WCW 1997 : Reheating The War (TEW2020)
Apr 9, 2023 15:09:19 GMT 1
Asaemon, dhk1989, and 2 more like this
Post by fox on Apr 9, 2023 15:09:19 GMT 1
Starrcade was a failure. It did well ratings-wise but everyone in the back knew we put on a stinker of a show. We took the red hot Hogan heel turn in July and turned it into a lukewarm Starrcade finale. At this point, we aren't sure if the low locker room morale is the cause or effect of our subpar events lately. We've been decent, but that's under-performing based on our roster and star power. The booking team stayed up until nearly 4 AM the night of Starrcade and laid out our plans for 1998. Overall, we agreed that 1996 was a solid success, but we recognized we need to make some serious changes to make sure we don't sputter out.
During our post-show meeting, we discussed our successes and failures. Below is our list of successes.
4. We also realized that we were rushing storylines and also adding too many pieces, which muddled the stories and hurt the development of the feuds and workers. We are instead going to start fine-tuning storylines and keeping the active participants to a smaller number.
5. Our locker room morale has been an absolute disaster. Hollywood Hogan, Scott Steiner, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, and Marcus Bagwell have been the main problems. We have tightened up restrictions on the locker room to hopefully address this. Additionally, we handed out nearly $2 million in end of year bonuses to the workers. If the problems continue into 1997, we will consider taking severe actions, regardless of the status of the individual. The low morale is starting to bleed over into our events and hurting our product.
1. Our major success of 1996 was obviously the nWo, with Hollywood Hogan turning heel to join The Outsiders at Bash at the Beach. We turned The Four Horsemen face and relied on Hogan and Ric Flair feuding to carry the company. We initially tried to put the trio of Lex Luger, Sting, and Randy Savage as the main defenders of WCW; but Savage's hatred from Hogan carried down all their segments. We turned The Giant face and tried to have him fill in that spot, but the storyline got messy and we quickly pivoted to The Four Horsemen, as they are the standard and legacy of WCW. We've been focusing on this feud since September, with Hogan successfully defending his belt multiple times, including the Starrcade Main Event, a triangle match with Hogan, Nash, and Flair. We teased some nWo dissent during the match but have no plans to break them up at this time. Flair obviously spent the match
getting double-teamed and Hogan made the pin while Nash was down on the outside. The Four Horsemen dropped Mongo McMichael and picked up a returning Barry Windham, who has been working well with all the talent in the storyline.
getting double-teamed and Hogan made the pin while Nash was down on the outside. The Four Horsemen dropped Mongo McMichael and picked up a returning Barry Windham, who has been working well with all the talent in the storyline.
2. The incredible growth of Big Bubba Ray Traylor has been a major surprise for everyone. He's had fantastic chemistry with most of our top talent in the last 4 months. After The m Dungeon of Doom quietly disappeared, we put Traylor and Kevin Sullivan together in the Doom tag team, and they've both been fantastic performers. Big Bubba in particular has been getting reactions on par with Sting, Savage, and The Giant. We put the tag team belts on Doom at Starrcade with their win over The Steiners, an early title change in the feud. Bubba is
also holding the TV Title that was vacated by Lex Luger (as part of his agreement to get a World Heavyweight Title shot against Hogan - which he lost via crooked referee). We are currently in talks with a couple outside talents to potentially do something even bigger with Traylor, including a tweak to his character.
also holding the TV Title that was vacated by Lex Luger (as part of his agreement to get a World Heavyweight Title shot against Hogan - which he lost via crooked referee). We are currently in talks with a couple outside talents to potentially do something even bigger with Traylor, including a tweak to his character.
3. The tag team division as a whole has tons of potential. We recently split up Harlem Heat, with Booker T turning face due to his disagreement with Stevie Ray
on his underhanded tactics and excessive post-match beatdowns. We have those two feuding right now, and hope it can push Booker up the card for his solo career. We've had Rock N Roll Express doing great work getting some talent over. Dean Malenko and 2 Cold Scorpio got randomly paired up one night and had natural chemistry, so we teamed them up as The Naturals, and gave them Debra McMichael as their manager. Debra is currently the center of a storyline where she has put out an open challenge for any tag teams that think they can compete with The Naturals. The Blue Bloods (Lord Steven Regal and Squire Dave Taylor) have been poking the bear in a feud with The Giant. Bobby Eaton came to us and requested a tag team with Alex Wright, saying he thought Wright had tons of potential and wants to help his career get off to a good start. We've called them Technically Flawless and they've been working well together so far. We really like our lower card teams - High Voltage, Canada's Finest (Lance Storm & Mike Awesome), Public Enemy, Nasty Boys, and The Armstrongs - but all these teams need further development before they are serious threats. We are currently in talks with a big tag team to come join WCW.
on his underhanded tactics and excessive post-match beatdowns. We have those two feuding right now, and hope it can push Booker up the card for his solo career. We've had Rock N Roll Express doing great work getting some talent over. Dean Malenko and 2 Cold Scorpio got randomly paired up one night and had natural chemistry, so we teamed them up as The Naturals, and gave them Debra McMichael as their manager. Debra is currently the center of a storyline where she has put out an open challenge for any tag teams that think they can compete with The Naturals. The Blue Bloods (Lord Steven Regal and Squire Dave Taylor) have been poking the bear in a feud with The Giant. Bobby Eaton came to us and requested a tag team with Alex Wright, saying he thought Wright had tons of potential and wants to help his career get off to a good start. We've called them Technically Flawless and they've been working well together so far. We really like our lower card teams - High Voltage, Canada's Finest (Lance Storm & Mike Awesome), Public Enemy, Nasty Boys, and The Armstrongs - but all these teams need further development before they are serious threats. We are currently in talks with a big tag team to come join WCW.
Our major points of concern are below.
1. Our talent retention and acquisition is incredibly disappointing. We've been outbid by WWF numerous times for free agents. We contacted two members of their roster - Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Lawler - and nothing came from these discussions. We particularly wanted Jerry Lawler to team up with his son Brian Christopher in the tag team division. We wanted Jarrett to join The Four Horsemen for the face turn, but the talks fell through and we instead signed Barry Windham. We also lost Rey Mistero, Jr. to the WWF in a surprise steal. We know WWF has overpaid some wrestlers but we also realize we probably need to start doing the same. We did recently steal Curt Hennig from them, but he is still out for 6 months with an injured back. We currently have ongoing contract negotiations with some big names from across the world.
2. We are extremely top heavy on the roster. We have a good number of top guys, but our midcard and below is bare. For the mid and lower card, our "best" guys are Diamond Dallas Page, Konnan, Eddy Guerrero, John Tenta, Meng, Lord Steven Regal, Syxx, Dean Malenko, 2 Cold Scorpio, Terry Funk, Scott Norton, Paul Orndoff and Jim Duggan. We recently stole USWA Heavyweight Champion Tommy Rich and signed him to an exclusive contract, but he has yet to do anything of note. The rest of the mid and lower card roster is either considered unimportant by the fans or has no significant presence on TV right now. We believe we focused too much on the nWo storyline and our midcard has suffered as a result. We are planning on getting these workers much more involved in 1997.
3. With the loss of Rey Misterio, Jr., our Cruiserweight division is extremely weak. Other than Eddy Guerrero, we don't have anybody that can compete with Cruiserweight Champion Syxx for his title. The rest of the cruiserweight division is very talented - Chris Chetti, Billy Kidman, Lance Storm, El Dandy, Super Crazy, Chris Jericho, Ultimate Dragon, Taka Michinoku, Mr. JL, Chavo Guerrero, Jr., and Brian Christopher - but these guys are miles away from being realistic contenders. We are going to put in lots of work getting these guys more known to wrestling audiences.
4. We also realized that we were rushing storylines and also adding too many pieces, which muddled the stories and hurt the development of the feuds and workers. We are instead going to start fine-tuning storylines and keeping the active participants to a smaller number.
5. Our locker room morale has been an absolute disaster. Hollywood Hogan, Scott Steiner, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, and Marcus Bagwell have been the main problems. We have tightened up restrictions on the locker room to hopefully address this. Additionally, we handed out nearly $2 million in end of year bonuses to the workers. If the problems continue into 1997, we will consider taking severe actions, regardless of the status of the individual. The low morale is starting to bleed over into our events and hurting our product.
CURRENT CHAMPIONS
WCW World Heavyweight Champion - Hollywood Hogan (def. The Giant at 1996 Hogwild)
WCW World Heavyweight Champion - Hollywood Hogan (def. The Giant at 1996 Hogwild)
WCW United States Champion - Ric Flair (def. Konnan at 1996 Bash at the Beach)
WCW Television Champion - Big Bubba Rogers (def. Bobby Eaton & John Tenta in a Triangle Match to win the vacant TV Title at October 21st Monday Nitro)
WCW Cruiserweight Champion - Syxx (def. Eddy Guerrero & Rey Misterio, Jr. in a Triangle Ladder Match at 1996 Fall Brawl)
WCW World Tag Team Champions - Doom (Big Bubba Rogers & Kevin Sullivan) (def. The Steiner Brothers at 1996 Starrcade)
WHO'S HOT
Hollywood Hogan
Hollywood Hogan
Ric Flair
Kevin Nash
Randy Savage
Scott Hall
Big Bubba Rogers
Rick Steiner
Scott Steiner
Booker T
Stevie Ray
The Giant
Meng
Syxx
Robbie Rage
Kenny Kaos
WHO'S NOT
Diamond Dallas Page
Paul Orndorff
2 Cold Scorpio
Brian Knobbs
Dick Slater
Jim Duggan
John Tenta
Ricky Morton
Robert Gibson
Steve McMichael
The Barbarian
VK Wallstreet
Alex Wright
Dave Finlay
Disco Inferno
Scotty Riggs
WCW Power Plant Roster
Chris Chetti
D'Lo Brown
Ernest Miller
Joe E. Legend
Lodi
Sean Morley
Sexton Hardcastle
Shane Helms
Super Crazy
Shawn Stasiak
ONGOING STORYLINES
The nWo vs. The Four Horsemen
The nWo (Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall invaded WCW. After winning the World Heavyweight Title from The Giant at Hog Wild, Hollywood Hogan declared himself the king of WCW. The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit, and Barry Windham) took offense to this and completed a face turn for the whole stable on Monday Nitro. The battle has raged on for months, with Flair never getting a 1-on-1 opportunity against Hogan. The World War 3 battle royal winner earned a spot in the Starrcade Main Event, alongside Hogan and Flair to make it a Triangle Match. Randy Savage won this, but was duped into putting his spot in the main event on the line against Kevin Nash, who won it after interference from Hollywood Hogan. This setup a 2-on-1 match for Flair, who fought valiantly but couldn't overcome the odds. During the match, Hogan berated Nash for making a pin attempt, and Nash showed obvious frustration at his situation. However, the nWo celebrated together in the ring after Hogan made the pinfall on Flair. The Outsiders have been feuding with a combination of Arn, Windham, and Benoit, with the win/loss records staying pretty even for both sides.
Poking The Giant
The dastardly tag team of The Blue Bloods have been nothing but troublemakers in WCW for the last 4 months. After feuding with Bobby Eaton and John Tenta, they decided to go after the one man you shouldn't get riled up - The Giant. Lord Steven Regal has used his wits to outsmart The Giant and avoid any punishments, which have usually been reserved for the unwitting sidekick Squire Dave Taylor, who has taken numerous chokeslams for his efforts. These segments usually end with a frustrated Regal standing over his downed partner, berating him and declaring him a failure. The Giant is set to get his hands on Regal alone in the ring at Souled Out later this month.
Steiners/Doom
After successfully defending their belts for nearly four months, The Steiner Brothers were caught off guard by one of the newer tag teams in WCW - Doom. Television Champion Big Bubba Rogers and his mastermind partner Kevin Sullivan scored a clean pinfall at Starrcade and took the belts, making Bubba one of the most decorated wrestlers in WCW. Doom has taken the over-the-top Dungeon of Doom gimmick and grounded it with a more realistic depiction of an egomaniac mastermind in Sullivan who is backed up by a no-nonsense bully in Bubba. The Steiners, meanwhile, have continued as the All-American fan-favorite tag team of WCW. They have been successful in singles matches against the members of Doom, but couldn't get it done when it mattered the most.
Macho Man & DDP
In a premature feud that hasn't gained much traction, the flamboyant and arrogant Diamond Dallas Page has made it his mission to be a thorn in the side of Randy Savage. These two have put on great performances dueling it out on the microphone, but the feud has been overshadowed by the nWo storyline, as well as DDP's relatively low status on the card. To make matters interesting, both workers have been hinting at turns, with Savage seeming to snap and go overboard in post-match attacks, or cheating to get wins, while DDP has saved both his wife Kimberly Page and Debra McMichael from other wrestlers who were getting too close for comfort. When asked about this by Mean Gene, Page just remarked that "Everybody knows DDP loves the ladies."
Harlem Heat Breaks Up
After some success with the WCW World Tag Team Titles, Harlem Heat dropped them to The Steiner Brothers at the 1996 Fall Brawl. This led to Stevie Ray declaring that Harlem Heat had to get meaner and tougher. His cheating got even more blatant and he took to stomping down opponents after matches were done. After a couple months of arguing, Booker T finally turned on Stevie Ray and declared Harlem Heat over and done. Stevie Ray explained to Mean Gene that everything he did was to make his brother better, but he'd have to teach him a lesson about turning your back on blood. Booker T moved on to singles matches and had nothing to do with his brother, refusing to fight back whenever Stevie showed up during his matches. This all changed when Booker T was given a World Title shot against Hollywood Hogan on Monday Nitro - and his brother interfered to give Hogan an easy win. Meeting at Starrcade for the first time, Stevie Ray was able to get the upper hand with help from Sister Sherri, and Booker T vowed to teach his big brother a lesson.
Debra's Invitational
After publicly dumping Steve 'Mongo' McMichael, Debra began scoping out talent during events. She would usually walk down during a match, focus on one of the wrestlers, then leave shaking her head when they lost. But when the team of The Naturals was formed by Dean Malenko and 2 Cold Scorpio, Debra declared them the future of tag team wrestling and joined their side. She's given out an open challenge to any tag team that can beat The Naturals, and so far no one has been successful. Beating the likes of Rock N Roll Express, Public Enemy, and The Nasty Boys, The Naturals have done nothing but prove her right.
Jericho Annoys Everyone
The babyface Chris Jericho has taken to grabbing a microphone and mocking his opponents for matches, with usually hilarious results that are enjoyed by the crowd. After nicknaming Syxx "Suxx" and ribbing Sonny Oono as Sonny "Oh No", he's managed to rile up some of the cruiserweight undercard. Unfortunately, Jericho is still a relative unknown to the TV audience, as these segments have been on the pre-show or WCW Saturday Night B-show. He's also been unable to beat Syxx in any of his multiple shots at the WCW Cruiserweight Title. After getting attacked by Ultimate Dragon and Syxx, the unlikely help from The Chairman of WCW, La Parka, created an alliance that now sees Jericho mocking opponents on the mic while La Parka does ridiculous poses and dances while remaining silent.
Post-Starrcade New Storylines
Tommy Rich Enters WCW - Enemies Emerge
USWA World Champion and AWF Tag Team Champion Tommy Rich joined WCW last month, and he has yet to really get involved. We really need to strengthen our mid-card, so we are putting him in a feud with Terry Funk (who re-debuted in WCW a couple months ago to feud with Sting). These two men can be absolutely brutal, and we will use their reputations as legends to build this feud up.
Mask Vs. Mask
After moving Ultimate Dragon on from the Chris Jericho storyline, we want to use him and Mr. JL in a mask versus mask feud to help build the cruiserweight division. The annoying manager Sonny Oono will do all the talking while these two do their talking in the ring.
The Rookie & The Vet
The newly formed tag team of Naturally Flawless (Bobby Eaton & Alex Wright) have great chemistry in the ring and have the potential to get both guys over. We've been building up High Voltage (Robbie Rage and Kenny Kaos, managed by Ted DiBiase) on the B-shows and pre-shows, but they still have a long way to go. We will hopefully be able to get all four of these guys over with this tag team feud. Alex Wright might have the highest potential in the company right now.
The Immovable Objects
Meng vs. John Tenta. This one won't be pretty. We will use the tag team partner Barbarian as well, and Paul Orndorff has been outspoken about his lack of involvement in anything of note, so we will put him in this feud on the side of good guy monster John Tenta. This will just be an oldschool slobberknocker type of feud. Meng has been on a red-hot winning streak and Tenta has cooled down a bit after rejoining WCW with a win streak of his own in August.
OOC INFORMATION:
This is a TEW2020 scenario where I took over WCW right after Hogan's heel turn at Bash at the Beach. I'm a longtime EWR player who never played any TEW games until TEW2020, and this is my first game. So I've been learning as I go and I think the learning curve will add something to the diary. We made it to the Big company size but lost it and went back down to Medium. So I've controlled WCW since the Monday Nitro after Bash at the Beach, and pretty much did an average job at best. This diary will chronicle my attempt to fix the product and make WCW the #1 organization in the world.
This is a TEW2020 scenario where I took over WCW right after Hogan's heel turn at Bash at the Beach. I'm a longtime EWR player who never played any TEW games until TEW2020, and this is my first game. So I've been learning as I go and I think the learning curve will add something to the diary. We made it to the Big company size but lost it and went back down to Medium. So I've controlled WCW since the Monday Nitro after Bash at the Beach, and pretty much did an average job at best. This diary will chronicle my attempt to fix the product and make WCW the #1 organization in the world.
