What's Going on in Your Game?

[Soft]

I am booking AWA in a 1985 mod. We are in June 1987. It became quickly one of the most interesting saves I've ever had.

 

Not only did Bill Watts leave the NWA with Mid South, but WWF closed down in late 86 as well.

 

Now there are three major players in the US:

 

UWF (formerly Mid South) with Ric Flair, Big John Studd, Paul Orndorff, Kamala and Jake Roberts.

 

WCW (formerly JCP) with Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes, Andre The Giant, Harley Race and Ricky Steamboat.

 

AWA's top stars are Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Magnum TA, Kerry Von Erich & Curt Hennig.

 

 

The save started out pretty basic. I wanted to get to Medium so I can actually go on and compete with Vince. Well Vince beat himself. Putting the Heavyweight Title on Greg Valentine for a 1 year reign basically put the company out of business. Adding to that Hulk Hogan only had 18 matches in 86, compared to Ric Flair, who had around 180, that is nothing.

 

I just finished a huge storyline involving most of my top talent because I introduced basically my take on Horsemen or Rat Pack: The Syndicate. With Ted DiBiase, Curt Hennig, Jerry Lawler and later Steve Williams as final member, they were dominating the title scene and it was Magnum with his friends Kerry von Erich, Butch Reed and Larry Zbyszko to take them on, what resulted in the very first Cell Wars match!

 

Now I got a couple of months left to build for my season finale where the main event is planned as Randy Savage vs Magnum TA.

 

Savage has his own kind of faction, the Macho Army, with Miss Elizabeth, mentor Superstar Billy Graham and Gino Hernandez who Superstar brought along. Well, the story will go that Gino and Superstar turn on Liz and Randy, making them babyfaces and ushering in the era of Randy as figurehead after he served as the territory's top heel for two and a half years. They are in fact scheduled to turn on Randy in the main event of the biggest show of the year costing Randy the title.

 

After the feud with Gino, Savage will be back in the title hunt to take the belt from the champ at that time. I'm thinking Piper but unfortunately his gimmick is rated as Poor what makes booking him in the main events quite difficult as that costs those direly needed points to beat WCW and UWF.

 

The actual most fun I have in the game are with the TV and US Tag Team titles.

 

Rick Martel just won the TV Title Contender League (10 Man Round Robin) what was basically born out of necessity as I have a lot of unaffiliated wrestlers in the Recognisable and Well Known category. Storyline reason for the tournament was that TV champion Greg Valentine found a loophole in his contract that would allow the TV champion once a year to compose a tournament to crown his next challenger. Well, Greg 'The Hammer' and his chickenshit manager Jim Cornette obviously were looking for a way to keep the title in their possession the longest and wear the contender out. Pretty fun stuff right there. Also booking guys like Don Kernodle, Tommy Rich, Kevin Sullivan or Jim Neidhart in their primes is just a ton of fun.

 

The US Tag Title is kind of my momentum and popularity booster to be quite honest. But while the World Tag Team Titles are mostly defended at PPVs and on occasion even in PPV main events, the US Tag Titles are your usual midcard tag titles where great teams like The Fantastics, The Sheepherders, The Mechanics (Robert Gibson and Buddy Roberts) or The Tokyo Underworld (Mr Saito and Tiger Chung Lee).

 

Sorry for the long post but I rarely do those even though I would love to tell more people about it TBH haha

[Zero]

I am booking AWA in a 1985 mod. We are in June 1987. It became quickly one of the most interesting saves I've ever had.

 

Not only did Bill Watts leave the NWA with Mid South, but WWF closed down in late 86 as well.

 

Now there are three major players in the US:

 

UWF (formerly Mid South) with Ric Flair, Big John Studd, Paul Orndorff, Kamala and Jake Roberts.

 

WCW (formerly JCP) with Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes, Andre The Giant, Harley Race and Ricky Steamboat.

 

AWA's top stars are Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Magnum TA, Kerry Von Erich & Curt Hennig.

 

 

The save started out pretty basic. I wanted to get to Medium so I can actually go on and compete with Vince. Well Vince beat himself. Putting the Heavyweight Title on Greg Valentine for a 1 year reign basically put the company out of business. Adding to that Hulk Hogan only had 18 matches in 86, compared to Ric Flair, who had around 180, that is nothing.

 

I just finished a huge storyline involving most of my top talent because I introduced basically my take on Horsemen or Rat Pack: The Syndicate. With Ted DiBiase, Curt Hennig, Jerry Lawler and later Steve Williams as final member, they were dominating the title scene and it was Magnum with his friends Kerry von Erich, Butch Reed and Larry Zbyszko to take them on, what resulted in the very first Cell Wars match!

 

Now I got a couple of months left to build for my season finale where the main event is planned as Randy Savage vs Magnum TA.

 

Savage has his own kind of faction, the Macho Army, with Miss Elizabeth, mentor Superstar Billy Graham and Gino Hernandez who Superstar brought along. Well, the story will go that Gino and Superstar turn on Liz and Randy, making them babyfaces and ushering in the era of Randy as figurehead after he served as the territory's top heel for two and a half years. They are in fact scheduled to turn on Randy in the main event of the biggest show of the year costing Randy the title.

 

After the feud with Gino, Savage will be back in the title hunt to take the belt from the champ at that time. I'm thinking Piper but unfortunately his gimmick is rated as Poor what makes booking him in the main events quite difficult as that costs those direly needed points to beat WCW and UWF.

 

The actual most fun I have in the game are with the TV and US Tag Team titles.

 

Rick Martel just won the TV Title Contender League (10 Man Round Robin) what was basically born out of necessity as I have a lot of unaffiliated wrestlers in the Recognisable and Well Known category. Storyline reason for the tournament was that TV champion Greg Valentine found a loophole in his contract that would allow the TV champion once a year to compose a tournament to crown his next challenger. Well, Greg 'The Hammer' and his chickenshit manager Jim Cornette obviously were looking for a way to keep the title in their possession the longest and wear the contender out. Pretty fun stuff right there. Also booking guys like Don Kernodle, Tommy Rich, Kevin Sullivan or Jim Neidhart in their primes is just a ton of fun.

 

The US Tag Title is kind of my momentum and popularity booster to be quite honest. But while the World Tag Team Titles are mostly defended at PPVs and on occasion even in PPV main events, the US Tag Titles are your usual midcard tag titles where great teams like The Fantastics, The Sheepherders, The Mechanics (Robert Gibson and Buddy Roberts) or The Tokyo Underworld (Mr Saito and Tiger Chung Lee).

 

Sorry for the long post but I rarely do those even though I would love to tell more people about it TBH haha

 

Great write-up. Keep updating. Love the background of everything.

[dbritton987]

Took a break from my Cornellverse game to check out the 1995 Real World Mod. Started a game with WWF, though I might eventually hop on over to ECW.

 

Here is my first WWF PPV. I found myself following some “historical references” due to roster limitations.

 

WWF In Your House

September 1995

 

“The Model” Rick Martel defeated 1-2-3 Kid. In the process, it is revealed that Martel is the newest member of the Million Dollar Corporation!

 

The Steiner Brothers defeated Men on a Mission, thus earning a WWF Tag Team Title match.

 

In a match that was supposed to decide the #1 Contender to the Intercontinental Championship, Razor Ramon & Goldust battled to a Double Countout. Uh-Oh!

 

The Undertaker defeated Tatanka. Post-Match, when Undertaker attempted to go after the MDC leader Ted Dibiase, the Deadman would be assaulted by none other than Sycho Sid!

 

Shane Douglas (yes, Shane!) defeated Bam Bam Bigelow.

 

In a WWF World Tag Team Championship Match, WWF World Heavyweight Champion Diesel & WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels defeated WWF World Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & Yokozuna by Disqualification. The DQ happened when The British Bulldog interfered, attacking Diesel. Camp Cornette proceeded to deliver a vicious beatdown on the Two Dudes with Attitude.

 

In the final match of their heated feud, Bret Hart defeated Jerry Lawler in a Steel Cage Match. Despite there being no Pinfalls or Submissions in this Cage Match, Hart would lock Lawler in the Sharpshooter until The King passed out from the pain. With Lawler out cold, the Hitman would walk out the cage door, closing the book on their rivalry.

[Jaded]

Trying a Zone game (in CV97) with them as a sort of test run for BHOTWG USA - in my headcanon, BHOTWG were set to expand in 1997, only for the launch of HGC to take out several of the guys they'd be planning to build around. Instead, they've persuaded the Zone to try running a touring schedule to see how American fans take to it. I've added a relationship where I'm accepting excursion workers from the Hammer and a bunch of money, but I'm limiting myself using the following rules.

 

Only one signing per tour on more than $200 a show, except for during the King of the Indies.

No signing anyone who's working for a fed with a negative relationship with RPW, since Holt's working for me.

No signing anyone working for a fed above medium.

No bringing in the top champions in any medium or small fed for King of the Indies.

Maximum of one light-heavyweight and nobody else bigger than middleweight on the roster at once.

Running four tours a year

 

Feb/March sees my grand prix, 2 groups of 8 with the winners squaring off at March's Welcome To The Coastal Zone for a Christmas Chaos title shot.

 

May/June sees the King of the Indies, single elimination between 64 wrestlers with people from lots of medium and small feds brought in.

 

Aug/Sept is tag league, similar to the grand prix.

 

Nov sees every faction get the chance to promote a show of their own, where they can book whatever matches they want except for giving themselves title shots.

 

Dec sees fans vote for matches they want to see. (Basically, autobooker with me adding a decent main event if there isn't one already.)

 

There are big shows at the end of each month, with the end of tour ones featuring one on one and tag matches and the mid-tour ones generally featuring more multi-man matches.

 

Highlights of year 1

 

Plan was for Yosuke Narita to go unbeaten in the grand prix, which screwed up when he got injured against Human Arsenal. It wasn't bad enough to stop him from working, but they called an audible and changed the finish to HA getting the submission win. I leaned into that, and Arsenal was the one to win 7 out of 7, but would lose to Silver Shark at Welcome. Shark won the other league, losing only to Alex Braun and drawing with Rumble Roper, but ending up top on points after youngster Tom Gilmore broke a 6-match losing streak in the league by taking mentor Braun to a shock 20-minute time limit draw.

 

Shark would sign with HGC a few months later though, so eventually dropped the title shot to The Moving Target.

 

Narita earned himself his own shot at Welcome - he beat Ota in his debut, with Ota convinced this was only because he was a secret opponent who the champion didn't have time to prepare for. However, Narita would go on to win the belt there, then leave the company. (I'm still unsure what happened, but think I screwed up booking that - oops.)

 

That meant the winner of the King of the Indies tournament would also become the champion! 64 men from various federations fought hard for the honors, with Gilmore improving fast and going through John Maverick, Braun and Freddie Datsun to make the semi-finals. His road would end with a loss to Eric Tyler, though, while on the other side, Eclipse showed he was fully recovered from the injury which had kept him out at the start of the year. Wins against Black Eagle, El Mariachi and Silver Shark (the last of which was a stunning match) saw him make the final four, vs Human Arsenal, who beat Lefty Jenson, Rich Money and Rumble Roper to make it there. Tyler and Eclipse would win their semis, and the cruiserweight competitor proved just too quick for Eric, to the delight of the fans.

 

The tag league saw Acid/Ota, Sammy Bach/The Moving Target and the Gilberts each finish on 6 wins in group A, with their losses coming to each other. In the final tour show for that group, they each wrestled each other and every team won one, meaning a three-way tag was announced for Reach For The Sky, which the Gilberts won. However, in their second match of the night, they were no match for the Ghosts, who won their group thanks to finishing on level points with Gilmore and Arsenal, but having a win against them head-to-head. Also at Reach For The Sky, Narita would return to put over Eclipse in a title match.

 

The tag championships bounced around a little, going from the Gilberts to Peregrino Soto and Kid Tiger Heart to get ready for a big KTH push, only for him to announce three and a half weeks before the May/June tour started that he was leaving. With most top guys involved in the tourney, and only one match to job the new champions out in, the makeshift pairing of Jake Sloan and Marcus L Reinoso got a shock title win, but would later job them to Arsenal and Gilmore. The pair held them half the year but lost to The Ghosts at Christmas Chaos.

 

The big stories as we hit the final tour were Team Tradition (Braun, Gilmore, Arsenal, Bryan Holmes, Rolling Johnny Stones) vs Team Domination (Carl Batch's crew of The Gilberts, Rumble Roper, Ayuta Fajita, Feliciano Macho, and the Billion Dollar Duo of Edwin P Bashford and Rich Money.) Domination had 'retired' two of the Team Tradition's earlier members due to injury - Keita Fukao leaving the Zone, and Donnie J supposedly disappearing (but actually going under a mask as DRAGON-B-Z.) In addition to the aforementioned Ghosts win, and Eclipse defending against Target, Chaos would see Bryan Holmes job to Ayuta Fujita, who injured Holmes's leg, but Alex Braun beat Rumble Roper in a match with far-reaching implications - the losing stable wouldn't be able to take part in either of the leagues OR the King of the Indies tournament in 1998. In the other match on the card, UK Dragon gained a place in the singles grand prix with a win in a battle royal, as did Rolling Johnny Stones who came 2nd.

 

Big news for 1998 is Ultima being released by SWF, meaning the legendary The Explosion Kid - 2-time SoCal champion and first ever King of the Indies - is coming home!

 

These are the two blocks for 1998's grand prix.

 

Eclipse

Phantom Freak

Alex Braun

UK Dragon

Panda Mask

Koshiro Ino

Electrofly

Fumihiro Ota

 

Human Arsenal

The Moving Target

Phantom Zero

Rich Money

Snap Dragon

The Explosion Kid

Tom Gilmore

Enrique Sanchez

[Derek B]

More, Jaded, MORE!

[Jaded]

More, Jaded, MORE!

 

Well, since you asked... I'll maybe try and update after each tour?

 

Grand Prix went fairly well, although was overshadowed by a nasty injury to Phantom Zero, who was one of the favourites until a compound scapular fracture put him out. In addition, returning ex-champion The Explosion Kid came in with a bad attitude and handed in his notice just before the end of the tour.

 

On the plus side, Eclipse carried on having great matches with everyone, his Grand Prix match with Alex Braun being the best in our history and his contest with UK Dragon the following week nearly matching it. He ended up going 7-0, while Braun beat everyone except Eclipse to go 6-1 and Phantom Freak beat everyone except the two of them to go 5-2.

 

In the other block, The Moving Target also won all 7, while The Explosion Kid dropped just one. (This was NOT how things were originally booked; the Zero injury screwed things up!) Target would be unable to beat Eclipse though, meaning Eclipse currently holds the gold AND has the title shot at Christmas Chaos - no word on what that will mean if he retains both.

 

The tag belts changed hands at Welcome, with the fast-rising Darnell Harlow and Lucas Hale - thrown together after an injury to Harlow's normal partner Ernie Turner - pulling off a sensational upset against Human Arsenal and Tom Gilmore.

 

The other main story has been the collapse of Carl Batch's Team Domination stable, with the SWF offering developmental deals to Jesse Gilbert, Ayuta Fajita AND Edwin D Bashford. Rumble Roper would destroy the Gilberts after a losing streak in six man tags, while Rich Money paid the aristocratic Bashford a wad of money to 'get out of my sight forever'. Money and Roper, the last remaining members of the stable, look set to team now.

 

Bryan Holmes and Feliciano Macho also left, annoyed at pay rises being denied them, but we brought in Enygma and Fox Mask who've looked pretty good.

 

The King of the Indies will see 32 CZCW wrestlers compete, along with 32 from other federations.

 

Some of the biggest names appearing:

 

For CZCW: Eclipse, The Moving Target, Alex Braun, Fumihiro Ota, Human Arsenal, Phantom Freak.

 

Outside CZCW: Brad Kelley (CGC), Dark EAGLE(unemployed), Eden Layman (DAVE), Kid Tiger Heart (unemployed), Lefty Jensen (4C), Sean Self (unemployed), Condor (CGC)

[dbritton987]

<p><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">WWF Survivor Series 1995</span></strong></p><p>

<strong>Show Rating: 86</strong></p><p> </p><p>

<strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Pre Show (Free For All!)</span></strong></p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Hunter Heart Helmsley & Dr. Isaac Yankem DDS</strong> defeated <strong>Barry Horowitz & Tracy Smothers.</strong> (53)</p><p> </p><p>

<em>This was me testing a potential duo of the blue blood Hunter and his monstrous servant named “Jacobs.”</em></p><p> </p><p>

<strong>King Mabel</strong> won a 15 Man Battle Royal. (57)</p><p> </p><p>

<strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Main Show</span></strong></p><p> </p><p>

<strong>The Phenoms</strong> (The Undertaker, 1-2-3 Kid, Henry O’ Godwinn, & Savio Vega) defeated <strong>The Million Dollar Corporation</strong> (Sycho Sid, Rick Martel, Dean Malenko, & Tatanka) in a Survivor Series Match. The Undertaker & 1-2-3 Kid were the surviving competitors. (81)</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>The Outlaws</strong> (Steve Austin, Shane Douglas, Chris Jericho, & Lance Storm) defeated <strong>The Bad Guys</strong> (Razor Ramon, Cactus Jack, Ahmed Johnson, & Rikishi Fatu) in a Survivor Series Match. Steve Austin was the sole survivor for his team. (72)</p><p> </p><p>

In a Tag Team Street Fight, <strong>The Steiner Brothers</strong> defeated <strong>Owen Hart & Yokozuna</strong> to <strong>RETAIN</strong> the WWF World Tag Team Championship. It finally happened. After weeks of issues, it finally boiled over between Owen & Yoko. After several miscommunications between them, Owen Hart berated Yokozuna and then slapped the five hundred pounder. Yoko snapped, kicking his own partner in the face and then walked out of the match! All alone, Owen Hart fell victim to the Steiner DDT for the 1,2,3. (82)</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>The Heartbreakers</strong> (Shawn Michaels, Bob Holly, & The Smokin’ Gunns) defeated <strong>The Golden Answer</strong> (Goldust, The British Bulldog, Jeff Jarrett, & Jesse James) in a Survivor Series Match. HBK was the sole survivor for his team. (74)</p><p> </p><p>

In the Main Event, <strong>Bret Hart</strong> defeated <strong>Diesel</strong> to become the <strong>NEW</strong> WWF World Heavyweight Champion! In a stunning turn of events, The British Bulldog would interfere and lay out Diesel with numerous steel chair shots while Referee Charles Robinson was incapacitated. Shockingly, Hart would not hesitate to take advantage and cover Diesel, and would get the three count! It was an uncomfortable moment for the fans, as they decided whether to cheer for the Hitman as he celebrated becoming a 3-Time WWF World Heavyweight Champion! (87)</p>

[Derek B]

<p>Loving the updates, Jaded. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> Sucks to be losing as many people as you have, and also for Ultima / Explosion Kid being a pain in the butt for you... but I laughed hard at your kayfabe reason for Edwin D. Bashford leaving the company <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>

CZCW is a company with so much fun potential at the start of the mod, especially with so many fun talents coming along in the future. Looks like an awesome line up for KOTI, I hope it goes smoothly for you. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>

[Soft]

AWA

January 1985 - March 1988

 

I am booking AWA in a 1985 mod. We are in June 1987. It became quickly one of the most interesting saves I've ever had.

 

Now we are in March 1988.

 

 

Now there are three major players in the US:

 

UWF (formerly Mid South) with Ric Flair, Big John Studd, Paul Orndorff, Kamala and Jake Roberts.

 

WCW (formerly JCP) with Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes, Andre The Giant, Harley Race and Ricky Steamboat.

 

AWA's top stars are Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Magnum TA, Kerry Von Erich & Curt Hennig.

 

Scratch that. Vince came back from the ashes earlier than anybody could have expected and with a 'tag team partner': Donald Trump. I had no involvement in this and thought the combo of Trump as an owner and Vince as the head booker was just too crazy and frankly hilarious. They are running USPW, where they have an absurdly bloated roster and main eventers are Nikita Koloff, Bob Orton Jr. or Sheiky Baby; so, basically the only workers they could sign. They have a lot of money and should be fine, just hovering over the cusp of falling in size to small.

 

 

I just finished a huge storyline involving most of my top talent because I introduced basically my take on Horsemen or Rat Pack: The Syndicate. With Ted DiBiase, Curt Hennig, Jerry Lawler and later Steve Williams as final member, they were dominating the title scene and it was Magnum with his friends Kerry von Erich, Butch Reed and Larry Zbyszko to take them on, what resulted in the very first Cell Wars match!

 

The Syndicate are still very much an important part but there was one change. After months of Lawler, DiBiase and Hennig treating Steve Williams like a dim-wit, Doctor Death finally had enough,snapped and was kicked out of the group. The new fourth member of The Syndicate will turn out to be Barry Windham who fits the group like a glove I feel.

 

Steve Williams reunites with his former partner Terry Gordy and they take on the monster heel tag team of Vader (who debuted in late 87) and The Berzerker (whose loveable goofiness was all undone when Jimmy Snuka put him through a table) managed by Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan. Overall a stacked tag team division with Hart Foundation, Steiner Brothers or Hot Stuff Unlimited (Tommy Rich & Eddie Gilbert).

 

After the feud with Gino, Savage will be back in the title hunt to take the belt from the champ at that time. I'm thinking Piper but unfortunately his gimmick is rated as Poor what makes booking him in the main events quite difficult as that costs those direly needed points to beat WCW and UWF.

 

Gino and Savage just finished their match series. It wasn't an easy decision but I'm turning Magnum T.A. heel (he is by far the biggest merchandise seller) and put him and Savage on as the main event of The Clash for the third time in a row. Magnum has won both matches thus far but this time Savage's the babyface.

 

OVERALL GAME WORLD:

 

It was very entertaining how crazy the promotions got as soon as Trump and Vince started to show up. With NJPW being quite aggressive as well and all four major promotions in the US at war with each other, the free agent pool has really nothing to offer at this point. Not much new talent incoming and admittedly, Vince signed pretty much anybody with Star Quality over 70 and/or popularity over 25.

 

WCW:

 

It's really cool to observe how well it actually works with 3-4 major promotions because the talent pool was deeep at that time. WCW is booked by Dusty and they have Hulk Hogan as their figurehead after he was a free agent when WWF folded.

 

Hogan has been the sole WCW World Heavyweight Champion for 325 days now. He made a staggering 57 defences thus far.

 

WCW US Champion is Buddy Rose who took the title from Ricky Steamboat a couple of months back.

 

I kind of dig their WCW World Tag Team Champions, Dory Funk Jr. and Mike Rotunda, as a very old school heel tag team.

 

The biggest story for WCW wasn't Hogan though. It was 1987 Wrestler of the Year (!) Mark Fleming. 'Who?' you might ask and you're absolutely right to be asking. Fleming is an awesome worker but lacks the star quality to be anything more than a midcarder I'd thought. He creeped up on me and just at some point when I was checking their results, I realized that he produced a 97 with Hulk Hogan in the main event for the WCW World Heavyweight.

 

He got over in 1985 through a NWA United States Title reign. But when they got national he became a solid main eventer for them.

 

Top 10 1987

 

 

 

UWF

 

They were probably the least interesting out of all the promotions. Flair was their champion for most of the time until Kamala took it from him. They have also the least star power, with Tully Blanchard as the other only significant star for them.

 

NJPW

 

New Japan are often super aggressive and that's no different here. The biggest coup they accomplished was the signing of Jumbo Tsuruta in 86, basically deciding the Japanese wrestling war in one move.

 

What's wild is that Jumbo was also the reigning NWA World Heavyweight Champion at that time and continued to be until only a few weeks before the current game state in March.

 

Being NWA World Champion, he also defended the title in main events on All Japan shows, what I interpreted as a truce between Baba and Inoki in some way because Inoki knows that he needs the competition from Baba to let New Japan thrive even more.

 

Inoki made it even crazier by putting the IWGP Heavyweight title on him as well, so he had both belts at the same time making especially the defenses for All Japan even more heated. Well, in the end, Jumbo dropped the belt to Bill Dundee what should give you enough information about the state of the NWA.

 

--- --- ---

 

Again, apologies for the long post, but without certain background information, the awesomeness of this save couldn't properly be conveyed.

[Sir Andersen]

I recently ran my first ever "season finale" show (in 2023 CornellVerse).

 

Big beefy matches with all my big stars. Show went really well. Not my highest-rated show ever, but up there.

 

Come out of the show and how half my roster is pissed off, because apparently EVERYONE wanted to be on that show really badly.

 

Lesson learned, next year it's going to be 3 hours.

[a0161613]

I recently ran my first ever "season finale" show (in 2023 CornellVerse).

 

Big beefy matches with all my big stars. Show went really well. Not my highest-rated show ever, but up there.

 

Come out of the show and how half my roster is pissed off, because apparently EVERYONE wanted to be on that show really badly.

 

Lesson learned, next year it's going to be 3 hours.

 

Hot tip - fill the pre-show.

[Sir Andersen]

Hot tip - fill the pre-show.

 

Thanks, I'll do that next time just for inclusivity.

 

Ironically, I have been making use of the pre-show on all my other events for dark matches to train guys, but for my big show I was like "nah, I just want to focus on the big stuff for this one" and it bit me in the ass so very very hard

[a0161613]

I almost did the same for a recent season finale show that I booked. But generally it's something I've always done for big shows.

 

The unhappiness stacks for commentators too.

[Zero]

Thanks, I'll do that next time just for inclusivity.

 

Ironically, I have been making use of the pre-show on all my other events for dark matches to train guys, but for my big show I was like "nah, I just want to focus on the big stuff for this one" and it bit me in the ass so very very hard

 

I always have a battle royal in the pre-show. Even have a belt for it hah

[Jaded]

Lots of fun stuff in the King of the Indies, although things hit a slight speed bump when Eclipse took a knock in a tag match, hurting his ankle. We made the best of the situation, though, with Human Arsenal getting a shock second round victory over him with his feared ankle lock submission. Former SWF star Eden Layman came in hot, dragging BHOTWG developmental wrestler Sumio to a pretty good match and following up with excellent performances in wins over Electrofly and Enrique Sanchez. Meanwhile Kid Tiger Heart returned and was pushed, beating Acid in the first round, Nelson Blais in the second, and UK Dragon in the third before finally losing to Layman.

 

Of the established Zone stars, Alex Braun beat Lance Henderson, Koshiro Ino and Darnell Harlow before taking out stablemate Human Arsenal in the quarter-finals, DRAGON-B-Z (Donnie J) took out John McClean and Enygma, pulled off something of an upset against Tom Gilmore, then finally lost to Ota, whose path (Oscar, Calvin Dark, Lucas Hale) had seemed somewhat easier.

 

The Moving Target went over three Canadians - Jake Sloan, Canadian Dragon, and Alexander Robinson - in his first three matches, then beat Phantom Freak in a really great quarter-final; Freak had previously made Fox Mask look great in defeat against him.

 

That set us up for a big season finale; a now fully-healed Eclipse put his belt on the line in a rematch against Human Arsenal and was successful, Lucas Hale and Darnell Harlow beat The Moving Target and Electrofly to retain the tag titles, Target pulled double duty and jobbed to Alex Braun in one semi while Layman beat Ota in the other before winning the tournament final against Braun. Koshiro Ino - soon to be heading back to Japan - did a great job of putting Enygma over, while various six-mans kept everyone else on the roster happy.

 

Blocks for the tag team league:

 

Acid/Ota

Snap Dragon/Black Sheep

Sammy Bach/The Moving Target

Flex/Barry Kingman

Alex Braun/Fox Mask

Biggz Brothers

Darnell Harlow/Lucas Hale

Double Dragon

 

 

Tom Gilmore/Human Arsenal

Lefty Jenson/Rocky Constantino

Royal Canadian Air Force

Lewis Brothers

Black Eagle/Panda Mask

Maryland Alliance

Calvin Dark/Ron Greenhorn

The Ghosts

[danyp92]

<p>After a short break i didn't feel like going back to my RIPW save and started a new one with WWE starting in 2004. I just booker the Royal Rumble and wanted to share what i did.</p><p> </p><p>

I started the show with <strong>Misteryo vs Jamie Noble for the Cruiser Title</strong>. Noble won a title match by DQ thanks to Nidia and this was the rematch. Nothing really to say here, Mysterio won the match and he stays champion, no idea what to do to him at the moment but the plan is to feud with Kanyon pretty soon... at Velocity... to be the face of the show... because the cruiser title is exclusive to this show, for... reasons.</p><p> </p><p>

Next there was a <strong>Tables Match for the World Tag Team Titles. Batista and Flair vs. The Dudleys.</strong> Sheriff Austin made the match to keep the two from Evolution out of the Rumble Match. The Dudleys were pretty confident but during an episode of RAW Batista put them through the tables and tonight he did the same to win the match, but after it i was informed he got injured. Nothing serious, he can work through it but i prefer gives him some time off and that can work well with another story i want to make, anyway he and Flair will loose the titles soon.</p><p> </p><p>

Still staying close to real life, next was the turn of <strong>Eddie Guerrero vs Chavo Guerrero.</strong> i didn't go really deep with it, Eddie wanted to be in the Rumble and Chavo felt betrayed and turned on him. This match his played on the fact that Eddie doesn't want to fight him but in the end he does and win. After the match Chavo refuses to be helped by Eddie.</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Women's Title Match Next, Trish Stratus vs Molly Holly.</strong> I wanted Molly Holly to win the match and retain the title and give her some of Stratus popularity to build the division (that it's pretty much an Heat exclusive for... reasons), but Trish didn't like the booking of the match and decided to give her the win only by DQ so Molly Holly is still champion. I could've do what i wanted anyway, but i already made HHH and Stephanie annoyed at me for a signing i made and i didn't feel like make someone else angry... for now.</p><p> </p><p>

Important angle of the night was the surprise appearence of <strong>The Rock</strong> that wants to fight a Wrestlemania, but after his promo <strong>Randy Orton</strong> hit him with an RKO.</p><p> </p><p>

Moving on with the more "important" matches. Like real life <strong>Brock Lesnar defended the WWE title versus Hardcore Holly</strong> easily and <strong>HHH vs HBK Last Man Standing match for the World Title</strong> ended in a draw (match of the night by the way. 90). Ok pretty much i booked everything like real life.</p><p> </p><p>

Now. The Royal Rumble Match.</p><p> </p><p>

Before it i made only 6 spot not random. Number 1 to Orton after losing to Goldberg, that got number 30. Number 29 to Kurt Angle after beating Benoit and number 28 to Rhyno after beating Eddie Guerrero. Number 15 to Booker T after beating Maven and Mark Henry after that Austin stopped Theodore Long (kinda of an ad interim/assistant GM so that Bischoff doesn't have to deal with Austin too much) to just give the spot to Henry. Finally, Benoit number 2 because Heyman wanted him to eliminate RAW superstars to get the WM Main Event, but Chris Benoit didn't care and eliminate anyone he could.</p><p> </p><p>

So Randy Orton and Benoit started the match and the main things that happened are (not in chronological order):</p><p> </p><p>

Mick Foley enter the Rumble in Test place and he eliminated Orton and himself like a vengeance for The Rock.</p><p> </p><p>

[About Test, like real life he was found backstage unconscious but i don't now anything else about it, so i linked this to a storyline in which he is aggressive toward Stacy Keibler (a sort of GM of the Women's Division on HEAT), Hurricane and Rosey protect her and the attack was from someone that just signed back with WWE, yes the same one that annoyed HHH and Stephanie. I'll book the return on the next RAW even if i have this storyline pretty much only on Heat.]</p><p> </p><p>

Big Show was eliminated by John Cena after the two started feuding during smackdown.</p><p> </p><p>

Scott Steiner eliminated APA. The point was that Heyman payed APA to attack someone talking about the Rumble at RAW and from there give the rumble a raw vs sd spin, but i kinda dropped it immediately because at RAW i have a lot going on with three authority figures. The idea is to draft Steiner in the future to SD and continue the story.</p><p> </p><p>

Booker T eliminates Kane after a "distraction" from Taker.</p><p> </p><p>

Brock Lesnar eliminated Goldberg after an insulting interaction they had backstage during the night. I will left them go after Mania? I don't know yet, still going for their match.</p><p> </p><p>

And now for the final four: Chris Benoit, Booker T, Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle. Benoit eliminated Kurt, Booker T eliminated Jericho and at the end, <strong>Booker T eliminated Chris Benoit winning the Rumble and going to Main Event Wrestlemania</strong>. This one is the idea that made me wanting to start this save. Yes the plan is Booker T vs HHH the rematch and may the right guy win this time.</p><p> </p><p>

About Benoit, not like i don't have plans for him, but even if he was the guy i wanted to put in the main event of WM, i just fined him for steroid use so i probably would've give the rumble to someone else anyway. Still, I hope i don't have to suspend him neither before or after Mania. I need him in the SD brand.</p><p> </p><p>

I think i wrote everything, next stop for Smackdown in 5 weeks is of course No Way Out but i wanted to give RAW an event too so in 3 weeks we will have the first ever WWE SuperBrawl.</p><p> </p><p>

Let's hope that by keeping it simple enough i can make this save last.</p>

[The Nickman]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Zero" data-cite="Zero" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="47520" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I always have a battle royal in the pre-show. Even have a belt for it hah</div></blockquote><p> Yeah, I usually do a battle royal or a 5 vs 5 tag match. The beauty of a 5 v 5 is that half the guys pick up a win.</p>

[BennyBXB]

<p>I was gonna do a quick summary of how my WWE RWC stories are going, but I typed it up and it ended up being a very, very, very long summary. I think the stories are pretty good, though, so I will post them and see what you guys think. I am going to start with my silly midcard antics to pique your interest before we get to the actual main stories. Because I like silly antics.</p><p> </p><p>

After a <strong>Cedric Alexander</strong> face turn and the retirement of <strong>Shelton Benjamin</strong>, <strong>MVP</strong> and <strong>Bobby Lashley</strong> are alone in the Hurt Business. They tried to recruit <strong>Ricochet</strong>, even buying him his own Hurt Business jersey, but Ricochet said no. They didn't want to waste the jersey, so they decided to try and recruit <strong>Jeff Hardy</strong>, but he didn't want to take a shirt that said "Ricochet" on the back. MVP hadn't thought of that.</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Dolph Ziggler</strong> has been on a losing streak since <strong>Kurt Angle</strong> took over as GM of SmackDown. Desperate for answers, Ziggler has turned to the metaphysical, and is attempting to get Angle fired on the grounds that he has a negative aura.</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Bo Dallas</strong>, <strong>Mace</strong>, and <strong>Slapjack</strong> have been rebranded as Tyler Trimm, Reggie Chest, and Willie Wakks, forming RAW's newest heel stable, <strong>Trimm, Chest, and Wakks</strong>. Which is a hilarious name, in my opinion. The stable is actually getting over, and they've earned themselves a tag title opportunity against <strong>The New Day</strong>. It is not going to go well for them.</p><p> </p><p>

And here are the more serious storylines...</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>John Cena</strong> lost a #1 contender's match for the WWE Championship to <strong>Adam Cole</strong> in a huge upset. At the pay per view, Cena stormed the ring and beat champion <strong>Daniel Bryan</strong> to within an inch of his life, resenting Bryan's status as a fan favorite. Cena won the title off Bryan, and after a brief feud with <strong>Finn Bálor</strong>, is going to threaten to walk out with the belt. This is going to set up a meeting with Bryan in Hell In A Cell, and hopefully, an Iron Man match at Survivor Series to blow it off. My long-term vision is to have <strong>Big E</strong> make a huge main event run to challenge Cena, and come close to winning the title, but have Mr. Money In The Bank, <strong>Andrade "Cien" Almas</strong>, hijack the match and steal it from E. This will probably be accompanied by a <strong>Humberto Carrillo</strong> heel turn, setting up a 3 vs 3 and, hopefully, Andrade vs E for the championship down the line.</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>The Undisputed ERA</strong> got drafted to SmackDown, and they're going to be part of a stable war on the blue brand, including <strong>Team Phenom</strong> (Styles, Cedric Alexander, Gran Metalik, and Humberto pre-turn), <strong>The Wild Horses</strong> (Owens, Gable, Keith Lee, and Nakamura), and <strong>The Roman Empire</strong> (Reigns, Jimmy, Jey, and Jacob Fatu). You bet your brisket this is gonna be a Survivor Series tournament. Still not sure who I have going over here -- Roman just dropped the title to Owens and lost the rematch in a cage at SummerSlam, so I think getting the heat back on the Empire will be the play. Not sure yet. Fatu has been underwhelming so far. I'm giving him a long leash because we don't need him to be a big player right now, but there will be a point where he has to step it up or get sent down to NXT.</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>The Fiend</strong> is trying to create a cult around himself and take over the world, because of course he is. <strong>Alexa Bliss</strong> cashed in Money In The Bank ahead of time, a month before SummerSlam, and beat <strong>Becky Lynch</strong> clean. The idea was to publicize the match so people would all be tuned in when Alexa used Fiendly magic against Becky, in hopes of acquiring more followers, etc. <strong>Elias</strong>, <strong>Braun Strowman</strong>, and <strong>Tegan Nox</strong> have become brainwashed. I'm suspecting that this stable may be a slow-motion revolving door, with people joining the cult when they get stuck in their careers and leaving when they don't need him anymore. And that's great for the stable's long-term prospects, because The Fiend can point to real examples of people whose lives improved by following him. Basically like a Ponzi scheme.</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Rollins and Orton</strong> are fighting a bunch for no real reason but green number go brrr so they got an extension on their feud.</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Rhea Ripley</strong> got called up and immediately rinsed <strong>Bayley</strong> of the SmackDown Women's Championship. Bayley has decided to get herself a meat shield in <strong>Shayna Baszler</strong>, who has been assaulting Ripley at random times in an attempt to weaken her. Ripley won't lose the title, but I'm going to plant seeds throughout this feud that maybe Ripley shouldn't be champion because she's so young. That sounds counterintuitive, but Ripley is going to buy into that idea that maybe she doesn't deserve to be at the top, and she'll feel so much pressure to maintain her position. The pressure will make her lose her confidence and get the title taken from her because of it. Ripley doesn't really have a strong character right now. This title run is establishing her as a bad beeyatch. It's only after she loses the title that we really start to learn about Rhea the woman, as opposed to Rhea the wrestler.</p><p> </p><p>

I brought the Cruiserweight Championship back to the main roster and gave <strong>Mustafa Ali</strong> a few months with it, because I think he's really cool. Since he used to be a Chicago police officer, I made that his gimmick. Basically, he's the Regular Sized Boss Man. But he's done about all he can do with the belt, and I'm wanting to gently push him up the card, so he dropped it to <strong>Rey Mysterio</strong>. My cruiserweight division is lacking in credible heels, so I put the belt on Rey for him to give the rub to some NXT guys and my new signings. <strong>Santos Escobar</strong> came back to try and regain the title he never lost, but he won't beat Mysterio. I want to get some spicy feuds out of this and establish some midcarders and potential future stars, so Mysterio will have this for a while.</p><p> </p><p>

I have churned quite a bit of the roster since taking over. My rule is no breaking written contracts. But I have made quite a few signings. Some established guys I can plug right in (<strong>TJ Perkins</strong>, <strong>Sami Callahan</strong>, <strong>Powerhouse Hobbs</strong>) and some young guys who are getting reps in the PC (<strong>Carlos Romo</strong>, <strong>Dragon Bane</strong>, <strong>Boomer Hatfield</strong>). I'm really happy with the signings I've made, and I have a few more major targets I want to pull into the company. Perhaps a main eventer or two...perhaps a certain expensive acquisition...someone who draws crowds <em>weather</em> he's in Japan or the USA. Weather. Rain. It's <strong>Okada</strong>. He's hot, I don't know what to tell you.</p><p> </p><p>

My problem is an unsurprising one -- not enough stars, especially young ones. But things are looking up. Not everybody is getting over, but the wrestlers who are have really taken off. Just because there's a long way to go doesn't mean we won't get there.</p><p> </p><p>

This was fun, let's do it again sometime.</p>

[619]

<p>It took me a while to get started, but I’m finally six months into my first TEW2020 game as <strong>DIW</strong> owner:</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>The Comedian’s Encore</strong></p><p> </p><p>

After January and February’s shows ended in beatdowns, retired owner <strong>The Comedian</strong> decided to restore order by enforcing March’s main event, only to assault champion <strong>Boo Smithson</strong> and put him through a flaming table.</p><p> </p><p>

He said Boo shouldn’t be DIW champion. He signed him in 2017 not as his successor but a punchbag to show technical wrestling is no match for DIW style, and feels sick that main events now have more headlocks than weapon shots. Has he even tasted his own blood?</p><p> </p><p>

The Comedian gives the roster three months to take the title off Boo or he’ll do it himself. Boo sees off all challengers, including five-time champion Dumfrey Pinn in June, anticipating a post-match ambush by the owner and trapping him in the Crossface Chickenwing, his first act of aggression towards his antagonist.</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Mace vs The Machine</strong></p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Dumfrey Pinn</strong>’s second-in-command <strong>Mace Mueller</strong> was violently removed from Pinn Enterprises after losing his title rematch with Boo Smithson in February.</p><p> </p><p>

The mob boss built an “impenetrable wall” around him to protect himself from Mueller’s retaliation but, one by one, his former protege has beaten every other member of the streamlined Pinn Enterprises and finally got a few shots in on Pinn in June, weakening him before his main event defeat to Smithson.</p><p> </p><p>

Will Pinn be sufficiently antagonised to finally step into the ring with Mueller, or will he find more obstacles to put in the Killer Kiwi’s path?</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Other beats</strong></p><p> </p><p>

-> Australian champion <strong>Shogo</strong> is 6-0 so far in 2020, his standout victories coming against <strong>Cesar Sionis</strong>, <strong>Gyula Lakatos</strong> and then both in a June triple threat after former DIW champion Vaughan’s surprise appearance to take out Lakatos, the man who ended his career.</p><p> </p><p>

-> Tag champions <strong>The Barracudas</strong> saw off the challenge of fellow four-time champs <strong>The Bad Truckers</strong>, who were established as villains by locking Barracudas valet <strong>Lori</strong> in their truck (Lori in a lorry). She cemented her team’s victory in May by trashing the same truck.</p><p> </p><p>

-> Beloved underdog <strong>Milton Hittlespitz</strong>, now in his tenth year on the DIW roster, was dejected after losing to DIW champion Boo Smithson in March and has made it his mission not to go a full decade without tasting DIW gold.</p><p> </p><p>

-> Backstage, it seems everyone’s a flaming galah. Despite positive influences outweighing negatives 3 to 1 and the shows being viewed as a success, multiple rental cars get jobbed out at every event and morale is low. I started with the intention of not touching the roster for at least a year, but may be forced into action (Vaughan was just a one-night hire to tie up that historic loose end and help me launch a new storyline).</p>

[Jaded]

Tag league time, and heaps of fun to be had!

 

In block A, Sammy Bach and The Moving Target went undefeated, winning six and drawing against then champions Hale and Harlow. Just behind them came Alex Braun and Fox Mask, who won 6 of 7, and Hale and Harlow themselves who beat the other 5 teams to get 11 points in total. Debutants The Biggz Brothers were the only team to go 0-7, but got valuable experience.

 

In block B, The Ghosts left a trail of destruction, using their high flying and a fair amount of subtle cheating to go 7-0. However, the team ended up as Phantom Zero and Kid Tiger Heart - the newly-christened Phantom Tiger - after Phantom Freak and stablemate Phantom Panda (formerly Panda Mask) both got injured. Team Tradition, Tom Gilmore and Human Arsenal, won 6 matches. Black Eagle and Panda Mask - later replaced by Enygma - won 5, while Ron Greenhorn/Calvin Dark, The Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Heartbreak Express of Rocky Constantino and Lefty Jenson finished with three wins each. The Maryland Alliance the only pairing here with no wins.

 

The most dominant team, however, weren't even IN the league. Carl Batch's men were banned from taking part as a result of that loss last December which ruled them out of both leagues this year. Rich Money, and Batch's new charge Eden Layman, simply put down a $50,000 reward to anyone who could beat them. Joined by another new signing for Batch, Troy Tornado, who substituted in when Layman was busy with DAVE, they nearly had a perfect run but Acid and Fumihiro Ota pulled off what was something of an upset, Ota beating Tornado after Acid wiped out Money with a moonsault.

 

Disaster struck going into end of tour event Reach For The Sky, though. Just a week before the event, Money suffered an injury against the Heartbreak Express, while a friendly 'Team Tradition' stable match in which Braun and Fox Mask - who'd won the belts at August's All Out - put their titles on the line against former champions Arsenal and Gilmore saw Arsenal pin Braun to regain them, but only after breaking his ankle.

 

That meant the planned title shot for The New Billion Dollar Duo didn't happen, although Layman and Tornado went over Braun and Foxy in a spirited contest. Zero and Tiger won the league, beating Bach and Target. After tensions between Koshiro Ino and the rest of Team Japan, Ota offered to team with him against The Heartbreak Express, and they were victorious, only for THEM to argue after Ino blind-tagged himself in and, in Ota's view, stole the pin. The pair eventually shook hands, but it seems an uneasy alliance for the moment. Double Dragon challenged Barry Kingman and Flex, who'd got an upset victory over them in the tag league, and gained the win back, but these teams definitely seem to still have an issue. And in a match which showed the growing cracks between Electrofly and Enrique Sanchez, they teamed with Acid and put over Bird Dragon (Matt Sparrow), Calvin Dark and Ron Greenhorn, Dark pinning Acid as the other two argued.

 

The final tour of the year will focus on six-man competition, with 12 stables of 4 guys each taking part in a tournament organised on a ladder basis, where you beat higher teams to take their place. Any three of the four competitors in each stable will be able to represent their team each night.

 

Team Tradition 1 - Alex Braun, Tom Gilmore, Rolling Johnny Stones, Human Arsenal (Arsenal should return from injury by then)

Team Tradition 2 - Fox Mask, Donnie J (Who'll ditch the DBZ persona for the moment), Iesada Kumasaka, Mokuami Maita (the latter two are new developmental signings from Burning Hammer)

Team Domination - Rich Money, Eden Layman, Troy Tornado, Rumble Roper

Team Japan - Bunrakuken Fukei, Shigematsu Sada, Sumio Ichigawa, Toin Ichiyusai

 

Team Rebel - Koshiro Ino, Fumihiro Ota, Eiichi Saga, Yoshikazu Kikkawa (the latter two, again, are Hammer guys)

Team Dragon - UK Dragon, Canadian Dragon, Snap Dragon, Bird Dragon (Matt Sparrow)

Team Future - The Moving Target, Sammy Bach, Hector Davoren, Electrofly

Team Innovation - Enrique Sanchez, Eclipse, Lucas Hale, Darnell Harlow

 

Team Mystery - Phantom Freak, Phantom Zero, Panda Mask, Kid Tiger Heart

Royal Canadian Air Force - Nelson Blais, Brys Turncote, Calvin Dark, Ron Greenhorn

Team Heartbreak - Barry Kingman, Flex, Lefty Jenson, Rocky Constantino

The Unwanted - Black Eagle, Black Sheep, Golden Dragon, Kunio Akaike (yet another new Hammer guy)

[Original_Broski]

Started an IMPACT save with Dec. 2020 data, hoping to play with the IMPACT/AEW partnership. But during the first [CPU] episode of AEW Dynamite, Kenny Omega tore his rotator cuff, so he'll be out for a year. That'll change some things haha.

[Jaded]

Okay, so, rules for the ladder system.

 

The 12 stables were randomly seeded to produce a ladder going from 1 to 12.

 

On the first show,

1 vs 2

3 vs 4

5 vs 6

7 vs 8

9 vs 10

11 vs 12

 

Second show,

1 vs 3

2 vs 4

5 vs 7

6 vs 8

9 vs 11

10 vs 12

 

Third show,

1 vs 4

2 vs 5

3 vs 6

7 vs 10

8 vs 11

9 vs 12

 

After each show, any stable who beat a higher-ranked opponent switched places with them.

 

Five repetitions of that, with the sixteenth show being the same positions as the first. A lot of the time I didn't specify a winner and things moved really nicely. (At least, I thought they did until I looked at the results at the end... see below for what went wrong!)

 

Big - and bad! - news was that we lost Eclipse and UK Dragon to MPWF writtens, and Harlow and Tornado to SWF developmental deals.

 

Eclipse put over Ota and Rich Money in six-man tags, then in solo action, offering Ota the chance to win the right to challenge for the belt at Christmas Chaos. (Going into November, Eclipse had the belt AND the Chaos shot.) Money won the belt, offering him $100,000 to put it on the line and getting the shock victory.

 

UK Dragon had a mini-feud with Flex, putting him over at our November Explosion match. Great couple of months for Flex, who went on to win the battle royal at Christmas Chaos to get an entry into the Grand Prix.

 

Prizes on offer for the ladder system were as follows, by the way.

 

1st place - all four qualify for Grand Prix.

2nd/3rd place - three qualify.

4th place - two qualify.

5th/6th place - one qualify.

 

Final two places in the Grand Prix go to a fan vote, and the battle royal winner.

 

Looking at it stable by stable

 

Favourites Team Tradition 1 won, winning on 14 out of 16 shows. They did suffer two early losses to Batch's Team Domination, but got a big win over them towards the end which proved pivotal. Money actually got pinned by Tom Gilmore in that match, but also legitimately fractured his tibia. That would lead to several big storylines - Gilmore boasting about injuring Money, which didn't go down well with mentor Alex Braun. After Braun pointed out that deliberately injuring opponents was exactly what Team Domination were hated for trying to do, things got heated between them. The alliance for the last couple of shows seemed deeply uneasy, but has held together so far. At one point, it looked like they might face off at Christmas Chaos, but instead Ota offered Braun the chance to win the title shot in a huge main event (since Money's injury prevented him from defending, but wasn't bad enough to strip him.) Braun put Ota over in an outstanding contest.

 

Money refuses to admit that Gilmore injured him, saying he was hurt due to the ring being in an unsatisfactory condition. As a protest, Team Domination boycotted the last few nights of the tour, meaning they dropped rapidly down the rankings, finishing 6th. With Tornado leaving, Money went for the updated version of "If you can't beat them, join them" - which became "If you can't beat them, employ them." Acid, who teamed with Ota to inflict the only loss on Rich in that excellent tag run a few months ago, came on board repackaged as The Assassin.

 

Team Mystery finished 2nd, with 11 wins of 16, although they were never able to beat Team Tradition 1 who they faced off against numerous times. The big question being asked was who would Phantom Zero pair up with at Christmas Chaos to challenge for Arsenal and Gilmore's tag belts? While his team with Phantom Freak is an experienced combination, it was Zero and Kid Tiger Heart who actually won the tag league, with Freak injured for most of it. Eventually, Zero picked KTH, but Arsenal and Gilmore proved too good for them, Arsenal forcing Zero to submit.

 

Perhaps the biggest surprise package were The Unwanted, who went 8-8 but finished 3rd, thanks to a combination of winning when it mattered and Team Domination forfeiting against them. The combination of Black Eagle, Black Sheep, Golden Dragon and Kunio Akaike, all of whom were hoping to get into other teams but couldn't, proved a surprisingly successful one.

 

Team Heartbreak - Barry Kingman, Flex, and The Heartbreak Express of Lefty Jenson and Rocky Constantino - also finished higher than many people expected. Again, it was a case of winning when it mattered, with them also being helped by TD's forfeit. Kingman's Kingman Krippler has proved a feared submission hold, perhaps second only to Arsenal's ankle lock when it comes to moves you don't want to be trapped in.

 

Team Rebel - Ino, Ota, and a third person alternating between newcomers Eichii Saga and Yoshikazu Kikkawa - finished 5th despite a better win-loss record than 3rd or 4th. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't get past Team Mystery, who beat them in a couple of vital contests. On the plus side, the dissension between Ota and Ino appears to have been patched up, while both newcomers impressed.

 

Team Dragon fell down the rankings as we jobbed UK Dragon a lot on his way out, while Team Tradition 2 were generally used to put others over.

 

Team Future managed an incredible 16 wins out of 16 but finished 9th, leading to Sammy Bach asking "Which idiot set up this ladder system?" Colour me suitably embarrassed.

 

Okay, less said about that catastrophe the better. Note to self: Stop coming up with cool ideas when you're too tired to see how they work.

 

Anyway, that gives us, for the Grand Prix:

 

Alex Braun

Human Arsenal

Tom Gilmore

Rolling Johnny Stones

Phantom Freak

Phantom Zero

Kid Tiger Heart

Black Eagle

Black Sheep

Kunio Akaike

Barry Kingman

Lefty Jenson

Fumihiro Ota

Rich Money

Flex

Sammy Bach (winner of fan vote)

[Original_Broski]

Started an IMPACT save with Dec. 2020 data, hoping to play with the IMPACT/AEW partnership. But during the first [CPU] episode of AEW Dynamite, Kenny Omega tore his rotator cuff, so he'll be out for a year. That'll change some things haha.

 

So I wound up pivoting with how this "Forbidden Door" stuff will go down. I recreated the ending where Anderson/Gallows attacked Swann, but I'm pinning that on how Swann questioned Anderson's loyalty to IMPACT due to rumors about his connections to AEW.

 

The subsequent show, I'm having KENTA take Omega's role as the main player of the invasion. I'll also bring in The Butcher/The Blade as mercenaries for someone (?) on the roster and have them contend for the tag titles.

[Editor6]

It's a new era in the Coastal Zone.

 

In about a two-week period in January 2022, both Masked Cougar (the Zone champion) and Frankie Perez signed with TCW. About a week or so before this, new COTT champion Otto can Battenberg announced he was leaving IPW.

 

So we gotta do two farewells and a title change at Vendetta in February. I guess it's time for Frankie-Boy Fernandes's coronation. Let's do a six-man ladder match for both belts! I'm not sane. The other two guys in the match were the recently returned Remmy Skye and Jonnie Perez, as Frankie would want his brother somehow involved in his last match here.

 

Fernandes won both belts. He's already defended the COTT title once -- against Axxis Jr in OLLIE -- and he'll do it again at Uprising against MAW's Miller Fforde, who won the Rip Chord Invitational. After the show, both Cougar and Frankie were given a proper sendoff. We also decided that at this year's Welcome..., Snap Dragon will enter the CZCW Hall of Fame.

 

Meanwhile, Lilly and Rose are starting to settle back in for their second tag team title reign. Their first one was cut short when Lilly was injured. Going Coastal won a tournament for the right to face them for the vacant titles when Lilly returned, but the ladies won the title match.

 

Newcomer JOJI took the Xtreme title off of Bullseye in December. I haven't decided what his gimmick match is going to be. (Bullseye's was cages.) Another interesting addition is Davis Wayne Newton, who's with us full-time now after FCW's closure. ACPW's in the COTT now.

[Linkorius]

Wrestlemania XXI has come and gone and nothing will ever be the same.

 

Quick results:

Jushin Thunder Liger def. Christian (60)

Randy Orton def. Jerry Lawler (67)

Samoa Joe def. Big Show (60)

William Regal def. Shelton Benjamin © for the IC title (75)

RVD & Rey Mysterio © def. The Dudleys for the WWE Tag titles (63)

Edge def. Shawn Michaels (84)

The Undertaker def. The Rock (76)

Kurt Angle © def. AJ Styles for the US title (92)

John Cena def. JBL © for the WWE title (81)

Ric Flair def. Triple H © for the World Heavyweight title (99)

 

I'm a little disappointed by a few of these matches' ratings, but I can't really complain given how the top of my card turned out.

 

So what's next?

 

On Raw, Randy Orton is pretty much a lock as the challenger for Flair's belt at Backlash, even though, realistically Edge deserves it more but that's going to play into the storyline. I envision Flair's reign as a dream match factory that will include, among other things, a Liger match, a match against the Rock, a match with Michaels, and maybe even Sting. And hopefully at the end of a great reign, Edge will dethrone him.

 

William Regal is getting a big push as IC champ. He'll face Flair as well this summer. Right now he's got his hands full with Benjamin, but I'm planning a feud with Tajiri in a battle of hard hitters.

 

I need to find someone to keep Edge busy while Flair is having his retirement reign. Maybe Chris Jericho? I have not decided next.

 

On Smackdown, John Cena, you may have hard of him, is WWE Champion for the first time. At Backlash, he'll beat JBL in a rematch and then move on to Booker T. Smackdown is really weak on the top heel side, so a select few are going to get quite a push.

 

I'm having a lot of fun booking Angle as my US champ. He's basically my top heel on the brand, playing a proto-Brock Lesnar. I don't want to beat him anytime soon: he did a tremendous job elevating Styles during their feud, and I'm penning him to elevate up and comers on the blue brand before dropping the strap.

 

Speaking of fresh young faces, Samoa Joe is my big project. I want him to win the WWE title at Wrestlemania XXII so I'm extra careful when I book him. He's undefeated and I'm planning on keeping it that way.