The Long Road Back: NWA (The Fall)

[Ping von Erich]

The following is from the perspective of Denny Ford, a backstage creative team member of the newly reformed National Wrestling Alliance. The posts will be in lose 'blog' form, as though Denny was simply recording his thoughts on the goings on in the NWA and the wrestling world as a whole as it tries to rebuild after the McMahon / AOL Time Warner scandal. No big backstory, just a reason for me to update everyone on the goings on of my game.. hopefully give Tommy some ideas for his upcoming "After the Fall" data set. Here we go.. [CENTER][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/Pingster/NWA.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] [QUOTE]Long day today, spent all morning in meetings, Flair and Dusty have kept everyone on the creative and talent management teams really busy prepping for an apparent influx of talent. Tully, Steamboat, Barry.. all those guys have been run ragged scouting guys to be offered contracts. Rhino, Taka Michinoku, Stevie Richards, Dave Taylor, Bigelow and a few others. A lot of really experienced guys to help out our really young roster, guys like Dinsmore, Harris, Storm, Orton and the rest. Speaking of the new talent, we really have such a great collection of hungry young guys all yearning to learn from all the legends we have here in the NWA. The new tag team of America's Most Wanted (Nick Dinsmore and James Storm), the third generation pretty boy Randy Orton, the exciting young high flyer AJ Styles, the talented technical talent Jamie Knoble, and the handsome young babyface "Wildcat" Chris Harris.. this, in my opinion, is the future of professional wrestling. I also spent a few hours going over storyline ideas with Ric and Terry (Funk). We're going to give a huge push to Mike Awesome, the fact that man didn't turn tail and run back to Japan or cop out and sign up with Dreamer and The Extreme is a real tesimate to his dedication to the SPORT of pro wrestling. Same can be said for Raven, the fact he wanted to stray away from the element everyone associates him with and go to bat for tradition, speaks volumes for his character. Our two big headliner feuds for the next couple months will be DDP backed by Saturn going up against Raven and his man Kanyon. Sort of a cool switch of old WCW era tag team partners, should make for some great promo material. The other feud we're working on would be the oddball team of Ron Simmons and Sting going up against The Dudley's in what we're hoping to turn out to be a really bloody drawn out mess of a series. We're not sure which feud to dip the World title into, we're thinking Sting of Raven would each make fantastic champions.. only time and situation will tell. AWF put together a decent show, Ernest Miller and Kidman put on a good one on one matchup, The Cat picking up the AWF IC title. Billy Gunn bested Matt Hardy in a decent midcard bout. Ron Killings downed La Parka in a weird matchup for the AWF TV title, Edge beat Buff Bagwell, then in a fantastic triple threat match for the vacant AWF World title Jericho beat Kane and Scott Steiner, pinning Scotty. Great show, good for the business, almost sold out the Selland Arena. Props to Bischoff and the Hulkster for a good showing. Legends of Wrestling started their 'Blackout' Tour with a decent showing, the best matches of the night were easily the opener between Marc Mero and Tatanka and the one on one contest featuring Big Boss Man and The Godfather. The oddball six man tag between Bobby Eaton, Mideon and Viscera against the weird triad of Hale, I.R.S and Lodi of all people really brought the show down. Fusion's developmental league Lone Star Wrestling put on a great little show down in Texas, the young amateur standout Brock Lesnar downed some big brute named Horshu in a real power display, the tag team match for their tag titles was also a real showstopper, Spanky and Rodney Mack downing the awesome tag team of Shelton Benjamin and Paul London for the straps. The main event saw the nephew of Shawn Michaels, Michael Shane beat seasoned vet Brian Lee for their Heavyweight title in a show stopping match. More tomorrow.[/QUOTE] That's generally how it will go, not sure if my actual shows will be more detailed or not, still feeling out how this diary will go. I want to give as much info as possible as I'd love to have as much of an impact on 'After the Fall' as possible. Like I said, more tomorrow.

[mad5226]

I'll be keeping a close eye on this one. I'm really glad someone is doing a diary on Tommy's The Fall game. I wanted to but I was to consumed in my SOTBPW diary (cheap plug). Anyways good luck man you have at least one fan...for now =)

[Ping von Erich]

First show, I had a little time tonight. [QUOTE]A sold out Stuart C. Siegel Center, 5,000 hosted NWA Showdown! on Fox Sports Net this week, the National Wrestling Alliance is back full steam! With Jim Ross and Dusty Rhodes holding down the announce position and on screen authority figure Terry Funk sitting at ringside overseeing the proceedings, the show started off with a few dark matches for the in house audience. Dark Match "No Gimmicks Needed" Chris Candido def. A.J. Styles Denny's Notes - Solid match, I love Candido's work, always have. We have some plans for Chris, I'd love to see him find new life after "the fall" as people are calling it now. Styles just have that look, he's a little small but the way he moves in the ring, woooo daddy, he has "it". Rating - C Dark Match America's Most Wanted (Dinsmore & J. Storm) def. David Young & Bill DeMott Denny's Notes - The team name was Dusty's idea, but making the team Nick and James was mine and Ric's. Dusty was convinced Chris Harris was the perfect partner for Storm, but Ric stuck his neck out for Nick, he just saw something with James and Nick when they teamed up together in training. Decent match, Young and DeMott are solid enough, but not really going anywhere and both are happy being in enhancement positions. Rating - D Opening Segment Diamond Dallas Page, Raven and Terry Funk Denny's Notes - Set up for the main event, DDP cuts a promo, Raven comes out and drops his two cents, brawl, Terry stands up and makes the main event for the World title.. after a heated promo that included the statement, and I quote "to hell with G*d d**n tournaments, lets get us a champion tonight!".. gotta' love Terry Funk man, gotta' love him. Rating - B NWA X Division Title Match "Sugar" Shane Helms def. Ultimo Dragon and Hector Garza Denny's Notes - Great match, neat crossover of Japanese Super Junior style, American indie style and the classic lucha libre.. really the picture perfect way for us to kick off our X Division. We put the title on Helms simply because he was such a prominent part of WCW's Cruiserweight division and he works so well with so many lightweight workers, great young man, a real pleasure having him as a champion here in the new NWA. Rating - C Hype Video for Sting & Simmons / The Dudley Boyz NWA Tag Title Match Denny's Notes - Good production from our crew in the back, we hired a lot of former WWF and WCW production guys so we have a top notch bunch of tech's and artists in the back. Great video, great hype for our huge World tag title match. Rating - B+ Six Man Tag Team Match The Road Warriors & Randy Orton def. Triple X (Kid Kash, Skipper & Knoble) Denny's Notes - Animal and Hawk were happy to give young Randy a bit of a rub here, they both know his dad and his granddad, they both love working with young talents like this. The whole "big worker / small worker" thing worked great here, even with the lightweight group being heels.. but when you have three guys as talented as Elix, Kash and Jamie.. you can't get anything but perfection. Great midcard bout. Rating - C+ Backstage Argument Denny's Notes - We set up a little program here between new X Division champ "Sugar" Shane Helms and "No Gimmicks Needed" Chris Candido, should be a good feud, sort of an old school versus new school sort of deal.. still working out the kinks. Rating - C+ NWA World Tag Team Title Match Ron Simmons & "The Man Called" Sting def. The Dudley Boyz Denny's Notes - Such a good match, its almost silly. Ron and Steve work so well as a team and work so well off of Bubba and D-Von. These guys went non stop for a solid thirteen minutes, a wild brawl to be remembered. In the end seeing Ron slam D-Von with a huge Dominator was just fantastic. New tag champs! New era! Rating - B- In Ring Attack Denny's Notes - We're setting Mike Awesome up for a huge push, and this huge segment starts it all, Ric Flair coming out and cutting a "shoot" on the return of the NWA starts it all. Real heart warming stuff from Natch, tradition, a love of the business, dedication to the old school, all that.. boom, Awesome's music hits. After a surprisingly good promo from Awesome setting up his reasoning a bit we get one of the most fantastic beat downs we've seen in years. By the end of everything Flair is a bloody ass mess from head to toe, left for dead amidst the broken announce table. The insane look Awesome gives back towards the ring (Flair's blood smeared across his face and chest) as he's hauled off by security and road agents is classic. Rating - A (stole the show) NWA World Heavyweight Title Match Diamond Dallas Page def. Raven Denny's Notes - This is far from the end of this story, we have plans for DDP and Raven. But for right now, we're giving Page the ball and letting him run with it. Great match, solid work from both guys, Raven really gave it his all, busting open hard way with a hard shot to the eye from Page. I love watching these two work together, they had a few stellar matches back in WCW as midcard workers, good to see their talents headlining a show this stacked. Rating - B+ Final Show Rating - B Denny's Notes - Great first effort, the crowd was hot from start to finish. As soon as the show finished I checked a few message boards and dirt sheets and the reviews from the most level headed reporter to the most jaded smark was solid. The best reaction was to Awesome's beat down of Flair, best quote I read was "f*ck the Extreme, the NWA is hardcore man. Dreamer is a *****, Ric Flair is the f*ckin' man" I printed that out and faxed it to Natch, he got a kick out of that ****.[/QUOTE]

[Ping von Erich]

[QUOTE]Pro Wrestling Reborn put on a decent show last night, starting the show off with the awesome tag of Rey Jr. and Amazing Red besting The S.A.T. in a fast paced match. Word has it Red cried backstage he was so honored to team with Rey Rey. Another great tag match was Nova and Jimmy Rave besting mid west talents CM Punk and Chris Hero for the PWR tag straps. The show was really capped off though by RVD and Jerry Lynn rehashing their old ECW feud, Rob picking up the PWR title in a classic. AFW's developmental league GSW put on a pretty sad show, the proceedings were started off with local tag team Donovan Morgan and Mike Modest besting Charlie Haas and Carly Colon for the GSW tag titles. The main event was Alan Funk besting Kevin Northcutt for the GSW title, but that match was actually overshadowed by CW Anderson getting pinned in a wild brawl against.. believe it or not.. Ed "Booty Man" Leslie.[/QUOTE] Next day.. [QUOTE]Fusion Pro put on their first show last night to a packed crowed down in Texas. The oddball team of Chavo Guerrero and Ken Shamrock bested Bryan Clark and Brian Adams for the FPW tag titles, Juvi and Blitzkrieg put on a lightweight clinic, as did Tajiri and Shannon Moore. The night belonged to Bill Goldberg and Steven Regal, work through the grapevine has Goldberg getting tutored by guys like Regal, Tazz, Booker, Taker, anyone that'll take a few minutes and teach him to fine tune his game. His whole outlook on the business has really changed for the better since his days in WCW. The main event saw Undertaker take the FPW World title in a four way contest that also featured Tazz, Booker T and for some reason, Scotty 2 Hotty. Good show.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]****in' horrid show down in Memphis, nothing to really to note accept.. ewww. Kamala and Kevin "Seven" Fertig should never come together again in a wrestling ring.. ever.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]We signed Dave Taylor today, he was apperently trying to get a job with his good friends Dave Finlay and Steven Regal in FPW, but to no avail. We contacted him about a position as an agent and part time talent and he jumped at the chance. Stevie Richards, Bam Bam and Rhino were all just looking for to much money, way to rich for an open contract.. all three were obviously looking to get additional work with The Extreme or one of the big two. Taka contacted us earlier today and pulled from negotiations as he and All Japan worked out a deal, no biggie I guess, but we had plans to add him to the X Division.[/QUOTE] Next day.. [QUOTE]Great showing from Stampede up in Canada, Ouelette and LaFon teamed up to take the tag straps over Chris Daniels and BJ Whitmer in a fantastic contest. But the matchup between Christian Cage and Lance Storm for the North American Heavyweight strap stole the show. Cage picked up the strap, but the match was all Lance Storm, the man has hit a real peak in his career in terms of how good he is in the ring.[/QUOTE] Next day.. [QUOTE]AWF Mayhem hit the air again with a decent showing, squash match to start things off, O'Haire pinning La Parka in a short one, Matt Hardy putting on a great matchup pinning Billy Kidman. Killings, Miller, and Jericho all defended their respective titles against Mad Mikey, Bagwell, and Steiner respectively in a few good matches. Not as good as their last show, but still a decent showcase of their talent.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Legends and PWR both put on shows, both really disappointed.. PWR just didn't find their stride all throughout their show, the one bright spot being Chris Daniels going over Reckless Youth and RVD defending his strap against EZ Money (who is on a hot streak, working for The Extreme, Reborn, and Fusion as Jason Jett). Legends just put on another slapped together showcase of has-beens and never was's, the only decent showing coming from Luger and Bob Holly (again) and Godfather picking up their World title over Konnan.[/QUOTE] Next day.. [QUOTE]Mike Sanders screwed us over today, dude calls our offices and says he's as good as on our payroll, said he'd meet with Tully (who we flew out to Atlanta to meet with the bastard) then no shows their meeting! We get a fax with Fusion Pro letter head saying they'd picked him up "sorry for the mix up".. bull****, bastards stole him right from under our noses! Shane McMahon can kiss my ass, the apple apparently doesn’t fall far from the tree.[/QUOTE]