Have you ever been burned by a signing?

[Aura]

Has anyone else ever tried to make a big signing, but it wound up blowing up in your face either due to circumstance, or because the person you signed ended up not being worth the money? I know that I have a story to share about that.

 

I'm running a custom CVerse company, Pro Wrestling Outbreak, in Japan, and my champion is Commander Kawagishi. He's basically run through everyone on the roster that could be a contender for his belt, so I decided to bring in an outside talent for his next title defense.

 

I settled on Yasuhide Tayama, both because he had seemingly good stats and pretty decent popularity across Japan, and also because I remembered him being impressive in the Prestige Wrestling League from the dynasty forums. I paid him 700 for one appearance, which was far more than anyone else on the roster was making. This was halfway through Year 2 in a company that started from scratch, by the way.

 

So I bring in Tayama, and he's immediately upset about being booked to lose despite Kawagishi not being much less popular than him. (Tayama was about 45 popularity in the area, Kawagishi was around 38) I wind up having to both keep Tayama strong and protect him in the match notes in order for him to stop complaining, and in the end he wound up putting up one of the worst non-young lion performances of the night, with Kawagishi literally doubling his match rating. I could have used one of my regular contenders and gotten a better match in the process.

 

Does anyone else have a story like this?

[Historian]

Oh man, all the time. Especially if they are a name. I've been burned by Yasuhide myself. I once brought in a released Eddie Peak to come in and put people over (he was near retirement). He wrestled one match, lost, and immediately quit.

[Zero]

All the time. Hogan especially. He is always leaving for a movie or politics.

[d12345]

Signed Hollywood Bret Starr in my TCW save to a huge money deal. He goes off to film a movie for 6 months shortly after starting. Then comes back. Wins a match against a top guy, then bounces to go into politics for 2 years.

 

Comes back. Contract up. Got another bidding war.

[Blake Trask]

I gave Kuniko Matsura a pyromaniac gimmick one time.

[DarK_RaideR]

I did a Road to Glory game using the 97 database. Hired L.W.A. during my first roster expansion for dat 90s "edginess". Corrine White kept causing trouble and quit within less than a year, then left the business altogether after a year or two. Meanwhile, Viv Jacobs evolved into a great talent, my first ever Women's champion, multi time champion and Hall of Famer, active still up to 2013. Polar opposites.

[Peria]

In my current long save of NJPW... boy. I've had Masakatsu Funaki for 4 years. He has probably been active for about 2 of them. Always doing MMA fights. Eddie Guerrero, was in rehab basically for the first 2-3 years I had him, it was terrible.

 

But none can compare to Misawa and Kobashi. Misawa instantly left for a movie when I signed him, then did it again when he returned and won the IWGP Heavyweight title. Kobashi? He sort of panned out okay but short-term he won the tag titles then got embroiled in a scandal for 2 years. He is back now though. Both are actually.

 

Never really "lost" anyone though.