Backstory: In 2021 I started a new game with the WCW Goodnight and Goodbye? Mod/Database - but as I posted elsewhere on the forum I decided to update the database myself on a lot of things I learned listening to the 83 Weeks podcast. Mainly, I tried to create a WCW that had just been taken over by Bischoff and Fusient Media Ventures.
I put several workers on a year-long hiatus as I doubt they would have come out of their Time Warner contract regardless if Bischoff/Fusient took over. This included the likes of Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan. Originally, I did have Bill Goldberg, Ric Flair, Sting, Rey Mysterio, Alex Wright and a few other WCW workers who had those contracts signed around 1997/1998 - but I decided to add them to the roster instead as 1) I feel they may have been persuaded to join the new venture 2) I was worried they wouldn't sign for me in 1 years time over the WWE
Also, I added a number of ECW workers to the WCW roster pre-game that Eric Bischoff said he had verbal contracts made with in January 2001 when the Fusient deal looked on. This includes the likes of RVD, Jerry Lynn, Sabu etc.
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Current save date: July Week 3 2002
So I started the game with WCW as Eric Bischoff (Owner) with no TV Shows or Events set-up as I wanted to make them myself 'in game' and also I wanted the first show to be WCW The Big Bang PPV at the end of May(Week 4) 2001. This gave me 3 (in game) weeks to do all the hiring and firing I wanted and to also make plans for the first show. I also negotiated a TV Deal for Nitro after the last Monday in May 2001 so it would first run Week 1 June 2001 after the Big Bang PPV.
WCW Big Bang PPV got a 78 overall show rating with the Main Event being a Steel Chamber Match for the vacant WCW Heavyweight Title - Sting d. DDP vs Dustin Rhodes vs Ric Flair vs Jeff Jarrett vs Scott Steiner. I also purchased the AWA Heavyweight Title (as Bischoff started in AWA I thought it was something he'd do) and Curt Hennig d. BG James for this on the PPV.
So initially I just had Monday Nitro as a TV Show after the Big Bang PPV because I had to wait 3 months until I could do another. 1 TV show a week was too slow to increase growth/popularity, especially with the large Roster I had recruited. I decided to take a page out of TNA's book (isn't fantasy booking with hindsight wonderful?
) and brought back 'Clash of the Champions' continuing the number from the last one that was held in the mid 90's and ran it as a Weekly PPV on Wednesdays which gave me a 2-show a week Medium company. Clash of the Champions ended by September 2001 when I could get a TV show for Thunder.
It felt a bit chaotic booking a 2 show a week company with an ever increasing roster so after Starcade Dec 2001 - I decided to create a brand split. This was written into the storyline with Eric Bischoff (Authority Figure) and Roddy Piper (Authority Figure) having a 7 month feud. The backstory was that Bischoff ran the show as a major heel from The Big Bang onwards until Piper turned up and announced that he was the "secret investor" behind Bischoff buying the company and now they are equal partners. Piper defeated Bischoff at Starcade which meant that Piper took WCW (Nitro) and Bischoff had to take (Thunder) and launched the NWO as a brand (NEW WRESTLING ORDER).
Creating the brand split took a lot of admin but feels more organised in terms of booking and planning ahead.
The Monthly PPVs are split into WCW only x 4 NWO x 4 and WCW/NWO x 4 - with the likes of WAR GAMES used as a WCW vs NWO PPV where heels and faces put differences aside and defend their company which is pretty fun.
I also have a third TV Show now called WCW/NWO Spotlight which is a Saturday 'B' Show mainly used to give wrestlers TV time that hadn't been featured previously or to add some sauce to any storylines on going if needed. I do have an idea to use this Third Show as a Third Brand - although it's just a loose idea for now.
WCW as a company is still Medium size although it's on 75 popularity in USA and needs to be 77 and over for it to be classed as a 'Big' company. Because of this the game does not seem to reflect that we are a rival or a challenge to WWF who are of course massive. However, WCW Monday Nitro and NWO Thursday Thunder are both getting better TV ratings than RAW and Smackdown since April 2002. I've also noticed that RAW's overall show rating has dropped off to the 70's whereas Smackdown is still in the 80's. In comparison both Nitro and Thunder are averaging high 70s low 80s show ratings since the brand split.
WCW at the moment:
Bill Goldberg is the World Champ having won WW3 Battle Royal in 2001 and then defeating Scott Steiner at Starrcade and he's kept it since then. He's injured until August 2001 on the original database and I kept it as it was true to life at the time.
Sting and Ric Flair are about to end a 9 month feud which was between 4 Scorpions (Sting, Tommy Dreamer, Jerry Lynn, Sabu) vs. 4 Horsemen (Ric Flair, Chuck Palumbo, CW Anderson, Dave Batista). Ric Flair is retiring in August 2002 so I planned this feud around this with Sting defeating Ric in a Career Match in Charlotte, NC. I'm hoping that Flair is just retiring as a wrestler so I can use him as an Authority Figure down the line.
Deadly Brothers (Dudley Boys) are WCW Tag champs with America's Most Wanted & 2-Live Kru the main rivals.
Manami Toyota rules the WCW Womens title league although waiting for the likes of Nattie Neidhart, Victoria, Alexi Laree and Beth Phoenix to develop better skills.
NWO at the moment:
Eddy Guerrero just won the NWO Heavyweight Title (which is actually the AWA Heavyweight Title I purchased when first starting the game, gives it some prestige) from Jeff Jarrett after an epic feud. I had Eddy win the SuperBrawl Tournament at the start of 2002 - which I created so that the final is between a WCW wrestler and NWO wrestler. Also, gives you a lot of matches to book on TV in the build up to the final. However, Eddy's World Title reign is about to be shortlived because at the next PPV after he defeats Booker T - he is going to lose the belt to Scott Steiner who cashes in his 'Wild Card' (MITB) he won back in April. This then creates a feud between Eddy and Scott that climaxes at Starrcade 2002 at the end of the year.
Huge feud in NWO at the moment is between The Heathens (Cactus Jack, Hardy Boys, Mortis, Hurricane Helms, Shark Boy) vs. The New Church (Father Mitchell, Abyss, Nova, Super Dragon, Mil Muertes, The Messiah, Alter Boy Luke) - where Cactus Jack is about to end it by defeating Abyss is a Buried Alive Match. Both Cactus and Abyss will feature in the Sting v Vampiro feud which is about to start on the other brand later down the line.
Hardy Boys rule the Cruiserweight Tag Titles but plans to split them up on different brands for 2003 for big single pushes. Still can't believe WWF didn't put up much of a fight to keep them!
Christopher Daniels is current Cruiserweight champ with AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan hot on his heels. Nearly at the final of the Cruiserweight Cup which was a large tournament for all the cruiserweights. Low-Ki is set to win this.
Samoa Joe is about to win his first title (NWO Atlantic) and John Cena is (NWO Internet) champion.
Signings:
As you can tell I've been able to poach some WWF talent in the game. Eddy Guerroro was in rehab on the original data as IRL and WWE didnt even put up a fight when his contract expired in late 2001. I also signed The Dudley Boys and Hardy Boys around this time without much hassle. Failed to sign Stone Cold because WCW is still a Medium sized company. Shawn Michaels comes off his hiatus soon so he is the next target and because he's been away since the start of the game his popularity is low enough he will listen...would be interesting considering half of my roster hate him!
- Raven is another one I'm keen to sign soon. The other big hitters in WWF have signed 4 or 5 year contracts so I doubt I will have anyone else signing for a long time.
Child Companies:
LVW - Las Vegas Wrestling is the first one I created as I was signing a lot of young talent that needed development and also a place for WCW Power Plant graduates to go. Since then I have created BPW - British Premier Wrestling and DUW - Down Under Wrestling so more rookies can get experience. They're all doing pretty well!
CM Punk, Kevin Owens and Claudio Castagnoli are the ones I'm hoping will develop more before recalling. I also have Nathan Jones in the DUW (Australia) child company who has just shot up massively in popularity 60+ overall worldwide because he's off to star in a major Film! In contrast I have Mike O'Hearn in LVW also away filming but his popularity stayed the same
I'm pretty much booked up until Starcade 2002 on this save. The Spreadsheets I have is in so much detail - but makes booking/planning and playing the game a lot easier.
Going forward...Bill Goldberg finally loses the WCW World Title to Scott Steiner (NWO Champion) at WW3 which sets up the Steiner v Eddy finale at Starcade.
Only made loose plans for 2003 according to my notes but Goldberg vs Abyss feud is a big one - I've been very careful booking Abyss since the start of the game and his popularity and momentum has increased tenfold. By 2003 I think he would be ready for a Goldberg feud.
Also, 2003 will belong to RVD who I had planned to push to the Main Event stage in 2002 but he shattered his knee and injured for 9 months (atrb_partsz) - he is about to return next month and will be feuding with Rey Mysterio and Syxx for the WCW United States title.
Conclusion/Overall thoughts: It has been strange coming back to this game and this save nearly a year since I last played it. On a new laptop now so was tempted to just start a fresh - but this save has so much detail I feel I should continue it.
I do feel that I have made this save a bit 'easy' to play although I'm still not competing directly with WWF yet. I did give WCW a lot of money to start. I think the original database only had WCW start on 10 million dollars and I think I put it up to 30 or 40 million. It allowed me to create child companies and performance centres and out bid WWF on some workers but nothing extortionate. WCW has been turning profit since the start of 2002 so maybe I could have left it at 10 mill to start.
The only unrealistic edit I feel I have done is for Scott Hall - I changed his info as 'former drinker' 'former drug user' as I wanted to create a resurgence for him which is not how it went IRL in the 00's but maybe if Bischoff did buy WCW he would have changed paths. He's done ok for me in the save and averages 70's for matches so he's still physically declining but not a problem to manage.
I also altered the Era settings slightly on the database before starting - as I felt if WCW had relaunched like this then Wrestling may have had another uplift.
Hope someone has enjoyed reading this. Sorry I have no images to include but I don't know how to add them.
) and brought back 'Clash of the Champions' continuing the number from the last one that was held in the mid 90's and ran it as a Weekly PPV on Wednesdays which gave me a 2-show a week Medium company. Clash of the Champions ended by September 2001 when I could get a TV show for Thunder. 
- Raven is another one I'm keen to sign soon. The other big hitters in WWF have signed 4 or 5 year contracts so I doubt I will have anyone else signing for a long time.
