three Wise Men were guests on an unannounced Piper’s Pit. The new team talked about how their combined intelligence would allow them to outthink all the other teams and ascend to the top of the tag ranks. Roddy, who came across well here, seemed less than impressed, taking some playful jabs at their intelligence or lack thereof. Chris Jericho vs. Brian Kendrick Another very strong match here; this was shaping up to be quite the show by this point. Kendrick was really good and Jericho was great here. It was the world-class veteran against the cocky but talented youngster, with Mike and I commenting that Kendrick reminded us both of Jericho circa 1997 or 1998. Maybe he’ll follow Jericho’s trajectory and become a world champion himself some day, but tonight the veteran was too much for him. Jericho seized his moment and secured the tap out with the Liontamer. The panel debated the upcoming US title match. Matt Hardy thought youth would be served and Danielson would get revenge on his treacherous mentor, but Tammy Sytch said Regal’s skill, smarts and ruthlessness would lead to a new champion. http://i.imgur.com/mitTbCm.jpg Steven Regal vs. Bryan Danielson (©) for the United States Heavyweight Championship It had been a string of amazing matches up to this point, but Danielson and Regal topped them all. This was a technical wrestling fan’s dream; a slow-building, smart match that told an amazing story, with the student showing the mentor that his skills were very much on his level. In reality I thought Bryan looked like the superior performer of the two here, but in kayfabe the idea was that they were evenly matched. He even took Regal down to the mat and locked in the Cattle Mutilation right in the center of the ring. Regal was still trapped in the hold when the bell rang, but it wasn’t because he’d submitted. The 30 minute time limit had expired, and the match ended in a draw. Back with the panel, where Matt Hardy said he couldn’t wait for Goldberg to get his hands on The Unnatural, who he still blamed for everything that had happened with his brother Jeff. Tammy told him not to overlook The Unnatural, who had defied people’s expectations for almost a full year as champion. Goldberg vs. The Unnatural Was this as good as the classic right before it? No. But it was still great all on its own, even if it was hurt by a lack of convincing selling. The heat was off the charts here; I think the fans were more into this than anything so far. They ate it all up as Unnatural did his best to avoid the angry Goldberg. They didn’t get the conclusion they were hoping for though, because Mortis and The Destroyer hit the ring and attacked Goldberg for the DQ. The members of Salvation continued to beat on Goldberg after the match, only stopping when a host of security and officials, plus Hayabusa and Paul London, came out to break it up. On his way out Unnatural grabbed the microphone and told Goldberg he should have stayed away when he had the chance. “You could have gone to Japan and rebuilt your life, or you could have even taken the big money offer from Stamford. Instead you stayed, and now you must be destroyed for the good of everyone.” Before the main event, the panel argued over whether it was wise for CM Punk to risk major injury by defending the title. Sytch said he was going to lose to Corino anyway so he might as well save himself the pain, but Matt disagreed. He brought up the legendary battles between the Hardys and True Heroes, and said he’d learned firsthand what kind of fighter CM Punk was. http://i.imgur.com/haJKoFv.jpg King Corino vs. CM Punk (©) for the World Heavyweight Championship This was an excellent match, and if it weren’t for the performance Danielson and Regal put on it would’ve been the best of the night. The action was great and the crowd ate it up. The key difference between the two is that Danielson and Regal are both masters of telling a compelling story in the ring. Punk and Corino aren’t bad at it but they aren’t at that level of psychology either, and it showed. There were just a few moments here and there that took the match down a notch or two. Obviously the story was built around Corino aggressively targeting the injured knee, and he took enough of a beating that Mike and I began saying that he might have been better off forfeiting the match and not exposing himself to this. The champion persevered though, and after kicking away from an attempted figure four he rolled Corino up and caught him for a pinfall and a successful title defense at 24:19. Punk didn’t get much of a chance to bask in his victory, because the Dangerous Alliance stepped onto the ramp after the match. Paul Heyman told both he and Storm that Shane Douglas and Sean O’Haire would be using the tag team title match guaranteed to them by Douglas’ UFS win, and they’d be using it tomorrow night on Nitro. “So ice that knee up, kid, because in about 24 hours you’ve gotta do it all over again!” News Updates: <hr noshade size=3> It won't be, for two reasons. A) Austin just got driven from WCW in February. I think more time needs to pass before he potentially shows up again. B) A match of that magnitude needs more build-up than that. When that happens, it's going to be a big deal.
  11. June 2004, Week 2 June 7th, 2004 Worldwide taping: Volador Jr. and Aguila over The Heartbreakers, Prince Devitt over Johnny Curtis and Paul London and Hayabusa over Eddie Edwards and Matt Morgan. Attendance: 11,770 Show Notes: -Dusty entertained everybody by drawing a cartoon version of Ric Flair before the show. The drawing itself was garbage but it was fun to watch him try. -Lots of instruction took place in the ring before the show. I worked on psychology with TJ, while Regal gave Bryan Danielson pointers on cutting a believable promo and also went over the finer points of selling with Rampage Brown. -Storm was kept strong in his loss to Kevin Steen with the Corino interference. Lance and Kevin seemed to work really well together, so that might be something to keep in mind for the future. -Bobby Roode switched to a cocky genius gimmick to go along with his new team with Cabana and Heenan, and it got a great response. -Shane Helms’ ladies this week were Talia Madison and Bobcat. -Punk and Corino both did a great job of improvising during their show-closing segment, really establishing the story of Punk trying to defend two titles in one night and how difficult it’ll be on him, something Corino hopes to capitalize on at the end of the night. “I think you should give Shane Helms more promo time.” –AJ Styles June 12th, 2004 Show Notes: -Kyoko Inoue brought in the latest Japanese video game for the girls to play. -Momoe’s gimmick is getting a little bit stale. Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s): News Updates: Daffney signed a 2 year contract extension. Mary Apache is moving on. We’ll be using Nikki Roxx as essentially her replacement; you don’t want to keep the same people around all the time as enhancement talent. Elsewhere in the wrestling world: Antonio Inoki officially retired from the business after staying around for a month or so to help make the transition easier for Simon. New Japan is truly in a new era without their founder and biggest star in history. <hr noshade size=3> Worldwide was taped at its usual time instead of right before the PPV as a pre-show because the network already had programming scheduled on Sunday this week. (It’s totally not because I forgot to change the taping date around before I ran Nitro, I swear!) I was considering bringing up someone else to be Regal's 'muscle'/lackey, but that could actually work... It's an alliance, yeah. At first it was just a standard working agreement but I changed it to an alliance when I had the idea to unify the junior and cruiserweight titles. Talent trading is the only box I ticked when I set up the alliance though, so they're still going to be operating as separate companies with separate finances, no restrictions on where they can run shows, etc. After looking up what that is: no. In a way I think this'll help the undercard feuds because I'll have more freedom to use guys and build stories without needing to shoehorn in a cruiserweight title match every month. Plus when there are junior heavyweight title matches in WCW (and there will be), they're going to be a bigger deal. You'll definitely be seeing the new unified junior heavyweight title pop up and defended in WCW on occasion. The IWGP Heavyweight title won't be; I would like to have that option, but it would need to be an alliance title in order for me to do that. That doesn't mean you couldn't see the IWGP Heavyweight champion himself pop up in WCW, though...
  12. June 2004, Week 1 May 31st, 2004 Worldwide taping: Volador Jr. defeated C.W. Anderson, Shane Helms defeated Jack Evans and Steenerico defeated Shaun Ricker and Eric Young. Attendance: 15,000 Show Notes: -Steven Regal has taken on Rampage Brown as a protégé. I would have preferred he mentor someone who I actually have plans for, but it’s his choice I guess. -I helped TJ Wilson work on his promos before the show. “Nakamura’s doing really well on promos. I think they’re only going to help him get over quicker.” –CM Punk June 5th, 2004 Show Notes: “I don’t see much potential in Madison Eagles. Might want to push someone else.” –Amy Dumas Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s): News Updates: We signed Japanese female wrestler Kyoko Kimura to a developmental deal and sent her to 5SSW. She’s inexperienced but my scouts over there think she could develop into a decent worker with some ring time. Ayako Hamada is reporting to developmental as well. She’s young but already quite experienced, and we think she could be an asset on Renaissance eventually. Nixxi Roxx will be coming in and working on a per date deal as enhancement talent. Elsewhere in the wrestling world: TNA ran their Sacrifice show in Georgia. The easy match of the night went to the 65 rated main event world title match, where Marc Mero retained his belt against Minoru Tanaka, Nicho and Matt Cross in a four way. That was among their better matches of 2004 so far, and was the primary reason they got a 60 overall grade for the show, which is their second highest both this year and in their history behind February’s Against All Odds. Darkness Dragon suffered a severe neck injury wrestling Minoru Suzuki during Suzuki’s NJPW debut, and he’ll be out for about a year. It doesn’t sound like there’s any heat on Suzuki though, and no feeling that he did anything wrong; just a bad bump. <hr noshade size=3> I don't really want to split up the Calgary Bulldogs. Regal might be worth a try though.
  13. She's not actually on the roster. Any time you see her it's as a one night only 'local talent.' I want to push Sekimoto---just trying to figure out a role for him. I've been trying different managers and partners out on house shows but haven't found any positive matches yet, and I haven't come up with a good creative idea for him. Goldberg is being booked as a loner so that doesn't really work.
  14. Summer 2004 Roster Breakdown: (Faces in blue, heels in red) NITRO ROSTER RENAISSANCE
  15. May 2004, Week 4 May 24th, 2004 Worldwide taping: Shantelle Taylor defeated Jennifer Blake, The American Outlaws defeated Shawn Spears and Mikey Whipwreck and Hayabusa defeated Adam Pearce. Attendance: 17,723 Show Notes: -I noticed Goldberg giving some pointers to Dan Maff backstage. Apparently he seems something in him and wants to mentor him. -Regal helped his own protégé Bryan Danielson work on his selling in the ring before the show. Bryan’s already a fantastic worker, but it’s cool that he’s still humble enough to listen to advice from those with more experience. -The newly-dubbed Women’s Revolution had plenty of ammo to complain about in their time in WWE, from WWE’s inferior women’s division to the fact that they made no attempt to re-sign them and keep the backbone of the division together. The gist is that they feel overlooked by WWE, and they’ve invaded Renaissance to show they’re just as good as the WCW women. -The ladies with Helms and Buff were local women Shantelle Taylor, Jade Chung and Jennifer Blake. -Samoa Joe and Funaki’s timing was all over the place. -Meng’s bad ass gimmick got a great response, because of course it did. -I decided to let Jericho and Kendrick do a completely improvised promo. Brian not only kept up with Chris, but was even quicker on his feet with the improv. Great work. -NBC and Televisa were not happy with some of the fan comments in response to this show. It wasn’t even a bad show, but they’re expecting positive fan buzz on a weekly basis. May 29th, 2004 Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s): News Updates: James Mitchell, aka Father Isaac, signed a 1 year extension. We signed Alex Shelley to a developmental deal. Elsewhere in the wrestling world: Thanks to coming off as a distant third to WWE and us in terms of starpower, even in their own country, NOAH has been knocked back down to cult status. All Japan held their Blue Army PPV from the sold out Budokan in Tokyo. Toshiaki Kawada won the Triple Crown for the fourth time, beating Hiroshi Hase in an 85 rated main event. That wasn’t good enough to top the match immediately before it though, where Keiji Mutoh stole the show in a 93 rated win over Shinya Hashimoto. Those two matches were both well above everything else though, which is why the show only rated a 78 overall. That’s still the best PPV they’ve run all year though, so I guess it’s a positive. NWA: TNA held Slammiversary in Maryland. Marc Mero retained the TNA World title against Matt Sydal in a 56 rated main event, while the Observer awarded MOTN honors to Minoru Tanaka’s debut as a regular, a no contest against GQ that got a 59. He could be a really good pickup for them. The show overall was a 56, which is pretty much right in their recent average. New Japan brought in Minoru Suzuki on a written deal and Ultimo Dragon on a PPA. In Dragon’s case he’s still booking down in the Mexican branch of Toryumon, so he understandably wouldn’t want to sign anything exclusive. I heard he was going to be teaming with his student Dragon Kid under the team name Double Dragon. Unfortunately he hurt his knee in Toryumon days before he would have re-debuted in New Japan and will be out for about a half a year, so I guess everything’s off now. Tajiri’s looking really ripped lately. Wonder if he’s hoping to get an offer from WWE when his current deal with NOAH runs out? Or maybe he’s trying to make himself a more attractive option for New Japan? Jimmy Snuka died. <hr noshade size=3> National Battle Report: June 2004 ((NOAH qualified for the national battle, finished in third and fell back down to cult before their rankings could be tallied.)) <hr noshade size=3> Yeah, New Japan, All Japan and NOAH all run the weekly TV and monthly PPV schedule. The purist in me doesn't like it, but I'm very glad to be running that less intensive schedule now that I've taken over the booking of New Japan! I'm going to try and balance it. I'll likely be using WCW guys in NJPW more often than the other way around, but I still don't want to overdo it. I want them to supplement the show and come in for the occasional big match or story, while the NJPW regulars are the usual focus. Yeah, that's one of the features of 2020 I'd like to have. I think I can do a reasonable job of simulating it with the partnership though. I'll just do some maneuvering where I sign the young lion to maybe a 6 month or 1 year contract to WCW to simulate their excursion.
  16. <p>So unbelievably sad. 22 years old, and with her whole life ahead of her.</p><p> </p><p> Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but she was going to be a big big star. She had 'it.' She was special.</p><p> </p><p> What a horrible tragedy. I honestly can't remember the last time a wrestling death (and there have been far too many) has hit me like this. Such an awful, awful shame.</p>
  17. <p><span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>May 2004, Week 3</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="5syC0e6.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/5syC0e6.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>May 17th, 2004</strong></p><p> <em>Worldwide taping: Shane Helms defeated Silas Young, Steenerico defeated Karl Anderson and Raymond Rowe and Matt Hardy defeated Michael Hutter.</em></p><p><em> Attendance: 18,345</em></p><p> <img alt="lb7o4Bd.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/lb7o4Bd.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -Though he didn’t ask for it, AJ Styles was protected in his loss by Devitt’s interference.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> “Not sure why Cash is still around. The crowd doesn’t care about him at all. You shouldn’t have re-signed him.” -Goldberg</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="JJBwRaP.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/JJBwRaP.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>May 22nd, 2004</strong></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="yPmgCms.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/yPmgCms.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s):</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="GSbEi9m.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/GSbEi9m.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>June 13th, 2004<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Goldberg vs. The Unnatural</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>King Corino vs. CM Punk (©) for the World Heavyweight Championship </strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> Card subject to change. Please do not submit your predictions at this time.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>News Updates:</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>”Simon Inoki is on line 1, Mr. Hart.”<p> </p><p> Simon Inoki? Really?</p><p> </p><p> “Put him through,” I said as I picked up the phone. “Hello, Bret Hart speaking.”</p><p> </p><p> “Mr. Hart, this is Simon Inoki, son-in-law of Anonio Inoki, and new owner of New Japan Pro Wrestling.”</p><p> </p><p> I cracked a smile; as if someone in my position wouldn’t know who he was. I was glad I’d happened to browse the official WCW.com web forum to see what our fans thought of this news though. A user with the name Hashasheen mentioned that Simon was Antonio’s son-in-law, who had taken the name and inherited the company when he married Antonio’s daughter. It would have been embarrassing if I’d ignorantly called him Antonio’s son during this unexpected conversation!</p><p> </p><p> “Hi Mr. Inoki,” I said. “How can I help you?”</p><p> </p><p> “We can help each other, Mr. Hart,” he said. “Your company and mine used to have a strong working relationship. I wish to bring it back as part of my company’s new direction.”</p><p> </p><p> That wasn’t what I had been expecting. Given the aggressive attitude Antonio had taken with us, I figured his son would be eager to keep it going and possibly put even more focus on trying to sign away our talent and drive us out of Japan. I said as much to him.</p><p> </p><p> “We can’t drive you out of Japan,” he said. “We can’t drive Vince McMahon out either. My father thought that the only path forward was to try and go to war with both of the major American companies, but that would have ended with New Japan being crushed between two titans, especially with All Japan and NOAH breathing down our necks too. We can’t take on the world all by ourselves. We need friends, and you know better than anyone that Vince McMahon doesn’t play well with others.”</p><p> </p><p> “I’ll say. So what are you thinking, the occasional swapping of talent like before?” I wasn’t opposed to the idea. Since Misawa had ended our very brief partnership with NOAH we hadn’t had an agreement with any of the major Japanese companies, and a chance to bring that back seemed like a positive to me.</p><p> </p><p> “Yes and no,” he said. “I would definitely like to book some of the major American stars from WCW, as well as send our young lions to you when we feel they’re ready to go on their learning excursions, and of course we’d be willing to lend you New Japan stars when you think they can help you. But I think there’s more we can do together.”</p><p> </p><p> “I’m listening.”</p><p> </p><p> “Let me tell you about my idea for the junior heavyweight division…”</p><p> </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Once he realized that it had been an honest mistake and not a deliberate snub, Petey Williams was happy to sign a new 2 year exclusive contract with us.</p><p> </p><p> Aguila, Volador Jr. and Kaoru Ito signed 1 year extensions.</p><p> </p><p> Magnum Tokyo has been hitting the gym hard as he works his way back, and he’s looking a lot more muscular as a result.</p><p> </p><p> Hailey Hatred’s time as enhancement talent on Renaissance is over.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Elsewhere in the wrestling world:</span></p><p> </p><p> Prior to his call with me, Simon Inoki made a big splash in his first week of TV. While the Best of the Super Junior tournament raged on, Steve Austin won the IWGP Heavyweight title from Riki Choshu in the main event. That’s the obvious decision, and it’s about time someone made it. Austin will have some work to do to build that title back up, because most fans and experts seem to value it less than their junior heavyweight singles and heavyweight tag team titles these days.</p><p> </p><p> WWE ran their ECW Hardcore Heaven PPV in Houston. They had Kane retain the ECW title over Booker T for the second month in a row, in a 97 rated semi main event. They ceded the main event slot to Triple H, who got to retain the WWE title against his idol Ric Flair in a stinker of a main event (79.) Thanks to that letdown of a main event the show was an 84 overall. But hey, Rock and RVD showed up, did a backstage skit and left, so at least they’re using their talent properly!</p><p> </p><p> New Japan signed junior heavyweight Ikuto Hidaka to a 1-year contract.</p><p> </p><p> ABC was obviously not pleased with the rating Hardcore TV was pulling, because the show’s new home in the US is on the UPN network. That’s a massive step down in both size and prestige. The show will now be shown on TSN in Canada.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <hr noshade size=3></p><p> </p><p> So Simon Inoki taking over for the retiring Antonio was an AI thing, but it got my brain started on the big change I've previously hinted at. A change in ownership seemed like a logical time for radical shifts in company direction, and that got me thinking and led me to where I'm at now.</p><p> </p><p> I'm now controlling New Japan as a second player, owner/booker Simon Inoki, so Austin getting the title, the partnership with WCW, and all future decisions are being made by me. I won't be doing a separate diary for New Japan or anything like that, as I don't want to put too much on my plate. You'll continue to get updates on New Japan through the eyes of Bret, so not much will change presentation-wise. It's in the story and underneath the hood where things will actually change.</p><p> </p><p> It shouldn't lead to TOO much more work for me. I was able to run the TV show shockingly fast; turns out a 1 hour show with an 80% match ratio is a lot simpler to put together! I'll just have those and one PPV a month with New Japan. I might do a results screenshot for the PPVs, but other than that any New Japan news should come the same way it's been coming. I'm hoping it won't add too much to my workload, but I think it's going to make the game world itself more interesting, plus it creates all sorts of interesting possibilities for me.</p>
  18. <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Hashasheen" data-cite="Hashasheen" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Simon Inoki is actually his son-in-law, married to his daughter Hiroko. In Japanese culture families with only one (or more) daughters will either adopt a son-in-law or grandson into the family unit both genealogically and legally to ensure a male successor. It's fairly common in corporate and rural culture, which leads to fighting if the son or grandson being requested is also an only child.</div></blockquote><p> Thank you for the correction! I was going to go back and edit it in, but maybe I'll just leave it as is and have Bret learn it for himself the way I just did <img alt=":D" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>
  19. <p><span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>May 2004, Week 2</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="5syC0e6.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/5syC0e6.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>May 10th, 2004</strong></p><p> <em>Worldwide taping: TJ Wilson defeated Jon Cutler, The Shooting Stars defeated Kaos and Trevor Rhodes and Paul London defeated Eric Young.</em></p><p><em> Attendance: 17,538</em></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="lWYOTsD.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/lWYOTsD.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -Some of the boys were complaining that Eddie Guerrero was getting a little pushy about religion. This is a touchy subject, and obviously he didn’t really do anything WRONG, so I just gave him a gentle reminder not to get too aggressive with it.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -AJ had plenty of points to gripe on about being screwed over by the numbers game, from the Dangerous Alliance screwing him out of the US title AND the Stu Hart Classic, Roode interfering and costing him his match in the UFS finals and then being felled by the Devitt/Corino combination at the end of the Mayhem match.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -This was the final appearance for Christopher Daniels, whose contract officially expired two days later. He’s now off to New Japan to return to his Curry Man character.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> “I’m looking forward to hearing Nakamura on the mic.” –CM Punk </em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="JJBwRaP.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/JJBwRaP.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>May 15th, 2004</strong></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="xxibFQE.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/xxibFQE.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -Trish Stratus, Amy Dumas and Jacqueline all debuted with cocky Outside Threat gimmicks, and all got an average response.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s):</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="GSbEi9m.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/GSbEi9m.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>June 13th, 2004<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>King Corino vs. CM Punk (©) for the World Heavyweight Championship </strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> Card subject to change. Please do not submit your predictions at this time.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>News Updates:</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I looked over the photos from the press conference on my computer, searching for any sign that could be gleaned, any indication of why this had happened. I knew what the headline said and what they’d announced to the public, but <em>why</em> had they done this, and why now?<p> </p><p> My phone rang, and I recognized the number immediately. She’d called me often enough by now for me to have remembered it.</p><p> </p><p> “Steph,” I said right away. “What’s up? You calling to set up our next meet-up?”</p><p> </p><p> “Not this time,” she said. “Did you hear the news?”</p><p> </p><p> “Of course,” I answered. “Do you have any idea why?”</p><p> </p><p> “No clue,” she said, “and dad doesn’t either.”</p><p> </p><p> “It’s so strange,” I said. “He’s been so aggressive in trying to sign up talent, throwing money around like never before. Why walk away now?”</p><p> </p><p> “Your guess is as good as mine,” she said. “Maybe he spent more than he should have and this is him bowing out gracefully, or maybe he was doing all of that to try and prepare New Japan to survive after he was gone. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”</p><p> </p><p> “Guess so,” I said. I’m sure she (and Vince) was just as frustrated as I was to have no clue why Antonio Inoki had abruptly handed his company over to his son Simon and stated his intention to step away from the wrestling business, especially with all the moves they’d been making lately.</p><p> </p><p> “I hope you saved some of your money,” she said, her voice lighter now. “If Simon comes in and starts cutting costs, you know dad will throw a blank check Steve’s way.”</p><p> </p><p> “Of course,” I said. If the regime change led to roster turnover in New Japan, not only us but WWE, All Japan and NOAH would all be circling like sharks in the water, looking for talent we could acquire (and talent we could keep the other guys from acquiring.)</p><p> </p><p> “This will be fun pillow talk the next time we’re together, huh?” she said. “We can cuddle up and compare notes.”</p><p> </p><p> “Yeah, looking forward to it,” I said. Neither of us had any clue what this was going to mean, but this was bound to have some kind of ripple effect throughout the industry, in Japan and beyond. </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Petey Williams left the company. I’m not going to lie; this was a major fumble on my part. I thought he had a new written contract in hand and was set to sign it any day, but apparently the offer was never submitted. I reached out to him immediately upon being informed and made him an offer to come back, but we’ll see what he says.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Elsewhere in the wrestling world:</span></p><p> </p><p> Jimmy Golden, the former Bunkhouse Buck in WCW, passed away at only 53. Sad news.</p><p> </p><p> NOAH drew almost 40 thousand fans to Jingu Stadium for their Silver Explodes PPV. The show was headlined by a great GHC Heavyweight title defense from Jun Akiyama against Ricky Marvin, which received a 97 score. Great, but Mitsuharu Misawa’s win over Yoshinari Ogawa took home MOTN honors with a 99 rated bout in the upper midcard. The show also featured Dr. Wagner Jr. winning the GHC Television title from Pentagon. The show got a 94 overall, which is higher than this month’s PPVs from us and WWE. </p><p> </p><p> Main Event, the only legitimate PPV provider in Australia, agreed to add Zero-One events to their selection of wrestling shows. Odd, considering they rejected us recently because they felt they already had too much wrestling. Guess they made an exception for a company that will probably do about 1/8th the buys that we would have.</p><p> </p><p> RVD made his WWE debut on Raw…and lost to another recent WCW departure, Ric Flair, in the main event. They seem to be teasing a feud between RVD and the Boy Toy.</p><p> </p><p> All Japan brought in former NJPW junior El Samurai under a per date deal.</p><p> </p><p> CMLL grabbed Perro Aguayo Jr., signing him away from IWRG and X-LAW on an exclusive guaranteed contract.</p><p> </p><p> WWE called up Scott Vick from developmental.</p><p> </p><p> The Iron Sheik left the business officially.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <hr noshade size=3></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Mayhem Prediction Scores:<p> </p><p> Danny H22: 8</p><p> Happy0wns: 8</p><p> K-Nection: 8</p><p> cmhunk: 8</p><p> </p><p> joshspicer: 7</p><p> franticloser: 7</p><p> Dead Jester: 7</p><p> Kijar: 7</p><p> Satyr24: 7</p><p> olivertaylor276: 7</p><p> Rateddc: 7</p><p> The Lariat: 7</p><p> crackerjack: 7</p><p> </p><p> Ian carlisle: 6</p><p> JMike: 6</p><p> DHK1989: 6</p><p> odan: 6</p><p> GingeyOne: 6</p><p> </p><p> DGenerationMC: 5</p><p> Beejus: 5</p><p> </p><p> SkipMartin: 4</p><p> </p><p> Asaemon: 3</p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Standings in prediction contest after 3 shows:<p> </p><p> Happy0wns: 21</p><p> </p><p> Dead_Jester: 19</p><p> cmhunk: 19</p><p> </p><p> Satyr24: 18</p><p> Ian carlisle: 18</p><p> </p><p> Danny H22: 17</p><p> franticloser: 17</p><p> JMike: 17</p><p> DHK1989: 17</p><p> crackerjack: 17</p><p> </p><p> odan: 16</p><p> GingeyOne: 16</p><p> </p><p> Kijar: 15</p><p> DGenerationMC: 15</p><p> </p><p> rateddc: 14</p><p> Asaemon: 14</p><p> </p><p> SagaJoestar: 13</p><p> The Lariat: 13</p><p> Beejus: 13</p><p> </p><p> joshspicer: 12</p><p> </p><p> K-Nection: 8</p><p> </p><p> olivertaylor276: 7</p><p> </p><p> Bagins: 5</p><p> Nobby_McDonald: 5</p><p> </p><p> smw88: 4</p><p> ComicFighter: 4</p><p> SkipMartin: 4</p><p> </p><p> cbacon87: 1</p><p> Chaossy: 1</p><p> Wolfman84: 1</p><p> deanohbk: 1</p><p> sportsfanmas: 1</p><p> BHK6: 1</p><p> ElectricX: 1</p><p> WilburTrey: 1</p><p> Forrest01: 1</p><p> </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <hr noshade size=3></p><p> </p><p> Thanks once again to DHK1989 for tallying the GDS portion of these predictions. Next month’s Great American Bash will be the end of this particular contest, after which I’ll probably throw out a few prizes to the top finishers, such as booking MITB or Summerslam in-game (unless BHK6 resurfaces again to claim one of those first), and maybe another in-game relationship between workers or something.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="DHK1989" data-cite="DHK1989" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Nexus Discord? <img alt=":o" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/redface.png.900245280682ef18c5d82399a93c5827.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></div></blockquote><p> Yep! Not sure whether I should throw an invite up or not, since there’s some “colorful” language used there at times and I know GDS frowns on that sort of thing, but the Wrestling Nexus discord is out there.</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="JMike" data-cite="JMike" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I may have not picked him, but I’m just glad that the time has finally come for Corino. He truly is the king, both figuratively and literally.<p> </p><p> The wrestlers leaving, resigning or coming back is so weird and yet intriguing, it’s making the diary a lot more exciting in my eyes, especially when it’s people that were signed at the beginning and I thought would be there forever.</p></div></blockquote><p> I definitely didn't see the likes of RVD, Knoble, Daniels, etc. leaving over the course of the diary, but yeah, I think it's making the game world more interesting.</p><p> </p><p> I also think the decision I've made to switch things up a bit, which I hinted at with my last post and will be explaining more fully with my next one, is going to be another shot in the arm for this game world.</p>
  20. May 9th, 2004 From Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri Attendance: 42,155 Announce Team: "The Professor" Mike Tenay and Bret "The Hitman" Hart Joining Tony Schiavone, Don Callis and Maria Kanellis on tonight’s panel are special guests “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and “Macho Man” Randy Savage On the Worldwide Live pre-show: The American Outlaws defeated Eric Priest and Masada, Shannon Moore defeated Trevor Rhodes and Samoa Joe defeated Rampage Brown. The panel welcomed us to the show, and Randy Savage said he’d be scouting for talent for the team he’s putting together. Steenerico vs. Calgary Bulldogs I thought this was a solid enough way to open the show, with two rising young teams. Harry was the standout here; he’s come a long way, especially with how young he is. This was Steenerico’s night though; Generico got the duke on Harry for his team. Savage left the panel after the match and joined Steenerico in the ring. He said he was impressed by them and wanted them to become the first two members of Team Madness, dig it? After a brief conversation, Steen and Generio shook his hand and accepted his offer. Randy looked great here, and hopefully he can help elevate these young guys by association. Chris Jericho made his official return, walking into the building to a nice pop. He ran into his old friend Lance Storm along the way, and they shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Jericho’s gimmick of a cool returning star, a guy who is coming back to his old stomping grounds to reassert himself and look cool while doing it, got a very good response. http://i.imgur.com/u0cJ04Z.jpg Volador Jr. vs. TAKA (©) for the World Cruiserweight Championship This was supposed to be a nice high spot filled bit of action, but it didn’t go quite as planned. Volador looked like he wasn’t having his best night to begin with, plus he and TAKA seemed to have some miscommunication with their timing. The match was okay, but nothing special. To no one’s surprise, TAKA got the clean win to retain his title. Christopher Daniels vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (©) for the World Television Championship This was a pretty good match; the best on the show to this point. The crowd is still getting introduced to Nakamura but the in ring work is there, and with how strong we’re putting him over the reactions should follow soon enough. Daniels did his job here, which was to do THE job and put the new guy over on his way out the door. Nakamura got a nice feather in his cap by cleanly retaining his title against the former Cruiserweight and tag team champion with a running knee strike to the face, and Daniels did the honors and can now go resurrect his Curry Man gimmick in New Japan. Stacy Keibler took the departed Savage’s place on the panel, and she along with everyone else admitted she was impressed by Nakamura’s meteoric rise so far in WCW. CM Punk was interviewed backstage by Becky Bayless. He worked without a script as usual and was phenomenal at it as he spoke from the heart about what being the champion meant to him, and told Mortis and Salvation to take their best shot because they were going to have to pry the title from his motionless fingers if they wanted it back. http://i.imgur.com/mitTbCm.jpg The Destroyer vs. Bryan Danielson (©) for the United States Heavyweight Championship This match was fine, and honestly both guys did great, but I didn’t design it to try and be a highlight of the show and it wasn’t. It was a pretty basic big man vs. little man match, with Bryan absorbing a beating but outwrestling his larger opponent en route to a successful title defense. “Hold your horses there, sunshine.” The returning Steven Regal came down before Bryan could leave, and after “applauding” his student for how far he’d come and referencing the very real mentoring he’d done a few years back, he gave him a parting message. “I taught you everything you know, Bryan, but it’s only a small sliver of everything that I know! Someday you just might find out!” Regal’s cocky wrestling machine gimmick got a very good reaction. After Bryan left Regal issued an open challenge for anyone who wanted to come down and get a free wrestling lesson. The challenge was accepted by Chavo Guerrero Jr, who had been left out in the cold after losing a Mayhem qualifying match (well, by being in a three way match and not being involved in the fall anyway.) Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Steven Regal This impromptu match was pretty good, with both guys turning in a solid performance. The in-ring action was great, and the fans reacted decently enough. True to his word, Regal outwrestled Chavo and got the clean submission win with the Regal Stretch. The panel brought on Torrie Wilson to discuss the Great American Bash on June 13th. The promotional campaign for the event features Torrie as the cover girl on the poster—something that clearly annoyed Keibler. (She was the star of this segment, incidentally.) The Unnatural and Dusty Rhodes argued backstage, with Unnatural accusing Dusty of punishing him for his “previous life” and ensuring that he lost the world title last month by deliberately allowing Goldberg to sneak in and get involved in his title match against CM Punk. As that argument continued, Goldberg appeared out of nowhere and speared Unnatural to the ground! The former champion rolled around clutching at his ribs while Dusty ordered security to escort Goldberg, who still had not been cleared after his “concussion”, out of the building. Goldberg switched to a brute loner gimmick here, and it went okay. The panel discussed the world title match. Tony and Piper believed Punk would retain, while Callis and Keibler predicted we’d have a new champion in Mortis. http://i.imgur.com/haJKoFv.jpg Mortis vs. CM Punk (©) for the World Heavyweight Championship There was an issue with psychology here, which I kind of expected. It was still a great match though, as both guys are excellent workers that work well together and the crowd was hot for all of the near falls and Punk’s comeback. One of the stories here was that with Enigma gone, Destroyer defeated and Unnatural still licking his wounds from Goldberg’s spear backstage, Mortis had to try and win this on his own. He had a great performance and almost won the title straight up, but Punk had the Flatliner well scouted, avoided it and got the tapout with the Second City Stretch about 22 minutes in. The panel made their picks for the 30 man Mayhem match, our answer to the Royal Rumble (except eliminations occur by pin, submission and knockout instead of over the top rope.) Tony backed Rey Mysterio Jr, Piper liked the returning Chris Jericho, Callis supported big Sean O’Haire and Keibler naturally said it would be either one of the Jung Dragons. Various men involved in the main event did rapid fire promos. Among the highlights were Eddie Guerrero, AJ Styles, King Corino, Brian Kendrick, Rey Mysterio Jr, the Deadly Alliance and the returning Chris Jericho. The 30 Man Mayhem match, with the winner challenging for the World championship at the Great American Bash Some of the big highlights from this match: -The match itself had solid in-ring action but the crowd just didn’t stay with it the whole way through. I think part of the problem was that we didn’t have any really hot storylines running throughout this, so there weren’t too many moments of heightened reaction when rivals clashed. This was more about setting the table for the future as opposed to paying off ongoing rivalries, and the match itself suffered for it. We probably would have been better off putting this in the semi main event slot and allowing Punk and Mortis to close. -Brian Kendrick had a major off night, which was disappointing considering he actually had a fairly significant role to play. Colt Cabana was off of his game too, but he wasn’t doing too much anyway. Funaki’s attempts to engage the crowd as a fun babyface did not go over well at all, but he’s only here short term so it shouldn’t matter too much going forward. -Chris Jericho and Lance Storm both entered the match early. At times they worked together and at other times they engaged in some friendly technical wrestling competition. Both men had lengthy runs in the match, and Jericho in fact lasted longer than anyone all night before being taken out with a quick roll-up by Brian Kendrick in a bit of a surprise. -Former world champion Rey Mysterio Jr. looked good in his effort to get back into the title picture. He took on all comers, recording more eliminations than anyone during the course of the match. He was eventually tag teamed by the Dangerous Alliance duo of Sean O’Haire and Shane Douglas en route to being eliminated. Curiously his ally Konnan did not make it over to save him from the pin despite seemingly being in position to do so. -The Unnatural was still selling the ribs from Goldberg’s spear as he came out, and it led to a shorter stay than would have been expected from him before the opportunistic Eddie Guerrero eliminated him. -The final four came down to babyfaces Matt Hardy and AJ Styles and the heel duo of King Corino and his protégé Prince Devitt. The heels double teamed and eliminated Hardy before turning their attention to AJ, who had the longest ring time of anyone left (and was second in the entire match behind only Jericho.) AJ fought against the odds despite his fatigue, and eliminated Devitt with the Styles Clash. But he didn’t even have a chance to turn back around before Corino hit him with a low blow (legal in this match with no DQs) and then delivered a piledriver to win the match. Corino celebrated after the match, but AJ was in no celebrating mood. He angrily attacked Devitt, venting his frustrations on the double team effort he’d had to try and overcome by bouncing the Prince’s head off of the commentary table. Elsewhere in the wrestling world: New Japan ran their Wrestling Dontaku PPV. Riki Choshu threw up an absolute stinker of an IWGP title match, a 75 rated defense against Yoshihiro Takayama which was the worst match on the entire main show. He stunk up the ring while Steve Austin was MIA; genius. The silver lining was that the heavyweight title match was only the semi main event. Koji Kanemoto closed out the show with a 97 rated Junior Heavyweight title defense over Jushin Liger in the main event, which tied Yuji Nagata’s win over Dragon Kid for MOTN honors. Thanks largely to those two matches the show was given a 95 overall score, but Inoki needs to get that belt off of Riki Choshu in a hurry. WWE made no attempt to extend the contracts of Trish, Lita of Jacqueline, but now they’ve brought Ivory back and are going to be using Emi Sakura on a per date arrangement. I have no clue what they’re doing with that women’s division up there. <hr noshade size=3> So you’ll be seeing a major news update with the next post that was entirely AI-generated, but it’s led me down a path that’s going to be changing the way I run this. There really won’t be a huge difference in my presentation, but in-game it’ll be a big change. I will be creating more work for myself (not a HUGE amount, I hope, but there’s at least a little bit for sure.) I’m extremely excited about the possibilities it offers though, so I think it’s worth a try. If it doesn’t work out, it shouldn’t be a big deal to ditch it and go back to business as usual. But if it does work I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for me. Fingers crossed! I’ll stop rambling about this now, especially since you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about. (Well, you might have SOME idea if you’re part of the Nexus Discord…) And I'm glad you're back!
  21. <p>May 2004 Week 1</p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>May 2004, Week 1</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="5syC0e6.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/5syC0e6.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>May 3rd, 2004</strong></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="urd8ZfM.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/urd8ZfM.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -Shane Helms showed off a new video game to some of his friends backstage. Something Fantasy XI? I don’t know. </em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -A few of the names involved in the big ‘debate’ about the Mayhem match at the close of the show included Eddie Guerrero, Matt Hardy, Rey Mysterio Jr, King Corino, Shane Helms and the Jung Dragons.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="JJBwRaP.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/JJBwRaP.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>May 8th, 2004</strong></p><p> </p><p> <img alt="2r4XN1O.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/2r4XN1O.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -Caorl Midori was completely blown up by the end of a match that didn’t even hit seven and a half minutes. </em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s):</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="i915ufn.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/i915ufn.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>May 9th, 2004<p> </p><p> Official Prediction Lineup:</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Steenerico vs. Calgary Bulldogs</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Volador Jr. vs. TAKA (©) for the World Cruiserweight Championship</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Christopher Daniels vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (©) for the World Television Championship</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>The Destroyer vs. Bryan Danielson (©) for the United States Heavyweight Championship</strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Mortis vs. CM Punk (©) for the World Heavyweight Championship </strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>The 30 Man Mayhem match, with the winner challenging for the World championship at the Great American Bash:</strong></p><p> -Longest stay in match:</p><p> -Most eliminations:</p><p> -Runner up:</p><p> -Winner:</p><p> </p><p> What will be match of the night?</p><p> </p><p> How many championships will change hands?</p><p> </p><p> General diary comments/questions/critiques:</p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>News Updates:</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>”See you later, dude. Thanks for the opportunity.” RVD stuck out his hand, and I shook it.<p> </p><p> “No problem. Thanks for the years of service, and good luck up there.” I had no hard feelings towards Rob Van Dam. He’d given us three years of solid work and was one of the guys who helped rebuild WCW. He won the world title in the main event of my first Starrcade and had remained a major part of the company all the way until his departure. We had to rework our plans for the rest of the year when he signed Vince’s lucrative offer, but I think we’ll be okay. Losing him hurts, but our roster is far stronger and deeper than it was in 2001. I also appreciated that he went out on his back. I knew he wasn’t happy about putting over Danielson that first time, but he didn’t complain about losing the rematch or about losing clean to Sean O’Haire on his final night. He did business the right way, and who knows, maybe he’ll be back in WCW again years down the line.</p><p> </p><p> Guys coming and going is par for the course, especially in a neck and neck competition like this. It sucks to lose him, but we’ve got Jericho debuting at Mayhem, plus Regal, Trish, the former Lita and Jacqueline all on the way. Things are looking bright for us. </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> King Corino signed a 3 year contract extension. He got a nice little raise but there was no interest from WWE or anyone else, so he’s just barely into the top ten on our roster in terms of payroll.</p><p> </p><p> Brian Kendrick also signed for three more years. He’s a key young piece for us moving forward, and I’m happy to have him locked up.</p><p> </p><p> Sean O’Haire hasn’t been quite as diligent about getting his workouts in lately, and is starting to look a little flabbier as a result.</p><p> </p><p> Christopher Daniels has been hitting the weights harder and packing on some muscle.</p><p> </p><p> Akira Hokuto is taking her role as champion seriously. She’s been working hard in the gym and it shows; she’s looking more ripped than ever before. She’s in the best shape of her life and looks like a greater star. </p><p> </p><p> Down in developmental, Shelton Benjamin has been moving away from his pure technician approach and working a more standard wrestling style, with less amateur stuff.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Elsewhere in the wrestling world:</span></p><p> </p><p> WWE has extended Vampiro. Charismatic guy, but a real head case.</p><p> </p><p> Masato Tanaka is joining NOAH on a per date deal.</p><p> </p><p> Funaki, recently fired by WWE, will be joining Zero One for their next tour. That’s in addition to his short-term deal with us that includes a spot in the 30 man Mayhem match.</p><p> </p><p> CMLL signed Octagon to an exclusive deal. That’s a big blow for AAA since he’s their reigning Campeon de Campeones, which is their top title.</p><p> </p><p> Wataru Inoue, who has been one of the top guys in Osaka Pro on a per date deal, is joining All Japan under an exclusive contract.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <hr noshade size=3></p><p> </p><p> Here’s the full list of participants in the Mayhem match:</p><p> </p><p> 1. Aguila</p><p> 2. AJ Styles</p><p> 3. Billy Kidman</p><p> 4. Bobby Roode</p><p> 5. Brian Kendrick</p><p> 6. Cash</p><p> 7. Chris Jericho</p><p> 8. Colt Cabana</p><p> 9. Eddie Guerrero</p><p> 10. Funaki</p><p> 11. Great Sasuke</p><p> 12. Hayabusa</p><p> 13. Johnny Parisi</p><p> 14. Kaz Hayashi</p><p> 15. King Corino</p><p> 16. Konnan</p><p> 17. Lance Storm</p><p> 18. Matt Hardy</p><p> 19. Magnum Tokyo</p><p> 20. Paul London</p><p> 21. Petey Williams</p><p> 22. Prince Devitt</p><p> 23. Rey Mysterio Jr.</p><p> 24. Sean O’Haire</p><p> 25. Shane Douglas</p><p> 26. Shane Helms</p><p> 27. Teddy Hart</p><p> 28. The Unnatural</p><p> 29. Tony Mamaluke</p><p> 30. Yang</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="DHK1989" data-cite="DHK1989" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Calling it now. Danielson/Regal U.S. Title Match at the Great American Bash! <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></div></blockquote><p> Well, Regal's contract HAS already started...</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="joshspicer" data-cite="joshspicer" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Shame to see Fit go. Dude is a good JTTS to have and an even better road agent when needed.</div></blockquote><p> Ironically he wouldn't make a great road agent in this save--his psychology isn't high enough. <img alt=":eek:" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/eek.png.0e09df00fa222c85760b9bc1700b5405.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="SkipMartin" data-cite="SkipMartin" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Do you have big plans for Mortis outside of his upcoming title match? It seems he is one of your key players in the national battles. I've never seen anyone go all the way with Kanyon.</div></blockquote><p> He's slid under the radar and become an important part of the company. Funny that Dustin is the member of the group I pushed hard, but Mortis is the one who became a big enough contributor to help in the national battles (thanks to his higher star quality.)</p><p> </p><p> His failed drug tests have held him back to a degree, but we'll see what happens with him.</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="DHK1989" data-cite="DHK1989" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>One thing I've wondered for awhile is if you keep track of the TV ratings of both Nitro and Raw? Is it neck and neck, or is one dominating the other in terms of viewership?</div></blockquote><p> No, I never have. The change in 2016 where it just lumps all the viewership from every network the show is on into one number made that pretty pointless IMO; too many variables. It wouldn't be a useful number right now even if separated, since I've moved Nitro onto NBC and Raw is still on Spike. I'd obviously slaughter them in that head to head comparison. ECW (the former Smackdown) would be a better comparison, since that's on ABC.</p>
  22. April 2004 Week 4 and National Battle Report April 2004, Week 4 April 19th, 2004 Worldwide taping: Great Sasuke defeated Antonio Banks, The American Outlaws defeated Vordell Walker and Human Tornado, and Konnan defeated Mike Maverick. Attendance: 18,545 Show Notes: -Kid Romeo organized a poker tournament before the show. -Bryan Danielson was especially pleasant to be around during the show, both because he signed a fat new contract and because he was told we were bringing in his mentor Steven Regal. -Chavo Guerrero Jr. was protected in the three way match, with Elix Skipper taking the fall. -Some of the faces who came out to tell Corino not to get ahead of himself were Rey Mysterio Jr, Konnan, Lance Storm and the Shooting Stars, all of whom will be in the Mayhem match themselves. -We tested out Bobby Roode and Paul Heyman on the pre-show, but they didn’t make for a good mix, so Bobby’s chances of joining the Dangerous Alliance are dashed. -Samoa Joe debuted as the brute enforcer of the Dangerous Alliance in the main event, and the gimmick got a great initial response as he beat the hell out of RVD and dropped him with his Muscle Buster. -Tammy Sytch could probably use a different twist to her character. April 24th, 2004 Show Notes: -Aja Kong hurt her bicep in the main event, but it won’t keep her out for any time. Devil Masami also had an off night. “I like Allison Corino; I think she’ll only get better with time.” –Nattie Neidhart Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s): News Updates: Scott Steiner, Mark Jindrak, Fit Finlay, Elix Skipper, Ernest Miller and Kid Romeo are all gone after I chose not to renew their contracts. Scott left because he was making demands that I had no interest in giving to a 40 year old in rehab, and the others had simply run their course in WCW in my opinion. Jamie Knoble’s contract officially ran out, and he’ll report to New Japan. We own the copyright on the name Jamie Knoble, so apparently he’ll be wrestling under his real name, James Gibson. Shannon Moore agreed to a one year extension. He was another that was down to the wire and very nearly wasn’t re-signed, but I decided to keep him around. Tracy Brooks signed a one year extension to continue working as the color commentator alongside Joey Styles on Renaissance. Bull Nakano (the CEO and head booker of 5SSW, our women’s developmental territory) is going on maternity leave. Elsewhere in the wrestling world: George the Animal Steele passed away at the age of 66. Shame; he was a nice guy. NWA-TNA held their latest show, Lockdown. No world title match this month, as Marc Mero teamed with Nicho (the former Psychosis) to beat Matt Sydal and Eddie Colon in a 62 rated main event tag match which was the best of the night. The show got a 59 overall. Tiger Chung Lee retired after a 35 year career, and also announced he’d be opening his own wrestling school. <hr noshade size=3> National Battle Report: May 2004
  23. April 2004 Week 3 April 2004, Week 3 April 12th, 2004 Worldwide taping: Prince Deviit defeated Ernest Miller, Steenerico defeated Da Hit Squad, Cash defeated PJ Black and the Dangerous Alliance (Douglas & O’Haire) defeated The Mighty Don’t Kneel. Attendance: 20,652 Show Notes: -Petey Williams entertained the boys with some impressions. -The UFS title shots are as follows: Eddie Guerrero for the World title, Enigma for the US title, Christopher Daniels for the TV title, Shane Douglas for the tag titles w/Sean O’Haire as his partner, and Akira Hokuto for the Women’s tag titles with a partner to be chosen by her later. -Shane Helms is looking really stale. “Paul London looks better every time he gets in the ring.” –CM Punk April 17th, 2004 Show Notes: -I guess there was a miscommunication last week; the debuting Madison Eagles was supposed to look good against Toshiyo Yamada but ultimately fall to defeat, but instead she actually won the match. We’ll just have to book around that. Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s): News Updates: Signing extensions this week were Toshiyo Yamada (1 year), Cash (9 months), Melissa Anderson (4 years), Nattie Neidhart (3 years) Colt Cabana (2 years) and developmental prospect Samoa Joe (3 years), who should be called up from developmental very soon. Cash was actually someone I was leaning towards not keeping around, but as we’re going to be losing more talent than I was expecting I decided to keep him after all. We tested out AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura as a tag team pairing on our house shows, but reports were negative. Johnny the Bull is nearing a developmental call-up, though I’m not sure what we’ll do with him. Elsewhere in the wrestling world: WWE went to Seattle for Backlash. In addition to Triple H retaining the WWE title over Chuck Palumbo in a solid 87 rated semi main and Kane beating Booker T to keep the ECW title in a great 99 rated main event, the show also included a pair of title changes. Trish Stratus dropped the women’s title right back to Molly Holly (logical, since Molly just signed an extension and Trish is weeks from joining us), and Raven took the ECW TV title from Brock Lesnar. If they’re smart that will be so they can move Lesnar into the main events, because he is a potential superstar. The show got a 92 score overall. Zero-One held their Formation of Attack big event, which included Tado Yasuda beating Shinya Hashimoto in an 80 rated main event and Katsuyori Shibata winning the NWA North American title from Yasushi Kanda. Match of the night honors went to the semi main event where Alex Wright beat Ken Shamrock (84), while the show itself got an 80 grade. Tommy Dreamer signed an extension for WWE. All Japan had a pair of title changes on their weekly TV show. Shigeo Okumura beat Tomohiro Ishii for the Junior Heavyweight title, and Omori and Mutoh dropped the Unified tag team titles to Taiyo Kea and Kensuke Sasaki. <hr noshade size=3> <hr noshade size=3> Thanks once again to DHK1989 for tallying the GDS portion of these predictions. (If anyone is curious why there are names on here that didn’t predict here, since my return I’ve been crossposting this on the BeTheBooker forums as well.) Some people earned bonus points for correctly picking the Dead Jesters to win the UFS, or for picking Punk as the next world champion way back when Unnatural first won it. At one point I WAS going to save Punk's title win for Starrcade, but it would have looked very different. Lance would have pulled off the shock upset over Unnatural and lost the title two or three months later to a heel who would brutalize him so bad that he got injured and the Heroes were forced to vacate the tag titles. (I was leaning towards Sean O'Haire in this slot, but it wasn't for sure.) Punk would then chase the heel for vengeance and finally get it at Starrcade. Obviously I changed plans though. It sure didn't take long for the self destruction, did it? From a gameplay perspective it was definitely a mistake, but one thing I learned from my previous diary is that me boggarting all the stars makes the game world less interesting. I want WWE to remain strong, and talent jumping back and forth is half the fun of a wrestling war. He's at the top of my hot prospect and NBT lists and has developed into a fantastic worker already, so my thinking here is that he's a guy that could logically receive a big push right out of the gate. Punk was already nipping at RVD's heels popularity-wise even before beating Unnatural, so Vince has indeed opened the bank for him. His WWE offer is actually far higher than the contract that RVD signed. They're offering a lot to Danielson too, far more than I expected for his level of popularity/star quality. I honestly have no clue where this story will go in the future. I guess we'll just kind of see what happens.
  24. April 11th, 2004: Clash of the Champions April 11th, 2004 From Docklands Stadium in Melbourne, Australia Attendance: 51,167 Announce Team: "The Professor" Mike Tenay and Bret "The Hitman" Hart Joining Tony Schiavone, Don Callis and Maria Kanellis on tonight’s panel are special guests King Corino and Brian Kendrick On the Worldwide Live pre-show: Colt Cabana defeated Michael Modest, King Corino and Prince Devitt defeated The Mighty Don’t Kneel and The Shooting Stars defeated Aaron Stevens and Chris Hero. http://i.imgur.com/u0cJ04Z.jpg I incorporated the UWA Welterweight title when we bought Michinoku Pro solely to do this title unification match. The plan for the match was Knoble winning and unifying the titles, but New Japan made him an offer that I chose not to match, so obviously that plan changed. TAKA won this match that had really nice in-ring action but a lack of psychology, getting the clean pin with the Michinoku Driver in a hot opener. Afterwards he and manager Tammy Sytch held up both belts in celebration. The panel discussed the TV title match, and Kendrick said he was going to be taking “his” title back very soon. Veteran champion against a guy making his TV debut in a match that didn’t get any promotion? Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But Shinsuke Nakamura isn’t just any debuting talent. There’s a sense of destiny around him, as Mike and I made sure to promote on commentary. Hayabusa missed a Firebird Splash and then got trapped in a cross armbreaker that forced him to tap out. Lance Storm wished CM Punk luck in his locker room and promised to watch his back in case Salvation tried anything. Then Lance got a call from an “old friend”, and reacted with surprise when said friend told him he was coming to WCW. The match between AJ Styles and Enigma would be the finale of the UFS if Enigma won it for the Dead Jesters; if AJ won it would pull the Rated R Superstars even at 2-2-1, and there would be a tiebreaker elimination tag the next night on Nitro. The match itself was surprisingly lackluster despite some great individual performances; I’m honestly not sure what went wrong, beyond it being a little under fourteen minutes. Regardless, after great fast-paced action Bobby Roode interfered, throwing Styles into the ring steps while he was on the floor. Enigma happily took the gift, hit the Swanton and won the UFS for the Dead Jesters. Matt Hardy came down to confront his brother about taking that tainted win, but Enigma walked off without even acknowledging him. There was a lack of psychology between Matt and Mortis, but some excellent action and heat made up for it and made this the best thing on the show to this point. Mortis in particular was great here. The Enigma showed back up, attacking Matt while Father Isaac distracted the ref, and Mortis took advantage and finished him off. Isaac grabbed the microphone afterwards and told Matt that his brother was dead and gone and no pleading would bring him back, so it was in his best interests to forget about it and move on before he got hurt. The Jung Dragons and Stacy Keibler popped up on Piper’s Pit to announce their future plans. They acknowledged all the interest in them from all over the world, but Yang’s message was simple. “You think we’re going to leve? OBJECTION! The Jung Dragons will remain in WCW until justice is served and we have claimed the World Tag Team Championship!” This was a great angle and the crowd reacted huge. With it being a 2 out of 3 falls match, we gave Rey and Eddie plenty of time and let them do their thing. They did not disappoint, turning in a stellar match that would be difficult to top. Eddie deliberately lost the first fall by DQ after hitting Rey in the head with the very same chair that he’d used to turn on him last year (kayfabe, brother!), and immediately followed up with a frog splash to win the second fall. He controlled most of the third fall until Rey came back and hit the springboard rana to win the match. Goldberg cut a promo from “his home”, where he said that he’d been barred from the building until future notice. “But that won’t stop me. Just like I destroyed the Destroyer on Monday, I’ll take Salvation out when they least expect it!” I wasn’t sure until the day of the show which team would be winning the four way tag, but in the end it was the Calgary Bulldogs who got it when Harry pinned Tony Mamaluke of Made in Italy. This match was here as a bit of a wedge so it wouldn’t be three top matches all one after another, and I think it did its job. It was good, and maybe better than expected, but not great. Becky Bayless interviewed Randy Savage, who revealed he was recruiting talent and figuring out who had the potential to make it to the top of WCW and who would benefit from his advice, dig it! The panel discussed the US title match, and all agreed that Danielson was the underdog. http://i.imgur.com/mitTbCm.jpg This match would have been held back until Great American Bash in June, and even that wouldn’t have been the end of the program. Things obviously had to be pushed forward when WWE jumped in with their massive offer to RVD though, so we wrote Destroyer out and worked Bryan into this match. These two were excellent in a twenty-plus minute match that started off well and only got hotter. I sensed there was a lot of intrigue in this match among the internet fans who knew about the WWE overtures, and that speculation was only stoked when Bryan wrestled RVD to the mat and forced him to tap out to Cattle Mutilation! Bryan celebrated with the title afterwards while the rest of the Dangerous Alliance looked shocked at the result. The panel discussed the Mayhem PPV next month, and Corino guaranteed he’d win the 30 man Mayhem match and then take the title at Great American Bash. They then moved on to tonight’s world title match, on which opinions were mixed. http://i.imgur.com/haJKoFv.jpg Between Rey/Eddie and the US title match, Punk and Unnatural had huge pressure to deliver here. They did not fail in the least, rising to the occasion and producing a thrilling, dramatic match that had fans at the edge of their seats and will surely be very high up in any match of the year ballot. The fans bought into the near falls towards the end, but groaned when The Enigma and Mortis came creeping in from either side while Isaac distracted the ref. But cavalry arrived: Goldberg popped out of the crowd and speared Enigma, while Lance Storm hit Mortis with a superkick that stopped him in his tracks. That left it up to Punk and Unnatural, who battled for control on the top rope. Punk emerged with the Punk Plunge (a top rope Pedigree; try THAT, Hunter!) and three seconds later, we had a new world champion! Punk and Storm hugged, and the True Heroes posed with their gold as the show went off the air. News Updates: Jeff Hardy and Tammy Sytch have begun dating. I’m sure Candido is furious at the broken engagement, but their relationship wasn’t very stable even when they worked in the same company. I’m not sure what he expected when he left her here and signed full-time with NOAH. Elsewhere in the wrestling world: -Taiyo Kea beat Shinya Hashimoto to win All Japan’s annual Triple Crown tournament. -New Japan’s Honma won his recent MMA fight. That might impress Inoki and earn him a bigger push when he comes back. -ROH head booker Ian Rotten booked himself to win the company’s world title from Jose Maximo on their All-Star Extravaganza show. -Tommy Dreamer and his onetime valet/current girlfriend Beulah announced that they’re expecting a child. <hr noshade size=3> Hall of Champions: <hr noshade size=3> You can thank franticloser for Bret/Stephanie, and Dead_Jester for Hardy/Sytch. Heh, I REALLY can't afford to have Goldberg lose often. He's my counter to Rock in the national battle. Jericho for RVD is a swap I'm pretty happy with, TBH. They're the same age, Jericho is a better overall worker and much better promo, and their star quality is identical. RVD's only real advantage is higher popularity, but hopefully I'll be able to make up that difference. RVD is also now making WAY more than Jericho will be too. Hayashi leave? OBJECTION!
  25. <p>April 2004 Week 2</p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>April 2004, Week 2</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="5syC0e6.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/5syC0e6.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>April 5th, 2004</strong></p><p> <img alt="Kvpbxz0.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/Kvpbxz0.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -Shinsuke Nakamura entertained the boys with some kind of Japanese card game.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Nakamura also showed a different side: Kid Romeo looked unhappy when I told him he’d be losing to him on the pre-show, but one look at Shinsuke silenced any complaint he might have made.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -The gimmicks of Bobby Roode, Tammy Sytch seem to be getting stale.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Shane Douglas transitioned to a cocky mentor gimmick, someone who is going to teach his partner Sean O’Haire how to ruthlessly dismantle the competition, and it got a great initial response.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -I didn’t make the tag title match the traditional twenty-plus minute slow building affair; I sent them out for about fifteen minutes and didn’t really give them any real instruction. The Heroes obviously don’t need any.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> “I was impressed at how well Nakamura communicated in English backstage. Might be worth giving him some mic time and seeing how he does.” –CM Punk</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="JJBwRaP.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/JJBwRaP.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>April 10th, 2004</strong></p><p> <img alt="jWfvNDS.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/jWfvNDS.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <em>Show Notes:</em></p><p><em> -Takako Inoue has been getting some heat for her selfish attitude backstage. I asked Arn Anderson to sit her down and talk to her (via interpreter.) Apparently she wasn’t obviously disrespectful but he’s not sure whether the message really took hold.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Yamada and Eagles had great chemistry as opponents. Madison’s plucky young lion gimmick got an average response.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -The legitimate street fighter gimmick of Mercedes Martinez did not work well among our fans.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> -Some of the women involved in the final segment were Manami Toyota, Meiko Satomura, Chigusa Nagayo, Aja Kong and Devil Masami.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> “I’d be interested in hearing Mercedes Martinez cut a promo.” –CM Punk</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Hall of Champions:</span></span></strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><img alt="5syC0e6.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/5syC0e6.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">World Heavyweight Champion:</span></strong></p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/haJKoFv.jpg</span></p><p> <strong>The Unnatural</strong></p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/fn8zdsQ.jpg</span></p><p> <strong>Won:</strong> June 15th, 2003 in a triple threat match against Rey Mysterio Jr. and Eddie Guerrero at Great American Bash in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania</p><p> </p><p> <em>Previous Champions (since March 2001):</em></p><p> Rey Mysterio Jr.: December 29th, 2002-June 15th, 2003 (168 days)</p><p> Booker T (#5): May 19th, 2002-December 29th, 2002 (224 days)</p><p> Rob Van Dam: December 30th, 2001-May 19th, 2002 (140 days)</p><p> Scott Steiner (#2): July 15th, 2001-December 30th, 2001 (168 days)</p><p> Booker T (#4): March 26th, 2001-July 15th, 2001 (111 days)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">United States Heavyweight Champion:</span></strong></p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/mitTbCm.jpg</span></p><p> <strong>Rob Van Dam</strong></p><p> <img alt="P2oAF93.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/P2oAF93.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>Won:</strong> September 21st, 2003 from AJ Styles at War Games in Houston, Texas</p><p> </p><p> <em>Previous Champions (since March 2001):</em></p><p> AJ Styles: December 29th, 2002-September 21st, 2003 (266 days)</p><p> Shane Douglas (#2): April 1st, 2002-December 29th, 2002 (272 days)</p><p> Rey Misterio Jr (#2): October 14th, 2001-April 1st, 2002 (169 days)</p><p> Kanyon: August 5th, 2001-October 14th, 2001 (70 days)</p><p> Rey Misterio Jr: May 13th, 2001-August 5th, 2001 (85 days)</p><p> Booker T: March 18th, 2001-April 30th, 2001 (44 days)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Cruiserweight Champion:</span></strong></p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/u0cJ04Z.jpg</span></p><p> <strong>TAKA (#2)</strong></p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/ncMyE2p.jpg</span></p><p> <strong>Won:</strong> December 28th, 2003 from Chavo Guerrero Jr. at Starrcade: The 20th Anniversary in Greensboro, North Carolina</p><p> </p><p> <em>Previous Champions (since March 2001):</em></p><p> Chavo Guerrero Jr. (#3): October 19th, 2003-December 28th, 2003 (70 days)</p><p> Jamie Knoble: September 21st, 2003-October 19th, 2003 (28 days)</p><p> Bryan Danielson (#2): April 20th, 2003-September 21st, 2003 (154 days)</p><p> Christopher Daniels: September 22nd, 2002-April 20th, 2003 (210 days)</p><p> American Dragon: August 11th, 2002-September 22nd, 2002 (42 days)</p><p> AJ Styles: April 21st, 2002-August 11th, 2002 (112 days)</p><p> TAKA: December 30th, 2001-April 21st, 2002 (112 days)</p><p> Jushin Liger: August 5th, 2001-December 30th, 2001 (147 days)</p><p> Shane Helms: March 18th, 2001-August 5th, 2001 (140 days)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">World Television Champion:</span></strong></p><p> <img alt="rrRBDgP.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/rrRBDgP.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>Hayabusa</strong></p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/p13CqOT.jpg</span></p><p> <strong>Won:</strong> April 5th, 2004 from Brian Kendrick at Monday Nitro in Adelaide, Australia</p><p> </p><p> <em>Previous Champions (since July 2002):</em></p><p> Brian Kendrick: January 19th, 2004-April 5th, 2004 (77 days)</p><p> ((Hardy reached the maximum fifteen title defenses, thus vacating the title on 1/19/04 and earning a World Heavyweight Championship match))</p><p> Matt Hardy: October 19th, 2003-January 19th, 2004 (92 days)</p><p> Bobby Roode: August 24th, 2003-October 19th, 2003 (56 days)</p><p> ((O'Haire reached the maximum fifteen title defenses, thus vacating the title on 7/21/03 and earning a World Heavyweight Championship match))</p><p> Sean O'Haire: January 26th, 2003-July 21st, 2003 (176 days)</p><p> Fit Finlay (#2): July 29th, 2002-January 26th, 2003 (181 days)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">World Tag Team Champions:</span></strong></p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/S0cu0uO.jpg</span></p><p> <strong>True Heroes (Lance Storm and CM Punk, #3 as a team)</strong></p><p> <img alt="heiyf1p.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/heiyf1p.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /><img alt="IyPxuzp.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/IyPxuzp.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <strong>Won:</strong> December 28th, 2003 from Mortis and The Destroyer at Starrcade: The 20th Anniversary in Greensboro, North Carolina</p><p> </p><p> <em>Previous Champions (since March 2001):</em></p><p> Salvation (Mortis, Alexander and The Destroyer): August 24th, 2003-December 28th, 2003 (126 days)</p><p> Christopher Daniels and Brian Adams (#3 for Adams): June 15th, 2003-August 24th, 2003 (70 days)</p><p> The Hardys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) (#2): December 29th, 2002-June 15th, 2003 (168 days)</p><p> True Heroes (Lance Storm and CM Punk) (#2): October 27th, 2002-December 29th, 2002 (63 days)</p><p> The Hardys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy): July 14th, 2002-October 27th, 2002 (105 days)</p><p> True Heroes (Lance Storm and CM Punk): December 30th, 2001-July 14th, 2002 (196 days)</p><p> The Natural Born Thrillers (Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire): January 14th, 2001-December 30th, 2001 (351 days)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><span style="color:#FF0000;">ANNUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:</span></span></strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Mayhem Battle Royal (held every May):</span></strong></p><p> <img alt="DZfKm2b.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/DZfKm2b.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>2003:</strong> Eddie Guerrero</p><p> <strong>2002:</strong> Diamond Dallas Page</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Stu Hart Classic Tournament (held every November):</span></strong></p><p> <img alt="305ySKD.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/305ySKD.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> <strong>2003:</strong> Jeff Hardy</p><p> <strong>2002:</strong> Rey Mysterio Jr.</p><p> <strong>2001:</strong> Rob Van Dam</p><p> </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><strong><span style="font-size:14px;">The Ultimate Fan Series</span></strong><p> </p><p> <strong>2003:</strong> Satyr's Hopeful Few, managed by Satyr24 (Mortis, The Unnatural, Alexander, Christopher Daniels and Melissa Anderson)</p><p> </p><p> <strong>2002:</strong> The Agents of Chaos, managed by Beejus Pilgrim (Scott Steiner, Rick Steiner, Mark Jindrak and Dustin Rhodes)</p><p> </p><p> <strong>2001:</strong> The K-Nections, managed by Kevin Gaines (Booker T, Sting, AJ Styles and Alex Wright)</p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#808080;"><strong><em>1989?</em></strong></span><span style="color:#808080;"><em> Championship Pedigree, managed by Bernie Klein (Hulk Hogan, Ted DiBiase, Tito Santana, Robert Gibson and The Rougeau Brothers)</em></span> </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s):</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="k7dcitf.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/k7dcitf.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>April 11th, 2004<p> </p><p> Prediction Key:</p><p> </p><p> CM Punk vs. The Unnatural (©) for the World Heavyweight Championship</p><p> </p><p> Bryan Danielson vs. Rob Van Dam (©) for the United States Championship</p><p> </p><p> Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hayabusa (©) for the World Television Championship</p><p> </p><p> Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Eddie Guerrero in a Two out of Three Falls match</p><p> </p><p> AJ Styles vs. The Enigma in the UFS Finals</p><p> </p><p> Title Unification match: UWA Welterweight Champion Jamie Knoble vs. WCW Cruiserweight Champion TAKA </p><p> </p><p> Matt Hardy vs. Mortis</p><p> </p><p> Tag title #1 contender’s match: Steenerico vs. Volador and Aguila vs. Calgary Bulldogs vs. Made in Italy </p><p> </p><p> How many championships will change hands? (the title unification match DOES count)</p><p> </p><p> What will be match of the night?</p><p> </p><p> Are the Jung Dragons going to stay in WCW?</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <strong>News Updates:</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>”Bret, I just got off the phone with Vince, I thought I owed him the courtesy of letting him know first, but you’re my next call. I’m taking your deal. I’m coming back to WCW.”<p> </p><p> “That’s fantastic news, Chris.” And it really was, even if a certain someone within WWE had already tipped me off that this call was coming. They’d actually been instrumental in helping put this deal together, though they’d done so covertly. They knew Chris hadn’t been thrilled with his diminished role recently, and especially hadn’t been thrilled with the money Vince had offered him. Why Vince was only willing to go so far for this guy, I’ve got no clue. He’s a huge pickup for us, and his five year deal only made him our fourth highest paid employee, behind Goldberg, Rey and Dustin (and he’ll probably be bumped down a few more spots over the next couple of months as more extensions are completed.) For an all around performer like this, I consider this a tremendous value.</p><p> </p><p> “I’ve got tons of ideas on where we can take my character once I get there,” he said enthusiastically. “When will you have time to sit down and talk?”</p><p> </p><p> “Soon,” I said. Clash of the Champions was tomorrow and I needed to focus on that, but I would definitely clear some time to talk to our newest hire as soon as I could. “I’ve got some ideas too, and I can’t wait to talk them over with you. I know that you’re going to be a huge contributor in WCW in 2004 and beyond, in a way that you were never given a chance to be before you left.”</p><p> </p><p> “I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “Guess it’s time to dust off the old Lionheart gear, huh?”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <img alt="PvLWRYe.jpg" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/PvLWRYe.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <em>”Lionheart” is back, baby!</em> </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> -We made a counteroffer to RVD. It was good enough that he didn’t reject it out of hand and said he would seriously consider it, but we’re still well behind the WWE offer in monetary value, especially since they submitted another revised offer for even more money before we even had the chance to make our counter. This one’s going to be tense.</p><p> </p><p> -Kaz Hayashi’s decision came in shortly after Nitro, so we know their status heading into the Piper’s Pit segment on Clash of the Champions.</p><p> </p><p> -New Japan is coming after Christopher Daniels now. Seriously, Inoki: calm the heck down. All Japan jumped in on him as well.</p><p> </p><p> -We’re bringing in Rampage Brown, Dan Maff, Monsta Mack and Adam Pearce under short-term PPA deals as enhancement talent.</p><p> </p><p> -Tony Schiavone signed a one year extension. He’ll become the PBP guy for Worldwide when it debuts right before Clash, and he’ll also appear on Clash itself and other PPVs as a regular member of the roundtable panel segments we’re going to start doing.</p><p> </p><p> -Hideki Kobayashi, the secondary referee for Renaissance, signed a 1-year extension.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Elsewhere in the wrestling world:</span></p><p> </p><p> -WWE re-signed Undertaker, Kane, Benoit, Steven Richards, Randy Orton, Al Snow, Billy Gunn, Molly Holly, commentator Jonathan Coachman and referees Mike Chioda and Jim Korderas.</p><p> </p><p> -Nippon TV bumped Raw into a later time slot because they weren’t happy with the ratings it was bringing in. That can’t feel good.</p><p> </p><p> -New Japan ran their Sakura Genesis PPV. Match of the night honors went to Steve Austin’s win over AKIRA, which got a 92 going third from last. The main event saw Riki Choshu retain the IWGP Heavyweight title over Kensuke Sasaki in a disappointing 80 rated match which was only the sixth best match on a ten match show, dragging the show down to an 82 rating. They’ve got talent, but as long as a years past his prime Choshu is in the main events they’re going to underachieve. It’s time for them to make a change, especially with the moves NOAH is making.</p><p> </p><p> -I hear Brock Lesnar has been bragging about becoming the MVP of the company before long. That’ll either piss Vince off or earn him an increased push, depending on what side of the bed Vince woke up on when he heard that.</p><p> </p><p> -Australian-based World Wrestling All-Stars went out of business.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <hr noshade size=3></p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Revolution Scores:<p> </p><p> Ian carlisle: 7</p><p> DGenerationMC: 7</p><p> JMike: 7</p><p> Dead Jester: 7</p><p> Satyr24: 7</p><p> DHK1989: 7</p><p> rateddc: 7</p><p> SagaJoestar: 7</p><p> Happy0wns: 7</p><p> </p><p> Danny H22: 6</p><p> GingeyOne: 6</p><p> crackerjack: 6</p><p> </p><p> odan: 5</p><p> cmhunk: 5</p><p> </p><p> Kijar: 4</p><p> franticloser: 4</p><p> </p><p> Beejus: 3</p><p> Asaemon: 3</p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="franticloser" data-cite="franticloser" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Solid show even if it isn't up to what they have been doing, hoping Clash goes well. Also glad you are finding your inspiration and fun in the game again. Hope to be able to keep on reading this for a long while. Also interested in some of how the contracts come into play as well as a few other things, looking forward ot your next big character post!</div></blockquote><p> Ha, I bet! There was just a little tease of it here, but the big reveal will happen after Clash.</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Ry guy 64" data-cite="Ry guy 64" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43035" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>And if AKI’s the developer, who’s the publisher?</div></blockquote><p> Well, EA held the rights to WCW games when they went out of business, so...them, I guess?</p>
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