Victator

I was listening to the Gary Hart book on youtube and fascinated hearing about the ups and downs of Texas wrestling. It made me think of how the fight for number three in wrestling is usually more interesting than one and two, I think because it becomes a fight for survival. So I wondered about the different number three promotions after the WWF national expansion. I think in the pure territory days, its too difficult to determine, though people are welcome to talk about it. So I am going to try to interact with a message board for the first time in a year. I think 1985 , the AWA was number three with WCCW and Mid South nearly equal. Gary Hart said WCCW was offered the ESPN deal and I believe Gary on most things. But AWA got it and they were still drawing well. In my plebeian view, I think Hansen running over the belt was the beginning of the end. 1986 to Mid 1987 has to be the UWF, an argument could be made for Mid South in 85, but AWA had the buff of ESPN. Though its funny, ESPN never helped any company long term. I remember it was a struggle to find GWF on. Late 87 to 88 is hard to tell, because AWA and WCCW are struggling and UWF was absorbed into Crockett Promotions. It is probably Memphis by default, even though Memphis had seen better days, they were making money. But an interesting thing happened when Jerry Lawler won the AWA belt, he made it look more important by traveling to every viable territory left. even if the AWA was not drawing. I don't know the truth about Super Clash, but I lean toward believing Jarrett and Lawler. Verne Gagne never spoke of it and Greg Gagne is a Hogan level bullshitter. Super Clash 3 took WCCW, AWA, CWF, CWA (Memphis) and even POWW were on one show. Now the show didn't draw and Verne stiffed everyone not related to him and maybe Ron Garvin, but it at least got attention from the wrestling media. Lawler comes out looking like the real Unified champion and Kerry looks like he has a legitimate claim to it. 1989/1990 The USWA was born and covered the southern united states southeast to southwest and controlled the lineage of the AWA. I'm not sure why the magazines sided with Verne, in Kayfabe terms, Lawler was clearly champion, but they just sided with the AWA and sorta shrugged if asked why. 1991 has to be Global, even as a dumb yet handsome and charismatic child, I knew about Global before even getting the magazines. 1992 the money in Global dried up or never existed and USWA is number three by the two sweetest words in the English language, default. Lawler/Jarrett vs Moondogs even won Feud Of The Year in PWI. But there really isn't anything to compete. I think this is the year Portland became USA wrestling or something. TWA barely existed and baby ECW I think was not even on TV. 1993 is either USWA or SMW and there are arguments for both. The USWA had some huge WWF stars come in, including Bret Hart, Randy Savage and even Vince McMahon. SMW doesn't necessarily have brute force, but they had the Steiners come in and challenge for the tag belts and said belts were defended in WCW and the WWF. The SMW lead manager was representing the WWF champion, but the top USWA star was feuding with the most popular WWF star. 1994 I think would be SMW, but wrestling is sickly and nobody is doing well in America except for AAA, and ECW is starting to make waves. 1995 to 2000 I think is safely ECW; SMW died in 95 and USWA was getting weaker and finally died in 97, though from the sounds of it, USWA might have been murdered. People can correct me if they like, but it seemed the wrestling boom produced a bunch of small indies and spot shows. Memphis came back as Power Pro and Bert Prentice was running Nashville. 2001: This is strange to say if you have ever seen their TV, but I think it is NWA Wildside based on its syndication network. The other answer is OVW, which was drawing well with no national aspirations. 2002: TNA and ROH are born but neither are doing huge numbers. I think you can make an argument for OVW still, some people might dismiss it for the WWF connection, which is fair to a degree. However much like ECW and Power Pro, OVW was not getting enough money to stay alive. 2003/2004 I think is ROH, they were making money and running regular house shows making money. TNA was still doing the weekly ppvs and aside from Jarrett/Raven they were not doing well. But I don't think the weekly pay per views could not work for TNA. I think a cult company could do it if it had no overhead. Like if ECW was just showing fan cams and I'm not sure even then. 2005'/2010 ROH ran into problems with its former owner and TNA stopped losing money and was doing decently on the former Nashville Network. If anyone wants to go further, please do so.

Thanks to everyone who voted. I think I could have done better and regret entering some teams, but it might be fun to do again next year. I wish now I had used Dusty and The Road Warriors and the Nation Of Domination in place of the Rhodes Family and D-X in place of Evolution. The Horsemen won and I think those are proper winners, They are I think the greatest group in wrestling history both in universe and performance. Anyway. thanks again.

Poll is being reopened.

The Horsemen narrowly defeated the Freebirds, when Arn Anderson hit Terry Gordy with the Spine Buster. Demolition and the Road Warriors ended in a no contest, when Crush ripped the corner post out of the ring. The Horsemen were preparing to take the belts, when Billionaire Mark Ivy declared a Three Way Dance Of Decimation. Lets add a twist and add a cage. Letz twizt again like we did last summer. and make it elimination rules. Where each member needs to be eliminated. Vote in the polls above. I added an extra question for fun.

Sorry for the delays. Tornados and other business. These semi finals have happened in real life, yet were never satisfying. Demolition met the Road Warriors with Ultimate Warrior on television twice. Once at MSG in what I think was the best match the Roadies had in the WWF and beyond. The second was on NBC in a shorter match. If Ax and Smash had met the Roadies before Ax death scare, I think you get a legendary battle. Here Demolition is in peak health. The Roadies have a better partner in the Hell Raiser. This match may kill us all. The other semi final will be less violent but just as intense. The Freebirds meet the Horsemen. The Freebirds were the first wrestling gang. There maybe others, but I'm not sure. Certainly the Freebirds were the first to be presented as a true unit. But the Horsemen perfected the concept and dominated wrestling. They were the unquestioned masters of the NWA. When the UWF was absorbed into the NWA, the most anticipated match was the Freebirds vs the Horsemen. The match happened once and was sadly never televised. The Horsemen won that night. Vote now

PThe semi finals start in the morning. The story of bracket one's quarter finals was old vs new and in this case old won the day for now. But both the Shield and New Day put up a real fight and showed they deserved to be in the conversation of best ever. The Shield came very close to winning after Crush was hit with the Super Bomb, but was saved by Ax. Rollins survived the Demo Decapitation thanks to Ambrose. The finish came when Reigns missed the spear and crashed into the turnbuckle, allowing Demolition to hit him with a double team Stun Gun/Hot Shot for the win. New Day was brutalized by the Road Warriors from the start. Their victory came from surviving the onslaught and showing they are more than comedy. Eventually Big E fell to the grave digger. Bracket 2 was a story of grudges being settled. The Outsiders held a grudge against Ric Flair since 1999, when Flair dismantled the nWo as WCW president. But The Outsiders had never dealt with this breed of Horsemen and were quickly defeated as Syxx submitted to the figure four at the eight minute mark. The Freebirds and Midnight Express match was different as this match went nearly an hour. The Freebirds were determined to avenge the losses in 87 and the Midnights remembered being cheated out of the world tag team titles in 1989. The match ended at the 47 minute mark when Stan was pinned by a double ddt after mistimed interference from Jim Cornette

These are matches we have seen in real life in some form. Horsemen in other forms have defeated the Outsiders, So I see no reason Flair, Tully and Arn can't win this easily. The Freebirds challenged the Midnight Express multiple times in 1987 for the United States belts and lost both times. I expect the Freebirds to win, but I think the Midnights and Bubba are better in every way. So I have doomed the Midnights.

We are now in the quarterfinals of Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament of Triumph. The first round had more squashes than I expected. In hindsight I should have had Dusty with the Roadies and Triple H with the Outlaws. Demolition face the Shield in what I find a difficult choice. Demolition as a trio does not have as good a record in trios, but the Shield never faced peak LOD and Ultimate Warrior. But these two teams are a toss up. I can picture Shield beating Demolition credibly, but I can see Demos beating Shield. I think Shield's teamwork is a non factor with Ax. But Crush at that time was a liability due to experience. So that will be Shield's key to success. New Day vs Road Warriors and Power Warrior is more one sided. New Day has proven to be vulnerable to power teams and barely got past the Wyatt Family. But New Day has proven to be resilient and Big E is not exactly Ed Grimley If I do say. Teamwork is their key to success.

The first round is over. Demolition defeated the Russians handily. The match came down to Ivan and Ax as generals commanding their troops, but Ax proved to be a superior strategist here, using Smash to anger his former teammates. Allowing the Demos to isolate Nikolai. It ended with Crush and Ax using the Demolition Decapitation to pin Volkoff. The Shield defeated The Dudleys in a match where the Shield were caught off guard initially. Bubba and D-Von proved to be better brawlers. They made sure to avoid working the Shield's match. But they knew their youngstest brother was a liability in the long run. The Shield had made Spike the center point of their strategy. They knew Bubba and Dvon would focus so much on protecting Spike, they would be vulnerable. The Hounds isolated and brutalized Bubba and forced a situation where Spike had to tag in. Soon they finished Spike with the Triple Bomb. Wyatts vs New Day was a brutal fight that went all over the Ivy Dome and ended in a draw after thirty minutes. Commissioner Krustavski ordered a restart and soon there was a double DQ, as Big E and Harper flattened the referee. The match was again restarted and Bray was pinned by the rare Double Midnight Hour. Things will not get easier for the New Day. Road Warriors and Power Warrior thrashed the trio of Piper, Orton and Orndorff. Roddy's Rowdies were able to isolate Power Warrior for a time, but things fell apart quickly, when Piper accidentally hit Orndorff. Mr.Wonderful piledrived Piper and left, allowing a Doomsday Device to finish off a now alone Orton Jr. Outsiders defeated the Brood in a surprisingly competitive match. The Brood kept The Outsiders off balance with teamwork and air attacks. But soon the cunning and power of Hall and Nash took root and Gangrel was finished by the power bomb. The Horsemen defeated the Rhodes Dynasty with controversy. Three hooded men with familiar builds ambushed the Rhodes on the way to the ring. Dusty's ankle was injured. Cody was distraught and was trying to help his father, leaving Goldust alone. Cody is tagged in and pinned after a double Gourdbuster from Arn and Tully. The Freebirds defeated Evolution quickly with a backdrop into a powerbomb. Triple H was visibly upset and regretted not teaming with D-X. The Midnight Express and Big Bubba Rogers defeated the Bullet Club trio of Styles, Gallows and Anderson in a brutal match. The Bullets obsession with Cornette proved to be their undoing and Bubba pinned Gallows after the Bubba Slam. However there was a messure of revenge, when Styles locked Cornette in the calf crusher.

Thanks, it is running at Instagram and my Facebook. If this does well, I was thinking other collectors could enter and we can do a draft or something. Its a very relaxing hobby for me. Thanks to anyone voting. The other places are voting the same as here mostly 16 teams 38 wrestling figures 1 sad manchild.

Second bracket of the tournament and somd of these I sm stumped on. I am picking Brood go pull the upset.

The tournament starts tomorrow.

News Flash!!! Action League W*RE owner, Millionaire Mark Ivy has just presented the grand prize for the Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament of Triumph; it the original Megazord aka Daizjujin, the ultimate instrument of teamwork!! Will the winners save the world or bury it!!! When reached for comment, Ric Flair is quoted as saying "Can you imagine the Nature Boy, looking good as only he can, sitting in the backseat of Daizyujin with some female admirers and drinks flowing, as the Enforcer Arn Anderson, pilots the ultimate instrument of destruction and allows the Horsemen to rule the earth, WHOOOOO!!!!" Demolition Smash was contacted, "When Demolition takes control of the Megazord, a billion pounds of American engineering and know how. We will take over the earth, knocking the teeth down the throats of stinking commies!!! In fact our first act, will be demolishing Mount Rushmore and breaking the faces of those ugly old geeks and putting our heads on it, then breaking that sissy Great Wall Of China!!!" Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were rumored to already be forming an auction for interested collectors. Billionaire Mark Ivy after selling the Fortress Of Solitude, was asked about the validity of offering such a prize to violent narcissistic brutes? Ivy was quoted as saying freedom is our most valuable commodity and the reason for the season. All eyes will be on Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament of Triumph, as if our lives depend upon it.

News Flash: Action League W*RE owner, Billionaire Mark Ivy has overruled AWL Commissioner Krustavski and announced the brackets will be changed. Now the Bullet Club will face the Midnight Express and Big Bubba Rogers in the first round of the Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios tournament Of Triumph. Mark Ivy explained he had recently regained his billionaire status after regaining his #3 Nickel from a mysterious Man Witch named Voodoom. That he does not want his tournament torn apart by bad blood and wanted the two groups to settle their differences in round one. Upon hearing the news, Jim Cornette and his Midnights cheered. Cornette explained to Brad Goodman "If I were a praying man, I would thank God, but I'm not, so I won't. Unlike those twerpy half men, the Bucks, I actually respect AJ Styles, Gallows and Anderson. But if this is the hill these idiots want to die on, The Midnights are happy to dig their graves. AJ Styles mood was quite different. He told reporter Kent Brockman. "I don't have any cute quips to share. I respected Jim Cornette my entire life, in all honesty for being so vicious. But I failed my friends and damnit, me and the Good Sons are going to take it out of Cornette's hide." Strong words from angry men. They need to remember that win or lose, their night at Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament of Triumph is just starting.

Thanks, I was trying my best to capture his voice.

The brackets have been changed!!

Action League W*RE News Flash, as reported earlier, The Young Bucks have agreed to compete in ALW, while not all competitors were happy about this, one group was livid. That group being Jim Cornette and his Midnight Express. Shortly after making an ominous comment to announcer Brad Goodman, the Bucks were slaughtered by the Midnights, Cornette and bodyguard the Big Bossman. The two Bullet Club members are now injured and their return is unknown. What is known is AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson are incensed and demand revenge. Commissioner Krustavski has refused to grant the match before Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament of Triumph, meaning their earliest chance for vengeance will be in the Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament of Triumph finale. Upon hearing this, a boisterous Cornette crowed that "the same shallow grave holding the Bucks, could hold every member of The Ballet Club, even if the Vege-Matic is needed to slice them into pieces." These comments only give The Bullet Club more ammunition to destroy the Shield. F AJ Styles swore he would go over Krustavski's head to get revenge. W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament of Triumph.

I forgot to add, the brackets were created randomly by accident. But me and some friends thought this looked fine. I initially had 32 trios and worked it down to 16. The Russians were the final team selected, as it came down to the Russians, The Samoans (Afa, Sika and Kokina), Abdullah, Kamala and Botswana Beast and the Colons. I went with the Russians since Nikita and Ivan were part of a dominant championship trio. That there is a personal conflict with Smash facing his former mentor and partner, was a happy coincidence. I think everyone knows, but assume every team is at peak power.

The Shield are the number two seeds in this tournament behind the mythic Road Warriors. Which is striking some observers as controversial, as the Shield are the greatest team in the last decade; they went a year without losing a match, captured the world tag team titles and went onto incredible singles success, holding a combined nine world titles and each getting the still elusive WWE Triple Crown. In the tournament they will need to look out for The New Day and the Wyatt Family, trios that came in the wake of the Shield's success; Bray Wyatt has engaged in brutal feuds with all three men. They will face the Bullet Club in the first round, AJ Styles has proven to be a great rival to both Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. While Styles proved to be better than Ambrose, he never cracked the code of Roman Reigns. The Shield must also beware of the Rhodes Family, who ended the Shield's first title reign. The Shield have also had difficulty recreating their original success in reunions, as if cursed by the wrestling gods. Can they overcome the curse and win, that is up to you, as you vote in the Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament Of Triumph.

In the last decade there has been various factiond spring up seeking to dominate all of wrestling. Of all these units, three have risen head and shoulders above the others. They are New Day, The Shield and finally the Wyatt Family, named for their leader, Bray Wyatt. While New Day and Shield concerned themselves with championships, accolades and awards, the Wyatts have other ambitions. These ambitions involve not simply breaking bodies, but shattering spirits. In pursuit of these goals. They have made many enemies and their success is not reflect in wins and losses. In the first round they face the New Day, a team they had a strange war with in 2016. Later New Day was brutalized by Erick Rowan and Luke Harper in several title matches. But New Day are determined to prove they can definitively defeat the Wyatt Family in any form. The Wyatts desire to win the tournament to spread their unique brand of misery and despair. If they can defeat New Day, the path grows ever more dangerous with The Road Warriors, Demolition and their greatest enemies, the Shield. Follow the vultures to Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament of Triumph.

The Rhodes family do not have much experience as a team, but Cody and brother Goldust had excellent runs as tag team champions. Dusty himself has held multiple six man tag team titles and was a multi time World Champion. Beyond the Shield, The Horsemen and Evolution will be waiting to take out this dynasty and settle grudges. Most worrisome for Dusty will be his former partners the Road Warriors, as the memory of their attempt to gouge his eye out is never far from the Dream's mind. How will they fair in the Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tourney Of Triumph.

New Day go into Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament of Triumph as one of the top seeded teams. Much like Demolition and the Freebirds, New Day are happy being an elite trio. Their undisputed leader Kofi Kingston just had a long impressive World Title reign and had established a hall of fame career before New Day formed. Big E had a good singles career before New Day, being a former NXT and Intercontinental champion, but he had began to stagnate before joining the team. He now thrives as the team enforcer. Xavier Woods has really developed in the New Day, before the team formed, he was directionless in WWE, having had a fairly successful tenure in other leagues. They will face old foes in the Wyatt Family/Bludgeon Brothers in the first round. They defeated a version of the Wyatts on ppv in 2015, but struggled greatly in their feud with Rowan and Harper. They eventually did defeat the team, even if it is believed Rowan was weakened by an injury. New Day will be anxious to prove that win was not a fluke. A loss New Day will want to avenge is to the Shield, a trio that New Day has been in the shadow of since day one. But the most interesting potential matchup will be vs Demolition. The team New Day took the tag title longevity run from. Advocates for Demolition insist New Day do not hold the record; due to their use of the so call Freebird Rule, a rule that allows trios to defend duos titles. A rule that Demolition themselves exploited in their final reign. In any case, New Day are determined to be named the Trio Of Triumph in Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament Of Triumph.

Whether you call them the Bullet Club, The OC or simply The Club, this trio is a dark horse in this tournament, simply because of meeting the odds on favorite the Shield in round one. But that really does not do this trio justice, in particular their leader, AJ Styles, who is arguably the greatest wrestler of his generation. He is the third man to ever hold the WWE and NWA title and the only to hold those two and the IWGP championship. He took the Bullet Club to new heights and has had success in every promotion he has worked in, whether it was an abandoned school house in Cornelia, Georgia, the Impact Zone or the Tokyo Dome. His teammates are Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, who founded the original Bullet Club in Japan. The two have proven to be a very talented and dangerous tag team, their Magic Killer finisher has taken out top teams in New Japan and WWE. But they have never beat Roman Reigns, they have never beat the Shield. For all of the success of AJ Styles and his cohorts; having defeated John Cena, Sting, Samoa Joe, New Day, Kurt Angle, The Usos, Dudleys Shinsuke Nakamura, but they have never defeated the Shield, many say they can't beat the Shield, will the Bullet Club prove everyone wrong. If they do, the road will only get rougher.

The Midnight Express of Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton under the leadership of Jim Cornette, are one of the best teams of all time, despite the fact none of them are founders of the team. The Midnight Express began life as a trio of Randy Rose, Dennis Condrey and Norvell Austin in Alabama. Eventually Rose and Austin went away and Bobby Eaton and a young junior manager replaced the two. This version of the Midnites was very successful, winning titles in the roughneck Mid South Territory and later the NWA World Tag Team championship. Along the way, the increasingly hated Cornette, hired a bodyguard in the form of a former prison guard, known only as "Big Bubba Rogers". Who proved to be a dangerous fighter. Eventually the last remaining founder, Dennis Condrey disappeared under mysterious circumstances, unknown to all but Condrey, Cornette and Eaton. It was feared this would be the end of the team, even as Bubba proved a capable partner, he never quite gelled with Eaton. This seemed to be the new status quo until another legendary team ended, leading to the creation of the most successful and famous version of the Midnight Express. The Fabulous Ones of Stan Lane and Steve Keirn had been an incredibly popular team at one point, inspiring imitators of varying quality; the greatest of these imitations actually exceeded the success of the Fabs and became the greatest rival to the Midnight Express, in the form of the Rock and Roll Express. But by 1987, Steve Keirn had briefly left the sport, leaving Stan with no partner. Thus creating a team greater than the previous two. The Midnights along with Bubba, dominated the NWA, defeating almost every team in the promotion. As the tournament goes, they have victories over The Horsemen, Freebirds and Road Warriors. They have a real chance at pulling off the upset. They are unmatched in teamwork and Bubba can match power with anyone, while Cornette is a wildcard at ringside. Will they win the grand prize at the Action League W*RE Presents Holidaze Elimi-Nation Trios Tournament of Triumph? Only you can decide.