FankuKaibutsu

It's September, 1988 and Jim Crockett Promotions has just been bought out by Ted Turner and re-named World Championship Wrestling. The NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship is now vacant because management forgot that the previous champion, Chris Benoit, had declined to sign a contract extension, and was leaving the company at the end of August. His final match was in a six-man tag match with The Steiner Brothers against members of Ted DeBiase's stable Million Dollar Mercenaries(Specifically Scott Hall, Ron Bass, and Mike 'Wallstreet' Rotunda). A tournament is now planned to crown a new champion, but this incident is being viewed as a major slip-up from management, and the hope is that this is an isolated event, and not a sign of things to come under the new banner of WCW.

I don't think it's possible for something like this to be programmed in. I think it's just a huge coincidence.

<p>It's May of 1988 in my Golden Age JCP game. Ric Flair has taken on Johnny Ace as a protege, and has been giving him psychology advice at almost every show. I had a peek in the editor and found that his psychology is 99.7! That puts him higher than any other active wrestler besides Flair(I think). I was not expecting John Laurinaitis to end up with everything needed to be a big star. </p><p> </p><p> Flair has also taken Shane Douglas under his wing, and has been giving him advice on being a babyface. I like to think he's just telling Douglas stuff that Ricky Steamboat and Dusty Rhodes have done during their matches.</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Owen Rey" data-cite="Owen Rey" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="41191" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>First time I've ever seen this story. Didn't see it in TEW 13 either and I played way too much of that game.<p> </p><p> They will not win this bidding war.</p><p> </p><p> <span>http://i.imgur.com/3KXIYUG.png</span></p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Try playing The Golden Age 1987 mod. Bidding wars are a common occurrence in the first few months.</p>

<p>Ric Flair has taken Shane Douglas as a protege and Dusty Rhodes has formed a clique with the retired Magnum TA and a young Scott Hall. What a strange timeline I've stumbled upon.</p><p> </p><p> Ric Flair has actually taken on a bunch of proteges- Johnny Ace, Kendall Windham, and Shane Douglas. Nearly every show he shares his wisdom with at least one of them often all three. I feel like there's a stable to be made out of this...</p>

<p>When I started my The Golden Age JCP game, I made a mental note to make an honest effort to book towards that years Starrcade as it actually was. That year's card was:</p><p> </p><p> Ric Flair def Ron Garvin© For the NWA World Title</p><p> Dusty Rhodes def Lex Luger© for the NWA US Title</p><p> Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard© def The Road Warriors for the NWA Tag titles</p><p> Nikita Koloff def Terry Taylor to unify the UWF and NWA TV Titles</p><p> The Rock n Roll Express def The Midnight Express</p><p> Steve Williams© def Barry Windham for the UWF Heavyweight title</p><p> Sting, Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin drew Eddie Gilbert, Rick Steiner and Larry Zybszko</p><p> </p><p> My Starrcade wound up being:</p><p> Ric Flair© def Dusty Rhodes for the NWA World Title</p><p> Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard def The Rock n Roll Express© for the NWA Tag Titles</p><p> Barry Windham and Jerry Lawler def The Midnight Express</p><p> Bruiser Brody def Nikita Koloff</p><p> Wendi Richter© def Dump Matsumoto, Sherry Martel, and Chigusa Nagayo for the NWA Women's Title</p><p> Ron Simmons© def Manny Fernandez for the NWA US Title</p><p> Sting© def Mike Rotundo for the NWA TV Title</p><p> The Garvins, Keiichi Yamada, The Warrior and Kendall Windham def Vader, Johnny Ace, The Barbarian, and Rick Steiner</p><p> </p><p> Let's examine how this deviated from reality, and see how I got there.</p><p> </p><p> Right off the bat, less than a month in the game, Road Warrior Hawk is put out for over a year with a concussion. Next, is the Ron Garvin problem. In reality, Ric Flair drops the title to Garvin for two months specifically to win it back at Starrcade. In game, however, I can't promise Flair his title back and there's no way Flair will drop the title to Garvin. I decide to swap Garvin for Barry Windham, he's much more popular and more talented. When it came time for Flair to drop the title in September, he was still furious, even if he was made to look strong, even with a tainted victory. Flair retained in September and a rematch was planned for Starrcade. Hopefully Starrcade would end with a new World Champion.</p><p> </p><p> One month before Starrcade, in a match with Ron Simmons, Lex Luger suffered an ruptured spleen. They changed the finish on the fly and Simmons won the US title. Luger would be out until after Starrcade. The decision was made to go with the best possible feud for the main event, Flair vs Rhodes. This left Windham without a match.</p><p> </p><p> Once the Road Warriors/Horsemen match went out the window, the plan was to end Starrcade with all the Horsemen holding gold except Luger, leading to his turning against the others. Earlier in the year, The Rock n Roll Express defeated The Midnight Express to unifi the NWA World and US Tag Titles, leading to Anderson/Blanchard vs the RR Express.</p><p> </p><p> All the UWF title matches are off the table, since the UWF doesn't begin to collapse until December, and Starrcade is in November. Steve Williams, Michael Hayes, Larry Zybzskzo, and Eddie Gilbert all signed written contracts for other companies, AWA, WCCW, and NJPW.</p><p> </p><p> Just to give them something to do, I planned Barry Windham and the remaining Road Warrior in a feud with the Midnight Express. The week before Starrcade, Road Warrior Animal was injured for 2 month. Jerry Lawler, on loand from CWA, was a last minute replacement.</p><p> </p><p> Since Steve Williams had signed with NJPW, I wanted to bring in Stan Hansen. Since Stan Hansen won't work in the US, I decided to bring in Bruiser Brody. He came in as a heel, and needed someone to beat to establish him. Nikita Koloff was selected as punishment for a string of injury causing botches(Both Road Warriors, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, and Manny Fernandez). </p><p> </p><p> Since I wasn't expecting Ron Simmons as US Champion, I wasn't sure what to do with him. I paired him up with fellow midcard brawler, Manny Fernandez.</p><p> </p><p> When Tully Blanchard was out for a little more than a month due to the Nikita Effect, he was forced to vacate the TV title since he was unable to defend it for 30 days. A tournament was held to crown a new champion, ending in a match bewtween Johnny Ace and Rick Rude at the Eddy Graham Memorial Show. This match was interrupted by a debuting Vader, causing the match to be thrown out. Rick Rude was fired the next day for failing a drug test(causing Curt Hennig to be angry and eventually quit, helping to ruin that years War Games match, as documented earlier in this thread). Vader beat Ace, leading to a feud with Sting, Sting beat Vader, leading to a feud with The Varsity Club, and Sting vs Rotundo.</p><p> </p><p> I've also been attempting to build up a Women's division. It's going quite well, aside from a few roadblocks(Wendi Richter refusing to drop the title, AJW and AWA signing talent for more money than I think they're worth). Not much of a story behind that match.</p><p> </p><p> The final match is mostly a filler match, though interestingly, in my game The Barbarian and The Warlord have terrible chemistry, so the Powers of Pain had a short, unimpressive run. The Barbarian and Johnny Ace have great chemistry, and have been crushing jobbers for weeks. Thinking about changing his name, not sure to what.</p><p> </p><p> So, thanks for reading, if you haven't just skimmed it. I hope you've found it interesting.</p>

Now that I'm home and can properly verify, that's definitely a picture of Sumo Hall. It's famous as a venue for, well, sumo. This is the first decent picture I can find of Korakuen Hall, the heart of wrestling in Japan, though in this picture it's set up for boxing. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Korakuen_Hall.jpg

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="TheWho87" data-cite="TheWho87" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="41261" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Now I know these are a thing I'll add any I make into <a href="http://s376.photobucket.com/user/TheWho87TEWR/library/LoadingScreens" rel="external nofollow">my Photobucket</a>.<p> </p><p> First two are general arenas, the first from Chikara, the other from a Mexican show. Next four are specific arenas, Arena Mexico, Korakuen Hall, Shinjuku Face & York Hall. Last two are WWE arenas.</p><p> </p><p> If anyone can find good HQ images of arenas I'll do more as well as any I come across <img alt=":)" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <span>http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo203/TheWho87TEWR/LoadingScreens/Korakuen_Hall.jpg</span></p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> Isn't this Sumo Hall/Ryogoku, not Korakuen Hall?</p>

<p>The Road Warriors have been nothing but class acts in my game. Granted, Animal has been out with an injury for most of it, so that's less of a chance for him to cause backstage trouble, but still. Jim Crockett, Jr on the other hand can't go 3 weeks without causing trouble. And I can't fire him without upsetting most of my main eventers.</p><p> </p><p> When I started this JCP game, I made a point of kinda sorta making an honest effort at trying to book towards Starcade 87 as it actually was. Relevant to this post is Dusty Rhodes vs Lex Luger for the NWA US Title. To fill the four months between The Great American Bash and Starrcade, I had Luger feud with Ron Simmons. In the blowoff match between Luger and Simmons, Luger ruptured his spleen and they changed the finish on the fly. Congratulations to the new National Wrestling Alliance United States Heavyweight Champion, Ron Simmons.</p><p> </p><p> Also, Randy Savage and Ms Elizabeth divorced, a month later she left for maternity leave. I bet that'll be a good story for the documentaries in 20 years.</p>

How Nikita Koloff almost singlehandedly ruined the first ever War Games match. The year was 1987, using Genadi's Golden Age mod, and I was building to Jim Crockett Promotions' Great American Bash in July. The Four Horsemen, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and Lex Luger, are feuding with The Super Powers(Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff) and The Road Warriors, planned to culminate War Games, The Match Beyond, 8 men, 2 rings, 1 cage! In early April, during a 4 corners match for the NWA United States Heavyweight title, Road Warrior Hawk suffers a concussion. It's not specified who caused it, but in retrospect I believe it was caused by defending champion Nikita Koloff. I think it was just hard to tell exactly when the injury occurred, so it was impossible to place specific blame. Hawk will be out for a year. A replacement is now needed for War Games. A young Curt Hennig is hired and in the next few weeks he is addedto the feud with the Horsemen. In late April, Koloff clearly botched a move, injuring Tully Blanchard's arm, keeping him out of action for two months. He'll be back a couple weeks before The Great American Bash, however, he now has a Simmering Tension with Nikita Koloff. Meanwhile, Rick Rude has been angering nearly everyone he works with by showing up to the ring in No Condition To Perform. The decision is made to fire Rick Rude. Curt Hennig is very angry about the termination of his friends contract. A few weeks later, Hennig asks for his release, which is granted. The decision is made to replace Hennig with Ron Garvin, who had a pretty good match with Flair earlier in the year. Barry Windham was originally considered, but he was currently involved in a feud with Kevin Sullivan, to build him up for a Starrcade feud with Flair later in the year. In early July, Tully Blanchard returns to action, healed from his injury. Shortly after his return, his relationship with Nikita Koloff escalates into a Strong Dislike. The week before The Great American Bash, in a 4 corners Tag Team Match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship, featuring Defending Champions The Rock And Roll Express, The Russian Team(Ivan Koloff and Vladimir Petrov), The Super Powers(Dusty and Nikita) and Road Warrior Animal and Curt Hennig, Nikita Koloff once again clearly botched a move causing an ankle injury for Road Warrior Animal. He will be out for 2 weeks. Management collectively shrugs and decides to replace him with Jimmy Garvin. The War Games match at The Great American Bash gets a C+ rating, the lowest main event rating in recent memory(since the game began in march). Critics point to the poor performance of Jimmy Garvin, and the fact that Blanchard and Nikita Koloffs disdain for working together was clearly visible, as major factors as to why the match was a disappointment.

I ran NJPW as a touring promotion in TEW 2013. I had February and September off, moving New Beginning to the end of January and skipping the September event. It worked very well to simulate how NJPW actually runs, instead of having weekly events, I booked 2-3 "Road To" events leading up to each PPV, and a full series of shows for the BOSJ, G1 and World Tag League tournaments. Though, with the changes to how TV shows work, I don't know if it would still work out as well.