to4sty

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Russelrules44" data-cite="Russelrules44" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43289" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I like you already. Great beginning to what should be an interesting diary. Good luck!</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Well shucks, you'll make me blush.....thanks, I hope I don't disappoint</p>

<p></p><div style="text-align:center;"><span>http://i611.photobucket.com/albums/tt196/mattfletcher1980/image_zpsyty51pcf.jpg</span><p> </p><p> Except there was a problem....well, there were two. The first problem was, as Sting would say (no not that Sting, the other one) I was an Englishman in New York. Not that that was a major problem, Vince had enough legal power behind him to ensure my work Visa with WWF Magazine was transferred over to a more general WWFE contracted Work Visa, this now meant I was an official WWF employee.....the bigger problem was something not so simply solved. See there was a reason I'd left the UK in the first place, and that reason was Tommy Comerford. "Who?" I hear you ask. Tommy Comerford was an organised crime figure back in the UK. Tommy was a wrong 'un with a finger in a lot of pies, mainly narcotics and drug trafficking, Comerford was one of the first criminals to establish an international drug trafficking network in England.....he was very wealthy, very powerful, very dangerous.....and very much in prison....because of me. Long story short, my testimony put away one of the biggest crime figures of the 80's and early 90's, and he wanted my head.....literally. Now as an anonymous magazine writer (I wasn't even credited for my Pulitzer worth letter page in the magazine) that was fine. But as a writer for the WWF creative team, it would only be a matter of time before at least one mention of me was made somewhere. One of the dirt sheets, this new fangled internet thing, sooner or later either my name or my face would pop up somewhere and that terrified me (I'm rather attached to my head after all and I wanted it to stay that way.) </p><p> </p><p> Except Vince being Vince, had a plan and he wasn't someone used to not getting what he wanted. He wanted me on the booking team, and he was going to have me on the booking team one way or another. He guaranteed me total anonymity, nothing more than a name on the payroll....he even went so far as to hire a patsy....a man that could be seen in interviews and photographs....he hired someone who could be the voice of my ideas, someone who could be credited with my success....or my failure....he hired a man who already knew my position and need for secrecy, because I already worked with him....he hired this man....</p><p> </p><p> <span>http://i611.photobucket.com/albums/tt196/mattfletcher1980/image_zpsgippi2wb.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> .....Vince Russo, to basically play the part of me.</p><p> </p><p> Yeah you know him don't you. To be fair, old Vinnie Ru wasn't a bad guy, I liked him, but he didn't have a clue what he was doing when it came to booking anything. Vince Russo, for all the good you heard of him in the WWF, was nothing more than the highest paid body double in history. Every single idea you ever heard credited to him while he worked for Titan, good and bad, came from me. Years later, WCW would go on to hire him as the saviour of the company, thinking he'd actually been the one bringing success to McMahon and the WWF.....and left to his own devices, his own ideas, his own storylines?.....well, let's just say we will cover that when we get there.....but Vince Russo made himself a lot of money, made himself a household name in the wrestling community and landed a job with the competition that he was no where near qualified for, all off the back of my ideas.</p><p> </p><p> But I digress, I'm sure you all know well enough about Vince Russo's path post WWF, let's talk about what happened when he/I started in creative. For starters, the main event needed a serious shake up. Diesel was stale, Bret Hart had been stuck in mid card feuds for the best part of a year, likewise The Undertaker. Razor Ramon was the intercontinental Champion.....again.....Shawn Michaels mouth had landed him in hot water and he was on the shelf after being on the receiving end of a serious beating from "9" thugs and Sid hadn't had a decent match all year.....we needed a heel, a strong heel.....we needed a bad ass and I had just the man in mind....a 450lb monster from the Rocky Mountains by the name of Vader. Unfortunately Eric Bischoff had the same idea....he also had the bigger cheque book which meant even though he spent most of 1995 jobbing to Hogan, Leon White inexplicably chose to sign with World Championship Wrestling instead of us (as did the Ultimate Warrior, but to be honest I wasn't too sad about that one. Warrior had name value and star quality oozing out of his face paint, but thinking back I'm not really sure where he would have fit into my vision.)</p><p> </p><p> So anyway, it was back to the drawing board....I needed a monster heel, I needed a bad ass....and I had one right in front of me all along in the form of the WWF Champion Diesel, a man who had got over in the first place playing the bad ass, monster heel. Getting there was pretty easy and killed two birds in one stone because it got Bret Hart back where he belongs, in the main event. Bret beat Diesel in an excellent match at Survivor Series 1995, a match that really pushed the envelope for the WWF as it saw the Hitman get sent crashing through the announce table, something not really seen before in the WWF. After the loss, Diesel lost it, beat the hell out of the new Champion, and hey presto, a new monster heel is born. Fast forward to the Royal Rumble and Diesel has been growing more and more frustrated and after losing again in his rematch on RAW he snapped again, destroying the Hitman and Jackknifing him through a table at ringside. Diesel then took it upon himself to interfere in every one of the Hitman's title defences, confusing the Champion and everyone else, because it always helped Bret to retain. At the Royal Rumble, the Hitman is set to face The Deadman, will Diesel play a part?</p><p> </p><p> Coming back from adversity and injury, Shawn Michaels is going against doctors orders and putting his name in the hat for the Royal Rumble match, which he claims he's going to win, before achieving his boyhood dream of becoming champion at Wrestlemania.</p><p> </p><p> Razor Ramon is locked in a battle with the debuting star Goldust, with the pair scheduled to clash over the Intercontinental strap at the Rumble.</p><p> </p><p> In comings and goings the WWF signed both Ron Simmons and Barry Windham to written deals, as well as 2 Cold Scorpio, Chris Jericho and a number of other cruiserweight wrestlers to kick start the new WWF Cruiserweight division, a division which will crown its first champion at the Rumble. Simmons has been re-christened Faarooq and has formed a stable with Kama and the unlikely duo of Mabel and Mo who have repackaged themselves as a more serious unit, going by the names Nelson Knight and Bobby Knight respectively. The group is going by the name of The Nation of Donination, and appear to be somewhat of a militant group. This was a major victory for me, because Vince had this gladiator gimmick set for Ron, complete with helmet and everything, so I was glad to be able to talk him out of it. Windham however has yet to even debut as I'm not really sure what to do with him....Vince signed Barry out of spite because WCW were sniffing around him and he was fed up of losing out to them. Barry is a great hand, but he's no spring chicken, I'm hoping to find some way to utilise him to his full potential eventually.</p><p> </p><p> There's been no major leavings, although there has been some phasing out of the sillier acts, Duke Drose, Isaac Yankem etc haven't seen much TV time. Isaac is a decent worker for a big man though so I'm hoping to repackage him eventually. Both Marty Jannetty and Chris Candido have been sent to rehab after both turned up to work completely wasted on God knows what, they were both pretty pleased by the decision as they obviously want to get clean. It did however royally screw up the tag team scene, as Candido (as Skip) and his partner Zip were feuding with the Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns at the time, while we were experimenting with different partners with Marty to see if we could recapture that old "Rockers" spark.</p><p> </p><p> Because of this we had to bolster the tag division a bit, which we did, bringing back the Harris Boys with Paul Ellering as a mouth piece because neither of them can talk a lick, as well as Henry Godwinns old tag team partner Dennis Knight who was renamed Phineas Godwinn. Owen Hart and Yokozuna had ran their course of a team as well, so Owen was paired with brother in law the British Bulldog and the pair are set to face the Gunns for the gold at the Rumble.</p><p> </p><p> The Million Dollar Corporation were chasing Tag Team gold too, as the 123 Kid and Tatanka had taken to teaming, while The Ringmaster was locked in a vicious feud with Savio Vega, after Savio spurned the Million Dollar Mans offer to join the corporation.</p><p> </p><p> I was really excited about the Rumble, it was the first of the "big four" PPVs I really placed my stamp on, because other than the title change at Survivor Series, I hadn't had much say in the event. That and the Rumble was my favourite event, even more so than Wrestlemania, and this one was all mine.....what could possibly go wrong?</p><p> </p><p> </p></div><p></p><p></p>

http://i611.photobucket.com/albums/tt196/mattfletcher1980/image_zpsimmrhnkk.jpg Hello, my names Matthew and I'm an alcoho.....oh wait, wrong group.....let me try that again....Hi, my names Matthew and you've never heard of me. Well you have, but not in the way you think. Confused? Not as confused as you will be. Let me try and explain. To understand the present day and the journey that got us here, we really need to start in the past. So let me take you back to where it all begins, way back in 1995. The wrestling world in 1995 to be precise. Now I don't know if you're old enough to have lived through what is arguably the worst year in professional wrestling history, but if you did you know what I mean and if you didn't....well, lucky you for one....but I'll explain the worst of it here. Let's start at the top and by the top I mean the top two men in the two major American companies, the Champions, the figureheads you might say. First of all WCW, where the icon that is Hulk Hogan held the top prize for the majority of the year. Nothing wrong with that right? I mean, Hogan is a legend, he immortalised the business, bought it into the mainstream and was beloved by wrestling fans worldwide....right? Well yes....and no. Yes Hogan is a living legend and yes, he immortalised the business and bought professional wrestling into the mainstream, but beloved by all? Not quite. See Hogans reputation had already taken quite the hit from the steroid scandal that hit the WWF in the early 90's, then there was the way he politicked his way to another World Championship run in 1993, beating the "dominating" champion Yokozuna in about 30 seconds, turning down a programme with the man who had been carrying the company in his absence, Bret Hart and finally not even appearing on TV during his title reign until he dropped the belt back to Yokozuna at the King of the Ring (by dubious means obviously.) This stellar run was followed up with a year away from the sport to film his TV show Thunder in Paradise, only to reemerge in the competition, WCW in mid 94. Well that's good right? Change of scenery, fresh storylines, fresh opponents, fresh challenges? It would have been, apart from two things....nothing was fresh and he wasn't Ric Flair. Instead of embracing the new and relishing the challenge, Hogan quickly squashed the two top heels in Flair and Vader and then systematically bought in his inner circle like a comfort blanket, leaving WCW looking like WWF lite before too long......and if that wasn't bad enough, the WCW crowds simply didn't warm to Hogan. They had their Hogan, his name was The Nature Boy, Wooooooo, Ric Flair.....and if Flair didn't whet your whistle, well there was another young man from Venice Beach who went by the name of Sting, why did they need Hogan? He was the enemy for god sake. So coming into 1995 you had a lukewarm champion, facing of against second rate, recycled opponents, over coming the insurmountable odds and triumphing over evil.....would have been great 5 years ago, and it got no better as the year went on. You had a dungeon of doom, a Yeti, a Giant, a Mummy, a Loch Ness Monster, a Zodiac whatever that is, an Ultimate Warrior rip off called The Renegade, you had Ric Flair in drag, you had Ric Flair being pinned in a strap match between Hogan and Vader, you had an Alliance to end Hulkamania, you had a 60 man, 3 ring battle royal, in which there was so much action that you saw none of it.....all in all it was a pretty bad year. On the flip side of the coin we had the WWF, where Diesel had gone from a kick ass and take no names tough guy that the fans got behind, to a WWF Champion, to Hulk Hogan 2.0, complete with hulking up. He faced Sid in what would have been the most boring PPV main events in history, had it not been for the fact that that title was taken later in the year when he battled "King" Mabel. The main event of Wrestlemania featured a football player, Shawn Michaels went coast to coast in the royal rumble, entering at number one....his record setting time? Considering Flair went over an hour in 92 after coming in at number 3? 38 minutes....that's right, half of what Ric Flair lasted. Bret Hart, arguable one of the best wrestlers in the company wrestled a kiss my foot match, a dentist and a pirate. A Million Dollar Corporation that won nothing and looked like Million Dollar idiots, Pig Farmers, Garbage men, Man o' Wars, Avatars.....I mentioned the dentist and pirate right? To cut a long story short, wrestling sucked. Fortunately for Vince McMahon, he had something that WCW didn't....no not Star Power, WCW had that in abundance....what he did have, was the power to change. He knew something had to give, he knew the cartoon, colourful, hokey cokey product wasn't cutting it any more, he just didn't know what to do about it. He was surrounded by yes men, who told him that everything he came out with was gold, what he needed was someone not afraid to call him out.....someone with some edge....what he needed, was me. Now I know what you're thinking, "why the hell would Vincent Kennedy McMahon need a nobody like me?" Well first and foremost, I loved this sport.....LOVED it, I'd been a fan all my life and I knew it in and out, back to front......"ok" you're thinking, so do I, what makes you so special? Well the second reason is quite simple, I had nothing to lose by calling Vince out. See I already worked for the WWF, I was a writer.....for WWF Magazine.....and I HATED it. Well I say writer, writer is a kind of loose term. I did write for the magazine, problem was that I wrote the answers to the letter page.....you know the ones "Dear WWF Magazine. I was recently watching the latest edition of WWF Mania, and was sickened by the actions of that dastardly Jerry Lawler and his mean old dentist Isaac Yankem. They should both be fined/fired/shot/hung drawn and quartered immediately. Sincerely yours, Dwight from Kentucky." So yeah.....I wanted to quit. But I've never been much of a quitter, I've always been more of a burn all your bridges and get fired kind of guy. So I started to have fun. I knew no one cared about the letters page, I knew no one read them before they went to print, so I started answering the questions really, really.....really truthfully. When people asked what needed changing in the WWF, I told them....when someone questioned a stupid decision, I agreed with them and told them what I would have done instead.....I basically played armchair quarterback on the pages of the WWF Magazine and I loved every minute. That is until around October of 1995. That's the day I met Vince McMahon for the first time. I'll never forget his first words to me, they were truly inspiring......."are you the fu###ng idiot that's been fu###ng about with my magazine?" Finally, I was going to get fired and meet Vince McMahon all in the same day.....today is a good day. Everyone scrambled about apologising for me, saying I'd never work in the magazine again, saying this would never happen again, blah, blah, blah. Vince said they were damn right, I never would work for the magazine again.....because I was getting promoted to the booking team. As Vince continued talking you could almost hear the collective jaws in the room hitting the floor. Vince told everyone that THIS was what was missing from the WWF.....balls, attitude. Vince wanted someone working with him, who wasn't going to smile and say all his ideas were great. What he wanted was me.

Ah wonderful, thanks for the speedy response

This is probably a stupid question but I'm working on a 1993 mod for myself and I'm a little bit unsure on the popularity to autopush ratio. What I mean by that is for example Tony Anthony, The Dirty White Boy was a huge main event star in Smoky Mountain, but a virtual unknown in the rest of the country/world (until he became TL Hopper obviously....Mega Star lol) so obviously his popularity would be considerably higher in the South East(?) than the rest of the U.S. Would the AI still auto push him to main event if he was signed to SMW because of his popularity in the region or is it based on this overall popularity? I hope that makes sense because it sounds like rambling nonsense in my head lol. Also while I'm asking random questions, does anyone know what the corresponding popularity to push levels for different companies would be? I'm sure it was posted somewhere but I can't mind where. By which I mean how popular someone needs to be to be considered a main eventer in say a cult company? Thanks for any replies, I hope that makes somewhat sense to you.