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Post by The Final Countdown on Apr 6, 2020 0:58:49 GMT 1
 March 14th, 2004
From Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland
Attendance: 45,000 (sell-out!)
Announce Team: "The Professor" Mike Tenay and Bret "The Hitman" Hart   Colt Cabana and Bobby Heenan said they would educate Bryan Danielson and prove to him that he should get thoughts of a US title rematch with Rob Van Dam out of his mind. They had a solid opening match, with Bryan clearly leading the way as the ring general and the standout performer. The match saw plenty of shenanigans from both Cabana and Heenan, but Bryan outwrestled him with his masterful technique and turned his Cattle Mutilation submission into a pinfall. We switched Bryan to a wholesome wrestling machine gimmick here, but the fans didn’t seem to enjoy it much to begin with. On the plus side, he introduced a new hope spot that got the fans behind him even more. He’s already a true ring general, and this will only enhance his match psychology. Becky Bayless interviewed President Dusty Rhodes about next month’s Clash of the Champions emanating from Australia, but Salvation interrupted. Unnatural handled all the talking for his group, saying that Dusty had himself to blame for what happened to Austin. “Another legend will fall tonight, and just like Austin, so too will Bill Goldberg’s blood be on your hands!” This angle got the crowd hotter, but Dusty didn’t hold up well this time, getting outtalked by his son.  Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Brian Kendrick had a fun back and forth match, with Chavo not only showing up but giving his all now that there were stakes in his match. He tried his best, but Kendrick caught him with Sliced Bread #2 and made his fifth successful title defense, bringing him halfway to the total required to vacate the title and challenge for the US belt (or ten away from the World title, if he chooses to bypass the US shot.) Chavo threw a tantrum in the ring after the match, kicking the ropes and shaking the guard rail. While Chavo sulked, Kendrick celebrated—until he was cut off by Shane Helms and his manager Buff Bagwell on the video screen. They were surrounded by a couple of unnamed attractive ladies (local indie workers we hired for the night) and really enjoying themselves, but they said their party would be even better if they took Kendrick’s TV title away from him. “Ladies love Buff, they love Sugar, and they love gold!” The first of two UFS Semifinal matches saw Eddie Guerrero of the Dead Jesters take on Matt Hardy of Uncrewed’s Crew. This was a fantastic match, easily the best of the night to this point, with Eddie turning in an excellent performance. It was a back and forth with plenty of near-falls from both guys, but The Enigma’s appearance at ringside distracted his brother and allowed Enigma’s UFS teammate Guerrero to get the win and send their team to the finals. Backstage, UWA Welterweight champion Jamie Knoble and WCW Cruiserweight champion TAKA argued (well, manager Tammy Sytch argued on TAKA’s behalf) over whose title meant more during an interview with Becky Bayless. The second UFS match saw an old rivalry reignited as AJ Styles of the Rated R Superstars met Sean O’Haire of The Limitless. It was the classic big man vs. little man story, with both guys playing their roles well. The difference maker was Bobby Roode and Ric Flair, who came down and argued with Paul Heyman when he tried to help O’Haire. Styles hit a springboard forearm and then a Spiral Tap for the pin amidst the chaos, though he didn’t even seem to notice all the commotion on the floor. Regardless, the Rated R Superstars are on to the finals. Rey Mysterio Jr. was back on Piper’s Pit, and didn’t seem any more certain of his career direction than he’d been the last time they talked. This time Konnan came out to interrupt and coax Rey into coming to the back to talk, ending the segment. Roddy looked good here, but Konnan performed poorly. Maybe that’s to be expected with how little we’ve used him or let him talk, but he did show some improved acting chops. The Steenerico vs. Calgary Bulldogs match was a chance for both young teams to get some PPV time, and they had a nice little match. Steen got the submission win on TJ after about 7 and a half minutes, but they didn’t have long to celebrate their win. They were jumped after the match by Made in Italy, who tossed Steen to the floor and hit the Catwalk on Generico. As Dawn Marie cheered, Johnny Parisi grabbed the mic and said that after beating Steenerico last month at SuperBrawl, this spotlight should have been theirs.  The US title match was always going to suffer for featuring two heels going at it, and neither RVD or Corino is enough of a ring general to put together and lead a match either. Despite those issues, this was still an excellent match just because both guys are so great. In the end the Five Star Frog Splash saw a successful title defense for RVD, and afterwards the rest of the DA came out to congratulate him. Heyman grabbed a mic and did an amazing job of cutting an unscripted promo that threw Dusty’s plans for Clash of the Champions into disarray. “Traditionally the US champion gets to challenge for the World title at the Clash. But RVD has no need for any other title, because the most prestigious belt in the world is whichever one Rob-Van-Dam happens to be holding at the time! So Mr. President, with all due respect: you’ll need to find a different challenger!” The Shooting Stars (with Torrie Wilson) did a backstage interview with Becky and said they hoped to challenge the winners of the upcoming tag title match. My nephew Teddy didn’t look too good here, unfortunately.  As expected any time the True Heroes are given a chance to shine in a big match, they delivered gold. It wasn’t all them though, because Hayashi and Yang were fantastic too. This was tag team wrestling at its finest, with great innovative double teams as well as sound tag team wrestling psychology in a match that started slowly and built higher and higher. A lot of fans believed that this was the time for the Dragons to finally get their big win, but it was not to be. Storm tapped out Yang with the Calgary Clutch a little past the 24 minute mark, and the Heroes emerged victorious in an epic. Stacy consoled the Dragons after the match, and on commentary Mike and I wondered how they would cope after another title match where they looked great but came up just short.  The crowd was hot for this one for sure, and the work was really good too. The story here was that Unnatural stalled to break up Goldberg’s momentum and would then go on a vicious assault whenever the opportunity presented itself, but no matter what he did he couldn’t finish the challenger off. Goldberg even kicked out of Unnatural Selection, and then he started to roll. He shrugged off some more offensive attempts and started battering Unnatural. Father Isaac signaled for Mortis to run down after Goldberg hit the spear. Goldberg and ref Nick Patrick both saw him coming, but it was all a ruse so The Enigma could sneak in from the other side and lay Goldberg out with a title belt shot to the back of the head! A second Unnatural Selection followed, and this time Goldberg didn’t kick out. This match was held back from what it could have been by the need to protect Goldberg, both to keep him happy and to keep him looking like our top star. It was still an excellent match, but not quite in the running for match of the night. The entirety of Salvation came out after the match so they could try and make good on their threat to destroy Goldberg and drive him from WCW. They busted him open after a second belt shot to the head, but President Rhodes and some security and wrestlers came down just in time to prevent an Unnatural Selection on top of the ring steps. Dusty was very underwhelming here, but the principal stars (Goldberg and Unnatural) were both great. It isn’t often that you see Goldberg look so vulnerable, and it really worked. |
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Post by Moore on Apr 6, 2020 10:57:21 GMT 1
The fans will accept Bryan's gimmick with time. Good to see him win. RVD vs. Danielson should be a helluva match.
Nice to see the contrast between Dusty and The Unnatural in the following segment. Idk if you booked it yet, but I'd love to see a War Games Match with Dustin leading one team and Dusty leading the other.
Curiosity: that 10-defense rule for US title shot and 15-defense rule for World title shot existed or is it your rule? I might take it for my NWA World Television Championship... I predict Kendrick cashing in on Danielson after 10 defences.
Didn't expect Styles picking up the win over O'Haire, but you managed to do it without hurting the bigger heel. Nice! The factions are very well booked.
RVD relinquishing his World title shot is golden material. Much taken off his ECW TV title reign (one of my personal favorite reigns of all time), but it fits his character and Heyman so well.
The Dragons vs. Heroes match was the classic it looked destined to be. But the main event and, mainly, the post-match was my favorite thing of the show. Whenever big guys are turned into something more humane than heroes, it feels fitting and perfect for the heels. Pretty good PPV ending. Hell, pretty good PPV. I'd watch that one from the start.
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Post by The Final Countdown on Apr 7, 2020 3:25:28 GMT 1
I had more notes written down for this news update, but my computer apparently didn’t save the document, so those are lost to the aether and I just had to go off of memory.
The fans will accept Bryan's gimmick with time. Good to see him win. RVD vs. Danielson should be a helluva match. Nice to see the contrast between Dusty and The Unnatural in the following segment. Idk if you booked it yet, but I'd love to see a War Games Match with Dustin leading one team and Dusty leading the other. Curiosity: that 10-defense rule for US title shot and 15-defense rule for World title shot existed or is it your rule? I might take it for my NWA World Television Championship... I predict Kendrick cashing in on Danielson after 10 defences. Didn't expect Styles picking up the win over O'Haire, but you managed to do it without hurting the bigger heel. Nice! The factions are very well booked. RVD relinquishing his World title shot is golden material. Much taken off his ECW TV title reign (one of my personal favorite reigns of all time), but it fits his character and Heyman so well. The Dragons vs. Heroes match was the classic it looked destined to be. But the main event and, mainly, the post-match was my favorite thing of the show. Whenever big guys are turned into something more humane than heroes, it feels fitting and perfect for the heels. Pretty good PPV ending. Hell, pretty good PPV. I'd watch that one from the start. I haven't booked any father ahead then we are right now. War Games is something that's always on my mind, but I don't have a set time that I do it, like how WCW would automatically do one every September. I do one only when I think the storyline calls for it.
It's my rule, but I'm not 100% sure that I'm the first to have done it. I know the actual NWA is doing something similar now. Kendrick going for the US would be a first. No one has chosen to stop at 10 and go for the US title yet. Sean O'Haire and Matt Hardy have both hit 15 and (unsuccessfully) challenged The Unnatural for the world title. Yep, that ECW TV title reign is definitely on my mind here. One difference is that RVD has actually been WCW World champion in this diary; he beat Scott Steiner in the main event of Starrcade 2001. Not easy to make Goldberg look vulnerable, but I like how it turned out.
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Post by Beejus on Apr 7, 2020 12:42:41 GMT 1
Slamboree was really good! First thing that jumped out at me was that it took place at Camden Yards. I've been there, well went past it into the convention center next door, but it's a very historical looking building that would look great hosting a show like this.
I could see Kendrick being the one who goes for the US title, if you keep the TV belt on him for enough defenses. Not sure how he would fare in the bigger division, but obviously I underestimated him against Chavo, so we shall see!
I'm also wondering what your plan is with Mysterio here. Maybe Konnan is trying to get the old band back together?
I was also surprised that Goldberg didn't pick up a DQ win or something of the sort. Then again, while he is certainly on top of the mountain, he is not the freight train push here that I have in my game. I won't be surprised if he gets a rematch in a cage or something next month since RVD is off on his own title storyline.
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Post by The Final Countdown on Apr 11, 2020 21:25:37 GMT 1
3/6: 
Notes from this show: -Chigusa Nagayo threw out
some sort of new catchphrase that got a reaction from the Japanese fans.
Something about ‘lighting up the darkness.’ 3/13: 
Notes from this show: -Aja Kong was catching heat
for her selfish behavior in the locker room, so I levied a fine against her.
She did not appreciate that response.
I'll be testing out a new weekly format. These are the two weeks of Renaissance that hadn't already been posted, and beginning with March Week 3 I'll be trying the new setup. Slamboree was really good! First thing that jumped out at me was that it took place at Camden Yards. I've been there, well went past it into the convention center next door, but it's a very historical looking building that would look great hosting a show like this. I could see Kendrick being the one who goes for the US title, if you keep the TV belt on him for enough defenses. Not sure how he would fare in the bigger division, but obviously I underestimated him against Chavo, so we shall see! I'm also wondering what your plan is with Mysterio here. Maybe Konnan is trying to get the old band back together? I was also surprised that Goldberg didn't pick up a DQ win or something of the sort. Then again, while he is certainly on top of the mountain, he is not the freight train push here that I have in my game. I won't be surprised if he gets a rematch in a cage or something next month since RVD is off on his own title storyline. Konnan's definitely up to something...
Yeah, in the year that I've had Goldberg he's now been pinned three times (though only the loss to Austin at Starrcade was clean.) He's been somewhat protected but not to the extent that WCW protected him during his peak or you have in Hate the Game.
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Post by The Final Countdown on Apr 13, 2020 18:58:50 GMT 1
March 2004, Week 3 March 15th, 2004 Show Notes:
-With Guerrero’s win over Knoble, the Dead Jesters jump out to a 1-0 lead over the Rated R Superstars in the UFS finals.
“Eric Young looks pretty good to me; might be worth signing full-time.” –CM Punk
March 20th, 2004 Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s):  News Updates:In less exciting contract extension news, Shinobu Kandori will be sticking around on Renaissance under a PPA deal. Arn Anderson signed an extension and will be sticking around as our lead road agent on the Renaissance brand, where he moved after his role as on-screen President of WCW ended. WWE tried to take some potshots at us during a recent episode of Heat by poking fun at ‘mid-card joke world champions’ (Unnatural), but based on the reactions I’ve seen online it seems like most fans thought the jokes were forced and tacky. Nice try; everyone knows how good Dustin is. Elsewhere in the wrestling world:Chris Sabin, a promising young talent who appears for both ROH and MLW, is headed to jail for a few months for stealing a car. Not too bright. Jake Roberts re-signed with WWE. Kind of surprising since he almost never appears on TV and doesn’t do any backstage work for them from what I hear, but good for him to keep getting a steady paycheck. Scoot Andrews won the annual Super 8 tournament held by ECWA. Russ Haas has signed an extension of his developmental deal with WWE, and occasional job guy Ron Waterman’s staying too.
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Post by The Final Countdown on Apr 19, 2020 15:13:06 GMT 1
March 2004, Week 4March 22nd, 2004 Show Notes:
-From what I hear, Tony Mamaluke kept the atmosphere fun backstage during the show.
-Randy Savage made a good first impression by ordering enough pizza for the entire roster.
-Savage’s old school face character, coming in to fight back against the heel groups and look out for the good guys, got a very good initial response from the fans.
-Teddy Hart looked to be favoring his leg for real during his match, but the trainer took a look at him and said it was just a strained muscle and he wouldn’t need to take any time off.
-It seemed like TAKA’s gimmick is getting a little stale with the fans, so maybe we should switch things up there. Same thing with Sean O’Haire.
-The main event suffered from issues with psychology and a lack of selling. As a result of Goldberg’s win, the UFS finals were evened at one win apiece.
“James Storm seems like he has some potential.” –AJ Styles
“AJ’s wrong. James Storm doesn’t have it.” –The Enigma
“Harry Smith’s good in the ring. Chip off the old block.” –CM Punk
“Punk’s right. If Harry’s this good at 18, think how good he’ll be in a few years.” –Jamie Knoble
March 27th, 2004 Show Notes:
-Apparently Nattie broke some kind of locker room rule before the show, and Renaissance head ref Charles Robinson brought her before the wrestler’s court and sentenced her to buy drinks after the show.
-After the 30 minute draw between Satomura and Hokuto, the UFS finals stood at 1-1-1.
Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s):News Updates:Some of my developmental people have been telling me they think Johnny the Bull could be a big star when we eventually bring him back up. Elsewhere in the wrestling world:-WWE did some spring cleaning, letting go of Ron Simmons, Jerry Sags, Funaki and Viscera. They also called Randy Orton (son of Cowboy Bob), Nick Dinsmore, Rico Constantino and Ken Anderson up from developmental, and they’ve signed Simon Diamond to a developmental deal. -NOAH held their big event, Final Attack Due, headlined by a fantastic 99 rated main event where Jun Akiyama retained the GHC Heavyweight title over Yoshinari Ogawa by count out. Another really strong showing from them, with a 94 overall score. -NWATNA held their latest event, One Night Only. Marc Mero retained their world title over Matt Cross in a good main event, Kent Kohl won the NWA Junior Heavyweight title from Tatsuo Nakano, and BJ Whitmer won the X-Division title from Jimmy Rave. This was a decent show by their standards, but well below their Against All Odds show from last month. -In Zero-One, Shinjiro Otani won the International Junior Heavyweight title from Genki Horiguchi, and Tadao Yasuda was crowned the new Zero 1 World Heavyweight champion after beating Shinya Hashimoto (which sounds like a mistake to me.) -WWE contract extensions: Bossman -I’ve heard Kenta Kobayashi has some heat backstage in NOAH for his cocky attitude. -Apparently Rocco Rock from Public Enemy is going to retire as an active wrestler soon. Maybe I should bring him and Johnny Grunge back in for a short little farewell run. -Some game called Total Extreme Warfare came out. Not sure what that’s about.
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Post by The Final Countdown on Apr 21, 2020 20:54:54 GMT 1
National Battle Report: April 2004 |
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Post by The Final Countdown on Apr 24, 2020 22:21:04 GMT 1
April 2004, Week 1March 29th, 2004 Show Notes:
-Knoble and Devitt had poor chemistry as opponents, which hurt the opener.
-Trent Acid was wasted on drugs during his squash match. Guess that’s what I get for bringing in a guy named Trent Acid, even if only for one night. The rest of the guys in that match were annoyed, and understandably so.
“I get the hype on Nakamura. That guy is a star.” –CM Punk
“Aguila can do some cool moves, but he just can’t connect with the fans.” –The Enigma
April 3rd, 2004 Upcoming WCW PPV Event(s):News Updates:A bunch of our contracts are about to run out, and New Japan jumped in to aggressively pursue several of our guys. They made overtures to Shane Douglas and even The Unnatural, but were rebuffed and gave up on those negotiations pretty quickly. They’re more serious players for Jamie Knoble and both Kaz Hayashi and Yang of The Jung Dragons though. And then All Japan got in on the bidding for Hayashi and Yang, which will only drive their prices up higher. NOAH even got in on talks for Yang, who I guess they would bring in as a singles guy if they got him. I’ll have to seriously evaluate the amount of money it will take to try and retain both these three and others. Financially we are doing very well, but we don’t want to let our budget get out of hand. I’ve already resolved to let several of our mid and lower card guys walk, but we may wind up losing more talent than I thought we would. Later in the week when I was in Japan, I got word that WWE and NJPW were both coming after Rob Van Dam. No way; not happening. Several signings and re-signings have already been agreed to: -Dustin Rhodes signed a 2 year extension. Keeping him was obviously a top priority, and that was made easier when WWE didn’t even make him an offer. -Randy Savage officially converted his pay per appearance deal for limited dates into a full-time contract. -We brought in Don Callis and WWE Diva Search reject Maria Kanellis. The plan there is for Callis to work as the color commentator alongside Tony Schiavone on WCW Worldwide, which will be returning to the air imminently as our B show. Maria will probably appear either on that show or on Renaissance as the backstage interviewer, filling the role Becky Bayless does on Nitro and the PPVs. These two and Tony will also probably serve as the regulars on the WCW Panel, a roundtable discussion thing we’re going to start doing on PPVs. -Reno is signed to a 2 year extension. After all that time in development it feels like a waste to not give him another try on the main roster, though I’m not sure where he’ll slot in yet. -When I went to negotiate with Scott Steiner he not only demanded a strong salary but made all sorts of demands about wanting a lighter schedule. He even asked for creative control, something no one in the company has and no one is going to get. Not sure why a guy who is currently in rehab thinks he has so much leverage, but I’m strongly considering allowing his contract to run out. -Chris Harris, James Storm, Charles Robinson, Johnny Parisi and Mike Tenay all signed multiyear extensions, and Aja Kong, Buff Bagwell, Konnan and Shane Douglas are sticking around at least for one more year. -We’re bringing in Dusty’s kid, Cody Rhodes. He’s a good looking guy who was a two-time Georgia state champion amateur wrestler, and let’s face it, he’s the American Dream’s kid and the younger brother of our reigning world champion, so there’s no way we weren’t giving him a shot. He’ll report to Wildside for a while for training, so we’ll see how he progresses. Aside from the big move to NBC for Nitro, we extended our prime time deals with Seven Network Australia and ITV and signed an extension with Televisa that saw us move into a prime time spot. Daisuke Sekimoto had improved about as much as he could in developmental, so we brought him up to the main roster. Kanyon and Daffney have been hanging out a lot recently (just as friends though, from what I hear.) Elsewhere in the wrestling world:WWE re-signed Triple H, so I guess he and the McMahons are willing to continue working together even after the breakup with Stephanie. Maybe he realized that he had no other options, because there was no way I would have signed that jerk. Scott Hall and X-Pac both embarrassed themselves by wrestling while impaired at Mania. In the case of Waltman it was “just” drugs, while Hall threw in drunkenness on top of it. What a way to respond to having been put over Kurt Angle one month earlier for one of the company’s top titles. They were both sent to rehab, and Hall was also hit with a fine (amusingly, his buddy Shawn was apparently angry about the fine.) Good thing they took the ECW title off of Hall and put it on Kane. Speaking of the Boy Toy, some of my friends there told me he’s been working to try and turn the locker room against The Rock. Hey, sounds good to me. Drive him out, send him to me and the two of us will put you out of business. WWE seems poised to gut their women’s division. I’m hearing that they don’t plan to offer contract extensions to Lita, Trish Stratus or Jacqueline. The first two are surprising: Lita was still sleeping with Shane McMahon last I heard, and Trish is by far the most popular woman in the division (and just won the title at Mania.) I wasn’t really planning on making a bid for any of their women, aside from maybe Molly Holly, but if they’re just going to let Trish and Lita walk maybe I should reach out to them. WWE hired young Chris Masters, a big muscly guy. Big surprise. They also let Steve Blackman go at the same time. Pro Wrestling NOAH has been given National designation in Japan. That’s above New Japan’s current Cult status, though NJPW is still considered more important. With the plethora of guys whose contracts are coming due with both us and WWE, it’ll be interesting to see what NOAH does. NOAH’s Spring Navigation show was good at an 86 overall score, but well below last month’s big show. They didn’t have the big belt defended, as the main event saw champion Jun Akiyama team with Akira Taue to go to a time limit draw against Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa in a 91 rated match, which was the best thing on the show. The show also saw Pentagon and Gran Naniwa win the GHC Junior Heavyweight tag titles from Dissident Movement. Kenta Kobashi is currently out with an elbow injury but he’s still a vital cog for NOAH, who signed him to an extension. They also extended reigning heavyweight champion Jun Akiyama. While busy trying to swipe all of my guys, New Japan locked down top stars Jushin Liger and Masahiro Chono with contract extensions. 50 year old Tatsumi Fujinami isn’t done just yet. New Japan signed him to an extension. NOAH stole Shinji Takada, AJPW’s color commentator.
So yeah, a much bigger post than usual just because of the flurry of contract stuff going on. I think that’s because many people were set to 3 year contracts at the start. If it wasn’t clear, this is the last post before Revolution and now is the time to get your predictions in.
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Post by Beejus on Apr 24, 2020 23:58:58 GMT 1
Oooooo, one of the Canadian Chrises is coming home! But which one could it be, Jericho or Benoit?
Akira Hokuto - Can't see her dropping it yet.
Etsuko Mita and Kaoru Ito - A valiant effort from the champs that ends in failure.
Manami Toyota - Gonna keep that Toyota running strong.
LuFisto - Her position in Darkness means she should be picking up some good wins like this.
Kyoko Inoue
The Beautiful Nightmare
How many championships will change hands? 1
What will be match of the night? Hokuto vs Nagayo
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