Don't hate me for not posting an actual update in my first post in this thread after months!
Hopefully it'll take the sting out some if I say that I not only have every intention of continuing this, but am feeling a major itch right now and hope to try and bang out a show or two soon?
So, I finished this for the third time and boy do I have some notes I like to talk about haha:
- Obviously because of the fact that WCW still exists, many careers have
gone better, but for me, the main highlights had to be: Lance Storm, as
part of True Heroes even main eventing Starrcade, The Hardys, as a team
and single stars, Shane Douglas having a nice run in this decade as US
and tag team champion, King Corino for having the spotlight in a major
company, but of course the main highlight it's Unnatural with a
brilliant world title run.
Lance and Punk wound up being a great pairing--I really lucked into that one, between them being paired together as a UFS team and discovering their chemistry. The Hardys came over thanks to an oversight in the mod that saw Shane McMahon and Lita start dating, but I'm glad I took that and ran with it. (Ironic that now Lita is in WCW, though I justify it by them being not only on different brands but different continents!) Unnatural has been the breakout guy without question, even though that was never my intention. I had no clue what to do with Dustin Rhodes when this first started, but it evolved into him becoming the most interesting character I would say (and I'm looking forward to where his character will go from here!)
- Corino is a strange case, he has
been protected since the beginning but still hasn't won any title, maybe
he is about to turn into a bad streak after so long.
Corino is the biggest victim of Unnatural's unexpected rise. He was intended to be the next champion after Rey, but Unnatural rose to the forefront and commanded my attention. (And then his title reign turned from a couple of months of transitional champ into a lengthy run, which took away a planned run for Eddie Guerrero.)
- I still
can't figure out what was the first Starrcade main event in plans, but
I'm glad it ended up as RVD vs. Steiner, since we got an amazing run
with Booker after he defeated RVD for his fifth championship reign.
Did I coyly hint at it or something? I honestly don't remember what the plan was at this point. At a guess, maybe I was thinking Steiner vs. Sting or Flair, or Sting vs. Flair staight-up, before I realized how poorly Sting and Flair's matches rate out in this perf > pop product.
-
Talking about RVD's world title run, it's a shame since he got good
runs, but as a main eventer he just wasn't as fun to read as Booker or
Rey, with Unnatural being the best world champion in this save.
I struggled with writing RVD, especially face RVD. I blame it on the years of seeing his "dude, whatever" writing in WWE.
-
Jung Dragons are just amazing, for years they have been fighting and
right now they feel like one of the most overs tag teams in the world,
I'm supporting them in this Crockett Cup.
I love the Jung Dragons! That silly "objection!" meme has gotten them so over, at least in my own head.
- Empire, Salvation, DA, these three groups have gone well and overall the booking for stables has been solid.
I don't feel like The Empire ever really hit the way I was wanting them to, though the feud with Austin was going pretty well until I had to fire Bischoff. The group lost its steam after that, because Austin/Bischoff was at the core.
-
Another good thing in booking has been the managers, I really enjoyed
the work of Eric Bischoff and now of Stacy with her dynamic with Jung
Dragons
Stacy with the Jung Dragons is such an odd pairing on the surface, but I can't imagine her with anyone else now!
- Even with his current momentum, I feel Bryan Danielson
could be in an even better position, I always felt that with Bret as
booker he could be in the place Punk is right now, for example.
The only thing holding Bryan back is the mechanics of TEW, or specifically the mechanics of national battles. He'll never have enough star quality to be a factor there, but CM Punk does. With Austin leaving and WWE reclaiming the star quality edge, I'm trying to fast track some of the younger guys who can hopefully help me retake the lead. Bryan and Bret are probably my favorite wrestlers of all time though (with Jericho on the periphery and Okada right there too), so I hope to do great things with him.
- Pretty obvious, but the current tag team division is the best in the world in this game.
Not really a ton of competition, but I'll take it. I'm glad to be at the point where I can do something like the Crockett Cup without having to rely too heavily on outside teams. (In fact there's almost no outside presence in it at all; partially because I screwed up the planning.)
-
Almost like Corino, Bobby Roode is feeling in the middle of a bad-ish
streak, after being the protected of Flair, being in a midcard act with
Cabana and Heenan is a little odd. That being said, Cabana and Heenan
together sounds amazing.
I'm just happy I found something for Roode to do, honestly. My roster is pretty crowded.
- I can't say there was an overrated
wrestler in booking sense, but the closest for me is Christopher
Daniels, he was always in the middle of a title match, always climbing
even in losses, but wasn't pulling any big numbers to justified that, he
was kind of lucky in my eyes.
Daniels did seem to consistently have worse matches than I was expecting him to, and I'm not really sure why.
- On the other hand, Jamie Noble
feels criminally underrated, after pulling a 99 with Austin and winning
the cruiserweight title, I felt things were supposed to go well for him,
but his babyface turn and attitude made him a weak bland babyface again
before he left.
Yeah, Knoble's face run never got off the ground like I'd hoped it would. Initially the Austin/Empire feud was going to end with a War Games match where Knoble got the win against his former stable, but everything kind of fell apart once Bischoff got fired.
- Maybe I'm not the only one, but I always
fantasize that some ideas that I can't imagine Bret Hart coming out with
are someone else's, like Salvation being a Dusty idea, or some segments
being produced by Arn Anderson.
Yeah, maybe I should do some backstage stuff to show that Bret's not a one man show.
