I love when Strobe resuscitates this thread!

Can't wait to read...

WCW Starrcade 1995

I've always thought a lot of WCW pay per views from this era were ripe for a rebooking. None moreso than Starrcade '95. This is one of those shows that's Internet Popular while being a real life financial flop. Starrcade '95 drew the lowest buyrate (.36) of any 1995 WCW pay per view. It also had the worst buyrate of any Starrcade until 1999. In fact, it was the lowest drawing WCW ppv in the near six year period ranging from November ‘93 where BattleBowl drew a .27 buy rate and September ‘99 where Fall Brawl drew a .29. I personally always thought this show was a mess. It was built around a heatless WCW vs. NJPW interpromotional war, guys were double booked all over the place, and it took place on a Wednesday in between Christmas & New Year's. Fwiw my friends and I skipped this one without a second thought.

I make no apologies about the "Bakerness" of this show but I do think it stays true to the WCW storylines of the time. The first thing I'm doing is bumping it back a few days to a Saturday. You can read about the real life show here  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starrcade_(1995) if you're interested....

WCW Starrcade 1995 12/30/95

1. Jushin Liger (NJPW) defeats Alex Wright (WCW)- (WCW: 0/NJPW: 1)
-Liger, who is known to WCW fans, gives the kid a rub with a competitive babyface match. The two combatants shake hands after the bout.

2. Koji Kanemoto (NJPW) defeats Dean Malenko (WCW)- (WCW: 0/NJPW: 2)
-Dean was left off this show but I'd much rather see him than.....just about anybody. He was still months away from being any kind of name though, so he does the job here, but hopefully gains a few fans in the process.

3. Eddie Guerrero (WCW) defeats Shinjiro Otani (NJPW)- (WCW: 1/NJPW: 2)
-This is the match most people remember from the real life version of this event. In real life Otani won. I'm changing that. Eddie was already a popular babyface. Makes sense to give him the win here.

4. Blue Bloods defeat Harlem Heat to win the WCW Tag Team Championship
-Our first big Bakerism. Much like the New Rockers a year later in WWF, it always bothered me that the mighty Blue Bloods failed to capture the WCW Tag Titles after being the only good thing in the promotion for much of the year. So I'm giving them their moment in the spotlight and getting them into the history books. They can drop the straps to Sting & Luger a few weeks later at the Clash.....or not! Plus this allows the first Sting & Luger vs. Harlem Heat match to take place on PPV where it can potentially draw money rather than have it be just another throwaway Nitro match.

5. Marcus Bagwell/Johnny B. Badd/Scotty Riggs/Scott Norton (WCW) defeat Masa Chono/Masa Saito/Hiroyoshi Tenzan (NJPW)- (WCW: 2/NJPW: 2)
-We get an angle where Scotty Riggs is attacked backstage by a mystery assailant, or assailants. All signs point to those dastardly invaders from New Japan, though Sonny Onoo denies it. Scott Norton is so fired up that he volunteers to take Scotty's place. Team WCW wins when Norton pins Tenzan. It is later revealed that Norton attacked Riggs to get in this match because he had some unfinished business from Japan with the NJPW team. This leads to a brief Norton vs. American Males feud with Norton obviously going over after kicking some pretty boy ass. Norton then goes on to capture the TV Title from Johnny B. Badd after powerbombing him so hard he flees the company and changes his name.

6. Chris Benoit (WCW) defeats US Champion Kensuke Sasaki (NJPW) to win the World Cup of Wrestling for WCW 3-2 while capturing the US Title in the process.
-This is the result I wanted at World War III. Benoit was a Horseman but only getting a halfhearted push. Capturing a championship and winning the World Cup of Wrestling for WCW would give him a major starpower boost. Young "new style" wrestler Benoit would have made an infinitely better US Champ than the horribly dated One Man Gang. (Gang getting a US Title run in 1996 remains one of the biggest wtf booking decisions in wrestling history). Benoit can feud with Eddie over the belt and/or still do the job to Konnan at SuperBrawl.

*My only problem with this is Benoit was a heel and it doesn't really make sense to give the heel a "heroic" rub. But my next best option was Scott Norton. So.... Also, New Japan gets to save face with the way I laid this out since all their losses came to guys with NJPW history who still worked part time for the promotion. So those guys can return the favor next time they're in Japan if that's what NJPW management desires. I also remember rumors in real life that New Japan didn't want their heavyweights jobbing to juniors. Probably true. So you can swap Norton & Benoit if your heart desires. I actually started writing "Benoit or Norton" for those two matches but deleted because a dozen of those would really clutter things up and lead to confusion.

*I toyed around with multiple takes on the whole WCW vs. NJPW thing. Another idea was Benoit going over Liger, Norton beating Sasaki for the Cup and the US Title, and Otani/Kanemoto beating Guerrero/Malenko after babyface miscommunication, leading to an Eddie/Dean feud. 

*You can also throw in an angle where The Nasty Boys are cutting a promo when they're jumped by a debuting Public Enemy. Not sure how the timing works out there but it would have been another cool little angle to give WCW some buzz, and the whole "They don't work here!" thing was still years away from being played out.

7. Sting & Lex Luger defeat Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman in a Grudge Match
-Totally should have happened. This takes care of a lot of big storylines. This incarnation of the Horsemen started with Arn & Pillman (and Flair) pulling a ruse on Sting. Now Sting gets his revenge with the untrustworthy Luger. Luger wrestles a straight babyface match...this time because he also hates The Horsemen. Finish sees Pillman & Luger brawl at ringside when a rather old, rather jacked man wearing Sting facepaint attacks Pillman from the crowd. Bah gawd it's "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff! Meanwhile, back in the ring Sting beats Arn clean as a sheet with the Scorpion Deathlock. Come on. You guys had to know Mr. Wonderful was making an appearance and getting some sweet, sweet revenge. 

8. The Giant squashes Hacksaw Jim Duggan in like 2 minutes.
-HJD stands up for his buddy Hogan by challenging the Next Big Thing. It doesn't go well for the 2x4 wielding patriot in this comedown match.

9. Ric Flair defeats Randy Savage to become the NEEEWWW WCW Champion.
-This feud drew well early in the year so WCW goes to that well one more time. Don't know how we get here. Really don't care. It's Flair vs. Savage. They don't need much of a reason to fight again. Flair wins with help from his Horsemen. The Horsemen celebrate Flair's latest coronation. They now hold the WCW & US Championships while once again ruling wrestling. But here comes Sting, Lex, a rejuvenated Savage, and maybe MR. WONDERFUL because sure! Why not....

SHOW!
ENDING!!
BRAWL!!!!!

Verdict- 10 times better than the real life version and it drew twice as well.

Starrcade 1997

This show should have been the end for the NWO. It was time to return the favor. Next night sees the big NWO generational split with Hogan & Savage leading the older guys against The Outsider-lead new blood.

I may be taking some liberties here. Hall & Nash had been out of action for a while but both men returned a mere 11 days later. Meaning they likely just didn't want to do the job. You can read about the real version here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starrcade_(1997)

1. Rey Mysterio Jr. defeats Eddie Guerrero & Dean Malenko in a Triangle Match to become the Cruiserweight Champion.
-They did a straight Eddie/Dean match in real life while Rey was left off the card entirely. The idea here is to crown the undisputed Ace of the Cruiserweight division with Rey being that guy.

2. Steiner Brothers defeat Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton- Tag Title Match
-Steiners had been feuding with the NWO from the beginning. Have them retain over the NWO's solid B Tag Team here.

3. Goldberg defeats Steve "Mongo" McMichael
-Same as real life. Give Goldberg a high profile PPV win over a fairly credible, relatively big name opponent.

4. Saturn w/ Raven defeats Chris Benoit in a Raven's Rules Match
-In real life this was supposed to be Raven/Benoit with Raven backing out and letting Saturn take his place. We'll keep everything the same.

5. Bret Hart defeats Konnan in his debut match.
-Maybe putting Bret in the ring draws a few extra buys from curious WWF fans upset by the Screwjob. Ideally I'd have Syxx as Bret's first opponent here but he was in the middle of a 6 month non-wrestling stretch so I assume he really was injured.

6. Larry Zbyszko squashes Eric Bischoff
-Larry Legend has another moment of glory. WCW fans rejoice. NWO B Team tries interfering only to be run off by Ray Traylor and other WCW midcarders.

7. Lex Luger makes Scott Hall submit to the Torture Rack
-Dub-Cee-Dub! Dub-Cee-Dub!

8. Ric Flair w/ Arn Anderson defeats Curt Hennig w/ Rick Rude to win the US Championship 
-Flair wasn't on this show in real life but this makes perfect (hehe) sense. 

9. DDP defeats Randy Savage in the Final Encounter
-Savage was inexplicably buried in an undercard 6 man tag. He probably didn't want to job either. Was this feud played out? I could see that. On the other hand it makes sense for DDP to bury his rival once and for all on WCW's night of triumph.

10. The Giant defeats Kevin Nash to win WCW's ultimate Colossal Jostle
-Giant becomes the premier big man in WCW with a victory in this PWI dream match.

11. Sting squashes Hollywood Hogan clean with no stupid referee shenanigans to win the WCW Championship
-The babyfaces all come out to celebrate. Fireworks go off. WCW and their fans rejoice. The Reign of Terror is over.
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*LOL 11 matches is entirely too many. Drop the bouts of your choosing from matches #2-#5. Actually....real life Starrcade had 93 minutes worth of wrestling. Let's see if I can make this work.....

1. Steiners vs. Vicious & Delicious- 8 minutes
2. Cwt. 3 Way- 10 action-packed minutes
3. Goldberg vs. Mongo- 5 minutes
4. Saturn vs. Benoit- 10 minutes
5. Bret vs. Konnan- 10 minutes
6. Larry vs. Bischoff- 3 minutes
7. Lex vs. Hall- 7 minutes
8. Flair vs. Hennig- 14 minutes
9. DDP vs. Savage- 14 minutes
10. Giant vs. Nash- 7 minutes
11. Sting vs. Hogan- 5 minutes

Bam! 93 minutes exactly. And a part of me thinks Hogan/Sting and maybe Larry/Bischoff could/should be even shorter. 

Loving these Starrcade rebookings, Baker (even if Bret vs. Konnan is a head scratcher for me).

I always thought Flair/Savage's rivalry deserved a Starrcade main event capper, and I was also stunned to learn how goofy Starrcade 1995 was. After the goofy formats of Starrcades 1989-1992, I would've thought that WCW would've learned and permanently played it straight henceforth.

Not really knowing anything about WCW, I've occasionally toyed with a revisionist history idea of rebooking WCW as like a WWF Lite remix of the greatest hits where the Starrcade main events read like a list of dream WrestleMania main events offset by a few years...

1994: The final Hogan vs. Flair encounter in 1994, perhaps with a "retirement" stip
1995: Either the final Savage vs. Flair or Savage vs. Hogan encounter in 1995 (or maybe Flair vs. Savage, Hogan vs. Vader, and Sting vs. Lex for some triple main event?)
1996: The final Hogan vs. Piper encounter in 1996, or possibly some Hogan vs. Giant match hearkening more directly back to Hogan vs. Andre... or maybe Hogan vs. Lex?
1997: Hogan vs. Sting in 1997 (no need to touch the match itself... but fix the actual execution)
1998: Hogan vs. Goldberg II and Bret/Sting in 1998, maybe with Nash/Hall for another triple main event? (Unless oWn doesn't shit the bed, and you can somehow run Goldberg vs. Warrior)
1999: Goldberg vs. Bret in 1999 (hopefully without the concussion)
2000: Goldberg vs. I don't know... no idea who are viable options at this point: Benoit? Steiner? Sid? WCW fully pivots from greatest hits remixes to focus on contemporary talent in what coincidentally proves to be the final Starrcade.

Jun 18, 2019 12:59:10 GMT 🤯 said:

Loving these Starrcade rebookings, Baker (even if Bret vs. Konnan is a head scratcher for me).

I always thought Flair/Savage's rivalry deserved a Starrcade main event capper, and I was also stunned to learn how goofy Starrcade 1995 was. After the goofy formats of Starrcades 1989-1992, I would've thought that WCW would've learned and permanently played it straight henceforth.

Not really knowing anything about WCW, I've occasionally toyed with a revisionist history idea of rebooking WCW as like a WWF Lite remix of the greatest hits where the Starrcade main events read like a list of dream WrestleMania main events offset by a few years...

1994: The final Hogan vs. Flair encounter in 1994, perhaps with a "retirement" stip
1995: Either the final Savage vs. Flair or Savage vs. Hogan encounter in 1995 (or maybe Flair vs. Savage, Hogan vs. Vader, and Sting vs. Lex for some triple main event?)
1996: The final Hogan vs. Piper encounter in 1996, or possibly some Hogan vs. Giant match hearkening more directly back to Hogan vs. Andre... or maybe Hogan vs. Lex?
1997: Hogan vs. Sting in 1997 (no need to touch the match itself... but fix the actual execution)
1998: Hogan vs. Goldberg II and Bret/Sting in 1998, maybe with Nash/Hall for another triple main event? (Unless oWn doesn't shit the bed, and you can somehow run Goldberg vs. Warrior)
1999: Goldberg vs. Bret in 1999 (hopefully without the concussion)
2000: Goldberg vs. I don't know... no idea who are viable options at this point: Benoit? Steiner? Sid? WCW fully pivots from greatest hits remixes to focus on contemporary talent in what coincidentally proves to be the final Starrcade.

LOL I realize Bret/Konnan is weird on paper but I wanted to get Bret a match and Konnan was the best option. Like I said, Syxx would have been a better opponent, but he was in the midst of a 6 month non-wrestling stretch. So I just assumed he was injured and unavailable. I just think it makes sense to have Bret's in ring debut take place on WCW's biggest show (ever). Give him a showcase win to set him up for a big 1998. Plus it furthers the WCW > NWO theme of this show. Plus plus "Bret hand picked Konnan to be his first opponent as a Thank You for teaching him the Sharpshooter back in the day." 

It is weird how gimmicky Starrcade got. Every Starrcade from 89-92 was gimmicky and five out of seven Starrcade from 89-95 were gimmick shows. By comparison, the only gimmicky Wrestlemania was the WM IV tournament, which I loved in theory, and wouldn't mind seeing return once every decade or so. I already rebooked Starrcades 89 & 95, and I'd rebook all those other gimmicky Starrcade if I was more familiar with the 90-92 product. Maybe one day when I'm bored....

Random somewhat related rant.....During my mid-90s action figure league heyday I (finally) realized 3 of the Big 5 WWF pay per views were also gimmick shows- Royal Rumble, KOTR, and Survivor Series. Only Wrestlemania & Summerslam were traditional shows. This is very weird to me in hindsight. The excuse I've heard was house shows were still the major source of revenue when those concepts were conceived so they wanted to do something different on pay per view while still getting people to come to the live shows to see the real big time feuds/singles matches. 
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I think Kilgore rebooked all the Starrcade main events at one point. I will also give it a go....

94- Either stretch out Hogan/Flair or jump the gun on Hogan/Vader. Both are much better options than Hogan/Beefcake
95- Hogan wasn't on this show in real life. But for fantasy purposes Hogan/Sting or Hogan/Lex were the big money matches. We'll go with Hogan/Lex to make Hogan/Sting fresher in '97.
96- I guess it's gotta be Hogan/Piper
97- Hogan/Sting with Sting going over quick and clean
98- Hogan/Goldberg II sounds good
99- ? Not sure. Goldberg vs. 1999 Bret doesn't scream $$$ to me though. So probably not that.
00- Goldberg/Scott Steiner was the biggest match they had to offer by this point

Baker

Yeah, Starrcade main events are fairly easy to rebook. There's usually an obvious place to go and you hit them (while WCW rarely did :lol: ).

1990: Sting vs. Ric Flair
1991: Sting vs. Rick Rude
1992: Sting vs. Vader
1993: Vader vs. Flair
1994: Hogan vs. Vader/ Hogan vs. Flair vs. Savage would be an ambitious alternate since the three way dance had just emerged
1995: Sting vs. Lex Luger
1996: Hogan vs. Piper
1997: Hogan vs. Sting*
1998: Hogan vs. Hart/Goldberg vs. Sting co-main event (in Montreal) is set in stone for me. 
1999: Hart vs. Goldberg would be worth (slightly) more money in this world.
2000: Goldberg vs. Steiner

*As for Bret in 1997, I just throw together a match vs. Savage. Savage isn't doing anything, it gets Bret started against nWo guys and Savage wouldn't mind doing the favor for Bret. DDP becomes the odd man out, but you could just as easily involve him in the Benoit-Raven thing in many ways (tag team, three way dance). I have him go against Great Muta once just because why not? Muta is always available in December, he's nWo, and it's something you can wing together really quickly. 

Starrcade 1997 was a show that became such a mess.

A couple of weeks out from the show, the matches booked and promoted were:

Hogan(c) vs. Sting - WCW Title
Nash vs. Giant
Hennig(c) vs. Flair - US Title "Cage"
Bischoff vs. Zbyszko w/Bret as ref - for control of Nitro
Benoit vs. Raven - Raven's Rules
Luger vs. Bagwell
Eddie(c) vs. Malenko - Cruiser Title
Steiners/Traylor vs. Konnan/Norton/Vincent
Goldberg vs. Mongo

Of those 9 matches, only 5 would take place as originally planned.

No matches had been booked for Savage, DDP or Hall. But there was a reason for those latter 2. Flair had hurt his ankle badly at World War 3 and once it became apparent that he could not recover in time, they started working DDP into the story and had the nWo attack Flair and do more damage to him. This put him out so DDP took his place. Hall was involved in a feud with Zbyszko along with Bischoff, so was going to be in Bischoff's corner. Savage just wasn't booked.

So this is not bad at this point. We have gone from the feud-ending cage match of Flair/Hennig III to DDP/Hennig in a standard match. A shame for Flair not to be on WCW's biggest show ever and get that big win, but Page was very over at this point, on the rise and his win was be a big moment too.

Malenko's wife was due close to Starrcade and, with such a stacked card, he had been told that if she gave birth before that he could miss the show, with Rey taking his place. Malenko was annoyed that WCW promoted the match anyway, since it was probable that she would give birth before, which she did three days prior. Then the day before the show, Kevin Nash mistook bad indigestion causing chest pains for a heart attack (he was at a similar age to his father when he died of a heart attack) and went to the hospital, so the second most promoted match on the show was now off. And Konnan had some personal issue at the last minute that meant that he would also not be making the show. WCW also knew that Raven's pancreas was almost certainly not going to recover in time and they'd have to bait-and-switch to Benoit/Saturn on the show itself.

So knowing that they'd be changing Benoit/Raven and cancelling Nash/Giant, along with having to replace Konnan, they were desperate to not have another match change, so they chartered a jet to bring an unhappy Malenko in to work the opener. They also wanted the Konnan replacement to not be a disappointment so convinced Macho to take his spot. Savage would only do it if he got the pin, so this match that was supposed to give the faces a win over lesser nWo members became another nWo victory.

The story coming in to Luger/Bagwell was that Bagwell kept beating Luger by DQ and countout. Clearly building to recent World Champion Luger getting the clean win to put Buff in his place, right? Instead, interference from Savage and Norton led to Bagwell stealing another win over Luger. I wonder if this finish was changed late on since they had Savage on the show now and wanted to use him again.

Hall came out early in the night to announce that Nash wasn't going to be there and instead of pivoting to a Giant/Hall match, they just had Giant come out and beat him up.

They completely changed how the main event was going to go on the day of the show. Bischoff claims he and Hogan were shocked at how vacant/disinterested Sting was and that he was not in the shape they'd expect. He also makes a point to stress that he did not even bother to get a tan to sum up how disinterested he was, even if I think being pale fits the Crow Sting look better. So they decided to add a contingency plan, in case Sting's personal/drug issues meant he'd fail as the champ, of having Hogan get a pin with a fast count, which would also allow them to include Bret Hart and play off the Screwjob. I can see where they were coming from, but the execution of the match was about as bad as humanly possible.

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I think the roles that Bret played on the show were the correct ones. He had just come off of being screwed by a ref and a promoter in the most controversial match finish of recent times and was coming into a company with big stories coming to a head. So being placed as the referee himself for a match to decide who runs Nitro works well story-wise. And being involved in the finish of the main was perfect because it programs him with Sting and Hogan, the two men that he should've been up against for the first third of 1998.

The match was pretty easy to book. I think this would've worked and would come at the end of a night where the nWo lose all their matches. Hogan comes out trying to act all cocky, Sting enters from the rafters (only after the finish here should it be implied he is back in the WCW dressing room), Hogan starts to shit himself, Sting absolutely batters the fuck out of him. Fast-paced, lots of action and it looks like it is basically going to be a squash. Hogan maybe gets a punch or two in, but Sting does not feel the effects. So the nWo starts charging out from the back, but all the WCW guys who are sitting at ringside jump the rail and cut them off. More WCW guys join from the back and we just have a giant nWo/WCW war going on outside the ring and on the ramp. The ref gets wiped out. Sting is taking out any nWo guy that manages to get in the ring. With greater numbers and all united, the WCW guys subdue the New World Order who are all either down or are seen retreating backstage (notably Hall and Nash, assuming the latter is there), leaving Hogan alone. So the focus is back on the ring. Stinger Splash in the corner and Hogan falls in the middle of the ring. Sting looks around very deliberately, signalling to the crowd. They all know what is coming. He puts on the Scorpion Deathlock as Bret Hart, ref earlier in the night, comes through the crowd and slides in the ring. Hogan submits, Bret calls for the bell and the place goes crazy. The WCW wrestlers swarm the ring in celebration and hoist Sting on their shoulders. Bret leaves the ring and quietly collects the belt. He enters the ring and Sting is lowered down. The undefeated WWF Champion looks at the belt then at Sting before handing it over and they share a knowing look. Sting lifts the belt in the air before he is again lifting on their shoulders, while Bret leaves to allow the WCW wrestlers to celebrate their big moment.

This way, Sting goes over completely clean in everyone's eyes and remains champ, but Hogan has a technicality heel bullshit claim to a rematch (Bret had a referee's licence for the night, but it was only supposed to be for the match he was assigned) and you have started the set up for both Sting/Bret and Bret/Hogan, while also starting the story towards the nWo split.

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Then something like the following is possible (with the WCW problem of interference overload of course):

SOULED OUT (January)
Sting(c) vs. Hogan II - WCW Title
Bret vs. Hall - #1 Contender
Nash vs. Giant I or II (if it happened on Starrcade or not)

Sting would need to start becoming more human post-Starrcade. So this wouldn't be a squash, but he still dominates. Nash, Hall and Savage come out to interfere but so does Bret. Some fuck-up between Hall/Nash and Savage leads to the finish. This would appease Hogan slightly by not jobbing cleanly again, while inching us closer to the split.

Bret/Hall comes perfectly from Starrcade with them both being involved in the Bischoff/Zbyszko match, plus Hall actually won a title shot by winning WW3 and puts it on the line against the undefeated WWF Champ, plus you have the added bonus of Hall being HBK's mate as well. If you are to do a Bret match at Starrcade, Baker , I'd say this is the one to do.

SUPERBRAWL VIII (February)
Sting(c) vs. Bret - WCW Title
Savage vs. Hall

WCW Champ vs. Undefeated WWF Champ. Scorpion Deathlock vs. Sharpshooter. Hogan is bitter and thinks Bret is the reason he is no longer champion so he interferes (I know, again, but this feels like it needs to be continually done here and it is all leading to the big match) to cost him the title. Hogan wants to be the one to reclaim his belt from Sting.

The nWo fracturing is really in gear now. After their miscommunication last month, Savage and Hall want to settle this issue in the ring so they can put it past them. Nash helps his pal Hall win and the cracks are becoming gigantic now.

UNCENSORED (March)
Hogan vs. Bret
Sting(c) vs. Hall
Savage vs. Nash

Forget practicalities, this is at the Skydome. Would WCW have had another arena booked 4 months in advance for this shows? I'm fairly sure they would've. But I am pretending they didn't (or they cancel it) and we have mapped out this plan, so we have booked the Skydome for March back in November.

Bret goes over Hogan (with what is coming next month, I think I could get him to agree to this) in the main clean or reasonably clean (no interference anyway) in maybe the biggest match in Canadian history.

Having never gotten his title shot that he won at WW3 (after putting it on the line and losing it against Bret) and beating Savage last month, Hall gets the title shot and loses clean to Sting.

It is now Savage/Nash in the nWo civil war after Nash's interference last month. Savage wins after some of the nWo lackeys are convinced to help him win to teach Nash a lesson for last month.

SPRING STAMPEDE (April)
Sting(c) vs. Hogan vs. Bret - WCW Title

Hogan sneaks the title by pinning Bret after Sting does the damage. So Sting got a 5-month title reign and has not been pinned (and can go away for a bit to deal with his personal issues), while Hogan and Bret got wins over each other.

SLAMBOREE (May)
Mega Powers vs. Outsiders
Bret vs. Perfect

With his Sting and Bret deals finished, this now frees up champion Hogan for the proper nWo split, which happened one week after Spring Stampede in reality, into Hollywood and Wolfpac but Savage is Hollywood and Hall is Wolfpac. Mega Powers vs. Outsiders is a match that really should have been run at some point.

Bret can now work with name nWo guys that he likes and that he can get wins over, starting with his pal Mr. Perfect.

GREAT AMERICAN BASH (June)
Hogan(c) vs. Nash vs. Hall - WCW Title
Bret vs. Savage

You could have internal friction between Nash and Hall over who is the leader of the Wolfpac and run a triple threat with the three original nWo members. We can have it teased in the build that Hall may be thinking of switching to Hollywood. Nash and Hall's egos cost each other the match. Rather than working together to take out Hogan and then fighting it out among themselves, they never get on the same page and Hogan retains.

After Perfect, Bret can work with Savage.

Having given him back the title, Hogan can still drop it to Goldberg on the Georgia Dome Nitro.

BASH AT THE BEACH (July)
Hogan/Rodman vs. Nash/Malone

This deal should've been with Nash rather than DDP. Hollywood vs. Wolfpac WarGames and Hogan/Nash singles with Nash going over would be later in the year.

Not sure when, but I can see Bret setting up his own stable with Piper, Davey and (if we must) Anvil. I could see that leading to attempts to recruit Benoit and a feud with the Horsemen in late 98/early 99. Having gotten all that mileage out of face Bret post-Montreal in the first half of 1998, trying to revive the face in Canada/heel in America dynamic would've been worth a try (would've required WCW actually booking shows in Canada of course). Bret winning the US Title and renaming it the Canadian Title as a heel and feuding with face Flair in WCW could've been tremendous. Could have ultimately led to Bret putting over Benoit big style in early 1999.

Crow Sting is still undefeated whenever he returns and you build to Goldberg/Sting at Starrcade. Something like that.

I always wondered if Sting was truly vacant/disinterested or if it was just something Hogan put in Bischoff's head. Sting obviously had seen better days, but Hogan is always going to look for the tiniest thing to Hogan things up. "I don't know about this anymore, brother." Then Bischoff is going to (justifiably, as annoying as that might be) side with Hogan. Unless Sting is in Jake Robert at Heroes of Wrestling condition, he squashes Hogan that night. Especially considering the best match storywise would be a quick match, anyway. It's not like they needed Sting to do a fucking Broadway.

The match I always wrote up is Sting dominates Hogan in the same style as him taking on the entire nWo, just punching and kicking the shit out of him. Hogan can tease a couple of comebacks, but Sting always brushes it off and goes back to dominating Hogan before a Scorpion Death Drop out of nowhere. When it comes time for the count, Hogan kicks out at 2.9 and Hulks up. He did this very occasionally as a heel and the biggest main event in WCW history would be a nice time to dust it off. Half the crowd would mark the fuck out. Hogan does his finish like he always does, starts punching Sting, finally able to do damage of his own. Big boot time, hits it. Leg drop, Sting kicks out at 1.5 and does his version of the Hulk up. Hogan's doing his same punch offense, Sting shakes it off. Hogan goes for the bodyslam of Sting, Sting drops behind him and does Scorpion Death Drop #2. Match over. This entire duration of the match is a 5 or 6 minute sprint.

Wasn't Hogan's contract coming up at some point in 1998? Or at least wasn't there a rumor WWF was considering bringing him back?

If so, I can't stop salivating at the idea of 1998 Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon & Hollywood Hogan as Vince's perfect in-ring proxy.

Maybe to make it a fair "trade" HBK goes to WCW post-'Mania... Hogan wraps up some business with the nWo split like Kilgore or Strobe have laid out, and then jumps to WWF. HBK, Nash, and Hall wreak havoc as the Wolfpac Kliq. Maybe Waltman even stays in this parallel universe. HBK probably ODs at some point. Meanwhile, Hogan "comes home" but hasn't been gone long enough to get the nostalgia pops like in 2002, especially against a red hot Stone Cold.

In revisionist history exercises, I tend to feel like Austin works better chasing the title than defending it over a long period. And the idea of him chasing a corporate Hogan with an evil Vince outright backing him and overtly pulling strings to benefit Hogan? Mmmm...

Maybe Hogan comes in, gets Kane's spot in a title match at KOTR 1998 in a dream match that possibly isn't overshadowed by the HIAC bumps (at least not completely). Hogan "wins" the title through Vince screw jobber, but Austin doesn't win it right back the next night. Austin chases all the way to SummerSlam, where he beats Hogan for the title at MSG.

Then, maybe keep 'em separated until Austin/Hogan III. Maybe Vince screw jobbery leads to Hogan winning the 1999 Royal Rumble after last eliminating Austin. Austin/Hogan III is set for St. Valentine's Day Massacre, with Hogan's Mania title shot on the line, inside a cage, with Vince as special guest ref. OH! AND! Since this is peak Attitude Era and there's no such thing as being over convoluted, the loser will NEVER challenge for the world title again!

Hogan/Vince backfiring chicanery leads to an Austin win. Austin goes on to defeat Rock to finally reclaim his title at WMXV. Meanwhile, Hogan and Vince turn on each other and we get their WMXIX street fight 4 years early at WMXV as the co-main event.

Or, worst case, you can quick pivot to Hogan/Paul Wight as a way to start maybe turning Hogan face again in a WMIII homage (then maybe run Foley/Vince in a street fight as a consolation reward to Mick for being taken outta the main event title picture).

Then, post-WMXV, Hogan finally brings back the red and yellow and runs a retirement tour (maybe being finally retired by HHH?) before transitioning to a part-time legend special attraction role. All while Austin reigns as champ.

Unless you let Hogan convince you to slot him in as face champ when Austin goes down with injuries requiring surgeries. Or maybe Hogan is who runs Austin down at Survivor Series 1999!? Then they rehash their feud in late 2000 for Austin/Hogan IV at Survivor Series 2000.

To complement the above, I think cocky cowardly asshole heel HBK in WCW as world champ works perfectly as the Hogan stand-in for Goldberg to squash for the surprise title win in July on Nitro.

HBK agrees on the premise he's getting his win and title back by ending Goldberg's streak in the main event of Starrcade '98, perhaps in an homage to Montreal with a screw job finish.

But then HBK gets impatient or is in no shape to go come December, so slot Nash in instead similar to how he usurped HBK in 1994-1995 WWF. Nash ends the streak (possibly even clean!?) to win the title and set up Nash vs. Shawn when HBK does return.

🤯,

Yep, Hogan's contract was done sometime in early 1998 as his new contract was May 1998 to May 2002. That's why Starrcade '97 is even more of a clusterfuck than it should have been because you could seemingly have jobbed Hogan out to Sting, broke up the nWo and just let Hogan walk. I would have even jobbed him to Bret in March in this scenario. It would have taken absolute brass balls to do that, but with hindsight, it would have been the right thing to do. Hogan would have slowed down the Austin-Rock momentum in 1998 just by going to the WWF and it might have worked for WCW in the way people claim "McMahon sent Russo to WCW as a mole to destroy them." I like Hogan more than most, but the only thing I would miss from him in WCW post-second contract is the Goldberg match. That's it. He was there another 2-and-a-half years! They really would not have missed much letting him walk.

I understand people liking a HBK in WCW scenario, but honestly fuck that. He was insufferable in the WWF WITH Vince, can you imagine him without Vince? Plus, Bret might have literally killed HBK and be in prison to this day. Let Shawn do drugs from the comfort of his home from 1998-2001, no need for him to make Nitro even worse.

Jun 20, 2019 18:53:53 GMT Kilgore said:

🤯,

Yep, Hogan's contract was done sometime in early 1998 as his new contract was May 1998 to May 2002. That's why Starrcade '97 is even more of a clusterfuck than it should have been because you could seemingly have jobbed Hogan out to Sting, broke up the nWo and just let Hogan walk. I would have even jobbed him to Bret in March in this scenario. It would have taken absolute brass balls to do that, but with hindsight, it would have been the right thing to do. Hogan would have slowed down the Austin-Rock momentum in 1998 just by going to the WWF and it might have worked for WCW in the way people claim "McMahon sent Russo to WCW as a mole to destroy them." I like Hogan more than most, but the only thing I would miss from him in WCW post-second contract is the Goldberg match. That's it. He was there another 2-and-a-half years! They really would not have missed much letting him walk.

I understand people liking a HBK in WCW scenario, but honestly fuck that. He was insufferable in the WWF WITH Vince, can you imagine him without Vince? Plus, Bret might have literally killed HBK and be in prison to this day. Let Shawn do drugs from the comfort of his home from 1998-2001, no need for him to make Nitro even worse.

Oh, fuck... good point about HBK/Bret in WCW. I'd still be tempted, but then again I like setting things on fire sometimes just to watch them burn.

Maybe try to program the epic HBK/Bret Montreal rematch for Halloween Havoc 1998 in place of Hogan/Warrior II. Then do Goldberg/Warrior for the title, saving Goldberg/DDP for WW3 or some random Nitro.

If we don't end up doing Goldberg/HBK II at Starrcade 1998 (and thus keep Goldberg/Nash), then maybe do a schmoz mo contest for HBK/Bret at HH98 and then run a rematch at Starrcade inside WCW's attempt to rip off the HIAC structure.

Also, how much does Hogan back in the WWF really potentially slow down Austin or Rock?

By WMXIV, Austin is already a made man on Hogan's level. I see no real issues for Austin.

And if anything, I can see Hogan's presence maybe helping Rock. In the scenario I presented before, heel Hogan and heel Rock are both coming out of SummerSlam at MSG without their titles. Program some little interaction between them where Hogan is complaining and trying to commiserate with Rock... but Rock is having none of it because he has nothing in common with old man Hogan, cuts some electrifying promo on passe Hogan, and solidifies his own face turn in the process.

Rock proceeds along the same trajectory from that point forward.

Jun 20, 2019 19:11:51 GMT 🤯 said:

Also, how much does Hogan back in the WWF really potentially slow down Austin or Rock?

By WMXIV, Austin is already a made man on Hogan's level. I see no real issues for Austin.

And if anything, I can see Hogan's presence maybe helping Rock. In the scenario I presented before, heel Hogan and heel Rock are both coming out of SummerSlam at MSG without their titles. Program some little interaction between them where Hogan is complaining and trying to commiserate with Rock... but Rock is having none of it because he has nothing in common with old man Hogan, cuts some electrifying promo on passe Hogan, and solidifies his own face turn in the process.

Rock proceeds along the same trajectory from that point forward.

Austin would probably be safe, although who knows once Austin and Hogan start getting booked against each other. Hogan simply as a backstage disruptor would piss Austin off, so even if Austin keeps the same status, they'd be dealing with an even grumpier Austin week-to-week. Speaking of Austin and Hogan working together, Austin vs. Hogan would automatically be pencilled in for Wrestlemania 15, so that would slow down the trajectory of Rock. Even by the end of 1998, where The Rock title run was rushed, they might have fallen back on Hogan instead*. Rock is going to get himself over, for sure, but I can't imagine he's booked as high as he was in 1998 with Hogan there, which then means he's playing catch up in 1999 in this world (Would Smackdown have a different name?).

*This possibly fucks over Triple H the most. In this scenario, he might not get the win over Rock at SummerSlam now because it might be worth keeping Rock in the IC Title picture. Even DX would be a very different thing. There might not be an X-Pac to spark the new DX. Hall, Nash and X-Pac still in WCW relatively happy without Hogan there might even tempt Triple H to jump over if he's stuck in a midcard logjam where Rock and Foley would still be ahead of him in the queue.

Jun 20, 2019 13:00:46 GMT 🤯 said:

To complement the above, I think cocky cowardly asshole heel HBK in WCW as world champ works perfectly as the Hogan stand-in for Goldberg to squash for the surprise title win in July on Nitro.

HBK agrees on the premise he's getting his win and title back by ending Goldberg's streak in the main event of Starrcade '98, perhaps in an homage to Montreal with a screw job finish.

But then HBK gets impatient or is in no shape to go come December, so slot Nash in instead similar to how he usurped HBK in 1994-1995 WWF. Nash ends the streak (possibly even clean!?) to win the title and set up Nash vs. Shawn when HBK does return.

I cannot picture HBK even getting close to the World Title in 1998 WCW. Even post-Mania XIV, he just wasn't viewed on that level of star. He wasn't a Hogan, Savage or Piper in terms of star power before coming over. He didn't have the history that the likes of Flair, Sting and Luger had in WCW. He didn't have the 2 years of becoming bigger stars in WCW like Hall and Nash. Bret had more upside coming in than HBK would've (undefeated WWF champion with controversial buzz-worthy finish, big star in Canada and Europe to help WCW expand, ready-made potential programs with Sting and Hogan) and didn't get a title shot his first year (obviously he should've).

HBK would've come over and probably been made a face, so he could be put with his pals in the Wolfpac and been seen as lesser than Nash and Hall.

Jun 20, 2019 19:11:51 GMT 🤯 said:

Also, how much does Hogan back in the WWF really potentially slow down Austin or Rock?

By WMXIV, Austin is already a made man on Hogan's level. I see no real issues for Austin.

And if anything, I can see Hogan's presence maybe helping Rock. In the scenario I presented before, heel Hogan and heel Rock are both coming out of SummerSlam at MSG without their titles. Program some little interaction between them where Hogan is complaining and trying to commiserate with Rock... but Rock is having none of it because he has nothing in common with old man Hogan, cuts some electrifying promo on passe Hogan, and solidifies his own face turn in the process.

Rock proceeds along the same trajectory from that point forward.

Austin was portrayed as the absolute man in 1998 WWF. No one on his level, even Undertaker. The undisputed #1 with two monsters in Kane and Undertaker putting him over strong that summer.

Hogan coming in changes everything. It's Hogan. Back in the WWF. While wrestling is molten and he is still the biggest star in wrestling. Austin was huge, the hottest guy going, but Hogan was still the biggest star overall. This isn't just bringing in some over heel to feud with the face champ. Now, would Austin/Hogan at KOTR have done monumental business? Sure. Would Hogan put over Austin in the way you'd want him to at that point? We don't know. At a time when Austin is beginning his run that will consolidate his all-timer status and Austin/Vince is becoming one of the hottest feuds ever, Hogan is the one guy that feels like he could overshadow all of that. Especially as a comeback. This wouldn't be the same as how Hogan felt in 1998 WCW, having been with the company for 4 years, having the heel turn 2 years prior. Would Hogan reappearing in 1998 WWF get cheers? I have to imagine he would. Massive ones. Would WWF be able to use the Hollywood name and look or did WCW own those? The fresh, young, rising feel of the company could've changed over night. We have all talked about how Bret's departure and HBK's injury/drug use actually helped the WWF as it cleared 2 big names, and the politics that come with them, out of the way. Hogan is like Bret and HBK combined and multiplied by 10 in those regards.

HBK in 1998 WCW and Hogan in 1998 WWF are two things I find difficult to imagine. I wonder if Vince would've turned down the chance to sign Hogan. Would he have seen the possible dangers at the time? It would've been a very bold call to turn down such a massive get and that contract offer he made to Warrior in December 1997 makes me think he'd have jumped all over the chance to get Hogan again (although maybe that was a reaction to Montreal and losing Bret).

Jun 20, 2019 23:48:00 GMT Strobe said:

I wonder if Vince would've turned down the chance to sign Hogan.

Zero chance.

Jun 20, 2019 23:28:12 GMT Kilgore said:

Jun 20, 2019 19:11:51 GMT 🤯 said:

Also, how much does Hogan back in the WWF really potentially slow down Austin or Rock?

By WMXIV, Austin is already a made man on Hogan's level. I see no real issues for Austin.

And if anything, I can see Hogan's presence maybe helping Rock. In the scenario I presented before, heel Hogan and heel Rock are both coming out of SummerSlam at MSG without their titles. Program some little interaction between them where Hogan is complaining and trying to commiserate with Rock... but Rock is having none of it because he has nothing in common with old man Hogan, cuts some electrifying promo on passe Hogan, and solidifies his own face turn in the process.

Rock proceeds along the same trajectory from that point forward.

Austin would probably be safe, although who knows once Austin and Hogan start getting booked against each other. Hogan simply as a backstage disruptor would piss Austin off, so even if Austin keeps the same status, they'd be dealing with an even grumpier Austin week-to-week. Speaking of Austin and Hogan working together, Austin vs. Hogan would automatically be pencilled in for Wrestlemania 15, so that would slow down the trajectory of Rock. Even by the end of 1998, where The Rock title run was rushed, they might have fallen back on Hogan instead*. Rock is going to get himself over, for sure, but I can't imagine he's booked as high as he was in 1998 with Hogan there, which then means he's playing catch up in 1999 in this world (Would Smackdown have a different name?).

*This possibly fucks over Triple H the most. In this scenario, he might not get the win over Rock at SummerSlam now because it might be worth keeping Rock in the IC Title picture. Even DX would be a very different thing. There might not be an X-Pac to spark the new DX. Hall, Nash and X-Pac still in WCW relatively happy without Hogan there might even tempt Triple H to jump over if he's stuck in a midcard logjam where Rock and Foley would still be ahead of him in the queue.

That last bit about HHH maybe going to WCW to be with friends is insanely interesting and something I never considered. My Fan Fic Brain is doing backflips right now.

That would literally change the next 25 years. Does HHH flounder in WCW? Does he ever marry Stephanie? Does he come back in the invasion or is he one of the hold outs like Flair and Sting? Who takes his place as WWE’s golden boy? DOES CENA MARRY STEPHANIE? OH MY GOD

Jun 18, 2019 2:38:09 GMT Baker said:

8. Ric Flair w/ Arn Anderson defeats Curt Hennig w/ Rick Rude to win the US Championship 
-Flair wasn't on this show in real life but this makes perfect (hehe) sense. 

9. DDP defeats Randy Savage in the Final Encounter
-Savage was inexplicably buried in an undercard 6 man tag. He probably didn't want to job either. Was this feud played out? I could see that. On the other hand it makes sense for DDP to bury his rival once and for all on WCW's night of triumph.

They did the blowoff at Halloween Havoc in a "Las Vegas Sudden Death" (Last Man Standing) Match with Savage winning after a fake Sting (Hogan) interfered. Piper would defeat Hogan in a cage on the main of that show in a match that nobody really wanted or needed to see. Then the next night Hogan took on DDP on Nitro in a match that was possibly the best Hollywood Hogan match (and should be checked out by people if Hogan matches is the next top 10 list).




Considering that Hogan, Savage, Piper and DDP were all involved with each other in the build, it is easy to conceive that you could've actually run 2 fresh matches in Hogan/DDP and Savage/Piper (a big-time match that had not been run in WCW at this point, nor on WWF TV, only on home video) on the PPV instead and then saved the DDP/Savage blowoff for Starrcade (they had interaction towards the end of the WW3 match anyway that led to Savage's elimination in reality anyway).

I do wonder what the plan was for Page if Flair didn't get hurt. They clearly were still planning on Flair/Hennig III since they promoted it even after Flair was hurt, hoping he'd get back. And for Savage for that matter. It does feel like maybe they could've just gone back for one more DDP/Savage to have DDP win in the end (possibly with help from Piper to have him on the big show too). It definitely would've worked better without them facing off at Havoc and instead doing Hogan/DDP and Savage/Piper.

Jun 19, 2019 2:11:41 GMT Kilgore said:

I always wondered if Sting was truly vacant/disinterested or if it was just something Hogan put in Bischoff's head. Sting obviously had seen better days, but Hogan is always going to look for the tiniest thing to Hogan things up. "I don't know about this anymore, brother." Then Bischoff is going to (justifiably, as annoying as that might be) side with Hogan. Unless Sting is in Jake Robert at Heroes of Wrestling condition, he squashes Hogan that night. Especially considering the best match storywise would be a quick match, anyway. It's not like they needed Sting to do a fucking Broadway.

By most accounts, Sting was a bit of a mess around this time. But after all that build, agreed. Unless he is Jake at HoW or Jeff Hardy against Sting in TNA, you deliver the match you should've.

Jun 19, 2019 2:11:41 GMT Kilgore said:

The match I always wrote up is Sting dominates Hogan in the same style as him taking on the entire nWo, just punching and kicking the shit out of him. Hogan can tease a couple of comebacks, but Sting always brushes it off and goes back to dominating Hogan before a Scorpion Death Drop out of nowhere. When it comes time for the count, Hogan kicks out at 2.9 and Hulks up. He did this very occasionally as a heel and the biggest main event in WCW history would be a nice time to dust it off. Half the crowd would mark the fuck out. Hogan does his finish like he always does, starts punching Sting, finally able to do damage of his own. Big boot time, hits it. Leg drop, Sting kicks out at 1.5 and does his version of the Hulk up. Hogan's doing his same punch offense, Sting shakes it off. Hogan goes for the bodyslam of Sting, Sting drops behind him and does Scorpion Death Drop #2. Match over. This entire duration of the match is a 5 or 6 minute sprint.

I really, really like the idea of this for the rematch. After being squashed at Starrcade, Hogan can talk about how he psyched himself out and let Sting's mind games over the past year plus affect him. He now knows that Sting is only a man and he will win his belt back. That builds well to a rematch for what was a glorified squash and explains Hogan's inner belief and fortitude for the Hulk Up. That Powerslam into Scorpion Death Drop is so perfect. Need to try to make it fit into my convoluted finish.

Sting dominates, cuts off any Hogan offence pretty sharpish, Death Drop, Hogan kicks out and Hulks Up. Gets the Big Leg, Sting kicks out (I like the touch of having it be before 2) and does his Hulk Up (possibly complete with a mouth-cupped scream, harking back to Surfer Sting), whips Hogan into the corner, Stinger Splash but Hogan pulls the ref in front, wiping him out. Sting whips Hulk again, Stinger Splash hits this time and Hogan falls in the middle and we all expect the Deathlock. The Outsiders and Savage come out to help with the ref now down. Sting attacks Hall coming into the ring, while Savage climbs up top and Nash sneaks in the ring from the other side. Nash double chicken wings Sting from behind and holds him from Mach but Sting moves and Savage double axe handles Big Sexy. Sting knocks both of them out of the ring as Bret, Luger and Giant appear to chase off the three nWo members off while Sting watches on. The whole crowd can see Hogan get up now behind Sting and are fearing the worst. Sting turns into a big bodyslam attempt by Hulk but drops behind and hits the Scorpion Death Drop for the win. Yeah, that works fine.

Randomly thinking about WrestleMania 13 and 22 in conjunction got me thinking...

In rebooks, it always seems people say push to Kurt/Taker NWO2006 match to WM22.

But, given the finish of the Kurt/Taker NWO2006 match, why not instead keep it as it was and use it to build to a rematch at WM22 in a submission match to give it a fresh twist? Taker's argument is he would've had Kurt submitting had he not essentially pinned himself. Kurt can accept because he's beat Taker once and can do it again and would love to add ending the Streak to his list of accolades.

I can see an argument against being that it's not fresh, but maybe the match quality makes that an okay sacrifice? Considering how much Kurt and Taker HAVE wrestled each other by this point, maybe bill it at a final encounter and have an epic video package for the build featuring all of their interactions from 2000 onward?

For Rey's feel-good moment as a delayed tribute to Eddie, I don't know... Have him win the U.S. title from Benoit or JBL. He also doesn't need the Rumble win.

In this scenario, I'm thinking you give the Rumble win to Cena and don't immediately hot potato the WWE Title back onto him. Let Edge have a mini run to establish the legitimacy of his Rated R Superstar/Ultimate Opportunist gimmick. Cena either dethrones him then at WM22 or maybe Edge retains if you don't want two world title switches.

Where does this leave the likes of HHH, Randy Orton, and Mark Henry?

Working in reverse order...

Henry seems like perfect monster fodder for getting Lashley over similar to how he should've been used for getting Ryback over that one time.

Orton can slot into MITB as someone who seems most likely to win. Or, he can face HHH in an interbrand match that helps pivot HHH to being a face to help set up the DX reunion. Maybe an injured Batista can serve as special guest referee to give it some Evolution spice?

Or... If Orton ends up in MITB, maybe HHH serves as special guest referee for Vince/Shawn with it being unclear where HHH's loyalties lie? Or just hot shot to the DX reunion and do DX vs. McMahons, maybe with Foley as special guest referee?

I was never a huge fan of Angle rocking up on SmackDown like a thief in the night and winning the World Championship. As a fan, it told me he couldn't cut it on the A-Show but he could walk right in and instantly become champion on the B-Show. Either you bring in Angle and make him the first challenger at No Way Out, or keep him on Raw and make Angle-Undertaker an inter-brand match.

Personally, I was fine with Rey winning the championship. It surprised me years later to learn that Rey winning the championship was actually the contingency plan for Batista-Orton. I was under the impression after the Eddie feud that Rey was being groomed for a championship run and Eddie's passing made it an inevitability. I like the idea of Orton vs. Rey, with Orton getting the last laugh over The Undertaker to certify his reign.

I'm still not sure about Cena receiving his championship moment. I wonder if it'd be an idea to keep Cena-HHH but turn it into a street fight and in turn have Shawn Michaels vs. Edge for the WWE Championship with Edge going over. I know that's controversial because for many the Shawn-Vince match was the highlight of the PPV, but not for me. Actually the highlight was that Edge vs. Foley match, but I feel you could save that for a PPV (possibly One Night Stand...the stone sober sequel edition).

Who were the guys in line for a push around that time? I'd use the undercard to push their case and help with the flow of the show. Marquee match, short match, short match etc. Depending on where the company was going.

Oct 24, 2019 3:18:42 GMT Big Pete said:

I was never a huge fan of Angle rocking up on SmackDown like a thief in the night and winning the World Championship. As a fan, it told me he couldn't cut it on the A-Show but he could walk right in and instantly become champion on the B-Show. Either you bring in Angle and make him the first challenger at No Way Out, or keep him on Raw and make Angle-Undertaker an inter-brand match.

Personally, I was fine with Rey winning the championship. It surprised me years later to learn that Rey winning the championship was actually the contingency plan for Batista-Orton. I was under the impression after the Eddie feud that Rey was being groomed for a championship run and Eddie's passing made it an inevitability. I like the idea of Orton vs. Rey, with Orton getting the last laugh over The Undertaker to certify his reign.

I'm still not sure about Cena receiving his championship moment. I wonder if it'd be an idea to keep Cena-HHH but turn it into a street fight and in turn have Shawn Michaels vs. Edge for the WWE Championship with Edge going over. I know that's controversial because for many the Shawn-Vince match was the highlight of the PPV, but not for me. Actually the highlight was that Edge vs. Foley match, but I feel you could save that for a PPV (possibly One Night Stand...the stone sober sequel edition).

Who were the guys in line for a push around that time? I'd use the undercard to push their case and help with the flow of the show. Marquee match, short match, short match etc. Depending on where the company was going.

Good point about the randomness of Kurt switching and winning the title.

When did Batista know he had to vacate? If the timing was right, they missed an opportunity to do the 2006 Royal Rumble for the vacant title.

So looks like Batista vacated early to mid January.

It would've been pretty hot shot booking, but they could've technically swerved and made the Rumble for the vacant WHC.

Maybe make the added stip that if a RAW Superstar wins the Rumble and title, they'll be automatically drafted to SD!.

In this scenario, if all other real life booking is kept (meaning Cena/Edge happens at RR) I'm honestly thinking you still go with Kurt as WHC. He wins the title and a Rumble win to round out his list of WWE accomplishments. Maybe you tease Rey's feel-good moment only to have Kurt eliminate him last?

Mid 1991 through late 1992 is one of the most interesting periods for me in regards to rebooking, just because of how many big feuds were ended early due to injuries/suspensions/firings/plans changing. And frustratingly, it is the period where Bruce Prichard was out of the company, so he can't talk on his podcast about why certain plans were changed.

I do not think there is any year like 1992 in terms of PPV cards not ending up as what you were expecting. Everyone knows about Mania VIII but SummerSlam and Survivor Series that year also changed massively from what seemed to be the initial plans.

I have been watching the post-Mania 1992 Superstars that are on the Network in the background the last week or so and precisely zero of the feuds being set up happen at SummerSlam. This is mainly due to 2 reasons - neither Flair/Savage or Warrior/Shango were drawing well on house shows and SummerSlam ended up being at Wembley, so plans were changed to better suit that with the Bulldog/Bret IC main. Very little actually happens on these Superstars. Very little escalation of feuds, just people cutting inset promos on their rival alternating week-to-week. Prichard was long gone, Patterson had left prior to Mania (due to the sexual harassment allegations) and Vince (as is evident on these shows) was futilely putting a lot of his time into the WBF, as well as the steroid/sex scandals taking up space in his head.

Up until the 7/11 Superstars (14 weeks post-Mania, 7 weeks pre-SummerSlam), you would expect to see the following card at SummerSlam 1992.

WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION CHAMPIONSHIP
Randy Savage [Champion] vs. Ric Flair with Mr. Perfect
Savage had barely been on TV since Mania, which could partly explain why he wasn't drawing well. Elizabeth was last mentioned by Flair/Perfect on the 5/23 Superstars, so the loss of the key aspect of their feud (due to the real life separation) did not help either. Savage/Warrior was just announced out of nowhere on the 7/18 Superstars, much to Flair/Perfect's annoyance, ultimately leading to the "who sold out?" angle with Flair on the outside and not in a match at SummerSlam.

Ultimate Warrior vs. Papa Shango
After Sid left less than a month after Mania, they pivoted to the man who interfered in the Hogan/Sid Mania main in Papa Shango. He placed his curse on the Warrior, but this angle flopped. This may have worked if they'd pushed harder the idea that Warrior was affected because he believed in Shango's power (which fits with Warrior's character, talking to the Gods and what not). Shango actually moved on to a feud with Bret after this was dropped, coming out pre-SummerSlam and attempting to curse him but Bret did not show any ill-effects (because he didn't believe in Shango's power!). Shango would claim, post-SummerSlam, that his curse was the reason Bret lost to Davey Boy. So Shango interfered in the main event of Mania, feuded with Warrior, was starting a feud with Bret and still his match (against Tito) was one of 3 cut from the US airing of SummerSlam. That was not a good sign for Shango - his failings in the ring were always a big problem for him. Then he wasn't even on Survivor Series either, lasted less than 30 seconds in the Rumble (his only PPV appearance other than the Mania VIII interference) and was in the dark match of both Mania IX and KOTR.

WWF INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Bret Hart [Champion] vs. Shawn Michaels with Sensational Sherri
These guys had been feuding, but without much in the way of angle or interaction, just cutting promos on each other and working on the house shows. They had their trial run of the ladder match on 7/21 after the SummerSlam plans had already changed, but Bret has talked about the possibility of them doing a ladder match if SummerSlam ended up in its originally planned location of Washington DC.

The Undertaker with Paul Bearer vs. The Berzerker with Mr. Fuji
Berzerker called Taker out and the next week, on the 4/25 Superstars, they had their match which ended with Berzerker trying to stab Taker. They continued feuding and Berzerker interfered in a Taker squash, throwing salt in his eyes, on the 7/11 Superstars. But the next week seems like it was pretty much a hard reset in regards to this show and one week after that, Taker/Kamala was announced for SummerSlam. I feel like they could've easily just blown this off at SummerSlam and it gives them more time to build up Kamala for Taker.

Big Boss Man vs. Nailz
Nailz got the big build with voice-only vignettes post-Mania and then debuted with a famous beating on the 5/20 Superstars. Boss Man returned for an interview on the 8/2 Superstars and beat Skinner on the 8/15 show. They clearly could have run Boss Man/Nailz at SummerSlam. Have Boss Man struggling because he came back too early and Nailz uses the nightstick to get the win. Gives Nailz a bit more credibility than just beating Virgil, building to their Nightstick on a Pole match at Survivor Series.

British Bulldog vs. Repo Man
Repo hung Bulldog over the ropes with his tow-rope post-match on the 5/3 Wrestling Challenge and they feuded from there. Once SummerSlam was announced for Wembley, they shifted to Bret/Bulldog and Crush/Repo.

The Mountie with Jimmy Hart vs. Sgt. Slaughter
During a Slaughter/Flair match on the 5/9 Superstars, Mountie used his new, more powerful shock stick on Slaughter to set up their feud. The only reason that I can think of for not putting this match on SummerSlam is because it is an American hero vs. foreign heel angle and the show was going to be in England.

Tatanka vs. Rick Martel
After their match at Mania, they began an actual feud. Martel stole Tatanka's feathers on the 5/2 Superstars and then not a whole lot else happened, before they pivoted after Bret/Bulldog was announced for Wembley. On the 7/20 Prime Time Wrestling, Michaels attacked Bret while he was in Martel's Boston Crab to cause the DQ as he wanted to beat Bret for the belt. I don't know when they officially knew Wembley was the venue, but they filmed this angle on 6/1 so it does feel like they were covering their bases. This led to the Martel/Michaels feud with Sherri not wanting either to hit each other in the face. Long down the line at the Survivor Series, beyond the point of mattering as much, Tatanka would finally retrieve his sacred feathers.

WWF TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Money Inc. [Champions] with Jimmy Hart vs. Natural Disasters
These two teams fought at Mania, after Hawk got suspended, so they rushed the belts on to Money Inc. and turned the Disasters face. They then feuded post-Mania and did a title change on the 7/20 house show. They then just decided to swap the two main tag feuds shortly before SummerSlam.

Legion of Doom with Paul Ellering vs. Beverly Brothers with The Genius
The Beverlys were painting (face-paint and LOS for Legion of Sissies on the chest) jobbers post-match using Genius' easel, while LOD found their childhood dummy Rocco (which would finally push Hawk over the edge; he and Berzerker went AWOL post-SummerSlam). The Beverlys were calling out LOD as late as the 7/25 Superstars before plans changed.

Nasty Boys with Jimmy Hart vs. High Energy
These guys were calling each other out and then this match just did not happen. I know Owen was struggling with a knee injury around this time, but you'd still at least expect it to have been planned. Instead the Nastys teamed with Mountie against Duggan/Whackers (these 3 had done nothing of note on TV since Mania) in a match that was cut from the US TV airing.

Clearly, the decision to go for Bret/Bulldog at Wembley was the right one and the switch to the Martel/Michaels deal was well done. You still could've just done the show with most of these remaining matches as you'd have expected them, so you actually had stories in your matches.

-------------------------------------------------------

Survivor Series 1992 is a bit of a weird show as well. Coming out of SummerSlam, the big feud is Ultimate Maniacs vs. Flair/Ramon which is due to happen at the Series and you'd imagine would then split into possible singles matches (which they were running on house shows already) at the Rumble or even Mania. Of course, Warrior's drug issue caused him to be fired and they quickly rushed Perfect back with a face turn.

The Bret/Shango feud didn't really go anywhere and Bret/Michaels was the planned Survivor Series match with neither holding a title (even appearing on the official program). Then, possibly due to Flair's ear/balance issue (caused by Warrior) and just looking for a change with business doing poorly, they put the World Title on Bret out of nowhere on 10/12.

Even though Bret claims the plan was always for Bulldog to drop the IC title to Michaels, Bulldog/Mountie was announced as the IC match for Survivor Series. Then, on 10/26, one day before the SNME taping (where they were to run Bulldog/Michaels, along with Bret defending his newly won title against Shango to at least blow that off), Mountie quit. I wonder if that led them to change directions and have Bulldog drop the belt or if it was always the plan. By this point, I'm sure the drug issues for Warrior and Davey were known and the likelihood of them being fired was quite high.

Jannetty returned in a great angle involving the mirror and Sherri on the 10/31 Superstars but was not on Survivor Series since Michaels was tied up with Bret for that show and their match would happen at the Rumble.

First ever gimmick matches for Undertaker/Kamala (Coffin) and Boss Man/Nailz (Nightstick on a Pole) were scheduled for Survivor Series and a month before the show, they did a Taker/Nailz staredown on the 10/24 Superstars as if that would be their next feud, but Nailz was fired in mid-December after assaulting Vince and accusing him of sexual harassment.

On the 10/31 Superstars, Money Inc. won the titles back from the Disasters. Jimmy Hart's other team the Nastys were pissed that they didn't get the shot so attacked Money Inc. pre-match, turning face, but Money Inc. still win the belts after new team the Headshrinkers distracts the Disasters. The Survivor Series match had been announced as a traditional 4-on-4 with Disasters/Whackers vs. Money Inc./Beverlys and the Whackers stepped aside to let the Nastys take their spot to get at Money Inc. Headshrinkers are clearly being set up as the next feud for the Disasters but that's another match that doesn't happen. Money Inc. vs. Nastys also never got a blowoff.

Now that I am back into this mindset, I am thinking about the post-Mania period of 1991.

Back in those days, the PPV schedule (ignoring the experimental This Tuesday in Texas) was Mania, 5 months until SummerSlam, 3 months until Survivor Series, 2 months until the Royal Rumble and then 2 months until the next Mania. This large gap between Mania and SummerSlam meant that certain spring/summer feuds never had a chance of a PPV match. Survivor Series and the Rumble being gimmick PPVs also limited getting big PPV singles matches for plenty of feuds, which the addition of the new gimmick PPV, the King of the Ring in 1993, did not rectify. Although I do understand that back then it was more of a house show business and they didn't necessarily want to blow off every feud on TV/PPV, as a viewer that isn't what I want. After getting the best out of it on house shows, give me the blow-off on TV since all the angles/promos are on TV to sell the house shows.

Anyway...

After Hogan regained the title at Mania VII, Slaughter attacked with a fireball backstage, which was shown on the first Superstars post-Mania. On that same show, Colonel Mustafa (Iron Sheik) debuted as Slaughter and Adnan's new pal. Hogan vs. Slaughter in Desert Storm matches, featuring Hogan getting his fireball revenge, ran at select shows from mid-May until early August and the MSG version was a classic. If they had not worked it at MSG in June, this would've been a tremendous main at MSG for SummerSlam, certainly far superior to the handicap match. I feel like this would have been a better main for an invented mid-June PPV (no clue on what the name should be, anyone got any ideas?), as dragging out Slaughter as the main heel through to SummerSlam was too far and as a bonus, it gives an extra 2 and a half month gap with Slaughter off TV before starting his face turn in late September.

Duggan was tied into the Hogan/Slaughter feud, resulting in him not having a match at Mania but with the introduction of Slaughter's new henchman, we got Duggan vs. Mustafa, who were famously caught drink-driving together in 1987 when they feuding, resulting in Sheik being fired. In 1991, this needed all the gaga it could get to be even remotely watchable, so make it a flag match, so there is at least some sort of stake and post-match moment. They could do some spots involving the two flags early in the short match as well. Since Slaughter vs. Duggan never got a true blowoff, if you wanted to finish off Hogan/Slaughter early (either on house shows, TV or invented mid-June PPV), you could still run that at SummerSlam if you wanted.

The other main event level feud of this time, and the hottest one in the company, was Warrior vs. Undertaker. It was set up heading into Mania, as Taker was claiming he would bury the career of the Warrior after Savage ended it (clearly setting up Warrior's next feud did completely give away that he was winning at Mania, but storywise it worked nicely). Then, post-Mania, Taker locked Warrior in a casket, causing him to be mindfucked and fearful of Taker and caskets. At the late April SNME, in a Rumble rematch between Warrior and Slaughter, Bearer brought out a casket containing Taker and he and the Triangle of Terror beat down Warrior until Hogan made the save. Hogan’s belt shot to Taker had minimal effect, teasing their feud for later in the year. The way this played out, you would not have been surprised to see that lead to a Hogan/Warrior vs. Slaughter/Taker match at SummerSlam.

Taker started introducing his gimmick of placing jobbers in body bags post-match around this time and he and Warrior worked a series of Body Bag matches around the loop, including at MSG in early July. That MSG match is surprisingly impressive, given the limitations of Warrior and Taker in the gimmick at that time, and in terms of quality would have made an excellent PPV match. But there are some issues with using that match on TV (beyond local MSG TV that is): (1) even with the style of the finish protecting him (Taker knocked out with urn to be placed in bag; then sits up in bag post-match looking none-the-worse), it was still probably too early for such a clear TV loss for Taker; (2) the casket match, which they worked on house shows after the body bag series, would suit the TV angle better; and (3) Warrior's trials with Jake in order to overcome his fear of the darkness probably should take place before he works against Taker on TV.

I could make the argument that it could work in story to have Warrior agree to work a Body Bag match, as that is not the same fear level as being in an air-tight casket. I also think the Taker character could survive the finish of that match on TV. Then you have Taker challenge Warrior to a casket match and that leads to the trials with Jake and the Jake heel turn. In a world where the Slaughter feud is blown off early, Hogan/Warrior vs. Jake/Taker sounds like it would be the ideal "Match Made in Hell" since Hogan/Taker and Warrior/Jake were the planned feuds post-SummerSlam. Although the Jake turn was clearly originally planned for after SummerSlam, since running Jake/Quake (see below) there was obvious and it was almost as if Warrior in the build to the handicap tag against Slaughter/Mustafa/Adnan and in the trials of Jake clips airing on the same episodes were different, unconnected characters. Seems obvious that Vince already knew he wanted to fire Warrior so they moved the clips up to get the Jake heel turn done before SummerSlam, so that they could pivot quicker and run the wedding angle to set up Jake/Sid and ultimately Jake/Savage later in the year.

The first clips of Sid were shown on the 6/8 Superstars so there was 2 and a half months before SummerSlam to set up Sid. There was lots that they could’ve done with him – face or heel. I like the uncertainty presentation they went with for him, with both faces and heels vouching for him. Even with him becoming a face, it meant there would always be a bit of an edge to him. Since they were naming him Justice, making him the guest ref for SummerSlam made sense, especially with there not being a free top heel for him to work with at the time. I guess it isn’t impossible to imagine them going with Hogan/Warrior/Sid vs. Taker/Slaughter/Mustafa. The first mention of Flair possibly coming to the WWF (and at that point it wasn’t all officially agreed yet, even when he had sent the Big Gold Belt to be used on television) was a couple of weeks before SummerSlam on the 8/10 Superstars so he did not have a role to play at SummerSlam other than as a looming presence.

As alluded to above, Jake was in a major feud with Earthquake post-Mania after we found out that Quake was afraid of snakes and killed Damien after a match between the two on the 6/1 Superstars, before serving up Quakeburgers (which were actually Snakeburgers) on Prime Time. A Jake vs. Quake blowoff was expected for SummerSlam. At the same time, a Quake vs. Andre feud was set up that sadly would never lead to a blowoff. They were planning for The Giant to have a big comeback in 1991. He was announced for the 1991 Rumble (I think they may have even planned to have the King of the Battle Royal win it for one last big moment; you sure would not want him taking a bump over the top at this point), before an injury suffered in Japan in late 1990 ended that plan. He was able to be involved at Mania in an interference capacity, but his movement was severely limited. Post-Mania, they had some fun vignettes each week with different managers trying to recruit Andre, only for him to humiliate them. Ultimately, Quake attacked Andre after he rejected Jimmy Hart (who planned to team them up, a nice tease for the team he would soon create) to give Andre an excuse to use crutches, which he badly needed, on TV.

Andre was the cornerman for his former rival Jake (and his replacements) on house shows against Quake, while Quake's former rival Tugboat saw the power of the darkside and turned on the Bushwhackers on 6/15 to become Typhoon and form the Natural Disasters. One of the plans for SummerSlam was Jake/Andre vs. Natural Disasters but Andre's knee was not close to recovered in time - perhaps another reason why they decided to pull the trigger on the Jake turn pre-SummerSlam. Although Jake vs. Quake with Andre and Typhoon in the corners was definitely a viable option.

Instead, we got Disasters vs. Whackers with Andre, which I think would’ve been vastly improved by replacing the Whackers in that angle to give us Disasters vs. Rockers with Andre. Andre had worked with the Rockers on the post-Mania European tour, either in their corner against OX or in 6-mans with Fuji also added. The Rockers would’ve been able to bump all over the place for the Disasters and make them look suitably monstrous to prepare them for their run with LOD. Also, after the Nastys worked their rematches around the loop with LOD post-SummerSlam, they were programmed with the Rockers heading into Survivor Series, so the Rockers going from one Jimmy Hart team to another works well storywise. It certainly is a better use of the Rockers, in my opinion, than their complete lack of any real angle on TV for almost all of 1991. Post-Mania, they were really just working with OX on the house shows and not much else.

That would allow you to keep the P&G vs. Whackers program, as was happening post-Mania, but that just makes me feel bad for P&G. Those guys could not have seemed more primed for winning the belts at Mania. Go strongly over the Rockers at SummerSlam 1990, then are survivors in their Survivor Series match (although, in a terribly conceived idea, they then have to go into the Ultimate Survivor match; so on a night where the show gimmick means you need to job out way more people than usual, you then have to job out almost all of your winners as well) and are finally programmed against the tag champs in the early months of the year, heading into Mania But then, because WCW puts the Nastys in a great PPV bout against the Steiners at Halloween Havoc without them being properly under contract, Vince swooped in and took them and they become the flavour of the month and got the tag title shot and win at Mania, really out of nowhere in terms of how things were usually done at that time. Then both P&G got some injuries leading into Mania, therefore their match against LOD became a complete squash and they fizzled out as a team in mid-to-late 1991.

The tag title program out of Mania, as alluded to above, was LOD vs. Nastys, the Road Warriors’ long-awaited title feud, which would lead to them winning the titles at SummerSlam. In mid-May, the Nastys got involved to help their Jimmy Hart-associated pal in the Boss Man vs. Mountie feud that was being set up ever since Rougeau’s arrival at the start of the year. Mountie was claiming to be the only law and order in the WWF and was handcuffing jobbers before shock-sticking them. To create a contrast, Boss Man would handcuff jobbers to the ropes and leave them there, which was certainly better than when he would still beat the shit out of them with the nightstick even after turning face the prior year. The Nastys attacked Boss Man post-match and handcuffed him to the ropes, allowing The Mountie to arrogantly saunter to the ring and shock him repeatedly. This did lead to a few Boss Man/LOD vs. Mountie/Nastys matches on house shows (which changed to the Disasters in the place of the Nastys after the former team’s creation), which I feel would’ve been a perfect match for this invented mid-June PPV of mine, whetting the appetite for the Chicago Street Fight and Jailhouse matches to come at SummerSlam.

After Boss Man’s failure to win the belt at Mania, the IC Title feud moved on to being Perfect vs. Bulldog, which made sense (even though I don’t think it was mentioned on TV as a reason, which it should’ve been) because Heenan had set up that fake Queen deal in the Mania build to Bulldog/Warlord just to be a dick. So Bulldog feeling like him and his country were disrespected by the Weasel and wanting to take the main title from his Family works very well. At the same time, Bulldog’s brother-in-law was finally starting his true singles run (he was almost as much of a singles wrestler as a tag one on house shows in 88-90, but on TV only really seen as a tag guy) and programmed against another Heenan Family member for a Bret vs. Barbarian house show series. Nothing was done angle-wise for it (just calling each other out in insert promos), just as nothing was ever really done for Barbarian gimmick or angle-wise (the same issue that befell Adam Bomb, as I discussed in that thread about him).

In mid-June, there was a Perfect/Bulldog match that ended up on the Rampage 91 video tape, where Bret came out to counteract interference by Coach (who I’d just completely remove as a character from any rebooking), causing the DQ. That would’ve been an ideal match for my June PPV but with a twist. With Bulldog looking close to victory, Barbarian would come out to assist his pal, drawing out Bret (who had defeated Barbarian earlier in the night) and this would all ultimately cause the DQ. The two feuds can then switch, leading to Bret vs. Perfect as happened and Bulldog vs. Barbarian, another big man (after Warlord) for Davey Boy Smith to deal with. At least try to do an angle, maybe Barbarian tries to stab him with his cool antlers or something. This could also be a little talking point for Bulldog the following year – he feels Bret actually cost him the title for his own gain as he felt he had it under control even one against two and he had always felt Bret underestimated him.

The Dragon returned post-Mania and went into a house show program with Haku. I actually did not know this when I came up with my Mania VII International Attraction 6-Man idea, but that fits fantastically. Haku’s name hardly meant anything at this point but a Steamboat vs. Haku match at this made-up June PPV to give him a first win back would be absolutely fine. At first, they did mention that he was Ricky Steamboat and a former IC Champ on TV, even mentioning the Mania III match since Savage was on commentary and they were promoting a WrestleMania History & Heroes PPV (basically a best-of) around this time, but mainly stuck to just calling him The Dragon, when the whole name sounds far cooler anyway. That's before we even get into throwing away the name recognition of a big star.

Given the time period, the fire-breathing and the outfit wasn’t the worst, even if it did seem to be a bit of a lower-card gimmick. I understand why Vince was reluctant to push Steamer and also why Steamer was not happy with his card position and current feud – Skinner - when he quit before the Survivor Series. But there was a campy (while still dark, which 1991 WWF was full of) fun to that feud idea, with the guy who likes to skin reptiles going after The Dragon (face Jake would’ve been another perfect opponent). Skinner would debut just before SummerSlam, so with Haku dispatched, there isn’t much on the table for Steamboat feud-wise. Except...

I feel like some sort of Steamboat vs. OX feud might actually work. I’m sure Steamer wouldn’t be happy about it, given their spot on the card, but working some martial arts based feud and running through the singles matches and then Steamer recruiting some pals for a 6-man blowoff would not be bad. In a world where it is Jake/Quake at SummerSlam or we keep the Whackers against the Disasters, then Steamboat/Rockers vs. OX, given that the Rockers had been feuding with the OX anyway could’ve been a fantastic SummerSlam opener. In reality, since Steamer/Bulldog/Tornado were working a 6-man against Warlord/P&G at SummerSlam, they actually did bring Sato back for one-match (at the SummerSlam Spectacular hype show) to show those faces as a team against the three-man OX, so this is far from fantasy to have the three of them.

That SummerSlam 6-man opener, as happened, was the TV blowoff for the post-Mania Tornado vs. Warlord feud, which wasn’t much – insert promos about muscles and a house show series. No angles and it seems like Tornado was becoming even more unreliable around this time, so they were wary of putting him in too prominent a spot, which is a shame, because he was very over and a big name. It does feel like he had just missed out on two of the most obvious feuds for him, in terms of gimmicks and card position, by unfortunate timing. Tornado would always kiss a few girls in the crowd on the way to the ring, so the perfect babyface to have riled up vain heels – Rick Rude (who left in late 1990) and Rick Martel. Could easily see them coming out during a Tornado squash and trying to kiss the girls (for this angle, obviously plants) that Tornado had only to be rejected. Martel was at his WWF peak at Mania VII, in one of the big featured matches and a Tornado vs. Martel feud in the summer of 1991 could’ve been an ideal midcard program for both. Unfortunately, Martel went home after filming a few TV matches post-Mania to deal with some personal stuff and even though he was only off TV from 5/5 until 12/28, he would never recapture the spot that the Jake feud had gotten him. If you give yourself God-like negotiating skills, maybe Martel can be convinced to stay.

Things had started to go downhill for Tornado after his feud with DiBiase faded away from him. A proud Texan, Von Erich had saved Dustin Rhodes from a Texas-bashing DiBiase in late 1990 and was programmed against him in the first part of 1991, up until Mania. But because they moved quickly into the DiBiase vs. Virgil match and introduced Piper as Virgil’s cornerman, Tornado was left behind to squash Dino Bravo at Mania. Even if you keep the Virgil turn at the Rumble (which I am now inclined to agree with), I feel like Tornado with Virgil in his corner against DiBiase was the match for Mania (Virgil costs DiBiase the match by countout say and Tornado/Virgil have a big laugh) and then you can move on to Piper (who should’ve been taking on Perfect at Mania) taking Virgil under his wing and training him up. Run the Piper vs. DiBiase match (from the house show loops, worked around a bad knee), on the June PPV and then you have given Virgil months to build and be kayfabe trained-up before his first non-jobber singles match with DiBiase at SummerSlam.

Before his heel turn and rebranding to Typhoon, there was a short Tugboat vs. Berzerker house show feud with some insert promos cut on TV. Berzerker got the Warlord/Barbarian/Adam Bomb treatment - a big guy with no real character development, motivation or angles. Berzerker did at least get that one angle where he tried to stab Taker in mid-1992 but that got dropped. They clearly all just needed to do some stabbing angle. Berzerker with his sword, Barbarian with his antlers, Warlord with his W scepter. Maybe Warlord could’ve started headbutting people with his cool half-mask. Have him headbutt Snuka, since he was doing nothing of use, to no effect (never headbutt an islander!) and that sets up something between them. I don't know. Just something.

Given that the Anvil did not have much to do after the Hart Foundation split and they unsuccessfully tried him out as a commentator, I feel a Warlord vs. Neidhart feud would’ve been an easy way to give Warlord some wins over a just-dethroned tag champ to build him back up a bit after the Davey program. They weren’t commenting on the Hart Family connections at this point (unless I am mistaken), but this is where they could’ve started it. Post-Mania, Warlord can be attempting to attack Davey and bro-in-law Anvil makes the save. In a world where P&G win the titles at Mania and move into a feud with LOD, running some LOD/Anvil vs. P&G/Warlord 6-mans would work very well – Slick’s three men are an obvious team and Anvil had just lost his title to P&G as well.

Mike Rotunda re-debuted under his new gimmick around Mania and for the first couple of months we got a IRS vs. Snuka house show series before it moved on to a IRS vs. Valentine one that led to a SummerSlam match. My issue with both of these is that there is not a nice and obvious tax cheat attack for IRS to go at on either of those men. Whereas him not being happy that Koko was, according to him, claiming Frankie’s bird food as a business expense (as he did on the 5/11 Superstars) is perfect and a IRS vs. Koko match on either a June PPV or SummerSlam works for me. Valentine was directionless really after the R&B split, since Honky left - taking away his natural feud. Then he wasn’t given what I think should’ve been his obvious role at Mania – losing to Hart’s new man The Mountie, rather than Hart’s monster Quake (in my International Attraction 6-Man!). He was just a warm body to put on house shows against whatever heel was free (often the also directionless Crush or Smash in singles matches), which is basically how his loss to IRS at SummerSlam came about.

I don’t think Tito Santana was seen on TV between his Mania rematch on the late April SNME and the airing of his El Matador vignettes in September. He was definitely needing a reinvention. I prefer my idea of having him injured by Quake (after Quake had previously injured Tugboat) in the build to the Mania International Attraction 6-Man (gonna get this match idea over), forcing Tenryu/Kitao to have a mystery partner so that they cannot be attacked (the returning Steamboat). That seems a decent enough way to write Santana off TV.

The WWF/SWS Tokyo Dome show 3 days after Mania was the last Smash/Crush tag match and Demolition Crush was finished as a singles by 5/23. Interestingly there was actually an overlap of Darsow’s gimmicks as the first Repo Man house show match was on 7/30 and the last Demolition Smash house show match was on 8/24. Neither were doing anything of note between Mania and SummerSlam and that was about right.

The Beverlys debuted on TV on 6/22 but they would not gain much direction until they changed manager from Coach to The Genius and started feuding with The Bushwhackers.

From all that, I'll piece together some card scenarios later.

Refreshing to see this thread is bold because of a new Strobe post is better than any Christmas present I could've asked for. Can't wait to read!

OK Strobe, caught up reading through your latest post. Looking forward to card scenarios. Trying to think of June PPV names to help the cause. You're also gradually winning me over more and more on your International Attraction Six-Man idea.

WWF ran a seemingly well-drawing live event on in Los Angeles, CA at the Sports Arena on June 16, 1991 (10,100) so maybe that gets repurposed and/or televised as Strobe's mid-June PPV?

In real life, it looks like it featured a few of the matches Strobe is contemplating.

Or, do we run the Tuesday PPV experiment a bit earlier in the year, and book an event on June 11? There's a Japan show the same date, but seems Savage was the only WWF talent on loan for that... So maybe a non-issue considering Savage's "retirement"?

Still trying to think of names... Feel like seeing some card scenarios would help inspire ideas.

If we're doing LA, the best I can come up with so far is Tinseltown Tussle.

Other than that, all I've got is to steal something like International Incident, or Rampage, or Wrestlefest.

Jan 5, 2020 21:04:27 GMT Strobe said:

 If they had not worked it at MSG in June, this would've been a tremendous main at MSG for SummerSlam, certainly far superior to the handicap match. I feel like this would have been a better main for an invented mid-June PPV (no clue on what the name should be, anyone got any ideas?)

The easiest option is WrestleFest since that was a name already being used for overseas things and Coliseum Home Video compilations. Making it a signature event would be on brand, although WrestleMania/WrestleFest back to back isn't ideal. Maybe just change it to GrappleFest.

I keep thinking of Fireworks. Something related to that (Explode/Blast). It makes sense as a Fourth of July allusion, some patriotic Vincent K. McMahon bullshit, and also fits in with angle that would prompt this, but is generic enough to continue to be called that. Now we can't name an event Fireworks. That's stupid and the WWF non-WrestleMania names were two name sounding things with the last word being some synonym of fighting. Royal RUMBLE. Summer SLAM. Survivor SERIES. So, Fyre Fest. Just kidding. 

Vince must have hated that he didn't come up with The Great American Bash, just seethed about it. Lowkey jealous of Beach Blast and SuperBrawl too.

They like seasonal + fight synonym so Spring BREAK or GRAPPLE BLOSSOM. Wrestling names are so dumb. 

Also thinking baseball for that time of the year, like a play on the national pastime. National Blasttime. The worst the name, the more I'm entertaining myself. Spring Blast genuinely seems plausible. Spring Blast to go with Summer Slam. I like the WWF as undercover wiccans giving praise to the seasons.

Looking up more fight synonyms to do the WWF formula; Battle, Brawl, Clash, Revolt, War

This is hard because WWF had like a wholesome version of violent terms. They wouldn't call something war anymore (did they since 1984 during this era?), especially in 1991. Even revolt would be a bit much.

Battle is wholesome enough, and they could beat WCW to it by six months (Battle Bowl that December). Spring Battle or Battle for Glory.

They wouldn't use Clash because of Clash of the Champions/SuperClash. Maybe they'd still use Brawl even though SuperBrawl just happened? Move up Brawl For All seven years and not make it the oddest shoot tournament ever held then?

Hopefully this chaotic thinking will inspire better ideas. My current Top 3:

1. Spring Blast
2. Brawl For All
3. WrestleFest/GrappleFest

Mid-June 1991 PPV a.k.a. GIMMICKS 'N GAGA GALORE!

1. Desert Storm Match: Hogan vs. Slaughter
2. Body Bag Match: Warrior vs. Undertaker
3. IC Title: Perfect vs. Bulldog
4. Jake vs. Quake
5. Capture the Flag Match: Duggan vs. Mustafa
6. Steamboat vs. Haku
7. Bret vs. Barbarian

Plus a few more, right?