[AAR]WCW 1991 - the Challenge

[Syt]

Prologue

A bit of reminiscing first.

One of the nerdier and more embarrassing things I have to confess to is that I'm quite fond of professional wrestling. Yes, it's hokey and fake and silly and childish, but a well scripted wrestling match with top performers can be an exciting spectacle.

I was brought to wrestling in the early 90s. A schoolmate taped every episode of the WWF shows that were broadcast with a week or two delay on a small-ish cable channel. He even bought the Coliseum videos and subscribed to PWI (Pro Wrestling Illustrated). I didn't buy/tape any of those, but I watched. And I had the SNES games (Superstars, Royal Rumble and Monday Night Raw). And I bought a couple of German magazines that gave an illuminating account of behind the scenes stuff, years before the WWF/WWE officially admitted that it was all staged/scripted.

So, yeah, I got drawn in around 1991. The first PPV I watched was the 1991 Survivor Series. Naturally, I was immediately drawn to the Undertaker. The WWF at the time was dominated by silly, colorful gimmicks. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior were still popular, but new faces were showing up: a young Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart starting on a singles career after a stint in tag teams, and the mentioned Undertaker - people who would become the faces of the franchise for years to come.

At the same time, technically, a lot of the WWF wrestling at the time was pretty dreadful, technically, with notable exceptions. If you looked at the All Japan or even AAA they offered much better ring action.

We came across the WCW by accident. The WWF was relatively popular around 1992/93, and a German sports station wanted in on the fun, so they started showing WCW shows and PPVs, also a week or two behind.

At first it seemed like a cheap knock off of the WWF. Lower production values, horrible storylines. However, the actual wrestling seemed a tad better, or more realistic (at least that was my impression at the time). So we ended up watching WWF and WCW and comparing both, naturally. We enjoyed watching guys like Ric Flair, Sting, Barry Windham, Arn Anderson, the Steiners or Vader.

Around 1994/95 wrestling became a bit stale for me. I didn't care much for the WWF at the time, as it was trying to find itself between the old 1980s gimmick wrestling and trying to project a more modern image.

The nWo invasion into the WCW was fun for a while with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash spearheading and Hulk Hogan soon following. Three major WWF players that had moved to the WCW. The Monday Night Wars started - between WWF's Monday Night Raw and WCW's Monday Nitro (creative!).

This being the 90s, things became more X-TREME!!! - taking cues from cult league ECW, both leagues ramped up the action, trying to outdo each other with action, violence and sex appeal. What was to be called the WWF Attitude Era had arrived.

It was then that I stopped following wrestling. Yes, the action became ever more spectacular, with hardcore matches finding their way into the two main promotions' mainstream program, and the content became more adult. It didn't become more mature, though. Where before wrestling was a colorful comic book affair, it was suddenly full of characters who seemed to be hit by the first hormone rush of puberty. The program jumped the shark for me when the Undertaker came to the ring in jeans and leather, riding a Harley.

While I stopped watching, wrestling became more popular than ever. Workers like The Rock or Steve Austin became known outside the business.

In the end the WWF won and bought out the WCW. A lot of WCW talent quit (e.g. Sting), precluding the long awaited showdowns between the two leagues' superstars.

I didn't follow it at the time, except for the occasional video game. I've recently watched a few shows again, and must say the current WWE feels much more like what I liked to watch in  the early 90s, but a bit matured during the last 15 years. The technical level is notably higher. Gimmicks are still there, but much more subdued than in the past. I was surprised to find that a bunch of Tea Party stereotypes ("The Real Americans") are cast as villains conidering the hyperpatritotism that was prevalent in the WWF in the 80s and early 90s. The stories are a bit more intricate, but of course as cartoonish as ever. An I'm sure glad the jobber matches are a thing of the past.

As mentioned, pro wrestling is mostly staged and often scripted. Nevertheless, it's probably one of the more grueling professions you can put your body through. You must be aware of what's going on at all times to make sure you brace yourself for any impacts, and that you're physically fit to pull off all the moves. Besides TV recordings, you'll be in house shows almost every day. It's no small wonder that a lot of wrestlers from the 90s have died before their time. For every star that has retired or become a behind the scenes figure in the business there's easily two or three who have either died or turned into washed up wrecks.

Scott Hall (Razor Ramon) was taken in by Diamond Dallas Page who started a fundraiser to get Hall necessary medical treatment and off the sauce. Terry Funk: physical wreck. Jake Roberts: recovering drug addict.

Mr Perfect, Yokozuna, British Bulldog, Owen Hart, Chris Benoit, Brian Pillman, Road Warrior Hawk, Bam Bam Bigelow, Earthquake: they and many others dead before turning 50.

The friend who brought me to wrestling? He is involved in running a small wrestling promotion on North Germany. They have about 4 events per year and occasionally team up with other promos where they invite former great like Tatanka.



The Game

It's all about the game and how you play it ...

TEW2013 is a game by Grey Dog Software in which you run a wrestling promotion. It's text based, so don't expect many screenshots. The developer has been working on this since the DOS days and releases a new version every couple of years (he also has a college football text sim and recently released a pro basketball one).

You're responsible for pretty much any aspect of your league: contracts, storylines, booking events, TV contracts, locker room policies ... you can pretty much create any wrestling product you like (hardcore, mainstream, ladies ...). Most of the time is spent on booking your events, esp. if you have TV shows and PPVs. You want stories to keep the fans engaged, and need to give them entertaining matches and angles (any non-wrestling content - sneak attacks, interviews, promo videos ...) in order to sell your product. The latest incarnation has a number of convenience functionalities added.

In past versions, most storylines had a certain progression of angles - this has been scrapped in favor of a free form system. It's still a bit abstract, but if you can script your show in your head, you can find an angle that fits the purpose. Match booking now has filtering options, so you can choose face/heels, openers, mid-carders etc. to make sure you don't book your main eventer in a dark match. You can also ask the AI to book matches for you, which is useful if you need a filler match or two.

The game still doesn't give you a detailed match report (as in how the match transpired), but gives you (optionally) all the details why it was rated good or bad.

The wrestlers themselves have a load of stats - from their proficiency in various schools of wrestling, their skills on the microphone, how good they sell being heel or face, how they deal with certain gimmicks, whether they're drug users, smokers or drinkers or have run ins with the law, charisma, sex appeal, relations with other workers and what not. The same goes for announcers, refs, bookers, owners ...

The game comes packaged with the dev's own fictional universe (for licensing reasons), but there's a dedicated modding community. Besides a monthly updated current day mod, there's mods for 1987, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2001 (either historically, or with the WCW surviving).

I will go with the 1991 mod. I haven't played in a while, so I may be rusty.

I will helm the WCW as alter ego Ted Stryker, with the stated goal to take on the WWF and deliver the better product. This will mean signing on new talent and stars if they become available. I have the advantage of hindsight, but just because a wrestler became a star in real life, doesn't mean he's a safe bet - he can injure himself, or you can mishandle his development. And it makes a difference if you send unknown rookie Steve Austin into the ring or, years later, the seasoned veteran Steve Austin (though I definitely aim to recreate the Hollywood Blonds (Austin & Pillman) - it was a short lived team, but man were they awesome).

[CountDeMoney]

The Strongbow Brothers losing their title to the Samoan Brothers broke my heart, but the Macho Man-Hulk Hogan rift was truly the end for me.  How the Towers of Power could turn on each other over pussy is beyond me.

[Syt]

The Strongbow Brothers losing their title to the Samoan Brothers broke my heart, but the Macho Man-Hulk Hogan rift was truly the end for me.  How the Towers of Power could turn on each other over pussy is beyond me.

The grand-nephews of the Samoans are a Tag Team (The Usos) in the WWE these days - that clan is pretty big: Afa & Sika, Fatu/Rikishi with his sons (Usos), The Rock is a cousin, Samu is another cousin etc.

[CountDeMoney]

Fucking Samoans.  Dirty pool players, those guys.  If only the ref was watching, he'd have seen the cheap shots on Chief Jay Strongbow.

[Syt]

Taking Stock.

In January 1991 the WCW is the 2nd largest promotion in the U.S., and the 4th largest in the world (behind New Japan and All Japan).

However, we're the richest league. Yay.

The top 5 wrestlers at the moment in our brand are: Ric Flair, Sting, Lex Luger, Stan Hansen and Arn Anderson.

Our prospects include Brad and Brian Armstrong and Dustin Rhodes. The technically best are Sting, Flair, Pillman, The Juicer and Vader. Pillman and Vader only have loose contracts where they're paid per appearance - I will try to give Pillman a written contract instead.

Sting, Flair, Vader and Luger have strong momentum at the moment, whereas Buddy Lee Parker, Terrence Taylor, El Gigante, Larry Zbyszko and Michael Hayes are in a rough patch.

Ranked as "Hidden Gems", i.e. workers around the leagues who are yet to be discovered as potential stars by a promotion includes these gentlemen:
Steve Austin, Cactus Jack (aka Mick Foley), Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit.

My first step is to offer Steve Austin a pay per appearance contract (PPA). I would offer a written contract, but his engagement in the USWA precludes it at the moment.

I also offer a full contract to Chris Benoit who currently works as a jobber in Japan and in the UWA. Signing Chris Jericho is tempting, but at 20 years old, I would much rather wait for him to mature a bit more. Mick Foley is Big In Japan. I will offer him a contract, too.

Meanwhile, the contracts for The Juicer, Terrence Taylor and Michael Wallstreet (aka IRS) are nearing their ends. I don't mind losing Taylor, but I'd like to keep Wallstreet and Juicer.

Ongoing storylines: "Computing Success". Alexandra York believes she can calculate on a computer how to win any match for Terrence Taylor. As Taylor will leave soon I'll cancel that one.

There's also a feud between Missy Hyatt and Paul E. Dangerously about who of the two is the sexiest person in the WCE. The heat for this story is high, but I have no clue what to do with this yet as they're both color commentators. I guess I could minor bit players to the story who will fight in their stead.

The main story, though, is Sting vs. the Four Horsemen (Flair, Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, Sid Viciious). Sting is helped by the Steiner Bros. and Brian Pillman (I may set up Pillman's heel turn in here; once Austin becomes available and establishes himself, the two could then feud against the Steiners).

Finally, a look at the title situation:

NWA World Heavyweight Title is held by Sting who won it from Ric Flair in July 1990.
The recently created US Title is held by Lex Luger.
Arn Anderson is the reigning TV Champion.
And Doom (Butch Reed + Ron Simmons) are the Tag Team champions.

Tomorrow: Our first shows!

[Sophie Scholl]

Looking forward to this.

[Syt]

Week 1.

I've noticed that my PPVs are weirdly set up. Slamboree and Superbrawl are scheduled for the same day (I've fixed that) and some events ae already active even through they would only start being held in 1993. I'll leave it as is.

I advise the booker for the house shows to look at a few possible combinations for opponents (Lex Luger vs. Arn Anderson, Michael Wallstreet vs. Dustin Rhodes) and whether Barry Windham and Diamond Dallas Page would work well as partners. In a week or two I should have some feedback from that.

News from around the world: Smokey Mountain Wrestling has put up a decent TV show and there's rumors that they try to expand in other markets. The UWA is shedding a lot of talent, including the Samoan Swat Team (they were known as Headhshrinkers in the WWF). It's tempting to make them offers, but we're already looking at a few additional contracts, so I'll leave that for now.

The first prospect to sign is Chris Benoit. Once his previous obligations are cleared (in a week or so) he will join the WCW.

And it's time t book our first show: WCW Main Event (taped Thursdays, broadcast on Sundays - WCW Saturday Night is taped after Main Event but broadcast before it ... for simplicity's sake I will treat Main Event to be chronologically before Saturday Night).

We have 60 minutes to fill (+/-5), and the fans expect 60% matches, 40% angles. Our locker room morale is 100%. I review the backstage rules - Drugs and Alcohol are not ok, but I allow them to smoke. Catering is provided, and transportation and accomodation is organised (but not paid for). You can give instructions about the matches - who is to win or lose, who's made to look good, if there's outside interference, if it should be scripted or improvised etc.



WCW Main Event - Week 1, January 1991

The show opens with Buddy Landel and Tracy Smothers running into each other backstage. Landel pokes fun at Smothers ad the two get into an argument. Before matters can escalate, Ted Stryker, owner of WCW steps in and schedules a fight for them later that evening. [59] => These numbers are the performance rating (out of 100). Smothers has improved his microphone skills.

Paul E. Dangerously has cut an interview in which he states that clearly he's the sexiest person in WCW, and not Missy Hyatt. [68]

Be the judge:


In an extremely short match, The Juicer defeated Steve Armstrong in 4:34 by submission after blatantly cheating. The crowd wasn't very happy with this match between what they consider two jobbers. [18]

The Steiner Bros. are scheduled for a match against Sid Vicious and Barry Windham later tonight. A promo segment has them mouthing off against their opponents. [75]

In a bout that had solid in-ring action but not much in the way of heat, Tracy Smothers drew with Buddy Landel in 9:20 following a double disqualification. [54] (The match suffered from the crowd not being properly warmed up, and the gimmicks of the wrestlers - Smothers' poor one, and Landel's is done better by someone else - Ric Flair ... I will need to work on that.)

A promo video about the 4 Horsemen (Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Sid Vicious, Barry Windham) is shown. [73]

In a bout that had a good crowd and good action, The Steiner Brothers defeated Barry Windham and Sid Vicious in 15:08 when Sid Vicious was disqualified while fighting Rick Steiner. During the match we also saw Arn Anderson accidentally hit Windham, and Ric Flair also distract Scott Steiner. [66]

After the match, with the Steiners celebrating, things turn ugly, with the 4H just waling on them. [67]

The show's overall rating: 58 "The general feeling is that WCW don't have enough interesting storylines going on." Something about which we definitely need to do something!

[Syt]

Yesterday's update was delayed because I watched WWE Monday Night Raw instead. Why does this go on for over 2.5 hours now (without commercial breaks)?

[Neil]

No commercials?  How do they manage that?

[Syt]

I don't watch it on TV. 

Update coming today - I needed to properly review the roster and plan a few possible storylines and/or gimmick changes.

[Sophie Scholl]

Get Dean Malenko!  I always liked him and Benoit.  The technical wrestlers were always my favorite.

[Syt]

Malenko is fun; I will look into getting him. I loved Benoit, but he's still a bit young to be of much use at this point (20 years old).

WCW Saturday Night - Week 1, January 1991

Richmond Coliseum (Attendance 11,992)

The show opens with a preview of the night's main event: Lex Luger and Sting face Arn Anderson and Ric Flair in a 4 Way Elimination match - three champions in the ring at once! [78]

In the opening match, Big Josh beat the Juicer in 5:20 by submission. [45]

The Steiners are scheduled to meet Doom for the WCW Tag Team Championship tonight, and they trash talk their opponents in an interview. [64]

Buddy Landel, now known as the Reverend Buddy Landel and wrestling in pastor's clothes, beats defeated Norman in 3:06 by submission with a Figure Four Leglock after blatantly cheating. [44]

After the match, the Reverend beats up on Norman some more. [37]

Gordon Solie interviews Doom about their upcoming match against the Steiners. Doom are confident they'll crush their opponents. [60]

Tracy Smothers loses to Tracy Smothers in 7:12 by count out. [42]

Missy Hyatt is set to do an interview in the ring, when she's attacked by Paul E. Dangerously and The Juicer (who gives an underwhelming performance). She is, however, saved by Steve Armstrong who fights off the attackers. [49]

Michael Wallstreet defeated Dustin Rhodes in 6:05 by pinfall with a Samoan Drop. [53]

In an attempt to "soften up" Sting and Lex Luger for the 4-Way-Elimination match, Sid Vicious and Barry Windham attack the two backstage. [68]

The Fabulous Freebirds beat The Lightning Express in 7:40 when Jimmy Garvin defeated Brad Armstrong by pinfall with a Bombs Away following interference from the Freebirds manager Diamond Dallas Page. [60]

After the match, DDP proclaims himself to be the best manager in the WCW. He calls out Teddy Long, calling him too old, and that Doom did well to ditch him. [52] (It seems letting DDP talk without script was not a good idea.)

The Steiner Brothers defeated Doom by Count Out in 10:44 in a WCW World Tag Team Title match (therefore the title doesn't change hands). During the match, the Lightning Express had come to the ring to study the teams'performances. Doom got so annoyed that they attacked them, leading to the count out. [69]

After the match Missy Hyatt interviewed the Tag Team Champs. Simmons and Reed are furious and promise the Lightning Express that they'll regret there meddling. [54]

Teddy Long replies to Diamond Dallas Page's insults, saying that he has more manager skills in his left finger than DDP has in his whole body. [43]

In a bout that featured great action and great heat from the audience, Sting defeated Arn Anderson, Ric Flair and Lex Luger in 15:04; the order of elimination was Arn Anderson first, then Lex Luger, and finally Ric Flair. [64] (Sometimes the scores seem a bit weird. Apparently it was a problem, though, that I set the match to have a slow build up, but only set it for 15 minutes.)

The show closes out with Sting celebrating his victory in the ring. [81]

The show's overall rating: [70]

[Syt]

And we don't look good compared to WWF Superstars which scored 87, with a match between the Macho Man and Jake Roberts scored at 97! Additionally, the WWF will start a feud between the Ultimate Warrior and the Undertaker, plus one between Jimmy Snuka and Mr. Perfect, plus one between Jake Roberts and the Million Dollar Man and to top it all off, a rivalry between the Macho Man and Hulk Hogan.

Our two shows have been rated as Decent (Main Event) and Great (Saturday Night). I also need to try and give Vader a written contract. He has crazy momentum, but I can't use him, because he's working for other feds when our shows are taped.

[Barrister]

I played around with a wrestling management sim years and years ago.  The concept sounded like fun, but it wound up just being very tedious.


I was playing with the boys in the basement last night.  I often have the TV on when doing so, though I'm not really watching.  I saw Impact Wrestling was on, and motivated by this thread I turned it on (I watched wrestling as a kid, and went through a wrestling phase ~2000-2002).

Anyways, little Timmy was enthralled by it.

[Syt]

I played around with a wrestling management sim years and years ago.  The concept sounded like fun, but it wound up just being very tedious.

Yes, it's pretty slow paced, and putting a two hour card together can take half an hour or more. You can manage by running a smaller, regional promotion without TV contracts where you whip up maybe an event every or every other month.

I was playing with the boys in the basement last night.  I often have the TV on when doing so, though I'm not really watching.  I saw Impact Wrestling was on, and motivated by this thread I turned it on (I watched wrestling as a kid, and went through a wrestling phase ~2000-2002).

Anyways, little Timmy was enthralled by it.

The WWE has become a lot more family friendly again in recent years I hear. I've started looking at it again after more than 10 years, so I have only limited knowledge of what happened in between (slowly catching up on the PPVs), though I was quite the wrestling geek back in the day. Still, it's weird to see guys I watched during their early years in the ring (Triple H who started as Jean Paul Levesque in WCW, Shawn Michaels et al) either in positions backstage/authority or revered as legends - if they still live. Not to mention seeing the kids of wrestlers I used to watch (the son of Mr Perfect or the kids of Rikishi etc.).

I currently find the Wyatt family rather amusing in their redneck psycho ways. Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan, too. It's nice to see Goldust is back (think of his gimmick what you like, but he has one of the best entrance themes ever). And I like seeing angles with Paul Wight/Big Show. For all his limited wrestling abilities, at least he can act a bit, unlike many other wrestlers.