Wrestling Timelines: 1986

[jhd1]

Wrestling Timeline 1986 | The World Is Watching

United States of America

By January 1986, the wrestling industry, at least in the United States, was beginning to realise that the World Wrestling Federation was on the verge of a hostile takeover. Having quickly dismantled large swathes of the territory system and held the hugely successful inaugural Wrestlemania the previous year, Vince McMahon’s WWF heads into 1986 looking to turn the company from giant to titan. In an effort to compete with the sports entertainment juggernaut, Jim Crockett Promotions has been taking over territories himself, most notably the St Louis Wrestling Club. With an eye on territories in Florida and Missouri, Jim Crockett Jr is looking to build a roster and fan base to rival Vince McMahon. Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association continues to offer a sports-heavy alternative, but is increasingly seen as being out of touch with the modern fan. Despite last September’s SuperClash joint event, the AWA and JCP are less friendly than ever, with Gagne seeming to be turning his attention towards Fritz Von Erich and Jerry Jarrett. Other promoters have been rebranding in an effort to turn their regional promotion into a national-sounding alternative to the WWF; Bill Watts’s Mid-South Wrestling is now the Universal Wrestling Federation, while Ron Fuller’s Southeastern Championship Wrestling has become Continental Championship Wrestling. Not all is rosy, however, with Bob Geigel’s Central States Wrestling looking increasingly shaky, while Duke Keomuka and Hiro Matsuda’s attempts to continue Championship Wrestling from Florida after 1985’s passing of Eddie Graham could go either way. Rumours of law troubles plague Lia Maivia and Lars Anderson in Hawaii, while Don Owen’s Pacific Northwest Wrestling remains a steady feature in Portland despite losing many of its top stars.

Canada

The United States isn’t the only country to have had its wrestling industry taken over by Vince McMahon. McMahon and the WWF have bought out the Tunneys of Toronto and had a short spell as owner of Stampede Wrestling before selling back to Bruce Hart late last year. Stampede and Lutte Internationale of Quebec remain under the thumb of McMahon even if they are, on paper at least, independent promotions. Out west, Al Tomko continues his goal of making Vancouver All Star Wrestling all about him (and soon his son, Rick Davis). Across the country, the Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling promotion is now under the stewardship of Paul Peller. Continuing its traditional summer tours, AGPW has carved itself out a decent niche that should keep it safe for the time being.

Mexico

Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, now headed up by Paco Alonso, continues to dominate the lucha libre scene, with its biggest challenger, the Universal Wrestling Association now acting more like an ally than an enemy, presumably having realised the futility of fighting against the country’s oldest and biggest promotion. Both companies have strong rosters, and with a large cohort of young talent out there just waiting to be hired, lucha libre looks set to be in a great position heading into 1986.

Japan

Japan’s “big two” promotions, All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling, continue to argue over who is the number one company. For most fans, they are pretty much head-to-head, with Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki still acting as great figureheads for their respective companies. Both companies are in the midst of “invasion” storylines, with the guardians of NJPW doing battle with Akira Maeda and his former UWF colleagues, while AJPW and Giant Baba are at war with Riki Choshu’s Ishin Gundan is invading from the Japan Pro-Wrestling “promotion”. Joshi wrestling continues to go from strength-to-strength as All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling looks to the likes of Jaguar Yokota, Devil Masami and Bull Nakano to take it forward into the back half of the 1980s.

British Isles and Europe

Professional wrestling in the UK took a big blow in late 1985 when World of Sport was taken off the air. Wrestling remains on ITV, but with a constantly shifting slot, Joint Promotions is beginning to maintain its momentum. Worse still is that the promotion’s contract with ITV expires later this year, with Brian Dixon’s All Star Wrestling and the USA’s World Wrestling Federation reportedly eyeing up the slot. While Joint Promotions continues to build around the 55-year old Big Daddy, All Star Wrestling is looking to the likes of Johnny Saint, Wayne Bridges and Dave Taylor to bring in the crowds, using its slot on Satellite Sports to good effect. Ffederasiwn Reslo Cymru, owned by Orig Williams, continues to air a weekly show on Welsh-language channel S4C. While the promotion’s appeal outside of Wales is limited, the company has built itself a solid fanbase in the valleys.

In mainland Europe, Otto Wanz and his Catch Wrestling Association remain the only real game in town. Touring the likes of Austria and Germany, the CWA is one of the few promotions that doesn’t hold shows all year round. Despite some solid homegrown talent, and, of course, big pushes for himself, Otto Wanz’ biggest draws are from the UK and America.

Active Promotions

World Wrestling Federation (New England | Big | Vince McMahon | Pat Patterson)

Jim Crockett Promotions (Mid Atlantic | Medium | Jim Crockett Jr | Dusty Rhodes)

American Wrestling Association (Mid West | Small | Verne Gagne | Ray Stevens)

All Japan Pro Wrestling (Kanto | Medium | Giant Baba | Giant Baba)

New Japan Pro Wrestling (Kanto | Medium | Antonio Inoki | Mr Takahashi)

Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (Centro | Medium | Paco Alonso | Antonio Peña)

All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (Kanto | Small | Takashi Matsunaga | Toshikuni Matsunaga)

Universal Wrestling Association (Centro | Small | Francisco José Flores | Carlos Maynez)

Universal Wrestling Federation (Mid South | Small | Bill Watts | Eddie Gilbert)

World Class Wrestling Association (Mid South | Small | Fritz Von Erich | David Manning)

Joint Promotions (Northern England | Small | Max Crabtree | Mick McManus)

All Star Wrestling (Northern England | Small | Brian Dixon | Brian Dixon)

Continental Wrestling Association (South East | Small | Jerry Jarrett | Jerry Lawler)

Continental Championship Wrestling (South East | Small | Ron Fuller | Ron Fuller)

Central States Wrestling (Mid West | Tiny | Bob Geigel | Bob Brown)

Championship Wrestling from Florida (South East | Tiny | Hiro Matsuda | Duke Keomuka)

Stampede Wrestling (Alberta | Small | Bruce Hart | Ross Hart)

Lutte Internationale (Quebec| Tiny | Frank Valois | Gino Brito)

Pacific Northwest Wrestling (North West | Tiny | Do Owen | Sandy Barr)

Vancouver All-Star Wrestling (British Columbia | Tiny | Al Tomko | Al Tomko)

Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling (The Maritimes | Tiny | Paul Peller | Paul Peller)

Catch Wrestling Association (Central Europe | Tiny | Otto Wanz | Otto Wanz)

Capitol Sports Promotions (Puerto Rico | Tiny | Victor Jovica | José González)

Ffederasiwn Reslo Cymru (Wales | Tiny | Orig Williams | Orig Williams)

Polynesian Pro Wrestling (Hawaii | Tiny | Lia Maivia | Lars Anderson)

[jhd1]

Alpha 3.00 14/08/2023

>>Download from MediaFire<<

[jhd1]

Frequently asked questions

How can I make graphics for this mod?

Use the templates below. You'll need GIMP 2.10 onwards to open the template files for People, TV and Broadcasters. You'll need Inkscape for the Logos file. For the GIMP files, simply place your image within the masked layer group and the area you don't want will be made transparent. Save the image as a .GIF file for workers and a .JPG file for the others. For logos, I use Inkscape to create the initial design and export this at 300x300. I then shrink this to 150x150 in GIMP and save as a JPG for use in TEW. The main reason for this is that Inkscape handles the unusual shape better, but has a tendency to forget to anti-aliase some of the more complex logos when exporting to 150x150 which doesn't look great. By resizing in GIMP you lose some sharpness but it retains the image better. Logos use the Bahnschrift font which should be contained within your Windows installation (I think).

WrestlingTimelines-Templates.zip

[jhd1]

I felt it was probably about time that this thread went live, so here it is! This mod has been in the works for the past three or so months (on and off, thanks RL!). The mod currently has 25 promotions and 1285 active wrestlers across the regions above (Oceania and India are set to be inactive). Worker stats and popularities are virtually complete, company settings are done and title lineages are finished (boring a task though it was!). Although future workers are not yet in place, I've run three and four year watchers that play out pretty well (particularly when considering how unusual the AI booking can be!).

At the minute I've been gathering feedback from @Bigpapa42, @Fleisch and @Big Roguey. @Almaida has also done some fantastic work on pulling together belt images for the mod. @justtxyank is helping out with worker pics and some testing, while @Markw will also be doing some testing when I finally remember to send it out!

If you're interested in helping out, send me a PM or post here. Areas that need finalising currently are:

• Worker attributes (particularly personalities; I can't decide whether to use random personalities or no personality for those where it isn't well documented)
• Tag teams (start dates and experience primarily)
• Contract start dates
• Movesets
• Alter-egos

The mod will almost certainly be released as a beta with few employment histories and bios in place. I'm working on them, but the priority is to get the mod playable and then worry about the nice-to-haves after people have got their hands on it.

Over the next few days I'll update the second post of the thread with some notes about the way the mod has been developed.

If anyone has any questions, fire away!

[hailthebulldog]

This looks awesome, I can't wait.

[Dalton]

So pumped for this

[raspymorten]

Hell yeah! 2020 needs some more 80s stuff.

[LordofGustav]

Good luck on this one, i've been working on my own 80's mod, mostly from scratch and some gimmicks borrowed from the Default database, trying to find out how it works properly so it can run smoothly.

Looking forward to see this one.

[Jaysin]

YESSSSS

[scmurph01]

Can't wait for this. The 80's is my favorite time in wrestling. 

[TLLK]

oh HECK yes

[jhd1]

13 hours ago, LordofGustav said:

Good luck on this one, i've been working on my own 80's mod, mostly from scratch and some gimmicks borrowed from the Default database, trying to find out how it works properly so it can run smoothly.

Looking forward to see this one.

Yeah, this is built from the ground up too. I've referenced some other mods to check my balance and for a general idea of how a Japanese wrestler performs (e.g. are they primarily a brawler or technician) but all workers were created, statted etc. manually by me.

Fortunately, working on the ThunderVerse for more than ten years definitely makes developing a mod that behaves as desired a lot easier!

 

Thanks for all the support, everyone. Much appreciated!

[Big Roguey]

This was an exciting notification to come back on to! Very happy to see this is up and running now boss.

[AboardTheArk]

oh that's intriguing for sure

[Prez28aron]

Love this.. excited for when future workers get finished as well I'll check it out!

 

 

 

 

[justtxyank]

Genuinely very excited for this particularly because you’re doing it from scratch. A lot of mods now are carrying legacy decisions from mods made years ago. 
 

Big tip: Stan Hansen was the best brawler in the world and is why he was the top guy in Japan and Brody was never that good.

[LordofGustav]

1 hour ago, justtxyank said:

Genuinely very excited for this particularly because you’re doing it from scratch. A lot of mods now are carrying legacy decisions from mods made years ago. 
 

Big tip: Stan Hansen was the best brawler in the world and is why he was the top guy in Japan and Brody was never that good.

And he is also a great metalhead.... Ok, i'm just joking.

Edited January 18, 2023 by LordofGustav

[alvarasus]

1986 was one of the greatest years in wrestling. Can't wait to see how this turns out. Considering your track record I have high hopes for this mod.

[Big Roguey]

On 1/18/2023 at 1:01 AM, justtxyank said:

Genuinely very excited for this particularly because you’re doing it from scratch. A lot of mods now are carrying legacy decisions from mods made years ago. 
 

Big tip: Stan Hansen was the best brawler in the world and is why he was the top guy in Japan and Brody was never that good.

Echoing the first part of this so much. A mod always feels more put together when it's clearly a labour of love rather than someone jumping on the back of an established mod first.

[jhd1]

Thanks for all the comments so far, folks. I'm intending to start profiling some of the promotions this week; if anyone has a particular promotion they'd like to see early on just let me know (full list in the first post).

In terms of progress, all current workers were complete with stats until yesterday when I started to fill out the UK indy scene so there's a few more yet to do. All workers have pops too; I'm working through the bigger promotions at the minute (AWA, JCP, AJPW, AJW, EMLL and UWA to do) to balance their pops and add in any regional differences. That shouldn't take too long to finish off. Still not decided on the approach to take for worker personalities - I'm tempted to leave those without a particularly well-known personality as not having one, but in reality that means all but a very small number of workers will have no backstage impact. Then again, that might be better than giving real people the wrong personality?

I had a preview of @justtxyank's awesome '80s sticker pack so I've managed to steal quite a lot of those. There's still a decent number of pictures needed before the pack is complete, but that's something I've been doing off and on for weeks anyway. 

[justtxyank]

15 minutes ago, jhd1 said:

Thanks for all the comments so far, folks. I'm intending to start profiling some of the promotions this week; if anyone has a particular promotion they'd like to see early on just let me know (full list in the first post).

In terms of progress, all current workers were complete with stats until yesterday when I started to fill out the UK indy scene so there's a few more yet to do. All workers have pops too; I'm working through the bigger promotions at the minute (AWA, JCP, AJPW, AJW, EMLL and UWA to do) to balance their pops and add in any regional differences. That shouldn't take too long to finish off. Still not decided on the approach to take for worker personalities - I'm tempted to leave those without a particularly well-known personality as not having one, but in reality that means all but a very small number of workers will have no backstage impact. Then again, that might be better than giving real people the wrong personality?

I had a preview of @justtxyank's awesome '80s sticker pack so I've managed to steal quite a lot of those. There's still a decent number of pictures needed before the pack is complete, but that's something I've been doing off and on for weeks anyway. 

If you give me a list or your data when you have a chance I'll focus on your files.

[justtxyank]

Also dude, can you tell me the font you used in the title of your main gfx "Wrestling Timeline 1986"

[jhd1]

15 minutes ago, justtxyank said:

Also dude, can you tell me the font you used in the title of your main gfx "Wrestling Timeline 1986"

Of course; Bahnschrift Bold Condensed.

[justtxyank]

Downloaded that font. Love it.

[rocketman151]

Glad to hear about this one. To my knowledge there has never been a 1986 mod in any TEW game