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Re-Booking Thread - Year 2001


IANdrewDiceClay

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Thinking of doing a few threads like this over the coming weeks. See how this one goes really. Its half fantasy booking and half taking dribble, as only we can here on the UKFF.

 

2001 seems like a good place to start I suppose. Probably the most argued year in WWF history. It had a questionable turn on the biggest show of the year, the other big babyface ended up leaving for half of it, a whole host of new characters turned up, there was an "Invasion", ECW turned up, which lasted the same amout of time the Nexus did, RVD caught fire, Austin's drawing power took a massive hit and a load of other things.

 

How would you have booked it differently? Obviously, I'm not asking for "RAW - March 23 - Albert vs Grandmaster Sexay goes 10 minutes". Just jot down a few bullet points for the full year, and what you'd have done differently and who you would have handled better or worse.

 

A bit of fantasy booking never does any harm.

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Here's my entry into the Fantasy Booking Cup about the Invasion. Massively implausible (due to all the Turner contracts) but fuck it! I thought it was quite good...

 

Re-Book The InVasion angle

 

 

The Last Nitro

 

This happens as it did, Shane buys WCW, Vince gulps into the camera.

001_25.jpg

 

Wrestlemania

 

The Shane Vrs Vince match ends when the WCW crew who were watching in the stands (Storm, Morrus, Kidman, etc...) invade the ring, leading to the locker room emptying and a mass brawl breaking out. No Contest finish. WCW is run from the building.

 

On RAW, Vince mocks the feeble WCW

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I know we're backtracking to 2000 before entering 2001 but instead of Rikishi being the puppet in an anti-Austin mastermind plot by HHH he still would have turned heel during the hit and run investigation but simply due to professional frustrations. He could still feud with Rock but over him constantly beating down faces....."for The Rock". I'd avoid the Haku partnership but only because maybe he wouldn't get injured then. He'd get a strong upper mid-card run and still turn back face in similar fashion to how he turned on his second return from injury ("LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT ASS!!"). They missed a trick with heel Rikishi. After all, he was a

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Does Triple H's quad tearing and that still matter? Really, if Triple H hadn't have ended up getting injured the Austin heel turn may not have been the killer it turned out to be. People were ready for a Triple H face run by that point.

 

On what I'd do ('cause I'm the next Dave Lagana), even Austin admits now that his heel turn, whilst entertaining, was horrible for business. The vast majority weren't up for an Austin heel turn, so I'd nip that. People didn't hate Austin, they just thought he was lame and started turning off.

 

For me, the end goal of the Invasion should have been Goldberg v Steve Austin. It was THE dream match during the boom period and building it for 'Mania would have been awesome. I'd have had WCW (DDP, Booker & co) come in and start kicking shit out of the WWF roster (like what the Nexus were doing pre-Summer Slam), until The Rock came back in the Summer. Have a Scott Steiner come in during the Winter months to liven things up. I'd have WWF start to claw back power and then somebody on the WCW side says they have the game changer, cue Goldberg turning up and murdering people.

 

If you really want to go nuts, you can have the nWo turn up as a separate group, pre-'Mania. Have them do the 'what side are they on?' thing to add some spice to it, both companies desperate for them to join them as it's so evenly balanced. Their contracts were up at that time anyway, so no massive buy out.

 

Mania would be rich that year (2002):

 

WWF champion v WCW champion

Steve Austin v Goldberg

 

The Rock v Hollywood Hogan

 

War Games

Outsiders/Steiner/DDP v Brothers of Destruction/Triple H/Kurt Angle

 

Three massive main events we'd sell our Nan for.

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Are there any ideas (other than tom's) which don't revolve around the WWE bringing in people they couldn't actually bring in?

"Its half fantasy booking and half taking dribble".

 

AND WWE could have brought in some of the wrestlers mentioned, if they fancied spending a few quid.

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I would've:

 

-Done the same thing up until WrestleMania, because I can't remember much of the build-up. Oh wait, I'd not use Debra!

-Had Austin and Triple H feud with the Hardys properly (including PPV) instead of switching to Undertaker and Kane.

-Told Triple H "mind your leg tonight, mate" the night him and Austin defended the tag titles against Benoit and Jericho.

-Sacked Benoit the next week and made Jericho defend the belts by himself or something.

-Done Austin vs Triple H at King of the Ring.

-Kept Austin joining WCW at InVasion, and had Rock join WCW the next month as well.

-Not ended the InVasion at Survivor Series.

-Had Rock or Austin turn back to the WWF, leading to a singles match between them at Survivor Series.

-Had a Team WWF vs Team WCW match at Survivor Series, with Flair on Team WCW. Team WCW would win, meaning they had control of SmackDown (both rosters would be on both shows, but the WWF GM would be in charge on Raw, WCW would be in charge on SmackDown).

-Probably not unified the titles.

 

 

AND WWE could have brought in some of the wrestlers mentioned, if they fancied spending a few quid.

Like who? Flair's the only one I know of who could've joined the WWF sooner than he did. Most of the WCW names were out of the question because WWF couldn't match the contracts without giving Austin, Rock, Undertaker, Angle, Jericho, Kane, Triple H, etc Time Warner-style contracts as well. And if giving out those sorts of contracts was a good idea for a wrestling promoter, Shane McMahon wouldn't have been standing in the ring on Nitro in 2001.

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AND WWE could have brought in some of the wrestlers mentioned, if they fancied spending a few quid.

Like who? Flair's the only one I know of who could've joined the WWF sooner than he did. Most of the WCW names were out of the question because WWF couldn't match the contracts without giving Austin, Rock, Undertaker, Angle, Jericho, Kane, Triple H, etc Time Warner-style contracts as well. And if giving out those sorts of contracts was a good idea for a wrestling promoter, Shane McMahon wouldn't have been standing in the ring on Nitro in 2001.

Aye, but taking over one or two contracts is hardly going to put WWE out of business (like I suggested), like WCW. Also, Vince didn't have to match anybodies contract. He was the only game in town and had his wrestlers signed to contracts already agreed upon (he can also play the, "you'll make more money this way" card). You forget that most wrestlers are insecure cowards, when it comes to standing up to Vince. Who really was in a position to walk out and wasn't brain washed enough to do it? Austin, maybe?

 

There are a number of reasons why Vince decided not to do it (ego, finance and the terms of the Time-Warner contracts), but it wasn't impossible.

 

I thought people had given up on that silly notion years ago?

Again, "Its half fantasy booking and half taking dribble". It was a possibility.

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Aye, but taking over one or two contracts is hardly going to put WWE out of business (like I suggested), like WCW. Also, Vince didn't have to match anybodies contract. He was the only game in town and had his wrestlers signed to contracts already agreed upon (he can also play the, "you'll make more money this way" card). You forget that most wrestlers are insecure cowards, when it comes to standing up to Vince. Who really was in a position to walk out and wasn't brain washed enough to do it? Austin, maybe?

You're not a total mong, unless this thread is the reveal of it. You know full well that it was by no means feasible that McMahon could give (for example) Kevin Nash and Goldberg contracts that were a million times better than what he had Rock, Austin and all the other main eventers from the winning side on. If he was bringing in players from the losing team on mental contracts, he had to match them for his own stars or everyone's motivation is gone and his company is fucked. He's not going to go "sorry Undertaker, soft lads talking pure wet on the Internet a decade from now will pretend this was realistic, so Sting's getting six million guaranteed to work five dates a month and you're staying on your current deal. And he's got creative control. I don't give a fuck if him and his mates' selfishness and lack of effort have just put a wrestling company out of business and you've been headlining a thriving one. What are you on about, what's morale? That's never even been invented in this crackpot alternate universe that only exists in the heads of nutters. Also, we're doing WrestleMania 19 at Wembley because that's a realistic possibility as well and not at all just silly fanwank that divs convince themselves is plausible purely on the basis of how much they wish it was plausible."

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As I typed below the quote, Vince didn't go for it because the terms of the Time-Warner contracts and how bum hurt the locker room would be "ego and terms of the Time-Warner contracts", I get that. Maybe I was being too hypothetical, but I still think it could have worked - it's fantasy fucking booking.

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Again, "Its half fantasy booking and half taking dribble". It was a possibility.

 

It wasn't much of one. And really I was just commenting on how boring the usual "I'd have hired him, and him, and him" approach is. Like was said the other day to somebody else, that kind of thing happens on other forums but on here I thought there'd be more interesting answers to read actually using what was really available. That's where the interest really is in these matters, not how you would have done better if you could do things the WWF couldn't really do in real life, but could you have done better with what they actually had?

 

Keep Shane running WCW the WWE could have sorted them a TV deal for another year possibly to replace SmackDowns slot?

 

They tried, no one wanted it. It was a show that died on another network if it had more stars, it was never going to sell. That was the reason the WWF got it in the first place, it was done as a televised product.

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