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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Jan 30, 2023 1:41:56 GMT 1
It's amazing how much attention Saturday Night has been getting in this alternate timeline. Doesn't feel like a C-show anymore. Well with taking Saturday Night on the road to the race tracks every week for this part of the year, you gotta give them something to tune in for.
Granted, I can tell you for sure that not all of these Saturday Night shows are super loaded, but there is of course a Full Throttle title defense on every card.
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Feb 28, 2023 4:58:17 GMT 1
Part XLV: WCW Fall Brawl 2001
We have now moved into September 2001 and, as I alluded to in the previous PPV post, life across the United States (and the world) came to a screeching halt as the horrific terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. unfolded on live television. It shook America to its very core, and almost every aspect of our lives was impacted by the attacks in the days, weeks, months, and even years that followed. Of course, in the professional wrestling industry, we know that the WWF (in OTL) still went forward with a SmackDown! taping that very day (which aired two days later), which turned into a tribute show of sorts, celebrating America. Well, in this alternate timeline, we still get a tribute show from the WWF (in this case, the show aired on Wednesday, as that's when SmackDown! aired). As for WCW, they turned both the September 13th edition of Thunder and the September 15th edition of Saturday Night into tribute shows celebrating America. Both nights featured a series of multi-person tags, with a few singles matches thrown in. Thunder featured matches such as Bret Hart vs. Steve Corino, the trio of Booker T, Goldberg, and Ric Flair vs. The Jersey Triad, Hugh Morris vs. Sting, and the trio of Kurt Angle, Mike Awesome, and The Giant vs. The Steiner Brothers and Buff Bagwell. Saturday Night featured matches such as Edge, Christian, and Trish Stratus against Los Guerreros and Madusa, the team of Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn vs. Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, as well as The Dudley Boyz vs. The Outsiders. All of these matches featured the babyfaces going over, as you would.
The events of September 11th added some patriotic fervor to what was already a huge main event that was set to take place at Fall Brawl, as Scott Steiner would defend the Undisputed WCW World Heavyweight Title against Kurt Angle. Obviously, Angle has been a babyface for several months at this point, but with Angle being an Olympic Champion, he went into the PPV as the obvious sentimental favorite. As fate would have it, this year's Fall Brawl PPV was taking place in the birthplace of America....Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Given the recent tragedy, the scenario seemed perfect for an emotional Kurt Angle victory. That being said, Scott Steiner has been a force of nature since becoming the Undisputed WCW World Heavyweight Champion back in June at The Great American Bash, and he went into Fall Brawl wanting to prove that he was still the top dog in WCW. In fact, Steiner was riding high after a successful title defense over Goldberg on the August 18th edition of Saturday Night from Michigan International Speedway. Angle scored singles victories over Buff Bagwell and Rick Steiner leading into the PPV, while both Angle and Steiner took part in a Pick Your Poison Challenge on the September 20th Thunder, with Angle facing Meng, while Steiner took on Mike Awesome. Who will emerge victorious in one of the biggest WCW PPV main events of the year?!With this month's PPV being Fall Brawl, that meant it was time for the annual WarGames Match, and for the second year in a row, it would see a team of WCW stars going up against The Radicalz. The teams were determined shortly after Blood, Sweat, & Tears III, with the WCW squad consisting of Booker T, Goldberg, The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) and Rob Van Dam, while the team of Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Diamond Dallas Page, and The Dudley Boyz would be representing The Radicalz. On the September 10th Nitro, the teams were split up into five singles matches in order to determine who got the advantage for WarGames. Team WCW jumped out to an early lead, with Booker T defeating D-Von Dudley while Rob Van Dam defeated Bubba Ray Dudley. However, The Radicalz would win the next three matches (in part thanks to some shenanigans), with Diamond Dallas Page defeating Scott Hall, Chris Jericho defeating Kevin Nash, and Chris Benoit defeating Goldberg. That result gave the advantage to The Radicalz. Unfortunately, the September 11th attacks forced a slight alteration of plans with regards to this specific match, and the PPV in general. The general tank and war motif that comes with Fall Brawl would be pushed to the wayside for this year's edition of the event (that can be seen in my custom PPV poster), while the WarGames Match itself would have a different presentation. Instead of being towards the top of the card (often the main event), WarGames would serve as the PPV opener, with a stripped down presentation (the cage already being lowered as the PPV started, no fancy pyro). In addition to that, the match would see a name change for the first (and only) time in it's history, as on this night, it would simply be called The Match Beyond. It still had the same WarGames rules and layout, but the name change was mainly done because of how soon after the attacks this PPV was. In 2002, the match will go back to being referred to as WarGames.Three other championships would be on the line at Fall Brawl. The Hart Family would defend the Undisputed WCW World Tag Team Titles against The Hardy Boyz. Nothing like a pair of brothers going at it for a set of tag team titles, right? In this case, the build was pretty simple. The Hardy Boyz weren't the ones pinned in the three-way tag team match for the titles at Blood, Sweat, & Tears III (where The Hart Family successfully defended against both The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz), and their picked up a series of tag team wins against a number of heel mid-card teams (including various tandems from The Natural Born Thrillers) to earn themselves another shot at the titles. Meanwhile, Christopher Daniels would defend the WCW Cruiserweight Title against AJ Styles. You really can't go wrong with these two in a singles match. The Triple X Prophecy added more gold to their ranks in the last month, as Elix Skipper and Low Ki won the NWA World Tag Team Titles in a Four-Way Elimination Match on the August 25th edition of Saturday Night from Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee (a match with featured defending champions Joey Matthews and Kristian York, as well as the teams of Juventud Guerrera and Psychosis from The Filthy Animals and Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke from The FBI). However, that reign was short lived, as a dream team of AJ Styles and Rey Mysterio Jr. captured the titles on the September 22nd edition of Saturday Night from Dover Downs International Speedway. So that gave AJ Styles some momentum heading into the PPV.The final title bout on this PPV card sees the Undisputed WCW World TV Title literally up for grabs, as Eddie Guerrero would defend against Edge in a Ladder Match. How did we get here? Well, on Blood, Sweat, & Tears III, Guerrero won the title from Edge in a Three-Way Match that also involved Mike Awesome. Given that Guerrero and Awesome were already in a feud, it was only natural that they would face off for the title the next night on Nitro. Awesome would win the title from Guerrero in an Ambulance Match, and just one week later on Nitro, the two officially closed the book on their rivalry in a Steel Cage Match. When the dust settled, Guerrero would emerge victorious, and was champion once again. While all of that was going on, Edge was waiting in the wings, and after he and Guerrero had several run-ins (both inside and outside the ring), it was decided that the two would face off in a Ladder Match. Can Edge becoming champion once again, or will Eddie Guerrero escape Philadelphia still the Undisputed WCW World TV Champion?In addition to The Match Beyond, the ongoing war between WCW and The Radicalz would continue with two other matches. Andrew Martin and Sting would take on William Regal and Yoshihiro Tajiri from The Radicalz in a tag team encounter. After Andrew Martin turned babyface after the events of Blood, Sweat, & Tears III, he was officially kicked out of The Radicalz. Andrew Martin, along with his new tag team partner Sting, would become targets, with Regal and Tajiri being the ones to go after them. A pretty simple build there. Meanwhile, Ric Flair would go one-on-one with Chris Kanyon with a very special stipulation. As I noted previously, Ric Flair has made his intentions clear that he wants to take the NWA World Heavyweight Title back from The Radicalz. However, in order for him to get a shot at Rhino, The Radicalz have put several roadblocks in his way. Flair defeated Raven in the Clockwork Orange House Of Fun at Blood, Sweat, & Tears III, but that was just the start of it. On the August 20th Nitro, Flair had to defeat Fit Finlay in a Belfast Brawl, which he did. One week later on the August 27th Nitro, Flair had to defeat The Sandman in a Singapore Cane On A Pole Match, and once again, Flair got the win. Then, he had to defeat Sabu in a Falls Count Anywhere Match on the September 3rd Nitro. Once again, Flair rose to the occasion and got the win. His next big obstacle would be at Fall Brawl, when he would have to go up against Chris Kanyon in a match where Flair was not allowed to use his signature Figure Four Leglock. Kanyon would taunt Flair plenty in the buildup, but Flair would go into the PPV looking to shut Kanyon up and get one step closer to his ultimate goal.I talked a little earlier about The Triple X Prophecy. Well, since the previous PPV, the group added two new members in the form of Devon Storm and Daffney, who broke off their previous relationship with David Flair to join the Christopher Daniels led stable. Their addition added fuel to a brewing fire that was some fresh battles between The Filthy Animals and The Triple X Prophecy. In the aforementioned match where Elix Skipper and Low Ki won the NWA World Tag Team Titles, they last eliminated Filthy Animals members Juventud Guerrera and Psychosis to win the titles. This new feud would also see the women of both sides getting involved, as Daffney started to target Torrie Wilson. This would all lead to an Eight-Person Tag at the PPV, which would see Low Ki and Elix Skipper team with Devon Storm and Daffney to take on Billy Kidman, Konnan, Rey Mysterio Jr., and Torrie Wision. A bout that certainly has the making to be an entertaining undercard affair. The final match I have to talk about is Mike Awesome and The Giant vs. The Mamalukes of Big Vito and Johnny The Bull. During the month of August, The Giant had been getting involved in a feud with The FBI, with The Giant's WCW Hardcore Title being at the center of it. The Giant would enlist The Hurricane to help him out on a few occasions, and this built to a match on the September 8th edition of Saturday Night from Richmond International Raceway. Thanks to some outside interference, Big Vito would win the WCW Hardcore Title from The Giant, and as The FBI was beating The Giant down after the fact, Mike Awesome would make the save, setting the stage for a Philly Street Fight at Fall Brawl.
There were no other title changes to talk about that I haven't mentioned already, but before going into the PPV results, here's the latest on the WCW Full Throttle Title. Chris Jericho would continue his series of successful title defenses, with wins over Jushin Thunder Liger (August 18th at Michigan), Jerry Lynn (August 25th at Bristol), Billy Kidman (September 1st at Darlington), Super Crazy (September 8th at Richmond), Terry Funk on September 15th (this took place at a normal venue as NASCAR had postponed it's race at New Hampshire due to the 9/11 Attacks), and Andrew Martin on September 22nd (Dover). That victory against Andrew Martin came about after interference from William Regal.
WCW Fall Brawl 2001September 23rd, 2001 - First Union Center - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania1.) The Match Beyond - Team WCW (Booker T, Goldberg, The Outsiders [Kevin Nash & Scott Hall], & Rob Van Dam) def. The Radicalz (Chris Benoit, WCW United States Champion Chris Jericho, Diamond Dallas Page, & The Dudley Boyz)2.) Figure Four Leglock Is Banned - Ric Flair def. Chris Kanyon3.) Eight-Person Tag - The Triple X Prophecy (Devon Storm, Elix Skipper, Low Ki, & Daffney) def. The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman, Konnan, NWA World Tag Team Champion Rey Mysterio Jr., & Torrie Wilson)4.) Philly Street Fight - Mike Awesome & The Giant def. The Mamalukes (WCW Hardcore Champion Big Vito & Johnny The Bull)5.) Andrew Martin & Sting def. The Radicalz (William Regal & Yoshihiro Tajiri)6.) WCW Cruiserweight Title - NWA World Tag Team Champion AJ Styles def. Christopher Daniels (c)7.) Undisputed WCW World TV Title - Ladder Match - Edge def. Eddie Guerrero (c)8.) Undisputed WCW World Tag Team Titles - The Hardy Boyz def. The Hart Family (Bret Hart & Owen Hart) (c)9.) Undisputed WCW World Heavyweight Title - Kurt Angle def. Scott Steiner (c)For Fall Brawl 2001, I got an overall score of 90%, which is a slight 1% drop from Blood, Sweat, & Tears III in August. The top end of the card was packed with matches in the 90% range, with the highest of those being Edge vs. Eddie Guerrero in a Ladder Match for the Undisputed WCW World TV Title, which earned an incredible score of 99%. Not too far behind that was Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles for the WCW Cruiserweight Title, which got a score of 95%. The Hart Family vs. The Hardy Boyz for the Undisputed WCW World Tag Team Titles wound up with a score of 92%, while Scott Steiner vs. Kurt Angle for the Undisputed WCW World Heavyweight Title finished with a score of 90% on the dot. Very nice to see that the top four matches were the top scoring bouts on this card. Three matches scored in the high 80% range. Andrew Martin and Sting vs. William Regal and Yoshihiro Tajiri got a score of 89%, while both Team WCW vs. The Radicalz in The Match Beyond and Chris Kanyon vs. Ric Flair earned an 87% score. Mike Awesome and The Giant vs. The Mamalukes in a Philly Street Fight earned a score of 84%, and The Triple X Prophecy vs. The Filthy Animals in an Eight Person Tag wound up with a score of 79%, which was the lowest scoring match on the PPV.
As you can tell, I switched the match lineup on the card above from the actual lineup in the game, since the first match is technically listed as a dark match in EWR. On the whole, I thought this PPV turned out very well. Kurt Angle captured the Undisputed WCW World Heavyweight Title in a very emotional victory just weeks after the 9/11. Something cool that I envisioned is that Angle would make his entrance for the match with firefighters and police officers lining the entranceway, all holding American flags (with a performance of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA" playing before his entrance music hits). Just go full patriotic with it, I guess! The Radicalz would suffer a series of defeats up and down the card. In fact, they would lose all four of their matches on this card. Not a great night for that faction. In general, it was a horrible night if you were a heel. The only heels that won were The Triple X Prophecy in the Eight-Person Tag. Again, I was very impressed with how the PPV performed, and I thought the card was structured well, with the WarGames (or The Match Beyond as it was known on this night) opening the show, and all four title matches closing out the show. Speaking of champions, we got FOUR title changes on this card! I didn't plan it that way at first, but I think it all worked out.Well, that's all for Fall Brawl 2001! Tune in next time as I go over Halloween Havoc 2001, along with the return of The Crockett Cup! I might include the brackets in a separate post from the PPV, now that I think about it, but TBD on that one!
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Mar 5, 2023 1:55:33 GMT 1
So in order to make my Halloween Havoc post....not as long....I'm devoting this entire post to the 2001 Crockett Cup! With this being my second time doing the Crockett Cup, it gave me the chance to look over the 2000 edition of the tournament to see what I could keep the same and what I could change. In this post, I'll go over the format, how many teams will be involved in the tournament, who will be involved, and everything else in between.
Now for the 2000 Crockett Cup, the tournament started shortly after Bash At The Beach, and concluded on right before the August PPV which (in this case) was Guilty As Charged. The winning team then got their title shot on that PPV. This time around, I decided to change things a bit. Starting with 2001 (and for probably every year going forward), I'm going to put the tournament in period between Fall Brawl, or whatever the September PPV will be (Spoiler Alert: I'm likely going to shift Fall Brawl to the November PPV slot starting in 2002), and Halloween Havoc. I feel this is a much better period to put the tournament in, because there's almost five weeks (or even six weeks, depending on the scheduling) of television between those two shows, with Fall Brawl usually being in the middle of September, while Halloween Havoc is usually the last weekend in October. It just gives the tournament more room to breathe, and it also gives me some more time to set up other matches for Halloween Havoc as teams get eliminated from the tournament. In another scheduling change, the Finals of the Crockett Cup will be on the Halloween Havoc PPV going forward. Just felt it was better to give the Finals some more importance by putting it on PPV.
In terms of the format, I'll be using the same format that I did last year. 32 Teams in total will be involved in the tournament. Single Elimination format, as per usual. Just like 2000, there will also be a play-in/qualifying tournament, with the winning team getting the 32nd and final spot in the field. Now in 2000, the play-in tournament was a pretty simple affair, as the winners of two four-way tag team matches would face off later that night to decide who would get that final spot. When determining who would be in the field for the 2001 Crockett Cup, I came up with close to FIFTY TEAMS that were either on the existing roster, or could be added if I signed them away from some of the smaller promotions in the game. So with that, I decided to change the format of the play-in tournament. There will be a total of EIGHTEEN teams competing for the final spot in the Crockett Cup. Sixteen of those will be competing in two separate eight team, single elimination brackets. The winners of those two mini-brackets will then go on to a four-way elimination match to decide that 32nd entrant. Two teams that will get an automatic spot in that four-way tag team match are Gedo and Jado as well as The Bad Street Boyz of Joey Matthews and Kristian York. Those two teams wrestled each other in the finals of that one night tournament in 2000 to get that final spot, so that's why they get the automatic byes here.
Without further ado, here's the field of confirmed teams that will be competing in the 2001 Crockett Cup:
- Andrew Martin & Sting - Billy Kidman & NWA World Tag Team Champion Rey Mysterio Jr. - Booker T & Undisputed WCW World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle - Chris Benoit & WCW United States Champion Chris Jericho - Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire - Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn - Undisputed WCW World Television Champion Edge & Christian - Elix Skipper & Low Ki - Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki - Juventud Guerrera & Psychosis - Kaz Hayashi & Jimmy Yang - Konnan & Ron "The Truth" Killings - Lance Storm & William Regal - Los Guerreros (Eddie Guerrero & Chavo Guerrero Jr.) - Mike Awesome & The Giant - Raven & The Sandman - Ric Flair & Rowdy Roddy Piper - NWA World Heavyweight Champion Rhino & Yoshihiro Tajiri - Rob Van Dam & Jerry Lynn - Sabu & Taz - Team 2000 (Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan) - Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer - The Dudley Boyz - The Faces Of Fear (Meng & The Barbarian) - Undisputed WCW World Tag Team Champions The Hardy Boyz - The Hart Family - The Jersey Triad (Bam Bam Bigelow & Chris Kanyon) - The Mamalukes (Big Vito & Johnny The Bull) - The Outsiders (Kevin Nash & Scott Hall) - The Steiner Brothers - Vicious & Delicious (Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton)
A pretty stacked field, to say the least! There are a few notable omissions that I want to touch on. Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg will not be competing in the tournament because they have already been scheduled to face each other in a match at Halloween Havoc (more on that in the post covering that PPV). As for AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels, they will be facing each other in another match for the WCW Cruiserweight Title while the tournament is going on, so they will be unavailable.
The competition will be just as fierce in the pay-in tournament, as eighteen teams fight for the right to be part of the main field! The two teams who will be getting byes will be in bold.
- CW Anderson & Steve Corino - Destruction Crew (Mike Enos & Wayne Bloom) - Donovan Morgan & Michael Modest - Evan Karagias & Shannon Moore - Gedo & Jado - Hector Garza & Silver King - Hugh Morris & Lash LeRoux - Kaientai (Taka Michinoku & Sho Funaki) - La Parka & Super Crazy - Mike Sanders & Shawn Stasiak - Norman Smiley & Shark Boy - The Armstrongs (Brad Armstrong & Steve Armstrong) - The Bad Street Boyz (Joey Matthews & Kristian York) - The Dancing Fools (Alex Wright & Disco Inferno) - The FBI (Little Guido & Tony Mamaluke) - The FBI (Tracy Smothers & Tommy Rich) - The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) - West Hollywood Blondes (Lenny Lane & Lodi)
Some very interesting names in this play-off tournament, including new additions to the roster in the form of CW Anderson and The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Who will emerge as the 32nd and final entry in the 2001 Crockett Cup? Only time will tell.
I'll see if I can try to post the brackets without everything filled in, so you guys can have some fun and make your own predictions. Might try to do that by Monday.
Also, I do have a brief news item that I forgot to mention that will have absolutely zero ramifications on anything coming up in the near future. During the summer, WCW's first-ever female referee made her debut, working almost exclusively in the Cruiserweight Division. Her name? Allison Danger.
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Mar 5, 2023 19:20:25 GMT 1
Right here are the brackets for the two qualifying brackets! Remember, the winners of each bracket will be entered into a Four-Way Elimination Match, along with the two teams who got byes (Gedo and Jado as well as The Bad Street Boyz), to determine the final spot in the 2001 Crockett Cup! Who do you have winning these two brackets, and who do you think ultimately gets that last spot?
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Mar 8, 2023 2:35:22 GMT 1
Here is the official bracket for the 2001 Crockett Cup:
I think the way I'll do this is that I'll post the results of the play-in tournament this coming Monday. Then, on the following Monday, I'll post the results of the actual tournament save for the actual winner of the Crockett Cup. That will be revealed in my Halloween Havoc post, which should be in at some point prior to WrestleMania weekend.
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Post by johnnyboombatz on Mar 8, 2023 5:00:46 GMT 1
The tourney is stacked!!! I can see about a dozen or so teams that can win it. Some loaded 1st rounders too.
I've been reading for a bit and I like your format, it's a bit different than most. And using EWR is very impressive since it's limited and you gotta use your imagination more.
Also, I want to make note that I am a huge NASCAR fan too and the whole Full Throttle concept is awesome! If this happened IRL, 10-year-old me would have marked out like crazy hahaha
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Mar 11, 2023 22:44:33 GMT 1
I've got a major (in universe) story breaking in a few hours.
A little peak behind the curtain: What actually happened in the game is way less interesting/eventful, but for the sake of this scenario, I'm attempting to make something of it (much like I tried to with ECW in my other thread when the promotion suddenly and mysterious closed up shop in the game).
Stay tuned....
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